Friday Friyay: Deborah Harkness' 'A Discovery of Witches'

 At the end of a stressful week, what's better than starting a book you have been dying to read for what feels like years? I'm talking, as you may have astutely gathered from the title, about Deborah Harkness' book A Discovery of Witches. It has everything I might want: witches, libraries, medieval manuscripts (!). I'm even here for a hot vampire! I have been wanting to curl up with this book for a while, so now that my latest Latin exam is behind me I think it's time to treat myself.

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

I'm also very excited to hop back onto the bandwagon with Book Beginnings, hosted by Gilion over at Rose City Reader, and Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. Now that I've kind of settled back into university life and finished off the remaining work duties, I'm hoping to spend some more time blogging and reading other blogs as well. 

But without further ado, let's get into it

BB:

'The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable. To an ordinary historian, it would have looked no different from hundreds of other manuscripts in Oxford's Bodleian Library, ancient and worms. But I knew there was something odd about it from the moment I collected it.' 1%

I mean, talk dirty to me why don't you Deborah! For a Medievalist like myself this is pretty much porn. I'm still waiting to get into the Bodleian Library one day so i can request manuscripts to my heart's content, but for now I'll take reading about it. 

F56:

'One my fingers had revealed all they could, I replaced the encyclopedia and continued working my way through the remaining volumes in the case. There were history books, more law books, books on medicine and optics, Greek philosophy, books of accounts, the collected works of early church notables like Bernard of Clairvaux, and chivalric romances - one involving a knight who changed into a wolf once a week. But none revealed fresh information about the Knights of Lazarus.' 56%

OK, I'm officially mad at myself for waiting this long to read this book! First of, Bernard of Clairvaux was indeed notable. Secondly, I have been thinking and Harkness must be referringeither to the lay Bisclavret by Marie de France, The Lay of Melion or Sir Marrok in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Either way, these knights were cursed due to a betrayal of love. I wonder what that means....

As you can maybe guess, I am going to read A Discovery of Witches asap. It literally couldn't be more perfect for me. What are you reading this weekend?

Review: 'Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays' by Peter Counter

 I love horror. I love essays. I love discussing life by discussing movies. So of course Be Scared of Everything would be right in my alley. And yet I hadn't expected it to hit quite as close to home as it ended up doing. While usually I tend to stick to books from well-known publishing houses, Invisible Publishing's Be Scared of Everything told me I really do need to look further and enjoy everything that's out there. Also, will you just look at that perfect cover! Thanks to Invisible Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 10/13/2020
Publisher: Invisible Publishing

Horror essays that read like Chuck Klosterman filtered through H. P. Lovecraft.

Slinging ectoplasm, tombstones, and chainsaws with aplomb, Be Scared of Everything is a frighteningly smart celebration of horror culture that will appeal to both horror aficionados and casual fans. Combining pop culture criticism and narrative memoir, Counter’s essays consider and deconstruct film, TV, video games andtrue crime to find importance in the occult, pathos in Ouija boards, poetry in madness, and beauty in annihilation.

Comprehensive in scope, these essays examine popular horror media including Silent Hill, Hannibal, Hereditary, the Alien films, Jaws, The X-Files, The Terror, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Interview withthe Vampire, Misery, Gerald’s Game, The Sixth Sense, Scream, Halloween, The Blair Witch Project, The Babadook, the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Slenderman stories, alongside topics like nuclear physics, cannibalism, blood, Metallica, ritual magic, nightmares, and animatronic haunted houses.

This is a book that shows us everything is terrifying—from Pokémon to PTSD—and that horror can be just as honest, vulnerable, and funny as it is scary.

Horror has always been a big part of my fiction, and even non-fiction, intake. Initially I pursued it for the thrill of it, that shiver down the back that makes you look twice at the darkness in the corner of your room. But as I got older and became, sadly, more acquainted with the trials and hardships of life, horror took on a different meaning for me. Not until this collection of horror essays was able to truly put it into words, because Peter Counter seems to feel exactly the same way. When the illusion of safety and normality shatters, even if just for a moment, it is only really in horror that you can find relief. While the rest of the world seemingly clings to the idea that everything is fine, deep down you know it isn't. It is the horror film or the horror book that gives you an opportunity to not just accept but thrive on the knowledge that yes, something is seriously wrong and you're right to be suspicious and wary. I have found that horror films and books let me explore that fear and worry and even anger in a way that no other genre does. In that way I can probably credit horror with a certain stability I have reached in life. In this way I resonated with Be Scared of Everything, except that Peter Counter is much more eloquent and knowledgeable when talking about horror or mental health.

In Be Scared of Everything Counter has collected a number of personal essays all centred around horror. Each essay explores deeply human emotions, whether it is working through personal trauma, the numbness that comes with the slow, inevitable collapse of the world, or dealing with grief, by deconstructing horror films, books, short stories and even songs. Each time Counter made a connection between one of these texts and his own life, I felt something click. They all feel natural and he makes it look easy, which surely belies the hard work put into these essays. It would be impossible to discuss every single essay, so below I will discuss just a few. In 'The FBI's Basement Office' Counter makes a surprisingly effective and emotional case for UFO sightings which acknowledges our engrained need to disbelief without mocking the believers. His essay 'The Shattered Teacup' on Hannibal Lecter and specifically the recent TV show resonated so strongly with me I had to stare out of the window for a bit after reading it. This is also largely what my first paragraph refers to. 'On Madness' had a similar effect. 'Where the Creepypastas Are' is a brilliant essay about the medium of creepypasta and its allure. I also adored 'Cannibal Symposium' which was basically a transcript of a conversation about cannibalism between three people over lunch. It was funnier than it should be and more insightful than the premise might suggest. 

Counter is a great writer. I hadn't had the pleasure of reading any of his writing before Be Scared of Everything, but reading his essays feels like a good conversation with a friend who may or may not have tapped into something genius along the way. The essays read easily and especially for those actively engaging with the horror genre there will be many recognizable references and meaningful links. Something I really appreciated was how Counter was able to highlight H.P. Lovecraft's central position in the horror community while unapologetically stating just how racist that man was. I understand the idea of separating the artist from the art, but how can we do that when the artist actively shoved his assholery into his art? It is something often avoided by horror fans but I think it's very important to confront since Lovecraft was not just a horrible person but also let his own prejudices affect his work for the worse. By engaging with it, Counter was actually able to somewhat salvage the good from Lovecraft's work for me, which was a nice bonus. 

I give this collection...

5 Universes!

I must say I adored Be Scared of Everything a lot more than I expected. I was looking forward to essays about horror movies but got essays that have changed how I look at horror and have given me a language to discuss what the genre means to me. For that, I am enormously grateful. I'd recommend this to anyone who feels the pull to the dark. 

Review: 'The Midnight Circus' by Jane Yolen

I had my first experience with Jane Yolen last year February, which I myself consider a bit odd. Here I was, let's say twenty years ago, a child in love with fairy tales, folklore, and the spooky and scary, and yet not one adult ever considered recommending Jane Yolen to me. It is an offense I shall not forget lightly. However, I have tried to make up for it recently and my latest mea culpa took the form of reading The Midnight Circus. Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Pub. Date: 10/1/2020
Publisher: Tachyon Publications

“Jane Yolen has done it again.” —Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked

In the newest short fiction collection of this World Fantasy Award-winning series, beloved fantasy author Jane Yolen’s dark side has fully emerged. Her vivid, startling, and thrilling tales and related poems of the supernatural—from icy-hearted witches to sometimes-innocent shapeshifters—reveal a classic storyteller at the height of her powers.

In these sixteen stories, Central Park becomes a carnival where you can—but probably shouldn’t—transform into a wild beast. The Red Sea will be deadly to cross due to a plague of voracious angels. Meanwhile, the South Pole is no place for even a good man, regardless of whether he is living or dead.

Wicked, solemn, and chilling, the circus is ready for your visit— just don’t arrive late.

Jane Yolen doesn't consider herself a horror writer, not even a particularly scary one. And yet her stories bristle with the unknown, the edge of something not quite safe, the supernatural. It is not about the blood or the glint of moonlight on a knife. It's not about the abject sadness of a matchstick girl freezing to death on Christmas eve. Yolen's stories that are scary are so because they recognize the emotional weight of it all. No need for guts spilling out here! Yolen's The Midnight Circus retains her traditional magical beauty while she pulls back the curtain on the darkness backstage.

It's hard to pick favourites from such a great collection of stories but there were a few that truly stood out to me. 'The Weaver of Tomorrow' is a great opener, setting the tone with a spunky heroine and a sense of doom. 'Become a Warrior' feels distant, as if you're watching the story unfold from behind a sheet of glass, and yet it is starkly wild and beautiful. 'Requiem Antarctica' is a great story about Scott and his doomed mission to Antarctica, with a Gothic edge thrown in. It's not until the very end that the horror sets in. 'Inscription' was another favourite, in which Yolen takes inspiration from a rock inscription found during her walks in Scotland and turns it into a story of magic and betrayal, with a feisty heroine to boot. 'Wilding' has a very different tone to the rest, futuristic, almost Sci-Fi, which took a little bit of getting used to, but I found it very interesting. Not every stories will be a hit with the reader, as is always the case with short story collections. As these stories are also taken from throughout Yolen's long writing career, they reflect different periods and styles. Two stories stood out to me in particular, 'Little Red' and 'Great Grey'. Both stories are very interesting, but should also really come with their own trigger-warnings. Neither feels truly complete and as I almost wish she would have let them simmer for a bit longer. 

Many of Yolen's stories are also tied to her Jewish heritage and they are some of the most heartfelt, frightening and beautiful stories in The Midnight Circus. The generational trauma, the fear and fact of persecution, it all comes through, especially in 'The Snatchers' and 'Names'. In the former she shines a light on the existence of the khapers, who would kidnap young Jewish boys for Russian army service. It's a haunting tale of persecution and horror that shows how this history is not left behind once one moves. It follows generations. The same theme runs through 'Names' in which the names of Holocaust victims are passed down as an almost physical reminder of the horror of the concentration camps. They are starkly beautiful stories that will send a chill down your spine, not just because they are well written but because the banality of human evil is truly the most terrifying thing.

Jane Yolen is an excellent writer. She makes story-writing look simple, each story flowing naturally as if it had always been that way. Some of her stories do seem more suitable for a younger age, yet the themes and ideas keep them relevant for all. As always, each story is accompanied by a poem and a short explanation. I love this insight into Yolen's process and especially into how she collaborates with other artists and authors. Some of her poems have turned into music, while some of her stories turned into collaborative novels. It's this evolutionary process that is fascinating to me and I like that Yolen keeps showing her work. I would prefer to see these poems and descriptions accompany each tale, rather than be collected at the back. I appreciate this might break up the unity of the collection, but now they are a bit dis-connected as you only really engage with them once you've read all the stories. This may be different when reading a physical copy of the book, however.

I give this collection...

4 Universes!

Jane Yolen is a master story writer. Although not all stories with resonate with every reader, there is a gem or three in The Midnight Circus for everyone. Get your ticket, join the queue, and get ready for beauty, horror, sadness and beauty.

Review: 'The Philosopher Queens' ed. by Rebecca Buxton, Lisa Whiting

 I have always been interested in philosophy, in the why behind what we do and how we do it. While digging straight into philosophy books is one way of approaching it, I have always liked knowing something more of the philosopher themselves, of where they came from and what they did, not just what they thought. The Philosopher Queens is therefore the perfect introduction for someone like me. Thanks to Unbound and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/25/2020
Publisher: Unbound

'This is brilliant. A book about women in philosophy by women in philosophy – love it!' Elif Shafak

Where are the women philosophers? The answer is right here.

The history of philosophy has not done women justice: you’ve probably heard the names Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Locke – but what about Hypatia, Arendt, Oluwole and Young?

The Philosopher Queens is a long-awaited book about the lives and works of women in philosophy by women in philosophy. This collection brings to centre stage twenty prominent women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world.

You’ll learn about Ban Zhao, the first woman historian in ancient Chinese history; Angela Davis, perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American Black Power Movement; Azizah Y. al-Hibri, known for examining the intersection of Islamic law and gender equality; and many more.

For anyone who has wondered where the women philosophers are, or anyone curious about the history of ideas – it's time to meet the philosopher queens.

I'm not sure when I was first exposed to philosophy, but it's probably a safe bet that it was the Greek philosophers I first became familiar with. It was only during high school that I delved into some of the philosophies central to modern life a bit more deeply. It was also during high school that I first felt discomfort at the typical idea, or image, of what a "philosopher" is. I couldn't recognize myself in it, or anyone I knew, and I often wondered how these distant characters could in any way have an idea of what my motivations or thoughts are. Perhaps this is why one of the few philosophers I've always admired is Diogenes. I mean, dude lived in a barrel and couldn't care less about authority. Hygienic? No. Interesting? Very much so. Just like Diogenes kind of shifted my ideas of what a philosopher was, so The Philosopher Queens resets the whole image. Taking its name from Plato's Republic, where the "philosopher kings" are in charge of governing, The Philosopher Queens introduces the reader to various women who, in their own ways, have contributed to history and philosophy, through teaching, writing, poetry or advocacy. 

The Philosopher Queens is made up of a variety of essays, each written by a female philosopher about another. Buxton and Whiting have managed to include a relatively wide variety, both temporal and geographical, of philosophers in this book. We have Ban Zhao from first century China, who walks a fine line between expressing a woman's difficult position in a patriarchal society and reaffirming the rules of that exact same patriarchal society. We are also introduced to Lalla, a fourteenth century Kashmiri poet and yogini, whose poetry brought the complex, non-dualist ideas of Shaivism into her poetry and therefore closer to the people. I was fascinated to learn about Sophie Bosede Oluwole, a Nigerian philosopher who sadly passed away two years ago. Her work on bringing attention to African, and especially Oruba, philosophy and giving it a place next to the Western tradition is very interesting and I am planning on doing a lot more reading about her. There are also a few more familiar faces, like Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah Arendt, Angela Davis, and Simone de Beauvoir, and it's great to see them within the context of these other philosophy queens. 

What The Philosopher Queens does very well is recreating the image of the "philosopher". Many of the women in this book find themselves trying to overcome societal hurdles, which informs and influences their future work, in ways male philosophers will not have. Angela Davis' work was marked deeply by the racial violence she experienced and witnessed in America. Similarly, Hannah Arendt's status as country-less influenced how she saw human rights. We also see the consequences of this pushing of boundaries, whether it is Hypatia's brutal murder or the setting aside of Harriet Taylor Mill despite John Stuart Mill's best efforts. The authors of the biographies also don't shy away from showing that these queens are not perfect. Some, like Arendt for example (or Marx!), were rather racist. Others, like Mary Astell, found themselves both for and against women's liberation and enfranchisement. The Philosopher Queens shows us that philosophy doesn't require perfection, but that it does require a constant engaging with the world around you. Almost all the women discussed in this book make the choice to bring their philosophical knowledge to contemporary political and social issues. Philosophy, in their eyes, is not something separate, only to be practiced in an ivory tower. Rather it is something that should be used every day for the betterment of humanity and the clarification of issues. 

Buxton and Whiting do a great job at bringing together these various biographies, writing some themselves. What these contributions do well is show the passion of the writers for these women philosophers. They were each trailblazers in their own way and their contributions were not just vital to their field but also vital to inspiring new generations of philosophers. It means The Philosopher Queens isn't overly academic, but makes for a great introduction that will light a spark in the reader. I requested various library books by these queens after finishing the book, which surely is what Buxton and Whiting were aiming for. My only gripe is that I would have liked to see the inclusion of some women from the Middle Ages. I think Hildegard von Bingen could have been a great addition, as well as Christine de Pizan or even Margery Kempe. However, there is quite an extensive index of further philosopher queens at the end of the book, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Part II. It's also important to note that the illustrations in The Philosopher Queens are stunning. A portrait precedes each biography and I found myself returning to them each time after having read the biography and considering them in detail.

What I only realized after finishing The Philosopher Queens is that we only have it due to a crowdfunding campaign, spearheaded by Buxton and Whiting. Firstly, a major thank you to everyone who contributed. This is a great book and I'm glad it exists. Secondly, it really struck me that there is such a demand for books such as these, and yet it takes crowdfunding to get it to the reader. It is a real shame that the publishing industry itself has not quite opened up yet to projects like these, but hopefully with books such as The Philosopher Queens, and its hoped for success, this can and will change.

I give this book...

5 Universes!

I greatly enjoyed The Philosopher Queens. Although I had initially considered taking it slowly, I found myself unable to put the book down, fascinated and drawn in by each of the biographies. Whether you're a philosophy buff or someone looking to get interested, this is a great book to start with. The extensive bibliography will give you plenty of reading material afterwards! 

Review: 'Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency' by Bea Koch

Famously, 'Mad, bad and dangerous to know' was how Lady Caroline Lamb described Byron. Of course Byron is now well-known across the world for both his writing and his shenanigans. (I mean, who brings a bear to college?) Lady Caroline Lamb, however, is sadly much less (in-)famous. Thankfully Bea Koch is here to rectify that, with a rousing gallery of Regency ladies worth risking danger for! Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/1/2020
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Discover a feminist pop history that looks beyond the Ton and Jane Austen to highlight the Regency women who succeeded on their own terms and were largely lost to history -- until now.
Regency England is a world immortalized by Jane Austen and Lord Byron in their beloved novels and poems. The popular image of the Regency continues to be mythologized by the hundreds of romance novels set in the period, which focus almost exclusively on wealthy, white, Christian members of the upper classes.
But there are hundreds of fascinating women who don't fit history books limited perception of what was historically accurate for early 19th century England. Women like Dido Elizabeth Belle, whose mother was a slave but was raised by her white father's family in England, Caroline Herschel, who acted as her brother's assistant as he hunted the heavens for comets, and ended up discovering eight on her own, Anne Lister, who lived on her own terms with her common-law wife at Shibden Hall, and Judith Montefiore, a Jewish woman who wrote the first English language Kosher cookbook.

As one of the owners of the successful romance-only bookstore The Ripped Bodice, Bea Koch has had a front row seat to controversies surrounding what is accepted as "historically accurate" for the wildly popular Regency period. Following in the popular footsteps of books like Ann Shen's Bad Girls Throughout History, Koch takes the Regency, one of the most loved and idealized historical time periods and a huge inspiration for American pop culture, and reveals the independent-minded, standard-breaking real historical women who lived life on their terms. She also examines broader questions of culture in chapters that focus on the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, the lives of women of color in the Regency, and women who broke barriers in fields like astronomy and paleontology. In Mad and Bad, we look beyond popular perception of the Regency into the even more vibrant, diverse, and fascinating historical truth.

Who has seen the trailer for Bridgerton? If you haven't, do yourself a favour! The Bridgerton books are some of the many set during the Regency period, which are so often pushed aside as "mere romances" or "bodice-rippers". However, the Regency was a fascinating decade during which many of England's most famous authors and poets thrived. In order to understand the "vibe", I guess, of the Regency period, just the tiniest bit of (literary) history may be worth delving in to here, so bear with me as we go through a few English regal eras. Firstly, the Georgian period, which lasted roughly from 1714 to 1830 and is the period during which Romanticism truly began to thrive, with a steady helping hand from Gothic literature. When you think Romanticism, think Percy Bysse Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and of course Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. 

Towards the end of the Georgian Period is when the Regency occurred, which formally lasted for a decade, from 1811 to 1820, when George IV stepped in as regent for his ill father, George III. (So  many Georges!) However, when looking at the period's trends and their development, the period is also considered to have lasted from 1795 to 1837, when Queen Victoria's reign begins. The Regency was a period of high cultural and artistic achievement, as the Prince Regent was a key patron of many artists, including some in this book! There was also a large class divide, with the rich truly rich and the poor truly poor, which lends a darkness to the glamour and glitz of the period.

Now, this long preamble exists to give us a backdrop to the women Bea Koch discusses in her Mad and Bad. Koch shows us how women were able to thrive in the arts, to enjoy power through high society rules, and to break those rules as long as the did so quietly. But Koch also shows us the dark side of this, the slide into poverty, the cold shoulder when they had been too loud, the quiet disappearing once you're no longer popular. Koch divides her book into various sections, each looking at a different group of women. We have the Hostesses, the high society women who decided who was (and crucially who wasn't) invited to the season's key events. We have actresses who astounded the audience and then disappeared. Jewish women who kept up intercontinental correspondence, women who contributed to the sciences and the arts. It's quite inspirational to read about this women, which was surely the point. There are names that might be familiar, like Dido Elizabeth Belle, butt here also will be many that the reader has never heard of. What Mad and Bad does well is show the wide variety of lives possible during the Regency period, as well as the diversity of the English population itself, hopefully adding to the growing number of nails in the coffin of the idea that the English population was solely white until, let's say, the 1960s. 

Mad and Bad is clearly a passion project. Bea Koch, one of the owners of the Ripped Bodice bookstore, has a deep love for the Regency era and its women, which shines through in how she speaks of them. Each little biography is well-researched, if perhaps not exactly investigative. The tone is kind and enthusiastic but therefore perhaps also lacks a bit of rigour. It feels as if you've settled down with your cool aunt, who is ready to drop some brilliant facts over a glass of red wine. This means that as an introduction to the fascinating women of the Regency Period, Mad and Bad is perfect. For those looking for an in-depth or academic breakdown, I'd recommend continuing the search. What Mad and Bad has done is address some of my own preconceptions in regards to the Regency Era and its women, which means my Christmas will be spent watching Bridgerton.

I give this book...

4 Universes.

Although perhaps not the deepest book, Mad and Bad is a great introduction to the various women who made the Regency period fascinating! Sure, Lord Byron is fascinating, but honestly Caroline Lamb and her aunt Georgiana sound like the people I'd want to hang out with. Wordsworth might be it for some, but I prefer Mary Anning digging up fossils.

Review: 'After All I've Done' by Mina Hardy

 What first drew me to After All I've Done was the stunning cover, the business of it and the quiet way in which the title stands out. And then the blurb had everything I could ask for as well: broken friendships, tense marriages, memory loss and a mysterious accident. Who could ask for more? Well, sadly After All I've Done did leave me hanging a bit. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 11/10/2020
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Writing as Mina Hardy, New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart delivers a thrilling new psychological suspense for fans of The Woman in the Window and When the Lights Go Out.

She's lost her best friend, her husband--and possibly, her mind.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone.

She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become, the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night--and how Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be involved, too.

Who was with her that night? What really happened? As her life unravels thread by thread and the dreams become too real to ignore, Diana will have to face the unthinkable--and do the unforgivable.

One of my favourite things to find out about authors is how they write, or rather, how they craft their plot. I've heard of all kind of methods, from carefully crafted outlines that take up dozens of pages, to more simplified plans that paint a rough picture. Others prefer to just start writing and shape the material as it comes. Tolkien would begin re-typing his document every time he decided to change up something about the plot. As a wannabe-writer myself, I often wonder how I would go about it. The fear of plot holes, of loose endings and an unsatisfying conclusion would probably put me in the former camp, yet I've never been able to properly finish a plot outline, let alone a novel. I'm hammering on about this because a stable plot, and accompanying stable character development, is so crucial, especially in thrillers. In order to keep the suspense going and to keep a reader on the edge of their seat, it does all have to fit together perfectly. A random character can't just remain random. Like Chekov's gun, an obviously displayed plot device has to be used. The issue I ran into with After All I've Done is that much of the plotting felt very recognizable and yet the ending didn't come together for me. Somewhere halfway through the book it lost its cohesion for me and I was wondering if it was all going somewhere satisfying.

Diana thinks she may have lost her mind. After a car accident she is left badly injured and with memory gaps, although harrowing dreams make her think there was more to her accident than her husband is admitting. Her best friend is no longer speaking to her and she is not sure why. A handsome stranger keeps popping up and seems to know her oddly well. So what happened? Honestly, a lot happens! After All I've Done flits back and forth between elements from the past and Diana's current, confused present. The ex-best friend, Valerie, and mystery stranger, Cole, also get the opportunity to narrate chapters, which mostly adds to the confusion. It is clear a lot happened in the time Diana can't remember, but the gaps are not really filled in by the narration from Valerie and Cole. Rather, the tension is predictably heightened chapter by chapter, and then deflates with what feels like a rushed ending that tries to shock but really only feels misplaced. 

This is my first book by Mina Hardy and there were a few things she did in After All I've Done that completely hooked me. The descriptions of Diana struggling with her injuries and the slow road towards recovery was very well done and added an interesting layer to the novel. Sadly this is then occasionally forgotten when the plot calls for Diana to do something physical. I also enjoyed the tension Hardy built between Diana and Cole, although the plotline also felt a little exploitative to me. The plotline with her mother-in-law is often repetitive and yet clearly hinting at danger, which leads to my pet peeve of heroines blatantly ignoring red flags right in front of them. Many aspects of the plot feel predictable, which can be part of the joy of reading thrillers, but then towards the end it seemed as if Hardy felt that she needed to throw in something unexpected to make After All I've Done truly rememberable. Instead the ending is a little sickening and disconnected from the tensions built prior. 

I give this book...

2 Universes!

Although After All I've Done did keep my attention, I found myself rolling my eyes a little too often. When everything was brought together in the end, it fell flat which lead to me questioning just what had kept me interested for so long. 

Review: 'The Lakehouse' by Joe Clifford

I probably don't need to restate my love for thrillers and horrors. I heard a lot about The Lakehouse and had been really drawn in by the cover itself. There is a great atmosphere about it that really raised my expectations. Unfortunately I think they might have been raised a little bit too high and I ended up disappointed during my reading. Thanks to Polis Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/29/2020
Publisher: Polis Books

After being cleared of his wife’s murder, Todd Norman returns to her small Connecticut hometown in order to finish building their dream house by the lake. He is eager to restart his life and cast aside any remaining suspicious...but all of that is dashed when a young woman’s body washes up on the beach next door. When Tracy Somerset, divorced mother from the small town of Covenant, CT, meets a handsome stranger in a midnight Wal-Mart, she has no idea she is speaking with Todd Norman, the former Wall Street financier dubbed “The Banker Butcher” by the New York tabloids. The following morning, on the beach by Norman’s back-under-construction lakehouse, another young woman’s body is discovered. Sheriff Duane Sobczak’s investigation leads him to town psychiatrist Dr. Meshulum Bakshir, whose position at a troubled girls’ group home a decade ago yields disturbing ties to several local, prominent players, including a radical preacher, a disgraced politician, a down-and-out PI—and Sobczak’s own daughter. Unfolding over the course of New England’s distinct four seasons, The Lakehouse is a domestic psychological thriller about the wayward and marginalized, the lies we tell those closest to us, and the price of forbidden love in an insular community where it seems everyone has a story to tell—and a past they prefer stay buried.

A house on the lake. A mysterious new man in town. A body washed up on the beach. The perfect trifecta of happenings to be the start of a great thriller. One of the things that makes reading thrillers so comforting is that it's always about fitting the same kind of puzzle pieces together. There is a crime, there must be a perpetrator. There is your main character, who will have to figure out what's going on while, most likely, being in danger themselves. There are side characters who are either super helpful or super suspicious. Or maybe, just maybe, they're both. It is from these recognizable pieces that authors have been able to create something new and exciting every single time. But this is where drudgery can come from as well, when readers can predict all the next steps and the element of surprise disappears.

The Lakehouse, as the blurb shows, is about Todd Norman returning to Covenant to finish building the lake house the promised his wife, except this is interrupted when a woman's body washes up on his property. Except Todd Norman is called Greg in the book itself, which I guess falls down to changes in the editing between ARC and blurb. I also put some of the other mistakes throughout the book down to needing a final round of editing before final publication. But Todd/Greg also isn't the main character, even, of The Lakehouse. And his motivation for returning is never really addressed in the novel, only hinted at. The Lakehouse's narration is split up between Tracy Somerset, the new flame, Duane Sobczak, the cop, and Meshulum Bakshir, the psychiatrist. They all feel a little too like cardboard cut outs as their motivations are never delved in to too deeply. Because of this many of their actions feel like they come out of nowhere or are overly dramatic and nonsensical. 

Duane Sobczak is probably the most fully formed of the characters and shows some actual development towards the end. He is a small town cop with a one-person team consisting of his son-in-law. He strongly believes in his town and in the goodness of its people. Drugs have no place there and neither do pre-marital sex, lesbians and murderers. Watching him come up against the real world is kind of charming but also struck me as very odd in this particular cultural moment. Tracy is a messy character that I think needed a lot more pages to develop her interiority. Dr. Bakshir feels like the odd character out, largely used for shock factor in some of the twists and turns. Aside from that there is a focus on drug abuse and sexual abuse in some of the female story lines that I don't believe was handled well or with any kind of delicacy. 

I've seen a lot of praise for Joe Clifford's writing and was very excited to experience it myself. Unfortunately, as you might have guessed from the previous paragraphs, I was merely whelmed. There are a lot of interesting ideas in The Lakehouse which maybe needed a little bit more time in the oven, but in the edition I read they didn't quite fit well together yet. Some of the characters needed more development and attention in order to make them feel less like a plot-device. I saw the plot twist coming from quite early on but was looking forward to how Clifford would work his way towards it. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, many things did not end up getting explained which left me quite unsatisfied. By the end of the novel there were still quite a few plot threads that needed wrapping up which never happened. Finally, and I'm willing to admit it may be pedantic, but I loathe the title not separating 'Lake' and 'house'. 

I give this book...

2 Universes.

I had very high expectations of The Lakehouse but unfortunately none of them were met. Although I did get through the book quickly, I did not enjoy a lot of aspects of it. I may give Joe Clifford another go in future books, but only once complete edits have been done.