Book Review - Defacing Poetry

Defacing Poetry: A Collection by Samantha Adkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I added this book a while ago, but didn't actually get a chance to start it til I was on vacation. And then, suddenly, there I was in Vegas, and all I wanted to do was read this book!

I have read quite a bit of this authors work, and in my opinion, this is her very best. It consists of a novella that is engaging and well plotted, and several riveting short stories that are character driven and full of dark little twists that will leave you with that slightly choked sensation only good fiction can give you. I don't want to give too much away - I'd rather you go out and read the book - but the peeks into the places a mind can go are truly fascinating. And as for the novella, it is true to heart and captures the isolation and desperation of a young woman trying valiantly to chase her dream of being a writer despite the desolation of her life. When you live in a dank basement apartment, when your family has abandoned you, when you are down to your last dollar trying to support a live in boyfriend who seems to have lost all will do do anything but sprawl on the couch and occasionally demand sex, can it get worse? Such a ride!

I highly recommend this book :)

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Book Review - Burn

Burn by Julianna Baggott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is more character progression than in the other two put together, and it's bittersweet.

Some of this book is so well written that it makes my hard, coal like readers heart sing. Some is clumsy. I skipped whole passages at time that were either weighed down or frittering. The ending seemed abrupt and forced. It left me with that confusing "what?... What?..." Sensation. I actually went backtracking o see if I'd missed something, with my skipping, but nope. Hadn't. Really did just end in a confusing what what.

I don't think I can actually say anything else without spoilers.

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Book Review - Fuse

Fuse by Julianna Baggott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not sure why this book felt like such a let down, after I enjoyed Pure so much.

Maybe it was the heavy-handed awkwardness of the unlikely love triangle.

Maybe it was the sheer impossibility of some of the science. I can suspend disbelief only for so far outside of the realm of possibility.

Maybe it was the improbable turns some character development took.

I don't know. I'm going to read book three as I already have it out of the library, and we'll see what happens. Either it will revive my interest and I'll fall back in love with this world or I won't make it through. I have a feeling there is little middle ground here.

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Book Review - Innocence

Innocence by Dean Koontz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Innocence is one of those books that grabs you with both hands and doesn't let go. I was intrigued by the short chapters AT&T he front, and once I got into the real meat of the story, I was all in. Even during one of the busiest weeks of my life (adopting two crazy young boys can make your head spin!) I found a way to carve out time every day for this book, staying up later than I should have, sneaking in a few pages waiting at the gas station or in the bathroom, even during phone calls!

This books asks some questions about what we find beautiful and abhorrent, both in others and in ourselves. Like many Koontz books, it has great dogs, though only in brief appearances here. A shame as they are often among my favourite characters of his. It also, as any Koontz book should, has scares and creepiness and moments that make you sit up straighter and clench your hands around your book and twitch a little. It's very much along the lines of some of my favourite books Koontz has written in his career, but with a fresh storyt hat goes in very unexpected places.

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Book Review - Floating Staircase

Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would have liked this book a whole lot better if I'd skipped the weird and sappy epilogue.

This is a book about how guilt can haunt us. How we can turn our childhood mistakes into spectres scarier than any ghost from beyond. How we can spend our whole lives trying to explain, or cure, or right what took only moments, but shattered us.

When you lose a brother to drowning in childhood, finding out the little boy who lived in your house before you drowned in the lake behind the house the summer before can drive you nearly to the brink of insanity. Especially when you're certain that boy is still lingering in your home, as evidenced by the ghostly handprint he left in fresh paint. But how do you solve a mystery that no one else in a small town wants you to?

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