Tag Archives: 21st Century

Pointe by Brandy Colbert

American Literature July 2, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: Aspiring ballerina Theo’s best friend was kidnapped four years ago, and his miraculous return and the arrest of his abductor triggers Theo’s eating disorder because of a secret she’s keeping that may have been responsible for what happened. Review: Pointe is really, really powerful, not so much because of the issues it deals with (eating disorders, sex crimes against children), but because it has a plot independent of Theo’s inner journey. We’re not just watching Theo suffer, we’re caught up in the suspense over…

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

British Literature June 30, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: When a brilliant and ruthless scientist is asked by mutilated being to help it to fly, his research unleashes a deadly terror on the sprawling, rambunctious, decadent city of New Crobuzon, and only his belief in crisis theory may save the human and non-human inhabitants, including Isaac’s lover Lin, a khepri with the body of a beautiful woman and a scarab beetle for a head. Review: I have long passed over China Mieville out of a kind of reverse snobbery, assuming that a writer…

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

On Reading June 24, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: If you found a letter from your husband saying “do not open until I’m dead,” what would you do? Review: I think the fact that it’s taken me a week to write this review says all you need to know about how I felt about The Husband’s Secret. Bland, forgettable, lacking in narrative oomph… bummer.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

American Literature June 16, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: A recently retired detective finds his suicidal urges lifting when he receives a taunting letter from someone claiming to be the man who drove a stolen Mercedes into a crowd of job seekers, killing many of them, including a baby. Review: I really don’t have much to say about Mr. Mercedes, except that I really wish Stephen King would stop writing black characters who like to talk like racist caricatures on purpose, only to have their white liberal friends laugh knowingly. I am really…

Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrell

American Literature June 12, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: A young couple spends a year at Bennington College living with gothic writer Shirley Jackson and her philandering husband. Review: George and Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? have nothing on Shirley and Stanley, in real life (as chronicled in the wonderful biography Private Demons), and Shirley: A Novel delivers every ounce of juice you would hope for. Even better–the plot and characters are nothing short of excellent. Author Susan Scarf Merrell uses a thriller structure, and the plot is filled with allusions,…

Close Reach by Jonathan Moore

On Reading June 8, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: Kelly and her husband Dean have sold everything to live at sea, but their dreams of repairing their broken marriage are shattered when their radio signal is jammed after hearing a terrifying cry for help and a battered fishing vessel comes alongside them–with no intention of helping. Review: Close Reach scared me to death, and I loved every minute of it. It’s a tightly crafted thriller set in a fabulously spooky world (in the middle of the ocean near the Drake Passage to Antarctica),…

Before I Wake by C.L. Taylor

British Literature June 1, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: When her daughter falls into a coma, a politician’s wife goes searching for the truth, even as a past abusive relationship and her own mental instability come back to haunt her. Review: Before I Wake was a wild enough ride. It had enough juicy backstory to keep me engaged even though the present-day mystery was a bit of a slog. Though Susan’s sordid previous relationship didn’t hit any fresh notes, it attacked all the expected ones with gusto. The mystery was a little implausible…

Ann Rule Presents- Final Exams: True Crime Cases by Cyril Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann

American Literature May 30, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: An analysis of four notable cases by famed forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht. Review: While the cases in Final Exams aren’t as twisty and turny or psychologically intricate as the cases that Ann Rule chooses for her books, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interesting on their own terms. As a forensic pathologist, Cyril Wecht sees things in the human body that others don’t think to look for. In the first case in the book, he uses the particulars of some knife wounds to put…

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

American Literature May 23, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: An unhappy heiress spends summers on her unhappy family’s private island, but after an accident gives her amnesia, she can’t remember how everything finally fell apart and what she may have had to do with it. Review: I was a big fan of Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and We Were Liars showed the same deft hand with characterization. However, the author let the melodrama get the better of her by trying a bit too hard to capture the excesses of teenage…

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (The Southern Reach Trilogy)

American Literature May 21, 2014 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: An operative is assigned to investigate an anomaly in the latest investigation into dangerous, mysterious, paradoxical Area X, but the truth seems to lie on the other side of insanity. Review: Authority is the second in the trilogy that began with Annihilation, a story that promises the kind of enigmatic secrets that make your skin crawl. We’re talking Blair Witch stuff. House of Leaves. I’m such a sucker for this genre and when it’s as well written as these books are, I do a…

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