“But all I can see is red, red, red, red, red now. What am I gonna do?”

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

When She Woke

by Hillary Jordan

4 Bookmarks!

It has been quite awhile since I’ve posted, my dear dear book minions.  I ensure you it is not because I have abandoned reading to watch Jersey Shore, Honey Boo Boo (whatever the hell that is), or the 240th season of The Bachelor.  No no indeed I have not joined an occult that makes one dye their hair an unnatural “blonde” (a.k.a. white) color and worship a never-before-seen space alien with super-duper intelligence named Vot.  I’ve just been busy.  But now I have a few books to review to catch up!  And I know how you all have been continually and frantically clicking the “refresh” button hoping that a new post would pop up and curve your ungodly cravings for my writing.  I am here to release your pain.  But I digress…

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan was an interesting read.  I am quite fond of the dystopia genre but I also believe it is somewhat hard to pull off and create an original story.  Even The Hunger Games was based on a previous idea; a story of the Greek Gods.  But I must extol Hillary Jordan for her novel.  Her story was quite unique and very well written.

The world is a different place than it once was.  Punishment for crime has shifted and become more harsh without criminals having to endure the setting of jail.  Instead, they are quite free to live among the rest of society; a society that still rejects them because they can no longer hide what they have done.  The government has deemed what they call chroming a perfectly good way to chastise offenders.  When someone commits a crime, be it drugs, robbery, murder, etc., they spend about 30 days in a jail cell on their own after being dyed the appropriate color.  Drug dealers are yellow, murderers are red, sex offenders are blue, and so on.  After 30 days they are released back into the world but with a visible stigmata.  The non-chromes are unrelenting with their looks of disgust and harassment and many chromes are forced to live in ghettos.  Think back 60 years to the Jews and their stars.

Hannah lives in Texas, one of the states to reverse Roe v. Wade.  Abortion is illegal again and considered murder.  Her family is ultra Christian, living life according to the bible (another version) where they dress almost like the Mormons and Amish.  Hannah tries her hardest to follow what she is taught but she, like most people brought up super religious, has questions that her parents won’t answer.  Her passion is sewing; she works as a seamstress.  In her free time she secretly makes dresses for herself that she knows the world will never see because they show pieces of her back or her legs.  Her family is part of a popular church with thousands of followers…sheep following one man, Reverend Aidan Dale.  Reverend Dale is young (mid-thirties), handsome, and humble.  He and his wife have no children and dedicate their lives to the church and Africa.

Hannah, our main character is introduced in the very beginning where she wakes up in a small room with only a bed and small bathroom.  She is alone.  She is the color red.  She has 30 days in this room.  A room with a mirror so she is reminded every day of her crime.  A room with cameras so the world can watch her on television.  A room where most people before her went crazy.

Hannah had an abortion.  Her mother has turned her back on her.  Her sister isn’t allowed to ever speak with her again because her all-knowing husband announces her to be a whore.  Her father loves her but cannot bring her home after her release.  The father of her baby is with his wife.  Hannah refused to name her abortionist and the father.  Doing so added time onto her sentence.  She will be a chrome for 16 years.  Every few months she must go and get the virus put back in her.  If she doesn’t show up she will slowly go crazy.  The government can track her.  She’s not allowed to leave the state.  She must find a place to live and somewhere to work.

After Hannah’s release her father picks her up and takes her to a rehab center for chromes.  They only accept yellows (drugies) and reds (as long as it was just abortion).  They are the most religious people ever and it’s worse than being in jail.  Hannah makes a friend, Kayla, but she doesn’t stay long.  They both end up leaving and have to fend for themselves.

Along with the government being able to track them, regular citizens can also track them online.  There are groups that target chromes and groups that help chromes.  Hannah is targeted by both.

I enjoyed reading this book.  It was frightening to think that this could easily happen in our world.  We are becoming less and less tolerable, we push our own beliefs on people, and the government has its sticky little paws in too many dishes.  Hillary Jordan does a great job of course.  She writes very well.  I only gave it 4 Bookmarks because toward the end I started to lose interest just a bit.  But overall I really enjoyed it.  It was kind of dark (which I love) but not outrageous.

Posted in All, Dystopia, Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“We’ve been talking about Jackson…ever since the fire went out.”

Posted on August 8, 2012 by

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

5 Bookmarks!

Oh my my my…where do I begin?  This was such a delightful novel.  A breath of fresh air, if you will.  A true piece of literature that everyone should read.  If you haven’t guessed, I absolutely loved this little treat.

I’m usually a few years behind in reading books.  I’m not one to run to the book store and buy best sellers when they’re released.  This is because I have a library full of books, a book buying addiction, and by the time I get to some of them it’s years later when the buzz has all but disappeared.  The Help has been sitting in my “To Read” bookcase for a couple of years now.  I’m glad I waited until my down time to read this because I couldn’t put it down!

The year is 1962, when a woman’s main purpose in life is to get married, have kids, and cater to them all while maintaining a perfect smile like it’s the best thing since the invention of the vacuum cleaner.  Skirts are no shorter than a kneecap.  Hair is professionally washed, cut, teased, and sprayed.  Lips are rarely seen without a fake shade of pink or red.  Pantyhose are worn every day and driving gloves are a staple. 

The location is Jackson, Mississippi.  Words like, “colored” and “Negro” are used without a twinge of awkwardness.  There’s a grocery store for the white folks and a separate one for the colored folks.  The white neighborhood is set apart from the colored neighborhood by a bridge.  Every thing in Jackson is separated: The bathrooms, the restaurants, the libraries, and especially the jobs.

Each chapter is a different character.  We have Aibileen, who is a black maid working for Elizabeth Leefolt.  Aibileen is raising Mrs. Leefolt’s daughter, making her the seventeenth white child she has taken care of in her life.  Aibileen lives alone, but loves that baby she’s taking care of.

Minny is a black maid working for old Miss Walter.  Minny is sassy but Miss Walter is nearly deaf so it works out.  Miss Walter has a daughter, Hilly, who’s the most popular woman in town.  She heads committees and all the other woman strive to be friends with her.  Minny gets fired because Hilly puts Miss Walter in a home and she ends up working for Celia, who married Hilly’s ex-boyfriend.  Hilly does not like her so she of course has no friends.

Skeeter (real name, Eugenia) is a white woman in her early twenties just coming home from college.  Her mama is disappointed she didn’t find a husband while away learning.  Isn’t that the whole point of college?  Skeeter is friends with Elizabeth Leefolt and Hilly.  They all went to school together but Elizabeth and Hilly found themselves men to marry.  They all meet up to play bridge, plan charity events, and make sure the town is in order. 

Hilly and Elizabeth treat the help like help.  They are there to clean the house, raise their children, cook them dinner, and to serve their guests.  Skeeter was raised by a black woman, Constantine, so she’s polite.

Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny end up coming together to work on a dangerous project together.  It’s a book about what it’s like for a black maid working for white folks.  In the heat of racism and the civil rights movement, Skeeter is determined to become the writer she always dreamed of becoming and getting the hell out of Jackson, Mississippi.

This story just plucks at your heart-strings.  I loved Skeeter because she’s nice, smart, and wants something better for not only herself but for people around her.  Aibileen is sweet and patient.  Minny is spicy and I love her attitude.  Elizabeth irritated me because she just did whatever Hilly wanted her to do.  Oooooh and Hilly…that woman made my blood boil.  She acts like Miss Perfect but she is the biggest bitch.  She made me want to reach into the book and smack her square across her perfectly made up face.  She’s nosey, bossy, and thinks all the black maids should have their own separate bathroom outside of the house because they’re dirty and diseased.  The things that come out of that woman’s mouth.

The character development in this book is superb.  When I got to the end of each chapter I was sad because I was so wrapped up in the character’s story.  But then the next chapter and character come along and I was just as sucked in as the last.  I could picture each person clearly and it was almost like watching a movie in my mind.  I also found it commendable that the author wrote in first person for the African-American characters.  I’m sure she struggled with that aspect of the story, being white herself.

The author’s writing is excellent.  There were sentences that made me stop and reread them again because I loved the way they sounded or how something was described.

“I let Mother’s words sit like a tiny, sweet candy on my tongue.”

Every word and sentence just flow like smooth molasses.  I didn’t want it to end and was pretty teared up in some parts.  The story made me thankful that I live in a time when separation isn’t as prominent (not that it doesn’t exist.  Because it does indeed.  We’re just allowed to use the same facilities).  When racism isn’t looked at as an okay thing.

There is a little note at the end from the author.  She writes about her own life in Jackson, Mississippi during the sixties and her maid so I think her perspective on the times is pretty good.

If you haven’t read this novel, I highly recommend that you do.  But do so when you’re alone and it’s quiet so you can breathe it all in, each sentence at a time.

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Thomas Jefferson & Buddha

Posted on August 5, 2012 by

Thomas Jefferson

Lessons from a Secret Buddha

by Suneel Dhand

3 Bookmarks!

This was unlike any other book I have read.  I won this slim novel from a giveaway on Goodreads.  I’m still not sure what genre this belongs under…fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction.  Usually books will state this on the copyright page so libraries know where to file them but this does not.

The book is a quick (a mere 106 pages) Thomas Jefferson bio.  What makes this biography different from any other is that it includes letters that were written to Mr. Jefferson.  Only to him, none from him.  The letters are from Buddha Bhai.  Buddha meaning Enlightened One, and Bhai meaning brother.  The book starts off with the author explaining how he travelled to Nepal to meet an old professor who had some information for him.  He took him to village where he sat and had tea with what I believe to be a monk.  The monk decides to share some letters that were confiscated after the American Revolution.  These letters were written to Thomas Jefferson from Buddha Bhai.  Odd, right?  After the intro I still had no idea if he was serious about this whole thing or just creating a clever story.

So the story starts off with Thomas Jefferson as a young lad.  His father has just died and he’s obviously distraught over this matter.  He just happens to come across a Chinese monk “dressed in orange-red attire”on the side of the road who helps him home and they start a correspondence.  This continues through most of Tom’s life.  Buddha Bhai’s letters are short but they share immense thoughts on human life and how one should live in order to have a peaceful and meaningful existence.  Over the years Bhai slowly shares ancient principles with Tom and this lays the foundation for how Jefferson lives his life.

Now, I have indeed finished the book but I still have no idea if this author wants us to believe this to be true.  It honestly seems like he is passing it off that way.  Do I believe that a monk dressed in orange-red attire participated in the Boston Tea Party?  Not so much.  Do I believe that some of Thomas Jefferson’s ideas for the Declaration of Independence (Pursuit of Happiness) came from a correspondence he had with a mysterious Buddha Bhai?  No.  I really don’t at all. 

That all being said (or written, as it is), the book was entertaining enough I guess.  The concept was interesting.  But I fancy myself pretty savvy with history and from other evidence I know that many of Thomas Jefferson’s ideas for the Declaration of Independence came from John Locke, an English philosopher and physician.  Not a monk.

If the point of the book is to make me actually believe it is true, then I think hogwash.  If the point of the book was to enlighten me and create a different twist on one of our Founding Fathers, then well, it was just okay.  It would be a good way to teach middle school children about Thomas Jefferson because it’s different.

**A message I received from the author**

Dear Erika,

I saw your review on my book, and firstly wanted to thank you for reading it and also writing a review. I also wanted to take the time to reply, since you raised many important points.

Indeed, the book is a historical fiction book, and it is filed in Amazon as such. I will endeavor to make that clearer, but it is certainly not a true story (or even marketed as such)! Sorry for the confusion.

As a doctor, I was inspired to write about Thomas Jefferson’s health & well-being practices in a unique and creative story (all the quotes in the book are real Thomas Jefferson quotes). I also thought it would be nice to intertwine the story of the Revolution.

Hope that helps make everything clearer. Once more, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read my book.

Best Regards,
Suneel Dhand
 
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Katherine, Catherine, Kate, & Cat

Posted on July 25, 2012 by

The Confession of Katherine Howard

by Suzannah Dunn

2 Bookmarks!

Most books about the Tudor family are interesting to me.  Unfortunately, this was a bit of a dud.  The concept of the story was decent.  It’s told from the perspective of Cat, Katherine Howard’s friend and lady-in-waiting.  The writing on the other hand…not my favorite.  Let’s just take a look-see, shall we?

Katherine Howard (actually spelled, Catherine, but the author changes it) was raised by a duchess in the Howard family.  Many young girls went to live with this Duchess because their parents thought they would get raised properly.  The Howard family was a big deal in these days, even though they were always falling in and out of favor with the king.  Anne Boyeln was a Howard.  Among Katherine there were a few other girls; they were not Howards.  Cat, or Catherine, was one of them.

The story flips between present time, which is when Katherine is about to fall from grace, and the past, when the girls were growing up together at the Duchess’s.  Cat tells us of the arrival of Kate and how she and the other girls were not quite sure about her.  Kate soon wins their hearts and also the heart of young Francis Dereham.  They soon start a romance and become lovers.  Cat also finds a little buddy, Ed, but she isn’t really that interested and calls it off. 

Katherine is soon whisked away to the palace to become a lady-in-waiting to the new queen, Anne of Cleves.  She spends 2 weeks on at the palace and then returns to the shared home for a bit.  As time goes on, she returns to the Duchess less and less.  Cat is wondering what’s going on with her.  She soon finds out that she is to be the next Queen of England.

This is the gist of the story.  The book spends a considerable amount of time in the past which is fine because the present is about Katherine and her new lover, Thomas Culpeper.  They are about to be found out and it is actually Cat who moves that along.

What I didn’t like about the book and why I gave it only 2 Bookmarks is the writing.  I’ve read another Dunn novel before and it was decent.  This one had a ridiculous amount of dashes (-) in it and sometimes the sentences were hard to get through.  They were awkward at times.  The conversation between characters was not very “with the times.”  There were an atrocious amount of contractions (I’d've…really???) that I’m pretty sure were not used in the sixteenth century.  Along with this, there was a reference to the saying, “What goes up, must come down.”  We all know that this comes from the discovery of gravity.  The year is around 1535.  Isaac Newton hasn’t even been born yet.  In fact, he’s not born for another century.  Just some simple fact checking would have sufficed.

Overall, the book is unconvincing.  It took me forever to read because I couldn’t get into it, mostly because of the lack of accuracy.  I know it’s fiction but if you’re going to write like it’s the 1500′s at least get the language right.

Needless to say, I probably won’t pick up another Dunn book.

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Dark Addiction

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

Dark Places

by Gillian Flynn

4 Bookmarks!

Let me introduce you to the Days:  Patty, Runner, Ben, Michelle, Debbie, and Libby.  The Days own a small farm in Kinnakee, Kansas.  The year is 1985 and things are not going well at all.  In fact, by 2:30 am on January 3, half of them will be murdered.

Patty, 1985:  Patty is a single mother now after kicking her low-life husband out of the house.  She tends the farm, which doesn’t make enough money, while trying to take care of her four children at the same time.  Her parents owned the farm and were so proud when she took it over.  But farming makes no money anymore and she is about to be foreclosed on.  She was never able to get ahead in her bills and the collectors are knocking and knocking. 

The girls are a handful and Ben barely speaks to her anymore.  Thank God for Diane, her sister, who seems to always know how to put things in perspective.  Diane is stronger than her and for that she keeps sane.  Patty is weak.  She loves her children most when they are sleeping, avoids arguments with Ben by letting him win, and Runner…well Runner comes and goes, taking money from her to gamble with instead of giving it to help feed the children.

Runner, 1985:  Runner and Patty are divorced.  Runner got Patty pregnant when they were still kids themselves and has made her feel guilty ever since.  Patty has this nice farm and Runner has nothing.  But the world owes him a great deal, for what we do not know.  He drinks.  He gambles.  He smokes the pot.  He wanders around the poverty-stricken sections of the country but always ends up back in Kansas.  Patty has money, he knows it.  She’s always holding out on him and he doesn’t understand why he is expected to give her money when she has this nice farm and he has nothing.  Well, he’s not giving her shit.

Runner owes his bookie money and Patty just filed for child support.  That bitch better have some sort of cash hidden in that house or he’s taking her jewelry to pawn.  He pays her a visit but she claims she has nothing.  After throwing a temper tantrum, he leaves with her jewelry box, not knowing it is empty.

Ben, 1985:  Ben is fifteen.  He’s a loner at school, doesn’t get along with his mother, and has sisters he can’t stand either.  Except Libby.  Libby’s okay.  But Michelle is always nosing around in his business looking for things to bribe him with, running to Patty.  Debby is always following Michelle around and putting girly stickers on everything.  But Libby’s pretty OK.  His father thinks he’s more of a girl than a man.  He barely comes around and when he does he just harasses Ben.  He knows he’s better off without him but it sure would be nice if he’d stick around and show him the ropes of being a real man.

Lately, Ben hasn’t been alone.  The new girl at school has taken an interest in him and he finally has a girlfriend.  Her name’s Diondra and her parents have loads of money.  They’re never around leaving Diondra to her own devices.  She’s a bit crazy, likes the wild side of things.  She drinks and smokes pot and lately has been getting into much darker places.  Unfortunately, she comes with Trey.  Trey is her friend and Trey is already a man.  He and Diondra are seventeen and remind Ben of this difference all the time.  They make fun of Ben, they mess with him.  Ben just lets them.  He loves Diondra.  He wants her to be his wife and for them to run away together.

No one knows about Diondra in Ben’s family.  Patty has no clue that her son has a girlfriend.  A girlfriend who hangs out with a bookie named Trey who also worships Satan in his free time.  Diondra and Trey have taken to doing drugs and slaughtering cows for sacrifice.  It’s a matter of time before crazy Diondra drags Ben into her antics.  But Ben would do anything for Diondra.  They’re in love.

Libby, 1985:  Libby is a somewhat typical seven-year-old.  But she worries a lot.  Being the youngest of four can really be stressful.  She always thinks something bad is going to happen.  Unfortunately for Libby, she is correct.

Libby, Present Day:  Libby’s money is running out.  She’s been living off donations from strangers for almost 25 years now.  She hasn’t worked a day in her life and doesn’t want to.  Her accountant keeps telling her she has to figure something out.  People have moved on from the Days.  There are other tragedies to support.  The book isn’t bringing any money in either.  It’s time to get a job.  But that is not Libby’s plan.

She receives a letter from Lyle, who is part of a “Kill Club.”  The name is bad.  It’s a group of people who are obsessed with murders.  The group Lyle is part of focuses on the Day murders.  He offers to pay her money to attend a convention and Libby takes him up on this offer. 

Meeting Lyle ends up taking Libby back to that horrible night in 1985 where half her family is murdered.  It makes her question if her brother really did kill her mother and sisters.  Ben has been in jail for 24 years and she hasn’t gone to see him once.  Her mother was shot in the head with a shotgun twice and stabbed in the chest a few times.  Little Debby was hacked to death with an axe.  Michelle was strangled in her bed.  Libby escaped that night through her mother’s window.  Her brother was accused and found guilty.  He was, after all, a Satan worshipper.  But there were things that the cops found that night that are unexplained.

This book kept me guessing.  It was excellent.  The chapters switch between Libby during present day, Ben during 1985, and Patty during 1985.  Libby’s chapters are in first person and Ben and Patty’s are narrated.  After every chapter I kept thinking I knew who killed the Days.  A tiny piece of the puzzle is revealed and it’s from different perspectives. 

As soon as I picked this book up I didn’t want to put it down.  It is dark and twisted and fantastic!  It’s written well and keeps you guessing.  I will definitely be checking out Gillian Flynn’s first novel, Sharp Objects.  If you like dark stories then you should definitely read Dark Places.

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