The Mistress (Book #4 of The Original Sinners) by Tiffany Riesz Book Review

The Mistress, book #4 of the Original Sinners, by Tiffany Reisz is far more than an erotic novel though it delivers on that level in so many powerful ways. It is, as the prior novels before it in the series, even more about the people than the acts themselves. To put a finer point on it, you will be over 100 pages into this book before you come upon the first truly graphic sex scene.
Nora Schreiber is missing. Taken actually. Kidnapped from her fiancé's arms and stolen into the night. Her friends and lovers search in vain but slowly the truth of who has taken her becomes clear. Because Nora is far from a normal woman. A member of an exclusive dominatrix group and writer of erotic stories, Nora is loved and hated by many. Her master Soren, manager Kingsley, and fiancée Wesley soon learn who has Nora and why.
Soren's long dead wife and Kingsley sister Marie-Laure is back from the dead and has Nora in her grip.

..."Damaged, my brother called my husband. Broken. Lies, obviously. He wasn't broken. He was stronger than anyone I'd ever met. So I thought perhaps he was too strong to love me. Love makes one weak, makes one vulnerable. Perhaps he didn't love me because he would not allow himself to be so weak. But he was weak."
"Soren is not weak. Not now. Not ever."...

Reisz does much more than write exciting BDSM. She writes about the people who live these lives and how they think and feel. How for them, there is no other life. Theirs is the reality while the others who only live with safe sex are "vanilla". It is a glimpse deeper into not only the sexual practices they enjoy but their very souls as well.

...Dominants with boring day jobs earned respect with the power they created out of their own dignity and desires. Exquisite submissives - male and female - who laid themselves out on the altar of sacrifice and sexuality in order to find themselves at someone else's feet. Wesley always accused the people of her world of putting on costumes and playing dress-up. He had no idea that the suits and the ties and the beige pumps and navy slacks her people wore during the day were the real costumes that they shed when they came out after dark...

Under Marie-Laure's control, Nora is forced to explain her love for Soren. To tell the most intimate details of their lives. To explain how their sexual appetites drive them. Like a modern day Scheherazade, she tells the tales of her sex life with Marie-Laure's husband to keep herself alive one more day. To by time for Soren and Kingsley to find her.
Marie-Laure's anger and judgment is only matched by her curiosity as to why her husband Soren did not want her but wanted Nora instead. How the love of a wife could not satisfy him.

...Look, I don't give a damn about a wife or a mistress. I am who I am. I don't need paperwork to prove Soren loves me. I don't need paperwork to prove anything."
Paperwork...good word. It's the only thing that separates you from me. A wife is nothing but a mistress with paperwork. At least he loved you. He never even gave a damn about me..."

The Mistress is another exciting and incredibly well developed novel by Tiffany Reisz. The fact that it's erotica is just a bonus.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel - A Book Review

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is one of those books whose celebrity status reached me way before the book ever did. I had seen all the accolades and reviews tossed upon it and then the movie comes out and I hear all the great words about it as well. I was somewhat reluctant to pick it up. But to my surprise Life of Pi is one of those rare novels that not only lives up to its hype; but surpasses it.
It is true, it starts rather slowly and for the first quarter of the novel is not a tale of survival on the high seas, but an exercise in a young man's search for God and Philosophy. But this is important. What Yann Martel is doing is something forgotten in today's literary world. In a rush for all things to be instant, we have forgotten the simple joy of building a character. And this is very important here. This growth of character, for we will spend the next 300 pages with this one character. This lone voice. This Pi.

...Just beyond the ticket booth Father had had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHCH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror...

Pi Patel is a young boy growing up in his family run Zoo. In his youth he flirts with different religions. Searching in his heart for a belief that he can follow and keep his faith in. It is in no small way this introspection that will serve him well later on.
Due to changing political climates in his homeland, his parents decide that the best course is to leave their lives in Pondicherry, India and move themselves and most of their Zoo to Canada. Transporting their animals and themselves on the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum. One dark night the ship sinks and Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a Hyena, an injured Zebra, a Rat, an Orangutan and a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.
What follows is their adventure of survival on the ocean, all stranded together on twenty-six foot long lifeboat.

...Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher. Physically it is extraordinarily arduous, and morally it is killing. You must make adjustments if you want to survive. Much becomes expendable. You get your happiness where you can. You reach a point where you're at the bottom of hell, yet you have your arms crossed and a smile on your face, and you feel you're the luckiest person on earth. Why? Because at your feet you have a tiny dead fish...

For 227 days Pi Patel drifts on the ocean. Lost at sea with his small band of animals. As time passes they turn on one another. Killing and eating each other until only Pi and the Tiger, Richard Parker are alive.
What happens on that lifeboat for 227 days is recounted in this novel and to the investigators who want to know what transpired aboard the Tsimtsum. As Pi Patel tells his tale the men sent to investigate find his story of survival hard to believe. So Pi Patel tells them a second story. A much more horrible and tragic tale.

..."You're welcome. But before you go, I'd like to ask you something."
"Yes?"
"The Tsimtsum sank on July 2nd, 1977."
"Yes."
"And I arrived on the coast of Mexico, the sole human survivor of the Tsimtsum, on February 14th, 1978."
"That's right."
"I told you two stories that account for the 227 days in between."
"Yes, you did."
"Neither explains the sinking of the Tsimtsum."
"That's right."
"Neither makes a factual difference to you."
"That's true."
"You can't prove which story is true and which is not. You must take my word for it."
"I guess so."
"In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer."
"Yes that's true."
"So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals...

And you too reader, will have to make that choice. Which story do you prefer. Which story do you wish to be left with to explain how Pi Patel survived 227 days on the open sea. Which is the one you can live with as Pi has decided which tale is the one he will live with.
Life of Pi is tragic on all levels but at its core it is a tale of survival. Not just of the open seas, but of the depths of memory and sanity as well.

Angel City - Jon Steele (Book 2 of the Angelus Trilogy)

Angel City by Jon Steele is book #2 in The Angelus Trilogy. I received my copy of the book as part of a Goodreads giveaway and it took me awhile to finish the book. I actually put it down after a hundred pages or so and could not continue. It took my awhile to figure out why and once I did I was able to restart the story and found myself involved and once again caring for the characters. I will explain that in a moment. But first, a little about Angel City and The Angelus Trilogy.
..."What is the day?" one said.
   "Why should you care?" another answered.
   "Because I should like to know the day of my death, if this is to be the day of my death."
   "Then it is a Tuesday. I think."
   Such fateful words were a soldier's words, the knight remembered thinking. And he remembered how he, too, tried to recall the day just in case this would be the day of his death. The fighter was correct, it was a Tuesday; first day of March. The day was named after the Norse god of war, Tiw; the month was named after the Roman god of war.
   "Not a bad day to die," the knight said...
   Angel City picks up where The Watchers; book one of The Angelus Trilogy leaves off. Years have passed and the two survivors of the attack upon Lausanne Cathedral by the dark Nephilim; Harper and Katherine have gone on with their lives. Their memories wiped clean of the past and the fallen friend Marc Rochat.
   Katherine and her son Max have been moved to Washington State under the constant care of the Swiss Guard. Her every move watched and detailed. Those around her awaiting and preparing for every danger they know is coming.
   Harper has returned to doing what he has always done. An angel who protects those in danger. Possessing a human body when it is close to death and then leaving it when it is again. For if Harper remains in the host body as it dies, he dies along with it. Only something has changed.
   "You're telling me something happened to me during the cathedral job. Being exposed to the light...changed me."
   "Actually, I'm not saying anything of the sort, Mr. Harper. I merely lay out the facts."
   "What facts? That I bloody rose from the dead? That's not evolution, Inspector, that's a..."
   "A what?"
   "A miracle. And you and I know there's no such thing in paradise."...
   Both something has changed and the carefully woven fabric of time and light that the Angels have wrapped around the world is unraveling and the war waged in the heavens has come down to Earth. Katherine is starting to remember. Harper is starting to remember. And the dangers that attacked them in the Lausanne Cathedral are strengthening to attack them again. Not only them but all the innocents who were born from the Angels. Innocents are being killed across the world and Katherine's baby Max is on the list.
   Angel City is well written and as its own novel stands well. It is not just a bridge between book one and the upcoming finale in book three. The characters are expertly crafted and you can feel their struggle as they piece together memories and dreams of what once was and what may be coming.
   What made this a difficult read for me at the outset was what was missing from this novel. That is Marc Rochat. The central character to book one, The Watchers, is such a powerful voice in the Angelus Trilogy that he is missed in his absence here. There are references to him throughout but for those who read book one, you know how strong of a character he was. Once I go past the fact that he died and the others lived  I was able to continue the story.
   Angel City is well written fantasy book with imperfect Angels and even less perfect humans who find a way save both the Heavens and the Earth.

The Child Thief - Brom (Book Review)

The Child Thief by Brom is a wonderfully illustrated modern telling of a fairy tale we all know. Or thought we knew, for like many of Disney's incarnations of myth and lore, the tale of Peter Pan is anything but an effeminate young boy in green tights flying across the room cackling and jousting. No Peter Pan, from the wood god Pan is exactly what the title infers; The Child Thief.

...The boy came and knelt beside her. While she cried into her hands he told her of an enchanted island where no grown-ups were allowed. Where there were other kids like her, who loved to laugh and play. Where there were great adventures to be had.
She wiped her eyes and managed to smile as she shook her head at his silly story, but when he invited her to come along she found herself believing. And even though a voice deep within her warned her to stay away from this strange boy, she wanted nothing more at that moment than to follow along after him.
She glanced around the tiny room where the man had stolen so much from her. There was nothing left but painful memories. What else did she have to lose?
This time when the boy stood to go, she dressed quickly, following him out onto the fire escape, down the street, and into the night.
If the girl could only have spoken to the other boys and girls, the ones that had followed the golden-eyed boy before her, she would have known that there is always something left to lose...

The abused. The forgotten. The beaten and raped. The children without hope. These are the ones the Child Thief comes for. To offer them an escape. A hope. A new life.

..."Don't you get it?" Peter said. "You're free now. You don't have to live by their rules anymore." Peter pointed into the inky blackness of the basement. "The darkness is calling. A little danger, a little risk. Feel your heart race. Listen to it. That's the sound of being alive. It's your time, Nick. Your one chance to have fun before it's all stolen by them, the adults, with their cruelty and endless rules, their can't-do-this, and can't-do-that's, their have-tos, and better-dos, their little boxes and cages all designed to break your spirit, to kill your magic."
Nick stared down into the dark basement.
"What are you waiting for?" Peter said, giving him a devilish grin before disappearing through the window...

Nick, whose home has been invaded by hardcore drug dealers. Nick who wears a brand burnt into his skin by the same drug dealers to keep him quiet. Nick who is hunted and needs to escape. Nick follows Peter into the mist, to a mystical land, to a hidden island in the heart of New York City. Here Nick joins a band of ageless children known as the Devils.
But even here there is danger and Nick soon learns that he was brought here by Peter to be part of an army. Defenders of the Lady. Amongst the mystical creatures that live on the island. The witches, the sprites, the fairies and the elves. And the invaders. The flesh eaters who followed the creatures of the island across the seas. Who invaded their homeland and killed the people who once loved them. The flesh eaters who follow the one God.

...Tanngnost let out a sigh. "These are ill times, my Lady."
"The men-kind?"
"Christians. They're determined to rid the land of any who worship the Horned One. Murdering all the druids, burning the temples, sometimes whole villages, and knocking over the standing stones."
The Lady's face hardened. "This god of peace and love certainly likes to bathe the land in blood."...

Nick must learn to battle. To stand by Peter's side on this island of Avalon to save the Lady and the enchanted land from the flesh eaters. The men who have come to destroy all that once was sacred in the name of their one God. Killing even the children, the ones called by them and Peter; the Devils.
But Nick learns quickly that Peter is not all he seems. That he is more than just a Child Thief and his ties to Avalon and the Lady run deeper than just duty. That for all his promise of friendship, there is in Peter a danger and bloodlust that rivals that of the flesh eaters themselves.

..."You don't deserve this mercy," Peter spat. He yanked the blade free and let Leroy drop to the dirt.
"Oh, God," Nick whispered as he watched the blood pool beneath the dead boy.
Peter walked past Nick. "Let's go."
"You're insane!" Nick yelled.
Peter kept walking.
"Madness," Nick called. "That's all I've found here. Does Avalon breed insanity? Is that the nature of magic, to drive everyone out of their minds?"...

In The Child Thief; Brom has brought the telling of the origin and purpose of Peter Pan to a new level. Truer to the original tales of Barrie and a far cry from the sanitized Disney version. This is not a child's book. There is rape and murder and carnage. Heads of young children paraded about on pikes.
A well told modern bed time story for adults.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks is an incredibly complex and well written documentary style novel of the outbreak of the undead throughout the world. It follows the writer as he documents first person accounts of the Zombie uprising. Told in vignettes, Brooks tells the story of the outbreak, the war and the human reaction and toll.
Brooks begins with explaining how the book came to be. His work with the United Nations Postwar Commission and how his work was considered too intimate to be part of a report but would instead be better served as a book. A memorial of the human stories that made up the war.

...The boy began to twist in my direction, his arm ripped completely free. Flesh and muscle tore from one another until there was nothing except the stump. His now free right arm, still tied to the severed left hand, dragged his body across the floor...

Believed to have begun in China, the infected traveled across the globe quickly. Transported by roads, water and air. The dead re-animated everywhere. Governments and people were slow to react. Who could believe that the nightmare they only dreamed about could actually be happening. It was not only by bite that the contagion was spread, but by body parts used in transplants. Soon, every country on Earth was being invaded by an army of undead. Zacks they were called.
Armies responded with their sophisticated weapons only to find that all their technology had little effect. What good did it do to burn or blow the Zacks apart when they would just keep coming. Only a shot to the head, destroying the brain, had any effect. They couldn't be drowned either as the world soon found out. They would either float or sink to the bottom. Waiting for something to come into their grasp. Great container ships drifted on the oceans full of the undead searching for somewhere to put ashore.
But it is the human stories that take center stage here. Not the tales of the undead. Human stories of triumph and despair. Of bravery and cowardice. Of greed and humanity. Humans who learned for once, that they were not the dominant species on the planet.
There is a young computer nerd who refuses to leave his room and cannot socialize with the outside world until he hears the hands of the undead pounding at his door. The blind man who is treated all his life as someone who cannot care for himself but finds that without sight he cannot see the undead. But he can hear them and with lethal efficiency becomes a samurai warrior killing all the Zombies he can. The submarine Captain who takes his crew and their families to the safety of the deep water only to find something waiting for him on the ocean floor.

...I was standing by the sonar shack, my eyes on the overhead, when Lieutenant Liu tapped me on the shoulder. He had something on our hull-mounted array, not the other sub, something closer all around us. I plugged in a pair of headphones and heard a scraping noise, like scratching rats. I silently motioned for the captain to listen. We couldn't make it out. It wasn't bottom flow, the current was too mild for that. If it was sea life, crabs or some other biologic contact, there would have to be thousands of them. I began to suspect something...I requested a scope observation, knowing the transient noise might alert our hunter. The captain agreed. We gritted our teeth as the tube slid upward. Then, the image.
Zombies, hundreds of them, were swarming over the hull. More were arriving each second, stumbling across the barren sand, climbing over each other to claw, scrape, actually bite the Zheng's steel...

World War Z is an ambitious undertaking and well worth the read. The style may put some readers off but I for one enjoyed it. A fresh perspective on the war, its aftermath and eventual recovering by the human race.
Max Brooks has created a novel that all other Zombie tales need to be measured by.

The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon (Book Review)

 

 

I've waited a long time for my copy of The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and I have to admit for quite a while I was caught up in the hype surrounding the book. The longer I went without reading it; the more I felt I was missing out on something. Which makes me wonder if I didn't build up the experience of finally reading The Bone Season into something it was never going to live up to.
It's good. Not great. Just good and with a lot of poorly written, overly hyped books out there, the Bone Season is good. But that may be its weakest trait. It's really just good.

"...I like to imagine there were more of us in the beginning. Not many, I suppose. But more than there are now.
We are the minority the world does not accept. Not outside of fantasy, and even that's blacklisted. We look like everyone else. Sometimes we act like everyone else. In many ways, we are like everyone else. We are everywhere, on every street. We live in a way you might consider normal, provided you don't look too hard.
Not all of us know what we are. Some of us die without ever knowing. Some of us know, and we never get caught. But we're out there.
Trust me...



It is the year 2059 and Paige Mahoney is an outcast. She lives in Scion London and works for the criminal underground. Like many others who share her traits; she is shunned by the normal world and if found out, would be imprisoned for her abilities.
Paige is a Dreamwalker. She is able to break into people's minds and steal their information. Under Scion law, any act of clairvoyance is punishable. She has committed treason against the state simply by existing.
One day, trapped on a train by the Scion police, Paige strikes out and her passive ability turns violent. One policeman is dead. The other in a catatonic state. Paige runs but is captured and taken to the Tower. But not just by the Scion Police. For soon Paige finds herself transported to another locale. A place of legend. A place forbidden to all. The lost city of Oxford.
Here Paige finds herself enslaved to a race of beings called the Rephaim, who gather human clairvoyants to use for their own needs. Chief among those needs is to be a slave army to battle the Emmin. A creature whose nature is to hunt and kill human and Rephaim alike.
The Rephaim are ruled by queen Nashira. She desires to gather all the powers of the clairvoyants under her rule. Not only to protect herself and her kind from the Emmin but to enslave all who would stand in her way.
Paige is taken in by Warden, Nashira's Blood Consort, and it is Warden's task to harness and build on Paige's abilities. But Warden is convinced that Paige can do more than dreamwalk. He is sure that Paige could possess another mind if she so desired.
Within the closed city of Oxford there is political intrigue and hidden agendas amongst the Rephaim and Paige must navigate these waters as she finds out who are and are not her allies. Most of all she must find a way to make it back home.
The Bone Season is a good book and well worth the read. It is quick paced and very readable. It is confusing at times and there are a lot of loose ends left about. Who really are the Emmin and if the Rephaim are so powerful why can't they just go out and kill them all by themselves.
Paige herself is not very likable. She spends too much time pouting and mouthing off when she knows full well that it will not only hurt her but those around her.
The Bone Season is obviously a first novel in a series to come. I am not all that convinced that I will be looking for the second book with as much anticipation that I had looked for this one.

The Creeps - John Connolly

John Connolly writes the dark, violent and visceral Charlie Parker murder mysteries that if you have never read, you are really missing out. It's the knowledge that he writes those books that make his Samuel Johnson novels so much damn fun.
The Creeps is the third book in the series, following The Gates and The Infernals that are geared toward the young adult market; but like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before them, will be enjoyed by all ages. Only pick up The Gates and The Infernals first before starting the Creeps. If not be prepared to be duly scolded throughout the reading of The Creeps by Connolly for having to explained situations to you that had you read the prior novels, you would know all about!

"...But if Wreckit & Sons sold a lot of things that people might want, it also tried to sell a lot of things that nobody could possibly want. As he grew older, Mr. Wreckit became more and more eccentric. He began calling it Wreckit & Sons for starters, which annoyed his daughters greatly, as he didn't have any sons..."

Samuel Johnson, in this third installment is home in the small town of Biddlecombe, with his mom, his faithful dog Boswell and two slightly reformed hell spawn demons; Nurd and Wormwood. There are also two other demons; Shan and Gath, who hang around because they just love the beer. Shan and Gath have decided that they would rather brew beer than go around and be demons. You would know this of course, Connolly points out if you had bothered to read the prior two books. He will eventually have enough of you and accuse you of stealing this current book and probably not having the ability to read at all!
Yes, every so often or so the bottom of the page will have reference points in which Connolly will explain to the reader what is going on or what a particular word or name is in reference to. Connolly takes this moment to carry on a conversation with the reader as they enjoy this book. He even named one chapter; "In Which We Travel to a Galaxy Far, Far Away, but Since It's Not a Long Time Ago the Star Wars People Can't Sue Us".
But back to Samuel, our teenage hero. Samuel has saved the world, gone to hell and back, fought the devil and rescued demons, but now has a problem that has plagued all teenage boys from time beginning. What at first seemed a blessing has become a greater challenge that all the hordes of hell. Samuel has a girlfriend.
So he is to be forgiven for not noticing that there are changes about. Oh did I mentioned the ice cream man and his band of thieving dwarves? And the two policemen? No well they are here too. And of course Mrs. Abernathy. Who is Mrs. Abernathy? She is only the second in charge in hell! The demon once known as Baal who took the form of Mrs. Abernathy and well, decided he liked having a woman's body and now wants to look like and be referred to as Mrs. Abernathy. Something that you would know if you had read the first two books. To get at Samuel Johnson now, Mrs. Abernathy has released an army of evil creatures and toys!

...Farther along the way, they saw a giant ferocious reindeer with sharp horns and black eyes standing before a herd of local deer as it tried to incite them to rebellion.
"Rise up!" cried the demon reindeer. "Rise up against the puny humans who know you only as Bambi, the oppressors who think you're cute but occasionally eat you in stews, or with parsnips and a reduction of juniper berries."...

The cast of characters that weave and out of this tale are too numerous to mention but you have seen almost all of them before. But its not the same old demon doing the same old joke. Each book is different from the last. Each one grows.

..."And you say you work for a being called the 'Great Malevolence'?"
"That's right," said Crudford, "the most evil being that the Multiverse has ever known. It is the source of all badness, the well from which the darkest thoughts and deeds spring. No single entity has ever contained so much sheer nastiness as the Great Malevolence. On the other hand, I work regular hours, get weekends off, and the cafeteria's not bad."

Through it all goes Samuel Johnson. Trying to understand his girlfriend who doesn't approve of any of his friends, his dog and pretty much him. Trying to keep his demon friends safe and above all else, just save the world. Again. Just like he did in the first two books. The ones you're suppose to read first.

Dead Set - Richard Kadrey

Dead Set by Richard Kadrey is marketed as a teen paranormal novel. Which is something of a departure for Kadrey since he is best known for his Sandman Slim novels.
After the death of her father, Zoe and her mother relocate to San Francisco to try to start their life anew. With the lack of jobs and trying to fit in at a new school, life is hard. Add on to it an insurance company that refuses to pay out, and Zoe and her mom are struggling to just get by.
The only time Zoe finds any release is in her dreams where she shares time with her truest friend Valentine. Her parents have always believed that Valentine was just Zoe imaginary friend but to Zoe he is much more. He is her friend, her confidant, her only stable pillar in a world that has left her behind with the loss of her father.
After school one day Zoe wanders into an old record store and there, with the mysterious proprietor Emmett, she stumbles upon a machine that plays the recorded lives of the dead. In her hands she holds the vinyl memory of her father and for a price, she can reach out to him. With the help of Emmett, Zoe visits a place called Iphigene, a way station for the dead. There she finds her father.
But all is not as it seems and despite the warnings from Valentine, Zoe fights to save her father. But she cannot revive the dead and Iphigene is not what it seems. Emmett is not what he seems. And all dreams come with a price.
Dead Set is a fast moving novel of despair and the hopelessness of a young girl's loss. Zoe sets out on an impossible quest to help her father but we know through it all it really just about her own pain that she is easing. Kadrey infuses the novel with enough light to give substance to belief that Zoe must go forward but the overwhelming feel to the book is one of loss and despair.
Dead Set lacks the grittiness and visceral violence of the Sandman Slim series and it is evident that Kadrey reigned himself in on Dead Set to make it fit the genre. But what separates Dead Set most from the Sandman Slim novels is the missing humor. The witticism and snarky remarks from Sandman Slim are absent from the main character Zoe in Dead Set. From her they come of as bitter and self-pitying.
Kadrey creates a real world in Iphigene and its inhabitants. Egyptian mysticism and supernatural creatures fill its streets. There is danger all around and Zoe must summon all her strength and courage to fight through it. It is Dorothy and Oz but set in the dark and mean streets of the inner city. Zoe does well and she grows through the story as she must fight for her father and in the end for herself just to survive.
Another good read from Richard Kadrey.

Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - April Genevieve Tucholke

Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke is a strongly written teen fantasy about the choices we make and the family bonds we have to live with.
Violet and her twin brother Luke live alone in their mansion by the sea named Citizen Kane. Abandoned by artistic parents who have decided to travel to feed their desire to be artists rather than stay at home and care for their children; Violet and Luke must find ways to support themselves. Even though their home is lavish they themselves are nearly destitute. Luke spends his time chasing the local girls and Violet spends hers alone thinking of their long departed grandmother Freddie.

"...The dead are all around us, Freddie use to say. So don't you go being afraid of the dead, Violet. And if you aren't afraid of the dead, then you aren't afraid of dying. And if you aren't afraid of dying, then the only damn thing you have to be afraid of is the Devil. And that's the way it should be..."

Life would have gone on just like that for Violet except thinking of making some money she advertises her guest cottage for rent. And that's when River comes to town.
Violet could tell there was something about River that was different than any other boy she knew. From the way he moved to the he made her move. She was falling for him and fast. But there was something else about River. Something wrong.

"...A man killed himself in front of me. In front of the town. And River made him do it. I knew it. I knew it like I knew I was near the sea by the taste of salt in the air. I knew it like I knew the sound of Luke's steps as he walked around the Citizen.
I knew it like I knew the feel of River's arms around me, when he was fast asleep..."

River has a gift. A power he used to hand out his own form of justice. The ability to make anyone believe what he wanted them to just by touching them. Only the power seems to have a mind of its own and it now moves without River knowing. The power seeks to punish those it deems deserving.
Violet can't decide what to do. Does she protect River or stop him. And worse, is what she is feeling for him just another one of his manipulations?

The Counselor - Cormac McCarthy

The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy is a good read and that is not just because I am a Cormac McCarthy junkie!

First off, understand this is not a book. This is a screenplay and in that format it lacks much of the background and filler that fleshes out a book. What makes this story tick in this format is dialogue. You will get it or your won't. It is really that simple. Like the movies; The Road and A Country For Old Men before this one, it will be hit or miss. It definitely is not going to work for everyone. But for me, this violent, sexual tale of greed and betrayal hits on almost all cylinders.

COUNSELOR: I want her to have something that she would not be uncomfortable wearing. I don't want to give her a diamond so big she will be afraid to wear it.
DEALER: (Nodding, just a trace of a smile)She is probably more courageous than you imagine.

The Counselor, an attorney, is working on a drug deal with an old friend. He is in love and looking for that one big score to set himself and his fiancé up for life. As with most of these kinds of plans they are doomed from the beginning. That is the tone from the outset. You know this is going to go wrong. Almost every character in the screenplay points that out to him but he goes on anyway. Putting himself and his love at risk for money.

Like almost all of Cormac McCarthy's writing, at its soul, The Counselor is a morality tale. The results of a life well led and then changed by one wrong decision. A decision that The Counselor knew was the wrong thing to do all along but could not resist.

WESTRAY: You're pretty quiet.
COUNSELOR: Yeah.
WESTRAY: Let me tell you something, Counselor. If your description of a friend is someone who will die for you then you don't have any friends...

As the drugs and cash go missing there are repercussions for all involved. But how they go missing and who is behind it all is something none of them are prepared for. And none of them see coming. Until the end, with nearly everyone else dead The Counselor is left to ponder the decisions he has made and the cost of them.

COUNSELOR: WHY DO THEY DO THAT?
CAFE MAN: (Shrugging) To make a joke. To show that death does not care. That death has no meaning.
COUNSELOR: Que piensa? Usted. Do you believe that?
CAFE MAN: No. Of course not. All my family is dead. I am the one who has no meaning.

I wish, I admit, that McCarthy had not written this tale as a screenplay and had instead written it out as a book first. Had trusted his words to tell the tale and not relied on the acts to be brought to life on the screen. I think had that been the case, it would have been much better received. Instead it is one of his better stories that may go unnoticed in the literary world and that would be a shame.

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino is a strange and wonderful gothic tale of other worlds blending with our own and the consequences that fall from it. It is a fable told in the old way, not the sanitized Disney versions we feed our children, but the dark and bloody tales we keep to ourselves and only recall when it is late and dark at night.

..."No one ever comes back," I said.
James pulled his face away from the skirts of the mystery woman, and looked her over carefully before returning my pleading gaze with a confused expression. In his eyes I could see that there was no doubt the woman he clung to was his mother.
Paul didn't bother to remove his head from the other woman's shoulder. He had awoken from his nightmare and it had all been some terrible misunderstanding. Everything he hoped for had come true.
"But she has. She's alive again."...

Charlotte Markham, the Governess to James and Paul Darrow is awoken from a dream by the screams of a woman. She goes downstairs and is related the tale of a murder and the victim being the boy's own Nanny. Charlotte, a widow herself, must take into her care the boys and their father Henry, who themselves had recently buried the Lady of the house, Lily Darrow. So soon after the loss of their mother, the boys are subjected to another terrible loss. The murder of their Nanny.
One day after lessons, they wonder into the woods surrounding their estate and come upon a path not seen before. A path that leads them to a new place. The House of Darkling. Where they find the living Lily Darrow. But is she still alive? Or something else. Charlotte knows she must unravel this and yet is grieved to tear their children away from the mother they have found again.

..."What do you make of spirits?"
He looked disappointed. "I wouldn't know. I don't touch the stuff. Man of the cloth, you know."
"Not spirits, spirits. As in apparitions of the formerly living."
He paused and rubbed his chin. "Well, I can't say that I've ever seen one." He looked at me strangely, as if I'd suddenly grown a pair of horns.
I quickly elaborated. "Neither have I, of course. But I've been reading the children ghost stories, and James asked me if all spirits were evil..."

Charlotte watches the boys as they visit their mother at the House of Darkling and comes to find that it's inhabitants are not just spirits or human at all. But are the creatures of fable and legend. Creatures much darker and deadlier than the stories that are told of them.
It is here in the House of Darkling that Charlotte must battle against these creatures and the master of the house as she tries to save the souls of the boys; James and Paul. And in doing so, perhaps even save herself.
Michael Boccacino has crafted a well written fable of loss and pain and the inevitability of death. For human and inhuman alike.
A good read.

The Dark Road - Ma Jian

      

 

In the backdrop of rural China, in the villages and waterways, Ma Jian has crafted a tale both alarming and distressing on the abuses of China’s one-child policy.
“…Meili remembers seeing Yuanyuan hobbling back from the school the day they left. Her mother-in-law was beside her, one hand supporting her round the waist and the other gripping the aborted fetus by the arm. Yuanyuan went into labour as soon as she was strapped to the school desk, but by the time the baby was born the disinfectant had already killed it. The Family Planning Officer dropped the dead baby into a plastic bucket, but it was so big it toppled out. It lay sprawled on the ground for hours. No one bothered to pick it up. When her mother-in-law came to fetch her, she scooped it up from the floor and refused to let go of it…”
Meili has already had her one child. A girl. But her husband Kongzi is determined to continue his line which he believes goes back to the great philosopher Confucius and demands a son. When she becomes pregnant they flee their village and travel the rivers in rural China to hide from the Family Planning Police. The enforcers of China’s one-child policy.
…”What a fine voice you have,” the man says coldly. “Your cries won’t change anything, though. We’ve seen it all in this room: vomit, faeces, blood, urine, screaming tantrums. But however much the women curse and resist, they must all surrender their babies to us in the end. You think you can defy the state? Don’t waste your breath.”
“When we tied you to this table there were two of you, but when you get off there’ll be just one,”….
Meili suffers greatly in her duty to provide Kongzi with a heir. She is beaten, raped and suffered the horror of watching her newborn child strangled in front of her. But an even greater indignity is in her realization that although she and Kongzi were once respected and held in esteem in the village they came from. That now. They are no better than the peasants they once looked down upon. That now they are the outcasts in their own country. This in turn changes the way she sees herself and her husband.
“…The village teacher she once worshipped has become a man who fills her with disgust. She looks down at him now and spits: “What were those sayings you kept rattling off? Cultivate yourself and bring order to your family, and the nation will be at peace…”
The abuse and tyranny Meili suffers at the hands of the government and the husband she loves is as tragic and horrible as the truth that leaks from this novel. You want to believe that much of what is written here is not true, but in your heart, you know it is.