Review: Emma in the Night (by Wendy Walker)

 My Rating:  4 stars

Wow, this was an awesome read!   As far as psychological thrillers go, this one was absolutely top notch!  From the very first sentence, I was captivated by the story of the Tanner sisters: 17-year-old Emma and 15-year-old Cassandra (Cass), two teenagers from a dysfunctional family who suddenly disappeared one fateful night.  Three years later, one of the sisters returns – Cass, now an 18-year-old woman, shows up on the doorstep of her mother’s house with an urgent message: “Find Emma!”  From there, a three year old investigation is re-ignited and the FBI agents who were deeply involved in the case previously – special agent Leo Strauss and forensic psychologist Dr. Abby Winter -- are pulled back into the fray.  As they interview Cass – who spares no detail in recounting everything that happened the past 3 years in the hopes that they are able to save her sister – Leo and Abby once again become deeply entrenched in the story of these two sisters and the unconventional, oftentimes tumultuous, relationship they had with their narcissistic mother Judy Martin.  As the family history is slowly unraveled, secrets are discovered that all end up playing into the mystery of the sisters’ disappearance and Cass’s subsequent return.

Prior to reading this book, I had no idea what narcissistic personality disorder was.  Sure, I’m familiar with the term narcissism, but did not know that it was actually a diagnosable illness and that its real-life impact could be so devastating.  I was definitely impressed with the way author Wendy Walker was able to build such a compelling, gripping tale of suspense around a disorder that many of us either didn’t know about or if we did, probably misunderstood.  It was obvious that Walker did a thorough job with her research into narcissistic personality disorder – so much so in fact, that if I hadn’t read the Acknowledgment page at the beginning of the book, I honestly would have thought that Walker was able to be so detailed about the disorder due to personal experience with it in her family (she clarifies that this is not the case and the characters are not based on anyone in her family).  

The story itself was cleverly written and kept me guessing right up until its shocking and completely unexpected ending.  I don’t intend to write a detailed review on this book because I want people to read and experience it for themselves, as this is one of those books where it’s best to go in with as little information as possible.  After I finished the book, I was compelled to go back through and re-read some parts and it was then that I realized Walker actually did drop quite a few clues about the ending but it was hard to recognize at first due to the brilliant way the narrative was laid out.  The writing was also exceptional (very few mistakes despite my version being an uncorrected proof copy), which, in my opinion, definitely contributed to how absorbing the story was – I found this book hard to put down once I started reading it.  

Definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy well-written thrillers, though a word of warning that there are depictions of mental and emotional abuse and manipulation that are quite disturbing, in case that’s a deal-breaker for anyone trying to decide whether to read or not.  The book also isn’t without flaws, the main one being some repetitiveness with certain parts of the story (which it looks like other reviewers pointed out as well), but to me, this was a minor issue that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book itself.  I am definitely interested in reading more works by this author!

Received ARC from MacMillan via NetGalley

Review: The Address (by Fiona Davis)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I had wanted to read this book primarily because of the historical setting and in a way, from a historical perspective, the author Fiona Davis was able to deliver, as she did a pretty good job establishing a sense of time and place with her vivid descriptions of the Dakota apartment house building in New York City, the infamous location where Beatles lead singer John Lennon was murdered back in 1980.  The present day narrative does refer to the Lennon murder in a historical context, but that's about the extent it goes, as the main story itself is a fictional one about the Camden family and their connection to the Dakota.

Through a dual timeline primarily taking place in New York City in 1885 and 100 years later in 1985, the Dakota is the link that binds the two past and present narratives together.  The first narrative is about a woman named Sara Smythe who, through a chance encounter with architect Theodore Camden in London in 1884, is hired on to become manager of the new apartment house complex he was in charge of building in New York City, called the Dakota.  Once Sara arrives in New York, she is able to put her skills to good use and rise above the circumstances in an era when women were looked down upon and given little respect.   In the second narrative, taking place in 1985, Bailey Camden is a recovering alcoholic who finds herself in desperate circumstances after completing rehab, so she reconnects with her cousin Melinda, the official heir to the Camden legacy, and is tasked with redesigning her apartment in the Dakota.  The 2 narratives start to collide when Bailey finds 3 trunks belonging to Sara, Theodore, and his wife Minnie in the storage area of the building, which sets off a "mystery" of sorts with Bailey trying to find out what exactly happened 100 years ago as well as her own connection to that past.

This was a simply written story and a good choice for a quick, enjoyable summer read.  While I liked it enough overall, I felt that there was not much depth to the story or the characters, which was one reason why I couldn't rate this book any higher than I did.  The story was quite typical and predictable and the way some of the events unfolded felt a bit too contrived – there were times I felt like I was reading an outline with a series of events filled in neatly one after another, all leading to an ending that I pretty much already figured out halfway through the book.  I did appreciate the historical elements that Davis was able to incorporate into both narratives, though I will admit that I was a little disappointed when the second half of the book strayed a bit and focused more on the mystery and romance aspects of the story rather than the history.   There were also a few sections where the way certain characters were written, their reaction to things that happened either didn't make a whole lot of sense or wasn't strong enough, which I think contributed to why I wasn't really able to connect with the characters much.

In the author's note, Davis indicates that this story is a "blend of historical fact and fiction" and for me, it was interesting to find out which parts were real versus the ones that were made up.  I actually did a little bit of Google searching afterwards, as the book had piqued my interest in the Dakota (I live in California and have never been to New York, so I had no idea about the landmark's historical background) and was happy to see that many of the historical details Davis had incorporated were quite accurate.  With that said however, I also feel that the historical context was a little underused at some points when there was opportunity to make it stand out more.  I've seen this book marketed as historical fiction but to me, it felt more like a "cozy mystery in a historical setting" – regardless though, the story was quite readable, just not really what I expected.

Received ARC from Dutton / Random House via Penguin First-to-Read program.

Review: Those Who Save Us (by Jenna Blum)

My Rating: 4 stars

I will admit that it took me awhile to get into this book, as the story started off in a relatively quiet manner, but after a few chapters, the story started to pick up and from there, I found the book hard to put down. Since the story starts off with the narrative in the present day (1990s) when Anna is in her 70s living in the U.S. and her daughter Trudy is already a middle-aged woman, I already knew of course that Anna survived whatever horrors and monstrosities she had encountered in her past. However that did not prevent me from wanting to know how she got there, from wanting to understand her back story and what caused her to inflict on herself such an impenetrable code of silence. I was actually less interested in Trudy's narrative in the beginning until I reached the halfway mark and realized what the author Jenna Blum was trying to do in terms of the parallelism between the two women's lives – after that, I became more engaged in Trudy's story and came to appreciate the subtle ways that Blum connected the two narratives.

I found it interesting the way Blum incorporated the interview segments into Trudy's narrative and how she put a unique spin to it by making it be from the German perspective. To me, these interview segments were powerful in helping to understand the extent to which the war affected everyone, regardless of one's background. It also showed the gruesomeness of human nature pitted against the instinct to survive as well as the resilience of the human spirit. Of course, Anna's story shows this as well, albeit in a different way, and rather than take away from Anna's experience or all the horrific things she had to endure, the interviews actually complement her narrative and puts things more into perspective.

My only complaint with this book is that, in my opinion, there was way too much time spent on describing the "intimate" scenes between Anna and the Obersturmfuhrer – some of the scenes were important (and therefore made sense why they would be included), but some of the scenes weren't and at times, it became a distraction that was unnecessary. I felt like this part of the story was a bit overdone and resulted in an imbalance to the rest of the story. The last third or so of the book felt rushed, almost as if after the relationship between Anna and the Obersturmfuhrer ended, there was nothing else much worth talking about until the revelation at the very end of the book. I felt like I wanted to know more about the "aftermath," about what happened in Germany after the liberation, about how Anna and Trudy pick up the pieces of their lives in America with Jack, etc. Yes, there were a few chapters on this in the last third or so of the book, but compared to all the time spent on Anna and the Obersturmfuhrer, it really wasn't much. I also didn't really like the ending all that much -- though it makes sense why it ended the way it did, I felt like something was missing, like the story should be continued somehow but instead the author chose to end it abruptly.

Overall, this was a well-written, well-researched book that was difficult to read at times due to the many realistic and raw depictions of violence and the incredibly abhorrent, inhuman treatment doled out by the horrific Nazi regime. This was also a very emotional read as well, as most books about WWII and the Holocaust are, though this one I felt was more gruesome and sadistic than most of the other similarly themed books I've read in recent years. The story itself was definitely engaging and well-told, though the lack of quotation marks did throw me off a number of times – a small annoyance in the grand scheme of things of course and not a deal-breaker by any means, but I think having quotation marks would have made it easier for me to immerse myself more fully into the story rather than having to pay attention to where dialogue was supposed to start and end.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because it didn't blow me away like other similarly themed WWII-era books did and also because of some of the structural issues I mentioned earlier – regardless though, this is a book that absolutely should be read, if anything, for the myriad of questions it raises about human behavior, attitudes, beliefs etc. and how both unbridled power and deprivation of life's basic necessities in the face of war can push people to behave in the most deplorable ways. This book is disturbing, but it is definitely well-worth the read.

Review: Reading with Patrick (by Michelle Kuo)

My Rating: 5 stars

Reading with Patrick is not a memoir in the traditional sense in that its author Michelle Kuo doesn't really write a whole lot about herself.  Rather, she writes about the students she taught while volunteering in the Teach for America program, where she was assigned to a school in the small rural town of Helena, Arkansas – a town located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, which also happened to be one of the poorest rural areas in the United States.  This is a town largely "abandoned" by the government in terms of money and resources and so its residents are pretty much left to fend for themselves and to find ways to "survive" as best as they can; a town where violence is rampant and the justice system is practically nonexistent, where the school system is broken to the point that out of a class of 20 students, you're lucky to have one student who lasts the entire semester.  I don't usually like to quote from ARCs, but in this case, I feel it is necessary, as Kuo's description of the town is powerful in conveying the harsh realities that her students – most of whom are merely kids, teenagers – must face on a daily basis: 

"…in the Delta, the ghetto was not a corner of the city but an entire region of the country.  This ghetto is all the students knew and it occurred to me that if you live in a place you cannot leave, where you can't travel or work if you can't afford a car, where land is endless space that's been denied you, where people burn down their houses because the insurance money is worth more than the sale price, where the yards of shuttered homes are dumping grounds for pedestrian litter, where water is possibly polluted by a fertilizer company that skipped town, you want to believe that you do not at all resemble what you see.  You want to believe that your town's decay is not a mirror of your own prospects, that its dirtiness cannot dirty your inner life, that its emptiness does not contradict your own ambitions…."  

It is in this desperate, hopeless environment that she meets Patrick Browning, a mild-mannered 15-year old boy in the eighth grade.  In a school that the local administration uses as a dumping ground for the supposed "bad kids" (druggies, troublemakers, truants, etc.), Patrick stood out from the rest of the students, as he largely kept to himself, listened more than he spoke, and for the most part, didn't get involved in other people's troubles.  Gradually, over the course of 2 years, Kuo introduces Patrick and the rest of her students to books and also encourages them to express their feelings through writing, to allow the paper and pen to "talk" for them in situations where they couldn't – wouldn't – speak up themselves.  Through the medium of reading and writing, she uses literature to make an impact on her students' lives – however, just as they are making good progress, Kuo decides to give in to her parents' wishes for her to get her law degree and become a lawyer, so she leaves the Delta and her students behind.  Later on, she learns that her once-promising student Patrick is in jail, charged with murder and awaiting trial – feeling guilty that her decision to leave the Delta prematurely played a role in what happened with Patrick, Kuo returns to Helena in the hopes of "fixing" her mistake.  She meets up with Patrick again as he sits in jail facing a potentially bleak future and together, they resume the education through literature and writing that had been cut short earlier.

This book turned out to be so much more than what I initially expected.  Yes, it is about a love of books, about reading and writing and how education makes a difference in people's lives.  On a deeper level though, this is also a study on the destructive power of racism and inequality, society and circumstance, as well as the coming-of-age of a young boy forced to make the best of his surroundings and the teacher who, in helping him, also comes to a better understanding of herself.   The writing was simple and straightforward and the story it tells is inspiring, moving.  I know that some people don't like to read memoirs because majority of the time they come off as pretentious and self-serving.  Well, this one is the complete opposite in that, throughout the book, very rarely did Kuo paint herself in a good light.   In fact, the few times she talked about her own life, she would very candidly relay how much she disappointed her parents in choosing to teach rather than putting her Harvard education to good use, how she was initially mean to some of the students and did things that she regretted, how she was a messy person who rarely cleaned her house and constantly left dirty dishes and clothes all over the place.  I especially resonated with Kuo's story on a personal level, perhaps because we both share the same ethnic background and culture as Chinese-Americans (Kuo is from Taiwan whereas I'm from Hong Kong).  I absolutely understood the pressures Kuo felt in striving to fulfill the role of a filial daughter constantly trying to prove to her parents that the sacrifices they made in immigrating to a foreign country were not in vain and balancing that against doing what she felt called to do versus what she was "expected" to do.  When Kuo talked about her relationship with her parents and how deeply she loved them, yet they were a source of constant stress and pressure for her, I nearly cried because she expressed perfectly what I've been struggling with my entire life: 

"Few of my friends in the Delta understood the power my parents had over me. 'You're like a little girl around them,' one roommate had admonished.  'How can they tell you what to do?  You're an adult.'    But one can never overestimate the extent to which many Asian parents make their disappointment unbearable.  The caricatures in popular culture are untruthful mainly because they never go far enough.  For my family, at least, there was the usual stuff, the yelling and tears, the shaming and guilt trips….Maybe the secret of their effectiveness was what they declined to say.  They thought nothing of emptying their savings for my lessons and my books.  They did not hope for too much success in their own lives, ours were more important.  They did not think to ask my brother and me to do chores – they believed studying was a full-time job.  They didn't read to me, because they were afraid I would adopt their accents.  They cared so little for their own histories that they didn't make me learn their native tongue.  For them, the price of immigration had always been that their children would discount them in these ways." 

For me, this book was very powerful and personal.  While I definitely understand that this book won't mean the same thing to all people, I still encourage everyone to read this lovely memoir.  If anything, read this for the historical aspect, as I believe that even those who may not be able to relate to Kuo's personal story or that of Patrick or her students can probably appreciate the well-researched history about slavery, the Civil Rights movement, the geographical history of the Delta, etc. that Kuo incorporated into her narrative. I definitely learned a lot from it!

Received advance reader's copy from Random House via Penguin First-to-Read program.

Review: The Sunshine Sisters (by Jane Green)

 My Rating:  3.5 stars

After reading the summary, I chose this book as one of my summer beach reads because it sounded like it would be a perfect fit.  I’ve never read anything by Jane Green before, though I had heard of her other works and know that most of them fall into the “chick lit” category, so with this book, I was expecting a light, easy-to-read story focused around women.   That’s pretty much what I got except the part about the matriarch of the family, Ronni Sunshine, having a terminal illness and therefore wanting her daughters to help her end her life (not spoiler, since both these plot points are in the cover summary).  While that part of the book lent an element of “seriousness” to the story, everything else was light-hearted enough so that things balanced out in the end.

Overall, I would say that this was a good book and the story itself was enjoyable, however what fell short for me were the characters, none of whom were likable.  While I’m perfectly fine with (and actually prefer) flawed characters in stories, the caveat is that the characters need to be realistically written, which I felt was a bit lacking with this story.  All the characters felt too contrived and some of the situations they went through felt too convenient, almost as though specifically written so that the characters would go down certain already pre-determined paths.  I think what bothered me the most was how cliched and stereotypical the characters seemed to be – for example: the self-absorbed successful actress but horrible mother Ronni, the serious and responsible but emotionally detached oldest sister Nell, the insecure due to being largely ignored “people pleaser” middle sister Meredith, the spoiled and bratty youngest sister Lizzy who always gets her way because she thinks the world revolves around only her.  And that’s just the main female characters!  The men in the story seemed to have it worse, as almost all of them (except for the 2 sons of the sisters, who were mostly kids throughout the story) were portrayed as “losers” of some sort – i.e.: deadbeats who abandon their first families after they remarry, womanizers who have one affair after another with a variety of women, weak husbands/boyfriends who are consistently emotionally detached from their significant others, arrogant jerks who emotionally abuse their wives/girlfriends in efforts to exert complete control over them, etc.  I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture.  It also didn’t help that everything worked out perfectly in the end for all the characters, almost exactly as we (the readers) expected them to.  The way everything ended up being neatly packaged and wrapped in a bow for the readers kind of reminded me of those Hallmark (or was it Lifetime?) movies that were quite the craze many years ago.

I usually judge how good a book is by whether it is able to elicit an emotional response from me (i.e. move me to tears) and/or whether it is thought-provoking enough that I continue thinking about the story/characters long after I finish reading.  Neither of these elements was present in this case.   My frustration with all the unlikable characters made it difficult for me to feel any type of emotional connection with anyone in the story – even when “sad” things happened, I unfortunately could not bring myself to empathize or feel anything emotionally, despite the intent of the author (I’m assuming) to elicit some type of response from most readers (though not really the author’s fault I guess, since I don’t consider myself a “typical” reader). 

I ended up giving this book 3.5 stars, mostly because of the writing and the fact that I did like the story, even though I was annoyed with the characters -- no doubt that Jane Green is a good writer and knows how to tell an enjoyable story.  I would consider this book on the higher end of the “chick lit” spectrum and even though it didn’t quite work out for me, I would still recommend it for those who enjoy this genre and are looking for a nice, quick summer read.  It also might be a good idea to perhaps read the other reviews for a different opinion before deciding. 

Received advance reader’s copy from Berkley Books via NetGalley