Synopsis: A childless couple contracts with a lonely drifter to carry their sole remaining embryo, but little do they know that the baggage she brings includes criminal connections and demonic possession. Review: The Surrogate was simply terrible. Cardboard characters, overstuffed plotting, and an implausible storyline just really got on my nerves.
I don’t ordinarily do promotion-only books–I pretty much only post book reviews. But recently I got an unsolicited package in the mail from the publishers of Little Black Dress Books, and the books just looked so cute that I wanted to let people know about them in case I don’t have time to read every single one of them. If you like British chick lit, then I think you would like these–they’re contemporary and just a bit sassy. I will post reviews when I get…
Synopsis: UConn transfer student Natalie finds that her lack of worldly experience can’t stand up to the pressures of a hot frat brother. Review: College Girl is really just a poor woman’s I Am Charlotte Simmons. I didn’t get sucked into Natalie’s story the way I had hoped to, because I usually love these kinds of tales, and I found myself frustrated with her relentless passivity (which she shares with Charlotte, but Wolfe made this almost an heroic quality in his heroine). Believe it or…
Synopsis: A collection of short stories. Review: Just After Sunset offers a lackluster selection of short stories, hardly any of which really grabbed me by the collar. Many of them had a fancy twist ending that could be spotted a mile away (“The Mute”), while others were just deadly dull (“The Things They Left Behind”). I did enjoy “N,” which evoked the same creepy unease that I so loved in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. However, once it reached the final section it had…
Synopsis: A psychologically entwined brother and sister are manipulated by a therapist claiming to want to help them. Review: At least, I think that’s what Going Under is about. It’s a slim little volume with very short chapters, more of a poetic novella than anything else, and I was completely unsatisfied by the read. I wanted so much more of these intriguing characters than just a taste.
Synopsis: An in-depth explanation of the Christian gospel, intended to teach believers what they believe and why the believe it. Review: The Gospel-Driven Life is a companion piece to Michael Horton’s paradigm-shifting Christless Christianity. Where the latter offers a critique of the sorry state of nominally Christian churches, The Gospel-Driven Life gives believers the meat and potatoes of real, saving faith in Christ. I deeply heart Michael Horton. I am an obsessive listener of his podcast, The White Horse Inn, and just subscribed to his…
Synopsis: 14th century nun Hildegard makes a hazardous journey from England to Italy in search of a holy relic, and finds herself embroiled a both a murder mystery and a political intrigue involving King Richard. Review: I’m afraid I don’t remember enough of Mrs. Philips’s eight grade British History class in order to appreciate Cassandra Clark’s The Red Velvet Turnshoe. I really liked Hildegard’s spunk and levelheadedness, but got lost in the details whenever the plot turned towards politics. I was also surprised by how…
Synopsis: An impenetrable dome smashes down over a small Maine town, completely isolating them from the world. Review: I devoured Under the Dome, thoroughly enjoying King’s blend of deft characterizations, manic plotting, and outrageously broad social satire. Imagine the world coming to an end–but only over a few square miles, while the rest of America watches helpless to intervene. In true King fashion, he takes an external horror device and uses it to expose the evil within. I’d call him a Calvinist, except it seems…
Synopsis: The events leading up to the “waterless flood,” a global catechism wiping out almost all of mankind, as told from the point of view of two survivors, a sex worker and a healer, both of whom were members of a radical vegetarian cult. Review: The Year of the Flood is Margaret Atwood’s companion to Oryx and Crake, presenting the events that led to Jimmy the Snowman’s reign over the gentle, sinless Crakers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Atwood resolutely refuses to call either book “science…
Synopsis: While researching a biography on the life of his ancestor, a hereditary peer in the House of Lords on the verge of losing his privileges thanks to a new bill faces his own family demons and uncovers the dark secrets of his heritage. Review: The Blood Doctor was not quite as dark or titillating as some of Barbara Vine’s other books. It doesn’t use crime as the engine for the mystery; rather, the story is fueled by the current Lord Martin Nanther’s obsession with…