Sunday, February 12, 2017
The Book of Blood and Shadow
The main
character starts out assuming we want her to start the story with her friend’s
blood; to tell how they came to be on her hands and where the unaccounted for
blood came from. I guess that’s as good a place as any. Except that’s not where
we start.
We
start at Independent Study at a nearby university where the main character, her
best friend Chris, and Max. She is assigned to the seemingly lesser important
She
and Chris met (again) at the new school where she should have been able to have
a new start; away from the rumors about her murderous brother. Of course,
that’s not the case. She is recognized by a former middle school classmate
because her brother coached one of his little league teams. That former
classmate is Chris who, thankfully, promises to keep her secret after
overhearing her lying about being an only child and forge a friendship.
Random:
we find out that each of the best friends are part something other than white
which I love as you will find out if you (and I, coincidentally) keep up with
this blog. Chris is part (half???) black, Adriane is part (again, half???)
Asian, and Nora is part Jewish. Yay! I appreciate the intermingling of races
because separatism and racism gets us nowhere positive.
So,
after Chris and Nora make an attempt at dating, but find that they are better
off best friends. Then, Chris and Adriane fall in love. Nora and Max fall in
love, too. Max is also a translator for The Hoff and they end up pairing up.
One night while Max and Nora are working there is a break in and they are
shaken up. Nothing happens for a while after. Until the Hoff has a stroke and
all of the documents to be translated are stolen. Except the letter that Nora
translated and ended up stealing because she felt that the letter was private
and privacy should not be invaded even in death. However, after translating the
letter she realizes that it may be of some importance besides being a centuries
old document. After taking the letter she eventually confides in Chris her fear
that the police would believe that she had something to do with The Hoff’s
injuries. Chris consoles her and vows to take care of everything. The next
night when Nora arrives late for Friday Movie Night we find Chris dead, Nora
catatonic, and Max missing presumed dead by Nora and on the run from the law
according to the law.
Before
Chris was killed and The Hoff had his stroke, Adriane, Chris, and Nora were
planning to go on the senior trip to Paris. Except, not really. Nora is at
Chapman Prep on scholarship and since her brother’s death her father has
stopped working and a 3rd mortgage
has been taken out against the home. Meaning, there is no extra money for a
trip to Paris. At some point, Chris’s parents decline to allow her to attend
the funeral, but request that she attend the university’s memorial in his name
and to clear out his dorm room. When she goes to the dean’s office to do as
requested she finds Chris’s cousin, Eli, there on the same mission. When the
get to the room it is in shambles, Max and Chris’s side both. They make their
way through the ruins and find that she isn’t the only one who has stolen
documents, but perhaps the only “innocent” party to do so. It seems Max has
some letters that lead us to believe he may have already known what Nora
discovered and Chris had some papers taped under his desk as well. None of
which were stolen in the raid of The Hoff’s office, obviously.
Nora
goes to her brother’s grave and finds a postcard from Max and when she gets
home she also finds out that her scholarship has been extended to include the
trip to Paris based on her stellar academic record. The only problem is that
she never applied for said scholarship. We’re getting into the thick of things
now! Max has requested that she meet him in Prague during the exact time she
will be on the trip in Paris. She and Adriane devise a plan to get away. While
escaping they realize 2 things. A.) They are being followed by Eli and b.) This
getaway is harder than they thought because they don’t speak Czech or any other
foreign language so Eli has his uses since incidentally he does speak several
languages. They meet up with Max and start to follow the map/riddle set before
them by Elizabeth Westin to her brother, Thomas, which will guide them to the
Lumen Dei.
The
Lumen Dei is a device that will connect the mortal with the Devine, supposedly.
Nora is mostly atheist and does not believe the machine’s abilities at all.
However, what she does believe because she’s seen them with her own eyes is the
Hledači. Hledači means seekers and this group means business. They want
the Lumen Dei and they want her to put it together because they believe Nora is
Elizabeth’s heir and the only one who can re-create the Lumen Dei
and bring them the power of it that they desire. After a couple of run-ins with
the Hledači, Max is thrown into the river while trying to protect
Nora and not found after.
After
the day of being caught and then escaping the psychopath “seekers” while
Adriane is in the shower, Eli presents Nora with a folder showing that Max was
not who he said he was and that he is actually part of the Hledači.
What?!
We’re in the thick of it now!
So now
instead of continuing to search for Max they decide to get into the Hledači’s lair
and take pictures so that they can clear their name with the police.
We
already know that sounds like a harebrained scheme, but they forge along with
it despite my admonishments.
Thankfully,
even though they are found out, they manage to get out unscathed and take a
hostage with them. Yet, while Eli was supposed to be interrogating their
hostage the hostage escaped. Eli seems a bit sketchy with his vague, evasive
answers and his uncanny ability to be around when it’s awfully convenient. At
his point, Nora and Adriane decide they need a break from his lies, but before
they go Eli gives her the last letter that Elizabeth had written for the very
last piece of the Lumen Dei.
How
convenient again, eh?
Adriane
it seems has a change of heart about fighting the Hledači. She
wants to go home, but now Nora is the one who wants to see things through. So,
off Nora goes with Eli against her better judgment to find the last piece.
The last piece is in or around a sacred crypt; underneath the exact
church they first visited with Eli. When she opens the box she’s in for quite
the surprise! Someone has written a letter in lieu of the last piece. That,
however, isn’t the biggest surprise while she’s lamenting the fact that she
basically gave them the Lumen Dei the priest sneaks up behind them and holds
them at gun point. Apparently, he has every intention on killing her just to
prevent the Hledači from assembling the machine and using her as part of the
conduit to make it work.
We
find out that Eli and his family is part of a group, Fidei Densor, to keep the
Lumen Dei from being re-created and used by the Hledači. The
priest who plans to shoot her is also part of Fidei Defensor. Before the
shooting can commence Eli is indecisive about his place as part of the Fidei
Defensor. He wants to know if the Lumen Dei will actually work and he also
wants to hide Nora away instead of killing her. The priest disagrees.
Obviously. Eli changes tactics and takes the priest down to give Nora a chance
to get away.
Eventually
Eli catches up to her in a cemetery. He promises to tell her everything. Most
of what he’s said has been the truth. He most just omitted things and the
biggest thing he omitted: he was sent after her because the Fidei Densor also
believe Nora is, or might be, the vyvolená, too.
Eli
also tells he has a sneaking suspicion about Adriane, but won’t tell her. He is
intent on Nora seeing it for herself. So, instead of meeting Adriane at the
appointed time they get there one hour early and find out that Adriane and Max
got a thing going on.
*No
good scoundrels! How dare they both betray her trust this way!
Suddenly,
things start to make sense to Nora. She lets the appointed time come and go
just to see what Adriane will do. As it turns out what Adriane will do is get
kidnapped by the Hledaci and Max! When Eli and Nora get back to the hotel there
is a ransom note as they had suspected. Eli is adamant that she not give them
anything. Not herself and certainly not the other piece of the Lumen Dei. Nora
is absolutely convinced that these groups are either psychopathic, delusional
cultist or just plain, old ridiculous that she is willing to make the trade.
Just because zealots believe something will happen doesn’t make their desires
fact.
*I am
inclined to agree with this. Just wanting and believing in something doesn’t
necessarily make it a fact.
So,
off they go intent on following through this harebrained exchange yet before
they arrive at the exchange site they are both knocked unconscious and taken to
a room decorated with human bones.
*Lovely
sight to wake up to, I gather.
At
last, we find out that Max DID kill Chris and that Adriane was not aware of his
part in the treachery nor did she know what they had planned to do with Nora.
At this point it hardly matters. Nora has decided to act the part of vyvolena
to spare Adriane’s life because she still doesn’t believe the machine before is
a pathway to anything. To her it all sounds ludicrous and she’s hard pressed to
believe it has picked up such a following. Nonetheless, out vyvolena is adamant
about trading her blood to the Lumen Dei for her former friend and boyfriend.
She then proves she’s a force to be reckoned with by playing the game with
them. She gives her blood willingly and Elizabeth alluded to, but at the time
when her blood is to be used she declares that she judges the man not worthy.
He doesn’t believe she has the power to make that judgment and taunts him with
the statement that maybe one of the other members might be more worthy. He is
adamant that it will be him and that he is worthy.
*Oookkk.
I guess we shall see shan’t we.
She
still does not believe in this devices ability so she’s hoping against hope
that her plan that they will believe it won’t work is because she has decreed
it so. Yet, against the odds without any way of being powered the machine
whirs to life and into action. Now Nora is afraid; has been afraid of what
would happen if this belief in smoke and mirrors brought something into
fruition as it now has. The Lumen Dei causes the user to take on its glow,
then it demolishes him into a puddle of blood and melted human body parts.
Quite the show! Nora refuses to back down from the lunatics. She calls out,
“who’s next?” and jeers at the next bidder to try his hand at becoming a dead
human puddle.
Thankfully,
Eli and the Fidei Defensor come to the rescue even if it is a few moments after
the Lumen Dei has been used. At least no one has taken on the power of God. In
a sudden turn, Max, releases her from her restraints, and shouts,” Run!” Only
we find out his concern is only for Adriane, his true love, not Nora. Booo! His
intentions are to use the Lumen Dei for his own glory the other man’s fate be
damned.
*I
personally wouldn’t take that sort of chance, but well, I’m not a nutter either.
Max is
convinced that the vyvolena’s judgment is important so while holding her at gun
point with her blood gushing from the new wound he has created, he forces her
to say that he is worthy. She is hesitant because she doesn’t want him to die.
Yet, he won’t listen to reason and tells her he is willing to let ALL of her
blood to the cause so she says what he believes to be the magic words, then
soon after he combusts. Just like his master. Adriane and Eli manage to come to
help, but when Max goes up Nora has to forcibly relieve Adriane of her grasp on
Max.
*What
in God’s name is everyone THINKING? I am not grabbing hold of a murdering,
skeleton that is also aflame. I’m just not.
As
they make their final escape, Max, still ablaze leaps from the church and does
what almost every jumper does which is die. Except, he’s still on fire so he
starts a fire that the church catches on to.
The
Lumen Dei is completely destroyed so the remaining believers for and against it
alike disappear without bothering them again.
Nora
finally asks Adriane why. Adriane says it was because Chris was Nora’s and she
thought she loved Max; thought he was different than any guy she had ever
known. She also didn’t believe that she and Nora were actually that good of
friends which she is kind of right about.
Eli is
STILL not convinced the Lumen Dei couldn’t do what Elizabeth’s father and
Elizabeth had set out for it to do, but Nora knows that kind of power should be
in any human’s hands and convinces him to just live his life. He takes her hand
and wordlessly they decide to give things a try, I believe.
Unfortunately,
Adriane is alone and Nora isn’t quite ready to forgive her; can’t comfort her
in the aftermath they she once would have, but she can’t leave her to her
despair either.
Interestingly,
miraculously, amidst the ashes from the fire, a letter written by Elizabeth was
found intact. Eli tracks it down for Nora. We find out that essentially what
happened at Nora’s revival of the Lumen Dei is what happened the first time it
was used. She believed what Eli now believes, though. That the user and the
blood giver have to be worthy, but she was unsure and didn’t care enough to try
to use it again. She did leave it in pieces for her brother, Thomas, to
find since it was also his birthright; a machine their father had come up with
and started the production of. She left it to be find even after she found out
her brother was dead. Mistakes were made all around regarding the Lumen Dei, it
seems.
My
rating:
I really, really
like this book. So much so, that I re-read it specifically to write about and
add the summary to my blog. It was interwove the believable with the
unbelievable making it not so far fetched at all. I’m glad that she and Eli
tried to make a go of it after having been so completely duped by Adriane and
Max.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom
We’re (meaning, I am) going to talk about this book as if I
hadn’t read the synopsis beforehand, okay? I mean, technically, I did, but I
forgot that synopsis by the time I received the book so it’s a fresh start.
Except I read it again after reading a few pages and was quite surprised by a
few things. Anyway…
Mel Hannigan starts out remembering her big brother. From the sound
of things, it seems like he may be bi-polar, but a fun-loving bi-polar, most of
the time. The memory is from when she was 13 and he was 16 and he takes her out
of school on a grand adventure turned tragedy not disclosed. We are left to
assume that he robbed a bank or something equally sinister before she comes
back to current day events.
She has one friend, a Black girl named Holly, and
subsequently, a friend by association, Holly’s boyfriend, Declan.
*I totally love when non-minority authors include minorities
as close friends and such. It’s not so farfetched and I think everything
shouldn’t be so whitewashed. When I was in elementary school my best friend was
Malaysian and I still miss her till this day. Good old Sue Zulkifli, but I
digress. I guess, in actuality we were both minorities. See where digression
takes you???
Carrying on.
At some point, our girl was out of school sick during her
freshman year of high school. Not just a run-of-the-mill cold, flu, or, from
what I gathered, even mono. She was out for months which caused her to lose her
friends somehow. That’s how she came to be rescued, her sophomore year, by
Holly. Right now though we’re reminiscing because one of her old friends,
Connor, has come to ask about another old friend, Annie, because the last old
friend from the old group, Zumi, is worried about Annie missing school,
supposedly sick, but not letting anyone visit her. From there we go back through
Mel’s memory to find out how the three friends were four for a brief moment in
time. We find out that a group of bullies tried to, well, bully Mel during the first
week of high school and Annie, Zumi, and Connor thwarted them on the third day.
After that, they all soon became fast friends. How does it all fall apart? We
shall see.
*Aside: Zumi is Asian. Eeep. My heart is full.
Our little Mel is good with elderly people even though she’s
not good with her younger counterparts. Not too shabby for a teenage girl. She
is currently working at a nursing home after having been a volunteer at the
same home.
We also find out that Mel is bipolar. Maybe it’s in the
genes. No maybe about it, it’s definitely in the genes. We meet her aunt HJ,
short for Hurricane Joan, who is also bipolar, but a milder version than Mel or
her brother. The aunt doesn’t seem to fully understand Mel’s version because
she thinks Mel should ditch her meds and just be whoever.
Thankfully, Mel doesn’t take things lightly and understands
that the mood swings shouldn’t be as severe as they are without the meds. At
the top of each chapter there is a list of animals that she describes how
they’re doing: describes how her bipolar feelings are interacting with one
another. Previous psychiatrists didn’t believe, or at the very least had never
seen, bipolar personality (disorder???) manifest in this way. One of the
psychiatrists she meets at the nursing home helped her come up with the chart
and it proves to be very useful to her. She presents it to her new psychiatrist
who understands its importance without trying to downplay Mel’s feeling. I like
this psychiatrist.
Hamster = Head; how clear her thinking is
Hummingbird = heart; how much energy she has
Hammerhead = physical health also when she’s on her period; Shark
week
Hanniganimal =
Mel overall; her mood plus the combo of all other animals
Mel’s old friend, Annie, sounds like a real asshole, is what
I’ll say. She knows that Zumi, likes
her, but she continues to be her “friend” while also being mean and stringing
her along. THEN, she ups and moves to Paris and instead of telling Connor and
Zumi, with whom she is STILL friends, she drops off their leftover things,
including a picture of the3 friends sans Mel, at Mel’s house, WITHOUT saying
goodbye to Connor and Zumi. Just like a piece of shit coward who was never
really anyone’s friend to begin with.
* I can’t stand a half-ass person. Use your whole ass for
things at the very least even if you are a piece of shit!!
Anyway, we find out that Annie is also gay, or perhaps
bisexual, but is just dicking Zumi around just to prove she can instead of
telling Zumi there will never be anything more between them. Little heifer.
While Mel is helping a new patient adjust to nursing home
life, in walks the new patient’s grandson, David, who is around her age. Guess
what happens? Of course, old granny and Mel’s long time psychiatrist pal in the
nursing joint decide they are fated. Let’s see where this takes us, shall we?
After Annie’s distasteful departure Mel tries to console her
old friends, Zumi and Connor the best way she knows how. The way that Zumi
requests help is that she wants Mel to come to the beach and bring vodka with
her. Mel asks her bartender aunt, who obliges, and heads for the beach to alleviate
the hole left in their hearts by Annie, as best she can. When she gets there,
Zumi convinces her to drink even though she knows she shouldn’t mix her meds
with alcohol. But to refuse would be to reject her friends yet again at a time
when they need her.
Now I don’t believe in giving in to the demands of peer
pressure and all that, but I certainly understand why she did it. She’s not a
bad person and doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, any more than she
already has.
The next morning is when things start to get dicey. Mel decides
to forego certain pills since she missed taking them the night before on her
drinking binge and decides that she will just take the correct dosage a few
hours later and get back on track. Except, in her mind she knows how quickly
her particular brand of mental illness devolves when she’s not on her meds.
Zumi and Connor stop by the next day while Declan and Holly
are there to do homework. Zumi is in a huff because dear old Annie told her to
get over her and included a video of Anne and Mel kissing that she had recorded
unbeknownst to Mel. Mel is beyond
remorseful and beyond anxious about the fall out. She also threw up and
probably included her pills in the upheaval.
Her mother takes her to her counselor because she is already
suffering the side effects of missing 2 days’ worth of pills. Also, the memory
of hooking up with Annie, finding out Annie was only doing it to keep Zumi
attached while simultaneously keeping Zumi and Mel from becoming closer, plus the confusion of knowing she only hooked
up with Annie during what she later realizes was the first onset of her bipolar
disorder, is causing her major distress.
So, it starts. Her psychiatrist gave her meds in at the
session and told Mel to take her regular dose as usual, but Mel doesn’t want to
since the appointment was later in the day. She emails her friends about her
mental illness and no one distances themselves as she thought they would.
Except Zumi. Zumi didn’t read the email. She tries to calm herself, but is
unable to since she’s being so dicey with her meds. She ends up worrying her
family and friends by walking 20 miles without shoes, for no real reason. While she’s doing this Connor finally forces
Zumi to read the email in an uncharacteristically show of very un-Connor like
anger, Zumi reads and understands.
She eventually walks back, but heads to the Golden Gate
Bridge; not to kill herself though. She goes because during that adventurous
day, before she lost her brother, they had gone to the bridge and he has carved
their initials in the cement and she feels most calm in its presence. Yet, we
know she’s not thinking clearly.
Why did she walk 20 miles
anywhere without shoes, no less? Our girl is on a fast looping downward spiral.
Her parents call and call and call. She picks up once to
tell them she’s okay, but then turns the phone off. After she gets to the
bridge she realizes she’s in a downward spiral, but doesn’t want to be
institutionalized again. (We find out that’s why she was out of school so long
before.) So, she calls her boo, David, to ask him to come get her and take her
to his house so she can get herself together. Turns out he colluded with her
parents, psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist from the nursing home she works at
to have her committed. She goes kicking and screaming.
I think this is when her aunt realizes that Mel’s illness is
much worse than she ever imagined. She gets there, gets help, and goes home.
Zumi and Connor actually camp out on the lawn outside the
psych ward counting down the 72 hours that Mel is involuntarily locked up. After
she is released, David apologizes profusely and Mel accepts, but tells him that
she really can’t trust him with the knowledge that he’s bipolar because he
might think she’s having an episode when she really isn’t.
This I can understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.
How can you trust someone who has broken your trust? Even if he was strong
armed into it himself? Even if it was
with good intentions?
She realizes that she
still isn’t completely on track, but doesn’t tell anyone nor take an Ativan as
she normally would have if she hadn’t gotten so off course. The animals are
running rampant now and she has a new mission.
At some point she sneaks out and decides to bike the 100
miles to her old town and to the bank where whatever happened to her brother
happened which also caused her own psychotic break. Once there, we finally
figure out what happened. Her brother was having a manic episode and took her
to the roof of the bank (he didn’t rob the bank as I had originally imagined)
and shows her the view or whatever he wants to show her, but she feels nervous.
At some point, she begs him to leave and he agrees. However, he decides that he
can jump over a glass skylight type structure to reach her. She begs him not to,
but because of his manic mindset he really believes he can do it. Yet he can’t.
His foot hits the lip of the glass, stunting his jump; he falls on the
structure, then through the structure.
After this flashback, Mel decides that she will prove her
brother didn’t commit suicide he just overestimated his abilities because of
the manic episode he was enthralled in. She decides she will complete the jump
and show them that it can be done. Before she can get herself completely geared
up to jump, David shows up and begs her not to. He followed her using the same
tactic as before by following her phone tracker. After some back and forth between
them, he tells her that HE will complete the jump since he drove and she rode
her bike all night, and he’s not tired. At that point she realizes how deadly
this idea is because she feels nothing but fear imagining him trying to make
the jump. Finally, they decide NEITHER will make the jump and leave without
incident.
Mel is able to get back on track with her meds, so she and David
decide to have their first date. The first date takes place at The Gold Gate
Bridge per Mel’s request. She shows him the reason she likes to visit: her and
her brother’s carved initials. She finally tells him that Mel is a nickname and
provides him with the letters of her whole name, Amelia, which she asks him not
to use just yet. She’s not ready to hear the name only her brother after called
her for at least the past decade. He agrees.
At this point, we know they’ll be
just fine. He likes her as is and she feels the same way.
My rating:
I really enjoyed this book. I like how Eric Lindstom wrote a book that made a widely stigmatized mental health issue more of a human issue instead if something to be ashamed of and shunned for.
I purchased this book from the book depository before it was
available in the U.S. I have included the link below. It has since been
released in the U.S. I have enclosed the amazon link to it as well.
Intro to the wonderful world of books
Dear Blogee,
I read books; lots and lots of books.
This blog will be reviewing some of the books (and movies) I come across. I
mostly read YA adult fiction with some A thrown in periodically.Unfortunately,
I have already discovered a downfall to writing about every book I come across:
When I listen to the audible version of a book with non-American words and
names, I cannot begin to think how one would spell them. So that leads me to
this: if I listen to a book that I like, I will just say that I liked the book
and how many book covers* out of 5 that I would give it.
*I will use a miniature pic of the
book cover to convey how much (or little) I liked a book.
This blog will be, essentially, summarizing
the major points of a given book with added bits of commentary from the *peanut
gallery. It will be rife with SPOILERS so if you don’t want to spoil the book
or movie for yourself, don’t read this blog until you’ve read the book or seen
the movie for yourself. I will also make notes of when/where/if I skip to the
end of a book. Sometimes I get too anxious and can’t take the suspense of a
book so I skip to the last chapter or two.
I used to read the end first until
Stephen King called me out in the author’s note of one of his books. I guess he
didn’t call out me SPECIFICALLY but he said, “Unless you’re one of those weird
people who reads the end of a book first.” Something like theat. Sounded like a
call-out, to me.
*I am the peanut gallery
With that stuff out of the way let’s
get to the good stuff. Below I have listed books that I’ve already
read/listened to that I would highly recommend. Happy reading!
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and
David Levithan
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
The Serpent King by Jeff Zenter
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
The Memory Book by Lara Avery
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Thieves’ Paradise by Eric Jerome Dickey
Gideon Series by Eric Jerome Dickey
https://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Strangers-Gideon-Book-1-ebook/dp/B000Q67JFM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485445585&sr=1-2&keywords=ERic+Jerome+Dickey+Gideon
https://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Strangers-Gideon-Book-1-ebook/dp/B000Q67JFM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485445585&sr=1-2&keywords=ERic+Jerome+Dickey+Gideon
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
The Fireman by Joe Hill
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by
Jennifer E. Smith
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Just One Night by Gayle Forman
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
One Pink Line by Dina Silver
Things We Know By Heart by Jessi
Kirby
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