Dorothy Must Die

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Dorothy Must Die is a 2014 young adult fantasy adventure novel by Danielle Paige. It was published by Harper Collins. It was the author's debut novel and is the first book in the series, also titled Dorothy Must Die. The author has written a number of prequels since the series debuted, explaining some events that set-up the world of the story in addition to the main series. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel tells the story of a teenager named Amy Gumm from Kansas. She's neglected by her mother and bullied at school. One day, their trailer is swept up in a tornado and Amy wakes up in Oz. Except, the Land of Oz is very different from what the books and film portray. Instead of a beautiful, bright, happy place, it's a grim dystopia with the facade of being a dreamland. Good witches are bad, Wicked witches appear to be good and even the Yellow Brick Road is crumbling. It turns out that Dorothy found her way back to Oz after returning to Kansas and decided to seize power for herself. Amy is recruited by a resistance within Oz to help rid the land of Dorothy.

I'm very skeptical of retellings, continuations or re-imaginings of popular and beloved stories. While there have been many good ones, there have also been an untold number of ones that don't quite work. I was pleasantly surprised by how well this one worked and fit into the existing world of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Now, just to be clear, I didn't hate Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but the explanation that was given about why Dorothy returns to Oz (Kansas was too dull after experiencing Oz) and how Oz fell into its current state (Dorothy was given an immense amount of power and its gone to her head) make sense. It's easy to understand, in that context, how Dorothy, Glinda, the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion became dark perversions of themselves. The book had a great hook, but a so-so execution of that idea.

Let's discuss the characters first. Amy is the main character, and she has a lot of personality. She's three-dimensional, she has a goal driving her forward throughout the story. The other characters aren't as well fleshed out. The characters we know from The Wizard of Oz's characterization begins and ends with "what if they were evil and their admirable traits are taken to a dark extreme". They're evil now, but one-dimensional evil. As for Amy's allies, they're meant to seem complex, but for the most part, they all fit into the categories of "I'm your ally because your enemy is also my enemy" and "trust me, but don't trust me too much" which was refreshing to begin with, but after the third or fourth character basically said those exact things, it got annoying. There were also a few characters who only appear in a handful of scenes who were a little too fake-edgy for me. Maybe the trope of "tough guy/girl" just didn't translate well in my opinion,  but there were some lines of dialogue that just read as overkill to me. I wanted to like these characters, and hate the ones I'm supposed to hate, but the only character I liked was Amy and I couldn't connect with any of the others.

The pacing of Dorothy Must Die is a bit slow. The beginning tells us a bit about Amy's life and her problems. We see enough to get a feel for the character, but too much, since what really matters is Amy traveling to Oz. Once she lands in Oz, however, the plot slows down. Paige was dropping the reader into a world they were supposed to already know, but had been drastically changed. This is Oz, but not the Oz we know. As a result, there needed to be a degree of world-building added to the story in order to explain how and why Oz had changed. I enjoy world-building, but not if it comes at the expense of the story being told. There are lengthy parts of this book where Amy doesn't appear to be doing anything that furthers the plot. Instead, they're being used to build up Dorothy and her friends into these horrible monsters that must be destroyed when the reader already knows that. Part of this pacing issue is due to this being the first book in the series. There needed to be a lot of set-up for future books, which meant the plot itself doesn't have a lot going on.

An aspect of the story that I did enjoy was that the author didn't shy away from making things dark in this new Oz. Not only do characters say how terrible Oz has become, but it's shown. There's blood and gore and scenes that are genuinely frightening, which I liked. When stories tell me that a place is horrible, but never show an example of it, it gets under my skin. If you want me to think something or someone's bad, you need to show something that verifies it. In this story, the terrible world is backed up by the terrible events the reader gets to witness. I also enjoyed the fact that, while it did slow the plot a bit, Amy's training with the rebellion wasn't glossed over. I don't enjoy time skips, but I also don't enjoy wishy-washy explanations of how a character who's never fought before can suddenly kick butt. The story showed enough of her training to indicate it was happening, but focused more on relevant lessons she's learning than just adding to the length.

I liked Dorothy Must Die, but I didn't love it. The premise behind the novel is intriguing, even though the execution leaves a bit to be desired. Some of my criticisms are due to this being the author's debut novel and those tend to need a little bit more polish than a non-debut novel. There are also aspects that I found disappointing that are a result of this being the first book in the series. There's a lot of world-building and explaining, with not a ton or plot and very little resolution at the end. I haven't decided whether I'm going to read the next book in the series, The Wicked Will Rise, but this book didn't disappoint me to such a degree that I'm adverse to the idea. Dorothy Must Die had a lot of potential and maybe my expectations were a bit too high going into the story.

Rating: 2.7 stars

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20 Questions Book Tag

Books tags interest me because they tend to ask interesting questions that I, for one, wouldn't think to ask someone individually. I also enjoy seeing the creativity that goes into creating the prompts/questions for the specific tag. Not to mention the fact that reading different people's responses to a specific tag.

I've been wanting to do more book tags, but I honestly didn't quite know where to start. I wasn't sure what the etiquette was for the, Did I need to be tagged in something in order to do it? Or can I just pick one I like and do it? Am I overthinking this? It turns out I was, because I tweeted something like "I want to do some book tags, how do I find them?". Most of the responses that I got were either "Find one on Google that you like" or "I do book tags on [insert day here], I'll tag you in my next one".

Knowing I wasn't breaking some unspoken rule, I turned to the Internet and started looking for tags. The first one (of many) that interested me was the "20 Questions Book Tag" by Paper Fury 

Now, let's answer some questions!

1) How many books is too many for a series?

This is probably going to sound like a cop-out, but it honestly depends. Sometimes, you can tell that a series was intended to be a trilogy or quadrilogy, but ends up having more books added. Other times, it seems like the author isn't sure how many books the series is going to be when the first book is released, and I'm a little more lenient. The thing that bugs me is when a series has come to a natural conclusion, and then more books get added.

Personally, I usually restrict myself to series with four books or less.

2) How do you feel about cliffhangers?

I'm not a fan of a serious cliffhanger, because I feel like its gimmicky. If a book ends with characters finding out some new information that they'll need to defeat the evil wizard in the next book (or whatever the main conflict is) that's one thing, but if the book just ends in the middle of a scene, or before some part of the plot is resolved, it makes me mad. You need to have some unresolved aspect from Book 1 to carry into Book 2, but if Book 1 feels like a build-up to this cliffhanger, I'm going to be mad.

3) Hardcover or paperback?

Paperbacks because I feel less nervous leaving the house with them. I love hardcovers, but I get scared I'll hurt the book.

4) Favorite book?

Okay, if I have to pick just one, The Hobbit. Which I'm picking because it was the book that made me love reading. Also, The Lord of the Rings is my favorite series of all time, so it makes sense that The Hobbit would be my favorite book. 

5) Least favorite book?

The Great Gatsby (sorry, every English teacher I've ever had). Everyone talks about how it's a classic and one of the "great American novels" but I don't see the appeal. I've never seen the appeal of the book and being forced to read it multiple times didn't make me like it any more.

6) Love Triangles, yes or no?

In general, no. Sometimes, I don't think they're written very well. Other times, I don't see the purpose in having it in the story. I'd like to see subversions of love triangles rather than just straight-forward love triangles.

7) Most recent book you couldn’t finish?

All the Light We Cannot See I just couldn't get into the story.

8) Books you’re currently reading?

Beautiful Blunders by Mario Livio

Gheist by Richard Mosses

9) Last book you recommended to someone?

If we're going by the last book where I put in my review "read this"' Countdown to Omega. If' we're going by the last time I told a specific person to read it, Nothing to See Here.

10) Oldest book you’ve read by publication date?

Not including things like The Odyssey which don't have publication dates, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

11) Newest Book you’ve read by publication date

The Girl the Sea Gave Back which was published in September of 2019.

12) Favorite author?

Tolkien, if I have to pick just one. I also enjoy Frank Herbert, Delia Owens and Ray Bradbury.

13) Buying books or borrowing books?

Buying books for the most part. While I do love libraries, I'm not able to get to my closest library as often as I like.

14) A book you dislike that everyone seems to love?

This could turn into a long list, but I'm not the biggest fan of Sarah J. Maas or Ruth Ware.

15) Bookmarks or dog ears?

Bookmarks. People who dog-ear books are my least favorite kind of people.

16) A book you will always reread?

The Hobbit or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

17) Can you listen to music while reading?

No, I don't remember what I just read when I try to do that.

18) One POV or multiple?

One POV in general. Multiple POV has become a trend these days, and it doesn't always benefit the story.

19) Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?

I try to read in one sitting, but sometimes I need multiple days. It depends on the length of the book.

20) Who do you tag?

Anyone who wants to do this tag!

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Countdown to Omega

Countdown to Omega is a 2019 science fiction novel by Robert Wingfield. It was self-published by the author and released in August of 2019. The author's website can be found here. I was provided with a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The novel tells the story of a girl named Anthea who lives on a paradise planet and is an outcast of a colony of refugees and religious pilgrims. One day, a storm of meteorites begins to bombard the planet. She believes this to be an omen of the Gods returning. The “Gods” are in fact the remnants of the race Anthea is descended from, left behind by her own ancestors and evolved over millennia in order to survive. Their arrival causes an alien artifact given to Anthea as a child to activate, seemingly counting down, and sets off a chain of events that threatens a deadly conflict. Unsure if the amulet is the key to salvation or her doom, Anthea goes on a journey to prevent the devastation of her planet.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Countdown to Omega, the novel didn’t quite fulfill the expectations I got from the tagline. The tagline reads “Ancient Aliens meet Greek gods in an epic confrontation that spells the end of the world” which I thought was a bit misleading. I thought the story would depict an epic war between aliens and gods, not of a possible war between humans and aliens believed to be gods. I guess the truth of the tagline depends on how the reader chooses to interpret it. The tagline and the novel’s plot not quite meshing together isn’t a criticism by any means. The story within is more engaging and nuanced than a straightforward “Olympians vs. Aliens” battle royale.

The novel has a wide array of characters, far too many for me to list, but I would like to discuss a handful who I see as the most important to the story. First, there is Anthea, the main character. She’s a outcast among her people because she’s different, having a different hair color and complexion, from the others on the planet An-Ki. She draws ire from others in her community because she questions things, mostly the religion she’s an acolyte of, and if she needs to follow certain rules, she wants to know why. In addition to her rebellious streak, she has a very dry sense of humor and is quite sarcastic. Naturally, being incredibly sarcastic myself, I connected with her very early on. The two “Gods” Anthea encounters early in the story are a male and a female “Watcher”, named Phoebus and Diana respectively, who were sent to observe another planet and report their findings back to their own people. Their mission goes awry and thus, they end up on An-Ki. They’re both very clinical and emotionally stunted, much to Anthea’s confusion and frustration. However, despite being members of the same alien race, they have very distinct personalities. Diana is very cynical of many things and willing to do whatever is needed to accomplish their mission. Phoebus, on the other hand, is a far more curious about the world surrounding him and doesn’t have the same laser-like focus on the mission the way she does. The final character I’d like to mention is Tiresias, the main antagonist of the story. There are a number of antagonistic characters, but Tiresias does the most to drive the plot forward and, given that other antagonists are either his allies or his followers, he’s clearly the main villain. Wingfield wrote all of the villains really well, but Tiresias I feel is the best written one, because he perfectly embodies the power-hungry villain trope and it becomes clear in the first scene he appears in that he’s not meant to be liked. Anthea makes a number of allies throughout her journey, and this review would be far too long if I mentioned all of them, but something that I noticed, and enjoyed, about the characters was that they were all flawed and it wasn’t all the same flaw. Some were too trusting, some were very distrusting with no reason. There were characters who are religious zealots and others who don’t seem to believe in the religion, but see it as a gateway to more power. I loved flawed characters, I feel that they make a story more interesting, and having a variety of characters with different flaws makes a story even better.

It’s clear early on in the novel that the author did a great deal of research for this story and was passionate about what he was writing. The knowledge and the passion help guide the reader through the story. Wingfield wrote very vivid descriptions of the world, the people and events that effortlessly create the scene in the reader’s mind, allowing them to lose themselves in the story. This is a story that makes you think about creation, the origins of mankind and evolution. There are some questions about the inherent destructive nature of humanity and our tendency to create structures that foster corruption thrown in as well. Wingfield wrote a unique and thought-provoking explaining both the origins of humanity and some of our oldest mythologies.  The story is the right level of confusing, which might seem like a contradiction, but hear me out. Very little is revealed up front, but as the story moves forward, more details and answers are provided. The author also included appendices and a glossary that can be referred to if necessary. There are nods and hints along the way indicating where the story ends and what the author is trying to convey happens after, but they aren’t so straightforward and obvious that it gives away the ending. There were a few parts or moments within the story where I stopped and went “oh, that’s clever” after finishing the book when I thought about it.

While I did enjoy Countdown to Omega overall, there are some critiques I need to express. The book is a bit dialogue heavy. This didn’t bother me very much, but there were some parts where I would’ve enjoyed less talk and a little more action. I can see why there’s a lot of dialogue, it’s the only in-universe way to explain or reveal past events but at a few points it did get a little annoying. While the plot is very well-paced, it did get repetitive at a point. By that, I mean that three times the same basic situation, a confrontation between Anthea and her enemies, took place and those confrontations ended more or less the same way each time. The third time it happened, it started reminding me of that Charlie Brown bit with Lucy and the football. Each confrontation further the plot, but I found myself getting annoyed at the characters for repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Countdown to Omega is an excellent book. It takes two seemingly very different topics: Greek myths and aliens and melds them together quite well. It’s not suited to be a fast, casual read though. I think any fan of sci-fi should read it. It’s a fascinated, deep, well-executed story. I’m not sure if the author plans to write a sequel or not, as the ending works for both a stand-alone novel or the first in a series, but I’m excited to read what other stories he has to offer.

Rating: 4.4 Stars

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A Dream Within A Dream

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A Dream Within A Dream is a 2019 fantasy young adult novel by Kristina Mahr. It was published by Uncommon Universes Press. It is the second and final book in the Dreamworld duology. The first book is titled All That We See or Seem. I read the first book in the series a while ago, but I haven’t written a review because I read it back before I started this blog. Perhaps I should’ve reread the first book in the duology before reading this one, but I remembered enough of the details to be able to follow and understand the story. The novel can be purchase here from Bookshop.org.

The series follows a girl named Reeve who lives in a kingdom called Acarsaid. She travels to another world, Tenebris, when she sleeps due to a magical breach in the spell connecting the two worlds. In the first book, Reeve travels to Tenebris and falls in love with a boy named Bran who lives there, but at the end, a wizard in her kingdom closes the breach so that nefarious forces from Tenebris can’t enter Acarsaid. In A Dream Within A Dream, Reeve is still able to travel there in her sleep, but she’s invisible to everyone, including Bran. She tries to find a way to reopen the breach so that she can be with Bran, as a war between the two kingdoms looms in the distance.

The three most important characters in this novel are Reeve, the narrator and main character, Arden, Reeve’s fiancé who she’s set to marry within the novel’s time frame, and Bran, the Tenebris soldier who she’s fallen in love with and desperate to be reunited with. There are other characters that play a significant role, such as Carrick, the king of Acarsaid and Reeve’s uncle, Thrall, the court wizard, and Rancore, the villain of the series and an evil wizard, but there’s not much I can say about them withour spoiling the end of the series. Of the three most important characters, my favorite was Arden since he was written with the most personality. He was complex, sometimes putting forth a façade of indifference , while at others showing how deeply he truly cares. Additionally, I found the dreams and goals he expresses to be the most understandable and relatable. Trapped within the confines of his own social class, all he wants is to see the world. Of all of the characters, his desires are the most concrete and specific. I had trouble relating to Reeve, which is unfortunate because in the previous book, I was able to connect with her a little better. I know that I don’t necessarily need to like a main character to enjoy a book, but I actually found myself rooting against her in certain parts. Some of her actions didn’t make sense to me and I found myself getting annoyed at her hopelessly romantic attitude. Unlike Arden, who had a set goal he wants to fulfill, Reeve seemed to be of the mindset that if she can make herself visible to Bran and reunite with him, all of her problems would be solved. It seemed a little too simplistic. Bran is kind of a non-entity to me. I can’t remember if I felt this way about him in the previous book, but nothing about him stood out to me in this novel. He felt like a very cookie-cutter YA love interest, and I found myself not being too invested in their relationship.

One thing that I enjoyed about this novel is that it wraps all of the plotlines up. The magical barrier separating Tenebris and Acarsaid is taken care of. The antagonist is defeated. The Arden-Reeve-Bran love triangle is resolved. I know that may sound silly that I’m happy the last book in a duology wraps up the story, but I’ve read a number of duologies that turned into trilogies that then became longer series and, more often than not, the series as a whole suffers. Everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow and there’s no need for a third book. I also enjoyed the world of Tenebris, the so-called dreamworld. The kingdom is dark, and depressing and there were elements of it that I genuinely found fascinating, but they weren’t explored enough in my mind. The sorcery keeping the two worlds separate and the rules of how magic works in each world took a backseat to the romance aspect of the story and that decreased my enjoyment. The cover art is also incredibly beautiful and I like the mirrored  world aspects of it. A Dream Within A Dream has potential to be a more interesting story, but it wasn’t taken advantage of.

While there were elements of the story that I enjoyed, this book was a miss for me.  Kristina Mahr’s writing style wasn’t really to my taste. Sometimes the language got a little too flowery. At points, I felt like she was repeating words to make a point that the reader had already gotten. There were a few parts where I read a sentence or a paragraph and it felt like they were intended to sound deep or thought-provoking, but it didn’t really work. The pacing was also a little weird. The majority of the pages are spent with Reeve thinking about how much she wants to be with Bran or considering whether she should move on and marry Arden. The dreamworld, which should be the focus of the series, took a backseat to the relationship stuff. In fact, so much of the plot is driven by the romance aspects that the ending feels completely rushed. The better part of two books are spent building up Rancore as this massive threat who wants revenge and will destroy anything and everything in his way. It’s disappointing then when he only appears a handful of times in the entirety of the second book and is defeated incredibly easily. The battle between good and evil could’ve been a very interesting and high-stakes fight, where the tides keep turning. The good guys are winning at first, but then Rancore turns the tables of them and it starts to look like they might not triumph, making the victory sweeter. The ending could’ve been a great magical fight but instead, its more of a one-punch knockout. All in all, it didn’t quite live up to me expectations.

A Dream Within A Dream is a slightly below average book. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style, finding it a little distracting at points. Some parts of the plot weren’t given enough attention or depth while others dragged on a bit too much. Overall, my disappointment stems from the fact that it’s miscategorized in my opinion. It’s categorized as fantasy and the blurb makes it seem like a fantasy novel with some romance thrown in, but it’s actually a romance with some bits of fantasy thrown in. It’s a quick read and a pretty easy story to follow though.

Rating: 2.6 stars

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2019 in Review

Hello Everyone and Happy (almost) New Year! 2019 is pretty much over and its been quite the year. As I look back on the last 12 months, I've been thinking a lot about the books I've read. So, let's talk about all of the books I read in 2019 and what my thoughts were.

First, what are the books that I read?

Anomaly by Jessica Gilliland

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

The Body in Question by Jill Ciment

Bone Quarry by K.D. McNiven

Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Days of Rock & Roll by Kelly Holm

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Feathers and Fae by Crystal L. Kirkham

In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

The Mechanoid Cries Within by Brock T.I. Penner

Nightmare Escapade by Waylon Piercy

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Scarred God by Neil Beynon

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Facts and Figures:

In 2019, I read and reviewed 20 books and one short story. My breakdown of how I rated them is below:

Overall, 2019 was  a pretty good year. (I did round scores for this chart, since in a lot of my reviews, I give decimal scores and not whole numbers.)   I somewhat enjoyed the majority of books that I read and thoroughly enjoyed more than I expected to.

I read a number of different genres as well. 8 thrillers, 2 horror, 3 fantasy, 3 literary/general fiction, four science fiction and one non-fiction. While my experience shows that I'm not the biggest fan of thrillers, reading so many did help me figure that out and I'm willing to, one day, give the genre another chance possibly.

Best and Worst

The best book I read in 2019 overall was Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. This was also the only non-fiction book I read. The best fiction book I read was Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. The two runner-ups for fiction were Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and Dune by Frank Herbert. The worst book I read was The Body In Question by Jill Ciment.

Overall, 2019 wasn't a bad year for me reading-wise. Bring on 2020.

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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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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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