Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

We often wonder how much of ourselves is the direct result of where we come from; what is predetermined by what is running through our veins, and what is the result of our surrounding environment. And it's often an inconclusive venture to discern nature vs nurture when determining why someone did or didn't do something, and no one understands this more than Milly Barnes, facing her daily struggles of Good Me Bad Me. Daughter to a serial killer, the one and only witness to her mother's crimes, and the one to turn her into the police, she is placed in an affluent foster home and enrolled in private school. But as her mother's trial approaches, Milly is constantly faced with a choice: which wolf to feed? 

Good Me Bad Me is a thrilling twist on the age-old question, how far does the apple fall from the tree? Is that something we can even control, and to what extent? Milly and everyone in her world are about to find out.

Hers is a story unlike any other. Hauntingly and disturbingly seductive, it definitely highlights a horrific twist on an all-too-common crime. Good Me Bad Me is unsettling yet captivating and will crawl under your skin and suck you even though you may not want it to. It is brutal and unforgiving, the skillfully disembodied prose giving the story structure and depth and texture, with odd moments of humanity and tenderness, if any exists in such a terrifying scenario. Land - by way of Milly - leaves no stone unturned, and although there isn't the proverbial climactic twist at the end, the book positively drips with suspense. I read it in two days and I suspect you might too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads profile.

SHIPPING SPECIAL SET TO EXPIRE Will soon return to standard shipping rates. See link for details.

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

Once again I caved to the social media frenzy and excitedly snatched up The Chain by Adrian McKinty from the library even though I swore I wouldn't check out any more books for a while so I could stay focused on my 300-deep to-be-read shelves. Let me just say, breaking my self-imposed rule, and the subsequent library late-fees, was...not worth it.

"Grips you tight, right from the start, and mercilessly refuses to let go. One wild ride," is my very first note on this book after I was undoubtedly sucked in by the first two chapters; that's what books are supposed to do, after all - get us hooked from the beginning. Unfortunately, The Chain grips you tight, doesn't let go, and drags you through a slow, character-driven plot that is more an attempt at a philosophical explanation of life than a propulsive thriller.

The Chain - believed to be hundreds of years old - is quite possibly the worst thing to happen to a parent. Their child is kidnapped and the only way to get them returned safely is for those parents to pay the ransom, kidnap another child, and be prepared to commit murder if anything goes wrong. The Chain studies their "participants" and Rachel Klein seems to fit the bill. Newly divorced, new job, and a cancer survivor, The Chain believes she's just strong enough to carry out their heinous demands, but just pliable enough to avoid going to the police, and to do whatever they say. The book jacket would have you believe that she is a strong-as-a-motha, mama Grizzly type who will stop at nothing to get her daughter, Kylie, back safely, while dismantling The Chain, which is, unfortunately, misleading. What is actually true is that McKinty's novel is slow, dramatic, and ultimately a poor attempt at existentialism where Rachel's "take down" of The Chain feels forced.

The premise - the very idea of the book - is enough to keep you reading, so where you would expect the book to be plot-driven, it mostly focuses on the characters and their basic emotional well-being during the time that Kylie is missing and after she is returned. The set-up for the major "twist" is unfortunate and weak, and in spite of the book being very wordy, the writing is choppy and comes off lazy; case in point, no one who isn't from Massachusetts and the surrounding area will care about the random list of street names. And the ending is an attempt at Dennis Lehane-esque waxing poetic that mostly misses the mark, like when my high school English teacher would call me out on my bullshit.

I will say, though, that The Chain is an eye-opening account of Social Media, the dark ways in which it is used that we hear about on the news but think it will never actually happen to us, and makes us re-examine if we're really being as social media safe as we should be. Posting our every move and thought is not only annoying, it's dangerous. So, more for the public service announcement than anything else, I give The Chain ⭐/5 on goodreads.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

My need to seasonal read reared it's ugly head again when I snatched Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys from my bookshelf, a book I had bought for cheap at one of the many book sales I manage to find around this small city. About the little-known ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, and its little-known tragic end, Salt to the Sea is a Young Adult novel for everyone; a must-read of the World War II genre.

In the winter of 1945, the forces of evil - Stalin and Hitler - fought each other, with the innocent civilian bystanders footing the bill. Being squeezed from their countries, hundreds of thousands of refugees made their way to ships that held promises of freedom and an end to the horrors they were previously forced to endure. Florian, Emilia, Alfred, Joana, the Shoe Poet, and the Wandering Boy who suddenly emerges from the forest, are among them, each sharing the one commonality of war: secrets, with a little bit of hope.

The gaining of passage on the Wilhelm Gustloff is dramatic in and of itself, and Sepetys marvelously handles the atrocities of war - WWII in particular - by not over-horrifying events, but not sugar-coating or glossing over them, either; being able to touch at the heart of why war will never bring true peace. She offers many points of view to consider, even though they may not be particularly agreeable, creating the ability to spark constructive discussions about characters and what leads them to make their specific choices. I would love to be a fly on the wall as this book is discussed by a high school English class, or - heck! - even lead a discussion myself.

Salt to the Sea is hefty, both in size and subject matter, but is able to quickly suck you in. It is an exceptionally well-written, beautifully heartbreaking novel that is important to both history and storytelling. I will definitely be reading her other novels.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

About a month ago, I went through a bit of a book slump which, as you know, isn't that uncommon - I see a lot of posts online about said slumps and asking for recommendations in order to relieve them. I wasn't sure what genre I was even in the mood for, much less any specific novel, and then I noticed Ruth Ware's The Lying Game on my shelf. But, of course! Ware has been giving me the fall chills since In A Dark, Dark Wood, reading one of her deeply mysterious novels during this time of year has become habit. So then it was decided for me. Well, whoever was the decision-maker fell asleep on the job, most likely reading The Lying Game.

Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima become fast-friends at a wayward boarding school in the damp marshes of England, and in less than a year, are able to create a very unfortunate reputation for themselves; think Mean Girls Gone Bad. But not so bad that the story actually becomes interesting. Something sinister happened to Kate's father, Ambrose, during that time at school, and now - some decades later - their lying past is about to come back to haunt them.

The most glaring of discrepancies is that the actual Lying Game and its subsequent rules - tell a lie, stick to your story, don't get caught, never lie to each other, and know when to stop lying - are completely arbitrary, and more a lesson in how not to be a dick during your teen years because it could come back to bite you as an adult. Reminiscent of Ware's previous novels, none of The Lying Game's "participants" are at all likable, and these women come off as whiny and self-involved. This book is about 200-pages too long, extremely boring and over-dramatic, the ending is a total let-down, and the final line of the book makes absolutely no sense. This Ware book is a rare disappointment. ⭐/5 on goodreads.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE or find me on Instagram: @breannes_bargain_bookshelf

The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn

I like to boast that I will read pretty much anything, though I avoid trigger topics like I mentioned before, and if ever I am given the opportunity to choose between a Young Adult novel and anything else, I will almost always choose Anything Else. I appreciate the genre, though with every YA book I've read (The Hunger Games trilogy - HERE, HERE, and HERE - Divergent, Cinder, How To Lead a Life of Crime, The Fault in Our Stars, etc.), I've felt that they are decidedly *not* Young Adult but just Regular Adult. Willa Strayhorn's The Way We Bared Our Souls is exactly what a Young Adult novel should look and sound like, and I think it would do actual young people a service to read and discuss this book with their peers, and perhaps an English teacher.

Lo is on the verge of being diagnosed with MS; Ellen is numbing herself with drugs and alcohol; Kaya, due to a chronic illness, is immune to feeling physical pain; Thomas can't forget his war-torn past; and Kit constantly fears death after his girlfriend's car accident. And when Lo meets a mysterious man and his coyote who says he can perform a sacred ritual to relieve their biggest burdens, Lo - like many teenagers - believes this is her only option; that this mysterious Jay will somehow cure her and the others. So they head into the desert and trade totems in what they believe to be purely symbolic but quickly turns literal. For the next seven days, the teens take on each other's burdens, which begs the question: if you could trade your biggest burden for someone else's, would you?

While not the most well-written or literary of the Young Adult genre, The Way We Bared Our Souls shows up for teens where Thirteen Reasons Why falls short; where Thirteen Reasons does a lot of victimizing and blaming, The Way We Bared Our Souls emphasizes the importance of showing up for ourselves, and that our burdens don't have to be what defines or controls us. There are moments when the story is a bit of a stretch, but the main points are never lost. And while there are far too many periods - which I assume is so teen readers will move seamlessly from one sentence to the other - the mood of the novel can get a bit Dawson's Creek and overly mature, which young readers today won't understand the reference to, anyways. Strayhorn satisfactorily showcases relatable teen angst with a splash of make-believe and magic and some good American history to bring things back down to Earth.

I give this book ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads mostly because the book as a whole is a bit young for me, and I find adult books to be generally more engrossing. Teens, however, could really gain something valuable from The Way We Bared Our Souls.