Book: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Published January 2002 by Viking|374 pages

Where I Got It: Borrowed the paperback from the library

Series: Thursday Next #1

Genre: Adult Fiction

What It’s About: 

Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë’s novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide. 

What I Thought: 

I liked The Eyre Affair!  It was really hard for me to get into at first, because it’s quite an odd little world (but in a totally good way), and you really need to know what this world is like in order to understand what’s going on once Jane Eyre becomes more important.

To be honest, this world made no sense to me the first time around, and I feel like I need to read it again. Because I really need to understand what the heck just happened.  It wasn’t annoying, and I liked the book just fine, but it feels like one of those books you need to read a few times to really understand what’s happening.  Or maybe I wasn’t paying as much attention as I could have.

It also made me want to read Jane Eyre again, because it’s been a long time since I’ve read it.  Maybe reading it beforehand would have helped.  You don’t need to read Jane Eyre to know what’s going on, since the book is more about trying to keep weird things from happening to the book, but I still recommend reading it alongside The Eyre Affair.

With a first reading, it’s a little too odd, and trying a little too hard to be clever, and I did have a little trouble keeping up with what was going on.  There are all of the random things, and it was a little confusing at times trying to figure out what was going on.  But I still kept reading, because there is something compelling about this book, and I did want to know what happened next.  I would definitely recommend it to English/Literature majors because while I like books and reading and fangirl over books and authors, this isn’t my kind of book. Not that people who didn’t major in those 2 subjects wouldn’t like the book or appreciate it, but I do think it’s great for a certain kind of person.  I’m just not that kind of person.

My Rating:

3 stars.  I liked The Eyre Affair, but not as much as I thought I would.  It is a pretty cool concept, which is why it’s getting 3 stars.

Book: Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey

Published June 2014 by HarperCollins|231 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: Adult Literary/Mystery

What It’s About: 

In this darkly riveting debut novel — a sophisticated psychological mystery that is also a heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory, identity, and aging — an elderly woman descending into dementia embarks on a desperate quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared, and her search for the truth will go back decades and have shattering consequences.

Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory — and her grip on everyday life. Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, whom she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.

But no one will listen to Maud — not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth’s mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.

This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud’s rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.

As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?

What I Thought:

Is it weird that I think I liked Elizabeth Is Missing, but that I’m not sure if I do?  Because I’m having trouble deciding if I liked it or not.

I’m going to try to talk about it with no spoilers, but I don’t know how well that will work, so I’ll let you know if I can’t avoid it.

It is an interesting look at memory and how we remember things, and in this book, how the present and past get mixed together.  I wasn’t sure of the connection between what happened to Sukey and to Elizabeth, and I really expected there to be more of a connection between the two.  I was sort of let down by how things really played out.

That’s it?  That’s my reaction to how things were resolved with Sukey’s disappearance years earlier, and Elizabeth’s disappearance.  And oddly enough, it wasn’t as compelling as I thought it would be, although it was compelling enough up to that point.  It wasn’t the mystery I thought it would be, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Maud has dementia, because it really does kind of explain away a lot of things.

Elizabeth Is Missing was frustrating at times, because Maud seemed to need to more care than what she was getting from her daughter and the carer.  She wrote a lot of notes to help her remember, but later on, she’d forget why she wrote them.  She wasn’t supposed to use the oven, and she’d go to the store to get something, only to forget why she was there, so she’d get peaches.  I know it can be hard to care for someone, and maybe Helen (Maud’s daughter) thought she could do it herself (or didn’t want to or even realize) that Maud needed more care.  I did feel for Helen, because making sure Maud is okay can’t be easy, and it is heartbreaking to see Maud go through it.  I can’t imagine having a relative with dementia, especially a parent, and Healey does show that really well.

My Rating: 

3 stars.  I’m not sure if I liked it, and the mystery of what happened to Sukey and Elizabeth didn’t quite work for me, but I did feel for Helen.  And it did make me think a little about memory and how we remember things, and the connection between past and present.

Book: Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler

Published December 2010 by Little, Brown|308 pages

Where I Got It: borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

What It’s About: 

Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart.

She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her “boyfriend” isn’t much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.

Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family’s painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?

Rich with emotion, Sarah Ockler delivers a powerful story of family, love, and self-discovery.

What I Thought:

I feel fairly indifferent about Fixing Delilah.  It’s a fairly predictable story, ad while it seems like a book I’d love, that wasn’t the case with this one.

I think the biggest problem was that I didn’t care.  I will say, I was surprised by who her father was, because I was totally predicting that her deceased aunt was really her mom.  So I wasn’t completely off, and I don’t blame Delilah for being mad at her mom- and pushing her away too.  Because sleeping with your sister’s boyfriend right after your sister’s funeral?  I’m trying to understand but it’s really hard.  And I know that it caused this huge fight with Delilah’s grandma, and I can understand why it’s hard to talk about, and even how Delilah’s mom got so caught up in it that she couldn’t tell Delilah the truth for a really long time, but for whatever reason, it just made me not care.

The family history, and all of the problems and secrets we uncover had a lot of promise, and it was clearly very painful for Delilah’s mom and aunt, and it couldn’t have been easy to go back to that house after everything that happened.  I just wish I were more invested in the characters, because it didn’t have the impact I was expecting or hoping for.  The family dynamics were definitely the book’s strong point, but it did seem like Delilah made everything about her, much more than was really necessary.

I did like that she reconnected with an old friend, and that even though they had some problems, it seemed like things were headed in the right direction.  Although, it was weird, since they hadn’t talked to each other since Delilah was last there, for her grandfather’s funeral.  It’s fairly insta-lovey, now that I think about it.

My Rating:

2 stars.  The family dynamics were interesting, and the strongest part of the book, but unfortunately, it didn’t have the emotion I was expecting, and I had a hard time caring about the characters, even though  understood why the people in Delilah’s family acted the way they did.

Book: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson

Published October 2014 by Putnam Juvenile|374 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Shades Of London #3

Genre: YA Mystery/Paranormal- Ghosts

What It’s About: 

At the end of Maureen Johnson’s New York Times bestselling novel, The Madness Underneath, Rory, Callum and Boo are reeling from the sudden and tragic death of their friend and squad leader, Stephen. The Shadow Cabinet picks up where readers left off, and now Rory is convinced there must be a way to bring Stephen back. Meanwhile, new dangers arise: Rory’s classmate Charlotte is missing, and Jane and her nefarious organization are clearly planning something big—with Rory as their most valuable asset. Time is running out as the ghost squad struggles to protect London and Rory fights to bring Stephen back.

What I Thought:

I liked The Shadow Cabinet!  I didn’t like it as much as I liked the previous 2 books in the series, but I still liked it!

I think part of why I didn’t like it as much was that I assumed that it was the last book in a trilogy- most YA series are trilogies, and since this was the third one, it kind of made sense to me that this was the last one…except it wasn’t.  I remember reading it, and as I got closer to the end, I really started to feel like it wasn’t really wrapping up things like a last book normally would.  I was surprised to learn that there’s at least one more book after this.  Normally, it’s not something that would affect my feelings towards a book, but it really did in this case.

Still, where things are headed and this ghostly world made so much more sense after reading this one.  Things definitely feel like they’re actually headed somewhere, which is nice, because it was something that I didn’t really get from the first 2 books.  I did find that I had to re-read the previous books in order to actually get into this one, because initially, I had trouble getting into the book.  It is nice knowing that the series isn’t just a bunch of random events that aren’t going anywhere.

Still, it felt really random, and the information we learn in this book…where was that in the other two books? It felt like it missing the creepiness and mystery that the previous books had.  At times, it felt like I was reading a different series, but I think it’s probably because this one is really more of a transitional book than anything else.  It definitely shows a paranormal world much bigger than what I ever expected to see in The Name Of The Star.

My Rating:

3 stars.  I liked it, and what we learned about the book, and it feels like the series is heading somewhere.  But at the same time, it feels like a very different book that isn’t as strong as the previous books in the series.

Book: The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

Published 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|311 pages

Where I Got It: I own the paperback

Series: The Hallowed Ones #1

Genre: YA Paranormal Apocalyptic/Horror

What It’s About:

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

What I Thought:

The Hallowed Ones is a really different book!  It’s definitely vivid, and it’s quite the page-turner.

I will say that I didn’t really get the dystopic label up in the summary.  I feel like that’s really misleading, because while there are a couple of things that could be seen as dystopic, the book is really more of the “holy crap, WTF is going on out there, is the end of the world really happening” kind of story.  I also got more of a horror vibe from it, so unless there’s something I missed, the mention of of it being a dystopian tale makes no sense to me.

What made this one really terrifying was the isolation.  No access to technology, which means a community who has no clue what’s really going on, but also knowing there’s something going on.  No people coming in, no people going out. no matter what. Elders who refuse to believe something really weird is going on, even though it’s happening right in front of them, when it finally ends up at their front door.

It really makes the book creepy, when you’re not quite sure what’s going on, but knowing something’s there. And the fact that vampires had a hard time getting onto Amish land…I really liked it, and it’s really different, but the safe spaces are definitely safe, and different than what you’d expect from vampires roaming around.

I also liked that Kate was questioning things, and didn’t want to fall in line, even though it was clearly expected of her.  There was one point in particular where it was frustrating, but I also understand why she thought the way she did, especially considering this world is all she’s ever known.  What I thought was really different and interesting was how it’s more a philosophical/spiritual look at the end of the world.  It’s not religious at all, but you do have that element throughout the book.  And it does get you thinking about beliefs and values and what it means when the end of the world is happening.

My Rating:

3 stars.  I liked it, and it’s different and creepy but I also didn’t fall in love with it.