*Contains Mild Spoilers*

I didn’t know this was a fictional novel when I picked it up, then started reading it. And it was fiction, but maybe not so much… weaving truth into the fictional tale made it very real. And the story wasn’t about the dead girl as much as it was all the girls, dead or alive, carrying the scars and burdens of abuse and use and mistreatment, about the men who pay for the crimes of others because of the colour of their skin and being in the wrong place at the convenient time, about justice and injustice and finding love. It felt investigative, thorough, but we lost some perspective and gained other tidbits when the witness we were following was sequestered. The end is...well, it is as it is. All the strings are loose and many are left undone. Justice is sidelined. Endings are ambiguous and messy. As in life. 

But the worst part is that voices are silenced or ignored. And if we keep on like this, as the message resounds, how can we progress? We leave in our wake the damaged humanity of the unjust past, piling up the offences in every new generation.

I appreciated the middle-aged author’s view of this new younger generation: a group of youth willing to accept one another for who they are and who they are becoming, open to weird and wild and loving both without the boundaries of social norms dictating standards and social circles. Though she admitted a certain amount of obliviousness to their inner workings and relationship dynamics, she portrayed the next generation with an open heart and mind to hope.

An incredible saga of 20th century Russian history, politics, and secrets told from the perspective of a Count under house arrest in a central Moscow hotel—a sort of epicentre of political action and intrigue, movie-star appearances and interactions, many unlawful yet overlooked happenings, and the odd backdrop for child-rearing, as performed by the philosophical trifecta of a bold chef, a newly appointed former person maître d’hotel, and the vibrant head waiter. Full of action, political commentary, philosophical meanderings, literary commentary, a bit of spy work, some frivolous nonsense, delectable foods, and a lot of fun.

And I thought this was going to be a bore… far from it, this novel is one of my favourites of the year.

For all peoples oppressed everywhere, and for the ones inadvertently, directly, or by association involved in acts of oppression—just read this. It is the balm of wisdom poured out in a humility we can all learn from. I will be bringing a copy to class this year to share with my students…

Chief Robert Joseph: Thank you very much…and in the two repressed languages of my own cultural heritage: Go raibh maith agat; Kanien’kéha…

Namwayut.

This was such an unexpected fantastical delight. I was hooked from page one. The love we gain for the main character is almost immediate, and we share her feelings about her male colleague/counterpart, but we also don’t trust her feelings, because we just know something else lies beneath, some secret, some unknown truth. But what? We’re certainly spared no hints at what this concealed information might be, not until its timely revelation.

This work is so perfectly paced.

The story is charming, unpredictable, weaves a beautifully unsuspecting tale of love – not mere frivolous romance, but of true love shared between human beings as can only be forged in the throes of international conflict.

I eagerly await the continued story…

Story glides and bumps across generations. Follows a bloodline and their relationships with people and trees and particularly one forest on an island in British Columbia. The story goes back in time as one family of blood relationships fall apart and are full of misunderstandings, and the families they adopt and become along the way are fortified and share beauty and purpose. The story spans a century, unravels long-held secrets, and touches on history and international politics on the fringes of its backwards and circular journey. Glimpses of each story help to enlighten the reasoning for certain seemingly inexplicable actions. Each character, as we visit and revisit them through time and memories, struggles with the choices of their bloodline, the truth of their heritage, and the consequences of their own actions and the actions of others—especially when it comes to ecological and environmental conscientiousness.

A very well-written, well-paced novel set up as a warning beacon to this generation, and the prophetic fulfilment of the past. 

More like 3.5⭐️ because the concept of placing this in a near future fictional timeline interlinking with the past and present was quite interesting. There were some age restraints, and his main character spoke more like someone my age now (born in the 60s/70s) than one born in the late 90s of the last millennium, but it was a valiant effort.

The dark-side of all these relationships was interesting, and the social/environmental issues raised were pertinent—prophetic even. Despite fictional licence being greatly and hyperbolically employed. So what? It’s fiction. It was making a hefty and important point. If we don’t wake up, sure maybe this won’t be the future 30 years from now, but then again… it might.

This was a thriller, fast action with pauses for reflection and backstory where needed, but it was suspenseful and gave all the promised thrills, including a twisting detective story that kept you guessing until about three-quarters.

We know what we’re getting from Peter May: Scottish CID stories, the dark side of the Highlands and Islands, a shady mid-fifties protagonist cooper with a rough history who manages to get the job done despite the odds—but this one delivers even more with social and environmental issues at its core.

I really liked Sita. Would be nice to see two characters like Brodie and Dr Roy in another novel, doling out the cutting banter with a side-dish of sexual tension. It played out well here for the time it was given…

A riveting adventure. Social commentary, a melange of eastern philosophies, and the twisted historical western-world conflicts are bundled up and swathed in a magic-laced fantasy, including a snarky protagonist wielding secret special powers, a cheeky antagonist with a bent for justice, and all the political intrigue of grand imagined kingdoms.

Oh, and delightfully wicked tongues full of ‘try-me’ banter prevail.

Now, if only the library had access to #2 & #3 in the series…

Stunning narration of a harrowing experience. Truth is far stranger than fiction, and this truth was a long time coming. Time changes things, but things never really change despite our progression and the passage of time—humanity, for all its advancements, is still a self-serving, fearful race. Our alliances shift, but our suspicions and superiorities find new targets. In this telling of a page in particular history, the prejudices of two hundred years ago reflect the continued racism of today. Do we ever learn? Or does history merely show us that the one thing we learn from it is that we never really learn from history…?

The truth will out. We can count on that. And all the concealed truths are outed in this exposé. Mutiny, murder, shipwreck, deception, double-crossings, and accusations believed for decades find their way to the same page, and the truth concealed in one man’s take on another man’s life and motives are examined by a third man’s unbiased investigation of all these one-sided accounts with the discovery and enlightened perspective of hindsight.

A marvellous book outlining the horrors we’re capable of and the forgiveness we need to carry on.

Bam. And you’re in this world in three sentences: setting, tone, and mood all vibrant and alive in a dark and twisted alternate reality. It’s not Kafka, but that man sized cockroach is immediately brought to mind, and somehow the expectations of family disconnect and a downward societal spiral are all present in a flash. There are vampires and pterodactyls and self-centred politicians with devilish intentions, slippery gangs and crooked businessmen and one naive little frightened girl amid the calamity desperately clinging to a thread of safety and comfort. 

This adventure is an unravelling mystery, chock full of action, and takes you by surprise at every turn. You think you’ve got it figured—but nothing happens even close to what you might expect. 

Delightfully psychotic at the first sentence and rips along on a stream of adrenaline until the last shocking page. 

My only complaint: There were bits of the descriptive language I might have tweaked, refined or edited as they came off as simplistic or elementary, but these were easy to overlook because of such unique and original storytelling. I’ve never read anything like this; I’m awaiting the second in a fog of disturbed anticipation.

It’s the characters. I didn’t think I’d come to love Zoya this much, but wow has she won me over. Nikolai feels a bit blond to me still. Sorry: bland. But this book is about him. Sort of. And as the others around him bleed and blossom and expose their innermost—the scars he bears on their behalf enrich him.

And Nina… oh, my heart, what can I say of Nina…? She is torn, broken, a pained and ripping emotion across a quiet page, swathed in subtlety, and so deeply moving. A woman beyond her mere 18 years with the power to forge deep connection with the women of all ages who read her… she has become my favourite character of this continuing series. (I miss her banter with Mathias.)

The story is… well, it seems middling. It’s not all boring, but there are bits that are quite boring. I hate to say that because I love these characters and this world. I miss the voices of the Kerch 6–though it’s nice to have Nina still with us.

I’m just greedy. I want more.