Cidney

Truly Frightening

Revisado: 11-10-20

I think the bad reviews are missing the point...or, rather they're getting the point, and they don't like what they see. Kate and the Greenloop crowd are us as we are now -- naive, overconfident, and certain of our understanding of the world. The initial problems Kate complains about are First World problems, which does sound a lot like whining in the face of real problems.

They're set up in an optimal situation -- a sustainable community surrounded by like-minded neighbors and endless nature to meditate upon. Nature is supposed to nurture and not turn on us, and though we have examples of nature not being the warm, loving embrace we imagine -- McCandless, Treadwell -- we don't learn.

Everything is fine until disaster strikes, and the community's lack of respect for nature becomes a serious liability. This is a truly frightening story. Bigfoot is not the lumbering, shy, hippy-like creature as portrayed in pop culture. She is a hungry, intelligent animal trying to survive in a disaster, and what prey is sweeter than some soft urbanite vegans? Kate and the community must adapt quickly, and by "adapt" I mean devolve. How else do you fight primitive creatures in a remote setting without modern weaponry? This story is an indictment of our ignorance and romanticization of nature. Swap out "bigfoot" for "climate change" and this becomes a cautionary tale. What's it going to take for us to learn the lesson?

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“I Broke A Nail”?

Revisado: 01-03-19

I love this idea of the urban fixer – the one who will solve the problems the police or social services can’t or won’t. IQ uses his observation and problem-solving skills to help his friends and neighbors. This third book in, Dodson and IQ are partners, and while Dodson wants to elevate their business – he has a new baby to think about – IQ is content to keep working for baked goods. He’s a little too content and Ide has him almost wallowing in his poverty. There’s no moment of reflection on the needs of his business partner, or even on the fact that his work is a business. Ide tries too hard to portray IQ’s deeds for his neighbors as noble gestures. Because his work is not grounded by any realities of life, IQ spends the bulk of this book being pensive, humble and noble – and boring. IQ’s arc is very slight in this book.

Dodson, on the other hand, has shown the most growth and change over the three books even though he is the comic relief sidekick character. In this book, he’s got a new baby to care for, a mother-in-law to appease, an apathetic business partner, and a few former life loose ends to tie off and do so without upsetting wife & mother-in-law, and without the help of IQ. In many ways this is Dodson’s story.

And while Ide does a good job writing Dodson, he doesn’t write women well at all. His female characters are all hollow shells. He’s got the mysterious, ambiguous love interest; the brassy “round the way girl;” the demanding wife, and the dissatisfied mother-in-law. Any ground Ide has gained as a progressive storyteller was lost in this book in a single line – “I broke a nail.” He has a female character utter this phrase at a point in the climax. I think it was supposed to be funny, intended to break up the tension, but using a trite, and now old-fashioned, female stereotype is just lazy writing and not the way to go. All other indicators are that Ide is a better writer than this.

On the whole, Wrecked read like a bridge story on the way to something more and better – I hope.

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Not A Bad Deal At All

Revisado: 01-20-16

I think in order to appreciate Mr. Geillor’s storytelling one can’t take the source material too seriously. I’ll say upfront that I am not a fan of the Twilight series, and I imagine that diehard fans would not enjoy this send-up of their beloved story. It’s less a love story and more a dark fable about power and seduction, lies, secrets and manipulation. And while the story is funny, it’s not as funny as “Zombies of Lake Woebegotten,” and it is more sarcastic than laugh-out-loud hilarious. This story is dark and the primary character, Bonnie Grayduck, is rather unlikeable, not because she is bland and under-developed, like the character in the original story, but because she is a self-professed monster.

Geillor, whoever he or she really is, can write, and he wrote the heck out of these characters. He took the source material out of the young adult world and placed it firmly in the adult world. He took trite characters, twisted them up, and gave them characteristics that made them interesting. He plotted this story not so that one thing happens, and then the next and the next, although that does happen, but the plot unfolds through the characters and the consequences of their actions. If you read “Zombies” then you’ll remember Principal Levitt. He reappears in this story, and who he is, is important to the story because who he is drives his actions and his actions have serious consequences. Things don’t just happen to Principal Levitt and he doesn’t just respond.

Finally, I have to wonder if it is “Ms.” Geillor, and not “Mr.” because while the story is dark and violent there are a number of observations that are straight out of a feminine experience. I think women are less afraid of their own dark sides, and we know how and when to hitch on a smile and play along in order spare someone’s ego or avoid a conflict when what we really want to do is burn something to the ground. And maybe I just like the idea of this kind of story being written by a woman.

Eileen Stevens did an amazing job narrating this book, especially the voice of Bonnie, but… I did miss Phil Gigante’s baritone. He would have been wonderful as the Narrator, especially in Garrison Keillor mode.

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Jesus H Roosevelt Christ!

Revisado: 04-23-15

I got this book on the recommendation of a friend who validated its current wild popularity. I’m not a romance fan, but my friend’s retelling of the story made it sound interesting and like something I might enjoy. Wow, I should have stuck with her version of the story! I like action, mysteries and thrillers. My favorite authors range from Agatha Christie to Michael Chrichton to Stephen King -- just so you know where I’m coming from. With that background I was unprepared for the plodding narrative of this story. After the first section, I found it extremely boring.

Gabaldon’s love scenes were hot, but everything else? Dry as dust. And I found myself not liking the primary character, Claire, very much. There’s something about her initial situation – accidentally traveling back in time – that didn’t ring true for me. She was a little too eager to go along with what was happening to her. She was a little too savvy, and her internal conflict – getting back to her own time vs. going along to keep her secret – didn’t last long. Soon she finds herself married and dragged along into her new husband’s familial and political dilemmas.

Perhaps if I found 18th century Scottish history more interesting I’d be more into the story and it’s historical aspects. Perhaps I’m too American. Pre Civil War American history – shoot, pre Revolutionary War American history! – is far more interesting to me than Scottish clan squabbles. And the writing could have done with a stricter editor. Gabaldon loves to linger on scenes that have nothing to do with anything – a difficult child birthing scene, a long, graphic description of Jamie’s broken hand, a romp on horseback – nothing that happened in these scenes did anything to move the story along. In fact, I skipped close to 20 hours and went straight to the last hour, and found I hadn’t really missed anything. Hearing the names of characters I didn’t know didn’t bother me. It was easy to get the gist of who they were to Claire fairly quickly. Hearing the end result of events summed up pretty tidily and without confusion the events that happened. It was enough to know “there was a war and people got hurt” than to go through the long, laborious description of the war and then the aftermath. I find it telling of the writing that one doesn’t have to hear the whole story to know the story and know exactly how it ends. This type of storytelling is just not my cup of tea.

I wanted to like this book because it is wildly popular. I wanted to be on the bandwagon for change, but I’m afraid that I won’t be continuing with this series. I’ll binge watch the first season when it comes out on Amazon, and probably get more out of the show than I would the books anyway.

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Creepy Comfort

Revisado: 12-27-14

You’ve read this one before. It’s a classic haunted house story, with all the haunted house trademarks – doors that won’t stay latched, footsteps on the floor above when no one is there, lights that turn on by themselves. It’s all here including the skeptical spouse and the vulnerable child. It’s the slow burn storytelling and subtle build up that create the creepy atmosphere. This is aided by the other spooky stories about earlier events in the neighborhood. It seems that there’s more to Angel Hill than one haunted house, and I would welcome further exploration of this strange community.

There is comfort in that you know this story. You know how it ends. If you’re in the wrong frame of mind, this could be boring, but if you’re looking for something mildly scary to while away an overcast afternoon you could do worse than The Third Floor. It won’t challenge you too much but it is a solidly entertaining tale.

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Where’s the Pho’ograph?

Revisado: 07-30-14

This one could have done with more storytelling and less explaining.

Part of what made “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series such compelling novels was that the main character, through his actions, told the story. That is, we the readers discovered the story along with the character. In “Never Coming Back,” the main character, David, doesn’t do much worthwhile discovering on his own.

Just as in the “Dragon Tattoo” there is a photograph and a missing person – well, a whole family, actually – and a distant family member comes to our investigator and says find ‘em. Unlike in the “Dragon Tattoo,” our investigator doesn’t follow one clue to the next and the next. He argues with his partner, he fights with witnesses and suspects, and he doesn’t follow-up on significant leads. Ultimately our investigator follows one corpse to the next and the next, and this high body count does not bode well for our missing family!

The Big Reveal isn’t learned through independent action on the part of our investigator, but instead is explained to us via exposition from a character on an iffy cell phone connection. I suppose the author intended the dropped words to build suspense. Instead it was tiresome and frustrating. And the last solid 30 minutes of the book is nothing but exposition, the Bad Guy sitting with David explaining why he went along with certain schemes and did what he did.

All in all “Never Coming Back” is not the best book for fans of mysteries and thrillers. Perhaps someone less familiar with the genre would find this book enjoyable. I found it somewhat uninspired.

David Bauckham overall wasn’t awful to listen to, but his American accents? Pretty awful to listen to!

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Like a Greatest Hits Album

Revisado: 07-24-14

They’re all here! Amira’s zombies, the Jacoby twin’s berserkers, and Junie, Toys, Helmut, Violin and Arc Light all make an appearance, and there’s even a shout out to one or two of the short stories. It’s like a fireworks grand finale – they all go off fast and furious, and you have just enough time to recognize one monster before the next one explodes overhead.

Zombies, berserkers and quick-onset Ebola are scary enough, but what’s even more frightening is the DMS fighting the ultimate monster – one it created. There’s the real sense that Ledger and Echo Team are up against their greatest challenge. And in the end, do they really prevail? “Mr. Church” must answer some serious questions - for himself if no one else - about the DMS teams he’s created.

Code Zero is a fast-paced thrill ride full of monster mayhem and Ledger’s military might. Ray Porter’s narration is, as usual, brilliant. He is Joe Ledger. He is Mr. Church. He is Rudy, Bunny, Top and Circe too.

If you’re into monsters and badassery you can’t go wrong with Joe Ledger and the DMS. If you’re new to Ledger this isn’t the best book to start. At least read Patient Zero or the Dragon Factory first. For longtime fans and those who’ve read all the previous books, Code Zero is a real treat.

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Dreary

Revisado: 07-04-14

Not a fun summer read.

In this book terror takes the form of a knock on the door, a change in the sound of birds cooing, and imagined threats. “Something” is out there! Something unidentifiable, something that, though you don’t know what it is and wouldn’t know it even if you saw it, if seen would drive you mad to the point of murder and suicide.

Malorie, a young mother, attempts to pilot herself and her children down a river in a rowboat blindfolded. Her destination is a supposed refuge some 20 miles downriver. How Malorie got to the moment of this desperate act is the bulk of the story. She spends most of her time pregnant and scared in a house full of characters that are ill-defined and largely uninteresting. There are Tom, Don and Jules, among others. Tom is fatherly and curious, Don is paranoid and angry and Jules is good with dogs, and that’s about all we get to know about them. They bicker and they plan and they debate the nature of something they can’t see, have never seen and can’t study. All they know is if you see it, you die, and you will likely take a bunch of other people with you when you go down.

Seeking things with the ends of broomsticks and moments of attempting to identify half heard sounds are obvious attempts at suspense and terror, and end up being neither suspenseful nor terrifying. Imagine you’re standing in full daylight on a beautiful spring morning watching someone blindfolded, obviously terrified of what they only think they’ll run into, attempt to fill a bucket from a well. Yeah, that’s how I felt throughout the whole book. I waited for something to happen, something that wasn’t imagined by the characters or from a second-hand story they heard on the news.

And the soft, tremulous voice of the narrator only added to the heavy grayness of the story.

Perhaps this book wasn’t the best choice after reading exciting rip-roaring fare like “Mr. Mercedes” and “Skin Game.” Perhaps this is a story better suited to overcast, wintery days, but I found it somewhat depressing and claustrophobic. I wanted to rip off blindfolds and have the story just be told.

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More Frustrating Than Frightening

Revisado: 02-16-14

“Night Chills” wasn’t a horrible story, but I did do a lot of eye-rolling listening to it.

One of the fiction writer’s credos is “only trouble is interesting.” But when the trouble comes about because of your character’s asinine decisions or forced and inexplicable circumstances, then the trouble is more frustrating and less interesting. Here is an example: You’re at a public rest stop. Your kids are in the car with you and you need a pay phone. You spot one some distance from where you’re parked, but instead of driving closer to the phone, you decide to get out and walk to it leaving your kids alone in the unlocked car. Oh, and this just after you’ve gotten a creepy message telling you that someone wanted to hurt one of your kids. So, of course, while you’re on the phone, you turn around to see a creepy man chatting up your daughters in the backseat. My first thought was, “dude, you didn’t see this coming? You’re in a public rest stop! Nothing good ever happens in a public rest stop,” and I rolled my eyes.

Here’s another one: Your young daughter is lost in a hospital. To help find her you’ve enlisted a couple of orderlies to wander the halls calling her name. It occurs to you that your daughter might not respond to a couple of strange men shouting after her, and so you conclude that she must be hiding. I’m thinking, “hospital is big enough for a child to get lost in but not big enough to have a PA system? Get on the PA and let her hear her mother’s voice,” but this wouldn’t have worked for the story as written. Child stays lost, story moves on, and I rolled my eyes.

The story’s interesting MacGuffin isn’t revealed until the last third of the novel, and then it’s not fully explored, which makes me think there might be a book 2 on the way. If so, I just hope that Gunhus can make his plot devices a bit more believable.

James Lewis didn’t do a bad job. In fact he did a great job. He has the wonderfully deep basso voice of a TV news anchor, great for reading the news but doesn’t allow for a wide range in personality and characterization.

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Exotic Locals, Banana Pancakes & Serial Killing

Revisado: 02-09-14

The Lonely Planet traveler knows how to see some of the world’s most beautiful and exotic locations on the cheap. A passport, a backpack, a pair of good boots and a map of the local youth hostels and you’re on your way. Typical problems on the road revolve around disease, transportation, food and water. Who would think to add serial killer to this list? This is the idea presented in this creepy little story.

International backpackers are typically affable, easy-going and a happy-go-lucky bunch. Easy to make new friends of a variety of cultures and always up for “whatever” they are the low hanging fruit to the traveling sociopath on a budget. Our Hero, Paul, a world traveler of The Road, encounters this serial killer and begins a slow chase to find him and stop him forever. Part of this is a revenge quest – Paul’s girlfriend was one of the victims – but along the way Paul learns that the whole situation is even creepier than simple murder.

This slow thriller, set in the early aughts, has Paul traveling from internet café to internet café, from Cameroon to Nepal to Indonesia. The author paints each location beautifully; you know he’s been there, that he’s eaten the food and seen the sights. The thrill isn’t in the mystery, Paul figures out who the killer is pretty quickly, but in how he’s going to resolve the situation. Local and international law enforcement are less than helpful. It’s down to him, a Lonely Planet web editor, and a handful of acquaintances he met on The Road.

The storytelling is a little dry, and I would have preferred more mystery, but the backpacking lifestyle and each location is brought to vivid life, and it made me want to pack a pack, buy a water filter and hit The Road – despite the serial killer.

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