Tag: fiction

Blurb Book Review: Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Dorothy Gentleman is on a generational ship, 300 years into a 1,000 year journey, and has placed herself in her memory book where she can rest in the library for a while. She awakens in someone else’s body instead of in a blank, which tips her off that there might be a problem.

As she acclimatizes to the body, she sets out to solve a murder. Murders happen on the ship, although not too often since the person can just be put right back into a blank body, and as the ship’s detective it’s up to Dorothy to solve them.

It might help if the ship wasn’t drunk from the magnetic storm, though.

This is a novella, only 100 small pages, barely enough time to really get to know the characters or setting. As I read and found out the motive for murder, I found my head spinning as I couldn’t quite track the information. There were too many characters mentioned and not enough development of them to have them fully root in my mind. I feel like this book could use a little more padding, a few more hints about the financial aspects of the ship, for the payoff of the motive to be satisfying.

Otherwise, this was a delightful read, one that I did in one evening, and I’d read more by this author. This is the first in the Dorothy Gentleman series, so I have some more novellas to look forward to.

Blurb Book Review: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Sara is on her way back from a work trip when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pulls her aside for further review. Using data gleaned from 200 data points, the RAA determines she’s too high of a risk and may commit a crime against her husband, so she’s sent to a facility for observation for 21 days, until her risk score goes down.

There, she learns that the rules shift without notice and any violations add time to her observation.

In addition, her Dreamsaver, a neuro unit that helps her feel fully rested after only a few hours of sleep, records her dreams for the RAA to use against her.

One day, a newbie arrives in the middle of the night and leaves after exactly three weeks, something that’s almost unheard of. This new person sets Sara on a course to rebellion.

This novel is horrifyingly possible. Not the dream part, technology isn’t there yet, but definitely the risk assessment part. Imagine having a distant cousin’s political views affect your score, or that one time you lost your temper at work would cause your score to increase. With an administration sorting through the data, they can find anything if they look hard enough.

I was glued to the pages throughout. The author does a fantastic job of showing the sliding rules, the privileges dressed up as rights, and how difficult it can be to conform to what the person in authority believes you should be.

I enjoyed this novel immensely.

Blurb Book Review: The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Darby is annoyed with New York and suddenly unemployed. On the cusp of his thirtieth birthday and unsure of what to do with his life, he decides to move back to his hometown of Oak Falls, Illinois to help his mom move out of his childhood home and into a new condo. Once at Oak Falls, he visits the beloved bookstore he worked at as a teen. He steps inside to see everything is exactly the same, from the hand-lettered signs to the musty smell of books. Most shocking is the teen behind the counter, who looks exactly like he did back in 2009, some sixteen years ago.

Faced with the opportunity to change his present by talking to his past self, he’s got to figure out how to talk to his younger self before this connection vanishes forever.

The novel had me at time travel. I love the idea of being able to visit my younger self and maybe even help my past self realize some things that would definitely help my present self, just like Darby. I liked the transitions from past to present and how Darby’s entire focus was on trying to connect with his past self without seeming creepy or weird.

The theme was connection, broken or strong, between people. Darby has the chance to repair the relationship between him and his best friend from high school, a breakup that mystified Darby until nearly the end of the novel.

Another theme is acceptance. Darby is trans and having the opportunity to see how his hometown accepts him for who he is right now was well done. While New York might have a stronger LGBTQ+ community, there was one in Oak Falls as well. Eventually, Darby needs to make a choice: stay in Oak Falls or move back to New York where he’s carved out a life.

Overall, this novel was sweet and endearing. Darby is believable and so is time travelling by stepping through the door of a bookstore.

Blurb Book Review: The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Dalton Greaves is a human representative of Unity, a panspecies federation determined to bring every sentient species into its fold. He’s joined by Neera (also human) on a diplomatic mission to curry favour with a new species, minarchs, before yet a third species (stickmen of the Assembly) can do so. While on the planet with a representative of the Assembly, both the stickman’s ship and Dalton’s ship explode in a conflict.

Left to carry out the mission while waiting for help to arrive, Dalton inadvertently becomes the Fourth Consort to a powerful minarch: First-Among-Equals. While this position should give Dalton plenty of time to bring the minarchs around to accepting Unity, instead, Dalton befriends the stickman and learns that Unity is more about plundering than acceptance.

I liked the concept of this novel; the idea that there are many sentient species out there and there’s federations like Unity and Assembly, but ultimately the book left me frustrated.

Dalton is a passive character. Everything happens to him, including infodumps about the different species, rather than him making choices that land him in situations. By the midpoint I was having difficulty believing Dalton was a diplomat. He’s woefully unprepared for the role and seems to be blundering his way along. Every time he meets with First-Among-Equals, he does nothing to further the cause he’s been given. Instead, he essentially defends himself against what First-Among-Equals says about humans and hides in his quarters.

Along the same lines, so much time in the novel seems to be spent asking why his translator couldn’t pick up a phrase or word. This could be solved by Dalton simply asking for clarification. Why not? Why doesn’t he just ask for a definition of a word or phrase? These questions plagued me as I read on.

I finished the novel because I did want to see how it would end, whether Dalton would get the minarchs on his side or not, but it was a bit of a slog.

Blurb Book Review: Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Jane and Dan go out to a ridiculously expensive restaurant to celebrate their nineteenth wedding anniversary, one Jane feels is their last. Neither expected to be smack dab in the middle of a crime – or to be taken as hostages – for the evening. As events unfold, Jane notices the crime plays out eerily similar to the novel she published six years prior. At the same time, Dan realizes one of the hostage takers is their daughter.

The novel highlights the stagnant feeling that can happen in long term relationships, especially with children on the cusp of leaving home. Jane feels underappreciated and anchorless, unsure of what she wants in life after having devoted two decades to parenting and being someone’s wife. Dan, also needing an outlet of his own, takes on a new hobby, one which Jane assumes is an affair.

I enjoyed the narrative voice. Mostly told through Jane’s pov, the voice is humorous with a dash of frustration. Jane wants change in her life but doesn’t know what that change is, exactly. She takes the apparent affair as a launching pad for divorce, thinking that by separating from Dan she’ll be able to find herself again.

Overall, this is a light read, the author ties up all the loose ends, and Dan’s new hobby even helps save the day.

Blurb Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Kit is a caregiver on suspension because her last client died due to her apparent carelessness. Desperate for a job, Kit accepts a position at Hope’s End, caring for a woman who’s rumoured to have murdered her whole family just over 50 years prior.

When Kit arrives, she sees the house is crumbling along with the cliff face. While navigating the tilted house, she hesitantly takes up her duties caring for Lenora Hope, a victim of several strokes and unable to move anything except her left hand.

Lenora teases Kit with details of the murders by typing out pages on an old typewriter. As the history of the murders is revealed, so are secrets about the family that have been kept for five decades.

This novel has several reveals by the end, all of them hinted at throughout the work. Just as I absorbed reading about how the murders were committed, I was hit with what really happened to both sisters, Virginia and Lenora, as well as how Kit’s family was involved. By the end, every thread is tied up neatly and masterfully.

My only nitpick was that the author repeated information quite often, making parts feel repetitive and drawn out. The reveals at the end make up for this, though.

Blurb Book Review: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Willis Wu is a background actor on Black & White (a police procedural with a Black cop and a white cop) and strives to be more than just Generic Asian Man. Someday, maybe he’ll reach the top and become Kung Fu Guy, but first he must work his way up from Generic Asian Man #3, then #2, and finally #1. In between, he dies on screen, cannot act for six weeks, and provides the reader with some backstory about his parents and their struggles with fitting into their roles.

But this novel is more than that. It’s an unflinching gaze into what it must be like to be Asian in America; shoved to the sidelines and kept below a glass ceiling.

The story is told in screenplay format, which helps immerse the reader in the perpetual filming of the show while also demonstrating how the entire lives of the characters are defined by their roles on the show. This is both suffocating and illuminating.

This novel is clever, intriguing, and at its core, heartfelt.

There is a Netflix show of the same name based on the novel running at the time I’m writing this. While the show is entertaining on its own, the book has depth and a social message that I didn’t see in the show.

Blurb Book Review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Grace is a woman in her seventies who is stuck in a rut. Once upon a time she was a wife and mother but lost both her husband and son, now she fills her days with the same routine, slowly fading into the background of life.

When she receives a letter informing her that she’d been left a property in Ibiza, Spain, she decides she might as well check it out. While she hadn’t seen the owner of the property, Christina, in decades, nor had she been close to Christina, the mystery of why this college friend would leave her a house was enough to disrupt her usual pattern of her day.

Grace has no idea that her entire world will be upended in the best possible way, nor that the simple act of diving could infuse her with life.

The author weaves a tale of supernatural abilities, kindness, grief, loneliness, and joy against a lively and vivid backdrop of Ibiza. The novel is told as a letter to a student, who reached out in a time of need, and is glorious in its complexity. Grace is a delightful character, one who softens as the pages go on, and who opens up to life’s experiences despite being attached to her grief.

The novel was one I’d love to relive, to experience again for the first time. Its tone is soft, its characters vivid, and the message of respect delightful.

Blurb Book Review: Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Ada Lamarr is running out of air. She sent a distress signal and knows there’s a huge vessel nearby but they took their sweet time answering. When they finally arrive, she’s barely alive and has to launch herself out of the giant hole in her ship, across empty space, and into her rescuer’s ship. She barely makes it.

Once there, she needs to explain why she was looting a ship that had crash landed on the nearby planet. Lamarr knows what’s on that ship and knows that her rescuer’s ship had no reason to be in the area except to also retrieve something from the downed ship.

What follows is a heist novella, where the author skilfully leaves clues that build to a massive cliffhanger ending.

While this was very well written – Lamarr’s character is vibrant and consistent – it’s frustrating to read a novella that ends so abruptly. The story is complete, yes, but also leaves room for sequels, sort of like Marvel movies and their after-credit scenes that give a taste of a future movie.

Still, the novella immediately gives the stakes and a sense of character and never slows down. It was entertaining enough for me to seek other work by the author.

Note: there’s a page of binary code near the end. I translated it: “This data has been compromised. This d1t1 has bee6 compromised. This data haromised. This data haromised.ised.ised.ised”

Blurb Book Review: Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Kenzie and Gennaro are hired by a woman to watch her adult son. A photo of him was taken and he told her he’s being stalked by someone. While Kenzie and Gennaro can’t find any evidence of foul play, someone starts targeting the people Kenzie loves and some dark secrets about his family come to light.

This is the second novel in the Kenzie and Gennaro series and it’s better than the first one. The author develops the characters well in this novel. Gennaro’s husband Phil is shown trying to be a better person by quitting drinking and the childhood friendship of Phil and Kenzie feels robust and nostalgic. The relationship between Kenzie and Gennaro deepens as well, almost to the point of restarting a sexual ember.

Honestly, I would prefer not to have the will-they-won’t-they between the male and female lead characters. I find this tiresome and worn out. Having said that, this novel was written in 1996, so it’s kind of expected.

Overall, this novel is a giant step forward from the first book in the series. The author does a better job of setting the scene here, keeps the reader engaged by giving reminders of how the clues stacked up, and rounds the characters out well. I’m looking forward to reading the third in the series.