Book Reviews - All

Review of the Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton

May 20, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I admit that I’m a sucker for a witchy story so I couldn’t wait for this book to come out.

THE STORY

The story opens by introducing us to Rona Blackburn, a powerful witch who comes to Anathema island shortly after the island’s founders established themselves. Frightened by the island’s witch, the eight founding father attempt to kill Rona but are unsuccessful. Enraged by the islander’s deception, Rona places a curse upon all their descendants as well as her own.

So then we fast forward to the present day and follow 16 year old Nor Blackburn, Rona’s most recent descendant. Nor tries to keep her ever-growing magical abilities under wraps and life as normal a life as possible.

But the thing with Nor, is that she’s not like any of the other Blackburn witches before her. Up until now, each Blackburn witch had only one supernatural power with they refer to as “Burdens”. For example, her grandmother Judd has the ability to heal.

Nor’s powers, however, seem to be expanding and she’s discovering new abilities all the time. She’s afraid that others may react the way the founding fathers did toward her ancestor Rona — suspect Nor of dipping in Black Magic. Nor keeps her secret to herself, not even confiding in her Grandmother, who’s raised her.

In addition, Nor is dealing with severe emotional trauma suffered at the hands of her powerful and sociopath mother Fern. Though her mother abandoned her when Nor was only a child, the trauma remains and Nor copes by engaging in self-cutting, which I will admit, was difficult to read about.

So then a book surfaces at the Wiccan shop where Nor works entitled “The Price Guide to the Occult” which promises to cast any spell at all for the right price written and authored by none only than Vern Blackburn, Nor’s evil mother.

Moreover, the book divulges actual authentic spells from the Blackburn family. It becomes increasingly obvious to Nor’s family that the book’s success is due to dark, evil magic for which there is always a terrible price.

So the book’s publication sets in motion events tied to black magic and Nor senses that evil connected to that magic is headed straight for the island and has little doubt that this evil will be in the form of her mother.

But the question, is whether Nor’s magical abilities are enough to stop her wicked, murderous mother.

WHAT I LIKED

First off, what a beautiful book! The embossed writing on the hardcover book itself — there is no dust jacket — and the red-edge pages are gorgeous.

As for the story, the author did an excellent job at bringing to life the setting of the small town on Anathema island where we have places such the Sweet & Savory bakery and the Witching Hour Wiccan shop. And we must not forget the creepy cemetery tours as well as the plethora of the animals and plant life that the author describes.

There was really a rich sense of place in the story and it was quite atmospheric, which made the island all the more magical for me. I felt like I was right there along with all the characters.

I found the story itself to be gripping and compelling, though it ended up being a little darker than I had anticipated. I especially enjoyed the backstory of the Blackburn women, which I found fascinating. I would have actually love to know more detail about each of Rona’s descendants.

Nor’s character, while tough to read about at times, was especially multi-layered as she struggled not only with her ever-growing magical powers and the curse placed upon the Blackburn women by her ancestor, but she also had to contend with inner turmoil from being abused and then abandoned by a heartless mother.

There was also her constant struggle not to cut herself as she did in the past. It was heartbreaking to read at times as her urge for self-harm almost overwhelmed her but in a testament to the strength and courage of her character, she was able to overcome those urges, knowing that cutting herself is not the way to deal with her problems. So in this way, she was a character who had to fight not only inner demons and external monsters as well.

I loved all the fresh, complex and original secondary characters in the novel: grandmother Judd and her wife Apothia, Madge, Nor’s best friend Savvy, the enigmatic Gage, her crush, Reed and all the unique island folks.

The author did an excellent job of bringing them all to life, and they jumped off the page for me while I was reading the story. I enjoyed reading about their histories and their life on the island and appreciated how each character introduced was important to the unfolding of the story.

Vern’s character, however, was terrifying and chilling. She was the ultimate villain: vicious, heartless, clever and clearly insane with no remorse. Once Vern appears, the story definitely takes a darker turn as she causes some pretty horrifying, gruesome deaths.

The story also had an intriguing magic system, and I liked the idea that each Blackburn woman possessed only one witchy ability which they called Burdens, and any of them who manifests magic outside of her Burden is engaging in Black Magic, which of course, is a huge no-no. The magic as described in the book is vivid and distinctive — the unique descriptions of Judd healing others and the hand pain she experienced in doing so seemed so life-like that I could almost feel her pain as I read along.

In fact, I found all the magical descriptions equally fascinating. One Blackburn witch had the ability to manipulate minds while another to ease the transition to death. Nor’s first Burden was at the ability to hear the thoughts of plants and animals which I found an especially interesting ability.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

While I did enjoy aspects of Vern’s character, I felt that she was a little over the top. She’s kind of what I refer to as a “Snidely Whiplash villain” in which there are no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

She said herself once during the book that she didn’t need money as she could conjure whatever she wanted. So I was a bit unclear as to the purpose of her publishing the book — to allow readers to obtain whatever they desired.

I didn’t really get the motivation for Vern to become a famous author and make scads of money if money wasn’t what she was after. I always like my villains to have a strong reason for what they do — not just be evil for the sake of being evil. So in this way, Vern was a bit one dimensional as there was no real motivation behind her actions.

Though I felt that the author did an excellent job with most of the characters, I also felt the Reed, Nor’s love interest, was a little bland and could also have used a bit more development.

Additionally, I was confused as to why Nor didn’t confide in her grandmother about her extra abilities. The reasoning why she hid her powers from her family was unclear to me, especially when she could have been assisting Judd all along with healing the people in the community. Likewise, Judd may have been able to help Nor understand and control her new abilities.

The ending felt a little bit unsatisfying for me. Well, it wasn’t the ending actually; it was the epilogue. Though the plot does completely wrap up at the end — that is to say, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger — the resulting situation for our main characters as put forth in the epilogue was not all that desirable.

There wasn’t really a “happily ever after” here, as our characters are under heavy suspicion, scrutiny and perhaps even danger by society as the book’s end. The epilogue could pave the way for a sequel I suppose, but overall, I wasn’t a fan.

FINAL VERDICT

Overall, this was an enjoyable story with an engaging storyline and rich, interesting characters. It was a tad slow-paced at first but really picked up steam toward the last quarter of the book.

That being said, I still found it an enchanting story, and the writing was evocative and lyrical with rich, lush prose that was at times haunting.

Be warned, however, that the book does explore some dark themes such as parental abandonment, self-harm, and abuse which may be triggers for some people.

Though it was darker then I had initially expected, I felt that Walton has crafted a wonderfully spooky story with a great deal of atmosphere and a thrilling sequence of events leading to an explosive climax. This is a well-told tale riveting tale with an intriguing magic system, and I’m glad I read it. I give it 4 stars.

You can check out The Price Guide for the Occult here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

May 19, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This is the second novel written entirely in free verse that I’ve read, the first being A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. I’ve really warmed up to this succinct type of format and would definitely read more of this type of novel. It’s such a unique way to tell a story and the more I’m exposed to this type of storytelling, the more it resonates with me. And this is coming from someone who is not a fan of poetry.

The Story

While reading this, I felt as though I were reading an autobiography, but all in verse.

The book follows Xiomara Batista, a teenage Dominican girl, who has a twin brother. It’s interesting to note that her name — Xiomara — literally means “one who is ready for war” and this name fits her perfectly. Because of her mature and shapely body, is the target of sexual harassment from her peers – consisting of endless groping, objectification and lewd comments — causing her to continually defend herself with harsh words and her fists. She’s not one who hesitates in doing battle when necessary.

This quote from the book sums the harassment she had to experience nicely:

”I am the baby fat that settled into D-cups and swinging hips so that the boys who called me a whale in middle school now ask me to send them pictures of myself in a thong.”

So in this way, there is a good amount of body shaming and body guilt in this story, not only by the boys at school but also by her mother.

She also often has to defend her brother, Xavier, a shy meek boy who is also bullied at school. I love how Xiomara never refers to her brother by name, but only as “Twin” because, according to her, she is the only one who can call her that.

Her mother is ultra-religious to the point of being extreme, and from the story, it seems that her entire world revolves around her religion. There is no middle of the road with her — everything is black and white, and not to be questioned.

Xiomara, however, questions her religion but keeps her questioning to herself, fearing her mother’s wrath. It’s worth mentioning that the manner in which her mother force feeds Xiomara her religious beliefs borders on abuse and she uses her religion to harm both Xiomara and her brother emotionally.

Another secret that Xiomara has kept from her mother is her poetry — notebook after notebook worth, in which she pours all of her frustrations, her hopes, her dreams and her doubts. It’s through her poetry that she find freedom — the freedom to breathe in her otherwise constrictive, suffocating world.

There is also a boy named Aman that Xiomara has been seeing. It’s worth mentioning that dating of any kind is a huge no-no and her mother expressly forbids it until she’s in college. Her mother has a very low opinion of men in general for which we learn the reason as the story progresses.

So her English teacher invites and urges Xiomara to join her school’s slam poetry club which she wants to do more than anything, but she knows that this is something her mother would never agree to and would no doubt severely punish her if she found out about it.

But regardless of her fear, Xiomara joins the club and skips her Confirmation classes to do so.

And it’s through this club that Xiomara experiences a who new level of freedom. But the question is: how long can she keep it up without her mother finding out?

Of course, Xiomara is unable to hide who she really is indefinitely, and it’s no surprise that it all coalesces into a gigantic explosion.

WHAT I LIKED

First off, I loved Xiomara’s teacher. She really struck a chord with me because I had a similar teacher when I was in high school who encouraged me to pursue writing. I even had an extra assignment to keep a writing journal that I had to turn in every week. I can’t underestimate the importance of teachers like this, who encourage you when other’s don’t. So it’s because of this teacher that Xiomara dared to take that frightening first step.

The story is told from Xiomara’s perspective, so we get a peek at what’s really going on in her head. Though to the world she shows only her tough exterior, we see a confused and vulnerable girl instead with at times raging emotions as she pours her heart into her poetry.

I found Xiomara’s character so relatable even if you don’t necessarily come from a home with strict, religious parents because that sense of not belonging or insecurity are feelings that we’ve all experienced at one time or another.

I especially liked the strength and conviction she exhibited even when faced with what seemed like insurmountable obstacles, such as her mother forcing her to obey the laws of the church or the blatant sexism and harassment she encountered at school.

So though her writing, we see Xiomara’s views on body image/body shaming, religion, sexuality, family, womanhood, sexism, and abuse, all very intense but important topics.

I also loved how via her inner strength, she moves past her mother’s rules and abuse as she begins to explore her sexuality and learns to understand that her feelings toward Aman are not wrong, wicked, evil or sinful.

This story is a phenomenal exploration of a young girl who, though constantly told that she’s not feminine enough, devout enough, or good enough, moves past these judgments to a place of pride at who she is — an admirable positive message to any young person who may face similar judgements in their lives.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything I didn’t like about this novel. I would have loved to have learned more about “Twin” and about his and Xiomara’s relationship. Because the story is recounted through Xiomara’s singular perspective, the other characters weren’t entirely as developed as they could have been. I would have enjoyed learning more about her mother’s past and what events brought her to the religious extremism. This was touched on a bit in the novel, but more detail would have been welcome.

My one real niggle with the book was in Xavier’s portrayal. He’s gay and is portrayed as timid, shy and unable/unwilling to fight his own battles. In fact, his sister has to step in and fight his battles for him repeatedly. These kinds of stereotypes really bother me in stories — where the gay person is portrayed as weak and emasculated. Sure, I do understand that this was used as a plot device to illustrate Xiomara’s aggressive nature. But I wish the author could have done so in a different way, without resorting to negative gay stereotypes.

FINAL VERDICT

I was utterly blown away by this book so much so that I devoured it in one day. This is a powerful, revelatory and sometimes raw coming of age story with a courageous and admirable main character.

Child abuse is a subject that I especially struggle with, so I found parts of this difficult to read, similar to my experience with The Dangerous Art of Blending In, another book I read recently.

But though The Poet X is heartbreaking and raw in places, it is ultimately hopeful and positive, as compromise is reached. I wish I had read this book when I was a teen.

In summary, this is a touching and emotional story of survival and of triumphing to become one’s authentic self, and I recommend it, even if you’re not one who typically goes for poetry. As I said, I’m not a poetry person, but this book blew me away. I loved it and gave it 4 stars.

You can check out The Poet X here at Amazon or at The Book Depository

Review of The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

May 16, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Miseducation of cameron post book cover The Miseducation of Cameron Post was on quite a few banned books list so it immediately attracted my attention (I love me some banned books!).

This story takes place in the early 1990’s follows a young lesbian teen named Cameron Post whose parents are suddenly killed in a car crash. As it turns out, Cameron, who was 12 years old at the time, had been kissing a girl — her friend Irene— hours before her parent’s death. So she ending up linking these two events in her mind creating some major guilt and in her preadolescent mind, wonders whether the death of her parents just might be God’s way of punishing her for her forbidden kiss.

And all this takes place right off the bat in the story.

So Cam is then sent off to live with her grandmother and her ultra-conservative and ultra-religious Aunt Ruth in Miles City, Montana. As Cameron steps into her teenage years, she comes to accept that she is a lesbian and makes another gay friend (ahem…a friend with benefits), Lindsey who teaches her the “gay” ropes and who lovingly refers to Cam as a baby dyke, which always gave me a chuckle

So I thought this was going to be sort of a coming-of-age tale of a young lesbian girl figuring out who she is.

But then the story took quite a surprising and disturbing turn — Cameron is outed to her Auth Ruth, and as a result, things don’t end up too well for our heroine, as Aunt Ruth takes drastic action, intent on “fixing” her niece. She sends to her God’s Promise church camp, one of those “pray away the gay” compounds.

And our story gets quite interesting from there.

WHAT I LIKED

I loved the character of Cameron as she was quite the firecracker. One author’s blurb on the back of the book said “If Holden Caulfield had been a gay girl from Montana, this is the story he might have told” — and I definitely have to agree, given that I just read Catcher in the Rye and Holden is still fresh in my mind.

Like Holden, Cameron was so realistically portrayed and she felt so real to me that she almost jumped off the page as I read about her adventures…and misadventures.

So though she did have somewhat of a strong ego and independent streak, it was these qualities which allowed her to reject the judgment of those authority figures in her life and maintain her self-esteem through it all.

This was especially true when she realizes that often, the people who are supposedly in charge really don’t have a clue about what they’re doing and are just winging it as they go along. That’s pretty much adulthood in a nutshell.

Now while Cameron certainly can be snarky at times, she’s also intelligent, strong, surprisingly adaptable and brave, and she’s able to maneuver through any shit storm that comes her way.

There really is so much to like about this story. I loved the vivid, detailed descriptions and the author brought the location to life. The storyline was also gripping with wonderfully snappy dialog and unique characters that were not clichés or cardboard cutouts, with all of this leading to a marvelously done story.

And speaking of the characters, I also enjoyed the varied cast of secondary characters, most of which were nicely developed and each relevant in their own way to the plot.

Now to the author’s credit, she doesn’t portray the Christians in this story has mean-spirited hateful bigots. In fact, there weren’t any real villains in the story per se. The counselors like Rick and Lydia, and even Cameron’s Aunt Ruth, all felt that they were doing the right thing and believed that what they were doing was in Cameron’s ultimate best interest (though I have to say that I despised Aunt Ruth).

Still, in general, I have a difficult time reading stories about these ”gay conversion therapy” camps whose goal it was to cure teen girls and boys of homosexuality. Thankfully, this type of therapy seen these days as a form of child abuse and these types of institutions are on the decline, at least to my understanding.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

I felt that the book was a little on the long side. I remember thinking a couple of times, “this is really dragging” so in this way, it could have used a little snipping here and there.

I also was not a fan of the ending. You know, if you’re one of those folks who likes things nicely tied up at the end, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. In fact, I found the ending rather abrupt. It’s not that it ended on a cliffhanger or anything – there just didn’t seem to be a whole lot of resolution at the story’s finale.

For instance, I would have loved to find out how Cam got on about six months down the road. I also would have loved to see how Cam’s future relationship with Ruth, her Grandma, or even Coley developed. I think a nice little Epilogue of 20 pages or so would have been lovely, maybe with a little glimpse into Cam’s future. I admit that I’m somewhat of a closure junkie so a little more resolution would have been nice.

I should also mention that though this is classified as a Young Adult novel, there is drinking, drug use, shoplifting, and blatant sexual situations, elements which some people might not like to see in their YA books.

FINAL VERDICT

This book was quite an emotional roller coaster ride and there are some dark moments in the story that are challenging to get through.

Your heart can’t help but break for Cam as she struggled to make the best out of a bad situation — and then there’s Mark’s story, which is also quite disturbing and heart-wrenching.

That being said, this isn’t a fluffy YA book at all; rather, it deals with some serious topics such as betrayal, love, loss, self-acceptance, religion and sexual confusion. I don’t mean to imply that this is a grim story because it’s not — it definitely has its fun, light and humorous elements as well.

In summary, I absolutely loved this story, and while it was heartbreaking in places, it was also a beautiful coming-of-age story with a riveting plot, a strong narrative and compelling, well-fleshed out characters, especially Cameron, whom I bonded with right from the get-go. I found the courage and adaptability Cam shows throughout the novel to be praiseworthy and impressive.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post was an amazing book, and I’m so glad that it crossed my path, though it did leave me wanting more at the end of it all. I ended up giving this novel 4 stars.

You can check out the book here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of Fourteen Summers by Quinn Anderson

May 15, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The Story

This story follows identical twins Aiden and Max, but they couldn’t be more different. Max is straight, and Aiden is gay. Max is the more outgoing of the two whereas Aiden is shyer and more introverted twin, often referred to as “Max’s brother.” But in spite of their differences, the Kingsman twins are pretty much inseparable. They even chose to not only go to the same university but also to room together while there.

One day while home for summer, they run into their childhood best friend Oliver, with whom they had lost touch and hadn’t seen in 10 years and who happened to be Aiden’s childhood crush. Imagine Aiden’s surprise when he not only learns that Oliver (who is now quite hot, by the way) is gay, but that he also had a childhood crush on Oliver. Needless to say, once these two reunite, sparks begin to fly, though it did take a bit for them to get together initially, given that they’re both introverts with neither of them daring to make the first move.

While all three of them were young, Oliver and the Kingsman twins were almost inseparable with a lot of precious memories shared between them. Max assumed now that the three of them were reunited, they’d inevitably pick up where they’d left off — as three good friends enjoying a summer together. But as Aiden and Oliver’s relationship moves from friendship to something deeper, Max feels hurt and excluded, not understanding how his brother could choose Oliver over him. And drama ensues.

What I liked

First thing I have to say was that I loved the cover! It was this that initially caught my attention and made me read the blurb so kudos to the cover designer.

The story itself was a sweet and tender romance, and I enjoyed the build between Aiden and Oliver. Though things did progress rather quickly, it’s not unbelievable given the history between them. It was an endearing story of two boys given a second chance at love, and I loved both Oliver and Aiden, in all their stumbles, blunders and flounders. Their awkwardness with each other made them all the more lovable.

What especially worked for me, was that this book stressed the importance of relationships between family and not only those of the romantic kind. That being said, this wasn’t only a story of two childhood friends falling in love, but it was also about the need to give ALL the relationships in our life equal importance, not just the romantic one. What’s interesting about this book is that it delved into several different types of relationships: friendship, romance, siblings and family units and it did so masterfully, in my opinion.

The situation in this book reminded me of how friendships often become tested when one of those involved begins dating outside of the friendship. The situation in this book is magnified given that the friendship that’s being tested is that of identical twin brothers who’ve spent their entire life with each other and each of whose world revolved around the other. I enjoyed seeing the both of them adjust as they began to figure out who are they apart from their twin.

Another thing that really worked for me was that the novel was told from each of the boy’s perspective. Though Aiden and Oliver, we experienced the exhilaration and excitement of the developing of a new romance whereas though Max’s point of view, we get the fear, uncertainty, and confusion he goes through when he feels as though he’s losing his brother. Via this device, the author did an excellent job of fleshing out each of these three characters and we as the reader could empathize equally with each of them.

I thought this was going to be a light and fluffy beach type of read but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the story. And the ending was just perfect.

What I didn’t like

There were a few times during the story when the characters felt more like young high school students rather than college students. There were some parts in the book where I wanted to ask the Max and Aiden, “what, are you like 13?” So in this way, the maturity level at times didn’t seem to match the age of the characters.

To be honest, I felt that the co-dependent nature Max and Aiden’s relationship may have been a teeny-tiny bit over the top. I mean, I’m sure they dated other people…wouldn’t they have? I might have liked to have read a little more backstory on the boys’ dating life or learn whether they had friendships outside of their relationship with each other.

Final Verdict

I ended up loving this book! I found it humorous, light-hearted and an overall enjoyable read. And for the record, the book ends with a happily-ever-after, and there was one point near the end of the book where my eyes definitely became a bit moist.

I was totally drawn into Aiden, Max and Oliver’s story and couldn’t put it down once I started. It was funny and heartwarming with a tiny bit of angst and drama along the way. Fourteen Summers left me feeling happy for all of the main characters with a case of the warm fuzzys once I reached the end.

In Fourteen Summers, Quinn delivers a sweet romance filled with rich well-devloped characters, friends, fun, and family that will induce ear-to-ear grins (at least it did for me).

I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review so as of this writing, the book is not yet available. It is expected to be released on May 21, 2018, so be sure to check out Riptide Publishing or your favorite retailer at that time. A big thank you to Netgalley and Riptide for this opportunity.

You can check out Fourteen Summers here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of Detour by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

May 14, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Detour follows 18-year-old Ethan who embarks on a road trip shortly after his graduation. We learn that this was a trip Ethan had originally planned on taking with his boyfriend and love of his life Scott, who was murdered at school by a shooter. Ethan’s not really sure why he’s taking the trip though we do know that he’s still reeling from the loss of Scott so perhaps he’s hoping the trip will help him to figure out who he is without his boyfriend. It’s also worth mentioning that Ethan is suffering from a severe case of survivor’s guilt.

So it’s dark, the weather is bad, and Ethan almost runs over a hitchhiker. Despite his family’s repeated warnings of never picking up hitchhikers, Ethan offers the hitchhiker a ride. We learn that his name is Nick and that he also has his own demons he’s running away from. He has just left one of those “pray away the gay” type of camps called Camp Cornerstone and is basically homeless and broke. Funny, this is the second book right in a row that I’ve read which revolved around these types of compounds, a trope that I typically avoid.

Not only that, we learn that prior to Nick’s “enrollment” at Camp Cornerstone, he was in an abusive relationship with a controlling, stalkerish, and a rather creepy man named Kyle. That being said, Nick is the much more mistrusting and bitter of the two, given that he’s been betrayed by every important person in his life. It’s additionally worth mentioning that Nick has also experienced the death of someone close to him, which adds to the emotional turmoil he’s experiencing

So after having faith that neither of them is going to kill the other in their sleep (the topic of “stranger danger” comes up several times during the story), they decide to embark on Ethan’s road trip together. So basically, we have two characters who have gone through horrific events and who are basically broken — they’re both confused, hurt and trying to find themselves in a world that up to this point, has not proven to be overly kind.

WHAT I LIKED

I really enjoyed the dynamics between these two vivid and lovable characters. Though they were both hurting and perhaps a bit mistrustful, they both opened up to each other and throughout the trip, treated each other with kindness and respect — though it did take Nick somewhat longer to open up which isn’t surprising given that he’d been let down by everyone in his life up to this point.

But it was lovely to see the healing that took place with the both of them as they each helped the other work through the terrible events of their past and explored their grief together. I also really loved Ethan’s tender kindheartedness towards Nick, which I felt showed a lot of strength as a character.

There was a lot of enjoyable banter between the two of them, and both Ethan and Nick had a wonderful sense of humor which made me chuckle out loud on more than one occasion.

I also loved the slow burn romance aspect of this story, which I have to admit is one of my favorite tropes. I loved how the relationship between these two broken characters slowly developed over the trip, resulting not only in the blossoming of a new love but also in much-needed healing for the both of them. In fact, I felt that the entire story wasn’t at all rushed and unfolded at just the right pace. The author did a nice job at showing the relationship progress between Ethan and Nick.

I’m also a huge fan of road trip stories, and this one was no exception. It was fun experiencing through our characters all the zany and kitschy places they visited (Titanic museum and hotel, anyone?) and the adventures they had along the way.

But what especially worked for me in the story was the healing and growth these two characters experienced as we moved throughout the book. As their backstory unfolded and they confided more and more in each other, they both underwent several realizations and revelations that helped them grow as characters. Thus, they were able to overcome the adversity that had them both nearly paralyzed before they met.

In this way, Detour is about two lost souls finding themselves and not allowing their circumstances to prevent them from evolving into the people they’re meant to be.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Though I enjoyed the snappy banter between the two characters, there were a few times when I felt that it went on and on a bit too long. I did catch myself thinking on a few occasions that the non-stop snark was getting a bit tiring — maybe even grating on my nerves a bit – and felt that the story could have done with a little less of it.

FINAL VERDICT

I ended up loving this book. In the midst of darkness and turmoil, there is fun and humor, and I found myself laughing out loud several times throughout the story at the witty dialog that Detour throws at the reader. Though it will break your heart in places, it is also sweet and playful in others.

The writing is solid and clear, and the touching backstory helped us to know and understand each character’s motivation. I also felt that the characters themselves are meticulously developed, and as such, the reader truly feels the depth of their hurt and guilt and their past unfolds.

Detour is a powerful and revelatory coming-of-age novel of two boys trying to overcome their pasts, so in this way, it’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. The main charm of this book is in it’s plain and simple relatability. Though we may not all have gone through the exact things as Ethan and Nick, the majority of us have at some point experienced heartbreak, grief or difficult circumstances that have kept us stuck.

All in all, Detour is a lovely sweet romance between two boys who, in working through their past demons, come out stronger on the other side and I loved it. I’d give this book 4 1/2 stars.

You can check out the book here on Amazon

Review of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

May 7, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

So I know that this isn’t a new book – in fact, the novel was published in 1966 I believe. It originally started out as a short story that was published in 1958. But I’ve never read it, and it somehow came to my attention recently, so I picked it up. I listened to the audiobook version of this, which was narrated by Jeff Woodman and I really ended up loving his narration – he did a fantastic job of telling the story through our protagonist’s voice.

THE STORY

So if you haven’t read it, the story takes place in the mid–1960’s and follows a developmentally disabled 32-year-old man named Charlie Gordon, who has an IQ of 68. But Charlie is given the opportunity to undergo a surgical procedure that will supposedly dramatically increase his intelligence. This procedure has already been performed on a laboratory mouse named Algernon with amazing results. Charlie, however, is the first human subject.  So the story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie, in which he chronicles everything that happens to him. Via these reports, we see Charlie’s intelligence reach genius levels as evidenced by these progress reports. It was interesting to note slow changes and Charlie’s writing ability increased slowly.

Before and after the operation, Charlie competes against Algernon to complete a maze and initially, Algernon beats him because of course, he is extra-clever thanks to the experimental brain operation. But Charlie is determined to beat Algernon and eventually, he does.

But getting smarter brings some cruel realizations along with it. For instance, slowly, Charlie is able to remember past events in his life and realizes that those people whom he called friends — his coworkers at the bakery where Charlie works sweeping floors and scrubbing toilets — have been making fun of and laughing at Charlie all along.  Disturbing memories of his parents and his home life also resurfaced during this time. And as more of his past become clear, it’s sad when Charlie becomes anti-social, bitter and even resentful, especially toward those who he felt had taken advantage of him.  Throughout this story, it was interesting to ponder what affect Charlie’s intelligence had on his own humanity, especially in his treatment of others. It was also worth noting how Charlie’s intelligence negatively affected his personal relationships.

What follows is a sort of emotional reckoning of sorts, as Charlie tries to come to terms with who he was and who he his now, as he attempts to balance his constantly changing worldview and throughout all, Charlies learns that high intelligence is not without its problems and challenges.

So, finally, because of his genius-level intelligence, Charlie eventually even surpasses the scientists in charge of the experiment and is able to discover what he refers to as the experiment’s fatal flaw.

WHAT I LIKED

I really liked the diary entry format of the story, told completely from Charlie’s point of view.  I also felt that the author did an excellent job of first making us feel sorry for Charlie, then happy for him following the experiment’s success, with those feelings then turning into anger toward him as he lost his innocence, and his kindness — and all of this was done via the progress reports, which I thought was a brilliant device.

In fact, the whole premise of the novel intrigued me. I loved the idea of asking: “What would the life of an intellectually disabled man be like if he could be given genius intellectual capacity?” – and the result as envisioned by the author was not only gripping and mesmerizing but also disturbing if not slightly terrifying.

Another thing that really resonated with me during the story was how Charlie struggled to be seen as a person and not as an experiment. This need of Charlie’s was responsible for his sudden rudeness and ungracious-like behavior in the novel. It was almost horrifying as Charlie discovered that before the operation, people barely considered him a person.  This made me think of how often people dehumanize those who are different than themselves in order to justify their mistreatment or hatred of those people, which lead me at one point to conclude that as a society, in some ways we haven’t come all that far since 1958. This was especially evident when – I believe it was Dr. Nemur — stated something to the effect that he “created” Charlie when they operated on him, implying that he wasn’t a legitimate person before the operation.

In this way, this novel makes the reader perhaps stop and take a serious look at how we treat the other people in our lives or simply people we come across in day to day life.

I also enjoyed the exploration of different levels or kinds of intelligence. For instance, though Charlie’s IQ may have been at genius levels, his emotional intelligence lagged, leading to difficulties in his relationships with women. So while the story was kind of a coming of age or coming into oneself, in many ways it also went hand in hand with the loss of Charlie’s innocence.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Though I felt that this novel aged well since 1966, there are some parts of it that feel kind of dated. For instance, people constantly referring to Charlie as “mentally retarded” which is considered a derogatory expression today.

In fact, I remember a few years ago when the words “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” were stripped from federal health, education and labor policy and replaced with “Intellectual disability.” In any case, today those words are considered not only politically incorrect today but also hurtful and dehumanizing.

What was also jarring was how everyone in the novel smoked, which isn’t a negative of the novel itself — just that in some ways, it was a novel of its time period.  Another thing was that the book was more or less predictable. I pretty much figured out from the get-go what was going to happen though I didn’t know when or how.

Another niggle was that some of the characters could have been developed a little better — namely Fay and Alice. They felt a little flat to me.

I did feel that the novel went out of its way to illustrate how shitty and broken people are. Yes, I realized that it was meant to show society’s bad side, but maybe it went a little overboard in places.

THE VERDICT

Flowers for Algernon was powerful and absolutely amazing, and I’m so so glad it finally came to my attention. Though the book was easy to read, it was at the same time heart wrenching and thought-provoking. It leads the reader to take a step back and ponder several important questions, such as what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be a person? What does it mean to “fit in”?  Though it was heartbreaking and difficult to read in some places, it was insightful and a book that will no doubt stay with me for a long time to come. I really loved this book and ended up giving four stars.

You can check out Flowers for Algernon here at Amazon or at The Book Depository