Verity by Colleen Hoover

 

Like many of you, I don't even know where to begin with this book, unless you're a Goodreads reviewer, in which case, you have a lot to say and most of it consists of, "Are you kidding me?!" Verity, by Colleen Hoover - or CoHo, as she is so lovingly dubbed by her loyal and extensive fan-base - is...a book. Is it a good book? No, I definitely wouldn't call it a "good book." It's a...book...that you will...read. And then you'll go, "Huh." 

Lowen Ashleigh - let's just take in that name for a moment - is a struggling writer with zero money but has just been offered the job of a lifetime: completing the highly popular, and highly successful, series of novels for the now-incapacitated author, Verity Crawford. The only problem - or bonus - is that she will be doing most of her work in the home that Verity shares with her husband, Jeremy, who Lowen quickly develops feelings for (of course). Then Lowen stumbles upon a manuscript, an autobiography that was never meant to be read, and quickly gets sucked into a dark world of sex and manipulation and violence.

This book definitely gets you hooked right from the first sentence, and keeps you hooked so you're able to get through some truly triggering scenes. It's gripping and intense, an undeniable, character-driven, page-turner, with a hint of eroticism that has a tendency to lean towards the ridiculous, and can be kind of foul. Verity is a book you either love or you hate, with an ending that you will either think is genius or too easy, but it's definitely an ending worth reading the book for, a vast contrast from Behind Her Eyes. You will absolutely read to find out if your assumptions about Verity are true, and I spotted a new edition at Target that boasted a Bonus Chapter, so I am very intrigued as to what is in that.

There is one redeeming quality to Verity and that is the writing. It is rough and not at all elegant, and even brutal at times, which only adds to the sinister underbelly of this story. And although Lowen isn't the most popular of characters on Goodreads, I think she is a necessary catalyst to get the reader to form their suspicions. From Verity, I can see how "CoHo" is a true talent, I'm just not sure about this book. I honestly don't know how many stars to give it. Three, I guess? I don't even know.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

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"That ending!"

"That ending!"

"That ending!"

And my personal favorite, the ever-eloquent: "that ending was fucked up," though I would describe it more as absurd, outlandish, and bullocks, to use in favor of the American version of "complete bullshit." Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough is like bad sex - interesting and cryptic, but a little confusing at first; a decent enough middle to keep you powering through, but then an ending that is a complete disappointment, leaving you wishing you had just watched 20/20 instead.

Louise is a single-mom and a part-time secretary who, one night, meets a man at a bar. They talk and flirt and spark a connection fueled by alcohol and excitement, only to discover the next day their boss-secretary relationship. Then Louise meets Adele; the beautiful, luminous, mysterious, Adele, wife of The Man from The Bar. And though Louise tries in vain to stay away, she is inexplicably drawn into the lives of David and Adele, and the extremely shaky foundation on which their marriage is built. As Louise peels back the pages of their lives, there are definitely way more questions than answers, and one that you will most undoubtedly have is, "What the fuck am I reading?"

The problem with there being so much hype about the ending is that I found myself reading for the ending, and it didn't help that the story is confusedly cryptic, the dream analysis and whole Second Door business going way over my head. It is sinister and haunting, if only for the choppy way in which it's written, and the transitions aren't at all seamless, which I suppose is the point. The beginning is a bit boring, but once things start to be explained, the pages flip much faster, and then, of course, there is the infamous ending, which you either love or hate. I find it to be a bit of a cop-out; a dumbing-down of an otherwise good story. And, yes, even though it is completely unpredictable and everything a shocking twist should be, it is also the strangest way to explain it all away, and the weirdest ending to a Domestic Noir that I could ever imagine. Now it's pretty much impossible not to read this book for the ending. ⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads.

The Lion's Den by Katherine St. John

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Awhile back, my friend and fellow book-lover asked me to recommend a good thriller, and I had nothin'. The thrillers I had read were mediocre at best, and there was one I couldn't even read at all, so definitely nothing I felt worthy of slapping my recommendation on. Now, allow me to invite you into - or rather, aboard - The Lion's Den, a completely addictive, very clever, novel from Katherine St. John, an author who proves to be a real talent of the thriller genre. You'll down this dazzling debut like free-flowing rose on a hot day, the perfect read for your very un-perfect vacation, or to make you glad you didn't take one at all.

The Lion's Den is In a Dark, Dark Wood meets The Woman in Cabin 10 but with a lot more glitz, glam, and daylight, though the level of intensity and heat is the same. Summer and Belle, friends since childhood, have drifted apart over the last few years as Belle works to forge her acting career, and Summer hones her proclivity for wealthy, older men. But for Summer's birthday, Belle - along with Wendy, Claire, Amethyst, and Summer's mother and sister - has been invited aboard The Lyon's Den, a luxury yacht owned by John, Summer's latest May-December romance. Though Belle has her doubts - things that sound too good to be true usually are - she accepts, and - of course - things aren't at all what they seem and are about to get all kinds of fishy up in this boat.

Written with wit and humor and intelligence, the story is brilliantly plotted, expertly spanning one week of vacation while also covering a decade of early adulthood. So well organized and detailed is this book that the two stories manage to run parallel to each other while also heading straight on a collision course, with a slow build-up in the beginning that lures you into a false sense of thinking you know what to expect. Though the set-up, combined with the synopsis, makes one major twist a bit too obvious, the Devil is still in the details, and is followed by a smattering of twists that you absolutely do not see coming. And the way in which Belle handles these turns and navigates her precarious position is both elegant and fierce, a character to truly appreciate.

The Lion's Den is a taut thriller and an entertaining read that also engages our brains to assemble the puzzle; St. John cleverly hands us all of the pieces, deftly making every last detail invaluable, and it's ultimately very satisfying as they begin clicking into place. These are the authors you want to keep coming back to, and this is definitely a book I would want to recommend to my friend. So, here you go, Franny. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads.

Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

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Over the last decade, Psychological Thrillers have been the "it" book; ever since - ok I'll say it, but with a hefty eye-roll - Gone Girl hit the bookshelves. Suddenly us readers were addicted to being slightly fooled, the "Unreliable Narrator" was born, and we were trying to decide which author could do it better. For me, however, I tire of the genre kind of easily, all of them beginning to blend together at one point. Enter Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy, which introduces - or rather supports that of Hidden Bodies - the Unreliable Synopsis. "A handsome psychologist. A lonely wife. And in his home office, a vent in the ceiling. You'd listen, too, wouldn't you?"

Newlyweds Sam and Annie have just moved back to his quiet hometown in order to be near his ailing mother, and hopefully settle in with his private practice, "attending to his (mostly female) clientele." But, unbeknownst to Annie, things aren't going too well for Sam, he's finding this transition harder than he thought and with more obstacles than he anticipated. 

Goodnight Beautiful is a well thought-out, suspenseful and complex novel where Molloy does an excellent job of thinking of everything, though the twists and surprises - and there are plenty! - are slightly jarring and a wee bit confusing. It is an interesting and fascinating twist on stalking and obsession, which makes the characters' choices all the more intriguing.

Molloy definitely takes full advantage of the Unreliable Narrator, taking cues from Erin Kelly's The Burning Air before abruptly sending us into Stephen King territory, and I mean that literally. It feels as though Molloy had just read The Burning Air and Misery and smashed them together, suddenly I was in the only part of Stephen King's Misery that I could get through. Molloy obviously channeled King, but she did it better, taking on only a small portion of the physical exhaustion and alcoholism that come with his books, but having the appropriate amount of cheap psychotherapy.

The ending is not at all what I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. Goodnight Beautiful is a Psychological Thriller with heart. I read it in two days, you probably could too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads profile.

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

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If you're the person who wrote the synopsis of Hidden Bodies on the book jacket, then consider yourself one of the lucky few who didn't actually read this novel by Caroline Kepnes, the follow-up to the darkly sexual You. Be thankful that you side-stepped this filthy poor excuse for a story (but still got paid).

The book jacket says that Joe Goldberg, Serial Stalker and Accidental Serial Killer, moves to Los Angeles for a fresh start, and to find love, but can't stop looking over his shoulder because "hidden bodies never stay hidden," when - in fact - Joe does not move to LA for a fresh start, he is most definitely not looking for love, and hidden bodies aren't actually a nuisance to Joe until the second-to-last chapter. This book - which is coated in a thin layer of ick - is a big fuck-you to Hollywood and everyone in the industry. It's a running list of rejected screenplays, and, yet, is somehow a tale of wildest dreams coming true, and it's the most unexpected representation of blatant sexism, Kepnes unabashedly portraying every male character as a simple-minded, blow-job obsessed, robot, including our hero, Joe. I'm not going to tell you the synopsis, and if you've watched the second season of You on Netflix, it's not that either.

The beginning is as you'd expect for the sequel to You - erotic and sinisterly sexy - but quickly turns dirty, raunchy, and just plain gross. As you power through the filth, and presumably shower several times, Joe is bitter, angry, and crass. OG Joe was our hero stalker, protecting Beck from Benji and Peach and herself, but LA Joe is on the hunt for revenge; a hunt for "Supercunts," the use of this word a little too prolific for my taste, but ultimately getting distracted by feeling compelled to murder everyone who irritates him. I've read trashy, grocery-store pseudo-romance novels, and I've watched porn, but this book is just foul; absolute garbage.

The only redeeming qualities of this book, if you can call them that, is that Joe has remarkably good luck and a remarkably fulfilling sex-life in spite of his penchant for killing people; he's moved on from simple stalking. And I agree with his sentiments about LA: it's claustrophobic, dirty, expensive, you spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about parking, you experience three different seasons in one day - mild spring in the morning, intense humidity in late morning, desert-like heat for the afternoon, and freezing nights - and although everything is literally leaning up against everything else, everyone drives everywhere even though everyone is worried about parking. Wow, I sounded like Joe there for a minute. But while a lot seems to happen to Joe, nothing actually happens; it's just the wanderings and bitter observations of a bitter man; hundreds of pages of Joe's melodramatic, narcissistic, bitching and moaning. I sped through it because, like bad sex, I was waiting for something interesting to happen, and when I eventually realized that that was never going to happen, I just wanted it to be over so I could move on to a good book, which is a true story involving the Holocaust, if that tells you anything about how much I enjoyed Hidden Bodies. ⭐/5 on my goodreads profile, and that's being generous. Will I continue to follow Joe's journey in You Love Me? Most likely no.

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

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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.

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The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

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I did something all us bibliophiles swear to never do but actually do with every one of our book choices and I picked The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine based solely on the cover. I was headed off on vacation, with ample amounts of pool-time in my imminent future and if there's one thing I love, it's a good theme. The cover screams "pool read," and the story requires minimal focus so you can still succumb to all of the "Mom, watch me!"s coming from your kids in the water.

Amber Patterson has a grudge. Not against anyone in particular, just whoever looks like they might be enjoying their life just a little too much. Growing up poor and forgotten, Amber has set her sights on rich, center-of-the-affluent-Universe, Daphne Parrish, in a manipulative scheme to usurp her. But what could have been a Master Class in Manipulation, turns cheap and tawdry and is more like Manipulation for the Mindless.

With insipid characters and a storyline to mimic The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a colossal disappointment, but the Devil is in the details. This book is painfully despicable, tasteless, disturbing, crude, and isn't so much duplicitous as it is easy and skanky. The writing is cheesy and inauthentic, and the story is overly long and drawn out and never actually reaches its synopsis, making it feel exhausting.

I didn't feel compelled to award any stars to The Last Mrs. Parrish on my goodreads profile, if you are looking for a good Domestic Noir, look elsewhere. 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

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I picked up The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides in much the same fashion as everyone else who has ever decided to give it a go - obvious curiosity for "But why does she not speak?" (Euripides) But as I started to burn through the pages, I developed a different reaction to this book altogether. I stopped caring about, and wanting to know why, Alicia Berenson - a famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer - refuses, or is unable, to speak, and I just got it. I absolutely get why, after shooting her husband in the face five times while he was tied to a chair, Alicia never spoke another word. And by the end of the book, I was ready to shoot every character in the face five times.

Alicia Berenson is tucked away at a secure psychiatric unit in North London when, like most in the field, Criminal Psychotherapist, Theo Faber, becomes entranced by the story. Also like most in the field, he is positive that he is the one to rescue her, to save her from herself, and to save The Grove from imminent closure. Alicia's case quickly becomes his main focus, questionably blurring the lines between patient and therapist in a self-satisfying effort to truly understand her.

The story is intricate and well-told, with a lot of moving parts that Michaelides deftly keeps from getting too complicated. It is a definite page-turner, and offers up a serious twist that will make even the most seasoned reader gasp. It irritatingly reads more like a crime novel, the upside being that Faber is not actually a Detective, which, for some reason always gives characters a level of arrogance I cannot stand. The Silent Patient shouldn't necessarily be categorized as a psychological thriller, either, but more of a dramatic thriller, reminiscent of You by Caroline Kepnes.

The writing is clear, concise, and invokes some serious introspection, which all novels are meant to do, but this book far surpasses the norm, at least for this reader. In much the same way the book discusses transference, Alicia stops being simply a character and becomes a representation; I am her and she is me. We think of death as the cease to function by our physical bodies, not realizing or acknowledging how many times we die on the inside, while our bodies continue to plug away like machines. 

I really had to think about my goodreads rating before I made it and ultimately settled on ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5. The Silent Patient will definitely leave a lasting impression.

The Widow by Fiona Barton

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I happened across a goodreads review of The Widow by Fiona Barton that lamented the book description - or lack thereof - on the book jacket, labeling it as "misleading." I can understand that assessment, but I am one of those readers for whom the limited description is written. In fact, I would never have purchased the book (albeit for dirt cheap) had the synopsis been any more detailed. There is one particular element of which the entire story revolves, even though it is actually quite secondary to how everything generally unfolds, that I don't like, and if you read The Child, it's that. But the surprising plot and unsettling narrator kept me reading to an unpredictably predictable ending.

After years of being the dutiful wife, helping her husband through the literal trials and tribulations of being accused of horrible crimes, Jean's husband is suddenly dead. And the things she held to so tightly, things she believed, things she wanted to believe, and things she suddenly couldn't ignore, come rushing back to the surface and people are just dying to know what she knows. But the big question looms - what on earth could she possibly say? And can she be trusted to tell the truth?

Jean is quite possibly one of my favorite narrators, the last line of the first chapter hooking me and reeling me in: "Everyone was very kind and trying to stop me from seeing his body, but I couldn't tell them I was glad he was gone. No more of his nonsense." There is no way most of us can relate to exactly what Jean is dealing with throughout this novel, but there is always something us readers can recognize within ourselves; "It was my fault, too. Because I was the wife." The story, though unsettling, progresses well and clearly, the most uncomfortable aspects handled with grace and dignity. The alternating perspectives and timeframes can get a little muddy, but the story still flows nicely and offers up some very intriguing twists and surprises and laugh-out-loud moments. Oh, that Jean!

The Widow is a compelling novel that you'll find yourself reaching for out of impulse and a slight voyeuristic compulsion, with a story that is methodically and articulately laid out but still able to keep us guessing. Barton expertly, though sensitively, brings to light broken facades we usually find such security in, like the media, police work, and our friends and family. You will definitely want to know how it all ends.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Since giving birth, I've read the last half of Sold On A Monday, the entirety of The People We Hate at the Wedding, and half of This Is Not Over, and yet I managed to read I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid in exactly two days. And those two days involved the older kids being home from school, and the first drop in temperature and snow storm, virtually stranding them inside the house. I first saw this book - where else? - on Instagram, and when I saw it in Target, I bought it for this tagline alone: "You will be scared. But you won't know why." In my ever-evolving reading career, I've grown to appreciate books with little to no description, and I even find myself steering away from books with overly long and complicated synopses. I'm Thinking of Ending Things lives up to its limited description. You will be scared and you won't know why, and then you will feel incredibly uncomfortable.

The book doesn't offer a synopsis, so I won't either, but that might just be an impossible task, anyway. How do you describe a book like this? This book? It's short and to the point even though there are moments when it feels like the story is getting away from you. It is, at times, overly complicated, but in a way that makes you feel creepily disoriented, like you're walking through a maze of mirrors. It is a scary story, but it also offers insight and epiphanies into the complex function of our brains and our minds, and what it means to be human. It's like those dreams where nothing innately scary happens, but you wake up feeling weird and scared, anyway. Between reading this book and watching The Good Place, my mind has been properly fucked with.

I don't usually read scary stories until this time of year, just like I only read beach-reads in the summer, and I am always hoping that what I choose will be scarier than The Shining, even books deemed, "scary as hell," by King, himself. But nothing has measured up to The Shining, not even Pet Sematary, which is scary for an entirely different reason altogether. I'm Thinking of Ending Things definitely keeps you guessing and keeps the pages turning; there is no way you won't want to know the conclusion, until you do, and then you kind of wish you didn't.

In my limited knowledge of triggers, I believe the end of this novel is one. BUT, I can't tell you what the trigger is without spoiling not just the ending, but the entire book as well. The end isn't exactly unexpected, but it is disturbing, and I honestly don't know how I would be able to watch the Netflix movie after having read the book. Well, ok...I am slightly curious...maybe tomorrow as it continues to snow...⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE $5.00 Like New.                     

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A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

Domestic psychological thrillers are obviously nothing new, but with the seemingly simultaneous launch of Gone Girl and social media - and using social media as the new word-of-mouth - the authors of these novels have started to become even more well-known than King, Grisham, and Patterson. A common theme throughout Breanne's Bookshelf is, in fact, Instagram-popular authors, so that is how I came to read The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and how, even though I was grossly disappointed and unimpressed by the book, I learn about every subsequent novel she has published since. I'm too wary to purchase one at full-price, but when I came across A Stranger in the House at a book sale and read the synopsis, I felt it was worth a shot, and - praise the book gods - it was.

In what is quickly becoming cliche, Karen is your typical housewife (though that seems pretty indefinable these days), without so much as a parking ticket to her name. As she prepares dinner one night for her and her husband of just two years, the phone rings. It's a call she always expected to get but hoped never would, and in a flash, she's left the house, leaving behind her phone and purse, and without locking the door. The next thing she knows, Karen is in the hospital after slamming her car into a telephone pole in a rough New York neighborhood that she's never been to before. To add suspicion to injury, Karen can't remember what she was doing there in the first place, what happened before the accident, and why.

The story is mysterious enough to capture my interest throughout the first half of the book, but after that, the shocking twist - the Big Reveal - is mostly that I've abruptly turned to reading for the last page, as that is the next most interesting thing to happen. Up until the very last chapter, the story and characters don't extend beyond what we're so used to in pretty much all domestic psychological thrillers these days.

A Stranger in the House is written well enough, it's a quick read that will provide you a moment of fictitious escape, or - like it did for me - make you want to (re)watch Desperate Housewives. Does anyone else just *love* Brigid?! 🤩 And even though I did enjoy - and am surprised by - the twist that comes in the last chapter, it also left me a little disappointed and gypped; what an underdeveloped character Karen turns out to be! I came to realize, as I closed the book, that she could have been a lot more dynamic, dimensional, and interesting, which is why I gave it ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads.

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Maestra by L.S. Hilton

Well, this novel definitely falls into the I Don't Know What The Fuck I Just Read category. Maestra by L.S. Hilton gave me some very conflicting thoughts, not unlike the book itself; it's Fifty Shades of Grey without the whiny Anastasia, and Nancy Drew with extra naughty. And if there is one thing the book taught me, it's to never underestimate the underling.

Judith is a put-upon art house assistant whose talents are grossly overlooked and taken advantage of. When she accidentally discovers an impending heist, Judith sets off on a European tour that would make even the Hilton sisters green with envy (and scream from all of the spanking).

Maestra starts out interesting enough, though the uncovering of the heist is a bit confusing. It helps that Judith's work and her obvious display of intelligence are interspersed with erotic sex scenes with strangers who also happen to swim in the same circles, which is just the beginning of the various contradictions. 

Then Judith seems to put her Nancy Drew routine on hold while she high-end hooks from the French Riviera to Geneva. The book synopsis will have you believe that Judith sets out to reclaim what is rightfully her's when it's really more of something falling into her lap and she is just selfish enough to go after it. The story is empowering though degrading, overly complicated yet too easy, glamorous but trashy, and classy yet sleazy. The writing is pretentious and elitist even though Hilton has a proclivity for the word "cunt," and although Judith - as well as the book - scoffs at the idea that a woman embracing her sexuality is a result of trauma, she still peppers the story with snippets of Judith's violent childhood. Aside from that, we never get to know anything about Judith besides her fashion choices and how wet her pussy gets.

The writing - unlike the inside of Judith, apparently - is not smooth or fluid, and although Hilton obviously has a very broad vocabulary, it doesn't extend to her sex scenes. And what Judith makes look easy, Hilton over-complicates with her list of geographical places in lieu of any imagery.

Maestra is definite superficial erotic escapism in the way that is totally unreal and unbelievable. And even though Romance novels are always outside the realms of reality, I feel duped with this book for some reason; the execution just missed the mark. I won't rush out to the bookstore to continue the trilogy, but I won't turn it down if I happen across Domina at the Dollar Tree.

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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.

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

What I once actively gravitated towards, and even went so far as to contemplate purchasing at what Costco and Wal-Mart consider "full-price," has now made me approach with trepidation; the newest Ruth Ware novel used to illicit a certain amount of readers' excitement from me but now just makes me want to read something else. Mysterious, overly-dramatic, and often with imagery that is a character all its own, what has promise of a decent premise is often overly padded with fluff then abruptly ended in an obscure, slightly disturbing way (*cough* The Lying Game *cough*). Ware's latest tale, The Turn of the Key, isn't as gross or as boring, but finding the point is an exhausting process.

Rowan Caine becomes the latest in a string of nannies to be hired for Heatherbrae House, taken in by the lush remote Scottish countryside and mountain views, the Smart house technology that puts everything at ones' fingertips, and the charming, though shy, little girls that are to be her charges. She quickly learns that four nannies before her have cut and run after they were taken in by all of the amenities, as well as the rumors of the mansion's supposed paranormal activity. The luster from Rowan's interview quickly turns sour as she's left alone on her first day for no less than two weeks, the girls turn nasty, and the pre-teen away at boarding school returns to wreck havoc. And now she's hearing footsteps pacing in the boarded-up attic above her bedroom.

What is, apparently, a retelling of The Turn of the Screw, Ware's The Turn of the Key is a modern take on ghost stories, replacing the ghouls and goblins of the childhood of yore with the legitimate fears of today's omnipresent technology. Ware bluntly underscores how the shine of new and innovative technology wears off pretty quickly. But as a story, the book is long and ultimately fruitless with some spooky moments peppered throughout what is mostly misadventures in babysitting, and gets a little Lifetime movie-ish. There is also an inordinate amount of focus on the architecture of the house, which does add an interestingly creepy element to the story, but with that amount of attention given to it, it's never really explained why. The ending does offer up some good surprises, though the second-to-last scene is a little obscure; it took me a minute to "get," you might need the collective brains of your book club to enlighten everyone.

The Turn of the Key is a perfectly fine read, though not particularly scary or interesting. ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads. 

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

It seems like the only books these days are psychological thrillers and self-help celebrity tell-alls so, if you're like me, it's gotten more challenging to find a domestic noir novel that is interesting, well-told, and offers the requisite surprises. Nothing will shock me like The Burning Air, so I've given up there, and I've gotten to the point where I roll my eyes every time I see an advance praise that includes the words, "fans," "Gone Girl," and, "love," so I was pleasantly surprised when I found that Samantha Downing's My Lovely Wife contains none of these. It isn't the best murder mystery I've ever read, then again none of them are, earning just four out of five stars on Goodreads from your's truly. But I have definitely read worse (*cough* The Couple Next Door *cough*). Dark, disturbing, emotional, and dramatic, My Lovely Wife is an unputdownable book that makes you feel like you know everything, and nothing at all.

Millicent and her husband are the epitome of Middle Class; living in a home they can't afford, paying private school tuition they don't need, and murdering random people simply for the fun of it (like we all haven't thought about it at least once). What started as an act of self-defense, slowly morphs into murder for pleasure and an unlikely bonding exercise for the married parents of two attitude-riddled teenagers. The story is sexy and seductive, and manipulative and twisted, and definitely makes you wonder if all of the new people you've met in the last year were actually trying to decide if you fit a serial killer's victim profile.

I enjoyed the way in which the book is written, appreciating the one perspective of the husband throughout the story, though he sometimes comes off as a bit of a wank. The Owen letters are a bit too cheesy, and make things just a little too easy and cynical. While I agree with Downings portrayal of the information super-highway and the subsequent trial in the court of public opinion, in this day and age especially, we are more prone to suspicion than simply believing what we are told. So while it was an interesting element to the story, it doesn't make the mystery any better or worse. In that regard, the Big Surprise isn't all that shocking, but all of the mini-surprises that prop up the larger one, aided by quick, succinct chapters, are what keep the pages turning. I definitely could not put down My Lovely Wife. ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads.

The Best Books to Read During Fall

I know plenty of fellow bibliophiles who love to read beach/summer novels while on the beach during summer. No doubt there are other bibliophiles who are just straight-up seasonal readers like myself, so this one's for you! In no particular order, here is my ever-evolving list of great books to read from late August to late November, with no synopsis, just a blurb about why I included it. Happy Snuggle-Up-and-Read Time!

Books You Might Not Have Heard About

* The Troop by Nick Cutter. This book takes place in the late summer, during a Boy Scout-like camping trip on a small island only reachable by boat, and is only scary because it is SO gross. It is also scary because Cutter has decided that writing horror means exploiting the absolute worst parts of the human condition. This book will definitely make you feel uncomfortable, and do not read while eating, especially pasta.

* The Bucket List by Georgia Clark. Because Fall and the month of October isn't just about being scared, it's also about being aware. A perfect read for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this book is about Lacey, a woman in her 20's who is suddenly faced with almost-certain breast cancer. Her's is a journey like no one would expect, a brilliant peek into the unexpected, and often hidden, emotions that come with a life-changing medical diagnosis.

* Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I recommend this book to people and they think I've lost my marbles, but this it is an absolutely fantastic read. The story mixes history and fantasy, gore and drama, and heroism and heartbreak. A perfect book for whenever you find yourself in a remote cabin.

* The Darkest Places: Unsolved Mysteries, True Crimes, and Harrowing Disasters in the Wild by The Editors of Outdoor Magazine. Speaking of finding yourself in a remote cabin, this book is a collection of stories centered around the wilds of the wilderness. I flipped the book open and happened to land on a story about severed feet encased in sneakers washing up on various shores. Not only great for this time of year, this book is also a must-read around the summer campfire.

The Usual Suspects

* The Shining by Stephen King. Full disclosure, I read this book because of that episode of Friends (which is also why I read Little Women), and even though I have read a few more horror books since, and more books overall than Joey Tribbiani, I agree with him that The Shining is the scariest book ever written. It takes place from late Fall to early Spring, the weather a sinister character in its own right. I have recommended this book to people who, naively, thought it was just a book and read a little before bedtime. In the dark. Alone. Then, nope, had to put it down and walk away. This book is a must-read, just don't start reading The Shining without making sure there is plenty of room in the freezer.

* Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. This is the 30-years later sequel to The Shining and it is phenomenal. It is gripping and empowering and a terrifying mix of our legitimate, real-life fears, and the mythical monsters under our bed.

* Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Last King book, I promise, but this book has a bit of a cult following. I found it to be more exhausting than scary, and I refuse to watch the movie simply because of the scene with the toddler (you know what I'm talking about, and no, not where he's eating his mother's face).

* In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. I mean, the title alone, right? Set in a remote part of England, in a cabin with no phone service, with a group of people you can't trust, this book is definitely a claustrophobic read for when it gets too cold to leave the house.

* The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. Set on a luxury cruise surrounded by frigid, dark waters, where a woman may or may not have been thrown overboard, this is yet another book you don't want to read without your sweatpants.

* The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. This book alternates between the present heat of the summer, and the fall and biting winter of the characters' teenage school year, and while the book isn't necessarily scary, it is mysterious and uncomfortable.

* The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware. My last Ware book, at least until I read her latest, The Turn of the Key. I've read at least one of her books every year around this time, it must be habit now. Well, there are worse habits to have. Also set in a remote part of England, lets just acknowledge that every book set across the pond feels...damp. The setting and weather of this book, alone, gives you the chills, and it is a definite page-turner, making you never want to crawl out from under your blanket.

* See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. This book is not set during Fall, but an oppressive and - again - damp, heat. And makes me never want to eat pears ever again. But it is an extremely weird, creepy story, and you'll understand the Lizzie Borden costumes come Halloween.

* The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. Like the King books I mentioned above, reading this book during this time of the year is like one big no-duh. Haunted house and terrified family and Priest, it's like it's not even Halloween if you've never acknowledged The Amityville Horror.

* World War Z by Max Brooks. Everyone is a cynic these days and no matter the time of year will tell you how the world is headed to Hell in a hand-basket, but not before a good, old-fashioned Zombie apocalypse. Personally, I'll always save stories like these for that special Zombie time of year.

* Final Girls by Riley Sager. This book is scary and should be read during this time of year for the same reason you might feel compelled to watch Scream. More specifically, this book is a lot more like Scream 2, where the gruesome murders of the past should be case-closed and done, but of course they're not.  

Simply Set During Fall

* Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips. This book is intense and gripping and only spans three hours in mid-October with a mother and her young son at the local zoo. The story isn't particularly scary or mysterious in the traditional horror sense, but the imagery of the first 30-pages is enough to paint all the fall imagery.

* The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. This book is definitely a mysterious page-turner that is set during early fall; that perfect time of year when dusk comes earlier than we'd like, playing tricks with our eyes and our minds. But this book is also heartbreaking and emotional and takes you on a roller coaster you might not have expected.

* The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Set during the span of the cold, winter months, you can never go wrong with reading about the Salem Witch Trials during the darkest months of the year. Simply placing yourself in the shoes of these people, and knowing that they are real, is enough to scare you more than any witch could.

* Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark. This is a hefty, complicated book - both figuratively and literally - as books around competing magicians tend to be, a la The Night Circus. But this long and imaginative read would be the perfect book to get you into the hibernating spirit.

* The Revenant by Michael Punke. I love a good true story, especially ones about surviving in the wild. Left for dead after a brutal bear attack, this book is tense and bitter and cold and exhausting. It will definitely make you thankful for your cozy bed and nearby hospital. 

* One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus. This book can be read at any time, but since we seem to put extra focus on Native Americans - and often stereo typically so - during this time of year, this is a great read to really get into and understand the lives of a group of Native Americans, and a snippet of the interactions between them, White people, and the government. Also check out the sequel, The Vengeance of Mothers.

Or, ya know, read whatever you want. 😊

The Break Down by B.A. Paris

Is Cass cracking up? Or is she unwittingly a witness to a terrible crime?

Driving home late one night from a post-work get-together, and despite her husband's wishes to avoid the dark, forested short-cut back home, Cass comes across a car parked on the side of the road with only a woman staring vacantly from the driver's side window. Unsure of what she could do, how, exactly, she might be able to help, and in preservation of her own safety, Cass drives on home, only to discover the next morning that the woman in the car has been brutally murdered. Wracked with guilt but also consumed with a possible memory-loss problem, Cass begins to think she's spiraling out of control. But is she really, or is she just being fucked with? And so begins another in the long line of psychological and domestic thrillers.

First off, I appreciate a good double entendre, which you get with the titles of both The Break Down and B.A. Paris' first novel, Behind Closed Doors. The Break Down is deeply mysterious, and makes the reader physically breathless as Cass sharply vacillates between extreme guilt and extreme fear/paranoia/anxiety/panic. But there are particular scenes that come off a bit too dramatic and contrived and, quite frankly, a little hard to accept. Paris makes clear Cass' heightened nerves, which was made even more evident by my own heightened nerves for personal, non-book-related reasons. But the true test of any author of the psychological thriller genre is, can the story be written well enough to trick the reader, without the use of bald-faced lies (Paris does not lie, but authors sometimes utilize this avenue)? Unfortunately, in this particular instance, the answer is no.

Any reader worth their salt begins to guess whodunnit by the end of the prologue or first chapter. I won't be arrogant enough to say that I "figured it out" on page three, but I'll admit that nothing about the ending was at all surprising. Ok, there was one thing that was surprising, but mostly I appreciate how Paris, once again, takes the main female character and deftly transforms her from victim into...something else, and it is encouraging, real, and empowering, not to mention written extremely well.

Although I only gave this book ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads, the story pumps out faster than a slit throat, is fluidly written, and keeps you wanting more; you might figure out the major plot twists sooner than you'd like, but the little twists and turns are fast and sharp enough to keep even the most persnickety reader entertained. If you want your mind fucked with, this isn't your read. But if you want something fun to flip through while at the beach, or when you sense the impending end of summer but don't want to let go of summer reading just yet, then this should be your pick.

The Dark Rose by Erin Kelly

*Turns to chapter 52 and begins to skim* Which is a good indication that I am not engaged or interested in this book.

*Skims epilogue, reads final paragraph, closes book*

Huh.

That was weird.

It didn't give me the bad feels like I Am Behind You, but Erin Kelly's The Dark Rose made me question my seemingly unwavering faith in one of my favorite and most recommended books, The Burning Air. Where The Poison Tree is dark and confusing, The Dark Rose is disturbing and mostly pointless.

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS

Louisa spends her days mooning over her past while rehabilitating an Elizabethan garden with a handful of wayward criminals not hard enough for prison, but just hard enough to require a respite from society. Enter Paul, one such wayward criminal who happens to bear a sinister resemblance to Louisa's teen lover, Adam. In spite of the obvious age difference, the two begin a romance that is neither romantic or necessary to the story. For his part, Paul is a young man abruptly torn from his future when an act of petty theft turns into a grizzly murder, and the two spend most of their time dancing around their violent commonalities.

Like The Poison Tree (or so I wrote on my goodreads review), The Dark Rose is exquisitely written, with imagery that is near perfection. The story is vivid and dark without a hint of remorse, but it doesn't necessarily need to be told, and the book as a whole is long, slow, and it's unclear why certain plot points need to exist. For example, it seems that Paul's likeness to Adam is an intriguing twist, though it is one that is never revealed to Paul, which could have possibly set the story on a different trajectory. The story also suddenly ends in a random twist of fate, and although these characters aren't particularly empathetic, we're supposed to feel sympathy or understanding for their final emotional upheavals. It seems as if Kelly got to page 300 and was like, well this will either be a 500-page book, or I should just end things now, and obviously chose the latter.

Kelly is a masterful writer, though as a novelist, I'm more a fan of her later works like, He Said/She Said, and I'm looking forward to her new book, Stone Mothers. I will also read her Broadchurch because, like my love/hate relationship with Liane Moriarty, I will return again and again and again. ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Unless you live under a rock, you probably still have WiFi, so you've seen The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen all over Instagram and book blogs. Well, here it is again, and I don't feel quite the same way that my fellow bookstagrammers and book bloggers do.

This book, another in a long line of domestic thrillers, is billed to be a lot more sinister than it actually is, and the mystery is far surpassed by the emotional drama. In terms of sub-categorizing the domestic fiction genre, I believe The Wife Between Us would make better company among novels like Ghosted and anything by Liane Moriarty. It offers up enough twists and turns to satisfy the thriller-seekers, but, really, this book ultimately dives deeper into the characters, the tangled webs they weave and why, all wrapped up in an empathetic story line.

Like the book jacket suggests, you will read this book and assume you are reading about a heartbroken ex-wife, left by her wealthy, powerful husband for his younger, blonder, Assistant (they don't call them Secretaries anymore). You will think that she is obsessed with her replacement and yearns for the life she once had. Then comes the twist, so sharp you get whiplash and, like Erin Kelly's The Burning Air, you are almost tempted to go back and flip through the last section just to make sure that, yup, she/they did just do that. This twist, though sharp, is also a bit watered down; Kelly still reins supreme.

The Wife Between Us is a well-written, well-crafted story that comes full-circle, but not without throwing out the odd detour here and there. And though psychologically mind-bending, it is more heart-warming than the synopsis would have you expect. It lives up to the hype, serving up several twists and turns, they just come on too sharp, start to become predictable, and one twist is sorely over-used in novels these days. The characters are deep and interesting and garner sympathy, but Vanessa's role in particular is a bit of a stretch, and I find her role hard to believe given the past that Hendricks and Pekkanen created for her.

Though a definite page-turner with compelling storytelling, I don't think this book is as good as the online hype; or maybe I am just tiring of the predictability that seems to be the way of domestic thrillers these days. I was expecting something different and a little darker and The Wife Between Us is just more of the same and left me a little underwhelmed, which is why I give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads. I've said it before and I'll say it again, just read The Burning Air instead.

No Exit by Taylor Adams

Thanks to social media, we can now instantly recommend books to thousands of people, and - in turn - instantly receive book recommendations for ourselves. The problem is that those thousands of people learning about a book at the same time means finding it available at my library can feel like striking gold. So you can imagine my nerdish excitement at snatching up No Exit by Taylor Adams, a book littering every literary news feed (with at least 13 holds behind me).

This book is, in a word, intense. Every scene bristles with tension, from Darby Thorne's blizzardy drive up a dangerous mountain pass to the final, gut-gripping scene. It is a non-stop thrill-ride in spite of the whole story taking place in a snowed-in rest stop.

Darby is a college sophomore, driving home over Christmas to see her dying mother. Heading up a snowy mountain pass, she is forced to pull off into a rest area that is rapidly getting buried by snow, with four other people and no cell service. But once Darby discovers that there is a fifth person at the rest stop - a little girl locked in a crate in the back of a windowless van - the twists and turns come faster than a tumble down a mountainside but - to Adams' credit - are a lot easier to keep up with.

The best thing about this story is that it seems so obvious where it will go but - with 200 pages to go after the discovery of Jay and who has kidnapped her - the reader really has to wonder what more could possibly be said. In Adams' case, a lot. There are moments of the story where I let out an audible gasp, there are shocks so surprising that I said out-loud, "This book is fucked!" and there are even moments that brought tears to my eyes. The story is a steep switchback, each blind corner that Adams offers up is absolutely brilliant, well-executed, and keeps you engaged in a story that is otherwise pretty horrific.

The writing is perfect, the ingenuity of time-stamping each chapter highlighting just how much every second counts. Remaining true to themselves, each character delivers their roles in a haunting, indelibly human way, and this book, while frightening, heart-stopping, and sometimes gory, makes us realize that - if all the chips were down - we really would have the courage and the capacity to not only save ourselves but to also save someone else.

Buckle up, No Exit is one wild ride that will have you burning through the pages faster than a roaming cell phone burns through battery. And the next time you see a rest area, you might just keep on driving.