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Category: Fiction

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

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Jonathan Franzen’s novels may not be for everyone as they are more character-driven then plot-driven. Crossroads is no exception as the main events take place on a single day, December 23, 1971, with introspective flashbacks that allow readers to get to the heart of each character. That is what I appreciate about Crossroads, by no means a joyous read, which is the opportunity to dive deep into the psyche of the richly imagined and authentic characters created by Franzen.

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Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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Nothing to See Here is a cute, funny book with a highly improbable premise involving two children that catch on fire when they get agitated. It had me laughing out loud, which does not happen every often when I read. It is an easy novel to read and perfect if you are looking for a bit of levity after some heavy reading.

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The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

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I was a little worried that this one would end up being a dud, but I am pleased to report that The Book Eaters is a good novel. I think bibliophiles like me will really like this one. It is a bit on the nose with respect to its themes, but it’s characters and world-building are interesting enough to make you overlook the obviousness of the novel.

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The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

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The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is the sequel to Katherine Howe’s first novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which I will admit I did not realize until I started reading it. I read Deliverance Dane over ten years ago, so I kind of wish I had re-read it before reading Temperance Hobbs, but there were enough details in Temperance Hobbs to remind me of what happened in Deliverance Dane. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is an okay book. It is not as interesting as The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and I think I prefer Brunonia Barry’s Salem-set novels over Katherine Howe’s (as a side note, I have also read Howe’s The House of Velvet and Glass, which was an interesting novel, but it depressed the hell out of me and so I donated it because I never want to read it again).

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White Ivy by Susie Yang

White Ivy by Susie Yang

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If you were to reduce its plot to the simplest of terms, then White Ivy is not a very original novel. It is a story about a poor and unremarkable person who wants to belong to the wealthy and important crowd. It is a story that has been told repeatedly. White Ivy has been compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which I did not like. There are certainly parallels between the two novels, especially the fate of one of the characters in White Ivy which mirrors that of Bunny in The Secret History, but I like White Ivy because it tells its story from the perspective of a Chinese American protagonist, a complicated woman who you can empathize with (up to a certain point), and it is as much about the immigrant experience in America as it is about a social climber.

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The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

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Set almost entirely within a maternity ward at an Irish hospital during the 1918 influenza pandemic, The Pull of the Stars is an engrossing and rich reading experience, and I feel as though I have come out of the experience of reading it like the novel’s narrator, Nurse Julia Powers, with a deeper understanding of how the world operates.

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The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

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The Death of Jane Lawrence is one of those books that sounds like it should be good, but then it turns out not to be. Very disappointing, as I love me a gothic novel. The Death of Jane Lawrence definitely is gothic, and there were definitely creepy moments that I read through very quickly because I did not want to scare myself before going to be bed, but in the end, The Death of Jane Lawrence gets bogged down in the science of magic, and I am not entirely sure what I was that I just read.

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