The Return by Rachel Harrison

 

Reviewed by Christy

            Julie, Elise, Mae, and Molly have been friends since college. Now in their late 20s, they’ve somewhat drifted apart with big moves and marriages, but they still consider each other best friends. Julie and Elise most of all. No one has a bond like them. So when Julie suddenly disappears and her friends and new husband are freaking out, Elise isn’t too terribly worried. Because isn’t this just like Julie? To take off just so she can find herself again. Six months go by. Then a year. A memorial service is held. Then two years go by. And just when Elise is starting to doubt her own doubt, Julie shows up again. Out of the blue, just like her disappearance. And she has no memory of what happened to her.

            The women, completely baffled but elated, decide to take a girls’ trip to celebrate and get re-acquainted. Mae has found a wonderfully kitschy hotel, tucked away in the woods with plenty of activities for them to do. Sip and paint, here they come! They try to ignore how gaunt and sickly Julie looks, how she randomly loses teeth with nothing more than a shrug. They can ignore it for a while but not forever.

            This was a fun read. It mostly all takes place at the hotel, and I enjoyed the time Harrison took to highlight the women’s complicated relationships with each other and their own individual personalities. I listened to the audio book, and the narrator Sarah Scott does a fantastic job of differentiating between the four women so seamlessly that you almost forget only one woman is speaking. It’s a slow-paced book with a lot of buildup, and honestly, not much of it is scary. (Although there is some creepy tense moments throughout and well-written body horror towards the end.) I enjoy reunion-type thrillers when secrets spill out so I liked it quite a bit. I was a little underwhelmed by Harrison’s novel Cackle so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one. It’s probably not a new favorite, but I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to her recently released werewolf novel Such Sharp Teeth!

Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula by Koren Shadmi

 

 Reviewed by Jeanne

 

As he did with his excellent graphic novel style biography of Rod Serling, Koren Shadmi presents a fascinating look at another entertainment icon:  Bela Lugosi. The moody black and white drawings seem especially appropriate for a figure whose best known works were filmed that way.  The book opens in 1955 with the elderly Lugosi checking himself into a hospital to try to beat his addiction.  During his delirium, he sees figures, some from his past, some who are just representations, who illuminate his life.

He was born Bela Blasko in Lugos, Hungary, the youngest child of a relatively prosperous family.  His father had begun as a baker but had become a respected banker. Bela’s theatrical aspirations didn’t please his family, so he left for Budapest as a youth, taking the name of his hometown as his surname. The novel traces his career and personal life, both of which could be fraught. He was married multiple times and had numerous affairs, including one with Clara Bow. The “IT Girl” finagled a meeting with Lugosi because she wanted to know more about how he learned his lines phonetically, as his English was limited.  Bow had a thick Brooklyn accent and at that time the motion picture industry was transitioning from silent pictures to talkies. 

Of course, Lugosi’s big break came when he was cast in the stage version of Dracula in 1927, which led to his being cast in the 1931 movie. Suddenly, he was a hot commodity, but his accent and typecasting limited his roles. He had a screen test for the role of the monster in Frankenstein but he hated the heavy make-up and the creature’s lack of lines.  The role eventually went to Boris Karloff.

In order to make ends meet, Lugosi took roles in low-budget productions, which did nothing to enhance his reputation as an actor. Of course, near the end of his life he worked with Ed Wood, which is a whole ‘nother story.

Overall, I enjoyed Lugosi. Shadmi uses the graphic art medium to great effect, uniting image and words to make a memorable story.  I especially love the way he uses the art to both set mood and to give a strong sense of time and place.  I found the scenes set in the ‘20s and ‘30s to be particularly atmospheric. 

The author appends a list of the articles, books, and other sources he used to create this book. Some aspects of Lugosi’s life are given scant attention and some incidents are not included, but that’s also the nature of the medium.  It doesn’t help that in reading about the actor there can be multiple versions of an event, making it difficult for any biographer to sift out truth from fiction. If I have a quibble, it is that I would have liked some indication of the source for some incidents Shadmi depicted.

I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in early Hollywood, and especially the dawn of horror movies, or anyone who enjoys a good graphic novel biography.

Nevermore: Thread Collectors, Mosquito Bowl, Wonders of Lost Causes

 

Reported by Garry

 

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Allyson Richman. This historical fiction novel, set in 1863 follows the intertwined lives of Stella, a young Black lady in Louisiana, who embroiders intricate maps to freedom for runaway slaves, and Lily, a New York City woman who stitches quilts for her husband who is stationed with the Union Army in Louisiana. Their lives collide in New Orleans where they discover that the most delicate threads can save lives and tie destinies together. This book has been reviewed by a number of our Nevermore readers, and all agree that it is a phenomenally well written, captivating story of female friendship, strength and perseverance in the face of near overwhelming adversity.  ML

The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger is the retelling of a little-known but historically significant football game played on the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal on Christmas Eve, 1944. Bissinger (the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Friday Night Lights) has brought together oral histories, newspaper articles, and rigorous research to bring to life this near-forgotten game that involved the greatest gathering of college football stars who would go on to fight in World War II.  KN

 

The Wonders of Lost Causes by Nick Trout is the heartwarming novel of a single mom and her chronically ill son and how their lives are upended and enriched by the arrival of an unexpected new family member – a very special dog named Whistler. Dr. Kate Blunt is a young single mother whose son, Jasper, has cystic fibrosis. This incurable lung condition has precluded the Blunts from getting a dog, until Whistler shows up at the door of Dr. Kate’s veterinary practice and makes an unexpected and instantaneous bond with Jasper.  WJ

 

Also mentioned:

This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor by Adam Kay

Moby Duck:  The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn

Haven by Emma Donoghue

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

The Secret Guests by Benjamin Black

The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller by Henry James

Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

“Life Was Meant to Be Lived”:  A Centenary Portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt by Joseph P. Lash

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

Beach Read by Emily Henry

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Romance author January Andrews has had a rough year. She used to believe in Happily Ever Afters, but her father died and then her live-in boyfriend dumped her. Her father dying shattered January’s image of the perfect family she had always thought they were when she found out that he not only had a mistress, he had a secret beach house in North Bear Shores, Michigan. Dad left the house to January, and since she has the biggest case of writer’s block ever, an almost non-existent bank account, and a deadline rapidly approaching, she decides to go live in this house for the summer and hammer out a manuscript while simultaneously getting the house ready to sell.

Like I said, it’s been a rough year.

When January arrives at the house on the shore of Lake Michigan, she immediately discovers she has a grumpy male neighbor whose deck is mere feet from her own. Of course he couldn’t just be some random man, but her college rival, also a published author who wouldn’t know a happy ending if it bit him on the…well, never mind.  Augustus Everett is more the type of author who isn’t happy unless all his characters either die or go through so much angst that they might be better off dead.

January’s agent Anya is pressuring her for a new manuscript by the end of the summer. Problem is, those Happily Ever Afters are difficult to write when your world has been crushed. After a bit of sparring with her nemesis neighbor Gus, January agrees to a challenge to get her creative juices flowing: January will attempt a more serious literary fiction work and Gus will write a romantic comedy. Whoever finishes their book and sells it first (with a pseudonym if needed) is the winner.

Joint research trips ensue as Gus walks January through his process of taking real tragedies (doomsday cult, anyone?) and fictionalizing them into serious works. In turn, January plans meet-cute scenarios so that Gus can see how a little hope for happiness never hurt anyone.

Beach Read was fairly predictable, but a lot of fun. My main complaint was that the title and cover were very misleading. January may have moved to a lakeside house but very little time was actually spent on the beach. More time was spent at laptops in the neighboring houses with occasional excursions out to the local coffee shop/bookstore owned by Gus’ aunt Pete, (who was a rather entertaining character too). A book club, a drive-in movie, and even the aforementioned doomsday cult site also take January and Gus away from their laptops for a few hours. There is the usual build-up of romantic tension as January and Gus figure out if they hate each other or are ready to jump into bed together. Also the second guessing of feelings and self-doubt as each work through their past family and relationship issues was a little predictable, but acceptable.

If you enjoy modern romantic comedies with a dark brooding love interest who might be open to something new (like writing a romance himself) then I highly recommend this book.

Note:  Another staff member also reviewed Beach Read.  For Christy's take, click here.

Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Tempest Raj is a stage magician from a long line of magicians. She headlined her own show in Vegas, packing them in, before a nightmarish accident closed the show and nearly killed Tempest. She left Vegas and came home to California to recover.

Tempest’s father owns Secret Staircase Construction, a firm that specializes in adding fantasy elements to structures: a hidden room, a magnificent treehouse, or yes, a secret staircase.  Tempest’s mother used to help before she died, and the business has struggled since. Tempest tries to help, but her heart isn’t really in it.

Instead, she keeps pondering the mishap in Vegas. What happened should not have happened; it had to be sabotage.

Unless it was the family curse:  the eldest child dies by magic.

But Tempest doesn’t believe that curses are real, nor are ghosts. So why does she think she hears her mother’s fiddle music in the night?

And there's the body of Tempest's lookalike former assistant found inside a wall. . . .

This is a dandy new mystery series that totally delighted me.  Tempest is a wonderful character who is clever, determined, and devoted to her family.  I loved the mix of cultures—Tempest’s grandfather is from India, her grandmother from Scotland, and other friends and co-workers come from varied backgrounds.

The descriptions of the special rooms and ornaments were wonderful: dragons, keys, castle ramparts, stained glass. I wanted to win the lottery and hire Secret Staircase Construction to do a makeover on my house. And it’s not just the things the company does, but other locations described in the book.  I was especially enchanted with the Locked Room Library.  It’s a library/museum with a suit of armor, a reading nook like a train car, librarians in 1940s fashions, and all the classic detective novels.  (Pardon me while I swoon.) I love that the characters name drop Golden Age authors, especially John Dickson Carr, who was known for his locked room mysteries.

Back to the book itself, the plot has its own nifty locked room murder (or rather, cobwebbed walled up room with a fresh body) mystery, magical misdirection, engaging characters, a touch of the supernatural, treasure, and maybe even a bit of romance.  I’m already looking forward to the next in the series, due out in March, 2023.

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

We do not have a Nevermore report today, so here is a review re-run. Nancy was a staff member here whose reviews remain legendary. She reads widely and always has an interesting perspective. Here's to you, Nancy!

 Reviewed by Nancy 

 It was the cover of “The Leftovers,” by Tom Perotta that enticed me to open the book and read the blurb on the inside, and reading the blurb made me feel pretty sure that I wanted to read the book. The cover features a pair of men’s shoes, empty, with mist or steam or smoke drifting up from inside them. This was enough to arouse a great curiosity in me. 

The plot revolves around a rapture-like event that occurred three years before the action in the book starts. During this event, which came to be known as the "Sudden Departure," millions of people all over the world disappeared in the same instant. Christian believers who did not disappear with the millions who did disappear were troubled and perplexed by this. This event was also confusing in terms of Biblical theology, since many of the people who disappeared were not Christian. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, alcoholics, Eskimos, homosexuals, Mormons, you name it: the disappearance just seemed to be a random harvest as far as anyone who was left could tell.

 In the aftermath of this bizarre and confusing occurrence many people attempted to return to normal, while others were so bewildered and forlorn that this was impossible. 

Kevin Garvey, newly elected mayor of Mapleton, is among the group who feel that everyone should get back in gear and get on with their lives. Unfortunately, others members of his family can’t seem to do this. His wife, Laurie, tries to carry on, but after a time leaves home to join a group called “The Guilty Remnant.” 

Members of the G.R., as it comes to be known, take a vow of silence, wear all white all the time, smoke cigarettes constantly, and travel in pairs, stalking non-G.R. individuals and staring at them to the point of total discomfort. The in-your-face silent treatment is rooted in the G.R.’s belief that nothing will ever be normal again, and it is their duty to wake up people who think things will be. 

Kevin’s daughter, Jill, comes a little unmoored after her mother joins the G.R. She shaves her head, stops going to school, and undertakes casual sex with her peers. Her friend, Aimee, equally as directionless as Jill, moves in with Jill and her father in order to escape her overly friendly step-father. 

A few months after the Sudden Departure Kevin’s son, Tom, dropped out of community college to become a devotee of a newly risen cult figure known as Holy Wayne. Holy Wayne, sincere at the outset, eventually allows the fame and power to go to his head, claiming his right to have seven teenage brides as well as the wife he had before he became Holy Wayne. Eventually the authorities catch up with Holy Wayne and in the end he pleads guilty to various unspecified charges and gets twenty years in prison. 

This leaves Tom at loose ends. He undertakes a hitchhiking trek across the United States, accompanied by one of Holy Wayne’s pregnant teenage brides. During this adventure Tom and Christine, the “bride,” pose as “Barefoot People.” 

 Barefoot People, guess what! They refuse to wear any footwear other than flip flops. They are unshaven, unwashed, and unconcerned about anything except where the party is. They seem to be the hippies of the era, seeing the Sudden Departure as a great excuse to drop out and party. (I think if I were embroiled in this plot I would be much more likely to join the Barefoot People than the Guilty Remnant.) 

I could go on and on, but I won’t. You get the picture. This book is kooky, fun to read, but even more fun to tell people about. And don’t worry. I have not told you so much about the plot that you will be bored reading it. There are still plenty of surprises, and even until the last page you will not, nay, not simply until the last page, but until the last paragraph you will not know how things are going to turn out.

Maus by Art Spiegelman

 

Reviewed by Ben

I recently read Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a graphic novel published in two volumes from 1986-1992. This is a true, personal story about the painful odyssey the author’s father underwent to survive The Holocaust. While the senior Spiegelman’s Holocaust experience takes center stage, Maus is also a story about the relationship between Art and his father, Vladek.

As one would expect from a legendary, beloved work of literature, Maus is a great read. Its characters are relatable. It expands the story of The Holocaust to touch on how survivors and their children still felt the effect decades later.

First, the characters in Maus were very relatable. Sure, they are supposed to be real people. They should be. However, the author’s presentation felt very authentic, with everyone’s flaws showing. Vladek is miserly, anxious, arguably rude and at times unconcerned with the needs and wants of those close to him. He is also a stereotypical figure. Spiegelman even depicts himself grappling with the issue of writing the book and showing his dad as a Jewish stereotype. The author himself is shown to be impatient and short with his father, with little inclination to spend time with Vladek outside of gathering notes for the book. Finally, Vladek’s fellow Jews who suffered through the holocaust with him were not put on a pedestal. The elder Spiegelman told of greed and selfishness from other victims as everyone struggled for survival under the Nazis. Such honesty is always important when telling history, particularly with dark chapters like The Holocaust. Honest, relatable depictions put the subjects’ humanity on display, making it easier for the reader to imagine the horror of an attempted extermination that was carried out against people just like her or himself.

Second, Maus is more than the account of a Holocaust survivor’s time in Nazi-occupied Europe. This graphic novel situates itself firmly in modern times, among the backdrop of an ordinary existence that is geographically and temporally distant from The Holocaust, yet the Nazis’ attempt at a “final solution” still sticks with its survivors. For example, the reader sees Art arriving at his father’s house and engaging in small talk about household chores and old age complaints before Vladek gets down to the business of sharing his past. This proximity between the mundane aspects of normal life and the unimaginable horrors of genocide represent how these experiences are interwoven with the present, depriving survivors of normal lives and having immeasurable effects on their children. One striking example of this effect comes when Art, his wife and Vladek are driving through the countryside in New York state. The conversation having strayed off the topic of Vladek’s past, Art directs his father back to The Holocaust. Vladek resumes his account by describing a time the SS put on hanged bodies on display in the middle of town. The corresponding panel showed Art’s modern car driving down the New York highway with prison-stripe-wearing bodies hanging in the trees to the side of the road. This could symbolize several things: Vladek’s inability to escape the ghosts of mass murder and suffering, the need to keep the memory of genocidal events alive as we go about our comfortable lives in peace, or maybe the notion that holocausts can happen again if we are not careful.

In summary, Maus is a great graphic novel that I would recommend to anyone from the sixth grade and older.

In summary, Maus is a great graphic novel that I would recommend to anyone from the sixth grade and older.