Get Lost in Literature

  The main characters of this story aren't particularly likable. Which perhaps is motivation to keep reading, that the main characters are realistically human. Tom is a bit of a narcissistic dick and his wife Abby comes off as cold and oblivious. Both parents were left broken when their daughter was kidnapped. Abby turned to the church in her time of need and Tom obsessively continued investigation into his daughter's disappearance. Overall, there was an easy flow to the writing style even as the subject matter was grim. At times I wondered if Uncle Buster was really necessary to the story, mostly he just seemed a little cliché and some of his conversations felt like a waste of time. I kept turning the page, wanting to know answers to questions like "what happens next?" and "how does it end?" so it absolutely hit its suspense quota. After four years apart, Tom finally gets what he wants: Caitlyn comes home. It's not enough. She's not the same, how co...

...there is no you there is no me there is only we we we we we..." There's quite a bit going on in this book. Elisa Esposito is a mute woman working as a janitor at a government research facility in 1960s Baltimore. Colonel Richard Strickland has been put in charge of an expedition to the Amazon to capture a river creature the local tribes are worshiping. The creature is captured and brought to the research facility, tying Strickland and Elisa's lives to its own. The writing is sharp, the story is fast paced, the characters are well thought out. If you just want a really good story to fall into this is a good one. Woman meets monster, woman wants to save monster. What could go wrong is as intriguing as what could go right. It goes a touch further, I think, riddled through with political statements using the way things were to point out how things are. A mute woman, a gay senior, a black woman, and a Russian spy are standing between the creature and its absolute destruction...

  "The moments that define lives aren't always obvious. They don't always scream, LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there's no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren't always protracted, heavy with meaning." I am really enjoying this, but I've got a thing for anti-heros...  * Thursday Quotables  invented by  Bookshelf Fantasies . 

  "Screams, then a shout.  The sound is muffled, muted, like it's coming down a tunnel.  Then a face appears at the window, twisted in an expression of absolute terror." High up in the mountains, a tuberculosis hospital is getting a face lift. It's been transformed into a five star hotel, with a minimalist design aesthetic, that echos the clinic it used to be and creepy medical themed artwork because who doesn't want to look at anatomy diagrams and archaic surgical tools when they're vacationing on Mt. Middle of Nowhere. Elin Warner and her boyfriend Will, have just been invited to celebrate her brother Isaac's engagement to her childhood friend Laure. She hasn't seen either person in years, cutting off social ties after the death of her younger brother. After Elin's panic attacks start effecting her job performance, she takes an extended sick leave, leaving her with no excuse not to attend the engagement party.    The hotel creeps her out almost i...

  "It's great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl." Kate Holland and her husband Dan move to Greenloop, a small neighborhood nestled in the forest beneath Mt Ranier. Greenloop is advertised as both, the antithesis of the evils created by city living, and the future of housing development. Smart homes built in the middle of nowhere, running off of bio-gas and solar panels, with drones dropping groceries into the backyards. It's the perfect place to live if you're looking to reconnect with nature... Until a volcanic eruption leaves the residents of Greenloop isolated... and hunted. This is not WWZ . I found it a little slow to start where WWZ was disturbing from the first page. I also found the Journal entries and character interviews so much like WWZ I wondered if the writing style was a crutch. ( It sold well once before, right? ) It was preachy in some locations, which I wouldn't have minded ( because I happen to agree with Max Br...