September 27, 2016

Only Daughter - Anna Snoekstra

Mira, September 20, 2016.



Three Stars



In 2003, a sixteen-year-old girl named Rebecca disappeared on her way home from work, just steps from her family home. Eleven years later, a girl claiming to be Rebecca is arrested for shoplifting in a nearby town. Although we know from the start that this second girl is an imposter, she manages to infiltrate Bec’s life surprisingly well. The fake Bec, who remains nameless throughout the novel, has her own issues, and the missing girl’s identity is a perfect place to hide.


The imposter Bec fully expects to get caught – she hopes her lie will at least get her out of the shoplifting charge – and she is more surprised than anyone when Bec’s parents and twin brothers welcome her into their home. Although Bec’s best friend Lizzie eventually realizes that she is not who she says she is, Lizzie cannot understand why no one else is questioning who she is. Meanwhile, the fake Bec begins to feel comfortable with her new family, thinking that she will be able to start a new life with them. She is a bit of a sociopath, and it’s hard to empathize with her, but it’s pretty entertaining to listen in on her thought processes.


Interspersed with Rebecca’s new life are flashbacks to the summer when the real Bec disappeared. At sixteen, she was working at a local fast-food restaurant, having fun with her friends and crushing on her coworker. It all seems like fun, but there is an underlying creepiness. Strange things start to happen to Bec, such as blood in her bedroom, unexplained blackouts, and an ominous feeling of being watched. The same weird feeling starts to creep up on the imposter Bec, and at the same time in alternating chapters, both girls realize that their biggest threat may be coming from someone closest to them.


Only Daughter is a disturbing thriller, with fairly good writing and an interesting plot – unfortunately, it is just unbelievable overall. It was a major effort to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the story, although that didn’t stop me from reading as fast as I could to find out what happened in the end. The past and present points of view work perfectly in tandem to enforce the storyline and elevate Bec’s fears. The novel is infused with an eerie atmosphere, but the ending kind of came out of nowhere – it needed just a bit more build up in the right direction. There were quite a few loose ends, and the whole premise was pretty impossible overall, but it was still a fun, entertaining read.


I received this novel from Mira and Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.

September 23, 2016

Dark Matter - Blake Crouch


Crown Publishing, July 26, 2016.



Five Stars



Jason has a wonderful yet mediocre life with his wife and son. He gave up a promising career as an experimental physicist to teach at a local college, and his wife abandoned her painting to stay at home and raise their son. Although he has occasional regrets, Jason’s happiest moments are spent with his family, cooking dinner and talking about their day in their cozy kitchen.


One night, Jason goes out for a drink with a work colleague who has just won a prestigious physics award. He feels pangs of jealousy, but ultimately just wants to get home to his family. On his way home, Jason is abducted by someone who seems to know everything about him, including his thoughts and moves before he even makes them. His kidnapper leaves him unconscious in a dark, abandoned building – but when Jason wakes up, he is far from alone. Instead, the building is filled with scientists who claim to be his coworkers, joyously welcoming him home from a multi-dimensional physics experiment.


As Jason struggles to come to terms with his new reality, he learns that his wife is no longer his wife, and his son does not exist. Instead of his comfortable, domestic life, Jason is a world-renowned physicist who has created a way to explore parallel universes. Although he now has success, money and power, it is not his life. He cannot at first come to grips with which world is the real one – or if both are real, where does he belong? All that matters to Jason is getting back to the family he left behind, and he is willing to sacrifice everything to get there.


Dark Matter explores the many worlds theory of physics, in which all possible worlds exist at any given time. It is an old concept in science fiction, but Crouch manages to explore it in a new and entertaining way. It is a sci-fi thriller with increasingly complex twists, although it is always clear and easy to follow. There is no unnecessary scientific jargon to take away from the pure fun of this story. It is a complicated concept made very simple, and anyone can enjoy this book, regardless of scientific knowledge.


With its multi-genre appeal, this novel will interest a wide audience. Just when you think Jason has everything figured out, there are more shocking twists to thwart his path back to the life he left behind. He must take a surprising journey to get back, which includes confronting the darkness inside himself, as he may be his own worst enemy. The biggest lesson that Jason leaves us with is the importance of appreciating the life we have, because it could disappear without warning. This was such fun to read, while really making you think at the same time – for me, a perfect summer read.


I received this novel from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 20, 2016

The Unseen World - Liz Moore


W.W. Norton & Company, July 26, 2016.



Three Stars



Ada was raised by her eccentric scientist father David, who runs an early computer lab in 1980s Boston. His project is the creation of virtual consciousness – training a computer system called ELIXER to respond to human actions and emotions. Ada is homeschooled, and she grows up with David’s colleagues as her companions, especially a woman they call Liston. When David’s mind begins to go, Ada must turn to Liston to help her make her way in the wider world.


David has a degenerative disease and he is rapidly losing his memories. As he becomes less able to function as a guardian to Ada, he is moved into full-time care and Ada moves in with Liston and her family. The intricacies of public school come as a shock to Ada, who has always functioned in an adult world. Her crush on the boy next door is also a major source of confusion for her. Through it all, she continues to communicate with ELIXER – and it seems that both of them, the pre-teen girl and the language processing computer program, are learning to function in the human world at the same time.


With David regressing into his own past, Ada soon discovers that he has many secrets – in fact, he may not be who he has always said he was. Ada has been told that her mother was a surrogate who did not want to be involved in her life, but there may be more to the story. As David becomes less able to communicate, Ada may be losing her chance to find out the truth about her and David’s origins. David has always tried to control every aspect of Ada’s upbringing, and he sometimes sees her as an experimental project, much like ELIXER. David had been using the computer program to understand human mental processes – how we think and feel, and what it is that makes us human. Ironically, it is ELIXER that enables Ada to learn the truth about David’s past.


The Unseen World has a slow pace, and while Ada is busy solving a mystery, the reveal is not the most important part of the novel. Instead, it is more about Ada’s growth outside of her father’s shadow, as seen most clearly in the chapters set in Ada’s future. Ada is precocious and grown up in many ways, but in others, she is young, naïve and even emotionally stunted. The mystery of David’s past drives the plot forward, but Ada’s complexities hold it all together and create depth of character.


The writing is good, but not always original or exciting – the novel overall is perhaps too long and slow. The chapters set in David’s past were not as interesting as the present and future, and I found myself skimming over them, looking for more from Ada. She is a strong, youthful female character, which seems to be more common in literary fiction lately, and it’s a positive trend. The ending of the novel brings everything together in a clean, purposeful way – ELIXER’s human training is complete, and Ada has found her place in the world.


I received this novel from W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 18, 2016

School of Velocity - Eric Beck Rubin

Doubleday Canada, August 23, 2016.

Three Stars



Jan is a pianist at the height of his career, but he is struggling with his music due to auditory hallucinations that will eventually destroy his future in music. At one of his final performances, he is beset by memories of his childhood friend Dirk, with whom he has lost touch. Without any upcoming performances, Jan is set adrift, and he decides to find Dirk and rekindle their friendship.


The two boys met in elementary school, and their relationship blossomed into one of deep intimacy – at times, their intense friendship blurred the lines into physical love. In fact, the synopsis reminded me of A Little Life, but it was really nothing like it, and School of Velocity was disappointing in comparison. It is a much shorter novel, but even so, I felt like it didn’t go into as much depth of emotion as it could have. However, that may also be a cultural difference, as this novel is set primarily in the Netherlands, and it has a very European feel.


Before his final meeting with Dirk, Jan reminisces about their coming of age and his emotional, obsessive feelings for Dirk – Jan’s memories gradually lead the reader to the present day, and to his reunion with Dirk. It is an exploration of Jan’s repression of his true sexuality, and their adolescent blurring of the line between sex and friendship.


The novel has a musical background, and the lyrical writing flows nicely even as I lost interest in the characters. Jan and Dirk are complex, but I did not connect with them. By the time they reunited, I just didn’t care about them anymore. The ending was good because it was not perfect, and I enjoyed the realism of Jan’s feelings. I just wished for more depth in his journey of self-discovery.


I received this novel from Doubleday Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 15, 2016

Five Roses - Alice Zorn

Dundurn Press, July 23, 2016.



Three Stars



Five Roses is named after the “Farine Five Roses” sign in Pointe St. Charles in Montreal, and the main characters in the novel are all connected by the sign in ways that are not obvious to begin with. As the story develops, we gradually see how their lives are tangled together in surprising ways.


As Pointe St. Charles becomes gentrified, Fara and her husband buy a house in the up and coming area. They find out that their house was the setting of a disturbing tragedy that reawakens Fara’s own sad history, and they soon discover that their house may be frequented by one of the survivors. Maddy lives next door to Fara, in the same house where her infant daughter was kidnapped years before – she was a teenager living in a commune, and the loss of her child still haunts her.


Rose is the most ethereal character in the novel – she grew up in a cabin in the woods outside of Montreal, and she doesn’t feel that she belongs in the city, as she seemingly floats down its busy streets. Once she gets her footing in Pointe St. Charles, she becomes a new person and rethinks her past. Her mother’s secrets link her with the other women in surprising ways, but it is not until the ending that we even see these connections.


The neighbourhood is rundown and needs care and attention to bring it back to its best self – much like these three women. This is a historical Canadian setting, and Montreal is featured here as its own character. It is an ode to this particular neighbourhood and it’s interesting to read about, but I felt like I had a hard time connecting to the story because I don’t know the area. Even so, Zorn does a good job at describing the multicultural, old world feel of the streets of Pointe St. Charles.


The novel has a slow pace, although several dramatic incidents are treated without enough depth – the issues were skimmed over and it was disappointing. The book is less about story and more about character, although I wanted to learn more about them too – especially several of the minor characters that were featured prominently and then just sort of disappeared. One of the main themes is the difference between our inner world vs. how people see us, and I think Rose was the greatest example. She developed throughout the novel, but just not quite enough.


It was disconcerting because I expected the separate storylines to converge a bit sooner – and then when they finally did come together, the connections were tenuous for some.  It made the entire novel feel a bit disjointed, and I think it may have worked better as a series of loosely connected stories with Pointe St. Charles and the Farine Five Roses as the common theme.


I received this novel from Dundurn Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 12, 2016

Still Mine - Amy Stuart


Touchstone, July 19, 2016.

Four Stars



Clare O’Dey has been sent into the small town of Blackmore to find out about the disappearance of a woman named Shayna Fowles – but the most interesting part is that we don’t know who Clare is or why she is looking for Shayna. Both women are around the same age and have a similar appearance, yet they have never met. It is only slowly revealed to us why Clare is in Blackmore and what she is really looking for.


The locals of Blackmore are suspicious of Clare, who poses as a photographer and says she just happened to be passing by. However, her questions about Shayna don’t go unnoticed, especially by the many shady characters who become suspects in Shayna’s disappearance. Everyone has secrets in Blackmore, including Shayna’s ex-husband Jared, her drug dealer Charlie, and even her parents. Because no body has been discovered, it is just as likely Shayna left town on her own, and her friends and family seem surprisingly unconcerned.


Drug use is rampant in Blackmore, and Charlie’s business is booming. When Clare temporarily moves into a trailer on Charlie’s property, she becomes involved with his group of friends and their dangerous lifestyle, drinking with them at the local bar and popping random unmarked pills. Clare struggled with addiction in her past, and she begins spiraling downward once again, all while convincing herself that it’s just part of her investigation. Almost all of the characters are unlikeable, but it’s easy to understand why, considering their damaged lives.


Clare seems to be just as lost and confused as the girl she is searching for, and we can’t really trust anything she says. Clare isn’t the hero, storming into town to save Shayna – in fact, she is equally in danger. The threats to her are enhanced by the shadowy, desolate setting – a foggy, mountainous landscape that inspires mystery with its dark hiding places. There also happens to be a creepy abandoned mine just outside town, and it’s the location of a deadly accident years before that is somehow connected to Shayna’s disappearance.


Still Mine is not really a thriller, and I wish it wasn’t being compared to the recent rash of “Girl” thrillers. It is more of a slow-paced mystery with a focus on Clare as an individual – how she sees the world, and how her past affects her version of events. The gentle pace of the novel belies the danger that surrounds Clare, and while there is no outright violence, there is the constant threat of it gathering like a storm cloud. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, with Clare’s past coming back to haunt her. While there were definitely some unbelievable aspects to the novel, I still look forward to the next book.


I received this novel from Touchstone and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 09, 2016

The Sunlight Pilgrims - Jenni Fagan


Crown Publishing, July 19, 2016.



Five Stars



In the winter of the year 2020, freak storms are occurring all over the world. This novel focuses on northern Scotland, where the snow is falling furiously and an errant iceberg is heading rapidly for the Atlantic shore. The setting is apocalyptic, with the onset of a new ice age – but this is not the main story. The Sunlight Pilgrims is really a character study with a focus on gender identity and unconventional yet powerful relationships. The threat of a fatal winter pulls all the other issues into focus, creating a clarity of emotion with great impact.


Dylan grew up in London, where he lived in a movie theatre with his mother and grandmother. After both die from sudden illnesses, Dylan inherits nothing but the deed to a caravan in a park in northern Scotland. Movies are how he relates to the world, and his social interactions are limited – but when his new neighbour, eleven-year-old Stella, appears at his door, they make a surprising connection. Dylan is a large man, covered in tattoos, but at heart he is gentle and soft-spoken. He bonds with Stella, who also feels like an outcast in her world – until recently, Stella was Cael. Born a boy, Stella is transitioning into a girl, and her strength of conviction is inspiring.


Stella’s mother, Constance, doesn’t fit in to their small town of Clachan Fells either. She has spent most of her adult life in relationships with two different men, alternating between them. Stella’s father is one of the men, but he refuses to acknowledge that she is now a girl. Dylan’s first encounter with Constance is as a witness to her sleepwalking, as she wandered outside and attempted to polish the moon. This kind of imagery is sprinkled throughout the book, where myth and folklore are interspersed with everyday reality. It is almost magic realism, but with an emphasis on the real.


The small community of Clachan Fells is a microcosm of the world, and each character is complex and multifaceted. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Dylan and Stella, who, along with Contance, are strong individuals who find their real strength in their willingness to support each other no matter what. As they face a deadly harsh winter, it is their bond to each other that may help them survive. The ending is ambiguous, yet somehow hopeful.


In her second novel, Fagan’s writing is more conventional than in Panopticon, but it is again filled with quirky, personalized characters. The language is beautiful and lyrical, yet peppered with slang and swearing – in short, it feels real. The writing is smooth and easy to read, and you can’t help caring about Dylan, Constance and Stella. With so much to offer, this is truly a book to get lost inside.


I received this novel from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 07, 2016

The Last One - Alexandra Oliva


Ballantine Books, July 12, 2016.

Four Stars



The Last One follows the cast of a brand new reality survival TV show with a budget bigger than most feature films and an almost live production schedule. There is plenty of hype about the show, and it has the online world buzzing. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face a series of challenges, with only a few supplies and vague instructions that there will be colour-coded clues for them to follow. Some of the contestants struggle, but others find the game fairly straightforward – until a global pandemic wipes out the majority of human life on earth, along with all communication. Disconnected from reality, one contestant continues in her quest to win the game, with no idea that she is the last one.


The contestants are given nicknames by the producers of the show, and it is a woman called Zoo (an obvious choice based on her place of employment) that we follow throughout this book. She joined the show as a way to have one last adventure before settling down with her husband and having children, something she is uncertain about doing. We see most of the story from Zoo’s perspective, with a few hints and foreshadowing about the outside world as an omniscient narrator tells us about the gruesome deaths of the editors and producers of the show. After a few group activities in which we get to know the other contestants, Zoo is completely on her own, cut off from everyone she has ever known.


As Zoo follows the clues that she thinks have been left for her – but are for the most part imaginary – she sees the devastation wrought by the pandemic, but she thinks it is still a part of the show. Regardless of the dangers she faces, she still believes she is protected by the safety net of the show’s crew, who she thinks will jump in to save her if she says the magic words. However, she refuses to quit – although we know that she can’t escape even if she wanted to. Even as she slowly begins to realize that things aren’t quite right in the world, her mind still won’t allow her to see the truth.


The Last One analyzes the role of the media in a shocking new way, exploring the ways it controls our perception of what’s real. The contestants weren’t told ahead of time what to expect on the show, so nothing is surprising to Zoo. She is walking through a wasteland of corpses, yet she still convinces herself that they are props. Zoo works to maintain her on-screen persona, and she continues to direct her movement to the drones and hidden cameras that she believes are watching her, but there is no one there. Zoo’s lack of fear makes her situation all the more suspenseful because she thinks she can leave at any time, and so she has no fear.


This novel has a fantastic, original premise that was so exciting to read. It is being compared to Station Eleven, although it has little in common beyond the basic plot outline – but they are similar in that they are both truly literary apocalyptic novels that explore elemental human themes through the scope of a worldwide disaster. This novel is further enhanced by the omniscient overview and the lens of media manipulation. And above all that, it was just so much fun to read.

I received this novel from Ballantine Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 04, 2016

Three Sisters, Three Queens - Philippa Gregory

Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, August 9, 2016.

 

Four Stars


 

In this newest installment of Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet/Tudor series, the narrator is Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII and sister to the infamous Henry VIII. Margaret, Henry and their sister Mary are the first generation of Tudors, following the uniting of royal families after the War of the Roses. As the novel begins, Margaret is only twelve years old, and she is a petulant and selfish pre-teen as she waits for her moment to shine over her siblings. We often forget how young these little kings and queens were, but here Margaret is presented truthfully, as the child that she was.

 

The three queens of the title are Margaret, her sister Mary, and finally Katherine of Aragon, first wife to Henry VIII. After Margaret becomes queen of Scotland, Mary leaves to rule France, and Katherine marries Henry in England. The three women are queens, but they are sisters first – regardless of the conflict between them. They are rivals throughout, and each one does their best to be the most important in the world of politics. As we read the letters between the girls, we watch them grow up – although Margaret never really loses her naivety.

 

Even when the sisters despise each other, family loyalty always comes first. Their fortunes move up and down – when one girl find success, the others face tragedy – but ultimately it is the Tudor name that they all wish to protect. Katherine has Margaret’s husband killed, but then loses her own child – the result is that widowed Margaret’s son becomes heir to the Tudor throne. There aren’t really any spoilers in this well-documented historical period, although Margaret is not usually the focus. It is Gregory’s character building that makes this novel special – Margaret becomes a real, relatable woman, while remaining grounded in her historical context.

 

Surrounded by betrayal, danger and shocking loss, the only constant in Margaret’s life is her sisters. My only complaint is that it would have been nice to see the world from the perspectives of Mary and Katherine as well. We only really get to know them through their letters, as interpreted by Margaret. She is whiny and entitled, although somehow still sympathetic. It is a very limiting point of view, almost like reading a teenager’s diary. Margaret is self-centred and annoying, but she does feel real.

 

Margaret is obsessed with the hierarchy, and she is willing to sacrifice everything to come out on top. It’s understandable when giving birth to the next king of England is her only opportunity to raise herself up above the female roles of the time period. Margaret is selfish, proud and ambitious – much like her brother Henry VIII. Unlikeable characters are always more interesting, but I still think there could have been more complexity to Margaret’s voice.

 

Like all of Gregory’s novels, this one is an entertaining blend of fact and fiction. It’s interesting to learn more about Margaret, who often gets eclipsed by her more famous brother and his many wives. Margaret, however, is also a very important part of history – Mary, Queen of Scots is her direct descendant. As demonstrated in this novel, Margaret did recognize that a woman could be more than a wife and mother, and she did her best to overcome traditional roles. There were many interesting scenes, although parts of the novel could have moved a bit faster. However, if you’re a fan of Gregory’s novels, this one is another great chapter in the Tudor family story.

 

I received this book from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

September 02, 2016

All Is Not Forgotten - Wendy Walker

St. Martin’s Press, July 12, 2016.



Three Stars




In an affluent small town in Connecticut, the citizens feel safe and protected, far from the violent crimes of larger nearby cities. That is, until a teenage girl named Jenny is sexually assaulted at a high school party, in the woods behind one of the town’s wealthy homes. In the hours after her rape, the decision is made to give her an experimental new drug which will wipe out her memory of the attack. In the wake of the crime, the whole town is shaken – but Jenny remains blissful unaware of the details of her rape.


In the months after the attack, Jenny heals physically, except for a small, mysterious scar on her back. However, she continues to suffer from her emotional memories of the rape – she feels anger and pain, but without the justification of concrete memories, she cannot work through her emotions to heal. She begins to see psychologist Alan Forrester, who hopes to resurface her memories through creative new therapies.


The novel is told from the perspective of Dr. Forrester, and he explains the situation in a cold, detached way, because he is clinically removed from the situation. However, as the plot unfolds, we learn that he is much more involved in the aftermath of Jenny’s rape than he seems to be. He uses smells and sounds in an effort to help Jenny remember, but it soon becomes clear that he is manipulating the formation of her memories.


Jenny’s parents react in surprising ways to both her rape and her choice to remember it – they each bring their own baggage to the situation, and we hear about all of it through their sessions with Dr. Forrester. The doctor also has another patient that has taken the same experimental drug as Jenny – a war veteran named Sean who is using the drug to treat his PTSD. In the author’s note, Walker claims that there are currently drugs being tested for this application, but this novel sets out to prove that forgetting is not the same as healing.


The descriptions of the drug and how it wipes memories are interesting and believable, without being overdone – there is just enough explanation to make it seem that this could happen in the near future. Regardless, this is not science fiction – it is a literary discussion about the value of memory, and whether it is ever appropriate or even necessary to suppress it. This is a psychological novel, but not a thriller in my opinion. Although there has been a crime committed, there is little urgency to solve it – the local police seem happy enough to pin the rape on a man who happened to be passing through the community, preserving the illusion that their town is inviolate. The story shows the cracks in suburban family life, and how precariously it is held together.


The point of view is consistent, although I didn’t like Alan’s voice at first, especially when I couldn’t figure out who he was or who he is speaking to. He knows more than he’s willing to admit, and he makes us as readers into accomplices in his agenda. His tone is clinical, as if he is simply dictating notes from his sessions with clients. It is an unusual narrative choice, and it could lose readers, but I did get caught up in it eventually.


The film rights to this novel have already been purchased by Reese Witherspoon, so I’m sure it will be extremely popular and successful. I don’t see how the tone will translate into film, but it is the concept of a memory-erasing drug that makes this so interesting anyway, and in fact it may work better on screen than written solely in the voice of the cold and calculating Dr. Forrester.


I received this novel from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.