Book Blog #376: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

 

Title: The God of the Woods

Author: Liz Moore

# of Pages: 478 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

Review: This was more of a slow historical drama with some underlying mystery than a page-turning mystery-thriller.

In fact, it was so NOT paging turning that I kept putting this book down because I was frustrated/bored. There's a few reasons for this:

- There's time skipping (between 1950s to 1970s) AND third person POV switching, which wouldn't have been a huge issue except Moore decided to switch between a billion side characters (some of which aren't super relevant and who's perspectives are never seen again later in the story). It's super painful because right when I'm getting into the story from one person's perspective, Moore switches to another person in a different time period which breaks the immersion. 

- Since there's so many characters, there's a lot of chapters spent on telling the reader about their backgrounds which made the story progression very slow. 

The writing actually was very good (4 star worthy), but the storytelling was painful (2-3 stars) because of the above points. 

This is also one of the mysteries where I couldn't guess what happens because there's possible red herrings everywhere (make the reader appreciate the work investigators do and how hard it is to get to the truth). The ending is actually unsatisfying because it felt like it came out of nowhere rather than looking at the hints reader's received throughout the story with a different perspective. 

On a completely different note, this book reminded me of The Great Gatsby in that there was strong messaging that rich people sucks, and the games they play with other people's lives is both self-serving and deeply destructive.

Overall a good but not great slow read. I don't regret reading but do think it is too slow-paced for me to recommend it highly.

Book Blog #375: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Title: Atmosphere

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

# of Pages: 341 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis:  Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Review: If there's one thing I learned from read Atmosphere; it's that I don't have it what it takes to be an astronaut. 

I'm not particularly interested in science and space, so seeing this was about NASA's space shuttle program wasn't a selling point for me. However I do enjoy reading Taylor Jenkins Reid books, so I knew I would give it a try eventually. After reading the whole Game Changers series (smutty gay romance with a hockey backdrop) I was excited to dive into something completely different, expecting to learn a lot about this space program in the 1980s.

But I slowly realized this was in fact NOT a space book. So much for reading something different; it's first and foremost a lesbian love story (although definitely not smutty like the Game Changer series) with a backdrop of space and science. 

Honestly, the book's marketing selling this book as a space book rather than a romance book is what made this book not meet my expectations. I was not looking to slog through secret women x women romance development when I was already exhausted from doing this for previous reads 6 times over. 

The story might start with a gripping space mission-related disaster, but it time skips into the past to introduce the reader to the characters and of course the romance, which actually made me care about the romance even less because I just wanted to get back to hearing about how they were going to fix the disaster. Without spoiling it, I actually was not a fan of the ending and how it relates to the romance either; if it went the other directions, it might have actually tipped the scales enough to give this book 4 stars because it would have been more impactful.

The space aspects were actually quite readable, and I really enjoyed learning about the struggles women had breaking into the space program. There's also a subplot that explores Joan's relationships with her family that I actually was very interested in but was underdeveloped in terms of creating multi-dimensional characters. 

While this could just be a case of reading this book at the wrong time, I do think Reid tried to tackle too many topics (women's struggles/feminism in 1980s, family, and LGBTQ) and was not able to put enough attention on each one in 341 pages. If you're interested in reading a lesbian love story, I'd recommend this book but not so much if you're looking for a space story. 

Book Blog #374: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 

Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

# of Pages: 362 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

Review: I never thought I would say this, but the octopus is my favorite character.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is told from the octopus Marcellus's first-person perspective, but each chapter alternates between 3 other third-person perspectives: 

- Tova, who cleans the aquarium where Marcellus lives. She's a tidy, self-reliant 70 year old woman who's still grieving over the sudden disappearance of her son Erik even after decades have passed. 

- Cameron, who's an entitled loser from Modesto who's got mommy and daddy issues that will infuriate the reader.

- Ethan, who is similar age as Tova and works at the store Tova shops at. It's unclear why his perspective is included at all since it overlaps with Tova's and Cameron's. 

On the other hand, Marcellus is a surprisingly insightful octopus that makes you wish the whole story was told from his perspective instead. If it was, this could have been a 4 start read at least, or even if it was just from Marcellus and Tova's perspective. 

Cameron experiences basically no character growth (I don't buy the sudden "growth" at the end of the book; it felt like the author just threw that in to try to make him more likable). He's erratic, irresponsible, and like to blame his problems on those around him. Sounds like your run of the mill teenage boy who has time to grow out of these problems right? Except he's freaking 30 years old! Gives me the ick. By the end of the book, he still sounds ungrateful for those who have helped him along the way and sounds judgmental of his aunt for being a hoarder in a trailer park. 

Otherwise, the book overall is a slow paced slice-of-life style story about these characters who are tied together by a shared mystery. The mystery reveal is predictable (Van Pelt makes it very easy to piece together what ties all these characters together very early on with the knowledge from all these different characters). The real mystery ends up being how the characters themselves find out the big reveal. 

Overall, a three star read! Although the story dragged a little bit, and Cameron was insufferable, the story was cozy and a refreshing read after binging a bunch of trashy romance books. It's a wholesome read and is an applaudable effort for being Van Pelt's debut novel!

Book Blog #373: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

 

Title: Every Summer After

Author: Carley Fortune

# of Pages: 320 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Synopsis: Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right. They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without. For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart. When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Review: Fans of The Notebook will love this book!! (I did NOT like The Notebook).

Every Summer After is about two childhood friends, Sam and Persephone (Percy). Their love story is told from Percy's perspective and each chapter jumps between their childhood and their present day at age 30. The author is building toward revealing some secret on why Percy and Sam haven't seen each other for over a decade, which because more and more obvious as the book progresses.

The problem with this style of storytelling is twofold:

1. In the present day, Sam and Percy already have some sort of romantic history. When they're together, they're already supposed to have some sort of chemistry that the reader hasn't learned about yet since the childhood chapters are running in parallel. It made me feel like I was privy to something that I wasn't a part of, which hurt my early investment in their love story.

2. Readers have to hear about a teenage love story despite this being targeted toward adults. I didn't find depiction nor the dialogue for the characters as children to be particularly realistic. This part of the story was also more slice of life that felt like stalling so that the "big secret" isn't revealed too quickly.

Even after I learned more about the Sam and Percy, I didn't ever actually like either of them. Both of them had issues you could chalk up to immaturity but also these two created this "tragedy" of not being in each others lives for so long because they don't talk to each other! My feelings aside for them as individuals, I don't think they're actually better together (I actually think Percy is better matched with a different character in the book). 

The whole "love conquers all" trope that is present in both this book and The Notebook always gives me the ick because the author usually makes the characters behave morally questionably to prove this point (e.g. a character could lie or cheat / someone might illogically forgive these nefarious actions in the name of "love").

Not really a love story worth reading. 

Book Blog #372: Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

 

Title: Strange Sally Diamond

Author: Liz Nugent

# of Pages: 320 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Thriller, Mystery

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Synopsis: Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say. But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

Review: Is the thriller/mystery in the room with us?

This book aims to demonstrate how abuse can affect generations and trauma can be cyclical. It also gives the reader some insight on how dark minds justify their twisted agendas. But this book wasn't particular sinister; everything is recounted pretty clinically. It’s more of a crime book than a rollercoaster thriller/whodunnit page-turning mystery. 

I kept waiting for something to hook me in or some big mystery, but everything was hinted at very obviously. I reached the end of the book and still couldn’t figure out if any of what I read was supposed to surprise me. 

A comparison to a similar story: Although I haven’t read the books, the Netflix TV show You did a better job at showcasing the mental gymnastics a person goes through to justify actions that are otherwise blatantly messed up. People were even sympathizing with the main character, which made the horrors of what he was able to accomplish even freakier and more believable. Strange Sally Diamond tries to do something similar but less effectively and leaves the reader frustrated and disconnected from the characters. 

This book only further affirms that I don’t like POV switching. The first person narrative switches between Sally and Peter, each starting in two different places on the timeline. I could respect Sally for her logical thinking and honesty but never felt truly invested in her character growth. 

But is this book really about Sally (as the title suggests)? Peter’s story was actually more interesting; which made the POV switches back to Sally even more frustrating. Instead of switching throughout the story, there should have been a Sally prologue, and then the rest of the story could have been about Peter (might be a hot take, but it's my honest opinion). 

Maybe I’m just jaded from reading similar content, it really felt like this story could have been told more effectively in general. I wasn’t a fan of the mixed use of media (first person narrative, letters, transcripts of recordings, etc); felt like an amateur way to get out details of the story. 

The middle section of Peter’s narrative was almost a 4 star read for me; I really wanted to know what happened to this guy. But then everything fell into place rather quickly, and the conclusion of his story felt sloppy and rushed which would his overall narrative around a 3 star read. 

I wouldn't recommend this book unless it already sounds interesting to you. Go into this book expecting to read about crime rather than thriller/mystery, and you might enjoy it more than I did.