I’ve been very selective with thrillers lately, because there are just too many of them out there for proper quality control, but this one passed muster – either because Douglas’ previous book was decent enough or maybe I was just less selective that day.
Anyway, sure enough, this was perfectly decent too. I’d even say above that. All the classic genre presets from mostly female cast to the alternating storylines and timelines and prerequisite plot twists in this tale of a podcast-maker who comes to small town and over the course of a few days stirred up enough mud about a two-decade old case of (you guessed it) the girls who disappeared that the bodies start turning up. To no one’s (well, no one who’s ever read a thriller) surprise, someone doesn’t want the truth to be known. Someone has been covering it up all this time and wants it to stay that way. All around entertaining if not vastly original production, elevated by strong compelling writing and nicely sustained element of suspense with even tinges of supernatural to add some color/darkness to the proceedings. The book’s on a longer side but reads quickly enough. Thriller fans ought to enjoy it. Thanks Netgalley.
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It’s difficult, so very difficult, to explain why you don’t love the book that is so obviously good. I’ll try, anyway.
Expect Me Tomorrow is my first read by the author, though I absolutely loved the cinematic adaptation of his movie Prestige. Granted, some of that love might have had to do with it being about magicians (one of my favorite subjects) and he fact that it was simply a very well-made movie, but still… So, that’s what made me aware of Priest, and when this, his latest novel, came up on Netgalley, featuring more twins and alternative timelines and science, I figured it was time to check him out. Well, ok, I did. Took days to get through – unusual for me. And for a book not much over 300 pages. There’s so much good within these pages, too. Priest has really crammed it with plots and subplots and information. The latter of which might have been the novel’s downfall for me. Downfall’s too dramatic, though; more like a lamentable detractor. There’s a paragraph or two toward the end where one of the characters described the book by another as heavy going and too loaded with detail or something like that, and it’s exactly my opinion of this novel. For all the ingenious interwoven structure of the plot, for all its clever use of utilizing a dramatized version of an old true crime case, for how well it alternates between historical and futuristic fiction, for all of its prescient timely message about the climate…it is so freaking heavy going, dense, and minutely detailed that it’s kind of a slog to read. The climate message particularly is very heavy-handed here. In both timelines. The first protagonist is a climatologist from late 1800s/early 1900s; the second is a police consultant enhanced by experimental technology who gets involve in analyzing and creating a climate report. The trick (well, one of them) is that the latter is a descendant of the former, and through his new tech device he traces his relative in time and contacts him. The irony is that climatologist of yore wasn’t paid much attention to because the science was too new and too experimental, and in 2050, similar reports are ignored or dismissed as alarmist, because people are simply too stupid and self-involved to understand and appreciate them. Priest, though, pays attention. It’s obvious that a tremendous amount of research went into writing this novel, but that is also responsible for all the times it seemingly turns from fiction into a climate change documentary. Mind you, I’m all for it. This is a significant hugely important subject, and it should be taught, discussed, etc. but…maybe not to this extent in a fictional novel? It’s frustrating, really, because the novel is otherwise so well composed and written. Priest is obviously a very talented author and storyteller, and this novel of yesterday and tomorrow demonstrates it amply. But it weighs itself down with an anchor as heavy as it is well-meaning. So didn’t’ quite work for me. User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley. Every so often, I check out Amazon kindle genre freebies, seeing what’s out there. The goal is, typically, to find books like these. Well written, well edited fun reads that don’t read like freebies. Which is to say they read like they might be free on a promo, but their quality would warrant someone to potentially spend money on them.
So yeah, this one worked out nicely. A multi-tentacled creature feature set in a trailer park in Florida. A bunch of young kids in the lead, the way these stories tend to go, if only for that nice nostalgia cherry on top. Dynamic, fast-paced, creepy fun. At 80 pages, this novella is perfect for a one sit read on a dark evening. Fun was had. Take this bait. Recommended. Seriously? This was only 288 pages? It read so much longer. I’m not sure why.
I mean, it’s an exceptionally well-written book, but it’s quite…languidly paced. Science fiction at its most meditative. Or a love story at its most otherworldly. I did enjoy it, mostly. Especially, in retrospect. For one thing, it’s difficult to not appreciate a beauty of the author’s language, the haunting lyrical quality of it, the way he writes love, the way he writes longing…that’s a song in and of itself. A song of distance. This novel is very much about distance. A distance between two planets. A distance between two people. The efforts to span it. The planets are Earth and Mars. In book’s alternate reality, the two are in communication, albeit halting and sporadic and with math as the language of choice. The people are Crystal Singer who drives the communication brigade and the man who loves her. She’s a challenging, mercurial, complicated woman driven by a mind that at times disagrees with her soul; he’s a much more straightforward sort of person, the most complex thing about him is his love for Crystal, which drives him for years and years. Drives him to find her when she disappears. Leaving a doozy of a surprise behind. This is a love story, a science story, a road trip story. In its own way, set to its own melody, it is lovely. Compelling. Emotionally engaging. Like a good song. You just got to give it time to weave its magic around you. I mean, it had me at Mars. And slowly won over with the rest over time. Not sure how it’ll work for other readers. Thanks Netgalley. And you thought your neighbors were creeps…
And you thought your apartment building was a nightmare… Well, check this out. This was part of my October special get at the library. Whatever looked dark and spooky enough. Ba of Umbrella Academy fame and his brother are some of the international team behind this graphic novel. Artistically its quite striking, with its black and white panels, all nightmares and shadows. Plot wise, it left a lot to be desired. The storytelling was choppy, disjointed, vague until it congealed into a coherent plot of an apartment building being taken over by the dark and things that lurk within it and what it does to the lives of five neighbors. The characters weren’t particularly likable; the darkness wasn’t particularly explained. The atmosphere was just right, though, thematically it Is appealingly horrific. So there’s that. Plus, it’s short and reads quickly. |
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December 2023
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