It has occurred to me in the five months since I wrote this review (and there's a reason I no longer review ARCs that far in advance) that I might have been a bit "hetero-normative" with my first paragraph. In my defense, I didn't even know that was a thing. What I do know, is that this is a delightful YA book. It hits the exact right note of being undramatic without being cutesy. And there are amazing passages in it like this:
"... I have known you since the mountains were made and the rivers were formed. I know we're in a weird place right now, but I want you to step out of it and be there for me. Taylor is a boy, and you are my best friend. Taylor is a date, and you are my calendar. Understood?"
Did you swoon? Because I did. The writing in this book is just so darn good. And a YA book about friendship and the value of said friendship over teen romantic attachments? Sign me up.
Title: You Know Me Well
Authors: Nina LaCour and David Levithan
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 6/7/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★
Mark and Kate sat next to each other in Calculus class and never said a word to each other. But during the last week of the school year, they randomly find each other in a bar and everything changes. This, of course, is when Mark and Kate start to fall in love, each amazed that their soulmate has been sitting beside them the whole time undetected... or maybe not.
Mark and Kate are both gay, and both in love with seemingly unobtainable people. Both are in the midst of growing apart from their lifelong best friends, something that is especially painful for Mark because he happens to be in love with his. The two develop an instant connection and a fast friendship that they come to rely on. They help each other through insecurities and confront their fears. Kate is a promising art student who is afraid of success and believes she isn't good enough, not for the UCLA art program that accepted her and certainly not for her crush, Violet. Mark lives in terror of being rejected by his best friend, and sometimes secret boyfriend, Ryan. But even though both Kate and Mark are consumed with being in love, the driving engine of this story is their friendship.
There were so many places where this book could have dissolved into cliche, but it didn't. The ending was just that much more beautiful because it wasn't presented with a neat little bow. The writing and the characters are both fantastic. If I had to make one complaint, I do think Mark and Kate both seemed overly mature for their age.
I'll just cut to the chase: I didn't like this book. However, I decided to include a review for it on my blog, because I think it's a good example of how a "surprise ending" isn't always a something to strive for. You won't see the final twist in this book coming. But it's a surprise in the vein of surprise! your sister was actually killed by an intergalactic assassination force or surprise! your sister is really still alive and ran off to join the Israeli army. I can't give away the ending, of course, but I can say the author invoked a mental illness that remains controversial and debated to this day, which was another problem I had.
A good ending to a thriller has to have bread crumbs. Readers have to have a *chance* of guessing it. Now, if everyone foresees the twists and turns, that's a concern. But it's all a concern if no one could possibly. For me, the best-selling Girl on a Train is a good example of how a story can still be masterful and page-turning without a shock ending.
Title: Frayed
Author: Kara Terzis
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: 6/1/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★
This book starts with a girl writing a letter to her murdered sister. For the most part, it goes on to be exactly what you'd expect from the genre. There's the dead sister who was hiding all sorts of secrets. There's the twin pillars of the bad boy who isn't all that bad and the good boy who isn't all that good. And, of course, an incompetent police force. Added to the mix is a criminally sophisticated girl gang that's also kind of cultish. The ending twist comes out of left field and is implausible. The author is young, this is a debut novel, and there is definite potential here. I just don't think this was ready for publication.
This book is being released tomorrow and has potential best-seller written all over it. I guess I'm one with the in crowd, because, in general, I really like best-sellers. I suppose my tastes are relatively mainstream. And I did, for the most part, like All the Missing Girls. But (isn't there always a but?) I did think it was trying too hard with its "backwards" gimmick.
In my review, I refer to having read a book with a similar ending. I'm talking about Frayed, by Kara Terzis, and I plan to post a review for *that* book this week.
Title: All the Missing Girls
Author: Megan Miranda
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 6/28/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★
There's a monster lurking inside each one of us. It's just a matter of how well you hide yours. Or so would say Nicolette Ferrell. But then she has a reason to look for monsters. Girls-- two girls, to be exact-- seem to disappear from her sleepy North Carolina hometown and vanish into thin air. Ten years apart, but both connected to her in some way. And things won't be right until she knows what happened to them...
This wound up being the second book I read this week with roughly the same ending. While All the Missing Girls executed the concept better, I can't pretend it didn't take the punch out of it for me.
In case you missed it from the book blurb or any of the promotion surrounding this book, the story is told in reverse order... sort of. More like it's meant to feel like it's being told backwards, but still retains traditional plot structure. It's a device that left me wanting.
This is the kind of book that sucks you in with very readable prose and intriguing characters. It's hard to put down.
Title: The Invoice
Author: Jonas Karlsson
Publisher: Hogarth
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★
If money can't buy happiness, how did he wind up with a bill for 5,700,000 kroner? It turns out everyone in the world has received an invoice in an effort to redistribute wealth from the happy in life to the unhappy. For those who have had a good life, it's time to balance the scales and pay up. It turns out the best things in life really aren't free after all.
But surely his invoice must be a mistake! What does he even have to be happy about? He works a part-time menial job with no prospects of improvement, rents a small apartment, owns nothing of value, has no wife or children and very few friends. How could his bill be so high? And what happens when he can't pay it? He decides to dispute the charge, but every encounter with the collection firm only makes matters worse. He's warned there's a debt ceiling, after which he will "no longer be allowed to have experiences"-- he's not sure what that entails and not eager to find out. He's confused, anxious, but able to strike up a friendship with the customer service agent who takes his calls, which provides a silver lining among storm clouds.
I enjoyed this short book. I liked the unnamed protagonist and identified with his frustration. One thing that struck me was that no one in the book questioned the *right* of some self-deputizing organization to charge them a bill, but rather quibbled over the amount. I don't know if that was for the purposes of the story, or if there are differences in the Scandinavian vs. American mindset. This is a book that makes you think, and does so in a fun and lighthearted way.
Author: Noah Hawley
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: 5/31/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★
A plane crashes into the ocean during a seemingly routine flight from Martha's Vineyard to the mainland. No one knows why it went down, or why two people survived while the rest plunged down to the murky water's bottom. The survivors, Scott Boroughs and JJ Bateman are bound together by tragedy but have little else in common. Scott is a middle-aged recovering alcoholic who is trying to eek out a living painting disaster scenes. Both the object of his artwork and the circumstances that landed him on a millionaire's private jet become public speculation in the days following the crash. JJ is four years old, the child of a media mogul and now the sole heir to his parents' fortune. Now a multi-millionaire himself, the child becomes a pawn in family and media drama. The 24/7 media spin cycle plays a huge role in this book. How far will cable news go to feed the public's thirst for controversy and sensation, even when there's no news to report? Does the media's right to report "the truth" outstrip a victim's privacy rights? Or do the ends always justify the means?
Despite being billed as the thriller of the year, this isn't a good example of one. Nor is it a mystery novel-- yes, there's the question of what really happened to the plane, but in a sense it's besides the point. I think of this book as suspense-- the thriller's more cerebral and subdued cousin. It's a page turner in its own right, even if the pacing is a bit slow at times. Some of the villain characters are a little too one-dimensional, but the others are well-developed. Overall a great read.
I don't think anyone likes writing one-star reviews. No one picks up a book and thinks, "I really hope I spend the next three to eight hours reading something I don't enjoy." I think the important thing is the lesson the reader takes away from the one-star book. After all, there must be a reason we finish some books and toss aside others. What I took from this book was a profound sense of respect for the privacy rights of the family of the missing. It's not something I'd given much thought to before. I don't think sometimes we, the public, realize how invasive our interest in missing persons cases can be. It's important to know where the line is between having a genuine, harmless interest and being a vulture.
For the most part, I think how I feel about an author should have no bearing on how I feel about their work. The exceptions for that are memoirs and cases where the author's writing has the potential to cause actual harm. True Crime Addiction ticks both boxes. I don't hold back here. I think lowly of James Renner. His behavior toward the Murray family and friends disgusts me, and I'm not impressed with his theorizing. I honestly don't know how this book got published.
Title: True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself In the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray
Author: James Renner
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: 5/24/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★
James Renner is a creep. This is a man who posts pictures of random women on his blog, plucked from social media and other sources, and encourages his internet troll army to speculate whether or not they are "really" Maura Murray. This is a man who has called Maura Murray a sociopath, a baseless accusation that in no way suggests Renner cares about the subject of his obsession. This is a guy who drove drunk to simulate Murray's possibly inebriated drive through New Hampshire. He could have killed someone. This is a guy who punches a cop and thinks he's the victim. According to a personality test, he tested as "similar to Ted Bundy." Hmmm.
Despite assuming a position of authority and asserting himself to be an important part of the investigation, Renner has no real press credentials. He's on the outside of this investigation, looking in, demanding answers he's not entitled to and making it up as he goes along.
A large portion of this book focuses on Renner himself-- his serial rapist grandfather, his almost-abduction as a child, his inner demons. I have to say, it's not a boring story. And it's honest. That's more than I can say about the portions about the Murray investigation. Those are less honest. There he relies on inane details fed to him from internet sleuths that he then sensationalizes and puffs up. He treats rumor and innuendo as fact.
Renner stalks Murray's family and friends, and when they won't talk to him he decides it's because they are hiding secrets-- secrets he makes up in his head. Renner hints that Maura's father won't talk to him because he's hiding sexual abuse. There's no evidence of that, at all. A friend won't talk to him because she's hiding that she helped Murray escape. There's no evidence of that, at all. Families of the missing are NOT public property. They don't have to answer questions from every Tom and Harry just because. They have no obligation to satisfy curiosities or entertain conspiracy theories. No one owes Renner an interview no matter how badly he wants one. The Murray family clearly does not believe talking to him will help find Maura. They are entitled to make that determination, and I don't disagree with it.
Renner speculates that Maura may have been pregnant. There was birth control pills found in her car at the time of her disappearance, a detail that's pushed aside in favor of veiled hints. Renner isn't shy of portraying Murray as a promiscuous woman with lots of secret men in the shadows. He insists Murray was followed to New Hampshire by a tandem driver. No one saw the headlights or saw the car or heard the car. His theory is that the driver "doubled back" once Murray crashed, very possibly drunk (wine spilled all over the car) and ushered her off to her new life in Canada. It doesn't make a lot of logical sense. If the second car had seen Maura crash, it would have been seen by the eyewitnesses. If it was too far ahead to see the crash, Maura would have needed to contact the driver-- but there is no cell service in that area. Plus, she left her car full of her possessions, things she must have felt were important enough to take to her new life. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely enough that a "journalist" like Renner should have the sense not to treat it as fact.
Maura Murray was not a perfect person. She was, however, by all accounts, a nice girl with flaws. She was in her early 20s and had her whole life ahead of her. Who knows what she could have achieved. James Renner has turned her disappearance into a cottage industry and is banking on it, big time. And goodness knows a tabloid-style story sells. I just feel sorry for the people caught up in the tidal wave of Renner's ego.
Please don't read this book.
Title: All Is Not Forgotten
Author: Wendy Walker
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
How far would you go to protect *your* child? What if it's at the expense of someone else's?
Fifteen-year-old Jenny Kramer is brutally assaulted and raped in the woods, a few hundred feet from a high school party. Her parents consent to a medical treatment that prevents Jenny from remembering the rape. After all, it's best to move on, right? And what can help a victim move on better than forgetting?
But all is not forgotten. Jenny is tormented by knowing she was raped but not knowing any of the details. She is tortured by the feeling of wanting to crawl out of her skin but not understanding why. It's only after she attempts suicide that her parents agree to memory recall therapy. That brought the Kramer family to Dr. Alan Forrester, who is the narrator of the story. And things get tricky.
"I have no remorse... Hate me if you must."
How grateful I am for the permission. The narrator turns out to be a twisted individual with limited introspection. He's also the only person who can tell Jenny's full story. I think some readers will be tempted to excuse his actions because he "saved his son." But I don't see a loving father. I see a monster. He *put* his child in the cross hairs. He had the power to clear his son's name. But instead the good doctor chose to manipulate and destroy. Throughout the book, he calls his need to treat Jenny "selfish." Only at the very end does it become clear just how true that is.
This is a good, not great, thriller. I definitely didn't see the twists and turns coming, but sometimes the book got bogged down in neuroscience.
There seem to be a lot of good thrillers coming off the presses this summer. This is one of my favorites so far.
Title: Baby Doll
Author: Hollie Overton
Publisher: Redhook
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★
This is the thriller after the thriller. Most books end with the hostage escaping her torturer's clutches, but that's where this one starts. This is about what happens when a victim returns home to people who have changed in her absence and how they adjust to how she's changed. This is what happens after the prayers are answered: bring my daughter/sister/friend home. Because it's never just as simple as coming home.
Lily spent eight years trapped in a basement by a sadistic pedophile. The only things that keep her going are her daughter and the knowledge that somewhere out in the world her twin sister, Abby, waits for her to return. Lily's disappearance has been hell on her family. Her father couldn't make it through the pain, her mother cycled into promiscuity, and her sister battles addiction. When Lily returns, it should fix everything. But it doesn't. Because it can't. How will this family go forward? And will Lily ever see true justice?
This book pulled me in from the beginning and never let me go. Sometimes I just "click" with a certain book, and that was the case with this one. I did think there were too many narrators and sometimes I had a hard time swallowing unrealistic character behavior (Lily being too calm in the beginning, Rick's "trade" with Lily given how he felt about his daughter). But, overall, I recommend it.
This is another book I reviewed early in my NetGalley "career," and one of my favorites. I've read a couple books on modern China, and this is the best. It's a great example of non-fiction storytelling.
Title: Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road
Author: Rob Schmitz
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: 5/17/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★
The focus of this book is one single road in Shanghai and its eclectic mix of inhabitants. For years, author Rob Schmitz, an American journalist, lived on the Street of Eternal Happiness with his family. He spent hours wandering up and down the avenue, eating at cafes and ordering off snack carts, visiting local businesses and chatting up his neighbors. Their stories are Shanghai's story.
Schmitz starts by introducing us to a young, optimistic entrepreneur who splits his time selling accordions and running a sandwich shop with an ever-changing menu that does not always include sandwiches. He represents the millions of Chinese who grew up in a post-Mao era and who embrace capitalism with no fear of reprisal. Then there's the owner of the local flower shop, who was part of the 1990s migration from farm to factory. Even though this florist lives in Shanghai, she straddles two worlds between old and new China, obsessed with marrying her sons off to girls from her hometown-- if only bride prices weren't so high these days. There's the elderly woman whose husband runs a pancake shop, and who falls victim to the many ponzi schemes that prey on China's seniors. Through old letters, Schmitz constructs the story of a businessman who was sent to a desolate work camp during the cultural revolution, and how his family chose to embrace the new system rather than mourn his suffering.
Schmitz is an excellent writer and it's impossible not to get sucked into his neighbors' life tales. It's amazing how the Chinese can view their country and their history so differently depending on the lottery of birth. Even husband and wives can't agree whether the remote province where they met was a hell on earth or a paradise overflowing with milk and honey. Every person Schmitz encounters is perusing the "Chinese dream," but none of them agree on just what that is. In modern China, it seems there are as many different realities are there are opportunities.
This was one of the first reviews I wrote after joining NetGalley earlier this year. Since that time, I've read a lot of books. About a hundred, to be exact. I kind of binged on ARCs like a kid loose in a candy store. The truth is, no matter how much you like a book, not all of them stick with you. Some fade; some lose their luster. I can honestly say The Children has very much permeated my conscious. It pops into my head once and a while, just to remind me how much I enjoyed reading it.
Title: The Children
Author: Ann Leary
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 5/24/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★
Charlotte Maynard is awkward. She writes a popular mommy blog, but nothing about it is real. She's agoraphobic and almost never leaves the house she shares with her mother. As a teenager, she sneaks into a nearby boarding school at night and reads student medical records. Her college education is comprised of hiding out in the back of large lecture halls at Columbia University, but she isn't enrolled there. She idolizes a deceased stepfather, Whit Whitman, who isn't worthy of her admiration. She stalks her stepbrother's girlfriend on social media, trying to know her before actually meeting her.
Charlotte has the potential to be a creepy character, but she's not. Her actions are born out of a lifetime of neglect. Even the people who love her best do so incompletely: a self-absorbed mother, a bipolar sister, a stepfather who prioritizes banjos over family, a part-time lover, a golden child stepbrother with secret rage. She's bored, unaccomplished, and stuck. Her mommy blog is just her latest escape-- her fake internet husband just happens to resemble the real life boyfriend who won't commit to her.
Even though Charlotte's world isn't quite real, it's peaceful and predictable, right up until her stepbrother Skip announces he's getting married to Laurel, a former almost-Olympic skier who the family has never met. Charlotte and her sister Sally alternate between sympathizing with Laurel, to being jealous and suspicious of her. There's just something about Laurel you can't put your finger on. No amount of stalking her facebook page prepared the sisters for the havoc she would cause.
There's a lot that goes on in this shortish book. Around the time Laurel comes into the picture, Mr. Clean, a person who breaks into homes and does housework, returns to the lake community where Charlotte lives, creating panic among her neighbors and mother. There are a lot of flashbacks back to when the vaulted Whit Whitman was alive. A new police officer moves into town and starts showing an interest in the family. But the main story is the introduction of Laurel into the Whitman-Maynard family.
I really enjoyed Ann Leary's writing style, and I devoured this book in about a day. I rarely get that hooked into a story. I give it four stars because the ending came too fast, and because Laurel was too obvious.
To purchase this book: CLICK HERE
I thought I would kick off this blog with my most "liked" review on Goodreads. After I read this, I logged onto my library's Overdrive system and put a hold on all of Mary Kubica's other books.
Title: Don't You Cry
Author: Mary Kubica
Publication Date: 5/17/16
Publisher: Mira
Version Reviewed: Published e-book
Rating: ★★★★
When Esther disappears, her roommate Quinn realizes just how little she knew about the person she considered her best friend. She searches Esther's room and her phone, and discovers one shocking piece of evidence after another. Perhaps most terrifying of all is what happened to Esther's last roommate. Quinn starts to suspect the girl she's lived with for the past year just might be a monster, and she might be next to die...
Alex is eighteen and trapped in a small town with no future. He gave up a college scholarship to take care of his hopelessly alcoholic father and spends his days washing dishes at a local diner. Every day is exactly like the last until a girl he calls Pearl comes into town. Alex is drawn to this fellow lost soul and wants to help her. But Pearl is not what she seems...
This book is told from the perspective of both Quinn and Alex. It gets off to a slow start, but once it pulls you in, it's magnetic. At first, I didn't connect with Alex and looked forward to Quinn's sections. That switched in the second half the book, and it's Alex who left the lasting impression on me.
I won't lie and say this is a perfect thriller. I've read better, and there were some "yeah right" moments in this one. But I don't think fans of the genre will be disappointed.
Purchase here: Don't You Cry
