Month: November 2021

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books and reading

Skye Falling

Title: Skye Falling

Author: Mia McKenzie

Genre: LGBTQ fiction

Thank you Netgalley for this book.

This book was exactly what I needed right now. I love reading dark, gritty books. But every now and then I need a palate cleanser, and this book was perfect for that. It’s hilarious, real, honest, and still deals with tough stuff. I loved this book and the main character was just so perfect. Flawed, but I couldn’t help but cheer for her.

From Goodreads: Twenty-six and broke, Skye didn’t think twice before selling her eggs and happily pocketing the cash. Now approaching forty, Skye moves through life entirely–and unrepentantly–on her own terms, living out of a suitcase and avoiding all manner of serious relationships. Her personal life might be a mess, and no one would be surprised if she died alone in a hotel room, but at least she’s free to do as she pleases. But then a twelve-year-old girl shows up during one of Skye’s brief visits to her hometown of Philadelphia, and tells Skye that she’s “her egg.” Skye’s life is thrown into sharp relief and she decides that it might be time to actually try to have a meaningful relationship with another human being. Spoiler alert: It’s not easy.

Things get even more complicated when Skye realizes that the woman she tried and failed to pick up the other day is the girl’s aunt and now it’s awkward. All the while, her brother is trying to get in touch, her problematic mother is being bewilderingly kind, and the West Philly pool halls and hoagie shops of her youth have been replaced by hipster cafes.


Skye is just delightful. She’s a mess, but McKenzie gave her such a fantastic voice. Back when I was teaching, this book would have been at the top of my list of what a good voice should look like as an example for my students. Skye and her egg, now 12-year-old Vicky, are navigating their relationship. Skye isn’t her mother but is her mother. She’s more like a fun, cool aunt, which is hard because Vicky’s aunt, Faye, who Skye tried to pick up one day, is the stern disciplining aunt. Between Faye and Skye, they are both trying to guide Vicky’s life but the three of them haven’t figured out how to do that. This book does deal with tougher things like parental death, abuse, gentrification, police brutality, but not in a heavy, break your heart, kind of way. Sometimes I need an escape from my dark books. But I can’t go full-on chick-lit romance. Those are definitely not for me. But this book was the perfect book to sink into.

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The Book of Flora

Title: The Book of Flora

Author: Meg Elison

Genre: dystopian

The Book of Flora is a direct sequel to The Book of Etta, which was a “100 years later” sequel to The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. All three of these books are fantastic. I’ve read so much dystopia, that’s it’s hard to find one that I haven’t read that’s also worth reading. Before I finished Unnamed, I had the other two on hold at my library. You can definitely just read the first without continuing, but I was really excited to see how lives had changed in the 100 years since the book ended. And in Etta’s story, we meet the characters that continue on through Flora’s story. Flora takes place immediately after Etta ends.

From Goodreads: In the wake of the apocalypse, Flora has come of age in a highly gendered post-plague society where females have become a precious, coveted, hunted, and endangered commodity. But Flora does not participate in the economy that trades in bodies. An anathema in a world that prizes procreation above all else, she is an outsider everywhere she goes, including the thriving all-female city of Shy.

Now navigating a blighted landscape, Flora, her friends, and a sullen young slave she adopts as her own child leave their oppressive pasts behind to find their place in the world. They seek refuge aboard a ship where gender is fluid, where the dynamic is uneasy, and where rumors flow of a bold new reproductive strategy.

When the promise of a miraculous hope for humanity’s future tears Flora’s makeshift family asunder, she must choose: protect the safe haven she’s built or risk everything to defy oppression, whatever its provenance.

I mentioned in my review of Etta that women were either Mothers or Midwifes. There is no other choice, but Etta made one for herself. Flora’s story lets us see even further into the gender-fluid world she lives in. Women live as men, men live as women, men are castrated and raised as women, and now it seems as though, overnight, women can turn into men during puberty. I loved this storyline exploration. Really the book is simply about Flora traveling around the country and meeting different kinds of people and seeing how they live. But the underlying plot is one of self-discovery, what it means to be a man, woman, both, or neither in the ever-evolving world.

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Take It Back

Title: Take It Back

Author: Kia Abdullah

Genre: legal/domestic thriller

I don’t read enough books by Muslim authors, and this is a failing on my part. Not only do I want to support the community, but I also want to learn more about the Muslim ethnicity. So when I stumbled upon this book, I was eager to read and understand a bit more. Even though this book is fiction, being written by a Muslim author brings a level of authenticity to it. And I’m glad to say this book was really excellent overall. I definitely recommend it.

From Goodreads: The Victim: Jodie Wolfe, a physically flawed 16-year-old girl accuses four boys in her class of something unthinkable.

The Defendants: Four handsome teenagers from hard-working immigrant families, all with corroborating stories.

The Savior: Zara Kaleel, a former lawyer, one of London’s brightest legal minds, takes on this case. She believes her client, even though those closest to her do not.

Together, they enter the most explosive criminal trial of the year, where the only thing that matters is justice for Jodie. But this time justice comes at a devastating cost.

Poor Jodie. What a sad character. She was born with facial deformities and has grown up being called every taunting name, shunned from society, stared at by strangers, just a terrible world. Her father left after seeing her face, and her mother treats her like garbage. Jodie just wants to be loved and accepted like any other teenage girl. So, when she approaches Zara with the story of being gang-raped, Zara immediately takes her side and learns the boys she is accusing are Muslim, as is Zara. As much as Zara wants to support her community, she can’t just ignore Jodie’s claims. The Muslim community supports the accused, Zara is drawn into scandals, and plenty of people think Jodie is lying for attention. The plot just kept drawing me in. Did the boys do it? Whew… the story that unfolds is worth reading. I really enjoyed this book and wavered between Jodie telling the truth vs not. I won’t say how the book ends, but I will say I was left satisfied.

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Disorder collection

Title/Author: The Best Girls/Min Jin Lee

Anonymous/Uzodinma Iweala

Ungirls/Lauren Beukes

Loam/Scott Heim

Will Williams/Namwali Serpell

The Beckoning Fair One/Dan Chaon

Genre: horror/thriller

These Amazon short stories are just so great. I’ve never read one that was awful. I like some more than others, of course, but they are a lot of fun. I was particularly excited about this one because they are horror-ish stories, which I love. Some are more graphic than others, but all are definitely worth reading.

From Goodreads: The Best Girls: An excellent student from a poor, traditional family in Seoul, the narrator has absorbed the same message her whole life: Only a boy can provide the family with dignity and wealth. Not her. Not her three sisters. Receiving approval only for uncomplaining sacrifice, she has resolved to take on her family’s troubles. She is a good girl. And she knows what good girls must do.

Anonymous: He’s a well-traveled consultant arriving home at a metropolitan airport. He’s also become accustomed to extra scrutiny for his brown skin and many-stamped passport. But when he’s whisked away, isolated, and chained in a stark white room without explanation, his reality crumbles. Because what he doesn’t know is the most damning evidence against him.

Ungirls: Actor and sex worker Nats is experienced at putting on a show. However, her new gig supplying intimate whispers for growgirls takes her to a place darker and lonelier than she could have ever imagined. The lab-grown dolls can respond to pleasure or pain; their synthetic heads contain only the simplest AI to prevent any pesky robo sex doll uprisings. But just because growgirls don’t have a brain, doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice…

Loam: Forty years ago, triplets Miriam, Louise, and Edward were swept up in a case of rural mass hysteria. Coerced into fabricating unspeakable lies about their first-grade teacher and her adult son, they were complicit in destroying two lives. Ever since, they have believed they are being followed by a presence still seeking retribution for their childhood sins. Unless their guilty consciences are conjuring as many monsters as their innocent minds once did.

Will Williams: Ever since high school, somebody’s been playing the echo game on Will Williams. A look-alike with the same tattoos and the same name has been following him. Starting by implicating Will in petty crimes, and escalating to offenses with serious prison terms, he’s undermined every attempt Will has made to get his life on track. Now, drifting from city to city, Will’s doing everything in his power to outrun his shadow.

The Beckoning Fair One: Ever since they were orphaned, Tyler has kept close tabs on his sister, Shannon. He has to, considering her weird and risky obsessions. Now she has a new one: an inexplicable crush on an odd-looking stranger. And what Shannon wants from her unwitting “honey boy,” Tyler can’t begin to fathom. Not until he follows his sister into the darkest corners of her desires.

The Beckoning Fair One was definitely my favorite, and it was also the most insane of them. I had no idea where it was going. Also, The Best Girls was a slow burn, but oh my that last line. I was floored. If you have Amazon Prime, be sure to check these collections out. There’s something for everyone. I absolutely love them.

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An Untamed State

Title: An Untamed State

Author: Roxane Gay

Genre: thriller

To get right to it- this is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. I’ve been a fan of Roxane Gay’s for year, but I’ve never read her fiction. I loved Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and have read plenty of her essays, but this was her first novel. I pulled this off my shelf at random and had no idea what it was about or what to expect. And it turned out to be just fantastic. I couldn’t read it fast enough.

From Goodreads: Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a wilful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent. 

The first half of the book is about Mireille and her captors, and it’s very descriptive as to what happens, although not necessarily graphic, but it definitely will be hard for some to read. The second half (this isn’t a spoiler…she tells us she was released after thirteen days on page 1) is about Miri trying to come to terms with and heal her mind and body. The chapters about Miri are from her perspective, but there are chapters about her husband and father that are third-person narrator, which was an interesting shift. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I loved about this book because some of it is so brutal, but Miri’s strength and resolve are admirable. This book also puts life into perspective. The value of life, the importance of family and loyalty, the strength to survive. I cannot recommend this book enough. Just absolutely amazing.

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Cape Fear

Title: Cape Fear (formerly The Executioners)

Author: John D. MacDonald

Genre: thriller

When Stephen King wrote a column for Entertainment Weekly, he wrote one about his Top 10 Villains in literature. That list made me want to read every book he mentioned. I’ve read No Country For Old Men, Sanctuary, 1984 (my all-time favorite book), Harry Potter (Voldemort), and Lord of the Rings (Sauron). The other villains include Dracula, Pazazu from The Exorcist, Rhoda Penmark from The Bad Seed, Harry Powell from Night of the Hunter, and Max Cady from Cape Fear. I’ve never seen the movies, so this was all new to me.

From Goodreads: An insane criminal threatens to destroy a family, and the police are powerless to protect them.

For fourteen years, convicted rapist Max Cady nursed his hatred for Sam Bowden into an insane passion for revenge. He lived only for the day he would be free—free to track down and destroy the man who had put him behind bars.

Murder was merciful compared to what Cady had in mind—and what Cady had in mind was Bowden’s innocent and lovely teenaged daughter….

This short book starts out with Cady terrorizing the family. It takes no time at all to get to the suspense. Sam is a good guy who did nothing wrong, but Cady doesn’t see it that way. He’s out for revenge and will stop at nothing to kill each and every Bowden. Written in 1957, this book is definitely dated (Sam and wife Carol sleep in different beds), but it’s a fun way to look at the past when life was so simple. And the story definitely holds up. I say this is a must-read for any thriller fan. Books like this just aren’t written anymore.

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The Stranger Inside

Title: The Stranger Inside

Author: Lisa Unger

Genre: thriller

I had only read one book by Lisa Unger before, Ink and Bone, and thought it was great. So when my book lottery (seriously, I just choose a number at random and what comes up is the book I read) selected this one, I was excited and looking forward to a new thrill. Sadly, this one didn’t work for me at all. I had to roll my eyes a few times, and there was a giant plot hole that I could not get past.

From Goodreads: Even good people are drawn to do evil things … Twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but, years later, was released. Then someone delivered real justice–and killed him in cold blood.

Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, her dark childhood buried deep. She spends her days as a stay-at-home mom, putting aside her career as a hard-hitting journalist to care for her infant daughter. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind. Is there a vigilante at work? Who is the next target? Why can’t Rain just let it go?

This book just misses the mark all the way around. The main character is okay, not too annoying, but I just didn’t care about her much, which I should have, given her childhood trauma. And a secondary character, who is a bit of a spoiler, so I’ll keep quiet, was absolutely absurd. I didn’t believe this character’s situation at all. The dialogue was super cheesy and didn’t sound authentic. And the plot twist, ugh, just no. I gave it three stars because I definitely wanted to get to the end, but it was just so lame overall. Bummer.

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Saint X

Title: Saint X

Author: Alexis Schaitkin

Genre: literary thriller

I like a good murder mystery, but this wasn’t one exactly. However, it was really great in its own unique way. The story deals with an unexplained death (was it murder? was it an accident?) and the aftermath of the people surrounding it. The language was just beautiful, which is why I added “literary” to the genre. And for a debut novel, I was really blown away by how great this book was.

From Goodreads: Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men – employees at the resort – are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth – not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? At seven, Claire had been barely old enough to know her: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation.

As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, an unlikely attachment develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by the same tragedy.

As Claire dives deeper into her sister’s life and death, you really get to see just who Alison was. Claire gets access to some of her sister’s audio diaries and gets an unfiltered Alison. And as you get to see Alison through the lens of her sister, you see who Claire is deep down as well. And Clive. Oh, Clive. I’m certainly not going to tell you whether or not he was involved in Alison’s death, but as Claire gets to know him, you really feel for him. I thought this book was excellent. I was expecting just another thriller, but it’s so much more than that. I definitely recommend this one.