In a small town, everybody knows everyone’s else’s secrets—which is why, when Wilhelmina “Wil” Greene’s mother disappears, the assumption is that she abandoned her family. After all, history has established a precedent for it. Still, Wil refuses to believe her mother could have just left like that, even after a year has passed. Something must have happened to her, and until she is found, Wil is going to keep the pressure on the police to look for answers, no matter how many visits to the station it takes. She also suspects that the Clarke family may have something to do with her mom’s disappearance, which is why everyone seems content to ignore the entire matter. Ultimately, no one wants to be the one investigating Pastor Clarke, the most influential and powerful man in town.
As a consequence of Wil’s suspicions, however, a rift has also formed between her and Elwood Clarke, her once best friend. Now they don’t even talk, as Elwood faces the dread of his looming eighteenth birthday. On that day, he will leave school and partake in a rite of passage which will confirm his place in his father’s congregation, the Garden of Adam. It is something his parents have prepared him for his whole life, but as the time nears, Elwood is starting to have doubts. One night, he disobeys his father and goes to a party, only to come home and learn the truth of what the church has planned for him. Refusing to be a part of it, he runs away and seeks help from the only person he knows will believe him about his wicked family—Wil. The two of them strike up a tentative alliance: she will keep him hidden while he gathers the evidence to prove that his father had something to do with Wil’s mother’s disappearance. But while Ellwood may have escaped for now, there is no running from what’s inside him. If all the plants coming alive around him wherever he goes are any indication, and he will have to face the forest’s call before long.
While Together We Rot had its moment of promise and potential, overall I found myself struggling with certain aspects of the book, namely its characters and the story. Sure, the premise was interesting—enough to draw me to the novel in the first place, when my cynical self has long reached the point where I’ve gotten to be much more judicious about picking the YA I want to read. And yet, it was still not quite enough to overcome certain hurdles.
Let’s start with our protagonists. There are plenty of reasons why angsty, hormonal teenagers aren’t the most fun to hang out with, and unfortunately, Wil embodies almost all of them. It’s one thing to have an assertive and tough character who doesn’t give up, but it’s another to have a belligerent hothead who seems to get off on constantly getting in other people’s faces. The former is true badassery, while the latter is just plain old asshattery. And yet, that’s still better off than poor Elwood, who doesn’t seem to have an ounce of personality of his own. The story is told through alternating POVs, and I could always tell we were on his chapters because he was so bland. The narrative had to constantly resort to describing his obsession with bugs and entomology, because apparently he needs to be defined by this one hobby or else he’d be completely forgettable.
On the bright side, in the face of these criticisms, I guess my issues with the story isn’t so bad. The plot just wasn’t as good or captivating as it could have been. Cults and cult leaders have featured as villains in many of the books I’ve read this year, and comparatively, the characterization of Elwood’s father and the Garden of Adam was pretty run-of-the-mill, not all that imaginative or unexpected. Pacing also felt a bit slower at the beginning because not enough happened. The writing and prose were standard fare, not outstanding but not bad. This being a debut, I chalk these hiccups up to a new author still trying to hone her craft.
As such, I don’t want to nitpick too much. It’s enough to say that Together We Rot was a decent read, especially for a novel of YA paranormal horror with a strong thread of romance, but it didn’t blow me away. There were a few highlights here and there, but these scattered moments couldn’t quite overcome or compensate for the lackluster characters or the story’s shortcomings....more
Word of advice: Do not start this book before you go to sleep or unless you have a good chunk of time available to devote to it, because believe me, you will not want to stop. Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine has rocketed up my list of favorite thriller reads of the year, thanks to its gripping narrative and unexpected plot twists that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.
The story follows actress Anna Alcott, who enjoyed a moderately successful career in her youth. Now in her late 30s, she is preparing to settle down with her new husband Dex to start a family, but unfortunately, infertility had other plans. After wrapping up work on her latest project, an indie film called The Auteur, Anna decides that the time has finally come to seek help at a fertility clinic, one that comes highly recommended by friends. However, during their latest round of IVF, The Auteur unexpectedly becomes a runaway hit, and suddenly, Anna is faced with the possibility of being nominated for an Oscar.
Years ago, the opportunity would have been a dream come true, but now Anna only has her sights on getting pregnant—and the obsession might even be starting to affect her senses. At first, it was the missed doctor appointments, though she could have sworn she entered the dates and times correctly into her calendar. Then came the misplaced bottles of medications crucial to her IVF cycles, almost as if someone was deliberately trying to sabotage her pregnancy journey.
Things only get worse when Anna eventually gets her positive test. One day, someone breaks into the house while she is sleeping, and creepy dolls are left on the beach where she frequently walks. As desperation mounts and the stress becomes more than she can take, Anna starts having terrible symptoms and can’t stop worrying about her baby’s safety even as she wonders if she might be losing her mind.
From the very beginning, I was seized by the uncomfortable truths of human reproduction. In my experience, most books for expectant mothers paint a halcyon, glowing picture of pregnancy (“Your baby is now the size of a sweet potato!”) while failing to depict that what happens between conception and birth is a harrowing process where so many things can go wrong. Heck, even trying to conceive can be a monumental struggle, as it was for Anna Alcott. In a true test of my squeamishness, the author does not shy away from any of the messy, painful details as she describes her protagonist’s experience with IVF and then, later, her experiences with a difficult pregnancy. For this reason, Delicate Condition has the potential to be a highly distressing read for someone who is pregnant, struggling with infertility, or has experienced miscarriage. Reader discretion is definitely advised.
Personally though, what set this book apart for me was its main character, whose every emotion came to life with depth and complexity. Even though I had relatively textbook pregnancies with my kids, as a naturally anxious person, I was paranoid and worried every day, and seeing those fears magnified a thousand times in Anna, my heart just broke for her.
The novel’s pacing was also an example of masterful balance and control, never letting up for a second while still being careful not to overwhelm the reader with too many developments. And while this book has been compared to Rosemary’s Baby, quite honestly, I feel the comparison is neither accurate nor fair. Delicate Condition certainly deserves to stand on its own since there are some elements it tackles differently, and other areas where it does things even better. Best of all, there was plenty of psychological depth to the horror and suspense, both of which increased gradually over the course of the story, building up to multiple revelations until the grand finale left me in a state of complete shock.
Finally, this isn’t actually my first book by the author, who has published YA titles under her name Danielle Vega. However, compared to the YA horror novel I’d previously read by her, which was rather run-of-the-mill and unadventurous, Delicate Condition is a whole other kind monster—a dark, vicious, and unrelenting one. At the same time, I loved the sophistication and boldness of the writing and narrative, and if this is what I can look forward to from the author’s adult fiction in the future, then sign me up for more....more
Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft blends together elements from the space opera and romance genres, resulting in a sci-fi adventure that delivers on both fronts to varying degrees of success.
In a system with a dying sun, the race is on to find a way to save the nine planets and their billions of inhabitants who depend on the star for survival. Nineteen-year-old Princess Kali, daughter of the Empress, is on her first royal mission to tour the research facility where scientists have been working on a promising solution to the problem when suddenly, an act of terrorism leaves the whole station in shambles.
In the chaos, Kali and six others barely manage to escape the flaming ruins of the lab by fleeing aboard a dilapidated starship. Her fellow passengers include Ian, a rough mercenary who immediately claims leadership of the group; his brother Max, a bit more soft spoken but no less ruthless; Rain, a high priestess from the Sisterhood of the Dying Sun; her bodyguard Merrick, a stalwart warrior monk; Beckett, an escaped prisoner with a massive chip on her shoulder; and Gage, a shady ex-Corporation employee who is loyal to no one but himself.
Trapped together in an unfamiliar and volatile ship, our ragtag crew suddenly find themselves hunted by almost every major faction there is in the solar system. Everyone on board seems to have a secret they’re desperate to outrun or a dangerous mission they’re trying to accomplish. Among them, clashes immediately ensue, but so too does a little bit of unexpected chemistry.
Star Bringer is the latest release from Red Tower Books, Entangled Publishing’s freshly launched imprint featuring new adult speculative fiction romance titles. Keep in mind though, while sci-fi may be the name, love is definitely the game. What this means is that world-building is on the shallower side, and the science is practically non-existent. Still, you can’t really blame the story as it makes itself very clear from the start: it’s all about the relationships, baby. Plus, it’s not shy about the instalove either. All the threats facing the group notwithstanding, most of this 600-page novel’s middle is dedicated to the two separate romance arcs that quickly emerge, one between Kali and Ian, the other between Rain and Beckett.
If you’re a romance reader, Star Bringer will no doubt be right up your alley, especially if you are a fan of the tried-and-true genre tropes and spicy hot love scenes. Personally speaking though, the relationships in this book kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, mainly due to both Ian and Beckett coming across as shamelessly taking advantage of their respective love interests’ lack of experience and naivete. Sorry, maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I prefer my romances built upon strong foundations and characterized by mutual respect, and Ian was certainly no charming scruffy-looking nerfherder capturing the love and heart of a princess. By the book blurb’s own admission, he was just an asshole, where pretty much every word out of his mouth was “fuck” or a putdown directed at Kali. Ugh, so gross.
Having expected Star Bringer to be lighter on the sci-fi elements, I wanted a little more out of the romance, but unfortunately that just didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. Still, I feel the authors succeeded in achieving what they set out to do. The potential is there, and I can see this being a lot of fun for the right reader....more
Loading...
