A Few Killer Books To Pick Up

I haven’t been on here for a while because I’ve been posting my book reviews on The Portsmouth Review. But I wanted to come back around and mention some favorite books that I’ve recently had the luxury of reading.

Home World by Bonnie MilaniFirst up in my list of notable mentions is Home World by Bonnie Milani. This is an absolutely epic tale of hardcore science fiction set within an old-world dance of monarchy-style court intrigues. Instead of country versus country, we see planet versus planet in a tense intergalactic conflict. Mother Earth is more of a vacation destination and most of it is in ruins after the great wars, but those ruins are a great tourist attraction.

Home World is the first novel from author Bonnie Milani, published by Promontory Press. I was so thrilled after reading it that I decided it should win every major science-fiction award ever. The next time you feel need to read some good science fiction, this should be it.

Read my review here: Home World Book Review

The Magicians by Lev GrossmanNext up is an urban fantasy series called The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I read all three back to back and was completely enthralled for the entire set. It’s basically Hogwarts for adults as well as a huge homage to Narnia. The main character is in love with a book series from his childhood that he never really got over. Applying to college, he’s whisked away to a secret college for magic. Things can’t get any better for Quentin until he realizes that those books he loved so much as a kid – they’re real.

The first book takes place in this magic college called Brakebills – there’s sex, drugs, and completely inappropriate magic. It’s grand! The Magician King, book two, takes place in Lev Grossman’s answer to Narnia. The Magician’s Land, book three, is all over the place.

This series is absolutely magical. Read my review of the first book here: The Magicians by Lev Grossman Book Review

Ancillary Justice by Ann LeckieFinally, I definitely want to mention Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. This science-fiction novel did win all of the scifi awards. And there’s a reason why.

In this astounding novel, an AI unit who used to be a huge battleship is now in the body of a human. Betrayed by her own kind, she’s on a mission to destroy her overseers. The novel is highly complex, detailing a vast empire of AI units who control multiple species of humanoids by taking over planets and assimilating its citizens. On top of that, the main character is from a society that is genderless by way of conversation. Everyone is a “she” and with this, it’s difficult to tell who is male and who is female. And it’s absolutely brilliant.

Read my review here: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Book Review

That’s it for now. What awesome books have you read lately?

 

 

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The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Book Review

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Book Review

The Goldfinch Book Review

Pub. 2013 - 771 pp

The Goldfinch, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014 and several other notable awards, is Donna Tartt’s third full-length novel.  Each award-winning novel was published ten years apart so by the time The Goldfinch came out, it was a bestseller before it hit the shelves.  The Goldfinch is my first taste of Donna Tartt and although I’m a little late to the game, I’m glad I finally found my way into her world of literary fiction.

The story begins with thirteen-year-old Theo Decker and his mother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  One of her favorite paintings was on exhibit – The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius from 1654.  When a home-grown terrorist bomb explodes, Theo wakes up in the rubble confused and disoriented.  He finds a dying old man who gives him a ring and an address, but he can’t find his mother.  He runs from the building after grabbing The Goldfinch and finds his way home, the place he was supposed to meet his mother in an emergency.  She never comes home and Theo retreats deep into himself.

“But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.”

Theo’s father had run off long ago and his grandparents are too infirm to look after young Theo, so he is taken in by the wealthy family of his childhood friend, Andy Barbour.  He manages to conceal the painting, something that keeps him connected to his mother, and tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life.  Eventually, Theo remembers the dying man’s last words and the ring and it leads him to a closed antiques shop owned by James “Hobie” Hobart.  Hobie recognizes the ring and knows at once that Theo had been with his business partner moments before he died.  Thus begins a new friendship with an old man who manages to bring young Theo out of his shell.

“But – more than anything – I liked him because he treated me as a companion and conversationalist in my own right.”

Theo’s mood changes and the Barbour’s begin to accept Theo as one of their own, especially Mrs. Barbour.  But just when things are on the uptick, Theo’s long-lost father shows up to claim him and moves him out to Las Vegas.

His father has addiction problems and makes dirty money off the baccarat tables and as a bookie while his girlfriend is unimpressed that a young person is in the house.  Theo is suddenly lonely again but is doesn’t take him long to make friends with schoolmate Boris Pavlikovsky, a Ukrainian immigrant who follows his father to jobs all over the world.   They experience a wild friendship laced with drugs and alcohol and take care of each other during their shared lack of available parental guidance and love.  They are kindred spirits who form their own type of wayward but inexplicably tight family.

The GoldfinchTheo soon learns of his father’s true reason for suddenly showing up in his life and when his father gets into some financial trouble, he discovers that he has his own lawyer and trust fund.  His life is thrown up into the air again when his father is killed trying to flee a bad situation, and Theo decides to make a run for it rather than winding up in foster care.  Smuggling his precious and priceless painting once again, Theo travels back to New York City, missing Boris immensely.  There, he shows up at Hobie’s door in tears and fevered exhaustion.

This briefly encompasses Theo Decker’s uniquely troubled start during his formative years.  But as luck would have it, his lawyer and the state agree that Theo can stay with Hobie.  He learns the trade of Hobie’s business and soon takes the place of his old business partner, the one who died along with Theo’s mother in the museum.  But eventually, the secret masterpiece he harbors intersects with the lives of the very people who helped him as a child, along with a complex net of art smugglers.

The Goldfinch is a masterful tale of literary fiction that spans a period of around fifteen years in Theo Decker’s life.  To keep the reader entrenched, there is a lot of danger and intrigue – but it all comes back to the fact that this is a coming-of-age story while The Goldfinch painting comes to symbolize so many different elements for Theo as he matures.

This is not an easy book to review because of its length and complexity.  Nor is it an easy book to read.  A literary masterpiece such as this will read differently for each person, each one of us taking home a different experience.  I, for one, have a soft spot for Boris and another for the young Theo.

If you haven’t read The Goldfinch yet, I suggest doing so.

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Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle Book Review

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle Book Review

Wolf in White Van Book Review

Pub. 2014 - 208pp

An odd little compendium of memories, Wolf In White Van features a science-fiction mail-in roleplaying game, its facially disfigured architect and godhead, an unexplained death, and a labyrinthine type of storytelling that brings you back and forth, to and fro, leading up to a moment in the past that puts the current plays in motion.  This is not a science-fiction novel, but literary fiction about a gamemaker’s life.

Sean Phillips lives in solitude but that’s the way he prefers it.  His face is hideously disfigured because of an “accident” that happened when he was seventeen.  Living in a small apartment, the insurance from his accident helps pay the bills as well as a mail-in roleplaying game that he devised and advertises for on the backs of small, obscure science-fiction magazines.

The game is called Trace Italian and players from around the country pay a small fee for “moves”.  Sean has pages and pages of pathways typed up and when players enter the game, he gives them several choices to make.  In his science-fiction gameworld, players find themselves in a treacherous post-apocalyptic land, and the goal is to make it to the Trace, a stronghold.  At each move, Sean offers them choices for the next move.  When the players mail in their choices, he mails them back a pre-typed description of the consequences, and the next choices available.

Some players mail in their choices with just that – their choice.  Others write elaborate descriptions and even offer up personal information.  Sometimes, Sean indulges them by personalizing their moves.  But in one case, a couple of his favorite players had taken the game for real.  A team consisting of a couple took the game literally, brought it to the outside world, and one ends up dead – something Sean never intended to happen.  As Sean thinks about what happened and while he defends himself in court, his memories cascade back to his childhood, leading up to his accident and his conception of Trace Italian.

Sean’s imagination as a child was dark and savage.  He enjoyed tales of survival and endless war; he lived in a fantasy realm where blood and death and bones covered the land while he sat atop a stone throne.  Conan the Barbarian and Doc Savage were his favorite series.  And he was a good kid.  He had amiable parents, a loving home, and a healthy love of reading.

The accident that changed his life is where Sean’s story leads up to.  Much of the time, we are transported to Sean’s period of recovery in the hospital, where he solidified the idea for Trace Italian.  Other times, he flips back to his childhood or just before the accident.  It is only at the very end when we discover what happened.

Sean sees his life as a series of “moves” and consequences.  The entire book is laid out as a maze, just as his Trace Italian game.  Sean feels that he has already played the game, so now he watches others make their moves.

“But this is the point where we split, the player and I.  He heads for the road to seek shelter or something to eat.  But I remain in the stasis of the opening scene, bits of gravel sticking to my face, cold night coming on.  I am strong enough to endure it.  I am strong enough to remain in its arms forever. I won’t get up; I have seen the interior once.  I’m not going back.”

From Sean’s lofty position as gamemaker, he watches the moves that others make, knowing that he has already been through it, figuratively speaking.  He watches each player carve their own path because each way to Trace is different for each player.  Meanwhile, you get a feel for Sean’s disposition during his escapades into the past.

“Who doesn’t want to rise above the obstacles in his pathway?  Who wouldn’t want to go down in flames?  And for those of us who can’t or won’t rise above, who doesn’t at least want to hear stories about how it might be possible for some triumph to eventually happen, given enough luck?”

As literary fiction, Wolf in White Van is a grand accomplishment.  The twists and turns, choices and moves, in relation to both the game and Sean’s life (one promulgated by the other), is brilliantly written.  And the incompleteness to the protagonist’s character felt keenly at the end (I had to read the last passage five or six times) gives off that beautifully understated and slightly (heavily?) warped tone that makes literary fiction so enthralling.

Be forewarned.  The end – is – disturbing.

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Breath of Dragons: Vanished by Tina M. Randolph Book Review

Breath of Dragons: Vanished by Tina M. Randolph Book Review

Breath of Dragons: Vanished Book Review

Pub. 2014 - 240pp

In this new series for young adults, author Tina M. Randolph blends high fantasy and science fiction, creating a futuristic but otherworldly land where dragons and their mysterious powers mix with people to form an elite ruling class of dragon and Drakon Masters.  Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender will enjoy this series featuring four classes of dragon powers and realms divided by element: fire, water, air, and ice.

In this world, dragon and man coexist in symbiotic relationships.  The world had been divided many years ago by dragon type. The Zealians have wingless dragons which possess the Breath of Fire – death and destruction.  The Neputunians have sea dragons which hold the Breath of Water – the ability to alter reality.  The Aurians are with high-flying dragons which have the Breath of Mists – memory control.  The Crystallians have ice dragons which possess the Breath of Ice – healing abilities.

It is not the dragons who wield these powers so much as it is their Drakon Masters.  Some people are born with a gift that enables them to utilize the power of the dragon breath via different methods.  They are an elite class of genetically superior people who pass the gift down through generations, yet their numbers are relatively small.

The main character Jett Trace is a young Drakon Master from the Aurian league (air).  His older sister, another Drakon Master, has vanished along with her dragon and he sets out to find her.  Suspicions point toward the Zealian League, long known for wanting to dominate the world through their powers of death and destruction.  But also rumored to be kidnapping Drakon Masters and working with the Zealians is the DBC (Dragon Breath Corporation) which has been able to give an army of warriors artificial dragon breath powers through sophisticated equipment.

During Jett’s quest, he and his assorted friends including a telepath team up with Drakon Masters from the Crystallians and Neptunians to fight a common threat.  Because his sister had vanished while trying to align forces with previously separate dragon factions to investigate the DBC and the Zealians, they come together for the first time in hundreds of years to combat the threat of fire.

When you think about dragons, your mind usually takes you to an ancient and forgotten time.  But this story uses a futuristic setting and combines mythical beasts of fantasy with sophisticated science-fiction elements.  There are high-tech floating cities, landing docks specifically for dragon or ship, zippy androids, hovercrafts, flying motorcycles, and even interplanetary space travel.

The relationship between dragon and Drakon Master is a large part of this novel.  Although the dragons do not speak, their minds are connected with their human counterparts and they speak through a mental connection.  Jett’s dragon Aeron is just as worried about the disappearance of Jett’s sister and her dragon Zephyr.  She’ll do anything to find them, even go to battle.

The more I dwell on it, the more I think: James Cameron’s Avatar meets Avatar: The Last Airbender, both of which likely served as inspirations (total conjecture on my part).  In Breath of Dragons: Vanished, the minds of dragon and Drakon Master meld together, just like the Ikran and Na’vi in James Cameron’s Avatar.  There is even a choosing ceremony briefly described with the dragon choosing the master which reminded me of a scene from the Avatar movie.  And then we have our protagonist who hails from the Aurian League, just like Aang who comes from Airbending tribe.   Not to mention the powers of the four elements or the evil that spews from the ‘Fire Nation’ in The Last Airbender series.

Wherever the inspiration came from, this world is so ultimately creative and fascinating that I kept putting the book down because I was constantly pushed into daydreams about Randolph’s fantasy world.  I found my mind wandering and exploring every part of her world of dragons – a world of inspiration for me.

It’s a short book and so there wasn’t as much character development as I would have liked.  And the main events happen in the blink of an eye without much fanfare which is jolting when you expect to explore the ensuing and explosive repercussions for the characters but don’t get the chance.  I wanted more about the connection between Jett and Aeron, more on the relationship between Jett’s sister and her lover, more on the relationship between dragons themselves.  Maybe I just didn’t want it to end.  Thankfully – it’s a series and this first book proved to be a major tease.

Recommended to all young adults and dragon lovers of all ages!

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The Magpies by Mark Edwards Book Review

The Magpies by Mark Edwards Book Review

The Magpies Book Review

Pub. 2013 - 400pp

The Magpies is a psychological thriller that was initially self-published in early 2013 through the Amazon KDP and CreateSpace programs.  Its quick success was enough to capture the attention of Amazon’s own private press and the author was signed while The Magpies was rereleased later that same year by Thomas & Mercer, Amazon’s thriller imprint.

Jamie and Kirsty are a new couple with everything going for them.  They’re fabulously in love and have just taken the first big step by buying a new flat together.  It is exactly what they were looking for: old world charm and close to the city for an easy commute.  Although it was at the top of their price bracket, neither one could believe the price they got it for – it was a steal.  The old owners wanted a quick sale.

The flat they’ve chosen is on the first floor.  Above them is an herbalist who deals in holistic healing and new age therapies (or is she a witch?), and on the top floor is a horror writer with a blacked-out writing room decked out with skulls, candles, pentagrams, and other items seen in cheesy horror flick backdrops.  In the basement flat, preferred to be called the garden flat by the tenants, live the Newtons – a strangely detached couple who warmly welcome them to the building nonetheless.

Beginning at the night of their housewarming party, the hoaxes begin.  The fire department is called and they show up looking for Jamie, who has supposedly called them.  They get books in the mail that they didn’t order, including books on Satanism.  Magazine subscriptions for dirty magazines are issued in their name, hoax pizza deliveries are made, dead rats are found on their doorstep.

At first, it’s just a nuisance.  Aside from the strange occurrences, their lives are going well.  Their sex life is fulfilling, their careers are satisfying, their friendships are happy, and they are talking about marriage and children.  But the hoaxes are taken up a notch.  After Jamie’s best friend is critically injured, Jaime and Kirtsy have an idea who is behind it all.  Then, it only gets worse.

At first, it’s just a note left at their door.  Although Jamie and Kirsty aren’t very loud people, the unsigned note accuses them of being extremely loud.  It also references noises they make in the bedroom.  Then they find audio tapes left for them with the sounds of their love making, recordings that could have only come from inside their flat.  They become the victims of intentional food poisoning, break-ins, and email hacking.

When Kirsty finally becomes pregnant, all she can think about is moving. But Jaime doesn’t want to give in.  He doesn’t want them to win.

According to Mark Edwards, this novel was inspired by actual events.  Apparently, he dealt with a horrible neighbor who accused him of being too loud when he wasn’t and went to great lengths to make his life miserable.  This novel amplifies that ‘bad neighbor’ memory, turning it into neighbors from hell.

I wish the mystery of the unidentified hoaxer had been played out a little longer.  Each tenant seemed to have something a little off-kilter about them.  It could have been any one of them and at first my mind was racing to discover who the jerk was.  Was it the witch and her feline familiar leaving dead rats at the door?  Was it the semi-creepy author seeking more source material?  Could it be the standoffish couple in the basement?

The mystery of “who” is solved fairly quickly and then it becomes a question of “why”.  But before that can be answered, the couple is put through extreme psychological torture.  Yet, none of the abuse can really be proven or documented.  The police can’t do anything and Jaime refuses to give in by moving.  So, they endure it – and so does the reader.

The Magpies is an intense read.  The real horror basks in its power of believability; it’s a scenario that could actually happen to real people.  And if you’ve ever known someone who lives to make others miserable, this book will scare you straight into Anthropophobia (the fear of people) – which is precisely what happened to the previous tenant in The Magpies.  Terrifying!

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Fire & Ash by Jonathan Maberry Book Review

Fire & Ash (Benny Imura #4) by Jonathan Maberry Book Review

Fire & Ash Book Review

Pub. 2013 - 537pp

Well, I’ve certainly picked a bright and festive book for the holidays.  But it couldn’t be helped.  I finished the third book in the series late last year, and it wasn’t until just recently when I got my hands on the final book in the Benny Imura series.  I couldn’t wait to get my nose between the pages, even if it isn’t exactly a typical holiday read.

Rot & Ruin (Benny Imura #1) Book Review
Dust & Decay (Benny Imura #2) Book Review
Flesh & Bone (Benny Imura #3) Book Review

Our crew of teenage warrior samurai, taught by the legendary Tom Imura (killed in book two at the Battle of Gameland), took off across the great Rot & Ruin to follow the direction of a plane that flew overhead – something that hadn’t been seen since the Rising fifteen years prior.  Instead of returning home, they ventured out to find answers, motivated only by hope.  The found the plane, or what was left of it, and a whole new threat even more deadly than Gameland.  It was a religion.

The Night Church led by Saint John and Mother Rose consisted of an army of Reapers and a second army of the undead, the children of Lazarus, who were to inherit the earth in their beliefs.  The Night Church prayed to a god of darkness, and together, killer and undead, they invaded town after town to send all inhabitants into the darkness.  Their mission is to kill everyone – every human on the planet. And when they finish with their mission, they’ll embrace the darkness themselves to completely rid the world of human sin.

At the end of book three, our group finds the downed plane and Sanctuary – half military base, half medical facility.  They survived the Battle of Sanctuary against the Night Church, and new members were added to our tight-knit cast of warrior heroes while one was almost lost.  Chong had been infected.

Fire & Ash begins at Sanctuary.  What should have been the turn of the tide is nothing more than a period of frustration for everyone.  Benny isn’t getting any answers and while Chong is still alive, he isn’t Chong anymore.  It’s clear that the files they found in the downed plane had not provided a cure as they were led to believe.  Nix has slightly withdrawn from Benny, which has him even more perplexed.  Lilah, the Lost Girl, is lost again – devastated with the loss of Chong and completely closed off.  Riot has grown deeply attached to Eve, the little girl they saved just after her family was slaughtered by the Reapers.  But Eve is also lost – a little girl who dreams of blood.

Joe Ledger, the military man who saved our crew and brought them to Sanctuary, is the one who brings Benny up to speed.  The files in the plane were incomplete; one box is missing.  Desperate to find a cure for Chong, he goes off on a solo hunt for clues and finds them after killing a random Reaper.  The scientist that discovered the cure, the one they have been looking for, was never on the plane.  More clues yield her whereabouts.

As for Saint John and his ever-growing army of Reapers and undead – they are still out there.  And they are anticipating every move from Sanctuary.  Brother Peter leads an army against Sanctuary, while Saint John leads an attack on ‘Nine Towns’ where Benny, Nix and Chong are from.

“Suddenly all those careful preparations disintegrated as predators far more dangerous than the walking dead proved what all wise killers already knew: that nothing was more dangerous than living men.”

There are several themes in the Benny Imura series but the most obvious one is that man can be more dangerous than zombies.  It has been years since the first Rising and the zombies are, for the most part, slow and easy to kill.  The real threat is man, or more accurately: bad men with evil agendas.  They prove to be more lethal than the hordes of undead.  This theme is not only resurrected in the fourth book, it is intensified by the commingling of evil men and the undead.  The Reapers of the Night Church can control the undead and wield them like a tool.

While the military is working on a cure, the Night Church is a fairly sophisticated operation as well.  Saint John commissioned a secret lab where the opposite of a cure was created – a mutagen that would turn the bumbling walking dead into super fast, and even methodical, hunters.

Another theme in this series is the coming-of-age sequence for Benny Imura.  He began as a bratty little teenager in the first book, but by the end he steps into (and fills) the shoes of his deceased brother.  Benny and his friends have gone through a lot and they’ve seen a lot.  But they were all trained by Tom Imura.  They are all Warrior Smart.  In only one year, Benny has become a man.

Tom Imura is a legend.  Everyone in Nine Towns knows his name.  He even has his own zombie trading card.  He stood up for justice and would always persevere in the face of evil.  He was revered as a hero.  As an expert in samurai fighting with Katana blades, he trained many of the teenagers in his home town, including his younger brother. In Fire & Ash, Benny continues to hear the words of his brother Tom echo in his head every time he encounters a dangerous or complicated situation.  I enjoyed this because his brother Tom was my favorite character and I still mourn his loss.

“When in doubt, observe, listen, wait, and evaluate.”

The individual theme in Fire & Ash becomes apparent toward the end when Joe Ledger tries to make Benny understand how to win against a killer.  A psychopath like Saint John will do anything – ANYTHING – to win.  Could Benny do the same thing?  If it came down to it, could Benny do the unthinkable to win?  He would have to become a monster as well.  The theme is reinforced several times by Nix (the reader) who quotes Nietzche with a deeply profound impact.

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” – Friedrich Nietzche

At the end, in an Alamo-esque standoff, Benny Imura and his four teenage pals plus a handful of other townsfolk, square off against a legion of 50,000.  Yup.  But Benny has a plan, and to fight a monster, he becomes a monster.  To win against Saint John and save the world, he’s willing to sacrifice himself and his friends.

“We train ten thousand hours to prepare for a single moment we pray never happens.”

Some of our past favorite heroes from the previous books come back to fight in the final battle such as J-Dog, Dr. Skillz, and Sally Two-Knives.  But what really caught my attention was a new zombie trading card mentioned: “Quick-Draw Carl, who still wore the broad-rimmed brown hat of his legendary dad, Sheriff Rick.”  The trading cards picturing zombie hunters and killers were sort of the ‘it’ thing for the teenagers in the beginning of Rot & Ruin.

Great series, explosive finale – I’ll never forget it.

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Playing Saint by Zachary Bartels Book Review

Playing Saint by Zachary Bartels Book Review

Playing Saint Book Review

Pub. 2014 - 352pp

Pastor Zachary Bartels is a man who preaches about God during the day, and writes about demons at night.  His latest novel Playing Saint is nothing short of divine – one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year.  In this action-packed supernatural thriller, an up-and-coming pastor comes head-to-head with pure evil during a chase for a satanic serial killer.

Pastor Parker Saint is a rising TV evangelist on his way to superstardom.  His recent book deal just might put him over the top.  But one small circumstance over a ‘he said/she said’ altercation threatens to put a halt to his ratings.  Just when he thinks the issue is about to be resolved, the DA’s office throws him for a loop.  All charges will be dropped IF he goes to work for the sheriff’s office regarding an ongoing investigation.  Naturally he agrees.  If he’s able to help at all, the resulting press could help his book deal.

Detective Paul Ketcham is the one who called for Parker Saint to aid in his case.  A serial killer is on the loose and they don’t know what to make of the strange occult symbols left around the mutilated corpses.  He figures that having someone on the team with a Judeo-Christian education couldn’t hurt.  But Parker isn’t an expert on satanic rituals or the occult.  Too afraid to disappoint, and too weak to handle gruesome crime scenes, Parker consults his smartphone while partially feigning sickness and easily finds answers to the symbolism in question.

Ketcham’s detective unit isn’t the only one searching for the serial killer.  The case has caught the attention of the Vatican and a trio of militant Jesuit priests has been conscripted to investigate.  They approach Parker Saint with a semi-bribe to make sure that he provides them with any vital information from the sheriff’s office.  The Vatican believes that the serial killer, along with a rash of recent church defilations in the area, could be connected to an ancient relic that was lost to the Holy See years ago and rumored to be hidden in the same vicinity.

Poor Parker is caught between a serial killer, a strict detective who wants him in the office every morning not a minute after eight, the Jesuit priests who take him on dangerous all-night investigations, his personal and business life which have been put on hold during the worst possible time, and his long-time assistant who is desperately trying to hold his life together.  But the closer they get to the serial killer, the more determined Parker becomes to hang on.

Unfortunately, the serial killer has become privy to Parker Saint’s new role within the investigative unit, and he makes it a point to strike back.  It becomes clear that the closer they get to the killer, the more precarious Parker’s situation becomes.  His life is on the line.  And after each kill and each redemption, this serial killer grows stronger and more dangerous through demonic possession.

“Tomorrow ‘he’ would go in to work, and no one would suspect that he had killed a woman less than ten hours before.  No one would look at him with a newfound sense of awe or fear or disgust.  But he hadn’t done it for his colleagues and co-workers.  He hadn’t even done it for himself.  As with everything in life, he did it to please Them.”

When the case threatens to push Parker past the breaking point, it also opens his eyes to the misdirection of his life course while his entire set of beliefs, his own personal theology, is shaken to the core.

First off, I want to tip my proverbial hat to the dialogue.  Sharp and full of sarcasm, the dialogue shapes each character to perfection.  The three Jesuit priests were my favorites: Father Michael, Father Xavier and Father Ignatius, aging up respectively.  These gun-toting priests were both extremely serious and absolutely hilarious, using a dry kind of humor that read spectacularly.

“Please,” Jared pleaded, “don’t go all Crusades on me.”

“Crusades? My order had no part in the Crusades,” the old priest answered evenly. “The Inquisition, however – that was ours.” – Father Ignatius

Father Ignatius, the elder of this Vatican secret service, refuses to call Parker by name, only referring to him as “Protestant” in a rather dubious tone.  I only wish there was more of this individual.  A good, long section exhibits Father Ignatius’ attempts at the helm of an American-Catholic confessional where you might find yourself crying from laughing so hard.

Parker Saint is, for the most part, a really good guy.  He is someone who can’t believe he is out past 11 p.m., inwardly revolts at the idea of entering a bar, and cringes at the muttering of cuss words.  When he gets involved in the investigation, he enjoys using the detective lingo such as M.O. so much that they tell him to ‘just stop’.  He gives off a slightly juvenile charisma after being thrust into such an exciting case, a place where has no experience or education, which makes him appear normal and completely endearing.  Amid the laughs and the frights, his character growth is aided by elder colleagues.

“I’ve been following your meteoric rise, Parker.  You need to learn the lesson that Satan learned the hard way: a meteoric rise, without submitting to God’s will, is the setup for a meteoric fall.”

Parker’s reluctance to believe in an actual demonic threat misleads the reader, setting us up for the type of [cue disappointing sound bite: ‘wah-wah-wah’] end that you see coming a mile away: some psychologically disturbed individual with a grievance has been wreaking havoc.  Spoiler alert: you have been brilliantly led astray – you will not be disappointed.  The demons are here and they are growing in number.

The climax is terrifying and wildly exciting.  With just the perfect amount of characters introduced, your mind will be reeling to figure out who the demon-possessed serial killer could be (just like a good Agatha Christie – minus the supernatural element).

I have no doubt that Playing Saint will one day be a major motion picture.  It is definitely in my top five favorite reads for 2014.

One more note – while this book revolves around a serial killer, there are no gruesome kill scenes.  Although there is quite a bit of violence at the end, the reader does not have to endure any gratuitous scenes from the serial killer in play.

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My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff Book Review

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff Book Review

My Salinger Year Book Review

Pub. 2014 - 252 pp

A little over twenty years ago, Joanna Rakoff took her first post-college position as an assistant in a small but well-known literary agency in New York City.  My Salinger Year recounts the short period of time Rakoff went to work for the very literary agent who represented, unbeknownst to her at first, J. D. Salinger.

The story begins after Joanna dropped out of graduate school abroad, “or finished my master’s, depending on how you looked at it”, and came home to New York City.  She finds her life up in the air and unsure of where to turn next.  Instead of moving across the country to live with her college boyfriend, she breaks ties with him and moves in with a guy she had only been dating for a few months. She wants a job to help kick-start her life.

A placement agency gets her a job as an assistant at a literary agency.  Joanna is young and unassuming, not realizing that she had walked into a position with one of the oldest literary agencies in NYC.  So when her boss begins to explain to her the rules about ‘Jerry’, Joanna simply nods her head, a little bit confused about the conversation.  She will not be talking to Jerry, giving out his information, sending him letters, calling him, or have anything to do with Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!  After examining the books on the shelves she eventually makes the connection:  Jerry is J. D. Salinger.  This agency and her boss represent Salinger.

The agency and her boss go unnamed throughout the novel, but the vivid details of the agency’s inner workings describe an old world shop that has refused to move with the times.  There are no computers, only a fax machine and photocopier to show any amount of modernization.  Joanna is tasked at dictation using an outdated dictaphone and typewriter.  There are no cubicles, no overhead fluorescent lighting.  Instead, the office is rich with thick drapes, dark woods and desk lamps.  It seems as if the office was frozen in ‘Salinger heyday time’ and that’s just the way her boss likes it – along with her classical cigarette holder and vodka lunches.  Joanna likes it, too (minus the dictaphone and typewriter).

Joanna’s only connection to Salinger at first is her regular task to answer his fan mail.  Salinger has made it clear that he does not wish to receive any fan mail and the agency receives bags of letters for him every day.  Joanna must reply to each one with a basic form letter which thanks the sender and regrets that Mr. Salinger does not wish to receive their communications.  It’s a menial task the Joanna begins to take liberties with in small, surreptitious acts of rebellion.

As Joanna learns more about the business and Salinger, she also learns about herself.  Drawing parallels between herself and Holden Caulfield, the protagonist from Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Joanna find a path to self discovery and the desire for happiness.

“Was it possible that Don was right?  That the world perceived me in a manner entirely different from how I perceived myself?  Was it possible, too, that no one could be complicated, intellectual, awake to the world, that one could be an artist, and also be rosy and filled with light?  Was it possible that one could be all those things and also be happy?”

My Salinger Year is a completely charming read about a young woman trying to find her way in the world.  For bibliophiles, it’s a fascinating first-hand account of the NYC lit scene from the wide-open eyes of an unassuming and uncorrupted ‘newbie’.

When Joanna Rakoff first takes the agency position, she hadn’t even read Salinger although she has a master’s in English literature.  The Catcher in the Rye was just a book she had never been assigned in high school when most get their first taste of Salinger.  She’s tells the story with an air of normalcy, without the ghastly pretentiousness we might expect from a new college graduate.  She offers no overt opinions on Salinger and makes it easy to join with her on this path to discovery.

Her life outside of the agency is as unsatisfying to Joanna as it is to the reader.  Yet, we’ve all been there – another bonding element that Rakoff is able to provide. She mingles at parties with the industry’s finest and envies those who lounge in the grand foyer of the Waldorf. But Joanna is stuck in bad relationship, barely able to make ends meet and living in a tiny apartment without heat or even a kitchen sink.  She lives balanced on a wire between fabulous and destitute.

“When my colleagues uttered the names on the spines of those books, their voices turned husky and reverential, for these were names of godlike status to the literarily inclined. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner.  But this was, and is, a literary agency, which means those names on the spines represented something else that leads people to speak in hushed voices, something that I’d previously thought had absolutely nothing to do with books and literature: money.”

If you’re wondering about J. D. Salinger and if he makes an actual appearance in Rakoff’s memoir, you will just have to read My Salinger Year and find out.  By the bye, if you haven’t heard – J. D. Salinger’s former New Hampshire home listed by Jane Darrach of Martha E. Diebold Real Estate just landed on the market.

****Support your local economy by

purchasing My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

from a locally owned book store.****

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Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart Book Review

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart Book Review

Super Sad True Love Story Book Review

Pub. 2010 - 331 pp

You wouldn’t naturally assume from the title that Super Sad True Love Story is set in an extremely odd American future featuring a semi-illiterate population of status-seeking, social media-obsessed fashionistas who put the current usage of Facebook and the like to shame.  Yet the title couldn’t be more perfect.  Curiously appealing, it serves as the perfect epithet for a world addicted to social news and commentaries, a world where books have been discarded (because they smell) and a college major in ‘images’ or ‘assertiveness’ is par for the course, a world where catchy headlines rules the media industry.  The title got you to click on this article, didn’t it?

Warning: Some Adult Content

“Reading is difficult.  People just aren’t meant to read anymore.  We’re in a post-literate age.  You know, a visual age.  How many years after the fall of Rome did it take for Dante to appear?  Many, many years.”

Lenny Abramov, a well-established executive in Post-Human Services (a company providing immortality services for the wealthy), is back in Manhattan after a yearlong excursion to Rome.  At 39, he feels life ebbing away, the inevitable inching its way closer and closer.  And he’s lonely; he wants and needs to feel loved.  He will take it any way he can get it:  from his parents, Russian immigrants who strangely support the current bipartisan and immigrant-hating administration; from his boss Joshie who might be able to protect him when Lenny comes back to a crippled economy and unsecured job position; from his American Mama, a social worker who helped Lenny’s family acclimate to an American lifestyle; or from the beautiful Korean-American girl he met while in Rome.

Eunice is young, about half his age and fresh out of college where she majored in ‘images’.  She is the embodiment of youth for Lenny and he becomes immediately obsessed with the idea of Eunice.  They shared a quick romantic interlude in Rome, more of a pity session for Eunice, just before Lenny returned to the states.  While he sent her adoring messages filled with hope for a second meeting, Eunice was writing her friend about the old ‘nerd-face’ she accidentally hooked up with.  But his attention grows on her and she leaves Rome for New York City to be met by an extremely excited Lenny.

As the two completely different personalities try to build a relationship, their budding and strangely askew happiness is punctuated by a conflict of culture, family, the generation gap, and the imminent collapse of the American political and economic systems.

Gary Shteyngart builds a complex and humorous future rich with ridiculous nuances that are fun to read.

Addicted to self-serving forms of media, everyone carries an äppärät – a device that visibly displays the wearer’s stats (credit, net worth, fu**ability, personality, attractiveness), live news streams, news alerts, etc.) and allows for instant connectivity to anyone in the vicinity or around the globe through networks such as GlobalTeens.  Instead of walking up to someone at a party, you can just look at them and send an instant tap through your äppärät.  You can also see how you rate among your peers.  Poor Lenny always rates last, until he hooks up with Eunice.  Suddenly, his confidence is at an all time high, and so are his ratings.

Books are out.  No one reads books anymore, evidenced by the excruciatingly painful number of typos seen within advertisements, news articles, and the regular communications that Eunice sends to her friends and family.  It’s not uncommon for people to use ‘text-speak’ while actually ‘verbalizing’ or ‘emoting’ (lots of new commonly used words to accentuate the illiteracy here).  This is a difficult truth for Lenny who loves books and is one of the last readers of these ancient artifacts.

“Looks like I’ll get some exercise walking to the train,” she said.  “Ha ha.”  This is what her generation liked to add to the end of sentences, like a nervous tic.  “Ha ha.”

The economic system is going to hell in a handbasket.  The American dollar is worth next to nothing and the Chinese creditors are wanting to collect.  Lenny, a thrifty individual, utilizes Yuan-pegged dollars and converts to more powerful currencies to save in his accounts.

“The ARA has tried a dozen different economic plans in as many months.  Privatization, deprivatization, savings stimulus, spending stimulus, regulation, deregulation, pegged currency, floating currency, controlled currency, uncontrolled currency, more tariffs, less tariffs.  And the net result: bupkis … We are finally no longer critically relevant to the world economy.  The rest of the globe is strong enough to decouple from us.  We, our county, our city, our infrastructure, are in a state of freefall.”

The political system is also entering catastrophic failure.  There are no longer any political parties; it is all bipartisan.  But the current president is blaming all woes on immigrants and those with poor credit.  While congress claims to be bipartisan, the current administration really holds no power because the country is owned and operated by mega-corporations.  While the tensions between the rich and poor rise, and the president threatens to deport all immigrants with poor credit, a revolt begins in NYC’s Central Park.

“We were afraid to really fight with each other, and so we devolved into this Bipartisan thing and this ARA thing.  When we lost touch with how much we really hate each other, we also lost the responsibility for our common future.”

The majority of the hilarity revolves around the hypersexualized young adults, the obsession with fashion and barely-there clothing (the most popular online shopping venue is AssLuxury where snap-off undies and translucent jeans are all the rage), the status symbols associated with working in either credit or media, the usage of new random terms (“he’s sooo media…”), and the lack of real human communication and empathy.  Some of the trivial conversations and world-building scenarios are just too good to be true, and too naughty to repeat.

****Support your local economy by

purchasing Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

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Requiem By Lauren Oliver Book Review

Requiem (Delirium #3) By Lauren Oliver Book Review

Requiem Book Review

Pub 2013 - 391 pp

The last installment in the Delirium series provides a broad-strokes conclusion to a rebellion against the zombie-like authority, but little in the way of the protagonist’s final life direction.  For a series that began with so much hope and love, it petered out with more questions than answers.  It certainly could have benefitted from an epilogue.  Regardless, this young adult series kept my attention and it was certainly a lot of fun to read.

Delirium (Book 1) Book Review
Pandemonium (Book 2) Book Review

If you have not yet finished Pandemonium, consider this a spoiler warning!

At the end of Pandemonium, Lena and Julien managed to escape the underground forces of the Scavengers and made it to an Invalid safe house.  Julien, once poster child for the DFA and who was scheduled to be cured in the coming days, had found love in the form of Lena.  Now he, like Lena, has backed away from the mindset that love is the root of all evil.  He no longer wants to be cured.  He wants to join the rebel clan with Lena.  He has felt the rushing heat of love’s fire and will fight to keep it.  But the two were seen by regulators, the peace-keepers of the new anti-love America, and they were dragged out of the safe house.

Because of Julien’s infraction (being caught with an uncured girl), he was scheduled for execution.  Lena, who was saved by the rebels, decided to go on a do-or-die mission to rescue Julien.  She turned her back on the rebels after discovering that she had only been a pawn, and heroically went to save Julien, just as Alex once saved her from the cure in the first book.  This time, both lovebirds successfully escaped.  But when they reached their destination, Lena found Alex back from the dead, and he wasn’t too happy to see her hand in hand with Julien.

Requiem begins as the rebels move from safe house to save house only to find each one destroyed.  The enforcers have entered the Wilds and are now driving out all Invalids, rebels and uncured with mass extermination tactics.  Julien, who grew up in the lap of luxury as the son of a prominent politician, didn’t expect so much hardship, but he is willing to endure it for Lena.  Alex is angry and refuses to speak to Lena, but remains in their group of rebels.  Lena just wants to be safe.  Her heart is torn between her first love and her new one.

The enforcers keep coming, people keep dying, and the group decides to head back to Portland, Maine where Lena first escaped, although she does not want to.  The rebels decide to make a final stand.  In cities across the new nation they will attack rather than be driven into extinction.  In Portland, they decide on the perfect day for their demonstration – during the new Mayor’s wedding.  Lena doesn’t realize that this wedding involves her former best friend Hana.

Requiem revolves between two different viewpoints chapter by chapter: Lena and Hana.  This is the first time we’ve seen a viewpoint from a cured member of society.  Hana was Lena’s best friend in Portland, Maine and as the days led up to the date when they would both be cured, it was Hana who first rebelled.  She didn’t expect Lena to be the one to fall in love and run away to the Wilds; she always thought that was just child-fantasy talk.  Now that she has been cured, her thoughts of Lena are muffled.  All of her emotions are stifled and even her favorite pastime of running no longer holds any enjoyment.

The cure affects each person differently and for some people, it doesn’t even work at all.  It seems that Hana wasn’t entirely cured and as the days move toward her wedding, we follow Hana as she begins to experience different emotions as they struggle to surface through the cure, including guilt.  She reveals something from book one that was never explained, and the part she played which led to Lena’s current situation.

Most of Lena’s situation in Requiem involves being on the run and trying to distance herself from Julien and Alex.  Her life has become incredibly difficult so now we move into another phase of her emotional growth.  In the first book she discovers love and then dares to go against society.  In the second book, she stops letting people tell her what to do and she feels anger.  In this book, she feels uncertainty and even doubt.  What if she was wrong?  Maybe the cure would have given her a better life after all.  Maybe love is evil – it certainly hasn’t provided her with a better life.  She struggles with the highs of love and the lows of loss.

But the life of the cureds aren’t fairing any better from Hana’s viewpoint.  Because the government had to acknowledge the existence of the Invalids, the rules are getting stricter and the life of the average citizen is getting tighter.  The new mayor, her betrothed, is part of the problem.  In order to weed out sympathizers, he orders restrictions on food rations and electricity to anyone suspected of helping the Invalids.

“The cure is about control.  It’s about structure.  And the rich get richer and richer, while the poor get squeezed into narrow alleys and cramped apartments, and told they are being protected, and promised they will be rewarded in heaven for their obedience.  Servitude is called safety.”

Requiem moves at a good pace and leads up to the expected throw down in Portland, a huge riot where the Invalids pour over the city walls to take back their town.  There is mayhem, there is death, there is pure chaos.  And in the end, a very changed Lena meets a very changed Hana.  Two lives which were once separated are merged again.

The Delirum series is a very clean young adult series about a dystopian, emotionless world made possible by the cure.  It did seem to contain some political statements at the end, veering toward the extreme conservative right especially with this line:

“The cureds want to know; we have chosen faith instead.”

Of course, the science in this series is a Dr. Evil kind of bad – I mean, come on – getting rid of our ability to feel emotion?  Proclaiming love to be a disease?  Of course people would rebel.  And the terrifying nature of this world is what makes it such a gripping read.  However, I would rather not have this series used as a tool or a political statement to teach young adults that science is bad and that’s what it started to feel like at the end – but only by a smidge.  For the most part, it’s just great fiction.

****Support your local economy by

purchasing Requiem by Lauren Oliver

from a locally owned book store.****

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Posted in Dystopia, Romance, Science-Fiction, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
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