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ginger_curmudgeon's reviews
367 reviews
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.75
For the first 30 - 40 pages, I didn’t care for Benedict’s writing style. It felt like she was trying to write a literary fiction version of an Agatha Christie mystery and it felt clunky. I’m not sure if her writing settled a bit or I was just accustomed to it, but I wasn’t bothered after that.
None of the characters are particularly likable, except perhaps Mrs. Castle. Most of them have moments, but not enough to make them fully likable.
I wasn’t surprised by who did it, but I was a bit surprised by how things wrapped. It was a bit quick and sudden, like most procedural shows.
All that said, for a Christmas cozy mystery like something from Christie, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would when I first started the book.
Love Junkie by Robert Plunket
3.5
“Love Junkie” left me with mixed feelings. After reading the descriptions and some of the quotes, I was looking forward to this, but then it was a very slow go for me and I can’t say for certain why.
This reminds me of Truman Capote meets “Keeping Up With Appearances” with a couple ladies I’ve known along the way added to the mix.
Mimi is desperate for attention and acceptance. She goes to great lengths to get those things, but it only lasts so long until the men she’s desperately trying to get to accept her show their true feelings and leave her sad and in need of a new target. Maybe on that sense it hits too close to home.
Mimi is also obsessed with maintaining certain outward standards that might be of her creation. She is sort of 1980s NYC version of Hyacinth Bucket in that way. She’s very concerned with how others perceive her, to the point that she lies to her therapist and hides things from him.
Plunket set the novel in NYC in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic and his portrayal fits that time period pretty well. He doesn’t call it out by name, but references things like skin lesions, dramatic weight loss and looking tired and rundown. You know what’s going on with the characters without it being named. I appreciate this portrayal.
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
3.0
I didn’t love “Dreadful” and I didn’t hate it. It’s OK. I wasn’t really impressed or disappointed.
It reads like young adult fantasy, not adult.
None of the challenging moments appear to be all that challenging. Resolution always comes quicker than it seems like it should. Even the big scene toward the end. I won’t say it was entirely easy, but I anticipated more of a struggle.
This easily sets up a sequel or series, but I’m hoping it’s standalone. Either way, I wouldn’t continue with the series if that ends up being the case.
Frisk by Dennis Cooper
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
“Frisk” is book two of the George Miles Cycle. I still wasn’t as drawn in as I would have liked, but still enjoyed it.
I expected George to be in this book, but he isn’t other than maybe the occasional nameless reference.
So far, for me, the desire and affection for these boys isn’t as apparent as in “The Sluts”. The language is more sparse and it’s leaving me wanting more. Maybe that’s the point?
Closer by Dennis Cooper
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
When I read “The Sluts”, I learned that the novel was similar to Cooper’s George Miles Cycle so of course I had to read them.
“Closer” is the first book of five. Cooper’s writing is much rougher here, but it was written 14 years sooner.
One of the biggest differences is style. “The Sluts” tells the story through message boards, online reviews and emails. “Closer” tells the story as it happens. There’s still a question of narrator reliability in “Closer”, but not as much.
I went into this expecting to be unable to put it down like with “The Sluts” and that wasn’t the case. I still enjoyed it, but maybe not as much. I’m hoping the rest of the books capture my attention better.
Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson
3.75
I have mixed feelings about Boys of Alabama. The story has a lot of potential. I was invested in Max and his family. There are moments where Pan is likable, but overall he’s not a likable person.
I can’t tell if Max is finding himself, or just going along with everything to be liked. He comments about wanting to fit in, but he goes along with EVERYTHING. Granted, he is also new to the US.
I thought we were going to get some sort of comeuppance for the Judge or maybe for any of the boys, but we don’t.
At times the whole “did it really happen?” vibe annoys me, particularly as it relates to the camp scenes. Speaking of the camp, I don’t like that Max’s power disappeared after, only to come back at a crucial moment. It feels like there’s an implication that the religious zealotry is valid and not the evil that the book sets it up to be.
From the camp scenes to the end, Hudson lost me. There is more happening off page in this part of the book than the rest of the book, which says a lot. The end particularly frustrated me because it basically ends with nothing resolved in the middle of things happening. Almost worse than wrapping things up neatly.
Generally, I enjoy Hudson’s writing style. I just wish the ending parts of the story (camp onward) had more to it. Another 20 - 30 pages would have probably done been enough to flesh it out more.
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
4.0
I enjoyed Murder Your Employer for a lot of reasons. I’m kind of a nerd for books that have things like maps, random illustrations, formats where the introduction isn’t an introduction, but is part of the story, and for books that are pretending to be something different, in this case a manual or textbook.
Cliff is kind of a loser in the way where he’s the one doing things, but not getting credit and he flies under the radar. His nemesis (boss) consistently bests him resulting in him losing two people important to him. A mysterious benefactor sends him to McMasters so he can learn the art of murder. Cliff is the focus of the story, but we get the stories of two other students as well.
At times this reminds me of a lesser stakes Hunger Games with more wit.
The one thing that kind of bothers me is how things wrap up for one or two of the characters. It’s a little too convenient, but I’m hoping it serves a purpose in the second book.
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
dark
mysterious
3.25
The Grownup is a brief ghost story. At first I didn’t understand why it’s only 61 pages, but after reading it, I appreciate that it is so short.
It might have been nice, though, to have another 20-40 pages to flesh some things about more. Maybe the father or more about the house or the mother. I suppose she left that all to the reader’s imagination though.
There’s a cyclical feel to how Flynn tells her story. You’re left not knowing who is real, what is real, or what to believe. If she a continued in this way for the length of a full novel, it would have grown old quickly.
I was a little surprised, but not disappointed, by all of the talk about handjobs in the beginning of the book. I found it amusing.