psychological fiction – Pleasant Nights

Title: Leave the World Behind

Author: Rumaan Alam

Genre: Psychological thriller

Hands down the best book I’ve read so far this year. How’s that for a first line of a review? This book is exactly the type I love. Beautiful language, interesting characters, disaster-type plot, dark, tense, but subdued in its entirety. The terror I felt while reading was so palpable, yet there really was not a certain thing to be afraid of. It’s not like there was a concrete horror, but more of an underlying what in the world will happen next. Alam captured the mood perfectly.

From Goodreads: Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?

Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam’s third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

This book struck me as a less horrifying version of Cabin at the End of the World, which I also absolutely loved. The fact that the characters know there’s a blackout but have no idea why it’s happening or if there are other events happening out there is really traumatizing. Alam has a clever way of hinting at outside events to the reader without letting the characters in on the information. The characters react in realistic ways, trying to figure out what to do next, solve whatever problems (and there are many) arise, but they aren’t perfect. They cry and scream and meltdown, because who wouldn’t? But Alam’s writing is to be recognized. The understated way he captures parenthood is gorgeous. Any parent knows that feeling the weight of their child against them is a moment of perfection. I didn’t want this book to end. I loved everything about it, and it’s one I’ll be thinking about for quite some time.

Mind of Winter

Title: Mind of Winter

Author: Laura Kasischke

Genre: Psychological Fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge: a book that has fewer than 1000 Amazon or Goodreads reviews

I love a good plot twist. Some are done so poorly that it ruins the entire book. If a book is headed one way and the twist makes sense, sure go right ahead. The author should be leading us down that path to begin with. But the ones that irritate me the most are the ones that exist simply to shock the reader. The ones that undo the entire plot and make no sense whatsoever. The author severely underestimates the reader, and it infuriates me. So, when I hear a book has a good plot twist, as this one does, I’m both curious and skeptical. I can report that this book was wholly satisfying from page one to the very end.

From Goodreads: On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens with the fragments of a nightmare floating on the edge of her consciousness. Something followed them from Russia. Thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric adopted baby Tatty, their pretty, black-haired Rapunzel, from the Pokrovka Orphanage #2. Now, at fifteen, Tatiana is more beautiful than ever—and disturbingly erratic. As a blizzard rages outside, Holly and Tatiana are alone. With each passing hour, Tatiana’s mood darkens, and her behavior becomes increasingly frightening, until Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.

The story takes place on just one day. And as the book unfolds, the creep factor ramps up. This book isn’t in the horror genre, but it’s definitely spooky, and you wonder just what is going on. Just like Kasischke’s other book I read In a Perfect World, the story is told present day, but you learn a lot about the character’s past at the same time. A lot of this is critical to understanding what happened in Russia, how Tatiana grew up, and what changes she’s going through right now. Some of it is just pointless back story, though. At one point Holly picks up her iPhone and then the story uses several paragraphs to explain how her husband hates iPhones. I just didn’t find this information all that relevant because the words could have been used to further the main plot. That said, the book was fantastic, and I highly recommend it.