The Island by Natasha Preston

I HATED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!

I am so angry I spent even the discounted price.  I am angry I stayed up to read this, hoping it got better.  

It was terrible.  I don't even want to add it to the collection.

Full Tilt is one of my favorite books, and Clue is one of my favorite movies.  So a whodunit set in a creepy amusement park?  Perfect.

Not.  There was zero character development, the plot jumps so bad you have no idea who's doing what and has more holes than Swiss cheese, and the ending was a cliffhanger that made no sense.  I stayed up an hour past my bedtime to chuck this book so hard it woke the dogs up.  

One of the worst books I have ever wasted my time on. 

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

 

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

This was recommended to me by Amazon, I guess because I like horror and stories of the craft.  I will call it "readable".  

I have to say, after digitizing Donnie Darko for a teacher, I was definitely a little apprehensive of the creepy bunny on the cover.  But, this was not scary.  

In the present day, in a typical white American suburb, Ivy has always felt something was "off" about her mother, long suspecting clairvoyance or special knowledge of herbs, etc.  But as things get weirder as Ivy and her older brother grow, they start understanding their mother and her best friend Fee are witches.  We flash back to when Dana was a teen herself in a very urban and poor city, learning about her abilities.  There are several witches who come into Dana, Fee's, and Ivy's lives throughout their stories, and the reader must determine, for lack of a better way of describing it, who is Good Witch and who is a Bad Witch.  All whole navigating typical teenhood like cliques and homework, societal norms in wealth and poverty, and a lot of dead bunnies.

Why I rate this readable and not good is the changing point of view, not just in flashback/forward.  It changes from 1st to 3rd within the time periods.  So sometimes Ivy or Dana narrates their own story, sometimes an omniscient narrator is telling the story.  I wish the author chose one and stuck with it.   

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.    

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

Yesterday afternoon and evening were a very quiet time in my home.  My husband was spending the night in Massachusetts for work.  Our puppy Shyne was spending the night at the vet after her spay. And my son was studying for APUSH.  My old girl Shandy and I curled up the on couch with a blankie to finish this week's book.  

I loved The Museum of Ordinary Things and Incantation, but I'm not sure why Amazon decided to recommend this, which was published in 2004, to me last week...

This is a short novel, a novella, like Hoffman's Green Heart.  Also like Green Heart, it is several stories that are united but were previously published piecemeal.  There is also a supernatural element, which is typical of her work.  

The stories are mostly set in Cape Cod, centered around an old farmhouse and fertile plot of land.  The home is inherited, sold, bought, gifted over two centuries.  As I myself love old homes and the stories about them (mine being built in 1930; we are only its 3rd owners), this was very touching.  It was sad, but also beautiful.

A very quick read that I definitely recommend.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.        

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

The latest in my New Title Tuesday, this was suggested to me by Amazon. We are on book number 12 of 18. 

You may not know the author's name, but you might've heard a song he wrote on the Oldies station: The Pina Colada Song.  Honestly, I had no idea that's who the author was when I bought the book, and didn't until a friend commented on my FB post.  It really has no bearing on the review or the book anyway, but interesting factoid.

This was a weird book.  It is set up like a journal with editorial comments.  The journal portion is from a former student and now staff member at McMasters Conservatory, a school dedicated to learning how to murder, er, DELETE, those who deserve it.  Think Scythe school.  The school location is never revealed, but it was VERY Hogwarts-like (a little too much in my opinion).  The editorial comments come from the Headmaster.  In addition to the journaling student, we learn about two other future Deletists.  It also felt very Harry Potter course bookish, like the original Fantastic Beasts or Quidditch Through the Ages.   

It was readable, but I saw the plot twist coming fairly early.  I also had trouble NOT picturing Hogwarts or the Dean as Dumbledore. The hardest part for me was the anachronisms: Holmes refers to people of my parents' or even grandparents' generation for references, and I had to Google them.  If I didn't know some, it's unlikely my kids will.  

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

I absolutely loved Walls' The Glass Castle.  I also love NASCAR, which of course has its roots in moonshine running.  When I read the summary on Amazon, I thought a book written by Walls set in the Appalachians of Virginia during the Prohibition era about a girl from a family of bootleg liquor runners would be awesome.  

It was..."readable".

I wish I liked it more, but, eh.  

Sallie Kincaid is the middle child of The Duke, a local big wig.  She's a free spirit, and her stepmother Jane has her banished to a maternal aunt (Faye) when her actions injure her young half-brother Eddie.  Upon her stepmother's death from the flu several years later, she returns to The Big House a young woman. 

It is like the Kincaids are cursed: one death after another.  Some from standard deadly illnesses, but most of accidents such as drowning, a suicide, and a few gun fights.

Sallie ends up running bootleg whiskey, as her older half-sister Mary turns the county dry.  The running scenes are the only real action in the book.

The rest of the novel is one revelation about the men of The Duke's family's philandering about the county.  Sallie seems in the dark about her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather's activities, and learns she has several more siblings/cousins/aunts/etc, of multiple races.  It became somewhat annoying and stereotypical of the region.  And also the "man who is secretly (but obvious to the reader) gay in a community that could never accept such" trope.

I wish there was a lot more action on the back roads of Appalachia running 'shine than "I have a(nother) sister!" *gasp* moments.        

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.  

   

Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell

I did not read a new book last week over vacation for new #titletuesday.  Instead I reread Killers of the Flower Moon in preparation for the new Leo DiCaprio/Martin Scorsese film of the same name.  I am hoping our Criminal Justice cohort goes on a field trip to see it and invites me chaperone!

I actually read this the week before vacation, but totally forgot to publish the review.  I also totally forgot to share my CASL Board notes with the other LMSs.  Safe to say my brain was mush, and I definitely needed that vacation!

Anyway.

This is a biography of Catherine (more recently spelled with a K) Howard, the fifth wife of Henry the 8th.  

If you like musicals at all, you probably have at least heard the intro song to the Broadway and now touring Six.  The show features the six wives of Henry the 8th reimagined as pop princesses, each singing a song about their lives and reign, inspired by a real musician.  Katherine Howard's song is "All You Wanna Do", sung as Ariana Grande or Christina Augliera. 

Until now, most people have never heard of Katherine Howard.  Which really irks me because she's my very distant cousin.  Those who have heard of her just know she was beheaded from the rhyme divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Her name likely was spelled with a C, but recently the K spelling gained favor, partly due to Six, partly to differentiate her from wife #1 Catherine of Aragon and wife #6 Catherine Parr.  

This traces Catherine's rise to Queen from her family's manipulations to get her at court, the sexual abuse at the hands of men around her, and her demise. It is not a happy ever after.

A reminder all opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

A Killer's Wife by Victor Methos

If you're following my new #titletuesday posts on FB, you know I did not review Daisy Jones and the Six.  I actually had to put Daisy down as I found it was too similar to Opal & Nev.  The latter is the teacher and friend's book club selection for April; the former in June.  I felt they were too alike to read so close together, so Daisy is on hold. 

This novel is the club's choice for May, chosen by a friend of one of our Board of Education members.  It is a murder mystery thriller.  As such I don't want to spoil too much plot, but:

Eddie Cal is on death row for a series of gruesome murders.  His ex-wife Jessica is now a federal prosecutor, and their teenage daughter Tara is a math and artistic genius applying to graduate level university studies.  A copy cat has started imitating Eddie's crimes, and the FBI want Jessica to help, as she is the only person Eddie is willing to talk to.

I hated Eddie.  In addition to being a psychopath, he's just a jerk (I'd use stronger language in private conversation).  I wanted to punch him in the teeth.  I also wanted to smack Tara, as she's incredibly rude to her mother.  

Overall, it held my interest, although I saw the plot twist 1 coming pretty early.  Plot twist 2 was a bit more of a surprise.

This will be among the 18 books added to our collection as new titles donated by me, but it will be on hold until after our May meeting. 

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.