Month: September 2024

Progress Update – September 30, 2024

by Stefani

The Bitter Truth by Shanora Williams

Progress: 151 of 320 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

An upstanding political candidate. A determined stalker. A shattering lost weekend. Now, when his worst secret comes calling, how far will one man’s elegant, all-too-devoted wife go to uncover the truth . . . or bury it?

For Jolene “Jo” Baker, the least she can do for her adoring husband, Dominic, is give unwavering support for his North Carolina gubernatorial run. He is not only the love of her life, he’s also helping her prove that she’s far more than just a pampered trophy wife. With huge crowds showing up at Dominic’s speeches and the polls consistently in his favor, she’s never been happier to stand proudly by his side . . .

Until she and Dominic start seeing the same, strangely ominous woman turning up all along the campaign trail. Until their tour starts becoming a nightmare of botched events, crucial missed information, and increasingly dangerous “accidents.” Suddenly Jo can’t get any answers from Dominic—or understand why he is acting so paranoid and terrified . . .

What Jo can do is start digging into his past—one she’s never really questioned beyond his perfect image and dazzling accomplishments. What results is an alarming series of events that leave her Good friends turn into enemies, truths are revealed to be lies, and all clues lead back to one secret, shattering weekend that changes Jo’s entire life. With her world splintering into pieces, can Jo risk trying to set things right? Or will hiding the bitter truth by any means necessary destroy her as well?

How it’s going:

I put this one down for awhile, but not because I didn’t enjoy it. The ARC I received has VERY small print, so even though I was enjoying the story that aspect was a bit offputting and made it difficult to read. But, this is a perfect popcorn thriller. If you wanted to, you could read it in an afternoon. It’s also getting pretty dark. I expected this to be about bad people who do bad things, but these are really bad things. I wasn’t entirely prepared for how bad. I am also getting an idea about who is stalking Dominic, we’ll see if my theory pans out.

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Audio progress: 4.5 of 16.5 hours

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synosis:

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

How it’s going:

The writing in this book is absolutely beautiful. The author uses a single drop of water as a vehicle to weave these diverse stories together. What was a raindrop that fell upon the Mesopotamian king became a snowflake that fell on Arthur’s face at his birth, that became a tear shed for Narin, that later fell on Zaleekah. Water is the vehicle for describing these humans and it’s just perfect. I love this story so much so far. It is beautiful and moving. So far Arthur is my favorite story but Narin is very compelling too.

The Archived: A Unique Take on Life and Death

by Stefani

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Published: January 22, 2013 by Hyperion

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

Rating:

Review:

The synopsis for this book drew me in immediately. I loved the idea of it. Where a person’s life isn’t recorded in memories or pictures but in a flesh and blood embodiment of their life. And they can wake up and become dangerous and disturbed. It was giving me haunting vibes and zombie vibes all at once. And really it was a perfect combination of both of those things. It was an utterly unique idea that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

I got a little worried when I started this book because I noticed it was the first in a series. The second book was published shortly after the first, in 2014. Then an adjacent short story that acts as a 2.5 in the series was published in 2015. But nothing since then. The third book in the series is just noted as “having been outlined and plotted but with no timeline for completion”. Uh oh. Did I really want to get invested in a series that will likely never be finished? I decided to finish this one because I had already started it, and my answer is yet. I am totally willing to be invested in this series. Even if it will never be finished.

Mac was a great character. She is a young woman in the midst of dealing with immense grief. She has been given the knowledge of the Archive from her grandfather, knowing that when he was ready to pass away that the job would pass to her. So she’s grieving her grandfather and then her younger brother dies. And her family, in their grief, is determined to get a new start in a new city. They purge the home of all of her brother’s belongings and refuse to speak about him. Which is devastating for Mac because she KNOWS what happens when someone dies. She KNOWS that her brother’s History is sitting on a shelf somewhere. She knows that if she tried to wake him that it wouldn’t really be him. But at the same time, she is mourning his loss and has nothing else to remind her of him. I identified with her grief in so many profound ways.

I loved the story and the mystery of this book too. At first it seemed like Mac was trying to invent a mystery so that she didn’t have to think about her grief. But soon it became apparent that all of this was intentional, all of this is part of a larger plan, and that she is one of few who can figure out what that plan is.

My only complaint about this book is that I didn’t understand why Mac being a Keeper was such a big secret. So much of a secret that she couldn’t even tell her parents. As far as I understood, the ability to “read” things is what makes a good Keeper, and it’s genetic. Her grandfather says that her father had the ability too, he just didn’t think that his son has the temperament to be a Keeper. So, it seems like this should be able to be known to other people in the family. All those generations of it being passed down in the family and nobody ever knew except the person who was chosen? Keeping it a secret from the rest of the world made sense, but it didn’t make sense that it had to be a secret from her parents. That confused me and I couldn’t see a purpose behind it.

The ending of this book was an adventure filled ride. I read the last 125 pages in a single sitting because I couldn’t put it down. I never saw it coming. It was fantastic! It sold me on reading the next story, but I would also be content with the ending even if I never read the second book. I am hoping that the second book ends in a similar way, just in case this series never sees a third book.

‘Red River Road’: A Gripping Tale of Mystery and Vanlife

by Stefani

Red River Road by Anna Downes

Published: August 27, 2024 by Minotaur Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.

Rating:

Review:

Like a lot of people, I have been intrigued by this sudden explosion of “vanlife” influencers on social media. It seems to be this interesting mixture of people who love to travel, people who can’t afford a home and are forced to live on the road, and people who love adventure. And, naturally, we’ve all heard the media stories of times it has gone very badly in the last few years too. So, with that in mind, I was intrigued by this book. The premise sounded very promising, a girl looking for her missing sister. I expected that the mystery would be finding out what happened to her, it was….in a way.

My biggest complaint with this book is that it seems to be described by a lot of people as a “slow burn”. Normally I am fine with a slow burn of a book. But this book is only 369 pages. That’s a pretty average sized book. And the pace of this book, plus the length of the overall book, led me to feel like this was less of a slow burn and more like a book where nothing happens. It felt like nothing happened for SO LONG. The best part of the book was the last 25% because things actually happened.

I also didn’t like how many characters and POVs this book had. We have Katy, Phoebe, Beth, and Wyatt. And just for fun, sometimes Beth goes by several other names, so it’s virtually impossible to figure out who all these people are. I kept forgetting who we were talking about when Katy would mention Lily…who the hell is Lily? Oh right, Lily is Beth. I had to go back and re-listen to whole chapters because I couldn’t remember which POV we were in because all of the characters sound exactly the same. It was so confusing. I felt like I had no idea what was going on for most of the book.

The twist at the end of the book was okay. It wasn’t what I expected, which was a nice touch. But as more information kept spilling out it started to get a bit silly. It felt like a Billy Mays commercial. “Just when you thought the twists were done..wait there’s more! And for only $14.95 shipping and handling you can have yet another twist on the house!” It was too much. All of the characters were unreliable narrators, none of them were telling me a truthful or accurate story. So, by the end of the book it felt a bit pointless. I am no stranger to unreliable narrators but when it turns out that all 500 narrating characters are lying and have ulterior motives…well…what did I just read?

I did appreciate the beautiful writing about the scenery of Australia. This author has a beautiful way of describing things. I liked the narration of Phoebe’s social media posts, they were whimsical and captivating. I also appreciated the book’s discussion about domestic violence and how it intersects with the “vanlife” community. In the end this book had some redeeming qualities, but it just wasn’t my jam.

New Releases Wednesday – September 25, 2024

by Stefani

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

Published: September 24, 2024 by Berkley

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.

To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.

After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.

Why this caught my eye:

I am a big fan of Hitchcock. I would find the offering of a Hitchcock themed hotel irresistible. Even if a body was necessary, I would take that risk. A few years ago I also read and reviewed this author’s debut novel, Darling Rose Gold. And I really loved it! I made a promise that I would keep an eye out for this author in the future and here she is. The review for Darling Rose Gold is here.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Published: September 24, 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Why this caught my eye:

Lately, I find myself drawn to books that discuss grieving and loss. I’m not entirely sure why, but I am compelled by those kinds of stories lately. This one sounds profound and moving.

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin

Published: September 24, 2024 by St. Martin’s Press

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.

Why this caught my eye:

Obviously the title and the cover is what initially drew my attention. But this just sounds fun! It sounds like a great adventure through insecurity and anxiety over the unknown.

Progress Updates Friday – September 20, 2024

by Stefani

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Progress: Page 95 of 327

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

Thoughts so far:

Whether this series will end up forever unfinished or not, I’m hopelessly invested. I am so compelled by Mac. I want to watch her on her journey. I am saddened by her journey through grief. Though there are a few things that I find confusing, I am hoping that we get some answers. But I just love it.

Red River Road by Anna Downes

Progress: 65% of 12 hours

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Thoughts so far:

I keep reading reviews that this book is a “slow burn”. But it’s only 12 hours of audio (369 pages in print). How much of a slow burn could it be? When I got about halfway through I determined that slow burn might mean that nothing actually happens. That’s how I’m feeling right now. There are too many characters. Too many POVs. I have no idea what’s going on. For context, this book is 369 pages and has 102 chapters. We change POV approximately every 3 pages. I have no idea who these people are, and none of their stories seem particularly relevant. It also doesn’t help that at least one character goes by 3 different names. I am also getting worried that all of these characters might have been lying to me so far. I don’t mind an unreliable narrator. But when ALL of them are unreliable it makes me feel like I’ve wasted my time. Hopefully it doesn’t go that way.

Review of Ink Blood Sister Scribe: Magic, Sisters, and Secrets

by Stefani

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

Published: May 30, 2023 by William Morrow

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

Rating:

Review:

I am in love with the idea of this book. It’s a book that’s about books. In this world, blood can be used as ink to create magical tomes that enact specific spells. Seemingly these spells are limitless, or at least we aren’t told much about the limits of the spells. There is even an immortality spell, so at the very least we can say that the limit is far reaching. Later, we find out that some spells even go further than just blood. They have inscribed onto skin, bound with hair and glued together with fat. Some of the darkest spells require a connection to the body of the person who wrote it. And two of our main characters have just recently lost their father to one of these books. He put his hand to it and it took his blood, all of it. That is a terrifying and amazing idea. It was that idea that interested me in this book to begin with.

This book was the very definition of “okay.” The characters weren’t interesting but there were too many of them. We spend a lot of time head hopping to the POV of different characters but there’s so many of them that I couldn’t keep track of who was who. It took me until about 30% of the book to figure out how everyone was related to the story. It would have been better to spend more consistent time with just a few characters so I could get to know them better. There was a few superb relationships in this book. The sister relationship and mother/daughter relationship were excellently written. But I had a hard time empathizing with the characters generally because we didn’t spend enough time with them. I couldn’t get to know them enough to care about them.

The story really picks up about halfway through. I really loved the adventure after that point. It was fast paced and horrifying. I loved it and got swept away in the ride. The ending was a little bit confusing, I actually went back and read the last chapter again because I thought I missed something. It ends on a cliffhanger….sort of. It is a well contained story but there’s definitely a “what happens next” vibe to the ending.

The biggest problem this book had was that the characters didn’t seem to have any agency. No one actually makes any decisions. They are set along a plot path and they just move along that pre-determined path. And they talk about making decisions. A LOT. But they don’t actually make any. At one point it felt like the main characters would be forced into making a decision. They were being left clues but were concerned about whether they could trust the person leaving the clues, or if it was a trap. They needed to decide whether to trust the clues or not. It took about 30 seconds for them to just blindly decide to trust the clue giver without any discussion or dissent. And back on the pre-determined path we went. It was frustrating. I wanted them to actually decide things. I think that might be the result of this being a debut novel. Sometimes it’s difficult to write to a planned plot without making it feel planned. That’s a very specific skill and sometimes it takes time to develop. Overall there was a lot of good things here, and I am glad that I read it. It was a solid debut novel

New Releases Wednesday – September 18, 2024

by Stefani

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

Published: September 17, 2024 by Marysue Rucci Books

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Estranged siblings discover their father has been keeping a secret for over fifty years, one that may have been fatal…

Liam Noone was many things to many people. To the public, he was an exacting, self-
made hotel magnate fleeing his past. To his three ex-wives, he was a loving albeit distant family man who kept his finances flush and his families carefully separated. To Nora, he was a father who often loved her from afar – notably a cliffside cottage perched on the California coast from which he fell to his death.   

The authorities rule the death accidental, but Nora and her estranged brother Sam have other ideas. As Nora and Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past—and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

Why it caught my eye:

This has all the makings of a good mystery! Estranged siblings, lonely cliffside homes, curious deaths, and family secrets. This is one of those books that you know exactly what you’re getting, it’s all about the journey along the way.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Published: September 17, 2024 by Pamela Dorman Books

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve…

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job…

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Why this caught my eye:

I think I’m in a mood for cozy mysteries lately. It’s what I’m watching on TV, it’s what I want to read, it’s what I want to listen to. Must be because it’s the beginnings of fall. This one sounded like a cute little cozy that I want to check out.

Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling

Published: September 17, 2024 by Delacorte Press

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

As a child, Elowen Atarah was ripped away from her dragons and imprisoned by her father, King Garrick of Imirath. Years later, Elowen is now a woman determined to free her dragons. Having established a secret kingdom of her own called Aestilian, she’s ready to do what’s necessary to save her people and seek vengeance. Even if that means having to align herself with the Commander of Vareveth, Cayden Veles, the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms of Ravaryn.

Cayden is ruthless, lethal, and secretive, promising to help Elowen if she will stand with him and all of Vareveth in the pending war against Imirath. Despite their contrasting motives, Elowen can’t ignore their undeniable attraction as they combine their efforts and plot to infiltrate the impenetrable castle of Imirath to steal back her dragons and seek revenge on their common enemy.

As the world tries to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes impossible to resist. Working together with their crew over clandestine schemes, the threat of war looms, making the imminent heist to free her dragons their most dangerous adventure yet. But for Elowen, her vengeance is a promise signed in blood, and she’ll stop at nothing to see that promise through.

Why this caught my eye:

I am a sucker for a book with a pretty cover. This one is gorgeous. It’s also a fantasy about dragons, and I love dragons. All in all, this sounds like a perfect book for me.

Progress Updates – September 16, 2024

by Stefani

I had a really busy week and didn’t manage to write a single post. So, I will do an off schedule progress update post, because I have been reading some interesting books lately. Without further ado….

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

Published: May 30, 2023 by William Morrow

Progress: 50% of 13:53 audiobook

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

Thoughts so far:

So far this book is solidly….okay. I spent the first 20-30% of the audiobook being utterly confused. There’s a lot of characters. There’s a lot of things happening. And there’s not a whole lot of explanation to keep the reader in the loop of what’s going on. The ideas are interesting enough to keep me invested. I believe I may have figured out all of the different threads at this point. I hope. I am excited to get on the downslope of the book and see if things continue to make sense.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Published: January 22, 2013 by Hyperion

Progress: 68 of 327 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

Thoughts so far:

This is such an interesting premise. I have a lot of questions though. Questions that I hope will have answers. But so far it is intriguing and I really like Mac. Unfortunately I looked at this book and it appears to be part of a series. This was published in 2013, the 2nd book was published in 2014…and nothing since. Sigh. So if I really love it, then I might end up frustrated by no further story. But I am too far into this to turn back now. A word of caution to anyone who might want to start this book though.

Dystopian Climate Crisis Fiction: ‘American War’ by Omar El Akkad

by Stefani

American War by Omar El Akkad

Published: April 4, 2017 by Knopf

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike.

Rating:

Review:

I believe that there are two ways to write a really great dystopian novel. First, you set the book so far into the future that it doesn’t really matter how outlandish the world building or the situation are. Readers will look at it and think “Well, it’s 400 years in the future, I guess that could happen.” Second, you base it in a more recent reality, but change a few key situations or circumstances that logically explain how the world got to this state in the near future.

Unfortunately, this book doesn’t convincingly do either one. The premise of this book is that in 2074 the United States has a second Civil War. Ostensibly, the war is over oil. Oil has been outlawed due to climate change and some states decide that they want to continue using it and so they engage in a Civil War. After the war ends (about 20 years), there was a devastating plague that swept the nation and things have been in a state of crisis ever since. This book is set somewhere in the midst of the war when the main character and her family flee to a refuge camp to escape the war and the plague. I really wanted a better explanation for how the United States gets to a Civil War just 50 years from now. I simply didn’t understand how the conflicts about climate change and oil reach that boiling point so soon.

WARNING: From here on out there will probably be spoilers. But I find this book to be crap that I would recommend to no one, so feel free to continue at your leisure.

So, ostensibly this war is about oil. Except that doesn’t make any sense. Apparently climate change has gotten so bad that most of the American Southwest is just perpetually on fire and unlivable, and half of Louisiana is permanently underwater, and the ice caps no longer exist. I find it hard to believe that in the face of such catastrophic changes to the world that there would be so much climate change skepticism left to start a war over. Currently there’s a lot of nuance to climate change opinions. People who believe that it is entirely man made and we have to do something about it. People who believe it is a natural cycle of the earth that we have little to no influence over. People who believe it’s all made up and not actually happening. People who believe that it is happening, humans are responsible, but we’ll find ways to innovate solutions as times goes on. But despite this diversity of opinions, in 50 years time everyone either boils down into “let’s ban oil to help climate change” or “we want oil, because….we want it.” I find that difficult to imagine. I also find it hard to believe that there would be enough people who feel strongly enough about oil to start a war over it. Apparently there’s three states that started the war, and a few others joined along the way. Texas was part of it at one point, but it’s now part of Mexico for some reason. So they are kind of affiliated, but not really. It’s confusing. Let’s also ignore that even the most catastrophic climate change predictions state that the temperature difference will be about 1 degree in 100 years….

Really, what this author does it just replace slavery with oil and utilize all the same tropes and circumstances of the first civil war and overlaid it into the book. But instead of the Union we have “the blues”, instead of the Confederacy we have “the reds”. It was not well done. The author tells us the war is about oil but it isn’t. It’s about typical Old South tropes of racism, misogyny, and classism. It also doesn’t seem like this is even a world that can survive without oil in the first place. For example, “the blues” have warships that are supposed to enforce the oil ban, they have solar panels. But the solar panels are so inefficient that the ships regularly use their diesel engines to get things done….the author tells us this as an aside, like it’s a normal course of business. That was so weird. You ban oil but still haven’t advanced alternative energy sources enough to actually be useable? What?

Speaking of oil, apparently in this book the “Middle East” and “North Africa” decided to put aside thousands of years of conflict and culture differences to form a new world superpower. Where apparently everything is sunshine and rainbows. And things are so good that everyone in Europe is fleeing to this new land on boats as refugees. No explanation is given for how this happens, nor why. Just that it happened. Some of these countries have been having continued conflicts over religion, race, class, culture, etc for literally thousands of years. But, everything is cool now? In 50 years? That doesn’t seem likely either.

It also isn’t difficult to figure out that the author has overlaid current political differences (and his own political opinions) onto this book. “The reds” are bad people. They like guns, and oil, and hate women and gay people. “The blues” believe in trying to help the world, and love everyone, and want to save the planet. Huh, that sounds very 2016 to me. It’s egotistical and ridiculous. To think that the political stage wouldn’t have advanced past the tropes and stereotypes that the two sides throw at each other in current times is laughable.

There were a lot of other things that were laughable and ridiculous about this book but I just can’t devote more time to it. I only got halfway through and that was already a waste of my time. The next “great American novel” this is not.