The Furies - review by Arianna

The Furies Natalie Haynes 3 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "The first thing they'll ask me is how I met her."
Publisher's Description: When you open up, who will you let in? When Alex Morris loses her fiancé in dreadful circumstances, she moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Alex takes a job at a Pupil Referral Unit, which accepts the students excluded from other schools in the city. These are troubled, difficult kids and Alex is terrified of what she's taken on. There is one class - a group of five teenagers - who intimidate Alex and every other teacher on The Unit. But with the help of the Greek tragedies she teaches, Alex gradually develops a rapport with them. Finding them enthralled by tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge, she even begins to worry that they are taking her lessons to heart, and that a whole new tragedy is being performed, right in front of her...
Dear Reader, First off: apologies for the long hiatus! We've had a lot going on in our own lives lately: I've had a beautiful baby girl, and AmberBug has started an awesome new job! Both of which are keeping us quite busy. Not, of course, too busy to read! But unfortunately it's meant giving a bit less attention to our blog. We hope to resume more regular postings soon! In the meantime, on to my review... Unlike AmberBug, I went into this book with absolutely no expectations. I think that actually helped quite a bit, because I would also have been disappointed if I were expecting a really suspenseful, can't-put-it-down novel. This was definitely NOT that. It was, I suppose, more of a character study, although I found it odd that I didn't connect at all on any level with any of the characters - even though I think the author intended for me to. While I felt detached sympathy for Alex, the main character, I didn't really care about her outcome. And that was true several times over for all of her (what felt like peripheral) students. It was so odd, because I felt like you'd just barely met everyone and, boom, there was the crux of the plot! I think the author spent more time with those characters in her head, and expected we'd done the same? In any case, I found I just didn't care about anyone in the story. And I didn't believe in the main characters' motivations, which meant the denoument felt incrdibly flimsy to me.  I also didn't like how the reader was made to feel as if the entire group of students were involved in the crime being outlined, from the title and from how much attention was equally paid to everyone in the class. I wasn't quite sure how the rest of the students played into the actions of the one. Why did the reader have to spend so much time with all of them? Just to learn about the tragic lives of troubled youths? And to me, the connections between the story and the discussed Greek plays were VERY tenuous. While I enjoyed learning a bit more about a few classic Greek tragedies, I felt as if I didn't get a very thorough understanding of them, and yet at the same time - like Amber - I felt as if I were stuck back in a high school English classroom. Boring! And, I'm sorry - naming the other boy in a fight Donny Brooks: REALLY? That got to me, even though I laughed out loud upon first encountering it.  Overall, I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone, although I certainly didn't hate reading it. Some of the writing was really great. I just felt like the novel dragged quite a bit, and my time could have been spent better elsewhere. But I do agree with Amber that the inclusion of the Greek plays helped make the book quite a bit more interesting, and I did come away with a bit more knowledge, which I always appreciate.  Yours, Arianna

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At the Water's Edge

At the Water's Edge Sara Gruen 4 / 5	Published March 31, 2015 First Sentence "The headstone was modest and hewn of black granite, granite being one of the few things never in short supply in Glenurquhart, even during the present difficulty."
Publisher's Description: In her stunning new novel, Gruen returns to the kind of storytelling she excelled at in Water for Elephants: a historical timeframe in an unusual setting with a moving love story. Think Scottish Downton Abbey. After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.
Dear Reader, This book took a little while for me to get into. However, knowing I’ve enjoyed a couple other of the author’s books in the past, I figured I’d give this one a bit more time. And I am glad I did - the story played out nicely, portraying a young woman caught up in strange madness during WWII. No, not really anything to do with the war, surprisingly! Rather, Maddie’s husband and his friend set off on a mad caper to Scotland, on a hunt for the elusive Loch Ness monster. Whew, I didn’t think this one could end well! I figured the author would either have to refute or “prove” the monster’s existence in order for the book to complete, but that was luckily not the case (you’ll see).  The story started off very promising, it being that of a young newlywed couple going a bit overboard during 1945 New Year’s Eve celebrations. I loved all of the characters presented at the start: the carefree trio of best friends, the staid and snooty parental figures, and the backstories of how everyone interconnected. As in Water for Elephants, Gruen is great at painting vivid personalities while also keeping her characters grounded. The adventure truly begins when the footloose and fancy-free trio set off for an overseas adventure - to prove the existence of Nessie! (Marshall would be thrilled.) Perhaps she should have seen it coming when she was coerced into traveling to Scotland during the height of the war, but this is also when things begin to go downhill for Maddie, as the true nature of her husband and his best friend are slowly revealed. While all of that story seemed plausible enough, I have to say there was another romance which I just did not see happening until I was bludgeoned over the head with it. Ultimately, they seemed perfect for each other, but I felt as if a bit more build up - more of a connection developed between the two - would have been better. Overall, this book was not Gruen’s best (I’d put it on equal ground with Ape House), but I did get drawn into the story, and I certainly cried at the end! And that always says something to me, when a book can make me feel like that. Read this with a book club (there is plenty to discuss!) or as a summer read, especially if you love historical fiction. This will not disappoint. Yours, Arianna

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The Monster's Wife

The Monster's Wife Kate Horsley 5/5	Published August 2014 First Sentence "Life changed when he came to the island, the foreign doctor from further away than anyone cared to know."
Publisher's Description: (Beware!!! The description below gives things away that i don't think you should know. The parts that I think you shouldn't read are crossed out.) A startling new sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Told from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster. To a tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys, peopled by a devout community of twenty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil's bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe. In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster's wife through the perspective of the doctor's housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor's linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor's trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close - but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine. A literary gothic, in the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Valerie Martin’s Mary Reilly.
Dear Reader, Before I go into how interesting and unique this book is, I'd like to point out how interesting and unique the Author's bio is. Here is the first part: Born into a family of eccentrics, I was raised in a haunted house on the outskirts of London. The daughter of a mad scientist and a crime fiction expert, I developed an early obsession with laboratories and monsters. At the age of 4, I wrote and illustrated my first collection of gothic tales, 'Fenella the Witch Fights the Hairy Sea Lion Giant', but struggled to find a publisher. As you can see, she sounds amazing, right? Even before I started reading the book, I knew I would like her writing (our interests seemed to lie in the same realm of quirks). Kate Horsley, will you be my friend?  With that out of the way, the book didn't disappoint me... which is kind of surprising since the premise and the Author gave me high expectations. First thing to know is, DON'T READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK ON GOODREADS, it gives things away that I refuse to talk about in this review (although I'm itching to). The story is written in that "old fashioned" way, very reflective on the original "Frankenstein" novel. You can tell Kate Horsley loves this stuff and wants to honor the original work. The Monster's Wife is almost like a refurbished piece of furniture, keeping that old school charm of the piece but creating a different feel to it, maybe something more comfortable or practical. She takes Victor Frankenstein and places him on a remote island in Scotland, running away from his creation (his original Monster). Victor thinks he has given space between him and his family to keep them safe and hoped the "Monster" would leave them alone. The other characters of this novel are Oona and May, two local girls who are considered best friends. Oona is still that gangly, homely girl who doesn't have an interest in growing up or boys. While May is the girl who is blossoming and she is actively working on a romance with a boy on the island. May ends up working for Victor Frankenstein as a maid and Oona eventually follows her over and is given her own "job". The first half of the book is solid character development and hardly any action happens. I wasn't opposed to the way the Author handled that though, I love getting connected to the characters before the big bang happens. Without giving away anything, I'd also like to point out how IMPORTANT it is to feel something for both of the girls before you come to the ending, very important. I loved the way the Author has given us this look into Scottish Island life, the words, accents and closeness of everyone. I found the slang to be charming, even though I had to stop and look things up all the time. It felt like a magical world, but I had to keep reminding myself that the island isn't the fantasy part of the book. Since I don't want to give much away, I do want to let all those scaredy cats out there that this is nothing to worry about. Arianna, this means you! This book has nothing that would make you cringe, jump or even give you insomnia. The idea of a man creating a "monster" with science isn't a new concept and yes, it's a little creepy... maybe more than a little BUT there is nothing super gross or spooky about this. I would describe the "horror" to be more of a thoughtful kind, disturbing to think of as a concept but nothing will pull you under the bed at night. I would recommend this to anyone who loves "Frankenstein" or novels about small communities with a different way of life. I would even go so far and say this has a historical fiction quality about it, but instead of history... the Author pulls from literary history. This will be a favorite of mine and I'll continue to follow Kate Horsley in her literary career like a good cheerleader. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do... since you'll be picking this up when it comes out and reading it, yep. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O'Farrell 3 / 5	Published 2006 First Sentence "Let us begin with two girls at a dance."
Publisher's Description: In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years.  Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face.  Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?  A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page..
Dear Reader, Gosh, I still don't really know how I feel about this book.  I thought that it ultimately turned out to be a really interesting examination of siblinghood (is that a word?  I want it to be one) and the parallels and differences which crop up between and amongst generations.  This novel was another Overdrive audiobook find, and one which I had been looking forward to for a while, because the cover and blurb looked promising.  But, unfortunately, it was kind of a disappointing read.  It started off well, with two strong female leads (one an endearing willful child), but many messy family stories later, it felt kind of weaker to me. I did like that two very shocking revelations weren't things I had guessed from page 1, and yet they seemed feasible enough, not out of left field. ...All right, Reader, this is silly.  I finished this book weeks ago, but haven't wanted to finish writing this review; I've let  the above sit in my drafts for what feels like ages now.  I guess that means I just don't have much to say about this book.  Hmm.  I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, and I wouldn't advise anyone to avoid reading it.  It was a fun diverson book, but the substance of it was just a bit disappointing, considering the promising premise.  I did enjoy the period parts quite a bit; Esme was a strong, independent girl who was essentially punished for being the kind of woman many of us value today - a thinker, a reader, a woman who wanted more from life than simply to be married off.  I think I would have wanted to be her friend, had we encountered each other in childhood.  I think what might have bothered me most about the book were the parts about Iris, the bits of the book that were about the modern-day woman who seemed unmoored and uncertain about herself.  So much so that she constantly got herself into bad situations.  I guess I had hoped that her meeting Esme would have made her reexamine her own life, and perhaps it did a bit, but not enough to change her kind of whiny, self-pitying life.  There, I think I've pegged it: I did love the parts about Esme, and how her story was revealed - even the weird broken-up parts where someone was speaking in fragments and it was rather difficult to follow.  The parts about Iris, however, who I originally thought were good (she is a single woman who runs a vintage shop!) ended up just being frustrating and I felt as if they were left pretty unresolved.  Therein lies my problem with the book, I think. All right, I'm going to sign off now so I can post this before I finish my next book!  Oy. Yours, Arianna