Book Review: "Hidden Pictures" by Jason Rekulak

Boy, this book sure was creepy and twisty!

You’ve probably seen this all over but I’ve been meaning to read it for months. I’m proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and reading something spooky, too!

Mallory, looking for her first job after rehab and recovery, gets hired by Ted and Caroline Maxwell to care for their five-year-old son, Teddy. Despite some stringent rules, Mallory quickly grows to love the job and becomes a part of the family. And Teddy is a loving child, shy but curious and creative.

Above everything, Teddy loves to draw. His pictures are sweet and childish, depictions of his family, Mallory, and the things he sees. But suddenly his drawings stark to take a sinister tone—one day he draws a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s body, and shortly thereafter he draws the man throwing her body into a hole.

Mallory is disturbed by these drawings, but when they evolve into more sophisticated, creepier drawings that a five-year-old couldn’t possibly have drawn, she starts to think he’s being controlled by a supernatural force, perhaps the spirit of the woman in the drawings. But Caroline and Ted believe Mallory must be using again, and suspect she’s the one drawing the pictures.

Mallory is determined to solve the mystery, but it’s far more complex than she can even imagine. While I was a little disappointed by the big twist in the book, I was hooked on this story, which has a surprising amount of emotion for this genre. And the pictures are creepy, so be sure to pick up a physical copy of the book, so you can see the drawings, too!!

Book Review: "Our Wives Under the Sea" by Julia Armfield

Lyrical and haunting are two words that best describe this book.

I read this a few months back and never got around to posting my review. It’s such a beautiful and unique book, so I’m glad to finally sing its praises.

Leah is a marine biologist who went on what should have been a brief exploratory mission on a submarine. But the submarine sank, Leah was gone for six months, and her wife, Miri, got very little information about what happened or when/if Leah would return.

But when Leah finally returns, she is changed drastically. Leah locks herself in the bathroom for hours, running the faucets, as that seems to be the only thing that gives her comfort. She doesn’t eat, but craves salt water. Miri sleeps in the guest room alone, eats alone, and watches her wife vanishing before her eyes. What happened beneath the sea?

How do you come to terms with grief, with watching a relationship fade away through no fault of your own? How do you handle the significant transformation of the person you love into someone you don't know or understand?

The book alternates between Miri and Leah’s narration, from the days before the submarine expedition to now, and includes Leah’s journal entries from the mission. Armfield doesn’t give you all the answers, but this book is one I’ll remember for sure.

Book Review: "Destiny" by D.D. Larsen

The first book in D.D. Larsen's Academy series, Destiny, is a sexy, mysterious combination of romance, family secrets, and some magical elements.

At age 18, Jamie fled her small Colorado hometown, feeling stifled and needing to make a fresh start. She cut all ties to her friends, figuring it was easier that way than feeling the pull of home. After college she landed a job with a top biotech company and started to pursue her dreams.

Now, seven years later, her career has fallen apart and her last romantic relationship crashed and burned as well, so she decides it’s time to go home. While it’s good to see her parents, she quickly finds out it’s hard work to rebuild relationships with people you’ve neglected for so long.

Not long after her return home, she meets Wren, a ruggedly handsome park ranger with whom she feels an immediate, intense connection. He always seems to be around when she is in need of help, but otherwise he’s brooding and pushing Jamie away.

Meanwhile, people in her town are reportedly seeing wolves for the first time, and everyone is worried. And in a few cases, some creatures are harming people. Are the wolves to blame? Why does Jamie keep having dreams in which wolves appear, even one where she is a wolf? Is she safe, or is she in danger?

Little by little, Jamie realizes her town—and her family—is full of secrets, secrets of epic and almost magical proportions. She is drawn into a world she had never imagined, one that will change her life and her destiny.

This was a really fascinating read, with a brooding Twilight-esque vibe, although I don’t mean that in a negative way. Destiny had an interesting mix of romance and fantasy and even a little bit of the paranormal, and this was so compulsively readable. Can’t wait for Book 2 of the series!!

Kate Rock Book Tours and D.D. Larsen invited me on the tour for the book and provided me a complimentary advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

Destiny publishes 4/20!!

Book Review: "Layla" by Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover's newest book, Layla, is a very different kind of love story.

Hoover is an author I might never have heard of were it not for Bookstagram. Since reading Verity last fall, I’ve read and loved a number of her older books and some subsequent releases. She’s definitely become one of my auto-buy authors. (I still have a ways to go with her backlist, which is great.)

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Layla, and was excited to see the raves coming in from folks. A paranormal romance at that? How cool! But hype is a fickle friend. This one was...not for me.

From the moment he sees her at a wedding, Leeds falls for Layla. (I love the names CoHo gives her characters!) The more time they spend with each other, the more they know they’re destined to be together forever. And then an unexpected incident occurs which leaves Layla fighting for her life.

After Layla recovers from her injuries physically, she still suffers from anxiety and other emotional issues, so Leeds takes her to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met, hoping they can recapture some of their initial fun and passion. But instead, strange things start happening and Layla’s behavior changes dramatically.

I'll stop my plot summary here, even though you can find more online, because I think it's better to let things unfold as you read.

Sadly, this book never really captured my interest. I don’t know if it was the pacing of the story, which I found slow, or the paranormal aspects, although I don’t normally have issues with those. I do love the way Hoover writes, however, and I love her willingness to experiment and push genres. There certainly were elements of the story I enjoyed.

I know mine is an unpopular opinion and in some cases an outlier, so if you give this a try, I hope you enjoy it!!

I won a copy in a giveaway on Bookstagram, so thanks to Montlake Publishing for the complimentary copy!

Book Review: "The Broken Girls" by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is part ghost story, part murder mystery, and all a bit creepy!

Idlewild Hall used to be a boarding school in Vermont where “certain” girls were sent—the ones whose parents didn’t want them around, the troubled or mischievous or emotionally wounded ones. Rumor is the school is haunted by a ghost named Mary Hand—many have seen her or heard her through the years.

In 1950, a group of friends is trying to survive life at Idlewild. Then one night, one of them disappears—while the rest try to make sense of what happened even though no one else wants them to.

In 2014, freelance journalist Fiona Sheridan is still mourning the murder of her sister Deb 20 years earlier. Deb’s body was found dumped on the deserted ruins of Idlewild Hall, and her boyfriend was convicted of her murder, but Fiona was never convinced of his guilt.

When she learns that someone will be renovating Idlewild Hall, Fiona wants to cover the story, even though those closest to her think she needs to give up her obsession. But secrets are uncovered, some long-hidden and some more recent, which may point to a startling truth.

Having read and loved St. James’ newest book, The Sun Down Motel, I was looking forward to this one. It certainly didn’t disappoint. Once again, she did such a great job of meshing mystery with paranormal elements.

I was really hooked on this book for the first three-quarters of it. As it reached its conclusion, there were a few too many coincidences to take in, but ultimately I wasn’t disappointed. This was a compelling and slightly creepy read!

Book Review: "Boys of Alabama" by Genevieve Hudson

Well, Genevieve Hudson's Boys of Alabama definitely made me think!

Max and his family move from Germany to small-town Delilah, Alabama. It’s a far cry from what they’re used to, but Max is quickly enamored by the oppressive heat and humidity, the easy camaraderie he finds with his football teammates, and the area’s obsession with God and religion.

But Max has secrets, too. He had a relationship in Germany that scarred him, and he has a strange ability that both obsesses and frightens him. When he meets Pan, a fellow student who believes he is a witch, and Pan discovers his ability, Max feels both unburdened and more frightened of discovery. But the two embark on a relationship of sorts, which fulfills the both of them, even if it makes them vulnerable at the same time.

Boys of Alabama is a beautifully written, thought-provoking book that raises questions about religion, sexuality, paranormal abilities, racism, and prejudice, but it also is a coming-of-age story at its heart. I’ll admit I read this book almost with one hand over my eyes, as I was worried something bad would happen to one of the characters. (Plus the references to animal cruelty and the depictions of dead animals were a little much for me.)

I struggled, though, with what this book meant, and as much as I enjoyed the characters I didn’t feel connected. I also found the lack of quotation marks off-putting because if a sentence didn’t say, “she said,” I couldn’t always tell it was dialogue.

This debut novel definitely shows Hudson has a true storytelling talent. It was an interesting addition to my stack of Pride Reads this month!

Book Review: "Himself" by Jess Kidd

"Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colors are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here the trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don't want to go. Why would they when all the roads that lead to Mulderrig are downhill so that leaving is uphill all the way?"

Mulderrig is a small Irish village, a Brigadoon of sorts. One spring day in 1976, Mahony arrives in Mulderrig from Dublin, where he has lived all of his life. Or most of his life. Because just recently, he found out that one of his chief nemeses at the orphanage where he was raised, Sister Veronica, left him an envelope when she died. And in this envelope was news which changed his life: a picture of him as an infant with his mother, telling him his real name, and that he is from Mulderrig. The note also said that his mother was "the curse of the town," so they took him from her.

For Mahony, who has always been a bit of a rake (yet a handsome one) and a ne'er-do-well, this is powerful stuff. He had believed his mother had abandoned him, but he couldn't understand why, or why she never searched for him. So he heads to Mulderrig to try and uncover the truth about what happened to her 26 years ago.

"He has always believed two things, that his mother was dead and that he had known her. In order to feel her loss he must have known her presence. And he does feel her loss, he always has. Which is why he has been searching for her all his life: because he had loved her and because he had lost her. He'd searched but she'd never answered."

Mahony's return creates quite a stir in Mulderrig for a number of reasons. His physical appearance (even though he's a bit of an unwashed hippie-type) and his newness appeal to women of all ages, who react in unusual ways. His similarities to his mother quickly raise the ire, suspicion, and guilt of those residents who knew her, and might have had a hand in her circumstances. Oh, and his return has also raised the dead, many of whom were alive or around 26 years ago, and only a few people in town, including Mahony, can see and communicate with them.

Teaming up with Mrs. Cauley, an eccentric former theater actress who likes nothing more than to stir up trouble among Mulderrig's residents, Mahony is determined to uncover the truth about his mother. The two concoct a plan to interrogate those who might know something, and hopefully flush out the truth, with the help of some of the town's colorful residents. But this scandal ran far and wide through Mulderrig, and the two might be putting themselves and those they care about in danger as they get closer and closer to the truth.

This is such a charming, magical book, and as quirky as it is, it's quite emotionally moving as well, as it explores the ideas of loss and grief, of a girl trying to rise above circumstances she has been handed although everyone wants to fight her at every turn, and the rejuvenating power of friendship. I know that at its heart, this book is a mystery, but I could have done without its brief foray into actual crime novel territory, even though I understood the point, in showing that even lovely towns like Mulderrig have these types of secrets which many want to remain hidden.

While Jess Kidd spent so much time creating the "good" characters, and they are so tremendously appealing, some of the "bad" characters don't get the same attention, so they feel a little more like stereotypical characters than fully realized. But the beauty of Kidd's storytelling, and the warmth of this book is wonderful, reminding me a bit of those quirky Irish movies like Waking Ned Devine. (In tone, not subject matter.) This is a book which would be absolutely terrific as a movie because there is so much your mind's eye pictures, and it would be great to see that portrayed on screen.

If you're looking for a book with a little bit of charm and whimsy along with its terrific story, pick up Jess Kidd's Himself. In a literary world of copycats, this feels pretty original in many ways.

NetGalley and Atria Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Grownup" by Gillian Flynn

This short story by Gillian Flynn had easily one of the best, most memorable opening lines I've ever read: "I didn't stop giving hand jobs because I wasn't good at it. I stopped giving hand jobs because I was the best at it."

Given that opening salvo, however, The Grownup isn't really raunchy, nor is it erotica or sex-focused. The 64-page story is narrated by a smart young woman who spent her formative years learning from her mother how to beg for money (mainly because her mother didn't want to have to work otherwise), and it wasn't long before she became better at it than her mother. In her adulthood she found a job at Spiritual Palms, which provided tarot readings, fortune telling, and other "spiritual" analysis—however, her job was more physical (hence the opening lines).

After suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome ("...when you give 23,546 hand jobs over a three-year period, carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real thing."), she becomes an aura reader. It's not long into this job before she meets Susan Burke, a well-to-do wife and mother who is in utter distress, convinced her house is evil and so is Miles, her 15-year-old stepson. In Susan, the narrator sees a ticket out of her current situation, as she believes she can mine Susan's crisis into a more upper-crust spiritual adviser-type position. But when she visits Susan's house, and meets Miles, it isn't long before she realizes she may be out of her league—there probably is evil in the house, but whether it's coming from Susan, Miles, or the house itself, she's not quite sure.

The Grownup hooked me completely from the very beginning. (How could it not, really?) It's funny, a little creepy, and full of surprises, all in just 64 pages. While it's billed as a ghost story, I don't quite agree—perhaps if Flynn had took the story a little further those elements would have presented themselves. I wasn't wild about the ending but it certainly has left me thinking.

I've been a fan of Gillian Flynn's since she published her first book. Reading The Grownup seems a little like a tease, so I hope a new novel is on its way. And in the meantime, I may need to read George R.R. Martin's Rogues anthology, which is the book Flynn originally wrote this story for. This was definitely a good, quick, fun read.

Book Review: "Slade House" by David Mitchell

No one writes quite like David Mitchell. His last book, The Bone Clocks, made the list of my favorite books I read in 2014, and now I was utterly captivated by the quirky, slightly creepy, and utterly compelling Slade House.

Slade House is a bit of an anomaly. If you go looking for it most days, you won't find it—you'll simply go down the narrowest alley you've ever seen and search in vain, and if you ask passers-by whether they've heard of Slade House, chances are they'll look at you like you've gone mad. But the truth is, Slade House is only visible every nine years, and only if you've been chosen by the house's owners, a mysterious brother and a sister, will you get the chance to enter. You'll be amazed by the beauty of your surroundings, the grandeur of the house—and then you'll start to realize all is not what it seems. But by then, it's too late.

Slade House spans five decades, beginning in the 1970s, and follows an unlikely group of people as they encounter the house and its owners. A misfit teenager accompanying his musician mother for a recital, a recently divorced policeman with an eye for the ladies, a college student who joined her college's Paranormal Society to get closer to one of her fellow students, and an investigative journalist all enter the house; some have knowledge of its existence, some are totally unaware. And then it becomes difficult to distinguish what is real and what is in their minds.

I'm not going to say more about the plot for fear of spoiling it. Once again, David Mitchell has created a tremendously unique story with lots of twists and turns (and there's even a tiny overlap with a character from The Bone Clocks, but you don't have to have read that book to enjoy this one. This book has vivid imagery, fascinating characters, and even takes some trips into the territory of authors like Stephen King, Peter Straub, or Dean Koontz, but still remains completely Mitchell-ian. (If that word doesn't exist, now it does.)

Give yourself a little post-Halloween treat that won't pack on the calories, and pick up this book. Chances are, like me, you're going to want to read more of Mitchell's books afterward.

Book Review: "One to Go" by Mike Pace

The crime/thriller genre is full of a lot of books that seem rather similar, to the point where at times you can't easily distinguish books you've read from those you haven't. Mike Pace's One to Go is not one of those books. Sure, it's utterly implausible (at least I hope so) and it goes off the rails toward the end, but it takes you on one hell of a ride, and is unlike any other book I've read, mashing together the crime/thriller genre with a bit of the paranormal.

Tom Booker is a new attorney at one of the more powerful law firms in Washington, DC. He's rotating through the firm's different specialties, hoping to find his niche and make an impression on those in charge. Deciding to be a lawyer at a later age than many, he wants to succeed yet still wants to be a good father to his young daughter, especially now that he and his wife are divorced.

Rushing to meet his daughter and her friends at a museum one Saturday, he stops to text his wife that he's on his way (although running late), and he inadvertently winds up drifting into oncoming traffic, causing an accident on the Memorial Bridge. An accident with a truck as well as a minivan driven by his sister-in-law, carrying his daughter and her friends. The minivan tips on its side, starts leaking gasoline, and is on the verge of plummeting into the Potomac River below.

Can Tom shake off his own injuries fast enough to save his daughter? Suddenly time inexplicably freezes, and he encounters a perky couple, Britney and Chad. They give Tom the option to reverse time and save everyone involved in the crash. But this offer is not without its cost—to repay for the four lives he will save, he must kill a person every other week. It doesn't matter who he kills, he just has to kill someone. And if he doesn't, one of the minivan's passengers will be killed instead, which again puts his daughter at risk.

He has to be hallucinating, right? Tom quickly sees that this utterly unbelievable situation is all too real, and he must take Britney and Chad's bargain seriously. But how will he find people who deserve to die? And how will he work up the courage to kill them when he's never really even fired a gun? He must turn himself from an upstanding lawyer into a serial killer in just a matter of days, and he can't caught, or he'll put his daughter in danger. And then he finds himself in the middle of another situation that threatens his freedom and his daughter's life.

One to Go jolts you from the start, and keeps your adrenaline pumping throughout. Tom is not your average everyday murderer—he thinks he can go about killing like he's seen it done on television and in the movies, but he finds it much more difficult than he'd even imagine, and as he finds, the devil is definitely in the details. I liked the fact that Pace didn't change Tom's character too much as the story unfolded. Pace does a great job ratcheting up the tension throughout, and there are some good action scenes.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I found part of the story's resolution tremendously predictable (I figured it would go one of two ways) and then the outrageous elements of the plot were just a little too outrageous. But if you can completely suspend your disbelief (and I mean completely), you'll probably agree this is a book unlike many you've seen in this genre.

I look forward to seeing what Pace thinks of next!