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Category: Book Reviews

Book Review – My Swordhand is Singing

Book Title:  My Swordhand is Singing
Author:  Marcus Sedgwick

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
WHEN TOMAS AND HIS SON, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn’t understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.

WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK:  I’m always interested in why book reviewers choose the books they do, so I’ll reveal the reason behind my own choice.  This book came up in a “Best Vampire Books” video I watched.  I expected a “classic vampire book” as I started the book, but it wasn’t that at all.

MY REVIEW AS A READER:  The story unfolded as more of a old-lore fairytale, a moral tale, that had a twist of vampire-like happenings in it.  Vampires were barely mentioned by name.  I like books that are written in a fairytale style so I kept reading.  I especially like books that have some kind of moral ribbon running through it or at least a reference to a spiritual dimension.  This book had all of the above.

I enjoyed the book and it was a fairly easy read.  There was an unexplained box that was referenced and this held my interest and kept me reading.  I won’t give anything away about the box, but it served as the ribbon of suspense that did run through the entire book.

It’s hard for me to comment on the writing as I’m still studying “fairytale writing” itself.  The prose held the storybook style the entire way through so I give the author an A+ for that.

REVIEW AS AN AUTHOR:  As I read, I paid particular attention to see how this fairytale style is done but I can’t yet put my finger on it.  I did notice that the characters were only two-dimensional.  They had their role to play in the plotline plus one thin layer of history that conjured up sympathy, compassion or empathy.  I did notice that.   There was distance between the reader and the soul of the character.  I would love to discuss this with other authors, so if anyone else is interested in this style of writing, email me and let’s discuss it!

The author did a great job in recreating the lifestyle of woodcutters in the ancient world.  The scenes were vivid and had a bit of a Charles Dickens feel to them.  As an author, I think this is hard to do and I do take my hat off to Marcus Sedgwick for his writing style.

There was a band of gypsies in the story and their caravan and scenes were written very well.  This too kept with the fairytale genre without seeming stereotypical.  I can tell as an author that there was research done regarding “gypsies during ancient times”.

I plan to look through the book again and reanalyze some of the writing style to see what else I can learn about writing in the fairytale style.

THE BAD REVIEWS:

I always like to check author’s bad reviews after any book I read.  I like to see if there there is any legitimate criticism.  I find most bad reviews are just snotty comments made by readers in bad moods.  But occasionally, I will find one with at least some critical value.  The only 3-star review with a comment was that the reader was expecting a classic vampire story.  I did have the same unmet expectation in this book.  However, I was able to shift into this fairytale for what it had to offer.

I’ve also learned the hard way as an author myself that it’s important to let the readers know ahead of time what the book will be like because not everyone is okay to go into a book with one set of expectations and be able to shift into enjoying the book anyway.  This 3-star review confirmed it.  It seemed that the only reason for the lackluster review was this disappointment.

SOME TURN OF PHRASES I NOTED:

  • “She had eyebrows like a man’s that seemed fixed perpetually in a scowl.”
  • “Do not trespass on my patience.”
  • “She was still dressed in mourning weeds.”
  • “The trunk where he’s been chopping gave a deafening crack, as if lightening had struck nearby.”

 

Book Review – Frankenstein

Book Title: Frankenstein
Author:  Mary Shelly
Description from Amazon.com:

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as “Frankenstein”, despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the “over-reaching” of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel’s subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully realized science fiction novel.

REVIEW AS A READER:

It was hard to separate the reader and the author in this read because I chose this book to do a gothic study.  I saw a video by Tristan and the Classics from YouTube where he suggested reading the top 5 to 10 books in the gothic genre to get a sense of not only what the genre contains, but also how one book led to the other historically.  I did just that and Frankenstein was one of the suggested books.

Like many people, I assumed the book was about a monster named Frankenstein.  Not so.  The scientist’s name is Frankenstein and the monster is his creation.

Knowing that Mary Shelly was only 18 or 20 years old when she wrote this story was shocking to me because the book deals with a deep subject for the times in which she lived.  Science had been delving into the issue of where does medicine stop and meddling in God’s handiwork begin.  There is always a certain amount of fear associated with new scientific discovery.  In our day there are those who fear that AI will take over the world.  This book was written in the face of some scientific fear that was prevalent in her day.

The book opens with a series of letters that anchor the reader into the time and place this story will  unfold.  Dr. Frankenstein is fascinated by all things scientific.  His family sees that he has talent in this area and they insist he get extended education and experience, which he does.

At first Dr. Frankenstein is motivated by the ability to help people, to affect a positive change in the world.  But slowly, this motivate gets twisted into a hunger for the fame and acclaim he will get for being able to rid humanity of illness.  In this state of mind, he meats another scientist of his day, who shows him the ropes, so to speak, about doing scientific exploration.  It sounded from the book that this type of cutting edge scientific exploration was done in the proverbial “garage labs” — sort of like where Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started out.

I won’t give away any of the details of what happens from this point forward because this is the story.  Everyone knows, of course, that he creates this monster that is known world wide by the name of Frankenstein.  But there is much more to the story than that.

As a reader, I had the usual struggle of reading “British” idioms and colloquialisms.  I get the feeling that I’m missing something at times when I’m reading English writers.  There was also the tiny struggle associated with reading a book that was written so long ago.  The language changes and it’s easy to miss things.  I kept with it.  With my Kindle highlighter, I kept track of all the characters and the plot points.

I would say this was a moral gothic tale about mankind overstepping our bounds scientifically.  It was also a moral story about how the absence of virtue and living a life based on revenge can destroy people.

I enjoyed the book and did learn a lot about the gothic genre from it.   Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was one of the first gothic books, one of the books that launched the gothic genre.

REVIEW BY AUTHOR:

Structurally, the book opened with a series of letters back and forth between I believe Dr. Frankenstein and his sister.  I say “I believe” because I find myself not always “sure” of things when it’s a British writer.  I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but in any event, the series of letters was a vehicle of dropping information about the backdrop of the story.

I have seen this method used many, many times in books today and always notice what the purpose of the letter-structure is.  It added a bit of interest and intrigue into layout out the backdrop of the drama that was about to unfold.

The next part of the book reveals Dr. Frankenstein as quite a young man.  He is filled with excitement and an unquenchable thirst for scientific knowledge.  As stated earlier, he had all the best intentions in the beginning, but somewhere during his “forming” as a scientist, his ego took over and he stepped over the line.  He develops the ability to give life to the lifeless and decides to create a man — I mean, why not?   Well, it doesn’t go exactly as expected.

The main story is about how this experiment affected the creature as well as Dr. Frankenstein.  The doctor’s knowledge stopped at how to create a creature, but he didn’t know how to care for and love a creature.

From a Christian perspective, his ego led him down the path of arrogance.  He is overconfident and this blinds him to the fact that he has now crossed the line into “God’s domain”, the creation of life.  As just stated, although he was able to give life to this creature, he wasn’t able to care for him or provide a world where anyone could care for him.  It shows the limitations of mankind and the disaster that occurs when arrogant men play God.

The story is about what happens to Dr. Frankenstein, his family and the creature.  It is also a statement, although very subtle, of how the absence of virtue mixed with an obsession for vengeance can destroy a person’s life, even their family’s lives.

Again, as an author, I couldn’t help but be so impressed with what young Mary Shelly was capable of not only understanding but her ability to craft a story around some very difficult issues.

It is a must read for anyone interested in the gothic genre.  I would highly recommend it.

SOME MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM THE PATIENT:

  • “. . . but it is the custom of the Irish to hate villains”
  • “I pursued him, and for many months this has been my task. Guided by a slight clue, I followed the windings of the Rhone, but vainly . . .”
  • “She was a hired nurse, the wife of one of the turnkeys, and her countenance expressed all those bad qualities which often characterize that class.”

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

  • She perished on the scaffold as a murderess.
  • . . . sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene.
  • The soil was barren scarcely affording pasture for a few miserable cows and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which consisted of five persons, whose gaunt and scaggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable fare.
  • . . . hardly conscious of its extreme profundity until my ear was arrested by the paddling of oars near the shore . . .
  • A few fishing vessels alone specked the water
  • the gentle breeze wafted the sound of voices as the fisherman called to one another.
  • . . . astonishment was exhibited in my countenance,
  • . . . languishing in death, the dark orbs nearly covered by the lids and the long black lashes that fringed them;
  • He wished me to seek amusement in society. I abhorred the face of man.
  • The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck . . .
  • wandering ministers of vengeance
  • I now related my history briefly but with firmness and precision, marking the dates with accuracy and never deviating into invective or exclamation.
  • Everything was silent except the leaves of the trees, which were gently agitated by the wind; the night was nearly dark, and the scene would have been solemn and affecting even to an uninterested observer.
  • He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events;

Book Review – The Patient

Book Title: The Patient
Author:  Jasper DeWitt
Description from Amazon.com:

The Silent Patient by way of Stephen King: Parker, a young, overconfident psychiatrist new to his job at a mental asylum miscalculates catastrophically when he undertakes curing a mysterious and profoundly dangerous patient. 

In a series of online posts, Parker H., a young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England. Through this internet message board, Parker hopes to communicate with the world his effort to cure one bewildering patient.We learn, as Parker did on his first day at the hospital, of the facility’s most difficult, profoundly dangerous case—a forty-year-old man who was originally admitted to the hospital at age six. This patient has no known diagnosis. His symptoms seem to evolve over time. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide.

Desperate and fearful, the hospital’s directors keep him strictly confined and allow minimal contact with staff for their own safety, convinced that releasing him would unleash catastrophe upon the outside world. Parker, brilliant and overconfident, takes it upon himself to discover what ails this patient and finally cure him. But from his first encounter with the mysterious patient, things spiral out of control and, facing a possibility beyond his wildest imaginings, Parker is forced to question everything he thought he knew.

Fans of Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes and Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World will be riveted by Jasper DeWitt’s astonishing debut.

REVIEW AS A READER:

I researched “best psychological thrillers” on Bard.google.com and this book, The Patient, came up as number one.  I read through the Amazon description, but I chose it based on Bard’s recommendation.

The psychological mystery and drama started from the first page.  The mystery was subtle at first, but it was definitely there.  I was hooked and wanted to know more from the first page.  The story unfolded slowly but it was never boring.

Reading the book was like driving on long winding roads, not knowing the ultimate destination, and also not being sure what lay right around the bend.  The drama moved along without stop.  The story never sagged or drove off onto some boring side road.  The mystery and suspense were constant.

There was an intimacy in the story as some of it was written in first person.  Other parts were written in third person where the story took on more of a bird’s eye view and a bit of narration.  It all worked and added to the mystique of the book.

I did feel that at the end of the book, the ending veered off into a bit of unexpected sci-fi or fantasy I was not expecting, but it was still an enjoyable book from start to finish.

REVIEW BY AUTHOR:

The book was written well, and I highlighted several phrases that were memorable.  I have them listed below.  I learned a lot about presenting a psychological drama for the reader and how to subtly suggest that there was something “off” about people, places and/or things.

I learned about weaving the psychological plotline into the mystery itself as I did notice that there needed to be a timeline that coincided with someone’s hospitalization.  I always thought of psychological suspense stories as one kind of book, but I learned from reading The Patient that a crime/mystery timeline supported the story and the psychological elements weaved all throughout this spinal timeline.  I found this very helpful as an author myself.

I also learned about how “withholding information from the reader” worked in a psychological mystery.  I always feel obligated to reveal everything to the reader, but this is not necessary.  Withholding some parts of the truth add to the ultimate surprise and satisfaction of the reader.  It’s not dishonesty, but rather more of a slight of hand for the benefit of the story.

This story was very original.  It didn’t read like a remake of some other popular novel  — at least I didn’t see anything like that.  The originality of the storyline, as well as the unwrapping of the greater mystery, held my interest the entire way, to the last page.

I would recommend this book to any reader of psychological mysteries.  I would even recommend this to medical mystery readers.

SOME MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM THE PATIENT:

  • “. . . her voice carrying a faint lilt that I recognized as Irish,”
  • “So forcing my frustration down to a simmer, I gave him the most deferential nod I could manage.  It seemed to appease him.”
  • “This was the sort of place where pain of any kind was either flushed out with medication and trips to boutique psychiatrists or kept at a respectable distance with copious expenditures.  It was, in short, a place where anything unpleasant, let alone a supernatural horror, had been ruthlessly gentrified out of sight and out of mind.”
  • “He spun around with military precision . . .”
  • “She had a kindness to her, but it was girded with such naturally aristocratic steel that I imagined she’s been born ringing a bell to summon servants.”

 

Book Review – Sparkling Cyanide

Name:  Sparkling Cyanide
Author:  Agatha Christie
Description from Amazon:

Review as a Reader:

I knew from the Amazon description that this was going to be a whodunit, so I was excited to start reading this one.  Agatha Christie is the master of locked-room whodunits and I knew this would keep me guessing.  I also knew I would learn a lot as an author.  Ms. Christie did not disappoint in this novel.

There was great character development in this book.  With seven seats at the dinner table, I wasn’t expecting the level of character development that was achieved in this book.  Several of the characters were fleshed out so well that they lingered in my memory after I finished the book.  The psychological underpinnings of the story added to the overall mystery as well as enriching the story.

The story never sagged.  The mystery and psychological drama was constant from beginning to end.  The story moved on every page.  I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys mysteries and suspense and I would call it a must-read for anyone who likes locked-door mysteries.

Review as an Author:

Instead of calling this section a review by an author, it should be more properly renamed “what I learned by reading Agatha Christie” because I learned a lot in this book.

The first lesson was the different story structure that was chosen for this novel.  The book started with a hint of a crime that took place and a dinner that was to take place one year later.  Then the book divided into chapters named after the characters.  These chapters fleshed out the character and what relationship they had with Rosemary.  I had never seen this type of format before but noticed that it worked in setting up the dinner scene.

I would never have dreamed of laying out a novel with this structure but it worked.  I would say it went beyond working well.  It allowed each of the characters to be flushed out, but there were fully-fleshed out subplots that occurred in this part of the book.

Often times,  as a reader, if there are more than three or four characters, I can’t remember who everyone is as they are mentioned once or twice every so often.  However, this structure made remembering everyone much easier as each section was devoted to one or two characters and how they were connected to Rosemary and what the subplot with them was.   This format also allowed the history of the relationships to be referenced and it enhanced the depth of the story.

About 3/4 of the way through the book, the mystery dinner takes place and there is a surprising plot twist.  A deeper mystery ensues and suddenly, all the little subtle foreshadowings dropped early on in the book come into play.

I won’t spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t read the book, but I would highly recommend this book to mystery  and whodunit lovers.  I would also recommend this book to new authors who are looking to learn as they read.  This novel has a lot to learn about novel developmental formatting, subtle foreshadowing and plot twists.  There’s also lots to learn from Agatha Christie in terms of writing prose as well as characterizations.    This novel is a treasure trove for new authors who like to learn as they read.

All in all, I really liked this book and will pick up another Agatha Christie soon!

GREAT PHRASES FROM SPARKLING CYANIDE:

  • “Glimpses of the past came back — brief flashes — short scenes.”
  • “Something in the easy feline grace with which he danced lent substance to the nickname ‘Leopard’.”
  • ” . . . well masked behind an agreeable devilry.”
  • “He looked at her, laughing.  She ought, she felt, to have been revolted.  But the strength of V. Drake was the strength of the devil.  He could make evil seem amusing.  He was looking at her now with that uncanny penetration.”
  • “He liked putting ideas into people’s heads.  Or, as in this case, showing them the ideas that were already there . . .”
  • “He looked at her with eyes from which the last traces of scales had fallen.”
  • “He was her life her existence.  Love burned in her with a medieval force.”
  • “Housekeeping for her father, she had stiffened into a pronounced spinsterhood.”
  • “He was the cat’s-paw of wicked men who exploited his innocence.”
  • “Neighbors are so important in the country.  One has either to be rude or friendly; one can’t, as in London, just keep people as amiable acquaintances.”

Above is only about 1/3 of the phrases I had highlighted in this book!  Like I said earlier, it’s a must read!

 

Book Review – The Last Sceance

Name:  The Last Séance
Author:  Agatha Christie
Short Story:  33 pages

Description from Amazon:  Raoul Daubreuil insists his fiancée give up her activities as a talented and successful medium when they marry. However, he agrees to attend what is to be her last séance—with Madame Exe. But even Raoul can’t foresee the tragedy ahead.

Review as a Reader:

This was a short story and a quick read.  I’m not usually a reader of short stories but I chose to read one by Agatha Christie before taking on another novel.  The last Christie novel I started to read was a Hercule Poirot novel.  He’s not my favorite character and part of the problem is he’s too British.  I find myself not understanding a lot of what Hercule says and it was a struggle because of the differences in idioms, etc.  I gave up reading the Hercule novel because I felt like I was losing the plot too often.

But The Last Séance was a quick and easy read.  It allowed me to clean my reading palate after the Poirot experience.   Although this short story was enjoyable, it didn’t have any profound message and none of the characters lingered after finishing the novel.

Review as an Author:

Going into the book, I was looking for tips on writing short stories in general.  What I learned after finishing the book was that this short story circled one event and only one event.  The characters in this book were one dimensional.  I’m assuming creating more complex characters may be hard due to the short story format, but I believe a two-dimensional character would be possible.  I’m wondering if short stories in general are more “plot-driven” and this one-event format is how it works.

I have read a few gothic short stories previous to this one and I sense that genre allows for a bit more characterization, especially if there is a psychological plotline.

So all in all, it’s my opinion that The Last Séance was written very well, like all of the Christie books.  I learned a bit about the shorter plotline used in short stories and the book was enjoyable.  I would recommend this book to someone who is going on a trip and needs something quick and easy to read where there may be a lot of distractions.   It wasn’t hard to follow.  The plotline is simple but enjoyable.  I would also recommend this to any caretakers who are waiting in a doctor’s office, etc. as this can be read in one sitting.

 

 

Book Review – The CoWorker

BookReview-TheCoworkerName:  The CoWorker
Author:  Freida McFadden
Description from Amazon: “Don’t start a Freida McFadden book late at night. You won’t be able to put it down!”― Natalie Barelli, bestselling author of Unforgivable.

Two women. An office filled with secrets. One terrible crime that can’t be taken back.

Dawn Schiff is strange.  At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m.

So when Dawn doesn’t show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell―beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running―is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything…

It turns out Dawn wasn’t just an awkward outsider―she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who’s the real victim?

But one thing is incredibly clear: somebody hated Dawn Schiff.

Enough to kill.

The Coworker is a tense, unputdownable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden that explores the dark ways the past can echo through the present―with deadly consequences.

REVIEW AS A READER:  This book was very enjoyable.  The suspense and mystery started from the beginning and kept up the entire way through.  There was a twist or two throughout the story, enough to keep me guessing the entire way through.

The writing was great.  The pacing was consistent and the story moved the entire way through.  With over 39,000 reviews, and a 4.1 rating, the book deserves every 5-star review it received.

REVIEW AS AN AUTHOR:  Before I read this book, I looked through the reviews as I’m always curious what the 1-star people have to say.  The only 1-star I remember is someone who got annoyed that the turtles were mentioned too much.  That rater missed the whole point.   I didn’t feel that way at all.  I loved the character with the turtles and the mentioning of the turtles was crucial regarding the autism of the character.  The author did a great job in capturing and showing this autism, which is not easy.

The narrative and descriptions were very good.  I never lost track of who was talking, which means there were plenty of dialogue tags where needed.  As a fellow author, I was watching for foreshadowing and it was very, very subtle in this book.  I always feel like the foreshadowing needs to be a big flapping red flag, but I learned reading this book that subtle foreshadowing is okay.  It works.

There was a twist in the end that I was not expecting.  I had a feeling that one of my favorite characters wasn’t going to have a good ending, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The best lesson and take away as an author was the psychological aspect of the suspense as well as how well the autism was handled in a narrative as well as the dialogue.  There was a lot to learn from the book pacing as well.   I would highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a psychological mystery suspense.

Book Review – The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova


BookReview-TheHistorianName:  The Historian

Author:  Elizabeth Kostova
Description from Amazon:  Breathtakingly suspenseful and beautifully written, The Historian is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family’s past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe—in a feat of storytelling so rich, so hypnotic, so exciting that it has enthralled readers around the world.

Pages:  704 pages

REVIEW AS A READER:

I chose this book because Google Bard said it was “the best selling vampire book.”  When I started reading it, I immediately fell in love with the author’s prose.   Elizabeth Kostova has one of the best writing styles of anyone I’ve ever read.  I would describe her prose as lyrical.  She also has a way of ‘anchoring the reader’ in the scene by using these descriptive anchors in almost every sentence.  I never felt myself hanging in mid air not knowing where we were.

The element of suspense was ever present as the story started and went on.  I was enjoying the book immensely until I reached about page 400.  By that time, the story got way too long and I lost interest.  Even though I liked the characters in the beginning, I didn’t love the characters enough to keep going for 704 pages.  So I abandoned the book a little more than half way.  I also abandoned it because it turned out to be a well-researched Davinci Code journey from pillar to post, which I find mostly exhausting.

I would, however, try another book from this author as I do love her writing style.

REVIEW AS A WRITER: 

My review as a writer is a bit more harsh.  I still reiterate that Ms. Kostova has a magnificent writing style.  As noted above, her prose was lyrical and artistic.  I loved it.  Her writing style and thoroughness of research are her strong points.

I could tell about fifteen percent into the book that this story was superimposed on the plotline of The Davinci Code.  I thought The Davinci Code was a bit overrated, both as a book and the movie, so I could tell at this early point that I was in for this globe-trotting journey with a never-ending list of “surprise interruptions”.   Because I’m not interested in this plotline, the author in me lost interest before the reader in me.

That being said, I also was expecting an actual vampire story.  This expectation didn’t come from the author or the book’s description, so I don’t pin this expectation on the author or even the publishing company.  I asked Bard.google.com to give me a list of the best vampire books and The Historian came up as number one.  I really wanted an actual vampire book at the time and this was something very different.

As stated above, this was a long booby-trapped journey too similar to The Davinci Code and I just lost interest and decided not to finish at around page 400.

As a new author myself, I have watched writing videos warning authors who do research to avoid the temptation to fill up the book with extra research “just because you can”.  I believe the story in The Historian could have been told in 300 pages and it would have only needed to have irrelevant research removed.

All in all, even though I chose not to finish it, based on the story itself — especially if you enjoy the Davinci Code — it was a great book.  I would highly recommend it to people who loved the Davinci Code.  I would recommend it to people who like historical fiction.  But I would not recommend it to readers who are lo

 

 

Writer’s Diary – Book Review – The Picture of Dorian Gray

Picture of Dorian Gray

Book Title:  The Picture of Dorian Gray

By:  Oscar Wilde

Length:  232 Pages

Genre – Categories:  Gothic Fiction  | Classic Literary Fiction

We’ll start with the actual description from Amazon and then I will give my review as a reader first, and then as an author of some gothic fiction and mystery romance fiction.  I h

Summary from Amazon: 

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is an enduring masterpiece of gothic horror, exploring the corruption of humanity, our desire to sin, and the extremes vanity will lead us to.

Young, handsome, and privileged, Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by the talented Basil Hallward. When Sir Henry Wotton convinces Dorian of the need to indulge in one’s own vanity and to take advantage of his good looks, the young man makes a wish that could become his downfall when he exchanges his soul for eternal youth. As Dorian lives out a selfishly decadent lifestyle, he remains the picture of a perfect gentleman to those around him, but his portrait displays the consequences of an ageing and sinful existence.

First published in 1890 and written with Oscar Wilde’s alluring wit and breathtaking imagery, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a timeless Gothic tragedy, perfect for those interested in classic fantasy and horror.

READER REVIEW:  I liked the book very much.  It had the usual classic feel to it.  You can tell it was written in another era by the language and the descriptions of the surrounding society.  It was a societal commentary about the wealthy and how frivolous their lives can be.  It was also a statement about how one person can negatively influence another human being and change the course of one’s life.  I found this message very strong and Wilde made his point.

The characters were not openly Christian and their lives were filled with sinfulness, so to speak.  However, there was reference to the “Christianity in the air” that still existed at that time, in particular about good vs. evil.  There was also a strong sense of right vs wrong and how the conscience haunts us, whether a person is religious or not.  There is a Christian belief that God writes His laws on everyone’s heart and the experience of guilt by the non-religious is always a sign of this truth.  This was very strong in this storyline.

AUTHOR REVIEW:  As a reader and an author, I couldn’t help notice how the language had “aged” and how it would be harder to read for younger people.  I also noticed that many of the idioms and references were uniquely British, so as an American, I’m sure many of them went right over my head.  As an author, I think it’s important to remember that not all readers will be able to understand all idioms and colloquialisms within the story.

Some of the descriptions within The Picture of Dorian Gray made certain parts of the story hard to read.  I found myself having to reread certain passages as I began to lose the plotline.

On one hand the idioms and the societal descriptions had a lot to do with setting the stage for the snobbery that Oscar Wilde described so perfectly.  But in today’s modern world, it could potentially be a point where a modern reader gets bored and moves onto the next book in their kindle.

GREAT LINES FROM THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Picture of Dorian Gray

  • “The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion — these are the two things that govern us.  And yet –“
  • “As he thought of it, a sharp pang of pain struck through him like a knife and made each delicate fibre of his nature quiver.  His eyes deepened into amethyst, and across them came a mist of tears.  He felt as if a hand of ice had been laid upon his heart.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Do you have any opinions on The Picture of  Dorian Gray?  If so, please feel free to post it on my social media feeds:

https://www.facebook.com/RShannonAuthor

 

 

Writer’s Diary – Book Review – The Case at Barton Manor

Book-Review-The-Case-Barton-ManorThis is not so much a book review of the story written by Emily Queen, but more about what I, as an author, learned from reading it.  To me, this fits more into a reader’s diary, but I’m calling it a book review more to categorize it for my blog readers.  The name of the book is The Case at Barton Manor , a 1920s Murder Mystery by Emily Queen.

This was a historical mystery, which is not my favorite genre, but I was sold by the cover, which pulled me in right away.  I love this art form and the book just appealed to me.  Although I’m not a historical fiction fan, I do love the fashions of the 1920s and I thought this would be a fun read.

As an author, it’s also a confirmation of what every how-to-sell-books video has said:  The book sales depend greatly on the covers and the story descriptions.

READABILITY:

I found the book a little harder to read because it was a historical mystery.  It was harder than a  contemporary mystery romance.  I believe it is because the language was a bit more formal, which is an accurate reflection of the historical timeframe.  I give the author A+ because the language was a good reflection of how much more formal people spoke back in the 1920s.  I just noted, as a reader, that it did make it harder to read and took me longer to finish.  I found myself having to reread certain parts to make sure I understood what was going on.

The only criticism I have about the book is that by around the 60% mark, I had to go back and make a written list of who everyone was and what role they played in the story.  I’m not certain this was even about how the book was written.  This may be just a reflection that my mind was wandering too much as I read this story.  But I came away noting that maybe as an author, I need to mention the character’s name and reference their job or something relevant about them and refer to this once or twice more, especially if they fall to the background during certain parts of the story.

This is not the first time that somewhere in the middle of the book I’ve had to go back and make a list of who everyone in the story is.  I’m not easily discouraged as a reader, but many readers can be.  When I read another author’s book, I look for things that would stop a reader from reading and I believe getting mixed up as to who everyone is could be a reason to say ‘forget it’ and move onto the next book.

What I learned as I went back through the book to make my list is that the characters were mentioned by name and usually something about them that was noteworthy in the overall story.  So there was no fault for that.  But the characters would fall to the back of the story, so to speak, and then when they were mentioned again, I really had forgotten who they were.  That’s why by 60% through the story, I had about three characters I had completely forgotten who they were.

So my author’s note is:  When there are more than 3 or 4 characters, I would find a way to reference not only their names a second and third time, but reference something about them as a refresher to how they fit in the story.  This sounds easy, right?  But this is a fine line to walk as readers who have no trouble keeping track of multiple characters would find this technique repetitive.  As I read other books, I will now notice how the authors handle characters who are introduced early on and then make a re-appearance later in the story.  I know for sure that one quick mention of a character’s name is not enough to implant it into the reader’s mind.   I’m sure this lesson will be helpful in my own work.

THE STORY ITSELF:

The Case at Barton Manor is classic who-done-it murder mystery.  It made me think of Agatha Christie as I read it.  So if you are a fan of that style of who-done-it, you will love this book.

The mystery and suspense of who committed the murder kept me reading all the way to the end when the real culprit is revealed.  The story, as well as the prose, held my interest as a reader all the way through.  The story never lagged or veered off into too much history or too much commentary.  The history was peppered throughout the story perfectly.  The story moved from beginning to end.

Historical mysteries always have a bit of history running though them, and Emily Queen doesn’t disappoint.  So fans of historical mysteries will love this one.

BRITISH ENGLISH TERMS:

Kudos to Ms. Queen for including a list of British-to-English translation on common words and terms that are different between the English dialects.  For example, a drugstore is referred to as a Chemist.  The word ‘daft’ means a bit stupid or silly.  A yard is referred to as a garden.  A jumper is a sweater in American English.  This was very helpful and it was listed in the Table of Contents.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

  • “We cannot arrive too early, dear,” her mother said as if she coined the term ‘fashionably late.’
  • Often accused of callousness, Vera followed her mother’s example and let the opinions of most roll off her back like inconsequential raindrops.
  • . . . let her shrug off some of the mantle of sadness constantly draped over her shoulders.
  • . . . though there was a tightness around her eyes to attest she still had a lot on her mind.
  • . . . plus an air of unattainability that many women seemed to want to challenge.
  • Every eye in the room seemed trained on Mrs. Blackburn; most of the men’s wide with appreciation, while many of the women’s narrowed to slits of envy.
  • Mrs. Barton said, her back ramrod straight in her chair, while she wrung her fingers nervously.
  • . . . there is another side to that simpering excuse for a man.

The above lines of prose are only about 25% of the ones I had saved to read again.  Great lines all throughout the book.

There are six books in this series and I have the next one on my “next up” list.

 

 

 

Writer’s Diary – Book Review – Dead for Good

dead-for-good-coverWHAT I LEARNED READING Dead for Good by Stacy Claflin with Nolon King:

I left a five star review as the book was well worth the read.  It was well written, the prose was good and easy to read.  This book held my interest and the action started on Page 1.

I would classify this book as a psychological thriller.  What I found most clever about the book is that all of the suspense was inside the family home, with a little help from some outside neighbors.  The plotline was very believable and it worked throughout the story.

The author/authors created characters who had a lot to do during the story but also had a lot of depth to them as well.

The only criticism I have is that the ending was not so much a twist as more of a ‘out of nowhere’ kind of resolution.  There was no real foreshadowing of the dual side to the culprit.  I will keep it very vague in case anyone reading this would want to read the book, which I would highly recommend.

I’m no expert on plot twists, but most of the YouTube Teachers suggest that a surprise ending needs to be foreshadowed somewhere in the story, so the reader says, ah, yes, I should have seen that.  That is the one thing I didn’t really feel in this read.  I felt the true culprit kind of just popped up in the end to surprise the reader but wasn’t foreshadowed in any way.

That was my only criticism.  I still gave this book a 5 star on Amazon because I believe my criticism only came from me being an author and looking for these things.  My guess from the reviews on this book is that normal readers didn’t even catch the lack of foreshadowing I’m referring to here.  The character was written into the beginning of the story, and that was enough for the normal readers.

This was also a great psychological thriller without having a psychiatrist or psychologist in the plot.  The whole thing worked well within the one family.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

~ We’re in this together.  Always and forever.

~ People tended to only focus on the good in the deceased as if death automatically diluted the truth.

SUMMARY:

I highly recommend Dead for Good.  It gets high marks for great plot, great characters and readability.  This book’s action started literally on Page 1 and kept up until the very end.  It didn’t sag once.