Wednesday, November 29, 2017

The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
I feel like Neil Gaiman is one of those authors I should have been reading for years.  I've had American Gods on my wishlist for a long time, and of course I've heard of The Ocean at the End of the Lane plenty of times, somehow I just never found myself reading any of his stuff.

I liked the writing style, although most likely because this is a young adult novel, it felt a little simplistic for me. However, there was plenty of dark humor to satisfy me.

The premise is an odd one (which is why I was attracted to this book in the first place): a baby is raised in a graveyard by ghosts and other ghoulish creatures. And while that might sound improbable, I have to say Gaiman really made it work. The graveyard is old, and filled with many souls- teachers to help Bod learn, wise men to help him learn to think, poets to teach him about love  and emotions, and adventurers to tell him all about the world outside their gates. Things get truly interesting when Bod gets a little older and decides he wants to go to school in the real world and learn how to be part of society.

Your first question is probably, wasn't somebody looking for their baby? Like, did they just assume that some good natured ghosts and possibly Death herself would decide that the baby should grow up there? Well, the short answer is no. The longer answer (which honestly, is kinda the whole point of the book so I'm not gonna like, give you a Cliffs Notes thing here, read it damnit.) is that his parents were killed under mysterious circumstances at the beginning of the book, and those mysterious circumstances become a complication when Bod insists on joining society.

It was fun watching a kid grow up in a graveyard- the quirks and questions that come up because of it are intriguing. There is even an existential moment where he begins to wonder if he is really just an imaginary friend (which honestly, who among us didn't have that freak out at some point?  YOU CAN SEE ME RIGHT??)

All in all, I recommend the book as a fast weekend read, or a palette cleanser after a long and heavy novel. I can't wait to read some of his adult fiction and see how it compares.


Drum roll please.......

The Book
🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Disappearance At Devil's Rock (Paul Tremblay)

Disappearance At Devil's Rock
After reading A Head Full of Ghosts I wasn't quite ready to leave Paul Tremblay's world of intrigue. Disappearance At Devil's Rock is a whole different monster from my first read, but still an incredible piece of work.

The book starts in medias res, with Tommy's mother waking to a late night phone call. Already, we're in nightmare territory for most readers, none of us wanting to imagine what that would feel like- the ice in your veins when you look at the clock and know that no one ever calls with good news in the middle of the night. From there we find ourselves swimming through a quagmire trying to figure out what happened that night, since the only people with Tommy when he disappeared were two of his adolescent friends. And like every other adolescent in existence, they have secrets they are trying to protect.

In the same style as A Head Full of Ghosts, Tremblay does an incredible job of creating rich characters. Elizabeth, Tommy's mother, is a three dimensional woman, dealing with the stress of trying to find her son while also being a present mother for her younger daughter Kate.  I will  have to admit, Kate maybe could have used a little more fleshing out, some of her motivations felt a little contrived for me. The friends, Josh and Luis, are much more filled in, making it easier to understand the twisted events that led up to the disappearance. 

I don't want to give anything away because each kink in the story was so gratifying for me and I could never take that away from you, my Dear Readers. (For my scoring of readability, keep in mind it was a little slow at times, but picked up ten-fold about halfway through, totally worth it.)

Survey Says:

The Book
🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️     

Thursday, November 16, 2017

The Roses of May (The Collector Trilogy by Dot Hutchison)

Let's chat about one of my new favorite authors: Dot Hutchison. I found her last year, when the first novel in this series was suggested in the Kindle store. (Fucking Kindle store trying to bankrupt me. And more importantly, succeeding.) I was incredibly disappointed to learn that she was not especially prolific, although not at all surprised based on how thoroughly good the book was. (Honestly though, I'm gonna need her to pick up the pace because I need more. Like, now.)

The Butterfly Garden
The Butterfly Garden
Usually, I only talk about one book at  a time in a blog, but since I read The Butterfly Garden so long ago I'm including some thoughts about it in this one. When it was first suggested, it seemed like it would be a mildly interesting read, but from the initial few chapters I was completely absorbed and HAD to know what was going on. The writing was easy and the story totally engaging, definitely another one of those that I finished within 24 hours because I couldn't stop reading. 
The story is told by Maya, who relays the circumstances that led up to her and others being in the hospital talking to FBI agents. However, Maya has become as much of a puzzle as her story. Rather than telling the details of how she ended up in the Garden or what day to day life was like, she twists and turns through time, jumping from years before to the day they are found. Confounding to the agents trying to find answers, it is sort of endearing to the reader. (You know, once I have the answers and I'm looking back fondly on the journey. While I'm trying to find answers it's a fucking nightmare.)

The Roses of May
The Roses of May
This book picks up a few months after the Butterfly Garden, initially in the point of view of the same FBI agents we saw dealing with Maya, then adds the point of view of Priya, who's sister was murdered years before and the case handled by one of our Butterfly FBI agents. Strange things have begun happening in Priya's world, and as the story unfolds you will find yourself with more questions than when you started. Who do you trust? Should you become a profiler for the FBI? (For me the answer is yes.) 
One really beautiful piece of her writing is how she intertwine's the upheaval of Priya's world with the slowly settling life of Maya. While creating a new mystery for us to become absorbed in, Hutchison also gives absolution to the story of the Butterflies. 
I do wish that there had been a little more development of the villain, I wanted a little more time inside their head. The development of Priya, however, was fabulous. The glimpses into her terrible past along with the examples of how she has fortified herself in the present were perfectly mixed.

If you are a reader who likes suspense, thrillers, psychological thrillers, or anything of the ilk, you have GOT to read this series. Both are available on Kindle Unlimited, and the third book is aiming to hit shelves May of 2018.  

DO IT!

What it comes down to:
The Book
🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️

Monday, November 6, 2017

A Head Full Of Ghosts (Paul Tremblay)

A Head Full of Ghosts
I am a Polygamist when it comes to books. I cannot read just one at a time. I start one, and then it triggers something in my brain that I want to read more about, so I find one to scratch that itch and read them both at the same time. My record this year is 4 at one time, although I don't know that that is really something to brag about. So, when Halloween rolled around yesterday, I just couldn't sit still with the "epic family drama" I had been trudging through, I had to find a really good "creep the crap out of you, I wish I had left the light on, damnit now I can't go to sleep because I have to finish this" kind of book. And at that moment of need, the Kindle app swooped in to help me out and let me know that a book I have been DYINGGGGGG to read for a while now was on sale ($1.99 ebooks are going to put me in a poor house, I swear to God.) I JUMPED at the chance and started reading it right then. And almost called out of work later that day to keep reading it.

Then stayed up WAYYY too late trying to finish it, until finally my brain screamed "YOUR ALARM IS GOING TO GO OFF IN FIVE HOURS GO. THE FUCK. TO SLEEP!" And so I put it down. (Then spent probably another hour thinking about it and trying to figure out what was going on and what was going to happen next.) When I FINALLY got home from work today I was able to immediately scoop up my Kindle and devour the rest of the book.

I. Love. It.

Synopsis: the book centers around the possession (or non possession?) of Marjorie, a teenage girl who might be acting possessed, or might be acting like a teenage girl, it is literally the hardest determination any and every parent has ever had to make. Twist though, the family is in financial ruin at the beginning of the story, so they decide to use Marjorie's need for an exorcism (psychtropic drugs?) to save themselves and sign on to do a reality show about the process. The key to this being an awesome story, though? Is the fact that it is told from the perspective of the younger sister. At first this might sound like no big deal, but think about it: this is literally the purest discussion of dear Marjorie's problem that you're ever going to get. This child doesn't know what possession is; she doesn't know what an exorcism does; she has no filter over her eyes skewing her impressions of what is going on except that she loves her sister dearly. She doesn't need there to be a demon inside her sister in order to reaffirm her faith, just like she doesn't need her to spike a fever and reveal a rare disease causing a schizophrenic break from reality just because she needs medical "proof" of what is wrong. All she knows, is that her sister isn't acting the way she used to, and the things she's doing are alarming and shocking. She is the least biased observer in Marjorie's life, and because of that we get to make up our minds at each instance what we think is going on.

If you like horror, suspense, thrillers, or just well written books- READ THIS! (It's still on sale as of the writing of this post!)

The Final Tally

The Book
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️

Five out of five all around. Read. The damn. Book.

Emma In the Night (Wendy Walker)

Emma In the Night
I have to say, Book of the Month Club has been quite the find for me. I look forward every first of the month to jumping on the website and seeing what the choices are. Last month (September, I mean) I was surprised to see that one of them had been chosen by a guest author, Krysten Ritter, who you probably know better as Jessica Jones (from Jessica Jones) or Jane Margolis (from Breaking Bad). I figured, what the hell, Jessica Jones is my spirit animal, so I may as well give it a try.

Ohemgee.

I read the book within twenty four hours of starting it. I could NOT put the damn thing down. (And that's really saying something because my hands have been KILLING me lately so it was actually super hard for me to pick the damn thing UP.)
So the premise seems pretty simple: three years ago two sisters disappeared into the night. Now, one of them has returned. And she is, like, SUPER unhelpful and teenager-like about trying to find the other one. BUT OF COURSE THERE IS A TWIST. There's actually, like, three, but I'm not telling you about a damn one of them.

This is a great example of an unreliable narrator because from the very beginning she frames herself as possibly not telling the truth, but never FULLY expressed whether she is or she isn't. Through her frenetic point of view we see the bizarre childhood and family dynamic that culminated in that night.
Overall, the book was obviously good if I managed to forget about two meals in the process if reading it. But, I will admit that, for me, a couple of the twists felt a little forced, and I wished more had been put into getting there "organically". The writing was engaging, however, and so I can totally forgive this as just being the author being too excited for her own story and rushing to the next step.

The Verdict

The Book

The Writing
️️️️
Readability
️️️️️

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Heart Shaped Box (Joe Hill)

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

This is one that I have wanted to read for a long time, it shows up again and again on the "must read" lists for horror and has been recommended by Stephen King (who, despite my issues with his writing style, I must admit, has excellent taste in scary stories.) So when I got a credit from Barnes and Noble (who are these people who keep getting me money in e-book settlements? I owe you coffee.) I figured why not splurge and buy a full priced horror novel for the Halloween season?

I had previously read NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (which you would know about if I hadn't become so sick and unable to blog for a while there.) and so I knew he was pretty on track for being scary. The most notable difference between the two books, however, was how quickly the action picked up in this one. He really took no time at all haunting the shit out of the  main character. And from the first appearance of that dark entity I was hooked, I had to know how this was going to play out for Judas. (Three words for you: Scribbled. Out. Eyes.)

The book was so compelling because the haunting is just relentless.  There is almost no way to avoid the ghost in this one, and that makes it so much creepier because the author doesn't give you an automatic "home base" where you can feel safe, as the reader. Instead, you really do have to follow through to the end of the book to figure out how to save your own skin should this happen to you (read: if you were to buy a haunted suit specifically to own the ghost haunting it. I mean, you could, you know, just not do that and save yourself the trouble. But if you do...) There are almost no rules holding this ghost back- when you're awake, when you're asleep, in the day or the night, at home or away, the only thing he is tethered to is Judas, and that means Judas is fucked.

It was a tad slow at times, but then I would turn around and realize I had been reading for 2 hours without blinking and that at some point the action had picked back up again. Sometimes I think its's better that way, just because when I had to convince myself to go the fuck to sleep at 2 AM I wasn't being harassed into continuing by some cliffhanger at the end of a chapter. On the other hand I was also finding myself distracted by the TV more easily than some books. By the end, however, there was no tearing my Kindle away from me.

And be aware, this is more than just your standard "boy buys haunted item, boy gets haunted, boy regrets buying item, boy tries to get away from ghost" kind of story. There are plot twists galore thrown in there that definitely keep this from turning into a stale old ghost story.

Anyone who is a horror or suspense fan, I agree with every other list on Earth: this is a MUST read!

Final score

The Book
🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️