Review: The Body Finder Low Price with Bonus Material

The Body Finder Low Price with Bonus Material by Kimberly Derting

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


This book sucked.

I won't go into great detail about how badly this book sucked, because if you're drawn to it, you'll probably have to find out on your own. But suck it did.

Derting's book has an interesting premise; her main character, Violet, can sense the location of murder victims. Her gift is hereditary, and she inherited it from her grandmother. Everyone in her family, and her best friend Jay, know about the gift. As a small child, she found the location of a murdered girl. For some time after the discovery, she was distraught, but once the girl was buried, she recovered.

This set the pattern for her life to this point. Violet can sense any murdered body--including those killed by animals. Once she discovers the body, she buries it, and then she finds peace. Until that time, the body radiates a sound, scent, or taste that overwhelms her other senses. Unfortunately, her family owns a cat that does kill birds, so this feeling happens often. She's managed to get by so far by having a small graveyard in the backyard.

Sounds promising, no? Trust me, the "no" is the right word.

When Violet returns to school for her junior year, she's troubled by her attraction to Jay. He's been her friend for years, but he matured greatly over the summer, and he's now the object of desire for nearly every girl in the school and apparently the tri-city area.

When she's not obsessing over Jay, Violet is disturbed by the reports of missing girls in her community, but the disappearances only become real once she finds a body.

At this point, the novel takes a nose dive.

Here, as readers, we are introduced to a random chapter from the point of view of the killer. He's hunting these girls and gets off on the chase. Oddly, he likes girls that surrender meekly; if they struggle, it ruins his mood. His sections of text are always in Italics--you know, in case we mistake his thoughts for those of Violet. We have to have that extra visual to make certain that we understand that Violet would never consider a girl her age "delectable." (I could be wrong about the word there, but it's the sort of word he would have used. I'm too lazy to flip through my nook and find a real quote.)

Personally, I hate mysteries that include chapters from the point-of-view of the killer. The viewpoint hopping disturbs me simply because I'm not a fan of splitting a book between two characters, for one reason. For another, in this book it seems like a sloppy attempt to imitate adult mysteries or television shows. In a show like Criminal Minds, it makes sense to show the killer's POV. This gives viewers a chance to compare his/her behavior with what the profilers recognize and to build suspense. However, in a novel, it doesn't work so well. In this case, the killer is used to build suspense and cause readers to constantly fear that this time he's got Violet in his sights . . . but he doesn't. The cheap trick of having Violet and the victim act alike gets old, and quickly. Even more annoying, I have to admit that I don't think this trick belongs in a YA novel. I have no problems with YA novels about murder. However, I don't think it's a good idea for a YA to be from the POV of the killer. Asking teens to read those thoughts seems inappropriate.

Add to this the fact that the novel was boringly predictable. When I realized the timing of the end of the novel, I bet my husband $5 how and when the novel would end. He didn't take the bet, which is just as well. I would have won.

I found this book to be a terrible waste of my time. I will not read the second book, and I doubt that I'll read anything else by Kimberly Derting. I understand that this is a young adult novel; I read YA novels more than almost any other genre, so I'm familiar with its tropes. Just because it's YA doesn't mean that it has to be bad, and this one is very, very bad. In fact, it sucked.



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Review: Glimmerglass

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first Jenna Black novel I've read. While I don't know yet if I want to try her adult books yet, I will definitely pick up a copy of the next book in the Faeriewalker series.



Dana Hathaway is fed up with her mother. They've been moving frequently throughout her childhood and teen years in order to stay off Dana's father's radar, and the moves have made life extremely unpleasant for Dana. Whenever she becomes close to someone, it's time to move again. In addition to the moves, her mother is an alcoholic, and Dana is ashamed of her. Since they move so often, Dana doesn't have a friend or support network to help her deal with the situation. When her mom drives herself to Dana's voice recital--falling down drunk--she's had enough.



Dana has always known that her father was Fae. Her mother (when sober) claimed that he was a bad, bad, man and she fled Avalon with Dana to keep them safe. When drunk, she admitted that he was a good guy but that being near him would turn Dana into a pawn in the politics of the Fae. Unable to bear her mother's drinking any longer, Dana contacts her father and arranges to run away to Avalon.



Avalon is a unique city, and one of the most interesting parts of Black's created world. Avalon is the one place that's both within the borders of Faerie and the mortal world. Both technology and magic work in Avalon. Upon her arrival there, Dana quickly becomes enmeshed in the power struggles between people and Fae that she never knew existed. She's kidnapped, and rescued by other kidnappers . . . Everyone wants her in their custody, as her very presence is enough to change the balance of power completely. As the cover copy explains, Dana is a Faeriewalker--the only living person that can cross between Faerie and the mortal realm at will. She can bring magic to the mortal realm and technology to Faerie. As one character explains, she's the equivalent of a nuclear missile.



Through all of this, one thing quickly becomes clear to Dana: she must become capable of securing her own safety. And she needs to learn who she can trust.



I read this novel in less than four hours. As soon as I picked it up, I did not want to put it down, and I'm sure that I read it again before the summer's out. Black has an excellent sense of pacing, and she constantly ratchets up the tension in the book. This book is not literature, but Black's prose is smooth and fits the narrative well. Dana doesn't always make good decisions in the course of the book, but Black does make those choices believable. The secondary characters are interesting, and while most of them want to use Dana for their own ends, their motives are often complicated.



I've been disappointed by many of the YA paranormals in recent years, and this book has many of the tropes that are so often overused (flirting with real social problems like alcohol, a willingness to discuss sex & sexuality, magic on the edges of everyday life, and the mysterious heritage of our otherwise desperate-to-be-normal heroine . . .). However, that said, Black's Avalon and Dana's character are both interesting enough to move beyond the realm of stereotype and into the realm of good storytelling.



I look forward to book two. (The Erl-King? How awesome will he be?!)



Edit: on my second read, I can say that I still really enjoy this book. This time through, I noticed just how much Dana's mother's addiction shapes Dana. Very well done.



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Review: Baltimore Blues

Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've had Laura Lippman in my sights ever since Ellen Emerson White spoke highly of her in an online posting. This month, BN is offering the first book in Lippman's Tess Monaghan series for 99 cents, so I thought I should give her a chance. And I'm glad that I did.

I can't say that this book excelled beyond my wildest imagination or any of that sort of hyperbole. What it does, it does well. It's the story of how Tess, underemployed and working free lance since she was laid off as a reporter, starts working as a detective. A friend asks her to investigate his fiance, and this one request has a large number of consequences for everyone involved in their lives.

What I liked most about this book was Baltimore. I haven't been to Charm City, and I'm sure Baltimore of today is different from the time when they had almost a murder-a-day. However, I do work in Detroit, and I dearly love that city. What I saw in this book was almost a love letter to Baltimore. The city, with its crime and its neighborhoods and its impossible map and local businesses, lives and breathes on the pages of Lippman's book. I don't know if the locations she writes about are real. But I can believe they are. And, when reading a book with such a power setting as Baltimore, that's all that matters.



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Review: Queene of Light

Queene of Light by Jennifer Armintrout

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I've had this book on my to-read shelf for a year. I bought it during the clearance sales when my bookstore was closing, and it got a bit lost in the sheer quantity of books I was buying at that time. The first time I picked it up, a few months after I bought it, I couldn't get into the story very easily.

This time, I got pulled right in.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the ride as much as I wished I would.

This is the story of Ayla and Malachi. Alya is half Fae, half human, and works as an Assassin for the Fae court. It's her job to go into the Darkworld and kill those that would endanger the Fae. Malachi is a Death Angel, and when he attacks Alya, he makes the mistake of touching her. Since she's part human, the touch of her skin is enough to cause him to Fall and become mortal.

Ayla, to obey her vows to the Fae court, should kill this Darkling. Malachi, out of revenge for his Fall, wants nothing more than to kill the girl. But neither one can do it--instead they find themselves drawn together by a much different emotion.

Queene of Light is the first in a trilogy, and I'm not sure that I will read the rest of them. This book was OK, but it tried to be too many things, and it wound up being unable to be any of them. It wanted to be an urban fantasy, but since humans are almost completely absent, that didn't work. It wanted to be a fantasy focusing on fairy politics, but the characters' motivations were always obvious. It wanted to be the romance of Ayla and Malachi, but neither one had enough character to truly drive a story, and their attraction to each other made very little sense.

While I would not say this was a bad book, it did fall flat for me. I might change my mind about it if I choose to read the later two books, but right now, I don't recommend this book.



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Review: Another Faust

Another Faust by Daniel Nayeri

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I had high hopes for this book, but it unexpectedly fell flat for me. As the cover copy explains, this is the story of the five Faust children and their governess Nicola Vileroy. Each of the children has a special gift, but only three of them know why. They sold their souls to Miss Vileroy, and now she's raising them to achieve their dreams. Two of the children don't understand what's happening; they believe that all of them were adopted by Miss Vileroy as babies. Vileroy plays them against each other constantly, because so long as they fight each other, they can't bother to consider the nature of their own lives. They've just started at the Marlowe School of Manhattan, and they intend to use their gifts to rule the school. Their gifts are: <spoiler>



Victoria cheats. She can read the mind of anyone and find the answers she needs.



Christian steals. He can steal the athletic talents of anyone he touches and use it to enhance his own.



Valentin lies. He can warp and rewind time, reliving events over and over until they turn out the way he wants.



Belle also lies. She's beautiful, but her face is a mask that cannot hide the awful stench that surrounds her. Some poor souls find the stench addictive.



Bicé hides. She creates pockets of time wherein she studies languages. </spoiler>



While I thought the book was extraordinarily well-written, I still found it hard to enjoy. The literary allusions were tasteful, and they did enhance the story. However, the book could be enjoyed even if you were completely unaware of the connections the Nayeri siblings are making.



The problem I had with this book is related to its genre; it's awfully hard to sympathize with the sort of person that willingly sells his or her soul. The Faust children are often repellent, and I had to push myself at times to keep going with the book.



I do think I'll give the next book in this series a shot, but I don't think I'll bother to reread this one.



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Review: The Scent of Jasmine

The Scent of Jasmine by Jude Deveraux

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Once again, I fall victim to my Jude Deveraux addiction. While few of Deveraux's books ever land on my favorites shelf, I always consistently return to her when I need a good read. A few of her books (Holly, Sweetbriar, and the Forever and Always trilogy, for example) fall flat for me, but I'm always willing to give her books a chance. This time, I'm glad I did. The Scent of Jasmine is a new favorite of mine.

So far, there are four books in the Edilean series, and only one has truly disappointed me--Days of Gold. The rest of the series has been fun and inventive. Deveraux's task in this series--telling the history of a town through it's romances--has given her writing a much needed boost. The unique format of the series plays to Deveraux's strengths--her ability to write in both modern and historical settings, her lighthearted humor, excellent research skills, and her ability to create a rich texture of interconnected narratives. This book tells the story of Cay and Alex in 1799 South Carolina. Alex has been convicted of murder and scheduled to hang. Cay's godfather convinces her to assist Alex in his escape from prison, but nothing goes as planned. Cay is recognized, and she and Alex are soon fugitives. Thrown together by chance, the pair bond over their flight and find themselves struggling to create a future while running from the past.

The Scent of Jasmine was just what I wanted it to be, lighthearted and sweet. I recommend it for fans of Deveraux and those seeking a simple historical romance.



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Things I don't understand

Normally, I don't like the idea of making fun of religious beliefs.  I'm largely an agnostic; being raised within a deeply divided family helped to push me away from any sort of faith.  And, while I don't have a strong faith of my own, I learned that I really didn't like it when people criticized religion.  To an outsider, any religion can appear ridiculous, and throwing potshots at other faiths does nothing to advance your own, I decided.  However, there are some times when I find myself unable to avoid commenting.

While browsing Goodreads, I ran across a giveaway for this book: Purging Your House, Pruning Your Family Tree: How to Rid Your Home and Family of Demonic Influence and Generational Depression by Perry Stone.  At my last glance, 208 people have entered the giveaway to be one of five lucky winners of a free copy of the book.

Some of those entrants are probably what one might consider a collector; they'll enter any giveaway for the sheer delight of winning something free, never mind what it might be.  However, some people are undoubtedly interested in the book itself.  The one review on Goodreads at the time that I'm composing this blog, takes this book to task pretty seriously.  Greg states that novels of this type are "the next step in the prosperity gospel continuum," and explains that

After years of giving these snake-oil con-men at least 10 percent of their earnings, over-drawing on credit cards with the hope of god ejaculating riches on you as a reward for fiscal stupidity, and being a dope that after not finding results in Joel Olsteen's first book Your Best Life Now keeps shelling out money for the follow ups (which shouldn't need to exist, how can you have a better than a best life?) and finding that their life still fucking sucks and maybe it could be because life is unfair and sucks, or because the decisions one made are shitty, or maybe it is because all the giving and praying to Dr. Dollar, or TD Jakes or Joyce Meyer or to that douche bag who looks like Tom Cruise in Magnolia, maybe I'm just not seeing results because there are demons living in my fucking house! Or even worse it was an ancestor who was a sinner and demons are still lurking around!!!!

While Greg's language is a bit much, I have to admit that I do understand his point.  The prosperity gospel teaches that, so long as you believe correctly, your life will be good.  This may (and they would like to imply, does) often take the shape of wealth, but it can also be peace and tranquility within the family.  The prosperity gospel teachings try their best to ignore that capitalism is not a Christian philosophy.  Instead, capitalism is based in the idea of profit and that some will succeed while others fail.  The prosperity gospel would like to claim that those that fail--the poor, the infirm, the bankrupt--made bad moral choices and are therefore being punished.  In that concept, the wealthy must then be very moral, as they have been rewarded with earthly goods.

A book like this reaches out to those that feel left out by the prosperity gospel, as Greg claims above.  This sort of book is for the true believer that followed the tenants of the prosperity gospel only to see prosperity pass him or her by.  These people fail to understand that capitalism must have its victims, and the morality of those victims means nothing in comparison to other factors such as their education, skill set, location, and the demand for laborers with their skills.  Instead of seeing their failure as a function of capitalism and of our society, this book would have them look for demons.

The books cover copy does indicate that much of its title is a metaphor, as it explains

Purging your house involves removing spiritual, emotional, and mental hindrances from three houses: spiritual, physical, and emotional. The author teaches readers the 3-step process of removing the leprosy (laying aside the weights or sins), rebuilding a fresh foundation (replacing old thoughts with new thoughts), and restoring the house (new friends, relations, directions). Pruning your family tree involves a process called redemptive alteration, which positively impacts your future when the Word of God defeats the sin habits and overcomes the carnal nature through regeneration.

So many of the claims here are weasel words--what precisely is "redemptive alteration," for instance?  Perhaps I would understand if I read the book, but with sort of cover copy, I don't intend to ever even allow it in my house.  I don't like the way the author connects leprosy with "weights or sins."  At the end of the cover copy, the author apparently connects the dangers that can harm families with the dangers that destroy trees.  By my count, he's got three metaphors running:

1. The house as a person
2. Sins as disease
3. Modern life as the dangers that harm trees

Nowhere in this list does the author even attempt to explain what he means by demons or "generational depression."

I have not read this book, and I have no intention of reading it.  Not only does it mix metaphors dreadfully in its cover copy, it seems to further an argument that I find repellent--the concept that morality is rewarded with a good life.  As Americans, we live in a capitalist society, and capitalism does not care about your morals.  In fact, if you really want to succeed as a capitalist, it would be best if you abandoned your morals straightaway.  (See J.R. Ewing from the 80s nighttime soap Dallas for an illustration of this concept.)

Until we accept that religion and capitalism are not friendly concepts, books like this will attempt to cash in on the discontent of believers.