Category Archives: Challenges

Book Review of Susan Ee’s Angelfall

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Angelfall

I picked up a copy go Susan Ee‘s YA novel, Angelfall from the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review:
I thought that this was a pretty good read. There were some really great parts. Such as the paranoid schizophrenic mother who forced her daughter to take numerous self-defence classes, in case the daughter should ever need to defend herself from HER. That does something moving to my insides. I also liked Penryn and Raffie, as well as Obi and his crew.

I did occasionally wonder where all the normal people were. I mean there had to be a few non-homicidal or non-victimised people out there. There just had to be. But Penryn only seemed to meet up with potential murders or completely broken people. That didn’t feel particularly realistic to me. Sure there’d obviously be some, even a lot, but EVERYONE?

That’s a small quibble though. I only have two real complaints. One is that the whole thing had a bit of a ‘we did this, then I did this, and then this happened’ feel to it. This is often hard to avoid with any first person, present tense narrative, but I REALLY felt it here. What’s more, it felt very much like we were JUST getting an accounting of what Penryn was doing, without feeling like it was also leading up to anything. It felt like it just so happened that this minute to minute accounting of her life occurred in the midst of a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, as opposed to this future angelic war zone and her contributions to it being pivotal to it in any way. Interesting, but unimportant to the whole. I’m not saying that was the case, just that it felt that way.

The second is that the question of WHY is never addressed. It’s a bit like reading a novel set during D-Day without anyone knowing or telling the reader what World War II was about or why June 6th, 1944 was important. This lack of understanding stole a bit of the gravity from the story.

On the whole, however, I read it in a day and enjoyed it. I’d even be interested in picking up the sequel at some point.

Killing Matt Cooper

Book Review of Killing Matt Cooper, by John Cassian

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Killing Matt CooperAuthor, John Cassian, sent me a copy of his novella, Killing Matt Cooper.

Description from Goodreads:
A FEMA crisis manager by day and serial killer by night becomes romantically involved with the FBI unit chief hunting him down. Will she learn his dark secret? If you’re a fan of “American Psycho” or “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” this is the book for you!

Review:
I have to admit that I didn’t have high hopes for this one, going in. I had it in my head that it was going to be some base attempt to pass sexual amoralism off as excusable fetish play. And therefore declare itself admirably open minded and liberal…(read liberated) in the process. I mean, the Amazon page comes with this warning: “*GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING!* *ABDUCTION, NON-CONSENSUAL, SNUFF* *This is a work of fiction meant for MATURE, 18+ AUDIENCES ONLY!*”

I was wrong. It wasn’t nauseatingly permissive, like I expected. There is some real depth here. But it took me a little while to figure that out. ‘Cause, in the beginning, the book did a good job of setting itself up as just such a piece of shallow exploration of sexual escapism and male entitlement.

The whole first 15% is taken up entirely by an extended, first person (from the POV of the aggressor) account of a rape and then a brief murder. At the time I found this horribly distasteful and thought, ‘yep there it is. This guy is really gonna try to play this off as OK, isn’t he?’ I was discomfited not by the eventual murder, but because, in the end, the woman was supposed to have enjoyed being dominated and raped. God I hate that trope! I really really do. 

Honestly, I almost didn’t make it. At about 13%, and having gotten nothing more than an unusually long (for such a short book) and uncomfortable rape scene, I almost gave up. I essentially said to myself, ‘if this is just some literarily handed ‘sick fuck’ living out his rape fantasies I’m not interested. I’m out!’ But I figured in all fairness I should at least make it into the meat of the book before abandoning it…giving it the benefit of the doubt, of course, that there would eventually be meat. There is. 

I’m thrilled I did. ‘Cause Samuel Knight has a great voice! He’s mocking and self-deprecating, delusional and poignantly self-aware. Sometimes, it’s not possible to tell which is which and that makes him eminently relatable in that respect. Oh…and he’s sick as shit. (So not wholly relatable, after all.) He’s seriously twisted in the head, totally crackerjacks, and not in a harmless, stupid-happy kind of way, but in a dangerous, remorseless psycho-killer kind of way. The thing is, you still kind of like him. Hell, you do like him; you just tell yourself that you shouldn’t, ’cause, you know, he’s nutzo.

The upside of that agonising first scene (and I’m sorry to keep harping on about it, but it was a bit like riding shotgun with Anthony Sowell for a little while there) is that the reader is painfully aware of what Samuel is doing while he goes about his normal sexual-predator-routine, without the author ever having to do anymore than drop a euphemism. It wasn’t until later in the book that I was able to appreciate the purpose of dropping such a detailed event so early on. Plus, the book does have a great opening line. 

There are also some real situational gems. I wish I could relate them all, but they would be spoilers and in such a short piece it wouldn’t take much to ruin if for others. I’ll just say, for those who have read it, Samuel’s postcoital thoughts on his facial expression was my favourite. (There, I think that’s clear enough to identify and vague enough to not give anything away.)

I don’t know if this is the first of a series. There are certainly threads left open…Matt Cooper for one. But the story still has a complete feel to it. After a rough start…which, no doubt, was intended to be just so…I ended up really liking it. I liked the character’s internal dialogue, his attempt to find human closeness, his willingness to accept his own ugliness and welcome his eventual just rewards. I may have hated his actions, but I liked HIM. The thing is that they really shouldn’t be separable. 

shadow Heart: Slayer

Review Claudy Conn’s ShadowHeart Slayer (Shadow Vampires, #2)

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ShadowHeart SlayerSeveral months ago I reviewed Shadow Love: Stalkers, book one of Claudy Conn‘s Shadow Vampires series. I later found the sequel, ShadowHeart Slayer, on the free amazon list.

Descriptions:
Her name is Nikki Walker, and she is a vampire slayer. She never thought she would have to use her slayer powers…but she does.

She is on the trail of an ancient and secretive vampire called Deadly Moon, and Nikki wants to destroy her. She has her reasons.

His name is Damon Drummond who some of you have met before, and already know that he is a hunk of an unusual vampire. He is bent on keeping Nikki away from Deadly Moon.

The sociopath vampire, WB, who had been Pentim Rawley’s right hand man has taken over the Pentim clan, and is turning out to be even more of a problem than his predecessor had been. In fact, if someone doesn’t do something soon…Dublin will go dark under his power, and other cities will follow.

Damon and Nikki are on opposite sides. He is a potent vampire–she is a skilled and powerful vampire slayer. Problem right there…but, when they look at each other, sparks of all kinds fly. Too much stands between them. He will live forever…she will not…and yet…

Review:
Hmmm…From the blurb and the precedent set in book one (Shadow Love: Stalkers) I expected this book to have (or at least aim for) a deep, brooding vampire and a kick-ass slayer/heroine. Certainly Damon was just so in the last book. For a little while, in the beginning, that’s what I got too.

Then everything took a turn for the Twilight Zone. Suddenly there were, not only vampires, but demons, hybrids, and inter-dimensional monsters in an enchanted wood, which just happened to surround a magical castle. It was, however, when I reached the kindly, white bearded wizard a la Fantasia, in the blue, sparkly, conical hat, silken robes and Harry-Potter-like wand that I had a fairly serious WTF moment. I only became more confused as witches, warlocks and fae were later thrown into the fray.

It was like the book completely lost focus for a little while, drifted and then simply picked up in some quixotic fairytale instead of a PNR vampire novel when it reestablished itself. I was left dazed and confused, until I shifted into irritated and disappointed. I didn’t set out to read a fairytale and there was no warning that it was what I was getting into.

What’s more, Nikki went from the hard-nosed, independent slayer of the first couple chapters to a sweet, polite, girl next door with a propensity to hug people and kiss the cheeks of affable old men. Talk about a personality 180°. I wanted to drop the book right there at 50%, but I forced myself on so I wouldn’t have to DNF.

I try really hard to find at least a few good things to say about a book and I see from other reviews that people like it. So, I’ll happily admit that this was perhaps a mismatch of reader and book. But I was seriously disappointed. Both because the story I ended up reading in no way resembled the one I set out for and because I thought it wasn’t particularly well put together. *cringe*sorry**

The narrative was repetitive. For example, WB’s feelings and thoughts about Clara were related just about every time they were in the same room. The same kind of thing can be said for both Nikki and Damon. We’re told what they think of the other again and again and again without it changing much until the end. Then it just becomes rather staid, rushed sex scenes. 

The narrative felt quite stiff, with characters too often using names and endearments in conversation and even frequently using full names where one would suffice. At first I thought this was a certain character’s habit, but then others did it too. There were also periods where people seemed to stop using contractions, leaving everyone sounding oddly formal all of the time. 

Plus, I just found myself cringing over some things. For example, I found the whole “shifted into vampire speed” or “put on the slayer speed” cheesy beyond imagination. Maybe because it was used so often, but mostly because I imagined them shifting gears, like in a car.

My main complaint, however, was that like in the previous book, the author set up one primary plot (in this case hunting down the killer of her brother) and then completely ignored it for most of the book, while unrelated distractions were thrown at the main character and reader. This left the whole thing feeling fragmented. 

I don’t want to be mean here. I truly appreciate how hard writing a book is and for a different reader maybe this one will be a winner. It was, after all, very creative and imaginative, but I’ve finished it now and am still kinda reeling in a state of perpetual WTF. I had such high hopes for the dark and mysterious Damon too. They didn’t pan out.