5 Stars for The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James delivers. I wanted spooky - Got it! I wanted great female characters with some backbone! - Got it. I wanted a twist - Got it! I needed this book after reading lots of required classical lit. I highly recommend this book and more St. James. I know I will read more of her stories. 

2.5 Stars for Plain, Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

 

2.5 Stars

I could not finish it and with so many other books to read this summer, I simply didn't want to plow through. The writing is way too embellished. Beautiful writing is not just about how to turn a clever phrase. Danforth can certainly do that, but beautiful writing also means knowing what to cut. The book in general is too long. In Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster, he warns against what he calls "tea time." He explains these are scenes that do not push the plot forward. Folks sipped a lot of tea in Plain Bad Heroines. The other reason for my 2.5 star review is lack of horror and this is a personal preference from a girl who loves horror. This is a story within a story one from the past into the present. I did not understand the connection. If there wasn't going to be a real connection perhaps Danforth could have approached this story like a set of short stories set in a Canterbury Tales structure or just stuck with the past story. That one was a little interesting. In the end, I felt disappointed. I looked forward to reading this because of the unique premise and promise of horror. Instead, I found I couldn't root for any characters because they didn't seem like they needed saving. Perhaps this is the irony, thus, Plain Bad Heroines. 

4 Stars for The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

 

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer proved itself to be more entertaining than I'd expected. It doesn't have to be read in its entirety because it is composed of smaller stories within a larger one. It almost reads like a book of short stories with dark fairy tale morals and with a big dose of humor at the expense of human folly. I loved the stories particularly: The Pardoner, The Wife of Bath, and The Squire. The ending of these tales became Middle Age preachy, but I suppose it needed redemption after the tales of lechery, bloodshed, idolatry, adulatory, and so on. For example, The Wife of Bath's tale and The Pardoner's tale embrace love of lust, power and greed with outright defiance. These two characters don't care what others think of them and firmly know who they are. They are in stark contrast to characters like The Nun, and The Knight, so for me to fully grasp the importance of the most entertaining stories, I had to read the other stories that contrasted them, so I recommend reading The Canterbury Tales in its entirety even though the stories can be read separately.