Plot Holes and Loose Ends!!!!!

I am angry.  Last night I finished Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin.  It was a page-turner for sure!  I could not put it down.  Once I finished it, I put it down.  Hard.  Slammed it.  So hard my husband jumped.  There were holes all over the plot like the Swiss I'm using in his lunch wraps this week.  So many loose ends you could trip over them.  What. The. French. Toast?!?!?! 

Tessie was teenager when she was abducted from her usual jogging path.  She was found, barely alive, in a ditch on a nearby farm with three other dead young women.  A witness claimed to see a large black man leaving the area at the time she would have been thrown there.  A quick trial, white girl accuses black man of abduction/torture/rape, and the accused is sentenced to death.

Fast forward fifteen years.  Terrell has exhausted all of his appeals.  His execution is rapidly approaching.  Several groups, from those who proclaim his full innocence to those who feel he was railroaded due to race to those who are simply anti-death penalty, beg Tessie, now Tessa and mother to Charlie, to reconsider her testimony as a teen. 

Tessa has been keeping a secret all these years.  She does not believe Terrell is guilty.  Every few years a patch of Black-Eyed Susans, like the ones she was found in, appear near where she is living or a property important to her.  Her best friend disappeared immediately after the trial.  There have been threatening notes. 

I have to say I was surprised by finding out "whodunnit".  But at the same time, there are huge holes in the plot!  I felt like I was watching the old movie Clue.  No matter which ending you think is correct, there are problems with each.  Really, is Tessie crazy or not?  What was going on with her best friend and father?  How does she have such a great relationship with Charlie's absentee military father?  Why does the author feel the need to bring up tampons so many times?

Readable, but not a recommend.

The new hashtag will be whhslmc!

 

Sequel Disappointment

Sometimes the sequel is better (Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Empire Strikes Back).  Sometimes the sequel is a huge disappointment (Jurassic Park 3, The Phantom Menace).  Dark Eden: Eve of Destruction falls into the disappointment category.

I eagerly requested this after reading Dark Eden (read the review below).  I wish I hadn't.  Will and 5 of the other "cured" teens are locked in the missile silo under the pond after being summoned back to Fort Eden.  They are sent on what seems like wild goose chases, and it is not clear who is on which side.  I almost gave up reading about halfway through.  I couldn't keep straight which kid was in which room and who was working with or double crossing whom.

There was a touch of supernatural in the original and that continues in this sequel.  Science and magic intersect.  The question (inspired by Jurassic Park no less) "just because we can do something, should we?" is central to both novels.

All in all, I can't say I recommend this one.

Now that summer is drawing to a close, I won't be hashtagging my tweets relative to book reviews to summer reading.  I am looking into what to use to draw more students into my reviews.  I don't want to use the generic whhs.  If you have a suggestion, get in touch with me!

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Mia is the younger daughter of a wealthy judge in the Chicago area.  Her sister Grace is the judge's protege: straight A's, graduated magna cum laude, law school, making firm partner in less than 5 years.  Mia, on the other hand, spent her teenage years behaving like a juvenile delinquent.  Her father bribed the police to not charge her after nights of binge drinking and pot smoking.  On her 18th birthday, Mia packed up and left.  She became an artist, then an art teacher at a school for troubled youth.  Her tiny apartment costs nearly her entire salary.  Their father still pays for Grace's lavish apartment.

One night Mia is to meet her on-again off-again boyfriend at a bar, but as often happens he is a no show (it may be inferred he is sleeping with his boss).  Mia meets a handsome man and, slightly tipsy, returns to his house for a no-strings one night stand.  Instead, she finds herself being kidnapped.  Colin is a hired hit man, with instructions to deliver her to an African terrorist.  Colin is suspicious however that Dalmar will do more than just hold her for ransom.  Getting cold feet at the drop off, he takes Mia to his father's abandoned hunting cabin in Minnesota.

Over the next few weeks, Mia and Colin, calling themselves Chloe and Owen, form a bond.  They have to depend on each other or they will freeze to death in the Minnesota winter.  Whether Stockholm syndrome (having feelings for your kidnapper) or something else, they become lovers.  Although she does not know it, Mia/Chloe becomes pregnant.

Back at home, Mia's mother desperately tries to hold out hope her daughter is alive.  Meanwhile the judge seems uncaring.  Eve becomes more and more attached to Gabe,the detective assigned to her daughter's case.  When Mia is finally "rescued", she develops traumatic amnesia.  She is unable to remember what happened.  Her parents assume the pregnancy is a result of rape. 

The story flips back and forth from the perspective of Eve, Gabe, and Colin/Owen and flashback to present and reverse.  But let me just say, the ending was a TOTAL surprise.  The last chapter is told from Mia's perspective in retrospect.  It explains everything.  And, just WOW.

Remember to tweet what you're reading at #whhssummerread
 

Long Lost by Harlan Coben

I am a fan of Coben's books.  Not a huge, get on the waiting list fan, but I tend to like what I read of his.  This was the second book I picked up the other day at WHPL while my son was upstairs.  It is a sequel apparently, but that did not hinder my understanding.  There were a few references to prior events, but not enough to confuse a new reader.   

Myron, a sort of sports agent sort of private investigator sort of lost soul, gets a call from a former lover.  Terese is in Paris and needs help.  She doesn't elaborate.  Having just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend, Myron sets off for Paris to find and help Terese.

Along the way, we meet Win--a rich, and I mean super rich--eccentric who likes young Asians and old Scotch.  He's comic relief in a really weird sort of way.  We also meet Terese's now remarried ex-husband, who has serious issues, his new wife and child, a Muslim radical nicknamed Dr. Death, and two former female pro wrestlers: Big Cindy and Esperanza.

The story is a crime thriller, but it gets off on the slow side.  Things pick up mid-book in my opinion.  Imagine a wickedly evil radical Muslim terrorist group masquerading as a right wing Conservative Christian group.  Save the Angels' mission is to end abortion, stem-cell research, and place unwanted IVF embryos with adoptive families.  I won't spoil what the group is really up to.  It's downright scary that it could be true and actually happen.

Note there are allusions to sex, but nothing mentioned outright.  There are also references to post-9/11 torture styles, but nothing overly graphic. 

Tweet what you're reading at #whhssummerread

Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

This was a tough read.  I picked it up on a whim at WHPL.  My son was upstairs in the Graham Room getting (yes, more) Weird School books, so I meandered around the new fiction.  The cover looked interesting, as did the snippet on the jacket, so I checked it out along with another book.

I found the writing style to be similar to Gillian Flynn's (of Gone Girl fame, but this was more like Sharp Objects or Dark Places).  I also wish we lived in a world where events like this were only fiction, but alas we hear and read about abductions, hostages, and sexual violence almost daily.  

Jess, Courtney, and Dani live as ranch hands in Canada.  Their mother is dead.  Their father is an abusive alcoholic who disappears for weeks at a time.  Other people watch out for the girls, giving food and clothes when they can, but the girls have also learned to steal what they need.  A loaded shotgun keeps them safe.  When their father returns, drunk and abusive as ever, he gets furious with Courtney.  He has heard rumors of her sleeping around (which are entirely accurate).  Being drunk, he gets carried away in beating her as punishment.  Jess picks up the shotgun and kills him.  Dani, as the oldest, knows what will happen if he is found.  They will be split up, in worse foster homes than ever.  The girls make a run for it, heading for Vancouver, where they can get lost in the city.

Along the way, their battered truck breaks down, but they are "rescued" by the nephews of a local auto shop owner, Brian and Gavin.  I say "rescued" because these young men have rather evil intentions.  The girls are beaten, raped, and tortured.  None of this is described in detail; the author leaves the horror up to the reader's imagination, which inherently makes things worse.  The girls manage to escape with help from a local pub owner, who sets them up with a contact in the city who takes in runaways and juvenile delinquents.  He helps them procure new identities and he and his wife arrange a cheap apartment and jobs.  Several weeks pass when Jess, now Jamie, realizes she is pregnant by Brian.

The intention is to give the baby up for adoption, but Jess/Jamie cannot go through with it and keeps the baby girl, naming her Skylar.  Dani becomes Dallas; Courtney becomes Chrystal.  17 years pass while Dani/Dallas becomes a gym instructor and boxer and Jess/Jamie works the front desk at the gym and as a hotel maid.  Chrystal/Courtney gets involved in drugs.

Jess/Jamie never tells Skylar the truth, instead fibbing she was the product of a summer fling with no way to contact her father.  One night, in a drunken-high stupor, Chrystal/Courtney lets slip what really happened.  She tells Skylar one day she will get revenge.  The next day, she disappears.  Skylar deduces she has gone to find Gavin and Brian and takes off after her aunt.

The remainder of the story is a page turning, quick moving series of events.  Gavin and Brian are no better than when we last saw them 17 years ago. Although Brian has married and has two children, Gavin seems to be sicker than before, especially with the comments he makes toward and about his existing and new found nieces.

Again, this was a tough read, but it was also inspiring.  I have two younger sisters and would do anything for them.  Dani, Jess, and Courtney go through horrors I cannot even fathom, but their bond is unbreakable.

Tweet what you're reading this summer at #whhssummerread
Follow me @RamblingsLMS
P.S. I plan to keep the reading blog going after summer reading is over!

 

In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar

One of my favorite books is Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua.  In the collection of short stories and poems, Anzaldua gives a view into the world that is the gray area between American and Mexican, white and Latina, male and female.  This is common for many cultures and races.  It is a world many women and girls, including many of students, inhabit.  Where does one culture end and another begin?  What is life like in the middle?  Can a girl be one or the other?  Both?  Does she have to choose?  Should she?  Can someone "white" be a part of the borderland of another culture or race? 
In less than two weeks my sister will marry a Filipino-American with strong ties to Miami.  Does this make him sorta Latino?  He fought for our country in the Air Force.  Does that make him more "white"?  What happens to my sister?  She and I are mutts, American as they come: English, Irish, Scottish, Canadian, French, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Penobscot, and a bunch of other stuff thrown in.  Does she automatically join the Filipino culture?  Or does marrying her make him more white?  Does her eating Filipino food and speaking Tagalog mean she "identifies" a different way now? (For the record, she can speak French and Spanish, too).  But I can speak Italian and eat carbs, unlike her.  So, am I more Italian than she is?  Let's not forget we have a middle sister.  She married a Mexican.  And he's a Catholic.  Now what? 
I think you can see where I'm going with this.  Race and culture and self-identification are really at the forefront of our news and lives right now.  My son is lucky to be exposed to and accepted into so many different peoples, and I am blessed that he accepts others who are "different" than he is without question.  For those in Alvar's stories however, the battles are never easy.  Alvar's stories are of the Filipino, which is perhaps why I picked it up in the first place.  Class, culture, race, and religion collide.  It makes planning a cross-cultural wedding a first world problem indeed.  I hope reading this will help me in understanding my new brother-in-law's family's culture and heritage.   
Remember to tweet what you're reading #whhssummerread
P.S. Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, texted, or FB messaged after Sienna's sudden passing.  XOXO 

   

The Loss of a Pet

This morning our Golden crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I will not be blogging any reviews in the near future. Thank you for understanding.