Tag Archives: new adult

Book Review of Half-Resurrection Blues (Bone Street Rumba #1), by Daniel José Older

Leave a reply

Half-Resurection BluesI checked a copy of Half-Resurrection Blues, by Daniel José Older, out from my local library. (And discovered that the cast on a broken wrist makes reading a paperback awkward and cumbersome. Grrr. Guess it really is too soon to give up the novelettes.)

Description from Goodreads:
Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead’s most unusual agents—an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that’s missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind—until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death. 

One inbetweener is a sorcerer. He’s summoned a horde of implike ngks capable of eliminating spirits, and they’re spreading through the city like a plague. They’ve already taken out some of NYCOD’s finest, leaving Carlos desperate to stop their master before he opens up the entrada to the Underworld—which would destroy the balance between the living and the dead.

But in uncovering this man’s identity, Carlos confronts the truth of his own life—and death…

Review:
I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I liked Carlos. I liked the author’s voice. I loved that the main character’s gaze was Puerto Rican, therefore not white, and the reader is gifted with observations we rarely see. (This is part of why it’s so important to have authors of color, not just characters.) I liked the idea of the story and plot. But I always felt like I was playing catch up, like I was never certain what was happening. Time was indeterminate and frequently large chunks of time would pass in what I thought had been a day or two of action. Characters seemed to know things without my knowing how and I just never felt deeply invested in the story.

Having said all that. I think that, though this particular book wasn’t a huge winner for me, the author could be. I’ll definitely be giving him another chance.

Now, outside of the review of the book Half Resurrection Blues, I have to give Older kudos and cool points because of this.

Older signitureI’m taking it at face value and accepting it for just what it appears—an autographed copy of this book, probably donated to the Ferguson library in solidarity during the protests and social actions of last year. I’m a bit shocked to find it in regular circulation, but think it’s fabulous and a great surprise on opening the book.

Rock

Book Review of Rock, by Anyta Sunday

Leave a reply

RockI bought a copy of Anyta Sunday‘s novel, Rock, in order to be part of a group read.

Description from Goodreads:
Igneous.
When Cooper’s parents divorce, he finds himself landed in Week About—one week with his mum and one week with his dad.
Only, it’s not just his dad he has to live with. There’s Lila, too: The other woman, the one who stole the rock-solid foundation of his life.

And then …

There’s Jace. Lila’s son. Lila’s smug, regurgitated-fish-scale-blue eyed son.

All Cooper wants is to have his family back the way it once was, but there’s something about this boy that promises things will never be the same again.

Sedimentary.
Resisting the realities of his new life, Cooper and Jace get off to a rocky start. But rocky start or not, after hundreds of shared memories together, they forge something new. A close … friendship.

Because friendship is all they can have. Although it’s not like they are real brothers…

Metamorphic.
But how does that friendship evolve under the pressures of life?
Under pressures of the heart?

Review:
This was a hard book for me to read. Part of it was circumstantial, as I picked it up at a time when I was a little emotionally compromised and therefore more susceptible to the turmoil in it. I joked that it felt like a death by a thousand cuts at one point. But part of the reason is just that it’s a difficult read. Families, parents are human and sometimes their best effort isn’t enough and children get hurt. In the beginning I had a very hard time letting go of Cooper’s anger that had become my anger. I resented everyone involved. As pages went by, Jace chipped away at that until eventually that forgiveness spread to the rest of the family.

Similarly, I spent a lot of time hurt and angered by Jace, wanting Cooper to inflict a lash or two in return. But as pages went by and Cooper’s understanding grew I was able to see that Jace too was suffering, just in a different way than Cooper. I think that must take a lot of skill for a writer to present a reader with one POV and still show growth in perspective without ever coming out and saying it. Part of it, especially when Cooper is young, is that he’s a bit unreliable and biased as a narrator, but I don’t know that that’s all there is to it.

I did think the mothers, both of them, were placeholders. The story here is really about the boys and their father. The book has these two shadows of amazing women and both feel like tragic cutouts. Neither of them were as well developed as the other characters.

I loved the writing style, the word choice and flow. I enjoyed the rocks as a running theme, though I didn’t really feel compelled to run out and look up meanings or anything. I just thought it was a nice thread running throughout the book. All in all, quite enjoyable.

Book Review of Thomm Quackenbush’s We Shadows

Leave a reply

We ShadowsAuthor, Thomm Quackenbush, sent me a copy of his novel We Shadows.

Description from Goodreads:
After a year of coasting rather than living, destroyed by her boyfriend Eliot’s death, Shane Valentine matriculates into his college. She begins to build a new life as a college freshman, only to have it stolen from her one night, when she is trying to drown her sorrows at the bottom of a daiquiri.

She wakes the next day in a strange apartment with three scars she can’t remember and a bloody shirt. On her walk of shame in stolen clothes, she realizes that no one aside for her roommate Roselyn, a Wiccan with epilepsy, remembers her. Unfortunately three occultists are after her to fix the mistake they made and they remember her too well.

Gideon, a daemonic being with an penchant for card, finds her and assures her he is going to help her out of his own sense of self-preservation. After a quick trip to the nameless campus drug dealer, whose abilities far exceed the selling of narcotics, Shane begins on an adventure to figure out what was done with her and why, to regain a life she had been wasting in mourning. Then, she begins to see Eliot’s ghosts and realizes even chaos cannot be so cut and dry.

Review:
I have to be honest. I only kinda, sorta, maybe understand what just happened at the end of this book. It feels like things wrapped up, but I don’t actually know what happened. Did she? Didn’t she? Was she? Wasn’t she? Will she? Won’t she? (Ok, now I just sound a bit like Girl.) At best it’s a loose conclusion, though it does conclude. Having said all of that, I quite enjoyed the ride. Quackenbush has developed some really interesting characters in this book. Some I know are poached from various mythologies, but they are all artfully integrated to create an engaging story.

The whole thing just felt a little shallow though. I don’t necessarily mean that as a harsh criticism. The characters had enough depth, there weren’t too many deep plot holes and dialogue flowed well, but for all of the philosophy spouted, decisions made and actions taken very little deep explanation was ever given. It all led to a feeling of gloss…like looking at a water colour where you can clearly see what the picture is despite the fact that the lines are all indistinct and often wobbly. As a result I regularly “only kinda, sorta, maybe understand what just happened.”

Then there was Girl. She’s was very Mad Hatter-like, speaking in enlightened gibberish and riddles…and just in case you don’t immediately note the similarity she liked to quote Carroll and have random tea-parties too. Actually, now that I think about it, I kind of wish I had paid more attention throughout the book. I’d bet there are more than a few Alice in Wonderland references I didn’t catch. Gideon’s penchant for cards could be one. Hookas and ‘who are you’ type conversations abound. Yes, I’ve decided. There is a definite Alice in Wonderland feel to this book. Shane has lost her sense of self, just like little Alice.

Quackenbush is a talented writer, without doubt. The dry, witty humour was worth reading the book for on its own. Shane, for example, very much reminded me of Rory from Gilmore Girls, though there isn’t any real reason for me to make that comparison since the genre’s are so very different. But there just aren’t a lot of characters that could make grammar jokes funny, probably not many authors either.