Into the Light - Aleatha Romig

Thomas & Mercer, June 14, 2016.

Five Stars

As this novel begins, a woman named Sara wakes up with no memories and no vision – her only anchor to her former life is her husband Jacob, who tells her they live in a northern Alaskan compound, followers of a religion referred to as The Light. She remembers nothing about her marriage or their beliefs, but she feels safe with Jacob and they quickly reignite their relationship. However, there are some bumps along the way, especially as Sara is forced to fully submit to her husband and the other powerful men who run the community.

In alternating chapters, we also follow a journalist named Stella as she searches for her friend Molly – she disappeared while investigating a disturbing trend of missing women from the streets of Detroit. Stella is warned away from the path of her investigation by her police detective boyfriend, especially as her instincts lead her to a cult called The Light. The shadowy organization is run by the sinister Father Gabriel, and Stella risks her own life in an attempt to expose his connection to the missing women.

Meanwhile, Sara struggles to reconcile her independent personality with an oppressive community that preaches obedience to men, and reinforces it with corporal punishment. The cycle of abuse followed by affection that Jacob offers his wife is difficult to witness, especially in the increasingly tender moments between them. For Sara, her relationship with Jacob is brand new, and in spite of his controlling nature, she begins to fall in love with him. Their romance is very unsettling because it is steeped in abuse yet Jacob somehow becomes a sympathetic character. The author manages to manipulate the reader just as Jacob manipulates Sara.

We know almost from the start that no one can be trusted in The Light. Father Gabriel and the leaders of the community speak of acquiring and indoctrinating their subjects in a very methodical and psychologically scientific way. Since we know the members of The Light are unreliable, it increases our sympathy for Sara. The novel is filled with suspense but it is never overdone – in fact, it is eerily believable. There are no gratuitous twists – the whole story is clearly thought out and cleanly plotted.

Romig manages multiple points of view with ease, showing the full extent of brainwashing and extreme control used by The Light. I won’t say any more about the plot, as its best to jump in knowing very little about it – although it does end in a cliffhanger, with the sequel being published this autumn. Into the Light is so original in plot and character, and I really couldn’t stop reading until I got to the last shocking page. Although I guessed a few of the twists, it doesn’t make it less enjoyable because it is just so well written.

I received this novel from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Cure for Madness - Jodi McIsaac

Thomas & Mercer, January 19, 2016.

Three Stars

Clare always had an unsettled relationship with her family, and she moved far away from them as soon as she was able to. When her parents are killed suddenly, she is forced to return home to Clarkeston, Maine and become guardian to her mentally ill brother Wes. Upon her return, something seems off in the sleepy little town. When she goes to pick up Wes at the psych ward, it is overflowing with patients and everyone is filled with unexplained violent emotions.

Before she has a chance to plan her parents’ funeral, the residents of Clarkeston start to go crazy. A contagious mutation, nicknamed “Gaspereau” after the lab where it was discovered, is on the loose. Spreading through cold-like symptoms, Gaspereau causes people to display symptoms of schizophrenia – the illness that Wes happens to be afflicted with. While the infection is not fatal on its own, it causes hallucinations, paranoia, and violent behaviour, leading to many fatalities – and it is spreading rapidly. In fact, Clare’s parents were likely two of Gaspereau’s first victims, as they were randomly attacked by a man with whom they attended church for many years.

Clare feels unequipped to deal with her brother’s symptoms, not to mention an entire town exhibiting schizophrenic-like behaviour – but before she can leave town, Clarkeston is quarantined. An unknown government agency uses the lockdown to capture Wes, as they believe he could be part of the cure for madness. Clare manages to help him make a daring escape from the hospital, but then the two are on a run for their lives. As Wes’ guardian, Clare must decide whether she is able – or indeed if she has a moral obligation – to sacrifice her brother in order to save millions of other people.

A Cure for Madness makes reference to other apocalyptic literature, including The Passage, Fahrenheit 451 and The Walking Dead. Usually, when the end of the world strikes in a novel, it happens outside the literary canon of other such novels – in this case, Clare’s awareness of this literature acts as foreshadowing and increases her fear level. The disease itself is believable, and the author’s explanations of the science behind it are short and sweet – just enough information to make it seem plausible, without getting bogged down in details.

Some of the timing of events was too convenient, as things didn’t seem to happen organically – many scenes were written only to justify the next situation, and it doesn’t flow naturally. It was also extremely coincidental that Clare’s best friend is a TSA agent and her newly reunited ex-boyfriend is a doctor on the front lines of the outbreak – so between the two of them, Clare has all the access she needs to information about Gaspereau and about the agency that is hunting her brother Wes. I also found that some of Clare’s backstory was unnecessarily manipulative, and it didn’t really add to the plot.

The ending was rushed, and I wished for more character development – this could have either been a longer novel, or it could have been followed with a sequel. Regardless, I couldn’t help but be swept away in the adventures of Clare and Wes, and it was definitely a fun read. The ending was easy to guess, but it was still a great ride getting there. Most of all, Clare realized that nobody’s perfect, and she learned to be a hero in her own way, without submitting to any of the romantic tropes that would usually define the female hero in an apocalyptic novel. A fun, surface-level summer read that still makes you think.

I received this novel from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Security - Gina Wohlsdorf

Algonquin Books, June 7, 2016.

Three Stars

The Manderley Resort is an opulent, glamorous new hotel on the coast of California. The décor of the hotel has the best of everything, with huge crystal chandeliers, luxurious modern ballrooms and wall-to-wall white carpet as far as the eye can see. The Manderley has the best security in the world, seemingly excessive to the staff – but a necessity for the wealthy owner, whose father was killed in a hotel when room service delivered him a homemade bomb. The over-the-top security is justified when we learn that there is a killer on the loose inside the hotel.

Security is a shocking thriller combined with an unusual love story. The name of the hotel is an obvious nod to Daphne DuMaurier, and the author borrows from other well-known horror stories, using obscure hedge mazes, secret passageways and an eerily slow glass elevator, all the better to witness the grisly murders that begin to take place in the seemingly spotless hotel. As they prepare for opening night, the staff of the hotel are easy targets for the killer.

In the age of surveillance, everyone is constantly being watched – it can make you feel safe, or it can put your life in danger. In this case, the hotel staff is monitored by their security team as they walk into the killer’s various traps. The novel is narrated by the unnamed head of security, although we do not know that at first – he is an omniscient voice who interjects himself into the story with a dry sense of humour and lack of self-preservation. He seems to be sitting back and watching the crimes committed – is he complicit, or is there more to the story? The novel is a genre-hybrid with gory splashes of blood ripped from the movie ”Scream” that lead to unexpected moments of romantic drama. It is unsettling, yet very entertaining.

I didn’t know going into this novel that it leans heavily on the classic slasher style – it is creepy, gross horror, but somehow really fun. Especially the chef’s cherry coulis spilled around the hotel, not to be mistaken for blood. The novel follows the tropes of a strong lead woman with her charming male sidekick, surprisingly able to survive as the minor characters around them are killed off one by one – and we are the voyeurs forced to watch. There is an ominously slow reveal of clues as the security cameras pan out and we are allowed to see the bigger picture. In some parts, Security reads like an amateur screenplay, but in fact I think it would make an awful movie – it is the author’s cheeky, clever narrative style that really enhances this novel and makes it so much fun to read.

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

The House Between Tides - Sarah Maine

Atria Books, August 2, 2016.

 

Four Stars

The House Between Tides is an atmospheric debut novel that is already being compared to Kate Morton’s novels of multigenerational mystery, and the comparison is apt. Both Morton’s and Maine’s novels use dual timelines to gradually expose family secrets, in this case moving from the murky past of 1910 to one hundred years later in the present day of 2010. The movements back and forth through time are anchored by a gothic ancestral home filled with shocking secrets.

 

On a small island in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, the ancient house of Muirlan is isolated from the rest of the community during high tides. In 1910, Muirlan is inhabited by Theo Blake, a prolific painter of the natural world surrounding his home. As his fame increases in the art world, he finds a young wife named Beatrice and brings her home with him to Muirlan, thinking that time away from Edinburgh will bring them closer together. However, the isolation of the island creates a rift in their relationship – Beatrice finds herself sympathizing with Theo’s struggling tenants, and she is increasingly repelled by his thoughtlessly aristocratic way of life.

 

When Beatrice suddenly vanishes from the island, Theo withdraws from society. His paintings turn dark with emotion, and he rarely leaves the isolation of Muirlan until his death. In 2010, a young woman named Hetty inherits the crumbling, uninhabited house when her last living relative dies. She has no knowledge of her Blake ancestors, until human remains are found in the ruins of Muirlan, and she begins to unravel the secrets of the past.

 

A century after Theo and Beatrice’s arrival on the island, the mystery of their marriage is still affecting the residents of the island. Coming from the city, Hetty plans to turn Muirlan into a luxury resort, but as she gets to know the residents and their history, she begins to envision a different, more sustainable future for the island. Maine’s descriptions of the island setting are dark and beautiful, captivating in their complexity. The attention to detail shows a clear love of the land and its wildlife. Passages describing the salty air and crashing waves make you feel like you’re really there on Muirlan’s intriguing island.

 

With the help of a cantankerous yet attractive groundskeeper, Hetty searches for clues to understand her family’s past. For the most part, Hetty and the other characters are believable – they are imperfect and interesting. As is usually the case in dual timeline novels, one time period tends to be stronger than the other. In this novel, the characters in the early 1900s are more fleshed out and realistic – it is easier to understand their motivations and feel complicit in their decisions.

 

Hetty’s storyline is a bit weaker, and her romance is frustratingly predictable – she trades one man for another, and never seems able to stand on her own. Hetty is steamrolled by everyone around her, and characters such as her former boyfriend become tedious clichés. While the novel is slow at times, it is still a fun, intriguing story, with a surprising mystery that keeps you reading rapidly to the end.

  

I received this novel from Atria Books/Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

In the Shadow of the Mosquito Constellation - Jennifer Ellis

Moonbird Press, May 18, 2014.

Four Stars

The world in this novel is very similar to our own, and the devastation it faces is something that we could easily see in the near future. There has been a worldwide economic collapse due to the advent of peak oil consumption, and as a result, all of our basic human systems – government, trade, transportation – have shut down. Natalie and her husband Richard were living in Vancouver at the time, but when things started to go downhill, they invested in some farmland outside the city. Richard, then the mayor of Vancouver, was against the move, but now, after “the peak”, the farm is the only enclave of survival that they are currently aware of.

Natalie, Richard and their two teenage sons moved to the farm shortly after gas stations closed down and transit stopped running. They were joined by their immediate families and a few close friends. As time passed, they took in more people, transients less fortunate than themselves. Everyone contributes to the farm, but it has still reached capacity of production, leading to the Farm Council’s decision not to allow any more “refugees” to join the farm. The Council, begun to keep order on the farm, is now weighed down by bureaucracy which is often manipulated to justify immoral actions. Difficult choices are made because the farm is surrounded by death, and their survival depends on a willingness to work together.

Communal living is difficult at the best of times, and Natalie also must struggle with her troubled marriage. Richard is manipulative and narcissistic – he controls the Farm Council and doesn’t believe that he needs to do the manual labour that makes the farm run. He makes impulsive decisions without consulting Natalie, and when she confronts him, he makes it seem as though she is the abuser. Even if she wanted to, Natalie cannot leave him because there is nowhere else to go – it’s reminiscent of the past when divorce rates were low because women were not permitted to survive on their own.

Natalie is pragmatic, able to sacrifice her former expansive, acquisitive life for one of subsistence on the farm. Others are not so willing to give up the power they had in the past – Richard especially wishes to return to Vancouver and try to restart the government there. Natalie will trade almost anything for the safety of her sons, but she still wishes for reciprocal, caring love – and she may have found it, with Richard’s twin brother Daniel. However, there is no possible life for them on the farm. When they travel together to search for antibiotics to stave off a virulent strain of the flu that has surrounded the farm, they realize there is a larger world out there, with possibilities for change.

None of the characters are particularly likeable, but they are all very real and flawed. I enjoyed the use of the farm enclosure as a device for distilling human behaviour – with all kinds of people trapped and forced to work together, some unsavoury beliefs and actions come quickly to the surface. Feelings are expressed that would usually be hidden in the “civilized” world, such as racism, sexism and classism. It is really a microcosm of current world politics, especially the unwillingness to let in refugees – but with their isolation policy, the farm members must confront the fact that they need new blood to repopulate the world and carry on. This novel asks the question of how humankind would move forward if we had to start over – and do we need to? Should we? Or perhaps there is another way to live in this world.

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