Category: The Reviews.

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock

Synopsis.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo meets Sharp Objects in this internationally bestselling psychological thriller, for fans of Jo Nesbø and Henning Mankell, now for the first time in English

A Danish journalist digs deep to uncover a web of lies that stretches back to a grisly murder, but knowing the truth might put an end to her story.

It’s early September in Copenhagen, the rain has been coming down for weeks, and 36-year-old journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. And then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and ominous letters from an alleged killer.

Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years earlier, Anna Kiel hasn’t been seen by anyone since she left the crime scene covered in blood. The police think she’s fled the country and have zero clues as to her motive. But homicide detective Erik Scháfer comes up with the first lead when the reporter who first wrote about the case is found murdered in his apartment. Has Anna Kiel struck again, or is there more than one killer at large? And why does every clue point directly to Heloise Kaldan?

Meanwhile, the letters keep coming, and they hint at a connection between Anna and Heloise. As Heloise starts digging deeper, she realizes that, to tell Anna’s story, she will have to revisit the darkest parts of her own past–confronting someone she swore she’d never see again.

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The Review

The blurb says this book is a combination of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and SHARP OBJECTS (fave).

Pretty ambitious… 😕

It says it’s an international bestseller for fans of Jo Nesbo… 😕

It’s won awards… 😕

I’m surprised by all. What do I know 💁🏽‍♀️

I’ve included a picture of a Corpse flower.

It’s a very accurate physical representation of this book.

It’s a phallic-shaped flower that smells like death.

Do you want a penis-shaped flower that smells like rotting flesh?

This book is part of a series. This is the first book in the series published in 2021 but book 2 was released in 2018 and book 3 released last year, in 2020.

💬

Had to look that up!!

First released in Denmark in 2017, it has already made the rounds there. Picking up a few awards and claiming a bestselling spot.

So it’s a re-release!

It will not do as well here is my assumption.

If I were the authors literary therapist, I would recommend exploring her sexual discomforts somewhere other than the page.

It opens with a supposedly controversial conversation about massages and sex. I’m assuming this is to get you in the mindset of the characters, but all it does for me as a reader is make me feel uncomfortable.

Not uncomfortable for myself but more for whoever is uncomfortable with sex here.

If it’s similar to Sharp Objects and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it is in that regard.

However, the yucky sex in Sharp Objects is supposed to make you feel that way.

Spoiler

The character(s) in Sharp Objects used sex in the same fashion as she used razors.

And The Girl WTDT well…

I won’t spoil that one. 😉

This one’s pin is Antisocial Personality Disorder, aka, Psychopathy.

Catchy words.

To me this book was incredibly boring and flat. It’s missing the zhuzh factor. In my mind it’s just pretty basic.

Nothing shocking or surprising or worth remembering.

For me it’s an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Uninspiring.

Thanks to @librofm and Crooked Lane Books and @netgalley for copies of this alc.

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Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Synopsis.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author traces the enduring bond between a divorced couple in a poignant novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life.

Through her careful words and reverberating silences (The New York Times), Elizabeth Strout has long captured readers’ hearts with her spare, exquisite insights on family, relationships, and loss. And never has her perfect attunement to the human condition (Hilary Mantel) been so evident as in these pages, as Strout’s iconic heroine Lucy Barton, of My Name Is Lucy Barton, recounts her complex, tender relationship with William, her first husband–and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidant. Recalling their college years, through the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a decades-long partnership.

A masterful exploration of human empathy, Oh William! captures the joy and pain of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that rearrange everything we think we know about those closest to us; and the way people live and love, despite the variety of obstacles we face in doing so. And at the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. This is the way of life, Lucy says. The many things we do not know until it is too late.

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The Review

I have been reading ELIZABETH STROUT ALL WEEKEND!

Actually, I have been reading her since yesterday.

I just finished MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON on Sunday, and OH WILLIAM today!

Wow, it’s been a treat!

And I’m not sure if I love Elizabeth Strouts’ writing or Lucy Barton as a character. It doesn’t really matter.

At this point, I’ll read anything she writes.

If you call it reading, I call it basking.

It might be the descriptions of disparity and of being poor. It might be the quick lines, short chapters, and aha moments at every passage. I’m not sure.

I’m still basking.

OH WILLIAM comes out tomorrow, and I can’t imagine if you’ve read (basked in) Elizabeth Strouts writing before-then I don’t need to convince you to pick this one up.

Ahhhhhhh

Please don’t bother me while I’m in my afterglow!

See you next week!

Thank you to @prhaudio for this wonderful audiobook so that I could continue to listen to the wonderful Kimberly Farr narrate.

And thank you to @netgalley and Random House Publishing for putting this book on my radar!

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Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Synopsis.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty comes a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest

The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

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The Review

So glad you’re here!This Post Is Called

MIDNIGHT- IN THE STACKS

I talk about one book coming out tomorrow that I was either excited about or still excited about.

Today I’m talking about Liane Moriarty’s APPLES NEVER FALL

Coming September 14, 2021

I was provided a free copy of this audiobook by @librofm and in exchange for my honest review!

Last Wednesday, I was walking through a literary minefield titled APPLES NEVER FALL by Liane Moriarty. About 50% in, I thought I had the book entirely figured out.

I was wrong.

I’m often wrong at guessing the twist and guessing whodunit. That’s part of the fun! What’s not fun is reading merrily along, and then the rug is pulled out from under you.

That doesn’t feel good.

This has only happened to me twice while reading.

The first time was towards the end of Mary Kubica’s WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT.

I’m still reeling from that ending…still pissed!

APPLES NEVER FALL tops that one by far…

I had these wonderful theories of grief and loss and wanting to exchange your life for your neighbors.

I thought it was another WHERE’D YOU GO BERNADETTE!!!

Not exactly.

Or should I say

Not entirely.

The first parts of the book do explore themes of grief and loss. And not from the usual lens of losing a loved one. It is more about losing parts of yourself.

It’s about grieving those moments, those relationships, those dreams that never came to fruition while simultaneously loving the life you’ve lived. It’s a tenuous line to walk.

So many questions were asked…

Are we allowed to grieve for a life we never lived?

What turns grief into regret?

Are you allowed to grieve for what you don’t have when you have so much?

And then…

The second half.

Sadly, not every book is made to be a “thriller” with jaw-dropping twists. Sometimes human nature is surprising enough. And the twist in this one completely ruined it for me.

Yet…THE WRITING!!

THE CHARACTERIZATIONS!

I had such a hard time rating this?!?!?!?!?

It’s a HARD 3.5

Rounded up to four

Ugh, I hate myself!! (and @goodreads rating system, sometimes)

In my opinion, the books kinda look like this:

THE BEST:

BIG LITTLE LIES

THE HUSBANDS SECRET

THE REST:

TRULY MADLY GUILTY

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS

WHAT ALICE FORGOT

EVERYTHING ELSE:

THE LAST ANNIVERSARY

(I haven’t read THE HYPNOTIST or THREE WISHES)

How do you rank them so far?

Are you planning on pre-ordering?

Did you already?

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