Middle-Grade Review: Not Quite a Ghost

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail last week that I read right away: Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu, a middle-grade spooky thriller with a twist from a favorite author and a virtual friend for over 15 years. She and I share the same chronic illness, ME/CFS, an immune disorder, and we each reached out to the other at various times, as I explain in this post on my chronic illness blog, Great Books from a CFS Author. I reviewed her first middle-grade novel, The Shadow Thieves, book one of The Cronus Chronicles, in which she cleverly worked her illness into the story of modern-day kids battling Greek gods. My son (a young teen at the time) and I both loved the action-packed, funny series. I later reviewed her middle-grade novel Breadcrumbs (and also reviewed it for Family Fun magazine), which features a ten-year-old girl dealing with real-life issues who meets fairy-tale characters in the snowy woods. I enjoyed it so much, I gave it to my niece for Christmas that year! I also enjoyed The Real Boy, about a young boy who works for a wizard and is dealing with his own challenges. I reached out to Anne recently to see how she was doing and how her health was, and she sent me a copy of her latest middle-grade novel, Not Quite a Ghost. I read it immediately and think it may be my favorite of her novels, which is saying a lot!

Eleven-year-old Violet is going through a lot of changes in her life. Her family has just moved out of their too-small house into an older house that needs some work. Violet's teen sister, Mia, is thrilled to finally have some privacy and gets her first choice of rooms, and their little brother needs to be near their parents. That leaves Violet up in the creepy attic bedroom with the ugly wallpaper all by herself. She's also starting middle school, where her closest friends suddenly seem to change and to want a bigger friend group. Then, in the first weeks of school, Violet gets sick ... and she doesn't get better. Sometimes she feels OK and tries to act normally, leading some friends to think she's faking, and other times, her body just won't work and she can't get out of bed. Spending a lot of time in the attic bedroom, Violet begins to see strange things in the weird wallpaper and suspect that she's not alone up there. She calls on her new friend, Will, who's been researching ghosts, to help her, but is there anything they can do? 

I loved this spooky, unique novel and never wanted it to end! Violet is eventually diagnosed with ME/CFS, the same illness that the author and I share. Both of my sons got it, as well (it has genetic roots), at ages 6 and 10, and it affects millions of other kids and teens all over the world--even more now since long-COVID often develops into ME/CFS. Ursu describes the disease perfectly, with all of its mysterious symptoms, seemingly random ups and downs, dismissive doctors and school personnel, and disbelieving family and friends (though Violet's family is very supportive). I felt seen. If all of that sounds like it might be depressing, it's not! 

Ursu brings her marvelous sense of humor to this novel, and I was often laughing out loud while reading it. And she writes kids so well; young readers will definitely see themselves in Violet and her friends. Plus, there is also that wonderfully creepy supernatural plotline throughout the novel. The suspense and tension crank up as the strange experiences in Violet's attic bedroom increase, and she and Will try to figure out what's happening. Ursu has created a clever parallel to what's happening in Violet's body with the house being unable to expel whatever has "invaded" it in the attic. It's a gripping, original story with a nail-biting climax that is perfect. Like I said, of all of her unique, magical, funny, suspenseful novels, this one is my new favorite.

288 pages, Walden Pond Press

HarperAudio

You can visit Anne's website for more information about her books. And to read about her inspiration for this book and her own illness experiences, see her blog post "On Hauntings" on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - October - Wicked Good Reads

Alphabet Soup Challenge - N

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes - Minnesota

RIP - Readers Imbibing Peril 
 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me  

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too, which showcases the humor in the story).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Memoir Review: The Invisible Girls

A few years ago, I downloaded The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge from the SYNC annual summer audio book program and finally began listening to this beautiful, moving memoir that I finished reading in print.

Sarah, twenty-seven, was riding the train into downtown Portland, Oregon, one day when she met two adorable little girls and their exhausted-looking mother. Sarah was kind and played with the girls (one of whom fell asleep in her lap) and began talking to the mother, Hadhi. That was the start of a unique friendship that enriched the lives of all involved. Hadhi was a Somali refugee and had five little girls under twelve at home (the older three were in school when they first met). She invited Sarah to their apartment, where Sarah soon understood that the family was barely surviving. There was no food in the house, no furniture, and Hadhi had no means of support. Her abusive husband had recently left them, after a particularly violent episode, and Family Services had moved the family for safety to a new subsidized apartment. But Hadhi was lost in this country and culture that was completely unfamiliar to her, and she knew little English. The older girls were learning English in school, but they also felt out of place in their new country and had been placed in grades well below their age-levels due to the language barrier. All five of the little girls, though, were full of joy and adored Sarah (and Justin Bieber!). Sarah began helping the family in any way she could, though she didn't have much herself. She had recently moved to Portland from the East Coast after a horrific, harrowing years-long experience with breast cancer that had left her physically and emotionally damaged. As Sarah got to know the family and helped them adjust to life in the U.S., she found that their love and friendship helped to heal her.

When I first read the synopsis, I worried this might be a sort of "white savior" type of story, but that's not it at all. It's a story about the power of kindness and connection to heal all kinds of trauma. While Sarah did buy some groceries and other necessities for the family (the girls were so excited to receive socks and underwear as gifts!), much of what she did for this family was from her heart, not her pocket. And in return, they helped her to recover from her own traumas. Sarah had almost completed a Master's degree in journalism when she got cancer, and she is a talented writer, bringing the reader along not only on this journey of friendship and belonging but on everything that came before it (she endured a lot). Brought up in a fundamentalist Christian family with a pastor father, she could relate to some of the challenges that Hadhi and the girls dealt with. She understood what kinds of support the girls needed to grow up to be strong, educated, independent women (which their mother very much wanted). It's a beautiful story of the bonds between two very different but damaged women, and the joyful little girls they both love.

(Note: The audio production was excellent, and I was very much enjoying it, but I only had about half of the audio book downloaded, which was likely my fault and not SYNC's. My son would say "I suspect user error, Mom!")

287 pages, Jericho Books

Hachette Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Memoir/Biography

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Oregon

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     
  

Teen/YA Review: I Am Not Alone

I'm a longtime fan of Francisco X. Stork, who wrote (my reviews at the links) Irises, Marcello in the Real World, The Memory of Light, Disappeared, and its sequel, Illegal. Like The Memory of Light, his latest novel,  I Am Not Alone, provides a realistic, enlightening picture of what it feels like to struggle with mental illness. I was engrossed by this excellent audio book.

Alberto is an undocumented older teen, living with his sister, Lupe, and her baby in Brooklyn. They live with Lupe's abusive boyfriend, Wayne. Alberto wants her to leave Wayne, but they rely on him and live in his apartment. Alberto works hard for Wayne, doing maintenance and repair work on the apartments he manages, and sends most of the money he earns back home to Mexico, to help support their family, including a sick sister. His real talent--and love--is for pottery. Lately, though, Alberto has begun to hear a man's voice talking to him, and it's saying disturbing things. It's not like thoughts in his head, but like a voice outside of him that no one else can hear. Even more strange is that it talks to him in English, while he still thinks mostly in Spanish. One day, Wayne sends Alberto to do a job in a nice apartment in another building, and he meets Grace. She is about his age but seems to have a perfect life. She's an excellent student, on track to be valedictorian and attend Princeton pre-med, and she has a wealthy, perfect-seeming boyfriend. Beneath the surface, though, Grace has been struggling ever since her parents' divorce. She's no longer sure about anything in her life or even if she's on the right path. Alberto and Grace meet that day and become friends, each confiding their fears to the other, as Alberto's voice gets more urgent, trying to force him to do terrible things, and harder to ignore.

As with all of Stork's novels, this one fully immerses the reader/listener in the characters' lives, here showing what it feels like to deal with the disturbing voices Alberto hears (which an author's note explains might be schizophrenia or any of several other mental illnesses). The topic is handled here with compassion, as are Grace's problems. Alberto's undocumented status is simply a fact here, that complicates his getting the help he needs, rather than a main subject. The two new friends find comfort and support in each other during difficult times for both of them. There is also plenty of suspense here, as Alberto starts to have memory black-outs and ends up running from the police who suspect him of a horrific crime. All of that tension, though, comes to a satisfying conclusion for both main characters. The audio production was excellent, with two narrators reading Alberto's and Grace's chapters. I was fully engaged in this moving, suspenseful story, and I learned a lot about mental illness.

(Another outstanding YA novel about this kind of mental illness is Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman (my review at the link), based in part on the author's son's own experiences with schizoaffective disorder and accompanied by drawings from his son that show his declining mental health.)

320 pages, Scholastic

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - New York

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. The sample is from the start of the novel and gives a great introduction to Alberto's life.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (same audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  
  

Fiction Review: How High We Go in the Dark

I've been hearing great things about How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu ever since its release in January 2022 and saw it recommended by lots of top magazines and other review outlets. I listened to it on audio this month, and even with all that advance hype, this very unique novel told in widely varying stories over generations surprised me with its warmth, humor, and creativity. 

In the first of these linked stories, in 2030, Dr. Cliff Miyashiro has come to a remote site in Siberia where his daughter recently died so that he can finish her important work. Global warming has created a huge rift in the ice that grows larger every day, uncovering woolly rhinos and other extinct animals. His daughter, Clara, a scientist like himself, was working when she felt into the giant crevasse and discovered the perfectly preserved body of a young prehistoric girl before she died. Unfortunately, her colleagues also discovered the girl had died of an ancient virus that has now been unleashed. The next story, City of Laughter, takes place a few years later in California. A young man and struggling comic takes a job in a euthanasia park for the "arctic plague's" youngest victims. Since there are not yet any cures, and the end stages of the disease are painful and horrific, parents and their dying children can stay in the park, so their kids can have one last day filled with laughter and fun before their hearts are stopped painlessly during one last exciting rollercoaster ride. While working there, he has an affair with one young mother and becomes very attached to her dying little boy. 

The stories mostly move forward in time, taking place mainly in California and Japan, each one focused on a different character, though you can often see connections to previous stories (for instance, there is a later story about Cliff's wife and their granddaughter, Clara's daughter). The stories paint a picture of the apocalyptic world, as the virus ravages populations and people come up with creative ways to deal with the virus, the dying, and the dead. Topics range from "elegy hotels," where bereaved families can spend a few more days with their disinfected, preserved loved one to a talking pig named Snortious P.I.G. who was created after splicing human DNA into pig DNA to grow and harvest more organs for transplant to changing Japanese customs after cemeteries become full. There is even a story set 100 years in the future, on a spaceship, where the crew has just woken up from stasis, as hundreds more people sleep on, to search for a habitable planet.

I hope you're still reading and didn't turn away at that second paragraph thinking, "Nope, too depressing for me!" Because that's the stunning thing about this book. In spite of its dark subject matter, this is a novel about the resilience of humanity, about the creativity and adaptability of our race. It is ultimately uplifting and even funny at times (I loved Snortious P.I.G.) ... and they do eventually discover a vaccine and cure for the virus. The stories range from amusing to poignant to surprising, but they are always deeply moving, delving into the essence of what makes us human. It is science fiction wrapped in a very character-driven, thought-provoking, philosophical approach. The writing is beautiful, and each individual story is completely immersive, especially in the excellent audio book with 15 different narrators. Characters of Asian descent are featured in every story, creating another connecting thread. You come to care for each character, so when you see him or her mentioned in a later story (that perhaps references that person tangentially or features a family member or friend), you smile at the connection because connections are a big part of this novel as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this original, compassionate novel about the essence of humanity that filled me with wonder and hope. Just writing about it here makes me want to start back at the beginning and listen to it again.

320 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Japan

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook, from the first chapter of the novel, here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  
  

Fiction Review: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I absolutely loved The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, when I first read it back in 2015 and again in 2019 (my review at the link). So, when I heard about Zevin's latest novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I immediately knew I had to read it and wasn't surprised by all the rave reviews that followed. I enjoyed every minute of this unique novel. This moving story of a special friendship spanning thirty years is beautifully written and immersive.

When Sam was twelve years old, he was in a horrible car accident. His mother died, and he was left with a mangled foot that would require on-going surgeries and give him constant pain throughout his life. Six weeks after the accident, his grandparents and doctors were worried because he hadn't spoken a word. One day, Sadie walked into the game room on the pediatric ward of the hospital. She was visiting her sister, who was being treated for cancer. Sadie sat down next to Sam, watched him play his game, and started talking to him about it. Sam talked back, and a friendship was born. They both loved video games and spent more than 600 hours together playing games while Sam was in the hospital. Then, they had a falling out. Years later, while attending Harvard, Sam spotted Sadie on a subway platform in Boston. He'd heard she was going to MIT. They resumed their friendship and took their love of gaming to the next level, designing a unique video game together. Sam's roommate, Marx, becomes the game's producer, and before they'd even graduated from college, they were a huge success. Their game was a hit, and they were launched into a world of wealth and fandom. Sadie and Sam kept collaborating on designing games, with Marx by their side, but all sorts of challenges arose over the years, from failed games to personal tragedies to ambition, love, and jealousy. Can Sam and Sadie withstand all of this and remain friends?

This is an epic story of friendship, following Sam and Sadie across decades of their lives, from California to Boston and beyond. As in A.J. Fikry, Zevin creates such full characters that you feel completely absorbed into their story. She's an excellent writer, with a talent for finding just the right words for each sentence, realistic dialogue, and descriptions that make you feel like you're there. You don't have to be a gamer to enjoy this book; the last video games I played were Space Invaders and Pac Man as a teen, but I still found their game designs and world-building fascinating. Besides friendship, Zevin also tackles love, living with a disability, loss, and the ups and downs that define every life. I marked many thought-provoking passages that I could relate to. But at its core, this warm, emotionally complex novel is mostly a great story, peopled by in-depth, likable but flawed characters and beautifully written. It's an engrossing story to get lost in. I'm going to miss Sam and Sadie.

397 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

Random House Audio

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - White-out (white cover or wintry theme) - winter was a prominent feature during their years in Cambridge!

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Massachusetts

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

My Book on Sale Now Through Monday!

I just wanted to let you know that my book is on sale, now through Cyber Monday, November 27. All e-book formats are on sale, and the paperback when bought through Amazon (sorry but I don't have control over pricing of the paperback through other online and in-store retailers but it is available everywhere). It makes a great gift for anyone dealing with any kind of chronic medical issues.

About the book:

"Whether you are in the early days of living with chronic illness or have been at it for years (or decades), there are always challenges in living a life framed by limitations and restrictions, where isolation is a common issue. This guide provides inspiration, advice on emotional coping, and guidance on living your best life with chronic illness from someone who’s been there. Though it seems impossible at first, your life will eventually settle into a new normal, and while that life may be different than the one you had planned, it can still be a vibrant, fulfilling life based on strong relationships, a healthy emotional state, and finding joy in every day. The emphasis in this book is on LIVING your life, not just enduring it.

From Sue Jackson, the author of the popular and award-winning blog Live with ME/CFS, comes a book to help you live your best life with chronic illness. Based on Sue’s over 20 years living with chronic illnesses in her own family, writing her blog, writing articles on chronic illness, and leading multiple support groups, she provides support and practical advice you can use."

A few of the many 5-star reviews:

Loved It “This book was eye opening and helpful. I am recently diagnosed with Lupus and struggling to understand it all. This book helped me to understand my life isn't over and I don't need to feel guilty when I can't do all the things. Instead I just need to change how we do things such as have movie nights etc.”

A Must Read for Those Struggling with Chronic Illness and Their Families - There is nothing more desperate than trying to find someone who “gets” it! Chronic Illness is real and the emotional toll it takes on the patient and family is tremendous. Looking for someone to help or at least understand is almost impossible. This book gives hope to those suffering from chronic illness by letting them know they are not alone, that there is help out there, and there are things to do to get you through those dark and scary times. There were very limited and often outdated books available to help my family during our initial struggle dealing with a child with a chronic illness. In the beginning life was a lonely and living hell. I was blessed to find Sue and a wonderful group of people online, who shared similar experiences and showed us how to survive in our new “normal”!”

“Encouraging - Chronic illness is difficult to say the least. The daily challenges you face are often so debilitating. Suzan does a wonderful job sharing her and her family's challenges and triumphs living with chronic illness.  What a comfort to know there are people who understand and really "get" what you’re going through. Having support makes a world of difference when you are battling an illness and is essential in moving forward and living your best life.  I recommend this book if you have a chronic illness or if you know someone that does.” 

"Must Read

I am only half way through and it has saved my life. Seriously.”

You can read more about the book and see more reviews, plus a list of links for finding the book (e-book and paperback) through all the major outlets and formats here.

 

If you're in the US, I hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend!

Fiction Review: Brother and Sister Enter the Forest

One of this year's Booktopia selections was Brother and Sister Enter the Forest by debut author Richard Mirabella. I enjoyed reading this emotionally complex novel about family relationships and trauma and talking with the author about the story's origins and themes.

Willa lives a quiet life on her own, working as a nurse, casually seeing a man named Luke,  and occasionally checking in on her mother. In her spare time, she makes intricate dioramas, with miniature people (often her brother and her) arranged in scenes. Her brother, Justin, shows up at her door one day. They haven't seen each other in several years, and Justin looks bad, both homeless and unwell. Against her better judgement, Willa lets Justin stay with her. The narrative moves back and forth between the present day, as Justin and Willa try to readjust to each other, and the past, when they were both teenagers living with their mother. Back then, as a gay teen, Justin didn't have many friends but was seeing a slightly older man who'd recently graduated. Willa had one best friend back then, and her home was a refuge. Willa and Justin's mother was not a warm person, and her relationship with Justin was especially strained. Now, as adults both damaged by some sort of trauma in their past, Willa and Justin struggle to negotiate their relationship with each other and to make connections with others.

These two narrative threads--past and present--alternate, as they weave together the story of this brother and sister. The reader knows that something terrible happened to Justin as a teenager, something that left him both physically and emotionally damaged, but we don't know exactly what that trauma was until past the halfway mark. This creates suspense and a sense of foreboding in both the past and the present. Willa and Justin have a very complicated sibling relationship, tinged by this long-ago trauma that affected the whole family. They don't fully understand each other and feel somewhat like strangers, but with a shared past that leaves them feeling both compassionate and resentful. They each reach for healing and wholeness as adults, and they each make progress but without fully getting there. This is a complex, poignant story of tension and tenderness, family and friendship, and trauma and healing.

275 pages, Catapult

Dreamscape Media (audio)

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

Fiction Review: Demon Copperhead

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver was my first audio book of 2023, and I can already tell that it will be one of my top reads of the year! I'm a huge Kingsolver fan, and her early novels The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees have permanent spots in my mental Best Books of All Time list. I've enjoyed her more recent novels, as well, but now she has published another book on a par with those early hits. In Demon Copperhead, she uses the inspiration and basic outline of the classic novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens to write an epic and original coming-of-age novel set in modern-day Appalachia.

Young Damon is nicknamed Demon from a young age, as nicknames are common in the hills and hollers of his home in southwestern Virginia. He narrates this story of his life (at least the young years), beginning at the beginning, when he was born in a single-wide trailer to an addicted young single mother. His father, whose green eyes, red hair, and Copperhead moniker he inherited, died before he was born at a local waterfall area called Devil's Bathtub, leaving poor Demon fatherless and afraid of bathtubs. Mrs. Peggot, the next-door neighbor, was there for Demon's birth and was an important part of his life afterward, as a surrogate grandmother. She was also raising her grandson, Maggot (aka Matt Peggot), who was Demon's best friend, since his own mother was in prison. Demon and Maggot's best years of their youth were spent together running through the woods behind their homes and playing superheroes. Demon not only liked to play superheros, but he loved to draw them--and make up his own--from a young age. As the boys grow up, though, Demon faces a nonstop parade of calamities and challenges, from an abusive stepfather to the wild vagaries of the foster care system and worse. But he tells his story with wit and wisdom.

That is only the very tip of the iceberg of Demon's remarkable story. He endures horrifying and heartbreaking trials as he grows from a child into a teenager and eventually a young man. But, this is not only the story of this one remarkable and remarkably unlucky boy. It's also the story of a whole population, as Kingsolver delves into the real-life issues in Appalachia and America's poor, rural communities, including the foster care system, addiction (particularly opoid addiction), the lack of jobs, and more. You might expect this to be a depressing novel, but it's not. Yes, sometimes, the turns that Demon's young life takes are heartbreaking, but his narrative is also hilarious. Kingsolver is an extremely talented storyteller, and this is one of her best tales, told in a wholly unique voice I came to adore:

"First I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let's just say out of it.

On any other day, they'd have seen her outside on the deck of her trailer home, good neighbors taking notice, pestering the tit of trouble as they will. All through the dog-breath air of late summer and fall, cast an eye up the mountain and there she'd be, little bleach-blonde smoking her Pall Malls, hanging on that railing like she's captain of her ship up there, and now might be the hour it's going down. This is an eighteen-year-old girl we're discussing, all on her own and as pregnant as it gets. The day she failed to show, it fell to Nance Peggot to go bang on the door, barge inside, and find her passed out on the bathroom floor with her junk all over the place and me already coming out. A slick fish-colored hostage picking up grit from the vinyl tile, worming and shoving around because I'm still inside the sack that babies float in, pre-real-life."

The colorful language that Demon uses--and especially the hilarious similes and metaphors--make every page of this book an absolute delight to read. Demon is a wonderful character, but he is also surrounded by fully fleshed-out, real-feeling people, both good and bad.

As I said, Kingsolver has based her modern-day story on the basic framework of David Copperfield, which I read a few years ago for Big Book Summer, but you do not need to be familiar with that classic to enjoy this new novel. It absolutely stands on its own. However, if you have read David Copperfield, you are in for an extra helping of pleasure. The parallels between the stories and between the character names are like Easter eggs for readers who've also enjoyed that classic. I listened to Demon Copperhead on audio, and the narrator, Charlie Thurston, fully inhabits Demon's character and voice (listen to a sample). It's a long book that took me almost all of January to finish listening to it, but I was still sorry when it ended because I hated to leave Demon and his friends. This is a spectacular, epic story told by a consummate storyteller. Just reading those first paragraphs that I excerpted up above makes me want to start back at the beginning and read it all again.

560 pages, Harper

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Literary Escapes Challenge - Virginia

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the outstanding audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

 

Or you can order Demon Copperhead from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: The Matzah Ball

My last book read in December 2022 was, appropriately, The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer. This was a departure for me, as I don't normally read many romances or holiday-themed novels, but it was a special exception. Both the author and the main character share my chronic illness immune disorder, ME/CFS. It was refreshing to see my own life reflected in the pages of a novel (which is rare), but the book was also entertaining and a lot of fun.

Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt's father, Rabbi Aaron Goldblatt, is a world-renowned Jewish religious leader. She was brought up on Long Island and attended the Jewish Camp Ahava every summer of her youth. When she was eighteen, she was struck down with ME/CFS, a debilitating immune disorder, though she lives her life as best as she can, within the limits of her disease. But Rachel has a big secret, kept from everyone except her best friend, Mickey: Rachel is a best-selling author, under the pen name Margot Cross, of ... Christmas romances. She knows it would destroy her parents (and possibly her father's reputation) to find out about her secret life, so she tells everyone she's a freelance writer. In her apartment, her spare bedroom/office is crammed from floor to ceiling with all kinds of Christmas decorations, posters of her books and movies, and awards she's won, plus her enormous collection of Santa figurines. Margot Cross doesn't make public appearances, but that is just fine with Rachel, since she wouldn't have the stamina for it anyway. Now, her summer camp nemesis, Jacob Greenberg, is coming to New York ... and her parents have invited him to Shabbat dinner! She has no desire to see this guy she was in love with who humiliated her in front of the entire camp when they were twelve years old, but she goes to her parents' house that weekend with an ulterior motive. Her publishing house is insisting her next book be a Hanukkah romance, and Jacob, a professional party planner, is hosting a huge Matzah Ball Max next week. Rachel just has to get to a ticket, to provide some inspiration on how to make Hanukkah seem as magical as Christmas.

So, right off the bat, even as a non-romance reader, I noticed plenty of classic romance tropes here: enemies-to-lovers, secret life, second chances, and all kinds of misunderstandings between Rachel and Jacob. But this novel is unique because Rachel isn't your typical perfect romance heroine straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. She feels very real and authentic, flaws and all. Of course, as a fellow ME/CFS sufferer, I greatly appreciated the honesty in how her restricted life is portrayed, but I don't want to give the impression that this novel is depressing. It's very entertaining, with plenty of humor and romcom-ness; it's just also real. You can expect lots of hilarious hijinks and a happy ending in this unique holiday romance.

385 pages, Mira

Harlequin Audio

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This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Challenge - The Fire Is So Delightful (fire/candles on the cover)

Diversity Challenge (December mini challenge - religious minorities)

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by Dara Rosenberg. and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Fiction Review: The Dreamers

I really enjoyed The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, so I was excited to read her next novel, The Dreamers. It features the same chilling, engrossing blend of watching an unprecedented event unfold and seeing the way that different people respond to it.

In a remote mountain town in California, students are enjoying their freshman year at the local college. A quiet, timid girl named Mei feels left out of a lot of the female bonding and social activity. Then, one day, Mei's roommate, Kara, doesn't wake up. At first Mei assumes she was just out drinking the night before and is sleeping in, but soon the whole dorm floor is alarmed when Kara continues to sleep, into the next day. Someone calls 911, and Kara is taken to the hospital. Soon, another student on their floor succumbs to this "sleeping sickness," and then another and another. Mei's entire floor is quarantined, and she and the other students watch from the windows as life goes on without them outside. Soon, though, the sickness (if that's what it is?) has spread to other students and other dorms and to professors and others who live in the town. Nathaniel is an older professor whose partner is in a nursing home in town with dementia. Annie and Ben are a young couple who have just moved to town for professor jobs at the school. Their infant daughter, Grace, is only a few weeks old, and they are dealing with the typical sleep-deprived challenges of new parenthood. Catherine is a psychologist who has come in from another town to help during the emergency, leaving her own daughter at home with her grandmother. Libby and Sara are two little girls who live with their father, who's a survivalist with a basement equipped for an apocalypse ... which might actually be happening now. A few people die, but most just keep on sleeping, and doctors can tell that they're dreaming, too. Who will succumb? Who will wake up? The town is fully quarantined, as people wonder and doctors try to figure out what this new illness is.

This book was published in 2019, before our own pandemic, so some scenes and reactions are particularly unsettling, but Walker has come up with a wholly unique, fictional epidemic with some intriguing questions associated with it. All people sleep and dream, but what if a whole town was stuck in that state? What if people had vivid, life-like dreams that lasted for months? Like in The Age of Miracles, Walker presents these kinds of thought-provoking scenarios. But her talent really lies in digging into how humanity responds to these puzzling phenomena. As the narrative moves from one character to another, we see a full range of reactions and emotions. The story is also suspenseful, as the reader wonders who will be hit next and who will wake up and when. It's a quiet story with a deep and provocative center. I was immersed in this world and gripped by this fascinating novel, so much so that I also read every word of the author interview at the back. I can't wait to see what Walker comes up with next!

299 pages, Random House

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

 

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Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. It sounds great!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

  

 

Or you can order The Dreamers from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.