Review

Review – The Little Stranger

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Ghost stories are wonderful things. I’ll clarify this — for the people that love them. I am one of those people. The tension, build up, agony of long held secrets finally revealed; I love it all. The promise of a ghost, or something akin to one, was the reason I read The Little Stranger. Unfortunately, for me, it was not to be a long lasting love.

Dr. Faraday once visited Hundreds Hall, a now crumbling mansion and estate, as a child. His mother, a former servant at the Hall, took him inside and he has always held on to this one shining memory. Now a country doctor, he passes by the Hall frequently on patient calls. One day he is called to the Hall to treat a sick maid and quickly becomes infatuated with the place and its owners, the Ayres. Roderick, wounded in the War, is struggling to keep Hundreds Hall afloat, his sister Caroline, a spinster proud of her current unmarried state, helps with the running of the estate but mostly entertains her mother, Mrs. Ayres. Faraday becomes obsessed not only with Hundreds Hall but with Caroline. When an incident occurs during a cocktail party and a young girl is injured, rumors about the old house and its owners start swirling. Faraday, deep in his obsession, is unable to walk away for the place or the people that inhabit it.

Creepy old house. Check. Eccentric people. Check. Unreliable narrator. Check again. All the elements were there. All the elements failed me. The malcontent that seeps from the pages was just that boring. When the events, creepy I suppose they were supposed to be, began, I didn’t look for other explanations. I sighed. It wasn’t there for me.

*Warning: this is spoilery.* I really want to talk about the narrator, Faraday. I said he was unreliable and I expect that in a ghost story. You want someone who is not quite sure what is going on. She/he doesn’t understand the history, the people, etc. That was true here too — while Faraday really wants to be one of the Ayres, he’s not — but he tries to sneak his way in. Usually I would be all right with this but he became the obsessed person content to diagnose everyone else as mentally unstable when I think he was the one to watch. Bait and switch is fine but I began to dislike Faraday intensely for what he was doing to this family. To me, he seemed to believe that his one trip there as a child qualified him to tell its owners and inhabitants what they should think and feel. One by one he sends them away. When his engagement to Caroline falls apart, he, who had been picturing himself as the new manager of Hundreds Hall, attempts to find a doctor and lawyer who will counteract him and say that Caroline is in fact not in her right mind. Really, he was just a bastard. By the end of the book I was disgusted for him and that he spent the rest of his sad days drowning in an alcohol induced sleep didn’t bother me one bit. This doesn’t happen by the way, I just wanted it to.

Now, I feel I’ve been harsh and I’m sure there are many of you out there that loved this book. Found it atmospheric. Found it a good read. I didn’t. Not that I need to state that now but my disappointment stems from the fact that I really wanted to enjoy this book and I didn’t. Unfortunately, I couldn’t accept it as anything other than a ghost story and I couldn’t appreciate the nuance.

As readers, we come across books that don’t stand up to our expectations. There was nothing wrong with this book other than my not enjoying it. It happens and it makes me wonder if I missed something in the reading but then I remind myself that I don’t need to, and will not, love every book I read. That was the case here.

Did you read it? What are your thoughts? I know there are many people out there that loved/enjoyed this book hence the adding it my list. I still plan to read Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith or maybe Affinity. I think she does decaying aristocracy well and I want to make sure I give a fair shot to her other works.

The Little Stranger

By Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books

ISBN: 9781594484469

2.75 stars

Review – The Lantern

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I wanted to read this book the moment I heard about it. It was supposedly a take on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and I fully adored that book. Love, love, loved it. I waited though but read every review of it I could, spoilers and all. When I finally gave it, I read it in almost one sitting. I couldn’t put it down.

Eve, a translator working in Switzerland, falls for a man named Dom. Their whirlwind relationship lands them in Provence at a small abandoned house called St. Genévriers in the south of France. They’re in love with each other and with the little house they bought. Dom, having sold a successful business, has money and it makes for a quiet, easy life. They get lost in restoring the now run-down little hamlet to its former glory. What they didn’t count on was a devastating secret coming back to haunt them.

This book moves between the past and the present but never falters in atmosphere. The setting, strewn with lavender fields and dark secrets, is wonderfully evocative. Lawrenson drops you in those fields, describing each and every petal almost. I worried in the beginning that I would tire of her descriptions but I didn’t. Every setting comes with a tactile feeling — gritty, dust falling from a ceiling, a rough wall, the soft petals of a flower. I fell in love with it and I have a thing for French settings which I know made this an easy sell for me.

The relationship between Eve and Dom isn’t so open and easy though. Dom has a secret he refuses to share for all of Eve’s prodding. It casts a pall on their happy life which Dom seems fine with. Eve begins to harp on it and can’t let go. When everything is finally revealed, the secret, while devastating, doesn’t destroy them even if the life they thought they had has now disappeared.

An enchanting, gothic tale it is but it’s not Rebecca. I don’t think anything will live up to that book for me, and in a way, I think it’s unfair to position this book as a re-telling of that story. While a few elements will remind you of du Maurier, this isn’t the same story. When I started this book, I did remind myself on almost every page not to compare it to Rebecca and that didn’t happen past the first few chapters. The comparisons didn’t change my opinion of this book either. It was good. It stood on its own. Comparisons be damned.

The Lantern is a story of people looking to be loved and finding happiness and fulfillment in lives full of sadness. It moves at a slow pace but feels as though it has an ending and will come to some sort of resolution, happy or not. Everything is solved and the explanations are not always simple ones, but they have meaning and purpose for the characters which I can appreciate even if I felt some things were left too easily.

This was my first book of 2012 and I have to say it started my year off pretty well.

The Lantern

By Deborah Lawrenson

Harper

ISBN: 9780062049698

4 stars

Review – A Feast for Crows

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This being the fourth book in a series, there may be unintentional spoilers. I’ve done my best to keep it neutral, but you’ve been warned.

I’ve loved everything about the Song of Fire and Ice series I’ve read so far. I repeat, everything. Until I got to book four, A Feast for Crows, and my love sort of cooled. I didn’t dislike anything about this book; in fact, you’ll notice I rated it a 4 out of 5 so obviously I didn’t have any negative feelings toward it either. What I found was that I missed many of the characters which weren’t in this book and I started to feel like I wanted to push Cersei out a moon door of her own.

The Lannisters are still ruling King’s Landing but with Tyrion’s escape and Tywin’s death, their once golden grasp is now hanging by threadbare ropes.  Cersei’s son Tommen is now king and married to Margarey Tyrell, and Cersei is having a hard time dealing with the fact that’s she being run out of her own palace. Jaime, now a one-handed man, is falling into a strange despair wondering how he will retain anyone’s respect and hating his once-loved sister for her cruel words. The Iron Islands are preparing a war run, the Riverlands are war-torn, devastated, and full of outlaws, and the Eyrie is now under the rule of a sick boy. Sansa Stark, now Alayne, is still in fear for her life, but Brienne — the maid of Barth — is hoping to fulfill a promise to Lady Catleyn Stark to find her daughters. Arya Stark is learning to be no one to her own detriment, and Samwell Tarley, a rather soft and scared man of the Night’s Watch, is the only man of the Black to still act like one, terrified as he is of the prospects.

As readers of this series know, each chapter is told from the perspective of a particular character. Many of the characters I adored perished in A Storm of Swords and I felt slightly disconnected to the ones that were left, namely Cersei. She’s spiraling at full speed fueled by alcohol, desperation, and denial. It’s interesting but she’s never been a character I related to so I find her drama filled days just that boring. Jaime on the other hand (no pun intended) is on his own road to an epiphany and seems to be realizing just what a crazy witch his sister is. It’s interesting to see him show feelings for and refer to Tommen as his son, even if it is only to himself and a man with no tongue and no writing abilities. Jon Snowe is now Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and I wanted very much to know what was going on there, especially with Stannis sequestered at the Wall with him, but we hear none of it. The most interesting story line, in my opinion, is Daenerys and we don’t see her at all.

Being the type of reader that is more attached to characters than plot, it normally doesn’t bother me when something rambles, as long as I feel it’s rambling toward some close. What A Feast for Crows rambles toward is A Dance with Dragons. This series is a sweeping epic so there will need to be filler like this — and by filler I mean stories other than the ones I want to hear will need to be told for the whole thing to come together.

While there is nothing wrong with this installment — Martin still frustrates, overwhelms, and makes you wonder — it was a slow book for me.  There is plotting and scheming to be had in abundance and no quiet moments. I know my favorites return in A Dance with Dragons which I’m looking forward to very much. I will be giving it time before I take on the fifth book though. It’s the last one for a long while.

A Feast for Crows

By George RR Martin

Random House

ISBN: 9780553900323

4 stars

Review – Queen of the Summer Stars

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This is the second book in Woolley’s Arthurian trilogy following Child of the Northern Spring.

Guinevere and Arthur have been married 10 years, and sadly, are still childless. While she begins falling into a slight despair about their lack of a son, Arthur doesn’t seem bothered by it. He spends his time worrying about Saxon invaders and trying to tie together a realm bent on remaining in pieces. The Round Table is coming together and the Companions are proving to be worthy of Arthur’s trust and willing to see his vision for a unified nation through. Lancelot, at first cold to Guinevere, finally admits his love but the two, out of their love and respect for Arthur, do nothing. Arthur’s sister, Morgan Le Fey, who still wants the crown for her own, has other plans though.

Arthur keeps his secrets from Guinevere so well she doesn’t even understand his family dynamics. I didn’t understand why she didn’t ask him outright; she’s not necessarily meek but she doesn’t seem able to ask questions about Arthur’s past. He was fine with hiding his family and she seemed fine with his secrets, to a point anyway. When she finally finds out about his past, it breaks her heart and understandably. In other Arthurian books I’ve read, Guinevere and Arthur are closer. In this book, they’re close but in a sort of standoffish way which I attributed to the nature of their marriage. It’s an arranged marriage of sorts; they met but it wasn’t necessarily love at first sight. For the record, Guinevere does fall first and much harder than Arthur. They get drawn closer at the end of the book but in some ways I wanted them to find that closeness earlier. I think it would have made for a more enjoyable read. Then again, maybe I’m projecting my own wants on the story instead of accepting this version fully.

It does stay close to the regular Arthurian tale with a few small changes here and there. If you’re purist, it works, if you all right with changes, it works too. I liked it but it did feel like it was lacking something and I can’t place what it is. Maybe it’s that it’s the second in the trilogy and the slowness that sometimes happens with a series found its way in here. I’m hoping that’s it. Either way, I’ll be reading the last book because I don’t seem to be able to leave anything unread that is Arthurian. Guinevere: A Legend in Autumn will find its way to me at some point.

Queen of the Summer Stars

By Persia Woolley

Sourcebooks

ISBN: 9781402246425

3.5 stars

Review – MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend

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Up front warning, this review will be a gusher. Yes, dear readers, I adored this book. Bertsche is funny, pragmatic (she does research on how to make a friend), encouraging, and in her own way, makes you feel like you too can go out and find a new best friend. Her ups and downs are more than just amusing, they’re painfully real and it’s refreshing to hear — and be reminded — that friendships are not easy. It’s not always friendship at first sight.

When Rachel Bertsche moved to Chicago to be with her long-distance boyfriend, she reveled in the fact they would be together in the same city. While it was wonderful to be with the man who would become her husband, she missed her friends. The ones she could call for a manicure, for brunch, and to complain about nothing simply because she felt like it and it had been that kind of day. Acquaintances didn’t cut it. She wanted a best friend that would listen, comfort, and laugh with her. She went on the hunt — 52 girl dates in a year.

I won’t tell you whether or not she found the one. You must read it for yourself. And I mean that, you must read this book.

The 52 girl dates are a stark reminder we all want something as simple as a friend and that it’s not always so simple to find a friend. It doesn’t happen overnight and requires work to connect with people. Facebook makes it seems as though we’re all friends but it’s not true. Friends are the ones that listen, encourage, and see you for who you are — they aren’t the like button.

This book also made me think about my friends. I don’t have a huge circle, I never have I prefer small, but they’re wonderful people. I have one who will be leaving for the west coast soon, I’ll miss her dearly, but she’s marrying a fantastic man and I couldn’t be more thrilled for her. I have others that live in far off states that remind me distance really is just a word some days. I’m incredibly thankful for the ones that find me funny and not crazy when I write an email to them laying out all the things that can happen to us while traveling in Ecuador. I’m thankful these people still boarded a plane with me and am so very thankful when I look back at all those photos and remember the time we had. There’s the one that gets me out of my house to swim and drink coffee and talk about nothing and everything. Above all, there’s my sister who will always, always be my favorite girl.

All these people make my life better in some way. I can see why Bertsche took on the task. We all need someone to laugh with, cry with, and travel with. Life is better with friends.

Go read this book. Not only will you be entertained but you’ll be left with a warm feeling about who we are as people. We’re all very much alike even when we don’t want to admit it. We all want and need friends.

If you want to know more about Bertsche, visit her blog MWF Seeking BFF. This is actually how I found out about the book many months ago. I’ve kept reading simply because she really is an entertaining writer. I’m looking forward to her next adventure.

MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend

By Rachel Bertsche

Random House

ISBN: 9780345524959

4.75 stars

Review – The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder in the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

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I read several reviews of this book, put it on my list, and promptly forgot about it. Unfortunately, this happens with many of the books I put on my list. They linger. Fortunately for The Poisoner’s Handbook, I came across it while scanning the shelves at my favorite bookstore one afternoon. It’s a fascinating recounting of the beginnings of the coroner’s office in New York City during Prohibition.

In a city full of corrupt officials, one man manages to change the face of detective work, create what many might consider to be the modern medical examiner’s office, and invent ways to detect even the smallest amount of poison to prove murder. The story of Charles Norris is interspersed with his cases — cases that all have one tie — poison. Before his work as medical examiner, poison was easy to acquire, easy to use, and very difficult to detect. That soon changed when Norris’s methods were put to use.

What surprised me most was just how much poison was a part of everyday products: cosmetics, medicine, and in the case of radium, even considered healthy. People drank it which baffles me. Even Marie Curie used to carry a small vile of radium in her pocket believing it was completely harmless. I found the story about the women working in the clock factory painting watch faces with radioactive paint for the men on the battlefield especially fascinating. What happened to the women was absolutely horrific and the work of Norris and the men in his office to find out what was happening to them was sort of heroic in a way.

A good portion of the book focuses on alcohol and it’s replacements during Prohibition. What people will drink for a high is both disgusting and interesting. I would never in my wildest dreams ever even think of sniffing the stuff let along drinking it. It was a crazy time and I loved the fact that the New York Medical Examiner argued for a repeal of Prohibition in order to save lives. He was right; knowing that if alcohol didn’t once again become legal, more deaths would occur. Many of the people dying were not hard drinkers but casual ones trying to brew up something for a few nips here and there. Crazy times.

I found this a great read and Blum manages to take a subject that could easily get very boring and dry and intersperse it with unbelievable stories that make you wonder if you’ve accidentally picked up a fiction novel. If you’re looking for something different but very informative, pick up The Poisoner’s Handbook. One word of caution though — you don’t want to read it while eating, descriptions of certain poisons and their effects can be rather off-putting.

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder in the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

By Deborah Blum

Penguin Books

ISBN: 978-1-59420-243-8

4.25 stars

Review – The Twelfth Enchantment

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I kept seeing this book at my bookstore and finally gave in one day when I was feeling a slight reading slump coming on. I’m glad I picked it up that day because when the slump hit, this was a perfect little book to bring me out of it. The characters are sweet, lovingly hateful, and were Austen-esque enough to make me happy.

Lucy Derrick comes from a good family; just a family without money now. She lives with an uncle who would prefer her to disappear and his plan to make this happen is to have her marry a man she doesn’t care for one bit. Her only companion in the house, Mrs. Quince, teases her relentlessly mentally and physically. She begins to accept that her life is going to be full of misery until a man named Lord Byron shows up at her uncle’s home saying she must not marry Mr. Olson. He then vomits pins and passes out. With the help of a new neighbor, Ms. Crawford, who knows something of the magical arts, Lucy helps Lord Byron to recover. Ms. Crawford, seeing a magical spark in Lucy, begins teaching her what she knows and Lucy understands for the first time how her life does not have to be one of misery.

The beginning of this book feels very reminiscent of Mansfield Park. A young woman far from loved ones, harassed and unwanted in the home she lives in, knowing her only way out the house is into another full of the same misery. Mansfield Park is by far not one of my favorite Austen books but this book brought back some lovely memories of it. Mostly of the hateful characters but still good memories.

The magical element is interesting and Lucy’s understanding of it happens quickly. A little too quickly if you ask me and that’s a small quibble I had with this story. She excels; exponentially fast. I’m all for magical education compounding but she’s like the magical god-child. It didn’t ruin the story for me but made me wonder at several points how she became so proficient so quickly.

When I picked this book up I was hoping for a fun and easy read and I got that. It’s entertaining, the characters are fun, some even mean, and you love to see them all make fools of themselves. The setting, England on the cusp of an industrial revolution, is interesting. If you have a thing for Victorian England with a little magic thrown it, take a look at this one.

The Twelfth Enchantment

By David Liss

Random House

ISBN: 978-1-4000-6896-8

4 stars

Review – 11/22/63

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11/22/63

By Stephen King

Scribner

eISBN: 9781451627282

4.75 stars

Yes, Stephen King, the man who writes the scariest characters on earth, wrote a time travel book.

Jake Epping, a recently divorced teacher, lives a quiet life in a small Maine town. His divorce has left him despondent about life in general but he trudges on day after day. One of those days, he’s approached by a friend, Al Templeton, a local restaurant owner who says he has something to show him. Jake meets Al at his restaurant and is surprised to see his friend in the last stages of cancer and struggles to understand when all this happened. Unfortunately, he ends up with more questions than answers when Al shows him the time portal in the back closet of his restaurant. Jake is skeptical but goes through. Al then ropes him into his scheme — he wants Jake to go back in time to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and save John F. Kennedy.

Oh, the tale Mr. King weaves. This book feels part science fiction, part alternate reality, part fantasy. But what it really is is all wonderful. There was a time when King was a comfort read for me. That might sound strange considering he’s known more for horror but I read Carrie, Christine, Salem’s Lot, The Running Man, and The Long Walk over and over again. Each time amazed by the tension, the twists and turns, and I loved being scared by him. Eventually, I moved away from his books, not for lack of books (the man is more than prolific) but because there were other books that caught my attention. Admittedly, I probably burned myself out. A few years ago, I asked a colleague’s husband if I could borrow one of his King books. It was Duma Key and I was once again left wondering why I didn’t read more King.

When 11/22/63 came out everyone fell hard for it. I decided to wait. I wanted to read it but I tend to shy away from bestsellers and give myself space from all the wonderful reviews. And there were many wonderful reviews of this one. Then Twitter happened. Natalie over at Coffee and a Book Chick was talking about how she loved it. I asked if it was really worth it (the answer was a resounding YES) and then decided that since I needed a book for my Thanksgiving travels, I would buy it. What can I say — it was fabulous.

There’s nothing particularly scary about this book, so if you’re judging on that level, walk away. In some respects, that made it feel like I wasn’t reading a King book but I was OK with that outcome because the characters are amazing. I cared so much about what would happen to them and I came very close to tears at the end. I didn’t want it to end.

It was a rush of a story too. While it’s slow in the middle and you start wondering what if anything Jake is going to do about Oswald, you’re too caught up in his alternate life to care. It’s the life he was looking for and you’re so glad to see him finally find it that you start hoping that he won’t go through with it so he can continue with what he found.

This was a book I fell for hard. It also made me thankful that King is an author with many tomes to his name. While I can’t recreate this reading, I can revel in his other books.

Believe the hype on this one. It is that good.