Review: Never Have I Ever (by Joshilyn Jackson)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

This is one of those books that I would call "compulsively readable" — the kind of book that, once you pick it up and start reading, it's almost impossible to put down.  There was an addictive and engaging quality to the story and its characters, to the point that I couldn't bring myself to stop reading even when one of the characters frustrated me to no end.  It all starts with a book club gathering at the house of our protagonist Amy Whey, a night she thought would be like any other, where other mothers in the neighborhood get together along with her best friend Charlotte Baxter to discuss the latest book they chose.  But then a new neighbor shows up at the door, a beautiful woman named Angelica Roux, whose exotic charm captivates nearly everyone in the room and next thing they know, the book club discussion becomes instead a lively session of drinking and chatting.  Later in the night, Roux suggests playing a game, a grown-up version of the confession game Never Have I Ever — and that's when the troubles begin.  Suddenly, Amy finds herself locked in a twisted game with a woman whose skills in manipulation far exceed ordinary — a game that Amy quickly discovers she has no option but to win or else risk destroying the life and family she had worked so hard to build.

This book was a wild ride, intricately plotted and full of twists and turns that kept me constantly guessing — just when I thought I had things figured out, another bomb was dropped that took things in an entirely unexpected direction.  The characters too were well-developed and realistically crafted — I especially like how Amy was a character who was strong but yet at the same time flawed...whether it was dealing with the remnants of her past (a past that she spent most of her life trying to bury) or working through issues in the present, Amy's struggles felt so real.  Even Roux, as loathsome as she was, also proved to be an interesting yet still realistic character whose own complicated past shapes who she eventually becomes.  In terms of the writing, it was excellent — the story was cleverly crafted and flowed beautifully.  Even though this is my first time reading Joshilyn Jackson's works, I've heard many great things about her books as well as her writing and now I definitely understand why.  I'm glad I got the chance to experience her work for the first time and look forward to checking out her previous books (many of which are on my TBR already).  I'd heard that Jackson doesn't usually write in the suspense / thriller genre, so this book is a new experience for her — I definitely found this shocking because reading this book, the way it was so expertly crafted, I would've never guessed that this is her first time writing in the genre.

After reading a slew of average suspense thrillers in recent months, I'm happy to have gotten the chance to read a smart, emotionally engaging thriller that combines the elements of plot, character, and story so perfectly.  This one is definitely on my recommended list and I'm already looking forward to what Jackson will come up with next!

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Edelweiss.

Review: Lady in the Lake (by Laura Lippman)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

This was an interesting read, one that I felt was quite a departure from the traditional thrillers I'm used to reading.  Right off the bat, we know that a death has occurred, a woman's body found at the bottom of a fountain, the titular "lady in the lake" from whose first person perspective it seems the story will be told.  But then, the story switches to that of another woman, Madeleine "Maddie" Schwartz, a housewife who seemingly has the perfect life, but is actually restless and bored and is thinking about leaving her marriage.  Determined to be a reporter, Maddie takes up a job at the local newspaper, but because she is a woman with no media experience to speak of, she is assigned to do menial, seemingly unimportant tasks.  At first, it is hard to figure out what the connection is between Maddie's story and that of the dead woman —  a connection made more difficult to understand as alternating chapters are narrated by each of the different characters that Maddie encounters throughout the story.  Some of the characters who "speak" seem to have nothing to do with the story, while others actually provide insight into the life — and death — of the woman in the fountain, whom we learn is an African-American woman named Cleo Sherwood.  In a slow-burning but well-written narrative, we bear witness to Maddie's journey of "self-discovery" as she grows to understand what it is she truly wants in life and, in her attempts to achieve her goals, how her actions impact those around her.  Along the way, more of the mystery surrounding Cleo's death is revealed bit by bit, culminating  in us (as readers) eventually learning the truth as the two story arcs converge.

Overall, I enjoyed this book well enough, though the structure of the story did take some time to get into, not just because of the many characters that shared in the narration of the story, but also the general slow pace of the plot, which, for me at least, made it not work too well as a mystery / thriller.  In a way, this book would also fit into other genres such as historical fiction, as the story actually took place in the 1960s and in addition to addressing some of the societal issues prevalent during that time period (such as segregation and racial prejudice against African-Americans as well as women's rights and their roles in society), some of the events in the story were also based on real-life events (which the author talks about in her author's note at the end of the book).  While the story did sustain my interest throughout (for the most part), some sections did drag a little — given these aspects, plus the "unique" format of the narrative,  I can understand why the reviews for this book have been a mixed bag.  For me, this is my first time reading one of Laura Lippman's works and I ended up liking this one enough that I would definitely consider reading her other works, whether new or backlist.

Received ARC from Faber and Faber via NetGalley.

Review: A Stranger on the Beach (by Michele Campbell)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Let me just say right off the bat that my opinion of this book is clearly the minority view, so if you were strongly considering reading this book, I would suggest also checking out the higher-rated reviews as well for a more well-rounded assessment.  

This is actually the second book that I’ve read by Michele Campbell (the first one being her sophomore novel She Was the Quiet One) and seeing that I had enjoyed her previous work, I had high hopes going into this one.  Unfortunately, this book turned out to be very different from what I expected, and not in a good way either.  The biggest problem I had was with the structure of the narrative, especially the first two-thirds of the story, which switched back and forth between the point of view of Caroline Stark (a 43-year-old rich woman with a mansion on the beach) and Aidan Callahan (a 27-year-old bartender with a questionable past) – normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but with this story, it was particularly confusing because the exact same events / situations would be told in completely opposite ways, so as I’m reading, I have no clue who is telling the truth and how things really happened.  Though I get what Campbell was trying to do by structuring the first two-thirds of the book this way with the whole unreliable narrator thing, I think the reason why it didn’t work for me was because it was overdone and dragged out for way too long (basically there would be one chapter from Caroline’s perspective and then the next chapter would be from Aidan’s perspective, but describing essentially the same event – this went on for at least 40+ chapters, though to the author’s credit, the chapters were relatively short) – this made the story too tedious and a chore to read.

Structure of the narrative aside, the other major problem I had was the characters, all of whom were written in a way that they came across as clichéd and unrealistic – most important of all though, none of the characters were likable and not only was I not able to connect with any of them, I also couldn’t bring myself to feel an ounce of sympathy for them either.  Actually, come to think of it, “unlikeable” is too nice a word -- “loathsome” is a better fit for how I felt about most of the characters, though in the case of Caroline, I would probably go even harsher.  Caroline actually got progressively more loathsome and annoying as the story went on, to the point that near the halfway mark, I finally got fed up and decided to skim through the rest of the book so I could still get a general idea of the plot without having to endure any more of Caroline’s stupidities (sorry, don’t know how else to say it).  I’ve said before how much I can’t stand characters that are written in a stereotypical way – well, in this book, every single character is portrayed in this manner, but not only that, their actions actually get more and more ridiculous and outrageous with each chapter (Caroline especially here, as she not only kept making poor choices over and over again, she also kept whining about those choices, made no attempts whatsoever to fix the messes she caused, then tried to blame others attempting to help her for petty things like “stressing” her out or calling her at the wrong time...and that’s just scratching the surface of her “antics”).  The characters as well as the direction in which the story seemed to be headed (which was essentially nowhere at that point) became such a huge source of frustration for me  that I was actually tempted to DNF the book in order to preserve my sanity -- the only reason I didn’t go that route was because I was past the halfway mark already and I figured, given all the time I wasted reading the book up to this point, I was at least owed the “satisfaction” of seeing how it ends (more specifically, I wanted to see what type of comeuppance, if any, the characters would get).  

I don’t want to say too much more, as I’m afraid I might end up giving the story away through all the complaints I have about the characters and their actions (with Caroline, I had actually written down 2 full pages of things that annoyed me about her – and that was only from the first half of the story before I started skimming!).  Again though, I’m the outlier here, as everyone else seemed to like this more than I did, so perhaps this book just didn’t jive with me.  As for this author’s other works, I’m actually on the fence as to whether I will continue to pick up another of her books – on the one hand, this is a repeat author for me and I truly did like her previous work, but on the other hand, this book left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don’t know if it will tarnish my expectations of her next book.  I guess we will have to see what happens….

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley

Review: Bethlehem (by Karen Kelly)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

This was a book that I liked overall, one that I finished quickly and I felt kept me engaged throughout, even though the story itself was relatively predictable and the characters weren’t necessarily memorable.  While I did like reading about the Collier and Parrish families and especially enjoyed the camaraderie between the siblings, I did find (as many other readers did) that there were way too many characters to keep track of – which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but in this case, every character had a nickname as well, so that made it even more difficult to keep all the names and backgrounds straight (I actually had to read the first 2 chapters twice to make sure I got each character’s background right).  It also didn’t help that the first third of the story or so was slow-paced, with not a whole lot happening plot-wise, so it did make the beginning section feel tedious – luckily, the story started to pick up near the halfway mark and I also got used to the characters by then, so the rest of it was relatively smooth sailing for me.

While I enjoyed the story overall, there were several reasons why I decided to rate this 3.5 stars instead of something higher.  I think the main issue is that this book is primarily classified as historical fiction, but in actuality, it doesn’t fall into that genre at all.   Though the narrative does alternate between two different timelines – the past starting in 1918 and through the early 1920s while the “present” takes place in the early 1960s – there was very little focus on historical events and/or people outside of a mere mention here and there.  The story itself could’ve actually taken place anywhere and during any time period technically, and the characters were written in a way that it seemed like they could very well exist during a different time.  Basically, I didn’t get much of a sense of time and place with this story, which is tremendously important to me when it comes to historical fiction.   

Also, for me, the timeline that took place in the past (1918 thru early 1920s) was strongest in terms of story and characters – I appreciated the way the characters were developed here and the story itself flowed much better as well.  I really liked the camaraderie between all the characters in the “past” timeline, whereas with the “present” timeline, I felt as though Joanna’s character was underdeveloped and essentially was just there to “tease out” Susannah’s story.  With all that said, I felt that the detail the author dedicated to describing Brynmor (the estate that the family lived in) as well as St. Gregory’s Cemetery adjacent to it was well done, as both places actually felt like characters themselves at many points throughout the story.  For me, what pushed this up to a 3.5 star read for me was the ending, which did pull on my emotional heartstrings more than I expected it would.  I felt it was clever the way the ending was written, with the two timelines essentially converging to bring this long-spanning family saga to its conclusion. 

I did like this book overall and wasn’t really bothered by some of the issues with pacing and overall execution that made the story not work as well as anticipated, but at the same time, I can understand why others didn’t prefer it.  I personally felt this one was worth my time, but for everyone else, I would say check out the other reviews before making the decision whether to read this or not.

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

Review: Whisper Network (by Chandler Baker)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Written as a response to the #metoo movement and the various sexual harassment scandals that have made headlines over the past few years, author Chandler Baker’s propulsive new book The Whisper Network is an interesting look into corporate elite culture and a male-dominated work environment where “whispers” and rumors abound.  The story’s powerful opening line sets the trajectory of the narrative into motion:  “If only you’d listened to us, none of this would have happened.”  The narration alternates between the perspectives of 4 women – Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Roselita – all employees of a fictious sports brand corporation in Dallas called Truviv, Inc. who are affected to varying degrees by the sudden death of the company’s CEO Desmond Bankole.  As the next in line to take over the CEO role, Ames Garrett is used to having things go his way in both his personal as well as professional life and is looking towards this highly anticipated promotion to cap a decades-long illustrious career.  Things go according to the expected trajectory for Ames…that is, until the “whispers” that have surrounded him finally come to a head amidst accusations of sexual harassment by the women in his workplace who are tired of their complaints being ignored.  As Ames’ world comes crashing down, so too does that of the 4 women who decided to speak up against him, as long-held secrets come to light that threaten to hinder their efforts. 

This was an interesting read, also a timely and relevant one given what has been happening in society the past few years.  The author Chandler Baker did a good job depicting the struggles that many women encounter in the workplace, especially in the corporate environment where majority of the highest-ranking executive positions are still largely dominated by men.  In addition to the core narrative surrounding the 4 women at the center of the story, there were also snippets of police interviews interspersed throughout that provided clues as to some of the events that happen as well as some background information on the characters, which I thought was cleverly done.   Another aspect that made this story so relatable was the way Baker incorporated real life events into the narrative, things that I had read about in the news (such as “the spreadsheet” that had been circulated around a few months back) or had either experienced or witnessed personally in the corporate business world that I’ve worked in for many years.   Sexual harassment can manifest itself in different ways in the workplace, especially in an office setting, where sometimes the lines can easily become blurred or situations such as being subject to a hostile work environment are less recognizable as an offense that can also constitute harassment – for me, it was refreshing to finally see an author bring these issues to the forefront in the form of a fictional story, which I feel is more powerful in terms of raising awareness than a non-fiction format. 

With all that said, the aspect of this book that didn’t work too well was classifying it under the “mystery/thriller” genre, as I felt the suspense element was truly lacking throughout the story.  This was not a book that kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what happens and to be honest, the plot was actually quite predictable (even the ending I already saw coming and had already worked out most of it by the time I reached that part of the story).  Regardless though, this was still a worthy read in my opinion, one that has a strong message delivered in a way that hit all the key points but didn’t come across as overbearing.   I’m glad I read this and would readily recommend it, especially for those who work in a corporate setting currently. 

Received ARC from Flatiron Books via NetGalley