drowning ruth

Drowning Ruth

by Author LoveFictionHistory

drowning ruth

This book came really highly recommended. It was a NY Times bestseller, an Oprah’s bookclub choice and a few people on my twitter feed had said it lived up to the hype. I read a few chapters one day and was a little disappointed – the suspense seemed heavy handed and the story was stunted by the fact that you’re never quite sure what time you are in.

Nevertheless, the next day I picked it up again and was delighted to discover that after a few awkward chapters at the beginning, the book blossoms into a sweet, melancholic story where the twist is rather inconsequential compared to your affection for the characters.

The story is about Amanda, who returns to the family home to convalesce after a series of unfortunate events at her nursing job. Mathilda, the adored younger sister, happily receives Amanda and the two raise Mathilda’s daughter Ruth on their island home while waiting for Mattie’s war-wounded husband Carl to return home. Then Mattie drowns under mysterious circumstances and Carl and Amanda are left to raise Ruth while dealing with the tragedy. The story flashes through to when Ruth is 11 and is ‘adopted’ by Imogene, a gregarious younger girl, and they soon become fast friends. Later, as teenagers, Ruth and Imogene are subjected to the affections of a vacationing Arthur Owen and Aunt Amanda seems determined that neither girl return his attentions.

The story builds and builds. It gets to where it doesn’t matter what happened to Mattie because it was so long ago, and yet the echoes of her life and death still touch the characters in unexpected ways. You begin to choose sides and then lament when you favourite characters inevitably make desperate decisions leading to tragic mistakes. I actually enjoyed the soft menace that seeps around the edges of the tale, making the idyllic landscape that makes up the setting of the story a little more bleak and dangerous than originally thought.

It’s not the kind of book I would normally pick up, but I’m glad I persevered – I finished it off in two sittings. Be sure to read the author’s note at the end of the book, it’s really enlightening to find out how Christina’s character’s lives took turns that where unexpected even to her.

Book Review: the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

by FictionTrigger: addictiontrigger: suicide

I was reluctant to read this book for a long time. Friends read it. Strangers read it. People added it to best sellers lists and it came up on Amazon as a ‘thing i should read’ a lot. And I had it, neatly downloaded onto the tablet. But I kept pushing it further down the list because I hated the cover. It looked pouncy. And drama-ish. I like some ‘drama’ books (modern fiction? I don’t know. I subcategorise my books according to movie genre. I thought this would be like Hateship Loveship which looks kinda like a romantic comedy and ends up being an hour or two of you waiting for someone, ANYONE to do something that allows this poor woman to smile. That genre that’s supposed to be a dramatic realisation of a current, possible scenario with only a little accident humour involved? what genre is that??) – I LOVED boy snow bird. It was fucking weird and I loved it. I loved the Mirk and Midnight Hour (although I’m not sure why, because it wasn’t very well written). Anyway, I didn’t want to read this.

And then I read it and couldn’t put it down and when I finally gave in to sleep at like 3am I had weird dreams and couldn’t wait to pick it up again. I haven’t been so completely absorbed in a book for quite a while – I think I actually lost myself in the main character and started hankering for neat vodka and oxy.

It’s the story of Theo, who loses his mother and gains a priceless painting. The story follows him as he lands at the home of a rich friend, then in the Nevada desert with his gambling, addicted father, then back in New York at the home of Hobie, an antiques restorer who also lost someone in the explosion that killed Theo’s mother. Theo is one of those characters who means well, but is a teeny bit self indulgent and never gets anything quite right. His best friend Boris, his fiancee Kitsey, the love of his life Pippa are all characters who Theo is not good for and they are not good for him in return. this is what thrilled me about this book – the fact that we all have these imperfect relationships that we cling to even as they drag us down. Theo’s descent into depression and addiction is well documented (I love that Tartt didn’t have him as a addict-in-the-gutter, that trope has been overdone and I’m so glad to see characters that function (albeit unsteadily) despite their addictions). The last quarter of this blissfully long book is a little bit garbled as Theo loses it. A life of stresses and anxiety about bad decision with no choices in sight leave Theo unstable and suicidal. I love that Tartt pulls him out of Amsterdam in a basic fashion. There is no heroic gesture, no fanfare, no grand realisation – he just stops trying to kill himself and goes home. And I think that is how it happens sometime – there’s not always a ‘my life flashed before my eyes and I realised all I have to live for’ moment, I think some people are just too tired to even kill themselves and eventually that urge passes.

The writing in this book is beautiful. Sometimes the analepses is a little jumbled and confusing, especially when the chracters are high, and there are a few things you have to re-read in order to make sure it’s saying what you think it’s saying, but that subtlety was kind to me. I just love that this is a hefty book – I didn’t want it to end (although of course I was desperate to see if he ended up with Pippa or not). it’s not something you’ll get through in a night even if you stay up until 3am, but if you like modern day stories that drag you in and under completely, this is definitely worth a read.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things – Alice Hoffman

by Author LoveFictionHistory

I like Alice Hoffman’s books. I liked Practical Magic, it was sweet (and because I read it years after watching the film, it was nice to find it darker and richer and less kidman-ish). I LOVED the Dovekeepers, it’s one of those books that stays with you. Next up is her The Drowning Season. But the Museum of Extraordinary Things hit me really hard and I didn’t put it down until it was finished.

It’s the story of Cora, who was born with webbed fingers and spends her days swimming in an exhibit tank, pretending to be a mermaid in her father’s glorified freak show. She’s a gentle, empathetic girl who longs for a life she doesn’t understand. It’s also the story of Eddie, who has left his father and his faith and is looking for something to fill the loss he feels. Eddie photographs the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and finds himself tangled up in a mystery that only he can solve. Cora’s father has the very thing he’s looking for, but nothing leaves the Museum of Extraordinary things without the Professor’s leave, so Eddie and Cora must find a way to escape and somehow free the others who have been caught up in the Professor’s awful machinations.

Nothing about this book is straightforward. There are some twists that are obvious (like Coralie’s parentage) and some I didn’t see coming at all (like Coralie’s parentage). Intriguing, no? Eddie is such a likeable character, I just wanted to pat him on the head and feed him tea and biscuits until he felt better. You really get to see the internal struggle he has regarding his father’s actions in the past and how he responded to them. It’s also lovely to watch as the faith the other characters have in him proves true. Moses Levy is a character only really established through Eddie’s remembrances, yet despite his gruff manner, you can tell Moses loved and cherished his apprentice. Samuel Weiss is so assured that Eddie will find his missing daughter that you can tell Eddie’s estranged father has spoken well of his abilities to Samuel, and often. It’s these little clues that make Eddie’s frustration at his own inability bearable – you can tell in the end, everything will come up roses.

Cora’s character is a little less likeable, but I think it’s because I can’t sympathise as much with her quiet resentment and inaction. By the time she’s accidentally seen Eddie, Cora is full of resentment and defiance towards the Professor, but she does practically nothing about it. Even when she goes into the city to return Eddie’s camera equipment and ends up half naked, she is indignant at the idea that she is no longer a virgin – her goodness and obedience are absolute, even when her father becomes a monster. Compared with Juliet Block or Hannah Weiss, Cora is a wimp. Her brave stand against the fire in the end of the book is nothing more than chance – if she’d been more invested in her own escape, no one would have been near the fire anyway.

The book is really well put together – characters like Abraham Hochman come to the fore in brilliant twists of plot. Hochman I had written off as a charlatan, much as Eddie does, but but the end of the story you start to think he is more than he appears. So too Jacob Van der Beck, whose tragic tale I long to write a novel about (albeit with a slightly happier ending, especially for the wolf). After you have dismissed these characters as unimportant and uninvolved, Hoffman weaves them back in with surprising grace. Nothing is superfluous in this book, every thread is necessary and neatly tied. At 300 pages you should definitely try this (especially if you’ve never read Hoffman before – then move on the The Dovekeepers). The sense of menace and the hope of redemption will keep you reading until the wee hours, while the beauty and joy of the characters will make you smile long after you finish.

Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block

by AdolescentFantasyFiction

This is a gorgeous book. It’s short and easy to read and has the most lush prose imaginable. Plus the LGBTI elements are sympathetic and nicely developed.
It’s the story of Pen, who magically survives the tidal wave that destroys the city she lives in. After weeks of loneliness she discovers her beloved younger brother may be alive and enslaved by the mad scientist (who may be connected to Pen). She sets off to rescue him, battling giants and witches and collecting friends. Along the way she meets Hex and falls in love, but like everything else in this book Hex is not quite what he seems.
An alternative modern version of Homer’s Odyssey, this story will appeal to modern fantasy lovers. It’s an exciting ride with sweet characters that become more developed with each challenge they face. I would write a more in depth review about metaphor and confidence and finding out who you are as you grow up, but really you can read this book in a few hours, so just go get started now!

Parasite – Mira Grant

by FictionSci-Fi

The first in a new series called Parasitology. I was recommended this book by i09 and it wasn’t at all what I expected. I was thinking something like the Scott Sigler books (which I’ve read and loved) or John Ringo’s Under a Graveyard Sky (which I really REALLY loved).
Instead, the socio-political effects of the parasite infection (infestation? I’m not sure what it counts as when the parasites themselves have been introduced in a population by the population themselves) aren’t examined in this story as much as the personal issues of one particular person. Sal Mitchell wakes up from a coma and doesn’t know who she is. 6 years later, she’s got a life back, but from all accounts, it’s nothing like what she had before. New boyfriend, new job and a completely new attitude. Sal has trouble dealing with endless check ups from SymboGen and people who don’t keep their hands on the steering wheel, so when hordes of people start turning into ‘sleepwalkers’ she will do anything to find out what is happening before it happens to her.

But what if it already did?

This is the account of what happens when a major pharmaceuticals company and the American government are fighting over the best way to approach a deadly outbreak. Except Sal just wants to move in with her boyfriend, walk their dogs and have people stop killing each other. But when what’s in your head may be the key to solving the outbreak (or making it much much worse), people tend to not want to let you go.

This book was easy to read and had enough suspense that I didn’t want to put it down. The ‘sympathising with parasite’ angle is similar to the Host by Stephanie Meyer (yes, I read a Meyer book, once), but in this case the parasite isn’t entirely convinced she’s a parasite until the end of the book, even though it’s glaringly obvious to the reader after chapter 2. The inter-personal relationships and the angst and joy they cause are all well developed and although Sal is a dull character, her dullness doesn’t make for terrible reading because you’re aware of why she is the way she is. I like the many layers the book presented, knowing a little bit about parasites and hosts helps the reader discover hidden gems in the text. I’m hoping the next one comes out pretty soon!

In the meanwhile, I’m counting down to Raven’s Shadow Book 2 – Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan. Seriously, the book can’t come soon enough, I read the first book, Blood Song, in what seems like seconds and I’m so hungry for more. It’s so hard to find decent fantasy these days, so waiting in between books is so hard – I also just finished the Two Stormlight Archive books and the thought of waiting up to 4 years for another one is making me sad all the way to my toes.

What are you reading today? Got any epic fantasy recommends for me??

Book Review: The Kingdoms of Dust by Amanda Downum

by Author LoveFantasyFiction

Hallelujah, after a long drought I finally found a fantasy novel I loved. I’ve been dying for something since I finished the Time Dancers (last in the Meq trilogy by Steve Cash and awesome) and no one seems to be writing anything. Or the Corona books buyer is slack and hates me.

So I grabbed this and it looked good and I got one chapter in and was completely hooked. The story revolves around Asheris, a jinni-human demon in love with the empress’s consort and constantly at risk from the church, and Isyllt, a death mage fleeing from her old life, her lost love and the sense of hopelessness that arises when she thinks about her future. The two-sometimes enemies, sometimes lovers- must survive long enough to cross the desert and trap an ancient force threatening to destroy the world*.

I really love when lead characters in fantasy are just normal people. Isyllt carries a black diamond to store the souls she harnesses, but she also sleeps with her body guard and Asheris because she’s lonely and she worries about not being a good guardian to her apprentice Moth, but not enough to actually change how she acts. Asheris is this brash and beautiful fire-winged thing, who longs for freedom one moment and immerses himself in the machinations of the court the next. The characters here become people you know, people you’d be friends with, so you find yourself a little worried for them when there are endless would-be assassins and a hungry manticore.

Another one i read in a single afternoon, Kingdoms is original and well constructed fantasy. I long to live in any of the empires and kingdoms Downum has brought to life. The names are more than my thick tongue can handle, but the prose is quick witted and elegant and while the book is part of a series (the necromancer chronicles) it serves perfectly as a stand alone as well. Except one is not going to be enough, do I suggest you buy them all.

Ps: the author, Amanda Downum is on twitter and is quite lovely.

*Ancient forces rarely do anything else.

Book Review: Creepers by David Morrell

by CrimeFiction

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of urban exploration. I think because I am a photographer and a history/anthropology student and these things culminate in wanting to find places where time has stood still and document them. I’m told the urban exploration scene in Perth is quite active, but I doubt I’ll ever be involved as it’s too hard to find a babysitter and too dangerous to risk not coming back to pick up my kids. Urban exploration will always be just a dream at the back of my mind, a dream I satiate with books like this.

I read Creepers last night. From cover to cover. It’s such an easy read, despite it’s gruesome bits (think razor wire and beheading). It starts off with a history professor and his three ex-students who invite a journalist on their annual exploration, this time heading through storm drains into an abandoned hotel with a strange history. The night seems easy enough, even with malformed albino cats and blind rats dogging them in the tunnels and the smell of decaying wood everywhere, but the group climb higher and higher up the stairs they find macabre remnants of the guests that used to occupy the hotel. A dead monkey. A room full of booze. A mysterious safe filled with gold coins. Perhaps the professor hasn’t told them everything about this hotel.

After an accident renders the professor helpless, the group discover they are not alone in the hotel. There are other who want the gold and will stop at nothing to get it. But then the safe is opened there is a woman amongst the gold, and the thieves are not the only ones with violent intentions – someone never left the hotel.

It’s an edge of your seat story which descends into a hell of gore and insanity and explosions and swirling floodwater. Who is the psychopathic Ronnie and what is his connection to the hotel? Is it just coincidence that Balenger took this story on this particular night or is he looking for something? Or someone? Every truth uncovered reveals another dozen questions and Morrell keeps a reader enthralled right to the very last page. While I’m not fond of gore, this book is fairly matter of fact about it, neither dwelling on it too long or skipping over it completely. The characters are realistic enough – jealousy, attraction, greed, cowardice and stupidity all appear, even in the ‘good’ characters which makes everyone seem more human. Sometimes the conversation is a little wordy and the timeline a little disjointed, but for the man part this book consists of good, solid writing, an amazing plot with unguessable twists and characters who you root for even when their failings are more than apparent.

Book Review – Johannes Cabal and the Fear Institute by Jonathon L Howard.

by FantasyFiction

This book filled one of my weaker “I need to buy a book RIGHT NOW” moments over the Christmas holidays while I was moving house (I know, I know, I’m an idiot) and everything was packed. I read a chapter and thought it was pretentious and overdone. Then I read another chapter and got all hooked and was constantly thinking about what Cabal was going to do next and then I’d read in bed until 2am and never once did I actually manage to predict what would happen (twist ending? oh yes!) and then about 3 chapters from the end it got all pretentious and overdone again and lost the interestingness.

Johannes Cabal is a necromancer. I’ve never read any of the past books in the series, but coming in at book three doesn’t really matter until you get to the end and there’s this terrible cliffhanger ending which makes you mutter for days cursing authors and publishers and schedules and things. Anyway, he is a necromancer and he has a dry wit and a superior intellect and a chaos god who likes to play with him. His services are secured by a society (one with an impractical handshake) whom require him to travel to the Dreamlands and kill the phobic animus – the source of all fear in this world.

So into the Dreamlands goes Cabal, with Mr Bose, Mr Shadrach and Mr Corde of the Fear Institute tagging somewhat reluctantly along with him. But Cabal disagrees with the fundamental structures (or lack of them) of the Dreamlands and it turns out the Dreamlands disagree with Cabal. And there’s a strange and rather helpful ghoul who keeps following them around (ok, I admit, THAT twist I did get quite early on). And in the end, it’s not clear if Cabal has accomplished his task, someone else’s task or any task at all.

The language is clever (overly so – if I have to read with a thesaurus next to me then the author is just showing off) and the pace quick moving and there are cats. Sometimes you might not catch something and go back a few pages, re-read it and still not catch it or be sure there was anything to catch in the first place, but don’t be alarmed – I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be like that. And you’ll want to dress in all black once you finish reading it – if you don’t already – and encourage pixies with teeth to live at the bottom of your garden.

Can’t wait for the next one. I’m going to hate the first two chapters, but it’s worth it.

Fragment I

by FictionWritten

When I was younger, I believed a red fox lived in between my mattress and the enamelled railing at the end of my bed. I was scared to put my feet all the way down, even under the blankets, because I was terrified it would crawl out and nibble my toes. Mum would attempt to check under the bed and I’d think “what the hell? It’s not UNDER the bed, it’s squished between the mattress and the bed end. Looking under there is not going to do any good!” As a result of sleeping for years as close to the bedhead as possibly, I now can’t sleep unless I’m propped up on a pillow with my knees curled up to my body.

Book Review – Songbird by Walter Zacharius

by FictionSex

This is a rather risque, unusual take on a WWII female espionage agent. Mia is a Polish Jew living with her upper class family when the German occupation begins. Too late to escape, the family ends up in the Ghetto, slowly dying despite the fortune in diamonds they carry.
When the diamonds only bring them betrayal and a train ride to Treblinka*, Mia ecapes and amkes her way to Warsaw, posing as an aryan and surviving by selling cigarettes and running dangerous errands for an underground Jewish gang. Eventually, Mia escapes to America and stays with relatives in Manhattan. But she can’t forget those she has lost – her family now in Auschwitz, her would-be husband Wolf dead on the shores of Switzerland, her teenage crush back in Paris. Determined to at least find out what has happened to her family, Mia leaves her new boyfriend and head back to Europe, first training in England and then being air dropped into France. But the life of a spy is not what Mia has anticipated – forced to work in a S&M brothel and seduce the german officers she despises, Mia find herself losing track of what is real and what is a lie.

Eventually the German forces are driven back, but Mia has been a german consort too long and is nearly killed by a mob of starving locals who overrun the brothel. Snatched away from the boyfriend who is coming to rescue her and left to wander a broken Europe, Mia ends up in Palestine where she lives with the constant echoes of the war.

As you can see, it’s not the typical war memoir. Mia is left broken and desolate – she can’t bare to go back to claim the home she originally fled, refuses to see her aunt and uncle in America and believes the ‘love of her life’ Vinnie is dead. It’s a tragic tale of a young woman who is forced into prostitution, believing that she is helping the war effort and ends up despised by not only those around her, but also by the Allied commanders who put her in that position. It’s a story of desperation, cruelty and death and not one that can be read lightly in an afternoon.

The biggest problem I had with the book (beside the graphic violence. Which isn’t really that graphic, but I’m a wimp when it comes to that kind of thing) is that I felt you could tell it was written by a man. For the first half, when Mia is lamenting her lost life in Paris and hating her parents for being Jewish, the masculine slant doesn’t matter so much. It’s only later on when Mia starts playing piano for german officers before beating them with paddles that the story completely falls into a bondage fantasy – complete with a lesbian snuff scene. The writing carries little emotion with it and given that the story is so desperate and tragic, that Mia is completely cut off from any real feelings rings a little false.

The story also jumps around a lot – this is partially a form to divide the story into three sections (the occupation, life in America and being a spy), but it ends up looking like a stop gap by an author who had run out of credible things to write about. The books ends abruptly, the prelude and epilogue add almost nothing to the story (besides more sex scenes) and what i would have found interesting (what mia did after the war, how she ended up in Palestine, did she get any compensation for the trauma during the war, how did she deal with the memories herself, etc.) is severely lacking. What could have been a very moving story about the lengths a girl is forced to in order to survive the german occupation becomes a rather unrealistic story of murder and sex. There is shock value, especially when Mia is in the ghetto, but I feel this book adds little to the memory of the holocaust.

*Which wasn’t actually built yet in 1940. It’s confusing as to if this is an inaccuracy or if the author has made more time pass in the ghetto than is apparent.