Fiction Reviews: House in the Cerulean Sea & Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Since its publication in 2020, I've heard nothing but rave reviews of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, but since I rarely read fantasy, I still hadn't read it (though I did enjoy Klune's Under the Whispering Door). When I heard that a sequel was being published, I quickly downloaded and listened to the audio of the original book and then listened to the new one, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. I was enchanted by both heartwarming books, with their original premises, thought-provoking topics, delightful humor, and a touch of suspense.

In The House in the Cerulean Sea, a man named Linus Baker takes his job very seriously. He is a case worker for The Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) and travels around to various orphanages and schools run by the department, to assess whether the children in their charge are being well cared for. One day, his careful routine is upended when he is summoned by Extremely Upper Management. They give him a highly classified assignment: to travel to

Marsyas Island and assess an unusual home where six especially dangerous magical children reside. The managers are clearly concerned about the safety of the rest of the world, but Linus is focused on the well-being of the children, as he always is. He arrives on the very remote Marsyas Island to its usual beautiful, tropical weather and is met by the caretaker of the home and the children, Arthur Parnussus. He introduces Linus to the very unusual children: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentified green blob with eye stalks, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. As Linus stays with them over the course of a month, he gets to know each of them--and Arthur--very well. Though Arthur's methods seem unorthodox (and Linus can quote the DICOMY rules and regulations), he begins to realize what a special place Marsyas is and what a special family Arthur has created here.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea picks up right where the first novel ends (no spoilers!), carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the children, and Linus. A short prologue is included about Arthur's first arrival back on the island, before he created the home. In the present day, Arthur has been invited to give testimony to the Council of Utmost Importance about his own time as a child under DICOMY's "care" and the abuses he suffered. As you might expect, things do not go quite as Arthur had hoped they would. Nevertheless, he is also in the city to pick up a new child to join their family, a yeti named David. Soon, the unusual family on Marsyas Island is fighting to hold onto the happy, peaceful life they have made for themselves.

The new sequel is just as delightful as the original novel. There is a bit more tension and suspense here, as Arthur and the children face potential perils, but the warmth and marvelous sense of humor remain. If you read The House in the Cerulean Sea in print, I highly recommend you give the audio a try for the sequel. Both audio books are such an absolute pleasure to listen to! I was just about to tell you that they each feature a full cast of talented narrators, but I was shocked to just discover it's only one person, professional actor Daniel Henning. I can't believe he did it all by himself because he's given each of the children their own unique voice. Much of the humor in the novels comes from the things the children say and observe, and hearing them say these things on audio is so much fun! I often laughed out loud (while walking, cooking, brushing my teeth). At the same time, both books are warm and tender, featuring beautiful, loving relationships that embrace diversity. These novels are full of hope and joy, and I loved living in this world for a while.

[NOTE: If you have not yet read the first book, then avoid reading the description of the sequel online or on the jacket; it's full of spoilers of the first book!]

The House in the Cerulean Sea - 416 pages, Tor 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea - 416 pages, Tor

Macmillan Audio

These books fit in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

Disclosure: I received the sequel 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 (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

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

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

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

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Print and e-book from Amazon:

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

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 Audacity

Every spring, my mom and I travel to Vermont to attend Booktopia, a wonderful bookish weekend hosted by the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester that combines about 8-9 authors and 100 or so readers for book discussions, meals, games, and a lot of fun! (tickets still available; my recap/vlog from Booktopia 2023) We'll be attending Booktopia next weekend! So, every year at this time, I try to read as many books as I can that will be featured at the event. One of those is The Audacity, a unique satirical novel that I enjoyed.

Guy Sarvananthan was born in Sri Lanka and immigrated with his parents to the U.S. as a child. He went to a music conservatory for college, where he became a decent, middling composer. Victoria Stevens, a hard-driving, highly motivated woman plucked Guy out of obscurity by marrying him. She started PrevYou, a Theranos-type company that created self-serve health booths, located in cities everywhere, to collect data with the simple aim of nothing less than curing cancer. Guy now runs the philanthropic arm of her multi-billion-dollar company. He comes home from yet another charity gala one night to discover that Victoria is missing and possibly presumed dead, until he finds out from her board that the news is about to break that the company has failed at its mission and the whole thing (and Victoria) is a fraud. Knowing his wife, Guy quickly realizes she disappeared intentionally to ride out the media storm, but he's hurt and stunned that she didn't include him in her plan. Devastated and betrayed and realizing his life of luxury is about to end, Guy accepts an invitation (that was actually for Victoria) to a private island. It's an event, called The Summit, hosted by a billionaire for the world's wealthiest people (not the top 1% but the top 0.001%) to solve the world's problems! Guy has no interest in the weekend's grand aims; his goal is to try to forget what is happening (and about to happen) to him and go out with a bang.

The satire here is thick, right from the opening scene at that charity gala in New York, where the attendees are all bored with the extravagance that surrounds them  (some of those same people are invited to the island). If you saw Murder at the End of the World on Hulu, this gathering is a lot like that one, only even more decadent. I generally prefer my satire in smaller doses, like short stories or essays, but this novel grew on me. It has a lot of humor, especially in the second half. While the focus is on Guy, the betrayed spouse, Victoria gets her own chapters where her driven, productivity-obsessed approach to rebranding herself is also skewered. This novel is not for the faint of heart, and I know that at least one of my Booktopia buddies really hated it. There is a lot of hard drinking, drugs, and sex in the novel--that's pretty much Guy's goal, to just obliterate reality and block out what's happening to him. So, if that sort of thing offends you, this is probably not the book for you. But it is a very smart, clever satire, and I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to meeting the author next week!

288 pages, Soho Press

HighBridge audio (a division of Recorded Books)

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Travel the World in Books (unnamed private tropical island!)
 

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!

    
  

Nonfiction Review: Why We Read

Every spring, my mom and I attend Booktopia, a weekend book event held at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, where readers and about eight authors talk books, hang out together, share meals, play a rollicking game of book trivia, and more. This year, this unique event is being held the last weekend in April (tickets still available; my recap/vlog from Booktopia 2023). My first book read for Booktopia 2024 was Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed, a very entertaining nonfiction/memoir perfect for any book lover.

Each chapter aims to answer the title question, with some expected chapter titles like To Learn About (and From) the Past and Because We Had To and To Feel Less Alone. But she also has some surprising chapters like To Break the Rules and Because I Wanted Free Pizza. Interspersed with these essay-like Why chapters are some fun lists like How I Choose a Book: A Thirteen-Step Guide and Signs You May Be a Character in a Popular Children's Book. Throughout the book, Shannon shares details of her own reading life, from her grandmother teaching her to read at age two (!) to her childhood and adolescence as an avid reader to some of her adult experiences reading. Shannon is also a teacher, so she shares fascinating stories of teaching English and Literature to high school students and her current role as a Creative Writing and Literature professor at a university. In every chapter, there is enough book name-dropping to make your To-Be-Read list burst, though many of the books she talks about are comfortingly familiar to any avid reader. Best of all, from my point of view, is Shannon's wonderful sense of humor that runs through every page.

This was definitely a book that I could relate to! Shannon's stories and memories often had me nodding along or laughing out loud. Her different perspectives, as both a reader and a teacher of literature, were always intriguing. Reading this book made me feel like Shannon was a friend--certainly, at least someone with whom I share a common passion. I can't wait to meet her at Booktopia! I very much enjoyed this hilarious, informative, and comforting journey through books and reading. And yes, don't worry--there is a lengthy list of books mentioned at the end.

329 pages, Hanover Square Press

Harlequin Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - category: Published in 2024

Literary Escapes Challenge - Pennsylvania
 

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 (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 (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: Remarkably Bright Creatures

My neighborhood book group recently celebrated our 200th book with a nice lunch out, and we chose an excellent book for this milestone: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Everyone enjoyed it, and it received our second-highest rating (since we started using ratings about 13 years ago). This heartwarming story about an unusual friendship between a woman and a giant Pacific octopus (just go with it--it works) focuses on connections, loss, and family.

Tova works nights cleaning the local aquarium in Sowell Bay, the small coastal town in Washington where she's lived all her life. She's suffered terrible losses--her eighteen-year-old son drowned years ago, her beloved husband, and most recently, her estranged brother--and leads a very isolated life. But she's developed an odd sort of friendship with Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus who lives in the aquarium and occasionally breaks up the monotony of his dull life with excursions outside of his tank--he particularly enjoys snacking on the sea cucumbers at night. Tova has caught him before (and helped him out of a difficult situation once), but she keeps his secret. In California, a young man named Cam is turning thirty but feels like his life is a mess. He can't keep a job, and he still lives with his aunt in her trailer, ever since she began taking care of him at age nine when his mother left. With his best friends married and having a baby, Cam feels even more acutely stuck. He heads north to Washington state, looking for clues as to the identity of his father, suspecting he may be a wealthy real estate agent. As Cam continues his quest to solve his personal mystery, Tova considers selling the home her grandfather built to move to a retirement home, and Marcellus--who is very smart--realizes he is reaching the end of his natural life, stuck in this tank.

These three characters all feel at loose ends as the novel opens, as if life doesn't hold much appeal and their futures are grim. The novel is filled with all kinds of unexpected plot twists, wonderful secondary characters, and a great sense of humor. The subject of loss, in all of its forms, is deeply examined here from all three perspectives, while the focus of the story is on healing and connections. Besides these main characters, others from the town play key roles and are well-drawn: Mac, who runs the local grocery store, Tova's group of old friends, "the knitwits," and more. Narration moves back and forth between the three main characters. The audio production was outstanding, often causing me to laugh out loud, and I especially enjoyed Marcellus' chapters. My book group gave it an average rating of 8.7 out of 10, so clearly, we all enjoyed it, and it provided some great discussions.

Ecco, 368 pages

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - R

Literary Escapes - Washington 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the beginning of the novel, and just these few minutes gives you an idea of Tova's voice and her life.

 

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!

 
  

Two Great Teen/YA Graphic Memoirs

I took advantage of Nonfiction November to  catch up on some graphic memoirs, and I read two of them that are perfect for teens and young adults (though I enjoyed them as an adult, too!).

Pénélope Bagieu has written and illustrated several graphic novels and graphic nonfiction books, including the award-winning Brazen, though her coming-of-age graphic memoir, Layers, was the first of her books I've read. I'm so glad I did! In it, she tells sixteen different stories about her life in France, covering the period from childhood to young adulthood, with warmth, emotional depth, and humor. Each of these is a separate vignette, not in chronological order, on a different topic, but together they paint a full picture of her early life and process of growing into an adult. Her first story is titled, Why Don't You Have a Cat?, and it tells the story of the kittens she and her sister got for Christmas when she was very young. But she had her cat for almost twenty years, and she tells stories of her relationship with her cat throughout those years, so we see every stage of her life through that lens, from small child to young adult. Some vignettes are very short and funny, like A Story About My Seduction Abilities, or short and dark, like the one-page story about noticing signs that a friend in school was being abused. Sometimes she digs a bit deeper into some serious topics, as in Deja Vu, where she compares, side-by-side, two instances of unwanted sexual attention, one as a child sleeping over at a friend's and another as a young adult. That one, like many of them, uses very creative story-telling techniques and makes maximum use of her drawing talents. These aren't illustrated stories but truly a graphic memoir, where the pictures tell the story. Often funny, sometimes thought-provoking, and always intimate, Layers is a truly unique, though very relatable, memoir that uses the graphic form perfectly.

144 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction November - Published in 2023

Travel the World in Books - France

 

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!

 
  

Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey by Akim Aliu (co-written by Greg Anderson Elysee and illustrated by Karen de la Vega) is another coming-of-age graphic memoir with an international flavor but quite different. Akim was a professional hockey player in the NHL who here tells the story of the terrible racism he faced, from youth hockey all the way up to the pros. Akim's mother is Ukrainian and his father is Nigerian, and when he and his brother were children, they lived in both countries. As a biracial couple, his parents found prejudice and racism in both places--even from family members--so they moved the family to Canada, hoping to provide a better life for their sons. Life was generally better in Canada, but Akim and his brother were still often the only Black kids in their school or neighborhood. Akim fell in love with hockey from the first moment he saw it, and when his parents got him some used skates at a yard sale, they discovered he was a natural. He loved the sport and was very good at it. So good, in fact, that he qualified for an elite teen league in Canada. At age sixteen, he moved to a town four hours away from his family to live with a host family and play hockey. He eventually went pro and joined the NHL, but Akim encountered horrific, often violent racism at every step of his journey--from teammates, spectators, and most alarmingly, sometimes his own coaches. As dark as this story is, there's a happy ending because Akim started a foundation, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and has dedicated his life to making hockey, the sport he loves, more inclusive and to stamping out racism on the ice and off. The way that he turned his pain around to help other kids is truly inspiring.

120 pages, Graphix (Scholastic)

If you want to know more, as I did, here's a short interview with Akim Aliu about his experiences and his important work.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Nonfiction November - Sport

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (several different provinces)

 

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!

  
  

Middle-Grade Review: Bea Wolf

I was intrigued by the title and cover of middle-grade graphic novel Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith, illustrated by Boulet, and I absolutely loved this smart, clever, funny riff on the Old English classic Beowulf.

The graphic novel begins with a short history lesson, about a long succession of child kings (and queens), going back generations, ruling benevolently over the other kids in the suburban neighborhood, ensuring there was plenty of candy, toys, and fun for all:

"Listen to the lives of the long-ago kids, the world-fighters,
the parent-unminding kids, the improper, the politeness-proof,
the unbowed bully-crushers,
the bedtime-breakers, the raspberry-blowers,
fighters of fun-killers, fearing nothing, fated for fame."

We learn about each of these renowned child leaders, including the famed Carl, who eventually succumbed to teendom: "Lament not his low fate. Time lingers for no kid." Finally, we get to the current kid king, Roger:

"Kids who knew the crown-line of Carl flocked to their cause.
So that by the reign of Roger, so rich was the candy cache,
so much bully-gold was berthed, so well-betoyed were boy and girl,
that Roger, game-giver and toy-sharer,
turned his thoughts to treehouses."

Roger and the other kids build an amazing treehouse, which comes to be known as Treeheart and provides a place for raucous, unfettered, un-chaperoned kid fun. But Mr. Grindle watches all this unbridled chaotic joy from his yard:

"He would stride the starless dark, staring over hedge, stirring his temper,
harrowing his hearing, hating the gum-smacking, the blowing of bubbles,
the butt-jokes and belching laughter, the bursting of bang snaps,
the vast-volumed video games of no educational value whatsoever!"

Mr. Grindle, "the fun-grinder, the grim-faced joy-gobbler," won't stand for such unproductive, noisy activity, and he attacks Treeheart, with his cleaning supplies and educational materials. Things become sad and hopeless for the kids for a while, until Bea Wolf, a five-year-old cousin of Carl, who lives upriver in Heidi's domain, comes to save them.

I just had to include several quotes from this book because the text is so delightfully clever and fun! Every page is like that, as the author mimics the cadence, rhyming, and alliteration of the original Beowulf. I never read the epic poem myself (so you don't need to know it to appreciate this wonderful book), but I remembered my son studying it in Brit Lit, and I looked it up while reading this graphic novel to further enhance my enjoyment. I knew about Beowulf and Grindle, but Weinersmith also takes some other character names from the original, like King Hrothgar (Roger), as well as the general storyline. But the writing is only half of the fun here! The fabulous illustrations are just as enchanting, and I often took my time to reread the text and enjoy the pictures before turning the page.

When my sons were young, they would have loved this joyful, witty, ingenious book! I'm sure we would have read and reread it, as they said, "again!" and I can just see them poring over each detailed illustration intensely. This is the best kind of book for kids--the kind that adults will love, too.

208 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge
R.I.P. Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

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: Unlikely Animals

My favorite book (read so far) of Booktopia 2023 was Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett, a new-to-me author. I absolutely loved this delightful, funny novel about addiction, death, and animals, both real and hallucinated.

Twenty-two-year-old Emma Starling has returned to her small, rural hometown of Everton, New Hampshire. Her father, Clive, is dying of a mysterious brain disease, and it's finally time (Thanksgiving now) to admit to her parents that she did not start med school in the fall, like she told them (Emma was supposedly born with healing powers). Emma's come home to spend time with her father but also to figure out what's next in her life. Her brother, Auggie, is also at home living with their parents after his second stint in rehab. Clive's brain disease causes hallucinations, especially of animals, though he also hallucinates a real-life man. Ernest Harold Baynes lived in the town around the turn of the 20th century and was a renowned naturalist who was known for taming animals and bringing them into his home, including a pet fox, The Sprite, and a bear named Jimmy. Clive was asked to leave his job as an English professor at the local college when he scared a class by yelling about all the cats in the room. Emma finds a job as the long-term substitute teacher for the 5th grade class at the local school. The kids have been doubly traumatized as a classmate died recently and their usual beloved teacher is accompanying her husband, a prominent local businessman accused of dealing drugs, in court. Finally, Emma's best friend from high school, Crystal, is missing, but police aren't even looking for her, as she was known to take drugs and they assume she either ran away or is dead somewhere. Clive hasn't given up, though, and is driving everyone in town crazy by posting thousands of "missing" posters all over. Oh, and the entire novel is narrated by the (dead) residents of the town cemetery.

I know that last part sounds gimicky (and the whole thing sounds very quirky), but this is a wonderful novel filled with heart and humor. It deals with some very serious topics--opioid addiction, childhood trauma, terminal illness--with honesty and emotional depth, but it also had me laughing out loud from beginning to end. The narration by dead townspeople from many different time periods adds a unique (and amusing) omniscient point of view. Ernest Harold Baynes (Clive just calls him Harold and has many in-depth conversations with him) was a real historical figure in that part of New Hampshire, with real photos and edited excerpts of his writings sprinkled throughout the novel. The author explained at Booktopia that she wanted to include him in a book but wanted to write a modern story, not historical fiction, so she made him a ghost. The precocious 5th graders in Emma's class were one of my favorite parts of the story; they are intense and sincere and very funny. The novel also incorporates suspense, in the plotline about the missing Crystal. Is this another of Clive's flights of fancy or could she possibly still be alive somewhere? All of these disparate plotlines come together in a fabulous climax. This wonderful, unique novel was poignant, engrossing, hilariously funny, and filled with memorable characters. I definitely want to read Hartnett's earlier novel, Rabbit Cake.

346 pages, Ballantine Books

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes - NH

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the start of the novel with the cemetery residents narrating, 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!

  

Middle-Grade Review: It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit

For Middle-Grade March, I listened to four middle-grade audio books (check out my first two reviews here), and enjoyed them all.

In It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds, twelve-year-old Eddie has a great plan for the summer. He has some chores and is responsible for his own laundry, but Eddie decides to wear every piece of clothing in his room first. Then he'll only have to do laundry once, in the middle of the summer! Brilliant, right? Maybe not so much because on Day 40, wearing his last item of clothing (his bathing suit), his enormous pile of dirty laundry is discovered by his mom. She grounds Eddie, even though it's Beach Bash day, the highlight of the entire year in his town, when everyone heads to the beach for a fun day in the sun. Everyone except Eddie, who will be home doing his laundry. As Eddie starts his second load, thinking of his family and friends all enjoying the beach, the power goes out. He tries to text his mom, but cell service is out, too. Eddie's best friend comes by, and the two of them go through the neighborhood and find three other kids. As evening comes and they remain without power or cell service, the five kids band together. No one comes back from the beach and there is no sign of anyone else in the neighborhood, so the kids gather supplies and take care of themselves.

I enjoyed this funny novel about friendship, though it is unusual. Despite the promise of its intriguing premise, not much happens here. It's not really an adventure or apocalyptic story, and it ends without knowing what is happening in the wider world (it's unclear if it's a standalone or the set-up for a sequel). The focus is just on these five kids. Eddie is a very charming and amusing narrator. He explains early on that he has ADHD, so his narrative tends to ramble with lots of tangents. The overall tone is not dark or scary; it's all very fun and light, about the kids getting by on their own ... and having fun!

304 pages, Scholastic

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Ohio

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the 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!

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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 (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

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: Lessons in Chemistry

I decided this year to only going to write a full-length review if a book was really great. Well, my very first book read in 2023, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, met that criteria. I already know this thoughtful, laugh-out-loud funny book will be among my top reads for the year because I had an absolute blast reading it!

The novel begins with a brief set of scenes in 1961, where Elizabeth Zott, an out-of-work chemist and single mother of a brilliant five-year-old daughter named Madeleine, heads off to her new career, as the television star of a cooking show called Supper at Six. Then the narrative moves back to 1951 to provide the backstory of how all that happened. Elizabeth started out working as a chemist at a local research laboratory. Her male colleagues--and boss--were all less intelligent but (probably because they knew how smart she was) treated her horribly. She wanted to work on a ground-breaking idea of her own but was usually assigned to scut work and treated like an assistant. Then she met Calvin Evans, the tall, handsome, brilliant chemist who had his own fully-equipped lab to himself because he'd won a Nobel Prize. Like Elizabeth, Calvin wasn't very good with people. He was known for holding a grudge and being a loner at work. But once the two of them got to know each other, it was ... well, chemistry. She moves in with him, he invites her to do her work in his lab, and the two of them are fabulously happy together. Somehow, though, we know from the start that their wonderful relationship can't last because we know where Elizabeth is ten years later.

Most of the novel is about those ten years, from awkward chemist Elizabeth first meeting Calvin to her somehow transforming into a huge TV star, with flashbacks to Elizabeth's and Calvin's earlier lives. The plot is intriguing, but this novel is about so much more than what happens. It's about love, women in the workplace, parenting, and finding happiness. Don't forget that it's historical fiction, too, and paints a complex (and horrifying) picture of the expectations and treatment of women in the 1950's and 60's. But it's the writing that really makes this unique novel shine. Garmus has created characters that you want to spend time with, not just Elizabeth but also Calvin, Madeleine, their neighbor, Harriett, and more. And I haven't mentioned the best part yet ... this book is hilarious! Even though it deals with some very serious issues of sexual assault, mistreatment of women, and more, this novel made me laugh out loud repeatedly, often taking me by surprise with its sudden wit. One of my favorite characters is Six-Thirty, Calvin and Elizabeth's dog, who is incredibly smart as well and takes it upon himself to protect the family. I know that sounds gimicky, but it isn't ... it's hysterically funny to hear Six-Thirty's very astute observations (thoughts--of course he doesn't speak) about the world around him and his role in it. I wanted to include some quotes, but you should experience it for yourself. It's best when the humor takes you by surprise. I loved every moment of this novel, and I never wanted it to end. It was the perfect book to kick off the new year, and it left me smiling and feeling satisfied.

390 pages, Doubleday

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Challenge - New Year, New Direction (direction in the title - I know "in" is a stretch, but it's the best I did last month)

Alphabet Soup Challenge - L

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. I've heard the audio is 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 Lessons in Chemistry from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.