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Book Review of The Good Luck Girls, by Charlotte Nicole Davis

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I purchased a copy of Charlotte Nicole Davis‘ The Good Luck Girls.

Description from Goodreads:

Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the catalyst

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS

The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls–they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a “welcome house” as children and branded with cursed markings. Trapped in a life they would never have chosen.

When Clementine accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta’s most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It’s going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

Review:

I should not have read this book. It’s good. The writing is imminently readable. The characters are distinct and meaningful. The editing is clean. Just look at that cover; it’s to die for. The use of having/not having a shadow as a metaphor for racism based on skin color works effectively. The world is interesting. This is a good book.

But the main characters are teenaged girls indentured for life to a brothel (starting in young childhood) and a large part of the plot is the effects of their trauma and PTSD. (There basically aren’t ANY non-victimized females in the book. Only Good Luck Girls, evil men, and a very few decent men.) And while I understand intersectionality and how important it is to face the realities of abuse in people’s lives I assiduously avoid it in the books I read for entertainment. (It’s just become a little too triggering for me in recent years.) So, despite how much I could appreciate about this book (and there is so much), I had to grit my teeth and force myself to keep reading because the subject matter is one I try not to touch in fun books. (I guess I need the distance of academia because I do read about such things to educate myself.)

My biggest critique would be that meeting up with Zee, who seems overly knowledgeable and capable, and doggedly loyal, seemed a little too convenient for the plot. And the lack of women in the world was notable. This is a book about women as victims and men as perpetrators (and about racism) but the lack of other women to flesh it all out both made it feel unreal and, I thought, showed a male lens that is too common in literature. Women exist to be victims and don’t seem to exist outside that role. Almost none were seen passing on the street, or in a saloon, through a show window, etc. The world was basically all men and the Good Luck Girls. That’s it.

All in all, I’m torn. I recognize it’s a good book but I did not enjoy reading it.

survivor

Book Review of Survivor, by Mazzy J. March

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I purchased a copy of Mazzy March‘s Survivor.

Description from Amazon:

They say there’s nothing wrong with me, but I can’t walk.

At least not more than a couple of feet at a time. Like from bed to my wheelchair.
I crawled out of the wreckage of our family car seconds before it burst into flame at the base of the cliff, killing my parents. I screamed my lungs raw for help, even though I knew they couldn’t be saved, but nobody came for nearly twenty-four hours. It rained, and I shivered in the chill, the scent of burned upholstery and other things filling my nose.

My aunt cared for me for a short while, but when she also died in an accident—a house fire that nearly took me out as well—I was placed in the care of a hired nurse who made sure I took my meds and waited on me hand and foot. Over time I lost what little strength I had, until I never left my room, almost bedridden, my only contact with the outside world online classes.

But when I turned eighteen, I had to make a change or I’d end up dying here, old and alone and without any hope. So now I have my small apartment in a new town, living on my own for the first time and attending classes at the local community college. My parents’ insurance is running out, but I have a job in the school library, and as long as I take my pills every day, I seem to do all right.

It’s not much of a life, but so much more than I ever had.

When Brandon Graves knocked on my door, the look of shock on his face was priceless. Apparently, he’d never seen a shifter in a wheelchair before.

He said I was on pack lands and therefore had to meet with the Alpha, his brother.

So much for staying under the radar.

Review:

I’m angry, so so angry. Ok, maybe angry isn’t the right word. Disappointed is better. But it makes me feel better to rant and say I’m angry. While I have other things to add, let me get the big one out of the way and it’s a spoiler, be warned.

I bought this book because it has a heroine on the cover who uses a wheelchair. The blurb says that she was injured in an accident as a child and now can’t walk unassisted. I thought, ‘Wow, a person with a mobility disability getting some rep. I am all in!’ Imagine my immense disappointment to discover that the plot moves along with her regaining her ability to walk and no longer needing her wheelchair. (If you care to glance at the covers of books 2,3, and 4 you’ll see she’s up, on her feet and walking. Presumably even well enough to fight, if you judge by the sword.)

That’s no longer representation. That’s…that’s…well, that’s something else. And I was super annoyed every time one of the heroes asked her to leave the chair behind, or walk a little farther, etc. I realize the author meant this to be them encouraging her, but I felt like they were trying to separate her from her disability, rather than accept her as she is. The miracle cure trope needs to die. It’s like a bait and switch—you thought you were getting some real disability representation, but nope, we were just using the disability of a prop or disposable plot device.

Outside of this big disappointment, that I won’t be continuing the series because of (even though this book ended on a giant and abrupt cliffhanger), I liked the four heroes and the heroine. Though the four guys didn’t seem to be getting the same amount of page time and none of them had any depth as characters. I thought the inclusion of a single other female, as a BFF, was tokenish. Why are books so often entirely populated by men? The writing is simplistic (with a tendency to tell) but perfectly readable, though the editing could use another pass. All in all, it’s fine, but the author burned a bridge with me. So, I’m done.

fierce firls

Review of Fierce Girls, by Mike Adams

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Author, Mike Adams, sent me a copy of Fierce Girls.

Description from Goodreads:

“I love being a Marine but there are days…We may have a lot of the same problems in 2122 we did a hundred years ago but back then the Gul brothers weren’t paying lots to see my head on a spike! Not that I was born yet but that’s not the point! So I’m a pretty good shot and Rick is even better. Did I ask daddy Gul and his boys to go on a rampage? No, I didn’t! But now we have to leave the planet and go to the New Hope colony where the locals like to eat people!” –Staff Sergeant Susan ‘Molly’ Bennett, USMC

The story of the alien Rift invasion of the New Hope Colony begins on Earth in 2122 when all too familiar problems and events cause a chain reaction that will have repercussions on two worlds. Fleeing for their lives and to protect his family Navy, Lieutenant Paul “Rick” O’Brien and Marine Staff Sergeant Susan Mollison “Molly” Bennett will have to board a starship for the long voyage to Earth’s first extrasolar colony under new identities. There they will join the Colonial Rangers, the international military force designed to protect the colonists from the planet’s ferocious predators, not to deter an alien invasion.

The female-loving Logistics officer O’Brien and superb marksman and the courageous Marine recon squad leader form an unbreakable bond forged under fire that will serve them well as events unfold around them. The circumstances that send them to the New Hope Colony will also have a profound effect on the other members of the O’Brien/Cassidy family and especially Rick’s daughter Ciara as well as on the colony where they find refuge.

Review:

This was not a winner for me. The book is titled Fierce Girls, and there are a number of fierce girls in it. But if you asked me who the main character is, I’d tell you it is Rick O’Brien (the only male). He is the primary idea man, it’s his family the book centers on, and he’s the primary instigator of action. He‘s the main character of a book called Fierce Girls

And it’s not surprising. Because honestly, you can feel that this book is written by a man, despite the title. It’s in the aforementioned focus on the male. The way he’s affectionately referred to as a womanizer. The subtle gun worship (or at least shooter worship). The white knight syndrome as Rick saves all the women. The way he’s described as super respectful of women, but still laughs at sexist jokes. The way every mention of Molly (an accomplished Marine) includes how attractive she is, calling her “pretty Bennett” and usually includes mention of her clothing (or lack thereof). The way the book couldn’t get to the end without putting that pretty, self-sufficient woman in a position to possibly be raped. And the whole weird kumbayah, love fest all the women seem to engage in whenever they were all together. As a woman who has a mother, aunt, sister, female friends, nieces, and daughters (one of each Ciara’a age) very little of that felt realistic. It read like some uber stereotyped version of idealized womanhood.

But being written by a man wouldn’t be an indictment if the book didn’t simultaneously feel so much like author wish-fulfillment—Rick, after all, is the most handsome, smartest, bravest, most talented, most skilled, most sought after man in the universe—and have an incredibly unlikeable main character. Rick, after all, is the most handsome, smartest, bravest, most talented, most skilled, most sought after man in the universe and it makes him painfully smug and arrogant.

Then there is the actual writing. It’s mostly ok, but there were some irritants. Everyone talks with exclamation points, there are a ton of info dumps (usually in the form of dialogue that reads like a lecture), there’s too much telling as large chunks of time and events are glossed over, there’s some weird bolding and italicizing going on, it’s repetitive, and names/titles are used too frequently.

But worst of all, the plot is a very loose weave. For over half the book, I didn’t even think there was one. Eventually one kind of coalesced, but the book would have been significantly improved if the first half was a lot tighter and the last half had a point beyond “look how awesome Rick is.” Readers are introduced to a million characters, many of whom we don’t need to know, and some of whom go by as many as three names (before also changing their names in the latter half of the book). It confusing and, I hate to say it, boring.

I understand that this is the first in a long series (22 books to date). So, some leeway can be given for setting the ground for the rest of the series. But for me, I didn’t particularly enjoy this first one, so I’m not interested in 21 more.