There are too many things I want to share in this post to spend much time on preamble. Read on!
The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. I originally read back in January of 2015 (you can see my original review here), but definitely needed a refresher before discussing it at my February book club meeting. It is a twisty thriller with a back-and-forth timeline which made the first read a little more challenging. If anything, I liked it better the second time around. The story of a woman who admits from the beginning that she's anything but a reliable narrator, and what she really saw, if anything, during a drunken blackout the night a former neighbor disappeared is still as compelling, but easier to follow with the foundation I had. And it made for excellent discussion, something that thrillers are not necessarily known for.
The Dry, by Jane Harper. Twenty years ago, tragedy hit a small town when a young woman disappeared. Aaron and his best friend Luke were one another's alibis, but Aaron never knew who was lying to protect whom. Now, Luke and his family are dead, prompting Aaron's first return to his hometown in decades. More than one person knows that the boys lied about where they were so many years ago. Aaron, now a big-city investigator, is reluctantly drawn into the investigation, but finds that some things, including the past, just won't stay buried. Dark and deeply suspenseful. I'm looking forward to the second in the series, Force of Nature, which was released earlier this month.
The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin. I mentioned recently that this was at the top of my to-read list, and I wasn't kidding! I had a few days off this month and, in addition to watching a ton of Olympics coverage, I read this. In a day. Once I was into it I couldn't bear to put it down for any reason. In the summer of 1969, a fortune-teller of sorts has come to New York. She does not advertise, but word of her presence is passed from person to person until one of the Gold children hears of it and decides that the four Gold siblings will go together to see the woman and find out the ultimate future: the date of his or her death. What each of the four go on to do with their information varies widely. Does fate make for belief or does belief pave the way for fate? What responsibility comes with knowing how long, or short, your life will be? Fascinating and haunting, this is a story that will stick with me for years to come.
Year One, by Nora Roberts. This opener to Roberts's new metaphysical contemporary series starts off with a very plausible scenario: What would the world look like in the wake of a super-flu outbreak big enough to wipe out a third of the world's human population? What would happen to society? And then, for flare, adds a dash of metaphysicality--what if, in the wake of this Doom, magick returns to humans, for good or ill? How does one use a gift received in the face of tragedy? This is just what the different survivors in Year One have to figure out. It's a quirky bit of fantasy amid modern chaos, but very entertaining.
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. Having read this last while in college, I did not appreciate at the time just how slyly funny Plath's lone novel was. Dark, yes, but also fascinating and witty. Esther Greenwood is brilliant, charming, talented and beautiful. She is also, slowly, starting to mentally break down, not for the first time, but perhaps for the last. When The Bell Jar came up in conversation not long ago, I realized I needed to reread it, and two decades has altered my perspective considerably, giving me a new appreciation for this modern American classic.
The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. Hannah's The Nightingale was a departure from her former stories of domestic fiction. The Great Alone is different yet again. Leni doesn't really remember her dad before he went to Vietnam. What she does know is that he hasn't been the "same" since coming home after spending years in a POW camp. At thirteen, permanence would be welcome, but she and her parents move a lot, and she rarely gets to finish a school year in the same place she starts one. When her father is left a cabin and a piece of land in Alaska by an old army buddy who has died, this is, again, going to be a new beginning for the family, a fresh start. The winters are long and dark, though, and are not good for a man with PTSD. Leni and her parents are pushed to the breaking point in this unforgiving land, but who will break first? Among the most compelling reads I've experienced recently, I also read this in a single day--I just couldn't bear to look away before finding out what happened to Leni and her family. Excellent.
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