Review 420: It All Comes Down to This

It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

A summer light read, a beach read as they say. Three sisters are coping with their mother's recent death. One of the shockers was in the will that said they must sell the Maine vacation home, oh and another secret she withheld all these years.

But mother soon took a back seat to all the other drama going on in these three women's lives. They were never very close being born four-five years apart, but they do seem to be connecting in this book, through their shared experience. The eldest Beck is very hurt by her mother's ask to sell the house she wanted to use as a writer's retreat. To get away from her editor husband, who may just be gay. The middle girl Claire is a recent divorced woman, a pediatric cardiac doctor with way too much on her plate, plus the pinning for her sister's husband.

Then there's Sophie, the youngest who is faking it until she makes it but is drowning in debt to live the best instagram life for all those followers. Being in her late thirties she's starting to wonder if it's time to settle down, actually find the right man to stay with.

Oh, there's much more, but the best character really was C.J. who just got out of jail for three years of attempted patricide. He seemed to have taken those years to improve himself, be a better person and it shows when he encounters a young boy and his grandma living in the house his buddy said he could stay in for a while.

There were small holes here an there, which I overlooked but the ending I found too preachy. Sure the message was a good one, aren't they all, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

Review 415: The Language of Bees

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

ends with ...to be continued...ugh!

Book nine in this series of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. It’s been a long while since I read book eight, so I felt a little rusty getting back to these characters. There were a few references to what happened before, which I don’t remember, but it didn’t make the reading difficult or confusing.

In this book Holmes finds out he had a son from a woman he had a liaison with many years ago. The son is now a young man, nearly the age of Mary. He had grown up in France and served in the war, was wounded then became addicted to drugs to deal with the injury. At the beginning of the book he, Damian Adler, had been accused of murder and sitting in a jail in a small town in France. Mary and Holmes go there to meet him and help his case. Soon enough he is released, whether he did it or not was not relevant as the eyewitness was beyond reliable. We find out Damain has gotten clean, then back on drugs several times. There is a French woman who has helped him, and with his art, as Damian is a surrealist artist that paints well.

Years pass without much word from Damian, until he unexpectedly shows up at their house in Sussex wanting help to find his missing wife and child. He’s been sober for many years now, focused on his art. The search takes up most of the book, and while some of it is resolved, the book does end with “to be continued” which irked me quite a bit. As far as I remember this is the only instance in the series where there isn’t complete resolution to the case at hand.

I do like L. King’s writing style and would have rated this four stars if there wasn’t that darn cliffhanger. Well, I have the next book queued up and shall get to it soon.

Previously Read Laurie R. King books:

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series:

Book 8: Locked Rooms (3 stars) - November.2009

Book 7: The Game (4 stars) - March.2017

Book 6:  Justice Hall (4 stars) - August.2012

Book 5: O Jerusalem (3 stars) - January.2012

Book 4: The Moor (5 stars) - August.2011

Book 3: A Letter of Mary (4 stars) - January.2012

Book 2: A Monstrous Regiment of Women (4 stars) - August.2011

Book 1: The Beekeeper's Apprentice (5 stars) - June.2009

Review 413: A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The story is well written. A man gets in deeper and deeper to justify something he shouldn't have done in the first place. Until it is just way too much. How much can a person rationalize their behavior?

While in the middle of the book, I did find myself thinking about these characters, wondering what will happen next, but overall this is a bit of a horrible story! Glad it's fiction!

I disliked the ending. Almost anything else would have been better.

Review 406: Them

Them by Joyce Carol Oates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The setting is Detroit covering three decades from 1937-1967. Well, it starts in a unnamed town, moves to the county ending in Detroit with the riots.

The book is centered on a family that is poor, that has tragedy at every turn. Not always from drinking, but there is that too. Loretta’s dad is an alcoholic, but she doesn’t blame him. The Depression is what caused it, he lost his job and lost himself. At age 16 Loretta takes up with a guy, a boyfriend and loses her virginity, that night she awakes suddenly, and found him shot dead by her brother Brock.

In trying to fix this situation she runs into someone she knows from the neighborhood, happens to be a policeman but not on duty. He fixes it and takes her as a bride. They have three children, the first two, Jules and Maureen, who become the main characters of the book.

The writing is mostly exposition, not a lot of dialogue. The inner thoughts of these people are repetitive and somewhat hard to grasp at times. They seem to not think clearly but are smart, they don’t understand love or many feelings. They often are outside of themselves, it is all strange.
None of the characters are likable, their behavior unpredictable. Jules starts out as one destined to always be in trouble with the law. Maureen maybe unstable, being crazy is brought up a lot. Not just with her, it started with Loretta’s mother. People come in and out of their lives.

The language and mores of the book don’t fit with the times of today. It is a bit shocking at moments, but it’s a 50 year old book. It isn’t a pleasant book by any means, yet you want to find out what will happen to these people. I’m not sure I’m satisfied, there’s shifts in the book and the afterward the biggest shocker in my approach to the whole work.

The author’s note at the beginning frames this book as a semi-fictional book, taken from the life of a student she had one semester. The woman felt compelled to tell Oates her life story and this book is the result. Well, this too is a fiction, but I didn’t know that while reading and thinking about the book.

This was the first book by Joyce Carol Oates I’ve read, perhaps not the best place to start. I’m interested in other books of this "Wonderland" quartet, although all older and perhaps her later books are more enjoyable?