Sweetland

This is the final title from the Book Riot monthly subscription service; I am sad to see the service go, but I loved the books they chose and the surprise of monthly book mail while it lasted.

Title: Sweetland

Author: Michael Crummey

Year: 2014

Genre: Fiction

Setting: Sweetland, an island off of Newfoundland

Characters: Moses Sweetland (last islander to sign the resettlement package), Jesse (Moses’ great nephew, a teen with autism), Loveless (second-to-last to sign, owner of Mr. Fox), Mr. Fox (Loveless’ dog)

Plot: The government is offering generous resettlement packages to all of the islanders who live on Sweetland, a sparsely populated island off of Newfoundland. The island once thrived on fishing, but as the fish and the jobs left, so did many of the younger generations. Everyone chooses to sign the deal except for Loveless and Sweetland, two of the oldest islanders; however, all have to sign for the offer to go through. Loveless ends up signing, and finally, Sweetland signs, too. But when one of the islanders loses his life, Sweetland reconsiders his choice and instead fakes his death to stay on the island when the others leave. The rest of the novel follows Moses as he survives a winter on the vacated island, wondering if he’ll recognize when he’s lost his mind.

Verdict: Experiencing Newfoundland through Crummey’s vivid descriptions was worth the read; the island was a character as much as any person. The switch between past and present in Moses’ life in each chapter kept me turning the pages at bedtime, but the tension that was built from those shifts in time seemed to peter out toward the end of the book. I think I expected a more dramatic climax focused on the story behind the scars on Moses’ face, whereas the climax of the flashbacks related more to the history of the island. If you like fast plots and action, pass this one by. If you enjoy books rife with nature and character-building, or if you are considering the merits of becoming a recluse, spend a little time with Moses on his island. 7/10.

Lucky Us

This was Riot Read #3 (September), though I read October’s first. The inside flap promised me an interesting story of America in the 1940s and of two sisters with madcap lives… or at least that was what I expected going in. I also hoped the lion and zebra on the tight rope would figure in.

Title: Lucky Us

Author: Amy Bloom (cousin to Harold Bloom; US)

Genre: Literary Fiction

Characters: Iris (older sister, actress), Eva (younger sister, tarot reader, eventually), Edgar (father), Reenie (Iris’ partner), Gus (Reenie’s husband), Danny (stolen orphan), Francisco (makeup artist)

Setting: 1940s WWII: Ohio, California, New York, and Germany

Plot: “My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.” And so Eva’s mother leaves her on Edgar’s doorstep, and Iris and Eva enter a partnership of sisterhood, culminating in a trip to Hollywood away from their father. Eventually Hollywood doesn’t pan out (lesbian orgies are faux paux, apparently), and when Edgar shows up, the sisters and Francisco, a benevolent gay makeup artist, pack it up and head to New York City. Edgar becomes a butler and Iris a governess, and Iris falls in love with the cook, Reenie. She falls hard enough that she reports Reenie’s husband as a German spy, and he is arrested and sent to North Dakota, where he eventually takes a one-way ticket to Germany. We learn pieces of the plot through letters from Iris and Gus, while Eva is the main narrator and the one who is an anchor through the shifting tides of love and loss.

Verdict: Of the four Riot Reads so far, I am least impressed with this one. I’m a shade more in its favor than to say I’m ambivalent, but it was not as impressive as Land of Love and Drowning or Broken Monsters. I enjoyed the historical flavors of Hollywood, New York CIty, and Germany, but I didn’t like the letters as a form of plot advancement. They enforce the separation between the sisters and the intensity of Gus’ experience, but I don’t think they were well executed and it made the transitions between chapters awkward, to me. I was also a little disappointed that there was no lion and zebra on a tight rope, but I can stretch the putty of my literary brain to see symbolism beyond the aesthetics. The brain putty can also recognize a lot of interesting commentary on racial, religious, and cultural identity, but who am I to comment on meaning?

If I had to recommend, I’d say …. yes, read it, but make it a upper mid-list pick.

Broken Monsters

I subscribe to Riot Read, a monthly book subscription club from Book Riot. Each book is a new release hardcover and arrives sometime mid-month, and content surrounding the book is curated online to supplement the experience. This was October’s pick.

Title: Broken Monsters

Author: Lauren Beukes (South Africa)

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Characters: Layla Stirling-Versado (16-yr-old girl), Gabi Versado (Layla’s mother and police detective), Cas (Layla’s best friend), Jonno (writer gone video blogger), TK (homeless ex-con), Clayton Broom (artist)

Setting: Current-day Detroit, recovering from economic crisis through start-up avant-garde artists and young entrepreneurs

Plot: The top half of a young boy’s body is found attached to the bottom half of a fawn, which initiates an investigation that develops into profiling a serial killer. Layla struggles to fit in at school and relies on her friend, Cas, who seems to have confidence in spades. This leads the two of them to catfish for a sexual predator online. While Layla is trying to keep her life and these pranks under cover, her mom is the lead detective on the murders. Meanwhile, we get an insider’s view of the Detroit art scene through Jonno, who stumbles into a relationship with a DJ who has connections to the artists and a vision for Jonno’s future as a video blogger. We find out early on who the murderer is, and we watch his mind succumb to the Dream of truly great art, of art that if given a chance and the right audience, will come to life.

Verdict: I haven’t read many thrillers outside of Stephen King, so this was a somewhat new experience for me. It was creepy enough to give me the heebie jeebies from time to time, but as usual, I tore through the book for the plot. Beukes invested a lot of time and thought into this book, though, and it offers interesting social commentary on a lot of different relevant topics, especially on social media and privacy and sexual content + minors. There was the reminder that what goes on the internet doesn’t ever really disappear (like this shitty book synopsis that I’ll one day regret), and the reinforcement that messages and posts aren’t just sent into the ether; they have consequences. It did remind me of the danger of incorporating modern technology/trends though, for at one point, Cas and Layla are using SpinChat… and I thought that was just a blip on the radar of stupid online websites people have fixated on. Maybe I’m just out of it, and everyone’s at home on SpinChat but me. I don’t feel great loss, somehow. Anyway – I say read this book, read it hard, especially if you like those trendy tv-crime dramas and serial killer crazy business but with some real backbone.