Review: Out of Oz

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



As part of a series, this is a definite improvement over the very forgetful Book 3, and brings back the more interesting characters of book 2. Reading either reviews, I seem to be in the minority that liked the last third of this story better than the "previously in Oz" first two thirds that wad necessary to bring the reader back into the world but interfered with the story's progression. Maguire's treatment of Dorothy still makes me smile; and his not so subtle jabs at religion, politics, and gender identification come with a frequency that made this over long book not quite so over long.



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Review: Envy the Night

Envy the Night by Michael Koryta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was Koryta's first published stand alone, following three of his Lincoln Perry books, and I wonder if it was actually written before those successful books. The writing is dragged out and the action sequences are repetitive. Too many characters are given POV chapters that add pages but not depth to the story. Why three stars then? Even at his weakest story telling, Koryta is a master at sense of place. This time it is "Up North" aka the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and he gets it very, very right.



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Review: Niceville

Niceville by Carsten Stroud

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Decent sense of place, a couple well developed characters and three distinct plots that never ever come together. They cross each other only through brushes of characters, and that makes for three under developed stories that have weak and/or no endings. Rarely when I finish a book do I have such a feeling of being lead astray by an author (it's my choice to stay until the bitter end) but this was one of those times. Three good stories, wasted!



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Review: Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



4 stars for all the facts about meth,crystal meth, and the process that puts it into user's hands. The of this drug, from when it was commonly advertised and prescribed to its current status as a link between Mexican drug cartels and the American industrial food business is fascinating at the same time it is scary as hell. The author spends too much time trying to put a warm fuzzy face on small town USA, though, considering he makes the point early on that this is an problem for any size community. He started off researching from the small town point of view and never let's go, dragging in updates on people who have nothing new to add.



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Review: Vagabond

Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Love the time period, really liked the hero, but the Perils of Pauline arch villains cast touch of silliness over the whole book. Not as interesting in any way as book 1 of the series, but I will plod on because I will put up with mediocrity to read the historical trivia laden story about an archer.



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Review: American Psycho

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Masterful writing but the obvious effort of form over substance took this book down a notch, in my opinion.

(Personal note: Reading this book during the same time period that the movie version of Les Miserables is being promoted to death probably added more to my appreciation than I should admit in public)



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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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