Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“I like that about art, that what you see is sometimes more about who you are than what’s on the wall. I look at this painting and think about how everyone has some secret inside, something sleeping like that yellow bird.”- Graffiti Moon, Cath Crowley

Lucy is in love with Shadow, a mysterious graffiti artist.

Ed thought he was in love with Lucy, until she broke his nose.

Dylan loves Daisy, but throwing eggs at her probably wasn't the best way to show it.

Jazz and Leo are slowly encircling each other.

An intense and exhilarating 24 hours in the lives of four teenagers on the verge: of adulthood, of HSC, of finding out just who they are, and who they want to be.

So I love art. I love looking at it, I love reading about artists, and I like it as a relaxation technique. I especially like the pop artists, the realists, the surrealists, and the impressionists, as well as some art deco and art nouveau painters. 

Yet despite my love for art, I don't particularly like reading books about it- except in the form of biographies or histories. I think it was Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun that really turned me off of YA art books. That one was so purple and dense with the deep healing powers of art the whole thing put a taste in my mouth akin to rancid syrup. I wanted to tell her to cut the cloying bullshit. 

And yet, I picked up Graffiti Moon, and, because of my shit luck with YA contemporaries lately, I expected a lot of rolling my eyes and sighing. Instead, I fell headfirst in love with this book, with its gorgeous prose and wonderful characters and witty dialogue that actually got a few laughs out of me. 

I thought the descriptions of Shadow's street art would be so convoluted and Ed and Lucy's love story would be chemistry less and boring. Instead, I found myself wishing Shadow actually existed so I could see his art, and really rooting for them to make it together. I loved Lucy's hobby of glass blowing and both of their relationships with their mentors. In fact, I loved all the characters- Jazz the psychic and Leo the poet and Daisy and Dylan who stayed together despite everything. 

In fact, when I think too much into this book, I'm not really sure why it worked for me. Maybe I should have hated it, taking off points for the bordering-on-purple prose and the power of art talks and the heavy symbols in the art descriptions and the unrealistic characters, but I couldn't bring myself too. It was I'll Give You the Sun, with the pretension and obnoxious metaphors boiled out of it into something far more accessible. 

Hell, with this book I even managed to find something beautiful in abstract work. Like Rothko. I can't stand Rothko; he's everything I hate in modern art. He reminds me of that Brideshead Revisited quote about how modern art is all great bosch. Interestingly though, I don't hate either Pollock or Mondrian. Normally, I would scoff at anyone who sees love in his work. But I liked that the characters in this book could see love in that, like they could see loneliness in tangles or street signs. I suppose that's what's wonderful about art. I'm sure some people scoff at what I see in my favorite artists, like the aching loneliness I find in Edward Hopper's work or the calmness I find in Monet's. Or hell, even the worshipful consumerism that is everything Andy Warhol. If they want to love squares on canvas or tangles the way I love soup cans or waterlilies or people sitting alone at bars, knock themselves out.

It's been awhile since I put down my reviewer glasses and just read a book. And it's been equally as long since I liked a book like that. Not everyone's going to love this book, but I sure as hell did. For some, this one may be a symbol of what everyone hates in YA contemporary, but for me, this sweet little Aussie book is the perfect summer read. I think something else by Cath Crowley might be popping up on this blog again this summer.

9 out of 10

Dead Little Mean Girl by Eva Darrows Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Everyone should have a chance, even the mean girl. Perhaps especially the mean girl, because she might have just needed someone to listen to her.”- Dead Little Mean Girl, Eva Darrows

Quinn Littleton was a mean girl—a skinny blonde social terrorist in stilettos. She was everything Emma MacLaren hated. Until she died. 

A proud geek girl, Emma loves her quiet life on the outskirts, playing video games and staying off the radar. When her nightmare of a new stepsister moves into the bedroom next door, her world is turned upside down. Quinn is a queen bee with a nasty streak who destroys anyone who gets in her way. Teachers, football players, her fellow cheerleaders—no one is safe. 

Emma wants nothing more than to get this girl out of her life, but when Quinn dies suddenly, Emma realizes there was more to her stepsister than anyone ever realized.

Quite a few times, I've gone into books expecting one thing and having the actual outcome be completely different. Occasionally, I'll end up enjoying it regardless- I thought Everything I Never Told You was a mystery, for instance, and it not being one didn't impact my rating at all- and sometimes (most times) I'll hate it- like All the Rage, another contemporary I thought was a mystery. 

I say all this because I thought this book was a mystery with a lot of contemporary elements (it's always mysteries...) and it ended up just being a straight-up contemporary. And not a very good one. In fact, for most of the book, I couldn't help but think it truly must be a parody of Heathers or Mean Girls. I was searching so hard for the message this book promised, the one that says not all jocks and cheerleaders are bullying morons, not all nerds are wonderful people, and didn't get that at all. I hoped this book was about a girl who dismissed her stepsister as being shallow and mean, but after her untimely death she finds herself searching for her stepsister's killer and discovers all kinds of things about the girl she had thought she knew but never really had known. That wasn't it. That wasn't it at all. Instead, we got an amazing nerd girl and a sociopath for the first 200 pages (aka, most of the book). The stepsister is a beautiful blonde idiot, a venomous cheerleader. Hell, she wasn't even a convincing sociopath- sociopaths are typically geniuses, with cool calculating minds. It seemed like she wasn't smart because in YA literature, the only smart people allowed are the likeable ones, you know, so they can take down the bullies with some witty quips. 

Yeah, so for the first 200 pages, this was going the way of most really bad YA contemporaries. Cliched family backgrounds all around, in which the mothers are glorified, who needs fathers. Even when the father has a good excuse, like Emma's father- of course he's not around much, he's a goddamn pilot. Quinn is even said to have gotten all her negative qualities from her father, I suppose because it's easier to say that than to let her mother's character be slandered in any way. It would be interesting if her mother was at least extremely manipulative, and more unique than just saying that her father's a complete dick. I think my least favorite character actually ended up being Karen, because for someone who professed to love her daughter as much as she did, she didn't seem to give a damn about her wellbeing at all. Hell, she probably didn't give her much of a choice as to where she wanted to live or which house was better for her to live in. I don't know. The more I was told to like Karen, the less I ended up actually liking her.

So I was all set to give this book an extremely low score and then the last 50 pages and Darrows attempted to make amends for everything she had written in the first 200. Well, too little, too late. Yes, that message was important, but it would have been so much more effective if it wasn't so tacked on. You could feed me all kinds of bullshit about how Darrows did that on purpose, so that we grew to hate Quinn like Emma did and we never understood her and blah blah blah, but the thing is I never hated Quinn. I pitied her and wished someone a bit more skilled could write her, but I never hated her. Instead, I started to hate both Emma and Karen, characters I probably was supposed to like. And frankly, if she wanted to do that, she shouldn't have left it to that last fifty pages, even if it was supposed to be commentary on how we never truly get to know someone until their life is over. It would have been far more effective to split the book in half- before and after. Normally, I think that's a bit gimmicky, but it would work in this case. Because the thing is, I genuinely liked the message (no matter how cliched Emma's musings on grief may have been) at the end and I genuinely felt like Darrows believed what she was saying, that you never truly know that mean girl as well as you think you might. And I did like certain things, like seeing her dad torn up with grief and seeing Emma's interactions with her own father, but again, too little too late. 

I know I said in my My Sister's Grave review that I'm an ending person and not a beginning person. That I'll give a book a higher score if I like the ending more than the beginning, but a lower score if it's vice versa. In this case, I think my opinions stayed the same. Really the ending just disappointed me, got me thinking about the book it could have been. In the end, pick this book up if you want a strangely addictive little contemporary with some light and cliched thoughts on grief and maybe a message at the end. Don't expect anything life changing or even particularly original, though.

5 out of 10

Mid Year Freakout Book Survey- 2017

I know I said I didn't want to resurrect Tag Tuesdays because I thought they weren't a very good fit for me, but I decided to make an exception for ones I could keep going as an annual thing, like this one or the Bookish Academy Awards. And this one seemed fun, so I'm going with it.

Best Book You've Read So Far in 2017

Since I don't count classics when choosing favorites/least favorites just to make things easier for me, I'm going with the incomparable (so far) Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. 

Best Sequel You've Read So Far in 2017

Don't read a ton of sequels, and the one I was really anticipating ended up falling flat as a sequel, so I'm going to go with The Likeness since that was the book that proved my liking of In the Woods wasn't just a fluke thing. Loved this book.

New Release You Haven't Read Yet But Want To

Huh. I've pretty much pre ordered all the new releases I really wanted to read, but maybe Saints and Misfits by SK Ali? I'm not into feminist books at all, but I do love books about faith and religion when those things are portrayed in a positive light. I'm not a Muslim, but I am a Christian (believe it or not). Not a very good Christian, but one nonetheless. Also, by the time this entry comes out (I'm writing it a week in advance in preparation for a trip I'm taking) The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue will have come out and I really want to read it. It still counts, even though I preordered it and am reading it as soon as I come home, because I technically haven't read it yet but it is in fact out.

Most Anticipated Release For the Second Half of the Year

Not sure about this one either because both of the books I was really looking forward to in November have now been moved to 2018 release dates (funny enough, both are in March). And I just found out the book I had been anticipating for an October release has now been moved to February 2018. I can't win. So I guess maybe Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka is one- that book is coming out August 1st. Also, The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo interests me because it takes place in the Grishaverse and also has illustrations in it, so I am looking forward to that. That comes out September 26th.

Also some other upcoming releases I want to read: 

Rattled Bones by SM Parker (August 22nd)

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (October 3rd)

Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni (October 3rd)

The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz (October 17th)

The Revolution of Marina M (November 7th)

Biggest Disappointment

While Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda does in fact come to mind, I'm instead going for The Roses of May by Dot Hutchison. Even though I gave it a relatively good score of 7 out of 10, it didn't work very well as a sequel to The Butterfly Garden and I wish it was more of a standalone/companion novel. 

Biggest Surprise

I'm not sure, but maybe Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I thought I would hate it because everyone else did, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I wouldn't say it was my favorite book or anything, but I just liked it.

Favorite New Author

Tana French. I mean, sure, I read The Trespasser last year if you want to nitpick, but I didn't truly love her like I do now until this year when I read In the Woods.

Newest Fictional Crush

Clem Ackroyd from Life: An Exploded Diagram. This one just appeared in my life, but I think it will last. 

Newest Favorite Character

Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited. I know I was going to avoid classics, but I just really like him. Bewarned, the next choice is from a classic, too. Also Cassie Maddox from In the Woods and The Likeness is another contender.

Book That Made You Cry

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I just read this play, and oh my God, Williams has an unmatched gift for writing dysfunctional families. Laura especially hit me hard, as I related to her on a level that made me uncomfortable. For Christssake, we even share a name!

Book That Made You Happy

All the books I love are miserable. So the last happy book I remember reading isn't even an actual happy book. It's Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott. Oh, I had fun with that one.

Favorite Book to Film Adaption Book You Think Would Make the Best Film/TV Show

Yeah, I still don't watch many book to movie adaptions. I haven't even seen 13 Reasons Why- I was tempted to watch it, but Twin Peaks took over and now I'm not really interested anymore. But I think We, the Drowned would make a really great miniseries on Netflix or HBO or Prime, and I would so watch an In the Woods movie. Seriously, why hasn't that one come out yet?

Favorite Post You Have Done This Year

All my posts are pretty much the same thing (reviews) but I do really like my Silent Child review. 

Favorite Cover So Far

Either the cover for We, the Drowned or We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Both are illustrated with this black and white color scheme that I adore. I love the nautical theme of We, the Drowned and the art style of We Have Always. Honorable mention goes to the cover for my edition of Brideshead Revisited, because I just find it really aesthetically pleasing.

What Book Do You Have To Read By the End of the Year?

Jesus, I don't know. I don't have any books that I have to read. Haven't really planned my TBR that much in advance. 

What I want to know is, what's your favorite book so far? Most disappointing? Let me know!

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“History is the heavy traffic that prevents us from crossing the road. We're not especially interested in what it consists of. We wait, more or less patiently, for it to pause, so that we can get to the liquor store or the laundromat or the burger bar.”- Life: An Exploded Diagram, Mal Peet

Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside--just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive. Told in cinematic style by acclaimed writer Mal Peet, this brilliant coming-of-age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet's latest is an unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime. 

I remember going on Goodreads about two years ago and finding out that Mal Peet had died. I had an odd reaction to the news of his death, feeling like I had been shocked suddenly. I wasn't sure why, given that I had only ever read one book by him, Tamar, which I really enjoyed and think it deserves a lot more recognition. I didn't even know much about the author himself, so I had no idea why I had such an upsetting reaction to his death back in 2015.

I actually bought this book a couple months ago, when I thought I was on a Cold War kick after reading Sekret, but that didn't last very long and my thriller obsession took over. I finally, and rather reluctantly, started this book after I wasn't sure what else to read. And I ended up absolutely loving it.

This is barely a fiction book. It reads more like a memoir. More specifically, it reads like a Bill Bryson book, especially The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. The way this book was written and the mature narrator and the blend of nonfiction with fiction made me think it was meant for a much older audience than it was published for. While I wasn't entirely thrilled with the odd first person to third person POV transitions, I still loved the innovative method Peet chose to tell the story, to the point where I had to keep reminding myself it was in fact fiction. It is a welcome stand out in the sea of YA historical fiction, a genre plagued by sameness in subject content, storytelling, and character diversity. 

It was so easy to fall in love with this book. Clem was a wonderful narrator, funny in a very British way. He is an unapologetic sentimentalist, and is an unreliable narrator as a result. Yet I happened to like his sentimental view of youth and young love and surprised myself by cheering him on in his quest to get laid by the lovely Frankie in the face of impending nuclear destruction. There are shades of Cameron Wolfe in his character and view of his homelife. While the book didn't hit me as hard emotionally as the Underdogs books did, I did find myself getting a little choked up at some points, and as a whole I think Clem holds the same appeal for me as Cameron did, being a funny, sentimental dreamer. 

I am also impressed by Peet's writing, especially his dialogue. I love how he was able to capture the sound of their accents on page. I always love books written in various parlances and I wonder if Mal Peet is in fact from Norfolk, which makes that more impressive. I don't know about you, but I can't really hear the accent I grew up in. Perhaps it would be easier if I had, say, a Southern accent, but then again maybe not. 

The ending was perfect in its own way, though fairly predictable, at least to a Yankee like me. When I hear 2001 in conjunction with New York, along with many others, my mind always goes one place. The book went there, but in a way that leaves you hanging, unsure as to what's going to come next. I would beg for a sequel, but unfortunately Peet has passed, and I'm not entirely sure we'll get one even if he didn't. I'm not entirely sure I would want one, anyway.

My reviews for books I love are always fairly short, because I feel as if I don't need to rationalize why I loved something as much as I why I didn't. I will say this, though, I'd never recommend this book to a newbie at historical fiction. They wouldn't understand it and would get bored. I'd give them Tamar instead. But for someone like me, an amateur historian and someone bored with the sameness of YA historical fiction, don't miss this one. Don't be fooled by the fairly cliche, been there done that romance synopsis- this book is so much more than that. It's a history lover's dream. It's rare that I can call a book unique, but this one is completely in a class by itself.

8.5-9 out of 10

My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“It’s been twenty years, Lieutenant. I’ve gone through it every day for twenty years. I’ll get through these days the same way I got through those, one bad day at a time.”- My Sister's Grave, Robert Dugoni

Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House — a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder — is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.

When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past — and open the door to deadly danger.

I think you all know by now my favorite kind of thriller is the crime/police procedural. While I think there's something so fascinating about police work, I don't have any real desire to go into the detective field or CSI or any of that myself. I just like to read about them. I think the main reason why those kinds of books appeal to me more than the typical mystery-thriller is that they're more believable. I can't stand books where the main character has no background in crime investigation yet somehow she solves the entire mystery, while the bumbling police don't believe anything she says. In real life, those same MCs would probably FUBAR the investigation. All of this is because when I picked up this novel, I thought it would hit me right in my happy place.

Interestly, this book and I did not get off on the right foot. Tracy, our main character, started out okay and was very convincingly female to the point where I had to keep reminding myself that the author was, in fact, a man (for some reason, I find male authors write female protagonists much more convincingly than female authors write male protagonists. Maybe it's because they don't think as deeply into it as female writers seem to do), but as the book progressed she started to quickly annoy me. Her constant quest to free Edmund House confused me, because, why? Even if he didn't kill her sister, he's still a horrible, horrible human being who did other things to deserve that life sentence, like rape and torture a girl for three days, and it seemed to me like Tracy would have been the kind of person to be comfortable letting him rot in prison. 

Though I just want to say that it's pretty cool to have a main character involved in shooting competitions and not treating owning a few guns or liking hunting as an automatic sign of someone being a murderer, as well as having a setting that's rural, but not portrayed as being a town full of backwoods inbred rednecks. I found the woodsy rural setting to be a refreshing take on conventions of the genre and this book to be a much more convincing take on the genre of rural noir than other books- unlike A Good Idea.

I also didn't like Dan O'Leary much at all. Oddly enough, he was another reason I had to keep reminding myself this book was written by a guy- he seemed for all the world like some dream love interest a girl would create. Educated, wealthy, hurt by his cheating ex wife, childhood best friend, the typical perfect love interest. traits. Not into that stuff, myself. Also, their relationship struck me as manipulative and even inappropriate, especially on Tracy's part. I couldn't shake the idea she was using him for his occupation, and he had only taken the case just because it would get her in his bed, not because it was a "gross miscarriage of justice". I think my least favorite part was during the trial, when he put her on the stand, and the fact they had just slept together the night before made me think the whole thing was just wildly inappropriate. Could just be me, though, and YMMV (wow, look at me using all these acronyms, damn I'm cool).

So I really did not like the first half of the book, including the trial. I think my absolute least favorite part in the world was the outcome of a trial, in which I was like "okay, we're supposed to root for a chick who put a convicted rapist and torturer back on the streets, and basically destroyed the careers of so many close friends of her father just to open up an investigation that might never get solved. Sounds logical.". 

But then the second half of the book got really good all of a sudden and was the reason the book got as high a score it did. I find that I'm an ending person. I will, 9 times out of 10 (actually more like 7 times or 8 times) give a book a higher score if the second half is better than the first than I would give a book whose first half is better than its second half. Probably because that's the half that sticks with me the most. 

I think the reason why the second half worked so well for me (well, besides the twistedness) is because Dugoni let both the main character and the protagonist be wrong. Do you know how revolutionary that concept is, especially in a mystery novel?!? Ah, my excitement over that turn of events caused me to use the dreaded interrobang, but if you don't grasp the amazingness of that you need to read more mystery novels. Not even a little bit wrong, but almost entirely wrong, too. That was another reason I gave it such a high rating for a book I almost entirely hated the first half. 

I mean, sure, some parts in the second half didn't entirely work for me, since they reminded me wayyy too much of Silent Child and I'm still not sold on the character of Tracy Crosswhite, but eh, minor details. Dugoni also has a very effective writing style- it's not stellar or anything and certainly didn't blow me away, but he can get a scene down very nicely and knows how to translate his ideas onto a page effectively. Something I noticed about his writing is that his character development and interactions are very feminine, focusing heavily on the emotions, whereas when he writes to actually move the plot along it becomes more masculine, simplistic but, again, effective. This style works for me- being a girl, and one that enjoys characters and character studies makes his character descriptions and interactions pleasant to read whereas his writing with the intention of moving the plot forward doesn't skimp on the gore and the fun stuff to read about, not dwelling so much on the sentimental crap. Of course, there are some exceptions to this- he doesn't focus as much on physical appearance the way women authors tend to (often, I find that female authors unfortunately tend to hinge character traits on appearance- a habit I've been trying to break myself of in my own writing as well) and there are some descriptions of the torture that many male writers wouldn't hesitate to include but Dugoni holds back on- though I don't really begrudge him of that. 

For more of my long winded musings on male vs female authors, you can go read my review of Sashenka, if you really want to. Maybe someday I'll write an entire blog post dedicated to this and spare my reviews the extra paragraph.

I mean, there were some parts in this book where I thought Dugoni played it a bit safe, but those didn't really bother me that much. 

Overall, I may pick something else up by Dugoni, heck, maybe even the second book in the Tracy Crosswhite series because I think that's written more like a traditional crime novel than this book. Of course, being not entirely enthralled with our lovely Ms Crosswhite makes me think that maybe I might want to try something else. Of course, reading the Goodreads descriptions of the next books in the series might just change my mind... Who knows, maybe she'll grow on me!

8 out of 10

Spring Reading Recommendations

For some reason, in the spring I find myself drawn to dark books, especially mystery-thrillers and more realistic horror novels. Maybe it's the gloomy rainy nature of the days, maybe it's because everything is coming to life again and it's so bright and cheerful that I want to read the darkest books I can find. Also, because "April is the cruelest month/breeding lilacs out of the dead land/ mixing memory and desire/stirring dull roots with spring rain". Interestingly, the spring months are always my worst for reading because as much as I love the mystery genre, it does not love me back. As such, I only have five recommendations for you. So here are my top five recommendations for those rainy spring days.

In the Woods by Tana French

  What, did you think that this would be a list of recommendations centering around thrillers and not have a Tana French entry on the list? It's no secret that she is one of my favorite authors and, while I could recommend any one of her books to the right person, I think this is the best possible introduction to her writing. This book follows Det Rob Ryan who, along with his partner, Det Cassie Maddox, is called to investigate a case in which a girl was found dead on an old sacrificial altar during an archaeological dig, though the case is a recent one. However, this is the same area in which three kids went missing and only one was found at all, alive, but with a sneaker full of blood. That kid was Ryan as a child. This is a character driven crime novel that focuses heavily on the psyche of Ryan as he investigates the case that may or may not be connected to his own. This is my second favorite book in the incomparable Dublin Murder Squad series, and I gave it an 8.5-9 out of 10. A warning though, this one's a slow-burner.

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

  This was one of two books on this list to make my best of 2016, albeit at very low spots- in the case of this book #11 out of 13. Regardless, I still loved this novel, which is about an investigation done by the FBI into a group of girls who went missing but ended up at a place known as the Butterfly Garden, where they received wings tattooed on their back and were essentially held prisoner until dying at their 21st birthday. Not the best summary, and the plot is rather implausible, but still a novel I highly recommend if you love dark and twisted thrillers. It got an 8.5 out of 10.

Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman

  If you like crime novels as much as I do, this one's for you. Pretty Little Things follows a girl who goes missing after talking to strangers online. Around the same time, grotesque paintings of the bodies of girls are being found, with the actual bodies of the girls being found shortly after. The killer, Picasso, may have some connection to the disappearance of the girl, as well as another disappearance, one involving the agent investigating the murders daughter. While it's not a perfect novel, anyone who loves crime books will be sure to be satisfied by this twisted book. Fans of The Butterfly Garden should definitely pick it up. I gave it an 8-8.5 out of 10.

Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta

  This was the second book that made my best of 2016, even if it was at the #12 spot. This action-packed book is about a boy who, while swimming, accidentally witnesses a killing take place. Because the case is high profile, and the killers haven't been caught yet, he is forced to go into witness protection at a survival camp up in the mountains of Montana. From there we meet several other characters and also the most interesting villains in a novel I encountered last year. There's plenty of twists and turns and murders happening that glued me to the page. I gave it an 8.5 out of 10, and those who love action and impeccably researched fiction would absolutely love this book.

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

  No, I didn't like this book very much (I gave it a 6 out of 10 and was being generous). However, when I recommend books, I do my best to recommend ones that I think people who aren't me will like a hell of a lot more than I did. This mystery (with some crime elements) is about a woman who, in order to get out of a car accident she caused, claimed she had a connection to the Bethany Sisters, two sisters who disappeared in the 70s. More specifically, she claims that she is the younger of the two, Heather Bethany. However, the police are suspicious of who she claims to be, and open up an investigation into the case. There's also a lot of flashbacks in which we track the mother and father of the sisters as they cope with their daughters' disappearance. Someone who loves Gillian Flynn novels with her unlikeable heroines are sure to love this one.

So what kinds of books do you like to read in the spring? Do you agree with any of these choices? Let me know in the comment section below!

A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

Both seventeen. Both afraid. But both saying yes.

It sounded like the perfect first date: canoeing across a chain of lakes, sandwiches and beer in the cooler. But teenagers Amelia and James discover something below the water’s surface that changes their lives forever.

It’s got two stories.

It’s got a garden.

And the front door is open.

It’s a house at the bottom of a lake.

For the teens, there is only one rule: no questions. And yet, how could a place so spectacular come with no price tag? While the duo plays house beneath the waves, one reality remains:

Just because a house is empty, doesn’t mean nobody’s home.

I picked this novella up kind of on a whim, mostly because I was so sick of reading What the Dead Know that I needed something else. I ended up being extremely pleasantly surprised by this YA horror/suspense thriller. It's funny that a book that wasn't even on my radar until about two weeks ago ended up impressing me more than many of the books I get excited about. This isn't even the first time this year, too, Marina was also an impulse pick up and I ended up adoring that novel. I suppose there's a lesson to be learned in that, but I can't think of one at the moment.

Another thing this book has in common with Marina is that both have plots I love. I adore the water, and the idea of a house being beneath a lake is a really cool, almost surrealist concept. In fact, my junior year of high school I took a painting class in which I had to create a surrealist piece and I chose a house in the middle of the ocean. A little different, but same general concept. 

However, as much as I liked the idea behind it, the length made me a bit nervous. While I have stated in the past that I believe that most YA mysteries can and should be shortened a good 100 pages, and I am a champion of short books in general, I was a tiny bit skeptical that the plot could be concisely told in only about 110-120 pages. I shouldn't have been worried. In my opinion, this book was the best length for its story. In fact, if you added or took away even as little as 10 pages, my rating probably wouldn't have been as high as it was. The story Malerman wanted to tell couldn't have fit a novel unless he wanted to do major revisions and expand on it greatly, but at the same time it couldn't have fit a 50 page long short story in a collection of short stories. 

While the beginning was kind of slow, and the constant repetition of "both seventeen, both ..., but both ..." got old quickly, by the middle I was hooked. I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. And despite this, I remember the plot and the characters vividly, unlike with Dare to Disappoint. Any book I can read in under a half hour with no breaks and still stays with me holds an easy ticket into my affections. Sure, the characters are lacking, and normally I love character based fiction, but the story Malerman wanted to tell was a plot based one and not a character based one, and half the time I didn't even notice how little developed they actually were. That being said, I found Malerman's portrayal of the teenage mind, more specifically the awkwardness of new encounters and first dates, far more relatable than any "relatable teen" YA novel I've ever read.

Also, the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but the build-up to the reveal is exquisitely done, and the lead up to the conclusion had me unable to tear my eyes away. Malerman ended the book quite elegantly, allowing the story to close but still leaving us with the perfect horror movie cliffhanger, making me not entirely opposed to a companion novella or a full on sequel, but hoping one isn't in the cards despite that. Some cliffhangers just aren't meant to be resolved. 

I will say this, though, there is a niche market for this book. Not everyone's going to like it, which I suppose is true for all books but especially for this one. Those who like more traditional horror or thrillers should pass on this book, as well as those who dislike novellas. But those who love surrealist mild horror/suspense? Should absolutely pick up A House at the Bottom of a Lake. You won't regret it.

9 out of 10

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Children can be happy when their parents are miserable. But a parent is never happier than her unhappiest child.”- What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman

Thirty years ago two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. Their bodies were never found and those familiar with the case have always been tortured by these questions: How do you kidnap two girls? Who—or what—could have lured the two sisters away from a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon without leaving behind a single clue or witness? 

Now a clearly disoriented woman involved in a rush-hour hit-and-run claims to be the younger of the long-gone Bethany sisters. But her involuntary admission and subsequent attempt to stonewall investigators only deepens the mystery. Where has she been? Why has she waited so long to come forward? Could her abductor truly be a beloved Baltimore cop? There isn't a shred of evidence to support her story, and every lead she gives the police seems to be another dead end—a dying, incoherent man, a razed house, a missing grave, and a family that disintegrated long ago, torn apart not only by the crime but by the fissures the tragedy revealed in what appeared to be the perfect household. 

In a story that moves back and forth across the decades, there is only one person who dares to be skeptical of a woman who wants to claim the identity of one Bethany sister without revealing the fate of the other. Will he be able to discover the truth?

I didn't particularly want to start with this Laura Lippman book. No, I wanted to read her arguably most famous work, Every Secret Thing, but that book not only had an ugly cover and was more than I was willing to pay and the library copy was falling apart, so I put it down. And then I stumbled upon this book in Goodreads Deals for $1.99 and figured what the hell. That was probably a mistake.

For one thing, the book took me way too long to read for a mere 350-400 page book. But for some reason, I felt as if it was almost a 100 pages longer than it actually was, with the story, a story made for a 300 page if that novel, stretched out like taffy being pulled until you could see through it. 

(Does that metaphor work?) (Who the hell cares, let's just roll with it.)

But let me back up. Explain to you my first thoughts. Which were actually extremely positive. I settled into this book in my favorite chair with a bag of Cape Cod chips nestled in the curl of my elbow. I admired the pretty prose (though there were a few paragraphs I had to read twice) and put the book down after a mere twenty minutes of reading (after which I was dismayed to discover I had only read about 5% of the book) to do something else. I liked the way Lippman set up the opening scene, liked the way she set up the characters, couldn't find anything to complain about really. 

And then, I started reading more and more. And, much in the same way my Megan Abbott experience went, the flaws and patterns in Lippman's writing style began to stick out. For instance, I noticed that Lippman, when describing a person, won't say something like "she was a tall, fat, older woman". No, instead she would say something along the lines of "tall and fat, she was an older woman". Personally, I'm fine with this tactic being used occasionally, just to switch things up a bit, but the amount of times Lippman used this grated on me. I wasn't surprised at all to learn she was a reporter, because it's a very reporter thing to write. But the writing wasn't my biggest annoyance with the novel.

No, there's something, or someone, far worse.

Meet Heather Bethany, the only person in the world to ever be sexually abused. Seriously. I know this probably is the exact wrong thing to say, but she needed to build a bridge and get over herself already. She pissed me off with her constant victimizing of herself, claiming that everyone else was responsible for the fact that she had a shitty life, and even judging others for their problems because she had everything so much worse. I hated her. She reminded me strongly of Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, but there was something I was able to pity about Blanche, and Blanche wasn't nearly as obnoxious and self-victimizing as Heather. No, Blanche was more annoying than anything else, but not so much that her downfall wasn't sad and horrific. By the end of this novel, I actually wanted something along the same lines as what happened to Blanche happen to Heather, which may make me a horrible person but it's the truth. 

There was also something strongly reminiscent of Lolita in Heather's backstory, but I always felt the same way about Dolores Haze as I did about Blanche, so I couldn't connect the two on that level.

I mean, most of the other characters were horrible, too. The only ones I really liked where Willoughby, Nancy, and sometimes Lenhardt and Kay. All the others, especially Miriam, had this snobbery that I detested, as if they acted like they were so much better from everyone else. I also hated about how much attention was given to the looks of Miriam and Heather, about how they were so beautiful and such geniuses and everyone loved them or was jealous of them because of it. Ugh. The whole Bethany family just annoyed the living hell out of me, especially Miriam and both the Bethany girls. Dave's heart always seemed like it was in the right place, so I gave him a bit of a pass.

The best parts of this book were the crime parts with the detectives (big surprise). When Lippman took us back to the police station I felt comfortable, like I had been here before and like the story was actually moving forward. The treadmill effect (when you feel like you've read so much and then you look how much is left and you haven't even made a dent in it) hit this book particularly hard. It was so discouraging to read for two hours (I've finished books in less time) and realize that I've only made it through 20% of it. Much of it is Lippman's fault, I think, because just as we would be getting closer to the ending, suddenly, another goddamn flashback would show up. I think I was almost going to cry during one part, when Willoughby dropped a bombshell and I was thinking "yes, this story was finally getting somewhere" and then I turned the page and the chapter heading said "Miriam". I literally couldn't stand Miriam's parts, I didn't care about her goddamn perfect life in Mexico, where she was complaining that she started fresh so the mean people wouldn't judge her for "moving on". 

I also found myself getting really tired of this book really quickly. Like I could only take about 2 hours worth of this book. Any more than that, and it will make your head hurt.

This all being said, I didn't really hate this book. The ending I didn't like, the Bethany family I didn't like, but the story was good and so were the detectives. What could easily have been an 8 out of 10 for me ended up being in the middle of the road because of the two above things. 

I think I'll classify Laura Lippman with Megan Abbott in my brain. Both are definitely talented thriller writers, popular with many people, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either one, but neither worked for me. However, I feel considerably less eager to pick up another Lippman, unlike the way I felt towards Abbott. I still might read Every Secret Thing, but I think I'll live without it, even though I do give thriller writers more chances than other writers because it's such a fickle genre for me, and who knows, I might end up loving it. I suppose fans of Gillian Flynn might appreciate the horridness of the female characters in What the Dead Know, but I've never read her either. She's on my list though. But all I know about this book is I'm sure as hell glad it's over.

6 out of 10

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Not everybody wants to get out and see the world. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just want to figure out how to fit yourself into the world you already know.”- Universal Harvester, John Darnielle

Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut

Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s a small town—the first “a” in the name is pronounced ay—smack in the center of the state. This is the late 1990s, pre-DVD, and the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut. But there are regular customers, a predictable rush in the late afternoon. It’s good enough for Jeremy: It’s a job; it’s quiet and regular; he gets to watch movies; he likes the owner, Sarah Jane; it gets him out of the house, where he and his dad try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.

But when Stephanie Parsons, a local schoolteacher, comes in to return her copy of Targets, starring Boris Karloff—an old movie, one Jeremy himself had ordered for the store—she has an odd complaint: “There’s something on it,” she says, but doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, Lindsey Redinius brings back She’s All That, a new release, and complains that there’s something wrong with it: “There’s another movie on this tape.”

So Jeremy takes a look. And indeed, in the middle of the movie the screen blinks dark for a moment and She’s All That is replaced by a black-and-white scene, shot in a barn, with only the faint sounds of someone breathing. Four minutes later, She’s All That is back. But there is something profoundly disturbing about that scene; Jeremy’s compelled to watch it three or four times. The scenes recorded onto Targets are similar, undoubtedly created by the same hand. Creepy. And the barn looks a lot like a barn just outside of town.

Jeremy doesn’t want to be curious. In truth, it freaks him out, deeply. This has gone far enough, maybe too far already. But Stephanie is pushing, and once Sarah Jane takes a look and becomes obsessed, there’s no more ignoring the disturbing scenes on the videos. And all of a sudden, what had once been the placid, regular old Iowa fields and farmhouses now feels haunted and threatening, imbued with loss and instability and profound foreboding. For Jeremy, and all those around him, life will never be the same . . . 

Well, that was weird. I hadn't read Darnielle's other book, Wolf in White Van, and I had little interest in picking it up- synopsis just didn't really appeal to me. Maybe if I had I would have been less pleasantly surprised by just how bizarre this story was.

I mean, I did expect some weirdness, as I did read the summary on the flap, but I didn't know I get some David Lynch horror here. More specifically, I kept thinking of the first episode of the Twin Peaks revival, with the glass box that had all the cameras trained on it and the constant atmospheric humming. And the shadowy demon that ate the horny couple's faces off, but mostly the first part.

I also want to take this moment to say that I really liked that it took place in Iowa, especially because prior to reading this the only other book I read that ever took place in Iowa was The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, and this book could not be more different than that one (though I highly, highly recommend the latter). 

Subject matter-wise, this book isn't exactly the creepiest book in the world. But the atmosphere is where the most of the horror elements come in. I was impressed by this to say the least- most authors focus solely on plot when writing horror, simply because that is the easiest and most effect way to write horror books, much in same way that horror directors do. But if Darnielle had focused purely on plot, this, in my opinion, wouldn't be a horror novel. It would be a mystery-thriller with some horror elements, but not a horror book the way we think of horror. Instead, Darnielle focuses on the setting and atmosphere of the book, allowing that to add the creepiness needed. In that respect, he reminds me yet again of David Lynch and how Lynch works with cinematography and especially sound to make a shot as unnerving as possible.

The nonlinear storyline made this book a bit hard to follow, at first, but at the same time, I wasn't too bothered by it. My favorite part was part three, I believe, that followed Lisa's family and explained, somewhat, the reason for the tapes- though it took me a while to figure that out- but I also kind of liked all of the parts. I was surprisingly unbothered by the lack of development in the characters. Perhaps because in this book, it's clear that these characters are pawns for telling the story and not meant to be well-developed any more than a few backstories or a dead mother here or there. I did, however, want more of the cult, but that's just me. I'm interested in cults, but the two books I've read about them- Awake, which I admittedly didn't read for an actual realistic take on cults, and The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, which only was okay because I ended up not liking any of the characters and thinking the author seemed awfully proud of herself for writing that book. So that part of this novel was interesting to me.

However, I admit that this book is confusing, to say the least. I'm not going to pretend I'm some highbrow intellectual who automatically understands everything I read, so after reading I had to look it up on Goodreads just to see if someone could concisely explain the ending to me. After letting the book sit in my mind for a few days, I think I could come to the same conclusion that the people on Goodreads came to, but I could see why a lot of people would be turned off reading this book and I do think Darnielle could have made it a lot more accessible.

On the flip side, I can also say I would be disappointed if I didn't have to look up the end of Goodreads. Darnielle clearly does not want to write for the public, he wants to write for a niche group of people, and I can't fault him for that. Sure, his debut novel ended up being fairly popular, but I think that, by writing this second book and probably maintaining his style, he limited his fan base down to a select few who will now likely read everything he comes out with. I suppose, in that respect, Darnielle is creating his own cult fan base.

I don't know if I'll consider myself a Darnielle devotee yet. I am a bit more interested in picking up Wolf in a White Van then I was prior to beginning Universal Harvester, since I did, if you couldn't tell, really like this book, as I've been known to look past the synopsis if I like the author's writing. I also admit that I do see something Submachine-esque (one of my favorite games ever) in the plot than I used to, so that might happen eventually. Of course, it might go the way of the Lunar Chronicles ended up going (which is nowhere at the moment) so we'll see. 

8.5 out of 10