Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

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Even those non-bookworms among us have heard of - and great things about - Delia Owens's beautiful debut novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, promoted by everyone from Reese Witherspoon to Instagram makeup Influencers to your good friend who enjoys fishing in places similar to the book's North Carolina setting. And I most definitely understand the hype and adoration for this lyrical tribute to things, people, and places we know little about.

"Kya" - also known as "Marsh Girl" by nearby villagers - has lived in solitude deep in the North Carolina marsh, learning everything nature has to teach her, since finding herself slowly abandoned by her family and ostracized by the community, surviving and living and loving among the birds. Kya is smart and strong and creative, and though she has accepted and swiftly navigates the life she lives, as she grows into a beautiful, young woman, she wonders how the opposite must feel; to be loved, touched, and kept sacred. Where the Crawdads Sing is a highly emotional, incredibly moving, coming-of-age story, pulled along by a vague murder mystery and frosted by an intelligent courtroom drama, though - ingeniously - the two are not stand-alone stories; one cannot exist without the other.

The writing is melodic and serene, delicately painting the lush swamp and marshland with lustrous talent and intellect for this incredible, mysterious, ecosystem. In her own right, and as a result of her surroundings, Kya is sad but strong, scared yet brave, secluded yet attractive, the story moving as slowly as the marsh waters it honors, not picking up any speed until it reaches the chaotic, open ocean that becomes the murder investigation of the local popular guy, Chase Andrews. The story then slows to a gentle ending that was surprising in the way that it wasn't. Owens leads you through the story as if she were Kya gliding through the still waters, which - as we all know - run deep.

As a nature-lover myself, and as someone who wants to wander into the wild, never to be found, to dwell amongst the deer and bears and bugs of the woods, to forget my unrequited love, I was drawn to Kya's story, her determination, and her knowing enough to believe in herself. This is definitely a great read for when you have the time and are in the mood for a good, hearty tale. ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads profile.

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

The Man from Primrose Lane by James Renner

I don't even know where to begin with this book. So I will start by saying that I have no idea where to begin in reviewing this book. I suppose I will start at the end and declare up-front that I gave the first two-thirds of this book 3.5 stars and the last third one star, basically for the effort of putting pen to paper. Though I have been disappointed by books in the past, could see the shocking twist from a mile away, or was generally underwhelmed, I have never been completely let down by a book before; like a roller coaster that is wild and crazy and unexpected and then suddenly turns into the Lazy River meets Terminator 2.

David Neff is a successful true crimes writer and one-time author who is taking care of his four-year old son while still reeling from his wife's sudden suicide. On a tip from his publisher, who has always been anxious for Neff's next work, David immerses himself in the random, yet gruesome, murder of an old man, The Man from Primrose Lane. Others knew him as The Man With a Thousand Mittens. Who was he? Why would anyone want him dead? And why did he always wear mittens? These are questions you either won't get answers to, or will have to find like the needle in the completely not-worth-it haystack. A big swing and a miss with this one.

The story of The Man from Primrose Lane is so intricate and mysterious and just twisted enough to make you feel like you're navigating a big spider's web while still making you feel like you have a good handle on the situation, a sign of a well-written thriller. There are a lot of twists and turns that keep you turning the page, and although triggers abound - abduction, pedophilia, torture - I am able to look past the sometimes gruesome nature of the storytelling in order to get to the real root of the story: who was The Man from Primrose Lane and who murdered him? The book is engrossing and unsettling, then suddenly takes a very unexpected move and turns into a hundred-page orgasm that never happens and slowly, confusedly, fizzles away, and if that isn't a let-down, I don't know what is.

Renner seems to work very hard in putting the story together, creating the vivid characters, their histories, and how they connect to one another. He threw in a murder and added some extra mystery then just sort-of chucked it to the four winds. In a drastically over-complicated section, Renner heaves his deviously plotted murder mystery into the arms of an entirely too easy explanation. SPOILER ALERT: 

time travel. Well, fuck if every complicated problem can't be just explained away with a little time travel. *eye roll* Although the explanation of which is convoluted and elaborate, the "solving" of the murder by using time travel makes the story too easy and stupid and more like Renner is applying for a job with Tesla instead of working to find a more credible solution. I skimmed the final section, all while thinking, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid; so stupid that I can't even decide if it was a waste of time. Any other book about murder or time travel would probably be better.

Final rating ⭐⭐/5 on goodreads.

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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.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is a classic case of what has been drilled into us since we were in 2nd Grade: never judge a book by its cover. Way back then, of course, that was more literal in order to empower new readers to discover more and more things they liked to read so as to never get bored. As we get older, we know that this statement is geared more towards people and who we allow into our lives, but both uses are always equally true: we never really know what a book or a person is about until we open them up and really get to know what's inside. Miracle Creek is a beautifully written, tremendous novel that honors both of these principles; we cannot even begin to predict the story or the depths of these characters but you'll be eager to find out by page two.

Pak and Young are Korean immigrants living in Miracle Creek, Virginia with hopes of their innovative Miracle Submarine creating a better life for their daughter, Mary. A sort-of new, widely unheard of medical treatment in which people sit in a chamber with pure oxygen as a way to repair damaged cells and "cure" whatever ails the body, Pak and Young are slowly starting to achieve mild success when there is a mysterious explosion, killing two patients, and putting a single mother on trial for her child's murder. What is dubbed more than once as a "taut courtroom thriller," is also a tumultuous and dramatic unraveling of lives forever altered by a series of small decisions.

Miracle Creek is an incredible book where Kim expertly weaves medicine and legalities and courtroom procedure into a story that is heartfelt, emotional, and mysterious, drawing on her own legal and Korean background, as well as her own personal experiences with a "miracle submarine" treatment. Her writing is fluid and clear, evoking the intended emotion and imagery, as the story magically unfolds to not only be one of whodunit, but the inherent struggles of immigrants, thinly veiled and blatant racism and judgment, mom-comparing and mom-shaming, and the daily struggles of being a teen, being in a marriage, being a parent, or trying to become one. This book is so many things, all wrapped up in one unassuming package; just like us.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads

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 Trap by Melanie Raabe

I'm a fairly observant person, more so than most, but it's not, like, my super-power or anything. I've noticed that lately I've been drawn to novels centered around the lives of agoraphobic writers, and that I find that lifestyle particularly intriguing. I realize that it's an illness and not a chosen lifestyle, but it's oddly appealing to me, enough so that I might give it a whirl if my own writing starts paying the bills one day. The idea runs counter to my love and joy of hiking, but not in my head; give me a secluded mountain cabin next to a lake any day of the week.

In Melanie Raabe's book, The Trap, Linda Conrads has more of a giant, terraced, house next to a lake that she hasn't left since the grizzly murder of her sister twelve years before. She swears that she locked eyes with Anna's killer before he fled the scene, never to be caught, despite years of dealing with panic attacks and a general deterioration of her mental well-being. Not necessarily agoraphobic, but in constant fear that the murderer will come back for her - the sole witness - Linda makes the choice to retreat into her house, supporting herself by churning our a few best-selling novels every year. Then she suddenly comes face to face with those killer eyes she saw all those years ago, only this time on her television screen in the form of a reporting war correspondent.

How unfair that he lives a life of ultimate, exaggerated freedom while her sister is dead and she is locked in her own thoughts and fears! So Linda sets about writing a new novel - a thriller - in hopes of manipulating him into a confession. What follows is an intense, gripping, cat-and-mouse of the minds, that leaves us readers un-sure of what, exactly, is real.

A German book turned to English, though nothing seems to get lost in translation, the writing is a bit jerky, which only lends itself to the suspenseful, mysterious shroud that engulfs both the main novel and the novel within the novel. A true testament to Raabe's talent, both books are certifiable page-turners, and constantly keep you guessing, but is more propulsive than the simple shocking twist that seems to be the requisite for thrillers these days. Are we witnessing the ultimate mental breakdown of a woman controlled by fear, or the rebirth of a woman who is struggling to gain control over a situation that has largely controlled her? In that vein, there are frustrating moments in the here-is-what-happened-just-kidding sort of way, and that is repeated several times over, making the story a constant stream of roller-coaster rides. In another testament to Raabe's talent, though, these perpetual roller-coasters are well-executed and don't make the reader sick, just entertained. It is incredibly engrossing and, without even realizing, you're suddenly on page 275.

The way in which Raabe is able to depict a woman struggling with her own truths is imagery at it's finest, which we usually think of in terms of landscapes. But the way Raabe is able to construct the landscape of the mind, especially one bruised by stress and trauma, is like nothing I have ever read before. And the novel speaks largely to our own never-ending troubles with thinking we know the truth, observing others and trying to determine if they are manipulating us, and how outside influences often inflame our already-harbored insecurities. Perhaps that is why the idea of a life as a recluse is so intriguing.

It is also very interesting the way in which she crafts her characters as how she wants us to see them, not how we're able to relate to them ourselves; we learn just what Conrads wants to show us, only thickening the mystery. The entire book is every ending to every thriller you've ever read - one long, tense, suspenseful ending with every turn of the page.

On a more personal note, I found The Trap to be a bit of an inspiration, and not in the hermit sense. Like I said, I would love to make a living off my writing, and to have a book that would be deemed worthwhile. But writing a novel seems like such an unbelievably daunting task; again, running counter to my joy and love of hiking. But after participating in a webinar with best-selling author, Alessandra Torre, and after reading how Linda Conrads crafts her story one scene at a time, and given my latest penchant for stories about reclusive writers, a fire, so-to speak, has been ignited and it finally feels like something I could possibly do and it not be too terrible. Furthermore, The Trap, reminded me that while writing can be a form of therapy for the writer, it can also very much be a way for us to get what we want where we didn't before.