Review: Grave Matter

Grave Matter by Karina Halle

Amazon/Goodreads

Horror Romance meets science fiction in this dark and delicious gothic psychological thriller by NYT bestseller Karina Halle, perfect for fans of Gothikana, Ninth House, and Mexican Gothic.

Aspiring mycologist Sydney Denik is getting a second chance. When a dream opportunity presents itself with a prestigious foundation doing promising Alzheimer’s research, Sydney leaves the shambles of her old life to join a dozen other grad students at an isolated lodge hidden away in a remote, fog-shrouded inlet on Vancouver Island.

But the Madrona Foundation harbors more than brilliant minds. Everyone around her is hiding a terrible secret—including the resident psychologist she’s falling in love with. A student disappears, and no one but Sydney seems to care. Ghosts walk the halls. Snow falls in the middle of summer. Dead animals move like the living. The more Sydney uncovers about the foundation, the more she begins to question her own sanity. And if Sydney isn’t going mad, then the horrors in the surrounding forest are real, and the Madrona Foundation may be the biggest monster of all.

Grave Matter is the perfect Horror Romance for the spooky season. Halle's story is full of gothic scenes, inventive science, and charismatic characters harbouring unnerving secrets. I finished this book on Halloween, and I was sufficiently terrified and intrigued as I raced to turn the pages.

Vancouver Island is a fitting setting for Halle to set her novel. Sydney flies to Canada after receiving her acceptance for a summer work placement at the Madrona Foundation, where they claim to be working on a cure for Alzheimer's using the discovery of Amanito excandesco. The residents are required give in their phones and cut off all access to technology, and must learn to traverse the vast nature around them on this beautiful but spooky island inlet. 

The novel's biggest strength is its thrilling plot. Halle is the master of pacing, mystery, and plot twists! I found myself truly shocked as the plot unfolded and I was very impressed how Halle dropped little hints along the way. I could also tell that Halle did a lot of prior research to nail the science-fiction aspects of Grave Matter. 

However, the romance didn’t always work for me, especially at the beginning. The relationship between Sydney and her love interest felt quite creepy at times (perhaps fitting for a Horror novel). That said, plot developments further near the end made the romance work a little better for me. 

Furthermore, I really enjoyed Sydney's fellow peers and the friendships she makes on the island. Halle creates a memorable and vivid cast of ambitious, brilliant scientists. Although, the reader must try to discern what characters can be trusted, and which ones are hiding bad intentions. 

Overall, Grave Matter is masterfully plotted, wonderfully atmospheric, and addictive. I truly enjoyed joining Sydney as she discovers the secrets of the Madrona Foundation. 

*I recieved an e-ARC for free in exchange for an honest review*

Review: Milk Teeth

Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews

Goodreads/Amazon

From the author of the award-winning Saltwater comes a beautifully told love story set across England, France and Spain.

A girl grows up in the north of England amid scarcity, precarity and the toxic culture of heroin chic, believing that she needs to make herself smaller to claim presence in the world.

Years later, as a young woman with unattainable ideals, she meets someone who calls everything into question, and is forced to confront episodes from her past. Their relationship takes her from London to Barcelona and the precipice of a new life, full of sensuality. Yet she still feels an uneasiness. In the sticky Mediterranean heat, among tropical plants and secluded beaches, she must decide what form her adult life should take and learn how to feel deserving of love and care.

This book was not my cup of tea, but I am glad I read it. Milk Teeth is viscerally vivid, sometimes wonderfully strange, and gives a sharp insight into the trials of an eating disorder. 

First of all, the writing is creative, alive, and unique, but sometimes a little too forced and confusing. Occasionally, Andrews' prose can be overly decorated with non-sensical metaphors in a way that distracts from the central story. Moreover, the beginning and conclusion of the novel are the weakest parts as Andrews struggles to start or end her story coherently. I found the middle section to be the most engaging and thought out. 

The strongest point of the novel is focused on the narrator's disordered eating. Andrews very perceptively crafts the protagonists dangerous relationship with food with particular nuance paid to the pull between desire and self-denial. Her metaphors in the sections about food are more apt and alluring. Moreover, scenes of Barcelona, London, and Paris are very well done. I really felt transported to the different city settings. 

The weakest point of the novel is the romance and the love interest. I believe the novel would be stronger if the protagonist did not end up with her romantic interest in the end. Their relationship is unbelievable and portrayed as an unhealthy co-dependancy. This is where the flowery writing fails Andrews. Moreover, the two parties end up hurting each other more than helping and healing one another. To reiterate my earlier point, the novel would have been improved if the central relationship in the novel was between the protagonist and food. 

The abrupt conclusion and the non-cohesiveness of the structure left me particularly unsatisfied in the end, especially as I was growing more invested in the protagonist's fate and then left wanting. However, I do believe there is something poetic about a book leaving the reader wanting more in a story about the pulls of desire and indulgence. 

Overall, Milk Teeth was a sensory experience. While it struggled in areas, I really did find myself impressed by certain passages and the nuance with which Andrews explores the dangers of disordered eating. 

Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Amazon/Goodreads

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Daisy Jones & The Six is an enthralling, exciting, and bittersweet look into the complicated lives of rockstars in the 1970s. 

I hate to admit it, but I was only moved to read Daisy Jones & The Six after watching the Amazon Prime series. Even though I have always enjoyed novels by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I was initially put off by the format of the book. The entire work is told retrospectively through an interview format. However, once I began reading I found the format to be a perfect vehicle to tell this multi-layered story. All the characters come alive through their (often conflicting) testimonies, and the identity of the interviewer is an essential part of the novel. 

The novel's portrayal of the music, party, and drug culture in LA is excellent. Reid masterfully draws readers into the world of rockstars living in an era of excess. In this environment, our cast of characters struggle with addiction, demons from their past, and the pressure of becoming one of America's most popular bands. The atmosphere in this novel is vibrant, gritty, and true to its historical roots. 

The relationships in this novel are complex and heart-rending. The characters aren't always likeable, but somehow they always remain empathetic. The friendships, flings, and marriages in this novel are part of what make the pseudo-biography of this band so compelling. I especially loved the headstrong character of Camila and the development of her story. 

Overall, Daisy Jones & The Six is a must-read. It's written in an intriguing interview format that kept me turning the pages deep into the night. I was immersed into a world of music, big dreams, and larger-than-life characters. This gem satisfied my love of 70s music and tugged at my heartstrings. 

Review: Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .

I have finally, finally read Little Fires Everywhere and I regret ever putting off reading this masterpiece. I finished the novel weeks ago, yet I still regularly deliberate over the multi-layered plot, think about the vibrant characters, and visit Shaker Heights in my mind. Little Fires Everywhere is a complex, electric tour-de-force about family and the ties that bind us. 

The characters in Little Fires Everywhere are so vivid that they feel real. From wild, bohemian artists to repressed, picture-perfect suburban mothers, this novel has it all. Mia and Pearl, two outsiders, are arguably the main protagonists. Their unique mother-daughter relationship is an integral part of the story. While in some ways I disagree with Mia's parenting methods, it is undeniable she is a talented, inspiring woman and a loving mother. Her mysterious past is one of the most fascinating aspects of the plot. 

The Richardsons are also prominent characters who become entangled with Mia and Pearl. The parents and their four children represent the 'ideal,' stable American family yet they are plagued by conflict, discontent, and instability. The four children are all quite different, and in some ways fall victim to the faults of their mother and father. Moody, Trip, Lexie, and Izzy all become enamoured with the new arrivals; Izzy especially is fascinated by Mia's artistry and rebellious tendencies.

Shaker Heights, the novel's setting, is a real city that still exists in the United States. (It is also the home of the fictional Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother, but I digress.) This Ohio town is a large, ambitious experiment or 'planned community' with some of the best public schools in the country and a housing assistance office to keep neighbourhoods uniform and appealing. In a city that so values order and the status-quo, the arrival of Mia and Pearl creates a new kind of chaos. 

At the center of the novel is a complicated court case that divides the town. This case bring up issues of economics, culture, and motherhood. Celeste Ng shows both perspectives in great detail, illustrating the desperation and despair of both the biological and adoptive mother. The case also reveals instances of despicable racism. I will not spoil the results of the case; but I will say the entire ordeal is harrowing, tense, and heart-breaking. 

Little Fires Everywhere is something special. It's beautifully written, richly imagined, and an astute look into the problems of suburban America. All the characters are multi-faceted; they are all flawed in some way, and they are all sympathetic in other ways. I would highly recommend this novel about motherhood, love, and choices. 

Review: Funny Story

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Goodreads/Amazon

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

This is it: my favourite book of the summer. Funny Story is a magnificent summer read by one of my favourite authors. Henry's novel is hilarious, cute, and tender. I found myself laughing out loud several times (sometimes in public) and I would highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for the perfect beach read. 

Essentially, Daphne and Miles have had a horrible few weeks. Their respective exes have left them for... each other. Unbelievably awful, right? Kicked out of her own home, Daphne moves into the only place she knows of that has a recent vacancy; she moves in with Miles. Unsurprisingly, they are both forlorn and grieving after their break-ups. 

However, Daphne and Miles try to make sure that their unfortunate circumstances don't ruin their beautiful Michigan summer. After they drunkenly decide to fake-date one night when they are invited to their exes' wedding, the two begin to spend lots of quality time together exploring Waning Bay and grow to be close friends.

Funny Story is about resilience, hope, and happiness in the face of catastrophe. The characters face tremendous heartbreak but fight for their own happy endings. I really loved the portrayal of Daphne and Mile's relationship. They start out by fake-dating — a wonderfully entertaining trope — and then it is delectably wonderful to see how their relationship continues to develop. 

Their trips and outings around Michigan are some of the best scenes in the novel; from kayaking in Lake Michigan to exploring local food markets, Daphne and Miles begin to cement themselves as part of the local community, which is a new, exciting feeling for Daphne. 

Moreover, I very much enjoyed the family dynamics in this novel. Watching Daphne traverse her relationship with her father was at times heartbreaking, but also profound and real. Similarly, watching Miles traverse his relationship with his sister and parents was tough but rewarding. I also loved the entire cast of side characters, and I appreciated the sustained focus on friendship throughout the story. 

I could not recommend Funny Story more. The romance is delectable, the scenes are funny and colourful, and the story itself is full of heart. If you like children's libraries, fake dating, and fun summer adventures, this novel is for you. 

Review: Romantic Comedy

 

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Goodreads/Amazon

A TV script writer thinks she's over romance, until an unlikely love interest upends all her assumptions: a humorous, subversive and tender-hearted novel from the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Rodham, American Wife and Prep.

Life is (not)* a Romantic Comedy...

With a series of heartbreaks under her belt, Sally Milz - successful script writer for a legendary late-night TV comedy show - has long abandoned the search for love.

But when her friend and fellow writer begins to date a glamorous actress, he joins the growing club of interesting but average-looking men who get romantically involved with accomplished, beautiful women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch, poking fun at this 'social rule'. The reverse never happens for a woman.

Then Sally meets Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models. But this isn't a romantic comedy - it's real life. Would someone like him ever date someone like her?

Curtis Sittenfeld is a terrific authors who, in my experience, never disappoints. Romantic Comedy is as unique and refreshing as all her other works, written in her unmistakable writing style. The novel is heartfelt, funny, and bitingly sharp. 

Romantic Comedy is essentially a love letter to SNL. In her acknowledgements, Sittenfeld discusses her intensive research into understanding the culture and format of the beloved late night show. Of course, for copyright reasons, Sittenfeld couldn't use the name SNL. Instead, she names her version of the comedy show TNO (The Night Owls).

TNO is a fantastic setting for the first half of the novel. Sally Milz, our protagonist, shows off her work ethic, wit, and genius in her unconventional work environment. I always enjoy reading about women working in comedy. Not only is comedy often a man's world, it's also a tricky skill to perfect. Sally Milz is easy to like and root for, and even easier to respect. 

Unsurprisingly, Romantic Comedy is at its heart a love story. The connection between Sally and Noah feels genuine and they have terrific chemistry. Furthermore, I appreciated the very real issues they have to traverse. Sittenfeld could have easily wrote a sensationalised, dramatic version of dating a celebrity. Instead, Sittenfeld writes a relatively calm, quiet story that feels much more grounded in reality. She astutely examines the pressures and pitfalls that come with celebrity without descending into melodrama. 

A section of the novel is written solely in email format. I was hesitant when I came across this style change, but I ended up adoring this part of Romantic Comedy. The emails between Sally and Noah are sincere and warm, while also feeling intimate and honest. Moreover, they write like real people and I found myself forgetting they were fictional characters. 

Ultimately, Romantic Comedy is a story about complicated characters who fall in love. It's equal parts funny and romantic (you only need to read the title to surmise this) and I savoured every second of the reading experience. Sittenfeld has done it again.

Review: Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Goodreads/Amazon

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die

Fourth Wing is fast paced and fun, but ultimately a little disappointing. Perhaps I went into the novel with overly high expectations. After all, most of the online reviews are glowingly positive. However, Fourth Wing at times felt clunky, overly predictable, and heavy-handed on the dramatic romance. Still, I will not deny the reading experience was entertaining — I am always excited to read about dragons. 

Violet Sorrengail is occasionally a lackluster heroine. Especially at the beginning, her only traits are that she is small and fragile. And, of course, she has two men deeply in love with her (in typical love-triangle fashion). However, I do believe she has opportunities for character growth in the second novel in the series. Yarros hints at the possibility of more violent and subversive tendencies in Violet, which I believe could add more depth to her development. I also appreciate that Yarros has fashioned her as an intelligent heroine, and enables her to use cunning rather than brute force in some challenges. 

The romance also feels lackluster and undeveloped. The main male love interest often feels like an unoriginal stock character (he's just another hot guys who can fight) and, in my opinion, he falls for Violet unrealistically fast. The chemistry between them seems forced, silly, and over-exaggerated. Furthermore, their lack of communication was frustrating. Additionally, the world building at times feels shoddy and Yarros' plot twists are predictable. For instance, in one chapter readers are given relevant information just a page or two before a big reveal. The conspicuously heavy-handed placement of this key information ruins the plot twist, and this happened several times. 

However, the dragons in Fourth Wing are spectacular. Undoubtedly, the scenes with dragons are the strongest. I was interested in their characters, their background, and the world in which they inhabit. Often, the dragons are comic characters and Yarros writes humorous scenes and dialogue well. Furthermore, I enjoyed the fight scenes and the challenges that Violet faces. These scenes kept me turning pages. That said, I do hope that, in future books, Yarros addresses the copious amounts of violence in her world and further addresses the psychological effect it has on her cast of characters. 

Overall, I would recommend this novel to readers looking for an entertaining romantic fantasy novel who are willing to overlook unoriginal tropes and occasional weak writing. Fourth Wing has its flaws, but I also eagerly read every page. Sometimes, we all just need a fun book about dragons and a boarding school romance.