Review

Review – The Windup Girl

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The Windup Girl

By Paolo Bacigalupi

Nightshade Books

ISBN: 9781597801584

3.75/4.25 stars

I put off writing this review because, even after several weeks, I don’t know what I think of this book. On some level, it was brilliant but on others it was so sad and disturbing that I almost put the book down because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on. I finished and while I can’t say I enjoyed this book, I was amazed by it.

Anderson Lake is a calorie man in Thailand posing as a factory manager. What he’s really there for is to look for fruits and vegetables thought to have gone extinct that are now reappearing in street markets. His company, AgriGen, wants the seeds. Through another business associate, he meets Emiko, a bioengineered human working as a sex slave at a whorehouse. Their two lives collide as a new bioengineered plague runs amuck in Bangkok, the government begins infighting for power, and a company with the money to buy off the world lands on the shores of Thailand.

There is much more to this story, but in the interest of spoilers, I’ll say no more. As I said above, parts of this book are brilliant — a world running on traded calories, bioengineering corporations releasing plagues, bioengineered humans. It’s dark, scary, and oddly believable. You can buy into the world and the science behind it: engineered foods, humans, and superbugs. But there’s something so dark about it that it was also so depressing and disturbing that I wanted to shower the reek of this book off me at times. These corporations are so money hungry they don’t even think of the people in their way (and in the way is really how these corporations think of people); releasing plagues without thought so they can take over promising a cure for what they themselves unleashed.

Each and every character is on their own. There’s no sense of community anywhere. Even when one character finds himself caring for someone, he pushes the thought away almost horrified by his own feelings. They’re all horrible but it’s the world that made them that way and you see that but still hate the way they interact and don’t. Everything is some exchange. And then there’s Emiko, the bioengineered new human. She’s a sex slave. She’s bound by her genetically engineered DNA to obey. Imagine for yourself how’s she’s treated.

But I have to go back to world building for a moment here. Science fiction and fantasy are all about the worlds. Bacigalupi commands the world in The Windup Girl. He stretches it beyond belief and you see how his would and could be possible. No checks. No balances. The manipulations of science, the shattered lives of people who can’t get out of the way fast enough.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression about this book. My husband liked it (that was the reason I read it) but I think you need to go in with an open mind and one that isn’t too easily offended. It’s an interesting take on what would happen in a world were energy trading takes place and science has the ability to change lives at the drop of a hat. If you’re looking for something different, this might work for you.

Review – The Anatomy of Ghosts

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The Anatomy of Ghosts

By Andrew Taylor

Hyperion

ISBN: 9781401302870

2.5 stars

1786; Cambridge, England; ghosts; a mystery — How could I go wrong? Well, I won’t go and say it was wrong but I will say this one wasn’t my cup of tea. I finished and I’m glad I did but didn’t feel satisfied. There’s nothing specific I can point to but it didn’t come together for me. Wrong book, wrong time?

John Holdworth, a recent widower grieving not only his much loved wife, but his son who was also lost tragically, is called upon by Lady Oldershaw to reestablish her son’s reputation. Frank Oldershaw, a student at Jerusalem College in Cambridge, has been a patient at a mental hospital ever since he saw the ghost of a woman supposedly haunting the college grounds. As John has written a book stating ghosts are mere delusions, Lady Oldershaw believes he’s the best person to investigate her family’s little problem and convince her son that what he saw wasn’t real. What John Holdworth finds at Jerusalem College is much more complicated that he imagined.

John isn’t, for me, a likable character. While his wife is grieving their son, and talking to charlatans in the hopes of hearing her son from the other side, he’s writing a book about how ghosts don’t exist. When she finally succumbs to her grief, his life crumples and he moves along wondering what will happen to him but he’s so drained he can’t even bring himself to feel. Then it happens, he loses everything and ends up working a case of a ghost. Irony there for ya isn’t it?

The whole time I was reading I kept wondering why this guy was doing the investigation. Yes, he was discreet. Yes, he needed a job. Yes, he wrote a book about ghosts. But none of it worked for me. I kept thinking it didn’t make sense. And the mystery; I barely noticed it. Maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention but I didn’t really care what happened to a group of young, rich men who thought they owned and ran the world and had the privilege of treating everyone around them badly because their money declared they could. Although to not be entirely negative, there were a few interesting plot twists but again I couldn’t bring myself to care much.

I read some good reviews of this several months ago so take what I said cautiously. This was a book that didn’t work for me but that doesn’t mean anything other than I didn’t get into it. In the front of the book I read, there was a list of books by the author and some sound promising. I’m going to try one more book and see how I feel about Andrew Taylor’s writing after the second chance. Sometimes a few bad characters make the difference between loving a book and merely liking it.

Review – After Dark

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After Dark

By Haruki Murakami

Vintage Books

ISBN: 9780307278739

4.5 stars

Told between the hours of midnight and dawn, After Dark follows encounters that take place across the city of Tokyo.  Mari Asai is sitting in a Denny’s when her sister’s friend, Takahashi, recognizes her.  Takahashi’s presence is tolerated by Mari but when he leaves, he’s not missed.  Shortly after, Mari, at the asking of Takahashi, meets Kaoru, a manager of a love hotel, who needs her help with a Chinese prostitute who’s been beaten by a customer.  Acting as interpreter, Mari helps the woman but feels worse for it in the end as she’s left wondering what will happen to her.  We look in on Mari’s sister, Eri, who is in a deep sleep, meet the man who beat up the prostitute, and return to Mari following her throughout the night and the people she meets.

After Dark exposes a raw nerve and at one point I even took a step back wondering where it was all going.  There are dreams, actual sleeping dreams, life dreams, nightmares, sad memories, and happy ones.  It’s an examination of lives, thoughts, friendships, and loves. All seen through the eyes of a woman on the verge of change who is not sure if she wants what she’s worked for.

The writing itself is incredible.  The dialogue is smart, stark, and spare.  No one character says more than needed, especially Mari, who has a secret but doesn’t want to share it.  When she does, it’s with a stranger.  It’s a poignant exchange for these two characters even though the conversation is very short and you know there’s a chance these two will never meet again. Maybe knowing this makes it easier for the two women to confide in each other knowing each of their secrets will stay that way but they get the added benefit of still being able to talk about it.

I came across this book completely by accident but it was so right at the time.  If you come across it, I recommend you pick it up and read it.  It’s truly phenomenal.

Review – Fiction Noir: Thirteen Stories, An Anthology

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Fiction Noir: Thirteen Stories, An Anthology

Edited by Rick Tannenbaum

Hen House Press

ISBN: 9780983460466

4 stars

This year I’ve been making an effort to read more short stories. When I was contacted by Hen House Press to review the Fiction Noir anthology I said yes. It was short stories but fiction noir which I enjoy —- dark stories always capture my attention. And this collection was really good.

I don’t want to give too much away so I thought a short sentence (question to entice?) about each would suffice.

Loser’s Ledge by Eve Gael — When you lose everything you thought important, what’s left?

Hey, Girlie by Joanne Dobson — A young girl is spooked by a neighbor but is there a reason to be scared?

Everyone’s a Critic by A.R. Philips — As a movie director, what lengths would you go to to ensure your movie gets the best reviews?

Dangerous Appetites by Amy Beth Arkawy — After marrying for money, a former caterer begins to see her life from a whole new perspective.

Johnny Passe by Scott Fivelson and Tim Cleavenger — An old fashioned private eye gets caught in a trap while looking for some Sinatra records.

Anvil by Steven Fried — A meditation, if you will, on the life and death process.

The Vinegar of the Seven Thieves by Dennis Brock — In wartime, a former soldier running from the law finds himself in a bad place while trying to survive.

Wrongful Death by Isaac Grimm — A lawyer with a needy wife comes across the perfect solution when a client visits.

Murder Brokers by Jennifer Leeper — A small town reporter’s curiosity gets the better of her, or does it?

The Village Idiot by Roberto Gottardello and Rivka Tadjer — A washed up FBI agent’s past comes back to haunt her.

When the Man Comes Around by Bernard Schaffer — How far would you go to protect a child?

High Stakes Graf by Semyon White — Vegas calls but the lure is sometimes more dangerous than one might know.

Love Noir by Ivan Jensen — A short poem, quite unique.

There are several gems here among them: Hey, Girlie, Everyone’s a Critic, Dangerous Appetites, Johnny Passe, The Vinegar of the Seven Thieves, Wrongful Death, Murder Brokers, and Love Noir. I have to say though, I really enjoyed them all. Usually when I’m reading short stories, especially a collection of several different authors, I take a break between stories. I didn’t do that with these stories. I jumped into the next story without a break eager to see what would be next. This might actually be the first time that’s ever happened to me. If you’re looking for some short stories, take a look, this collection is worth your time.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review – Persuasion

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Persuasion from The Complete Works of Jane Austen

By Jane Austen

Douglas Editions

ISBN: 2940000816981

4 stars

Anne Elliot is a thoughtful, helpful, and all around likable person, unless of course you’re one of her family members. Her father thinks nothing of her, her oldest sister, Elizabeth, prefers to ignore her, and her sister Mary likes having her around so she can complain to her about how no one appreciates her. Her mother died when Anne was young and since her death, she has become close to her mother’s friend, Mrs. Russell, who loves her like a daughter.

Anne’s father, Sir Elliot, is a man with a title but not a man of great means. Due to his lack of being able to manage any money at all, the family is forced to rent their large home and move to live more within their small means. For Elizabeth, this means only finding a place that will be suitable to her and her father’s needs. Mary, who is married with young children, only finds their father’s problem an inconvenience to her. Anne, well, she only does as she’s told. Although unhappy with the move, she understands the reason and is willing to do what is necessary. When a long, lost love returns to the picture in the course of renting out the family’s home, Anne finds herself in a precarious situation. When the stars begin to align for Anne, things become even more complicated and one can only hope she will finally find the life she deserves.

Half way through reading Persuasion, I realized I had read this book before. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it though. Austen takes a family situation, adds a few oddball characters, some really annoying ones as well, and allows you the means to fall in love with her characters. You want Anne, who seems to be able to see the good in all, to find the love she fully deserves. Everyone around her is full of concern for how things will look and their place in society that they have no time for anything important. As for Elizabeth and Mary, you want to shake both of them. They’re two pompous nutcases but they do bring a slight case of amusement especially where Mary is concerned.

In the end, it’s a simple, straight forward love story and ends the same way as a few of her other books. It’s on the short side and not nearly as rich as Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility but still a wonderful read. I believe it may make it into my Austen reread stack.

I still have Emma and Lady Susan to get to in my collection and Lady Susan is the next Austen book I have to look forward to.

Update: I wrote this review several months ago and forgot I had written it. I found it this weekend while working on several other reviews and thought it was time to post it.

 

Review – The Revisionists

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The Revisionists

By Matthew Mullen

Mulholland Books

ISBN: 9780316176729

3.5 stars

Time travel can be an iffy subject. How much can you mess with the timeline and keep readers stretching their grasp on reality before it snaps. In The Revisionists, Mullen asks both the reader and his main character to do just that.

Zed is an agent sent back to present day Washington, DC by the Department of Historical Integrity to ensure an event, a catastrophic event involving the death of millions of people, takes place and guarantees his society’s existence and way of life. In his timeframe, all of society’s problems have been solved — there is no hunger, no war, just a happy peace. Or that’s what the leaders in his time want him to believe. He begins questioning the need for his so-called mission wondering if letting people die will in fact lead to the perfect society he lives in.

Lonely and convincing himself it’s research, Zed begins interacting with contemporary individuals finding their lives and problems are not far from his own. Part of his mission is to leave as small a trace as possible of his existence. Zed’s footprint is huge and continues to grow. There are too many openings and far too many people involved for him to walk away unnoticed. Another problem — it seems the Department didn’t do a very good job with his cover identity since individuals keep recognizing him. He wonders if it could be a coincidence or if there is something mentally wrong with him. He knows he should break off all contact with the people he’s now interested in — especially a young Washington lawyer, Tasha, reeling from the death of her brother in Iraq — but he can’t. The circle widens and Zed can’t step back and soon ends up on the CIA, FBI, and a covert intelligence group’s radar.

Mullen plays with the concepts of history and time making for one confusing story but not in a bad way. In a few areas, I had no idea why things were happening, and while some things are tied up neatly, I was left wondering where all this was going but wasn’t that the point? This is a book about a time traveler with questions about his future and how the past plays into it but he has no real answers because he doesn’t understand the implications of his mission anymore than you do. Mullen plays with you. Dangles clues in front of you and doesn’t give you the answers you want. From the perspective of the time traveler, Zed, it’s brilliantly done. You agonize over his questions too with no answers or solutions forthcoming.

Zed’s mission involves stopping people from the future — he calls them hags — who are trying to impede the great conflagration from taking place and hopefully save lives in the process. He wrestles with whether or not it’s right to let these people die so individuals in his time can live as they do. But he also wonders about his time and if it is as truly perfect as he’s been led to believe. Has he been lied to? Zed can’t forget the questions he has and this uncertainty takes a toll on him mentally and physically. Every character in this book struggles with right and wrong and where those lines intersect. While there’s no predicting how someone will react, or what will actually happen if someone who was supposed to die lives, Zed starts taking chances. It’s interesting to see where it leads him and several of the characters.

Mullen creates a captivating theme throughout — do the decisions we make really change anything but our own fate? What you’ll find is that there are no answers but an interesting story full of questions along the way.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Review – Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead

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Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead

By Sara Gran

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 9780547428494

4.5 stars

I always thought I didn’t like mysteries. Obviously, I’ve been reading the wrong ones.  I can admit when I’m wrong. Maybe it it’s the offbeat way the mystery is solved or the setting which is more than a map of clues but also a background for a messed up detective trying to figure out how to fit back into society and whether or not she wants to go through with the plan or leave everything behind.

Claire Dewitt is a detective with issues.  A stint in a hospital has left her slightly skittish, mentally, but also slightly interested in getting back to work.  When a client seeks her out, she decides it might be time to test her own enthusiasm for work.  A case of a missing district attorney brings her home to New Orleans — a city newly devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  Claire starts feeling around for clues in her unorthodox way but what she finds has more to do with herself than the case she’s being paid to resolve.

There are so many things wrong with Claire and not the little things we all might be able to relate to on some level.  She’s screwed up; really screwed up.  A one-time teenage detective, she carries around guilt over never having found a friend who went missing.  She’s an addict — drugs, alcohol, and the above mentioned strange and scary array of guilt.  Like crazy guilt.  And she’s eccentric, especially inher detecting style.  A devout follower of Jaques Silette’s mysterious detective handbook, Detection, she uses out of the ordinary techniques such as omens and mind-enhancing drugs to seek out clues.  In fact, she isn’t the type of detective who looks for clues at all.  She waits for them to find her.  It’s an interesting way of looking at things for someone who is supposed to be a detective.

There are so many small mysteries surrounding Claire that the main case of the missing district attorney seems almost background noise to what’s really going on with her.  New Orleans is a haunted place for Claire and many times you wonder what it is she’s chasing. Is it her own demons or one more clue that found its way out of the ether into her head which is already full of scary ideas? You also aren’t surprised when her client, the only one she has, wants to fire her. Oddly, you’re not surprised either when she manages to have an explanation for everything in the end. Well, not everything, but enough to make you wonder exactly what is with the woman.

There is so much to love about this book and I’m not sure I’m doing it justice so here’s my plea to you — read it.  I recommend it highly.

Review – The Taker

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The Taker

By Alma Katsu

Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books

ISBN: 9781439197059

4 stars

The Taker appeared on my book radar a few months back and I won’t be shy in saying that I jumped at the chance to review this one. From what I read, it was creepy, indulgent, and worth a weekend spent huddled on the couch. I have to agree, Katsu tells one intriguing tale.

Lanore (Lanny) McIlvrae was born to poor farmers in the small town of St. Andrew in the farthest reaches of Maine. The love of her life, Jonathan, is the son of the town’s founder, Charles St. Andrew, and he stands to not only inherit his father’s place of honor but all the town’s burdens as well. Not thrilled with the prospect but refusing to turn from it, Jonathan — an extremely beautiful and desired person — copes by taking advantage of almost every woman in town, single and married. Lanny, while a good friend also longs to be on the receiving end of his love. She gets her wish and soon finds herself pregnant while desperately trying to keep her world from falling apart. On the day Lanny tells Jonathan she’s pregnant, he tells her he can’t be with her. Minutes later, Jonathan’s father announces his engagement breaking her heart twice in the same hour.

Knowing she cannot remain silent, Lanny tells her family. She’s promptly sent off to a convent in Boston to have the baby and redeem her soul. Wanting to keep the only tie she has left to her beloved Jonathan, she leaves the boat before the nuns can pick her up from the dock. On a dark residential street, lost and overwhelmed, she meets three individuals who offer her shelter and a warm meal while she figures out what to do. Drugged and used, she realizes soon there is no escape. Unfortunately, the world she fell into only grows more mysterious as time goes on. The longer she stays, the worse it gets. Lanny eventually becomes the courtesan of a man named Adair who shares a secret with her — he’s immortal and so is she now. What he wants in return for saving her and giving her eternal life is her beloved Jonathan.

The story alternates between Lanny’s past and the present while she tells, Luke, the emergency room doctor, what happened to her. Even though he doesn’t necessarily believe her story, the last thing her wants is for her to stop talking. When she convinces him to help her escape, you think it’s the worst move he can make but he sees it as the only way out of St. Andrews — away from his sad life, and a reason to live which he hasn’t been able to summon for some time. While the snippets of the present break the spell of Lanny’s tale, they’re a necessary part of the story not only serving to bring us back to reality but also Luke. The two cling to each other while running from small town cops. What they’re going through seems improbable and sometimes even stupid but it’s no match for the story Lanny tells. You want her to keep talking just as much as Luke does.

Lanny isn’t a character you feel sorry for even though what she’s been through is emotionally and physically tortuous. The reason you don’t feel sympathy is because you’re too caught up in the story. There’s something entrancing about her even if she doesn’t believe it to be true. She’s learned how to be manipulative; she had to in order to survive. But this stops you from feeling the same way Luke does for her. I like that. It isn’t something many authors can carry off — creating an alluring main character without making her completely likable. For a first time author, it’s a great feat and while not everyone will agree on how likable Lanny is, honestly it’s all personal preference here, she’s hardly innocent of anything and even she reminds you of that.

Enjoyable though the story is, you have to be comfortable with scant details about how Lanny came to be what she is and her explanation for exactly what she is. She’s immortal, but not a vampire. She’s strong and recovers quickly when injured but can die. I wanted more information here and Katsu does do a little distracting with the story itself by letting Lanny leave out some significant details from her tale. But since she’s telling her life story, you go with it. I did wonder why Luke didn’t press for details — it made me wonder what other powers Lanny conveniently left out of her story.

With one book, Katsu is now an author I will be waiting on. She tells a daring, harsh, and unapologetic tale with a main character that has you wrapped around her little finger until the very last word.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter and can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.