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Review of Fourteen Summers by Quinn Anderson

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Fourteen summers book coverThe 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

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Detour follows 18-year-old Ethan who embarks on a road trip shortly after his graduation. We learn that this was a trip Detour book coverEthan 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

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Flowers for algernon book coverSo 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

Review of the Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

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The golem and the jinni book coverI’m not sure how this book came to my attention. I know I saw it mentioned on someone’s BookTube channel but unfortunately, I don’t recall which channel.

THE STORY

In The Golem and The Jinni, we have a blend of Arab and Jewish mythology and folklore resulting is a mesmerizing historical fantasy.

The story begins when a golem, a creature of Jewish folklore made of clay is created by Kabbalistic magic by a former rabbi now turned dark magician and sold to a merchant who had plans to make the Golem his wife. Not yet awakened, the merchant and his sleeping Golem head from Poland to America to begin a new life.

His plan was to awaken the Golem once they arrived in America but the man could wait no longer. He opens this Golem’s crate and awakens her. She barely has a chance to get to know her master when he suddenly dies on the ship from a burst appendix.
 Now masterless, confused and frightened, she finds herself in New York in 1899. Luckily, a local Rabbi — Rabbi Meyer — recognizes her for what she is and offers to help her integrate into this strange new society. New for her, that is, as she’s only been alive for a couple of days.

Given that he can’t simply refer to her as “The Golem”, the Rabbi names her “Chava.”

The second creature in our story, a Jinni, a creature of Arabic folklore who is given the name Ahmad, perhaps more commonly known as a Djin or a genie. The Jinni is a creature of fire, and this particular Jinni was born in the ancient Syrian Desert over a thousand years ago.
 He is released accidentally from a flask by a tinsmith, and when the Jinni awakens, he notices that he now wears an iron wrist-cuff which means only one thing: that he was trapped in the flask by a wizard and that he’s been inside the flask for over a thousand years. The Jinni, however, has no memory of the wizard nor how he came to be in the flask.

So the story follows both our Golem and our Jinni as they try to fit in with their immigrant neighbors while hiding who — or should I say what — they really are. It’s a wonderful tale of two creatures trying to fit into a world they don’t understand.
 One evening, they haphazardly meet by chance on the streets of New York and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. But a few weeks after their initial meeting, a dreadful incident occurs involving both of them, and because of it, the two of them retreat back into their own world and stop seeing each other.

So then a powerful evil — the villain of our story – arrives in town and we learn he is someone who links the two of them together. But not only that, his arrival threatens both the Golem’s and the Jinni’s existence, bringing them back together once again out of necessity.

WHAT I LIKED

The characters of the Golem and the Jinni are some of the most unique that I’ve encountered. I really enjoyed the fresh premise of a creature of Jewish mythology and one of Arab mythology coming together to form an alliance — and all of this blending into a fantasy/historical fiction novel made it all the more rich.
 Speaking of rich, the characters of the Jinni and the Golem were not only well-developed but quite complex.

I thought it was fun how this ended up being a story of opposites, with the fiery, free-spirited, womanizing Jinni on the one hand and the stoic, overly cautious, almost prudish Golem whose sole purpose is to serve a master, on the other.
 And even their age is miles or should I say centuries apart, with the Golem being just days old and the Jinni well over a thousand.
 I also enjoyed all of the wonderfully eccentric supporting characters: Ice Cream Saleh, Anna, Chava’s coworker at the bakery, Arbeely the tinsmith who freed the Jinni, the Rabbi’s nephew Michel who runs a homeless shelter and Maryam Faddoul, the owner of the coffee house. Each of them added an essential element and depth to the story.
 Of course, my favorite characters were the Golem and the Jinni.

Speaking of the characters, I’d have to say that the character development is profound and pretty much ongoing throughout the entire novel which made reading this all the more fun. It’s also worth mentioning that though was was an enormous cast of characters, they were introduced slowly, one at a time, so the story never became confusing.

I love how, though Chava was only recently brought to life, she possesses an all-too-human empathy toward others. In fact, the day of her arrival in New York, she steals food from a vendor in order to give it to a hungry boy. She’s definitely the more emotional of the two creatures and extremely sensitive to the feelings of others, as we also see in her caring for her Coworker Anna. This might have something to do with the Golem’s ability to hear the thoughts and know the desires of others.

The Jinni, on the other hand, is wilder, passionate and much more rash than the Golem. He’s willing to explore his new world whereas the Golem approaches it more hesitatingly, more cautiously.

But no matter what happens to them, we as the reader, always need to remember that the Golem and the Jinni are two creatures tied to their natures, no matter how much they may wish to convince themselves otherwise.
 In this way, the author brings her characters to rich life, letting all of them thrive in their complexity and near-humanness. I did find it especially interesting how whenever these two creatures got together, they always ended up deeply discussing the human condition, an interesting topic for two non-human creatures.

Another thing that really worked for me in this story was the exquisite world-building. It’s apparent that the author did an incredible amount of research for this novel – research into setting both turn-of-the-century life in New York as well as the Syrian desert of old, research into culture, religion, into the different groups of people represented in the story, into cultural magic as well religious magic.
 The author did an expert job of integrating these details into the story while never thrusting an information dump onto us and at times, I felt as though I really were in another place and time. We also get a riveting look into both the Jewish and the Arabic immigrant subculture communities of the late 19th century.

I also really enjoyed how the author gives us bits and pieces, only a little at a time, of the Jinni’s past and how he came to be trapped in the flask and what actions led up to his entrapment.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

In my humble opinion, there’s not much to dislike about the book. My only real niggle is that it took about six months before the Jinni and the Golem finally encountered one another – I think it was around page 172 in the book – and I was getting a bit impatient at this point for them to finally get together.

There were a few points in the book where the story dragged and I felt that there was some unnecessary description in places but apart from that, I loved every moment of the story.
 I also would have liked to have learned a little more about the Kabbalistic magic that brought the Golem to life. A little more backstory about the Jinni’s people would have been welcome as well.

VERDICT

This book is phenomenal! It’s one of the most surprising and engrossing books I’ve read in awhile, with plenty of action and drama that kept me interested in what happens next.

It’s a wonderfully rich and fascinating story of mystical creatures, old magicians and ancient cultures with a unique, well-developed plot that was all brought together into a marvelous conclusion. So in this way, it was both a plot-driven and a character-driven story.

And the prose is beautiful! The author really has a knack for bringing a scene to life in her pages, and I could easily picture the characters and the evocative setting.

The Golem and The Jinni was not only engaging but also a wonderful study of human nature and included such themes as religion, diversity, duty, choice, desires, loneliness, free will and freedom, religious faith or the lack thereof, tradition and loving our neighbors.

It was an engaging book with flowing evocative prose, well-rounded characters, a magical atmosphere and phenomenal world-building that I had a hard time putting down. I could really give this book no less than five stars.

So this book was actually written a while ago – in 2013. But after researching the author a bit, I learned that she is working on a sequel entitled “The Iron Season” which is due out this year (2018) from Harper Collins. I can’t wait to get it!

You can check out The Golem and The Jinni here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Seven husbands of evelyn hugoThis is a book that was this month’s read at my book club. I knew nothing about this book going in and judging by the title, I figured that it probably wouldn’t be a book that I’d enjoyed. Well, it just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its title.
 When I was younger, I used to love reading biographies of old Hollywood Actresses, such as Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn and I thought about them as I read this book.
 There were many times as I was reading the story that I had to remind myself that this was only a fictional account of a fictional actress. But it felt so real!

THE STORY

This book follows an unknown celebrity magazine reporter at Vivant Magazine named Monique Grant who is beyond surprised when she learns that Evelyn Hugo, an aging reclusive Hollywood movie icon who hasn’t given an interview in decades – specifically requests Monique to interview her, much to the magazine editor’s dismay.
 Her editor is freaking out, not understanding why this actress would choose a rookie reporter who’s only done puff pieces up to this point and she has serious doubts as to whether Monique is up to the task.
 But regardless of her boss’s doubts, Evelyn wants Monique, and if she doesn’t get her, she threatens to go elsewhere.

Now Monique herself has just gone through a bit of bad luck herself. Her husband David has left her, and she feels as though her professional life is going nowhere. But regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to move her career forward.

But once Monique arrives at Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, she learns that Ms. Hugo does not, in fact, wish Monique to interview her at all. What she wants is for Monique to write a book of Hugo’s entire life story, a story that nobody else knows and a project from which Monique could make millions.

What can she do but agree? So Monique then becomes Evelyn Hugo’s biographer.

There is, of course, a reason for this generous offer, one of the two twists in the book…this one not revealed until the end.

So Evelyn Hugo, though she has lived her entire life in the public eye, is full of secrets and she lets them loose one at a time. Evelyn constantly reinforces the fact that she has hidden many things from the public but all will become clear during their time together. Let me just say that there are so many juicy stories about Evelyn’s life’s that surprise and shock and reader.

The novel reads like an autobiography as we hear Evelyn Hugo’s life unfold. We learn how she started out as a 14-year-old Cuban girl who traded in her virginity for a ride to Hollywood and once in Hollywood, Evelyn became unstoppable, trading on her beauty and her sexuality, in order to achieve her dream of becoming a star.

The novel progresses, in linear order, from one husband to the next and each husband is given his own chapter with a special title that reflects their personality or Evelyn’s opinion of them.  Some were good, some not so good. But Evelyn used all of them for her own gain in one way or another, often to move ahead to the next step in her career.

Her love life and her career take numerous twists and turns, but via her narration, we learn that what the public believed was nothing at all like what actually went on behind closed doors. It was all a fictional image – a mirage. It kind of reminded me of a line from the Wizard of Oz “Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain.” But however she managed it, Evelyn nearly always got what she wanted.

So true to her promise, Evelyn tells everything to Monique, and we learn about the scandals surrounding her, her heartbreaks and successes, the ups and downs of being a commodity in Hollywood during the 1950’s to the 1980’s, her constant plotting and planning to stay at the forefront.

Evelyn played the Hollywood game expertly — dated famous men to further her career and used her brains and her body to get what she wanted.

Yes, Evelyn is deeply flawed and aware of it, and even tells Monique on several occasions that she’s not a very nice person. She’s made mistakes — serious mistakes. But despite all her shortcomings and flaws and the lying, I strangely grew to like Evelyn more and more as the story moved forward.

But as Evelyn begins to share with Monique stories and events about her present-day life, a secret becomes finally exposed – one that connects Monique and Evelyn in a startling twist, causing both of the women to face the truth of it together as Evelyn removes her final mask.

WHAT I LIKED

I thought this book was fascinating with its glamorous tale of an over the top Hollywood life as well as its gripping portrayal of love in many iterations. I had a blast imagining all the Directors and Movie Stars from the golden age of Hollywood and what their lives may have been like.

But this book wasn’t just a simple tale of a woman who had a difficult time hanging onto husbands. Instead, what we have in this book is a multifaceted story of a powerful, career-driven woman who’s lived her whole life basically being two people, and in so doing, has created her own heaven and her own hell in the process.

I really loved the little newspaper gossip snippets that preceded each chapter. It was a brilliant juxtaposition between what the public was seeing and what was really going on behind closed doors.

I also really liked the diversity in this story. Evelyn is half Cuban, Monique is half African American, and there are three interracial relationships in the book, so it was refreshing to read a story with such a diverse set of characters.

I also enjoyed the friendship that developed between Monique and Evelyn as the day progressed. There grew a closeness and intimacy between the two of them as Monique learned more and more about the actress’s life and how she had to sacrifice her happiness many times over.

Evelyn, now at the end of her life, has come to terms that all the money, all the fame, all the glory, all those the phony people fawning over her meant nothing at the end of the day. Evelyn gave up the life she truly wanted for the fame she so desperately sought after and in the process, was never really able to obtain what she genuinely wanted — the love of one very special person.

Her life was sad in this way, illustrating well how money cannot buy happiness.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

There were only a couple of things I didn’t like about this book.

First of all, there was a bit of heavy foreshadowing which I didn’t care for and felt that it took a little bit away from the surprises at the end. I’m not a fan of the foreshadowing device, and I think this story would have been better served if the author had left it out.

I also felt that the details of the car accident were a bit rushed and unbelievable and I didn’t quite buy how easily the whole thing was swept under the rug.

THE VERDICT

Evelyn Hugo’s story was so gripping and compelling that it kept me turning the pages in a desperate need to discover the stories behind her seven husbands, and of course the answer to the one question everyone wants to know: who was her greatest love? The answer was quite the surprise, let me tell you.

This book has it all from excessive ambition, romance, love, betrayal, abuse, injustice, non-traditional families, race, misogyny, competition to survival in a difficult world.

I felt that it was also a reminder that life is short and we shouldn’t spend it being something we’re not, especially if we have to sacrifice love in the process.

Evelyn was a strong, brave, complicated, multi-layered character and as a reader, it was difficult at times to decide whether we liked her or hated her.
 Sometimes she was so self-absorbed and selfish that you wanted to scream at her; other times, so vulnerable that your heart broke for her.

This was a brilliant and fascinating read amidst all the glamor and scandals, and I loved it! When a book makes me feel as though the characters are real, that’s an accomplishment of a gifted writer. Kudos to my book club for choosing such a mesmerizing book. I gave this book five stars.

You can check out this book at Amazon or at The Book Depository

Review of Thunderhead by Neal Schusterman

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Thunderhead book coverThunderhead is book two in the Arc of a Scythe series so if you haven’t yet read Scythe, this review may contain some spoilers for the first book. But I’ll try not to give away too much.

The Story

Thunderhead picks up a year after where the first novel in the series “Scythe” left off. So if you’re not familiar what a scythe does, or what scythes are or don’t know what the Thunderhead is, then you’ll probably want to read the first book before watching this review.

It’s worth first mentioning that there are no longer any governments in this society – all jurisdiction falls under what is called The Thunderhead (evolved from the Internet’s “Cloud”), which is the title of this Novel.

The Thunderhead is the ultimate jurisdiction and knows everything about everyone, and intervenes when necessary. As a society, nobody fears the Thunderhead; on the contrary, it is revered, almost like a god. The Thunderhead protects and provides for everyone. It has also developed its own consciousness as it evolved from cloud to thunderhead.

The one exception to the Thunderhead intervening in the lives of others is when it comes to Scythe business. It was agreed upon long ago that the Thunderhead would have absolutely no jurisdiction when it came to Scythes —- and it completely and always stays out of Scythe business.

But even though the Thunderhead cannot get involved in Scythe business without breaking its own rules, it watches — and it becomes increasingly apparent to the reader that it does not like what it sees.

One of the main characters in the book is Scythe Anastasia, who has recently caused quite a ruckus in the Scythdom because of her gleaning methods. You see, instead of just sticking someone with a knife without any warning (which is the custom of her mentor, The Grande Damme of Death), Scythe Anastasia gives her subjects one month to get their affairs in order. Not only that, she allows them to choose their own method of gleaning. Such actions are unheard of in the Scythedom, and the old guard was pretty up in arms about it. But as with all scythes, she has a right to glean as she sees fit. I felt that Scythe Anastasia really came into her own in this novel.

There’s another scythe who’s also attracting a lot of attention these days, and that’s Scythe Lucifer. Scythe Lucifer is a rogue scythe who is hunting down corrupt scythes as a vigilante and bringing permanent death — by burning — to those scythes who do not adhere to the original principals of compassion and high moral standards. The scythdom is outraged by his actions, and any attempts to put a stop to his killing of scythes has failed. It’s also worth mentioning that Scythe Lucifer is someone whom Scythe Anastasia knows and cares about very much.

I find it interesting that both of these scythes are trying to fix the same problems only they have extremely different methods of doing so, one from the inside, one from the outside.

Given that the Thunderhead has no jurisdiction over the Scythedom, it has done absolutely nothing to stop Scythe Lucifer from killing Scythes. Even though the Scythdom has asked the Thunderhead for intervention, the Thunderhead has refused, which the Scythdomn found strange and unsettling. But what’s the kicker is that Scythe Lucifer is not a scythe nor has he ever been ordained as one. So naturally, it doesn’t make sense to the scythdom why the Thunderhead hasn’t stepped in and put a stop to these murders.

Scythe Lucifer himself is confused and surprised by the Thunderhead’s apparent lack of intervention — he thought for sure the Thunderhead would put a stop to his antics right away. But when it didn’t, Scythe Lucifer figures “what the hell” and keeps right on doing what he’s doing. That is until he falls into the hands of an old enemy.

Scythe Lucifer isn’t the only one who is taken aback by this enemy’s appearance. In fact, this person’s resurfacing throws the Scythedom into utter chaos as a result of his scheming, conniving, deceit and malice, we can’t help but wonder whether the Thunderhead will eventually break its own rules and intervene. Let me just say that some really horrible things happen at the hands of this enemy.

There is also a new and multi-layered character named Greyson Tolliver who plays an important role between the scythdom and the Thunderhead, and I can’t wait to see how that role will evolve in the next book.

What I Liked

One aspect of this novel that I especially enjoyed was that we delve deeper into the Thunderhead’s brain and learn more about how the Thunderhead operates and thinks, through various “diary entries”, much like we saw with the Scythe Journals in the first book. I felt that the Thunderhead viewpoints were not only fun but also added an incredible element to the story.

Like the first book in the series, the world building is amazing, especially once the island comes into the scene. I definitely felt like I was there in person. For some reason, I felt that the world building was much expanded from the first book making it even more believable.

I also really liked the new character of Grayson Tolliver and his connection between both the Thunderhead and the Scythdom. It really worked for me when the Thunderhead sends Grayson to do things the Thunderhead can’t because of its own laws. I’m really curious to see what the Thunderhead has in store for him. And that’s all I’m going to say on that matter because as always, we never want to head into spoiler territory.

Like the first book, I adore the writing style, and the story-telling is first-rate. I love how the book deals with the questions of life and death in a utopian society. I also liked that it was practically impossible to predict how this book would end and it caught me totally off guard — in the best possible ways.

I also liked how the Thunderhead is an AI – basically a machine — but it displays an astonishing degree of human emotions, which, as the story progresses, we can’t help but wonder what would happen if the Thunderhead were to exhibit, shall we say, anger or outrage?

I have to admit that I was a bit leery going into this book as my experience has often been that the middle book in a series falls kind of flat. Not so here. This book was amazing.

Oh, one thing that gave me a chuckle was that one of the scythe’s name was Scythe Beyonce.

What I Disliked

I can’t say that I really disliked any of the plot devices, character development or story elements. Of course, I detested the villains so so much — but then again, we’re supposed to And yes I’m using the plural here as there is more than one villain in this tale,

Though I wasn’t too thrilled that it ended on a such a cliffhanger, I did feel that the momentous ending was very well done.

But other than that, I can’t pinpoint anything that I particularly disliked about this novel.

Verdict

Fantastic multi-layered characters who experience immense growth from one novel to the next, perfect pacing and a serpentine plot that takes numerous unexpected turns, made this book a delight to read. It was a thought-provoking, fast-paced, gripping, and haunting tale with plenty of dramatic action and political intrigue — and I absolutely loved it. This book blew my mind.

Now all I will say is that there his a HUGE climax and twist of the nail-biting variety at the end of this book which left its hook deep within me and now I can’t wait for the next book. Even though I am not a fan of cliffhangers, I have no choice but to give this book 5 stars, and I loved it that much. Often, I feel robbed when slapped with a cliffhanger ending but not so with Thunderhead. This ending satisfied but yet wanting more.

I just hate that I have to wait until 2019 to see this story resolved in the final installment called “The Toll.”

You can check out Thunderhead here at Amazon or at the Book Depository

This review was transcribed from a video review on my YouTube channel “Roger’s Reads”