The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

  

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Content: Autopsies performed off page with some description of the results, Talk of people being experimented on, Someone's head is bashed in off page with some description of the result

 

Solve the murder to save what's left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking. 

 

I loved this author's first book, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I also love mysteries, and this one seemed very intriguing because no one in the book could remember what happened. This cover is also gorgeous. Because of those things, I had really high hopes that this would be a book that I would love, despite the fact that his previous book, The Devil and the Dark Water ended up being a dud for me. Unfortunately, this ended up being a huge disappointment. It was a painfully slow, needlessly drawn out story, that at times just went in circles. Most of the characters were hard to connect to, and some were downright impossible to like or have any sympathy for, despite their circumstances, which we are never given any real details on. I did like Emory quite a bit, although she and her daughter Clara where the only characters I really liked. For the most part, there was a really dim view of humanity in this book that I didn't like at all.

Emory is tasked with investigating what happened, and from the beginning it was pretty easy to figure out that there was a lot of manipulation going on from a couple of different characters. I don't think it's a spoiler for me to say that because it's so obvious. Most of the time Emory is clueless to things that the reader is in on. She quite often discovers things that we as the readers already know and then no real conclusions or connections are made by her to solve anything. She just picks up clues throughout the book and does nothing very useful with them. Sure she throws out theories on what she thinks happened, but she never really makes any progress on solving anything until the end when suddenly she figures it all out and tells us what happened. The slow pace and the lack of progress was incredibly frustrating. Overall, I figured out most the elements to this book before they were revealed with the exception of how the first death happened, so I guess that was a plus. Only it didn't feel like a plus, it felt anticlimactic. 

Lastly, the whole killer fog thing was ridiculous and not ever explained. I saw the twist coming with that a mile away, but the fog itself just never really made sense. Where did it really come from? How was it created? Climate change is just not a good enough explanation. It had all the elements of something from a cheap sci-fi horror flick. Is this author only going to write books I dislike from now on? I hope not but I'm not sure I want to take a chance on another one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with an ARC of this book.

October 2022 Wrap-Up

I had five books on my list for October and I read four of them. 

 

A Stroke of Malice (Lady Darby #8) by Anna Lee Huber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Content: Strong Language

 

 

Close to Home (Tracy Crosswhite #5) by Robert Dugoni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Content: Strong Language

 

 

Three Act Tragedy (Hercule Poirot #10) by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Content: Clean

See my review here.

 

 

Monster hunter International (Monster Hunter International #1) by Larry Correia 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Content: Strong Language, Off page sex

See my review here.

 

 

I'm still working on the fifth one, Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans. I'm having a hard time getting into this book. It's really slow, and there are character names that are annoying to try to pronounce. I think mostly though, that the writing style is just not clicking with me, and that's a shame because I love fantasy and mystery and this book has both. I'm still plugging away at it, but it may end up being a DNF.

 

I didn't include the books I had intended to read for the monthly challenge, but I should have. If you missed my post about the Owned in October Challenge, these are the books that I read for the challenge in October:

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Women's Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary Fiction

Content: Strong language, Off page sex, Infidelity

 

 

 

Sanditon: Jane Austen's Last Novel Completed by Jane Austen, Another Lady (Anne Telscombe)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult, Classic

Genre: Fiction, Romance

Content: Clean

 

 

 

 

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin Mckinley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Fairy Tale, Romance, Fantasy

Content: Clean

 

 

 

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult, Classic

Genre: Mystery

Content: Strong Language, Racial Slurs

 

I also ended up reading a few other books that weren't planned at all. 

 

Planetside (Planetside #1) by Micheal Mammay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Category: Adult

Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Space Opera

Content: Strong language

See my review here.

 

Junkyard Cats (Junkyard Cats #1) by Faith Hunter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult

Genre: Sci-fi, Post Apocalyptic

Content: Strong language

 

The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult

Genre: Supernatural, Paranormal, Romance

Content: Strong language

 

Review to be posted soon. 

 

Overall, October was a good reading month! I ended up reading more than I planned, and getting to a few books that I've had on my list for a while.

September 2020 Book Club: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

We read The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey for book club this month. After seeing a lot of bad reviews for it, I went into it with pretty low expectations. Most of my fellow book club readers weren't impressed with it either, but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. In fact I liked it enough to continue on with the trilogy, although I did not like the second and third books nearly as much. I ended up reading all three books in succession, so I'm going to post my reviews for all three here.

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1)  by Rick Yancey

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Content: Strong language, Quite a lot of killing, Scenes with lots of dead bodies piled up, The conditioning and brainwashing of children in a boot camp setting

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.
After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.  

 

I don't read a lot of post apocalyptic stuff, but most of the ones I have read have had the "aliens take over the world" theme. Certain elements of this reminded me of  The Host by Stephenie Meyer, although that was a cake walk compared to this, and in the end, the stories had little in common. The atmosphere of this book, and the not knowing if you can trust other people thing reminded me a bit of the TV show Falling Skies. I think it was that atmosphere that won me over. It was tense, and the characters not knowing who they could trust made it interesting for me. Then there is also the "enemy turned lover" scenario that made it interesting too. I think I'm in the minority when it comes to the romance because I actually liked it, and it was one aspect of the book that I enjoyed. I liked the whole "love can change the way a person sees the world and others" theme there, and I didn't think it took over the story or anything.

I'm not gonna lie, this series was depressing at times, and there are some morally questionable things done by characters. I particularly found the boot camp where the children as young as five were being conditioned and brainwashed, and turned into soldiers hard to read. I almost wanted to stop, but I kept going. The main character, Cassie doesn't exactly come off as the most likable protagonist to a lot of people, but I was still able to like her. The thing is, I could understand her behaving in the way she does in this book, because she was a teenager put in a horrifying situation. She's lost her whole family. She's alone, and she's lost all trust in everyone. I could see a person becoming that way in this situation. I do think that the book could have shown us more people willing to trust and help each other. Most of those type of people end up dead in this book. That brings up the questions, how far should we go to save the human race? How much of ourselves should we sacrifice? What would we have to become in order to do that, and is it worth it? 

In the end, I have mixed feelings about this book. I gave it 4 stars because there were things I liked a lot about it, and at certain parts I had a hard time putting it down. As a YA book I would definitely say this isn't a book for young teens. It's very dark and gritty. There is also a lot of cursing in this series as a whole, with lots of F bombs thrown in; more than in most of the books I've read written for adults in the last year.

The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey

 

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Content: Strong language, Quite a lot of killing, A mostly off page sex scene, Kids as suicide bombers

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

 

I didn't like this book as much as the first one. Maybe because I really didn't care for some of the points of view that were written in this one. I felt like there were too many and it switched too often, and the story didn't feel as tight as the first book. Nothing really happens for the characters I liked, and there was too much written about ones I didn't like. I'm probably in the minority here, but I wasn't a fan of Ringer and we spend a good portion of the book with her. Add on top of that- plans that are made never coming to fruition, the character I found the most interesting from book one being handicapped and sidelined throughout this whole book, and then there is the twist on the twist from the first book. I can't say what it is because of spoilers, but I didn't care for this development, and I thought it added quite a few holes to the story that are going to be hard to fill. This book was disappointing.

 

The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3) by Rick Yancey

 

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Content: Strong language, Quite a lot of killing, A mostly off page sex scene, Kids as suicide bombers, A gross scene with a mass grave

We’re here, then we’re gone, and that was true before they came. That’s always been true. The Others didn’t invent death; they just perfected it. Gave death a face to put back in our face, because they knew that was the only way to crush us. It won’t end on any continent or ocean, no mountain or plain, jungle or desert. It will end where it began, where it had been from the beginning, on the battlefield of the last beating human heart.

 

I was hoping this last book in the trilogy would fix some of the problems I had with the previous book. Unfortunately I didn't feel like it did. We got some answers, but not everything was answered in a satisfactory way for me. By this time in the trilogy I wanted to start having a feeling of hope, but for the most part it was all gloom up until the very end. The one thing I liked about this book was the fact that finally, in the end they saw the need to insert their humanity and start to trust again. Start to love and give people a chance again. In the end no one goes by their names they were given at the boot camp anymore. Ringer is Marika, Zombie is Ben, Nugget is Sam, etc. Not surprisingly Sam has a hard time with this transition. What traumatized 6 year old wouldn't by this point? But it still hurt to see him that way. This was a series that started out pretty strong and just fizzled out.

My main complaints: 

Characters contradict themselves too much.

A revelation that Ringer makes to Ben. It added nothing to the overall story, and came out of nowhere when it was revealed. Maybe giving us some hints and having her suspect something first would have helped?

The romance fizzled out and the scene leading up to sex was weirdly written. Evanland? I mean what was that?

Evan was yet again almost non-existent in this book.

Cassie's inner monologue was weird at times. Planting her flag on the sculpted beach? Uh, never mind...let's move on.

The mass grave scene was too much. 

Some of the plot holes were sort of filled, but not all of them.  

The ending was bitter-sweet, but not in a good way for me.

City of Bones by Martha Wells

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Post apocalyptic, Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Sex is implied



Where once great galleons roamed the sea,
sand ships now traverse the Great Waste,
and a glittering chain of city-states
dots the desert that has no end... 

Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working on the edge of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors and to support Sagai's family. When Khat is hired to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, they are both reluctant to become involved. But the request comes from the Warders, powerful mages who serve Charisat's Elector.

Khat soon discovers that the deadly politics of Charisat's upper tiers aren't the only danger. The relics the Warders want are the key to an Ancient magic of unknown power, and, as all the inhabitants of Charisat know, no one understands the Ancients' magic.

I love Martha Wells's Murderbot series, but this one is quite different, so I wasn't sure if I would end up liking it or not. However, the plot sounded interesting so I gave it a try. I shouldn't have worried. Wells has an easy writing style that I'm able to quickly immerse myself in, right from the get-go.

The tiered city element to this story reminded me a little of the tower of Babel. It also reminded me of a couple of other books I've read, with the least wealthy being at the bottom, of course, and the most wealthy being at the top of the city structure. Other than that, this was kind of different from anything I've read before. There are both fantasy and sci-fi elements incorporated into this post apocalyptic-type story. I thought the world was very well drawn. Wells is definitely a master at world building. There is so much about the history and culture of this world packed into this book, but yet it's blended into the story so you never feel like you're getting an info dump. I found the ancients and their magic and technology very interesting.

This is a stand-alone, but it could have easily been part of a series. There is a lot more that the author could have explored, and I was rather frustrated at where we leave the relationship between the characters in the end, but I still really enjoyed this book and liked the characters immensely.

Redeemed by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apacolyptic
Content: Clean


 
Seventeen year old Ruby Behl never expected to be thrust into a position of power. But so much has changed in the past few months, she’s prepared to accept the responsibility.

When a vicious attack accelerates the Tercera virus, Ruby and her friends have less than a week to find the cure, prevent the Cleanse, and rescue her aunt from execution.

I enjoyed this conclusion to the Sins of Our Ancestors trilogy. This is a post-apocalyptic with teen romance thrown in, so if you like that sort of thing you will probably like this series. There were a few little things that niggled at me, like the over protective nature of the love interest, but he never went so far with it that he didn't respect Ruby's wishes so I could over look that. In general I liked him.

There were some repetitive things that happened in the series as a whole. There is a lot of traveling from place to place, and I kind of felt like it got a little old after a while. And Ruby and her friends tended to get captured a lot, which I thought happened a little too often. Mostly though I liked this book and the series overall was good, and I liked that not everything was wrapped up too neatly in the end. There were a couple of deaths that made me sad but needed to happen to balance things out.

Something I liked about this series is the way the author describes the scientific research for creating the virus and finding the cure. I'll admit I am not a scientist and never did that well in science in school, but the way it was written made it feel somewhat plausible to me instead of just coming out of nowhere.

This series was a quick, fun read and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Suppressed by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Content: Clean



A blood-borne virus requires a blood-born cure, but can Ruby survive saving everyone else?

I was really excited to read this second book in the Sins of Our Ancestors trilogy. Ruby barely escapes from Galveston and joins up with the Marked to try to develop a cure. Unfortunately her escape comes at a high cost. The loss of someone important and the loss of her father's last journal, which holds the key to developing the cure. I was delighted to see that the Marked have a major base in my home city of Baton Rouge in this book. I knew exactly where they were and it was easy to picture the setting changed to a post-apocalyptic one.

Wesley plays a much bigger role this time around and I like him quite a lot, and there ended up being a few parts involving Wesley that I thought were amusing. I can't say that I like him as much as Sam, but I like him in a different way, and it was fun to read and see the differences in the two characters and the strengths they each bring individually to the story, and how they each have helped Ruby through this.

That being said, the love triangle is a negative for me in this book. It didn't bother me in the last book, but unfortunately this time around it became a bit of an annoyance. Ruby ends up a bit conflicted about her feelings here. I like ruby but this did cause me to have some conflicting feelings about her, but at the same time she is a teenage girl who never had a romantic relationship in her life before, so I can see that perspective of it as well. On a positive note - I was extremely happy when she realized she shouldn't be blaming herself for so many things that weren't her fault, but it did take a long while for her to get there.

The book ends with Ruby left in a situation that she is not happy about, but it's not a cliffhanger at all. Although I didn't like this one quite as much as the first book, I thought it was still very good. I'm looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, and I'll definitely be looking for more from this author in the future.

Thanks to the author for proving me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

Marked by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Content: Some mild cursing


If one touch can infect. . .

All Ruby Behl wants for her seventeenth birthday is a good career path match, and to kiss her best friend and long time crush, Wesley Fairchild. Unfortunately, the simplicity of teenage wishes evaporated a decade ago when the Tercera virus nearly wiped out the human race. Transmitted through touch, the slightest contact is prohibited in the safe haven community of Port Gibson.

Then a kiss is deadly. . .

An innocent game of Spin the Bottle, a rite of passage for Port Gibson’s teens, provides the opportunity Ruby’s been waiting for, but when Wesley winds up Marked, Ruby realizes her first kiss may also be her last.

Marked is the first book in a new YA post-apocalyptic trilogy and it was very hard to put down. I have to say that it's was one of the best self-published books I've ever read. In fact I really couldn't tell it was a self-published book. It didn't have a lot of the issues I've run into while reading most of them. The plot was good, there were no grammar or spelling issues that I noticed, and I felt like the characters were consistent.

As for the characters, for the most part I liked Ruby, although she annoyed me a few times with her self-loathing and headstrong behavior. Despite those weaknesses, she was a strong, independent thinker. I kind of liked that her strengths were not in physical strength or combat, but in other areas. I also felt like the love triangle was handled pretty well, and the fact that there was a love triangle in this book didn't annoy me at all, which was a relief, because sometimes they can be so bad. The guy who becomes the main love interest in the book was a bit over-protective at times, but at least he listened to her when she asked him not to do something, and I was also really happy when she called him out on some of his behavior. That's more than I can say for some of the adult characters I've read about in books (see my review of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness for an example).

There were some nice twists in the book. I did predict a couple of them, but that was ok, it didn't make the book any less enjoyable. I recommend this if you like post-apocalyptic YA books. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy.

Thanks to the author for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Content: Strong Language, A couple of mostly fade to black sex scenes


On an island junkyard beneath a sky that glows with radiation, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap. Seventeen-year-old Eve isn't looking for trouble--she's too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she spent months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, she's on the local gangster's wanted list, and the only thing keeping her grandpa alive is the money she just lost to the bookies. Worst of all, she's discovered she can somehow destroy machines with the power of her mind, and a bunch of puritanical fanatics are building a coffin her size because of it. If she's ever had a worse day, Eve can't remember it.

I had a hard time deciding what to rate this book. There were elements that I thought were really cool. This book is like post-apocalyptic cyberpunk. There were things about it that reminded me of Terminator, Mad Max, iRobot, and Blade Runner, with the Romanovs and a little Pinocchio thrown in there too. It is so many things all put together and for the most part it works, but the romance kind of ruined parts of it for me. Now I'm a person who generally likes romance in the books I read, but in this case the main romance was too instant - not to mention it also begins when the main character is only 15 years old.

***Spoiler here - I'm really having a hard time getting behind a 15 year old, who has never even been kissed, suddenly having sex with a robot. Yeah...no. - End of Spoiler***

Then on top of that there is another romance in the book that becomes, in my opinion, a weak catalyst that finally sets off a rebellion.

Then there were some inconsistencies in the book. The one that comes to mind first is during a pursuit through a glass storm (it's a sandstorm where the sand has melted into glass). One character is driving a large vehicle that is severely buffeted by the storm and his skin is being shredded by the glass. Then there are other characters that are on motorcycles that seem to be having no problem at all getting through the storm and they don't seem to have a mark on them. I could add more examples, but you get the point.

I do need to mention here that I loved the characters in this book. They were one of the best parts of the book. My favorite was definitely Lemon Fresh. She reminded me a lot of this girl in personality, and well, everything.

My only complaint about the characters would be the antagonists. The main antagonist did not feel all that scary to me. He came off as a spoiled brat, and except in flashbacks, he doesn't appear until near the end of the book. I understand his motivation even though I feel like what drove him to finally act could have been something better, but I really couldn't get behind the complete personality change of a couple of the others who joined him. Then there was the bounty hunter who is sent after Eve. Trying to kill him was seriously like trying to kill a cockroach. He just wouldn't die. And he wasn't even really an important part of the story.

There were a few twists in the book but I don't think any of them are all that surprising. The only thing that surprised me was the choice Eve makes at the very end. With that rather surprising ending I feel like I need to read the next book in the series. Overall I liked the post-apocolyptic, sci-fi-ish aspects of this book. That, the characters, and the whole conscious A. I. aspect of it is what kept me reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for giving me a copy of this book.

May 2018 Book Club: Short Stories: Harrison Bergeron, Fat Farm, Reap the Dark Tide, and ...And Then There Were None

For book club this month we are reading four short stories. I'm not always crazy about short stories, but these for the most part ended up being good. There was only one that I really didn't care for.  These were all thought provoking and sparked my interest in reading more short stories in the future.




Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Short Story
Genre:  Dystopia
Content: Clean


It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.

Harrison Bergeron is one of four short stories we are reading for book club this month. I'm not a huge fan of short stories because they usually seem to end right as the story is starting to get good. The reason for this is probably because they are in general snippets of something much larger. Thus they end feeling unfinished. This story actually had an ending that felt finished, but it was a very unsatisfactory ending for me. The solution to the "problem" of Harrison Bergeron was too easily executed[ no pun intended there  (hide spoiler)], and it was over all too soon. It did pack a punch in a 1984 kind of way. This is a world that celebrates mediocrity. The methods that were used to "make everyone equal" were interesting and somewhat silly. Just picturing Harrison in that getup was pretty humorous. The cover image for this story is pretty spot on.

Overall I liked things about this story even though I didn't care for the ending, and the message was a good one. Can people ever truly be completely equal and what does equal really mean?





Fat Farm by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Short Story
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Content: Clean


Fat Farm is a short story that is included in Card's short story collection Maps in a Mirror. It's one of four short stories we are reading for our book club this month. Before I read this I wasn't sure what I would think of this story, but it pretty much grabbed me from the very beginning. It ended up being pretty brilliant and I think this is the first time I've given anything I've read 5 stars this year. I've heard that Card wrote this at a time when he was feeling frustrated about losing weight, not really sure if that's true or not, but I'm sure it packs a punch for anyone who has had that struggle. This is a story that will stay with me forever. It's considered horror so it's dark, but more Twilight Zone type horror than anything else. I don't even want to spoil anything about how this unfolds so I'm ending my review here.





 Reap the Dark Tide by C.M. Kornbluth

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Short Story
Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy
Content: Clean


For our book club this month we are reading four classic short stories and Reap the Dark Tide is one of them. I found this story at first to be pretty boring, but it did get better as it went on. A whole section of humanity has taken to the seas on a fleet of ships and hasn't seen or set foot on land for many years. It has been rumored that no one is left on land and it is against the laws set up for the ships for them to set foot on land. Parts are scarce, and everything on the ship is recycled, so when these ships break or something is lost there is little that can be done to save them, and the crew and everyone on board is at risk of dying. The ship featured in the story ends up going through a squall and losing it's net. There is no way to replace the net and that means no way to obtain food so the crew decides to break the rule of never setting foot on land.

The story features death worshipers who in some ways reminded me of a mashup of radical Islam, extreme Christianity, a satanic cult, and secular humanism. I know that sounds very contradictory, but there were elements of all those in there. The founder of this religion was anti sex, anti-reproduction, fanatical about population control and pro Planned Parenthood, which he contributed to religiously along with the Hysterectomy Clinic for the purpose of controlling the population.

In general I did not really enjoy this story. I'm not a fan of the dark, dismal view of humanity that it portrayed, and I have a hard time believing that after centuries there would be little change in the structure of society and what was considered important. I do think that the story is probably meant as a warning, in the same vein as Animal Farm and 1984, but I just do not enjoy reading these types of stories.





. . . And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Short Story
Genre: Space Fantasy 
Content: Clean


A Terran ship, whose crew generally ascribe to social hierarchies and capitalist principles, land on a planet inhabited entirely by matter-of-fact anarchists. In many ways, this can be called a farce and a satire.

...And Then There Were None is one of four short stories I read for our book club this month and I found it to be quite a fun read. A spaceship lands on a planet that has never been visited by one, and to the surprise of the crew the local population couldn't care less and tell them to myob. The crew doesn't know what myob means and that it is a word derived from the acronym for MYOB (mind your own business). The misunderstandings in communication between the ship's crew and the people on the planet reminded me a little of Amelia Bedelia at times and had me laughing out loud.

Now don't get me wrong, this book is funny at times, but it also has a more serious message as well, one that I've pondered before. What would the world be like if everyone just said no, or like in the book "I won't"? How many atrocities could be avoided if we just wouldn't do it? Generals can't command unwilling armies. Imagine if all of Germany had told Hitler no. Just food for thought, and most certainly a fantasy since there will always be those who are evil that will go along with it, people who are just plain too scared to say no, or people who think they are doing the right thing when they are not; but people really do underestimate the power they have as a whole.

The author eventually expanded upon this story in the full length novel The Great Explosion. I'm mildly curious about it, but not sure if I really feel the need to read more, which is odd for me since I usually end up wanting more after reading a short story. This one ended up being long enough that it covered everything that really needed to be covered and the end was perfect.

November 2017 book Club: Locker Nine

Locker Nine by Franklin Horton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Post-Apocolyptic
Content: Strong Language, Some rather brutal killings


Grace Hardwick’s dad is a science fiction writer who makes his living destroying the world. When Grace decides to go away for her first year of college her dad can’t help but think of all of the potential ways that society could collapse and strand his daughter hundreds of miles from home. Then it happens. Robert reminds his daughter of the key he gave her when she left for school. She doesn’t know what it opens. She doesn’t know where the engraved numbers will lead her. All she knows is that her dad is not the type to let her go hundreds of miles from home with no backup plan.

If I could sum up Locker Nine in one sentence it would be: This is every worst case scenario a prepper prepares for.

Honestly it's one thing to be prepared, but this dad borders on paranoid. No one should have to grow up thinking of all the bad things that could happen to them and carry around everything it would take to save them, but that's Grace in this book. From the key she never takes off her neck to the ginormous truck she drives, complete with armored bumper, Grace is prepared for anything and suspicious of everyone, thanks to dad. I personally couldn't stand to live that way. But of course in this story Grace is right to be suspicious every time. I personally don't think society would deteriorate as quickly as it does in this book. I mean there are thieves and murders lurking around every corner the very next day.

In the beginning of the book there is a coordinated terrorist attack that leaves much of the US without electricity and other important resources. I thought the book would continue on with the point of view of the terrorists, but as soon as the attack happens we never see them again. It was all just the set up for Grace to begin her journey across the US to get home, and an excuse for her to use every single resource her dad has given her, even the armored bumper on the big truck.

Grace is accompanied by her lifelong friend and college roommate, who is the complete opposite of Grace and inexplicably is surprised by some of the things Grace says and does, even though they have been friends since they were 6 years old. One thing that really irked me about this book was the fact that the best friend is portrayed as a rather weak character, but she is also the only character that shows any real emotion in the book. Grace is quite a Mary Sue, as she is good at everything, and shows next to no emotion, even after having to kill someone. There is one time she shows emotion near the end when someone dies, but other than that it's like she's on auto pilot.

There are also chapters from another character's point of view that I disliked a lot, and in the end I felt like his character and several others were just pointless to the plot. I think it would have made more sense if the book had focused on the terrorists and Grace trying to get home and left this other person out. But what really annoyed me the most about this book was that in the end after all that preparation and Mary Sue-ing on Grace's part, someone has to step in and save her because of her one emotional moment.

I also have to add in here that there is a part in the book where someone who has just been pretty much burned to a crisp gets up and walks for miles and does all kinds of other things in this condition, and that shouldn't be possible. Eventually this person knocks at a door and the person who answers the door just opens the door to them without even doing a double take at their appearance. It's like it completely goes unnoticed. I'm pretty sure if someone that looked like that knocked on my door I would hesitate to let them in, or at least want to know what happened to them.

This book was not what my fellow book club members and I thought it was going to be. I think I can definitely say this book was not for me, but if you like post-apocalyptic stories that include a lot of preppers and all that encompasses you might like it.

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian
Content: Clean


They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.

I was really glued to In the After during the first part of the book when it was sort of like reading a mash up of I am Legend and Falling Skies. Amy is left on her own after everyone around her has been killed by "Them". The news has reported that they are aliens who have landed to take over the earth. Soon there is no more news and as far as Amy can tell no other people. She observes how the aliens behave and figure out how to hide from them and get around them. I thought it was different that they were day time creatures instead of night time creatures and I liked that about the story.

One day while scavenging for food in a grocery store Amy finds a 3 or 4 year old child who she names Baby. There is never an explanation as to how Baby got there in the first place, although we learn some other important things about her later. I kind of thought this was a hole in the story. I loved Amy and Baby and I think their relationship is one thing that made the book work so well. However, in part two the post-apocalyptic survival story turned into a dystopian society story. From then on I thought it lacked something. The interaction between Amy and Baby became sparse and we are introduced to a lot of other characters that I really didn't care about.

Amy was mostly pretty smart while she was living on her own, but after she was brought to New Hope I thought she kind of stopped being smart and started doing some really stupid things. Knowing that the doctor didn't trust her and had his eye on her, you would think she would have been quieter about her suspicions and rebel in a more covert manner. Unfortunately she makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake for the whole rest of the book.

While I liked this book ok, I wish it had ended with this one instead of being a duology. At this time I feel like one book is enough so I'm not planning on reading the next one.



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The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Horror
Content: Strong Language, implied sex
  

Melanie is a very special girl...

The description of The Girl With All the Gifts doesn't really tell you what it's about. I had an idea of what I thought it would be about when I read the description, but I was wrong. By the time I actually started reading it however, I had looked at reviews and knew that ahead of time. I have to say I really enjoyed the first part of this book. The beginning when they were in the compound was a lot better than the rest of the book. Once they left the compound it lost something. I think mainly because the focus shifted from Melanie and her perspective too much.

I really wasn't sure who to like in this. I liked Melanie despite what she was and I liked Miss Justineau even though she was probably foolish in trusting Melanie and feeling sorry for her. I couldn't like Parks, there were too many objectionable things about him. His attraction to Justineau was kind of creepy the way it was portrayed. There was this random paragraph about how he had seen her crotch while she was squatting to pee but was too tired to even masturbate. Um ok... he is obviously spying on her while she pees and gets turned on by it, gross! Somehow he grew on me a little by the end of the book, but it was too little too late. Then there was the crazy mad scientist lady who sometimes seemed to have more sense than any of the rest of them, but was not a sympathetic character at all.

For the most part this book kept me pretty glued to it despite the fact that I found the characters lacking in certain ways. I only felt it dragged a couple of times. If you like this genre then you may love it, but ultimately this wasn't really my thing. Sorry not really into the zombie apocalypse thing. I was not that crazy about the way it ended either. If it had ended differently I may have liked it a lot more. I feel like I need something happier to read next.



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The Farm by Emily McKay

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apocalyptic



**There are some minor spoilers in this review.

The Farm started out great. It might have stayed that way if it would have just been what it sounded like it would be. In the beginning Lily and her autistic sister Mel are trying to escape a "farm" where their blood is being harvested to feed vicious vampire-like creatures called ticks. The Farm is a place where teens are taken until they are 18. There is a lot of mystery about what happens after everyone at the farm turns 18. They disappear and Lily is sure nothing good happens to them so she decides she and her twin sister Mel need to escape before their 18th birthday. And along the way they meet a boy named Carter who helps them.

Unfortunately the story takes an unexpected turn. Once we find out why Carter is really there I thought it veered off in the wrong direction. I mean did we really need another book with the girl who is special trope? I also felt like there was no good reason for Carter to have hidden things from Lily in the beginning. Why couldn't he have been upfront with her about what he was doing there, at least about the helping her get out part? And he was so convinced that she was what he thought she was, but the reasoning behind it seemed pretty flimsy to me.

Since it's a vampire apocalypse type story, I was expecting a lot of creepiness, maybe something a lot more like The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle. Now that was a creepy YA book! Unfortunately the creatures in this book weren't creepy at all. They even sounded like Sasquatches the way they were described, which I thought was weird. Also the whole reason for the ticks existing didn't work for me either. A regular vampire decides he wants to rule the world so he ends up creating some sort of virus with his venom in a lab that turns people into these vicious, mindless vampire-like creatures. I would have liked it much better if the regular vampires had been left out and the monstrous vampire-like creatures had been the only ones.

Honestly though, all of those issues were small compared to my main problem with this book. And that is I have a real problem with a book that breaks its own rules, and that's exactly what The Farm does repeatedly. If an author is going to set up rules to their book mythology it's a good idea to stick with them, otherwise why bother with making the rules in the first place? We have the ticks in this book that are supposed to only be active at night, only to suddenly find out they are out in the daytime now too. They are supposed to avoid churches or holy ground, only to find out that there is an exception to that rule as well. And they are supposed to be afraid of fire, but surround an entire burning building! At the end of the book (and yes I did see that little twist concerning the sisters coming a mile away) I already know which rule will probably be broken in the sequel.

Even with all of the problems I had with the book I still found myself kind of wanting to find out what happens next, mainly with Mel, but in the end I decided to just look up spoilers instead of read the next book.


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