He Started It - Samantha Downing

5 Stars

This book....was out and out banana pants crazy.

In the best possible way! 

I read and enjoyed Downing’s My Lovely Wife

earlier in the year so I was excited to see where she went

with her next book. 

Well...

No need to worry about the Sophomore Slump with Ms Downing,

Because He Started It was by far one of the most 

entertaining reading experiences I’ve had all year. 

I tend to think it’s best to go into most books, especially 

thrillers, knowing as little as possible about the plot. 

It is especially true with HSI as I have noticed that some

blurbs have been giving away a key plot element that I think

can take away from the overall reading experience. 

Having said that, He Started It is about a family road trip. A very 

dysfunctional family road trip. 

Grandpa has passed away, and his

last wish is for his grandchildren (and spouses) to re create

a memorable road trip from their childhood in order to claim their

Inheritance. But,  major thing is missing from the previous trip and the siblings 

just might be being followed across the country by a mysterious black pick up truck.  

One of the best things about this book is Downing’s skill

at writing dialogue. There is a lot of it here and it just jumps right 

off the page. The snark is real folks, and it is mighty fun to read.

I also loved the writing style. Without giving too much away, the 

book is told in a very conversational way, and the way she reveals

The thought process of the character telling the story, is brilliant. I have never been a fan 

of the unreliable narrator - it is far too overused and usually doesn’t work.

But here, it somehow fits. As a reader, you sense immediately that there is something 

going on with this family, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. So the revelations that get

casually dropped into the middle of a paragraph succeed at being genuinely 

startling and only make you want to read more. I have a nasty habit of figuring out most of

the twists and turns in a book well before the end. But here, I was just enjoying the

sheer craziness of the story so much, I didn’t even try to figure out where the story was going. I just went along for the ride. 

I’m not going to lie, every single character here is a horrible person. Redeeming qualities are

few and far between. Instead of making this book a slog to read, the fact that these

Characters are so inherently unlikable, only make seeing their situation devolving into darker and

darker situations that much more fun. The last act of this book plays out like a movie that just gets progressively more insane...until the head spinning, truly brilliant ending. Which, I will state for the record right now — Favorite. Ending. Ever.

It’s been a while since I felt this enthusiastic about a book, and since I have slowly

been coming out of a months long reading slump, it feels really great to say that!

Is this book for everyone? Probably not. Will there be people who can’t get 

past the fact that the characters are so shady? Yep. Do you have to suspend your disbelief 

a bit....hell, throw your disbelief out the window entirely to accept some of the

twists and turns? Fo’ sho. Having said all that, I enjoyed every single bonkers moment of this

book and I can say with all honesty I will happily consume anything that

Samantha Downing releases from her crazy, brilliant brain in the future. 

TW : mental illness, suggestions of child abuse

The Gunners - Rebecca Kauffman

3.5 stars

This book is hard to categorize. Part mystery, part coming of age, part love story, part subtle ghost story. 

At times it all managed to work really well.   There were some genuinely sweet...and also a few heartbreaking moments, that are executed quite well. Unfortunately, there were also some things that just didn’t work. The “romantic” aspect of the story (all the friends to some extent are in love with the same person), as well as each friend’s confession that they were the real reason that their lost friend had turned their back on the formally tight knit group. All of that felt clunky and very contrived. 

I did love Mikey as a character, and my favorite aspect of the book was his journey. His relationship with Alice, and how they were truly there for each other, was by far the best part of the story. It felt natural that these two would end up being so close and the fact that Alice chose to be Mikey’s “person” when his condition got worse...even to some extent against Mikey’s attempts at pushing her away...I loved it. They were just beautiful together. 

At times this book felt more than a little all over the place, but the good definitely outweighed the bad. 

TW: animal death (totally unexpected and, unsurprisingly, I cried. However, this scene in the book produced one of the saddest, yet beautiful lines I have read in ages),  and suicide. 

Big Summer - Jennifer Weiner

1 Star. 

Quick Take Review. 

Not at all what I expected. 

An interesting premise/synopsis on the back of the book is what got me to give it a try, after already trying and failing to read a couple of other books by this author in the past. Problem is, the synopsis had very little to do with the main storyline.  A shaky beginning moved into a weirdly stilted middle and finally just fell apart into a messy, ridiculous mystery and a twist ending that did not work at all. 

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

2.5 stars 

This was my 2nd attempt at reading a Kevin Kwan book, and sadly, it just didn’t work for me. 

Granted, I am not the biggest fan of contemporary fiction, but dang it, I loved the movie version of Crazy Rich Asians SO MUCH and was hoping I’d fall in love with his writing. That didn’t happen. 

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. 

I loved the character of Lucie. She was charming and smart and I liked how stubborn she could be. And the cast of “side” characters were sometimes amusing. My main problem was the pacing. For a book that is less than 400 pages long, it just felt like it dragged on and on.  I wasn’t fond of George or the many misunderstandings that kept popping up. And while I’m glad I stuck with it to the end, I can’t really drum up much enthusiasm for this book. 

*ARC provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion*

Slade House by David Mitchell

Quick Review

5 stars

Slade House is my second foray into the mind of David Mitchell after The Bone Clocks, and I am starting to get what all the hype is about. 

I went into this book knowing next to nothing about it, other than it was kind of a ghost story and kind of related to The Bone Clocks. And honestly, that’s the best way to read it. 

As a huge fan of the genre, I need to put this out there...this is not a gore filled horror novel. What it is however, is a book that gets under your skin. It leaves you feeling disoriented and uneasy. 

In 238 pages DM has managed to fill this story with more creepiness and “what the hell is going on?” moments than many books twice it’s size could ever hope for. It’s remarkable how much actual storytelling Mitchell is able to cram into such a small book. 

One of the many things to love about David Mitchell’s writing is that his books feel like a piece in a much larger picture. Each book exists in the same overall universe, and many characters pop in and out of various books. Just when you think you have a grip on the genre he’s going for in a particular book, he throws something out of the ordinary at you. 

If you’ve already read any of Mitchell’s other books, especially The Bone Clocks, you will have a great time picking up on all the Easter eggs and familiar names (and faces) featured in Slade House.  But if you have been too intimidated by the sheer chunkiness of his other books...this just may be the best starting point to dive in at. 

Simply put, Slade House was the most enjoyable reading experience I have had in 2020. 

I might be a newbie the wonders of the imagination of David Mitchell, but I am happy to say I am strapped in and fully embracing the crazy ride. 

 

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Rating - 4 Stars

Quick take review

My first experience reading David Mitchell and it definitely won’t be my last. 

This book....is very hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t read it. And maybe even to those of us who HAVE read it. It’s a 600+ page mash up of various genres - magical realism, mystery, even a bit of YA angst thrown in for good measure. The book is broken down into six different “sections” which almost read like 6 Completely different short stories - If it weren’t for the fact that DM has an amazing ability to link seemingly random tales together in a (somewhat) neat and tidy bow in the end. 

The Bone Clocks, which spans from 1984 to 2043, is unlike anything I’ve read before, which is part of the reason why I couldn’t put it down....even when I was feeling slightly overwhelmed by the info dump, as well as confused by what exactly was going on. 

I feel like going into this book as blind as possible is the way to go...discovering each character’s story and their link to each other is the fun part about reading this book. Is it perfect? No. The second section (about Hugo Lamb) was challenging to get through, and the fifth section (the longest and most magical realism info heavy) went on far too long. But over all, this was a unique, entertaining and very trippy ride.