2010/09/30

Review: Last Night at Chateau Marmont


Last Night at Chateau MarmontLast Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I was expecting fluff, so no disappointment on that front. However, fluff does not equal dumb, and when the entire plot depends on the protagonist willfully ignoring what she already knows about her new life, and then whining about it...well, that IS dumb. The supporting characters also must remain blind to her situational amnesia, otherwise not only would they not sympathize with her, one of them would have to call her out on what is truly hypocritical behavior. The one thing that kept me reading was the setting. It's not very deeply researched, but what's there is interesting enough.



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2010/09/22

Review: Speaks the Nightbird


Speaks the Nightbird (Vol. I&II) (Matthew Corbett, #1)Speaks the Nightbird by Robert R. McCammon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A very character driven mystery wrapped up in a whopping historical fiction. The setting what a new one for me - coastal Carolina, 1699, and once again I am amazed that any Europeans survived long enough to get a firm foothold on the new world. The witch trial aspect of the story is turned into a mystery when (slightly anachronistic?) magistrate's clerk Matthew Corbett follows his instincts and his intelligence and refuses to accept that the Devil is behind murder, arson, and whatever else goes wrong in the town of Fount Royal. The story gets a little complicated as the crimes are solved, but there are always chances to get straightened out as characters must explain the twists to each other, using thier own distinct perspectives. (Side question: Is it possible to read a well written witch trial story and not see modern correlations?)



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2010/09/15

Review: Slammerkin


SlammerkinSlammerkin by Emma Donoghue

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is not a whore-with-a-heart-of-gold story. In two years time, fourteen year old Mary Saunders goes from a life of poverty with her family to the very grown up world of the Courts of Assize. There's a lot of messages to this story - what options were available to women in Mary's time period, how did class determine a person's future and even a look at the shades of gray that lay between servitude and slavery. But Donoghue puts her characters before her statement, so that you've read the whole book before you realized you've just been schooled in women's emancipation, 1748 style. Once you've read this story, you'll never be able to say that kids are forced to grow up too fast in our time. (Side note for anyone who likes stories that pay a lot of attention to clothing of the period, Mary's life is defined not only by what she wears,first as a school girl, then a prostitute, then as a servant, but also the clothing of others, and Donoghue doesn't skimp on descriptions.)



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Review: Hawksmoor


HawksmoorHawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Not an easy read, but one that is worth the trouble. Rather than bring early 1700 London to the reader (as most HF fiction writers do), we are taken back through his use of historically correct English. Nicholas Dyer is at work, designing and supervising six new churches as directed by Parliment. Dyer's personal religious convictions fall far outside of what is expected of someone given such a commision, but he finds a way to balance private with public. Meanwhile, back in our time period, some nasty murders have taken place in some very old churches, and we have a story that bridges time through the voices of two characters who are as similar as they are different. The use of two time periods is what makes a story that could have been a historic slog into a very good piece of writing. Just when you're about to give up with the archiac language, it's back to the future, so to speak, and the story whips along in it's current day ugliness.



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2010/09/08

Review: The Kingdom on the Waves


The Kingdom on the Waves (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #2)The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the second half of Anderson's story about a Boston born slave who sees the start of the American Revolution not only from both sides of the conflict but as someone who has a different concept of liberty than your average historical fiction character of that era. Having escaped his master and being forced into a Rebel army, Octavian moves on to relative freedom in 1795 Boston. He is hired to play in an orchestra (music is still his first love), but when the British put the city under military law, he decides to take his chances with Lord Dunmore's Royal Ethiopian Regiment. Anderson brings an amazing amount of research to life through Octavian's fellow soldier's stories as well as his descriptions of what it was to be a part of that very unique part of the war. The weakest part of the book is the varied story telling techniques, moving from narrative to journal to letter writing, all under the guise that the book was created from assembled papers, but more obviously necessary to move the story along when Octavian would have been incapable of recording his own story.



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2010/09/07

Review: The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel


The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad NovelThe Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel by Sharyn McCrumb

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


So little story, so much cynicism! A young woman in a small 1930's mining town is accused of murdering her father, and reporters from "the big city" descend to cover the story, biased and condescending to the last letter. Even the reporter who comes from the mountains attempts to use something other than hard work to get to the bottom of the story. Are there no good journalists in the mind of Sharon McCrumb? Back stories are given for most of the major characters, back stories that do nothing to deepen the shallow plot. Nora Bonesteel, the ancient mountain seer from McCrumb's (so much better than this book) Ballad Series gets her chronological introduction in this book, and she, along with the setting, are the only thing that kept me reading. This might be McCrumb's weakest attempt at story telling.



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2010/09/01

Review: Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson


Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley JacksonJust an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson by Shirley Jackson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This collection is all over the place in content and quality. It's a posthumous publication, so it's quite likely that Ms. Jackson herself would have been unimpressed with some of these stories. Certainly, they all show her natural talent as a writer, but the stories written in college and in some cases, the ones written to fill an order from magazines are flat and unpolished. Others read like second drafts of what could have become something amazing. If you're looking for works like "The Lottery", there are a few stories that tip in that direction, especially The Nightmare and The Story We Used To Tell. There are stories that show a lesser known side of Jackson's writing, her twists on the every day life of the women of her time.



Honestly, the majority of these stories didn't merit publication. I'd only recommend this book to someone interested in reading the discards and a few hidden gems of a very talented writer.



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