Like the Alice Munro collection I read earlier in the year, this is not a book I would have found satisfying in my twenties, when I wanted cohesion and conclusiveness, a beginning, middle, end, and some adventure, too, preferably with a happy ending. These stoires are a little more sad, a little more abrupt, have a little too much reality in them. Maybe that’s why I have started reading more short stories–I already know the tropes, I want to see how they appear to someone else. This […]
MelBivDevoe’s CBR Review #8: So, That Happened.
Well, that was certainly… something. I finished this novel over 24 hours ago and I’m still trying to collect my thoughts on it. Might as well start at the beginning. Be forewarned, there will be SPOILERS all over the place. The story picks up right where “The Year of the Flood” left off. As Ren, Amanda, Toby, and Jimmy attempt to deal with the murderous Painballers, the Crakers approach and, due to their lack of knowledge and fear, help the Painballers slip their bonds and […]
Fortunately, there’s no page limit.
Yeah, that’s right, I’m reviewing a short kids book. A girl’s gotta make up time somehow. However, I did throw in a review for Chu’s Day as a bonus.
NYC in the eyes of magical creatures
This book has been favorably reviewed by many, including Cannonballer Jen K, so I bought it on my recent trip to Bangkok, where they have an expansive Kinokuniya. I was intrigued by the idea of a golem — have always been intrigued by them since it was first mentioned in Michael Chabon’s Kavalier and Clay as a character in a graphic novel by the protagonist Josef Kavalier — but this was the first time I’ve thought of them as a Jewish equivalent to a djinni, […]
An evocative road-trip through 1800’s India.
The Strangler Vine is an interesting novel – part road-trip, part examination of British-Indian relations in the 1800’s and part detective story starring an opium addicted poet, a by-the-book soldier, a shady mercenary and a bloodthirsty cult. If all that sounds like a bit much to take in, it’s not as Tarantino as described! It’s a carefully plotted novel, slowly dropping plot-points like breadcrumbs along the road at regular intervals. The story follows the mismatched duo of William Avery, a self-important junior officer in the East […]
A strange novel filled with creeping visions and woozy memories – a purgatory on earth filled with nightmares.
The story is narrated in journal form by a biologist sent as part of a team to a contaminated coastal zone known as Area X, a mysterious location seemingly unbridled by the rules of the natural world. We are not introduced to the members of the party by name, each character is instead clinically referred to only by their role. Eleven previous teams were sent, all of which never returned, died shortly after or came back different. This theme of transmutation permeates through the whole […]
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