Books Read in 2023: Remaining Three-Star Books

Some of these reviews are a little thin, so I will begin by gifting you NO I HATE THE WORD 'GIFTING', by bestowing on you a hilariously humiliating anecdote about myself. 

Matt's maternal grandparents were quite young when he was born and a big part of his life. I first met them when we were dating in university, and they were subsequently also a big part of my life, and my kids' childhood. They lived about an hour away and we saw them often. When they died it was considerably more wrenching to me than when I lost my own grandparents, who lived far away and who I had seen rarely since my own childhood. 

At Matt's Nana's funeral, I met her younger sister Myrna, who looked much like her and who I was surprised to learn seemed to know a lot about me and my family. I resolved to keep in touch with her, and that Christmas sent a long letter with a card and pictures. I got a response from her the next November, apologizing for being eleven months late, which made me feel like she was even more a kindred spirit than I suspected.

Last year I left her card for later, thinking I would write a longer update than in some others, and then never got to it. I left the supplies out for months, but slipped into my winter depression and never got to it. This year I started a long letter to her at the beginning of doing my Christmas cards, composed a five-page missive over several days, and mailed it in early December. I got a response back quite quickly and was very happy.

Yesterday Eve and I took Lucy for a walk and got the mail. In the mail was my amply-stuffed card and letter, returned for 'no such post office'. 

I stared at it for many minutes, feeling the world destabilize around me. We walked home and Eve was trying to talk to me about other stuff and I was like quiet, I'm having an existential breakdown. I messaged Matt's aunt who had given me their address for the first card and told her what happened. She said "did the letter refer to your letter?" and I said "YES, she said she was reading it and it was like having a visit and she should have poured a glass of wine!" and then I texted Matt and said you read it, right? I didn't imagine it? And he confirmed. And I clutched my head and moaned a little more.

Then I searched the main floor until I found the letter.

It said she reread my PREVIOUS letter and looked at the pictures. In the very first goddamned line. 

You guys, it's not that outlandish to say I practically read for a living. When something happens as a result of me not reading carefully enough, I tend to find it either hysterically funny or deeply mortifying, depending on my mood. I am rather ping-ponging between the two at the moment. I'm mostly grateful that the letter came back so at least I figured it out and could resend it. 

Three-Star YA Sci-Fi/Horror and Mystery

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham: Synopsis from Goodreads: Jennifer’s Body fans will clamor for this new sapphic horror standalone from New York Times bestselling author Kayla Cottingham.

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they'd pejoratively dubbed ghouls.
Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party.

But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can't figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe.

-"'As fun as sharing a bed with every softball butch in Aspen Flats sounds, I've sworn off activities that require sweating.' Val rolled onto her stomach to look at me and Celeste."

-"My shitty gay heart did a backflip in my chest."

I love zombies! I maybe don't love recovered zombies quite as much. This was fine but everything was telegraphed well in advance. Good gay representation, and the scenes with the friends just hanging out were very enjoyable.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson: Synopsis from Goodreads: The brand new unmissable crime thriller from Holly Jackson, best-selling, award-winning author of the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .
Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

The only quote I copied was "Her skin was beginning to look pale and pallid". Oof. 

Maybe Holly Jackson was exhausted from putting out the tri-fold awesomeness that was The Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy. Maybe she was rushing to meet a deadline. Maybe she just really hates RVs. For whatever reason, all the smart, resourceful, personable teenagers from her previous books have departed and been replaced by petty, insanely immature dimwits who could not be worse under pressure. I definitely added a star because of how much I liked the author's previous work. This was pretty bad. 

Girl Forgotten by April Henry: Synopsis from Goodreads: Piper Gray starts a true-crime podcast investigating a seventeen-year-old cold case in this thrilling YA murder mystery by New York Times bestselling author April Henry. 

Seventeen years ago, Layla Trello was murdered and her killer was never found. Enter true-crime fan Piper Gray, who is determined to reopen Layla’s case and get some answers. With the help of Jonas—who has a secret of his own—Piper starts a podcast investigating Layla’s murder. But as she digs deeper into the mysteries of the past, Piper begins receiving anonymous threats telling her to back off the investigation, or else. The killer is still out there, and Piper must uncover their identity before they silence her forever.

This was pretty good. The podcaster, unlike with most books I've read, is just starting out rather than already established, and her learning process was interesting. The story is not materially different from similar ones, but it's well done, even though 17 years old is really freaking old in cold case terms. 

Three-Star Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Supernatural

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet: Synopsis from Goodreads: A Children’s Bible follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their parents, the children decide to run away when a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, embarking on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside. Lydia Millet’s prophetic and heartbreaking story of generational divide offers a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

-”Yes, it was known that we couldn’t stay young. But it was hard to believe, somehow. Say what you like about us, our legs and arms were strong and streamlined. I realize that now. Our stomachs were taut and unwrinkled, our foreheads similar. When we ran, if we chose to, we ran like flashes of silk. We had the vigor of those freshly born.

Relatively speaking.

And no, we wouldn’t be like this forever. We knew it, on a rational level. But the idea that those garbage-like figures that tottered around the great house were a vision of what lay in store – hell no.

Had they had goals once? A simple sense of self-respect?

They shamed us. They were a cautionary tale.”

Read for book club. Unsure why I gave it three stars and not four - maybe because the symbolism was so heavy-handed. But I enjoyed reading it. It was bleak and vivid and laugh-out-loud blackly funny. The children's game of trying not to let any other kids know which parents belonged to them was so demented and so hilarious. The perpetually drunken and clueless parents were somewhat less amusing, although point taken, I guess. I am really tempted to go back and amend the rating to four stars, but I will trust my initial impression.

Afterland by Lauren Beukes: Synopsis from Goodreads: Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues -- but a world run by women isn't always a better place.

Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie -- all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.
To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that's all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step . . . even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.
A sharply feminist, high-stakes thriller from award-winning author Lauren Beukes, Afterland brilliantly blends psychological suspense, American noir, and science fiction into an adventure all its own -- and perfect for our times.

-”The tank is down to a quarter full and they need to refuel. And the bitch about the new world order: it requires money, same as the old one. She feels betrayed by all the apocalypses of pop culture that promised abandoned cities ripe for the looting.”

I am cursed to keep thinking that Lauren Beukes books sound right up my alley and then finding out that, for the most part, they are actually up the alley just a couple of alleys over from mine. I liked Zoo City quite a bit. Subsequent books sounded great and then were just missing something key for me. I loved the tv series for The Shining Girls, so I reread the book, which didn't move the needle that much.

This felt like a great set-up with a substandard, under-edited pay-off. I was all in for the first third, and then I was mostly just heartily sick of Billie's frothing-at-the-mouth selfish violent raving (yeah, we get it, she uses the c-word a lot, she's not a sympathetic character, she has a massive head wound, move on), frustrated at Miles's sudden change in demeanour with no explanation, and uncertain about why anything was happening the way it was (attempting to blend psychological suspense, American noir AND science fiction might have been a genre too far?) And the ending, after many, many, many extraneous pages? Not quite good enough to be worth the wait. 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Synopsis from Goodreads: After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

I was determined to read the five Canada Reads books and the five books on the Giller Prize shortlist last year - okay, looking these up it appears I read the Giller Prize shortlist books for 2022 in 2023, curious. For the most part I enjoyed them, except for Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage which was in my one-and-two-star post. I am not a huge fan of the Gothic genre, so take my review of this book advisedly; most of the things I didn't like about it were indeed directly related to its Gothic-ness (Gothicity?).  Violence, madness, nightmares, visions of blood and doom - I like horror, but I like my horror a little more... streamlined? Modern? Noemi was a good protagonist and I was rooting for her (ha ha, if you know you know), and I appreciated the way the reveal played into the zeitgeist (sorry, trying not to be spoiler-y), but this wasn't quite for me. 

The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan: Synopsis from Goodreads: A horrific crime that defies ordinary explanation. A rookie FBI agent in dangerous, uncharted territory. An extraordinary hero for the ages.

Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself-it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death. Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Silence, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.

Mildly diverting. Guillermo del Toro is a really good filmmaker and as a horror novelist he's a really good filmmaker. This reads as if it was published decades ago, and would make a better screenplay. 

Self-Portrait With Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka: Synopsis from Goodreads: If a picture paints a thousand worlds...

Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.
That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes.
Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder:
Was there a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love?
A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?
A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?

-”There was a painting on an easel he’d started but hadn’t finished, of a man who looked like him, except he only had half a face. Gordon couldn't see the rest clearly yet, but he wanted desperately for the man to look somehow different, to look happier, or richer, or less alone. He wanted him to be the kind of man who was into horses, who had a stable and a mare whose coat was a warm chestnut color, whom he brushed methodically every evening, listening to some old jazz record, savoring a nice port, while she swished her shiny tail. He wanted the man to be the kind of person who was cool enough to stay put when he heard, as he did now, the arrival of an unfamiliar vehicle in his driveway.”

Again, I loved the concept so much, but the execution missed me just slightly. I kept waiting for it to click in more firmly, and it just never did. There was still a lot to like. 

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald: Synopsis from Goodreads: Your happiest memory is their deadliest weapon.

THIS IS PROPHET.
It knows when you were happiest. It gives life to your fondest memories and uses them to destroy you. But who has created it? And what do they want?
An all-American diner appears overnight in a remote British field. It's brightly lit, warm and inviting but it has no power, no water, no connection to the real world. It's like a memory made flesh - a nostalgic flight of fancy. More and more objects materialise: toys, fairground rides, pets and other treasured mementos of the past.
And the deaths quickly follow.
Something is bringing these memories to life, then stifling innocent people with their own joy. This is a weapon like no other. But nobody knows who created it, or why.
Sunil Rao seems a surprising choice of investigator. Chaotic and unpredictable, the former agent is the antithesis of his partner Colonel Adam Rubenstein, the model of a military man. But Sunil has the unique ability to distinguish truth from lies: in objects, words and people, in the past and in real time. And Adam is the only one who truly knows him, after a troubled past together. Now, as they battle this strange new reality, they are drawn closer than ever to defend what they both hold most dear.

The beginning was fascinating. Characterization was well established. Weaponized nostalgia? Fantastic, tell me more, oh shit, I didn't mean that much more! It just went on and on and on and on and on, in desperate need of an editor, or possibly a flamethrower. Tighten it up, for the love of god, leave some stuff on the cutting room floor. The good stuff was drowned and suffocated by the other stuff, the so much rambling look-at-me-I'm-so-clever stuff. I wasn't quite ready to abandon it and yet I started to dread picking it up again. The relationship between Adam and Sunil was nearly worth it, but unfortunately by the end I was nearly skimming. 

Little Eve by Catriona Ward: Synopsis from Goodreads: A heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist.

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”
On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.
The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.
A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.
And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.

-”My tongue slips in and out of my mouth, black. I see through it. I taste the world. Each tiny current of air is a brushstroke. It paints a great ringing canvas. The sea a cauldron of minerals and rot. Bruised grass rising green, each flint buried in the chalky earth a dark exclamation. The splintered scent of a grasshopper, the fizzing of midges in the air.

The drumming goes on. It is the cold beat of my heart, buried between my ears, behind my brain.

I have a name in the old tongue from when the world was young and my fathers ruled the earth, taking aurochs whole into their bellies, leaving acres of forest crushed by their passage. My name is not rendered in sound, but in tiny movements of my head, a delicate, precise secretion of chemicals. It means something like dark-soil-and-mouse-blood, my name.”

I can't claim that I didn't know this was an older work of Ward's being republished - I kind of did. I took a crack at it anyway. It's not bad, it's just not what I wanted and doesn't really measure up to the other two books of hers that I've loved. There's some extremely arresting imagery that still sticks in my mind. This is a personal preference, but I'm just not a huge fan of reading about cultish behaviour and the manipulative techniques of cult leaders. I fully understand and sympathize with why cult followers would end up participating in their own mistreatment and subjugation, but it's still enraging to read. This all culminates in something not remotely surprising being presented as a surprise, I think? This will not deter me from continuing to read anything else produced by Catriona Ward.

The Drift by C.J. Tudor: Synopsis from Goodreads: Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. During a hasty escape from a secluded boarding school, her coach careened over a hillside road during one of the year's heaviest snowstorms, trapping her inside with a handful of survivors, a brewing virus, and no way to call for help. If she and the remaining few want to make it out alive, with their sanity--and secrets--intact, they'll need to work together or they'll be buried alive with the rest of the dead.

A former detective, Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She is in a cable car suspended far above a snowstorm and surrounded by strangers in the same uniform as her, with no memory of how they got there. They are heading to a mysterious place known to them only as "The Retreat," but when they discover a dead man among their ranks and Meg spies a familiar face, she realizes that there is something far more insidious going on.
Carter is gazing out the window of the abandoned ski chalet that he and his ragtag compatriots call home. Together, they manage a precarious survival, manufacturing vaccines against a deadly virus in exchange for life's essentials. But as their generator begins to waver, the threat of something lurking in the chalet's depths looms larger, and their fragile bonds will be tested when the power finally fails--for good.

I really like this author usually, and I try not to fault an author for wanting to try something new. In this case it didn't work as well for me as her other books, and that's fine. What I usually like is the understated feeling of menace and dread and the characters, whereas here the characters weren't as fully realized and the menace was hit-you-in-the-face. The story wasn't uninteresting, and the reveals were effective, it just would have needed a little more dimension for me, whereas the short, punchy chapters and sections would probably work just fine for others. It's a little different reading about pandemics now that we've actually lived through one, but I don't think that was really my issue.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak: Synopsis from Goodreads: A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

"Widly inventive" is wildly overstating things.