I quickly learned, while reading Brood, that my habit of picking up a book whenever I sit down for a bite to eat is maybe not always the best idea. Because — ick. This book would be best read on an empty stomach. Preferably in broad daylight.
That is, assuming that most people would be squicked out by rat infestations, contemplation of which human body parts are edible, and random eviscerations. But, you know, if you’re okay with all that, then by all means, enjoy this book with a hamburger or something.
Brood is the sequel to last year’s Breed, Chase Novak’s horror-filled cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of medical experimentation and the narcissistic need of 1%ers to reproduce, fertility problems be damned.
[Caution: This review includes spoilers related to Breed. You’ve been warned.]
In Breed, ultra-wealthy Alex and Leslie Twisden have everything money can buy, except the ability to produce offspring. At the end of their quest for legitimate treatment, they turn to a hush-hush supposed miracle cure available through a shady doctor in Eastern Europe.
This is not a good idea.
Much mayhem ensues. It’s not pretty. But hey, they do at least have kids!
RIP, Alex and Leslie. And lots of cats and dogs and mice.
In Brood, the offspring — twins Adam and Alice — are 12 years old, and as the story picks up, their aunt Cynthia has just finalized adoption papers, bringing them back home after two years stuck in the foster system. The twins are small for their age, suffering from massive eating disorders, and not at all used to shelter, comfort, and parental love. Cynthia, previously childless, has the idea that she can be a true mother to the twins, and through the power of unconditional love, give them the normal adolescence they deserve and create an ideal home for their little family of three. She’s wrong, of course.
Meanwhile, packs of feral children roam Central Park, a new drug called Zoom is making the rounds of wealthy people looking for their next kick, and a shady research firm is paying a whack-job weirdo to kidnap the wild kids for non-voluntary medical research.
Brood is a quick read. Also a really gross read. (My Goodreads updates: 21%: Ew. 46%: Ew. 92%: Ew.) The action is heavy-duty, animalistic, stalkery/threatening, and — it bears repeating — gross. There’s a lot of time spent on Cynthia’s mental state, which isn’t actually as interesting as the author seems to think it is. Characters are introduced and then dropped. There’s follow-through from Breed, but not consistently.
Some interesting questions are raised about what it means to be human. The science is a bit iffy, but we don’t really know what that fertility treatment actually entailed, so sure, why not have a new breed of children with unknown DNA patterns, unpredictable development, unconventional appetites, and an undefined step along the evolutionary ladder?
Plus, the idea of preteens running on all fours through the streets of Manhattan? Kind of cool, to be honest.
Last year, after writing a review of Breed, I also wrote a post outlining what I saw as the major lingering questions. Brood ties up some, but not all, of the loose ends left at the end of Breed, which makes me wonder: Is there another installment planned? Or did the author simply feel that some story elements weren’t worth pursuing in the sequel? Brood ends with some finality, but with enough wiggle room left for there to be more yet to come.
Meanwhile, the blood, guts, and rats make Brood a singularly revolting piece of reading. Definitely not for the squeamish. But if you read Breed and remain curious about the fate of all those feral kids, by all means, give Brood a try. For people who enjoy their horror on the chewy side, it’s an *engrossing* (sorry) read.
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The details:
Title: Brood
Author: Chase Novak
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Publication date: October 7, 2014
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of Mulholland Books via NetGalley
Welcome to the October (Halloween!) pick for the Fields & Fantasies book club! Each month or so, in collaboration with my wonderful co-host Diana of Strahbary’s Fields, we’ll pick one book to read and discuss. Today, we’re looking at Horns by Joe Hill:
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.
At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .
Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge. . . . It’s time the devil had his due. . . .
My two cents:
Want to know a secret about Joe Hill’s Horns?
At its heart, Horns is a love story. A tragic one, to be sure, but lovely enough in its own way to bring tears to my eyes. Not what I expected when I picked this horror novel to enjoy during the spooky month of October.
In Horns, Ig Perrish lost the love of his life when his one-and-only Merrin was savagely raped and murdered a year earlier. Ig is widely believed to be guilty of the crime, but the case was dismissed without ever clearing his name. Ig is now a pariah, despised by all, wandering aimlessly through the shambles of his life… until the day he wakes up semi-drunk and quite hungover, and finds horns growing out of his head.
The horns are quite real, and seem to give Ig the power of persuasion: People who encounter Ig tell him their deepest, darkest secrets, and with just a nudge, Ig can get them to act on their impulses. Oh, and he seems to attract snakes as well. Meanwhile, with the ability to see inside people’s minds simply by touching them, he’s now privy to new information about Merrin’s murder, and is well on his way to tracking down her killer and making him pay.
Is Ig the devil? Is he evil? How can we explain the horns, Ig’s fondness for pitchforks, his imperviousness from fire?
The symbolism here is rich. Ig and Merrin are presented as true soul mates. When Ig loses Merrin, has he also lost his soul?
Horns is dark and scary — although the scariest element isn’t the supernatural side, but rather, the look inside the very disturbed brain of the murderer. Meanwhile, Ig and Merrin’s love story is pure tragedy — the story of a true and selfless love that is cruelly destroyed by forces outside the lovers’ control.
Written by Joe Hill, son of the legendary Stephen King, Horns feels very much like a King family novel. As in many King books, there are thematic repetitions throughout, a slow reveal of the major event with many hints and glimpses, hidden meanings in everyday objects, and the familiar (yet always scary) concept of people giving into their own worst impulses and letting their ids guide their behaviors.
Horns is a perfect read for the frightful month of October, and I can’t wait to check out the movie version starring Dan Radcliffe! (Scroll down for a peek at the trailer… )
And now for the interactive portion of our program — a Q&A between Diana and me.
Warning: SPOILERS from this point forward. Proceed at your own risk!
Diana: What are your thoughts on Ig’s spiral into demonhood?
Lisa: I thought the author struck a great balance between humor and horror. I loved how the power of the horns meant that no one really looked twice — it was more like “oh, hey, you have horns on your head, and here’s what going on in my own twisted mind”. Ig’s transformation was a living illustration of his inner demons taking over his life, but I like that he didn’t exactly turn evil; he just became focused on vengeance and got the power he needed to attain it.
Diana: Rapes are always a sensitive subject in books and other forms of media. What were your thoughts on Merrin’s rape?
Lisa: Disturbing and awful to read about, of course. I’m glad that we knew up front what had happened to Merrin, rather than having it turn up later as a surprise. The author showed the brutality and violence of the rape, while showing the twisted mind of the attacker and the sick way in which he justified his actions. It really made my heart break for Merrin, to know the terror and pain she suffered at the end.
Diana: During Ig’s Fire Sermon as he discussed what happened to Merrin I couldn’t help but think about all the times that rape was used by the Greco Roman gods as a punishment. I’ve been studying a lot of these myths so I couldn’t help but make the parallels.
This question has to be asked because it’s just this kind of book: What disturbed you the most?
Lisa: See above — knowing what Merrin went through in her final moments was the most disturbing, although I have to say that seeing inside so many people’s minds was pretty creepy too. And of course, getting an inside view into the mind of a soulless sociopath was absolutely chilling.
What did you find the most disturbing?
Diana: By the time we get to the rape scene I already felt like I was wallowing in the mud so by the time we got to the really nitty gritty the stuff that was going on didn’t disturb me as much. The thing that made me squirm was every time a snake died. I have some as pets and it’s kind of like dogs in movies for me. I cringed every time one of them got hurt or died. I am worse when it comes to dogs in movies. The moment the dog dies I’m out, people could be dropping like flies but the moment the dog gets offed I am out.
The people around Ig were pretty horrible. Were there any redeeming qualities for you? Or do you think Joe Hill did too good of a job making us hate pretty much everyone but Ig?
Lisa: I didn’t hate everyone but Ig! Granted, most of the people were pretty despicable. But I did think his brother had redeeming qualities. He really loved Ig and Merrin too, but got too caught up in his own fear and cowardice to do the right thing. And I felt sorry for Glenna. I couldn’t hate her at all; in fact, I was hoping that she’d manage to come out of it all with some sort of happy ending. She was just a poor girl who never caught a break, and I thought she was pitiable, but not unlikeable.
Was there anyone you liked at all? Anyone who was less awful than the rest?
Diana: I liked Terry. He redeemed himself to me by the end. I agree with you on Glenna, she just couldn’t catch a break. I like her and Terry’s ending.
How do you feel about Lee’s relationship to Merrin? Do you think at some level he was justified in thinking she had feelings for him? Or do you think Lee was just a sociopath that couldn’t comprehend any normal relationship cues?
Lisa: The second option, for sure! Lee is a sociopath, and yes, he misread Merrin’s intentions, but that’s not her fault. He put on a good act and fooled a lot of people, always doing what society expected of him and looking like the perfect former sinner, a poster child for salvation — but inside, he was just twisted and beyond hope.
Diana: One of the things that he reminded me of is the recent shootings just outside of Santa Barbara and Seattle. Both of those young men acted out because they believed they were jaded by other young women. Lee really speaks to our need as a society to take a better stance in regards to mental health.
Lisa: What do you make of the treehouse? Why was it important?
Diana: The treehouse felt like it was their personal palace or safe place as you say. I like to think that they are living happily in that treehouse.
Lisa: How did you feel when you found out the big secret Merrin was keeping from Ig?
Diana: In a way it was a bit of deus ex machina, she wanted to push him away because she was sick. It was like Joe Hill wanted to make sure that we walked away liking her, or that no one reading it felt like she had it coming. (which for the record no one deserves Merrin’s fate) It is possible that she just could have gotten afraid of commitment, afraid to leave the US, I’m sure it happens all the time. On the other hand, it added to the tragedy and the parallels I made earlier with the Greek Myths and her rape, the poor girl got what she asked for, a quick way out.
Lisa: Have you read other books by Joe Hill? If so, how do you rank Horns in comparison? And if not, would you want to read more by this author?
Diana: This is my very first Joe Hill book. I am excited to discover this new to me author!
Lisa: Do you consider Horns a horror novel? Would you recommend it only to horror fans, or are there other types of reader who should check it out as well?
Diana: If we go by what Joe defined horror as, as being rooted in sympathy then yes this is a horror novel. I personally am not a horror fan, I am a thriller fan and overall this fit within the thriller genre. I do have to say, this is the first time I have simultaneously swooned and be creeped out by an ending to a book.
Lisa: Ultimately, would you describe Ig as a good person? Why or why not?
Diana: I can’t describe Ig as either good or bad…he’s just human. It’s very true to life. In stories it’s easy to say whose the good guy or whose the bad guy but in our own lives can we really point out who the good guys and the bad guys are? Ig is just like us.
And that wraps it up! Thanks, Diana! It’s a pleasure talking books with you! Let’s do this again next month…
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The details:
Title: Horns
Author: Joe Hill
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 2010
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
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Intrigued? Read the book for sure — but you might also want to check out the movie version:
Next for Fields & Fantasies:
Our November book will be Hello From the Gillespies by Monica McInerney.
Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!
Warning: This week’s selection is not for the squeamish! If you have an aversion to all things icky, look away now.
Brood by Chase Novak
(published October 7, 2014)
RestorePro’s workers, decked out in muck boots, respirators, and HAZMAT suits, had swooped in. Of course, the worst thing about the cleanup was the blood, the hair, the fur, and the bones, and the teeth, the parts of bodies for which neither Alex nor Leslie had a taste — they both eschewed ears, and found feet as a rule inedible.
The sequel to Breed is proving to be just as disturbing and disgusting as the first book… and what does it say about me that I’ve read 25% and I’m enjoying it very much so far?
Happy Halloween!
What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!
If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:
Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!
There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).
This week’s pick:
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (to be released January 27, 2015)
A debut psychological thriller about a woman who becomes emotionally entangled in a murder investigation because of something she witnesses on her daily commute.
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every night. Every day she rattles over the same track junctions, flashes past the same stretch of cozy suburban homes. And every day she stops at the same signal and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof deck, living the perfect life that Rachel craves for herself—a lifestyle she recently lost. She looks forward to observing this household every morning, even makes up names and narratives for its residents. Then one day Rachel sees someone new in their garden, and soon after, the woman who lived there disappears.
Unable to keep this information to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and in the process is drawn into the lives of the couple she thought of as Jason and Jess but whose names—she has learned from the news—are really Megan and Scott Hipwell.
But the police accuse Rachel of being unreliable, and it’s true that her memories can’t always be trusted. Plus there are the stories that her ex-husband’s new wife has been spreading about her. By the time Megan’s body is found, Rachel is in over her head, intricately entangled in the details of the investigation, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she put others in danger? Has she done more harm than good?
A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories.
I just entered a giveaway for this book, and I really hope I get a copy!
What are you wishing for this Wednesday?
Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!
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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!
Family secrets boil to the surface in this debut adult novel by YA and kid lit author Lauren Oliver.
When Richard Walker dies after a long illness, cared for only by hired health aides, his estranged family returns to their old home to divvy up the wealth and clear up the detritus of his life. Along with the living family members sorting through the accumulated memories and clutter are two ghosts, Alice and Sandra, who have their own histories in the house as well.
Richard’s living relations — ex-wife Caroline, troubled daughter Minna and her daughter Amy, and tortured teen Trenton — bring all their dysfunctional strife and trauma with them as they examine the rooms of the house and make sense of what’s left. And for Alice and Sandra, the reappearance of the family members brings up their own sets of memories of their long years spent haunting the house, as well as the living years that came before.
I read Rooms expecting a ghost story, but it’s really more of a sad story of all the various ways people can hurt each other and hurt themselves. No one is happy here; in different ways, the Walkers and the ghosts have suffered sorrows in which they’ve had a hand.
The concept of the ghosts is rather interesting. Not just shades who inhabit the building, Alice and Sandra have really become one with the house. They feel each draft and splinter; the various rooms are like their organs. While the house stands and remains whole, they remain tethered to this world and to their old lives.
Rooms isn’t dull, but it also never particularly grabbed me or created any sense of suspense. Over the course of the book, each of the characters confronts the secrets and hidden truths of their lives. There’s tragedy and deception, pain and loss. What these people, alive and dead, have experienced is worthy of pity and compassion, but somehow a connection is missing. Perhaps because the book is so short, I didn’t feel that I got to know any one person well enough to truly care, so I had no investment in the outcome.
Rooms is well-written and flows quickly from one vignette to another. It’s sad rather than spooky, and lacks the oomph I would have expected in a story about ghosts and their connection to the living. Ultimately, Rooms really wasn’t my cup of tea. I prefer my Halloween reads on the edgier side.
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The details:
Title: Rooms
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Ecco
Publication date: September 23, 2014
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Adult fiction
Source: Library
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week, we’re talking about books for getting into the Halloween spirit. With a pinch of ghosts, a dash of terror, and a few other supernatural creatures to add some chills and thrills, here are my top 10:
1) A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans: What’s Halloween without a little possession?
2) Misery by Stephen King: Really, just about any Stephen King book could fit on this list. I love that Misery manages to be terror-inducing without the slightest shred of the supernatural. Just a crazy woman with an axe…
3) NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Like father, like son… I could just as easily put Horns or Heart-Shaped Box on this list, although NOS4A2 has the scariest evil dude that I’ve encountered lately.
4) Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger: Because sometimes you just need a good ghost story. Bonus points for taking place next to (and in) an awesome cemetery.
5) The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian: Another fabulous ghost story. Absolutely a five-star read.
6) The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan: Blood, guts, gore, and existentialism. Quite the introspective murderous werewolf.
7) Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore: When you prefer your vampires with silliness and laughter. A great San Francisco setting doesn’t hurt a bit.
8) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe: Smart witches, example #1.
9) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness: Smart witches, example #2. Plus, you know, a sexy vampire — and there are even trick-or-treaters.
10) And finally, The Boys Are Back in Town by Christopher Golden: For those who like a straight-up over-the-top horror fest:
What books put you in the Halloween mood?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!
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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!
I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History’s Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia
(published 2010)
After seeing this book mentioned recently by another blogger (thank you, Bookish!), I just knew I had to grab a copy at my local library.
What a treat!
In I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat, author Carlyn Beccia takes us through the wild and wacky history of medicine by offering a quiz of sorts, complete with hilarious illustrations.
Which of the following helped cure coughs — caterpillar fungus, frog soup, or cherry bark? For a series of different ailments, we get a choice of cures, and then turn the page to see how they were used, by whom and when, and whether they worked a little, a lot, or not at all.
Can mummy powder help a wound to heal? How about maggots? Or maybe some puppy kisses? The answers might surprise you.
This book is a real multi-generational treat. I happened to bring it home from the library on a day when we had a full house. Before I knew it, I was reading this book, game show style, with various family members ranging from age 12 to 70. We giggled, we got grossed out, and we also learned something!
By the way, I was proud to show off my mad healing skills, thanks to my devoted (some might say obsessive) reading of the Outlander series. Thanks to Claire Fraser, I know all about uses of moldy bread, leeches, and spider webs!
If you have kids around the house — or even if you don’t — check out this book for some fun facts and silly learning.
Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.
IRL:
I skipped the Monday Agenda last week — did you miss me? I spent a few days traveling to see family, and got to spend my dad’s 83rd birthday with him! All that travel was very good for reading. Many hours on planes = many hours with books, despite the highly (ahem) *energetic* children who all seemed to be clustered around my row on the plane.
How did I do with last week’s agenda?
Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn: I posted my review and blog tour feature earlier in the week. Check it out here.
Horns by Joe Hill: Loved it! My Fields & Fantasies Book Club post is coming later this week. And now, I’m dying to see the movie!
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith: Done! My review is here.
The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes: Done! My review is here.
The Unwritten by Mike Carey: I’m hooked. I read volumes 1 & 2 during my travels. Note to graphic novel readers: People do indeed look at you funny on airplanes when they see you reading “comic books”. But who cares? I loved the first two volumes, and can’t wait to continue!
Fresh Catch:
Don’t you love it when you stumble across Kindle price drops? (It’s the little things that make me happy.) Here are a few titles I scooped up for my Kindle this week:
What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?
Since it’s the last week of October, I figured I’d stick with spookiness and horror to kick off the week… but if there’s time, I’ll throw in some lighter fare as well.
Brood by Chase Novak
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Lizzy & Jane by Katherine Reay
(And I have a sneaking suspicion that I may take a detour and dive into volume 3 of The Unwritten.)
Ongoing reads:
One with the kiddo:
Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: We’ve read about 1/2 of book #2 in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. A very different feel than book 1, but we’re liking it all the same!
And two book club picks:
Classic read: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon: Reading and discussing two chapters per week, from now through the end of 2015!
Want to join one or both of the group reads? Let me know and I’ll provide the links!
So many book, so little time…
That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.
Here’s a quick look at the 2nd book in Robert Galbraith’s detective series:
(Okay, we all know the author is J. K. Rowling, right?)
Synopsis (Goodreads):
When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.
But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.
When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…
J. K. Rowling made quite a stir when news of her authorship of the pseudonymously published mystery book, The Cuckoo’s Calling, was leaked last year. Rowling said in several interviews that she wanted the experience of being a new writer, outside the glare of the intense media scrutiny that follows her every move. The Cuckoo’s Calling was Rowling’s 2nd book for adults (after The Casual Vacancy), written in her post-Potter years — and once author Robert Galbraith was revealed to be Rowling, sales of The Cuckoo’s Calling skyrocketed. I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling quite a bit; you can read my review here.
In this second Galbraith book (of a reportedly 7-book series), we pick right back up with detective Cormoran Strike, a truly wonderful character and probably the best element of these books. Strike is a big man, fearsome to behold, despite his missing leg stemming from a war injury suffered during his army service in Afghanistan. Strike is smart, obstinate, and unswerving once on the scent of a clue. He makes enemies fairly easily, and has gained notoriety in the wake of the high-profile murder he solved in The Cuckoo’s Calling. He’s also the illegitimate son of a superstar rocker, and the press loves to dwell on all the sordid details that Strike would just as soon ignore.
In the months since his brush with fame, Strike finds himself in high demand to solve cases for the rich and powerful, usually involving infidelity and general skeeviness, and perhaps that’s why he feels both pity and interest when sad-sack Leonora Quine shows up in his office asking for his help. At first, it’s a missing person case, as Leonora’s author husband has disappeared — and unlike his previous periods of hiding out and sulking, he hasn’t shown up again. As Strike begins to dig, he discovers that Owen Quine is a not terribly successful writer whose newest unpublished work skewers allies and enemies alike. There are a lot of powerful people who’d like to make sure this book never sees the light of day — and once Quine’s mutilated body is discovered, all of the book’s subjects become murder suspects.
Plot-wise, The Silkworm teeters on the edge of being overly complicated. There are dates, times, objects, motives, and secrets to unravel, on top of which, the plot synopsis for Quine’s book is a seemingly coded key to each of the main players and their hidden shames and scandals. My main complaint about The Silkworm has to do with Quine’s writing. Honestly, it’s every bit as terrible as it’s supposed to be, and his book is so heavily symbolic that only the most inside of insiders could possibly have any clue who the people being lambasted might be. I just couldn’t quite buy the idea that this awful manuscript by a washed-up, one-hit-wonder of an author could generate that much attention and kick off such a publishing world crisis.
The Silkworm is densely plotted and moves forward at an incredibly fast pace — so even though it felt a bit more convoluted than strictly necessary, I still couldn’t look away. When Strike finally solves the murder, we more or less just have to take his word for it. Yes, it’s all explained, but I’m not sure that I believe that even the brilliant Cormoran Strike could really make the intuitive leap necessary to put it all together.
Still, I enjoyed spending more time with Cormoran Strike and his terrific assistant Robin Ellacott quite a bit. They’re both fantastic characters, and the book is at its most engaging when we follow their interplay and their own inner lives and struggles. The murder mystery is twisted and suspenseful, but eventually it starts to feel like a bit too much. Full disclosure: I’m not much of a mystery fan in general, so my opinion of the case and its resolution is probably colored by that. I’d love to hear what people who are bigger mystery/thriller fans have to say about The Silkworm!
Do I recommend The Silkworm? Yes! Will I read more by Robert Galbraith? Absolutely yes! I’m really looking forward to the next installment in the Cormoran Strike series, mostly for the pleasure of spending time with Strike himself — although we all know that Rowling/Galbraith can spin a good yarn, and I’m always up for seeing whatever she chooses to do next.
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The details:
Title: The Silkworm
Author: Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling)
Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: June 24, 2014
Length: 455 pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: Purchased
In 1946, thousands of war brides set sail to join the men they married and start their new lives. Can you imagine the bravery involved? Around the world, in the midst of the second World War, local girls fell into hasty, romantic marriages with soldiers stationed in their towns. Is there a more swoon-worthy ideal than the heroic GI, on leave for a few days, wooing the local girl and then heading back into battle?
Following the war, the British government made it their business to reunite the brides and their men, commissioning ships to transport the young women to England. Competition to get onboard was fierce; the brides lived in suspense, waiting for their letters to arrive to confirm that it would finally be their turn.
In The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes, originally published in 2005 and getting its first US release this month, we follow the journeys of four Australian war brides as they embark on their life-changing journeys. As the story progresses, we get to know more about each young woman, what makes her tick, and how she ends up crossing oceans for the sake of love. We meet:
Jean, the 16-year-old party girl, uneducated and slightly crass, but with a taste for fun and a daring spirit. Jean seems to genuinely love her soldier Stan, whom she married in a flurry of flirtation.
Avice, a wealthy society girl who always strives to be seen as the epitome of proper wifey-ness. Avice always has to be just that much better than everyone else.
Maggie, a farm girl who’s devoted herself to caring for her father and brothers for the last few years. She’s never been away from home until now — but can a carefree country girl find happiness among strangers in England?
Frances, a nurse who’s seen the horrors of war first-hand caring for released POWs in army hospitals. Frances has a reserve and dignity about her, and doesn’t appear to be caught up in the girlish frivolity of the other brides. There’s something going on behind the quiet appearance; Frances is clearly a woman with secrets.
As The Ship of Brides begins, we find out that the bride program is winding down. Some earlier voyages were made aboard luxury liners — but disappointingly for Avice and some of the others, the ship available for our group is the HMS Victoria, a British aircraft carrier that’s seen better days. Rather than sailing in comfy staterooms and dining in formal dining rooms, these brides are provided with hastily built dorm-style cabins in the nooks and crannies of the naval ship, allowed up on deck for exercise, and eating in the converted mess areas. Oh, and the sailors’ areas are strictly off-limits: Yes, these are newly married brides — but they’re also young women spending six weeks at sea in close quarters with a bunch of sailors… and you really can’t be too careful, at least as far as the Navy is concerned.
The Ship of Brides provides a vivid depiction of life on board the ship, aptly showing the unlikely contrast of frilly women’s fashions and the need for a makeshift hair salon with a naval vessel full of planes, fuel, gray walls, and a company of Marines. It’s not just the brides venturing into life-changing territory. For the men on board, the journey represents their voyage home from war — a return to normalcy, to civilian life, and to a peace-time existence that has only been a distant memory during the war years. For the brides as well as for the sailors and soldiers, the six weeks of the voyage are full of uncertainty, hope, and fear.
Fear especially comes into play for the brides as they look ahead toward their married lives. Most had whirlwind romances and hasty marriages; for many, their time spent thus far with their new husbands can be counted in days or weeks. And yet, here they are, sailing around the world and leaving everything behind in pursuit of love and happiness. Nothing is guaranteed, though. After the initial giddiness of the departure from Sydney, the brides inhabit a sort of purgatory, an in-between time with no assurance of a happily-ever-after. Over the course of the journey, several brides receive the dreaded Not Wanted Don’t Come telegram — and once the husband has changed his mind, the journey is over for that bride, who is taken off ship at the next available port and sent back home to pick up her life in Australia once again. No matter how excited and in love the brides are, no matter how romantic their stories of wartime wooing, each knows that this could possibly be her own fate, and the nervous energy of uncertainly underlies each waking hour.
The book gets off to a somewhat slow start, and it’s not immediately clear at the outset who the main characters are and about whom we’re really intended to care. But within a few chapters, we begin to know the brides more deeply, and as the story progresses, we become completely invested in their fates and their potential for finding happiness.
The characters themselves are sharply defined, each with her own story to tell. Frances is the most interesting of the lot and the one whose journey I found the most compelling. There’s a noble tragedy to her tale, and I couldn’t help feeling her pain and her hope as the story unfolded. In many ways, The Ship of Brides is an old-fashioned love story, but with a sense of honor and hopefulness that I found utterly romantic. The young women are often depicted as silly girls, chasing dreams of glamorous love that can’t possibly hold up in real life, and yet there’s something so brave and vulnerable in their commitment to their dreams, stepping out into the unknown in pursuit of their hopes for happiness.
The Ship of Brides is truly a lovely book, perfectly capturing the heady adventure of wartime love, and the bravery of countless young women who took the ultimate risk in pursuit of a dream. I’d never really known much about the war bride phenomenon, and found this book to be an eye-opening peek at a unique little corner of history. I learned a lot, and yet never felt like I was reading a history lesson. Instead, I became swept up by the personalities and courage of the characters, and felt like I was on the edge of my seat, hoping and praying for a happy ending.
If you enjoy a well-written love story with unique characters and a moving narrative, check out The Ship of Brides! As for me, I’ll be reading as many books by this author as I possibly can, starting with Me Before You for a November book group selection.
Title: The Ship of Brides
Author: Jojo Moyes
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication date: October 28, 2014 (originally published in UK in 2005)
Length: 464 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of Penguin Books via NetGalley
I quickly learned, while reading Brood, that my habit of picking up a book whenever I sit down for a bite to eat is maybe not always the best idea. Because — ick. This book would be best read on an empty stomach. Preferably in broad daylight.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon: Reading and discussing two chapters per week, from now through the end of 2015!
Bookshelf Fantasies 