I liked Mexican Gothic, but I did not love it. It is a deliciously gothic novel set in a creepy old mansion that may or may not be haunted, but the true horror in the novel is rooted in Mexico’s colonial history and eugenics. The novel takes a bizarre turn towards the end, but I just went with it because it does fit in with the themes of the novel.
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Imagine a world where women have all the power and men learn to become afraid of them; that is the premise of The Power by Naomi Alderman. In The Power, females are discovered to have the latent ability to conduct electricity and release it through their fingers. This power suddenly becomes activated in teenage girls, who can then awaken the power in older women. Women start weaponizing the power against men, and it flips the gender narrative in favour of women. But would the world be a better place if women were in control? The Power is an interesting and thought-provoking novel that posits an answer to that question that I think misandrists are going to hate.
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Return of the Trickster is the last novel of the Trickster Trilogy, so do not read this review if you have not read Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift yet.
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I have read a couple of Sarah Waters’ books prior to Fingersmith: The Little Stranger, which I ended up hating, and The Paying Guests, which I found interesting, but was not overly excited about. Usually at that point, I would give up on Sarah Waters, but Fingersmith is well reviewed, and it sounded like an interesting story, so I decided to give her novels one more chance. I am glad that I read Fingersmith. If you like Charles Dickens, or if you like historical crime fiction, then you will like Fingersmith as well.
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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is one of my favourite novels. It has been adapted into an excellent TV miniseries on HBO. It was published in 2014 and is about a pandemic (I think Emily St. John Mandel must be a bit prescient) that wipes out over ninety percent of Earth’s population, and how what is left of humanity lives on fifteen years after the pandemic. I enjoyed Sea of Tranquility almost as much as I enjoyed reading Station Eleven. Written during the COVID pandemic, Sea of Tranquility also features a pandemic, but the pandemic does not take centre stage. I would not classify Sea of Tranquility as dystopian or science fiction, even though part of the novel is set in the future when humans have colonized the moon and outer space; rather, it is a novel whose focus is on human nature and human relationships.
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I was super excited to read a new Kate Quinn novel only one year after reading The Rose Code. I have loved every one of Quinn’s WWII novels, but I found The Diamond Eye to be the weakest one so far and the most predictable. Still, if you enjoy historical fiction and temper your expectations, I think you will find The Diamond Eye to be an interesting enough read.
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Shuggie Bain is a tragic and heartbreaking novel with no happy ending, but I think this coming-of-age story set in 1980s Glasgow is worth every second you will spend reading it.
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The Push reminds me of this novel I read a few years ago, Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, as both novels are about a mother who wonders if her young daughter is capable of murder. Baby Teeth makes it very clear early on what kind of novel it is. The Push is harder to pin down as it focuses more on the idea of motherhood, its role in our society and its affect on women, rather than being a thriller, and I think that is what makes it the better novel.
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Dark Roads is inspired by the real-life Highway of Tears between Prince George and Prince Rupert where women have been going missing or were murdered since 1970; a disproportionately high number of the victims are Indigenous women. I was expecting Dark Roads to treat its subject matter with more sensitivity, but instead it is a sensationalistic thriller featuring a crooked cop which verges on the ridiculous. This novel left me feeling disappointed with myself for reading it.
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I had been interested in reading The Liar’s Dictionary for quite some time, and now that I have read it, I have to say that I found it to be disappointing. It is not at all as interesting as the blurb on the back cover makes it out to be. As I was reading it, I kept waiting for more plot to occur, but it feels like not a lot happens in this novel.
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