Search This Blog

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Whining and Two Reviews

I've had a period of "withdrawal" since Thanksgiving.  When periods of stress and anxiety hit, I withdraw as much as possible into myself, avoid anything I can get away with, and read. 

Unfortunately, my library is having some work done and the parking lot is full of building materials.  When I arrived last time to return my books, I had to park in the neighboring parking lot, a minor inconvenience, because the worst was yet to come.  

The fiction section was blocked off with yellow tape--you know, like what you see on television marking off a crime scene.  A couple of sad-faced people were standing there looking longingly at the stacks.  I was about to slip through the tape to get to the books, when someone said the section will be off limit for a month!  My frustration left me stuttering.  If I'd had a list I could have had one of the librarians pull the books, but I didn't and was so derailed that I couldn't even think of a single title.  

None of this helped my general attitude or anxiety, but there are book bargains from various sources.


One of those bargains was Fellside, a one day offer for $3.29 (usually $13.99).  I really liked The Girl with All the Gifts, and have had Fellside on my list for some time, so I was quite pleased to find that bargain.

Is there anyone who is not familiar with the plot?  Heroin addict, fire, death of a young boy, conviction, prison, ghost?   There are so many reviews that go into great detail about the plot, and I'm not going to give a synopsis here, just a few thoughts...  

* I found Jess Moulson's conviction of murder hard to believe.  Not that I think the judicial system always works well or fairly, but I couldn't see a murder conviction from the evidence.  Of course, Jess does nothing to help herself.

* Fellside, the maximum security women's prison where Jess is sent, is aptly named.  One meaning of "fell" is a barren moor, but older meanings of the word are distinctly malevolent:  sinister, baleful, deadly, cruel.  Even the "side" part of the name works well with the book's content and the idea of a parallel world.   Fellside is a brutal place with plenty of corruption and violence among both the keepers and the kept.  The prison story is distressing because I suspect that it has more truth than I want to think about.

* The astral projection into dreams and the ghost story...could have worked, but didn't really convince me.  There was a twist in this portion, however.  

* Although I sympathized with Jess, empathy was a little harder to come by because in some sense she didn't feel real to me.  She was, in a way, almost a ghost herself; never a fully-realized person.

I was a little put off from the beginning since Jess' conviction did not make sense to me. The book is too long, and although many scenes are suspenseful, they ended up feeling like filler. If the prison episodes had been condensed, the plot would have been tightened.  The action does speed up toward the end of the book and some of the mystery of the fire is explained--but like most readers, I'd figured out most of it in the initial chapters.  Waiting for hundreds of pages for the principals to figure it out was a bit annoying.

Was I expecting too much?  I don't really believe so.  I read The Girl with All the Gifts in 2014, and there have been so many books since then.  Fellside wasn't my cup of tea, but it has pleased hundreds of others.  

Purchased.

Mystery/Suspense/Paranormal.  2016.  Print length:  485 pages.


I'm not sure how I missed The Sound of Broken Glass as Deborah Crombie's series featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James is a favorite.

The Sound of Broken Glass is the 15th book in the series that began in 1993.  Duncan Kincaid is taking time off to care for Charlotte, his and Gemma's foster child (this story is told in Necessary as Blood), so the main plot involves Gemma.  

Gemma and DS Melody Talbot investigate the death of a respected (but not particularly liked) barrister found in a compromising situation in a hotel that the man has used for casual sexual encounters.  Then another barrister is found murdered in similar fashion. 

The case requires backtracking to an event 15 years earlier and is slowly unraveled through both interviews and flashbacks.

As usual, Crombie makes use of characters from previous books, but in a way that doesn't interfere with understanding the current book.  I like the feeling of meeting familiar characters who have appeared in previous plots, and the way Crombie weaves them into the story in a purposeful way.  Have to admit to being surprised at Melody Talbot's out-of-character behavior.  

I read To Dwell in Darkness (#16), the next in the series last year, but Crombie has a new book scheduled to come in February.

Purchased.

Police Procedural.  2013.  Print length: 531 pages.

Interesting that The Sound of Broken Glass is actually a little longer than Fellside--and did not feel nearly as long.
-----------
I have 18 book reviews scheduled for 2017--from January - June.  One of the hazards of NetGalley is that you can read a book 6 months or more before publication.  These are books that I've read since July of 2016--so I've been scheduling them for 6 months.  All of these are already posted to Goodreads, but the blog posts are scheduled closer to publication.  

Half of them are scheduled for January:

The Girl Before by JP Delaney

The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry

Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner

The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace * (beautifully written!)

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

Old Bones by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles * (great one-liners:  "You're no fun on a road trip, Thelma"

The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Dare to Remember by Susanna Beard

Stasi Wolf by David Young * (interesting look at East Germany in 1975; unique police procedural because of setting)

The three with asterisks are my favorites-of course, that's just my opinion, but for me they stand miles above the rest.  Most disappointing was Brunonia Barry's The Fifth Petal.  I really liked The Lace Reader, but found The Fifth Petal boring.


17 comments:

  1. Sorry about your library. When my library got closed for renovations it was the absolute worst. I hated it. I hope yours is back up and running soon. At least you found a few good books to read in the meantime. I hope 2017 is full of even more. Happy New Year! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They have been working on "unseen" areas for a couple of months, but I never considered losing access to the books! Happy New Year, Lark!

      Delete
  2. That is so terrible about the library. I don't usually have a list either, so I would be a bit lost!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Browsing is almost a must, isn't it? Even if you have a specific author or title you are looking for, serendipitous books rule!

      Delete
  3. That's terrible about your library, have you checked to see if they have e-books you can check out?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They do have e-books, and I can check online and have them pull books for me. It just came as a shock not to be able to browse. :)

      Delete
  4. Oh, wow, I forgot about Crombie...now, I'm not sure I read #15 or 16 either...I used to have a list of her books that I'd read on my old computer...I wonder if I have it anywhere else. I loved those books and used to wait for them to come out! You, actually, got me started on them! Funny how life goes, I never would have missed reading one before... So nice to "see" you again! I'm a withdraw-er in times of stress and discomfort, too. Happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) Good to hear from you, Debby! Hope all is well with you and that you are still knitting and quilting in sunny California. Happy New Year!

      Delete
  5. How frustrating about the work being done at the library interfering with access to the books. That seems wrong somehow. I hope the work doesn't take long for everyone's sake. I'm not too familiar with Fellside, although I have heard of it. I am sorry it wasn't better for you.

    You are so good about staying on top of your reading and reviews! I wish I could say the same. :-( Maybe I can make some more headway this year.

    I hope you have a great New Year, Jenclair!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not really that good about staying on top of things, but if I wait 6 months before writing a review, I probably wouldn't remember to write it at all! Happy New Year, Wendy!

      Delete
  6. Ouch, I would almost have a meltdown if I went to the library expecting a certain stack of books... and nothing! Well, unless you read nonfiction, I guess, but still!

    I haven't read Girl With All the Gifts but know a bit about it from reading reviews. Is this a sequel? Blurb makes it sound interesting, but good to know that it asks you to suspend belief and common sense.

    Good for you with all the reviews! I have about 7 books requested that I should review between Jan-April, but I haven't read any yet because I'm more of a panster reviewer. I will read the two Jan. selections but that's it for now. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is easy to forget how much one depends on the library...until it isn't there! Girl with All the Gifts was really good, but the two books have entirely different characters and settings. :)

      Delete
  7. Oh no that is too bad that you couldn't get to any books at the library! What a bummer. Like you, I wasn't that big of a fan of Fellside. I thought it had a lot of potential but I think the end was what really made me not like the book very much. Really looking forward to your reviews of the upcoming reads! Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought it had potential, too! I had problems all the way through, but the end didn't do anything for me, either.

      Delete
  8. Bummer about the library.
    I'm skeptical about Fellside; I've read several reviews and many readers claimed they were disappointed by it. The first book was great; perhaps we expected too much from the second book. ;)

    Happy New Year, Jenclair!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such different books! But in Girl I had definite concern for the characters, and in Fellside the concern was sort of abstract.

      Delete
  9. How frustrating about your library! At least it is still open so that's something. When my library got a remodel a couple years ago the branch was closed for over a year and it was miserable. I hope the renovations don't take too long and I hope you aren't feeling as stressed!

    ReplyDelete