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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
scriptkat has commented on (14) products
Assassins Guide to Love & Treason
by
Virginia Boecker
scriptkat
, November 05, 2018
Did you know that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was written to capture the would-be assassin of Queen Elizabeth I?! And what do you get when you combine a cross-dressing Catholic called Katherine Arundell, out to avenge the death of her father, and put her slap-dab in the middle of merry old London? ‘An Assassin’s Guide to Love & Treason’, of course, and it’s quite scrumptious. This romp through 1601 will have you questioning any history you may think you’ve learned about Elizabethan London, about the dalliances of Shakespearean players, and about the tension between the Protestants and Catholics at that time. Being from England myself, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a bit of ‘history’ from home to indulge in. I delighted in this witty, clever tale about young Lady Katherine Arundell from Cornwall, who witnesses her father’s execution for being a practicing Catholic. This was because England is now Protestant under Queen Elizabeth I, and to avenge her father’s death, she then goes to London and plans to assassinate Queenie herself. Tall order perhaps. Katherine constructs a plan, along with her merry band of Catholic conspirators; this means she must infiltrate the upcoming production of ‘Twelfth Night’, and create a new male identity for herself, Kit. This is really at the crux of how clever Virginia Boecker is being with ‘Assassin’s Guide’ (and I know she knows this, because of her most brilliant Author’s Note in the back; only I do hope everyone reads it!). As many of you may know, women weren’t players in Shakespeare’s plays, men were, and they played all the women’s parts too. In order for Katherine to disguise herself in London, she must become Kit (this was a name short for Christopher back then), as well as to be a player on the stage. She then gets the part as Viola, who (if you haven’t read ‘Twelfth Night’) dresses up as a man in the play. It all becomes quite complicated when Kit becomes drawn to Toby, who is another lead player, and writer, and unbeknownst to Kit, a spy for Elizabeth Regina; he’s trying to deduce which of the Twelfth Night players is the treasonous one. Yet he’s falling for Kit, just as he did previously for the late Kit Marlowe (that’s Christopher Marlowe to you). Katherine’s own confidence as a ‘man’ mirrors Viola’s growing confidence in the play, particularly as Toby and ‘Kit’ rehearse together, and the themes of bisexuality and questions about societal gender norms play like their own characters in the book. Just like the very irony we see in having men play the parts of women (who play men), this is a double irony, if you will, forces the characters to constantly question their identities, as well as their loyalties. At a time when many only had loyalty to the Crown or to God, questioning your identity was frowned against and was highly confusing, and naturally left you open to being cast out by all sorts of weaknesses such as witchcraft and going back to the Old Religion (Catholicism). You certainly didn’t admit to liking the same sex, even if you did put on a dress for all to see in the Globe Theatre. The ‘supporting cast’ of William Shakespeare, the Wright Brothers, and even the Queen, lend so much color to the tapestry that Boecker has woven for this ‘Guide’, and readers will love it when familiar names and places appear in the story. I’d also say there’s a little bit of everything here to make this an all-round great read: we start off with a murder, and then we have action, romance, and a lot of wit and charm. Shakespeare would approve of all of that. Virginia has actually taken great pains to do her research and in her Author’s Note points out where she has meddled with the history and where she has kept to the facts. I absolutely loved this small part of the book, as well as the long bibliography she has listed. While you may not come out with a proper Elizabethan history lesson, or an actual assassin’s guide, you will be thoroughly entertained, and may (like myself) be inclined to read up on your English history and to even re-read some Shakespeare! This was a solid 5 star read for me.
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Sadie
by
Courtney Summers
scriptkat
, August 11, 2018
This is a wildly inventive and brave thriller, one that weaves ‘Sadie’s’ story, in which a teenage girl tries to find the man who has killed her beloved sister Mattie, together with a ‘podcast’ called ‘The Girls’. The two writing devices make this a refreshing read, and now with the podcasts actually streaming (yes, in real life), Courtney Summers and Macmillan have made this book a living breathing thing. The book feels so 'alive', that you almost forget that Sadie (who has had a tough life: she has a stutter, her sister has been murdered, her addict mother has left) is missing. Author Courtney Summers opens the book with: 'Girls go missing all the time', so we may think of our main character as just a number, but then we are challenged when we are forced to get to know this young girl and so we start to have emotions towards her as we read the book. Sadie wants to find the man who killed her little sister Mattie, and through both Sadie's perspective as she goes from buying a car so she can leave the tiny town of Cold Creek, to the shocking and emotional end of the book, along with 'The Girls' podcast as recorded by West McCray, this is a great big hunt; it's a hunt to find this man, a hunt to find Sadie, a hunt for the truth. There are lots of characters along the way that West speaks to, who knew the girls, their mother, who have made assumptions, as he tries to find the truth and get to Sadie, and he uncovers a tragic home life, and uncovers what likely many runaways and abused children go through each and every day beyond these pages. Sadie becomes more than just a vigilante seeking retribution for her sister; she is a tragic character who represents that 'lost little girl', the scared abused teenager on-the-run. Needless to say, many push-button issues come up in this book: child abuse, pedophilia, addiction, so there may be some readers who need to stay away for those reasons. I left this book with a big hole in my heart, knowing that the issues contained within are real, even if the story isn't, even if Sadie isn't a real girl who went looking for her sister with all that love in her heart. The final two pages had me crying and smiling at the same time, and even with a bit of an open end (be warned, if you don't like those - I happen to love them), 'Sadie' finishes perfectly. Kudos to Courtney (and Macmillan) for bringing Sadie to life.
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Girl I Used to Be
by
Mary Torjussen
scriptkat
, August 03, 2018
This is a psychological thriller that is hard to put to down, and despite the unassuming title, this novel goes from being a story about a seemingly innocuous meeting with a prospective client for estate agent Gemma to a full-blown harassment and sexual assault case. Gemma is the breadwinner of her family, with her husband being at home with their three-year old son, and while she is trying hard to deal with the mounting stress of running a company, she’s constantly dealing with the anxiety of an incident in her past. Suddenly she is very much alone in a world where she is being harassed by private messages and letters, and she is finding herself lying and wondering who she is becoming. It’s so hard to review this without revealing a major amount about the plot but this had me quickly turning the pages because author [a:Mary Torjussen|8280779|Mary Torjussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1484587606p2/8280779.jpg] has crafted the perfect thriller whereby she has weaved a story from the character’s past into one in the present day, and while I was reading I felt Gemma’s anxiety - and fear - all the way through. It really was compulsive reading. I will also personally disclose that the initiating incident that Gemma experiences, the one that she feels she must run from, and the one that is the cause of so much tragedy (revealed in part 2), is something that I personally went through myself. I only wish this sort of thing didn’t actually have to be something that becomes the basis of both adult and YA fiction, but (yes, this is my trigger warning), sexual assault happens, and will continue to be a part of fictional and non-fictional works. As women start to fight back by talking about it, as now it is very much a topic of our time (there’s a line in the book acknowledging that once upon a time, it wasn’t talked about so easily), it has become different when we read about it too. This is actually the second book released this year that I have read with this similar sexual assault issue. The book is thoroughly engaging to read and I liked the ‘two parts’ that it was separated into, with the massive twist. I don’t know what I’d change it to, but for some reason I have an issue with the title, although I understand the concept of how we look back at what we ‘used to be’, feeling like we have changed so much, or looking at what we were back then, but I want something else to grab people by. This book is so good and too clever for people to miss.
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Scream All Night
by
Derek Milman
scriptkat
, July 20, 2018
Now that you have read the synopsis, I know you must be intrigued, and honestly, I feel like this is one of the most unique and original YA novels that I’ve read in some time, particularly in terms of setting (does it even have to be listed as such, just because the characters are young? This is unique, period). Dario, our ‘lead’, is both witty, and tragic, and I found it hard not to fall for him in terms of wanting things to work out as he’s finding his way through all the craziness: his brother Oren, his father, the studio, his past, reuniting with his ‘lost’ love Hayley. He’s real and honest, and it’s tough to read some of the sections of the book about him and his mom because he’s had to deal with a lot of sadness. That said, this is a ‘coming-of-age’ story, one where hard decisions about life have to be made, but it’s also a darkly comedic one; there’s so much humor, so much vivid imagery, and it hit the right tone with the ‘difficult’ spots, as well as the lighter ones. Milman is able to shift easily with this writing to make this both a poignant but funny and clever book. Describing film/movie making is really hard to do, since you’re discussing a world within a world (and it’s so visual), and Milman has created this whole Moldavia Studio ‘world’ and then had to also translate as much as he can about filmmaking while keeping it easy to ‘get’. He has film terms and crew positions in there that maybe some people won’t understand (but I got a real kick out of; I could absolutely imagine this stuff) but nothing that made it confusing. *If you’re in the biz though, it’s just a bonus. **EXTRA PERSONAL NOTE: A quick word about why I jumped on this book like Vincent Price on a bare neck: you see, while I didn’t actually live in a castle like Moldavia Studios, which is where the book’s lead character Dario grew up, where dozens of cult classic horror movies got made, I did get close enough to my own version of this slice of craziness quite a few times. I have my degree in film and video production (and even got to take a brilliant 3 credit class all on vampire movies one summer), and spent a good decade or so working on feature films (and TV, commercials, etc), as continuity/script supervisor. I tell you this because some of my favorite film-making memories were of making horror movies. My most fun times, as hard they were, were standing on snowy mountains seeing ‘someone getting slashed’ and hung on the ski-lift. And not many people have images of actors having their lunch with ice picks sticking out of their backs, or in bloody nightgowns but with grins on their faces. And even though I’ve even seen a house set on fire at the end of a film shoot and more fake blood than I can fathom, it doesn’t make me lose my love for the great horror classics. I love horror movies (and books), and have taken great fascination into the old Hammer Studio movies in the past. The campy gore, the cult classics. And having Derek Milman put this into a book as a backdrop was an absolute delight, right down to all the movie names he cleverly came up with. I absolutely can’t wait to see what Derek comes up with for his next book, although I think before that, it would be fantastic to sit down and make either a campy horror movie (it’s been a while!), or have a Hammer-Horror movie marathon! Congrats on the new book, Derek! It’s genius.
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Last Time I Lied
by
Riley Sager
scriptkat
, July 15, 2018
So by now, you have likely had the chance to read the synopsis of the book, and even better, may have already read the book. Immediately my response for the book, upon finishing it, I was blown away, and couldn’t even write my review as soon as I had finished. I was speechless, and I then uttered a few curse words because Sager has written yet another bloody brilliant book. In FINAL GIRLS, Sager blew us out of the water with a thriller that focused mainly on two girls, and the very concept that they were the final girls left from slasher killings (even without the book revolving around the killings themselves) was enough to get into the readers psyche and make us terrified. In THE LAST TIME I LIED, he manages yet again to take the reader to a very vulnerable place, alongside the main character Emma, this time back to when she was a teenager, self-conscious and needing to be accepted, but how could it be worse than back then? Going back to the same camp as an adult where your friends went missing and you were accused of being responsible for it, that’s how. But Emma is going to figure out what really happened at Camp Nightingale all those years ago (Jason Voorhes had nothing to do with it). The book is absolute brilliance, in terms of pacing, use of different timelines (and we see this as a writing device a lot, but not always done well), depth of characters, and ultimately, the story has the best plot twist I could (never) have imagined. One of my best (sorry, Sir Sager) compliments is that I could swear Riley is a female author because he writes female voices so well. I don't know how he does it. But I know he will do it again when he writes another book!
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Dive Smack
by
Demetra Brodsky
scriptkat
, June 20, 2018
So it was quite easy to give this twisty and exciting psychological YA thriller a 5-star review. It has been harder to put into words every single thing as to why, because I was so taken by surprise by Demetra’s brilliant debut novel. It seems as though from the moment I laid eyes on the beautiful cover for ‘Dive Smack’ (the flames above a young man plunging into the water), I needed to read it. And then I was immediately lost inside this book from the opening two quotes, particularly this one from Carl Jung, "Your vision will become clear when you look inside your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." What a way to start the book! If you read the synopsis of the book above, you'll know by now that it’s about Theo Mackey, a high school springboard diver who has had both of his parents pass away tragically, and then he starts to question the memories he has of the fire that killed his mom, particularly as new ones surface as he researches a family project for school. Theo luckily has some great friends he can count on, but he lives with his alcoholic grandfather (GP), and he's starting to find his home life and new stressors are affecting his usually perfect diving, something he can’t afford to screw up, being the captain of Team Monarch. And the big school family project is what really starts to mess with Theo’s understanding of the fire, his family, and this makes him question what’s going on in his head. It seems he’s gradually losing his grip. That’s really what leads him to get more help from Dr. Maddox, a family friend and psychiatrist. *Note: I’m leaving a LOT of story/plot out, so there are no spoilers. Now that’s a very basic overview of what you are getting yourself into with this, but it goes from being a book about this likable guy on the diving team at a high school (and I now know so much more about springboard diving beyond my watching the Olympics every four years), to being a very clever, psychological thriller with details and twists I never expected. Demetra has employed some very clever writing devices that make this a standout: I love the way she begins each chapter with a diving term that correlates to the part of the story that it contains (note that Dive Smack is pretty painful), which is absolute genius. Her writing is also very fluid, and weaving interludes with the past and other ‘voices’ are done seamlessly. Also, since this is a thriller, the pacing builds up steadily to an eventual crescendo, within an ending where all the tense energy flows throughout the end chapters. Theo is such a well-fleshed out character (as are Chip, Iris, Amy, and others), that you really get a feel for who this guy is; Demetra has created so many endearing things about about him, that you can’t help but root for him the whole way through: we know he has two moles on his face, his car is called Bumblebee after the Transformer, he likes classic rock, and of course, he's an orphan. And he likes to use puns. But the real treat in this book is how it ropes you in (it gets better and better the deeper you dive in: pun intended), how it becomes way more than a book about a few high schoolers; it becomes about a sensitive young man uncovering his past and the deception that is swirling around him. Then the massive and very dark twist at the end takes the reader, and Theo, by surprise, making this precisely what earns this book its top marks. It left me tearful, it made me laugh, AND gasp. I can’t wait to see what comes from Demetra next, especially if it’s another thriller as riveting and original as this one. *And just so you know - Dive Smack: When a diver under or over rotates or twists on a dive, hitting the water with enough force to cause pain or physical injury.
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Pills & Starships
by
Lydia Millet
scriptkat
, March 23, 2018
I really enjoyed this ‘glimpse into the future’, because while this is indeed a dystopian novel, it sure seemed like I was reading a real journal (that of the main character, Nat, who writes it in the week leading up to her parent’s planned death). I chose this book for a group read on Litsy, where we send a book, marked up with our notes, along to the next person, and the other three do the same with their picks, so that we have a book mailing circle. This first caught my eye in my local indie bookstore, where it had a recommendation tag (and an awesome cover), and the premise is this: teen siblings named Nat and Sam, accompany their parents to Hawaii who together have decided to spend their ‘Final Week’ before the contract for their deaths is carried out. Nat and Sam are long to say their goodbyes. That’s right, in this imagined future, where global warming has finally made the world so unbearable and everyone gets through their days by taking moodpharms (ie happy pills because the world is so depressing), you can take out a contract for your death when you get old enough, and you can pay for assisted suicide on the Big Island (it’s not illegal anymore and quite encouraged, and rather embraced). The world that is in this dystopian future is so sadly believable that I read it as if I had some sort of special peek into what was going to happen if we continued with what we are already doing to this planet, and I have a feeling author Lydia Millet has distinct opinions on what’s to blame for the ruin to come (I tended to agree!); it’s not hard to imagine much of our wildlife gone, whole states like Florida under water, a whole garbage vortex in the ocean.... I can’t say too much about the plot but this was a great, thought-provoking, interesting story, and I will say there was some hope at the end. It’s not a long book but it packs in a lot to think about. I hope for everyone reading it, that it makes them think a little bit more about their carbon footprint and about how we really are lucky to have this Earth. *And I don’t care too much for a future without pet cats. That will be a sad day.
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Bad Call
by
Stephen Wallenfels
scriptkat
, December 19, 2017
I finally think I've come across a YA book that guys will actually like. It's set with mountain-climbing as the main activity and Yosemite as the backdrop; the author, Stephen Wallenfels, is big into the outdoors and mountain-climbing, through the dialog and writing, it shows. The book is described as a thriller, although it's low on 'thrill' content, plus there's a complicated 'relationship scenario' going on in the story that directs a lot of the plot, and that took me by surprise. The book goes back and forth between what's going on for the different characters but centers mostly around one of them, and flashes back to some events between them at their private school. There were a few times that those lost me a bit and I wanted to stay in the present, but that's because I wanted to keep pushing up that mountain. I also wanted Wallenfels to push more at the suspense and thrill content because I think he could and should have. But maybe that's because I always want a bit more blood in the snow! I was generously sent a finished hardcover (for an early readers copy) with that gloriously simple red and white cover design! I'm super grateful for that and am glad I got to have an early read of this YA novel. I'd love to hear if the boys pick this one up! You won't find me climbing Yosemite any time soon...
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The Wife Between Us
by
Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen
scriptkat
, December 17, 2017
This was one of the most engrossing psychological thrillers I've read that I can think of. It will have you compulsively reading (even when you're unsure of what's really happening), then sometimes re-reading parts of it to make sure you haven't completely lost your mind, which I think the character(s) within (no spoilers intended) often believes is happening. At so many points of the book I felt as trapped and anxious as the characters did and that feeling permeates off the pages. The detail that is in the writing really contributes to how the raw emotions bounce off the pages, and you really feel the grip and control seizing you; I will mention this because the psychological and physical abuse are very real triggers in this book, the whole focus. Somehow authors Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pakkanen give voices to a dual story line with so much detail and nuance, and although you may find yourself going back to check on what you just read, it will just confirm those feelings that they intended. It's such an intense read, seeing the inside of a 'perfect life' getting pulled apart, and all the sordid, sad details unraveled and splayed out for us to see. It's an absolute mind-bender that you must read until the very end to fully understand. This was a real treat!
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Invictus
by
Ryan Graudin
scriptkat
, October 10, 2017
This really is a *HASHING amazing book. Through the storytelling by Ryan Graudin and sheer expanse of time traveled, it feels epic. I pre-ordered 'Invictus' based on the recommendations of the other authors of the book, the intriguing one-liner, and feeling that the title implied a novel of immense proportions and it didn't disappoint me. I happen to have a penchant for stories that include venturing to Ancient Rome, and combine that with time-travel, a red panda, Rubik's cubes, as well as teleportation, and this is a must-read. The story is hard to explain in a neat little nutshell - and I can't even imagine how the author Ryan quickly describes this book to people! One way would be to say that 'Invictus' is about a group of time-traveling-treasure-hunting-teenagers who basically end up saving the world from history and time fading away into nothingness. Make sense? Probably not (I guess you will have to read it). I loved the crew of whimsical characters, and those wonderful chapter titles! Sometimes I'd get lost in the amazingly imaginative techie talk that Graudin somehow came up with for this book, but that's a little because I'm still a sci-fi newbie (it happens a lot with many sci-fi/fantasy novels). I have to reread to grasp it all, but it feels like ultimate proof of the incredible world-building that has been accomplished. It's so complex and rich, that a second read is necessary to absorb it all and bring more of it to life. It also turns out I have forgotten all my Latin from my boarding school days but I was delighted to be transported back to the Coliseum that I've visited, except that it's now in use and there are gory scenes described. Graudin also transports us to places like Vegas and back to the Titanic. All of that is a real treat. Anyway, I was kind of glad to read that this will be a standalone novel without any followup (some people may not agree). It's so beautiful with its ending, leaving me to imagine what's next. There's so much that goes on for these characters, you trust that they will go on the right path. This book really is a marvel and a real success for Ryan Graudin, who has made a side step away from her grittier other novels. I hope she writes more in this vein. Everyone needs to read this, NOW. *And HASHING needs to be the next new word in everyone's vocabulary. It was just one of the cool words Graudin came up with!
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Semi Definitive List of Worst Nightmares
by
Krystal Sutherland
scriptkat
, September 19, 2017
I loved this book in so many ways and it took me by absolute surprise. I've never read a book quite like this before, and it was almost as if I was selected to read this one and especially meant to read it because of some issues that connected with me on a personal level. I knew nothing about it beforehand, which sometimes is the best way to go into a book, and ended up absolutely loving it. It made me laugh, it made me cry. It made me want to write down lines as quotes. It made me think of someone in my past that I've lost and I have grieved over for years. The cover alone has a cat on it (I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover). There are some HUGE issues running through the core of this beautiful, original book about a young girl called Esther being encouraged to face her fears by an amazing young man called Jonah (yes, how lucky is she?), so be forewarned: along with all the fears and phobias that are brought up, there are major issues of abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm, mental-illness (all that can encourage conversation, and I'm really glad the author Krystal put an afterword about some of this in the back of the book). There are big triggers in the book. That said, I feel as though the story is a beautiful testament to how a dysfunctional family like this and facing fears like Esther does (as well as looking Death in the face) is really what was needed to do to turn their lives around. It's not all doom and gloom; this story is about looking fear in the face and telling Death 'it's not my time yet'. I don't always enjoy books with overly 'quirky' characters but these ones all felt so genuine in their quirkiness: Esther with her different outfits, her mom Rosemary and her hippie-like existence, her agoraphobic father...they all are. Even Fleyonce the kitty (who at first I was very upset about, but that's another essay). The Man that Would be Death caps that list off. And then there's Esther falling in love with someone she's known since grade school, who goes through this list with her, honestly and earnestly. There are so many amazing, unique elements about this wonderful story; I won't forget it any time soon. Every time I had to stop reading, I couldn't wait to continue. My biggest complaint is that I only have a digital copy. I most certainly need to own this amazing book.
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That Inevitable Victorian Thing
by
EK Johnston
scriptkat
, September 02, 2017
First of all, I want to say I was absolutely thrilled to read an early galley of this book, and even with knowing basically nothing about it, I knew immediately from the cover, the title, and a brief synopsis, that I had to read it, and I did...inevitably. The story took a LONG time to warm up (which seems to ironically mirror the real cold, stoic Victorians of our own past), and it may have been a good half way through the book before I got truly invested. Johnston gives the reader this fascinating alternate world, one that was the main reason I wanted to continue to read on. Being a Brit out here in the States, a world where the British Empire was preserved, makes for a very different history lesson...! But that was exactly what I wanted so much more of - how did all of that happen? How do this society develop? There is a great deal of fascinating world-building that revolves around ideas of gender identity, religion, customs, and the use of new technology, but the book feels like too much of an introduction to it all; I needed to know more than what I got from the added maps and letters too, although I liked these additions. The pacing was a little jumpy, and the ending seemed rather abrupt, leaving the feeling that would be a sequel to come, as the tale of the three main characters seemed to just begin at the end of the book. It was by that point that I wanted to really know how on earth things would work! There is a great concept here and I think it really could have been fleshed out with so much more detail and character development. The next one maybe?
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Lying Game A Novel
by
Ruth Ware
scriptkat
, August 27, 2017
Books about boarding school have sucked me in before, so much so that they led me to attend one (I actually asked); we were living in Hong Kong at the time and I went to school in Sussex, just as in Ruth Ware's 'The Lying Game'. I couldn't resist making this one of my picks for the month in a book subscription box, and although it waited on my shelf for a few weeks ( I have massive TBR list, thanks to my recent rash of book-buying), as soon as I started Ware's 'Game', I couldn't put it down. I was immediately transported back to England and my boarding school days. I felt all the nervousness and anxiety emanating off the pages right away, and you can feel it all the way through. The anxiety of trying to make peace with the past is what gave me short nights of sleep (I was staying up late reading), and it's what keeps the characters up late too, their pasts coming back to haunt them. I have always envied friendships that last for decades, like the ones in this story but there are many secrets that are hidden within these tight bonds. These bonds may seem unrealistic to some readers, but when you spend your time literally LIVING with each other through your formative years, you form unbreakable bonds, much like family. Okay, maybe not to the point where you help cover up crimes (right?), but I'm talking about my school mates. I can see where this may not strike a chord with some readers though. I really enjoyed Ware's writing and never felt confused when she pulled the reader back to look at the girls' past. I was also fully imagining the Sussex coast, the train going back and forth from London, even the windy staircases to the dormitories, the long walks when you just don't have a car...frighteningly close to my own experience (a bit spooky, Ruth!). I kept coming back to the book for more. I can possibly see how an American reader would maybe struggle with a imagining a long walk pushing a pram across marshy land at night. Being a Brit who walked a long way home from a train station every day, I didn't. The old Mill was also a force to be reckoned with, within the story, and a character of its own, and I could 'see' it falling into the water gradually. And the fever dreams of a body being discovered? Who hasn't had that nightmare, that dread? (Tell me have...right?) I felt it intensely. Also an aside: since I had to leave my own boarding school in a hurry, not because of bad behavior (I promise) - my parents split - I never got to say goodbye to friends at my school either. I STILL haven't been back for a Founder's Day. Ware writing in a Salten School dinner was a clever touch to bring the past and present together. These sorts of reunions either have people filled with dread (like in this case, and for special reason), and then some 'old girls' can't wait for them. I loved this story so much, I really did, and while it won't be sitting alongside jovial boarding school stories by Enid Blyton, being transported to the Sussex countryside for this mystery was all-absorbing. Having the past come back to bite you is something we ALL dread and this is a classic tale of that. I feel a little unsure of how I feel about the ending; sad, maybe it's too convenient, but somehow so appropriate, but I liked the imagery - maybe I just didn't want it to end, and for the mystery to be solved.
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Final Girls
by
Riley Sager
scriptkat
, August 13, 2017
I could barely put this book down! I had it for about 2 weeks before I dare read it (it's not my usual read; I'm a bit of a chicken), and it was a final book on my summer reading bingo for the library. That said, I was actually looking forward to it, despite my procrastination. The cover alone drew me in. Every time I thought I got things figured out, I was wrong, and the plot moved in another direction. Turns out even when some of the plot was how I thought it might be, there was something about it that was totally original and exciting for me. Sometimes I felt irritated by the characters' choices and that was fine; I was right to be...! The writing style was fluid and even with the jumps back to the past (they were done in a coherent manner), I enjoyed Riley's writing. I think I expected the book to be different somehow than it actually was, but nonetheless, thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to another book from her! Bonus: the cover is awesome.
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