Signing Off

Welcome, to those of you who find your way to this site. I am taking a hiatus from posting reviews here as I was not able to gain the attention of my fellow readers and writers. I'll update my work from time-to-time, but please look for me as a guest columnist on @Writersrumpus.com. And thanks for visiting.

Big Little Lies

by Liane Moriarty

Amy Einhorn Books, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Penguin Group, 2014

B+ because I hate gossip and bickering. A- because it is a well-written who-done-it!

Numerous people insisted I would love the TV series. They don’t know me very well. I insisted on reading the novel before watching the show. I’m glad I did.

Maddie means well but is nosy and bossy. Her 2nd husband, Ed, is a saint. Celeste and Paul are wealthy, kinky, and fun to be around. Jane is hiding from herself.

Their four kids all start kindergarten together in the first chapter. Maddie’s’ daughter Chloe is outgoing and a leader. Celeste’s twins, Josh and Max, are…well…boys, while Jane’s son Ziggy is more reserved.

On the first day of school, someone chokes Renatta’s (queen bee of the school committee) daughter, Amabella.

Renata makes a scene, Amabella points out Ziggy. Battle lines are drawn when Ziggy says he didn’t do it, and Jane supports him.

The cattiness and bitxxing infuriates us for months. Until a body flies off a balcony at the school fundraiser.

Moriarty entertains us with not only story but format. To engage the readers early, she introduces the murder in the first chapter but doesn’t tell us who died. The investigation then overlaps the backstory explaining the first months of kindergarten — an excellent use of format to set the story apart from more traditional reads.

I congratulate the author on her mystique. I pride myself on picking up loose threads and small clues. I was able to figure out who the victim was, but I was wrong about the murderer, although I nailed the motive. It was very well done, indeed!

So well done, in fact, that I decided to watch the tv series. But, the gossip and anger and talking-behind-the-backs of ‘friends’ gave me agita. I didn’t watch a second episode. I didn’t want it to ruin the book!

I Am Still Alive

by Kate Alice Marshall

Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2018

One of the best hooks ever, “Hatchet meets the Revenant…” by S. A. Bodeen, describes this YA survival story in four perfect words. I gave this must-read an A+.

Jess Cooper’s Dad left her when she was an infant. Her mom raised her until she was killed in a car accident when Jess was 16. After months of rehab and foster homes, the state finally tracked down her dad, Carl Green, and she is flown to live with him in Alaska.

Only he lied. He keeps a mailing address in Alaska but lives off the grid in the wilderness of Canada. Carl’s best friend Griff meets Jess at the airport in Anchorage; they then drive and fly for hours to join her dad and his dog, Bo. It’s summer, but summer is short.

Jess is miserable, disabled, lonely, and out of her element. She wants to leave. Her dad promises it’s just for one year. He’s teaching her how to survive the long winter. She watches him set traps, learns about berries and other flora. She hunts with bow and arrow, learns to avoid predators, and how to cook over an open fire. A plane arrives, and it’s not Griff.

It’s too good a story for me to give it away here, so I won’t. But Jess and Bo have to learn to survive on their own. The things this author puts her antagonist through would make you think she doesn’t like her very much. But she made Jess strong!

Marshall used an unusual format that added to the power of this novel. Told in first-person point-of-view, she alternated with the backstory BEFORE she was alone in the wilderness and her survival AFTER.

When the BEFORE catches up with the AFTER, her goal becomes less of survival and more of revenge.

The writing is fast-paced. The main character is challenged beyond all belief, in an entirely plausible way, making it hard to put down.

Marshall took us into the beautiful, unforgiving wilderness. She also took us into a frantic and violent underworld. They collide in masterful prose.

Anger is a Gift

by Mark Oshiro

A Tom Doherty Associates Book, TOR Teen, Macmillan Publishing Co.

2018

Halfway through reading, I didn’t want to finish this book except, I needed to know that Moss, our main character, turned out okay. So here you have a perfect example of why the reader needs to care about your character. 

My thoughts then were to rate the novel a B. An A for story, diversity, LGBTQ, telling a story that doesn’t get shared often enough…if at all. But I averaged that with a C for writing style. I’ve changed my mind, so read on.

Moss, our 16-year-old protagonist, lost his dad to a San Francisco police officer in a case of mistaken identity, several years earlier. Now in High School, Moss is confronted with police brutality toward himself and his high school friends. The teens know they have to do something to speak out. Here I must applaud Oshiro. He breaks a YA ‘no parents’ rule and engages them as I believe would and should happen in the real-life of any 16-year-old. With parental support, they organize peaceful protests, which, unfortunately, but of course, turn tragic. Moss’ anger builds throughout the narrative. He learns to channel that to create change for his neighborhood and school. As was stated earlier, A for story.

This is Oshiro’s debut novel. His characters are genuine, unique, and empathizable (is that a word?) The final third of the book, packed with dynamic and engaging action, but the first two/thirds were too predictable: 

•    Moss encounters something
•    his anxiety rises
•    he tries his coping mechanisms 
•    ultimately Mama (a solid mom any kid would adore), Esperanza (the best friend), or Javier (the boyfriend) rubs his back or head 
•    Moss can cope again. 

Too repetitive for my taste.

The problem, in my opinion, is that Oshiro never made me feel Moss’ angst. He told me about it, a few too many times. In the last third, Oshiro truly engaged this reader in the mental and physical abuse at the hands of the police but not the anguish inspired by Moss’ own demons.

Having completed the novel, I moved my rating up to a B+/A-. This story did eventually grab me and something more. It enlightened me,(as it did for Esperanza), to a situation I thankfully have never witnessed and wish did not exist. However, according to the author’s notes, it does – and it shouldn’t.

Switchback

by Danika Stone

A Swoon Reads Book

Imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing Group

2019

Vale (Valeria) hates high school. Who wouldn't if you were bullied and had no friends. Well, she has one friend, Ash (Ashton), and thank goodness he's in her PE class. Friends since kindergarten, Ash intervenes between Vale and her nemesis Mike. Not to stand up to him, but in his usual class-clown way, making fun of himself and the world around him to diffuse the tension.

Why hasn't he ever stood up to Mike? Vale tries, but it does no good. So when the PE class embarks on the mandatory overnight hike in Canada's Waterton Park, Vale is glad Ash is along. Ash wishes he was home playing video games in the basement, but he wants to graduate, and he promised Vale he wouldn't bail.

Vale and Ash are lost and on their own by lunchtime. Enduring a real and daunting survival experience, their relationship changes and grows, and so do they. Vale has some survival instinct from reading and a fundamental love of nature. Ash respects this and lets her take charge until she rolls an ankle, and he knows she needs him to step up. He leaves before dawn to climb a peak and tries one more time to make a 911 call. Vale wakes up alone, feeling abandoned by the world.

Ash needs to get back to Vale. Vale hopes Ash will return but needs to leave the camp before the elk or grizzly return. Things only get worse.

I enjoyed Switchback. Reading about nature, the elk rut, and other wildlife encounters is right up my alley. The writing was a bit naïve for YA, so I rated it a B+. As a Middle Grade, I'd probably raise it to an A-. If you ever spend time in the great outdoors or wonder what it's like, you'll find some very realistic descriptions in Switchback.

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?

By Horace McCoy

Serpents. Tail, Profile Books, London first edition, 1935; this edition, 2010.

I’m not sure how many years ago it was, but one fine day I made the decision to read the classics. I didn’t get very far. Truth be told, I didn’t enjoy many of them. As a writer, I found reasons to prefer today’s structure and general rules. As a reader, with a few exceptions, I was bored.

Last month I came across a very low-cost copy of THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY, one of the classics I had not yet gotten around to reading. A short paperback, I hoped it would be a quick beach-read – NOT.

The entire story is during Robert Syverten’s sentencing for the murder of Gloria Beatty. Robert shot Gloria on a park bench on the pier after spending five weeks as her partner in a dance marathon. When the police arrested him, they asked him why he shot her. He answered, “she asked me to.” When asked if that was the only reason, he thought about the time his uncle shot a horse with a broken leg and answered, “They shoot horses, don’t they?”

I didn’t enjoy this book for the same reason Robert shot Gloria. She was a miserable human being. Severely depressed and in dire need of help, which she would not get in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. And, Robert was as boring as she was miserable.

The story is told in Robert’s POV and his voice is clear but without emotion. He drones on and on about the details of their time together. I wanted to shake him and wake him up. I wanted to slap her. Or at least walk away from time to time but you couldn’t avoid these two, they danced together one-hour and fifty minutes of every hour, 24x7, for over five weeks! And McCoy dragged us through every intolerable minute. The only emotion in the novel was the chapter breaks which proclaimed the Judge’s statements throughout the sentencing, beginning with The prisoner will stand… and ending with …may God have mercy on your soul… That was a clever and I dare say inventive use of chapter breaks. 

Gloria was miserable, hopeless, depressed. She had attempted suicide, lost her parents, couldn’t get an acting job, destitute. She convinced Robert, a recent acquaintance, to enter the contest with her. At least they’d have food and a roof over their heads. Robert was also destitute but still hopeful of starting a career in films. When the contest abruptly ends, Robert and Gloria walk outside to see the sun for the first time in weeks.

She tells him she has nowhere to go and would be better of dead. He agrees with her. She hands him a pistol and asks for his help. Robert obliges. And we are told this at the very beginning of the story.

I rated this a C. It provided me some painful insight on life during the Great Depression. I loved the format of the interspersed Judges statements. I want to feel for Robert and Gloria but I can't. Other reviews describe it as "existential with deeply layered meaning, providing wonderful symbolism, and complex characters." But I disagree, it may be existential but not deep. Everything, even the characters, are transparent and raw yet unfazed. I’d like to see the rewrite with a little more drama, a lot more emotion, and a sub-plot or two that matter.

I guess I'm not cut out for the classics.

Tell The Wolves I'm Home

by Carol Rifka Brunt

The Dial Press, Random House, NY 2012

June Elba is lonely at age 14. Her best friend is her uncle Finn Weiss, her mother’s brother as well as a famous painter. Finn dies of aids much too young and June befriends a stranger named Toby, Finn’s partner for most of his adult life.

June is stunned she never knew of Toby’s existence until Finn’s death. When Finn moved back to New York from England, years before (after leaving because his father couldn’t accept he was gay) his sister, June’s mother, would only allow Finn to be a part of her and his niece’s lives if Toby was kept a secret.

So when June visited Finn (as she did regularly), Toby couldn’t come home.

Toby was even more lonely than June. Their time together was special and short as, of course, Toby also had aids. Like June's mother and Uncle Finn, June had once been very close to her older sister, Greta. But Greta was jealous of June’s special relationship with Finn and treated June poorly because of it. (We are our parents children.)

This is a story of family jealousy, judgment, and poor communication. It is also a story of growing up lonely and shy but true to yourself. And, learning that that’s okay.

The writing was quite good. The characters are authentic and the story very real. I rate this book a B+. I didn't give it an A, because it is a little slow paced but mostly because the mother’s poor decision and father’s willingness to go along (Finn and Toby’s too) ticks me off!