New Book Review: Dark Matter

Tags

blake crouch, dark matter, quantum, Sci-Fi, science

4 of 5 stars

I found Blake Crouch’s, Dark Matter, to be an enthralling read! It had me sitting on the edge of my seat, wondering what I would do in the same situation and questioning what type of integrity I really have. This novel touches on scientific quantum studies, individuality (or lack thereof), emotional ties, psychological and post traumatic stress as well as a host of other really deep mental mysteries.

At the start of the book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to entirely like it due to the slower start but it ramped up pretty quickly when I wasn’t expecting it. Then it never let go. As a reader, you journey with the main character through his own mental and emotional struggles but also into the world of science. I’m no science nerd but this book made me really interested in quantum physics and the capabilities of a multiverse. Anyway, before I start, nerding-out completely, let’s get a brief synopsis.

The book follows Jason Dessen, a professor at a local college, as he spends an evening with his wife, Daniela and son, Charlie. You feel the comfort between Jason and his wife immediately. They have a really great bond. Later, as Jason sits with his buddy whose just won a prestigious award at a local bar, he questions whether his life would be different if he’d moved forward with his scientific invention related to quantum physics. He wonders if he could have been an all-star like his friend. He brushes this off as a simple “what if” and begins his walk home. While on his way, he is ambushed by a masked man and his life changes forever from that point on. When he wakes, he is in a lab. The people are acting strangely and even though he doesn’t recognize any of them, they seem to know him quite well. This is the start of Jason Dessen’s journey back home to his wife and son.

The scientific appeal of this novel is sci-fi to the max. But the suspense is just as strong a motivating factor for the reader. You want Jason to win. To find his family. But then there’s an extreme twist that makes you go “what the…”. That’s when you know Crouch has pulled you deep into the rabbit hole.

Raging Book Reviews Highly Recommended

*This book was purchased with my own money. Purchase a copy with free shipping through my Book Depository affiliate link CLICK HERE

New Book Review: The Woman in Cabin 10

Tags

cruise, female lead, ruth ware

Rated 2 of 5 stars

This is my second Ruth Ware book and will likely be my last. The hype behind this book alone has made me question whether there will be any really great book from her that aren’t hyped to the max. It makes me not trust the publicity behind this author and that sucks royally for me as a reader since I spent my hard-earned money on both of her books because everyone LOVED them so much and I saw it practically everywhere. Well, now that I know that she has a good publicity team, that’s about all I have to quantify my spending because the books were not great, not even that good. So let’s get into it…

Ruth Ware has a way of creating the weakest, shrinking violet female leads that make me think she lives in some bubble somewhere. A place where the average woman is sobbing 75% of the time and the other 25% she is drinking her troubles away. This to me is a very annoying and demeaning trait for female leads to have. Therefore, I absolutely hated the main character in The Woman in Cabin 10. Laura “Lo” Blacklock is a travel writer sent to a luxury cruise liner to do a write up on all the rich and influential people attending the first voyage. Before she attends, she is robbed in her apartment. Not at gunpoint or knife point…he just locked her in her bedroom while he took everything. Of course, this has sent her reeling and paranoid that someone is out to get her…even though she has no security on her place. Anyway, this robbery stays with her and makes her feel unsafe so she heads to her boyfriends place. He returns home and helps ease her mind even though she ends up fighting with him and basically calling off the relationship in a fit of misplaced anger. At this point in the story, I’m wondering what the hell is wrong with this woman? Her reasoning for fighting with her boyfriend seems very sudden and dramatic. So I rolled my eyes constantly during their exchange. I guess the author didn’t want them to be on great terms before the cruise because it was sooooo forced.

Anyway, Lo finally makes it to the cruise and its pretty fancy. There’s only a small group on the ship. The cabin next to hers is supposed to be empty but she sees a girl in there when she asks to borrow mascara before dinner. Later that evening, while in bed after a night full of too much drinking, she hears a scream and splash. When she rushes to look out the balcony, she sees what looks like a hand going beneath the tide and sees a blood smear on the next patio door. She calls the security team who inspects the room next door to find nothing there about 5 minutes later. No blood. No signs of struggle. Nothing from the girl who was staying there that lent her the mascara. So she is tossed away as a drunk that was dreaming but she believes what she saw.

Throughout the rest of the story, you follow Lo’s quest to figure out who the person was in the cabin next to hers that no one seems to know about. The story gets really boring at this point. She finds something then someone steals it, erases it or loses it. It’s like “oh look what I found…then where’d it go?” for about 150 pages. In between all this, there’s lots of drinking, crying and weird interactions with guests, including an ex boyfriend. There was literally no one likable in this story.

In the end, there’s a few twists but none that are easily believable. It gets interesting at about 275 pages up until the end but who wants to wrestle through 275 pages of mediocrity ? So if you read this book, just skip to 275 and start there. You will still be asked to suspend your logical mind when they explain what has happened and how a person gets away with it.

If you prefer weak, drunk female protagonists…then have at it. Otherwise, save your pennies and get a book with a real woman leading the charge.

Raging Book Reviews Not Recommended

*This book was purchased with my own money.

New Book Review: The Vegetarian

Tags

han kang, literary, psychological, vegetarian

Rated 4 of 5 stars

This was my first Han Kang novel and I really enjoy her style of writing. It’s poetic and blunt while also being very thought provoking. In her novel, The Vegetarian, the reader follows the main story of Yoeng-hye and her plight to finding herself and exerting her own control over her life. The story breaks off into three points of view. The first is of her husband, a self serving critic of her as well as a man that craves mediocrity. Her relationship with him is tested as she first claims to be vegetarian and will no longer eat meat. Her husbands lack of support stems to her family as well. Everyone she knows does not support her and attempts to force her to eat meat against her wishes even go so far as to lie about ingredients or force feed her.

Next, you follow the brother-in-law and his own exploits of Yeong-hye during her weakest points. Lastly, you get the story from her sister which brings together a lot of Yeong-hye’s family issues that we weren’t completely aware of but soon realize that its not only her with psychological issues. There’s a lot of mental health issues to go around.

The story is a creative approach to psychological health through the lense of control. Controlling what one eats, how they live and how they believe. Then you see the other side of the coin, what would life be like without any support? Not a friend. Not a family member. No children. Nothing to keep you grounded. How long could you last in psychological isolation?

All in all, this book was worthy of the Man Booker International Prize that it won. It was an incredible look at how control, psychology and change can be a horrible cocktail for the right family. I couldn’t give it the full five stars because I didn’t care for the ending at all but found it poetic in nature (while lacking the ability to close out the story lines).

Raging Book Review Highly Recommended

*Book purchased with my own money. Want a copy? Use my Book Depository link (you get free shipping and I get a few cents for sending you!) Click HERE

New Book Review: The Body Reader

Tags

audible, detective, female lead, novels

Rated 4 of 5 stars

Anne Frasier has a mind like a killer (and thus, someone should check her basement frequently and without warning). The way she creates scenes of torture are second to none. Throughout this story, I found myself cringing and thinking, “God, how do you survive that?”. I was completely swept up into the story of Jude Fontaine and her descent into what some think is insanity while she sees it as gifted in her craft of reading people (dead or alive). Jude was held captive for three years in a secluded, dark basement with no other stimulation than the visits from her captor. Over that time, she’s learned to read his facial expressions and body language in order to prepare for or hopefully escape torture.

When she escapes from her personal hell-hole, life is so different. Her senses are heightened. Her sense of smell and ability to read people’s feelings is intensified. Before she was abducted, she was a detective. When she returns to her old precinct, Uriah is there in her place, the position she left when she was abducted. He helps her find herself in this new world and she helps him find a piece of himself that was missing after suffering his own tragedy but only after the bumpy start to their relationship. Jude has fleeting thoughts. Why was she abducted? Why did he let her live so long? Why are girls dying around the city with uncanny similarities? The ride doesn’t stop there and there’s no stopping the twists in this story once you start.

This book is a hell of a ride. I found myself attached to Jude and Uriah. I like that Frasier keeps the main thing the “main thing” and doesn’t force romance in places where there isn’t any. I give her kudos for that. I felt she did an exceptional job of creating characters that were easily identifiable throughout the story. There was one hole left in the story at the end which left me questioning so I took a star away due to the story not being completely transparent at the end. Overall, Frasier knows how to write strong women and she excels at defying my suspenseful expectations. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Raging Book Reviews Highly Recommended

*This book was listened to on Audible using my own dinero. 😉

Interested in snagging a copy? Use my Book Depository link HERE to get free shipping! (Oh, and I get a couple cents for sending you there…hee-hee.)

 

New Book Review: Widowmaker

Tags

doiron, mountains, skiing, snow, widowmaker

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Widowmaker takes the reader on a trek through the snowy, mountainous regions of Maine. A place I know absolutely nothing about with its hunting, skiing and small town secrets. This is my first Doiron book but likely won’t be the last.

The story follows a game warden, Mike Bowditch, on a journey to find a missing man that he’s been manipulated into finding while he’s on off time from his normal duties. Mike is smart and had great attention to detail that keeps the story moving along on pace with clues and questions in various storylines.

First, there’s a storyline of a wolf dog or hybrid wolf that had been discovered and captured. Mike must find a home for the rare creature that had captured his interest with its intelligence. Next, Mike has his demons he’s battling with a dead father that was notorious for being a charismatic yet heinous poacher, womanizer and all around problem. He wants to mourn for his dad but finds it hard when everyone he knows reminds him that he’s born from a man like Jack. Lastly, there’s the mystery of the missing boy and the story behind a big secret the entire town is hiding.

In the story, we meet some colorful characters and are taken down various storylines that make the reader feel like they know this town and its people and have been there. Doiron does a good job creating links to storylines which was helpful because at certain points I wondered why we were going down so many lanes.

All in all, I liked the story but it was slow in certain points so I took a star away. I also took half a star because I didn’t love any one character enough in the story to make this book memorable. So it’s a solid read at a 3.5 star rating.

Raging Book Reviews

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New Book Review: Saga (Volume Six)

Tags

family, fantasy, love, saga, sex

Rated 4 of 5 stars

So we all know that I love this series, right? Well, nothing has changed…end of review.

Okay, okay, slow down….let me tell you about what I loved, okay?

The story continues with a closer look at the growing, Hazel. If you haven’t read the series yet…Hazel is the daughter of two badass fighters/thieves/parents/lovers who are not supposed to be together. Papa bear is from the Moon which hates “wings” from another planet. While being imprisoned, Marko (Papa Bear as I affectionately call him) falls for his prison guard, the hot-tempered and blunt Alana. They make war and make a baby. Hence, beautiful and funny Hazel. Throughout the comic, Hazel narrates from her point of view which is hilarious yet strangely thought provoking. She’s the cutest little mixed breed baby…and the FIRST. Which means that everyone in the universe wants her dead (if they ever found out about her) because they are trying to kill the parents just for BEING together.

Anyway, Hazel was left with her badass grandma who is thoroughly tatted up and not afraid to bash a head in or two over her son, Marko or her grandbaby. Anyway, Marko and Alano must find where Hazel is since they were separated during an ugly heist.

The book also follows parallel stories of a hired assassin who has completely gone bat-shit crazy after the death of every person he loves…his sister (also an assassin) and his girlfriend (also an assassin). You’d think this guy would get a new profession, right? Nope. He puts on 100 pounds, talks to ghosts of his loved ones and searches for their killer. *I didn’t care for a lot of this portion of the story with him and the reporters but I know it will tie in with the next volume. But now I have to wait!!!!!!!!! Aghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I waited so long for this one and it ended with a BANG. Can’t wait to see Volume Seven….can’t freakin’ wait.

Raging Book Reviews Highly Recommended

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New Book Review: In a Dark, Dark Wood

Tags

creepy, ruth ware, twists

Rated 2.5 of 5 stars

This is a first for me, Ruth Ware, that is. I have her newest novel and plan to read it soon. In a Dark, Dark Wood was a stretched out story of a teenage feud gone long overdue. In the story, Leonora goes to Clare’s “hen party” which is basically a bachelorette party. She wasn’t quite sure why she was invited because they hadn’t spoken for over ten years (the reason is actually quite vague as to why they stopped talking) . But still, Leonora attends with her pal, Nina. The hen party is a hodge podge of Clare’s friends from throughout her life. Leonora being the oldest friend, Nina (a brash, outspoken female doctor), Tom (a gay, theatrical guy she’s known through her fiance), Flo (her new “bestie” with a serious case of obsessive compulsive disorder) and Melanie (a friend from college who has a new baby and leaves the hen party quite early). Anyway, they embark on what is supposed to be celebratory until Leonora finds out that Clare is marrying her ex-boyfriend and first love. The story unravels from there. There’s dark shadows, footprints in snow, creaking doors and a host of other things meant to make you scared…even a Ouji board type game. All a bit overkill in the story to me.

Leonora will irk the hell out of anyone who values strong or smart lead characters in a story. She’s incredibly dense and in her shell which stifles the reader throughout the story. She harps on how beautiful Clare is…OVER and OVER until the point you want to pluck your eyes out. Not to mention, Clare is (shocker) a blonde and slim and incredibly charming. Why does this have to be the anecdote of perfection in every freakin’ novel?! Ugh.

I digress. The story itself was written well. I just didn’t like the characters or the ending very much. Therefore, I finished reading with a strong urge to start the next book. I didn’t wait…I just put it down and flipped open the cover of Saga, in the hopes that I’d get to see a strong female and male lead…hell, even the child is strong for that matter. Anyway, this book is for those that don’t mind reading about a whining twenty-six year old talk about breaking up with a boy when she was 16.

Raging Book Reviews

Purchase your books using my Book Depository link HERE (you’ll get free shipping and I’ll get a couple cents for sending you)

New Book Review: The Heart Goes Last

Tags

atwood, conspiracy, dystopian, experiments, robots, role playing, social engineering

Rated 3 of 5 stars

This is my first Margaret Atwood book but I find her style to be very entertaining. The Heart Goes Last is a redemption story at the heart of some dystopian-esque storyline. It was a very different style of story because the relationship between the main characters was sometimes the main story then the story shifted to social issues being the headliner. So what was it about in a nutshell? Charmaine and Stan are a married couple living in a post-depression America. They are living in their car trying their best to use Charmaine’s meager earnings as a bartender to stay afloat. Luckily, they have a car as a refuge because there are people who are taking advantage of the world’s utter disadvantage. It is their only safety from being robbed, beaten or raped. While at work, Charmaine sees an ad for Consilience Prison Project which promises clean homes for FREE for anyone accepted into the program via a life contract. These homes are fully furnished, all bills paid and food provided. Basically, safe, free living as long as they work in the community for a month then in the prison for a month (and so on for the rest of their lives). Anyway, Charmaine and Stan are accepted and enjoy life for a while. Stan has taken to his job in scooter repair in town and overseeing the chicken coops while in the prison. Charmaine works in a bakery in town and is Chief Medications Administrator (a highly secretive position which includes euthanizing “bad” people). Needless to say, Consilience is not all its cracked up to be and there are shady policies and procedures along with privacy issues. *enter social issue portion of the book*

Later in the story, you see the breakdown of Charmaine and Stan along with ah host of other characters that are pretty one dimensional for the most part. There’s lots of sex, sexual innuendos, sexual jokes and more (not sure if that’s an Atwood-thing or not). I found some of the character’s to be humorous and sometimes annoying, especially Charmaine. I didn’t find any character truly likeable throughout the whole book which is why the star count is so low. I thought the premise was the best thing about the book by far. On one hand, if Atwood would have wrote the story from the perspective of one person living within Consilience and finding out all the shady things that were happening, then it might have been a bit more agreeable to me as a reader. Overall, I felt Charmaine and Stan weak characters to base the book off of and they were pretty far from the actual happenings of the big wigs in the book in regards to how social experiments were happening until the very, very end. Therefore, you “heard” about the social experiments but never really read about them. Get it?

All in all, not a bad book if you like someone bickering in their own mind about their marriage or you like gossip and rumor style stories.

Raging Book Reviews

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New Book Review: The Passenger

Tags

disappear, hiding, love, lutz, murder, running, vanish

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Lisa Lutz’ novel, The Passenger, is a cross country ride through dive bars, strange strangers along with a woman who sheds her identity like seasonal fashion trends. There are so many names in this story that can align with the main character Tanya/Jo/Paige/Nora/Debra and the list goes on depending on whose purse she can pickpocket without being caught. She’s running from her past which isn’t readily given away in the beginning and then soon after, she’s running from the death of her husband. Once she’s set off on a path of finding a new identity, she buries herself deeper into each identity that she steals. She meets Blue, a barkeep with attitude and shady history of her own and things change very quickly. At the end of the story, you realize completely why she was running and frankly, its not satisfying enough to be worth the wait.

In lieu of that, there’s an added twist at the end which makes things a bit icky. But it definitely makes up for the less than riveting main ending. Not completely, but enough. I’ve rated the story a solid 3.5 stars because the characters along the way seem to have more personality than the main character. I felt lost when Blue exited the story for a long period of time. That’s when the story really lagged. Blue brought life, danger, mystery and depth to the story while the main character just…ran. I sort of wished this story followed Blue, honestly.

I found lots of redundancy with bars, whiskey, and plaid shirts. I enjoyed all the little pit-stops along the way for the main character and then her eventual return was a bit lackluster. So overall, the story was decent enough to finish but the ending wasn’t groundbreaking enough to quantify my time for 300 pages. I liked Lutz’ style of writing although the analogies were sometimes overkill. She writes well and can tell a story with a twist. I thoroughly enjoyed the email excerpts throughout the story which linked the main character to her past yet never really gave anything away. This story is recommended for readers who like stories of vanishing women and what happens while they’re gone.

Raging Book Reviews

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New Audiobook Review: Shady Cross

Tags

bon shaw, hankins

Rated 5 of 5 stars

Shady Cross by James Hankins was a romping good time with humor, suspense and lots of action. You won’t be yearning for any more fight scenes for a while with this one. I truly enjoyed the main character, Stokes. He was funny, dry and all about business. I liked that he wasn’t too smart and was very average in all others categories which fit nicely into the irony of the ending. There were some things you could hate about him (like abandoning his girlfriend and child by just leaving and never coming back). So don’t think you’re getting a superhero in this book that saves a little girl because the ending will leave you gasping.

It has some pretty gruesome scenes and especially weird sequence of events but you’ll find a startle every few chapters. Not the “trying too hard to wow you kind” but the real, “damn, I just stepped in some shit” type of scenarios. In a world where everybody owes everybody and no helps for free, you find a career criminal with a semblance of heart drowned by a heartless antagonist. Very good writing by Hawkins! Bon Shaw was a critical piece of how good this story was. His voice and his choices were spot on with Stokes and I felt like each character was different. Bravo!

Raging Book Reviews Highly Recommended

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