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Book Review: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Summary:
In classic noir style, Higashino tells the tale of a mathematician, Ishigami, and a physicist, Yukawa, facing off utilizing only their brilliant minds in a quest to save someone they each love from a life of tragedy. Simultaneously a story of love and betrayal amped up with academia and set against the quintessential backdrop of gritty Japanese city streets–not to mention a lunch box restaurant.
Review:
I fully admit that I put myself in to win this book purely because it’s Japanese literature, and I’m trying to expand my reading horizons to include more non-western lit. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see so many classic noir elements present in this modern day detective mystery. Noir is one of my favorite genres and adding in the touches of Japan gave it a really fun twist.
It takes a bit for the story to get going and to get into Higashino’s writing style. The sentences lean toward shorter in length than I’m used to. Once I became used to the length difference though I really got into the different type of flow shorter sentences give to a piece of writing. Naturally, this could partly be due to it being a work in translation, but good translators try to give foreign language readers a sense of the original author’s style. I hope the translator succeeded in this regard, because this different style helped give this noir story an extra push in uniqueness.
The mystery itself is nearly impossible to completely solve before the final solution is revealed. The final solution also contains some serious betrayal and an emotional scene that reminded me a bit of some Japanese cinema I’ve seen. So intensely shocking and gritty and occurring in the very last few moments of the story. It moves the story up from a fun way to pass the time to a memorable tale.
The pacing is a bit off, however. Intensity speeds up and slows down repeatedly making it difficult to be totally sucked into the story. A few edits would probably solve this problem leaving the same basic tale but without any unnecessary diatribes. Some may not find the pacing variety as distracting as I did, however.
This Japanese noir piece is artfully pulled off and leaves the reader guessing to the very end. I recommend it to noir and Japanese literature fans alike.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Won from EarlyReviewers via LibraryThing
Book Review: My Abandonment by Peter Rock
Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Caroline lives in Forest Park with her father. They have to be very quiet and careful because regular folk don’t understand why they want to live like they do. They even have to keep away from the other men that live in the park too. Caroline doesn’t mind this way of life. In fact, she prefers it. She likes being out in nature and learning everything she can from her father and from encyclopedias and library books. She even doesn’t mind fasting on Fridays. You get used to it. One day though, she makes a mistake. Will it change her and her father’s way of life forever?
Review:
What makes this book is the surprise, which I refuse to give away in my review. At first, I admit, I was a bit bored with the story. It felt like a less-interesting version of Room, only with a boy instead of a girl and the pair living set off from society willfully. When the twist came I was frankly shocked, and it set my mind reeling about the whole story. To this moment I cannot stop thinking and re-thinking about Caroline’s life. How her raising affected her and whether or not this is a bad thing.
I do think that Rock takes a bit too long to reveal the twist. I was losing patience for a solid while before it came around. Perhaps more clues should have been dropped earlier on or something to keep the reader guessing that perhaps not everything is as it seems in Caroline’s life. Additionally, the writing style in the first few chapters is an odd mix of intelligent and irritatingly simple. It is Caroline speaking, but she’s also an intelligent 13. This whole facade is dropped within a few chapters, so I see no reason to start the book out in that manner. It was a bit off-putting.
Overall, however, it does turn out to be a unique story. More importantly, it leaves the reader questioning what she thinks she knows about the world and alternative ways of living. I recommend it to fans of contemporary literature featuring a twist.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Length: 225 pages – average but on the shorter side
Source: Purchased
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Book Review: Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (Series, #1)
Summary:
Lisabeth Lewis thought it was just a nightmare. Death coming to her when she tried to commit suicide with her mom’s antidepressants and offering to make her Famine–one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse–instead of letting her die. It’s just all way too ironic, her as Famine. After all, she’s fat. She has to watch what she eats very carefully. The Thin voice tells her all the time exactly how many calories each bit of food is and how much exercise it’ll take to burn it off. Yes. Lisabeth Lewis is fat. So why would Death assign Famine to her anyway?
Review:
When I heard the concept of this new YA series–each horseman of the apocalypse representing and dealing with a mental health issue relevant to teens–I was incredibly skeptical. Writing about mental illness in a way that teens can relate to without talking down to them as well as in a responsible manner is difficult enough without having a fantasy element present. Toss in the fantasy and I was worried this would either read like one of those old 1950s cautionary films shown in highschools or would miss dealing with the mental illness entirely. Boy was I wrong. Kessler has found such a unique, creative way to address a mental illness yet cushions it in the fantasy so that it isn’t too in your face. It’s the ideal scenario for teens reading about it, but it’s also enjoyable for adults.
The fantasy element is very tongue-in-cheek. It strongly reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in style. For instance, Death resembles a heroin-chic dead rock star, and he speaks in a mix of classic English and mocking teen speak to Lisa.
“Thou art Famine, yo,” Death said. “Time to make with the starvation.” (Location 661)
It quickly becomes apparent that Death and the Horsemen aren’t entirely what they initially seem to be. Indeed, they seem to function to get Lisa out of her own head and problems and to look at the greater world around her. She literally travels the world on her horse and sees real hunger, and it affects her. It doesn’t make her feel guilty for being anorexic, but it makes her want to be better so she will be strong enough to help others. That’s a key element of any mental illness treatment. Getting the person to see outside of themselves, and Kessler has personified it through the Four Horsemen.
She, Lisabeth Lewis, seventeen and anorexic and suicidal and uncertain of her own path–she’d done something that mattered. She’d ignored her own pain and had helped others. Maybe she wanted to live after all. (Location 2007)
Of course the non-fantastical passages dealing with Lisa’s anorexia and her friend’s bulimia are incredibly realistic. If they weren’t, the book would immediately fail as the whole thing would ring false to the teens reading it. Her anorexia is dealt with as a very real thing even as the Four Horsemen are presented as either truth or hallucinations of her starved mind. This is key. The anorexia cannot be presented as an element of fantasy.
I was concerned the ending would be too clean-cut. I won’t give any spoilers, but suffice it to say, Kessler handles the ending in a realistic, responsible manner. There are no easy solutions, but there are solutions to strive for.
Overall, Hunger takes the incredibly real problem of anorexia and presents it with a touch of fantasy to help bring the reader not only into the mind of the anorexic but also outside of herself to look at the bigger picture. It is an inspiring, fresh take on YA lit dealing with mental illness, and I highly recommend it to fans of YA lit as well as those interested in literature dealing with mental illnesses.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Counts For:
Book Review: Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch (Series, #1)
Summary:
Katherine “Kitty” Katt manages to get released early from a dull day of jury duty only to find herself confronted with an angry man who sprouts wings and starts flinging knives from their tips toward everyone in the vicinity. Kitty attacks and stops him and quickly finds herself sucked into a world she was unaware existed. A world of alien refugees defending Earth and themselves from a bunch of fugly alien parasites. She soon discovers her ordinary parents are more involved in this secret world than she would ever have dreamed. On top of that, she’s increasingly finding herself falling for one of the alien hunks who announced his intentions to marry her almost immediately upon meeting her.
Review:
I received a free Kindle edition of the second book in the series, Alien Tango, last year and read it without realizing at first that it was part of a series. I immediately fell in love with the world and Kitty and decided I needed to go back and read the first entry in the series. This reverse approach definitely gave me a different perspective on the story, but it certainly didn’t make me love it any less.
What makes this series epically entertaining is well-established in this first entry. First, the paranormal element is aliens in lieu of something more widely used. Everything has the clean, secret government agency tinge to it instead of the dirty mafia feel many other paranormals elicit. The aliens are aliens, yes, but they’re also a secret government agency. Imagine Men in Black only the men in black are all aliens.
Second, Kitty Katt is a heroine who clearly epitomizes the modern woman. She can take care of herself, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like having a man around too. She’s smart, witty, sassy, and sexy, but she has her flaws and weak spots too. She has sex on the day she meets a man, but she’s still aware enough of social norms that she takes care to attempt to hide that fact from the majority of people around her. On the other hand, she herself doesn’t regret that act in the slightest. She so clearly reflects what it is to be a modern American woman that I can’t help but applaud Gini Koch. I hope to see more heroines like Kitty Katt in the near future.
The action itself is vastly entertaining, particularly if you enjoy scifi. The fugly parasites are imaginative, disgusting, and frightening simultaneously. The Big Bad is scary and crafty. The solution to the Big Bad is seriously entertaining. I honestly cannot say enough good things about the scifi in this book.
Overall, Gini Koch’s Kitty Katt series has not failed to leave me glued to my iPod screen yet. It’s sharp, modern, unique, and vastly entertaining. I practically throw copies at lovers of paranormal romance to read, but also highly recommend it to fans of scifi and modern heroines as well.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Movie Review: Red Riding Hood (2011)
Summary:
Valerie has always lived in a small village surrounded by a dark forest haunted by a werewolf every month at the full moon. For the last ten years the wolf has kept the peace with the town by accepting a sacrifice of a beloved livestock. Now Valerie is a woman and planning on eloping with her lover, Peter, to escape an undesired marriage to the smith’s son, Henry. Just as they are about to elope, though, Valerie’s sister is found dead. The victim of the wolf. Now the town brings in a priest of questionable character in an attempt to rid them of the curse once and for all.
Review:
To me this film was truly all about atmosphere, being a feast for the eyes like the village is a feast for the wolf. Although the first few moments of the film are set in harvest time, the rest of it is during winter, complete with beautiful snowfall scenes. The village itself is simultaneously sinister and picturesque. What truly makes the atmosphere though is the costuming. Gorgeous elbow-length knitted gloves. Covetable dresses with the perfect waist-length. Sleeveless cloaks worn by all in demure shades that truly make Valerie’s red cloak pop when she receives it from her grandmother. The entire atmosphere screams fairy tale.
The story was of course re-written with red riding hood made into a young woman instead of a little girl. The character of the wolf became more complex than just the big bad wolf in the woods. However, the key creepy elements of the fairy tale remain. In all honesty, I was surprised at how good of an updated adaptation this was, and I’ve seen my fair share of fairy tale adaptations.
The one draw-back was the awkward love triangle inserted into the story. There was one scene in particular that simply screamed “This director also directed Twilight!” Ugh. I’m getting incredibly sick of love triangles existing in any story that features young adults. Plus this scene elicited laughter from the audience, which I am pretty sure was not what the director was going for.
Overall, however, this was a delightful adaptation of a beloved fairy tale. I recommend it to lovers of fairy tales and adaptations, as well as those who enjoy an exquisite atmosphere in film.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: AMC movie theater
Book Review: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Summary:
In the near future those who’ve committed a serious wrong for which most would feel guilty are given an animal by the spiritual world. They are known as Zoos, and the animals attempt to guide them back to the straight and narrow as well as keeping the Undertow at bay. Separation is painful and almost impossible. If the animal dies, the Zoo dies. Zinzi December of Johannesburg is one of these Zoos. Her animal is a sloth, and her magical power is finding lost things. Normally she sticks to everyday objects such as keys in the sewer, but when a music producer approaches her via his assistants for help in finding a missing teen Afropop star, she bends the rules. She just may come to regret that decision.
Review:
Beukes excels at world-building, setting a vivid example of how to use showing not telling to its best, fullest extent. I was instantly swept into this fantastical version of a nation I’ve never been to, yet somehow was able to quickly decipher which elements were pure fantasy and which based on the realities of modern South Africa. The reader comes to understand how Zoos first showed up and why they exist without even really realizing she is acquiring this information.
Similarly, the character of Zinzi was a refreshing change from the typical urban fantasy female lead. While she is clever and fairly fit, she is neither abnormally strong not incapable of making bad decisions. She is a three-dimensional character with both positive and negative qualities. She is not simply the put-upon dark heroine. Her struggles are real and current, not simply in the past. At first it appears that Beukes is going to fall into the completely redeemed heroine trope, but instead Zinzi still has demons to face. She must repeatedly fall and get back up, something that rings as far more real than one epic fall followed by heroine perfection.
The one draw-back is that the plot is a bit confusing. I had to re-read the climax to fully understand exactly what had been revealed as the big secret Zinzi was discovering. Part of that was due to a couple of elements of the plot that seemed not to mesh well with the rest of it. Some of the important fantasy parts of the plot should have, perhaps, had a bit more explanation. There is a lot going on in this novel and sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming for the reader who is new not only to the fantastical elements of the tale, but to the South African cultural elements as well. Although the plot is ultimately decipherable, it is not immediately easy to follow.
Overall this is a creative, unique piece of urban fantasy that simultaneously presents a truly flawed heroine and takes the genre into a city many modern readers are not familiar with. I recommend it to fans of urban fantasy as well as fans of African literature.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Gift
Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Series, #1)
Summary:
Todd grew up on New World knowing only the constant Noise of other men’s thoughts all around him. He’s never known a world where a boy couldn’t hear his dog talk or where women weren’t all killed off by a horrible plague. Now, mere days before his 13th birthday when he will become a man, his world is turned upside down when his adoptive parents, Ben and Cillian, tell him to run. Run past the swamp. Run and find another settlement. A settlement he never knew existed on New World. He runs with his dog, Manchee, and on the way, they find a creature. A creature whose thoughts they cannot hear.
Review:
This book came recommended to me by three different friends, and I can see based on the summary why they would do so. It’s a dystopia on another planet with talking animals and a narrator who speaks in a mix of rural Americana and British English. The fact is though, I wound up not enjoying this book, and it probably would have been a “did not finish” if I’d had a print copy I could re-sell instead of an ebook I couldn’t. So what’s wrong with it?
Not the world-building. That was truly excellent. The wordle-like clouds of Noise that Todd can hear really bring that aspect of New World to life. Similarly, what the animals say are appropriate to their various evolutionary levels, from Manchee’s partial toddler-like sentences to the herd of elephants who simply say “here” over and over to keep the herd together. Every single scene on New World is easily imaginable in spite of it being quite a foreign location from the buildings to the presence of Noise.
The plot itself isn’t bad but also isn’t amazing. There’s a secret in Todd’s village that we discover at the end of the book that, frankly, did not live up to the build-up. However, that in and of itself doesn’t make me dislike a book. The plot was enough to keep me intrigued, which is the important part, even if in the end it is a bit disappointing.
After much thought I’ve realized that it’s the characters that kept me from enjoying the book, particularly Todd who is also the narrator. I just cannot relate to him at all. I’ve managed to relate to first person narrators ranging from lunatics to serial killers to girly girls to devout Catholics, but Todd is utterly unrelatable to me. He is just so incredibly fucking stupid. Not stupid in the mentally handicapped way. Stupid in the willfully ignorant way that makes me just want to slap him upside the head. For instance, he has this book the whole journey that Ben tells him will explain everything, yet he never sits down to read it. He takes forever to admit he struggles with reading and ask someone else to read it. This is information he needs, and yet he persists in willfully ignoring it. He reminds me of the kids in highschool who wouldn’t do their homework because it wasn’t “cool.” Similarly, I’m sorry, but he’s kind of a pussy, and that irks me. He is fighting not just for himself but for the safety of his dog and another person, but he refuses to man up. I found myself siding with the villains in this regard, and I’m sure that’s not what the author wanted. Similarly, I do not understand why it takes him so long to come around to appreciating Manchee even though he can hear his thoughts from day one and knows that Manchee loves him unconditionally. What the hell, Todd? How are you such an unfeeling idiot, eh? In the end, I simply could not enjoy the book, because although I felt appropriate loathing for the villains, I also loathed the hero and just could not bring myself to care about his plight. The only character I was rooting for at all was Manchee, and that’s not enough to carry a dystopian adventure.
I’m sure there are people out there who can either identify with Todd or empathize with him. For those people who can do so and also enjoy a dystopian adventure, I recommend this book. Anyone who thinks they’ll be even remotely irritated by Todd should stay far away though.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Movie Review: The Nightmare Never Ends (1980)
Summary:
A devout Catholic woman married to an atheist professor who has just published a book called God is Dead starts having nightmares about Nazis and dead people in the water. Meanwhile, a Jewish hunter of Nazi war criminals shows up mysteriously murdered with his face ripped off and the numbers “666” tattooed on his chest. The tenuous connections between these two soon reveal a dark presence on the planet.
Review:
This movie can best be summed up in the phrase: Satan at the Disco. Satan is not just alive and beautiful (not handsome, beautiful) but is a disco-going playboy complete with a harem of hypnotized women who actively participated in Nazi atrocities back in the day. In spite of Satan’s presence at the disco, I found myself wanting to go there. I have to say, it certainly seemed more appealing than Tequila Rain on Lansdowne Street.
This film is an odd mix of things done well and things done horribly badly. The special effects are surprisingly good for the time with certain scenes managing to surprise and/or gross out my friend and myself. Of note is one particular scene where a character’s eyeball pops out from his head. Quite gruesome for the special effects of the time. On the other hand, the actress playing the Catholic woman cannot act to save her life. She can, however, scream quite well, which is apparently what she was hired for. The plot is creative and features a fun twist at the end, but it wanders around a bit too much and is confusing for about the first 40 minutes of the film. It needed some serious editing before being filmed. Similarly, the set designers clearly had no comprehension of Jewish culture at all as they decided to show that the Jewish man’s ethnicity by randomly having a fully-loaded menorah ever-present on his nightstand. *face-palm*
In spite of these shortcomings though, the story is still unique enough that the film is enjoyable, particularly if you enjoy bad horror with a touch of classic 1970s disco. I therefore recommend it to the tiny percentage of the population for which both of those statements holds true.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: Gift
Book Review: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Summary:
Bill wakes up in the hospital the day after a worldwide comet show with his eyes still bandaged from a triffid accident. His regular nurse doesn’t show up and all is quieter than it should be except for some distraught murmurings. Shortly he finds out that everyone who saw the comet show has lost their sight, leaving a random bunch of people who just so happened to miss it the only sighted humans left in the world. A hybrid plant created years ago for its highly useful oil, the triffid, is able to walk and eats meat. Swarms of them are now wreaking full havoc on the people struggling to save the human race.
Review:
This book reads like the novelization of a 1950s horror film. Man-eating plants! Dangerous satellite weapons of mass destruction! Humanity being reduced to the countryside! Classic morals versus new morals! This is not a bad thing, and Wyndham seems to be conscious of the innate ridiculousness of his tale, as it possess a certain self-aware wittiness not often present in apocalyptic tales.
Bill is a well-drawn character who is enjoyable as a hero precisely because he is an everyman who is simultaneously not devoid of personality. He is not the strongest or the smartest survivor, but he is just strong and smart enough to survive. Similarly, his love interest, Josella, impressively adapts and changes over time, and their love story is actually quite believable, unlike those in many apocalyptic tales. In fact, all of the characters are swiftly developed in such a way that they are easy to recognize and tell apart. This is important in a tale with so much going on.
On the other hand, the action is stuttering. It never successfully builds to an intense, breaking point. Multiple opportunities present themselves, but Wyndham always pulls the story back just before a true climax. After this has been done a few times, the reader loses the ability to feel excitement or interest in the characters and simply wants the tale to be over. In a way it is almost as if Wyndha couldn’t quite decide which direction to take the action, so took it briefly in all directions instead. This makes for a non-cohesive story that pulls away from the investment in the rich characters.
Additionally, I do not believe the whole concept of the triffids was used to its fullest extent. The name of the book has triffids in it, for goodness sake. I expect them to feature more prominently and fearfully than they do. Perhaps I’ve just read too many zombie books, but the triffids just seem more like a pest than a real threat. The concept of man-eating plants taking over the world is a keen one, and I wish Wyndham had invested more into it.
Overall, the book is a quick, entertaining, one-shot read that could have been much more if Wyndham had made better choices as an author. I recommend it to kitschy scifi and horror fans looking for a quick piece of entertainment.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Movie Review: Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973)
Summary:
A Satanic cult is doing something evil in a castle above a dungeon full of female vampires. Van Helsing is called in to help, and he insists that the king of all vampires, Count Dracula, is back.
Review:
My friend and I decided we wanted to have an old-school horror movie night. We chose the film before seeing it was shot in the 1970s. I immediately informed her that there would be boobies, mark my words. 1970s films are just *rampant* with boobs. Especially horror films. Sure enough, not even 30 seconds into the film, and there’s a naked woman on an altar having rooster blood (*cough* cock blood *cough*) poured onto her.
I honestly came away from this film with three distinct impressions: tits, blood, and vampire teeth. I honestly cannot explain the plot to you, hence the short summary above. It makes very little sense. There are writhing vampire women, Van Helsing, Dracula, some sort of plot to put a super-uber black plague into the world, and an evil bunch of Satanists. How that all fits together remains a mystery. Yet I still found it immensely enjoyable as a giggle-inducing cult classic.
First, there’s the rampant unnecessary nudity so typical of the 1970s. Then there’s the costumes that are obviously trying to be exotic, but just succeed in looking like the 1970s. The insane plot becomes irrelevant when you’re faced with scene after scene of ridiculous costumes, sentences, and moments. Nothing induces hilarity quite like a dungeon full of half-naked writhing vampire women being taken out by a bunch of sprinklers, because apparently any water works not just holy water.
All of which is to say, while I found this film hilarious and entertaining, you have to have a certain personality type to enjoy it. If you like classic, serious old-school horror films, this isn’t for you. If you like plots that make sense, this isn’t for you. However, if you like 1970s romps full of unintentionally hilarious scenes and nudity, then you’ll certainly enjoy this film. The vampires don’t hurt either.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: Gift
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Opinions of a Wolf 