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.
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.
The Secret History is Donna Tartt’s first novel and was published in 1992, but it is not the first novel of hers that I have read. I read her third novel, The Goldfinch, first, and I love The Goldfinch; however, if I had read The Secret History first, I probably would not have read The Goldfinch. The Secret History is a somewhat interesting novel, but I was surprised to find that there is not a single likeable character in it. The main characters are so insufferable, I almost stopped reading after a few chapters. But I hate to leave a book unfinished, and I was curious enough to know how this novel would end, so I persevered in reading.
If you like a good, old-fashioned mystery à la Agatha Christie, then you will like Anthony Horowitz’s novels, Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. The great thing about these novels is that each novel is two mystery stories in one book.
True Story has an intriguing premise, but I ended up not liking how it was executed. It is a novel about a teenage girl who is sexually assaulted by two teenage boys when she is passed out in the backseat of a car. The thing is, she does not remember anything of what happened to her, and the two boys who allegedly assaulted her insist they did not do it. So, what really happened?
I spent the past week reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, books one and two of Eden Robinson’s Trickster trilogy (book three is already out, I just have not bought a copy yet). Last year, I read Robinson’s Monkey Beach, which is serious and melancholy compared to the Trickster books. The Trickster books are surreal and somewhat bizarre (not in a derogatory way), and they are also humorous despite the tragic circumstances of the protagonist’s life. I really enjoyed reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, and now Robinson is on my list of writers whose novels I will look out for.
I really need to stop buying books based on Reese Witherspoon’s recommendation alone, because every time I do that, I end up disappointed. But you cannot blame Reese Witherspoon for how deceiving the title, the cover and all the blurbs on The Sanatorium are. There is nothing gothic or thrilling about The Sanatorium. I wish this novel had been set in a decrepit, old sanatorium and had been a spooky, paranormal mystery. Instead, The Sanatorium is an insipid modern murder mystery with a not very convincing detective.
A Little Life is one of the most devastatingly beautifully written novels I have ever read. I sobbed my way through about the last quarter of this novel, but I still think it is one of the best books I have had the fortune to read and I am so glad I decided to read it. I will warn you, though, that A Little Life is very frank, and somewhat detailed, in its depiction of emotional, physical and sexual child abuse, which can make it very difficult to read at times. But it is such an exquisite portrait of a friendship that span decades, that A Little Life deserves to be read and loved.
I really enjoy Brunonia Barry’s novels, The Lace Reader, The Map of True Places and The Fifth Petal. All three novels are set in and around Salem, Massachusetts, and are loosely interconnected by the characters that appear in each novel. Salem’s history of witches features prominently in the novels, but the novels do not lean too much into the occult or the mystic. As much as I do appreciate supernatural stories, I like that Barry’s novels are grounded in reality, so that when uncanny things do happen, they can be written off as coincidence. Barry’s novels focus on complicated relationships, and each one involves a protagonist who must confront the painful and traumatic events from their past. The Map of True Places is Barry’s second novel, but it is the third one that I have read. These novels do not have to be read in order to be appreciated, and they can each be appreciated on their own (meaning, this is not a series where you have to read each and every novel to understand what is going on).
The School for Good Mothers is Jessamine Chan’s debut novel and was just released this year. The timing of this novel is impeccable with anti-abortion rhetoric in the US really ramping up, the recent passing of restrictive abortion laws in the US (with more to come), and the US Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. The School for Good Mothers examines the lack of women’s rights, how the State controls women and how the concept of “motherhood” is weaponized against women. It examines how society judges mothers, especially mothers who are poor and who are not white. It is an incredibly imaginative novel, but it is bogged down by a disappointing protagonist and a depressing ending.
