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.

Five Stars for Halcyon by Rio Youers

Halcyon by Rio Youers was loved before I read page one. After reading, Youers The Forgotten Girl and Westlake Soul Youers would not disappoint me. However, despite Halcyon's obvious beautiful horrific charm - Westlake Soul is my favorite Youers's novel. That book truly has soul. The Forgotten Girl and Halcyon contains all of the expected thriller conflicts and frightful elements of situational irony making it fast pace and easy to read. In fact, I finished this book a few weeks ago, but a busy life prevented me from writing a noteworthy review of a writer who should be noted on a great many A+ platforms.

As I said, Halcyon contains conflict - The inner conflict between father and daughter suffering from tremendous loss. And sister and sister. Dramatic events giving rise to more chaos and destruction - our villain Mother Moon certainly started with my sympathy, but like many characters such as Abigail Williams/The Crucible, she lost my vote after becoming that which she despised. Yes, Abby and Mother Moon are different but are the same in how drama is often handled and pushed into chaos.

This book also paralleled with my own fears as a mother and - yikes a high school English teacher - that's a spoiler so no more on it. Youers also draws excellent details of romance like your spouse remembering the way you like your coffee, or leaving you a cup in the morning. It was these little elements that tied me to the main character in Halcyon and made me root for his happiness and that of his family.

Yes, Youers is a horror writer, but more he's able to tie it in with what makes us human luring even the most skeptical reader to the horror/thriller genre. Give him a chance. 

Five Stars for Middlemarch by George Eliot

Novelist Virginia Woolf called it “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.”

I’m not sure if it's one of the few, but it is certainly for grown-ups. Middlemarch by George Eliot collected dust on my bookshelf for nearly fifteen years. My husband bought this book for me the second year we were married. Since, on more than one occasion, I tried to read it, but ended up shelving it. Set in England in the early 1900’s, the conventions hogtying a woman’s independence infuriated me, further the main character Dorothea created a bonfire of hatred in me. I couldn’t stand her indecisiveness, her ever-present idealism, and her clever mind often misdirected towards stupidity. But then I grew up. As I trudged through the quicksand of mediocrity and small talk within the novel, I began to reflect upon my own immature thoughts.

For instance, Dorothea’s first marriage to Casaubon, a man ridiculously older than Dorothea, but worse, he was a man clearly self-absorbed and incapable of loving Dorothea’s kind nature and clever mind. He insulted her in the worst possible way; he ignored her, and patronized her ideas. It was at this point in the novel; I began rooting for Dorothea. I wanted her to be able to pursue the idealistic view she held of the world, a view that believed in possibilities, and the goodness in people. Of course, this made her seem flighty, and possibly incapable of making good decisions, and never great decisions.

Her mindset reflected mine at nineteen years old, full of Hegelianism philosophy embracing the abstract reality and finding idealism in it all. My initial dislike of her grew out of my own dismissed idealism already replaced by realistic cynicism. I forgot how to hope and believe in the abstract. I grew into the adult world of mortgages, bills, and parenting which has nurtured old fears of not being good enough for the roles of adulthood. I lapsed into childhood holding onto Star Wars toys and dreams of fame out of complete self-sacrifice. Reading Middlemarch, following Dorothea’s quest for happiness wrought out of idealism and self-sacrifice; I let go of fears oppressive and bound to my own stupidity. I realized I can be an adult and still have my toys and dreams. And sometimes there’s that middle as in Middlemarch that feels like real life, a growing up kind of quicksand. In parting, I highly recommend Middlemarch. It’s worth the quicksand to find yourself at the end and placing understanding yourself in a grown-up world.

4 Stars for A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

"It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!" "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Paul Tremblay begins his Exorcist/Linda Blair spookfest novel, A Head Full of Ghosts with this quote. A Head Full of Ghosts is not for the light-hearted, but its not just for the folks who want to see "Blood and gore and guts and veins in their teeth!" Some of that is there, but Tremblay's story digs deeper asking the reader to examine the psychological walls of sanity holding us inside a kind-of yellow wallpaper probing at the normalcy of all the characters in the story. This story examines other themes as well, such as feminism, good and evil and how they can often fade the thick black lines separating them by our own fears. 

Tremblay does a phenomenal job with plot, twisting and turning the horror of what Marjorie, the possessed, will do next. The ending is not what you will expect and it further drowns you in the same questions you've asked all along. However, my questions felt answered after I decided who Marjorie, and Merry, the younger sister played in Gilman's yellow wallpaper. Because, yes, Head Full of Ghosts felt like it was plastered on every page with evil yellow wallpaper. And, both girls are trapped, either in the room or in the wallpaper. One will be free and the other will forever be locked inside her own mind. It is an interesting read, scary, yes but in a way that is based on the real demons located in us all and we can only pray we don't succumb to them. I recommend it. 

Five Stars for The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

The Orphan Master’s Son came highly recommended by someone who is considered a friend.
Thank you. Please recommend more!

With that said, I dive into my review with gusto even though the water I dive into is dark and dangerous with glimmers of light frosting the surface. The Orphan Master’s Son was much like this…

“The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

You are in the protagonist, Jun Do's head a lot, but you are also outside of it covered in darkness and hoping for the propaganda of the light.  Is it propaganda and is as false, how dark? - well you’ll have to read the book to find out. It is a spoiler to tell you what happens to Jun Do/John Doe, but it is a fate you root for simply because he belongs to all of our human psyche and dreams.

There is a story here, and a plot line that weaves its way through a maybe orphan boy’s world but that is only the baseline. This is so much deeper - playing with nasty polarities of communism and capitalism, truth and lies, and my favorite, freedom and confinement defining the last in a spectrum of definitions. This is why The Orphan Master’s Son easily transcends to great novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Despite the many alluring themes, it was freedom and love that captured my interest, my heart. And in the end, it is love and its desire to be free that seals the deal and makes me buy into this book.

“They’re about a woman whose beauty is like a rare flower. There is a man who has a great love for her, a love he’s been saving up for his entire life, and it doesn’t matter that he must make a great journey to her, and it doesn’t matter if their time together is brief, that afterward he might lose her, for she is the flower of his heart and nothing will keep him from her.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

Okay, so this is Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love,” Capitalism and Communism Edvard Munch screaming freedom. I dig it. It is my (NOT Dear Leader or Big Brother’s) memory hole but it is my place where love cannot be denied and a hero can be found. I highly recommend it to those willing to travel a darker path. It is not for the light of heart. 

5 Stars for As You Like It

This is my first Shakespeare comedy, at least reading it straight through. First, I picked it up to read, because the school I teach at has a number of these books in the classroom. Books are certainly a luxury at my school. Second, I've been teaching Othello the past few years along with The Crucible, and The Great Gatsby, so I needed an uplift, something I knew would end well. Last, the premise of this particular comedy drew me in because it appealed to a theme of rediscovery of oneself especially when the idea of home is lost. In this play, the main love birds Orlando and Rosalind are banished. Sure they fall in love all Romeo and Juliet style, but unlike the star-crossed lovers they have to discover an inner strength accepting a new home and a new life unlike the wealthy one they have been accustomed. This theme of acceptance and self-discovery lends itself to the young person leaving home and embarking upon the forest of Arden/college/workforce/etc.

After reading this silly play, I found a number of reasons to recommend it...

1. It will make you laugh out loud. The scenes between Rosalind as Ganymede and Orlando were absurdly silly to the point of belly aching laughter.

Rosalind: (dressed as the man Ganymede)"What would you say to me now, an I were your very, very Rosalind?"
Orlando: "I would kiss before I spoke."
Rosalind (dressed as the man Ganymede): "Nay, you were better speak first..."

2. Memorable lines I now know the origin of:

"no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner love but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked each other the reason..."
"All the world's a stage, And all the women and men merely players."

3. Touchstone: An Aristotle clown.

On the lie of good manners: "All of these you may avoid but the lie direct; and you may avoid that too, with an 'If'."

4. Rosalind: The woman mastermind behind the inevitable happy ending. She is brilliantly clever. Her character is one of the reasons Shakespeare was ahead of his time with ideas of feminism. Plus, as mentioned previously I could not read about Desdemona's outcome under the tragic Othello again. My heart couldn't take it.

There are many other reasons to recommend this play, but these stand out the most to me.