Broken road is a wonderfully tangled, beautiful mess
347627
Nail biting action from the very first page.
Broken road is a wonderfully tangled, beautiful mess. Ms. Kline knew what she was doing when she wrote this story, I couldn't put it down and have no doubt other readers will feel the same.
An interesting mix of characters, there doesn't really seem to be a leading couple, instead several share the spotlight. Which is new and refreshing for me.
The only slightly negative thing I can say is to get the full impact of this book, you should read the first in the series (Black Horse), before this one. The characters are so well established already that you miss out on getting to know them from the beginning. Though that isn't really negative, it just means there's another great book you need to read.
2860843
I've already praised the quixotic Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.  Now I'll move to the outrageous The Road to Oz, where Dorothy Gale is sent on her way to Oz literally by coming to a fork in a road, this time with Toto again.  She meets up with the Shaggy Man, and endearing homeless man who relishes his shags, bobs, shreds and general crustiness.  She also encounters the quite idiotic Button-Bright, a charming but stupid little boy, and last but not least, she meets Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter.  Polychrome is so very Oz, and yet she's one of the sky fairies, in her rainbow gown and her delicate features (she only eats mist-cakes, dew-drops, and cloud-buns); but she grieves being separated from her father the rainbow.  The journey takes them on a road past bizarre creatures (a fellow who can only spout music like an instrument, cannot simply talk), the hilarious feud between Foxes and Donkeys, the creepy Scoodlers, among other notables, to lead them to Oz.  The whole dangerous, strange mission was set forth by the Queen of Oz, Ozma, to celebrate her birthday.  We get to meet Queen Zixi of Ix, Santa Claus, and many other wonderful people and creatures that welcome all of us back to Oz.  A truly fantastical, funny, Ozzy book.
1896087
Gemma is sixteen when she is taken from a Bangkok airport and brought to no-man's land in the wild and dusty Australian desert. Her kidnapper, Ty, says he stole her from the life she knew back in London in order to save her from the soulless lifestyle of zombie-like commercial conventionality and acquiescence. But Gemma wants nothing to do with Ty and his independent existence: she just wants to get back to her old life.

As time passes with just the two of them, however, Gemma learns of Ty's past, his reasoning, and even begins to see the desert in a new light.

Written in letter format addressed to Ty, STOLEN is a startlingly unique and utterly haunting UK debut that is sure to take the world by storm. It is a detailed exploration of the human psyche under extreme conditions, a vivid portrayal of Australian wilderness, and a rare literary accomplishment.

Gemma's emotions, thoughts, and behavior perfectly befit those of who have been taken, and are now being held, against their will. Of course I don't have any personal experience to back my claim up, but I found myself nodding along to her thoughts and actions, knowing that, if I were ever in her situation, I would react the same way. Gemma is not universally likable: she is at many times petty, reckless, and frightened to senselessness. However, that makes her more appropriately human for this book than the "perfect" protagonist: she is the worst side of ourselves that would come out in similar conditions.

I found Ty sympathetic, and understood his logic much more quickly than Gemma did, even though his methods of carrying out his dreams were downright dangerous and psychotic. Lucy Christopher gradually reveals his troubled past to readers, and the beauty of it is that at the end we are not sure where we should stand. Should we agree with Gemma's desire to return to her old life, even with knowing how stale, monotonous, and "unreal" it would be? Or does Ty's version of removing oneself from the corrupt society in order to find a more fulfilling lifestyle among nature make more sense?

There is something remarkably intimate about the way in which STOLEN is written. Because it is written in first-person letter format to Ty, we connect, remarkably, with Gemma (first-person narration) AND Ty, the "you" whom the letter is addressing, since we are placed in a position of essentially being both Gemma and Ty at the same time. STOLEN makes it clear that there are no easy answers to this scenario, and readers can feel free to make of it what they will.

STOLEN is not without its flaws. We are not given enough information about Gemma's old life to decide whether or not Ty was justified in taking Gemma away or to reach a decision about which "life" Gemma should choose. The desert experiences can become a bit tedious as they blend into one another, and despite the excellent characterization, some of the scenes were a tad too dramatic for me to despite. However, it all comes down to the fact that STOLEN is a remarkable achievement and an alluring, nearly unputdownable read. Pick this book up and see if you don't get sucked into Gemma and Ty's story yourself.
246329
This novel is my favorite of all of Stone's disturbing and powerful works (I haven't read "Outerbridge Reach" yet). It's so beautifully and evocatively written that I somehow find the roll of the prose soothing and  pleasurable, despite the all but unbearable sadness and desperation of the  characters. I still, after several rereadings, find myself puzzled and  disturbed that these characters can't get their acts together, act so  selfishly, have so little self-control and respect for one another--just  like people in real life, unfortunately. (Certainly in Stone's view, and I  suppose also in mine). Drugs, booze, insanity, and cruelty abound, and are  not punished. As the unforgettable conclusion reveals, there is ultimately  no justice for these characters--they either survive or they don't. This is  Stone's harshly beautiful world at its best, in my opinion.
1976240
The plot of this book is difficult; a kidnapped woman suffers the attentions of a soulless man as a means to escape a life that no longer fits her. When I read the synopsis on the back of the book, I thought it might be a book about Stockholm Syndrome, but it isn't. Nancy always hates Dwight. Why can't Nancy free herself from him? Why can't she and Judge Jolley work together to free themselves? The power of the book comes from its success at making me believe in their captivity, their botched attempts, their fits and starts and bad moves.

This is not an easy book to read, but it's beautifully written and absorbing, VERY funny in places, always disturbing, and the confrontations will leave you shaken. At one point I feared it would devolve into some kind of easy romantic denouement, and I was disappointed in that prospect, considering the power of the story that had come before. But it doesn't. It continues to be a road novel about self-discovery up until the very end.

I have to commend the author for her portrayal of Dwight. He is one of a kind, as far as characters. He is so well-drawn and yet so completely mysterious. He is without a conscience or a plan, and that makes him one of the more dangerous characters I have ever read.
4802275
Book Description
Winter has come to Route 117, a remote road through the high desert of Utah trafficked only by eccentrics, fugitives, and those looking to escape the world. Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident. But then he finds a mute Hispanic child who has been abandoned at a seedy truck stop along his route, far from civilization and bearing a note that simply reads Please Ben. Watch my son. His name is Juan And then at the bottom, a few more hastily scribbled words. Bad Trouble. Tell no one..

Despite deep misgivings, and without any hint of who this child is or the grave danger hes facing, Ben takes the child with him in his truck and sets out into an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful and silent. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same. Not for Ben. Not for the child. And not for anyone along the seemingly empty stretch of road known as Route 117.
 My Thoughts
The harsh and unforgiving environment of the desert and the author's way with words, make the setting as unforgettable as the characters. This was my first book by James Anderson, though I have since discovered that this is actually a sequel to The Never-Open Desert Diner. While I didn't feel lost the way I sometimes do when I've missed a prior book in a series, I do think if I had a magic do-over button, I would read these in order.
 Every character we encounter along Ben's route is unique and so well written. Not only does Ben wind up responsible for a child, but for a baby and a dog too. I'm certainly not going to spoil the journey for anyone, but I will say the author shows us how bleak and cruel the world can be as well as the good that also exists. The story was fast-paced, I felt transported from the written words on the page to the desert and I gave up some sleep to stay immersed in Ben's world.
Thank you, James Anderson and Penguin's First to Read for the digital ARC. I plan to read The Never-Open Desert Diner and look forward to what the author writes next.
3672424
This book hits so many emotions on so many levels, I find it hard to pull my thoughts together to tell readers how beautiful this story is. Grace and Eisav's story is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful. The story is full of secrets and lies that impact so many of the characters and complicates lives that should have been left untainted.
Grace loses so much through the course of this story. After losing her mother, her city life is uprooted and she is plunked down in rural Iowa. Keeping silent in her grief, the eleven-year-old only child slips silently into a large family that harbors so many secrets it is hard to figure out who is hiding what. The only person who can reach her is Eisav, one of the twins. A strong friendship develops between the two that over the years turns to love. Forbidden by the father, who hates Eisav the couple struggles until circumstances tear them apart.
This beautifully written story is a unique puzzle of interwoven pieces: part love story, part intrigue, part heartbreak, and part a redemption story. There are so many layers to this book and it is told in both the past and present. The storyline is intricate and the characters well developed. I had difficulty putting this gorgeous story down and it left a book hangover for days.
2598319
This a a bit of a different take on the post-apocalyptic novel; it's somewhat more of a thinking-person's pa novel than most of the genre.  It is bleak, but there is beauty in the bleakness, as opposed to something like The Road, which, while beautifully written, takes bleak to a whole 'nother level.  It brought tears to my eyes and put me in a funk for most of a day, but it does leave some room for optimism in the end.  Heller's writing style is sort of quasi-stream of consciousness, and can be hard to follow at times; this is definitely not a "white noise for the brain" kind of novel.  You must pay attention and work for what you get, but it's worth it.  I don't normally give plot summaries when I do a review, and I'm not going to do that now; I think that's taken care of above.  What I will say is that if you enjoy works within this genre but perhaps find most of them somewhat lacking in eloquence, give this one a try.
179207
I'll skip the summarization of the plot since all of the reviews here do a great job of telling you what this book is all about. Let me get straight to the point: this is a wonderfully hilarious, heartbreaking novel with memorable characters, beautiful, witty dialogue, and downright fantastic story telling.

I don't normally read this kind of book; I lean more toward thrillers and horror novels. I must admit, I got caught up in all the Ya-Ya frenzy surrounding the release of the film. Out of curiosity, I picked up Divine Secrets and didn't put it down until I devoured each and every word. These characters have such depth, and I found myself longing for an eccentric hat, a Bloody Mary, a cigarette, and a gaggle of close friends! I could almost feel the sultry heat of Louisiana and smell all the wonderful smells of the south: fried catfish, flowers everywhere, smoky barbeque, lake water. Wells manages to use a simple narrative writing style while painting incredibly vivid mind pictures.

This is a powerful story about a middle-aged woman trying to come to grips with her all-consuming, ever-present mother. These humanly flawed characters have depth and personality. I truly wanted to know what happened to each one. It's so easy to forget that our mothers had and have lives separate from us, and Siddalee gets the chance of a lifetime: to begin to know her mother as a girl and young woman.

I know I'm gushing on and on about this novel, but it really struck a chord with me. I want more of the Ya-Yas! If you think you can get the full feel of the novel by going to see the film, think again. There are so many things that the film omits, and it can never capture the senses the way this book does (although the film isn't bad). If you like good story telling, and if you don't mind a whirlwind of emotions when you read, then grab this one right now.
2775267
You know those moments in high school when someone in a higher social group notices you, your world can shift on the axis it is moving on for a while. But for Blake and Chloe when they connect unexpectedly it is like a shift to another dimension, through the worm hole as their worlds become full of colour instead of the plain black and white they have become accustomed to. Despite the colour they bring to each others lives there are moments of darkness that creep in around the edges and then knock them individually and together for six. Where The Road Takes Me is a beautiful book that is not all sweetness it has sour as well, but i loved how it perfectly captures those moments in time like talking about random stuff, and small gestures can be so significant to the other person. I despised Blake's dad and i loved his mom. Chloe has been so much heartbreak but she cannot see how loved she is and how her stubborn nature can fracture apart a family. For me Chloe is numb to the world blocking it out, but finding Blake has opened her up to feeling things, some that may be uncomfortable and others that are new and exciting. Sort of like when you get a numb foot and then pins and needles awaken it, painful but knowing your limb is still there - sorry i ramble. Letters written in read (sigh) beautiful and lying outside talking in the summer months about nothing and everything brings back memories of times i need to relive again. Jay McLean is a writer who wraps you up in her words and gives you the funny tinglys from her stories that is the only way i can really describe this book.
4713850
The heroine, one tough girl named "Girl," looks hard for love in this reversal of the Amercian pilgrimage story, going from the west back into the heartland. The prose is tough at first, as Girl is one tough young adult, very real. But the relentlessness of the prose in it's pacing, language, and clipped style, portrays perfectly the angular, alienated, alienating world of disenfrancished, love- and money-improverished youth. I really get under Girl's skin, feel what it's like to feel that lost.

What I love most about this heartbreaking story is that she keeps looking for love no matter what, everywhere, willing to take any offered thread, but then hopelessly tossing out what's offered in confusion and pain. This feels so like real life, rather than the romances of found love, that it makes my heart crack. I cry in the end, at the hopelessness of Girl's situation, at how long she has searched, and how long she will probably go on searching.

For me, this story is about the search for the love we never got from Mother, and the search for love and truth in the heartland. Just as our own alienated families have disappointed and betrayed us, so has the country. The American Dream is dead. The fields have gone fallow.

In the end, for me, this was not a hopeful story, but painfully true to life.
1534612
First time writer Jane Radcliffe makes a hell of an impact with her poetically written, strangely beautiful and painfully honest account of a young girl's harsh coming of age in an affluent Detroit suburb in 1994. You know from the title that the protagonist, Violet "Let" Hitchcock, a troubled teenage girl, will somehow and somewhere hit the bottom, but you just don't know how hard.
Let has just turned sixteen and has a new car which she christens The Flame. Almost immediately, she becomes enamoured of Henry Edwards, a sophisticated and seductive nineteen year old, who calls her "baby girl" and hands her the keys to a tumultuous ride into a dangerous, dark world of casual sex, drugs and alcohol. Along her dangerous way, Let meets the oddly alluring Ryder Hadley, a worldly and wise sixteen year old who isn't without his own share of problems. Against this dramatic backdrop, Let watches her parents' marriage breaking up and nearly trapping her beneath its broken timbers.
One of the strongest points of The Free Fall is its lack of sensationalizing the heavy subject matter. It is told in flashback, intercut with poetic musings on life. Radcliffe wisely steers clear of rolling in the gutter by writing too many graphic and potentially objectionable scenes, or on the other side, coating everything with glitter and making it a confusing, shimmery mess (think the God-awful The Fool Reversed.) That talent is most clear during the scenes involving drugs or sex - written in a lyrical but mysteriously coherent way that leaves you with no doubt of what is going on, but avoiding heavy handedness or ugly details. The plot sounds so incredibly banal and done-before: a rich girl has a destructive affair with a dangerous older man, develops drug habits, watches her parents' marriage dissolve, and meets an intelligent boy her age, but Radcliffe deftly captures the spirit of the novel: an adventurous free spirit infected with the breathless insanity of obsessive, teenage love.
However, Let is anything but a typical teenage girl having problems with sex and drugs. She is neither an innocent angel nor a jailbait tart, but a refreshingly ambitious, reflective and intelligent center for the novel. Radcliffe neither attempts nor makes excuses or explanations for her reckless behavior. All the characters are unusual, real and complex, especially Let's mother, who swings from ultra friendly and loving to psychotic and obsessive.
Don't look for any happy endings here. The ending is an unexpected tragedy that can keep up with the saddest of them ("Beauty Queen", "The Killer Angels"). You feel for Let throughout her turbulent, exhilarating and ultimately heartbreaking ride through rebellion - except you can get off in the end with the bittersweet and haunting beauty of The Free Fall lingering in your mind long after the book's 342 pages are up.
2542930
In Joseph Boyden's mesmerizing and beautifully-rendered second novel - a follow-up to Three Day Road--former bush pilot Will Bird reflects, "Something's there, through the black spruce, just on the other side. I can't see it yet, though..."

The "something" is a strange place in the road:  the place between traditional ways of life and modernity, between nature and the insidious effects of the drug culture, between life and death.  There are two stories that are expertly interwoven here:  the story of Will, deep in a coma, who reflects on the adventures and tribulations of his life and what has led him to this hospital bed.  And the story of Annie, his niece, who is on a quest to find her missing sister, a one-time top fashion model in New York City who has lived the high life in every sense of the word.

Joseph Boyden captures the Cree language and sensibility and there are truly gorgeous and memorable moments in this book such as Will's connection with an aging bear sow, who, like Will, is experiencing "a world of loss".  Boyden breathes fresh air into the life of this aging hunter who is losing his designation as the "bush man in this town" and who deplores the blood feuds and drug dealing that have taken hold of his community.

Annie, too, is lost in the foreign world of high stakes modeling in New York - where she ends up in her search for her sister - a high-octane world where human connections mean little and the drug Ecstasy rules the day.  After being summoned back home, she and Will strive to rescue each other through the bracing honesty of confessing their experiences.

This gripping novel - taking us from a sterile hospital room to the primordial edges of the secluded James Bay, from the northern backwoods of Ontario to the glittering high-rises of the Big Apple - only falters at the end, with a "tie it all together" ending that is unworthy of the rest of the book.  It's a stunning book, worthy of the Scotibank Giller Prize it so richly earned.
88608
I will admit right upfront here if I hadn't been listening to the audio version, I would not have finished this book.  In fact, I yanked the second disk out of the car player, vowing to take this pretentious and uninteresting book back to the library. But the radio was boring, the drive long, and the reader playing Renee has a warm, inviting voice that makes for easy listening, so I popped it back in shortly thereafter for another try.

I'll also admit, there are long passages herein of philosophical rambling that lost my interest.  I borrowed the print version and found some of them unfathomable even when my attention was not divided between the road and the story.  Even so, the sad-sweet musings of these two lonely people and the unfolding of their lives and their friendships are literary treasures not to be missed.  And the ending, which I read this a.m. and will listen to later, is not to be missed.  Beautiful!  I loved it.
424278
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, held me prisoner within the confines of its bleak setting, a desolate and forlorn world that has devolved back to animal savagery, for two straight nights. It was cold and terrifying, the ruin of humanity, as day by day, mile by mile the reader witnesses through the eyes of the two main characters, the man and the boy, as night falls down on a world that has resigned itself to flail violently and wickedly in its death throes.

The story is simple. A man and young boy (father and son) are traveling the roads of post apocalyptic America in hopes of finding warmer climes and perhaps a colony of people. The landscape is a bleak, gray, ash covered vision of a terrifying future for mankind. Dried out hulks of corpses litter the road, lay in the beds of long abandoned houses, and even sit propped on porches like "straw men set out to announce some holiday". When it's not raining or snowing, a light soot falls and covers everything. There is hardly anything in the way of food left on the planet for the remaining survivors. But people will eat, even when all other food sources have been exhausted, if you know what I mean.

The road for the man and the boy is treacherous, and each page is flipped in anticipation and hopes that the two will not be separated and captured by the bad people. Always the two drive for the coast. Hellish scenes pass along the road, and encounters with other survivors become more frequent and serve to crank the tension level up until it is almost unbearable.

The Road is about evil and good. So much of the book is spent describing the absolute evil that man can be and do, and yet the message of the book is clear: even in the darkest of nights, when faith seems like a cliche or a slap in the face of so much despair, the love shared between a father and son is enough to create hope for the future. And hope for humanity.

The Road is sad and harsh. And it does not shy away from the brutal capabilities of humankind. But it is so beautifully written and so well paced that I could not put it down. I've never read a book as fast as I read this one, and it will probably be a long time before I do so again.
4869369
WRECKLESS is one of those stories that stays with you, to ambush you at odd hours and remind you of everything you thought you'd forgotten about first love, broken friendships, and the kind of crazy-dangerous possibility-thinking that is such a huge part of being a teen. Having lived in small-town America, I could practically smell the cotton candy and french fries of the county fair with Quinlan's descriptive prose, and I truly felt for Bridget as she navigated a path filled with family obligations, new and changing friendships, and the giddy, so-intense-you-can't-breathe feeling of first love with a guy who makes you feel dangerous just by standing next to him.

Love is messy, Life is complicated, Families can be challenging, and Tragedy at a young age can change who you are... but WRECKLESS is just about perfect.
514444
I absolutely loved this beautiful book. It is filled with gorgeous prose, fascinating, complex characters, and a wonderful ray of hope through some terrible hardship. It is woven through with folk tales that will be fresh to most readers, and really examines the most difficult kinds of choices. This is firmly middle grade, though there is definite violence and an attempted rape early on.