_lia_reads_'s Reviews (757)

Patchett is a master of writing, both in her writing style and in the characters she creates. The book tells the story of two families, brought together by an affair and marriage and then growing apart over the span of 5 decades. The private lives are brought out for the world to see when a book loosely based on their story is turned into a film.

As with all of Patchett’s novels, I liked the relationships that she developed between the different characters; they felt real, as do many of the characters themselves. However, my biggest problem with the book was also these same characters. I love a good family epic, but it was too darn hard to keep track of which family the children belonged to (which was an important plot point multiple times). Also, the big “secret” that the children hide from the parents is just kind of…lame when it comes out at the end. But the story and Patchett’s writing kept me hooked. Is this my favorite of her works so far? No. But do I recommend it if you like complex family stories? Absolutely.

This book has been on my TBR forever and I finally picked it up this year. Reading it during a global pandemic was probably not the best idea, given the subject matter, but I appreciated the beauty of Sebold's storytelling all the same.

While the story is told through the eyes of Susie who is up in Heaven watching her family and friends, it is really their story that we are told. We see how every member of the family and community reacts to her untimely death and the subsequent events. It is a fascinating study of grief and tragedy, in which everyone reacts a little differently to her death. You see how the tragedy of a little girl's disappearance affects everyone that she interacted with, no matter how minimally.

Sebold's writing is poetic and profound, with her characters giving their insights into death and grief both through words and actions. However, the story does move slowly at times. You are teased with these moments of the chase for the killer, but just when you think it is going to be a thriller, you are brought back into the quieter character studies. This is not a fault of the book but was somewhat jarring at times.

Overall, though, I can see why this book has touched so many different people -- much like Susie herself in the story.

TW: Sexual assault of a minor; murder; loss of child; grief

4 stars

“I squat there and think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that’s hard to unravel.” I picked this one on a whim as part of my March box from @bookofthemonth. I didn’t know much about it beyond the synopsis but I ended up loving it.

Casey Peabody is an aspiring writer in a dead-end job she hates, reeling from the recent death of her mother and feeling alone in the world. She struggles to keep her life together and pursue her dream of finishing her first novel. As the title suggests, a variety of writers and lovers––sometimes both––float through her world. More than anything the book is a meditation on what it means to be a young, single woman about to lose hope in her dreams.

King’s writing is beautiful, full of excellent meditations on society’s expectations of men and women and the craft of writing.The way in which she describes Casey’s panic attacks were particularly poignant. This was a book I couldn’t stop marking quotations in, and one I think I will revise again. Easily in contention for a favorite book of the year and King is added to my list of authors with an extensive backlist I hope to explore.

This is a gorgeous debut and I look forward to seeing more of what Atakora writes in the future.

Focusing on two African American women, Rue and May Belle, during the Civil War and in the turbulent times just following the North's victory, Conjure Women is at its heart a celebration of women's work and women's roles in society. May Belle and Rue are healers for their community, particularly helping the women of the plantation to give birth to their babies. But while May Belle was largely celebrated for her talents, Rue falls under suspicion when she helps to deliver a baby with scaly, light skin and jet black eyes. The novel explores intersections of magic, faith, and healing through the community's reaction to baby Bean. Race is of course another element of this book, especially in Rue's relationship with the slave master's daughter, Varina.

I loved the character development in this book, particularly when it came to Rue and her relationships with the other members of the former plantation. While some events of the book are far-fetched and magical, the characters' reactions felt real. In addition, the plot itself was engaging and kept me guessing with the mystery elements that had been added in. I appreciate the interweaving of African and African American folklore throughout the story as well. There are certainly parts that were difficult to read, but any story that has slavery as an element is going to have those moments if it is being truthful to the horrors of that period.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. It reminded me a lot of The Revisioners, which I read earlier this year, both in setting and in themes. Yet this book succeeded in ways that The Revisioners did not for me, and for that I was grateful.

TW: miscarriage; child lost during birth; racial slurs; racism; violence

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This novel is beautiful. The writing is gorgeous, the story unique and heartbreaking. It tells the story of Lucy and Sam, children of immigrants who are newly orphaned, leaving them alone in the undefined West during the Gold Rush. They and their parents are of Chinese descent, marking them as outsiders amongst the men who have come in search of a fortune despite them wanting the same thing.

Zhang has artfully presented the struggle of both of trying to start a life out in this desolate landscape and doing so faced with discrimination. What is particularly remarkable is the resilience of all the characters––you see both Sam and Lucy’s perspective as well as flashbacks to their parents’ first meetings and early years of marriage––and the things that they will do to keep hold to their dreams. I found it interesting that the characters never explicitly call themselves Chinese (though some white characters occasionally use derogatory slang towards them). However, Zhang has mixed in bits of Pinyin as well as Chinese mythology, especially surrounding the tiger.

This is one of those books where the plot is somewhat secondary to the beauty of the prose. I loved the way that each chapter title is a noun––like gold, mud, plum, water––around which the events of that chapter revolve in some way. Zhang’s writing becomes almost poetry in some passages, as she play with sentence length and repetition of words. Its other strength is the relationship it portrays between Sam and Lucy and how much you will feel for both characters by the end.

I went into this book not knowing much about the participation of Chinese immigrants in the Gold Rush in the American West. I am grateful for this book for opening my eyes to that part of history that has gone largely untold. I hope that this book will inspire others to look into that history.

TW: implied assault; racism including use of offensive terms; violence

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to William Morrow for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

A murder mystery filled with bookish references and starring a bookstore owner? Sounds like a great premise! In execution, it wasn't always great but it was a twisty, fun novel that I read in a single day.

I really liked the bookstore setting and the premise of a copycat killer who replicated famous murders from books. Overall, the mystery book conceit was cool, particularly in the way it plays a role through to the very end. A few of the twists kept me guessing (though I did figure out the killer early on, despite the multiple red herrings). I don't think of it as a fast-paced novel, except the last half which I sped through, wanting to know how all the different pieces of information would come together. Swanson writes a good unreliable narrator (though at one point the narrator breaks the 4th fall and brings up the 'unreliable narrator' trope which was a bit...much for me) and this book was no exception.

However, I did at times get bogged down by ALL the references to mystery novels. They seem to come a mile a minute, which might be fun if you are an aficionado, but I was having a hard enough time just keeping the 8 Books in the title straight. Also be warned that the book spoils a lot of mystery novels; yes, most of these have been out there for a long time, but there are spoiler alerts galore throughout the book. The characters are all a bit flat and there are SO DARN MANY of them that it was at times hard to keep them all straight. Finally, I found Swanson's writing to be repetitive at times and a bit heavy-handed.

That all said, it was an enjoyable read. Swanson is reliable for a good, easy mystery read that will be sure to delight fans of his work and of the mystery genre more generally.

TW: Murder (duh, though never too graphic); child molestation; mentions of rape

3.5 stars, rounded up

What would have happened if Gypsy Rose Blanchard hadn't had her mother killed? This book, very loosely, explores that scenario. The set-up is very reminiscent of this famous case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, but even if you are not familiar with it, you will enjoy this thriller.

The story alternates between Rose Gold's life while her mother, Patty, has been put in prison following years of poisoning and abusing her daughter, and the weeks immediately following Patty's release from prison when she comes to live with Rose Gold. If you are familiar with the Blanchards, the main plot arcs of this story will be very familiar to you. There were even times when I forgot I was reading about a fictional family (not sure if this is really a good thing). But the plot twists are so obviously different, if a bit predictable.

While not an exceptional book by any means, I found the study of the mental health of both women really interesting. You find yourself naturally rooting for Rose Gold but Wrobel makes you question if you really *should* be rooting for her. If you like thrillers with interesting characters, this one is for you. It was a great distraction from current events for me!

3 stars

This was a gorgeous memoir, touching and sad with uplifting moments. Born and raised for his early years in the Synanon cult, Mikel Jollett is affected by the decisions made by his parents--especially his mother--for his entire life. He grapples with addiction, loss, and finding his place in the world in ways that are incredibly relatable even if you have not been through the same struggles yourself. This is a memoir about finding yourself and your family when the cards are stacked against you. The complexities and importance of the male relationships were particularly touching, especially since I tend to read memoirs written by women where this isn't as much of a theme.

When I was younger, I listened to the Airborne Toxic Event––of which Jollett is the founder and front man––but I did not find that knowledge vital to appreciating the story. This story reminded me that Jollett is a skillful, poetic writer. He has a way with words that makes you feel like you are experiencing the ups and downs right along with him. I found myself lingering over certain sentences and paragraphs that were much more poetic than I am accustomed to seeing in a memoir.

Overall, this was a gorgeous, gripping read, one that is going to stay with me for awhile.

Thank you Celadon and BookishFirst for the free book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this book going in but what I discovered I really, really loved.

In the recent past, Natalia is a doctor in an unnamed Balkan country, still experiencing the aftermath of war. Her grandfather, with whom she was very close, has just passed away in an unknown small village. She is left to explore why he ended up in that village as well as the other mysteries of his life. But the book is largely not driven by that plot, though it is a framework that ties the book together. Instead, you are treated to different vignettes of life that are told almost like folktales of the people that her grandfather encountered both as a child and an adult. The Deathless Man, the Tiger's Wife, and other characters with equally fairy tale-esque names and traits occupy the majority of the narration.

I loved the alternation between the folklore of the past and its contrast with the more realistic, clinical present. As Natalia is working to uncover the mystery of her grandfather's death, she also grapples with larger theme like the contrast between life and death (naturally), reality and lore, and her own place in the world. Obreht gives you just enough of the story to work out what is going on in each section while keeping a lot of it unsaid, allowing you to draw your own conclusions about what is real and what is not. If you need to be hit over the head with a plotline, this is not a book for you.

Instead, it is a book for those who appreciate beautiful phrasing and storytelling, especially mixed with elements of folklore. I look forward to reading more from Obreht and hope that she continues with this same style (even as she moves on from this world, which she says is very self-contained in this book).

4 stars

First off, Emma Straub’s books always surprise me. I go into them thinking they will be light, fun reads, but then they also pack a punch of substance. Before this read, I would have said Modern Lovers was my favorite of her books; and while All Adults Here is similar in some ways to that story, it blows her previous work out of the water.

The book begins with Astrid Strick witnessing a school bus accident. The victim of the accident is a acquaintance and the accident sets off a wave of memory—and regret—for Astrid. Her three adult children are all drifting in their own ways, as is her granddaughter who has come to live with her—and she is unsure of how to help them. At the same time, she is coming to terms with her own identity as a partner and mother.

Through a series of alternating storylines that all eventually converge, Straub explores what it means to be a parent, a sibling, and a partner. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the strong LGBTQ characters into the story who played important roles. While the story maintains a relatively light tone throughout, it also touches on tough subjects while peeling back the complexity of the characters.

This is perfect if you like intergenerational family stories, with complex characters, great casual writing and a touch of humor!

Thanks to Riverhead Books for the free e-Galley in exchange for an honest review!