Review: If We Were Villains (by M.L. Rio)


My Rating:  3.5 stars

This was a book club read for me and I have to say that if it hadn't been chosen as the month's read, I probably would not have picked it up on my own.  The format of the book (in terms of chapter titles) is setup similar to a play, which is fitting given that the story is about a theater troupe at an art college devoted entirely to Shakespeare.  There is a short prologue at the beginning of each "Act" that takes place in the present, where thirty-two year old Oliver Marks, who has just been released from prison, starts to recount parts of his story to Detective Colborne — the man who put him in prison in the first place.  From there, we are taken back to 1997, where 7 young actors, all theater majors, are finishing up their fourth year at Dellecher Classical Conservatory in the small town of Broadwater, Illinois.  As these actors study Shakespeare and reenact his various plays, playing roles that more or less mirror their real-life personalities (or not), there comes a point where the "acting" spills over into reality and soon, one of them ends up dead. As the investigation starts up, each of the remaining students becomes a suspect at some point and the quest to find out the truth, especially amongst a group of elite actors, becomes a near impossible mission.  

Even though I was able to figure out the "mystery" as well as the ending way early on, this was by no means a traditional suspense thriller.  It wasn't an easy read either — not necessarily because of the subject matter, but more because I had to put my "scholar" hat on in order to wade through much of the text, which I wasn't expecting.  For nearly 50% of the book, nothing much seemed to happen aside from scene after scene of Shakespeare re-enactments.  There were also a lot of quotes and references to Shakespeare's various works that I felt at times were a bit excessive, especially for someone who may not be as familiar with his repertoire.  Most of the beginning sections of the story actually went over my head and I felt lost because I didn't understand the references for one, and two, I had no idea what the author was trying to do or where the story was trying to go. It wasn't until a little after the halfway mark when things started to pick up a bit and I finally figured out what was going on, that I become more engrossed in the story.  By the time I got to the end, I finally understood how cleverly this story was actually written and while I did appreciate it, I was a bit too exhausted by the point to care as much as I probably should have.  

Don't get me wrong though — I definitely feel that this was worth reading, it's just that I probably was not the best audience for it. I think if I had been more of a fan or a "scholar" of Shakespeare's works, this would've been a much more immersive read and I probably would've gotten more out of it.  As it is, the only Shakespearean play I had studied in depth back during my school days was Romeo and Juliet (which is probably why I enjoyed the scenes in the book related to that play the most) — majority of the other ones mentioned in the book I had heard of and might have even read at some point, but never actually studied (which is perhaps why I don't remember most of them).  For me personally, I probably would've enjoyed this more if it had fewer Shakespeare references and quotes (and focused more on the "murder mystery" perhaps), but then again, it likely would've become an entirely different story then. Regardless of my experience though, I feel that this was a strong debut and the right audience will definitely love it.  

Review: The Immortalists (by Chloe Benjamin)

 My Rating:  3 stars

This was another one of those books where I expected it to be one thing but it turned out to be something quite different.  While I can’t say I disliked the book (I did give it 3 stars after all), I didn’t “like” it either and in fact, found much of the book a chore to get through, mostly because of the frustration I felt with the main characters and their actions.  I think it’s safe to say that this is one of those “it’s not the book, it’s me” type of situations where I realize after reading it that this book clearly wasn’t for me.

When I first read the summary for this book, I was really interested in reading it, as the premise sounded fascinating and unique.  The narrative revolves around the 4 Gold siblings who find out from a fortune teller the dates of their deaths.  This early prophesy impacts each of the siblings in different ways and over the course of the book, as each sibling’s story unfolds, we are taken down 4 different paths, yet each one links back to the other and ultimately back to their family.  Both the summary and the opening chapter hinted at fantasy / magical realism elements and at first, I felt that the author Chloe Benjamin did a really good job establishing the aura of mysticism with the children’s visit to “the woman on Hester Street.”  But then, as soon as the first sibling’s story starts – the narrative begins with Simon’s story, then moves on to Klara, Daniel, and finally Varya -- the “mysticism” that was present in the introductory chapter quickly fades and doesn’t return for the rest of the novel.  I feel like this was one of the biggest problems with this book – it started off strong and was able to establish an atmospheric mood that made me want to continue turning the pages to see what each sibling’s fate ends up being and whether the prophesies would be fulfilled, however that mood fizzled as soon as the author started going more in-depth into each of the sibling’s lives.  Some of the stories had a bit too much detail – some random scenes and references to things that I felt weren’t necessary in furthering the plot and so I ended up skimming some parts (especially with Simon’s story, which I’ll get back to later), pushing forward to the last few chapters of each character’s section so I could find out what ultimately happens to each one.

In terms of the writing, I would say that it was pretty good – not stellar but not bad either. I think the biggest issue with the writing was the lack of consistency -- there were some parts that were very well-written and actually provoked quite a bit of thought and self-reflection, but then there were other parts that left me scratching my head, wondering where the author was trying to go with the plot.  This brings me to the other major problem I had with the book:  I feel like the author tried to cover too much ground and ended up being all over the place.  There were many topics touched on in the book – family, relationships, love, religion, politics, education, health, environment, race, gender, discrimination, military, science, history, ethics…the list goes on and on – however I feel like there wasn’t much in-depth exploration of these issues and instead, many of them were thrown in randomly rather than incorporated seamlessly into the stories.  With all that said though, one of the things I did appreciate about the book was the amount of research the author put in to make sure her references to events and settings were as accurate as possible – this part was consistent throughout all 4 narratives and was one of the redeeming qualities of the book for me.

One thing I do want to mention, which I feel is important for those deciding whether to read this book or not, is that there were quite a few explicit sex scenes, mostly in Simon’s story, that were uncomfortable to read.  I’m not sure if I’m explaining this correctly but the problem for me wasn’t necessarily the graphic nature of the sex scenes per se, but rather that I wasn’t expecting those types of scenes in this book and also I didn’t feel they were necessary to include – the story could have been told perfectly well without those scenes.  Same goes with many of the other random sexual references interspersed throughout the book – while those weren’t necessarily explicit, it just didn’t make sense to me why they needed to be included.

As I said at the beginning of my review, this book clearly didn’t work for me, however I seem to be an outlier here since there are many 4 and 5 star reviews for this book, so I would say check those out before deciding.

Received ARC from G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group) via Edelweiss.

Review: The Red Hunter (by Lisa Unger)

My Rating:  4 stars

Coming upon the end of the year, I’m trying to finish up a few of the reading challenges I’ve been working on the past few months.  One of those challenges is the A to Z Author Challenge whereby we read a book by an author whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet.  One of the remaining letters I had left for this challenge was the letter “U” – since the book I was originally going to read for this letter was not available at my library and I didn’t want to waste any more time trying to hunt for another book that would fit, I decided to browse through the library’s catalog of “U” authors and just pick one that was available and that I would be interested in reading.  During my search, I came across a few books by Lisa Unger, an author I actually wasn’t familiar with, but since there weren’t that many choices in the first place, I decided to go with her latest work The Red Hunter (after researching it first on Goodreads of course, lol).  Not having much expectation going into it (since it was somewhat of a random pick after all), I was pleasantly surprised that the book ended up being an excellent read, a page turner that I thoroughly enjoyed and found difficult to put down!   From the explosive first scene, of a murder that takes place in cold blood, then a shocking rape scene in the next chapter, Unger wastes no time establishing the trigger points right off the bat that will end up driving the rest of the story.  We are introduced to the two main characters, Zoey Drake and Claudia Bishop – two women, completely unrelated, yet both suffer horrific assaults, unspeakable crimes that destroy their lives physically, emotionally, mentally.  Both women, strangers who endured very different traumas, go down different paths, choosing to handle the rage within them in different ways.  As both work up the courage to face the demons of their pasts, their paths end up colliding in ways entirely unexpected.

Technically, I would rate this book somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars (closer to 4.5).  As a psychological thriller / suspense novel, this one was absolutely top notch!  There was the intense, well-crafted plot that had a perfect amount of twists and turns scattered in all the right places throughout the book, which is of course what we should expect from a good thriller, but what made this one stand out was the characters. It’s not often that we come across a thriller where pretty much all of the characters are well-developed, each one realistically drawn as flawed human beings who make as many bad decisions as they do good ones, ordinary folks who encounter the same day-to-day pressures the rest of us do.  I loved how the author explored the issue of moral ambiguity through her characters, especially when it came down to the question of justice versus revenge, but there was so much more as well – many sensitive and thought-provoking issues, explored on a deeper level, yet at no point did I feel that this bogged down the plot.  The two main characters especially were meticulously drawn – believable characters whom I was able to connect with and relate to, feel for them with the traumas they suffered, yet also feel frustrated and annoyed when they made bad decisions or acted in ways that they knew would not turn out well.  I felt I was on the journey with both these women and appreciated seeing their growth throughout the time I got to spend with them.

This was an absolutely enjoyable read, a thrill-ride from beginning to end!  No doubt that Lisa Unger is a great storyteller and while I did figure out some of where the story was going about two-thirds of the way through the book, that did not detract from my experience much at all.  One of the things I appreciated most about this book was the way it made me ponder and ask myself tough questions that I may not have considered previously.  A book that makes me think and wonder is a good book in my world but to also have it be suspenseful and well-written with an intricately woven plot and well-developed characters, that’s icing on the cake to me!  This is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Unger but rest assured it definitely won’t be the last!

Review: History's Fiction - Stories from the City of Hong Kong (by Xu Xi)

My Rating:  3 stars

I was born in Hong Kong and even though I had never really lived there due to my family immigrating to the U.S. when I was a baby, I’ve always had an inexplicable attraction towards the city of my birth.  I follow HK news daily, sometimes even more so than news about the U.S. or local news about the state where I currently live.  I watch a lot of HK movies and drama series and also follow the HK entertainment scene very closely (despite living in Los Angeles, I can’t begin to tell you who the current rising stars are in Hollywood because I honestly don’t pay much attention, but ask me who the most popular HK celebrities are and I can probably talk your ear off).  As an avid reader, I also naturally gravitate towards books that have a Hong Kong element to them – i.e.:  books set in HK, about HK people or culture, written by HK authors, etc.  I’ve never really understood why, throughout my life, I’ve always had such an affinity for a city that I barely lived in and certainly didn’t grow up in – to this day, I still don’t really understand, but regardless, I’ve come to embrace the city as a place very near and dear to my heart.  Nowadays, every time the words “Hong Kong” comes up, whether in casual conversation with friends, in the media, on television, in books, etc., my ears automatically perk up.  There’s a constant curiosity within me to see how my birth place is depicted, especially to those who may not be familiar with the city. 

When I first heard that a compilation of HK author Xu Xi’s short stories would be republished in a new  collection to be released this year, I was excited and quickly picked up the collection as soon as it was released several months ago.  I’ve read some of Xu Xi’s works before, but it was a long time ago, back during a time when I read more casually and didn’t really have the foresight to understand or appreciate what I was reading.  Things are different now of course and having experienced what I have over the years, I tend to approach most of what I read with the hope of forming a “personal connection” in some way.  With short stories, especially ones that have completely different characters and little to no linkage from one story to the next, this type of connection is hard to establish, which is why I’m not much of a fan of short story collections in general.  The stories in this particular collection were actually ones that Xu Xi wrote throughout her long, illustrious career, with the oldest one written back in 1981 and the most recent one from 2001 (this is actually the second printing of the book – it originally came out back in August 2001).  Not having read this collection back when it was originally published in 2001, this was my first experience reading Xu Xi’s short stories and I have to admit that it was different from what I expected.  This was a mixed bag of sorts – an eclectic combination of stories, all set in Hong Kong, with the common theme of being infused with doses of Hong Kong history spanning 3 decades (from the 1960s up through HK’s return to China in 1997) that serve as the backdrop for each story.  I was expecting the stories to all have a “uniqueness” to them that was distinctly and recognizably HK and while most of them did, there were a few that I felt were a bit too “generic,” almost as though they could’ve taken place anywhere else other than HK.  Also, a few of the stories felt incomplete, as though we as readers were only being treated to a small “snippet” of the story and would have to go hunt down the continuation elsewhere.  In reading through Xu Xi’s author notes and acknowledgments at the beginning of the book, it does seem that each story was excerpted from various publications over a span of 20 years – some of the stories were originally published in magazines and newspapers, a few were from earlier short story anthologies, two were actually excerpts from novels, and two were originally manuscripts broadcast on the radio.  I’m not too sure why these particular stories were selected to be included in this collection, but I think the way these stories were pulled together (being from so many different sources and formats) affected my ability to connect with some of the stories as much as I wanted to.  I would prefer to have read these stories from the original source where they were initially published, within the original context of the stories, rather than excerpts from a longer anthology or novel.  This was the main reason for me rating this collection only 3 stars, as I put a little more weight on the impact to my personal reading experience than I did to the contents of the stories themselves.  With that said, I do appreciate the fact that Xu Xi listed in detail the original sources that these stories came from in her Acknowledgements page so I can at least go back and hunt down those sources and perhaps re-read these stories in their original context someday.

Overall, I would say that for those who may not be familiar with Hong Kong and its history, this collection is a good way to “get your feet wet” – plus the way Xu Xi blended history and fiction together was well-done and made the history portion especially accessible to those who may not be too keen on reading history straight from textbooks.  One thing to note is that Xu Xi is one of the few writers born and raised in HK who actually writes entirely in English rather than Chinese, so at least we don’t have to worry about aspects of her stories being “lost in translation” (something that I’m very particular about).  With all that said however, I would recommend reading these stories in their original form if possible (i.e.: from the sources in which they were originally published) so as to do justice to Xu Xi’s skills as a writer and story-teller, which stands out less in this story collection than it does in her other works.