Get Lost in Literature

  I traditionally open each review with a quote from the book, but I regifted the book and couldn't look one up for you. I apologize for the quality of this, my last review of A-Z Challenge, but I suppose it's on par with the quality of the book. Upon reading the last few sentences of the story, I shouted aloud, "Oh, c'mon!" (I actually think I swore in my exclamation, but I try to keep this blog safe for kiddos.) The book starts great, just so you know. Pretty much as good as a murder mystery at an isolated research station could be. Paranoia, espionage, sabotage, set on the backdrop of the vicious polar landscape... Then towards the end, it's like the writer decided he doesn't really do murder mysteries anymore so here's an ending for sci-fi nerds instead... And I am a sci-fi nerd, but, c'mon.  I loved the ending in a way. I loved it in the way that I'd really love to read the beginning half of that story because, realistically, the ending ...

“Your duty is to society, and the dead have always been a part of society. How we treat the dead says much about us.” ― Alex Grecian, The Yard I know we're supposed to use a certain number of words in our A-Z Challenge blog posts, but I'm keeping this one short and sweet. There are multiple murderers on the loose and the murder squad, headed up by Detective Day, is going to put a stop to it. The writing style took a bit of getting used to, but the storytelling is on point. The characters are great, the setting is iconic for all the wrong reasons. There's a chill in the morgue...as there should be. The only thing that irritated me was the overuse of italics for a specific character... unnecessary given the number of characters involved, especially when that specific character's identity is finally revealed. I did give this a four star rating, I know it's hard to tell by my lackluster review, but I really did enjoy it and its proximity to Jack the Ripper adds an extra...

  “The sun sinks to rise again; the day is swallowed up in the gloom of night, to be born out of it, as fresh as if it had never been quenched.”― William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist I would like to start by saying two things: 1. I know using Ex instead of X isn't quite the same thing, Ex being a sound and X being an unloved letter of the alphabet...And at least on my blog, this year, it's going to remain underappreciated because Ex was the best I could do. 2 Do not read this book before bed, unless you're the kind of person that enjoys sleeping with the lights on. The story opens with Father Merrin, who is working on an archaeological dig in Iraq and is overcome with a feeling of foreboding as he discovers a statue of the wind demon, Pazuzu. Miles away, in Georgetown, Washington DC, Chris MacNeil is finishing up the filming of her next movie with director Burke Dennings before going home to her daughter, Regan. A normal life in the day of an actress except for the Jesuit pri...

  "Your assumptions are windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in." Nessie gets up one day and leaves her house in a walking coma, seemingly impervious to all external stimuli. Soon Nessie is joined by others like her, as they begin their journey to God knows where. They are the flock. Shana, Nessie's sister, gives up everything to care for her sister and is soon joined by other devoted friends and relatives of the flock. These are the shepherds. Both shepherds and flock are closely monitored by Benji Ray and his coworkers from the CDC as a secondary outbreak occurs, more deadly and insidious than the first. I loved certain things about this book. The mystery of the flock: what happened to them and where are they going and why are they going there. The shepherds' dedication and sacrifice, the forging of bonds in the time of mass hysteria, as the caravan travels in blind faith. Equal parts suspense and cautionary tale, it...

  "The hotel room was pain and noise and chaos. Victor came to, dazed, trapped between the school lab and the hotel room, Angie's scream in his head and Sydney's in his ears. Sydney? But the girl was nowhere to be seen..." The book blurb for this story, describe Victor and Eli as "brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys..." but that's an understatement. Victor and Eli are psychopaths who meet in college; they're both geniuses, top of the class, with the world at their fingertips and they're both hungry for power. Victor is a loner, who's world famous psychologists parents have abandoned him for book tours, leaving him to his studies in neuroscience. He doesn't try to fit in, he doesn't want to... But he finds himself drawn to Eli- a charismatic, athletic, pre-med student, who enjoys being the center of attention. Working together, they figure out that the key to having all the power they want is surviving. I love an antihero story, and here ...

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.” ― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies In this futuristic world, there are Uglies and there are Pretties. Main character, Tally is an Ugly, who can't wait for her sixteenth birthday, that magical birthday when all newly 16-year-olds get to undergo plastic surgery to become a Pretty. Once Pretty, she gets to go to New Prettytown, where a Pretty's only job is to have fun. Everything looks like it's going to go according to Tally's plan, until her friend Shay, decides to run away rather than become pretty...And Tally is given the task of tracking her down and bringing her back to civilization. I didn't love this book from start to finish, but some parts were definitely more lovable than others. At first, the story was hard to get into: Even though the story is told by Tally, who is almost sixteen, her voice seemed to belong to someone much younger than a teenager approaching adulthood. In ...

  “Tell your secret to the wind, but don’t blame it for telling the trees.” ― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns This book was very moving. It chronicles the lives of two women Miriam and Laila, who will become child brides under very different circumstances, to the same man. Takes place from the time of Soviet occupation to Taliban and finally Al-Queda. I feel like I want to focus on some of the more abhorrent character interactions for this review, the things that sensitive readers are bound to hate (and there's nothing wrong with that, if it isn't your cup of tea). Miriam is given to a man significantly older than herself by a family who is ashamed of her, while Laila chooses to marry this man to cover up that she had a family that loved her. Rasheed then proceeds to consummate the marriage, which by our modern day, first world standards, is a crime. By basic humanitarian standards, this is a crime. It's statutory rape, it's legal pedophilia. This is also a th...