Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

If you are active on the bookstagram community, you have most likely seen a lot of pictures of “Golden State” by Ben H. Winters. It was one of the January Book of the Month picks, and has been receiving a lot of buzz from the book community. I cannot even remember the last time I read a dystopian novel, and I was very excited to receive an ARC from Hachette Book Group Canada in the mail last month to read and review!

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

A shocking vision of our future that is one part Minority Report and one part Chinatown.
Lazlo Ratesic is 54, a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service, from a family of law enforcement and in a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else. This is how Laz must, by law, introduce himself, lest he fail to disclose his true purpose or nature, and by doing so, be guilty of a lie.
Laz is a resident of The Golden State, a nation resembling California, where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life, and governance, increasingly impossible. There, surrounded by the high walls of compulsory truth-telling, knowingly contradicting the truth–the Objectively So–is the greatest possible crime. Stopping those crimes, punishing them, is Laz’s job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths–to “speculate” on what might have happened in the commission of a crime.
But the Golden State is far less a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the Objectively So requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance, recording, and record-keeping. And when those in control of the truth twist it for nefarious means, the Speculators may be the only ones with the power to fight back.

I’m a truly at a loss for words, and not in a good or bad way.

This book started off extremely strong. Laszlo, a man who has the power to detect when another human was lying, starts to work with a black female cop to try and solve the mystery of a man who fell off a roof and died. From there, some strange things happen to him that make him question his life and the society he lives in. While that may seem simple, this book was incredibly, incredibly complex. At some points in the book I was fully invested and enthralled in this story, while at other points I was so confused and had absolutely no clue as to what was going on. Although, I feel like those points of confusion and questioning were supposed to happen. By the end of the book, I was left with more questions than I began with.

The concept of the novel was phenomenal and definitely ranks among the most unique dystopian books I have EVER read. Novels that include an element of eliminating fiction or other aspects of life that are very common in our world and society (lies, money, power, etc.) are things that I love to read about in novels since they make me think so much about the world and the way we live every day. I also loved the 1984 vibe I felt from this novel, since the parts I enjoyed in 1984 were somewhat present in new ways in this novel. 

The characters in this novel were phenomenal and written wonderfully. I loved reading about all of them, and felt especially connected to Lazslo. His emotions and the way he spoke felt so real to me as I was reading it, and I believe only the best authors can write very well read, believable characters. I also formed quite a liking to Charlie, although he was only a minor major part in the story (does that make sense…?). 

Like I previously shared, I loved the setting of this story. So much of the novel is dedicated strictly to world-building and trying to make readers understand the complexity and rigidness of their dystopian world. No matter what part of the story I was reading about, I could always clearly visualize the space they were in, even if Ben had only described it in a few sentences. The way he described the main setting was absolutely incredible, and made the story that much richer.

Overall, I gave “Golden State” by Ben H. Winters a 3.75/5 stars. I highly recommend this book to those of you who enjoy adult dystopian and sci-fi.

Thanks again to Hachette Book Group Canada for an ARC of this book! Make sure to pick up your copy in a book store near you TODAY!

Good Night Book Owls!

“One said that literature was more important than human life so what was the problem if a few people had died in the pursuit of excellence?” – pg. 358, ALTTS

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

A few months ago, I found out that John Boyne was publishing a new literary fiction novel about a story stealer (among other things). And while I had not read John’s recent novel, I had loved “The Boy In The Striped Pajamas” when I was younger, so I was eager to pick up the novel and start reading it. Fortunately, I received a finished copy of the book from Penguin Random House Canada, which was unbelievably amazing!

NOTE: Some of this review may be sort of spoiler-y, as you don’t meet many of the main characters until the second section of the novel. I would encourage you not to read much about this book until after you have read it, as I feel that this story reads better when you do not know much about it. So, comeback and read my review when you have finished the book!

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

The new novel from the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Heart’s Invisible Furies , a seductive Highsmithian psychodrama following one brilliant, ruthless man who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of fame.
Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for success. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent – but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own.
Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel.
Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall…

WOW. This story was shockingly beautiful. Although this book was 400 pages long, it read extremely quickly. I find that many times when I read books, I glance at the page number while reading every so often, but while reading this novel that rarely happened. I also enjoyed how it was written kind of as an anthology that came together in the end. Each part of the book was narrated by a different person and had a different focus on a certain point/event in Maurice’s life. I enjoyed that his POV was not written until the last part of the novel, as it was easier to see how people saw him and how he viewed himself.

Throughout this story, I felt very connected to all of the characters. While most of the main characters are only present throughout one part of the story, John did a great job developing them within a limited space in the novel. I felt that I had read a lot about the characters and understood them, even if they were only a large part of 100 pages of the novel. I appreciated John’s writing style especially when it came to the characters, because we weren’t introduced to them all at the beginning of the novel, but rather learned and read about them during every few 100 pages.

During the first part of the novel (and carried through the story a bit), there was a large realistic historical fiction aspect, which I greatly enjoyed. From reading just the synopsis, I did not know that there would be a focus on WWII. When I was younger, I loved reading books about the holocaust and WWII, although I haven’t read much historical fiction throughout the past five years (a.k.a. when I started my blog). Reading about this aspect made me want to read more historical fiction novels, so I hope to pick up a few sporadically throughout the year!

One of my favourite things to read about is publishing/writing/authors in a fictional book. Since the main character, Maurice, was a story stealer and a well-acclaimed author, this meant that the book had a strong focus on the publishing industry and writing novels. I have always thought about working in publishing, so I really enjoyed reading the small conversations between Maurice and his publisher and editor, as well as seeing exactly how he brought the stolen stories to life.

The one and only thing I did not love about this book was that I found many of the events very predictable, and there was not a shocking plot twist at any point during the book (the ending did not shock me, but it did slightly surprise me). I understand that this book is not supposed to be full of shocks and 180° plot twists as it was a literary fiction book and not a thriller, but I feel like I would have enjoyed it even more if there was a spike of surprise in the novel.

Overall, I loved this book and gave it 4.75/5 stars.

Thanks again to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a finished copy of this novel! It was superb!

Have any of you read this novel yet? Let me know in the comments and we can discuss!

Good Night Book Owls!

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

As I featured last month in my “In My Mailbox: Winter 2019 Edition“, “Winter Vacation Reading Plans“, and “December 2018 Wrap-Up“, I recently read “Looker” by Laura Sims. The cover definitely drew me to this book, and I was really excited to read a 2019 thriller release. However, this book definitely did not meet my expectations.

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

I’ve never crossed their little fenced-in garden, of course. I stand on the sidewalk in front of the fern-and-ivy-filled planter that hangs from the fence—placed there as a sort of screen, I’m sure—and have a direct line of view into the kitchen at night. I’m grateful they’ve never thought to install blinds. That’s how confident they are. No one would dare stand in front of our house and watch us, they think. And they’re probably right: except for me.
In this taut and thrilling debut, an unraveling woman, unhappily childless and recently separated, becomes fixated on her neighbor—the actress. The unnamed narrator can’t help noticing with wry irony that, though she and the actress live just a few doors apart, a chasm of professional success and personal fulfillment lies between them. The actress, a celebrity with her face on the side of every bus, shares a gleaming brownstone with her handsome husband and their three adorable children, while the narrator, working in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat.
When an interaction with the actress at the annual block party takes a disastrous turn, what began as an innocent preoccupation spirals quickly, and lethally, into a frightening and irretrievable madness. Searing and darkly witty, Looker is enormously entertaining—at once a propulsive Hitchcockian thriller and a fearlessly original portrait of the perils of envy.

I wouldn’t say that I particularly enjoyed this book. Was it the worst book I’ve ever read? No. But I did not like it.

One of my biggest complaints I have relating to this book is not actually about the book itself, but rather the way it’s being marketed and publicized. This book is NOT a thriller. There are no unbelievable plot twists, and no thrilling aspects to it. To be honest, I found the plot line quite dry and flat, therefore it was no way a “thrilling” book. I would categorize this book as a suspense novel, as I found it to be very suspenseful and hard to put down. The writing was very fast paced, and since this book is quite short, I was able to read it in one sitting. And to me, that would make this book a suspense novel, rather than a thriller. Had I known this before going into the book, I most likely would not have requested it in the first place.

Another thing I didn’t enjoy was the characters. The narrator, for example, was hard to understand. I was confused as to whether she was written to be a likeable character or not, or whether we were supposed to feel sorry for her or not. I am not the type of reader that dislikes a character that is “bad” or “mean”, especially if they were intentionally written that way. However, this character was just confusing to me. She didn’t really have one personality type, but rather showed that she was sensitive, carefree, and independent, while also seeming like nothing bothered her and was very needy during certain parts of the novel. Along with the narrator, I also found that none of the characters had any substance or went through any development, which I found very disappointing.

Along with the characters, I found the plot line very confusing. There was no set opening, conflict, climax, or solution. It seemed like everything just “happened”, and there was no real order in all of the chaos that existed in this story. The ending was also very random and out of the blue. I feel like there was a better way to end this story, especially because it didn’t really wrap anything up. But then again, how could it when there was no real conflict in this story? *sigh*

Perhaps my favourite thing in this novel (and the reason I am giving it more than one star) was the writing style. Most of the time, whenever I read a debut novel, it is easy to tell that the person who wrote the book is a new author. Whether they may it make take them twenty words to describe one object in the protagonists house, or make the story hard to follow, normally their are obvious indications. However, I really enjoyed the way this book was written. I thought the narrators thoughts were written concisely and to the point. It was also less than 200 pages, which made it a very easy read.

Lastly, I wanted to include my short Goodreads review of this book, as I believe it sums up my initial thoughts just after finishing this book perfectly…

I finished this book and still have no clue as to what it’s about. Is she obsessed with her neighbour? Is she obsessed with her cat? Is she mad at her ex (what happened between them anyways?)? What is happening between her and that student of hers? This book was too confusing and had no plot line whatsoever. I’m giving it two stars because I couldn’t put it down… so take that for what it’s worth. Also, the writing was very good for a debut novel.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had hoped and gave it two out of five stars.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Good Night Book Owls!

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

While the first book I read this year was quite… awful… I was very excited to pick up a unique #OwnVoices contemporary set in a high school! Even though books set in high school are not usually my first pick, I was still thrilled when I received an unsolicited ARC of “The Field Guide to the North American Teenager” by Ben Phillipe in a beautiful package sent to my by the lovely Ashley from Harper Collins Canada/HCC Frenzy! Whenever HCC Frenzy is “pushing” a new book, I always know that it is going to be good. And let me tell you, this one did not disappoint!

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas. Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.
Yet, against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris. Be it loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris, or Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. Not to mention Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who might, in fact, be a real love interest in the making. He even starts playing actual hockey with these Texans.
But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life—along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

WOW! What a great high school set contemporary to kick off 2019 with (technically this is my second book of 2019, but I’d prefer to forget the first one…)!

This was (obviously) a very character driven novel. And while Norris was made to be an unlikeable character, there was something about him that really appealed to me. I absolutely adored all of his witty and “smart-ass” comments. Norris was a very relatable and flawed teenage character, which appealed to me as I am a teenager myself. I thought that Norris developed quite a bit throughout the story, especially with the help of his friends, who were constantly bringing him back to reality after saying stupid things. Personally, I would have loved for this book to have been written as a first-person narrative instead of a third-person narrative, as I believe I would have enjoyed reading from Norris’s voice just a tad more than a narrator. However, that did not have a big impact on my overall enjoyment and reading experience.

Since this was a character driven book, there were quite a few side characters that were introduced and featured throughout this story. Sometimes I find it hard to differentiate between a variety of characters, since they can all be written with a very similar voice. However, all of the characters in this novel were written about very differently, which was great to read. I loved all of the side characters in this novel, as they each brought important characteristics/perspectives into this story. I especially enjoyed reading scenes that featured Norris’s parents. Although they were divorced, I enjoyed the way they were written. Both parent loved Norris in different ways, and didn’t let their divorce get in the way of raising Norris. Norris’s mom was one of my favourite characters in this story, as she had a great relationship with Norris and didn’t talk down to him.

Austin, Texas was a very unique setting for this story. I don’t think I have ever read a YA book set in Texas, so I was very interested to see how the setting would impact the story. Sadly, Norris only visited a small handful of places in this novel. Therefore, I would have loved to have visited different landmarks/locally popular places in this story.

One of my favourite parts of the novel was the theme of Hockey. I am a HUGE sports fan, and while Hockey is not #1 on my list (Baseball will forever be my favourite), I always love when there is a sizeable sports related theme in YA books. Since Norris is Canadian, he (stereotypically) loved Hockey, and that was very relevant in the book, even though he  lived in Texas. It was a small piece of him that he brought took from Canada to his new home, and he ended up making quite a few unexpected friends from it!

This book explored a variety of important themes that are very relevant to todays day and age. Some of the themes/issues I expected to pop up in this story since the main character is a black French Canadian living in Texas, while some of the other talked about issues I was not expecting. I appreciated how Ben did not dwell on these problems, but added them sporadically throughout the story in order to further develop Norris’s character. I thought that they were all important to talk about, especially since this was a YA novel featuring a wide cast of characters.

I really enjoyed and appreciated the ending of this novel. While it wasn’t a “happily ever after” (like I had expected it to be), I felt that it was left off on the right note. Books like these don’t always need a complete conclusion, and I thought that Ben took advantage of that and used the “open-ending” concept perfectly.

Much to my surprise, this is actually Ben Philippe’s debut novel! He did a fantastic job writing it and I look forward to reading his future novels.

Overall, I gave it a 4.25/5 stars! To read all of my thoughts while reading this book, click here.

Thanks again to Harper Collins Canada/HCC Frenzy for sending this novel my way. I am so glad that I read it!

That is all for my first review of 2019! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the new year. Have you read this book yet or are planning on doing so? Let me know in the comments!

Good Night Book Owls!