My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

I started this book on the audio version, at first a bit turned off by the obvious attempt to make the narrator sound aged. On reflection, I simply wasn’t a fan of the narrator, and that, plus an intriguing story line is what makes an audio book interesting for me. I can only listen to a book in the car, so if it can’t block out traffic irritation for me, it isn’t an audio book that’s going to work for me. Not only did the narrator irritate me, but so did traffic. It wasn’t engrossing or distracting at all.

By the time I switched to the eBook, interest in this novel was on life support. I’ve found that while I read, I skip a lot. Too much detail? Skim. Boring dialog I don’t care about? Skip. When I’m unable to skip past parts I don’t feel like reading, I feel trapped by the author in the minutiae and I resent that. Once I picked up the eBook, I was able to read more quickly, pick up the story and get to the climax.

Water for Elephants is set in a Depression Era circus called the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. The RingMaster, Uncle Al and his right hand man, the Equestrian Director August, quite clearly want to be Ringling Brothers. They’ll never measure up, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. The main character, Jacob, ends up with the Benzini Brothers after he loses his parents, his future, and his home, all in one fell swoop. One moment a promising veterinarian with a promising practice waiting for him. The next, “roustabout” shoveling animal dung out of stalls.

When Big Al finds him stowing away, his Veterinary knowledge is his only saving grace. He’s hired as the Circus Vet, to work with the animals, namely to check out the show’s stars: Silver Star and her trainer, Marlena. It’s obvious, right away, that Jacob has a “thing” for Marlena. Who is married to August.

Drama ensues, and becomes the crux of the entire story.

In between tales of life on the rails with the Circus are interspersed stories of Jacob in the future, in his 90′s, reminiscing, remembering, regretting. He is long forgotten in a nursing home, resentful of the fact that he’s living amongst those who aren’t in their right minds. The highlight of Jacob’s week is a visit to the local circus that’s in town. He’s been looking forward to it for days.

I checked a few other reviews, just to make sure that my analysis of the characters wasn’t totally off. I liked Jacob, some. Not a whole lot, but I think that was more an issue with the narrator than anything. His naivete kept me biting my nails and his bravery came so late in the story that it was maddening. August was confusing… the revealing of his mental condition came too late, for me. I think it would have added to the plot if it had been revealed earlier in the story. I wasn’t a fan of Marlena. Her characterization fell flat, to me. The convenience of her feelings seemed sudden and unexplained and her damsel-in-distress act didn’t bring any feelings of sorrow or worry.

I did feel for the elephant, Rosie. She made me laugh and cry and cheer. Smart animal. Very smart animal.

In my rating, 5 stars is impeccable, 4 is very good, 3 is okay, average. This book scored a firm 2 for me. It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t really good, either.

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My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Easily Amused is the short, sometimes funny, lightning fast read about Lola, editor of a Parenting Magazine, sister to the ever so perfect Mindy, friend to Piper-the-busy- mom and Hubert– the friend with the girlfriend she can’t stand. She lives in an old house on King Street, bequeathed to her from her Aunt May. Lola fills her life with her job and her friends and the occasional online date.

When Hubert’s girlfriend blessedly dumps him, Lola gains a sudden roommate. When Mindy gets engaged, she gains a sudden problem. Ever the competitive siblings, Lola and Mindy have spent their lives one-upping each other. The ultimate one up is coming– Mindy is both younger, thinner, prettier, more put together and is getting married before Lola. She intends to use her wedding to as an opportunity to stick it to her sister– Lola turns 30 on Mindy’s wedding day.
Piper to the rescue! She devises a plan that just might work, if only they knew a tall, dark and handsome man for Lola to take to the wedding and announce… an engagement!

Enter Ryan, the most mysterious neighbor on King Street. Suddenly there’s a new rivalry between Mindy and Lola over Ryan, Hubert (who’s developed feelings for Lola) and Ryan over Lola, and the entire neighborhood and Ryan. Much to Lola’s surprise, Ryan seems interested in more than posing as her fake fiancé. Lola falls headlong into like with him, despite the suspicious rumblings of her friends and much -too-curious interest from her engaged sister.

I bought this book from Amazon Kindle because it seemed interesting and it was cheap. $2.99 will get me every time! I find I read two types of books. Vapid and deeply dark. Sometimes I just need a break from the deeply dark, so on my break from Columbine, it was nice to get lost in some fluff.

I saw some criticism in other reviews about this author being unsigned and such… I did not honestly know that until I’d finished the book and read the reviews. I don’t think it’s fair to say I don’t like something without saying why I didn’t like it, so here’s what stood out to me in the Needs Improvement Department:

Easily Amused didn’t come off to me as amateur, but in hindsight it could have used some editing and, for lack of a better word, primping. The characters seem to need more development (especially Mindy and Ryan) and the story moves very quickly. I was disappointed in the climax — the conflict reaches a crescendo and then the story screams back down the cliff. I wanted to read more about the confrontation. I also noted a few misspellings, but nothing that stands out glaringly.

I say, kudos to Ms. McQuestion for not wrapping the entire Lola/Hubert story line in one big unbelievable bow. I love the dangling question at the end of the book. I just wish there was more development along the Mindy/Ryan/Lola line. I also felt like there wasn’t enough information given about Ryan to make me sufficiently suspicious, though I was starting to feel a bit iffy about him.

I keep fighting between 2 and 3 stars for this book. I’ve settled on three. It was enjoyable, moved a bit slow but not an awful read, once I got a few chapters in.

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just… wow. I read this book in one day… couldn’t stop reading it! It’s like sitting in the mind of a 5 yr old as his world changes.

Told in 5 distinct parts, the story opens when Jack turns 5. Ma (and the room the live in) is his world. All Jack has ever known is Room. And Door and TV and table and Ma. He knows nothing of the world outside of an 11×11 square shed, a virtual prison for his 26 yr old mother. All he has ever known is what is inside the square. Everything on TV is not real. It’s pretend. It’s Outside. And Outside doesn’t really exist.

All day, everyday, Jack and Ma go through their schedules and routines. There’s breakfast and cartoons and then book reading and Phys Ed. There’s naptime and playtime and lunch and dinner and bed time. There’s also the Scream Game, where they yell as loudly as they can into the skylight. Jack doesn’t know that Ma hopes someone will hear them. There’s the game Ma plays at night, with flashing the lights on, off, on, off. Jack doesn’t know that Ma hopes someone will see it. There’s the reason Jack sleeps in the wardrobe, because at night Old Nick comes and the bed squeaks and Ma doesn’t want Him to see Jack.

There comes a time when Ma and Jack have to gather all of their courage, all of their strength, be scared but brave and attempt an escape. To do it, they have to trick old Nick, the man that kidnapped Ma when she was 19 and had held her captive for seven long years, through a still birth and years of abuse, a broken arm, rotting teeth, and the birth of Jack.

There’s a period of time after the escape– because they do make a daring escape– that Jack has to learn that his world is more than Ma, and Room and Meltedy Spoon and Rug and Table and Eggshell Snake. He has grandparents, a cousin, an Uncle, friends… an entire world that he never knew existed, called Outside. Outside was no longer a story or a fairy tale, it was real. It was an “Unlying”.

I really enjoyed Room! It took awhile to get used to Jack’s language but once I got it down I found him endearing and laughed at how well Emma Donoghue captured children’s literal understanding of the world. I was impressed with how well Ma cared for her child, made sure he was happy and healthy and adjusted as well as one could be while living in a 12ft square cube.

I wish I could have got some perspective from his mother, but seeing the story unfold through his eyes makes it that much more poignant. It really illustrates the resilience of children and how rapidly they adjust to change. I like to think that in some ways Jack was Ma’s reason for living and was an inspiration for her when they could finally leave Room. I also found it interesting how when they went back to Room, how small and different it seemed, compared to Outside. I inwardly applauded Jack for choosing Outside.

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sugar starts with a bang and ends with a heartfelt gasp.

At the beginning of Bernice McFadden’s Sugar, we don’t meet Sugar. We meet Jude, so to speak. Jude is the ghost in the story, the crux of every emotional scene in the novel. Jude is the murdered child of Pearl, a woman who befriends her next door neighbor that happens to go by the name ‘Sugar’.

Sugar is what polite people call a woman of ill repute and what not-so-polite people call a whore or a prostitute, blowing into the town of Bigelow on the wind of a powerful storm. The people of Bigelow are simple and quiet, a little bit superstitious and a whole lot judgemental. It seems like Pearl is the only person that really see Sugar for who she is… perhaps because Pearl is about the most naive person in Bigelow.

Pearl is a mere shell of the woman she used to be. Since Jude’s death, she had withdrawn into herself and her sadness. She’d once asked God to allow her to die, but he refused. Pearl guessed God had more work for her to do. Pearl was right. From the moment they meet, Pearl and Sugar are nearly inseparable. They eat together laugh together, and share a strange bond and a kinship that neither understand but both truly enjoy. For Sugar, it’s about having a friend where she used to have none. For Pearl, it’s much deeper.

Sugar, you see, looks amazingly, almost identically, like Jude.

For the first time in over fifteen years (the amount of years that had passed since Jude’s death in 1940), Pearl was smiling and laughing, responding to her husband in ways she hadn’t in so many years. Through her friendship with Sugar, Pearl sheds her graying hair and wrinkling face, stooped over posture and overall defeated, small, shy countenance. Sugar brings life and youth and vigor, again.

This bond, however, comes at a price. Sugar has a long, drawn out history, full of women who taught her that her body was for the pleasure of men and that alone, and men who confirmed this belief at every turn. Sugar does not know her mother or her father, choosing to create ties with the women that run the brothels where she works. She has spent her life wandering the country from Detroit to St Louis and back to Arkansas, perhaps in search of something, but not knowing what that something is until she finds it– family. Pearl would lose friendships over Sugar. Her life would change as a result of befriending her neighbor the Whore. People would talk, as they do in small towns. Reputations would be destroyed. But the bond would not break.

Sugar is set in the mid century 1900′s and bounces between Bigelow and Short Junction, Arkansas- Bigelow being the present, Short Junction being the past. McFadden weavers her characters through the lives of Pearl and Sugar effortlessly. As I was reading, it was like watching the film reel in my mind. As details of Sugar’s past come to light, the connection between Pearl and her husband Joe, and Sugar seem to rise slowly from the murky deep of a twisted tale. The men that Sugar knows and the secrets that she holds would bind them all together for life.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. it was a quick read, though it wasn’t intended to be… I just kept turning pages so I could find out what happened when Pearl’s friends tried to run her out of town, or when Sugar dressed Pearl up and took her to the Juke Joint, called Memphis Roll, or when Sugar’s on again off again John-cum-wannabe boyfriend threatens her. I wanted to see Sugar make the changes that Pearl longed to see in her, and I wanted to rejoice at Pearl coming into her own, again.

This story is somewhat formulaic and in many ways it isn’t. I always try to form an idea of how the story will end. How these people are all intertwined and why they matter to each other– why are all of these characters in this story? Who are they and why do I care? Only one of my predictions came true, and I didn’t come to my conclusion until well into 3/4ths of the novel. To me, that’s a writer that does a great job of concealing the end of the plotline. And just when you think that the story will end and nothing will happen as you think it’s going to happen, there’s a tiny little twist… a photo. A wordless addition that explains everything. The bond, the connection, and why Sugar looks like Jude.

I almost didn’t see it coming.

If I had one complaint… okay well two… the bounces between past and present were very jolting. Flashbacks are difficult to do, or so I’ve been told, and they didn’t come across very well, to me. I often had to reread paragraphs to realize that the author had returned to the story in Bigelow. The second was the hairturn transition of Sugar from Whore to near Madonna and back to Whore. Having her on again off again John utter a few nasty phrases to her seemed like a weak trigger, to me. I also felt a little unfulfilled regarding his confession, his attack on her, and Sugar’s refusal to bring him to justice. I disagreed with her reasons for not doing that. I felt it would have brought closure to a family so heavily haunted by a senseless murder.

That said, I enjoyed this book so much that I’ve already purchased the 2002 followup- This Bitter Earth. It continues the story of Sugar after she leaves Bigelow and the comfort and Safety of Pearl and Joe. I can’t wait to read it!

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I didn’t read The Time Traveler’s Wife. The synopsis never struck me as something I really wanted to read and I couldn’t get into it. I can’t decide if that was a good or bad thing. Probably good, because from the reviews, a lot of people went into reading Her Fearful Symmetry on the heels of Time Traveler’s Wife and expected it to be similar. It apparently wasn’t. I also didn’t know the two books were written by the same author– this book came recommended by two different people in two different circles of friends. I picked it up on a whim and started reading it. I find the best books that way!

This story begins oh, so right. Niffenegger (you mind if I call her Audrey? That name is a toughie)jumps right into the middle of the story and wades around in it. Our main character, you see… dies on Page One. And I figure if someone dies on Page One, there’s a good reason for it and a good story behind it.

This novel is the story of two sets of twins: Edie and Elspeth, and Edie’s twin daughters Julia and Victoria.  Edie and Elspeth are estranged. Have been for nearly twenty years. Elspeth’s terminal illness does not change this. Elspeth lives in London, in a flat above  companion Robert. Edie, her husband Jack, and the twins live in the States.

When Elspeth dies, she leaves her flat, all of her belongings and her money to the twins, with the stipulation that they have to live in the flat for a year before they can sell it. And that their parents, Edie and Jack, must never set foot in it. Her papers and diaries are removed, property of Robert. No one is to see them. Robert avoids reading them until absolutely necessary.

The twins are 20, but are small and thin and alarmingly co-dependent. Victoria is a mirror image of Julia, down to the beauty mark on her cheek. Victoria is weak, with a heart defect and severe asthma. Julia delights in taking care of Victoria, a constant companion. Victoria is the more artistic and fashionable one. She creates and sews and makes her own clothing. Julia is the smart one, the healthy and strong one. The trade-off, Julia thinks, isn’t fair. Victoria is the pretty one, despite their being twins. Julia is envious of the attention Victoria receives without even trying and insists on clinging to her. They have to do everything together. One cannot attend school without the other. One cannot work without the other. Both are still virgins because…what one does, the other must also. The suffocation is palpable.

Moving to London begins to change the lives of the twins in ways they could never plan for, or imagine. They meet other characters and cast members in Elspeth’s life– Martin, the OCD genius who lives upstairs, who showers three times a day and is compelled to scrub the floor for hours and stacks his life in plastic bins around his apartment, whose wife loves him more than life itself, but left him to have a life of her own. Robert, who lives downstairs, who avoids the twins like the plague when they arrive, whose sorrow over the loss of Elspeth is driving him mad, daily, who thinks he feels her presence, in her flat. Her ghost seems to haunt the place, knocking books over and pushing paperclips around and stirring curtains.

As the girls begin to enjoy life in London, their relationship begins to change. A bigger world means more opportunity, more to explore, more to do. Their interests begin to divide. They bicker and the threads that once tied them together start to unravel. Robert meets the girls and it takes his breath away how much Victoria resembles Elspeth. More than he wants to, he likes her. He can’t help but approach her and want to be near her. But there is the issue of missing Elspeth.

Who isn’t really missing, at all. She is there, in the flat. Stuck in the spirit world, as an energy. Haunting them until she’s able to find a way to let them all know she’s there. Using a crudely concocted OUIJA board and later a pencil and paper, the girls finally meet their Aunt Elspeth– if only after death. There are questions yet unanswered and mysteries yet unsolved.

Why didn’t Edie and Elspeth talk? Why did Elspeth leave her worldly goods to two girls she had never met? Why couldn’t their parents visit, and why couldn’t the girls read her diaries?

SECRET, Elspeth says. Oh. And a secret it is!

There are so many elements to this story, and one- no, two!-amazing plot twists. I do so love a plot twist! So many interwoven story lines, existing on their own course until they converge. The twins are the crux… everything else, everyone else are like the spokes of a wheel.

There are three parts to this story, each equally intriguing, but I don’t think that all are weighed equally. Part One begins slowly, unfurling the tale, lazy in its reveal, raising more questions than it answers. Part Two is full of change and discovery and adventure and drama and mystery, a tearing a part and a putting back together and a horrid plan that NO ONE should agree to, but all involved, unfortunately, do.

Part Three is the carrying out of said plan. And the backfire. And the end result. Part three made me gasp, made my eyes bug out, made my heart ache. And the end made me shake my head and say, ‘well that’s what you get, now isn’t it?’

For the writers in the room, I think what was most off-putting actually was the third person omniscient. The reader reads what everyone is doing, thinking, feeling. I found this POV to be really confusing. Perhaps the story would have been more gripping if we weren’t so privy to everything. A little mystery adds a lot. Make me guess, don’t tell me everything. Even simple third person might have made it a tad easier to understand, but I got it figured out, so I guess it wasn’t that bad.

There are some twists in this book that I still sort of don’t understand, involving the decades long estrangement between Edie and Elspeth. I think I’ll have to read it again soon, concentrating on that part, to understand it better. Overall I really enjoyed the book. Part Three, especially is un-put-down-able!

It doesn’t make me want to read Time Traveler’s Wife, though.

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m a huge fan of period pieces, especially if the author does a superb job of transporting the reader back to a simpler time. I’m not really a thriller reader, so I had never even thought to read Sandra Brown before. It was a recommended novel on a Kindle list so I picked it up one day a few weeks ago.

From page one, I was engrossed in the story. We follow Ella through her everyday life as the owner of a boarding house, preparing breakfast and daily meals, cleaning, being a general companion to her boarders, her maid and right hand woman Margaret and her son, Solly. Solly is a special needs child, living in a time when doctors were just beginning to discover autism and not treat it like a mental illness. Ella rails against putting Solly in an Institution, away from her, where he’ll be locked up like a criminal. He’d live a much better life, albeit limited, by her side.

Enter one David Rainwater, a relative of the local Physician. He needs a room and Ella has one. He’s calm and disarming, polite and charming, especially to the two old ladies -sisters- who also board at Ella’s. Something about him both sets Ella off guard and intrigues her. The comfort she feels around him makes her uncomfortable, and his almost immediate rapport with Sully is both heartwarming and embarrassing. Mr Rainwater is able to accomplish so much in such a short time, more than Ella had tried or had time to accomplish in the entire time he was alive.

This would make a lovely romance, were it not for the backdrop of the time period– times were hard and work was even harder to come by. Blacks found work where they could but endured constant harassment and racist activity– mysterious fires are set and city leaders are murdered and no one investigates. The poor and indigent are left to fend for themselves on the edge of town, a place called Shantytown. Any effort made to assist Shantytown are met with disdain and concerted efforts to feed the hungry, especially the children are violently opposed.

Against Ella’s warning and his better judgment, Mr Rainwater gets involved in the world around him, cruel as it may be. He takes chances no one in their right mind should be willing to take– and perhaps that is fitting because Mr Rainwater may very well not be in his right mind. David is very ill, and has a limited life span. Every day holds meaning and power for him. Every day is special. Every person he chooses to spend his time with are the last people he will spend his life with. He chooses Ella, and Solly, and the sisters and Margaret. He chooses to make a difference, because he’s got absolutely nothing to lose.

I have to say, I haven’t read a good period piece since, well, Pride and Prejudice of course, but Lavyrle Spencer wrote the most lovely romantic pieces set in the early 1900′s. Loved them. This story is reminiscent of those. I found myself trapped back in that time, with my head in this book (or in the kindle), frantically flipping pages, trying to find out what happens next.

If I have one complaint, it’s the ending. It does seem to tie everything up with a big bow, but it’s so rushed and… convenient. The ending doesn’t mesh well but the rest of the book is poignant, has a great balance between action and introspection, love and war. The characters and setting are so well depicted, I can see them in my mind. If this is a genre that Sandra Brown is willing to write in, I am willing to read it!

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My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Carol Lynch Williams presents a heart pounding, engaging novel about a girl growing up in a Polygamist community, under the watchful eye and controlling thumb of a God-like figure, The Prophet. The Chosen One seems ripped from recent headlines about the infiltration of these communities and rescues of children ordered to marry men more than twice their ages, bear children, and become one of several wives.

Kyra is 13, impressionable and yet keenly aware that the way her family lives isn’t usual or normal or maybe not even right. She dares to do things she is not supposed to do– like read, speak to boys, sneak off and be alone with them under cover of darkness. The story begins with a visit from the most respected and revered man in the community– The Prophet.

The entire family is anticipating good news, especially Kyra’s father. It is not good news when it is decreed that 13 yr old Kyra will marry her 60 year old uncle, and become his seventh wife! Instantly Kyra is rebellious and obstinate. Not only does she not want to marry an old man, she doesn’t even like her uncle. The Prophet, however, has spoken. He says that God had decided who she will marry. She is to obey.

I’ve always been curious about polygamy– and not curious as in ‘I’d like to try it, just once’. Curious as in– what do these young girls tell themselves in order to make it okay for them to do what they’re told to do? To marry men too old for them, lay with them, bear their children, share their husbands with other women and not feel jealousy or anger or neglect? If this life is all you know, are you aware that it’s so very different?

Kyra is aware. And she can’t stand it. She wants no part of it. Added to this dilemma is her weekly sneak to the  bookmobile. Kyra devours the written word of the world outside the gates of the Compound. There is an entire Universe out there, one she knows nothing of, where the girls dress funny, and commit the sin of allowing their bras to show and talking to boys, where the modesty of long dresses and braided hair are frowned upon, even deemed ‘weird’. It becomes painfully obvious to Kyra that there is more to life than living in a trailer on a dirt road, with 19 siblings and three mothers and a father she loves dearly, but who wouldn’t stand up to the Prophet and his brother if his life depended on it. His life does, indeed depend on it. Refusal to marry her uncle Hiram could mean trouble for her entire family.

No, Kyra must fend for herself, and soon. The wedding date draws near.

The final chapter in this book makes it difficult to breathe. I found myself flipping pages as fast as they would go, trying to keep up with Kyra, Patrick (the driver of the bookmobile, who befriends Kyra and offers her a way out), Joshua (the boy she is not allowed to love), and the family.

I didn’t realize until I had finished reading this book that it was a young adult selection. I’m in my 30′s, so either this book was pretty darn good, or I am easily entertained. Or both.:)

The Chosen One is a fast read, but an exciting one, full of twists and ‘secrets’ of life in what is considered outside of the walls of the compound to be a cult– beatings, murders, ex-communications, fear, isolation. But there is also love, and family and hope and dreams– and the risk of losing all of them in search of freedom.

There is a section at the end, where I thought things could have been fleshed out more. It seems to end rather abruptly, with more than a few unanswered questions. Overall, I enjoyed it. Really quick read, great storyline.

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My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I think I will have to come back in a few days after thinking long and hard about this book. I read it VERY quickly, mostly today. I could NOT put it down, I needed to know what happened!

Here’s what I can say– the plot is intricately weaved and the imagery is VIVID. Flynn is… OMG. I think my new favorite author right now. Grisly and gory but nail bitingly exciting.

More later….

It’s later, and I’m still spinning from this book. There’s…so much to this novel. I can’t wait for Gillian Flynn’s new book!

We meet Libby Day immediately in the book and we’re shocked by such an unlikely protagonist. I think Flynn’s golden arrow is an unlikeable hero, because Libby is just as or more unlikable than the protagonist in Sharp Objects.

When we meet Libby, she seems to be perpetually seven years old, the age she was when her parents were murdered in a gruesome, grisly, Satanic attack, for which her brother, Ben is serving a life sentence in prison. Libby is decidedly what I like to call unfortunate looking.  She is missing fingers and toes, does not care for herself, lives in a ramshackle rental and depends on the kindness of strangers– known and unknown, because Libby will steal what you don’t give her. Libby is lazy and selfish, a thief and a liar, self absorbed, mean, and jealous–specifically when other murders usurp attention away from the Day Family tragedy. She both loves and hates the notoriety.

Libby’s got a problem already, on page three– she’s running out of money. The public had been very kind to her, setting up a trust fund for her, which she inherited when she turned 18, but now the money was gone and Little Girl Libby might be forced to grow up.

Enter Lyle Wirth, the leader, so to speak of the “Kill Club”, a group of enthusiasts who discuss and investigate odd murders such as the Day Massacre. While Libby thinks this club is odd and these people are looney, they’ll pay her to attend an upcoming convention. Libby needs money, so she goes for it.  While at the meeting, she’s confronted about her testimony against her brother Ben– how could she lie? Didn’t she realize Ben couldn’t have done it? Who did she think did it?

The idea that Ben didn’t murder her family had never crossed Libby’s mind. Why should it? She remembers pretty clearly, sort of, that it was Ben. Ben has a support group, however, that has been working to free him and now that the thought is planted Libby figures she may as well set about investigating the murder– half heartedly at first because all she really wanted was the money that the Kill Club would pay for her to talk to certain people and uncover certain things, namely memorablia from the house. Libby kept all of their mementos in a box under the stairs. Until then, she couldn’t bear to go through them.

Libby’s memories of that night are what she calls the Dark Place. She doesn’t like the dark place, but she spends quite a bit of time there, throughout the book, while she tries to uncover who actually was responsible for the crime, and why Ben is covering for it– as Libby points out, he’s never recanted or asked for a new trial or appealed the ruling. He seems content to serve his time, even if he’s innocent– WHY?

Dark Places is well written, bouncing between the POV of Libby, Ben, and her mother Patty. Ben is your typical angst ridden teenage boy with pre-pubescent sisters who annoy him. He struggles with peer pressure and being cool, and lets himself be used by Diondra, a bossy, rich girl on the good side of town, and her friend Trey, a Native American with a large chip on his shoulder and a lot of evil in his heart.  Patty is a mom who is struggling like a mom never struggled before. Despite all her efforts, she and her four children are about to lose the farm that they live on, that they’ve called home for so many years. Patty is desperate and sad and hopeless and her attempts to make the situation better is what starts the ball rolling in this disaster.  As the story rolls forward, more and more and more is revealed until the reader (or, me) finds herself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that has to be taken into account.

Just as in Sharp Objects, Flynn has mastered the art of the twist-out-of-nowhere. I just didn’t see the end result coming, and I LOVE that! I feel like it’s a waste of a book if I can predict what’s going to happen. Flynn writes stories that are unpredictably delicious, gripping, full of action and conflict. Each scene is important, no  characters are wasted… some of the best imagery I have read in a long time– much of it still sticks with me days later. I’m reminded of a scene that made my stomach turn when I read it, and my stomach is still turning. I’d say Flynn hit the bullseye with this book!

Again, like Sharp Objects, this is a dark, grisly story. It is not uplifting and happy go lucky. There is no moral and you won’t feel better having read it. There is no self discovery for the reader– unless you can identify with Libby, who feels that- “if you drew a picture of me, it would be a scribble with fangs.”

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My Goodreads review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes my method of picking books is really calculated. I see a book someone else liked, and I stalk Amazon and GoodReads and Barnes&Noble for reviews. I google it and read blog entries and see how people liked it, because if I’m going to spend time reading a book, I want to like it.

And then sometimes I just see something and think, ‘hmph. I’ll read that, I guess.’

Sharp Objects was chosen via the latter method. I saw it on a list of May 2009 something or other and added it to Kindle without even really thinking. I don’t even think I read the description. Suffice it to say,I think I started this book sometime last week, maybe over the weekend. It’s Tuesday and I just finished it. Literally a few minutes ago.. I’ve been buried in it all weekend.
(cont’d)

Chicago newspaper reporter Camile Preaker has been sent back to tiny, one-horse-town Wind Gap, where most of her high school friends stuck around and married the jocks, the head of the Science Club, the Yearbook Editor. Camille had left Wind Gap a long time ago, and wasn’t in a hurry to return, but her Editor is itching to break a story and Wind Gap’s recent child murders had ‘Breaking News’ all over it.

Despite her protests, Camille is back in Wind Gap, imposing on her mother and stepfather and half sister, and investigating the strange murders of two young girls in the small, close-knit town. Camille’s family defines dysfunctional. Wind Gap doesn’t want her there. Her cutting and her alcohol dependency thrown on top just mixes everything into a great big ball of drama.
I’m glad chose this book the way I did. I’m seeing a lot of reviews about how dark and macabre the story line is and how jilted the writing is and how awkward the story was told. I don’t think I’d have picked it, if I saw those reviews first. I really just didn’t get a sense of any of that. I was hooked from about paragraph two, fell asleep reading the first night, could NOT stop– the more that was brought to light about Camille, her mother, her sister, her whole history with tiny Wind Gap, the more I was intrigued.

Now let me be plain– I don’t really read fluff. I don’t do feel good. I don’t do chick lit and sarcastic little ditties about how funny kids are and I’m fat but I’m a spunky chick and that’s why you need to love me. I don’t do Non- Fiction, much. There’s a place for that, I’m sure. It’s just not on my bookshelf. I’m the type of person that watches Forensic Files and loves Shawshenk Redemption and will watch an entire day of A&E Crime programming and Law and Order Special Victims Unit– I love the stuff.

I loved this book. I didn’t find it particularly gory. Just strikingly, painfully, realistically… real. I hate reading glossed over horror or pain or despair. I don’t want flowery, purple prose– sometimes when it’s raw and disjoined and just ‘out there’ it pangs more. It makes you sit on the edge of your seat and go ‘oh, wow’.

Camille is that character that you kind of dislike at first– she seemed whiny and weak and I wasn’t sure what to make of her. Then as things began to come to light and unfold (her relationship with her mother, her ODD little sister), I started to gain a little respect for Camille. By the end I positively loved her, as a main character- an unlikely hero, a vulnerable creature.

NOW. Let’s talk about Adora and Amma, two of the weirdest, oddest, most inexplicable characters in the entire book. I spent all of the book going OMYGODWTF? I mean, one moment they were nice and sweet as punch, and the next, a giant pendulum swing in the other direction and OH. My. Lord. Adora got on my NERVES. Amma was just a brat. Wanted to slap them both and I willed Camille away from them SO many times.

Okay, the killer??? Can I just say I KNEW IT?!?!? I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!

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My review on goodreads.com

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis courtesy kathrynstockett.com:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women–mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends–view one another.

A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

This book was a slow start for me, but once it got going, it was hard to put down. I was almost late for work one morning, because I had started reading and couldn’t stop. I literally sat down 4 hours ago to finish it, because I just couldn’t stand not knowing what happened anymore.

The Help is a riveting, entertaining first novel– I think Ms. Stockett should be quite proud of herself. I fell in love with Skeeter and Aibleen and Minny and Celia, pitied Elizabeth and hated Hilly to my CORE. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to live in such a time of change– on either side. To cling so desperately to everything you’ve ever known, only to have it pulling and growing and changing and slipping right from your fingertips– on the other side, wishing and hoping and praying for things to change, but realizing that things have to get worse before they get better.

Loved it loved it loved it– I kind of wanted Hilly to ‘get hers’ before the book ended but *sigh*. In a few weeks I’ll read it again!

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