Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“The old man leaned forward and took a long breath. “I see the rise of this country to a height no country has occupied, ever,” he said quietly. “Not the Romans. Not the Carolingians. Not Genghis Khan or the Tatars or Napoleon’s France. Hah! You’re all looking at me like I’ve one foot in the funny farm. How is that possible? you ask. Because our dominance won’t arise from subjugating peoples. We’ll emerge from this war victorious and unscathed, and become bankers to the world. We’ll export our dreams, our language, our culture, our way of life. And it will prove irresistible.”- Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan

Manhattan Beach opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children, and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles.

Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. She is the sole provider for her mother, a farm girl who had a brief and glamorous career as a Ziegfield folly, and her lovely, severely disabled sister. At a night club, she chances to meet Styles, the man she visited with her father before he vanished, and she begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life.

Mesmerizing, hauntingly beautiful, with the pace and atmosphere of a noir thriller and a wealth of detail about organized crime, the merchant marine and the clash of classes in New York, Egan’s first historical novel is a masterpiece, a deft, startling, intimate exploration of a transformative moment in the lives of women and men, America, and the world.

I have been wanting to read a Jennifer Egan book for some time now- A Visit From the Goon Squad has been on my list since I read Please Kill Me, actually- but it was Manhattan Beach that finally lured me in, because, even though it was WWII historical fiction, I had faith that it would be one of the more original additions to that particular bloated subgenre. Also, I miss historical fiction- too bad it's been horribly uninspired lately (2018, on the other hand, has been really looking up- January's going to be a busy month for me!). However, I can see why Manhattan Beach has been getting such bad ratings.

This is without a doubt a 4.5 (two star) book for me. Not because I hated it- it wouldn't even make my least favorites of 2017 list- but because it just wasn't that good. Too much was going on, and I was often confused by what was happening. Characters were added with little warning or clarification as to who they were and I think Egan just wanted to do way too much with the book that she never took a step back and said, okay, this is what's important to the plot. Like, we have the gang thing, and then the diving, and then the war, and the thing with Lydia, and Anna's father's disappearance and we have Anna's individual drama and there's just way more going on then there has to be. If I were Egan, I would make it exclusively about the dock working and gang stuff during the Depression, because those were the best (if somewhat confusing) parts of the novel. They were by far the most original ones, by the way. Anna's story-line during WWII was pretty generic women's fiction (think Kristin Hannah) type stuff. Not my favorite, but then again I generally avoid women's fiction so of course I wouldn't like those elements. 

The Lydia parts felt completely superfluous and were pretty obviously added in for the sake of drama. I wished those parts had been cut out, though I admit they do serve one very specific purpose, and that is to give the father a reason to want to work for Styles.

I felt little towards any of the characters. Anna was pretty bland, your basic historical fiction heroine, her father was interesting but kind of lost in the mix, as was Dexter. I think the characters were the biggest causalities of the pinball points of view that Egan employed to tell the story- by the time I got comfortable and made sense of one point of view, the book would jump to another POV with a whole different story attached and I would have to repeat the process all over again. 

An interesting contrast to Manhattan Beach is the shining star that is The Tsar of Love and Techno. The latter may be a collection of short stories and not a novel, but it feels more like a novel because of how connected each story is, despite how different the plot lines are for each. Manhattan Beach, on the other hand, feels more like a collection of short stories jumbled together to create one large novel. The ending come together is unsatisfying, especially given how hard it was to follow the book.

This all being said, I have not been deterred from my wanting to read another Jennifer Egan novel, with A Visit From the Goon Squad still being the most tempting (and probably safe choice: aging punks in the Bay area? Sign me up!)- though frankly, all of her books are really tempting; they all sound like something I would at least like. Hopefully this was just a fluke thing, though maybe not- she seems to be a very divisive author given that half her Goodreads reviews are five stars and the other half are 1 or 2 stars. But you know, only one way to find out!

4.5 out of 10

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“...death isn't bad. It's not. It's just that life is so good. So damn good that you just wanna hold on to it, and everybody in it. But we can't. But what we can do, is appreciate it more. Y'know, smell the flowers.”- The Boy in the Black Suit, Jason Reynolds

Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this wry, gritty novel from the author of When I Was the Greatest.

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. She’s got a crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away.

First of all: Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Let's celebrate with another funeral home book, this time another reread from last year, The Boy in the Black Suit.

The interesting thing about The Boy in the Black Suit is that, even though it's a funeral home book, it's the one least about funeral home matters. Sure, there are bits about being a pallbearer, snippets from actual funerals, and the like, but unlike The Dead I Know, for instance, Matt doesn't go on calls to pick up dead bodies or have to dress them for their funerals. It's like funeral lite in that respect. 

Still, that doesn't mean that I don't really like this book. Matt is such a great main character to follow around. He's a kid that was certainly after my own heart, with his cooking and honesty and all that. Also, Reynolds has a keen understanding of what it's like to be a teenage boy. Admittedly, I've never been a teenage boy, but the things Matt does and his reactions just strike me as being very realistic. One of my favorite examples of this is when he goes over Lovey's house for Thanksgiving expecting a date and she takes him to the homeless shelter instead. He doesn't immediately warm up to the idea and yes, he is even a little upset that she didn't tell him they were going there in the first place. The Right Thing to Do would be to be happy at the idea of giving back on Thanksgiving, but honestly, what teenage boy would be excited about the idea of spending his Thanksgiving at a soup kitchen, especially when he was under the impression he would be on a one-on-one date with a pretty girl? Sure, Matt warmed up to the idea, but everyone probably would, too.

Also, like most teenagers, Matt is aware of what other people think of him, which is another great touch. I see a lot of authors who get praised for being able to get inside the mind of a high schooler, but Reynolds is one of the most successful at it.

The writing is pretty wonderful too. It's written in this New York black patois, which really puts Matt's voice in my head. The book has this conversational tone that makes me feel like I'm having a conversation with Matt and I love that. It makes me feel closer to him as a character without the author telling us a ton of exposition.

If I had to choose some points of criticism, it would be that in some parts it feels a bit juvenile or shallow, like in some of the parts where Matt is grieving his mother. I also wish the book didn't time skip so much, and a couple of the things that happened felt a bit contrived. That seems like a lot of stuff wrong with the book, but honestly, reading it is so much fun that it's easy to ignore that and just enjoy the story.

I also really wish there were more funerals in the book. Those were my favorite parts to read. Also, I kind of wish there was more about the funeral home itself, given that I know very little about the inner workings of inner city funeral homes. Being from New England Suburbia I'm used to the white vaguely-Colonial funeral homes with black trim and WASP-y sounding names written in somber font on the sign in front. I would be interested to know how Willie ran his home.

When I reread this my new rating actually went up from my old rating. This is definitely an 8.5 out of 10 now. I would recommend this book for someone who's maybe a little more squeamish so doesn't want to jump in with The Dead I Know, but someone who wants a little book with a lot of heart, which is corny but the best way to describe it. While I do prefer the former, this one is a close second.

8.5 out of 10 (old rating: 8 out of 10)

Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“I'm scared of living my short short life wrong in every possible way. I'm scared I've already made so many mistakes and I don't have enough time to fix them.”- Things I'm Seeing Without You, Peter Bognanni

Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler has just dropped out of high school. She can barely function after learning of Jonah’s death. Jonah, the boy she’d traded banter with over texts and heartfelt e-mails.

Jonah, the first boy she'd told she loved and the first boy to say it back. 

Jonah, the boy whose suicide she never saw coming. 

Tess continues to write to Jonah, as a way of processing her grief and confusion. But for now she finds solace in perhaps the unlikeliest of ways: by helping her father with his new alternative funeral business, where his biggest client is . . . a prized racehorse?

As Tess’s involvement in her father’s business grows, both find comfort in the clients they serve and in each other. But love, loss, and life are so much more complicated than Tess ever thought. Especially after she receives a message that turns her life upside down.

I cannot believe that this book was written by the same guy that gave us The House of Tomorrow. Just. How.

I guess he realized that well-written, unique, and literary YA novels weren't great money makers so he decided to become another discount John Green. Guess it's unfortunate for him that this was the year Green broke his five year writing hiatus with Turtles All the Way Down coming this very month actually (no, I'm not going to read it because my masochistic tendencies are just that- tendencies). 

The main reason why I wanted to read this book was because I stumbled upon it after reading The House of Tomorrow and decided, eh, what the hell. I was initially a little turned off by The Fault in Our Stars comparison, but figured that he would surpass my expectations the same way his debut did. And the funeral home angle. Yes.

Things I'm Seeing Without You is basically your typical YA quirky teen book with a certain falseness to it. Our main character Tess Fowler reminds me of other quirky teenage girl protagonists that are clearly written by male authors, like HazelGraceLancaster or Mary. Iris. Malone. Look okay, many male authors write really great female protagonists, in fact, I think men write teenage girls better then women write teenage guys as a whole, but in this case, it was obvious that Bognanni has no experience with teenage girls other than from books like Mosquitoland. 

While it is true that the summary is very... John-Greenish... I wasn't too turned off by it because again, I was going on my prior Bognanni experience with The House of Tomorrow, and that novel may have had a very unusual even quirky setting and premise yet ended up being done very well. It didn't work nearly as well here. Instead, it just came off as being a bit too try-hard, with the Quaker School and the whole constantly talking about pot and just the character of Tess. Also, her online boyfriend was a bit too much like a John Green boyfriend, with the whole calling Tess by her first and last names.

There were a lot of throwaway moments like the actual funerals- I wonder if Bognanni kept changing his mind as to what book he wanted to write and just kept adding to it. In fact, I wished that Bognanni just focused on one thing, because certain parts made me feel like I was reading a book that was crafted from a story told by a little kid- And then they have a funeral for a horse! And then then an old lady hires them for a living funeral! But wait, the old lady dies in a freak accident so it turns into an actual funeral! And then.. and then... That kind of aimlessness that is frustrating to read, not because it's complex but because the author is forced to rely on a lot of contrivances to write his way out of the story arc he decided to abandon.

Also, what is up with this new trope of teenage characters just hopping on a plane without the parents' knowing? I hate it (fuck you Everything Everything for that I guess). It's unrealistic and irresponsible on the part of the teen and just idiotic. It's like a symbol of the impulsive selfishness that makes people hate teenagers. That's a bit dramatic but that's how much I hate this trope.

So is there anything I did like about this book? It's decently written. The meditations on grief were, while cliche and typical for a YA funeral home book or just one on grief in general, decent enough. It had some really great descriptions of Italy. And despite my bitching about the many different plotlines, I did kind of like the realisticness of how not everything ever works out. Likely it was the only realistic thing about the book. 

I mean, it was one of the better The Fault in Our Stars knock-offs. I'd put this book in the same place as The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko. I didn't love it, but in comparison to other John Greenish books like Mosquitoland or All the Bright Places I didn't want to throw this book off a cliff. As far as funeral home books go, I'd skip this or at least put this on least priority list. It's not on par with books like The Dead I Know or The Boy in the Black Suit (review coming soon btw). Another disappointing new release.

5 out of 10

If you liked this book, you may also like:

The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“There was the unknown, the dark, the cold and the emptiness to contend with out there, but those concepts are all relative. Cold compared to what? A dead hand? Dark compared to what? Unblinking eyes? At times the ocean seemed full beside my emptiness. At times it was the one knowable thing in my world.”- The Dead I Know, Scot Gardner

Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep and haunted by dreams he can’t explain and memories he can’t recover. Death doesn’t scare him—his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn’t discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up. In this dark and witty psychological drama about survival, Aaron finds that making peace with the dead may be easier than coming to terms with the living.

This is a reread for me, and I wasn't going to write a whole review for it until I read another book about funeral homes that I was looking forward to read and was struck by an idea. One of my favorite things to read about are funeral homes and the whole death business. So, I decided that it would be fun to do a mini series of reviews on my blog in which I reviewed several books on funeral homes. I will be focusing on fiction, and probably mostly YA but I might include one or two adult novels- one of those books may or may not be The Loved One. So, here is my first entry- The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner.

The Dead I Know is one of the darker entries in the YA funeral home lit list with a very horror movie-esque plot despite the fact that the book is not a horror novel. Our main character, Aaron Rowe, is a sleepwalker, dealing with his Mam's growing dementia and also the nightmares that have been plaguing him since he was a young boy. So naturally, he takes a job- more like paid apprenticeship- at a funeral home. Sound logic, that.

When I was thinking of a word to describe the writing, quiet came to mind. This is almost ironic, given how much happens in such a short book, but Gardner does not rely on dialogue or other ways of explicitly stating things that have happened to move the plot along. Instead, it's very action-based with a lot of things shown to us. Surprising, because there are at least 3 separate plot lines going on in this short little novel. There's the funeral home, then there's the sleepwalking, then there's the dementia, and then there's the money stealing thing which probably was the least useful of all of them and had an unsatisfactory conclusion. 

The best thing about this book is Aaron Rowe. Though maybe I'm just saying that because I developed something of a crush on him. He's just really endearing, with the way he acts around Mam or Skye or John Barton. He's one of those characters with a lot of personality just through the way he speaks and acts. 

This is one of my favorite books in retrospect from 2016, and in hindsight perhaps some of the later entries on my list probably should have been substituted for this one and Burial Rites. Because this book isn't for everyone. The humor is dark, the funeral home parts are detailed and even on the explicit side for some people, and there's a lot going on for such a quiet book. But this is one of those few novels that just work for me. Almost everything about it works really well, and it's a staple novel for anyone who wants to get into the Death Business YA microtrend. 

8.5 out of 10 (reread)

September 2017 Wrap-Up

The beginning of September feels like a million years ago, but then again, September has always seemed the longest month of the year. September and June. By contrast, February and March always fly by, but September and June feel endless. I usually get back into reading this time of year, and this past month was no exception. I mean, sure, I reread a lot because I wanted to read for fun and not critically, mostly to remind myself why I love reading. But I'm babbling. Here's what I read in September!

Unwind by Neal Shusterman 9.5/10 (reread) (335 pg)

  I reread Unwind this month because I missed it. This book was to me what The Hunger Games or even Harry Potter was to others, a book I feel in love with when I first read it and that love has stayed with me. Don't be put off by the YA dystopian label, it was written three years before The Hunger Games was published, and was actually meant to make you think the way dystopian novels were before The Hunger Games and all the cheap mimickers that made dystopians more of a fantasy genre than anything else. Despite the fact that the social issue at focus here is abortion, Shusterman cleverly does not revel his own opinions about it, forcing readers to draw their own conclusions. And he never lets those weighty things get in the way of the story, which is dark and warped and wonderful. This book follows primarily three people, Connor Lassiter, Risa Ward, and Lev Calder, who are AWOL unwinds, teenagers whose parents (or the state) have chosen to retroactively abort their child when he or she is between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Connor is a problem kid whose parents can't control him, Risa is a ward of state who was unwound due to budget cuts, and Lev is a tithe, meaning his parents had him unwound at the age of thirteen for religious reasons. This is a smart, action-packed, and heavy hitting novel that has been my constant book love since I first read it back in 6th grade.

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra 9-9.5/10 (reread) (384 pg)

  This is another reread, and not the last one on this list because I did a ton of that this month. And I think I like it even more now than I did when I read it the first time. I mean, I still liked the first side more than the second, but I found a new appreciation for the stories I wasn't crazy about, most notably the one about wolves (name escapes me at the moment). But the beginning and the ending stories totally completely knocked it out of the park, with both bringing me damn near to tears. As did the middle "interlude" in fact. In fact, just read the damn collection. It's one of the closest to perfect books I've ever read. 

The Rattled Bones by SM Parker 2.5/10 (384 pg)*
My Review: The Rattled Bones by SM Parker

  First new book of the month and wow, was it not a good one. What is with me and new releases this year? Anyway, this was one of the most poorly written bad books I've read so far. I mean, reading this book was like slowly getting your fingernails pulled out- tedious and painful. The characters were bad and unoriginal, and the only thing that might be a little redeeming is that the plot is pretty interesting, though you could probably play a Nancy Drew game and get the same basic idea with a more rewarding experience. In case you're still interested in The Rattled Bones, this book is about a girl, Rilla Brae, who, with the help of university researcher Sam, attempts to uncover the secrets behind this old abandoned island where she keeps seeing ghosts. And it's bad. Really bad.

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman 9/10 (reread) (402 pg)
  UnWholly is the sequel to Unwind, but not really. In fact,  like to think of this book as being the first book in the Unwind spin off series. That's not me saying I didn't like the book, on the contrary as this was probably my favorite book in the series (not counting Unwind), but it's just that Unwind had such a definitive end that it could have been a standalone and UnWholly takes place a year or two later and greatly expands the world of Unwind and there are other elements that make this book feel more like someone could read the entire series excluding Unwind and still know what the books were about. But anyway, I still love this book because it has Connor and Risa and Hayden in it and I love Connor and Risa and Hayden. Mostly, I love Connor and Risa together. There are other new characters too, like Cam and Miracolina and Starkey and that's another reason why this book feels like a spin off because these characters were not in the first book at all and are huge presences in the rest of the series. Unfortunately, I hated both Cam and Starkey, but I don't think I was supposed to like them anyway. UnWholly is the perfect series opener, with characters that are diverse and fun to follow around, violence, and fantastic intrigue, and rereading it reminded me why I love these books so goddamn much.

The Girl Who Fell by SM Parker 3.5/10 (356 pg)
My Review: The Girl Who Fell by SM Parker

  Being a bit of a masochist, I picked up another one of SM Parker's books (she really should have thought twice about going by her initials by the way). Her debut novel to be exact, which oddly enough was a little bit better written than her sophomore attempt. Still, the characters are moronic and the plot is easy to predict and the dialogue and things that happen in the book are theatrical in a cheesy way, and one that dilutes the impact of moments that should be scary, like the ending of the novel, the B horror effect if you will. There are a million better books on the topic of abusive relationships, which is what this book is about (fairly basic abusive relationship story, too, like the author just read the Wikipedia page on it) and I'd recommend any one of them over this one.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas 8.5/10 (322 pg)
My Review: Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

  Every so often, YA mysteries redeemed themselves for me (you know, before I remember this is the same genre that gave us Missing and Natasha Fucking Preston and I remember why I regularly resolve to give the genre up). And Little Monsters was that book. That one in a million YA mystery. I haven't felt this positively towards one of them since last November, when I hit the jackpot and read two in a row. But I really want to pick up Darkest Corners now, just to see if I'd have a new favorite YA mystery writer. But what is this book about? Basically, it's about a girl whose friend just went missing, and she's trying to find out whodunnit. It keeps you on the edge of your seats and does everything every good mystery novel should do. Highly recommended.

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich 8.5/10 (309 pg)
My Review: The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

  I've been averaging about one nonfiction a month and this was my September one. And it was a really great one, too. This is in the tradition of In Cold Blood in that it focuses not only on the crime itself but who committed it, develing into the past of the criminal to see how his past affected what happened to him. This is also a memoir, following Marzano-Lesnevich's history of sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather. While the true crime parts were more interesting to me than the memoir parts, this book is sure to please any fan of both categories and is extremely skillfully written. Highly recommended.

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel 4/10 (274 pg)
My Review: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

   Another poorly written bad book, encountering a few of them this month. It's written like a YA cash grab novel with swear words and sex every few lines to make it more adult so you don't think this is a YA novel. It has very basic, annoying characters, a ton of melodrama, and a plot that could have been so much better had it been in the right hands. I'm no Gillian Flynn fangirl or anything, but this would have been one hell of a book if she had written it, for instance. But she didn't, Amy Engel did, and she wrote it like a soap opera instead of the creepy, American Gothic novel it could have been. The Roanoke Girls has nothing to do with Roanoke Colony but it is about girl whose mother killed herself and so she goes to live with her grandparents and cousin in Kansas. Over a decade later, she goes back home because her cousin is missing. And a lot of other stuff happens. Skip it unless you want to be disappointed.

A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley 8/10 (199 pg)*
My Review: A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley

  A Little Wanting Song is probably my least favorite Cath Crowley book to date, but that's not saying much because this book still gets a high score for me mostly because I still liked this book just fine. It wasn't as good as Graffiti Moon or Words in Deep Blue but it was fine. The book is about two girls, Charlie Duskin and Rose Butler. Charlie is visiting her grandfather, who lives in Rose's town, and Rose wants to escape her town and go to school in the city and become a marine biologist. It's about music, love, and all those touchy-feely things Cath Crowley writes about. It's not really my taste, because of the author I gave it the score it got and I'm ridiculously loyal.

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield 8-8.5/10 (233 pg)*
My Review: Friday Brown (Friday Never Leaving) by Vikki Wakefield

  This is an odd little book, though what's even odder is that I can remember very little about it. Normally, books like this would stick in my mind and yet, this one didn't at all. Interestingly, the book itself was better than On the Jellicoe Road, at least in my opinion, but On the Jellicoe Road stuck with me more. Of course, that was probably because I was disappointed by the latter and had no expectations going into the former, so while I ended up really liking it, it still didn't have as big an impact on me as it could have. Anyway, this book is about a girl named Friday Brown (she may or may not have an actual name that isn't Friday, I can't remember), who encounters this band of street kids and their crazy leader Arden who initiates Friday into the group. It ends up being surprisingly messed up, and a pretty good read. I'd recommend it if you can get a hold of a copy.

UnSouled by Neal Shusterman 8.5/10 (reread) (404 pg)
  I find in book quartets, the third book usually suffers the most from Middle Book Syndrome, and UnSouled is no exception. This is my least favorite out of all the Unwind books (excluding UnBound). I'm not sure why I disliked it, maybe because compared to Unwind and UnWholly, this book had the least action. While there were some great parts, like Risa killing the parts pirate with a pitchfork or Connor getting high with Argent and then smashing him over the head with a bong or Una and her chainsaw, as well as Connor hitting Lev with a car, a cathartic scene for those like me who still had some residual anger towards that little shit from the first book, though he did grow on me in the second book to the point where I actually liked him. I find Lev to be a frustrating character because he seems to always waffle on everything, or at least he says one thing and then does something else when he realizes he doesn't actually want to do the thing he said he's going to do, but he's not that bad in small doses. That might have been another strike against UnSouled, entirely too much Lev. And also not enough Hayden. Hayden always makes any scene he's in better. And also no cute/sad Connor-Risa moments until the end. So really, I liked this book for what it is and I liked this book as a transitional novel- also it has the best cover- but it's not my favorite Unwind book.

My Last Lament by James William Brown 4/10 (DNF)(90/335 pg)
  The main reason for the lack of historical fiction on this blog lately is that I haven't really found much I've been inspired to read lately. All the new releases for this genre have been pretty monotonous lately. I was interested in My Last Lament primarily for two reasons- 1. It's about Greece and 2. It's got an attractive cover. I didn't mind that it was about WWII because it seemed different than other WWII novels that are all trying to be The Nightingale at the moment. Unfortunately, this one was so slow moving and, hate to say it, boring that I couldn't imagine sticking with this book for an extended period of time even though it was only 335 pages. And I'm the same girl that stuck through the 700 page behemoth that is We, the Drowned. I think the final nail in this book's coffin were the endless puppet show stories that I just couldn't bring myself to care about. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to read it at the moment, especially given that I usually have a lot of patience for slow, history steeped, character-based stories, but this really didn't work for me. I'd skip it if I were you.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (reread) 7.5/10 (423 pg)*
  If you looked up Women's Lit in the dictionary you'd find a picture of Jodi Picoult next to it. This is the second time I've read My Sister's Keeper and frankly, only really picked it up because it's a really good PMS read. Seriously, when I read this book I just want to curl up with tissues and chocolate and wine and have a nice hormone induced cry. Picoult's books (including this one) plot- and character-wise are firmly in the mediocre category even before the infamous Picoult twist in the last 25 pages, but she is a very skillful writer and does create some beautiful sentences as well as funny moments. Even so, my end rating hasn't changed, but it is nice once in a while to revisit the oft-melodramatic world of Jodi Picoult.

Running by Cara Hoffman 8-8.5/10 (269 pg)
My Review: Running by Cara Hoffman

  When picking my favorite book of the month, this was a serious contender but in order to do that I'd have to change the rating and I still have to remind myself that the reading experience wasn't the best what with the confused narrative and all. This is one of those novels that grew on me simply due to its inability to let me go. Days, weeks, even now it is still a presence in the back of my mind, and it is a strangely mesmerizing novel. It's one of those books that's almost impossible to write a synopsis of- I mean, it's about three people in Athens in the 80s, two guys and a girl, who have this strange little family being a bunch of addicts and con artists and all that jazz, but there's so much more to the book. The only thing I can say is read it and form your own opinion on it. 

UnDivided by Neal Shusterman 9/10 (reread) (384 pg)
  And, that's how you end a book series. I'm serious. This is one of the best final novels I ever read. This series didn't go completely downhill like The Hunger Games or so many other YA dystopians. It was the kind of finale you'd expect from a series as dark and twisted as Unwind, with violence and some really messed up moments and other fun things like that. As a whole, this series just worked, it was smart and thought-provoking and action-packed and balanced all that out with humor and and a really great and diverse cast of characters. This series is the reason Neal Shusterman is one of my favorite authors ever. And one more thing- please tell the "gardening accident" bit was a reference to This Is Spinal Tap.

Menorahs and Minarets by Kamal Ruhayyim 7/10 (224 pg)
  This isn't a reread but I still didn't write a full review for it because, eh, who cares? I had to read this (yes, just this book) for a class and found it unimpressive. I didn't hate it, but it was confusing (mostly because it's part of a three book series), though the characters were likable and the writing was nice (the translator was okay, though it was obvious that English wasn't the language this book was originally written in). I don't really have much else to say about it. 

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood 6.5/10 (297 pg)
My Review: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

  Honestly, this book surprised me simply because it made me realize that, you know what, Margaret Atwood isn't as good a writer as I thought she'd be. I'm not saying she's a bad writer by any stretch of the imagination, but she didn't blow me away the way I expected a writer of her reputation to. That being said, Hag-Seed was enjoyable enough, and I did think there were some really nice moments, like most of Felix's moments with his daughter. Hag-Seed, being a The Tempest retelling set in a prison, would probably appeal more to someone both a fan of Shakespeare and Margaret Atwood, and while I found this novel enjoyable it didn't work as well for me as it could work for others.

Answered Prayers by Truman Capote 8/10 (150 pg)

  Answered Prayers is one of the few works of Capote's I haven't read, this and Music for Chameleons, which is still on my list. If you have never read anything by Capote or have only read In Cold Blood, I'd advise you to steer clear of this one. Start with one of his short stories (may I suggest Children on Their Birthdays? Miriam is also good, very Southern Gothic, as is A Christmas Memory- that one made me ugly cry) or perhaps Breakfast at Tiffany's or Other Voices Other Rooms. This work is only really for the already established Capote fans, those who wouldn't mind much the unfinished nature of the work. And I admit, it's not his best. It's obvious the book was written by Capote at the end, something that made this a little hard to read at some places. Hate to say it, but Capote is the warning story to all young hopeful authors, one of the brightest stars in the literary world at one time, until the publication of his magnum opus In Cold Blood and then his subsequent downfall into self-destructive alcoholism. Nowadays, few known him as anything other than the In Cold Blood guy, with Breakfast at Tiffany's sustaining itself in popular conscious only due to Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly- how many know it even was a novella in the first place? But enough about the tragedy of Capote. What of the work here? Answered Prayers started out strong, very strong. I was invested in the character of PB Jones, a character who is causally unlikable and a bit deluded and just self-aware enough to understand that he is both deluded and unlikable. There was some very darkly humorous passages that got me laughing and the descriptions and Capote's way of setting up scenes were so vivid I could perfectly picture everything going on as if it was playing on a movie reel in my head (for some reason, I pictured it in Wes Anderson's film style, don't really know why). So if it had just been Unspoiled Monsters, this would be an easy 9 book. Unfortunately, the book declined as it went on. The second chapter, whose name I'm blanking on for some reason, wasn't my favorite, as I wasn't too invested in the relationship between PB Jones and Kate McCloud. However, in that chapter's favor, it at least followed Unspoiled Monsters nicely. The last chapter, the infamous Cote Basque, was the weakest in my opinion. I wasn't that invested in what was going on and I wished it had more of a connection to the first two chapters. Alas, if only this book was completed. As it stands, Answered Prayers is interesting only to those who are familiar with him and his works, since, like most books by famous authors, it is heavily autobiographical (PB Jones is a fairly obvious author surrogate, and interestingly enough, one that says that Capote was at least a little self-aware by the writing of Answered Prayers and wasn't entirely a victim of his own narcissism). Answered Prayers is a shadow of what it could have been.

John Belushi Is Dead by Kathy Charles 8/10 (310 pg)*
My Review: John Belushi Is Dead by Kathy Charles

  John Belushi Is Dead is a decent book, don't get me wrong, but not a very memorable one, and one that I wished I liked more than I did. It's one of those books that I thought would be a slam dunk on my favorite books ever list, due to the fact that it's about a girl who is obsessed with death and there are some mystery elements and one of my favorite movies ever is referenced throughout the book. But alas, it was only okay, mostly due to things like the writing not being that great and the main characters lacking and the fact that if you've ever seen the movie Harold and Maude than you know the end message of the story. But that end message is a good one, and the book was fun enough to read with some pretty dark parts. Recommended, kind of. 

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo 5/10 (224 pg)
My Review: The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

  The Language of Thorns was probably the most disappointing new release ever and I think the only thing that came of it was that it reminded me how little patience I have for fairy tale retellings and how much I am baffled by their popularity- don't you people get bored with the same story told over and over again? Not terribly original, especially given that this was the same chick that gave us the Grishaverse. Of course, part of this could have been my expectations- I was expecting this to be a series of short stories that took place in the Grisha Universe like UnBound or other short story collections and maybe even following side characters, not a bunch of goddamn fairy tale retellings with nothing to do with Grisha magic. The only things in this book's favor were the beautiful illustrations, the wonderful writing, and the fact that it is now living a happy life on my younger cousin's bookshelf. 

Page total: 5,973
Average rating: 6.5/10 (rounded up by not much) (not counting rereads)
Genre breakdown: 7 contemporaries
                 4 historical fiction
                 4 dystopians
                 2 mystery-thrillers
                 1 nonfiction (true crime/memoir)
                 1 paranormal
                 1 fantasy
Of those, 9 were adult and 11 were YA

I read 20 books last month and couldn't be happier, especially considering that this is the most I've read since March. It looks like October's also going to be a good one, since I usually read a ton this month. I'm not going to get my hopes too high though, but I do have some fun plans for this blog in October so stay tuned for that!

*e-books

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Bad fates do not always follow those who deserve them.”- The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price.

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, these tales will transport you to lands both familiar and strange—to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, all of them lavishly illustrated with art that changes with each turn of the page, culminating in six stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Despite not liking fantasy all that much, I like Leigh Bardugo. But this was mostly a miss for me. I mean, I'm definitely going to be in the minority here because I'm sure most fans eat this kind of stuff up with a soup spoon, but this is probably a case of "it's not you it's me". Looking back, I don't even know why I preordered this let alone bought it in the first place. As I said in my Cinder review, I like fairy tales, but not so much that I want to read retellings or modern updates of the tales that have so much history behind them and are wonderful windows in the time they were created in, a time when you could scare the shit out of children with stories of wicked stepmothers and cannibalistic witches and at the end of the day, still have the good prevail. It says something about the things people dreamed of and the influences of things like romanticism or religious morality at the time of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. Perhaps that's one of my problems with this collection- the stories have no history behind them, thus I cannot really see a point in their existence. This probably has to do with the fact that I am no longer a child and do not read fairy tales for entertainment any more, I read them for the reasons above. Blame my history major on that. 

And yes, when I say modern versions of fairy tales, this is basically it. With the exception of a couple, the fairy tales in this book are basically the same old stories just told with a "grittier" feminist edge. It gets repetitive really quickly. The man is always a villain, the prince is evil, the female characters are kind and good, etc. That's a very common thing to do in fairy tale updating, by the way, and one that I've never been too keen on. In a lot of ways, I was reminded of the stories told in A Monster Calls, but without any of the substance that those stories had. In the end, I found most of them mediocre and rather boring. And kind of confused, with the references to sexual abuse and just plain old sex. Fairy tales are written for children, thus fairy tale like stories like this should be free of that stuff, because it just kind of takes you out of that nostalgic feeling. 

Of course, maybe this book was just doomed from the start, because spin-offy books like this have never really worked for me. Even the Unwind anthology UnBound was a bit of a disappoint! That being said, I probably would have liked it better if it was just stories or mythology or the history of the Grishaverse than just rehashings of the same old tales. Like if it followed famous saints or kings and queens or grisha. Something new and different as opposed to another Little Mermaid retelling.

The only two things that did anything for me were both the loveliness of the prose- Bardugo can really write- and the wonderful illustrations (also the fact that it is a genuinely pretty book). Even those two things though couldn't save this book. In the end, though it's purely personal preference and I love Leigh Bardugo's work and will still continue to support her by reading her books, but this was, again, a solid miss for me. Maybe I'm just too old for fairy tales. Oh well. At least my younger cousin, who loves both Six of Crows and the Grisha trilogy has a birthday tomorrow so my money hasn't entirely gone to waste.

5 out of 10

John Belushi Is Dead (Hollywood Ending) by Kathy Charles

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“They were scavengers feeding off others, obsessed with lives that were not their own.”- John Belushi Is Dead, Kathy Charles

IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK.

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.

Hilda and Benji's morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank's downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank's terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she's come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.

I have a very strong morbid streak. I love reading books that have to do with funeral homes, I love watching ID channel shows or reading books about murder, and no vacation is complete without visiting at least one cemetery.

Despite this, I have no interest in death tourism and no real desire to see a dead body. I mean, sure, I took pictures of the Mercer House in Savannah, but that house has so much more history behind it than just being the house where Jim Williams shot Danny. It's not like I was deliberately going out to Kansas to take pictures of the Clutter house (which is still standing, believe it or not) and I definitely don't look at dead pictures of celebrities online because that just seems disrespectful to me. Also, it reminds me of this ID channel show where this woman became obsessed with death and watching videos of people hanging herself after her boyfriend killed himself. She ended up going on a three day shooting spree. 

Still, I went into this book interested in the subject matter and expecting some of my favorite brand of jet black humor. For the first few chapters, I was enjoying myself. The writing wasn't great, but the book set itself up pretty well and I liked the Harold and Maude references because that's one of my favorite movies ever. But at the same time, I was a little put off by the overwhelming Edgy Tumblr Teen vibe I got from the main characters. And especially the romanticizing of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, mostly because it reminded me of the disgusting true crime "enthusiasts" on Tumblr who spend their spare time photo-shopping flower crowns on their heads and writing gay fanfiction about the two of them being together and generally just making most true crime fans look bad. I mean, seriously, read Columbine by Dave Cullen and get back to me. So yeah, not too fond of the edgy teen myself. 

But Harold and Maude. And Bukowski, and Tom Waits, and basically all these references to things I love that don't get referenced like ever in fiction. Especially Harold and Maude. Of course, if you've seen Harold and Maude, than you've basically read this book. I mean, sure, some things were changed, the genders were swapped, there is no relationship between Hilda and Hank, he's a bit gruffer than Maude, etc, but the core message of the book is basically the same message as the movie. Of course, I did wonder how Hilda watched and loved the movie and didn't get the whole symbolically driving the Jag-Hearse off the cliff moment at the end. The message of how can you be so young and so obsessed with death when there's so much to love about life. I mean, sure, the humor of the movie is based around Harold staging his own suicides, even if there is a lot of really funny absurdist moments, but it made me wonder if we even watched the same movie. 

Also, the writing wasn't that... good. Hate to say it, but I got a Mary Sue fanfiction vibe. Especially the main character. Her opinions, inner narrative, etc, just seemed very clunky and set my teeth a little on edge. And the love interest just plain sucked. I hated their "flirty banter" and not once did it get a laugh out of me. In fact, I wished the book was a lot funny or had a darker sense of humor than what it ended up being. The actual humor is very typical YA quirky commentary which almost never gets a laugh out of me. Hilda also seemed like she had no real character, like everything about her was subject to change if the plot demanded it, if that makes sense. I don't think she was a particular strong character.

There is also a certain lack of subtlety that got to me. Especially the Connor family. Like, the mom is this extreme parody of a fifties mom and the dad is absent and Benji's basically a caricature of an edgy teen. And I don't think this book aged very well. The problem with writing a Hollywood themed book is that a book can feel dated very quickly with all the pop culture references. I suppose this book is supposed to take place in like 2004ish, even though it was published in 2009, based on all the Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan references (oh, the days when bleached blond Barbie dolls ruled Hollywood!).

So why did I persist on liking this book? Because I genuinely like the message behind it and think it's one very rarely told in YA. That it's okay to be mainstream and like the same things mainstream people like. It's okay to have Smells Like Teen Spirit be your favorite Nirvana song, it's okay to not want to have pink hair and work at a normal place and watch movies instead of looking for places people have died. In a world of relentlessly quirky protagonists, it's nice to have one who can be on the mainstream side. 

This review was everywhere and I apologize for that. In the end, I just don't have much to say about John Belushi Is Dead. It's a solid 8 out of 10 book, or a solid four stars. I liked it just fine, was even impressed by it at some points, and it is a wholly original story. That being said, I thought going in that this would be my new favorite YA contemporary. And it just isn't as special as I thought it would be.

8 out of 10

If you liked this book, you may also like:

Hate List by Jennifer Brown