5 Stars for The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a great novel. The basic premise is about young 13-year-old Theo Decker, who loses his mother and the journey he takes to discover some semblance of happiness, but this book is so much more. Thematically it weaves fate, coincidence, choice and grief into a message of light and hope found in a painting: The Goldfinch. Stolen and trapped in darkness, this painting in need of so much light is very similar to Theo's sadness and very dismal view of the world. Theo seems to always walk through certain half deserted streets, but he he's certain to make choices that appear to have insidious intent ending in murder both physically and psychological. This is Theo's love song written in Tartt's clear but poetic voice leaving the reader feeling every cut and bruise felt by Theo, but we also totally feel when Theo finds shimmers of happiness on his off days when he's not being totally self-destructive. You see it in his friendship with Borris, a terribly flawed friend who offers him compassion when he needs it most. You see it his friendship with Hobbie, a man of honor and respect and something Theo's own father seems very absent of. You see it in the father-son relationship when Theo absolutely hates his dad contrasting his absolute love of his mom. You see in his love of Pippa. You see it finally in Theo, a boy who journeyed to manhood though the dark hand of fate and the consequences of his impulsive actions. This is a book that will rip your soul out chaining it right next to the Goldfinch in the painting until the very end. This makes you question coincidence alongside the possibilities of choice. Theo's friend, Borris does an excellent job of explaining the short lived possibilities of life and how important it is to hold on to a single light from a chained up bird. I highly recommend this book. If you've never loved, you will after reading this book.  

5 Stars for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

 After reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, I turned my china cabinet into a bookshelf. I can't help but think this is a Jane Eyre move that reflects the practical and the individual. It is a small thing, and certainly can't be compared to the choices Miss Eyre made in the novel, but it is a starting point to becoming my own personal heroine. This book is thick with the Victorian Era emphasising the limitations of women during this time which is why Jane is so heroic. She makes honest choices of  spirit, and heart within her strong moral code of ethics. Her choices often deny her happiness, love, and family, but she stands by her choices. She is a lady deserving of great admiration and happiness. I strongly recommend this book to both men and women who wrestle with spirit and love under the scrutiny of ethics. Perhaps you will find yourself Eyre-like. 

5 Stars for The Patient by Jasper DeWitt

 

The Patient by Jasper DeWitt will make you sleep with the light on ...if you sleep at all after reading it. It is a slow boil of psychological horror that will rip your soul from the blanket of illusion that blinds us to the supernatural. Retelling this story is Parker, a young psychologist with real compassion and an insatiable curiosity. He tells the story of The Patient with a mysterious, sadistic history. Out of respect for privacy, Parker doesn't use real names of the people in the story and often people are only referred to with an initial. The authenticity of his tale begins rather ludicrous, but as he unravels the mystery of the patient, it becomes every bit real ending with thick ambiguity questioning the fabric of reality. I am left thinking of my own ghosts. At 11, I swore to my mother a ghost came out of the wall of my bedroom. DeWitt now makes me wonder if it might have really happened. I highly recommend The Patient by Jasper DeWitt. It will scare you back to childhood. 

Four Stars for Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

 

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is beautifully written with imagery bent on heartbreak lingering in your mind long after you read it. I read it years ago, but revisited it recently because I plan to teach it. At 21, I would have easily rated this book a 5, but now I found the POV jumps jarring. I also found the writing gorgeous, yes but a little disjointed. The premise of the book is about Pecola, a young black girl who thinks blue eyes can make her loveable. Pecola defines herself as ugly and this is as far as her characterization goes. She is every girl, white or black, who desires to be something they are not. Of course, at a younger age I related more to her. I hadn't yet accepted my flaws as part of what makes me unique. Funny, at one point growing up, I wished for blue eyes. So, naturally I wanted Pecola to find her inner beauty and accept her flaws as truth and with grace. Pecola doesn't really tell her own story, instead we understand her through well-developed characters existing in her world. Her mother and father's stories were lined with fear, desire, abandonment, and cruelty so much so they failed to love Pecola. Here you start to see why Pecola wants the blue eyes. Towards the end of the story, Morrison throws in a random character, Soapchurch, a sham mystic. Soap is suppose to grant Pecola her blue eyes, and you have to read several pages of Soap's history before you find out whether or not The Bluest Eye will go all mystic and give Pecola her blue eyes or not. Soap was really a creepy character and I wish Morrison could have left his history out. This is the biggest place this story went sideways for me. The Bluest Eye is a journey of self-discovery, but not only Pecola's journey. Everyone in the story is searching for self-acceptance, too many in fact. In the end, Morrison still deserves the notoriety. Her writing makes you examine, analysis, and accept or not the deeper questions about who we think we are. The Bluest Eye is her first book. Since, she wrote other great novels. Her book, Tar Baby is my absolute favorite, but I wonder if I read it now would it have less allure for me because thematically Tar Baby is about a young woman breaking out of the shackles the world often places on women and their stereotypical roles in society, at least that is how I saw it in my early twenties studying art and religion and searching for my place in the world defining my femininity with a new definition with every new nugget of knowledge. Thinking back now, I think Morrison helped me accept myself without Blue Eyes and the Tar Baby within my white shell. So, despite the disjointed nature of her first book, The Bluest Eye, I still highly recommend her novels. As far as Oprah goes, I don't really care. I was reading Morrison long before I even knew Oprah.

Five Stars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a frightening book about alleged insanity and abuse of power. Told by Chief Bromden, the silent Indian in an insanity institution, the reader gets the inside scoop on conman Randall McMurphy and Ice Queen Nurse Ratched. Written in 1859, this book rails against the rules of modern society particularly WASP - White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or really any kind of institution that cripples the individual. Randall McMurphy is the hero of this book, flawed, yes, and maybe even insane, but his character is so beautifully written one can't help but root for him. However, Nurse Ratched, Big Nurse (Big Brother) is the villain. We are not suppose to root for her, but reading this book for a second time, I found pity for her. She is oppressed by the rules governed by order and routine. She is not an individual but a society stiff in its own oppression. I even found myself not feeling sorry for Mr. McMurphy because part of me found him to be insane and worse in a forever state of despair which is largely worse. In the end, I found Chief Bromden as my personal hero. Yes, great book and one that is not forgotten. 

5 Stars for Don Quixote

I started this book in March and finished it in August. It is indeed a long book, but one that I often put on rewind, because "Knight Errant" Don Quixote and squire Sancho Panza's adventures were an unbelievable buffoonery. I love it! He did what? Quixote thought an inn is a castle and windmills giants. Really? It reminded me of Monty Python's In Search of the Holy Grail. I could not stop laughing and reread much of it just to laugh again at it.

Further, I often tell my students that nothing is original. Everything stems from the Bible, Homer, or Shakespeare, but now I have to include Cervantes. The puns on Panza's parables and general speech were so familiar to me in movies and books I've read. This story generally felt like an old friend and darkly humorous.

After awhile in the book, Panza's buffoonery wore on me and was not as funny, and my feelings of Quixote became admirable because of his intense insane sense of doing right against the wrongs in the world. He was genuinely a good guy despite being crazy. Not to spoil, but I was not happy with the Duke and Duchess. How dare you?

I fell in love with this book and will read it more than once. Yes, it makes fun of knights but it doesn't make fun of what they stand for and it is that irony that makes Cervantes brilliant.

A big thanks to my brother-in-law for this recommendation!

4 Stars for The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Power by Naomi Alderman takes science fiction to a level of realism that looks like a Francis Bacon painting. The particular Bacon painting that comes to mind is "Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X," painted in 1953. Without the history behind this painting, it is a man who is fading in power. The Power is like that. Men lose their power as women become stronger, shooting lightning with the flick of their fingers. It's beautiful, mesmerizing, but terrifying. I did not see this book as particularly feminist despite the concept, but a book about power and what each individual does with it. I love how Alderman analysis power outside of gender, "The shape of power is always the same: it is infinite, it is complex, it is forever branching." I was also intrigued by the biblical references of the snake(aka skein), the rescue of Israel, and Mother Eve. It definitely makes the reader ponder rooted ideas about the beginnings of power in the same way I did when I read Margaret Atwood's poem, "Quattrocento". Despite, the excellent concept and plot making, I enjoyed Roxy's character the most. She is a Joan Jett bad ass singing Love Hurts through the novel. I greatly appreciated her resilience. Overall, this book was close to a five star review from me, but the beginning dragged with exposition and I did not get into some very onion peeling worth characters until much later. I absolutely recommend this book to men and women because we all need to question what power means to each one of us.

4 Stars for The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood

The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood by Coral Ann Howells was recommended to me by a friend and colleague who teaches Atwood poems to advanced students. I plan to teach The Handmaid's Tale this year and wanted more insight into it. I also want to use more of Atwood's poetry that is not easily accessible with a quick online search. Often students will look up the meaning of a poem or novel and this squashes their initial critical thinking. Generally, I like to read a novel first with only my third eye. 

I enjoyed the essay, Blindness and survival in Margaret Atwood's major novels, by Sharon R. Wilson. Wilson illustrated an insightful approach to novels like Oryx and Crake and Cat's Eye. I will have to read Oryx and Crake now, but I still did not connect with Cat's Eye. I really didn't like the narrator, Elaine, despite the interesting survival journey Atwood presented. I just don't like an emotionless character, even when the writer picked a palette of greys that lead to a marble in a red pocketbook, an insufficient ending. Offred in Handmaid's Tale also seemed void of emotion, but the situation made her character work for me rather than Elaine's. Offred had a reason to become indifferent. Her choices were eliminated. Elaine seemed to have too much choice. 

Novels aside, I also enjoyed Branko Gorjup's Margaret Atwood's poetry and poetics. I adore Atwood's poem, Quattrocento. The line, "The kingdom of god is within you/because you ate it." Gorjup says, "Eve is metamorphosed into a true protean self as the whole of a diverse creation disappears into her and she is a free agent now, alive with possibility."

Eve as a free agent is fantastical. 

I ended up with a four star rating for this, because some of it I did not understand as well as I would have liked on a first read, but I've only read three Atwood novels and a few poems. I will have to change that. 

5 Stars for All the Rage #4 Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson

All the Rage #4 Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson is not a new generation thing, but more of a catchy title for a new gym filled with psycho steroid driven folks. So far, in the series, Repairman Jack has faced mythical monsters, the otherness, medical miracles, but this 4th book leads Jack to face a new beast - much closer to him. Top five reasons you should read All the Rage:

5. This book is All the Rage and you really can't fully experience it without the other 3 books preceding this one. But, it seriously can be read as a stand alone.
4. Ironic tire in the sky killing.
3. The Ozymandias Prather Oddity Emporium2. There is a Dragon-ovic.1. Loki and shapeshifting

Just Jack, gotta love him! 

4 Stars for Bunny by Mona Awad

Bunny by Mona Awad felt like a ride in Alice's Wonderland except one bunny was a collective whole of a group of privileged paper doll cutouts of girls writing at a school Fitzgerald worthy. Sam, the main character, stands out not like Gatsby more a mirror meditating on the opposite wall gazing at the bunny deciding whether or not to follow it(them) down the hole of truth. A definite plot in this story is deliberately ignored, because where Sam ends up and what she wants is unclear. This is a journey in the mind of a writer and you have to decipher the real from the unreal, characters from real people. This story turns dark with shimmers of light on short blades of grass. The writing is beautiful and very Atwood, so I love it. I enjoyed the odyssey because the writing often made very mundane daily observations amazing. My four star review came from not liking the ending. It felt cliche' in a book that took risk in being anything but.

4 Stars for The Testaments

The Testaments is not The Handmaid's Tale, but it is well-written and has an Aunt Lydia. The Testaments is told in three perspectives, two teenage girls and Aunt Lydia. Aunt Lydia stole the spotlight in this book. Her perspective made her human, and demanded respect. She was a manipulative, clever witch who created her own broomstick from a strand of straw. She is the reason for my four star rating. One star is subtracted for the two teenage girls. The one girl, no names, who grew up in Canada, came across as a spoiled brat who never seemed to understand the lack of freedom the other girl faced. Aunt Lydia, a true survivor of the times, understood all of it. I started out hating Aunt Lydia, and then my hatred grew to indifference out of pity. Aunt Lydia was a victim not just at the beginning, but throughout her life She constantly had to look over her shoulder for the choices she made. She was a much more complicated villain than the cold heated witch I first pegged her for. The  Testaments is pretty predictable, but who cares, after The Handmaid's Tale I needed something hopeful and a little less dark. I needed the good guys to have some leverage. After watching the show, and reading The Handmaid's Tale I needed a branch to pull me out of my quick sand funk. The Testaments is that branch. I highly recommend reading it!

5 Stars for The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

After watching the Hulu series, I became obsessed with this story - again. I read the book over seventeen years ago. My daughter was not born yet and this year she will be eighteen. Anyways, I read it so long ago I couldn't remember how it ended. When I picked the book back up, my intention was to skip to the ending, but I was drawn into the writing - again, lots of active verbs, dynamic imagery reminding me of a city of ashes contrasting great big Gatsby parties. Of course, the parties were the past, the protagonist, Offred was absent from.

Another clever tactic, Atwood gets rid of quotation marks. This is particularly clever for me as I read because the writing flows into the somber mood of going on forever like Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Atwood is a fantastic writer, but not everyone loves her style. I've never cared for Henry James and all of his misplaced modifiers, but I recognize good writing when I see it and I can appreciate him. Still, I can see some folks hating the loss of the quotation marks, but when you are a great writer and know the rules - you can change them.

Picasso did with Cubism. Faulkner did with the typical linear format, and Walt Whitman did it with free verse. Many things are possible when a good story is at the heart of the writing. And this is a good dystopian tale. I feel there are a great many people who feel this to be impossible, and on some level they could be correct. However, there is the nugget of truth that makes this plausible and very, very scary. That same nugget was found in 1984 and Animal Farm. And in real life, women are often envious of other women who can have children when they cannot. This green-eyed-monster lurks in every dark corner where freedom is at stake.

Several years ago, my grandmother was at my house and my husband came in and made himself a sandwich with a glass of milk. Grandma said, "He makes his own sandwich." And for sometime she stared at him. In The Handmaid's Tale, Luke, Offred's husband from the past, is cooking and Offred's mother remarks that women have come a long way. I don't think Atwood forgets that in this book even in a story where women lose their rights - there was a time they had them. It is that understanding and contrast that makes this story good. They had so much to lose.

This book has over 66 thousand reviews and some of them are 1 point stars, but what I find interesting about those 1 and 2 stars are the length of the reviews. Five star reviews are great, but if you make a reader write a five page 1 star - that says something about great writing, great stories, and great characters.

Another praise to her was her painting of the men in the book as thin as paper dolls. If a woman in Offred's position saw them as more, then that could make them human. I don't feel the men were thin, but Offred could not afford to see them as human. She could not fall in love. She could not want. She could not hope.

I highly recommend this book!

4 Stars for The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is bizarre. This book is nothing like The Librarian movies. It takes a turn from those with brutal bloody killing and talking animals. Plus, the main character - librarian, Carolyn is way smarter. She knows every language there is to know, and some other stuff that makes living longer possible. At first, her silly, little girl nature made me hate her. I almost put the book down within the first 100 pages. But, then Steve came along and his story was more interesting than Carolyn's. So, Steve kept me hanging in with Hawkin's mad hatter library tale. It did feel a bit like Wonderland and tea time went on forever - thus four stars instead of five. Abut mid-way in the book, Steve became depressing -literally and I started to like Carolyn. Her story  began to unfold, and her courage was unbelievably believable. I enjoy a strong female lead. Carolyn was Lady Macbeth and Juliet all rolled into one, but unlike these notable ladies it was hard to predict her possible tragic or comic/cosmic ending especially when her father might be God, the Old Testament one. The Library at Mount Char is definitely worth the read, excellent if not bizarre story telling that makes you question God's motives, but more importantly your freedom to choose.

5 Stars for Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson

Conspiracies, the third book in the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson just keeps getting better. 

Five reasons to read Conspiracies:

1. The paranormal-paranoid elements of the X-Files fly through the pages in UFO splendor.
2. Repairman Jack starts to become a member of The One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Club.
3. Excellent betrayal, although heartbreaking.
4. More Jack humor as he sinks into the loony bin.
5. The plot-arch of the book series takes a real supernatural turn.
Now, I look forward to All The Rage - book 4.

5 Stars for Legacies by F. Paul Wilson

One of the best ways to spend your time during a pandemic is with Repairman Jack. I figure if he can't fix the problem, he can certainly take my mind off of it. Legacies is the second book I've read in the Repairman Jack series and I was not disappointed. As a matter of fact, I plan to buy all of the books in order and savor each one. To encourage others to read these books, I've decided to review each one and give a top 10 list for reasons to read the series and each book in the series.

Top 10 reasons to read the Repairman Jack Series in order

10. Jack seriously reminds me of Dean from Supernatural. He's a resourceful guy with heart. I'd follow him anywhere.
9. It doesn't matter what genre your into, you'll find it with Jack. He explores conspiracy thriller, paranormal mysteries, medical mysteries - you name it, Jack has fixed it.
8. Dialogue is real and funny with spot on allusions I get.
7. Jack's movie collection steals my heart.
6. Jack has a darkness and he gets scared sometimes. Even though everyone loves Superman, its Batman they find the most interesting. A hero should be flawed for me to follow.
5. F. Paul Wilson gets to the point and doesn't load the reader down in exposition.
4. Plots work weaving details from page one to the last page, so that every question is answered in the end. Yes, there is a semi-certain formula, but like a well-shuffled deck of cards, every game explores chance endings.
3. Love the mystery! I would even compare these to Agatha Christie.
2. Stephen King is the president of the Repairman Jack fan club.
1. The books always fight injustice. In the first book it was Jack's revenge for what happened to a loved one. In the second book it was the injustice of children born with AIDS, and other stuff, but I won't spoil that mystery.

Top 10 reasons to read Legacies with spicy glimpses under the cover - that don't spoil.
10. Santa saves the day.
9. Female power.
8. Questions paranoid Jack.
7. Jack fixes several problems.
6. Jack gets the girl.
5. Complicated interesting villains.
4. Different viewpoints.
3. Jack's claustrophobia.
2. Someone with an S in their name dies.
1. Where Jack spends Christmas.

Go out and buy these now. They leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling that all is now right with the world. I wish Netflix would pick this series up. They would have some serious viewers. I can see Jack Reynor playing Jack.

5 Stars for Shadowland by Peter Straub

Shadowland by Peter Straub is hard to begin. The setup is initially boring, but once you muddle through it is well worth the wait. If a book makes me loose sleep to read, then I'm giving it a five. This is definitely one of the creepiest books I've ever read warping fairy tales into nightmares and forcing youth into a fast adulthood. The main characters, Tom and Del are forced into challenges that only an adult should face and not even then. Straub is a story teller first. The characterization of Del and Tom simply fell in line with the story he wanted to tell. It did not matter if you liked them or not, but their story was so incredibly interesting - you had to follow. Betrayal wove through as an underlying theme forcing your compassion to flee for both Del and Tom. Both boys were driven intrinsically by curiosity, love or jealousy. In the end they were boys trying to experience magic even though all that remained was ugly and dark leaving a wolf rather than the girl in the red hood open to love. Shadowland wasn't just one story, but a creative mix of so many fairy tales heard before. Musically it was an overture of classic 80's stemming from an old Doors album lighting fires with baby. I found it totally bitchin' and copacetic all at once. I highly recommend it and hope to see it as a Netflix series staring Timothée Chalamet as Tom and Max Charles as Del.

5 Stars for Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler deserved the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. Any writer who can make boring everyday life absolutely meaningful gets my vote. Reviews that rank this book lower than four stars seem to base their score on this story not being thriller content. Real people are not interesting all the time, and a trip to a funeral isn't high on the list of exciting things to do; however, in the midst of commonality - I kept discovering little pockets of truth parallel to my own life and people around me.

For example, Ira, the husband's need to play solitaire all of the time while keeping a cool distance from emotional drama sounded much like my husband and my father-in-law. I loved Ira from the beginning, because I knew beneath his carefully carved out unobtrusive personality was a guy with deep emotional ties to the people he loved dearly. Ira's wife, Maggie, was quite a busybody, but no matter how annoying she became - Ira loved still loved her.

Maggie wasn't my favorite character, but reflecting upon my own flaws I certainly didn't wish for her death in the story, rather I tried to understand the loneliness she felt. Maggie's children has recently left home. Maggie wanted to desperately hold on to them.

Maggie's character needed a dynamic change from something she had been to something she could be with her husband and as a person on her own. This change couldn't happen unless she changed her way of thinking.

She couldn't see what worked in her life. For example, Maggie couldn't accept Ira and his flaws without losing the idealism she held in the things she could not control. Her journey is not unlike my own as a mother, and like my mother. All moms have a tough time letting go of their kids. I can't dislike Maggie for holding onto her children a little longer.

I highly recommend this book to every married couple and all mothers. For Maggie, a day trip to a friend's funeral changed her way of thinking, but for me it was watching the love between my mother and father-in-law, and appreciating my husband a little more every day. Thank you, Anne Tyler.

5 Stars for Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Everyone should read this. Neil Gaiman certainly did not inhale the fumes of Odin's odious fart. This is a spoiler I will not spoil.  He was certainly blessed with the gift of retelling a story and reinventing his own. I loved his retelling of Norse Mythology. His voice carried the harsh tempos of the tragic moments, but also humor in the more flute-like places. I began this book with Marvel knowledge and came away feeling a bit like a mythology historian. Neil Gaiman can do that for a person. I also began this book as a respect towards my dad, who found a hero in Thor, also Conan the Barbarian, but that's another story. For me, Loki is certainly my favorite, and I was happy to discover his tale did not disappoint. Gaiman should seriously think about a story that involves both Othello's Iago and Loki in a modern world setting. They could pour poison into the ear of great leaders turning the world into what it is not. And who to save the world but a child not yet born, one of a new birth out of the death of the old one. Everyone should read this! Seriously, I might listen to it again.

5 Stars for The Tomb (Repairman Jack, #1) by F. Paul Wilson

The Tomb (Repairman Jack, #1) by F. Paul Wilson is not an original horror or thriller novel. In fact, Jack is your typical tough guy with a superman moral compass. I adored his character. jack reminded me of Dean Winchester from the TV show Supernatural. Like Supernatural's Dean, Jack operates under a code of honor killing monsters along that path. If this book made it to the big screen, I could see it  having a cult following. Think about cult movies like The Big Lebowski, or The Princess Bride that drip with warm familiar cheese. The Tomb, like Supernatural, Lebowski, and The Princess Bride swim in sliced melted cheddar. Elements of humor, gut wrenching monsters, and cool backstories echo in well told stories creating a solid plot line. Wilson certainly knows how to sew up a dang good plot. Repairman Jack doesn't seem to ask you take him too seriously. But, you do, because the stakes are raised high enough to keep you reading. I cannot wait to read more. And my fingers are crossed that Netflix might find this book as charming as I have.

Thinking Outside My Coffee Cup: 5 Stars for The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Thinking Outside My Coffee Cup: 5 Stars for The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes shines. The plot twist the typical serial killer story into a web of time traveling, creepy madness. Th...

5 Stars for The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes shines. The plot twist the typical serial killer story into a web of time traveling, creepy madness. The killer, Harper, travels through time to murder girls who have glimmering potential. However, one girl, Kirby, survives a vicious attack and becomes the hunter. Kirby and the rest of the shining girls are characterized splendidly, unfolding like a well-constructed origami butterfly colored in shades of yellow and gold.

With each girl, I died a little with them. But for all the characterization given to Kirby and the shining girls, Harper remained bland like a paper doll, completely non-dynamic and static. I am sure Beukes intended him to be this way, because he foiled against the girls making them shine even brighter and causing me to root against him. Harper's reasons to kill did not follow logic.

The reasons followed that of a deranged one-dimensional monster who only wanted to snuff out the life of those who were born three-dimensional meant to add to the world around them rather than take from it. Harper seemed lost in finding something shiny in himself and this black hole inside him seemed to grow larger and more persistent sucking him in a void of nothingness.

With this in mind, I didn't need a scientific explanation for his time travel nor did I need rational from the mind of a monster on why he murdered. The story unfolded throughout time and reason and became a need to survive. The story traveled through time in darkness and in light and ended up on one of those sides. No spoilers, but I highly suggest reading it.

Four Stars for Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

Throwing an original twist on the vampire story and making it bloody stick takes more than fangs. Dan Simmons is original with Carrion Comfort. His story expands the original Dracula's mind control and takes it to a whole new level through some pretty nasty monsters hungry for destruction and power. The victims are left with only wit, hope and some darn good reasons for revenge. My favorite character and victim was Saul. The book was incredibly lengthy, and often rolled around in the details of what felt like an explosive Hollywood movie loaded with bullets flying, helicopters, and clipped dialogue. Those scenes often distracted me from the real story. This is where my rating went to a four; however, because of Saul I read until the end. I was thoroughly invested in him as the book's hero. Further, I love a great vampire story written well. Great vampire stories...

John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In
Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire
and now Carrion Comfort.

Let the Right One In is still my favorite, but the other two are tough contenders.
I highly recommend Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

Four stars for The Ignored by Bentley Little

Overall, I enjoyed The Ignored, by Bentley Little. The concept crackled in a smoldering fire originality dripping in a kind-of marshmallow stickiness. I hated Bob Jones, the protagonist, but I rooted for him in a sense of righting the rest of the world. Not only did The Ignored have a great concept, it followed through. Everything Bob Jones felt in being ignored followed through with odd, logical consequences resulting from Bob's bloody reactions to being ignored - or not. Yes, sometimes Bob's meanderings made the plot drag, but for what Little seemed to be going for the pacing was perfect. There was a psychological horror on top of the blood and gore that made this book different from a typical horror novel. I recommend The Ignored, but really any Bentley Little.