Dark Places

Author: Gillian Flynn
First Published: May 2009
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
349 pages (hardcover)

I read Gillian Flynn's other novel, Gone Girl, a year or two ago and I loved it. Loved the movie too. So I was pretty excited to start Dark Places as well, though I kept my expectations low because I never heard anything about this one before. Luckily, this novel is just as dark, creepy and amazing as Gone Girl.
Dark Places stars a 32 year old woman named Libby Day. When she was a child, her mother and two sisters were violently murdered in what was later known as the Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas. Libby was the sole survivor and her brother, Ben, was sent to jail as the killer. Libby testified against him.

25 years later, Libby's running out of money. She's never really held a job, instead, just living off of donations people gave her for being the poor, sweet girl with no family now. The thing is, she is no longer a poor innocent sweet girl. She's grown to be self-centered, uncaring and a bit of a kleptomaniac. Of course, now that she's 32, the murders are no longer on the forefront of anybody's mind anymore, and nobody's donated money to her for a long time now.

Looking for a source of money, Libby encounters The Kill Club, a group of people who are obsessed with real life crime mysteries (like serial killers and stuff). They are ecstatic to meet Libby (for a price, of course) and want to buy "memorabilia" off of her related to the murders. Motivated by money, Libby agrees to revisit some people in her past and see if she can dig up any new information about the night of the murders. As Libby half heartedly investigates, Libby begins to feel that perhaps her brother Ben isn't the murderer after all ... and that the murderer is still out there.

The best thing about this novel are the raw, damaged characters. Nobody is perfect in this book; in fact, most of the characters are downright unlikable -- on paper, anyway. Let's take the main character Libby for example. Sure, she's the victim of a heinous crime, but it's hard to feel much sympathy for her as an adult. She's rather dysfunctional as an adult, not knowing how to fit in society, stealing, taking advantage of people, etc. She just flits from one source of money to the next. And you know exactly why she's all messed up (troubled childhood, hello?) And yet, you are rooting for Libby to solve the mystery. You are rooting for her to come out of this victorious. Maybe reunited with her brother. I have to give kudos to the author for creating a character that on the outside seems so shallow but still manages to draw the reader into her world and make us care about whether or not she accomplishes her goals.

As for the actual mystery, I was definitely surprised at the end of the novel to discover 'whodunnit'. I was also a little let down because it was kind of an anticlimactic discovery, but maybe that's just me.

I am a big fan of Gone Girl and now, Dark Places as well. Safe to say I'll probably read anything by Gillian Flynn, haha. If you like mystery/crime/thriller types of stories with characters that are genuine and raw, read her books!

My Rating: 4/5

The Silkworm

This post first published July 12, 2014.

Author: Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)
First Published: June 2014
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Series: Cormoran Strike #2
455 pages (hardcover)
 
This is book two of Robert Galbraith’s (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, in case you have been living under a rock for the past year or two) mystery series about private detective Cormoran Strike. I hardly ever read mystery/crime novels, and I maintain, still, that they aren’t my preferred genre of books; however, after reading the first book in this series, The Cuckoo’s Calling, I’ve become a big fan of Galbraith’s/Rowling’s crime books. Probably because there’s just something “vintage” about the novels. Kind of reminds me of an old school private eye novel or movie, especially since this series takes place in London as well, and I really like that. With that in mind, there isn’t anything earth-shatteringly innovative about this book, but then again, I never expected it to be. Do be warned, however, that this second book has a lot more sexual/violent stuff in it than the first (due the nature of the way the victim was murdered, poor fellow).

In The Silkworm, Strike’s private detective business has picked up ever since he solved the Lula Landry case from book one. He’s got loads of clients now, and is almost out of debt. The unfortunate thing is, even though he has so many clients, they all mostly want the same thing: rich men and women hiring Strike to trail their spouses to see if they’re cheating on them, with whom, that sort of thing. Hey, but a paycheque is a paycheque right?

Then Leonora Quine comes into his office one day, asking Strike to please find her husband, who has disappeared. Her husband, Owen Quine, is an author of small fame but thinks he’s a bigshot. He’s just finished a manuscript for his latest novel, in which he includes many people that he knows in real life as unflattering and downright offensive characters. He’s full of drama and loves to disappear every once in a while to cause everyone to panic. However, Mrs. Quine says it’s been an awfully long time since he’s gone away this time, and she’d really like it if he could come back now. She can’t pay him, but she’s sure his agent will foot the bill for his services — Strike isn’t too sure about that, but agrees to take the case, since it’s something different from his usual tailing of cheating spouses, and surely this case wouldn’t take too much time to solve.

However, as Strike investigates Mr. Quine’s disappearance, he comes upon a startling discovery — the gutted corpse of the author. What’s worse, Leonora, Quine’s wife, is dragged away on suspicion of being the murderer, despite her denial. Strike is sure that Mrs. Quine is innocent though. Suddenly, this little side case isn’t so small anymore.

Like I said earlier, the traditional private eye tale that this novel undertakes is refreshingly familiar yet at the same time, exciting. I guess that’s the thing with mysteries — even if you’re using the same formula, your reader can be so driven by a strong desire to know the truth of the mystery that sometimes that’s all it needs to be engaging. Of course, I understand not everyone is going to feel the same way about that, but I found the novel charming and sort of like a throwback to classic private eye novels.

The book does employ the same general structure as the first one in its series — strings of interviews to various witnesses and persons of interests, back to back, followed by a grand reveal at the end by Strike to the cornered murderer. And like before, I enjoyed the interviews, but wished Strike did a little more sleuthing than simply talking to people. I am glad that that did, in fact, happen in this novel. There was a little more digging around to find clues, rather than rely solely on piecing together everyone’s statements. I was especially happy that Strike’s adorable assistant, Robin, got more of a role in his detective work this time around; she even participated in some of the risky things required to solve the case.

Speaking of Robin, I loved the budding relationship (or maybe, should I say, lack of one) between her, Strike and Robin’s fiance Matthew. Also, between Strike and his ex-fiancee Charlotte (again, should I say, lack of a relationship). Even though this is a detective novel and solving the crime is the main focus, I liked how Rowling fleshed out her characters so that they are more than “the detective” or “the secretary”. I’ve always thought Rowling does a great job with characterizations, and all the backstories, personal beliefs and dilemmas, and so on, that she’s given her characters really reinforces my belief.

I really love this series and I can’t wait to read the next book. I am doubtless that the third will also keep me up way too late at night.

My Rating: 5/5

The Cuckoo's Calling

This post first published July 8, 2014.

Author: Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
First Published: April 2013
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Series: Cormoran Strike #1
455 pages (hardcover)
 
I finally got around to it; I finally read J.K. Rowling’s (using pseudonym Robert Galbraith) new series, The Cuckoo’s Calling. I didn’t really know what to expect because on the one hand, I love the Harry Potter series, but on the other hand, her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy wasn’t exactly stellar. Well, I always thought she did the “mysteries” in the Harry Potter universe pretty well, so I guess I should really say, I had some cautious optimism for this book. I just finished this book about 15 minutes ago, and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed this. Oh, it’s not without its flaws, but it did a pretty good job keeping me up late at night.

The book is about a struggling private detective named Cormoran Strike, whose life isn’t going so well. He lost a leg during the war in Afghanistan, his fiancee and him just broke up, he’s homeless and living in his office for now; oh and his business isn’t so well, so he’s up to his ears in debt. He can barely afford his temporary secretary, Robin, even though she’s very good at what she does.

One day, in walks into his office John Bristow, a lawyer. He needs Strike to investigate his sister’s supposed suicide, because he believes she didn’t kill herself, but rather, was murdered. To make the case more interesting, John’s sister just so happens to be the incredibly famous supermodel, Lula Landry. Strike is skeptical at first that this is actually a murder. He chalks it up to a bereaved brother who can’t handle the idea of his beloved sister killing herself. However, after John offers Strike a hefty amount of money for him to take on the case, Strike accepts. As he investigates the case, he comes to the realization that John’s right: someone did kill Lula.

Let’s start with the thing I didn’t like about this book first and get that out of the way. The entire structure of this novel is Strike interviews person after person after person, and near the end, obviously, fits the pieces together, confronts the murderer by monologue-ing to the murderer exactly how the murderer committed the crime, and voila, mystery solved. I did think it was rather boring of a structure, to just have Strike basically interview people for the entire book. I guess I was hoping for some sleuthing of some sort, where he would find himself searching for clues in places he shouldn’t be. Anyway, so there’s that, but luckily, I found all the interviews to be very interesting to read. I really do like the conversations Strike has with people. To sum up, I liked the content but not really how it was delivered.

What I really loved about this book was the characters. I have always thought J. K. Rowling has a wonderful way with characterization and I’m glad she continues this in this novel. The characters really came alive to me, they each had a memorable personality, and personal problems that really added to how the character felt and thought about things. My favourite was Robin, Strike’s secretary; I just picture this super keener whose desperate to please, she’s so funny sometimes. And of course, there’s Strike, who comes with so many personal problems that are left unsolved in this novel, I’m sure they will carry over into the next book (don’t worry, his personal problems are rather secondary to the main plot).

The best part was that this book successfully kept me wondering the “whodunnit” aspect of the mystery the entire time. I just had to keep reading to see who was the murderer! I figured it was probably going to the be the last person I’d suspect — and then I toyed with the idea that maybe it’s actually someone really obvious — regardless, I was surprised at the end at who the true culprit was. I enjoyed the tease and the mystery of trying to figure out who the murderer was (even though I do not think, as a reader, you could figure out the mystery on your own), but I have to say I’m actually kind of disappointed with who it is. I don’t want to spoil things, so I’ll just leave it at that …

All in all, a great book that I enjoyed reading. It’s a very classic kind of mystery, and I don’t read mysteries all too often. I look forward to reading the second book in this series!

My Rating: 5/5

India Black

This post first published June 28, 2014.

Author: Carol K. Carr
First Published: November 2010
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Series: Madam of Espionage Mysteries #1
296 pages (paperback)
 
I discovered this series via Goodreads’ “Readers Also Enjoyed …” recommendation section. The combination of a promise of exciting espionage by a femme fatale kind of character and the gorgeous cover had me persuaded to give the book a try. Also, I love the time period this book takes place in, during Queen Victoria’s reign.

Bizarrely enough, despite the word “mystery” being used to describe this book (it’s right on the cover!), it’s not a mystery novel at all. At least, I don’t think so … The story is about a woman named India Black who is a madam that runs a whore house in London, called the Lotus House. She becomes pulled into an international crisis of some sort when one of the clients of her establishment dies inside Lotus House. Said client is a pretty high ranking government official, who was supposed to be carrying a briefcase with top secret military documents that could be very detrimental to Britain should they fall into the wrong hands — such as Russian hands. India is forced/blackmailed by the Prime Minister of Britain and a government spy agent nicknamed French (real name is confidential) to help them in retrieving this briefcase that was stolen from the Lotus House. India becomes engaged in a cat-and-mouse chase with Russian spy agents as they both race to be the first to retrieve these documents.

If any part of it is a mystery, I suppose it’s when India was just trying to figure out who the gentleman was that died in her brothel, but that was solved very early on. I really don’t think this is a mystery at all. It’s certainly a thriller kind of novel though, and action oriented. Another thing about this novel that might throw you off is that the plot summary and even the cover of this book look “serious” and “cool”– however, it’s actually humorous. I read some reviews where people said the characters were kind of ‘idiotic’ and certain plot points is nonsensical or bizarre, in a “why the heck would they do that?” kind of way. I really think it is all intentional, as my impression of the novel is that it’s all meant to be sort of comedic. No, I don’t buy the reason why the British government would recruit a brothel madame to help them retrieve top secret documents and various other events in the book, but I never, for once, felt this was a serious, realistic espionage novel. So I was able to easily suspend my belief and enjoy the ride.

With all that being said, I actually found myself quite enjoying the story. Mainly because I found it funny. The plot is kind of predictable, but India’s wittiness, sarcasm and humor held my interest. And you know what, it was just a plain ol’ fun novel to read. It didn’t take itself seriously, and it was so easy to slip into the story.

I think the main shortcomings of this novel is that it was packaged all wrong (not really a mystery, looks too serious on the outside); as well, the official book premise includes a promise of India starting to develop feelings for the British spy agent French … but that never happened in the book!! To be fair, I did get a vibe that India and French were to be an item in the future, however, this vibe came from my own ‘intuition’, if you will, about how characters in such novels usually end up. I don’t think I could find much contextual evidence to support this vibe I have. I think there was only one scene where the two of them had a slightly meaningful conversation, but 99% of the time, they were just bickering at one another.

So, all in all, initial expectations from the book’s premise and book cover could be potentially disappointing, especially if you thought you were getting a certain story but really wasn’t. However, overall, a very fun book and a series that I would love to continue reading.

My Rating: 3/5

Before I Go To Sleep

This post first published October 17, 2012.

Author: S. J. Watson
First Published: January 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
358 pages (trade paperback)
 
I remember reading about this book on someone’s blog a long time ago. By chance I found it at a thrift store in pretty much brand new condition, so I decided to give it a go, even though I normally do not go for thrillers (lately, however, it seems like I have)! I ended up really liking it, though I do have a few gripes.

If you’ve seen the movies 50 First Dates or Memento, this book is like a mixture of the two, premise-wise. Before I Go To Sleep is about Christine Lucas, a woman who has a type of amnesia where she only remembers about 24 hours’ worth of events before they are forgotten. In essence, every day with a blank slate for life — she doesn’t know who she is, where she is, who the people around her are, and so on.

One day, Christine is visited by Dr. Nash, who tells her he has been meeting her in secret from her husband for weeks, trying to work on her memory problem. Of course, Christina has no recollection of ever meeting Dr. Nash but he gives her a journal and tells her to read it. It’s her journal, which she has been keeping for several weeks, with Dr. Nash calling every morning to remind her that she has a journal and where she has hidden it in her house. The journal is where Christine writes down bits and pieces of her history that she is able to remember or from other people telling her. Slowly, Christina begins to piece together the story of her life … but there is something odd about the stories she’s being told about her life. Did she really lose her memory in a car accident, or did something more sinister happen to her? Why did she and her husband never have children? Why has her best friend completely broken contact with her?

So I read some people are put off by this book before they even read it because the amnesia presented in this book is fake. Which is true. I did a bit of poking around on the Internet and indeed, there is no such condition as Christine’s that is in existence (which is the same condition presented in 50 First Dates, where they gave the false condition a false name, Goldman’s Syndrome. The amnesia in Memento is real though — great movie by the way, definitely check it out). I can understand why the fake condition would bother someone, I really do. It sounds too wild to be true. If you don’t want to read it because it sounds just too impossible, I think I understand your rationale. Myself, I was ok with the fake condition being the premise of the novel. It didn’t really bother me, and made for good drama in my eyes, even though I knew no such amnesia exists.

I found it very hard to put down this book. Once I began reading, I couldn’t stop. I had to find out the truth of what happened to Christine as much as Christine needed to know the truth as well. One of the fun things about thrillers/mysteries is coming up with a bunch of  ideas of what the answer to the mystery is. I had several and it was fun bouncing back and forth between my own theories of what will be revealed at the end of the novel, finding passages in the book to support one idea or another.
It’s definitely psychological as well. I know I am reading Christine’s diary, and many a time, I catch myself wondering how reliable Christine really is. If was unreliable at all, it wouldn’t be her fault though. She can’t remember yesterday or any day before that, so I did wonder how much I can trust what she is writing in her diary. Christine even wonders herself, at a few points during the story, if she can trust her own diary and what she has written in it. It led her to sometimes doubt herself and her entire reality, and she wondered who she was before she became this way. I like how the book explores memory and how important it is to a person’s identity and being. Without memory, who are we? For Christine, she feels like no one, like nothing, without her memories, and desperately wants to remember them.

With all that said and done, I did have a few of complaints with this book. Firstly, the vast majority of this novel is written in diary format, but Christine did not feel like she was writing a diary at all. It felt like … well, like a novel. The writing felt kind of monotonous, or robot-like, and kind of choppy too, as there were many short sentences in succession. It didn’t feel very personal the way diaries sometimes do. There were many things written in a way that I seriously doubt would be written by someone writing a diary. I understand for the purpose of the book, dialogue was written, but diary-writing people rarely include such descriptive dialogue like: “Where’s Adam?” I said. The words came out in a gasp. “Where is he?” Ben’s expression changed. Surprise? Or shock? He swallowed. “Tell me!” I said.” I mean, who writes like that in their diary? I don’t know about you, but when I used to keep one, I would never have been so descriptive as to say I gasped the words out and detailing my listener’s facial expressions and the fact he swallowed before I screamed the next thing. It read like a book. Which, I know, it is, but it should have read more like the diary it claimed to be.
My last gripe is the ending. It was fairly satisfactory but I felt it was quite predictable. It was one of my theories, and the one I brushed off because I thought that would be too obvious and cliche. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the idea I brushed off for being too predictable was actually the ending! I won’t delve too much into it for fear of spoiling the ending, but I thought I would just put it out there.

I don’t feel like my complaints ruined the book or anything though. I don’t think they are small issues, but I just remember being completely immersed into the story and staying up quite late reading it, always saying, one more chapter, one more chapter. To me, this book was clearly entertaining and I enjoyed reading it very much, which is why I opted to kind of overlook the flaws.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Gone Girl

This post first published October 12, 2012.

Author: Gillian Flynn
First Published: May 2012
Publisher: Crown
467 pages (eBook)
 
(As a warning, due to the nature of this mystery/thriller novel, this review has some slight spoilers. The first 3 paragraphs are spoiler free but after that it was hard to reflect on this book without revealing anything.)
I walked into this book knowing very little about what it’s about. It sounded sort of a like a murder mystery to me, which I don’t typically read (for no real reason; just not my thing), but Gone Girl is the October book of my friends’ book club so I cracked it open anyway. I ended up really liking this book a lot, and am completely blown away by the way the story developed. I loved how I couldn’t see any of it coming, and as the story progressed, I was more and more shocked.

Gone Girl is about a married couple in their mid-to-late thirties, Nick and Amy Dunne. They have been having a very rocky marriage for the past few years, and just when it seems like things can’t get even worse, Amy disappears. Amy is gone without a trace and no one has any idea where she has gone. This missing persons case quickly escalates to a possible homicide when the police begin gathering evidence that points to Nick as the culprit, the murderer. Nick is flabbergasted that anyone would think he murdered his own wife and asserts over and over again that he is innocent.

That is the basic beginning of this gripping thriller, and all I can reveal without giving away the spoiler bits. As the story progresses, the author throws plot twist after plot twist. While none of the characters were particularly likeable characters, I did find my allegiance flipping back and forth between Nick and Amy. Who’s really the “bad guy” here?! I love how the author (or characters) plays with the reader’s mind, psychologically. This is a rather unpredictable story, and I loved that about it.

The story starts off pretty realistically, in my opinion. It was interesting reading about Nick and Amy, two characters who come off as relatively normal at first. They have their quirks and are experiencing ups and downs in their relationship, not perfect people, but believable. You think, “This married couple can be any ol’ married couple.” As the story continues, Amy’s true personality came to light and I was very shocked at how quickly it escalated. To put it bluntly, I think she’s a psycho. At the end, I felt even Nick has gone a little loopy with what I think was a poor decision on his part. They both try to rationalize their thinking but I didn’t buy it — I just thought they both went insane. Or they always were and I never noticed till then. Overall, I liked the way the characters were written, but I feel like Nick veered off the path a little at the end. Amy makes sense, I suppose, even though it was shocking to go from normal to psycho so fast.

As for the ending, I think that was the most disappointing part of the story. For a story that did a great job building tension and intensity throughout the story, the ending was surprisingly flat and anticlimatic. I remember thinking, “That’s it? That’s what they decided to do at the end?!” I felt so unsatisfied with the ending. Perhaps the intention is to say marriage can sometimes be two people pretending to love another and going through the motions. I do feel like the ending had some sort of “message”. However, I just didn’t like it at all, it didn’t sit right with me, which is a shame because I liked so much of the book until the end. Perhaps it was just my sense of justice poking through as I felt neither character experienced much of a consequence from the events (well … except Nick, I guess, though he really chickened out in the end). I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling the ending.

My Rating: 4/5

Dexter In The Dark

This post first published August 19, 2012.

Author: Jeff Lindsay
Series: Dexter #3
First Published:  2007
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
303 pages (paperback)
 
This is the third installment of the Dexter series, and while overall I enjoyed it and liked it, the new paranormal/supernatural elements added in this book threw me off and lessened my liking of it. I’m not saying crime or mystery novels can’t have supernatural elements to it. Just in this series, it feels horribly off. The first two Dexter books have established a world, a universe, of certain set rules, and 3000 year old gods weren’t a part of it. Dexter’s Dark Passenger was (I thought) a metaphor for the killing urges Dexter has. I mean, there just really wasn’t anything to suggest it was anything more than that. I didn’t expect the Dark Passenger to suddenly become a real thing.

In Dexter In The Dark, Dexter is in the midst of wedding preparations, trying to become a mentor to young Cody and Astor and of course, his dark hobby. When he is called to investigate a crime scene, Dexter finds his Dark Passenger retreating inside of him, as if it was scared, until one day, it simply disappeared. Even worse, someone or something is stalking him — the Watcher, it is called, which turns out to be a 3000 year old god that goes from one human host to the next. The murders that started all this get worse as well, as victims keep turning up all being killed in the same manner. Dexter feels the murders must be somehow related to the disappearance of his Dark Passenger but he hasn’t a clue.

As I already mentioned, this book threw me off. I didn’t expect the 3000 year old god thing to be literal, yet it was. I mean, if this wasn’t a Dexter book, I think it would be a fine, solid book, but it’s a Dexter book and paranormal elements were not a part of the first two. The whole time I was reading, I kept thinking, “Nah, there’s going to be some logical explanation at the end of the book that will explain everything” but it turned out the fantastical explanation was the explanation. It also feels like it cheapened Dexter, the character. The idea that he’s just a guy under demonic possession and not a serial killer just cheapens the whole thing. “Dexter’s really quite human! He’s just possessed by this demon thing!” Well, that is not the reason why I enjoyed reading about Dexter in the first place.

I know I’m making it sound like this book is horrible or something, but it’s really not. It’s just my one complaint about the book turned out to be a rather huge complaint, so it comes off that way. It’s a good, solid book, with good, solid entertainment, though even minus the supernatural stuff, it’s a bit lackluster compared to the first two books. Dexter furthers his relationship development with Astor and Cody, which is a huge focus of this novel, I felt. They have Dark Passengers of their own and Dexter is trying to become a sort of mentor to them, but the two kids just don’t listen to Dexter too well. The mystery is a little lackluster because it’s so intertwined with the ancient god thing, but still, I enjoyed reading about Dexter and Deborah attempting to solve the case anyway.

I think overall, this book is fine. It’s not great and quite unexpected, but it’s okay. I hope the next few Dexter books are more like the first two though.

My Rating: 3/5

The Boy In The Suitcase

This post first published June 10, 2012.

Author: Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis
First Published: January 2010 (English: 11.2011)
Publisher: Soho Press
320 pages (ebook)
 
This is the June book of the bookclub my friends and I participate in. It was published into English not too long ago, and seeing how it was quite popular in its own country (I think it was originally a Danish book?) I wanted to give it a go. The only other Scandinavian crime thriller novel I’ve read is, of course, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I love, so I wanted to read more books like it.

The story is about — you guessed it — a boy in a suitcase. Nina is a bit OCD when it comes to people needing help — and her good friend Karin from when they were back in nursing school together, needs her help. Karin’s boss has asked Karin to pick up a suitcase from the train station, but Karin has enlisted the help of Nina instead. Nina goes to pick it up, only to find a naked, drugged, but alive, 3 year old boy inside! Believing her friend must have had a reason for not already calling the police, Nina decides to take the boy to Karin. However, Karin’s dead and Nina’s afraid the killer is going to come after her next. In the meantime, we also have the boy’s mother, Sigita, frantically trying to find out who has taken her little boy, and why anybody would want to kidnap him in the first place.

Right from the get-go, this book was an amazing, addictive read. I had no troubles at all staying engrossed in the plot, and I stayed up way too late trying to finish it (I think it was 4AM when I did!) It’s definitely a bit of a mystery novel, although you are not trying to find out who did what. As the reader, you are already quite aware of who’s who, and even the bit about Karin dying, well, they make it quite plain as to who committed that crime. The mystery element of it is not who the boy is either — that’s very obvious too. No, the mystery part is why one of the characters wants to kidnap that specific boy, and in finding that out, you have to piece together how everyone is related to one another. It’s a bit like solving a puzzle when you already have all the pieces; you want to find out what the big picture is. And it is quite a believable story! I mean, the chances of it actually happening might be a bit rare, but it could happen. I love that realism aspect to it.

I thought the characters were very brilliantly well done, especially Nina. You have to give a reason as to why any sensible person would not call the police when they find a drugged, naked boy in a suitcase, and would actually continue the favor they set out to do even when the friend dies! Nina can’t say no when someone needs help, so much that it’s actually almost like a psychological disorder and it completely cripples her family. I thought that was a good kind of “twist” to her character. She wants to be a hero, she gets ideas in her head of people praising her and telling her how appreciative and in her debt they are to her, so she grits her teeth and continues what she’s doing even if it may lead to a very dangerous, life-threatening situation. To do what she did, you need a character who’s not sensible, and Nina and her problem was perfect for it.

The writing was really great too, it was very easy to read. There was never too much of anything, like descriptions or characters mulling in their thoughts, which can be quite tedious to read if over done, but I thought this book did a great job balancing what needs to be said. Reading this book was like watching a movie in my head, and I loved every moment. Definitely recommend this book!

My Rating: 5/5

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

This post first published March 16, 2012.

Author: Stieg Larsson
Series: Millennium #3
Published: May 2010
Publisher: Knopf
563 pages
 
I read book two 2 years ago, but recently watched the Swedish films (as well as the Hollywood version of book one). I was reminded that I still haven’t read book three and that it had, in fact, been sitting on my bookshelf for a little over a year now. I figured it was about time to finish the series.

Without giving too much away, book three focuses on the more political events that occurred as a result of book two. Salander is critically injured and lies helpless in the hospital. It is up to Mikael Blomkvist (that damn journalist again, as Salander would say) and various other allies of Salander to piece together the truth of what is really happening, and in doing so, they discover a massive political conspiracy, with Salander as the most unfortunate victim. Mikael and the others must try to figure out the entire story in time for Salander’s trial, where her enemies will try to have her locked away forever in an insane asylum if they can.

When I first started this book, I was a little surprised that I was not really as into it as I was the first two. I chalk it up to a number of factors — Lisbeth Salander, my favourite character, was out of the action and laying in the hospital for a good chunk of the plot; I have no idea how the intricacies of the Swedish government (or, any government, I guess) really work; and there were a lot of new characters introduced in this one, so it became a little difficult to remember who’s who sometimes. And there was just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the first half of the book or so. It wasn’t particularly engaging, I suppose. There wasn’t very much action, and I felt it was a lot of explanation, textbook-style, rather than a novel.

However, I have to say, the book did pick up tremendously after the halfway point — coincidentally (or not so coincidentally!) this was also when Lisbeth Salander was healthy enough to once again participate in the plot. And from that point on, I was reminded why I love the Millennium series and how it was made of sheer awesomeness. We got the crazy computer hacking again, we have people stalking people, people tailing people, people having sex with people, and people pointing their guns at people … It was thrilling again and I stayed up entirely too late finishing this book last night.
One of the final scenes, Salander’s trial, was my favourite of all. I was so in the zone while reading that, I couldn’t stop. It was one of those moments when reading where you had to keep reading, you had to find out what happens next. And I know, I know, there’s going to be those little nit-picky readers (hopefully very few of them) who will be like, “A real trial would never happen like that, yadi-yada.” Whatever, guys! I still think the entire trial was clever.

At the end of the book, I felt very satisfied with how things wrapped up. This book was really good, though it did feel a little weaker than the first two. A part of me wants to rate this a 5 just because it ended off so well in my opinion, but I think I will have to settle for the 4.5, because of the slow beginning. And some of the relationships, I felt, could have been handled a little better. For example, the mini plot with Erika’s stalker seemed unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, and primarily served as an awkward way to bring Lisbeth and Erika closer, in my opinion. There was also Mikael’s new relationship with Monica which totally had lots of potential but ended up with a wishy-washy, non-commitment kind of ending where you still have no idea what’s going on between them.

I digress. Point is, if you’ve read the first two books and plan on starting book three, you won’t be disappointed but at the same time, book three may not seem as good as the first two. Still, it’s really great and certainly memorable.

My Rating: 4.5/5

The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie

This post first published on September 28, 2010.

Author: Alan Bradley
Published: 2009
Publisher: Bantam
Series: ‘Flavia de Luce’ #1
373 pages (paperback)
 
So I’m reading this series a bit backwards since I already read the second book before I read this one, but lucky for me, this isn’t the kind of series where you must read them in order since each book can stand as its own story.

The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie is the first novel with our dear protagonist Flavia, and if I’m not mistaken, the author’s first mystery novel. Flavia is a brilliant 11 year old girl, living in the 1950’s, with a passion for chemistry. Her mother, Harriet, died when she was a baby, and so it is just her, her two sisters Daphne and Ophelia (who seem to despise Flavia) and their stamp-collecting-obsessed father. On a seemingly ordinary day, their housekeeper finds a dead bird on their doorsteps, a stamp pierced through its beak. Next thing you know, Flavia is stumbling into a dead body in their cucumber garden! Rather than screaming her head off and running away like you would imagine an eleven year old girl to do, Flavia believes this moment to be the most exciting thing to ever have happened in her life. Curiosity getting the better of her, she sets out to determine who this stranger is and how he ended up dead on de Luce property.

Despite the protagonist being an 11 year old girl, this is not a children’s book. Not that there’s anything terribly ‘adult’ in the book (well, murder, for one …), but I’m just pointing that out. Anyway, I adore Flavia. I think she is really the ‘thing’ that makes this book (and the second one as well) work so well. She is quirky, clever and oh so slightly snobby since she knows she’s smarter than most people (especially her sisters), but in the charmingly arrogant way of children who think they know everything, not in a “Omg-she’s-so-cocky” way, if that makes any sense. She tends to run off on tangents when talking about matters, but it is almost always funny how she does so, then mentions how it was totally relevant to whatever she was talking about before.

For me, Flavia is the reason I kept reading this book. Not to say that the mystery isn’t good or anything because it is, it just wouldn’t be anywhere as good (though I liked the plot of this mystery more than the one in the second book). Ignoring the characters for a second, the basic plot is good, but there’s really nothing that amazing about it without Flavia. It’s my belief that Flavia’s eccentricty is what gives this novel its uniqueness.

A storytelling issue I had was when the characters would sit down with Flavia and explain huge backstories or divulge parts of the mystery to her that I feel she should be out solving, but instead she gets handed to on a silver platter. For example, she finds out the whole history between her father and the victim of the murder when her father explains it to her (which took a whole chapter to do). Being given an explanation to a part of the mystery isn’t as exciting as discovering it, I must say. I don’t remember this happening in book two, at least not to the extent it happened in this book. But none of that bothers me as much as this: in the book there is a little rhyme: “Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie / Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?” that Flavia does not understand. It pops up a few times in the book and each time Flavia still doesn’t understand it, but at the end of the novel, it is never mentioned again and Flavia never figures it out, which kind of drove me crazy (I don’t understand it really either).

Regardless, I did enjoy this book very much and it is one I would recommend. Flavia, Flavia, Flavia. She is just such an amazing character and I would definitely continue reading more books in this series.

My Rating: 4/5

The 13th Hour

This post originally published September 11, 2010.

Author: Richard Doetsch
Published: December 2009
Publisher: Atria
336 pages (hardcover)
 
Nick Quinn is absolutely devastated when he finds his wife Julia dead, shot in the face, in their home. Worse yet, he gets hauled away by the police because they found the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it! Nick loves Julia more than his own life, and would do anything if it only meant she can be alive. Enter a mysterious European stranger, who hands him an antique gold watch, telling him that it will give him the power to go back in time, allowing Nick to attempt to solve the mystery of who killed his wife and why, as well as attempting to prevent it.

Time travel isn’t ‘straight-forward’ in this novel (if time travel can ever be thought of as a straight forward matter). The watch only allows Nick to go back one hour in time, for one hour; then he will go two hours back in time, stay there for one hour; then three hours … etc. (For example, it is 6:00PM, he goes back in time to 5:00PM. When it reaches 6:00 again, he goes back to 4:00. When it reaches 5:00, he goes back to 3:00, and so on and so forth). There aren’t “multiple copies” of Nick in time; when he goes back in time, that becomes the present time (so he doesn’t have to worry about running into himself from the past or anything like that).

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting take on time travel, although at first I wondered how much of the mystery he can really solve if he only has an hour at a time. While at first Nick doesn’t get much accomplished because he’s no detective and has no clue where to start, as he travels back further and further in time, he uncovers some startling corruption. Once he got on the ball, he was on a roll, although his actions sometimes — or rather, often — have unintentional consequences and many a time, Nick becomes frustrated that he messed things up to become even worse than they were before (for example, he gets other people killed. Whoopsie, Nick?) Sometimes I got a little mad at Nick and wanted to yell at him through the pages, “Why would you do that?”, hahaha.

I truly enjoyed reading this novel. It is hard to put down because every time you flip the page, Nick discovers something new, or does something that makes you wonder how it can affect the future, so I just had to keep reading to find out what the effects are. I personally just love books that deal with time manipulation. It really has a way of keeping you in suspense. In many ways, I think of this book as a mystery as well. Nick starts off not knowing a thing about his wife’s murder, only that she was obviously targeted, and somehow, he unravels the truth which has its roots pretty far down and away from what this normal suburban couple could possibly be involved in. It is also a fast paced book, which I deeply appreciated because I really dislike slow-moving plots. Reading this novel was like a refreshing breeze.

Of course, nothing is perfect. I found the author’s writing to be a little “philosophical” at times. He runs off into small tangents about the morality of time manipulation, or love (but mostly about time manipulation). This occurred a little too frequently for my liking, but it is usually short. The characters are all flat, one dimensional characters, but that didn’t really bother me too much since this is more about the plot than it is about characters. Another thing (which I feel is always a very important part of any novel … for obvious reasons) is the ending. While I was not unsatisfied by it, it just seemed to lack a bit of oomph. We have this fast, intriguing, clever plot … then the end just seems a bit anticlimactic. I don’t think the ending sucks exactly, just that it could have been better.

But with all that said and done, I really did find this novel to be exciting and entertaining. I would definitely read other/future works by this author!

My Rating: 4/5

Bad Girls Don't Die

This post originally published September 2, 2010.

Author: Katie Alender
Published: April 2009
Publisher: Hyperion
346 pages (hardcover)
 
I normally don’t go for creepy horror stories, but I remember seeing this book on somebody’s blog and reading a good review about it, so when I spotted it at the library, I decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I had a great time reading it, and was glad it wasn’t too scary, although that may be because  I finished reading it in the afternoon, in broad daylight. Anyway, it’s a paranormal YA novel that doesn’t involve romance as a focal point! A rare book indeed in today’s times, hahaha!

Alexis (Lexi) is a pink-haired, friendless outsider of a high schooler. Her interests involve photography, saving the environment and being as anti-cheerleader as possible. Her sister, Kasey, isn’t too popular at school either and is a bit of an outcast as well. Having a creepy doll collection doesn’t really help either.  At home, the two sisters are often neglected by their working parents. Needless to say, the two sisters’ situation is rather depressing.

Alexis is strong-willed and doesn’t really care what others think, so she gets by, but Kasey is more meek and shy, and so, often tries to cling onto her big sister. Alexis, for the most part, tries to be her friend but lately, Kasey is not herself. In fact, Kasey seems to have made a new “friend” and states she doesn’t need Alexis to be her friend any more, spending more and more time with her creepy dolls. On top of this strange new attitude of her sister’s, their house is acting up too: doors opening and closing on their own, strange lights, and the temperature dropping to super cold. Alexis must (reluctantly) befriend an unlikely classmate in order to unravel the mystery of what is happening at her house.

There is definitely a paranormal element to this story, although I would call this novel more of a mystery. In an effort to save her sister from whoever or whatever it is that’s possessing Kasey, Alexis has to solve a mystery — what happened in her house before she lived there? It’s not really a complex mystery, but it’s fun to read and there were definitely some twists that I didn’t expect. The story starts off a bit slow — I feel a lot of it is was devoted to establishing Alexis and Kasey’s relationship, and Alexis’ position in the school hierarchy of students — but around the halfway point, things become more exciting as she realizes there’s a real-to-honest ghost or something haunting the house and controlling her sister! That’s when the mystery unraveling part begins.

Alexis is a spunky character. I don’t like her that much, but I don’t dislike her either (I don’t know, I just don’t really like the whole high school outcast teenager thing, I feel it’s kind of overused). I had a hard time understanding or relating to Kasey, probably because she was possessed most of the book so you don’t really have the chance to get to know her character. I found the character of the ghost (who it is, I won’t spoil) interesting as she had a very well thought out back story to go with her, so it wasn’t just some random ghost haunting a house.

As for the writing, it is written in first-person (it seems 99% of YA novels these days are written in first person), from the viewpoint of Alexis. I personally am not the biggest fan of first-person writing, especially not in the viewpoint of a high school teenager because high school teenagers kind of irk me in general, but luckily Alexis isn’t annoying or whiny to listen to. It’s not bad for the author’s first novel. Overall, this novel is a job well done, and I definitely liked it!

My Rating: 4/5

The Girl Who Played With Fire

This post originally published August 3, 2010.

Author: Stieg Larsson
Series: Millennium series #2
Published: 2006
Publisher: Vintage
724 pages (paperback)
 
I’m trying something different here and instead of providing a summary and my thoughts separately, I’ll just do it all together (like many other book blogs seem to do).

This is the second book in Larsson’s Millennium series, and is my favourite one so far. I didn’t think the author could top his first book, but this one certainly raised the bar! The Girl Who Played With Fire is absolutely thrilling and an addictive read (and personally, better than the first one. It really kicked the plot up a notch!) In this installment, we get and in-depth look into Lisbeth Salander’s — the Girl featured in the series’ titles — life and many secrets are revealed to the reader to let us know why she is the way she is. She is by far the most mysterious and fascinating character in the series, and well, with this book, she becomes even more so.

This novel revolves around three murders, and unfortunately, our dear Lisbeth is the suspect because her fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. One victim is Bjurman, Lisbeth’s guardian, so the link is already established. The other two victims are a journalist and a criminologist, both of whom were working on a magazine article, a book (to be published by Millennium) and an academic paper on sex trafficking in Sweden. Lisbeth has no link to them and as far as anybody knows, doesn’t know them at all. Blomkvist, the other main character, the ‘crusading investigative journalist’, is absolutely convinced that Lisbeth did not murder the latter two, who are his friends. Unfortunately, the police are eager to paint Lisbeth the murderer and Lisbeth mysteriously vanished and cannot be found. The real mysterious part is that you, as the reader, aren’t even sure if Lisbeth is guilty or innocent or either! It drove me crazy not to know, because on one hand, she is very capable of killing people, but on the other hand, why would she kill people she doesn’t know? For a considerable chunk of the novel, you as the reader are left in just as much darkness as the other characters in the story.

The summary of the book was already enticing enough to me, but you will not believe how many unexpected twists and turns there are in this novel. They are good twists and turns, thank goodness, not things that are completely out of the blue and seem too strange to be true. I love being shocked like that in a novel, and this book does it successfully many times — in fact, one time I re-read a simple sentence over and over again, because I couldn’t help but think, “Oh my GOD, I can’t believe it!” And there is a lot more action in this novel, which makes this fast paced and gives the reader almost like an adrenaline-like rush as you go through the events. It is very addictive, I do not recommend reading it until you are sure you have a large amount of time available because this book sucks you in so well, you will have difficulty putting it down!

Lastly, the ending of this book ends in almost a cliff-hanger sort of way, which is agonizing for me because now I am desperate to read the next and final book in the trilogy!

My Rating: 5/5

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This post originally published July 20, 2010.

Author: Steig Larsson
Series: Millennium series #1
Published: 2005
Publisher: Penguin Canada
841 pages (mass market paperback)
 
Summary: Mikael Blomkvist is a investigative financial journalist who partly owns and also works for the financial magazine Millenium. The story opens up with Blomkvist losing a libel case in court against Swedish industrialist billionaire  Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. This case catches the attention of Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises, who offers him information about Wennerstrom’s illegal activities and financial help for Millenium in exchange for Blomkvist to research and investigate the disappearance of his great niece, Harriet Vanger, which occurred forty years ago, with the cover story that he is writing an autobiography of the Vanger family should anybody ask. Blomkvist reluctantly agrees, thinking he will not be able to discover anything new from a case that is forty years old, but new evidences are found when he is aided by Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious asocial girl who is a gifted computer hacker.

My Thoughts: I was unable to borrow this book from the public library for what felt like the longest time because it was constantly being checked out. I wanted to read it because I heard it was very good, so I eventually ended up purchasing a copy at the bookstore. I had no idea what to expect from it other than what the summary on the back cover of the book had to tell me. What I found was a wonderful, engrossing story that had the power to keep me up way too late at night because I just had to find out what happens next! Mystery novels by nature tend to have this way of keeping you reading because you want to know ‘whodunnit’, but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo takes that to a new level. You are perfectly aware of what the mystery is, but for the first half of the novel (which is a very long time, 400 pages!) little to zero progress is made in solving the mystery. It seems hopeless for the characters, because the police had done everything they could for forty years, and Henrik Vanger had also done his own private investigation for forty years, so you wonder what kind of evidence they could have missed and never seen? And can this random journalist really solve it?! Blomkvist doesn’t even meet his partner and sidekick Lisbeth (who is truly a kick ass woman) until the halfway mark. Yet the book strategically and smartly  provided enough intrigue that you just had to keep flipping the pages. The second half of the novel was when things blew up in a good way, and suddenly I was absolutely engrossed in the novel; I could not put it down. The mystery heads in a direction I didn’t see coming and I realized this mystery is a lot more than a simple missing girl case. Even the denouement of the novel was exciting and thrilling, despite denouements traditionally being the part of the story where action dies down and it’s just a matter of wrapping up loose ends.

Yes, the book is a little confusing if you are not familiar with the way finances, businesses, companies, stocks and things like that work. Thankfully, you do not need to understand the intricate details to understand the gist of what the characters are talking about.  And the mystery … I was amazed how a simple investigation into the disappearance of a missing girl could explode into something so much larger and corrupted. This story is simply marvelous and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series. My only ‘complaint’ would be that, having read the entire novel now, the Swedish title (“Men Who Hate Women“) makes more sense than the American title, but that is really a very minor thing.

Anyway, this is a fantastic book! This is a book I strongly recommend. If you pass by it on a bookstore shelf or something, you should definitely pick it up! It’s a thick book, but every moment is captivating.

My Rating: 5/5

The Weed That String's The Hangman's Bag

This post originally published April 10, 2010.

Author: Alan Bradley
Published: March 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Series: ‘Flavia de Luce’ #2
343 pages (hardcover)
 
Summary: Flavia de Luce is an eleven year old girl with a passion for chemistry, solving mysteries and has an all together clever mind. Flavia finds herself helping famous and beloved puppeteer Robert Porson set up a show in the church as a favor to the vicar, who helped fixed Robert’s van. Unfortunately, Robert ends up dead before the show even finishes, fried from electricity. Curiosity settles in, and Flavia finds herself sleuthing about trying to figure out who killed Robert — and there are quite a lot of suspects as it turns out Robert, who appears kind and trustworthy on television, actually has quite a few enemies. And how does Robert’s death connect with another mysterious death that happened in town five years ago?

My Thoughts: (Another crappy summary by me, hahaha). I received this book as a gift for my birthday, but didn’t get around to reading it until a little while ago. So, what I am about to say is not just because I got it as a gift and am “pretending” to like it — this book had me in its grip the whole time and is a genuinely enticing read! The actual meaty part of the story — the murder — doesn’t happen until nearly halfway through the story because the first half is setting up the characters and back stories, and I admit the wait to the actual mystery part of the novel had me an itsy bit impatient; however, the main character Flavia had me more than entertained. Flavia has immediately become one of my favourite literary characters. She is extremely clever, devious, a pretty good damn liar at times, but still maintains her childlike innocence (such as the scene where she asks Dogger, the family servant, what having an affair meant, which Dogger explained as being really good friends with someone, haha). She also has troubles with fitting in her family because her older sisters constantly tease/bully her and her father is too obsessed with his stamp collection to notice her much. Anyway, the book is narrated by her, so it definitely helps that I like her character!

I also want to point out the writing style is very fun to read, it certainly feels as if Flavia is speaking to you, rather than eloquently narrating a story. Sometimes Flavia goes off on small tangents (kind of like in Family Guy, when Peter would recollect random scenarios), which are always fun to read about. This book definitely has its own brand of humor, one that I enjoyed very much. Overall, very awesome book! I’m so glad my friend exposed me to it, I think I just might search up the other books this author has written!

My Rating: 5/5

The Lovely Bones

This post originally published January 4, 2010.

Author: Alice Sebold
Published: 2002
Publisher: Back Bay Books
372 pages (mass market paperback)
 
Summary: On December 6, 1973, Susie Salmon, 14, decides to take a shortcut across the old cornfield on her way home from school when she encounters her neighbour, George Harvey, who, after convincing Susie to follow him, rapes her, then murders her. When Susie ‘wakes’, she is in heaven. Unable to separate herself from her life on earth, Susie watches everyone from above. Her family falls apart following Susie’s death, with her father stuck in the past and her mother trying to run away from it all. Her school friends trading rumors about what might have happened. And her murderer, trying to remain hidden and cover his tracks.

My Thoughts: First, yeah I know, the original paperback cover is prettier, but it was also $10 more expensive than this version that came out with the movie. The choice was obvious.
The Lovely Bones is an incredibly sad tale, and at the same time, very hopeful and optimistic. This story’s received a lot of attention ever since it was announced that it would also become a movie, not to mention a few friends of mine praising it highly, so I decided to pick it up to read.

I enjoyed this book very much. It starts off very hauntingly. The actual murder of Susie is, thankfully, not described in full but it becomes apparent that he dismembered her; it sent a chill down my spine, mainly because I am very queasy with the idea of body parts not connected with one another. The murderer puts Susie’s body parts in a sack (save for an elbow of her’s, the only part of her body that was ever found), locked the bag in a safe, and then unloaded the safe into a sinkhole. As her family grieves, I grieved too. It was just so sad. I normally don’t cry when reading books or watching movies — and I didn’t cry for The Lovely Bones either — but I felt choked up. I felt very heartbroken reading this. I took comfort with the character of Susie’s father, Jack, the parent who was stuck in time, desperately trying to figure out Susie’s death, who her murderer was. I have a soft spot for father-daughter relationships and it just pained me to have to read about how miserable he felt. Then there was Lindsey, Susie’s sister — whenever people looked at her, they didn’t see Lindsey anymore, they saw a dead girl’s sister. Poor little Buckley, the brother, confused by everyone trying to protect him from the truth of Susie’s disappearance. The author did a marvelous job writing about the family falling apart, even if it is an incredibly sad thing.

But this is by no means a depressing book (especially since Susie’s grandma, Lynn is a hoot). It starts off in a gloomy way, but this is a story about how everyone, Susie included, learns how to deal with her death and find new hope in life, albeit difficultly.It is a hopeful story, and optimistic one.
I enjoyed the writing style for the most part, though something about it, I can’t quite put my finger to it, didn’t quite agree with me. The ending, with Ray, Ruth and Susie, was kind of bizarre, with the body switching thing. It didn’t feel like that part of the story was obeying the laws of this story world. However, overall, The Lovely Bones has captivated me. It touched me deeply.

My Rating: 4.5/5