CBR 13 # 17 In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

It's one of those books where the "mysterious events of the past" are mysterious only because the narrator isn't telling you about it.  

Leonora, 26 years old is a crime author and lives a solitary and lonely life.  Then, she receives an email from a woman she does not know, inviting her to a "hen party" for a friend she has not spoken to for a long time.  But she goes.  This hen party is for the wedding of Leonora's childhood friend Clare.  A wedding which she was not invited to.  It's held in a modern glass house in the middle on the woods with four other of the bride-to-be's friends.  Of course, there are mysterious happenings, secrets unravelled, and maybe a little murder?  Okay, you know there's a murder since the book opens in the present time then Leonora is in the hospital with injuries and the police have told her that somebody has died.  But she does not remember what happened.  So it goes back and forth between the present time and flashbacks to the hen party events.

You have to suspend a lot of disbelief with these random thrillers/ psychological mysteries with big twists.  But the way the characters act are so far from how a normal person would act that I just can't.  The heroine is, to put it bluntly, a bit pathetic.  She is hung up on the first and only boyfriend that she had when she was 16.  And the main incident that led to her sad life could have been avoided by a single text.  And that's also the incident that led to the whole series of events years later.  And the motivations are so questionable.  She's just not a very compelling lead character to me.

Par for course in these kinds of books, it is thankfully short and quick.  Of course you want to hurry up and find then end to the mystery.  But you know what?  I didn't even care enough to take guesses and try to figure stuff out like I usually do when reading these kinds of books.  It was a bit boring.  I didn't like it.  Oh, and contrary to marketing, it was not scary at all and the woods weren't really a huge part of the story.  Just for a little bit of atmosphere.  It could have happened at a remote farmhouse or something like that.

CBR 13 # 13 - Crash by Jerry Spinelli

One night, having had some milk tea right before bed (wrong decision) and also reading The Underground Railroad past bedtime (a good decision), I could not sleep.  I'm not sure why, but my heart was beating too fast and I felt anxious.  Maybe it was the tea.  So I went to the kids' bookshelf and picked up a book I had not yet read to maybe distract me and calm me down.

John "Crash" Coogan is a typical boys' boy.  His parents are busy working and the only time his father notices him is when he succeeds in sports.  He is a bit of a dumb jock stereotype.  When Penn Webb moves in next door, he unfortunately turns into a dumb jock bully stereotype.  Penn and his family are a bit strange.  Then, Mike moves in next door and he is an even bigger dumb jock than Crash, and an even bigger bully.  Naturally, Mike becomes Crash's new best friend and Penn is ostracized and occasionally made fun off by the popular, sporty kids.  However, in Seventh Grade, certain circumstances and events cause Crash to re-examine not only his treatment of Penn, but life and his attitude, in general.

I enjoyed previous Spinelli books like Manic McGee and Stargirl and this is sort of the same, I guess.  There is an outsider who becomes an impetus for the protagonist (and sometimes the whole town) to change.  While the previous books have a magical realist feel, this one feels more down to earth, realistic and smaller,  Maybe that's because it's for a younger audience and is shorter.  

I found it interesting that the protagonist in this book is not necessarily the good guy.  Most kids books would have the outsider, the introverted, smart bookworm as the main character.  In another book, Penn Webb would be the main character.  Maybe it's a smart choice because most kids are not going to be the "weird" kid.  Most are just "regular" kids, some even meatheads.  And a main character like that, but showing that they can be all that, but still be able to change for the good to be a kinder person, is pretty great. However, I feel that this one is too much from Crash's perspective.  I am interested in knowing more about Penn and his internal life and not just the pushover good guy as he is seen from Crash's point of view.  

All in all, a pretty good children's' book and yes, I was sable to go to sleep after.

CBR 13 # 10 The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

It has been around two weeks since I've finished this book and frankly, its taking me some time to conjure up details of the book.  Not to say that it's bad, maybe just a bit generic?  Even the title and the author name is generic (sorry Sandie Jones) I'm sure I've read a lot of psychological thrillers like this.  You know that ones where the bad guy could be anyone, and there is definitely a *SPOILER ALERT* big twist or some misunderstanding.  This one book just hangs along the with the rest of them and does not really rise above.

Emily met the man of her dreams.  Adam seems to be the perfect man. His brother James is also perfect (maybe too perfect) but his mother Pammie is the mother in law from hell.  And he seems unhealthily attached to her.  But Emily is never really sure that her Pammie is actually being horrible.  Everyone seems to think she is wonderful.  What  is up with all that?

Like I said above, it is a serviceable psychological thriller and it is a function of the genre that they must be compulsively readable, even if just to confirm if your theory is correct.  In that sense, it is a success.  However, I think it fails in giving is a heroine that is fully characterized.  Her characterization is very superficial.  I know nothing of her except that her ex fiance cheated on her and she is super in love with Adam.  And she makes some fairly stupid choices.  But I do appreciate that unlike most books like this, her bestfriends and her family completely believe her, even when her assertions seem paranoid at times.  So that's a plus.  Makes it less frustrating to read. Anyway, it's not bad for what it is, just a bit forgettable.

CBR 13 # 8 Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

*WARNING, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS.  NOT REALLY MAJOR ONES, BUT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BEFORE READING THE BOOK, SKIP THE REVIEW 

I read three Lisa Jewell books in succession more than ten years ago.  They just seemed to pop up a lot in my  favourite second hand book store.  From what I remember, they were more or less "chick lit", some twists but mostly focused on romance.  They were light, fast reads, and I liked them but was not totally wowed by them.  But I do remember, that she had the ability to write infuriating characters that you're still interested in.  

After all these years of not keeping up with her work, I was surprised to find that she seemed to have branched off to a more thriller/suspense/mystery genre.   Those kinds of books with twists that got ubiquitous after the success of Gone Girl.

15-year old Ellie was a golden girl, with the perfect boyfriend.  Favored by her mother, with a bright future ahead of her.  Then she disappears..  Ten years later, her mother Lauren,is living an unsatisfying life, divorced, barely having a relationship with her two remaining children and still desperately wanting to know what happened to her beloved girl.  Then Ellie's body is finally found.  This seems to Lauren some measure of closure and opers her up to a handsome single father she meets at a coffee.  She is the happiest she has ever been in 10 years.  Until she meets his 9 year old daughter.  Who looks exactly like Ellie.  What happens next is the unravelling of the mystery of what happened to Ellie.  But along the way, our protagonists learns some things about herself, her grief, and her family.

Like all the other Lisa Jewell books I've read, this sure is a page turner.  She also still knows how to write annoying and flawed but ultimately relatable characters.

The twists and crimes are dark, but they somehow have a lighter feel.  It just didn't seem as grim and dark as say a Gillian Flynn or Tana French book. There is a little bit of Lovely Bones feel.  I liked that the family relationship was a big part of the resolution of the book.  As a thriller, it was not really that thrilling.  It was more of a mystery.  Unfortunately, I could make out the twists pretty early on, but that did not really damp my enjoyment too much.  It is quick and engrossing read.

CBR 13 # 5 Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

 

In this post-apocalyptic novel, there is not single earth shattering apocalyptic event.  Instead, there is just a gradual breakdown of society brought about by climate change, corporate greed and social inequality (all interrelated anyway).    Lauren Olamina is a relatively privileged teenager living in a small walled enclave.  She's privileged in that she has a home, her father still has a job with a salary, and she knows how to read and write.  This is not much, but compared to the thousands, or maybe millions of homeless poor outside a few walled enclaves, this is a lot.  Their community is small and there are some unlikeable characters, but they are close and have not yet succumbed to the barbarism, looting and killing outside the walls.  Lauren's father is a preacher, a professor and the leader of their community.  She has a stop mother and little brothers, a boyfriend, and friends.  But she has some ideas that go beyond the confines of their walls, and a debilitating condition that she keeps secret, and that makes her different.

The novel has a before and after.  Before is the setting up of the world, and the preparations leading up to the destruction of Lauren's community.  The after is Lauren's  and some other survivors' travels to find a safe haven.  A running theme towards the whole journey, from the before and the after, is Lauren's development of a religion that she hopes will guide them into making a life on the destroyed earth, and take their descendants to the stars.

It has been quite a while since I last read a book until 4AM.  Age and eye problems prevented me from doing that.  But this one, I could not put down.  There are a lot of ideas and events that seem to be applicable of prescient to American society these days.  There is certainly a lot of commentary on the black experience.  But not being from there, i don't feel I'm very qualified to talk about it.  I think I learned a lot, and it offered a good perspective.  On the other hand, the story also works purely as a post-apocalyptic adventure, a genre that I am very partial to.  It is very dark and there is a lot of death and some gore.   Considering how much of a post-apocalyptic, speculative fiction fan I am, I am ashamed to admit that this is my first Octavia Butler read. I am excited to read the sequel and all her other books.  Suggestions as to the next one?

CBR # 4 - The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (aks The Fug Girls)

I think I have mentioned in numerous comment diversions and facebook threads that I came to Pajiba by way of  GoFugYourself (by way of thefashionspot, by way fansofrealitytv by way of watching america's next top model on youtube).  Needless to say, I have  a soft spot for The Fug Girls.  I don't read the blog anymore because I can't with the interface, but I have read some of their books, which are breezy, light and fun (as far as I can remember them).

The Heir Affair is the sequel to their 2015 book The Royal We.  That book was a quite transparent Will and Kate fantasy with Kate as an American, and a lot more down to earth.  My problem when reading book two, was that I had read The Royal We 5 years ago, and my memory is not it.  So, I had forgotten the specifics of the ending and the side characters, which made it a bit frustrating for me at first.  But the book is not high literary fiction, so things do get explained and recaps are done so it wasn't really THAT confusing.  

This book starts with Will and Kate (not their book names, but whatever) running away from the Harry (the heir's younger brother)-Kate related scandal.  But the Queen is sick (or so they say), so they come back to face the music, and their royal duties. 

The book was long and kinda meandering, but not in a totally bad way.  There was no sense of urgency to the plot and it understandably focuses less on romance.  I think this is because they are already married and it has been established that they love each other and are in it for the long haul.  So the story is more about coming to terms with their life and dealing with frayed interpersonal relationships, especially between the couple and Harry.  Like I said, it's not a bad thing.  I find these long reads covering long periods of time strangely comforting.  But there are a few plot twists and choices that made me go WHAAAT.  There is definitely some soap opera stuff going on. Plus, I can't with Kate.  He's your husband's brother and you know he loves you, NO, you aren't allowed to have a "special" relationship with him!  I don't care if you love him as a friend.  All interactions should purely be within the sister-in-law realm.  Ugh.

Another struggle I have is that these characters are so obviously patterned after the real royals, at least in the initial book, that all the stuff going on with their real versions sort of intrude a little bit with my enjoyment of reading the book.  But, it is an enjoyable and soapy read.  Not world changing and a bit too wish fulfillment-y sometimes for my personal taste but overall worth your time if you're into this kinda thing.  

CBR 13 # 2 - The Searcher by Tana French

 In 2020, I was super excited to read a Tana French book I found in my (virtual) bookshelf that I thought I had not yet read.  To my disappointment, it was just one of her (in my opinion) lesser novels, that now, a mere one year later, I have forgotten the ending to again.  This time, I made sure that this wasn't a repeat.  EIther way, I'm sure that this would have been a memorable book because it is the most different from all other books I've read from her.

Instead of being set in the Dublin Murder Squad universe, this one is set in a far more rural place, and the main character is not Irish.  He is American.  Retired AMERICAN detective Cal Hooper moves to rural Ireland and spends his days repairing his dilapidated farmhouse, fishing, taking walks, and talking to his nosy neighbors.  Until he meets a kid (Trey) that would reel him back into a life, a calling that he was trying to leave behind. So Cal is one of those archetypal troubled detectives whose relationship was ruined because of work. He is a bit of boomer (though actually Gen X in age), but inherently kind with a strong moral code.  

I enjoyed the mystery itself, although it was not really that hard to figure it out.  The story moved slowly and I quite enjoyed that.  I enjoyed getting to know the side characters and the little town.  I particularly liked fierce little Trey and felt so sad for them by the end.  The book had some things to say about the poison that infects "charming" small towns where young people are leaving and moving up takes so much effort.  

All in all, this was an interesting and different sort of story from French's usual Murder Club mysteries.  I quite liked this one and I'm excited that I have one more stand-alone book by her that I haven't read yet. 

CBR 13 # 1 Piranesi

Piranesi lives in a house with many halls, with an Ocean trapped within. There are infinite statues, and birds and fish, and the remains of 13 people who had previously lived there. He lives in isolation save for the Other, who named him and spends one hour, twice a week with him, to talk of his scientific observations. The House is the only place Piransi knows, and he has lived there from the beginning of time. But the arrival of 16, as in the 16th person, would reveal that the Other, the House and even himself, are not what they seem.

The first few pages were a struggle for me. I have been in a years long reading funk (COVID anxiety and my stupid eyes) and I was reading the book trying to make and accurate map of the world in my mind, and it was tripping me up. Finally, I just let the peculiar language and descriptions wash over, to form a nebulous sense of the place, which, I found,  made itself clearer as I read further.

It would do a disservice to those who had not yet read the book to write more of the plot into this review, but that is not to say that the plot is the best thing about it. This book is so different from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell (the author's first novel, which I also enjoyed immensely).  The first book was quite long, charming and wryly funny. Piranesi is slight, almost a novella.  It is narrated by Piranesi, through his detailed journals, and his writing is odd and formal but also dreamy, especially in the first part.  You will be taken in by his ingenuity, innocence and innate goodness.

I read the book as a meditation on isolation and loneliness, and the exquisite peace it sometimes brings.  But no matter the strength of the pull of isolation, the stronger need to connect with other people always wins out.  I really, really loved this book, and to be honest, I did not expect to be crying by the end, but I was.

CBR 9 #2 - Chasing Harry WInston by Lauren Weisberger

Having enjoyed Last Night at Chateau marmont and finding The Singles Game, ok, if a little meh, I decided to read another Weisberger book.  Well, not so much decided as saw that it was the next book in my unread books dropbox folder.  Did I regret my lazy choice?  Yes.  Yes I did.

Emmy, Leigh and Adriana have been best friends since college and have maintained the so-called BFF status even as they approach their 30s.  The girls are of course, so different from each other but are utter stereotypes.  And not pleasant ones either.  Emmy is the "desperate" one who is desperate to get married and have babies.  Leigh is the "cold" one who is unhappy despite a pretty much perfect life because she was not complete without the bad boy married novelist.  Adriana is the "slut", of course.  The Brazilian maneater, superficial and shallow.  

After Emmy's long time boyfriend broke up with after cheating numerous times and giving her STDs, the girls decide to make resolutions for the following year, to do a complete 180 on their tried and true moves.  Emmy was going to fuck numerous guys instead of rushing into yet another long term relationship.  Adriana was going to stick to one man, get engaged and married.  Leigh didn't have a particular resolution yet, but you bet your ass it had something to do with finding her true passionate love.  Who cares if she agreed to get engaged to a perfectly good, even great guy that she didn't love, because she was too spineless to say no?

I really did not like this book.  Seriously.  The characters are ridiculous cliches and so unlikeable to boot.  Emmy is the least worst, though she is whiny as hell.  Leigh is horrible and Adriana is the wooorsstt.  The plot was boring and so unbelievable at the same time.  The writing is so meh.  Adriana says 'querida' every other sentence.  Because she is Brazilian.  Get it??  There was a whole Aruba vacation that was both pointless and boring.

I think that the author was trying to be all girl power with this on in the sense that it wasn't ALL about the romance.  They supposedly learned something about themselves and and their happy ever after was not the fairy book romance happy ever after but a supposedly real-world happily ever after.  But to this, I call bullshit!  Ok, Emmy did get to have some casual sex but still got the perfect guy in the end, on the way to babies and marital bliss.  Leigh broke up with her perfect, sportscaster fiance to be with an asshole author.  But Adriana is what irked me the most.  Her thing was that her ex supermodel mom wanted her to get married to a rich guy before she became to old to snag one.  Never mind that she was already fabulously wealthy.  And how was that subverted?  She decided not to marry a rich guy but became an advice columnist on how to snag rich guys using hard-to-get tactics and basically luying.  I think this is an older book, but it feels really icky in the present climate.  

Oh my gosh, I did not realize that I felt so strongly about this book.  Final verdict:  Did not like, do not read.  Do you guys have any advice on which "chick lit"/ romance books are good and won't make my brain rot?  That won't invoke any feminist rage?  I haven't really read a lot of them but from what I've read, I liked marian Keyes the best.  

CBR VI # 2 - Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

I went into this book thinking that I would get an answer to the cliffhanger ending of The Giver. Was Jonas and Baby Gabriel safe? Or was it the final delusions of a dying kid? Well, I was sorely disappointed when the book opened to depict a society completely different from the Community. What was the connection? Well, I just decided to go ahead and enjoy the book on its merits and not as a sequel. Kira lives in a mainly hunter-gatherer society (with a little backyard agriculture) where survival of the fittest is paramount. It’s a tough world and physical weakness is not tolerated in fact, the weak and people with disabilities are left in a field to die. The story opens with Kira mourning for her mother in their dumpsite for the dead. Kira is lame in one leg and her mother, an influential person in their village, protected her when her defective leg should have meant certain death. Her dad is thought of to be dead from a hunting accident when she was still a baby so it was just her and her mother. Upon her mother’s death, her position in the tribe is threatened by the other stronger tribemates who wanted her land. Fortunately, she is saved by her talent in embroidering. The Council of Guardians appointed her to become the official embroiderer, meant to dedicate her life to repairing a cape which depicts the history of their people. Of humankind. In the surprisingly modern building (there’s running water!) where Kira is housed along with the official carver and the trainee singer, she learns more about history and the inner workings of her village. 

 I didn’t really see the connection between this book and The Giver until almost the end of the book. ****SPOILERS***** Kira’s friend, a poor (even for her village’s standards) boy named Matt ran away to find color blue thread for Kira’s embroidery. He end up in a village where it turns out took in all the handicapped and physically deformed people from their village who were left for dead. One of those people was Kira’s father who had become blind and was not, in fact dead. He came back for Kira and asked her to return with him to the Utopian village but Kira wanted to make things in her village better and declined. But anyway, Matt mentioned that the leader of the village was a young guy with pale eyes. Oh hello Jonas! But it was only in passing. ****END SPOILERS**** 

The structure of this book is quite like the Giver, in some way.  There is a society which you initially would not think to be the future.  In this case, however, the society is not initially presented as utopia but it is quite clear that times were bad and things had turned primitive.  Like, the Giver, there is a young person chosen for a special job, one in which they learn about the past and their eyes are opened to how bad the society they are living in is.  They also attempt to do something to try to make the world a better place.  Jonas by leaving, any Kira by staying.  Unfortunately, like The Giver, I also found Gathering Blue to be simplistic and kind of childish.  It also has the added disadvantage of the mythology, the society not being as interesting to me as in the Giver.  It was really just ok for me (I know, I'm starting to sound like Randy Jackson).

CBR VI #1- The Giver by Lois Lowry

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I like how when you read the book, it doesn't really feel like the future. In fact, the setting seems positively retro with the bikes and the innocence, like the 50s or something. But its not. Jonas, he of pale eyes, lives in a Community where everything is regimented. Everything and everyone has its place and time. Your path is set from the moment you are born from your birthmother until the moment you are released from old age. Jonas is in the 11th year of his life and in the next ceremony, when he (and everybody born in the same year as him) will turn 12 and will be assigned their official jobs.  In the ceremony, Jonas is surprised when he is given a very special job.  He is to be the receiver of memory.  The job is a mystery to everybody, especially to Jonas, but it turns out that the job entails absorbing memories from the Giver, who was formerly the Receiver.  The memories are not just memories of a single person, but memories of their people.  Of a more colorful (literally) and chaotic past.  Hundreds of years of memories.  Jonas receives these memories, both the amazing and the horrifying.  It changes him (well that and the NO MEDICATION) and leads him into making a choice to either leave the safety and sameness of his Community or try his chances Elsewhere.

In reading sci-fi, fantasy, zombie or vampire books, I am always very interested in the world building.  I thought that the world, the Community was pretty plausible.  Feeling and emotion is erased I think chemically by drinking medicine everyday.  Everything is planned and organized meticulously.  I like how at first, the world seems utopian until Jonas digs deeper and well, you see the world as it really is.  There is peace, but what is peace without freedom?  The moment where it really hit me was when I realized that the Community had no colour!  I guess everything was in black and white?  That's my favourite thing about how the book is written, when you are slowly made to realize that this perfect world is anything but.

The thing that confused me a bit about the book was that I thought it was going to be pure science fiction but then there's Jonas with the special powers to see colour and to receive and feel memories.  I don't know, I guess it's not necessarily bad, just a bit disorienting.  I liked the book, but I was a bit disappointed that it was a bit simplistic, I guess.  Maybe because it's a children's book and it's supposed to be that way?  I just felt that the events leading to the ending were just.. that's it?  It gave me that sort of feeling.  But I actually liked the ending, in that Jonas was not able to magically fix or overturn the system.  The solution is smaller, more personal, but its effects still resound to the community and to the reader.

I live in a country where we didn't really have any public libraries and when I was a kid.  Our teachers didn't really assign us any books to read in grade school and brand new ones were pretty pricey for our family.  What I'm trying to say is, I think I would have liked this better if I had read this as the intended audience, when I was a kid.  As it is, I like it, but I wasn't really blown away.

PS.  Being a completist, my next three reviews will be the companion books.  The ending was sort of a cliff hanger so I was interested to know what really happened.

CBR V # 4 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Nick and Amy Dunne  moved to Missouri after years of gallavanting in New York.  

The novel starts off with a first person narrative from Nick Dunne, who is suspicious as fuck.  He is constantly hinting upon a secret, and how he's not a good guy and how his wife disgusts him.  Even sounding incest-y (or maybe just too much reddit for me).  I mean, I really got into disliking the guy.  Anyway, it's their anniversary (I forgot which number) and he discovers his wife is gone. The house is ransacked (like there has been a struggle) and his wife is just.. GONE.

The book then inserts excerpts from his Amy Dunne's diary, narrating their meet-cute up to the days prior to the disappearance.   Her entries also appear to make nick look guilty as hell, and it contradicts his present-time narration.  By this time in the book, you get start to get an inkling bout what's really going on.  

*spoilers*

Then the books includes Amy's present day narration.  No, she's not dead.  She is just simply evil and manipulative and one sick fuck.  She is scary. Turns out she had this convoluted plot to make Nick pay for his adultery.  She has some serious psychological issues.  Not surprising since she is the inspiration for a children's book series about a perfect little girl named Amazing Amy authored by her therapist parents.

*end spoilers

I really enjoyed the book as a psychological thriller.  The characters weren't particularly likeable (not even Nick) so the author was very successful in making you doubt everybody.  Who was really telling the truth?  All the characters were interesting, not just the main ones.  And the ending was brutal.  Not in a gory, kill everybody way.  Just, brutal.  Suspenseful and mysterious.  I liked it a lot.

CBR IV # 18 - The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken

I didn't like this book. Mostly because the main character is so bloody unappealing.  I don't care if the boy is tall or wise beyond his years, he's still a fuckin boy.  And she is so amazingly emotionally stunted it's not even funny.

So there's this librarian in a small town who's only claim to fame is a boy who wouldn't stop growing up.  Librarian is a typical old maid.  Chilly and unable to form close relationships.  She is fascinated by a boy who is afflicted with gigantism and soon becomes close to him and his family.  The book tells the story of their sort of courtship and the short life of a very tall boy.

Now why did I not like this book?  As I said, it was mostly because of my distaste for the main character, the librarian.  It's actually not so much that she first met the boy when he was just a child, I mean the age disparity is really not that big.  It's more that she does not really have any reasons for her melancholy.  I think this is my failing, but I get very irritated by characters that can have, or do have, everything but is still so... sad. 

I wanted to know more about the boy, but he was never really fleshed out but was more the librarian's ideal of him.  So, no I didn't like it very much.

CBR IV # 26 - With Your Crooked Heart by Helen Dunmore

This is one of those extremely poetic books where I feel like I'm dreaming when I'm reading.  What I mean is, there's a dreamlike quality to the writing and every little incident is huge and magnified.  Every emotion is felt (or not) and mundane actions become beautiful or grotesque.

Louise is married to Paul, a successful and well to do man.  He didn't start out rich though.  He was a young man who clawed himself from poverty.  He has a much younger brother Johnny who he protects and takes care of.

The story starts off with Louise, feeling beautifully pregnant and naked, living a dream life in a garden paradise in the middle of London.  It would seem like she has everything, rich husband, beautiful flat, and smoldering brother in law (ok maybe not that part).  Well, a few years after that and Louise is a fucked up alcoholic mess.  She's fat, her kid is under the custody of her husband, who has remarried and moved to the country. She is left with nothing really, except drink and the sometime company of Johnny.  She is an absolute mess.

The story moves from Louise to her little girl in the country.  Stuff happens.  Changes are made in their lives and the ending left me feeling a bit confused (like I was dreaming) and inexplicable affected and touched.  I'm not entirely sure what the meaning of the book is, I'm not even sure I like it, but it made me feel weird and sort of sad.

CBR IV # 25 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

The book opens with Joan Foster settling in a villa in a small Italian town.  She had just faked her own death, and was nervous and jumpy, wondering whether he has been successful or not.  From this present day, the book takes us back to Joan's childhood.  Her fatness, he overbearing Mother and distant father.  Her only friend was an eccentric aunt who loved her unconditionally.  We then follow her to her teenage years, running away from home, her love affairs, and finally to her life just prior to her fake death.

Joan is a girls of multiple personalities.  She was a fat girl, a secret writer of Gothic romances, a kinda dumb housewife, a kept woman, and adulterer, and authoress of an intriguing feminist book.  She switches easily from personality to personality, creating personas both innocently and calculatingly at the same time.

The book is not really a thriller about a woman faking her death.  It may seem high concept at first, but really, it is just a story about a woman.

The first book I read of Atwood was the Handmaiden's Tale.  I've noticed that the books by her which I enjoy the most are those with a sci-fi premise.  This book is more along the lines of Cat's Eye and the Robber Bride.  It's good, but i prefer her other works.

CBR IV # 16 - A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I hated the Invisible Circus. I thought I would love it because of all the hippy 70's stuff, but I truly did not like it. It was so whiny. I only picked this book up because I had heard such good reviews and thought why not give it another try? A few pages in to the book, I thought it would be more of the same. Whiny white women who really have nothing to whine about, when you think about it. But after the first chapter, I started to really get into it.

The book structure.. Going into it, I didn't know what to expect and was initially a bit confused, expecting a more or less conventional narrative like The Invisible Circus. The book is actually thirteen (?) short stories about people who are interconnected. The chapters jump from person to person and from the 70's up to a New York in the near future. Sometimes the connections between the people in the stories are merely passing, a one night stand in one case. In some cases the connection is deep and lifelong. These characters recur throughout the book, and somehow, you get an idea of the arc of their life. Sometimes it takes a little time to orient yourself since the stories aren't chronological, but you end up getting who is who and what happened to whom.

At first, I though it was going to be another whiny white lady book like The Invisible Circus, but I was pleasantly surprised. Egan was very good at writing pretty much horrible people (or maybe just horrible flawed ones) and making them sympathetic. At times they are beaten down by the time and life and you always want them to have some sort of happy ending. It was an interesting read. A bit melancholy, but rightly so.

CBR IV # 15 - Snuff by Chuck Palahiuk

I'm so sorry Chuck, you lost me on this one. I am a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan, but I just couldn't get into this one. It felt very rote and seemed to shock for the sake of shock.

Aging porn star Cassie Wright has set out to break a world record. 600 men in one movie. So 600 men of all sizes and ages wait in the waiting room for their chance to be part of porn history. The story is told through 3 men who are waiting for their turn, referred to by their numbers, 600, 72 and 237, as well as through Cassie's personal assistant Sheila.

Through these characters, we learn how Cassie became a pornstar, that she had a child she had to give away (which she claimed was a boy), what she really plans to achieve (really just a world record) and just random stuff about everything. There is, of course, a sort of twist and the ending is explosive, as per Chuck.

I didn't like the book. I thought it was icky and just pointless. The characters aren't fleshed out and none of them were relateable in any way. I mean, who couldn't relate to the narrator, right? But this one was just full of unlikeable (maybe except for 72) misfits who aren't really that interesting. They are crazy for crazy's sake, for shock value, not to further characterization or plot. The plot itself is pretty thin and just, no. Color me disappointed Chuck. For once, i didn't enjoy what he wrote :(

CBR IV # 14 - Fevre Dream by G.R.R. Martin

After the strain, another vampire novel for me! I have not made a secret my intense love for ASOIAF and naturally, since the next installment is soooo far away, needed another GRR fix.

Abner Marsh is a tugboat captain who has fallen on some hard times. A mysterious stranger, Joshua York, approaches him wanting to invest in his company, but with some very strange and secretive requests. York turns out to be a vampire who needs a boat to unite all vampires for the good of human and vampirekind. They however, run into some trouble when they meet the bloodmaster, Julian, an evil and possible crazy old vampire based in New Orleans.

I'm sorry, I am horrible at summarizing plot. Anyway, holy vegetarian vampire!! Now this here is a true vegetarian vampire. Joshua York is a vampire who grew up amongst humans, and as such, are sympathetic to us. He does not like to kill for blood, and so , he created a potion that suppresses the blood lust that vampires feel. As I said in previous posts, I am very much interested in the mythology that each author makes for the origin and characteristics of their particular brand of vampires. In this case, the vampires were the same, but also very different to the classical vampire. They died by sunlight and fire and drank blood. That is where the similarity ends. For these vampires aren't contagious! They were born vampires and could not make others like them. They were truly a different specie of animals. I think this is the first time that I've read vampires being imagined that way.

Another unique characteristic with these vampires is that they can actually eat and drink normal food. Their bloodlust only comes approximately once every month and it is only then that they feel the very string urge to drink human blood.

I liked the book because at the start, you are never sure if Joshua is really a vampire or not. You don't know if he is good or evil. Like the good Captain, you are also kept in the dark about the real nature of this stranger. I mean, he eats real food!!

The story is long and it spans many years. I like books like these but some might find it tedious. It really focuses on the friendship and trust between Abner and Joshua, two very different men. Hell, they're not even from the same species.

GRR has once again, failed to disappoint.

CBR IV # 11, 12, 13 - The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuch Hogan

I find different versions of vampire (and zombie) stories really interesting in that the mythologies always differ from each other. Whether they be made sparkly, or with long tongue/stinger, authors always make their vampires just a little bit different from the template.

This here is a trilogy by director Guillermo del Tori and co-author Chuck Hogan (whose work I'm not really familiar with). Perhaps because of this, the book is very visual and cinematic. You can really imagine it happening up on the screen and the pacing feels like a good horror/suspense movie.

The first book, The Strain, sets up the situation. An airplane lands at JFK. All the lights are out and everyone is dead. Infectious disease is the first theory and CDC doctor Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather is assigned to the puzzling (and creepy) case. In other places in the city, the players are being prepared for what is to become, by the second book, a full blown epidemic.

By the second book, most of the characters have met and the origin of the vampires are slowly being revealed, mostly through the scholar Abraham Setrakian, who has tangled with the creatures before in his long life.

The third book is the endgame. What was a vampire novel has now turned post apocalyptic. Humans are farmed for blood and our heroes are fast running out of options to destroy the vampire menace.

As I said, the mythology is what I find most interesting about vampire literature. In this case, vampirism has a biological basis. It is parasitic in nature, and contained in capillary worms that can burrow into a human body. Once it is the bloodstream, it changes the host to make it more hospitable, shedding of necessary things such as hair and fingernails and growing a long stinger which is used as a weapon and as a way of extracting blood from the victim.

However, there is also a mystical side to the story wherein there are 7 ancients, the original vampires, whose blood worms seem to have become sentient and can transfer their consciousness to another body when one is destroyed. They can only be completely destroyed by nuking their birth places.

The series is action packed, exciting and a pretty interesting take on vampires.

CBR IV # 3 - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

This is one of two books that I finished on the last week of 2011. I must admit that I only knew of this book because of the movie (which I haven't seen yet). In fact, I thought that it was a new book, and it was only after I had finished the book and searched online did I know that it was actually published in the 60s.

The Wheelers are a young, beautiful suburban couple who seemingly have all. Nice house, cute kids, enough money. Living the American dream. But things aren't going that well in the Wheeler household. The couple were formerly artistic bohemian types, who somehow settled into suburban life. April was an aspiring actress while Frank was a "thinker" or rather a talker. They feel discontented and trapped and fancy themselves different and a cut above all their other mundane neighbors.

But living in suburbia has gotten to them and they feel that they're missing out on life. And worse, that they are turning into the suburbanites they look down on so much. In a desperate attempt to recapture the carefree feel of their relationship before marriage, April suggests they move to Paris. Frank initially scoffs at the idea but is soon sucked in to the plan. However, april gets pregnant and Frank gets a possible promotion, prompting second thoughts on his part. April, increasingly desperate, performs an abortion on herself with disastrous results (can there really be any other result other than disastrous?).

I don't know if it's just me, but the book felt very modern to me, even it it was set in the 50s. Maybe because the emptiness of suburbia is still a very common theme in art even up to now. Now the characters, they certainly weren't likable. And April is so obviously disturbed like needs professional help level. But I could relate. I'm not artsy by any stretch of the imagination but I used to hang out with that crowd, the musicians and artists. So now that I have a family and have fuckin responsibilities and a job, I sometimes feel like I've been left behind. Like I could be doing so much more. Obviously, not as extreme but I'm sure you guys get what I mean.

So yeah, even if they weren't that likable, I get them. I get what they're feeling. And it's tragic. Thank Dog I'm not.