Vacation Reads
I just went on a ten-day vacation to New York City, Boston/Salem and Montreal, and I managed to read FOUR books during my vacation (I spent a lot of time on planes and a train):
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
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.
…The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Midnight Library is one of those books that I keep noticing shows up in listicles of recommended books on Buzzfeed. I was kind of reluctant to read it because I find that heavily hyped books usually do not turn out to be as good as I hope. The Midnight Library is a novel that teaches its reader to appreciate the life that they have and to learn to see the good in it. It is a pleasant reading experience, for the most part, but I did not find it to be revelatory and it did not offer up anything that I do not already know.
…Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
I watched Lovecraft Country the TV show on HBO back in 2020 and thought it was pretty good. It is too bad the TV show was cancelled before it got a second season. I have had Lovecraft Country the novel on which the TV show is based sitting in my TBR pile for a long time and finally got around to reading it. It is too bad I took so long to read it because I really enjoyed the novel and was disappointed that it had to end. As is usually the case, I thought the novel was better than the TV show.
…The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The first time I read The Historian was way back in 2005 when it was first published. I liked it enough back then to read Kostova’s next novel, The Swan Thieves (which I have read more than once), and I decided to reread it now to see if I would still like it all these years later. If you like historical fiction, The Historian is a fascinating novel, but at the same time it can feel like a bit of a slog to read.
…Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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.
…Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson
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.
…Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson
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.
…The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry
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).
…Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth
Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth is a mishmash of different genres: we’ve got supernatural horror, historical fiction, queer romance and a modern riff on fame and the movie industry. Plain Bad Heroines is also meta-fiction as it is about a book that sets off a chain of events in the past that are written about in a book in the present that is being turned into a movie. I can see why people would be drawn to this novel, because it does sound interesting on the face of it, but I would have liked it better if I had not been so annoyed by the narrative voice employed by the author and if it did not have such an abrupt ending.
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