August Book Haul

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I kinda have a little bit of a problem. No matter how hard I try, I can never buy just one book. Even if I go onto a website thinking "I'm only buying the book I came here for", I can't do it. One book becomes two, which then becomes at least four. With that being said. I went a little crazy last week and bought a bunch of books. Now, much like a dragon, I want to pour over my haul and excitedly try to decide what I should read.

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan || Genre: Fantasy || Amazon / Bookshop

Blurb: The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Winter has stopped the war--almost--yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he? In the Heart of the Stone lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn.

Why I Want to Read It: I'm making my way through the Wheel of Time series, so it only makes sense that I bought the third book after I finished the second one. I'm excited to see where this story goes.

Batman The City of Owls by Scott Snyder || Genre: Comics || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: For over a century, the Court of Owls has ruled Gotham City in secret—their reach inescapable, their power unstoppable.

Until they battled the Batman.

Gotham's vigilante protector managed to escape the talons of the Court with his mind and body barely intact. The Dark Knight managed to win the battle with his deadly new aggressors, but certainly not the war. Batman was just the first part of their conquest. Now they have their sights set on something much bigger: Gotham City.


Why I Want to Read It: Let's be honest. Who couldn't use more Batman in their life?

The Shadows by Alex North || Genre: Thriller || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: You knew a teenager like Charlie Crabtree. A dark imagination, a sinister smile--always on the outside of the group. Some part of you suspected he might be capable of doing something awful. Twenty-five years ago, Crabtree did just that, committing a murder so shocking that it’s attracted that strange kind of infamy that only exists on the darkest corners of the internet--and inspired more than one copycat.

Paul Adams remembers the case all too well: Crabtree--and his victim--were Paul’s friends. Paul has slowly put his life back together. But now his mother, old and senile, has taken a turn for the worse. Though every inch of him resists, it is time to come home.

It's not long before things start to go wrong. Reading the news, Paul learns another copycat has struck. His mother is distressed, insistent that there's something in the house. And someone is following him. Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day twenty-five years ago.

It wasn't just the murder.

It was the fact that afterward, Charlie Crabtree was never seen again...

Why I Want to Read It: I've been trying to get more into thrillers. A friend of mine who loves thrillers really recommended this author and I thought I might as well give his work a try.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan || Genre: Fantasy || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most demeaning. This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.


Why I Want to Read It: First of all, the cover is beautiful. Second, the blurb has me hooked and I want to know more.

Endless Apocalypse Short Stories || Genre: Science Fiction || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: Stories of the end of civilized life have always fascinated us, from the mythological world endings, Armageddon to Ragnorok, to the flood stories of across the Ancient world. They make us wonder what we would do if all around us came to an end: no transport, no fuel, no communications: a retreat into the desperation, the onslaught of disease, how would we survive?

Why I Want to Read It: This might be weird, but I like stories about the end of the world. Reading different authors' takes on the end of the world, and what might come after, has always appealed to me.

T-Rex Trying by Hugh Murphy || Genre: Humor || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: Poor T-Rex. It’s hard to be the Lizard King when you can’t even change a light bulb.

Drawn from Hugh Murphy’s wildly popular Tumblr feed of the same name, T-Rex Trying depicts the stubby-armed tyrant in a range of hilarious—yet pathos-inducing—activities that we humans take for granted.


Why I Want to Read It: This just looks cute and funny. Sometimes, I need a break from serious, hard-hitting things.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks || Genre: Fantasy || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.


Why I Want to Read It: The Lightbringer series has been on my list for a while. When I saw that it was on sale, I took that as a sign that I should buy it now and start reading the series.

A Girl Called Ari by P.J. Sky || Genre: Science Fiction || Amazon

Blurb: In a distant future… A world divided… A walled city in a devastated wasteland…

For Starla, a struggle for power becomes a struggle to survive when she finds herself on the wrong side of the wall. Lost in the wasteland, she faces warring factions, bloodthirsty creatures, and the endless burning sun. And then there’s Ari… who is she really? And can she trust this girl from the wasteland to lead her back to the city gates?

One thing’s for sure, Starla’s once privileged life will never be the same.


Why I Want to Read It: The premise sounds interesting. I've also been trying to read more science fiction recently and this book called to me for some reason.

The Orphanage of Gods by Helena Coggan || Genre: Fantasy || Amazon // Bookshop

Blurb: Twenty years ago, the humans came for their gods.

In the bloody revolution, gods were all but wiped out. Ever since, the children they left behind have been imprisoned in an orphanage, watched day and night by the ruthless Guard. Any who show signs of divine power vanish from their beds in the night, all knowledge of their existence denied.

No one has ever escaped the orphanage.

Until now.

Seventeen-year-old Hero is finally free - but at a terrible price. Her sister has been captured by the Guard and is being held in a prison in the northern sea. Hero desperately wants to get her back, and to escape the murderous Guardsmen hunting her down. But not all the gods are dead, and the ones waiting for Hero in the north have their own plans for her - ones that will change the world forever...

As she advances further and further into the unknown, Hero will need to decide: how far is she willing to go to do what needs to be done?

Why I Want to Read It: It's hard to beat a premise like "humans have deposed the gods". Adding in the other aspects of the plot shown in the blurb, I just couldn't resist.

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them? Are there any books you recently purchased that you'd recommend?

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Ubiety

Ubiety is a 2019 adult fiction novel by Grzegorz Kunowski. The novel has elements of mystery and magical realism as well as some aspects of psychological thriller. I was provided with a free copy of the novel, by the author, in exchange for an honest review.

The description of the novel is as follows: If you were to find yourself at the edge of a dying world with a lingering sense of reality, would you simply fade into the nothingness or would you fight for everything you hold dear? This assertive question is at the heart of the thought-provoking book Ubiety, for this book was designed to help people emerge into reality and find the truth whilst questioning both what could and should be. Join Adam’s journey through the gruelling world of the unforgiving future, diving into the many mysteries which will uncover bittersweet secrets to see if he can save the fate of his daughter along with that of the world, using nothing but his boldness of character, the brilliance of one’s mind and a hint of madness.

One of the strengths of this story comes from how well-written and descriptive the setting is. As Adam moves from one scene to another, one section of the book to another, the author goes to considerable length to make sure the reader isn’t only able to envision a given location, but feel as if they are really there. Some may feel the writing is too vivid at times, but it makes the novel very immersive. There was also a great deal of creativity used in forming the dream sequences that occur in each part of the story. The dream sequences are used to pose philosophical questions about life, the world, the nature of free will and death itself. Make no mistake, Ubiety is a book meant to make the reader think.

There’s not very much I can say about characters, as the only named character in the book is Adam himself. Given that he’s an unreliable narrator, and it’s never made sure how much of what occurs is real and how much isn’t, he doesn’t have a character arc and there’s not a lot that can be said about his personality. He’s a man in a very dark place. Additionally, I can’t say anything about the plot of this book, since there isn’t one. Each section has it’s own plot, in one way or another, but the story lacks a central conflict and resolution, instead being a series of vignettes that are loosely connected.

When I was first contacted by the author, he described the book as being similar to James Joyce’s Ulysses, which I feel is a fair description. Ubiety is written in a way that is intentionally confusing, including run-on sentences that last most of a page and making sure many details of what’s going on aren’t clear. This isn’t an easy, quick read, despite the fact that it’s less than 125 pages. I found myself having to read at a very slow pace to be able to follow what was happening and needing to reread in parts. I do feel like the author went a little overboard with what some call “10 cent words”. Using complex language and words is not something I take issue with, but the amount used here makes this work very frustrating to read. It’s difficult to like a story and become immersed in it if the reader needs a thesaurus to understand every single page. Having said all of that, this book is a success in the sense that the author seems to have achieved what he meant to with his writing style. I didn’t like the writing style, though.

Overall, I can’t really say that I enjoyed Ubiety. It was a struggle to get through, and since its story is all over the place and has no real resolution, I was a bit annoyed when I reached the end. I will commend the author for writing this work at the age of 16 and I feel like, given some time and with some editorial feedback, he could have a very successful career as an author. Fans of dark and intense literature might enjoy this book, as well as anyone who wants to ponder over the meaning of life for a few days. This book simply wasn’t for me.

Rating: 2.3 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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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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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

The Woman In Cabin 10

Source: Amazon

The Woman In Cabin 10 is a 2016 thriller written by Ruth Ware. It was published by Scout Press, a division Simon & Schuster. The novel was a New York Times Bestseller and was named one of the best mystery books of 2016 by The Washington Post.

The premise of the novel is as follows. Lo Blacklock, a journalist for a travel magazine, is given a long-awaited, potentially life-changing assignment. A week on a small luxury cruise vessel through Norway. At first, the trip seems like a dream come true, but as the week continues, Lo witnesses something terrifying: a woman being thrown overboard. The only problem is that all the passengers remain accounted for, and the ship continues on its journey as if nothing happened. Lo then tries desperately to convince someone, anyone, that something is amiss.

The story starts off slow at first. The book opens with Lo being the victim of a burglary, and around thirty pages are dedicated to her having that experience, getting her locks changed, replacing a few of the stolen items and feeling traumatized about a man breaking into her house. Since the robbery winds up being significant later, I understand having that be the opening of the story. However, I personally felt like the sections about her buying a new phone and getting her locks fixed weren’t needed. Those details had no real significance to the plot and felt like unneeded filler.

Eventually, though, Lo goes off on her cruise where the main plot begins. A successful businessman married to a wealthy philanthropist has decided to start his own, exclusive luxury cruiseline to see the Northern Lights. She, along with other journalists and a few investors, are invited on the maiden voyage in a bid to earn good publicity and raise interest in the experience. She has a brief, random encounter with the woman in the cabin next to hers, number 10. She doesn’t see the woman at dinner later, and when she hears a body being thrown overboard, assumes the worst. Soon after, she’s informed that the cabin next to her was empty and no one, guest or staff, is unaccounted for. The bulk of the novel consists of Lo trying to figure out what happened and prove that the cabin was occupied and the woman did go missing to anyone who’d listen.

The mystery did intrigue me at the beginning. Was the woman a stowaway? Did Lo see what she thought she saw? Was this part of some conspiracy? How could a body have been thrown overboard and no one be missing? Those questions all occurred to me as I read. I became even more curious as, bit by bit, all the evidence she has either goes missing or is destroyed. It begins to look like this whole thing is a big cover-up.

My curiosity was diminished once lo really starts investigating. Her “investigation” consists of talking to the staff, asking them the same basic questions and receiving the same answers. For some reason, she doesn’t think to talk to more than one or two other guests, and when she does talk to them, she tries to be sneaky about it and ends up not asking anything relevant or likely to get results. The whole investigation part is pretty boring and repetitive. I still wanted to know what happened, but the story dragged on during this part.

All of my suspense went away once she finds herself captive and at the mercy of someone responsible for the mystery. I stopped being anxious, and started getting confused. There was a death, but it wasn’t who she thought. There isn’t one person acting alone on the ship. The death being covered up really doesn’t need to be. The “bad guy’s” plan doesn’t really make sense once its all explained. Once she works out what happened, the rest of the novel consists of Lo trying to figure out a way to get away from her captor and somehow reveal what really happened. Of course, those attempts are somewhat thwarted by finding herself in an unfamiliar place and not knowing who can and can’t be trusted.

I can’t really go any further in this review without discussing Lo herself. Lo, or Laura, isn’t a likeable character. Even before she stumbles upon this mystery, she’s rude to people she’s never met before, even ruder to her own boyfriend and a little conceited. On top of that, she’s somewhat of an unreliable narrator. She suffers from anxiety, due to the burglary, and takes medication for another condition, Unfortunately, her mental state makes her unreliable, and its even remarked on in the story that her medication, combined with alcohol, could have side-effects, leading a character to dismiss her. Her behavior is wildly erratic as well, since she goes from being livid at her ex-boyfriend, who’s on the trip because the story needed more drama I guess, to apologizing to him for reacting sensibly to something he does to her.

To be honest, I found this book to be fairly average. It has exciting moments, interspersed with stretches where it drags on. As stated earlier, I found the emphasis on the burglary to be a bit excessive and unneeded. It also irked me that the argument made, by a crew member, that everything was fine and Lo hadn’t seen a murder, was that she was projecting about the burglary. Later, he brought up that she was on medication and she maybe saw or heard something that wasn’t there as a result of that. The trope of “Character has mental illness, is therefore crazy and not to be believed by other characters” is insulting and I hate having to read it.

Overall, it’s an okay book. The mystery had potential for an interesting reveal or twist, but instead it followed the same plot as other stories with a few details changed. I wanted to like it, but there were too many moments when I got annoyed at the story itself, rolled my eyes and pushed through to finish the book. There was a lot of potential here, and Ware has been clearly inspired by Agatha Christie’s novels, but the potential hasn’t been realized. It’s a good book if you need something to read on a flight or a train.

Rating: 2.3 stars

Dark Places

Source: Barnes & Noble

Dark Places is a 2009 thriller by Gillian Flynn, whose other works are Sharp Objects and Gone Girl. It was published by Shaye Areheart Books. It was listed on the New York Times Best Seller List for fiction within a month of its publication date. The New Yorker named it one of the best books of 2009. Roughly six years later, a move adaptation starring Charlize Theron was released.

The summary of the book is as follows: Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the “The Satan Sacrifice” of Kinnnakee, Kansas. She survived, and later testified that her brother Ben was responsible. Twenty-five years after the murders, a group of true-crime fans contacts Libby and invites her to meet with them so they can question her for details. Many don’t believe Ben was the murderer and are searching for evidence that will clear his name. Libby, meanwhile, has fallen on hard times and hopes to make some quick cash off of the family tragedy. She makes a deal with the club, she’ll start looking for answers and report what she finds to them, for a fee. As her search takes her around the Midwest, some painful truths resurface and she finds herself once again on the run from a killer.

The narrative unfolds in two timelines. One timeline shows Libby’s journey in the present, digging into the truth of what happened that night and reconnecting with some of the others who may have hidden the truth years earlier. The other timeline is the story of what happened in the past, depicting the 24-hour period leading up to the murders. The perspective of the “past” chapters shifts between Libby’s mother Patty and her brother Ben. Patty’s chapters show the desperate situation the family was in financially before the murders and her desire to simply help her family. Ben’s POV chapters add dimension to his character and explain a few of the decisions he makes that are pivotal to the mystery at the center of the story.

While having a story, more specifically a mystery, being told in two timelines can be beneficial, I don’t think that style works as well as it could have in Dark Places. Given that the reader already knows what happens in January of 1985, there’s plenty of detail that could be omitted without effecting the plot. We already know Patty and two of her children are killed. We know Ben is arrested for the killing. Having two timelines is a solid tactic for introducing red herrings or revealing previously unknown facts, without having an exposition dump, but it isn’t used very effectively here. There is an entire subplot that unfolded in 1985, which revolves around 15-year-old Ben being accused of a crime, that serves as a rather heavy-handed red herring and I would say it has no real impact on the story as a whole if it didn’t further Patty’s narrative about trying to keep the family farm together. There was potential in Dark Places, but that potential wasn’t fully realized.

The novel is well-written, Flynn’s prose is fantastic as it is in all of her works. She does an excellent job of making the reader sympathize with, or in the very least like, characters that shouldn’t be likeable. Ben allegedly killed his family. Libby is using, and has used, the deaths of her mother and sisters to make money. There is a club called The Kill Club that’s fascinated by true crime to the point that not only do they decide to investigate murders for themselves, but they contact survivors and relatives of the victims, which is bound to reopen old, and painful, wounds. None of these characters should make you want this novel to have a fulfilling conclusion, an intriguing answer to the mystery, but thanks to Flynn’s writing chops, you do.

Let’s discuss the conclusion for a moment. As the novel’s premise suggests, and some earlier parts of this review imply, Ben was not the person who killed his mother and sisters. I know that is a spoiler, but it’s a spoiler that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Television, films and literature have all taught us by now that if someone’s looking into a case after its been solved, the police caught the wrong person. The reveal of Patty’s real killer’s identity is underwhelming in my opinion. It isn’t an out-of-nowhere reveal, but there also aren’t quite enough clues sprinkled through out that tease or foreshadow the ending. In fact, the few clues that exist led me to a much different, and darker conclusion. Something that really bothered me about the truth of what happened didn’t relate to Patty’s death, but the deaths of the two daughters. The motive behind Patty’s death is clear in hindsight, and teased beforehand. The same isn’t true regarding the two daughters, Michelle and Debby. They die for different, and much worse reasons. My biggest criticism about the revelation, however, lies in how it happens as an act of chance. A character says something, reveals information they shouldn’t know, and that’s how the murder is solved. After reading 316 pages of what happened right leading up to the murders, and Libby trying to solve the murders, the whodunit is revealed when a character lets the wrong thing slip out. It’s not a bad way to have the revelation happen, it just doesn’t fit with this story.

Despite how critical I may seem, I enjoyed Dark Places. It was a well-written, intriguing story. Not my favorite of Flynn’s but that’s in no way a point against it. Dark Places, in my mind, is at a disadvantage, because I will compare every novel of Flynn’s against Gone Girl, and this novel, unfortunately, doesn’t stack up quite as well. It’s a good book, but one I found to be a little boring. It’s a quick read, and perfect for a day sitting on the beach or to enjoy on a plane or train. I would definitely read it again.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Wife Between Us

Source: Barnes & Noble

The Wife Between Us is a 2018 thriller written by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It was published by Pan Macmillian. The New York Time Book Review called it “a fiendishly smart cat-and-mouse thriller”, Glamour’s review stated “Buckle up, because you won’t be able to put this one down” and Publishers Weekly referred to it as “jaw dropping. Unforgettable. Shocking”.

A one-sentence description of the plot is that wealthy man’s jealous ex-wife becomes obsessed with her replacement, a younger, more beautiful woman he’s about to marry. Many other reviews cite a very compelling description from the book itself:

“When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.

You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.

You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. 

You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.

Assume nothing.”

While I won’t begrudge anyone’s opinion, I can’t say I fully agree with the reviews I’ve mentioned above. The narrative is captivating at first. Unfolding through alternating POVs between Vanessa, Richard’s ex-wife, and Nellie, his young fiancé, the first half of the novel reads very well. The suspense builds as Vanessa gets more desperate and makes her way closer to confronting Richard’s new fiancé. Nellie’s fear about a woman who can’t seem to leave her alone, or move on with her life is palpable. The tension continues to build and build to the point where you wonder exactly what will happen when Nellie and Vanessa cross paths.

Then, the twist happens. Halfway through the narrative, a first twist is revealed. It shifts the narrative so that the reader is forced to reevaluate everything occurs up to that point. Unfortunately, the first twist is where the story falls apart. All of the tension built up to by that point washes away and the novel becomes a fairly adequate, by-the-numbers, drama. I would barely call it a thriller since, after that first twist, there’s very little suspense going on. More twists follow, each meaning less and less in terms of the narrative.

The novel is over four hundred pages, but there’s a lot of nothing that happens. Some of the filler in the story, or sidebars to explain certain details, are probably meant to make later twists mean more, or ramp up tension fail to do so. The story doesn’t need to go from one massively important scene or revelation to another, but way too much of the second half of the book is taken up by Vanessa reflecting on “what went wrong” with her marriage, which isn’t hard to figure out.

The novel is very trope heavy. Vanessa is a divorcee living a sad existence after her marriage falls apart. As soon as the divorce happens, her whole life loses meaning and she winds up living with her aunt and working in retail. Nellie is a naïve girl who’s caught up in this whirlwind romance with a successful businessman who gives her everything she could ever want. Richard is suave, powerful and lures Nellie in, despite hiding a secret. My biggest complaint when it comes to tropes is in Vanessa’s behavior towards Richard’s new fiancé. Her actions depict her as a crazy ex-wife which makes it even harder for her to pull off the one thing she’s trying to do. I’m really tired of reading the crazy ex-wife trope or the use of mental illness (its implied by Richard that Vanessa’s mentally ill because her mother was) as a plot device to explain why a character shouldn’t be trusted.

I think my main issue with this novel is how much hype surrounded it. The book was recommended to me by a coworker who claimed I’d enjoy it if I enjoyed Gone Girl. More than one book this year has been pitched to me in the same manner. I heard the same sales pitch last year about a number of books. I feel like the phrase “the next Gone Girl” is thrown around too liberally. Gone Girl was a fantastic thriller. Far too many subpar thrillers published in the following years are equated to it, and I for one think the comparison does an injustice to Gillian Flynn’s work. By saying The Wife Between Us is on the same level, I began reading with very high expectations, and was ultimately disappointed by the story I wound up reading.

The Wife Between Us is a good book, it isn’t fantastic and the narrative treats the plot twists like they are smarter than they really are. If someone asked me “is this book good”, I’d say yes. If I was asked “would you recommend it”, I might say yes, depending on my mood.

Rating: 3 stars.

Behind Closed Doors

Source: Amazon

Behind Closed Doors is a 2016 novel by B.A. Paris. It was published by St. Martin’s Griffin and was both a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. According to the description, it is a “psychological thriller you can’t miss!”

The novel focuses on Grace and Jack Angel. He’s a well-respected attorney focusing on domestic violence victims, while she’s a homemaker. From the outside they seem to have it all. As a tagline on the cover asks however, is this the perfect marriage or the perfect lie? Obviously, with a question like that posed, the answer becomes obvious. Things with the Angels are far from perfect, Jack is not the benevolent attorney, dedicated to saving women from their abusers that he seems to be. The novel centers around Grace trying to figure out what to do about her husband and how to remove herself, and her vulnerable sister Millie, from his sphere of influence.

The narrative unfolds in two timelines: past and present. This shows how Grace meets Jack and they get together while also contrasting it with the life she’s now living. The first chapter, which depicts a dinner party the Angels are hosting, does a fantastic job of filling the reader with a sense of doom and dread. Within a few pages, Grace’s actions and behaviors reminded me of The Stepford Wives. She’s the perfect hostess, the perfect cook, dinner goes down without a single mistake or flub, but at the same time, there’s an underlying fear of what would happen if dinner wasn’t perfect, if she wasn’t the charming hostess. I don’t like using other works to describe a feeling I get, but Stepford Wife was the only way I could describe it. Any work that invokes that comparison instantly gives the impression that either something is about to go horribly wrong, or it already has.

While the beginning creates a sense of dread, once it becomes clear the secret that’s being kept, the rest of the suspense drops off until the climax of the story. The tension in the first few chapters isn’t carried forward as effectively as I would’ve liked. Grace’s desperation is well-crafted and as the story progresses, the feeling of helplessness convinces the reader, or at least this reader, that she might not be able to get away. I’m not sure if I would quite qualify it as a thriller, mostly because there isn’t enough suspense. The actions of Grace and Jack propel the story forward, as opposed to a building up of tension.

As I alluded to earlier, and as the novel makes clear, Jack is hiding a huge secret. I will admit that the secret Jack hides and his motives aren’t quite what I predicted they might be when I read the synopsis of the book, I didn’t completely miss the mark. I went into the book expecting Jack’s secret to be that he’s a domestic violence attorney who, ironically, beats his wife. I expected him to be an abuser who hides behind the façade of someone advocating for abuse victims. That isn’t what his secret is, but he chose his profession deliberately and it isn’t to help others. Another thing I did not expect was the importance Millie, Grace’s 17-year-old sister with Down Syndrome, played in the story. She ended up being a much more important character in the conflict than I anticipated. Millie is smart, she’s resourceful and, despite her dislike of George Clooney, which has a purpose in the story, she’s a good character. Behind Closed Doors is one of the few books have read that has characters with Down Syndrome or another developmental disability that are well-written and multifaceted.

Now, it’s time to discuss some parts and elements that I wasn’t a fan of. There are two chief complaints that I haven’t touched upon yet. One is relatively minor, another related to a huge aspect of the story and plot. My minor complaint is about clichés in this type of work. It’s a psychological drama about the relationship between two people. As an easy way to show that Jack is a psychopath, and how psychopathic he is, he gets Grace a puppy and later kills it. This is the fourth book I’ve read this year where the first sign that the abusive or psychotic husband is abusive or psychotic is that he kills the dog. It does prove Jack’s a monster, but there were plenty of other, more creative, less obvious ways, to show that. Now, to my main complaint, Jack is apparently a supergenius, or psychic. By the time Grace learns the truth about him, he’s already planned for any and every possible contingency to make sure she can’t leave. Even events that are seemingly out of his control, he’s accounted for. The narrative shows only Grace’s perspective, so some aspects might be amplified for dramatic effect because she’s so scared, but his ability to predict any and everything that could happen gets a little annoying. Another thing I found incredibly frustrating is the fact that no one questions his behavior about certain things. No one apparently finds it weird that Grace can’t even go to the bathroom in a restaurant unless he waits outside the door for her. Not every character dismisses it, but far too many chalk it up to them being “so in love”. That behavior, and everyone’s dismissal of it, is part of why Grace is so desperate but it isn’t realistic in the way some of his other behavior is.

The central story is compelling. The twists and turns the story takes are also worth complimenting. Jack is a one-dimensional evil man, but that’s all he needs to be. Grace and Millie are both well-rounded and while I didn’t have a great opinion of Grace at first, as the story unfolds, her behavior had me saying “you’re an idiot, just leave” less and understanding her actions more. Behind Closed Doors is a great book, it’s not a fantastic one. I would recommend it but I don’t see myself gushing about it or insisting that everyone I know read it immediately.

Rating: 3.3 stars