Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly

 

Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly

Reviewed by Christy

            Dixie wasn't even two years old when her entire family died tragically on Thanksgiving Day in 1992. The deaths of her mother and three brothers at the hands of their father shocked the entire nation and made headlines for years to come.

            Now in her late twenties, Dixie is aimless in life and struggling to piece together what happened that night. The aunt who raised her never liked to talk about the crime, so Dixie decides to take matters into her own hands. When the house where the murders occurred goes up for rent, Dixie snatches it up in the hopes of feeling more connected to her family. She even goes so far as to decorate it with her parents' furniture she discovers in storage. This leads her down an investigative path to discover the truth of that day.

            The premise caught my attention but unfortunately, I kind of hated this book. The writing style is incredibly off-putting and unpolished. The prose is muddled at times, which resulted in re-reading several passages to fully grasp what was happening. The tone, however, was the worst part for me. I think the author was going for sarcastic and slightly cheeky but it only reminded me of an edgy teenager desperately trying to get a reaction. There was just no tact whatsoever when discussing child murders or sexual assault, and it got to be a little too much for me.

            I kept reading because I did find the central mystery intriguing but even that came to a disappointing conclusion. There's just so much to pick apart about this book (and I haven't even touched on all of Dixie's deeply troubling issues that are glossed over). I was relieved to finish it and get out of Dixie's juvenile mind. There are so many wonderful thrillers and mysteries out there. Save your valuable reading time and skip this one.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Clementine is a book publicist in New York City, living in her late-aunt’s apartment. She is dedicated to her job and may even be up for promotion when her small press supervisor begins planning for retirement. Clementine’s best friends even work for the same company. Life is good, except for the late-aunt part. Clementine misses Analea terribly.

Clementine and Analea had been travel companions since Clementine was old enough to tag along, hiking in Europe and visiting a host of exotic destinations. Clementine always took her annual vacation at the end of summer, but without her aunt, she just can’t bear to travel.

Clementine walks back into her apartment at the end of a workday expecting to see still packed boxes and bare bones furniture, but instead she finds pieces of her aunt’s furniture and belongings that she knows were given away years ago. And, oh yeah, she also finds a tall blond man with a charming Southern accent. When “Iwan” introduces himself, he tells Clementine that Analea is subletting her apartment to him this summer, while she is in Europe. Umm, excuse me?

Iwan is fresh from North Carolina and just getting started in the city. He wants to be a chef to make his grandfather proud, but at the moment he would settle for a dishwasher job to get his foot in the door at a good restaurant. He is passionate about his cooking, and shares with Clementine how a simple meal can be a sublime experience.

Analea always told Clementine that the apartment was magical, and even noted (strangely!) that she should never fall in love inside it, but Analea did not mention that once in a while the entire apartment would slip seven years into the past.

Time slips forward and back, as Clementine gets to know Iwan in the past; she eventually begins to wonder where he is in his future, and in her present.

Lately I seem to be finding and reading books that involve time travel. Or maybe they are just finding me. Full of deconstructed lemon pies, taco trucks, and time bending relationships, The Seven Year Slip is a delight.

Nevermore: Frugal Wizard, Tumbling Girl, Episode Thirteen

 

Reported by Rita

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson follows an amnesiac wizard on a time traveling journey to discover his missing memories. Filled with fantasy and humor, our reader called it a fun read. WJ

The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh is a mystery thriller set in Victorian London. When Minnie Ward’s best friend is murdered she finds herself involved in the investigation. Was it a serial killer? Our reader didn’t stick around to find out saying that while the characters were colorful, the story became too boring to finish. PP

 

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie is a paranormal thriller told through tapes, journals, and correspondence. The story follows a team of hunters behind the scenes of a ghost hunting reality TV show. Described as a really cool book, it didn’t deliver the level of horror our reader expected. MF

 

Also Mentioned:

The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality by Karen Fine 

The Next Patient: The Incredible World of Emergency Medicine by Dr. J. Thomas Grant

Mary Kingsley: Explorer of the Congo by Heather Lehr Wagner

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Conversations with Tom Petty by Tom Petty and Paul Zollo

The Captain's Wife by Douglas Kelley

After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Life by Logan Steiner

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

Dog on It by Spencer Quinn

Wolves at Our Door: The Extraordinary Story of the Couple Who Lived with Wolves by 

Jim Dutcher, Jamie Dutcher, James Manfull (Primary Contributor)

 

New:

 

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, M.D.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery

A Haunted Road Atlas: Sinister Stops, Dangerous Destinations, and True Crime Tales by Christine Schiefer and Em Schulz

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Full confession:  I am not a podcast listener, so the information that the authors host “the hit podcast And That’s Why We Drink” meant nothing to me.  The subject matter sounded interesting though, so I picked it up. 

The book is a collection of brief articles about various paranormal or true crime stories, arranged geographically by region and then by city.  For the Southeast, for example, the cities include New Orleans (obviously a must!), Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Charleston.  While factual, the writing is punctuated with light-hearted comments. There are also recommendations for other paranormal or crime-related places to visit or stay in the city. There is a reference to the podcast connected with each one, so you can go listen to it if you are so inclined.

The two hosts of the podcast add some personal notes along with each location. One is a wine drinker while the other is an ice cream aficionado: the stories of hauntings and crimes are followed by the authors’ recommendations for good places for wine or ice cream.  If the place is also the scene of a haunting, that’s just a nice bonus. 

It’s an interesting collection, even if you haven’t been to any of the places discussed. Some of the stories are well known (the ghosts of the White House, for example, or the Boston Strangler) while others were definitely new to me.  There was also a good mix of time periods for crimes and hauntings, including some fairly recent cases (your mileage may vary on this but I think of the 1990s as “fairly recent” since I do remember them) as well as some dating back centuries (which I don’t remember, thank you very much!)

I was entertained by the book and might, just might, even try to figure out how to listen to a podcast, which says a lot right there.  It sounds as if these are two friends who are just swapping stories and having a good time. My only worry is that I might start craving ice cream.

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

Reviewed by Kristin

Katy and her mother Carol have always been close. Even though Katy is a fully-grown woman and even married, she still considers her mother the most important person in her life. When Carol dies right before their long anticipated mother-daughter trip to Italy, Katy is devastated.

Unanchored and feeling her marriage falling apart, Katy decides to travel to Positano alone. As she hesitantly checks into the hotel and begins to enjoy the sun and the food, she begins to relax. Until somehow, a younger version of Carol is standing right in front of her, laughing and inviting her along on an excursion. Katy is shocked and confused—how could she be seeing her dead mother? Cautiously, she takes Carol up on her offer and begins an unlikely friendship with the one person she misses most.

Katy gets to know Carol as a young and carefree woman, but also sees some of the familiar characteristics Carol will have later in life. This mystical occurrence is something that Katy does not understand. However, Katy embraces the experience as fully as she can in order to have her mother back, however strange the circumstances.

I read this as an ebook through Tennessee READS, while on a plane to…not Italy. While this was somewhat disappointing when I deplaned to slightly less friendly weather and landscapes, the imagined Italian seaside stayed with me. The brilliant colors of the town, the sea, the delicious food, and even a delicious and tempting man flavored Katy and Carol’s story.

Ultimately, this is a story of mothers and daughters, loss, and the seemingly impossible task of moving on with life when your favorite person in the world is gone.

Nevermore: Dragon Teeth, Small Town Sins, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

 

Nevermore September 19, 2023

Reported by Rita

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton takes place in 1876 in the American west. Two rival paleontologists are on the hunt for dinosaur bones in this Jurassic Park meets the Wild West novel. This story is filled with deception, sabotage, and a discovery of epic proportions. This was our reader’s second attempt with this title and said it gets really exciting later in the book and she ended up really liking it. KN

Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski tells of people struggling to survive in a former coal and steel town on the brink of decay and lengths they go to get by. Described by our reader as a very interesting non-linear story that really captures the feeling of living in a small town. Extremely well written and thoroughly enjoyable. NH

 

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson is a dark psychological fantasy that explores the idea of split personalities. Our reader found this classic gothic tale to be just as strange as the title suggests. PC

 

Also Mentioned:

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Bryson City Tales: Stories of a Doctor's First Year of Practice in the Smoky Mountains

by Walt Larimore MD

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature by Margaret E. Martignoni

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Life by Logan Steiner

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

 

New:

 

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

 

Reviewed by Andrew

 

Hex by Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt is the story of a small modern-day New England town called Black Spring, which has been terrorized by the ghost of a witch for centuries. The witch has placed a curse on Black Spring, so that whoever lives there but tries to leave is overcome with suicidal urges. Because of this curse, the town goes to extraordinary measures to ensure that no one new moves there. In addition, over the years, the townsfolk have formed a special committee that attempts to hide the witch from visitors to Black Spring, and keeps track of the witch through security cameras that have been placed across town. It is strictly forbidden to interact with the witch in any way, with the committee doling out punishment to anyone who breaks the rules revolving around the witch. When several teenagers who live in Black Spring decide to film pranks performed on the witch for a social media site, it starts a series of horrific events that places the lives of everyone in Black Spring in mortal danger.

Personally, most “horror” books don’t really scare me that much (probably from being de-sensitized from watching too many horror movies), so I have been looking around for a while to find the scariest books ever. This book came up on several people’s top-ten horror lists, so I thought I would give it a try. The book does have a certain amount of suspense and dread, and as I read it, I was constantly reminding of Stephen King’s earlier, darker material. This book definitely has a very dark, grim tone, but its interspersed nicely with occasional humor and interesting fictional history about the town of Black Spring, and how the people who live there have dealt with the witch’s curse for close to 400 years. I also really enjoy when a story has multiple plots that all end up converging together towards the end, similar to Needful Things by Stephen King or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and Hex definitely had several interesting overarching plots. The story was also told in such a way that I had absolutely no idea how it would end.   I enjoyed reading as much of it as I could at a time, just to find out what happened in Black Spring next.

Something I wished the author had explored more is how the town of Black Spring deals with the outside world because of their curse. It was definitely touched on but I thought it would have been interesting to see more of the outside world’s view on the town. Maybe a scientific research team attempting to come to the town to try to discover how and why the curse works.  Still, I understood that the author wanted to keep the sense of extreme isolation that the people of Black Spring feel due to the curse.

The book also tends to be very bleak at times (I know, I know, I asked for a VERY scary horror book!)  It made me want to go read something much more light-hearted afterwards.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. The plot was fast-paced, and always kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next in the small town of Black Spring. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Stephen King or Dean Koontz, or someone who is looking for a good extra-scary book to read right before Halloween.