rickjones's Reviews (1.66k)

While the premise for this book was intriguing, I don't think Malerman pushed the horror as far as it could go. Maybe that was intentional. It's more of a somewhat doomed love story between two teenagers who are forging the first real romantic relationship they've ever had. The relationship itself and it's development through the teenagers' preoccupation with the house is the meat of the story. I had some trouble getting engaged with it since I notoriously dislike romances, but imagining the house and how strange and wonderful it seemed was entertaining.

The strengths of An Honest Man are its gripping, bleak tone and atmosphere, along with its tragic characters destined to rock each other's lives. The mystery itself was not as interesting to me. Maybe this is just because I usually don't read crime fiction, but it was difficult for me to remember each person's motives and assessing their threat to one another. I would have had a much harder time reading the book if not for Lyman and Jacqueline's segments and I appreciate the rewarding ending they were given. Would I recommend this book to other readers? Probably not... it isn't poorly written, quite the opposite, but I wanted it to just be over as soon as I started it. 

Meg is an exciting and bombastic novel starring a crew of paper-doll people, a term I use for characters with wafer-thin depth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the women were the worst victims of Alten's lack of imagination when plotting his characters. I cannot vouch for the scientific accuracy of the story since I'm not a marine biologist, but some assertions did seem a little... fishy... Otherwise, the story was very entertaining to follow and I understand both why it was sold to movie producers immediately, and why it took several studios and thirty years for the movie to get made. 

While this book is written with library managers in mind, it's still useful for a paraprofessional. Graham made me aware of areas of improvement for our library's safety that I should discuss with supervisors, and gave practical advice I can use daily to aid in safety. I appreciate that Graham's encourages readers to approach people with friendliness first and escalate to being more authoritative only if needed. Ideally, all security incidents would be solved by establishing mutual respect with patrons. Yet when that isn't possible, Graham suggests policies to put in place to ensure safety for coworkers and patrons. 

Our Endless Numbered Days is a dreamlike novel ending in a nightmare. Fuller does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the headspace of young Peggy, who originally adores her father and his play-pretend game of surviving the apocalypse. When the game begins to absorb her reality, the beauty and brutality of the natural world Peggy must make her home conflict, mixing great peace with extraordinary terror. Fuller somehow authored a domestic thriller with a tranquil quality, resulting in a perplexingly relaxing read that erupts into violence. Yet the final twist in the book is the most horrible one, and left a sour taste in my mouth. We can choose to believe Peggy's side of the story, but just as she does, deep down we know it's too implausible to be true. 

The Last Time I Lied is a twisty thriller that lives up to the expectations Sager has set with his other books. What's most striking about this novel is not the plot but the atmosphere, an isolated luxury summer camp is companioned by a mysterious island and a gothic mansion underneath the lake. While some pieces of the plot don't make much sense, the tone and the setting are what's most inviting, allowing me to forgive any stumbles that take place in it. 

I don't really know where to begin with this review, but I guess I should justify the two star rating first. The romance this book held was relentlessly disturbing, given that it involved two men who met when one was ten and another was almost eighteen. The romance didn't start until the younger boy, Joe, was seventeen, yet he and his family knew it was beginning from the time he was ten and were looking forward to it. And this inappropriate relationship is justified because he's a werewolf I guess...? Which I don't really give a shit about. Additionally, Joe's father adopts Ox, the older boy, into his family, and both men refer to each other as father and son. Ox refers to the Bennett boys as his brothers until learning that he's fated to mate with Joe. I just am unable to fathom any reasoning for why Klune would create this relationship to be borderline pedophilic and incestuous when it did not have to be. Why not have Ox develop an attraction to the boy his age immediately instead of starting a sexual relationship with the person he thought of for almost a decade as his baby brother? It's gross at least and suspicious at most.

Aside from the ick romance I just did not like the writing in the book. It was extremely repetitive and tacky. There are paragraphs worth of italicized repetitive wolf thoughts that did not need to be read over and over. The symbols the characters hold onto are also bludgeoned into the text until I was rolling my eyes when they were next mentioned. The writing is not very descriptive or lyrical otherwise. What Klune excels at, and the only reason I bothered to finish the book, is the found-family relationships and portrayal of intimacy and trust between the characters. Those passages were rewarding to read and made me understand why this book was adored enough to be reprinted. I did appreciate the relationship between Ox and Gordo, and would have liked the book much more if their tether was the one that was most explored, without the gross mate destiny sullying it. 

I would not recommend this book to other readers because I am profoundly against books that glorify grooming relationships and present them in ways that would never naturally occur in real life. Trust me, as a queer library worker I know how suspect it is to speak the word "grooming" about any represenations of gay people, but this is a legitimate instance. In no healthy family would the adult members encourage a budding romantic relationship between a ten year-old and an eighteen year-old. It's just demented. I'm truly stunned that this book has not only been republished but embraced by people who see it just as an angsty found-family romance. It's wounded my trust with the book's publisher and Klune's readers.

The Quick and the Dead is an entertaining western fraught with tension. Yet, the plot did stall at times and I found myself most enamored with L'Amour's depiction of rich natural world and atmosphere of the west.