Review: The Other

The Other by Thomas Tryon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



1) Actually a reread but Goodreads has simple way of recording that
2) Not true Southern Gothic because it doesn't take place in the South, but it has all the key points of Southern Gothic and theses are myshelves and I will mark them like I want them.

This is a the rare horror story that gets better after the first reading, when you know all the twists, because they become more twisted with each reading. Also, once you know what is coming, you can focus on the very complicated characters that Tryon created, again something you'll find only in the best horror.



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Review: The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Audio Version


The author writes as if she's broken free of a world where children only do bad things when they are victims of adults and adults for the most part love all children and those that don't are justly punished. In other words, there's a feeling of "this is what happens when you look under the pretty rocks" to this book, and I like that sort of thing. It's over long by a bit (and still no one dares to edit Rowling, even in a new genre!) but as dark character study fiction goes, this is good stuff.


Tom Hollander as the audio narrator earns five stars all on his own. Perfect match of story to voice!



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Review: The Mill River Recluse

The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I'm being very generous with 2 stars, but the book does have an interesting setting and with a good setting I can wade through a lot of bad plotting and shallow characters. And that's what this book has - a silly plot that never quite makes sense and characters who get too many paragraphs for what little they have to do with the boring "mystery". The world building is good, everything else is bad.



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Review: Talulla Rising

Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The idea of a monster as a mother is interesting, and for the first third of this book, Duncan turned that idea every which way. Unfortunately that left two thirds of the book with an exhausted theme. The carry over from the first werewolf book, Vampires looking to the "wulf" for a remedy to light sensitivity gets more convoluted and slightly more interesting. I'm not sure there was entirely enough new story for this book, but if you enjoyed The Last Werewolf, you'll like this well enough. By no means should you read this book first.



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Review: Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Starts out as a multi-romance summer read, light and breezy, more about place than characters. But the people develop into actual people and suddenly, it's a lot more complicated than you expected (just like life!). There's a bit of real-person-fiction with Richard Burton, some WWII historical fiction, Hollywood business insider stuff, and several getaways to a part of Italy that I'm now longing to visit. And oh yes, the Donner Party! All balanced so well by the end that it makes for a very good read.



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Review: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Fascinating information about a bit of American history that I didn't know enough about. The book begs for a better editor, someone who would have had the author arrange the book in a less repetitive way, maybe even cutting out a few of the narratives of the people who lived through the dark (literally) times. Even with the clunky writing, I'm giving this four stars because it did what nonfiction is supposed to do - inform.



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Review: Outlaw

Outlaw by Angus Donald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Robin Hood is the supporting character in this story, but it's obvious he is not a supporting character in Alan Dale's life (and heart, although the book never acknowledges that in the way I would have liked). It's Donald's portrayal of a flesh and blood and less than perfect Robin and his band of outlaws that makes this a very good take on the classic tale. Alan's sudden transformation from child cutpurse to one of Robin's closest associates is a little hard to believe, given Robin's very understandable distrust of almost everyone outside his brother, Little John and Tuck, requiring a giant leap of faith on that necessary part of the story arc. The settings and historical trappings are well researched and provide a background that strengthens but never overshadows a dark, violent and very readable plot.



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Review: The Expats: A Novel

The Expats: A Novel by Chris Pavone

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



One fourth of the way in, I guessed what was going to happen. Flipped to the last quarter, and yep, "mystery" solved. The jumping from location and time exists only to hide a very obvious, silly plot. Flat, stereotypical characters can't hide behind the author's plentiful knowledge of location because the descriptive passages read like info dumps. I can't believe this book is getting so much buzz.



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Review: The Columbus Affair

The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



There's multiple plot lines woven together to make a rich and fascinating story, and then there's multiple plot lines knotted and twisted in a snarl that frustrates the reader as they try to follow along. This book is definitely the latter. A book that brings the mystery of Columbus's legacy in Jamaica into contemporary politics and religion is a great concept, and Berry knows all of his settings quite well. Unfortunately, getting interested in even one of the characters or their part of this story is almost impossible if you like to immerse yourself in a story, because just when it gets interesting, we jump to one of the other locations. Honestly, if felt like I was watching a made for television movie, complete with scene cuts for many, many commercials. A clue to how much Berry tries to pack into this story is all the genres he covers. And two would have made a great story, and he still would have been able to use all the characters, with more time for each one.



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Review: Second Star

Second Star by Dana Stabenow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Stabenow builds a very interesting world where this planet has reached its sell by date and off earth stations are being built for colonization. The resources come from the Moon and asteroid belts, the projects are expected to pay back their start up costs with interest, and no one is expecting Utopia, just a place they can safely call home. Where the book falls very short is that there's way too much telling in the first half - literal telling of characters explaining things to each other that they certainly would have already known, but the reader needs to know to get on with the story. The worst offense of this is a brand new security chief who apparently took the job knowing nothing about living off Terra. Then there's a very obvious bias against military leadership that we're supposed to accept without any proof that the military's ends won't justify its means. And finally, every body lies. Without lies, the story couldn't have happened, couldn't have had its big action scene, and worst of all, couldn't have a happy ending. A brave new world built on lies is not a brave world at all.



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Review: The Coldest Night

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have mixed feelings about this book, probably because I couldn't get past that the author seemed to be deliberately writing in the very clipped and brusque style of Cormac McCarthy. I'm willing to admit that could be entirely my impression and not at all what the author set out to do, but when a reader is thinking more about the style of the writing rather than the actual story telling, that's not a good thing. On the plus side, the characters are unique and the setting is intriguing (there really aren't a lot of stories set in the Korean War, are there?). The story sticks to it's dark beginning, never promising a happy ending and never delivering one either.



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Review: The Wolf Gift

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



50% of the way through and I have no curiosity about what happens next because so little has happened so far. The "man wolf" is an interesting idea, but when an author uses the characters very dull internal monologue as plot, all my interest is crushed. Also, having the character do the same research that the author probably did as a part of your story? That's padding AND lazy writing.



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Review: Carry the One

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beautiful writing that almost masks a go-nowhere story. There's so much opportunity for something to happen to any of the characters who are present for a life shattering moment, but one day after finishing this I realized that not one of them went in a direction different than the one they were headed in before it happened. Maybe that's Anshaw's point, that life doesn't turn on a dime. But if that's true, what was the point of dragging the reader through all that well written angst?



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Review: Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first third or so of this book is not Moore's best work by any means. It time jumps so gracelessly that he has to rely on chapter titles to tell the reader where they are and his stabs at bawdy humor are just that - blunt force stabs that inflict as much pain as humor. However, when the story starts to pull together and the characters begin moving the story rather than being moved by it, this becomes a slightly more adult and intelligent Christopher Moore Real Person Fiction. I was thrilled by the reveal of Bleu's real identity that I did not see coming but made perfect sense, and was very happy to read about a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was quite happy with his lot in life. Add in the use of a few well known Impressionist paintings with Moore's choice captions and as always in a Christopher Moore book, the best written Author's Notes that you will find in Historical Fiction, and the sins of the beginning are washed away by the glory of the ending.



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Review: Trade

Trade by Oliver M. Bishop

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



A book with a promising plot set in locations that work with the plot almost ruined by lack of editing. At its core, this is a dark story of what happens when damaged people cross into the lives of people who have never imagined such evil exists in the real world. The antagonist makes no apologies because he's not aware that he has anything to apologize for and the group of characters that come together to form the protagonist shows glimpses of being flesh and blood types who make mistakes and sometimes blunder into doing the right thing. Where the book goes bad is the repetition of inner dialog (perhaps used to show the characters intellectual weaknesses, but the smart ones do it too), supporting characters that take actions that aren't supported by what they've shown themselves to be, and way too many uses of gunshots by amateurs , either accidental or on purpose, that always hit the best spot for lazy story telling.

A few more drafts and an impartial editor and Mr. Bishop would have had an impressive first novel.



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Review: Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first third or so of this book is not Moore's best work by any means. It times jumps so gracelessly that he has to rely on chapter titles to tell the reader where they are and his stabs at bawdy humor are just that - blunt force stabs that inflict as much pain as humor. However, when the story starts to pull together and the characters begin moving the story rather than being moved by it, this becomes a slightly more adult and intelligent Christopher Moore Real Person Fan Fiction. I was thrilled by the reveal of Bleu's real identity that I did not see coming but made perfect sense, and was very happy to read about a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was quite happy with his lot in life. Add in the use of a few well known Impressionist paintings with Moore's choice captions and as always in a Christopher Moore book, the best written Author's Notes that you will find in Historical Fiction, and the sins of the beginning are washed away by the glory of the end.



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Review: Last Seen in Massilia

Last Seen in Massilia by Steven Saylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Definitely better than the previous book, but that might be because I took a break between reading Saylor's Sub Rosa series. Perhaps the negatives (anachronistic ethics) aren't so noticeble if you don't immerse yourself in the series, or perhaps Saylor did a better job of writing characters that lived in the 40s BCE. Either way, this was a simple little mystery set in a fascinating time and place. Add in the return of Meto and I was hooked in a "junk food with some redeeming qualities" sort of way. Also unlike a lot of reviewers, I liked the ending.



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Review: The Year of Living Philosophically

The Year of Living Philosophically by Robert Grossmith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Quick fun read that relies a little too heavily on the serendipity of the Dave Gardner, the main character, meeting up with a retired philosophy professor. Without that character entering the story, no one would have been able to offer comparisons or deeper meanings of some of the monthly philosophies to Dave. That weakness also leads to information dump, reading closer to lectures rather than conversations despite Grossmith's attempts to lighten up those passages. Dave's daily life, however, is fun and complicated in all the right ways to keep the reader rolling right along with him through his year. An added plus for this reader is that it all takes place in England and Dave has a really interesting job - dictionary editor.



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Review: Pickit

Pickit by Lee Richardson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Reading this, I couldn't help but suspect that the author had a lot of historical background and then created characters to populate it and then wrote a novella that he placed them inside. The story has one original twist that caught me by surprise, and that along with all that historical information that does fit quite well takes a very ho-hum story up to three stars.



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Review: Breaking the Chain: How I Banned Chain Restaurants From My Diet And Went From Full To Fulfilled

Breaking the Chain: How I Banned Chain Restaurants From My Diet And Went From Full To Fulfilled by Allyson Reedy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Once the author has covered how difficult it is to avoid what she has defined as chain restaurants (definitely a YMMV definition), the book becomes stories of her experiences. The details about meals ate at local restaurants aren't that compelling to someone who hasn't or doesn't plan to eat at those restaurants. Reading over and over again about the inconvenience she caused her coworkers and friends seemed more about pointing out how special the author was for what she was doing rather than using the opportunity to educate why eating local might be a good idea. But, there's a reason for that. Reedy cause wasn't ideological, it was personal. She'd had repeatedly bad meals at the same chain restaurants. Also, I suspect she was looking for a blog topic and thought this was a good one. It probably would have made a better localized blog rather than a book with the word "Fulfilled" in the title.

Her writing style is light and conversational, and humorous if you find self admitted hunger tantrums funny.



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Review: Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The title tells you what you're going to read - the author's observations. These aren't only his observations on the rats in the particular alley he chose for his project, but also his observations about the people who make a living trying to get rid of rats when they are places that people don't want them to be. Each chapter attempts to deal with something related to the rats - rats and plague, how to trap a rat, rat diet, how the rat population of NYC was affected by 9/!!, but some times the author goes off topic or revisits a previous topic, giving the book a meandering feeling that can be frustrating to a reader who just wants to know what he discovered about the rats he observed.



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Review: Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The title tells you what you're going to read - the authors observations. These aren't only his observations on the rats in the particular alley he chose for his project, but also his observations about the people who make a living trying to get rid of rats when they are places that people don't want them to be. Each chapter attempts to deal with something related to the rats - rats and plague, how to trap a rat, rat diet, how the rat population of NYC was affected by 9/!!, but some times the author goes off topic or revisits a previous topic, giving the book a meandering feeling that can be frustrating to a reader who just wants to know what he discovered about the rats he observed.



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Review: A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I read this for a group challenge and boy oh boy, was it a challenge to finish this! It's not that this just isn't my kind of story, it's that there's the makings here for something good and the author ruins it with horribly characters that belong in the arrested development romance genre. For a really good review, I direct you to http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/158359633 , which I agree with 100%, minus the last paragraph.



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Review: Where Darkness Dwells

Where Darkness Dwells by Glen Krisch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Definitely a 3 1/2 star book. Great sense of place, not only the oh-so-creepy tunnels, but also the above the ground town and surrounding country side. The plot is dense and twisted, maybe a little too much in the first third of the book, but when Krisch starts to bring everything together, he does so with just the right blend of exposition and action. So why not 4 stars? I think there are just too many characters in the book. There's George and Ellie's mom who makes a great monster, but only in what she does to the pregnant girlfriend of Jesse, who also doesn't add anything but shock and horror to the story. We're supposed to feel some empathy for Jesse discovering what happens to her, but given so little back story, the girl is a device, not a person. The same with the local "witch" and her son - they're side stories and devices and everything they do could have been done by one of the more developed and integral characters. These unnecessary characters got in the way of identifying with the central characters, and made the story just a little less scary when it could have been horrifying.



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Review: The Tiger's Wife

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I'm torn between three and four stars. At the core this is not only a very good story, but some damn fine story telling. But I cound not shake the feeling that about one third of the book is padding. Dialogs and descriptions go on too long; there's an awful lot of gazing action at something that ends up having nothing to do with the story other than tell us that the character was searching, both internally and externally which the reader already knows about from the well told parts of the book. In the end, I'm being generous with the four stars because the two fables that the story is built around, The Tiger's Wife and The Deathless Man are great pieces of short fiction all on their own.



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Review: Troubles

Troubles by J.G. Farrell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Take Cold Comfort Farm, move it to 1919 Ireland, add a larger cast of characters and an author who wishes to educate at the same time he entertains and you have Troubles. The Majestic Hotel is one of the best buildings as a character I've ever read, and the family and lodgers who cross her crumbling threshold are gothic to the perfect degree. Farrell uses newspaper articles to keep the entire story from becoming farce, and those historical touchstones come at just the right frequency to remind the reader that no matter how loony the story, the Troubles were very real.



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Review: Gulliver Travels

Gulliver Travels by Justin Luke Zirilli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Fun and light read that can turn to dark and serious in a paragraph. There's also a balancing act going on between true life and romantic fiction that is most noticeable with the fairy godfatherlike characters of Todd, the room mate and Sebastian, the website owner. But the places are well described and most of the plot all too believable, making for an interesting if not important read.



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Review: The Minstrel's Tale

The Minstrel's Tale by Anna Questerly

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a book I think I would have loved as a child, maybe up to about 8 or 9 years old. The original fairy tales told by Amos, the Minstrel, have the detail that not only keep the reader reading, but also would have held the interest of a crowd of villagers who had plenty of experience with well told tales. The actual Minstrel's tale, of taking on an apprentice with his own very interesting back story, works for a young reader looking for safe escapism. However, there's something uneven about the characters themselves, Amos and Richard, in that their life experiences and personalities seem to to weaken and strengthen depending on plot twists, that even a child might question. Also, the bookends of the tale, a young contemporary girl who discovers the manuscripts when she begrudgingly accompanies her parents on a vacation to France is totally unnecessary.



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Review: The Marlowe Conspiracy

The Marlowe Conspiracy by M. G. Scarsbrook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



There were parts of this book I loved (the use of well researched details of theatre life and the Star Chamber courts), parts that made me cringe (yes, it's fiction, but fiction based on something as well documented as the time line of Christopher Marlowe's short life shouldn't play fast and loose with that time line). Parts of the book seemed forced (Shakespear's created involvement in the last day's of Marlowe's life came from being an extreme fanboy? ), while others made perfect sense (a man capable of writing what Marlowe wrote should have been able to figure out that he wasn't being invited for a friendly drink in Depshire. There are plot developments that are convenient at one moment and forgotten when they wouldn't be (why would a clever man like Kit risk sneaking into Scadbury again when a night watchman had caused so much trouble the first time?). But in the end, my over all feeling was that this was a fun, far better than average piece of real person fan fiction, and that averaged out to three stars.



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