It’s almost the end of 2023, so I’m trying to squeeze in any last reads that I can! Here’s what I’ve read lately…
–Marissa
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll has been getting all the hype this fall, especially on the heels of Luckiest Girl Alive on Netflix, and so I wanted to like this… but ultimately felt eh at best. There are several plots woven together, and by far the most compelling for me were the flashbacks to a serial murder in a sorority house in 1978 and the aftermath, but even that was dry and didn’t have much tension, and I gave very few fucks about the other plotline being woven in. But overall, the execution of this novel (multiple timelines, POVs, and SUPER DRY WRITING) was just kind boring and slow going and didn’t carry the reader along. Eh.
The Trade Off by Sandie Jones is a “behind the curtain” look at the salacious, nasty fug of tabloid journalism in Britain. When reporters with the Globe (idealistic Jess and bloodthirsty Stella) hound a celebrity literally to her death, things take a turn. This was an audiobook listen, and the plot zipped along, especially when we started getting to the backstabbing, threatening, twists and intrigues surrounding these journalists. A solid suspense novel.
The House Is On Fire by Rachel Beanland was a book discussion pick, and one I hadn’t previously read. This historical novel fictionalizes an actual event – the Richmond Theater fire in Richmond, Virginia in 1811. Our entire book club liked this book immensely and we had much to talk about, but it was interesting the chapters are told from several POVs, and we were all invested in the female chapters, and literally skimmed over the chapter told from the male point of view. Interesting. I learned a lot from this novel about this event and was kept engaged throughout.
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel was a must-read after I realized that this was by Finkel, who’s Stranger in the Woods I really enjoyed. This time, Finkel profiles Stéphane Breitwieser, the world’s most prolific art thief and his obsession with keeping these works of art for himself (this wasn’t for monetary gain at all!). It was fascinating to hear how audacious some of the thefts were, the unraveling of it all when it hit so many museums all across Europe, and the eventual trial and aftermath. I found this fascinating.
The Caretaker by Ron Rash was a shorter audiobook listen taking place in 1951 North Carolina in the midst of the Korean War. We have a wounded soldier, a pregnant girl, an ostracization, money struggles and through it all, the steady presence of Blackburn Gant, the young caretaker of the local cemetery whose decisions could have far-reaching consequences. This was quick to listen to, and I ended up becoming really invested in the main three characters and the machinations that affected them all.
Anna O by Matthew Blake has been getting alllll the pre-pub buzz, so I was eager to dive into it because the concept was interesting: The Silent Patient meets Sleeping Beauty in trying to solve a double murder. Unfortunately for me, this novel ended up being muddy, repetitive, slogging along with zero pace, and seriously wooden characters and a “twist” that so wasn’t. I can only hope this gets an edit before its finally released. Yikes.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey is a short, literary novel (no dialogue, just blocks of texts) from the perspective of the six astronauts who live on the International Space Station. This vacillates between mundane to quippy to introspective and meditative. This is a hard one to describe, but I really enjoyed it.
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