This my first experience reading anything by Claire Keegan, but I was very impressed. Sometimes the quietist book can send the biggest message, and this is a clear (deserved) condemnation of the Catholic church in Ireland. Set in a small village in Ireland just before Christmas in the mid-1980s, when many people are out of work and suffering, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and father to four daughters, is still making ends meet. When making … Read More “Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan” »
For the second time, I’ve liked the premise of this author’s book more than I enjoyed the book itself, and especially the ultimate conclusion. I like the writing itself and I want to find out what happens just because I always want to find out what happens, but it felt like the big twists in this book were almost too big and random and ultimately didn’t make much sense. Mariana Andros, a group therapist, is … Read More “The Maidens by Alex Michaelides” »
This is a very dark thriller that made me want to keep turning the page throughout to find out what happens next while still cringing that I didn’t really want to know what was coming because it was so dark. The opening of the book with the narration from the voices of the dead, the lost, and the forgotten really set the scene for the whole book and made sure that the reader didn’t forget … Read More “Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens” »
While not a fast-paced, in-your-face thriller, this was a satisfying suspense novel set in the Appalachian Mountains. Cooper and his daughter Finch live in isolation at a remote, off-the-grid cabin, and Jake, Cooper’s friend, and Scotland, a hermit living nearby, are the only people who know they are there, which is the way Cooper wants it. For the last eight years, Jake has brought Cooper and Finch much needed supplies once a year, but this … Read More “These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant” »
Let me start off by saying that I have read a lot of Jane Yolen (and I don’t just mean her How Do Dinosaur series, although it is one of my daughter’s favorites.) I like that what she writes is not necessarily what you expect and that there are a lot of fantasy and magical realism elements in her writing. And several of these stories are just creepy enough to make you uncomfortable. The first … Read More “The Midnight Circus by Jane Yolen” »