Book Review - He's Gone by Deb Caletti

He's Gone by Deb Caletti

Publisher: Bantam

Publication Date: 14 May 2013

Genre: Literary Fiction / Mystery

My Copy: Library - paperback

The Sunday morning starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness, the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone.

As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.

Review:

I had such high hopes for this book. It sounded interesting, and everyone raves about Deb Caletti. This was the first book by her that I have read, and I have to say I was disappointed. Most of the book takes place in Dani's head. There's not a whole not propelling the book except her memories of the past and her fuzzy ideas about the night Ian went missing. I didn't connect with any of the characters, and most of the side characters just made me angry. I admit to skimming the second half or so of the story. The only reason it gets two stars and that I bothered to skim the second half was that I was interested in finding out what happened to Ian, although it wasn't surprising.

Book Review - Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston

Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston

Publisher: W W Norton & Co

Publication Date: 6 February 2012

Genre: Literary Fiction/Short Stories

My Copy: Library - hardback

Stuck in a dead-end relationship, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds a comfort zone in the air, “feeling safest with one plane ticket in her hand and another in her underwear drawer.” She flies around the world, finding reasons to love life in dozens of far-flung places from Alaska to Bhutan. Along the way she weathers unplanned losses of altitude, air pressure, and landing gear. With the help of a squad of loyal, funny, wise friends and massage therapists, she learns to sort truth from self-deception, self-involvement from self-possession.

At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself”—not to mention two dogs and two horses—“staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”

Review:

I picked up this book because it was on a list of "Must Reads by Women," and I didn't really know much about it. It started out so great, but then I lost interest pretty quickly. I don't read very many short stories mostly because I like my stories to be longer with a defined and well sculpted plot. Which is probably why this book and I didn't get along. The book is divided up into 144 little stories about events or places the main character visited or regularly frequented (a possible title choice being "144 Reasons Not to Commit Suicide). I had a hard time connecting to it because of the way it jumped all around in time and place. Not my thing. I skimmed through most of the second half because I did enjoy a couple of the short pieces, but not enough to hold my interest. I do have some quotes to share from early in the book.

Quotes:

If I die tonight it will be with every single thing unfinished (like, I suppose, any other night), and yet, what a gift to die on the verge of tears. I have spent my life trying to understand the way this rock and this ache go together, why a granite peak is more dramatic half dressed in clouds (like a woman), why sunlight under fog is better than the sum of its parts, why my best days and my worst days are always the same days, why (often) leaving seems like the only solution to the predicament of loving (each other) the world. - pg 14

He tells me we've been put on earth to crack each other open, and then to stick around long enough to watch the thing that, having been cracked open, suddenly shines. He says he knows there is only a thin wall between himself and all that shining, but sometimes he forgets how thin the wall is, because somebody came along when he wasn't looking, and painted the damn thing black. - pg 15

I'm beginning to understand that when we want to kill ourselves, it is not because we are lonely, but because we are trying to break up with the world before the world breaks up with us. - pg 21

At our first therapy session in over a year Patrick said, "Pam! Don't you get it? If Ethan spends every minute he's eating your mango, longing for the old mango, he doesn't have any brain space to worry about losing the mango he's got right now." - pg 47

Janine said, "The best way to think of Ethan's energy is like mistletoe. We have all these nice kissy associations with mistletoe, and even out in nature it doesn't look that bad, but give it enough time and it will kill the tree." - pg 61

Rating Breakdown:

Plot: 1 star

Pacing: 1 star

Characters: 3 stars

Review - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Series: Hunger Games #3
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: 24 August 2010
Genre: YA Dystopian
My Copy: bought - kindle


Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding.


Review:
This book was almost torturous to read after finishing Catching Fire. Katniss turns into a weepy girl who seems to have no backbone unless she's being shot at. After really beginning to like her in the second book, I found myself annoyed with her, but for different reasons than in the first book. I thought her harsh in The Hunger Games and brave in Catching Fire, but for most of Mockingjay I just wanted to throttle her. Rather than Katniss's character growing, she backpedals fast. And poor Peeta. I just wanted to squeeze him and tell him it would be okay. I will say I didn't feel like the love triangle was really strong. The synopses on the book covers make you think that it's a prominent aspect, but I didn't think it really was that big of a choice personally.

Besides my issue with Katniss, I had some other serious problems with the book. I kind of felt like Collins had no idea what to do with the story she built up in the first and second books. Most of the main characters the reader wants to hear about are drugged up anytime they feel depressed, which with a war going on and loved ones held captive, is most of the time. I can't say the ending surprised me much, although Katniss didn't seem like a 17 year old girl by the end of the book. I understand why the characters were as hardened as they were in this book, and in a way, they were written very well, but I just couldn't connect with Katniss again. The third book seemed much closer to an adult novel than a young adult one with many of the themes regarding war and post-traumatic stress. It's a very dark story with very little hope.

Overall, I liked the story and to a certain extent I understand why the series ending played out the way it did. I didn't love it, and I feel that this story had so much potential, but it just failed to rise to it.

Rating breakdown:
Plot: 2 hearts
Pacing: 2 hearts
Characters: 2 hearts
Character relationships: 2 hearts
Recommend: Only if you've already started the series. You should read it to at least find out how it ends, but just be prepared. There are plenty of people who do like it, so maybe you will too.

Read for these challenges:
YA Literature
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100+ Books

Review - Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt (16)

 Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: 12 July 2011

Genre: YA Contemporary

My Copy: received for review from publisher - Galley Grab

 On the last day of her junior year, Hannah's boyfriend Sebastian dumped her. Facing a summer of loneliness, Hannah turns to her best friend Ava for comfort. Ava does what BFFs do: she stays by Hannah's side...until it's time for Ava to head up to Maine for the summer. Also left behind is Ava's boyfriend, Noah, who's such a great guy he gets Hannah a job at the diner he waits tables at. Slowly, Hannah comes out of her funk thanks to Noah's good conversation and their fun times at the diner. But things get complicated when their friendship turns into attraction--and one night, into a passionate kiss.

The novel opens on the first day of senior year; the day Hannah is going to see Ava, Sebastian, and Noah all in one place. Over the course of the day secrets and betrayals are revealed, and alliances are broken and reformed. In the end, everyone is paired up once again, but not the way you might think...

Review:

I really kind of wanted to put off this review since this is my first one in a few months, and I really wanted the first one back to be a good book. However, this is the first book that I've actually finished in awhile, so this is the one I'm reviewing. The first thing to note about this book is that it is told in alternating chapters. The first chapter is set on the first day of her senior year followed by a chapter from her summer. This is the way the whole book is set up, but I didn't feel like it really worked in this book. The story is really what happened during the summer, while the first day of school is more like the consequences of that summer. This limited the books potential because Barnholdt couldn't give away too much in the beginning despite the fact that you're getting the ending throughout the book. The characters couldn't really grow which felt essential for this book to be successful. The story revolves mostly around a lot of drama; lots of boys cheating on girls and girls backstabbing friends. It made the book a bit repetitive. I did like the beginning of the book. It held my interest for the first 100 pages or so, but then it lost its hook. I became tempted to not finish it, but it was a pretty quick read, and I was already halfway through it (I think I finished the whole book in about two hours). The reader can figure out what's going to happen fairly early, but then the author tries to drag out the suspense which made me just want to say enough already. I never connected with any of the characters. The characters are realistic in that none of them are completely good or completely bad people, except for perhaps Lacey who might actually just be a good person. However, Lacey came off as kind of whiny and spineless in the beginning, so I had a hard time feeling bad for her. The characters do grow a bit, but not until the last 15 to 20 pages which hardly seemed worth it. One last oddity, the characters seem to just skip classes like it's no big deal. I don't know anywhere where the students can just keep running around the school and off campus at random. The bottom line? The book had potential, but failed largely due to the fact that all of the characters had the same problem and were not very rounded.

Rating breakdown:

Plot: 2 hearts

Pacing: 1 heart

Characters: 1 heart

Character relationships: 2 hearts

Recommend: No

Short Reviews - Hunger, Summer, and a Witch (9 - 11)

“Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world.”

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home: her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power — and the courage to battle her own inner demons?

Hunger by Jackie Morse Keller
Series: Horsemen of the Apocalypse #1
Publisher: Graphia
Publication Date: 18 October 2010
Genre: YA fantasy/supernatural
My Copy: library - paperback

Review:
The premise caught my attention awhile back because it sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the book didn't really live up to my expectations. I found it very difficult to connect with the main character. I grew increasingly frustrated with her attitude towards her real best friend, her boyfriend and her parents as well as her near worship of a bulimic girl. Don't get me wrong, I understand why she had the attitude, but it seemed like she should have shown more change in character earlier in the book since that sort of was the point of the story. Instead, everything happened in the end of the book, but by that point I was already too annoyed with Lisabeth. Then there's the ending which felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the story, or really even with the premise. I'm not sure yet if I'll read Rage.






Review breakdown:
Plot: 3 hearts
Pacing: 3 hearts
Characters: 2 hearts
Character relationships: 1 heart
Recommend: No

Anna is dreading another tourist-filled summer on Dune Island that follows the same routine: beach, ice cream, friends, repeat. That is, until she locks eyes with Will, the gorgeous and sweet guy visiting from New York. Soon, her summer is filled with flirtatious fun as Anna falls head over heels in love.

But with every perfect afternoon, sweet kiss, and walk on the beach, Anna can’t ignore that the days are quickly growing shorter, and Will has to leave at the end of August. Anna’s never felt anything like this before, but when forever isn’t even a possibility, one summer doesn’t feel worth the promise of her heart breaking...

Sixteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: 3 May 2011
Genre: YA contemporary
My Copy: received for review from publisher - e-book ARC

Review:
I loved this story! The relationship that builds over the course of the summer is so realistic. The book is surrounded in the bittersweet feeling of summer love. I loved Anna. She's very down-to-earth, and I instantly connected with her. Will is so swoon worthy. Plus, I would love to be a part of Anna's family (not to mention live on a beach). Anna's friends remained strong in the story line as well rather than dropping out of it when she meets Will which is an often heard complaint with YA novels. There are so many realistic aspects to this book that make it a perfect contemporary YA story. I laughed and cheered and then found myself crying my eyes out at the ending. This is a must read for your summer lists! Warning: This book will give you a sweet tooth! I'd recommend having ice cream nearby.






Rating breakdown:
Plot: 5 hearts
Pacing: 5 hearts
Characters: 5 hearts
Character relationships: 5 hearts
Recommend: Absolutely!

Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.

When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney
Series: The Iron Witch #1
Publisher: Flux
Publication Date: 8 February 2011
Genre: YA fantasy/supernatural
My Copy: library - paperback

Review:
The book has a slow start, but definitely picks up the pace towards the end (which is why it only gets 4 hearts). Most of the action happens in the last few chapters. The slower parts are interesting though and gives the reader a chance to learn about the world created within the story. Donna is a dynamic character. In the beginning she seems afraid most of the time, but towards the end, she has much more confidence in herself. I was very intrigued by Xan. I want to know more about his history. I also want to know what the Wood Queen was talking about when she speaks with Donna. I will definitely be picking up the second book.






Rating breakdown:
Plot: 5 hearts
Pacing: 3 hearts
Characters: 5 hearts
Character relationships: 4 hearts
Recommend: Yes

*Links and images go to Goodreads*

Review - Dead Is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez (2)

Dead Is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez
Series: Dead Is #2
Publisher: Graphia
Publication Date: 1 January 2009
Genre: YA paranormal/fantasy/mystery
My Copy: bought - paperback


Welcome to Nightshade, California a small town full of secrets. It s home to the psychic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom- shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case! There's a gorgeous new guy at Nightshade High: Duke Sherrad, a fortune-teller claiming to have descended from Gypsies. Even though she s psychic herself, Daisy is skeptical of Duke s powers. But when a teacher who was the subject of one of his predictions ends up dead, she begins to wonder if Duke is the real deal after all. Maybe if Daisy can track down the teacher s killer, she can find out the truth. The only trouble is, all signs point to the murderer being of the furry persuasion. Is Daisy any match for a werewolf? Maybe she is . . . in more ways than she bargained for!


Review:
This was the first book I read for the Read-a-Thon on Saturday. I wanted a short, quick read to get me started, and this provided that. Dead Is a State of Mind is a fun, lighthearted story. I enjoyed the mystery and the paranormal aspect; however, it largely failed to live up to the first book. Ryan's secret was obvious to me very early in the book. The suspense was weaker than before, and it didn't take long to figure out who the bad guy was. I found myself highly aggitated with Daisy too. She was curious and fun in Dead Is the New Black, but in this one, she seemed to run away from everything. In fact, most of the book was just her refusing to listen to Ryan. She gets a little backbone towards the end, but it was rather anti-climatic. Although it is a quick read, the pacing was erratic. With that said, it does serve it's purpose as a short paranormal mystery book. My favorite character is easily Poppy. I felt myself wanting the story to be told from her perspective. It probably would have been a more satisfying read with her ghost love and more direct involvement with the murder mystery. The plot idea is interesting. I will read the next book in the series because I did actually enjoy the first book, so I'm hoping this was just a fluke of some sort (I was slightly cranky when I read it). I'd recommend this to someone who read the first book and liked it.

Other thoughts:
The covers on the series seem a bit plain to me, but I do like the colors.



Rating breakdown:
Overall: 2 stars
Plot: 3 stars
Characters: 3 stars
Pacing: 2 stars
Writing Style: 2 stars
Recommend: Maybe?


Other Books in the Series:

If you like this series, try this one:


*All links go to Goodreads*