Review: 2020 on Goodreads

2020 on Goodreads by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a strange and chaotic year this has been! Personally, one event somersaulted into the next, all complicated by the pandemic and all salved by a collection of books. Oh, the BOOKS! While I did, at almost the eleventh hour, meet my reading goal, I did so without the requisite reviews I had promised myself to pen. I started with the best of intentions, but around March I realized that I was enjoying the actual reading far less than I had in the past. The review writing had become a chore that I found looming over me as I pored over the pages. I started writing notes in the margins and mentally bookmarking things I wanted to talk about when I had finished the book. For me, it turned the allure of the story into an academic exercise I was required, rather than compelled, to complete. Once I allowed myself to part company with the idea that reviews were necessary, I found I was once again looking forward to my reading time and taking more risks with books I didn’t feel obligated to then write about. It was liberating. Since that time, I’ve reviewed considerably less, though enjoyed so much more, and although I’ve spent less time here, I still look forward to those times when I am able to sit back and read the reviews of those with whom I’ve become “Goodreads Friends”. Julie, Richard, RossDavidH, MarilynW and so many more—thank you for sharing your brilliant insights and for dropping by now and again to read my reviews.

So...the reading! I did begin the year by taking a deep dive into my former genre of choice—post-apocalyptic fiction. As the year progressed, however, I found things hitting a little too close to home. I turned, for the first time, to an inordinate number of rom-coms in an attempt to lighten my mood and seek escape from the general malaise. It was a good short-term move, as I discovered some hidden gems which I really enjoyed. When it became just too saccharine even for me, however, I reverted back to domestic noir and psychological thrillers. In short, my choices were eclectic, with varying results. And so I present The Excellent, The Good, The Eh and the Ugly: a review of the most memorable books of 2020.

The Excellent
The star of the year was, for me, Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa. Vanessa is a fifteen year old girl, with one foot in childhood and the other stretched over the divide of adolescence and into adulthood. Emotionally, she is a teenager struggling with being an introvert and finding her place as a student at a prestigious boarding school. Intellectually, she is inquisitive and curious, eager to reach beyond her years and dive head first into complex abstracts for which she has no foundation. It is her need to find a way to position herself in relation to newly acquired, and beyond her years, constructs that allows a trusted teacher to slowly and insidiously wend his way into every cell of her being. The question becomes how to convince a teenager, who is eager to be loved and racing toward maturity, that she is in truth a puppet, manipulated by a man who has groomed her to believe that she holds all the power—a teenager taught to equate being a victim with weakness while also made heady with romantic notions of tragic love and lust. My Dark Vanessa captivated me while tugging at my own memories and earned a rightful place in my library as the best book of the year.

Another book that continues to remind me of just how moving a well-written novel can be is Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin. The story is that of Claire, a young woman who has never truly come to terms with her sister’s unsolved murder while on a family vacation to the Caribbean. Years after that unbearable loss, a chance meeting brings Claire into the orbit of a man who was, at the time, questioned and labeled a suspect in her sister’s death. As the story unfolds, Claire is forced to face hard truths about just how well she knew her older sibling and how much she can trust her memories of that holiday. While the story itself is indeed compelling, it’s the writing that is absolutely mesmerizing. Sentences like “Her freckles, faint apricot this morning, are auburn sparks”, and “he grows accustomed to the resort’s beauty, to the bushes everywhere weeping pink blossoms and the brazen teal water” pepper the pages and bring a photographic quality to the work. The narrative paints vivid canvases that allow the reader to believe they, too, are there, on the beach, watching young Claire and her beautiful sister as they careen toward a tragedy that is especially poignant against such an exquisite backdrop.

A third, and unlikely, favorite for 2020 was Simone St. James’ The Sun Down Motel. This paranormal thriller reached outside my typical genres of choice and pulled me into the story of a missing woman whose niece, Carly, is intrigued by the years-old family mystery. Though she never met “Aunt Viv”, the stories kept her alive in collected family memories for over 35 years. Following her mother’s death, Carly strikes out on her own, as curiosity pushes her to seek answers to the questions surrounding Viv Delaney’s disappearance. Her journey leads her to the last place her aunt was employed, The Sun Down Motel. It is here that the ghosts of the past reveal themselves as the keepers of truth, and opposing forces conspire to both destroy and liberate Carly. The absolute frenetic pacing of the story, as well as the hair-raising episodes of the past emerging in the present, made this a read that had me sleeping with the lights on for days after I had turned the final page.

Other entries to The Excellent
This is How it Always Isby Laurie Frankel
Night Swim by Megan Goldin
The Neon Lawyer by Victor Methos
A Killer’s Wife by Victor Methos
Devolution by Max Brooks
Oona Out of Ordee by Margarita Montimore

The Good
Followers by Megan Angelo
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben
The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry
In My Father’s Basement In My Father’s Basement by T.J. Payne

The Eh
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
The Two Lives of Olivia Bird by Josie Silver
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz
The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock by Jane Riley

The Ugly Panik by Chris Selwyn James
The Rabbit Hunter by Lars Kepler
The Bone Jar by S.W. Kane

And the Worst of the Year goes to
Size Zero by Abigail Mangin—one of the most inane, poorly written books I’ve ever read.

So there you have it—a year of firsts in so many ways, and a year salvaged in large part because of the great writing to which I was given access, through books that I will treasure. Here’s to 2021–may it be filled with healing and many five-star reads!














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Review: This Is How It Always Is

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five big gold stars for one of the most thought-provoking, inspired and touching books I’ve read in a very, very long time. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must come forward as the mom of a transgender child. Because of that, and in spite of that, I loved every chapter, every page, every word. The messages here were bold; the questions posed often difficult; the answers to those questions, messy. What was consistent, however, was the glorious beauty of the story itself.

Claude is born male, into a family that is already burgeoning with testosterone. Four brothers who run the gamut from creative spirit to nerdy bookworm inhabit the space into which Claude is born. It isn’t long before Rosie and Penn, Claude’s parents, are met with a request from their precocious youngest child: he wants to wear a dress to school. From there, Claude’s tendency to gravitate to all things “girl” progresses from garments to the name by which he then wishes to be called—Poppy. As the pages turn, this family explores the transformation of the child they had always identified as their little boy to the emergence of Poppy, whom they as a family begin to see as simply their little girl with a penis. As Rosie and Penn pave the way for Poppy to grow into a happy and content child, they inadvertently fail to prepare her for the way many will perceive her. Not as a “girl with a penis” but as a confused little anomaly of a boy, abused by his parents into believing it’s ok to pretend to be a girl. Traversing this unfamiliar landscape is both frightening and fraught with mistakes, but through it all, this family maintains not only love for one another but also a sense of humor that helps salve the sting of rejection and the ignorance of an unenlightened society.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for parents of transgender children, people wishing to understand gender dysphoria or even those open-minded folks who just enjoy a good book. I so wish I could give this author a huge hug. Not only does she “get it”, but she did enough homework to present the frustration, tears and sense of loss that can accompany the gender transformation of one’s child. Well done, Ms. Frankel. Well done, indeed.

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Review: No Conscience

No Conscience by Phil M. Williams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was one I struggled to finish. It was just too quirky—too far left of center for me to find any real pleasure in the reading. The characters, particularly Wes and his mother Mary, are, from the start, just a shade of strange. There’s initially nothing overt, though Wes is portrayed as a spineless, immature young man with anger issues bubbling just below the surface, always threatening to boil over and destroy him. It’s more than that though. He was written in a way that made it near to impossible to either find interest or fully invest in him. As a reader, I found myself stepping back, fearing that he was about to implode. Mary Shaw, Wes’ mother, is also vaguely disturbing. It’s as if the author merged the perfect mother with a smidge of Joan Crawford, then threw in a little Norma Bates for good measure. It’s difficult to explain without spoilers, but the discomfort while reading is real, making this one unenjoyable and off-putting. The conclusion was just the icing on the “hell no” cake.

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Review: The Swallows

The Swallows by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This little gem, set in a private north-eastern co-ed boarding school, manages to merge the overtly sexual focus of hormonal teenage boys, with the insecurity of teenage girls and the consequences of no adult supervision. The result is a maelstrom of angst that results in violence that any attentive teacher or administrator should have seen coming from a mile away.

The plot focuses on a group of over-indulged, privileged boys who rate the performance of eager-to-please teenage girls as they drop to their knees to offer oral sex. At the end of the year, the girl with the highest blow-job score (who is almost always in the dark regarding the entire process) is then declared the winner of the “Dulcinea Award”. Though the admin and staff seem to have knowledge of this, it is with a wink and a nod that life on campus moves forward through the year. New teacher Alex Witt, however, can’t, upon discovery of this perverse campus tradition, look the other way and encourages a few girls who have also uncovered the existence of the Dulcinea to stand up for themselves, develop some self-esteem and fight back. As the war is waged, loyalties are tested, traditions are toppled and reputations, as well as lives, are ultimately lost.

This book takes a hard look at what happens when we pander to elite males and sweep under the rug the concerns of our young women; when we ignore what is the beginning of the practices that eventually lead to women identifying with the #metoo movement. It is a cautionary tale that is both timely and relevant. Though a bit heavy handed at times, any teacher or informed parent will appreciate the kernels of truth tucked into these pages. Lutz has tapped into the culture of male-dominance that is evident even in our teenagers and carried it to a conclusion that is frighteningly possible.



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Review: Date Night

Date Night by Samantha Hayes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One thing is for certain—Samantha Hayes can write! This book was a tad far-fetched, but if you make it to the ending, there’s an enormous payoff. I was left slack-jawed, and immediately went in search of more of Hayes work.

So many others have written summaries, plot points, character intros, etc., that I just don’t have much more to offer. Rather than be redundant, I will leave it at this—don’t give up. Finish this one. Seriously.

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Review: The Whisper Man

The Whisper Man by Alex North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 big gold stars for a magnificent, though disturbing, read! I picked this up with no prior knowledge of the content—and I initially set it aside. The title just reminded me of the tween-favorite “Slender Man”, and to be honest, only the book blurb saved it. I am SO GLAD I didn’t ignore this for one moment longer.

It is rare these days for me to read anything that moves me to tears. I avoid those pieces like the plague, as with age has come heightened sensitivity and dozens of emotional triggers. Blame it on menopause. At any rate, the rollercoaster ride North provides is one that found me grinning, speculating and ugly crying as I moved through the pages. Triggers include the deaths of children (not a spoiler, it’s the premise of the book), and the loss of a spouse (again, revealed in the first few pages). I have only one piece of advice if you find yourself cynically judging as you read—trust the work: trust that this author won’t resort to cheap stunts to tie things up. The payoff is there, and this is the real deal.

Well written, kept me turning the pages and reared up in my nightmares. This one will crawl under your skin and stay there awhile.

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Review: All For Love: on the charity dating show

All For Love: on the charity dating show by Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m allowing two stars for an interesting premise that had tremendous potential. Think “The Bachelor” with a monetary twist. I also enjoyed the format this author chose—third person narration just objective enough to be convincing. The issues here are with the editing—or complete lack thereof. Not only are character names confused, substituting one for the other on NUMEROUS occasions, but the long and tedious pages of dialogue read like a teenager’s submission for a high school English class. For example, here’s a snippet of conversation that is representative of the entire work:

"I'm not really self-assured," Constance said slowly, "Especially about matters of the heart

"It's only a competition if you think of it that way," Vonda said. "Otherwise, it is an experience."

"We are all your friends," said Janny.

"Thanks girls," Constance said.

"The trouble is," said Janny, "There is only one Anthony, and he can't possibly end up with all of us!"

"I wouldn't expect him to," said Vonda. “That would be too weird for words. There are plenty of other guys in the world.”

"There must be someone nice out there for all of us,” Kendra remarked. "And we won't always be stuck on The Charity Dating Show."

Ready to read a tad more? The next excerpt appears just after one of the contestants, Kendra, finds a kangaroo to feed at a venue they are visiting:

"It's a male," Heddy said. "They develop very powerful hind legs-you wouldn't want to challenge it once it was grown."

"I am sure that it will always be treated well in here," Kendra murmured.

"I am sure it will too," Heddy said. She was obviously losing interest: "Let us wash our hands and get some lunch at the cafe."

It just feels stilted and forced, and it fills page after page with short, choppy sentences that no one would naturally speak. He said, she said, they said, and round and round it goes. The dialogue is so flat that the characters are rendered one dimensional. Sad, really, as there was potential here.

In the end, the mistakes with character names, the poor sentence construction and the droning dialogue combine to make this novel a contender for the worst of 2019. It now has a place of honor on my “OMG Bad” shelf.

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Review: Intercepts

Intercepts by T.J. Payne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book up after reading, and loving, My Father’s Basement, also written by author T.J. Payne. Unfortunately, Payne just failed here to live up to the expectations set by his previous work. Intercept attempts to combine elements of sci-fi and horror and never truly engaged me on either front.

The story centers around a facility that houses human subjects referred to as “antennae”. Their purpose, however, is revealed so late in the game that I had stopped caring what it was they actually DID or even why they were there. The institution supervisor, Joe Gerhard, emerges early as the main character, but his personae is one I just couldn’t bring myself to like. His focus is work, at the expense of family, and his eventual change of heart (the underlying theme of the book) is accomplished at great personal cost.

The writing here is profoundly different from Payne’s almost poetic approach to My Father’s Basement. In this piece, some of the techniques used are almost elementary in execution. The most excruciating example was Payne’s overuse of onomatopoeia. Auto door locks BZZZZZ, elevators DING!, and other objects WHUMP!, RIIIING! and CLICK. It’s a distracting literary device, utilized to the point of tedium.

If bloody horror is an allure, there’s plenty here to keep the reader up to his elbows in gore, as bodies are repeatedly shredded in great detail. Beyond that, however, I found the entire book an exercise in mediocrity.

Payne is a brilliant author, able to tell a tale that is both engaging and horrifying. Unfortunately, this just didn’t reflect that incredible talent.



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Review: The Perfect Son

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Here we have a book that was, for me, a fairly mediocre read. The characters were standard—and in some cases flat out stereotypic, while the plot just never really engaged me.

Author Freida McFadden is certainly ABLE to write, but her attempt to build suspense was riddled with a fully distracting plethora of obvious red herrings. Any reader of psychological thrillers will see through these misdirects, which at times were almost amateurish and painfully transparent.

Beyond the troubling red herrings, the work also suffers in terms of character development. From the teenage bully to the bookish girl; the Xanax popping overwhelmed parent to the school principal, these characters never rose from the page in a way that made them particularly interesting. Instead of investing in any of them, I found myself mentally leaving the story, angry with the stereotypes.

If you search for the title The Perfect Son, the number of results is almost overwhelming. McFadden’s use of the title, in spite of the commonality, is almost representative of the entire book. The characters, plot development and even the attempts at setting tone, were all basic and, again, common—as if the author was somehow following a prescriptive approach straight out of “How to Write a Psychological Thriller”. All the boxes for necessary elements were checked, but without any flourish or particular creativity.

Three stars for a book that was solid, with a good foundation. Unfortunately the story itself was cookie cutter, lacking any real style to set it apart from a hundred others.

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Review: The Lies We Told

The Lies We Told by Camilla Way
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is a perfect example of a good author, with an interesting idea, losing her way. There are plenty of other reviews with succinct synopsis of plot, so I won’t reinvent the wheel. What I will say, however, is that the story held great promise—until it didn’t. In an effort to wrap things up, author Camilla Way takes the easy way out and has a character “tell” the backstory that led to current circumstances. This is a tool often utilized by writers who get stuck and still need to impart information either to further the plot or to tie things up. Instead of allowing the story itself to unfold naturally through the action, the narrative takes a passive approach, and the reader is audience to a character monologue that reveals events of the past. While this certainly works to bring closure, it feels like a betrayal of trust, especially so late in the game, when the reader has already invested so much time and effort.

Overall, a unique storyline that came apart at the seams when the tension was at its pinnacle.

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Review: The Boy from the Woods

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harlan Coben is amazing. Really. In fact, I may just be his biggest fan. Everything he writes is just so well-constructed that the pages seem to turn themselves, and time spent between those pages becomes irrelevant. I inhale his work like oxygen, and it all leaves me a little heady.

As with his other books, the characters here stand alone yet will be familiar to those who follow closely. It’s the beauty of the lure—those new to Coben will still find a full-bodied story that is fun to read, while devotees will find small details that are familiar, evoking a giddy sense of being one of the “in-crowd”.

There are plenty of reviews here that will impart plot details and analyses of character motivation. Ignore them all, buy the book and dive in, head first with no expectations. I promise you will emerge, some hours later, feeling like you’ve found a new vice—and one that is easily indulged, as this author’s body of work is as vast as it is enjoyable.

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Review: My Dark Vanessa

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



My Dark Vanessa turned me inside out—a story that struck intensely personal chords, while it simultaneously forced the acceptance of truths absurdly foreign. In the trailing fringe of the #metoo movement, this tale calls into question the role of perpetrator and victim, and shines a spotlight on the moments that come to define us.

Vanessa Wye is a fifteen year old girl, with one foot in childhood and the other stretched over the divide of adolescence and into adulthood. Emotionally, she is a teenager struggling with being an introvert and finding her place as a student at a prestigious boarding school. Intellectually, she is inquisitive and curious, eager to reach beyond her years and dive head first into complex abstracts for which she has no foundation. It is her need to find a way to position herself in relation to newly acquired, and beyond her years, constructs that allows a trusted teacher to slowly and insidiously wend his way into every cell of her being. The question becomes how to convince a teenager, who is eager to be loved and racing toward maturity, that she is in truth a puppet, manipulated by a man who has groomed her to believe that she holds all the power—a teenager taught to equate being a victim with weakness while also made heady with romantic notions of tragic love and lust.

This wasn’t what I would call an enjoyable read, but for me, it was an important read. The convoluted questions that arise from the abuse of power, the accepted nuances of victimology and the ultimate accountability for one’s actions are examined through the lens of a woman who has allowed herself to be defined by a relationship that is as dark as it is damning. Book clubs will have a field day here, dissecting responsibility, pedophilia and issues of blame and repercussions. Those with personal demons who, even years later, find themselves wrestling with guilt reinforced by someone who abused his power, will find pieces of their lives scattered here—sliver of sharp truths that may reside like splinters in the psyche, but that once examined may finally warrant removal.

Well-written and in a format that takes one from present to past and back again, Kate Elizabeth Russell has given readers a book that deserves five stars.

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Review: Oona Out of Order

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a general rule, one of the things I most appreciate about a novel is the author’s ability to suspend my disbelief, even in the most fantastic of circumstances. I suppose this is why the sci-fi genre has never appealed to me. I need to believe to be engaged—the read must have some semblance of realism. Although after perusing the synopsis, I began this novel with great skepticism and little hope, I ended truly impressed and surprisingly sated. Slap my ass and color me pink—I really liked this!

When the reader initially meets Oona, she is a starry-eyed eighteen year old, celebrating New Year’s Eve and looking forward to her New Year’s Day birthday. As the story unfolds, the reader is treated to a rollercoaster ride through Oona’s life as she is experiencing it—one year at a time, though completely devoid of chronological order. Each year, on the eve of her birthday, Oona finds herself “jumping” to, and waking up in, a new, random year. She travels forward and back through time, adjusting to each stage in ways that are always in keeping with her actual chronological age as measured from that fateful eve of her nineteenth birthday. Aware of the disconnect, Oona struggles to make sense of new and old relationships as she mourns losses she never actually experienced.

Does it make sense? Not a bit. Are there gaping holes in the logic used to support character behaviors? You bet! Was it, in spite of these things, a fun read that captured my imagination? Absolutely. This is a read that will require a few leaps of faith, but the payoff is a wistful, sometimes whimsical, look at life by way of a poignant tale that is sure to capture your imagination. A definite 2020 favorite.

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Review: The Silence

The Silence by Daisy Pearce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: PANIK

PANIK by Chris Selwyn James
My rating: 1 of 5 stars



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Review: The Truants

The Truants by Kate Weinberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just turned the final page of this novel, closed my Kindle and breathed deeply the sharp night air snaking in from the open window, under and around my blinds. For the past six hours, and for an hour last evening, I had been shrouded in the blanket of oppressive closeness created by this author—an absolute heaviness that enveloped me and pressed down while chapter after chapter reeled out as if behind a gauzy curtain, just slightly out of focus. The effect is at once unsettling and alluring.

This magnificent book, Weinberg’s first, is tragically beautiful. The story is one that has been told a thousand times over—the exploration of self that is part and parcel of a first year college student caught in the romance of the experience. Never before, however, has the story been told with such poignant and exquisite language. Weinberg’s prose is absolutely captivating as she unfolds each character, encouraging us to fall in love with each of them even while exposing the tragic flaws that simmer just below the surface.

The story is linear, but insights are always hindsight and aspects of the tale are revisited and turned over to reveal hidden intent. It’s an engaging approach, though it does have its limits. The final pages that complete the journey to the conclusion meander and sometimes read like a stream of consciousness. It is here that the reader is shaken and forced to pay close attention, to activate prior knowledge gained in early pages and to keep up with the overactive thought processes of the narrator. As such, this is not a beach read, but rather a deep dive that requires a great deal of concentration to achieve a satisfying payout. This forced focus adds to that feeling of an elephant sitting on your chest as you read—you desperately want him to move so that you can breath again, but in this case, moving the beast means ending the novel. The reader is faced with a dilemma of wanting to emerge from the suffocating tone, where the cruelty of truth lays bare betrayal and deceit, and yet wanting to remain in a drowsy, romantic state, where the wine flows freely and the possibilities are endless; where that fine line between love and lust is obliterated.

I hope that this isn’t the last we hear of Weinberg. Her ability to manipulate language so that it, in turn, fully immerses the reader is unparalleled. It’s only January, and I’m sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that this will feature in my top reads of the year. Right now, it’s at number one and has set quite the bar!

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Review: The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock

The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock by Jane Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I just turned the last page of this unique novel and find myself ambivalent regarding its merits. Whilst the writing is solid, the structure well-constructed, there was just something missing.

Oliver Clock is a 39 year old man experiencing his very own midlife crisis. As his name implies, his clock is ticking, and he has suddenly become acutely aware of his lot in life. Oliver inherited the family business (a funeral home that enjoyed reputable status within the community) when his father quite suddenly passed away. This unexpected loss thrust Oliver into the role of running the entire enterprise, though his overbearing and rather abrasive mother retains 20% ownership and a highly coveted 99% of the decision making. Oliver is alone and lonely, though he fantasizes about a woman whom he professes to love from afar—the married florist who does the majority of the floral pieces for the funerals Oliver organizes. The story follows Oliver through his 39th year of life as he faces tremendous personal loss, becomes mired in his grief, then seeks redemption through a reawakening of self. It is this painfully slow journey toward self awareness that consumes the majority of the pages.

The story told is a straightforward first-person narrative from Oliver’s perspective, and so we must trust that he is a reliable narrator—even as we discover him to be a profoundly boring character. I never felt invested enough to root Oliver on or to wish him ill-will. In fact, the same held true for each of the characters—rather flat and predictable, with a few even portrayed as cringe-worthy stereotypes. I found myself simply disinterested and reading to just muddle through in order to finish the book.

The single redeeming factor was the author’s generous use of both similes and metaphors, figurative language that brought to life the colorful visuals. There are no true stunning moments, but rather a gentle integration of details that lifted the story from the pages and tickled the senses. For example, these few sentences when Oliver draws a bath and adds perfumed elements to the water:

“Instantly the water went yellow and fizzed like sherbet. Purple cornflower petals swirled like tea leaves. Steam aromatic with an oily fragrance curled up from the bath.”

Additionally, for those who appreciate a very dry humor, there are a few moments sprinkled throughout that tease a smile. For the most part, however, it’s a painful drudge as the story stumbles toward a predictable conclusion without ever gaining any momentum.

This author is clearly gifted, and as I’ve never read any of her other work, I cannot attest to growth or movement in her abilities. In the end, however, I’d leave this one on the shelf.


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Review: In My Father's Basement

In My Father's Basement by T.J. Payne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you had told me before I started reading that I would absolutely be held hostage to a book about a rather neurotic, dysfunctional man who just so happened to be the son of a serial killer, I may well have laughed (or at the very least scoffed). This book, however, grabbed me from the beginning with its incredible, almost poetic language, as well as its matter-of-fact treatment of the abhorrent acts of a depraved serial killer. I raced through each page, unable to turn out the lights before I finished, then unable to turn them off because I HAD.

Devouring the book in its entirety was, I must admit, a rather exhausting exercise in one’s ability to separate fact from fiction, as Walter relates the story of his descent into madness to his son, Isaac. Just as the reader is certain that Isaac has finally discovered the truth of what happened those many years ago, Walter’s entire narrative is reduced to ashes, and the reader is forced to start over in developing a trust that in the end must simply be blind faith that is repeatedly robbed. Over and over again, Walter weaves tales of the catalyst to his horrifying acts of depravity, seemingly enjoying the deception even as he systematically destroys his son in the process. As Isaac faces long hidden truths about his father, he is taken on a rollercoaster ride that leaves him keeled over and vomiting in its wake. Though while Walter has been telling tall tales, Isaac has a few secrets of his own, and whilst the sins of the father continue to be exacted on the son, Isaac’s own meager and unstable life is deconstructed one episode at a time until the destruction of both father and son is complete.

Themes of loyalty to family, greed and nature vs. nuture are all hidden within the chapters, teased out into the open by a story so disturbing that the reader will be left contemplating his own darkness and the seemingly endless capacity of man’s cruelty to man. Read it for the plot or read it as a cautionary tale, read it for the story at its surface or the implications that lie between the lines of text. Whichever you choose, just do it with a healthy amount of skepticism and at a time where you don’t need to put it down for even a second.

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Review: The Rabbit Hunter

The Rabbit Hunter by Lars Kepler
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I will first admit to never having read any of the other works by this husband and wife team who write under the pen name Lars Kepler. That may have worked against me here, as the novel contained references to past events that might have added another layer to the story. Overall, however, I just wasn’t impressed—though I think I know why.

The story here is woven in various fits and starts that eventually come together. Though the story actually begins to unwind around the 75% mark, it weaves and bobs and carries the reader on a wild ride that could have been enjoyable. I say “could have”, as the writing itself is just a hot mess. My theory is that the author who handled the translation from Swedish to English just wasn’t completely up to the task. The sentence structures are choppy, transitions are awkward (at times even nonexistent), and the nuances of the Swedish language are simply lost.

I wish I had been able to read this in its original form, as I would be willing to bet that it is a true page turner. As I don’t read or speak the language, however, I will have to settle for this novel being a brilliant story, told in a mediocre way through a muddled translation that simply missed the mark. If you are Swedish fluent, definitely give this one a go. Otherwise, steer clear and spend the time either learning the language or finding another read.

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