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Monday, September 22, 2014
Psychological Thriller Fans, This One's For You
1:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Residents of Gardnerville live in a paradise unlike any other place on earth. Within its borders, no sickness or disease exists. People routinely live past 100 years old, even though they always look decades younger than their actual ages. Those wracked with incurable illnesses in the outside world flock to Gardnerville, where their lives are magically prolonged. The town bestows other gifts as well, like 16-year-old Skylar's ability to "read" people's deep, dark secrets.
No magical utopia comes without a price, however—and Gardnerville's is steep. Every four years, the town's strange magic overtakes a teenager's mind, causing them to create a terrible crime. The perpetrators are locked up in the reformatory; when they return to their families years later, they're different. Forever.
Four years ago, the crazy overtook Piper, Skylar's older sister. Skylar's never recovered from the shock of watching Piper force her classmates to jump to their deaths. Forget-me-not pills help numb her, erasing the awful memories from her hazy mind. But lately, the drugs aren't enough. Skylar knows the only way to end Gardnerville's horrific cycle of violence is to stop it. But how can one zoned-out teenager do that? The messages Piper left behind may hold the key to ending the fourth year problem for good—if only Skylar can find the courage to remember the very things she's trying so desperately to forget.
In (Don't You) Forget About Me, Kate Karyus Quinn blends many elements (mystery, magic, romance, horror) into a unique and compelling psychological thriller. It takes some patience to understand the world she's created since the rules aren't too clear, especially in the beginning of the novel. Still, the story's different, which makes Gardnerville and Skylar's struggle to solve its mysteries even more intriguing. Multi-layered and full of surprises, (Don't You) Forget About Me is is as mesmerizing as it is haunting. If you dig a good psychological thriller, this one's for you.
(Readalikes: Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock)
Grade:
Four years ago, the crazy overtook Piper, Skylar's older sister. Skylar's never recovered from the shock of watching Piper force her classmates to jump to their deaths. Forget-me-not pills help numb her, erasing the awful memories from her hazy mind. But lately, the drugs aren't enough. Skylar knows the only way to end Gardnerville's horrific cycle of violence is to stop it. But how can one zoned-out teenager do that? The messages Piper left behind may hold the key to ending the fourth year problem for good—if only Skylar can find the courage to remember the very things she's trying so desperately to forget.
In (Don't You) Forget About Me, Kate Karyus Quinn blends many elements (mystery, magic, romance, horror) into a unique and compelling psychological thriller. It takes some patience to understand the world she's created since the rules aren't too clear, especially in the beginning of the novel. Still, the story's different, which makes Gardnerville and Skylar's struggle to solve its mysteries even more intriguing. Multi-layered and full of surprises, (Don't You) Forget About Me is is as mesmerizing as it is haunting. If you dig a good psychological thriller, this one's for you.
(Readalikes: Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language (about a dozen F-bombs + milder invectives), violence/gore, and mild sexual content
To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of (Don't You) Forget About Me from the generous folks at HarperCollins. Thank you!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Koryta Thriller Not Quite Thrilling Enough
1:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
When 14-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder involving local law enforcement, his family knows it's not safe for him to stay in his hometown. Violent killers are on the loose—and they're looking for Jace. Using a false name, he is enrolled in a wilderness survival program for troubled teens. Off the grid in the Montana mountains, he should be safe while the police hunt down the murderers. Should be.
The Blackwell Brothers, a dangerous duo, know their continued freedom depends on the elimination of Jace Wilson. No matter where he flees, they will find him. Only three people stand in their way: Ethan and Allison Serbin, the couple who runs the wilderness survival program, and Hannah Faber, a lonely firefighter who battles her demons from the tower where she watches the forest for flare-ups. Compared to the Blackwells, it's not much of a defense. As the murderers come ever closer to Jace's hideout, it's up to him and a trio of unprepared adults to keep them all alive. But the Blackwells, as everyone knows, never allow witnesses to live ...
Given all the hype surrounding this book, I expected a lot more out of Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta. I figured it would be an exciting, fast-paced thriller—and it was. It just wasn't much else. The characters—with the exception of the Blackwells, who were delightfully unique (in a scary, cold-blooded kind of way)—didn't get developed much in the course of the story. Plotwise, the novel remained pretty generic. On the whole, I found the whole thing depressing and disappointing. I wanted—expected—too much from it, I guess. Overall, it's an average thriller, entertaining enough, but with few surprises.
(Readalikes: Although I haven't read the novel versions of these movies, Those Who Wish Me Dead reminded me of The Client [book by John Grisham] and Stand By Me [based on The Body by Stephen King])
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language, violence, and scenes of peril
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Friday, September 19, 2014
Comfort or Cold-Blooded Murder: What Really Happened at Memorial During Katrina's Aftermath?
1:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
As Hurricane Katrina barreled toward New Orleans in late August 2005, residents braced for impact. Many headed for Memorial Medical Center, a sprawling hospital in the heart of the city that had, for generations, provided sturdy shelter through violent storms. When the hurricane hit, around 2,000 people—including patients, doctors, nurses, other hospital employees, and their friends/family members (many of whom brought along pets)—sought safety inside its walls. Although the hospital suffered some damage from the storm's initial battering, it continued to operate, surviving as it always had.
When floodwater began to rise, swamping the city and causing widespread panic both within the hospital and without, the staff at Memorial started to realize they may not be as safe as they had previously thought. With complete power failure becoming increasingly likely, the evacuation of Memorial's nearly 200 patients become necessary. Stranded people all over the area were in dire need of rescue. With few vehicles available, hospital staff had to make some tough decisions: Which patients should be evacuated first? The tiny babies in the NICU? The sickest adults? The patients who were healthiest? A decision that seemed simple at the time, but later became critical, was made: patients with Do Not Resuscitate orders would be taken out of the hospital last.
Those in charge at Memorial believed the hospital would be emptied completely within a matter of hours. This did not happen—and would not happen until September 11th, when coroners removed 45 corpses from Memorial's chapel. What occurred to the more than 100 patients who remained after the hospital's initial evacuation during the five harrowing days between August 28, when the storm hit, and September 1, when all living patients were rescued from Memorial? Why did so many people, more than at any other medical facility of comparable size, perish? As the power died, causing the failure of lights, air conditioners, and life-saving medical equipment, conditions inside the hospital became unbearable, not just for patients but for the doctors and nurses who were rapidly losing hope in the promise of rescue. With no end to anyone's misery in sight, those in charge at Memorial made a critical choice—to make suffering patients "comfortable." Were those decisions merciful acts or cold-blooded murder?
Five Days at Memorial, an epic work of investigative journalism by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sheri Fink, presents the chilling facts, allowing the reader to come to his/her own conclusions about what really happened at the hospital. Well-balanced and exhaustively researched, it's a haunting account that asks important questions about disaster preparedness; medical ethics; end-of-life care; and the responsibility of doctors toward their patients, especially when under extreme stress with their own lives in danger. At just under 600 pages, Five Days at Memorial looks intimidating, but it's actually very readable. It didn't bore me in the least. Eye-opening and thought-provoking, the book is an intense, compelling piece of non-fiction that should not be missed.
For a shorter, but just as riveting account of the situation recounted in the book, click here to read "The Deadly Choices at Memorial," an article Fink published in The New York Times Magazine on August 25, 2007.
(Readalikes: Although Five Days at Memorial is different than anything else I've read about Hurricane Katrina, it does remind me of fictional accounts of the storm, like Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes and Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language, violence, and intense scenes/situations
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Thursday, September 18, 2014
In Spite of Triple Digit Temperatures, Fall Is On My Mind ...
10:33 AM
Even though we don't start getting Fall weather here in the Phoenix area until oh, around December, I still love this time of year. It reminds me of autumn in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge (Washington/Oregon), where I grew up—I loved the crispness in the air, the golden colors of the changing leaves, the smell of ripening apples, and the feel of soft sweaters and flannel against my skin. None of those things are happening around me at the moment, but here's one sign of the season that remains the same no matter where I live: the start of the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge over at Stainless Steel Droppings. I get excited about this reading challenge every year, even though I haven't participated in awhile. Things have been a little slow around old BBB lately, so I thought, why not liven things up with a little challenge? This one, which is in its ninth year (wow!), celebrates things that go bump in the night, particularly horror stories, dark fantasy, mystery, suspense, supernatural, gothic, etc. I'm a little late to the party this time around, but I'm going to go for broke and sign on for Peril the First which requires me to read four books that fit in with the RIP Challenge genres. Here's what I'm planning to read:
1. Contaminated by Em Garner -- This YA novel about rehabilitating zombies sounds like ... fun?
2. Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd -- The second book in a YA series starring 16-year-old Juliet Moreau, daughter of H.G. Wells' famous mad scientist.
3. Needful Things by Stephen King -- I think I read this waaayyyy back in high school. What better time for a re-read?
4. Sweet Unrest by Lisa Maxwell -- This book, which comes out in a couple of weeks, involves a teen girl who's trying to solve the mystery of the troubling dreams she's had all her life, which are becoming even more strange since her family moved into an old Louisiana plantation house.
What do you think? Can I handle it? We shall see, we shall see ... What about you? Are you brave enough to imbibe? Want to join the challenge with me? Click here for all the details. Also, don't forget to show some love to the talented Abigail Larson, who designed the challenge banners.
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