Catch and Kill

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators is a 2019 nonfiction book by Ronan Farrow. It chronicles his investigation into sexual harassment and assault claims against Harvey Weinstein, which broke in October 2017. It also depicts the attempts by Weinstein and his allies to prevent the story from ever seeing the light of day. Farrow published the story in The New Yorker and the publication shared the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with The New York Times for the story. The term “catch and kill” refers to the practice of disreputable news sources, usually tabloids, buying the rights to a particular story, “catch”, in order to bury it, “kill”, on behalf of a third party.

Many reviews label this book as “part spy thriller, part investigative journalism piece” and that description is rather apt. Farrow effortlessly blends events he experienced with testimonies about things happening behind the scenes and things behind the scenes read similar to a spy thriller. In what began as a story about the allegations surrounding one man, Farrow unknowingly found himself entrenched in a plot to hide the truth and uncovered a network of “fixers” from high-powered attorneys to ex-spies all trying to bury the story. If not for Farrow and his producer’s determination to tell this story, it would’ve been buried, as many earlier accounts and charges against Weinstein were.

While the Harvey Weinstein expose, and its connection to the #MeToo movement, are enough to get someone interested in the subject of the book, it’s the behind-the-scenes events that made me continue reading. Because Catch and Kill isn’t just about Harvey Weinstein or his victims. It’s also about the people at NBC, the network Farrow was working at when he started his investigation, who tried to kill the story. It’s about the network of private investigators, lawyers and businessmen trying to interfere with the investigation and find some weak spot, or blackmail material, to make him drop the investigation. And, its about the tidal wave of stories, many so similar to the stories told by Weinstein’s victims, that have been printed and told since.  

I personally found it fascinating, in a sad and somewhat troubling way, the lengths that were gone to in order to try and stop the story from breaking. Initially, hearing that NBC tried to prevent the story’s release sounds ludicrous, but as Farrow outlines the timeline of events, the cover-up becomes less surprising and more saddening. It’s saddening that a news organization bowed to the external pressure Weinstein’s team put on them. It’s disturbing the incidents NBC was keeping under wraps internally due to the predator in question being a popular morning show host. It’s also frustrating hearing about how “everyone knew” what was going on, but until the story gained attention, only the victims were willing to say anything. 

Catch and Kill is a difficult book to read. It’s very hard to read the accounts of Weinstein’s victims without feeling some kind of emotion. When I was discussing the book with someone, I described it as the following: this book makes you mad, but in the best kind of way. This is a tale that’s supposed to make you angry, supposed to make you want things to change, and it does. Farrow deserves all of the praise he’s received for this book, not just from a journalistic perspective, but also from a technical one. The story is well-structured, well-paced and draws the reader in in a way that few other nonfiction books seem capable of. While I’d definitely say this book is not for everyone, I’d recommend it to anyone even thinking of giving it a try.

Rating: 4.9 stars

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Nothing to See Here

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Nothing to See Here is a 2019 novel by Kevin Wilson. It was published in October of 2019 by Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins. It became a New York Times Bestseller and was named a Best Boom of the Year by New York Time Book Review, The Washington Post, People and several other newspapers and magazines. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel tells the story of Lillian, a young woman who works a dead-end job when she’s suddenly contacted by a close friend from her old boarding school Madison. Despite having not seen her for ten years, Madison reaches out to Lillian asking for help with her stepchildren who will soon be coming to live with the family. Lillian agrees to be the children’s caretaker and its only after agreeing to take the position that she learns the twins have a strange affliction- whenever they become upset or angry, they catch fire. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Lillian and the twins begin to trust each other and stay cool, but the machinations of Madison’s politician husband may ruin everything.

The story is, when boiled down to its basic elements, a family drama wrapped up in a story of magical realism. As a result, as with most family dramas, there aren’t an abundance of characters. There are only five or six characters that are seen often enough and given enough personality to warrant discussing. Lillian is the point-of-view character and at the beginning, she’s directionless. She has a dead-end job, a dead-end life and it seems like she agrees to Madison’s proposal because she doesn’t have a reason not to. Once the twins enter the picture, her interactions with them start to show the reader the person she really is. She’s also, seemingly, the only person in the story who isn’t overly perturbed by the situation. The twins are 10-year-olds Bessie and Roland, and they’re actually pretty sweet kids. When I read the blurb for Nothing to See Here, I was expecting the “kids who catch fire when they get upset” characters to behave sort of like Draco Malfoy. I thought I’d hate them; they’d be complete brats who use their gift to terrorize any nanny, teacher or authority figure who told them “no”. Instead, they’re just lost children. They both have issues they need to work through, mostly focused on their mother’s death and their father abandoning them when he divorced their mother, but from almost the first time they appear, it’s clear that the twins are just as scared of their abilities as anyone else. Madison is Lillian’s old friend and Bessie and Roland’s stepmother. She appears to be the perfect wife for a Senator and lives the perfect life. I won’t lie, I hate Madison. I was supposed to hate her. Madison is a character that’s all about appearance and meeting expectations. She went to a prestigious boarding school, because she came from a wealthy family; she went to an elite college because that’s what was expected of her; she married a politician and had an adorable, well-behaved son because that’s exactly what she was supposed to do. Everything she does in the story is about making sure that the family’s image, and her husband’s political ambitions, don’t run into any roadblocks. The twins need to be kept out of sight, with no one aware of their abilities, because it could cause the Senator some unneeded press coverage. Lastly, there is the Senator, Jasper Roberts. He’s a Senator, one who could become the next Secretary of State and by far, the closest thing this story has to a true villain. He’s a complete and total jerk and that’s the nicest way I can say it. if Madison’s main focus is split between the family’s image and Jasper’s ambitions, then his is solely on his political aspirations. He’s decided he going to become the next Secretary of State, and no one, not even his children, are going to get in the way of that. When first introduced, he just seems like an arrogant man, a stereotypical politician who talks a lot but means nothing, As the story progresses, you realize that Jasper only cares about Jasper. He divorced the twins’ mother and decided to pretend like they didn’t even exist and weren’t related to him anymore. He barely interacts with any other characters for much of the story, but when he does appear, I want to crawl into the book and deck him in the face. As I said, he cast of characters is very small.

Nothing to See Here is by far the funniest book I’ve read om 2019. Wilson does an excellent job of mixing humor into a story that would otherwise be a very somber, or downright tragic one. Rather than avoid illuminating the weirdness of the characters or the bizarreness of the situation they’re in, he leans into it, which not only makes the story unique, but compels the reader to keep turning the page. The characters are quirky and strange and the narrative embraces that before using the humor to hit the reader in a way they didn’t see coming. The plot is original in a way no other book I’ve read this year is. Wilson’s skills as a writer must be commended, as not many could take such a strange concept and make it work so effortlessly.

While I did enjoy the book overall, I did feel slightly let down by the ending. I was happy to see that the twins and Lillian all ended up in a situation that was good for them. The resolution of what should happen with the twins was the best possible outcome that the story could have. It was as close to a “happy ending” as one could hope for. The thing that disappointed me were the lack of consequences for other characters though. Jasper never gets what he deserves. Neither does Madison for that matter. They face some consequences, but not as many or as severe as I would’ve liked. While I couldn’t find a smug satisfaction at how Jasper and Madison’s storylines ended, they do reflect the most realistic outcomes. In the real world, a Senator and his wife would get off the hook with little to no real consequences. Still, I would’ve liked at least one of them to be hurt a little more by the result of their own actions. My disappointment at the conclusion is probably a sign of Wilson capturing the real world so effective. Things aren’t wrapped up neatly in a nice little bow, regardless of how much we want them to be.

Nothing to See Here is an inventive, hilarious story. It stands out as one of the best books I’ve read this year. I found the premise very refreshing and I could’ve read another 200 pages and still wanted more. Kevin Wilson weaved a unique, relatable story while also keeping it grounded enough to appeal to many different types of people. I’d recommend any fan of literary fiction or magical realism get it a read.

Rating: 4.8 stars

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Bone Quarry

Bone Quarry is a 2019 science fiction and thriller novel by K.D. McNiven. It was self-published in November of 2019. I was provided with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows a team of marine researchers trying to discover why a number of dead fish are washing ashore off the coast of Brazil. On their first dive to collect water and coral samples, they discover what looks like an underground graveyard heaped with bones, both human and animal alike. After calling in a paleontologist to investigate their findings, the team discovers they might be dealing with a dinosaur believed to be extinct for millions of years. The research trip soon turns into a quest for survival as they find their lives threatened both in and out of the water.

Bone Quarry was a book I found myself somewhat disappointed in. This story could very easily be a good, strong thriller, with just enough sci-fi to explain how the events of the plot could happen. Unfortunately, it waffled on both fronts. There isn’t a great deal of science in this science fiction story and based on my limited knowledge of the scientific fields shown in this story, there wasn’t enough research done. Additionally, for a thriller, it stops being very thrilling early on. About 30% of the way through the story, the reader is shown the person responsible for the creation and care of the animals responsible for the underwater graveyard. From that point, it isn’t difficult to figure out where the story is going to go and what’s going to happen in the end. It’s your classic evil scientists vs. good scientists battle. The problem with this reveal happening so early is that it really slows the plot down. By this point, the reader already knows what the animal is, and now we know who’s responsible, so the middle part of the novel, where the team is looking for proof and runs into more trouble, falls flat. It starts to get boring as the research team sets up traps and cameras to catch the animals in action and the shady scientist tries to keep them from digging further. Additionally, the search for evidence about the dinosaurs is taking place at the same time that the research team is still trying to figure out why a bunch of fish are dying. Meaning that, in at least one part, the dinosaur hunt is sidelined in favor of trying to find the source of the fish deaths. It’s jarring and I feel like, if they’d found the answer to the fish mystery, and then the plot became about the dinosaur, it would flow a lot better.

The characters themselves aren’t overly interesting and the reason for that becomes obvious the further into the book you read. Meg, the dive team leader and main character, and Rourke, the paleontologist they call in regarding their findings, are the only ones that have any real development or somewhat consistent behavior. A good deal of the “character moments” are very straightforward scenes of people talking about whatever event just occurred and how they’re going to find answers. Dialogue is necessary for storytelling, but a lot of it feels flat. Certain characters will flip-flop their feelings on the situation from one page to the next and almost no indication of why is given. As an example, as things get more dangerous, one character, Jayden, keeps insisting that he needs to come along with the others as they investigate, but there’s never any real motive given as to why. As for the antagonists in this story, they’re entirely one-dimensional. There’s the scientist that’s fascinated by this horrifying animal, one who regrets how things turned out and that people have died, but is in too deep to stop now and lastly, the shady businessman providing the money. Their interactions are all cliché, their arcs conclude in the most predictable way possible and I spent a number of pages thinking “get on with it”. Speaking of characters and character dynamics, Bone Quarry has an aspect that’s really not needed in this type of story, and that’s a romantic subplot. Meg happens to be Rourke’s ex-wife and in between trying out outrun a man-eating dinosaur, they start to reconnect, which just felt unnecessary and tacked on. Not every story needs a romance, especially if it adds almost nothing to the plot.

While I have some criticism of the story, it isn’t all bad. The cover design is mesmerizing. The tension of the story, up until the mad scientist reveal, did create a sense of suspense. I’m of the opinion that, had the reveal happened later in the book, I might’ve liked it better. I appreciated the attempt to give very detailed and accurate descriptions, even if it didn’t always work out. Another thing I liked was that the “creature feature” aspect of the plot wasn’t the reason why the team went to the Amazon in the first place. The dinosaur running around Brazil wasn’t the reason dead fish were washing up on the beach. I know this might not seem like an important detail, but I would’ve been annoyed if the dinosaurs were somehow responsible for both the dead humans and the dying fish population. McNiven clearly was passionate about this story, but there were a few things that need adjusting in order for it to read well.

Bone Quarry is an average book, but it had a lot of potential. There were just too many story elements missing, or introduced too early to keep the reader engaged. Thrillers are meant to be thrilling, but this one lost my interest about a third of the way through it. The author clearly has a passion for this type of story, but there’s a lot that could be improved upon. There was potential for a story similar to Lake Placid here, but by revealing too much too early, the story as a whole began to fall apart and fall flat. It’s a fun read, if you’re willing to not get too invested and just go along for the ride.

Rating: 2.7 stars

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Dune Messiah

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Dune Messiah is a 1969 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It’s the sequel to 1965’s Dune and is the second novel in the Dune series. The story was originally serialized in Galaxy magazine in 1969. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, its sequel, were adapted into a miniseries by the Sci-Fi channel in the early 2000s. Dune Messiah can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atredies, better known as Muad’Dib, which was told in the original novel Dune. Beginning twelves years after the end of the previous novel, Paul is now the Emperor of the Known Universe and possesses more power than any single person was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious figure by the Fremen, some of whom have attributed him god-status, Paul faces the hostility of the other influential families he displaced when he became emperor and a conspiracy taking place right under his very nose. As his enemies plotting leads to House Atredies crumbing around him, the true danger to Paul comes to his partner Chani and her unborn child, the heir to his family’s dynasty.

I found the story interesting from several perspectives. As mentioned above, Paul has become a religious figure to the Fremen and a great deal of Paul’s inner conflict comes from the result of the Fremen viewing him as their messiah. They believed he was a messianic figure during the events of Dune, since he fit the criteria of one of their oldest legends. He accepted his role as their messiah, but as a result, he unleashed a jihad which has conquered most of the universe by the time Dune Messiah begins. (As a side note, jihad is the actual word used in the text. The Dune series uses a lot of Arabic or Arabic-sounding terminology and I don’t know why). I found Paul’s inner struggle fascinating because very rarely do you read books with religious themes that show the bad parts of being the focal point of a religion in such stark lighting. Muad’Dib is the foundation of the Fremen religion now, and in taking their religion off of Arrakis to spread, billions of people have died and many worlds have been destroyed. Paul is the most powerful being in the universe, and practically a god, but he’s unable to stop or curb the violence being done in his name and by his worshippers. At the same time that Paul is resentful of his role as this messiah, due to his prophetic visions, he knows that this isn’t the worst possible outcome for humanity, as terrifying as it seems. He seems to be operating under the idea that by being the messiah, and allowing the religion to spread and accepting his god-like status, he can set humanity down a path that leads to something other than destruction. I talked briefly in my Dune review about Paul’s view towards his destiny, which is that he’s “the chosen one”, he knows that he is, he’s never doubted it, but he seems to be the only person who knows what that means and what it will really cost him. He’s destined for great and terrible things, he doesn’t want to be, but he knows he can’t change it. Not only is he unable to change his fate, he’s unable to change anyone’s which becomes a driving force in why he makes certain decisions. He can’t prevent anything, only delay it.

Paul isn’t the only person who has become a religious figure in the years since he became the emperor. Paul’s younger sister Alia, who his mother was pregnant with when they escaped into the desert, was born with powers similar to Paul and, like only the most powerful Bene Gesserit, can access the memories and personality of previous generations. She isn’t the basis of her own religion, but she is a revered figure within Paul’s and finds the strain on her, combined with other factors, to be too much. Alia is seen as an abomination by some and a savior by others, which is both sad and disturbing, since she was born with more power and knowledge than a child could ever know what to do with. I’ve got a feeling that Alia not having a great grip on reality or her true identity is going to become an issue in the next book.

Although a great deal of Paul’s inner conflict comes from the inevitability of fate and his frustration towards his own destiny, the main plot of Dune Messiah is only tangentially related to those two themes. The overarching story revolves around a conspiracy between the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, Paul’s wife Irulan who he married only to become emperor and the Tleilaxu, another powerful and nefarious organization, to destabilize and dethrone Paul and put someone they can control on the throne. They attempt many different tactics to achieve this, from presenting him with a clone of a deceased comrade to trying to manipulate him into impregnating Irulan so that the Bene Gesserit don’t lose control of the bloodline. Even though this is the main plot of Dune Messiah, there isn’t a lot done with this idea. It’s very hard to successfully conspire to overthrow a ruler who is worshipped as a god, can see every possible future and is an expert at reading people. This plotline exists, or so it seems, mostly to allow certain moments at the very end of the book to happen without them seeming to come out of left field. All the conspiracy seems to do is give Paul another reason why he doesn’t want to be emperor any longer, but knows he has to accept the role.

Dune Messiah feels very much like a transitional book. I don’t know if that’s the word for it, but that’s what I’ve decided to call it. By that, I mean that unlike Dune, this novel doesn’t introduce a huge number of changes or a great deal of world-building. It feels to me like Dune Messiah exists mostly to set up Children of Dune. Dune ends with Paul usurping the Padishah Emperor’s throne and becoming emperor. Dune Messiah ends with Paul leaving his life as the emperor behind to wander the desert, the reason why he does this is a huge part of the plot, so I won’t say exactly why. The novel consists of a lot of people plotting Paul’s downfall, a tiny bit of personal growth and interpersonal drama for a few characters and then setting the stage for Children of Dune. I know that with any series, the first book sets up the second, and the second one sets up the third and so on, but there isn’t enough story in Dune Messiah for it to be complete. I’ve heard from others who read later books that part of Children of Dune could’ve instead been part of the conclusion of Dune Messiah to make the story flow a little better and feel more complete.  The novel’s also short compared to its predecessor. Dune is about 500 pages, with Dune Messiah coming in at around 275. It’s a shorter story with a lot less plot, which made it kind of a disappointment in my eyes.

Dune Messiah is an okay book. It’s not bad, but I feel like it doesn’t quite live up to the standard Dune set four years earlier. Someone I know who read it described it as the weakest of the original books, and I can somewhat see why they’d think that. I feel like it doesn’t add as much as I was hoping, but maybe I set my expectations too high. It didn’t reduce my love for the series, but I don’t think I have as much faith in Children of Dune being as good as the original novel. I’m going to read Children of Dune, because Paul’s story, the Atredies’ story, isn’t over yet. I’d recommend Dune Messiah, but would advise any readers not to expect too much of it.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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Dune

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Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, published by Chilton Books. It shared the 1966 Hugo Award with Roger Zelazny’s The Immortal, and won the first Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is the first installment of the Dune saga and is the world’s best-selling science fiction novel. It can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon.

It isn’t just the best-selling sci-fi book of all time, its also one of the most influential. Even if you haven’t read Dune, you’ve encountered one media property or another that was inspired, at least partly, by the series. Herbert’s novels are as influential on science fiction as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series is on fantasy. Herbert wrote five sequels to Dune: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune and a series of prequels and sequels have been released following his death. 

Dune tells the story of a young man named Paul Atreides, whose family is tasked with ruling the desert planet of Arrakis. While the planet is nearly inhospitable, it is the only place in the known universe where the drug mélange, also known as “the spice”, can be found. Melange is capable extending life and enhancing consciousness. (As an aside, in the original Star Wars trilogy, Han Solo is on the run from Jabba the Hutt for dumping a load of spice and many interpret this as being an homage to the spice from Dune.) The spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe, making control of the planet Arrakis a coveted and dangerous position. House Atreides is betrayed and attacked by their rivals, House Harkonnen, and the destruction of Paul’s family sends him into the desert where he joins one of the native tribes, known collectively as the Fremen and begin a campaign that could change the face of Arrakis and the universe as a whole. Ever present in Paul’s mind, and his mother Jessica’s, is the possibility that he could be destined for something even greater than he could’ve ever imagined.

Before I can discuss certain plot elements, there are a few aspects of the Dune universe that need to be explained. Dune takes place in a distant future where space travel is possible. The series is unique in that its what’s considered “soft sci-fi”, having very little technology. Taking place 10,000 years after humanity waged war against the “thinking machines”, aka computers and robots, that had enslaved them. As a result, there’s no artificial intelligence, no robots and the only technology that exists is very rudimentary such as the machines used to harvest spice. Instead of computers, humanity relies on people known as Mentats who are trained to be human thinking machines, basically human computers. As a result of the war against the thinking machines, the society is organized as a feudal empire with houses controlling planets as their fiefdoms. While there is an emperor, he doesn’t hold absolute power. One powerful group is the Spacing Guild, who hold a monopoly over space travel, given that they are the only beings able to “fold space” and thus make faster-than-light travel possible, in part due to the spice. Nothing in this universe moves without the Guild. Another important order in the Dune universe are the Bene Gesserit, a powerful order of women who’ve operated as a form of shadow government for years, leading humanity down a very specific path. Slowly building their own power and influence over the years through a breeding program with the powerful families in the universe, their goal is the creation of the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit whose abilities can bridge space and time. The Bene Gesserit can tap into prophetic knowledge, but there are certain aspects of that knowledge that they can’t access but the Kwisatz Haderac can. To meet the needs of breeding program, the Bene Gesserit can control both when they get pregnant and what gender the child will be.  There’s a lot more minutia that I could get into, but this information should make it easier to understand the book and my review of Dune.

Dune takes place almost entirely on Arrakis, with only the very beginning taking place off of the desert planet, and a few scenes intermittently happening off-world as well to fill in on a few aspects of the plot that couldn’t be shown on Arrakis. These short, cut-away sections provide context that’s important for the novel’s climax and give a little more detail of how events on Arrakis are impacting the rest of the universe. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is Arrakis itself. As previously mentioned, Arrakis is a planet that’s basically one giant desert. There are settlements, but not many and the open desert is home to colossal sandworms that are at least a few hundred feet long. Arrakis is the most valuable planet in the empire because it’s the only place mélange, which is the most valuable commodity, can be found. On Arrakis, traces of the spice are in the air, in the food, and the vegetation and to the people there, it’s not nearly as valuable as water. It’s rather ironic that the spice is the most important thing in the universe to everyone except the people who live in the one place it can be found. Water and mélange are the two biggest symbols in Dune with the spice representing untapped human potential and water representing life and hope for a better future to the Fremen tribes. A major theme tying into both symbols mentioned above is the theme of power and control. The family that controls Arrakis controls spice production, which in turn controls the universe, and gives them power. This theme becomes more and more overt as the book continues until the climax becomes entirely about, on a surface level, how Paul’s power gives him control over the spice. Power gives control and with control comes power.

One of my favorite aspects of Dune is Paul’s character arc. His arc doesn’t end with this novel, instead continuing into Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, but he goes on quite the journey in this novel alone. He begins the novel as a fifteen year-old-boy who, after being told that his father will not live long on Arrakis, wants to do anything he can to stop it. By the end, he’s a leader among the Fremen and a force of change in the universe. A major aspect of this change is Paul’s destiny as the Kwisatz Haderach, and the fact that this prophesized figure wasn’t supposed to be born yet. Paul’s mother Jessica, a Bene Gesserit, was instructed to have a daughter, but chose to give birth to a son instead. This decision caused the Bene Gesserit’s “chosen one” to be born early and relatively outside of their control. Unlike most "chosen ones", Paul isn't in denial about being chosen, he knows he's the Kwisatz Haderach, he's never doubted it. He's just reluctant to take up the mantle. As if being the chosen one of the Bene Gesserit wasn’t enough, the Fremen also believe Paul is Lisan al-Gaib, who it is said will lead them to paradise. Unsurprisingly, fate is a central theme in the book, as the narrative style makes it clear that fate can’t be changed and the characters are powerless to change events, even if they have advanced knowledge of it. Dune is, in many ways, the story of Paul learning to stop rejecting his destiny and do, at least in some capacity, what he was destined to do. It’s also one of the best revenge stories of all time.

Not including Paul, there are a handful of important characters that I should mention. This series has more characters than I can count, but only a few are essential to the story of the first book. The first of which is Jessica, Paul’s mother. Her role at the beginning is confined simply by being his mother, and helping train him in the Bene Gesserit ways because she’s believed, or at least hoped, from the beginning that he was the Kwisatz Haderach. Once she and Paul escape into the desert, she takes on her own position within the Fremen that puts her at odds occasionally with her son. Paul wants to transform Arrakis, Jessica believes it needs to stay as is. Jessica is one of the biggest influences on Paul and in shaping the direction of the story. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the primary antagonist of this story. He’s the one who plots and executes the downfall of the Atreides, as part of bigger plans for the empire as a whole. While he isn’t featured prominently in the book as a whole, he’s responsible for the entire plot getting kicked off. It’s the Baron’s plans that lead to Paul and Jessica escaping into the desert and, in turn, Paul no longer resisting his destiny and leading the Fremen to victory over the tyranny they’ve been dealing with for centuries. He's also one of the most genuinely creepy and unsettling characters I've read in recent memory. There is nothing about him that isn't gross and disturbing. The planetologst Kynes, also known as Liet and Liet-Kynes, is a scientist who studies Arrakis and is secretly a Fremen. He wants to change Arrakis from a desert planet to a lush, green paradise, at nearly any cost. While Kynes may seem like a throwaway side character at first, his vision shapes Paul’s journey and the course of the novel. There are a number of other named characters that I liked, mostly among the Fremen, but the three mentioned above have the biggest impact on the plot.

Now, let’s discuss Herbert’s writing itself. Plot elements, character arcs and themes are important to any story, but the actual writing is just as significant to a book being good or bad. Herbert did an amazing job creating an entire universe in a book that’s less than 500 pages. Not every single thing was fully explained, but other books he released afterwards, and books released by his son, expand upon some of the unexplained aspects. Some aspects are given context later in the novel, when it makes more sense and less like what I call "exposition via dialogue". There are also appendices in Dune that fill in a little more detail. I also feel like “world-building” too easily turns into “explain every single detail” sometimes and if this happened in Dune, the story could never start. Knowing how the war against the thinking machines started and ended doesn’t really make Dune easier to understand.  Having knowledge of how the Spacing Guild started, or the Bene Gesserit or who discovered the spice doesn’t change this book’s story. There are also some terms that, while the reader might not get an exact explanation of what it means, you can fill in the blanks. Frank Herbert also managed to pack a lot of themes and motifs, some of which aren’t easy to quickly portray such as the impact of manipulating nature to suit your own ends, into this novel. The prose is spectacular and his vivid descriptions made me feel like I was on Arrakis in the desert or the hideouts of the Fremen. The sense of urgency and action in key scenes was prevalent and the tension in others was palpable. Another thing to point out is the use of foreshadowing. Paul begins the novel having prophetic dreams, which later come true, but it doesn’t just end with him. Little details and moments at the beginning of the book resurface or are referenced throughout and at the end. In fact, there’s a scene at the very beginning that foreshadows how at least one character dies by the end. Overall, very well-written and I can understand why this book is such an influence on science fiction as a whole.

While I enjoyed Dune, there are a few things about it that I didn’t like. Towards the middle, the story does drag a little bit. I feel that some of this is done to not rush straight to the ending while also giving some context to the Fremen society, which becomes important at the end, and in the sequels. I can understand the need for that, but there are some scenes that could be shortened, especially ones occurring between the duke’s death and Paul and Jessica joining the Fremen. Reading about them wandering the desert for several pages isn’t exactly exciting. Some sections of dialogue are also a bit clunky. The scenes and conversations do what they need to do, they further the plot along and relay the necessary information, but a few times I found myself thinking “no one talks like that”. The balance of “show vs. tell” when it comes to character motivations isn’t completely achieved here, and its obvious during a few scenes. Another, pettier, complaint that I have is that Dune does not have chapters, it has sections. There are three “books” within Dune, each containing one part of Paul’s journey, that range from 130 to 200 pages each, but instead of having chapters, one scene and another are separated by experts from in-universe historical texts that have been written after the conclusion of Dune. Some of the excerpts can be a little spoiler-y, but thankfully this was a reread for me, so my annoyance comes from the lack of chapters being more inconvenient than anything else.

Dune is a landmark novel in science fiction. It tells a very personal story inside of a tale with much bigger implications and stakes. It’s easy to see why so many books, films, television shows and games have made homage to it or borrowed certain aspects of it for their own stories. Unfortunately, given how much of a game-changer Dune was, it’s sometimes accused of copying material it inspired, which is a little annoying to me at least. Still, we wouldn’t have a lot of the sci-fi properties we do today without it. I can only think of one other modern writer who had close to the same impact on his genre as Herbert did on sci-fi, and that writer is, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. I do need to give Herbert slightly more praise here though. Tolkien created a world; Herbert created a universe. Dune is an excellent novel, not a perfect one, but better than most. I’d recommend it to any science fiction fan that hasn’t read it, however few they may be. Most importantly, now that I’ve reread Dune and reviewed it, I can move on to Dune Messiah which I haven't read before, much to my father's chagrin.

Rating: 4.7 stars.

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The Body In Question

The Body In Question is a 2019 literary fiction novel by Jill Ciment. It was published in June 2019 by Pantheon. I read it as part of a book club, along with another book. The novel tells the story of two sequestered jurors engaging in an affair during a highly-publicized murder trial. Although they agree to keep their oaths as jurors not to discuss the trial, things become complicated once deliberations begin.

The two main characters are C-2, the woman Hannah, and F-17, the man Graham. Other characters include the other jurors, who are referred to be nicknames C-2 gives them, and C-2's husband. There isn't a lot that's shared about these characters at all. F-17 is an anatomy professor who falls in love with C-2 during their affair. C-2 is a married photographer whose much older husband is dying and she begins the affair mostly to get it out of her system before she becomes a widow. She tries to insist she has no attachment to F-17, much to the evidence otherwise. The other characters are entirely one-dimensional and serve a purpose to either make the pair suspicious that they've been discovered or provide filler. No one seemed to have any motivations or personality beyond surface-level traits. The characters are basically paper cut-outs with no personality. Call me crazy, but if I'm reading a book, I need to at least feel something for the characters within.

One thing I dislike most about the story is that the focus seems to be on the wrong thing. Yes, the blurb explains that the story is about the forbidden love affair between two jurors, but Ciment made a mistake in creating the story of the trial they're jurors for. Rather than the pair be jurors for just any highly-publicized murder trial, the crime in question involves the death of a child in a fire and if the defendant, the victim's older autistic sister, set the fire on purpose. This part of the story was meant to be just the simple backdrop, the plot device bringing the two characters together, but was actually the most intriguing part of the story.

The trial, in the few scenes where the trial is actually about the crime and not C-2 waxing about details that don't really matter or her lover, presents an interesting mystery. Was the defendants confession coerced? Did her twin force her to confess? Why would she kill her brother? The mystery, sadly, takes second place to two very boring characters having a affair and being paranoid about being caught. Then, it's time for the jury to deliberate and, shocker, the two lovers are on different sides. One is the hold-out preventing a unanimous decision from being reached which only annoyed me more. Eventually, a decision is reached and the trial ends. The defendant is found guilty. Shortly after the trial, someone leaks it to the press that C-2 and F-17 were having an affair. Now, I was expecting some kind of consequences for the secret being revealed. Maybe the defendant's lawyers get her a new trial citing that one influenced the other's decision. Maybe the two jurors are held in contempt for violating the court's orders regarding how sequestration works. None of that happens. C-2's husband feels understandably betrayed, F-17 seemingly faces no consequences and the other jurors get trashed in the media at first for the verdict and later for not speaking up.

While I didn't like the plot, I can't say that this book is all bad. From a technical writing perspective alone, the book isn't bad. The writer clearly has a lot of talent and based on the reviews for her other books, this one seems to be an outlier. It's also a very short book, which works in its favor. Coming in at under 200 pages, I wasn't completely outraged at how I felt about the story when it was over. If this book had been twice as long, but with the same outcome, I'd be a lot angrier about the time I had wasted.

I honestly thought this book was a waste of time. In literature, words such as "story arc" or "journey" or "growth" get thrown around a lot. The Body In Question has none of that. The conclusion isn't really a conclusion. Nothing happens. The story goes exactly nowhere. C-2 isn't different at the end of the book. F-17 isn't. None of the events that happen after the trial make any difference or sends any kind of message to the reader. The most that happens is the jurors doing a symbolic "revote" on the verdict, but that's it. I've read books with good endings, I've read books with bad endings, but this is the first time that I've encountered a book with a pointless ending. There wasn't enough substance in this novel to justify an ending of any kind. If there was more focus on the characters, and they had actual personality, I might feel differently, but the lack of anything sticking out to me makes me feel like this book was a complete waste of time. I wasn't given enough reason to care about the jurors, their affair or anything going on, which made this book completely unremarkable. I can imagine that, in a few years, someone might ask me if I've read this book, and because its so unremarkable and unmemorable, I'll say "no" because I'll have completely forgotten about it.

Rating: 1.3 stars

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Days of Rock & Roll

Days of Rock & Roll is a 2018 thriller novel by Kelly Holm.  It was published in July of 2018 by the author. I was provided with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows a photopgrapher named Ariana who argees to photograph her ex-boyfriend Zak’s band while they’re on tour for a magazine. The pair had a bad break-up many years ago and Zak intends to use Ariana’s assignment as a chance to win her back. Ariana, despite their break-up, hasn’t gotten over Zak as much as she claims and just wants to get through the job as quickly as possible. Complicating both exes plans is the presence of a Hollywood starlet who has decided Zak is hers and a shady figure from Ariana’s past that’s not willing to let her go. When Ariana disappears, Zak does everything he can to find her.

First, let’s begin by discussing the characters in this story. Ariana is one of the point of view characters and one of the two main characters. Ariana is one of my favorite main characters in a while. She’s not a reader-insert type character, she’s her own person and is dripping with personality. Not only that, but she has her own goals, and her own agency, which characters in some stories like this tend to lack. When she finds herself in a dangerous situation, she doesn’t just let things happen to her, but at the same time, she’s smart about how she reacts to things. I was rooting for Ariana from beginning to end in this story. The other main character is, of course, Zak, the guitarist of the world-famous band Dark Horse and Ariana’s ex. I feel a little less favorably towards Zak than I do Ariana, which is mostly because of a few things he does early in the story. He clearly has his own plans, and demons and things going on, but I found myself getting annoyed with him in parts. Rick is Ariana’s boyfriend, who she breaks up with very early in the syory because she thinks he’s too clingy. I hate Rick. Every reader is supposed to hate Rick. At first, I thought he was just going to be an obsessive ex who causes some problems for Ariana because he’s mad they broke up, but it turns out to be that he’s part of some very dark things. Rick is, undoubtedly, the villain of this story. Jules is Ariana’s sister and manager. I expected her to be a side character at first, mostly existing for Ariana to talk about her conflicted feelings for Zak, and not much else. Then, Rick becomes very embittered by their break-up and Jules becomes one of the most important characters in the entire story. The last character to discuss is Josie Winters, the Hollywood starlet who’s decided she and Zak are going to be together, no matter what. She starts off as an annoyance, and continues to be an annoyance, up until the very end of the story where she goes completely off the rails. Like Rick, we as the readers are meant to dislike her. The story is, on its surface, about Zak trying to get Ariana back so any character that threatens the happy ending needs to come off as unlikeable.

The actual writing in Days of Rock & Roll is great. The author does a fantastic job of mixing telling information to the reader with properly displaying it. There’s enough detail being shared for the reader to get into the story and the setting without it being overkill. We know what all of the characters look like, and the places that they are, without it seeming like the author wanted to explain every single object in the room a character is in. There are a few minor mistakes, but nothing that made me want to stop reading. I’ll discuss the pacing in a little bit, but Holm did a fantastic job building tension in the right places. In the climax of the story, when Rick’s almost cornered and Ariana’s almost safe, I wasn’t completely sure if the plan to save her would actually work. I enjoy that in a story. Characters need to struggle, especially in the final confrontation. They need to fail, or get tricked, and here that’s what happened. It’s a very well written book from a character and emotional perspective, but has room for improvement where the plot is concerned.

The pacing of the novel is a little uneven, which in turn makes the plot a little hard to follow and jarring in some places. More than half of the book is about Ariana and Zak remembering the beginning of their relationship and what happened during their break-up, while they also go back and forth about what feelings they still have. A lot of these scenes have the awkward “I’m talking to my ex” feel that gets interrupted by one external factor or another, usually Josie showing up and insisting that she’s dating Zak. The Ariana-Zak drama is broken up by Josie plotting how to “make Zak hers” and Rick getting increasingly angry and frustrated about Ariana dumping him until he goes as far as to kidnap her sister to find out where she is. After he kidnaps Jules, he kidnaps Ariana and that’s the point where the story takes a very hard left turn that had me thinking “what am I reading?”. Rick, it turns out, is nowhere near the person who Ariana thought he was. She broke up with him because he was a little boring, and very clingy. After their break-up and he starts to spiral, it comes to light that he’s a very, very bad person and that he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants and he doesn’t care who gets hurt or dies because of it. Until this happens, the main antagonist looks to be Josie, who absolutely will not leave Zak alone, and she’s then more or less sidelined until after Rick is dealt with.

I think the root of my criticism about Rick’s actions seeming to come out of nowhere is the lack of foreshadowing. During the first few scenes with him, he seems like just an angry ex-boyfriend. I expected him to chase after Ariana, possibly stalk her. Maybe he gets into a confrontation with Zak because he refuses to accept that they broke up. Then, he kidnaps Jules and it seems like he’s starting to unravel, and a little dangerous, but not a serious threat to Ariana. He then abducts her, and the reader learns his backstory, which is much darker than anyone expected. (I should mention that I can see some problematic elements in Rick’s backstory and motivations. I don’t believe in spoiling major plot points unnecessarily, so I won’t get to in depth, but Rick’s motives, philosophy and especially his behvaior once he thinks he’s “won” create a stereotypical, and damaging image of the culture he’s a part of.) The problem is that Rick, his skills, his connections, et cetera, seem to come out of nowhere. There’s no mention of a mysterious job early on that indicates there’s more to him than appears. Ariana never mentions finding anything off or strange about him. And outside of one character saying Ariana and Rick didn’t make sense as a couple, or a friend of hers saying she never really like him but couldn’t explain why, there’s no indication or foreshadowing that things with Rick are going to get as intense as they do. I don’t like major plot elements spelled out for me, but I also don’t like feeling that they come from absolutely nowhere.

As I mentioned earlier, Josie seems like she might be the main antagonist until Rick turns out to be a complete monster. Josie just seems to be conniving and manipulative. She wants to date Zak, not because she has real feelings for him but because she wants him to make her famous. Her logic is that, if she marries someone super famous, she’ll be super famous too. She doesn’t like Zak, but she loves what he could do for her. She’s even willing to commit fraud and blackmail in order to make him be with her. Her plan of course, makes no sense and blows up in her face, but it was strange to me how much emphasis was placed on her and her plans when they only seemed to have a secondary impact on the plot.

Now that I’ve discussed my biggest criticisms of the story, let me just touch on a few other things I want to mention. I said earlier that the pacing is a little weird, this is because there isn’t a clear divider between one POV and another if its not in between chapters. The same can be said for transitions between Ariana’s memories of her relationship with Zak and the present events. One paragraph, she’s in Berlin five years ago, and the next she’s getting off of the plane in Detroit in the present. Something as simple as a break in between paragraphs would’ve made the transition less jarring.

Days of Rock & Roll is a good book, but the last third or so of it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest. The main conflict sort of comes out of nowhere and it makes a book with very little tension up to that point suddenly become incredibly serious. I can’t decide if the author wanted to write an abduction story and framed the whole “exes reuniting” idea around it, or if she wanted to write about two exes reuniting and then found a way to include the kidnapping plot. In either case, it’s not well-executed, which is a shame because I liked the beginning of the story, and I like the actual kidnapping plot, but they didn’t really work together. I’d recommend this book to others, but not without warning other readers that the conflict seems to come out of nowhere.

Rating: 3.6 stars

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Feathers and Fae

Feathers and Fae is a young adult fantasy novel by Crystal L. Kirkham. It was published in October of 2019 by Kyanite Publishing LLC. I was provided with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows two teens, Kami and Emmett, who have been best friends for as long as either could remember. Emmett, however, has a secret and his past catches up with him when a dark fae known as the Erlkrönig chases them into another realm, Mythos. When Kami awakes, she can detect when people are lying and that means she knows everything Emmett has ever told her is a lie. Emmett wants to get Kami home, to safety, as quickly as possible while avoiding the Erlkrönig, who is hunting them. On the journey, Emmett’s web of lies starts to unravel and Kami learns the truth, which shakes the foundations of everything she knows to be true.

Feathers and Fae is a book that doesn’t hold many surprises. At the beginning of the story, Emmett is somewhat of an enigma. He clearly has this innate need to protect Kami, although the reason isn’t initially clear. After the pair wind up in Mythos, as a result of Emmett using a previously unknown, to the reader, power, there’s a mystery surrounding what exactly he is. It becomes clear that he also has some sort of connect to the Erlkrönig, which adds some intrigue. All of that intrigue goes out of the window the second time Emmett uses his powers. It becomes very clear exactly what species he is, yet the book continues to try and make it seem like a mystery. Some might say that the title somewhat spoils that particular plot twist, but the title is vague enough to prevent me from saying its entirely predictable in that sense. My biggest complaint centers around the narrative acting like Emmett’s secret is harder to guess than it actually is. Rather than being foreshadowed, it’s pretty much spelled out a hundred pages before someone in the story actually says what he is.

I may be getting ahead of myself. Let’s discuss the characters for a moment. There are about five characters we care about: Emmett, Kami, the seer Jewel, a yeti named Bob and, of course, the bad guy the Erlkrönig. There’s not a lot I can really say about Emmett or Kami. I found them both to be rather bland and one-dimensional. Emmett wants to keep is secrets and get Kami to safety. Kami wants real answers about what the hell is happening and flip-flops between being angry or not angry, at Emmett for being reluctant to give those answers. It felt like a few scenes were repetitive with Kami asking for answers, not getting them and then being grumpy about it, and those scenes started to annoy me after a while. Jewel is a seer they meet to ask how to get home, and she invites herself along on their journey. I liked Jewel for the most part. She was the person who prevented Kami from being completely in the dark, because, as a seer, she knew what information she needed to know at each stage of the adventure. Something that I didn’t like was the fact that Jewel, who’s a seer, keeps ending up in situations where she can’t use her abilities. Her powers aren’t written consistently, and she ends up saying “sorry I didn’t see this” too many times. Bob is a yeti. He’s my favorite character because there isn’t a convoluted backstory or explanation to explain why he’s there. They need a guide through some mountains and he offers to be theirs. Lastly, we have our villain, the Erlkrönig, who’s what most would recognize as a pure evil villain. He wants power. He already has power, but he wants more. He won’t stop until he has all of the power. Emmett beat him once, but didn’t vanquish him, and he’s come back to finish what he started. Fantasy novels are where I see pure evil villains and that’s where they kind of fit the best. They don’t have nuance because they don’t need nuance, they just want to take over the world or whatever. He’s evil and that’s all there is to him.

The plot of Feathers and Fae is a little all over the place. Emmett and Kami wind up in Mythos and they need to get home, to their own realm, before the Erlkrönig finds them and exacts his revenge. The premise is simple, but in a story that’s ultimately about defeating the Erlkrönig, a lot of the story is padded with showing the journey they need to take to get to a portal that’s supposed to take them home. Reaching the portal ends up mattering only in a “if they don’t do x, y can’t happen and thus z is harder to explain” sense. I feel like some of this was done as a way of world-building, but it didn’t feel organic here. If a story is chronicling a journey, then the stops made during that journey need to have an impact on the story as a whole. That doesn’t happen here. The pair, and Jewel, go to the elves territory to use a portal there, only to be turned away. The group then needs to head to the dwarves’ land to use a portal deep in the mountains. The run-in with the elves has no impact later, so the story could’ve worked with the original destination being the dwarves’ land. Once they reach the portal, the story shifts again from being about Emmett and Kami getting home to needing to defeat the Erlkrönig, with very few sightings or threats by him between them coming to Mythos and needing to stop him. If there’d been either less focus on the journey, or if the Erlkrönig was written as a more dire threat during the group’s travels, the flow would’ve worked a little better. There’s a clear reason why the pacing is the way that it is. The long journey gives time for more information about Emmett, and his connection to Kami, to come to light without doing an info dump. The problem is that the most important information is still delivered by Emmett, as a clear info dump, right before the climax. If the same information had been revealed slowly, on the journey, I would’ve liked it better.

Now, let’s discuss the conclusion of the story. Emmett, Kami, Bob and Jewel need to defeat the Erlkrönig to avoid him taking over Mythos, and then the other realms. The book is roughly 380 pages. The final battle, the climax of the story, is 17 pages long. It’s not even 5% of the book. Now, there had been tension building for a while, especially after Emmett encounters the Erlkrönig face-to-face and is captured by him, but that’s an incredibly rushed final confrontation. It’s not like prior to this fight, the characters kept having run-ins with the villain either. For most of the story, they’re traveling, with the vague threat of the bad guy chasing after them. The final confrontation is very rushed. It reads as very rushed. The good guys start losing, Emmett as one last idea to try, and then they win. It’s not dramatic, or drawn out and the way that the heroes win falls just shy of a deus ex machina moment.

Thus far, this review has been very negative. I’m aware of that, but there were some things I enjoyed. I liked the actual realm that the story took place in. it had a rich plethora of creatures, species and locations. As part of the journey, the reader didn’t just get to see one section of the map, but several. Through Emmett and Kami, I learned about the different cultures with this world. The magic system wasn’t completely explained, but the parts that were explored, aside from Jewel’s foresight, were easily demonstrated and well-explained. The best way I can really explain it is that I liked the world, but I wasn’t a big fan of the story that was being told in it.

Feathers and Fae isn’t a bad book, just one that I found disappointing. It could be the first book in a series, but it could also be a stand-alone. If it is the first in a series, that would explain why the plot seems to revolve around building the world rather than the main conflict. I feel like the story is actually two stories that are weakly linked together. There’s the story of Emmett and Kami trying to get back to their own realm. And there’s the story of Kami, Emmett and their companions trying to defeat the Erlkrönig. If the author had chosen the first, it could’ve been good. If she’s chosen the second, it would’ve had potential. Instead, she chose both and I can’t say that I understand why. The story had potential, but that potential wasn't fully realized.

Rating: 2.1 stars

Blogtober Day 28: The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2018

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2018 is an anthology of dark fantasy and horror stories. It was edited by Paula Guran and contains more than twenty stories, each by a different author. This is the ninth edition of the yearly anthology that Guran has edited and released.

Since The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2018 is a collection of stories, and contains so many, this review is going to be a little different than my other reviews. With around 30 stories, there's no way I could review every single one of them without making this review unbearably long. At the same time, I can't give a review of the book as a whole, since each story is so different. Instead, I'm going to talk about five stories: three that were my most favorite, and the two I disliked the most.

The Crow Palace by Priya Sharma is the story of a woman named Julie who returns home following the death of her father. She left him and her sister, with cerebral palsy, years ago and has only returned to bury her father and take care of a few last minute things. While she's visiting, she uncovers a dark family secret. I think the reason why I enjoyed this story so much was because it subverted my expectations. Julie's family has a very strange connection with birds, which is apparent on the first page. What the connection is, and how deep it goes, is revealed much later. The thing that made this story stick in my mind, though, was the final revelation regarding the birds.  I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say, Julie's assumption about what the birds did, and who they did it to, is wrong.

The Little Mermaid in Passing by Angela Slatter can best be described as telling the story of the Little Mermaid from the Sea Witch's perspective. In the original fairytale, the reader doesn't ever learn why the Sea Witch would help the Little Mermaid. In the Disney film, Ursula obviously has a masterplan to take over the ocean, but the original story never reveals that. I liked this story because it took a story I already knew, and showed it from a different angle. Much like other stories such as Wicked, it made me rethink how I viewed the "villain". I found the writing style and the direction the story went in to be unique and unexpected as well.

Secret Keeper by Bonnie Jo Stuffelbeam I would categorize as halfway between psychological horror and teen drama. The story takes place almost entirely in a high school. It tells the story of a Ghost Girl, who isn't dead and lives in the bowels of the school, who begins training Chrissie, an actress in the school musical, to sing better.  If this set-up sounds like Phantom of the Opera, but with the Phantom having a different gender, that's because it kind of is. While the set-ups are similar, the plots are different. The Ghost Girl wants something different from what the Phantom wanted. The ending was unexpected as well, since it's ambiguous regarding what was and wasn't reality.


Moon, and Memory, and Muchness by Katherine Vaz tells the story of a woman grieving the loss of her child who encounters a little girl that reminds her of her deceased daughter. She owns a tea shop and the girl and her mother become regular customers. The story is chock full of Alice in Wonderland references as well.It's somewhat of a thriller, but I wasn't a huge fan. It's not a bad story, just one with weird pacing. The story goes from 0 to 100 very suddenly, then back to 0, and I don't feel there was enough build-up beforehand.

Survival Strategies by Helen Marshall is the story of a British scholar going to New York to do a piece of a famous horror author, who's supposed to be Stephen King, but isn't. This was my least favorite story, mostly because not a lot happens. She does some research, talks to the author's ex-editor and that's pretty much it. Scenes of the narrator talking about the author's career are interspersed with her mentioning how bleak and tense things are in the world due to politics. Perhaps some might find the story suspenseful, but I didn't. The only way this story is connected to horror is that the author she's researching, who never appears, writes horror.

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series, for a lack of a better term, is one of my favorite releases, because its one of the ways I find new authors. It's also where I find some of the most interesting and creative stories. I feel like authors of short stories are more willing to take risks and try new things than with full length novels.

Rating: 3.5 stars. I didn't love every story, but I liked the collection as a whole.

Blogtober Day 21: Nightmare Escapade

Nightmare Escapade is a 2012 horror anthology book by Waylon Piercy. I first became aware of it when I was searching Amazon for horror books to read during October. Since the book is a collection of short stories, I'm going to discuss each story on its own and my thoughts, rather than discuss the whole book at once. That seems like the most fair tactic.

"No Such Thing" is the first story in the collection. It tells the story of a little boy who is out playing in the woods and sees something. He comes to believe its a monster and, regardless of what he tries to tell his mother, she doesn't seem to see it. Ray soon becomes worried that the monster is going to get him and he is terrified at the thought. This story does a good job of portraying the fears and worries of children, especially the primal fear of the dark. "No Such Thing" isn't a particularly scary story, but it does leave the reader feeling a little unsettled.

"The Terrible Stranger" is the story of a soldier traveling home who comes across a terrible stranger, as the title implies. This story, along with two others, are part of a larger dark fantasy novel the author has been building for years. On its own, "The Terrible Stranger" is one of the best body-horror stories I've read in some time. Piercy paints quite the unsettling visual as the protagonist tries to escape to freedom.

The third story is titled "The Drum". The best way I can really explain it, without giving too much away, is by saying for once, horror is happening to the right person. Ever notice how the characters in horror are either unlucky or just stupid and that's how they end up being pursued by a mass-murderer or possessed by Satan or something? This tale is a little different. Harold isn't a nice person. He doesn't stumble upon something not meant to be found, he's not in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's just a jerk and winds up angering the wrong people. I like seeing, for once, that the right person is being terrorized.

"Apex Predator" tells the story of a former police officer trying to locate a missing girl. He finds her, only to discover things aren't what they seem. She's no longer among the living and soon, neither is he. The story doesn't end there, however, and I enjoyed seeing a different take on the specific "monster" in this story.

"The Basement" is a very short story. I believe its the shortest one in the book, being only a few pages. I can't give anything away that doesn't spoil the ending, but I found the point of view for the story interesting. It's told from a different perspective than most stories in its subgenre.

"Bones" is a story that's connected to "The Terrible Stranger". They aren't directly connected, but take place in the same world/universe. It's the closest thing to the traditional ghost story in the book, albeit with a twist. Since its part of a larger story, it doesn't fully explain things and leaves a lot open-ended, but I found it amusing at least.

"The Trunk" is the closest I got to a typical haunted house story in this book. Calling it a story about a haunted house isn't fair, since the house isn't haunted, the new owner is just curious about an old trunk left in the attic. The trunk isn't imprisoning a ghost, it doesn't contain pure evil or cursed objects. Instead, it offers something much more mysterious and "The Trunk" has a very surprising ending.

"Duel" takes place in the same world as "Bones" and "The Terrible Stranger". Unlike the others, its not a horror story. It fits more under the dark fantasy umbrella. The story is a snippet of what the author has built for the world, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the directions the story could go or what could be done with the aspects I read so far.

Nightmare Escapade consists of eight stories. They're entertaining for the most part, but I didn't find them very scary. Additionally, they suffer from a length problem. They are short stories, but a few are a little too short. Their endings feel a little rushed or cut-off. An extra few pages would've made the difference between an "okay" story and a good one.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Blogtober Day 14: The Scarred God

The Scarred God is a 2019 novel by Neil Beynon. It was released on August 26, 2019 and was published by Haynes Ltd. It's a fantasy book aimed at teenagers. It was one of the books I mentioned during my October TBR post.

The novel tells the story of a teenager named Anya who escapes being captured with the rest of her village when they're attacked by invaders. The invading army is assisted by an exiled god of her culture and Anya goes on a journey through a spelled forest, alongside the forest's mysterious guardian Vedic, to save her people and defeat the exiled god. Along the way, she learned not much separates heroes from villains.

There are some books I read because they're recommended to me. Others, I stumble upon and the premise instantly grabs me. The Scarred God fits into the second category. The idea intrigued me, starting with the teaser/tagline on the cover of the book reading "how do you kill a god?" Once I read that this novel was about a teenage girl going on a quest to kill a god, I couldn't really resist.

To begin this review, let's discuss Anya. I enjoyed her as a character. She had personality, she was driven. Her motives and morals were clear. She wanted to save her people. She wanted to stop the Kurah's plans. At the same time, she was dealing with doubts about whether she could do what needed to be done. She wasn't always sure the path she was taking was the right one. Mostly, however, I was happy that she was a dynamic character, and not the archetypal "strong female character" that can sometimes fall flat on the page. Anya was a character the reader could connect with.

There were many aspects of this novel that I enjoyed. One of the aspects I found the most interesting was Beynon's use of deities from more than one culture. Rather than only having gods from the Greek pantheon, or only Norse god, etc, there's a variety of gods mentioned. The main gods we see are Danu, a Celtic goddess, Pan, from Greek mythology, and Cernubus, the titular scarred god, although I'm not sure what pantheon he was part of. There are also illusions to gods and myths that aren't named but the average person would recognize. The story gives off the feel that, for example Greek myths are true, but Celtic myths are equally true without the two mythologies contradicting each other.

Another thing I enjoyed was Anya's personal journey and how it pans out. Anya isn't explicitly a "chosen one"; she's capable of defeating the scarred god, but at no point does the narrative make it seem like she's the only person capable of doing that. Her training, at the hands of her warrior grandmother, has given her an edge, but she's the heroine as a result of circumstance, not destiny. Anya and her connection to Vedic, the protector of the woods, is another noteworthy aspect of the story. Vedic isn't helping Anya for completely altrustic reasons, and while I enjoy stories where people work together for the "greater good", I also like characters who are reluctant heroes or mentors.

One of the best aspects of the novel, from a writing standpoint, is the way it avoids certain tropes. There were points in the story where I thought "okay, this is when [insert fantasy trope here] is going to happen". Sometimes the plot went exactly how I imagined, other times it surprised me. I like being surprised narratively.

While I enjoyed the story overall, there are a few critiques I need to share.Most of my criticism comes from a world-building or clarity perspective. There are a few thing within the world of the novel that aren't explained as well as they could be. Certain terms, how one group related to another and the like.  There were a few times where a specific term or title was used and I needed to stop and remember what it meant in this world. The phrase that often gets thrown around is "show, don't tell" which I feel is a bit vague. "Show, don't tell" is about balancing those two acts, at least to me. Somethings can be shown, others may need be told to the reader. Beynon doesn't quite achieve the right balance in my opinion, with the things being shown not quite giving the reader enough information to fill in the blanks. While I mention the author didn't explain enough, I'd like to be clear that I prefer his style as opposed to having everything explained as exposition-as-dialogue or there being page after page of explanations without context.

I should note that certain passages of the novel, which are depicted as dreams Anya is having, are intentionally confusing. They relate to a big plot point, so I won't explain too much about them, but I wanted to acknowledge that there's a purpose behind those passages being confusing or hard to follow with the rest of the story. I'll freely admit that I didn't think that that particular plot point was going to have the revelation that it did. I thought the reveal was going in a different direction entirely.

The Scarred God is a good book. It's entertaining. I enjoyed what I saw of the world and would be happy if the author wrote another story in this universe. Yet, when I reached the end, I felt like something was missing. The resolution was satisfying, but it felt like the end wasn't quite complete or was maybe a little rushed. Some of this could easily be having plot elements unresolved for a second book, in which case that makes sense.

Rating: 3.9 stars

Blogtober Day 7: Anomaly

(Disclaimer: I did receive the novel for free in exchange for an honest review. )

Anomaly is a 2019 self-published novel by Jessica Gilliland. It is a paranormal thriller. I decided to give the novel a chance since the description reminded me of X-Men, more particularly the second X-men movie that was released in the early 2000s. The synopsis of the book is as follows:

“Liv is a powerful telekinetic, but she keeps her head down, and her powers in check. If she doesn’t, the government is going to execute her. Deemed a threat to society by the governments Anomaly Control Team, Live was kidnapped from a facility for supernaturally gifted children and has been under surveillance for five years. When a group of renegades led by her first love, Jason, break Liv free from government control, she gets a taste of freedom. Jason takes Live to Hawthorn House, a secret facility that vows to educate and protect those with supernatural abilities. Liv and Jason fall back into their interrupted romance, but life at Hawthorn isn’t as perfect as she’d hoped. While at Hawthorn, Liv’s powers and loyalties are tested. Her struggle to find herself and build a new life is only made harder by her insecurities and her suspicions that Hawthorn isn’t what it seems.”

I found this book to be enjoyable. The pacing is excellent, there’s an appropriate building of tension as the plot moves along and the reader nears the climax of the story. There’s a good mix of showing and telling of information about different characters, what’s going on and what the motivations of the different characters are. There’s an underlying sense of dread, vital for thrillers, as Liv becomes more at home at Hawthorn and starts to become the powerful young woman she used to be before she was taken.

Let’s discuss the characters for a moment. There are a handful of characters that need to be mentioned. Liv, our main character, Jason, her first love, Lexa, her friend from before she was taken by the ACT, and Dr. Stone, the woman who runs Hawthorn House. Liv was, unsurprisingly, my favorite character, not just because she was the protagonist. For most of the story, she was the one that was easiest to relate to, as she seemed to be the only character reacting in an understandable way to what was happening. The reason none of the others react in a way that makes sense is revealed during the climax, but let’s just say its because some big things are being hidden from Liv. Not only is Liv smart, and resourceful, she’s also strong-willed, something I appreciate in my protagonists. Being strong-willed matters as the story progresses and no one else seems bothered by things that are out of place at Hawthorn. Jason and Lexa are both well-written and the fact that they are both clearly conflicted is something that’s telegraphed early on but done in a way that doesn’t reveal anything too important to the plot until the right time.

Not including Liv, the most important character, I feel, is Dr. Stone. Stone is a figure who, from her first mention, the reader know to be wary of. None of what she does seems genuine, and given Liv’s history with her before the government found her, I doubt any reader would assume she was anything other than an antagonist. It’s Liv’s distrust of Stone, given their history, which drives the plot forward. Liv’s not willing to relax, not willing to trust any of the staff at Hawthorn, simply because of Stone’s past experiments on her.

Something I enjoyed most about this story is the climax itself. After pages of building tension, foreshadowing and introducing details that may or may not be red herrings, Liv finally sees the truth of what Hawthorn House is. I think what I enjoyed most about it was that I was close when I tried to guess what the “big reveal” was, but I wasn’t completely right. The real secret of Hawthorn, and Dr. Stone, was in the same vein of what I thought, but it wasn’t completely correct. The revelation is related to my assumption, which meant the story was somewhat predictable, but there was enough room for me to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. Since this is the first book in a series, the ending is ambiguous which I enjoyed in this case.

While for the most part, I enjoyed the book, I do have a few negatives I should mention. One is the length. The book is about 150 pages, which is not very long for a novel. Gilliand’s writing somewhat makes the book feel longer, with more plot packed in, but I feel like it needed to be a little bit longer for the climax and ending to feel completely satisfying. My other complaint would be regarding Liv’s reaction when she finally learns what’s going on. Up until that point, I related to her, I thought she was making good decisions and reacting to things in a normal way. Following the big reveal, however, I can’t say I like her characterization. Rather than stay, and fight, or make what’s happening stop, she leaves. She yells at a few people, asking them what’s wrong with them, roughs a few people up, but doesn’t really do much to stop Stone. I wish she’d done more than just storm off.

Anomaly is a good book. I found it entertaining, I was intrigued by it. I’ll most likely pick up the next book in the series to see where the story goes. A few things of note: the author has another published book, this one from 2012, also called Anomaly and part of a series called The New Haven Project. While the novels are similar, based on the synopses of both, the main characters are different and I haven’t read the 2012 version.

Rating: 3.7 stars