Book Review: "No Road Home" by John Fram

At times this book was off-the-rails crazy, and at other times it was tremendously moving. Having now read both of his books (including his debut, The Bright Lands), I can honestly say that John Fram is one of a kind.

After a whirlwind relationship, Toby marries Alyssa Wright, the granddaughter of a famous televangelist. But despite the fact that religion is such a huge part of her family’s life, Alyssa insists that they aren’t bigoted or backwards, like so many are.

To celebrate Alyssa’s 30th birthday, she and Toby, along with his young son, Luca, drive to Texas to spend the weekend at the Wright family compound. While Toby is dizzied by the wealth on display and the eccentricities of Alyssa’s family, he has no idea about the madness he and Luca are walking into.

It turns out that the Wrights have plans for Toby and Luca—and they don’t really have a choice in the matter. When a prominent member of the family is found dead, Toby is sure they were murdered, but the family doesn’t seem to care. Until, suddenly, their suspicions swing Toby’s way, which could have massive implications for him and his son.

A torrential storm has flooded any exit from the compound, which means they’re all trapped with a killer and lots of crazy family members. And Luca keeps talking about seeing a shadowy man in a dark suit, but no one else seems to see him. Will the storms end so they can escape, or will they be tangled up in all of the madness?

There is a lot going on here—murder, hidden memories, the fierce love between father and son, unresolved grief, secrets, even a touch of the supernatural. It may be too much for some, but I absolutely love the unbridled way Fram spins his stories. And his author’s note brings it all home. This slayed me.

Book Review: "What Have You Done?" by Shari Lapena

“Nothing ever happens in Fairhill, Vermont. It’s a small town, surrounded by farmland, with the Green Mountains in the distance. Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. Until it does.”

Early one morning, a man sees a group of turkey vultures swarming around his field. He figures they’ve found a dead animal, but he goes to investigate, and what he finds horrifies him: the naked body of a young woman, mangled by the carrion birds.

Diana Brewer, a popular, pretty, high school senior, was the one murdered. Strangled to death. But for a young woman that everyone says was an angel, well-liked by her peers and teachers alike, who would murder her?

The major crimes investigators quickly dig into the circumstances surrounding Diana’s murder, and find a number of suspects. At the same time, Diana’s mother is dealing with grief and guilt over the fact that she worked at night and left her daughter alone, and her two best friends, Riley and Evan, want to do all they can to help Diana’s mother while dealing with their own shock and sadness.

The net tightens around each of the potential suspects, and the ramifications ripple throughout Fairhill. Secrets are uncovered that might have saved a life, and people are finding it difficult to trust their family and friends.

I thought this was a very compelling mystery, full of twists and red herrings. Shari Lapena knows how to ratchet up the suspense. There’s a bit of a supernatural component that I didn’t necessarily care for (and it seemed kind of incomplete), but this was still a good read.

Book Review: "Happy Medium" by Sarah Adler

Sarah Adler made me a fan with her spectacular debut, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes, and her new novel was equally fun and romantic.

Gretchen Acorn (not her real name) is a medium, helping people communicate with their dead loved ones. The truth is, her abilities are about as genuine as her name, and she comes from a long line of con artists. But Gretchen prides herself on not taking real advantage of her clients—she only helps those who truly would benefit from her “services.” (And if that helps pay her bills, so be it.)

When one of her clients asks Gretchen to help her bridge partner by investigating the phenomena that seem to interfere with his selling his family farm, she’s a tiny bit apprehensive. However, her client is going to pay her handsomely, so how can she pass up helping an old man?

She makes some quick discoveries when she arrives at the farm. First of all, her client’s bridge partner isn’t a little old man—Charlie is young, hunky, and doesn’t want anything to do with a fraud like Gretchen. And much to her surprise, Gretchen meets Everett, a distant family member of Charlie’s, who happens to be the ghost that’s been causing all the trouble on the farm. (So maybe there’s some truth to this whole medium thing after all?)

Everett, who has been haunting the farm since the 1920s, is a little annoying and quite a bit of a flirt. He asks Gretchen to convince Charlie not to sell the farm or he’ll face the same curse that killed Everett. But Charlie doesn’t believe Gretchen, so she vows to stay on the farm to make sure she wins him over. Of course, that entails actually working on the farm (physical labor is not her strong suit), and the more time she spends with Charlie, the more she realizes she needs to be honest—with him and with herself.

Everett is one of the best characters I’ve encountered in some time. The banter between him and Gretchen cracked me up. This was a sweet, steamy, and enjoyable romp that made me smile.

Book Review: "Almost Surely Dead" by Amina Akhtar

Well, I was having an unexpectedly good run of thrillers for a while, so I knew it was bound to end at some point. And even though some friends had great things to say about this book, I felt like it started out really strong but then changed into something completely different that I didn't enjoy.

⁣ ⁣ Dunia was a pharmacist in New York City. Her life was relatively ordinary, although her relationship with her fiancé recently ended, but despite the fact that he broke up with her, he won’t seem to leave her alone. And then one night everything changes, when someone tries to murder her.⁣

⁣ The attempt on her life shakes Dunia to her core. Who was the man that tried to kill her, and why? When another attempt on her life occurs, and then another, no one—not even the police—can figure out who is responsible. And then, Dunia goes missing. Is she hiding, or did the person behind the murder attempts finally succeed?⁣

⁣ The book is told from multiple perspectives and timelines—Dunia’s childhood, the attempts on her life, and snippets of a true crime podcast investigating her disappearance. You find yourself wondering what the truth really is, and who was responsible.⁣

⁣ I found this to be an interesting and intense story, but the multiple perspectives didn’t really work for me. And suffice it to say, the book takes a strange turn that I wasn’t expecting at all, and honestly, if I had known about it, I might not have picked it up.⁣ ⁣

Book Review: "My Best Friend's Exorcism" by Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism might just be what you expect looking at the book: it's campy, crazy, and chock full of 80s references!

Can a friendship be powerful enough to beat the devil?

Abby and Gretchen have been inseparable best friends since 4th grade. They have private jokes and countless memories together, and they’ve remained close through high school.

But one boring night, after some warm beer and some drugs, the girls and their friends decide to go skinny-dipping. Something strange happens, though, something inexplicable, and it changes Gretchen drastically.

Suddenly Gretchen is acting erratically, complaining of being touched by invisible beings, her personal hygiene deteriorates, and strange and troubling things happen and appear when she’s around. But while others give up on her, Abby is determined to figure out what happened to her friend, and save her at any cost—even though there are great risks to her own future. And she's not even sure if anyone takes her seriously, or if they think she's on drugs like they suspect Gretchen is.

As you might imagine, this book is a little silly, a little scary (at least for cowards like me who usually steer clear of books like this), and more than a little bit gross at times. But that being said, it has some surprising emotional heft I didn’t see coming given the subject matter.

If you’re a child of the 80s like me, you’ll love the pop culture references sprinkled throughout and this nostalgic cover design. There is a bunch of gore—blood and guts and some mentions of animal harm and animal death—so be forewarned if those trouble you. They’re easily skimmed over.

Hendrix really is quite the storyteller. Exorcism and friends...they go together?

Book Review: "Trace of Evil" by Alice Blanchard

Alice Blanchard's new novel, Trace of Evil is a terrific, atmospheric mystery, full of twists and turns, and it's a great start to what I hope will be a new series.

Natalie Lockhart is a rookie detective in her hometown of Burning Lake, NY—a town which almost rivaled Salem, MA back in the day with the presence of witches. Kids and adults like still dabble in witchcraft, and there’s been some unfounded rumors of satanism through the years.

Like any rookie cop in Burning Lake, Natalie is tasked with looking into the nine cold cases of local transients that have gone missing through the years. But just as she starts making some promising headway, Daisy Buckner, the wife of a fellow police detective, a popular high school teacher, and one of her older sister's best friends, is murdered.

While there appears to be a pretty clear suspect in Daisy’s murder, they end up in a coma shortly after Daisy's body is discovered. But the more Natalie digs into the murder, the more confusing things get, as it appears both Daisy and her husband had secrets of their own, secrets creating an ever-widening circle of guilt and suspicion in the town. Is this case as cut-and-dried as it appears, or are things more complicated than anyone can imagine?

As Natalie fights to uncover the truth, she has her own demons to fight, too, demons stemming from her oldest sister’s murder many years before, and the emotional scars of a childhood attack. She also must figure out which people know more than they're willing to share, about Daisy's life, her murder, and many other questions and issues in the town.

Alice Blanchard has created a terrific set of characters and a vivid mystery which kept me guessing. There was a lot going on here, as the cold cases meshed with Daisy's murder, Natalie's older sister's murder, and an incident from her own childhood. As the book hurtled toward its conclusion, things got a bit confusing at times. There is a lot of violence in the book, more telling than showing, so that may upset some folks.

Regardless of my minor criticisms, Trace of Evil was the start of what I hope will be a terrific series (hopefully with more Natalie and Luke?).

I won a complimentary copy of this book via a Bookstagram giveaway. Thanks to Minotaur Books for making it available!

Book Review: "The Ghost Notebooks" by Ben Dolnick

Nick and Hannah's relationship is in a bit of a tumultuous phase—she recently lost her job, they've both been reluctant to talk about getting married even though that is the next logical step in their relationship, and there's tension all over the place—when Hannah admits that she has applied for a job as the director of the Wright Historic House, a museum devoted to an obscure 19th century writer and philosopher in a tiny upstate New York town.

The time between her first phone interview and the job offer seems to fly, and while leaving New York City for a small town isn't quite what Nick had in mind, he's realized he doesn't want to lose Hannah. And for a while everything seems charming—they speak to each other in Masterpiece Theater-like accents, enjoy visiting the town's one grocery store, and can finally listen to the sounds of nature outside their home as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the city. But then the reality of running a museum that very few visitors come to, and dealing with the machinations of a volunteer related to the person whose life the museum commemorates becomes more of a chore than a pleasure.

One night Hannah wakes Nick claiming to hear voices talking, but Nick hears nothing. There have been rumors through the years that the Wright House is visited by ghosts, and a woman whose family lived in the house before it became a museum once disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The stress of being convinced she is seeing and hearing things starts to take its toll on Hannah's already-fragile psyche and her relationship with Nick, which is already straining under the stress of trying to settle on wedding arrangements.

Nick awakens one morning to find Hannah gone. As he tries to figure out what happened to her, he starts to realize she was more emotionally fragile than even he realized, and he is determined to understand whether the house really is possessed by spirits which haunted Hannah, or whether it was her own mind playing tricks on her. His quest forces him to confront concepts of ghosts and the legacy of a troubled writer, and compels him in directions he'd never imagined before.

I honestly wasn't too sure what to make of The Ghost Notebooks. It's certainly an interesting exploration of how a relationship fares under intense pressure, emotional and otherwise, and it's also a look at how grief and extreme emotional stress can cause you to act in very bizarre ways. But I don't know what Ben Dolnick was really trying to say about the situation his characters found themselves in, and whether there really was something supernatural going on, or whether it was some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've read all of Dolnick's other books—Zoology, You Know Who You Are and At the Bottom of Everything—and I really enjoy the way he writes, and the complexity he brings to his characters. I felt that on the whole, the story flowed well, but it went a little off the rails after a while, and I don't know if that was intentional or not. In the end, while there were some poignant parts of the story, it didn't resonate for me as I'd hoped it would. But if anyone else reads this and has a different take, I'd love to hear it!

NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Unfinished World and Other Stories" by Amber Sparks

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for making it available!

The descriptions of Amber Sparks' new collection of stories plus a novella compared her to Kelly Link and Karen Russell. While there are elements of the macabre, the futuristic, the fantastic in these stories, Sparks' voice is all her own—it's at once familiar and unusual, jarring and moving, and quite intriguing.

There isn't really a theme that weaves through all of the stories in this collection, although each is characterized by the outpouring or manifestation of some emotion and/or desire—love, grief, sadness, fear, the desire for a new start, etc. The stories take place in the past, present, and future; there is even an adaptation of a fairy tale thrown in for good measure. (Ironically, it's one of the same fairy tales adapted by Michael Cunningham in his newest book, A Wild Swan and Other Tales, which I read last month.)

While I didn't quite "get" everything in this collection, and some of the stories didn't work for me, there were some absolute stunners. Some of my favorites included: "Things You Should Know About Cassandra Dee," about an overweight girl with a special gift that isn't quite a blessing; "And the World Was Crowded with Things That Meant Love," one of the most straightforward stories in the collection, which is not your usual love story; "Thirteen Ways of Destroying a Painting," a humorous tale which featured an immensely determined time traveler; "The Janitor in Space," which is poignant and beautiful; and "The Cemetery for Lost Faces," which chronicled a brother and sister who handle their grief through taxidermy and unusual art.

If you're a fan of more traditional stories, this collection might not be for you, but if you can open your mind to stories which may force you to think of the future or the past, pick up The Unfinished World and Other Stories. You'll be intrigued, you'll be moved, you'll shake your head at Sparks' creativity, but most of all, you'll get to witness her storytelling talent and her deft skill with language and imagery first hand.

Book Review: "The Walls Around Us" by Nova Ren Suma

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Violet ("Vee") has wanted to be a prima ballerina for as long as she can remember. And as a girl from a wealthy family, she can dream whatever she wants to and achieve her dreams. When she meets Ori, whose family life is less than stable but whose talent is greater, Ori becomes Vee's strongest advocate and biggest fan, protecting her from self-doubt and those who seek to tear her down. But as they find themselves in the midst of their teenage years, and Ori's talent begins to shine brighter than Vee's, their friendship is tested. And when Ori is accused of an act of unspeakable violence, their once-unbreakable bond is destroyed.

Amber has been locked up in the Aurora Hills juvenile detention facility for as long as she can remember. Sentenced at age 13 for allegedly murdering her abusive stepfather, she has become all too expert at navigating the tricky culture of Aurora Hills, knowing the people she can talk to, the places she can go, the questions she can ask of her fellow inmates, and the way she must behave to pass the time. The facility is rocked one night by a mysterious power outage, which harms the delicate balance Amber has been able to maintain and threatens her relationships. It also leads to her getting a new cellmate—Ori—and the two lonely girls form an unlikely bond.

The Walls Around Us is part a story about living with loneliness, betrayal, and guilt. It's a story about the power of friendship and how even the strongest relationships can be shattered by lies. Nova Ren Suma's writing is absolutely beautiful, lyrical and almost poetic at times. You think you know what might happen but you're utterly unprepared for what does, particularly because the book has some supernatural, ghost story-esque elements as well. It's a tremendously interesting twist on a not-quite-typical story which has aspects of teenage angst as well.

I have never read anything that Nova Ren Suma has written before, but I was blown away by her storytelling ability. I'll admit the way the book concluded confused me a bit because I'm not 100 percent certain what happened with one character, but I still thought this was a tremendously unique and compelling book. I'll definitely need to check out some of her previous books.