Category: Fiction Page 68 of 342

The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 22: Animals Instinct by R. T. Slaywood: A Quick but Satisfying Episode

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On May 19, 2023

In Urban Fantasy

The Ballad of BonadukeThe Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 22: Animals Instinct

by R.T. Slaywood

DETAILS:
Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #21
Format: Kindle Vella Story
Read Date: May 18, 2023

I was reminded of the one time my father took me to a natural park…We had been walking for nearly 20 minutes in silence before we heard it shuffle through the underbrush ahead. A bear. Larger than life than [sic] and certainly bigger than any TV picture could have prepared me for. There was a switch in my head that knew immediately how dangerous it was.

The Story So Far…

A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.

Before then, he gets himself drunk and we get some of his tragic backstory. As he ponders this, he decides to use some of his ill-gotten-gains to buy more booze and walks into a liquor store robbery. He foils it in some sort of magical fashion, gets some more to drink, and heads off to the park to drink until he’s arrested (probably for the failed robbery). At least that’s his plan, but it gets interrupted by being hit by a car. He wakes up on some sort of short, metal bed and is unsure what’s going on. It turns out that some group is subjecting him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.

Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. Taking refuge in a homeless encampment, Bonaduke has to make some decisions. He starts to get his thoughts in order when the police begin a raid at the camp. During the raid, he’s apprehended by…well, we need to find out. But first, the interrogation kicks off—Bonaduke tries to work his grift to get him out, and while that effort starts off promisingly…it didn’t quite go the way he’d intended.

What’s Animals Instinct About?

Bonaduke has a quick fantasy about how he can get himself out of the station–and how it would probably go wrong.

Then he gets an unexpected assist (that will likely come with strings attached) and gets out in a very different way.

Well, that’s about it.

So, what did I think about Animals Instinct?

There were a couple of nasty typos that really took me out of the moment, and given the brevity of the episode, that’s not good at all.

This was a quick one and Slaywood acknowledges this in a note, but it does everything an episode needs to. Bonaduke gets out of the police station, we learned a little more about him, and there’s a good character moment. The story moved and it did so well.

And did we learn something about how the grift works? Mayyyybe. Now I’m excited.

3.5 Stars

Ten Reasons to NOT Read Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas

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On May 18, 2023

In Fantasy, Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

The Manifestor ProphecyNic Blake and the Remarkables:
The Manifestor Prophecy

by Angie Thomas

DETAILS:
Series: Nic Blake and the Remarkables, #1
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Publication Date: April 04, 2023
Format: Hardcover
Length: 351 pg.
Read Date: May 10, 2023


So Here’s the Deal:

I’ve tried to write a favorable post about this book a couple of times now, and I’ve failed. I’ve got to get this back to the Library soon, so I need to get something done. So…here are some bullet points describing why readers should avoid the book.

What’s the Book Jacket Say about The Manifestor Prophecy

I guess, to be fair, we should start with some facts. Here’s what the jacket copy has to say:

It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of…to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.

From internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas comes a wildly inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore, featuring a fierce, irrepressible character who will win your heart.

Reasons to Avoid It

In no particular order, just the way they occurred to me:
bullet As all good Fantasy readers know, there’s a plethora of books (especially for MG audiences) with magic systems largely based on African American myths and folklore. It’s the same old-same old here, give me some WASP-y fantasy!
bullet An MG-book featuring a strong father-daughter connection, however flawed by good intentions and human nature? Bah. Who needs that?
bullet We don’t need a respectful, but still pointed, take on a certain magical boarding school series.
bullet The fact that there’s a way for Muggles, I mean Unremarkables, to access magic on their own is such a bad idea and adds nothing new to the genre.
bullet In many ways, you get the impression (although it might not be the case) that Coogler’s Black Panther influenced this storyline and world. Of all the superhero movies, why this one?
bullet The protagonist and her best friend be prepared for their adventures because of their devoted fandom of a series of fantasy novels. Nerds shouldn’t be action heroes. They should stay in their lane.
bullet “Chosen One post-traumatic stress disorder?” Listen, the notion of a Chosen One is sacrosanct and should be treated that way.
bullet It’s a Middle-Grade book, it shouldn’t acknowledge (but not dwell on) things like issues with the prison system, racism, the Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights Movement, and so on.
bullet Protagonists (and main characters) who make mistakes—serious ones—and have to adjust their behavior are not the examples that Middle-Grade readers need.
bullet Nic Blake finds herself as part of two supportive and encouraging multi-generational communities (who don’t see eye to eye, it should be said) and gets help from both when she needs it. But it’s not just help for her—the communities help each other—largely because it’s needed, not that they get anything in return.
bullet There’s a sense of fun and joy that pervades the entire book, without detracting from the stakes, and that’s such a turn-off.

So, what did I think about The Manifestor Prophecy?

Okay, fine…there are few reasons not to read this book, really. It’s a fun world filled great characters (both minor and major), and I’m ready to read the sequel today (if only so I can have another chance at writing something about the series).

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

The Rhythm of Time by Questlove with S. A. Cosby: Not a Flux Capacitor in Sight, but There Might as Well Be

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On May 15, 2023

In Fiction, Science Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

The Rhythm of TimeThe Rhythm of Time

by Questlove with S.A. Cosby

DETAILS:
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 18, 2023
Format: Hardcover
Length: 236 pg.
Read Date: May 8, 2023


His dad. He was walking and talking with his dad. And his dad was…kinda cool? Rahim didn’t know what was more shocking—the fact he had traveled back in time or that his dad was once actually pretty fun to be around.

What’s The Rhythm of Time About?

Kasia is a homeschool nerd/computer genius. Her parents run a vegan co-op and help community gardens throughout the city. They know she’s smarter than them, but they also know they don’t fully appreciate how much smarter she is. For example, she’s designed a drone that can adapt, speak, and add features as it sees fit. She’s also made a (admittedly unattractive) smartphone for her best friend so he can call her and do homework.

Rahim lives next door to her and to call his father a Luddite is to understate things—and it’d probably result in a lecture from him about the inaccuracy of using the term for him. He’s a history professor who won’t allow computers, etc. in his home—his encyclopedias are good enough for Rahim’s homework, thank you very much*. He’s not that crazy about Rahim’s love of music or sports, either.

* Sure, it’s impossible in 2023 for even a grade school student to do homework without the Internet, we all know that. Shhh. Roll with it for the purposes of the book.

Rahim is overjoyed with his gift (although he does make a crack about its looks) and starts to use it right away. It takes him very little time to see that if he does things in a certain way, the phone will transport him instantly to various places. Kasia doesn’t understand that, but before she can figure out how that happens, Rahim discovers (the hard way) that the phone also works to send him to the past.

While Kasia tries to figure out how to get him home, she tells him to keep from interacting with anyone as much as possible. She starts trying to see what the satellites she hacked into to give Rahim his phone are doing to him and Rahim sees a kid about his age being bullied and before common sense can restrain him, he intervenes and saves the kid. The bullied kid turns out to be Omar, or as Rahim calls him, “Dad.”

Oops.

And well…things get worse from there.

The Take on Time Travel

Time itself is being pulled and stretched, and I’m kinda afraid it’s gonna crumble like graham crackers dunked in milk.

Like any self-respecting time-travel story, particularly one where the traveler meets a relative, things start to unravel—the timeline, future events, etc. And not just in the expected ways—the first sign we have that anything’s going wrong is that a different team wins the ’97 NBA Championship. There’s no relation to anyone in the book to anyone in the NBA (that the reader knows of), so the problems in the timeline aren’t starting out in the typical way. The authors deserve some big points for that.

Nor do the time travel-induced anomalies continue to play out the way they usually do. It’s when things are nearing their worst that Kasia says that about graham crackers in milk (a visual that has stuck with me for days).

(Mild Spoilers ahead in this paragraph) Some things remain constant—Rahim’s parents still get together and live next to Kasia and her family. Kasia’s just as smart, too (thankfully). And just when you start to think that maybe, just maybe, we’re going to get a Back to the Future kind of ending where things went differently for Rahim’s father and he found a different kind of success—but Rahim (for reasons you might not expect) decides to try a plan-so-crazy-that-it-just-might-work to restore the timeline. Emphasis on the might.

The Government Types

Disrupting, disturbing, distracting, and potentially disabling Kasia’s efforts are a couple of government agents. They seem like moderately overzealous, humorless types who are trying to do their job—if it happens to allow them to bully a little girl, so be it.

Eventually, however, these agents prove to be better than we think. In doing so they show that some of the government assets that Kasia has been, um, “helping” herself to aren’t exactly what she thinks they are. In fact, there’s a connection between them and The Philadelphia Experiment. But we’re not just treated to the typical urban legend version of the Philadelphia Experiment, Questlove and Cosby give the reader a Hidden Figures version of it. Which makes it all the more fun.

But just because there are all sorts of adults running around with official powers and equipment, don’t think that it all doesn’t come down to what Kasia and Rahim do. This is a Middle-Grade novel, after all.

So, what did I think about The Rhythm of Time?

It just felt so odd to be having so much fun on just about every page with Cosby’s name on the cover. I enjoy his stuff, but it’s not often that “fun” enters into the conversation. And fun is the best word to describe this.

The whole concept and the way it plays out are ridiculous—but they’re entertaining, and if you can accept any part of it, you’ll accept it all. And there’s no reason not to suspend your disbelief enough to buy into the story—because it’s not trying to be more than a fun adventure for grade school readers.* So just sit back, relax, grab some popcorn, and enjoy.

* Even if it had higher aspirations, you could still make the case for going along with things.

Rahim’s a great guy, and you can see where Omar ends up becoming the Dad that he is—and how his parents become the versions of themselves Rahim would come to know as his grandparents. All of that was really well done.

Kasia is the type of impossible genius making tech in her bedroom that has been the stuff of cartoons and Middle-Grade fiction since I was reading it (when it was called “Juvenile Fiction.”) Think Flavia de Luce meets Penny from Inspector Gadget meets Richie Foley (from Static Shock). I will read something about her anytime. If Rahim’s along for the ride, so much the better.

The book ends with a clear sign that the story goes on, but none of the online sources I see refer to this as the first of a series. I hope it does go on—but it’s also one of those endings that doesn’t require a sequel. We know that Rahim and Kasia are going to be up to more adventures, and in a way, that’s enough. By this point, the reader has enough to know how their adventures will go.

But I really hope the series keeps going.

Pick this up for some nice, uncomplicated fun for yourself or grab it for the Middle Schooler in your life (and then borrow it).

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire: Now, Where Were We? Oh, Right…

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On May 15, 2023

In Fiction, InCryptid, Seanan McGuire, Urban Fantasy

Backpacking Through BedlamBackpacking Through Bedlam

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: InCryptid, #12
Publisher: Daw Books
Publication Date: March 07, 2023
Format: Trade Paperback
Length: 285 pg.
Read Date: March 30-April 3, 2023


Back to the Covenant Story

The first few books of this series featured an ongoing arc concerning the looming threat of an invasion of the Americas by The Covenant of St. George. In the fifth book, Chaos Choreography, Verity basically invited that invasion. In the next book, Antimony went undercover to infiltrate them in order to gather intel on the coming invasion—and we largely abandoned that storyline for the rest of the Antimony-trilogy (the Covenant was around, obviously, but other things seemed far more important most of the time). Then with the next three books, that storyline took a giant backseat and most of the action focused on non-Earthbound species and/or didn’t take place on Earth.

Now that Alice, Thomas, and Sally are back on Earth, we can rejoin the Covenant story, already in progress.

What’s Backpacking Through Bedlam About?

This is precisely what this novel is about—Alice trying to reintroduce Thomas and Sally to Earth (the latter will be far easier since she hasn’t been gone quite as long) while coming to fight alongside Verity’s ragtag “army” in New York to protect the dragon.

Thomas doesn’t have to just remember what Earth is like and catch up on a few decades worth of technological advances, political and cultural changes, etc.—he also has to get used to his wife again. They’ve both grown and changed—yes, still deeply in love and committed to each other. But…they’re not the same people they were when he left.

Meanwhile, Alice has to learn to accept Sally as the not-quite-adult-daughter she’s never met. And Sally has to figure out her place in her new family. All while Verity and the rest of the Prices are going to have to adjust to Thomas actually being alive.

And, yeah, they have to fight a war and protect as many cryptids as they can from the Covenant. Should be a walk in the park, right? Or maybe that’s where the titular Bedlam comes in.

So, what did I think about Backpacking Through Bedlam?

When Verity declared war, I remember being taken aback by it—but also thinking, “all right, now things will get really interesting!” Just for that to be pushed to the background—or not even discussed—for quite some time. After getting over my initial disappointment, I settled in and didn’t have a problem with it, because what we got was plenty entertaining and intriguing on its own—who needed them to be the focus of the antagonism when you had all this other stuff going on?

But, I tell you what, it felt good to get back to this story. I really appreciate that we came back to it as we did, with Alice and the others having to jump in and catch up. This made it easy for the reader to get backstory thrown at us and we didn’t have to go back to the time of Magic for Nothing or thereabouts to see watch the invasion.

This was a solid novel in the series, and I think will serve as a really good way for the next arc to launch—letting us see all the Prices (in one way or another) fighting the Covenant. I don’t have much to say beyond that—InCryptid books bring a lot of snark, a dash of romance, a good amount of action, and some interesting musings on life, family, and what makes a decent person (human or not). That’s what you get in Backpacking through Bedlam.

I have no idea what’s coming next—or who our primary character will be in the next book—and I don’t care. I’m just eager to see it.

This wouldn’t be a bad place to jump on—there’s enough recapping of various and sundry storylines going on that it’s probably the best one since the fifth book (books 1, 3, 5, and now, 12 I think are the optimal jumping-on points). Just know that if you try it, you’re going to want to go back to the beginning.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani: This Will Hit You Like a Bolt of Something

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On May 12, 2023

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

Sunbolt Tour Banner

SunboltSunbolt

by Intisar Khanani

DETAILS:
Series: The Sunbolt Chronicles, #1
Publisher: Purple Monkey Press
Publication Date: June 17, 2013
Format: eBook
Length: 152 pg.
Read Date: May 9, 2023

What’s Sunbolt About?

We start with a chase scene through a street market that might as well be scored by Alan Menken (although Jafar or Genie is to be found anywhere in the rest of the book, Hitomi would have no problem with a Jafar). Our protagonist, a thief—and someone of a clearly different ethnicity to everyone around her—is scrappy and nimble, getting away from her pursuers (quasi-official mercenaries) with the help of some of the sellers in the market.

We learn that this brash young woman is named Hitomi and she’s allied (somewhat) with a group calling itself the Shadow League, which is trying to stand up to an increasingly corrupt and oppressive government. The government is backed by the Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame (who is just about to be running everything through puppets).

Hitomi and some allies head out one night to save a powerful family from arrest and (likely) execution—and almost everything that could go wrong does. Hitomi and some of the family are captured. And then…well, this book about scrappy freedom fighters becomes something very different.

The World Building

At the beginning of the book, Khanani provides a guide to pronouncing some of the names in the book—I always appreciate that kind of thing (if one was grading, I’d have gotten a low B, incidentally, on my own). In her lead-up to that, she mentions that the fantasy world she’s created and the cultures within it “are primarily based on a variety of real-world historical cultures.” I wish she’d have listed (at least a partial list) of those cultures just for curiosity’s sake. I spent a little too much time wondering what X or Y came from after reading that. (and was very likely wrong 60+% of the time)

But ultimately, it doesn’t matter what those sources were, because she’s made them into something new and fit for her world. And whatever the backgrounds may be, they work really well for this novel—perhaps better than it do in our own. It’s familiar and yet foreign all at once. Khanani doesn’t drown us in details or anything like that (thankfully), but you have the impression that everything has been worked out thoroughly (whether or not it has been) and that this a fully-developed world with a fascinating history and a future worth saving.

We only get a hint of the magic system, but has a lot of promise. The variety of magical races (for lack of a better term) is great, and (again) familiar to a fantasy reader, but specific to Khanani’s world. You can’t help but want to learn more about both the magic system and the races, you get enough to carry you through the novel—but you want more.

So, what did I think about Sunbolt?

Sunbolt is short. Freakishly short for the genre, really. But that brevity works so well for this story. Like a wizard and punctuality, this book is precisely as long as it needed to be. It tells the story it needs to in a satisfying manner and then is done. Yes, it prepares you for the second book in the series, but not in a cliffhanger way.

I wouldn’t have minded if the book was longer if it meant we got to spend more time with the characters—but that’s what a sequel is for, right?

There’s a moment really early on that made me grimace—Khanani over-explained a moment robbing it of its power. And as I so often do, I murmured a silent plea (pointless since the book had been out for a decade) for her to trust her audience. But that was the only time that the book stopped me with something like that—most of the writing was subtle, nuanced, and smooth. I did have to stop a few times to re-read sentences because I liked them so much.

Hitomi—fierce, independent, determined, and over-her-head—is one of those characters you gravitate to immediately and while you know she’s making a blunder here and there, you can’t help but root for her. Sadly for her, her blunders tend to work out better than some of her plans—a treat for her readers, however.

I’m going to avoid a deep dive on the rest of the characters, although I think many of them deserve it. I’m not sure I trust everyone in the Shadow League, but they’re all intriguing characters—and I’d gladly read a Shadow League novel tomorrow to get to know them better. The villains are some of the worst I’ve run across this year, and you can’t complain about that. Then there’s someone who becomes rather important to Hitomi in the closing chapters…I think they could go down as one of my favorites of the year (and easily become someone I despise in a future encounter).

A well-paced story, with strong characters, and a great fantasy world to explore. That’s all the makings of a winner in my book. Sunbolt is a quick, fascinating read that will make you want to click on the order button for the sequel as soon as you finish.

4 Stars

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

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On May 12, 2023

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Intisar Khanani’s Sunbolt, it has a fancy new cover being released today, too. In addition this Spotlight, my post about the book will be coming along in a little bit. In the meantime, go check out https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours over the next few days to see a lot of bloggers write interesting things about this book. Sunbolt was a finalist for the 2022 Book Blogger’s Novel of the Year Award, so you know there’s a lot of good to be said about it–but before getting to the spotlight for it, let’s start with a word about BBNYA.

BBNYA:

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or Twitter @bbnya_official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Sunbolt Tour Banner

Book Details:

Publisher: Purple Monkey Press
Genre: Fantasy
Age Category: Middle Young Adult
Release date: June 17, 2013
Format: Paperback/Ebook
Length: 152 pages
Sunbolt Cover

About the Book:

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

Book Links:

Amazon.ca ~ Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Intisar KhananiIntisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. She has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah, on the coast of the Red Sea. Intisar used to write grants and develop projects to address community health and infant mortality with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. She is the author of The Sunbolt Chronicles, and The Dauntless Path novels, beginning with Thorn.

Author Links:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Facebook

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Arvia: Heart of the Sky by D.H. Willison

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On May 12, 2023

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for third volume of D.H. Willison’s Arvira series, , on its publication day! I couldn’t fit it into my reading schedule, but if you take a look at the feed for https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours over the next few days, you’ll see a lot of bloggers who did find the time to write interesting things about it. Still, I wanted to spread the word a bit while cursing my time managment.

Heart of the Sky Tour Banner

Book Details:

Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Next Chapter
Format: /Ebook
Length: 359 pages
Heart of the Sky Cover

About the Book:

It takes great courage to stand against a ferocious mythic monster.

It takes far greater to stand WITH one who’s at her most vulnerable.

Tremors rock the land. Wild magic and creatures from the abyss ravage a formerly bountiful forest, while a creeping magic ailment spreads among the harpies. A fragile peace between harpy and human teeters on the brink.

Darin and Rinloh, oddest couple in all the land. They must become the oddest of heroes to save the land.

Heart of the Sky. A charming blend of whimsy, terror, and a lot of heart.

Book Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

D.H. WillisonD.H. Willison is a reader, writer, game enthusiast and developer, engineer, and history buff. He’s lived or worked in over a dozen countries, learning different cultures, viewpoints, and attitudes, which have influenced his writing, contributing to one of his major themes: alternate and creative conflict resolution. The same situations can be viewed by different cultures quite differently. Sometimes it leads to conflict, sometimes to hilarity. Both make for a great story.

He’s also never missed a chance to visit historic sites, from castle dungeons, to catacombs, to the holds of tall ships, to the tunnels of the Maginot Line. It might be considered research, except for the minor fact that his tales are all set on the whimsical and terrifying world of Arvia. Where giant mythic monsters are often more easily overcome with empathy than explosions.

Subscribe to his newsletter for art, stories, and humorous articles (some of which are actually intended to be humorous).

Author Links:

Website ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Twitter~ Goodreads


My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Opening Lines: Sacred by Dennis Lehane

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On May 11, 2023

In Blog Series, Currently Reading, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Opening Lines, Quotations

Head & Shoulders used to tell us that, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That’s true for wearing dark shirts, and it’s especially true for books. Sometimes the characters will hook the reader, sometimes the premise, sometimes it’s just knowing the author—but nothing beats a great opening for getting a reader to commit. This is the third book in one of my favorite series (and the fourth I’d read when I first encountered it), so I was pre-commited when I picked it up. But if I’d never read Lehane before, this would’ve done it for me.

A piece of advice: If you ever follow someone in my neighborhood, don’t wear pink.

The first day Angie and I picked up the little round guy on our tail, he wore a pink shirt under a gray suit and a black topcoat. The suit was double-breasted, Italian, and too nice for my part of town by several hundred dollars. The topcoat was cashmere. People in my neighborhood could afford cashmere, I suppose, but usually they spend so much on the duct tape that keeps their tail pipes attached to their ’82 Chevys, that they don’t have much left over for anything but that trip to Aruba.

The second day, the little round guy replaced the pink shirt with a more subdued white, lost the cashmere and the Italian suit, but still stuck out like Michael Jackson in a day care center by wearing a hat. Nobody in my neighborhood–or any of Boston’s inner-city neighborhoods that I know of–wears anything on their head but a baseball cap or the occasional tweed Scally. And our friend, the Weeble, as we’d come to call him, wore a bowler. A fine-looking bowler, don’t get me wrong, but a bowler just the same.

“He could be an alien,” Angie said. I looked out the window of the Avenue Coffee Shop. The Weeble’s head jerked and then he bent to fiddle with his shoelaces.

“An alien,” I said. “From where exactly? France?”

She frowned at me and lathered cream cheese over, bagel so strong with onions my eyes watered just looking at it. “No, stupid. From the future. Didn’t you ever see that old Star Trek where Kirk and Spock ended wp on earth in the thirties and were hopelessly out of step?”

“I hate Star Trek.”

“But you’re familiar with the concept.”

I nodded, then yawned. The Weeble studied a telephone pole as if he’d never seen one before. Maybe Angie was right.

“How can you not like Star Trek?” Angie said.

“Easy. I watch it, it annoys me, I turn it off.”

“Even Next Generation?”

“What’s that?” I said.

“When you were born,” she said, “I bet your father held you up to your mother and said, ‘Look, hon, you just gave birth to a beautiful crabby old man.'”

“What’s your point?” I said.

from Sacred by Dennis Lehane
Sacred

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Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh: Bree Taggert’s on the Hunt for a Killer Out for Revenge

By

On May 11, 2023

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Lie to HerLie to Her

by Melinda Leigh

DETAILS:
Series: Bree Taggert, #6
Publisher: Montlake
Publication Date: January 17, 2023
Format: Paperback
Length: 292 pg.
Read Date: May 5-6, 2023


What’s Lie to Her About?

The first crime scene Bree and her department are called to in this book centers around a man incapacitated by a stun gun and then had his head wrapped in a thick layer of plastic wrap to smother him. If that image doesn’t stick in your head for a while, you probably didn’t pay attention. During the autopsy, when the wrap is removed, it’s revealed that the word “Liar” had been carved into his forehead.

The rest of the crime scene was clean, leading Bree and Matt to conclude that this was a well-planned as well as very personal crime. The question is, was this enough for the killer? Or did they have a list of victims?

Sadly, it seems to be a list—another victim is discovered soon after. It doesn’t take the Sheriff’s Department long to focus on the dating app usage of both men and the women in common from their history.

It then becomes a race against time as the killer may have other targets—and they just might have added Bree to their list.

Chief Deputy Todd Harvey

I’ve had a section with this title for a few books now, and I might be on the verge of dropping it. Leigh’s starting to do right by Harvey! Sure, he had to go through some trauma in Dead Against Her to get to this point, but he’s coming back from it (it seems Bree’s having a harder time with it than Todd is).

Yes, he is still largely there to serve as a conduit for exposition—but in this novel he had both an independent personal story, and conducted part of the investigation on his own, trusting his gut and skills. It’s satisfying to see.

The Time Frame

We’re told (repeatedly) over the course of this book that it’s been almost a year since the murder of Bree’s sister, bringing her to town and to her new career as Sherriff.

It’s only been a year? That’s a lot of serial killers, multiple murderers, and so on for one smaller community. Not to mention all the havoc wreaked on the lives of the county as a whole. But if you just focus on what’s happened to Bree’s family and close associates? It’s a testimony to her that anyone’s still around her (multiple kidnappings, serious wounds, assaults, and attempted murders).

Hopefully, things slow down for them (in series-time, not in the release of books).

So, what did I think about Lie to Her?

Like with many police procedurals (or mystery novels in general), our main characters spend a lot of time pursuing dead ends. The reader isn’t given the killer’s identity here like it so often happens, but most readers will be able to tell that’s what is going on. By the time that Bree, Matt, and Todd are convinced it’s X and head out to make an arrest, the reader will likely have figured it out, though, and know they’re wrong—if only because of how many pages are left. Minor spoiler: Leigh gets our heroes on the right track much quicker than I expected, though.

I mention that because I didn’t spend as much time being frustrated with our investigators as I so often get—they’re pursuing the leads they have in a way that makes sense, and it’s not the case (for most of the novel) that the reader has more information, either. Leigh keeps the story moving at a good enough pace that the reader stays engaged while knowing that the wrong target is being chased.

The mystery itself was pretty satisfying, with a good motive and an interesting plan for the killer. The observations about the motive and method after the killer is stopped helped justify some of the story choices.

The personal storylines were just as satisfying—nothing exciting, just good and steady development.

The Bree Taggert series continues to be a reliable procedural and one I think mystery fans will appreciate. Lie to Her works as a jumping-on point for those who don’t feel compelled to start at the beginning (as do any of the novels in the series), and I’d recommend giving this a shot if you haven’t tried the series yet.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade, Tor Freeman, Jarvis Cocker, Lydia Fox: In Print or Audio, It’s Just Delightful

By

On May 10, 2023

In Audiobook, Fiction, Humor, YA/MG/Children's Books

I am fully aware that the following post overuses the word “delightful.” I wanted to use it at least a dozen more times. This is both a sign that my working vocabulary needs expansion and that this book is a delight. More the latter than the former.

The Book That No One Wanted to ReadThe Book That No One Wanted to Read

(Hardcover/Audiobook)
by Richard Ayoade
Narrated by Richard Ayoade, Jarvis Cocker, Lydia Fox
Illustrated by Tor Freeman

DETAILS:
Publisher: Walker Books US (hardcover); W.F. Howes, LTD. (audiobook)
Publication Date: March 14, 2023
Format: Hardcover/Audio
Length: 108 pg./49 min.
Read Date: April 4, 2023


What’s The Book That No One Wanted to Read About?

This is tricky without giving the whole thing away…but I think I can get close to it. Maybe more idea of the flavor?

We’re told at the very beginning that this book isn’t like others—other books are written by authors, while this book is written by a book. A book with opinions. For example, about authors:

Take it from me, authors can be quite annoying. They go on and on, filling up up page after page, but they have no idea what it’s like to be a book.

or these parts of Top Five Things That Grate My Gears (I’m only giving selections, but I want to give the whole thing):

1. People who fold the corner of the page to save their place.Have these savages not heard of novelty bookmarks? Or paper?…Which part of your body would you most like to have folded back on itself?*

2. People who underline certain words. ALL THE WORDS ARE IMPORTANT!

3. People who skip to the end. If the end was meant to come sooner, it’d be called “the middle.”

and don’t get it started on Ipswitch.

* The accompanying illustration of examples of ways to fold a body is delightful.

This book then goes on to tell a story in the second person about someone (presumably a middle-grade child, but really it could be anyone) who is going through a very large library and comes across the shelf holding The Book That No One Wanted To Read. That book then begins having a telepathic conversation with the “you” about being a book, the book’s plight as being so ignored, and how “you” can help it.

I’m not sure that makes sense—but it should give you an inkling of what you’re in for.

The Narration

Jarvis Cocker handles the bulk of the narration—he’s the voice of the opinionated Book telling the story, and as such is the voice that describes the “you” walking around. I could listen to his portions on repeat for a few hours at a time and be quite content (when I wasn’t laughing).

Richard Ayoade is the voice of the titular book and brings his distinguishing style to that narration. If you don’t smile listening to him as this character, you’re doing something wrong.

Lydia Fox provides the voice for the middle grader in conversation with the book. She’s just as fantastic as the others, and I only mention her last as I went in order of appearance.

This is one of those multi-narrator audiobooks where all the narrators are equally good—capturing the spirit and tone of the text and bringing it to life. I’d say that Cocker is the best narrator of the three, unless you asked me in the middle of one of Ayoade’s lines. Or while Fox was reading. I just loved all the audio aspects of this book.

The Illustrations

Oh, wow. I love the illustrations—they are absolutely great. It’s a sketchy kind of art, immediately relatable (think Jules Feiffer). They grab you right away and are just delightful—as funny as the text, without overshadowing it. They have the same voice, the same kind of humor, but don’t just retell the jokes in the book—sometimes they riff off them, expand them, and sometimes the humor is just adjacent to the jokes in the text.

I don’t normally recommend this kind of thing, but you can pick up the book and just look at the pictures (and read the captions) and have a good time without bothering with anything The Book is trying to convey.

So, what did I think about The Book That No One Wanted to Read?

When I heard about the book a few months ago, I was intrigued and made a mental note to look into it when it was released. Then I promptly forgot about it until I saw it on my library’s app. I’d intended on getting the text version, but I needed something short, so I jumped on it.

I was charmed instantly and loved the experience so much that I ran out to get the Hardcover so I could see the text, re-read portions—and check out the pictures. I haven’t found the time to read the whole book yet—but I have looked at every illustration and read bits of it a few times. This is why I’m giving you this strange hybrid format post.

If you’re going to encounter this book without the vocal stylings of Fox, Cocker, or Ayoade, you need the illustrations to make up for them. If you’re going to read the book without the benefit of the illustrations, you need narrators as strong as those three.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m doing much better at conveying my reaction to the book than I am the book itself. The voice and tenor of the book are great—it’s goofy and strange, the humor is occasionally dry, it’s imaginative, it’s affirming and encouraging, it wraps you in a blanket of fun and makes you feel good. The characters all three of them—”you”, The Book That No One Wanted to Read, and the Book telling the story—are the perfect way to convey the contents. You don’t want a lot of characters wandering in and out of this one—keep it simple. But you don’t want this to become a monologue or an essay (although judging by the first and final chapter, it’d be great as one of those), so you need the three voices.

The best thing that comes to mind to compare it to is The Phantom Tollbooth. But shorter. And with the humor dialed up by a factor of 50.

I have one reservation. I’m not sure that the style of humor or the content of all the jokes are going to land right with an American Fifth Grader. It feels, perhaps, too British for that. But then again, American Fifth Graders are exposed to more than I was. Also, this could be the kind of thing that trains an 11-year-old’s sense of humor in the same way that stand-up albums I didn’t fully understand did mine. So what do I know?

Bookish adults are going to have a blast with this. Middle-Grade readers who are into slightly off-kilter books will really enjoy this. Most middle-graders, as far as I know, are slightly off-kilter themselves, so maybe they’re all the right audience. Just give them this book in their preferred format and you’ve likely got a winner.

I adore this book—and think it’s going to be a favorite of mine for years to come. I can’t wait to introduce my grandson to it—and frankly, a few older friends and relatives, too.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

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