Review 191: At the Edge of the Haight

At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Having visited San Francisco countless number of times over the years (I call it my favorite city in California) I’ve seen the homeless youth that congregate in the Haight-Ashbury area, near massive Golden Gate park. I’ve always wondered what brought them here, what were their stories? And here is one book attempting to answer that question as fictional characters of Maddy Donaldo and her friends, and her dog Root. Root is definitely a character!

While this book is fiction it had truth. The descriptions of the area are accurate, and while reading you feel the cold that Maddy and her friends do. You feel the sleep deprivation and hope that this night, this one time, she can get a full night’s rest. Yet how can you sleep when the cops will rouse you before 4am and cite you or arrest for sleeping in the park? And shelters aren’t much better with everyone crammed into open rooms, the noise and smells. Yet some of these people chose this life, and many, most, do not.

I quickly read this book, ripped through the pages. While the murder aspect gave the book a bit of a plot, it isn’t like a formula mystery or thriller, it’s more of the backdrop.

I liked how Maddy was portrayed, she didn’t seem to know things herself, but was open enough to start to question things, and acted as she needed to. Maddy lived life on her terms, not her friends, not her “boyfriend”, or as anyone else would tell her.

Certainly there are many more stories about the lives people are living outside on the streets. I’m happy to see this book, applaud the author for this topic and hope she writes another book, with other characters or continue the journey of Maddy and her friends.

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 190: The Center of Everything

The Center of Everything by Jamie Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a complicated book, and the writing style doesn’t help matters. I found it very confusing in the first portion, trying to figure out who were all these characters. People are introduced as if you know who they are right away.

The world is of Polly. She had a concussion months ago, but is still recovering from her injury, sometimes she drifts off, sees things, Polly is consumed by memories of her past. Many of these memories her mother Jane claim are not something Polly would remember but made up from photographs and stories the family told.

This brings us from present 2002 to the past in 1968 when Polly was 8 and it was a significant time in her life. Both settings are in the same family home in Montana. As the past comes forward, and there is another death of significance, a family friend, a young girl who went missing after a day on the river with a group of friends.

The book is very rich with details and imagery. The world is fully developed, and one can see all that is contained, once you get further into the story and settled into the setting. There are loose threads throughout the book that slowly tie together in the end. This is one book where the ending makes up for the difficulties in the beginning.

Thanks to Counterpoint Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 189: Lock In

Lock In by John Scalzi
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

A faced paced police procedural type book set in the future. A pandemic swept the world years ago, and many who contracted the Haden’s virus became locked inside their bodies. Technology was quickly developed for these people; tech implanted in their brain allows the Hadens to interact in a virtual world or inhabit a mechanical body (robot) they called a threep. There is a very small percent of the Hadens people who developed a unique brain structure that allows them to host another person, so a Haden could experience a physical body as well.

The main story is of one Haden, Chris Shane, who starts a new job at the FBI. The first week is insane! It does help to suspend a little bit of belief for the story to work completely. It’s a captivating story although there doesn’t seem to be too much of a mystery as who did it. The question becomes more, how did it happen and why.

One of the main features of the book is the main character is not gendered. It didn’t seem awkward one bit with the writing. If you listen to the audio book, you chose which gender you want to narrate. I read the print book.

This is a first in a series, so far of only two books, plus a short prequel. Not sure I want to dive in that deep with the prequel, but I’m up for another book in the world.

Review 188: The Colour

The Colour by Rose Tremain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical novel is set in the mid-1800’s, a newly married couple with his mother emigrate from England to New Zealand. They are a slightly older couple but determined to start a new life. Harriet wanted to leave being a governess, while Joseph Blackstone had to leave. We discover early on his mother was also joining them due to the untimely, and embarrassing, death of her husband that left her with nothing but debts. In this new land they homestead and try to become a family.

We soon find out Joseph keeps too many secrets, even when he finds gold dust in their river. Soon the gold fever is sweeping New Zealand and Joseph must go to the latest site on the other side of the mountains. Harriet by this time is happy to have her time alone, still longing for her adventure.

The book drew me in but slowly became less soothing than it started out. And there is part where it was just odd, magical realism you could call it, with the neighbor boy and a native person, Pare. They became connected and the boy knew things he shouldn’t.

I enjoyed Harriet’s character and the neighbor’s, the Orchards (Toby, Dorothy and the boy Edwin). It took nearly a day to reach their house, so calling them neighbor’s may be stretching it, yet the land was nearly empty. It felt like accurate descriptions of a mining camp. One thought I kept having was, how much money did Joseph have? It seemed like he kept spending money when he had none.

Review 187: Ninth House

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here’s a book I wouldn’t normally pick up and read, and when I first started reading it took a while to get into the story. I was very tempted to put the book down, but somewhere along the way I was fully into the story and wanted to know what happened.

The main character, Galaxy Stern, known as Alex, can see dead people. They are called greys here. Magic is real and many other oddities can happen in this world, and some very gory and gruesome acts as well.

Alex has been given a second chance, her life has completely changed when she takes the offer, a unique opportunity to enter Yale as a freshman and a Dante in the Lethe the Ninth house. Lethe is the guardians of the other eight houses to make sure the magic they perform and yield is kept in line.

Alex’s freshman year doesn’t go anything like a normal year for a first year student, or even a Dante. A murder takes place and Alex ends up deeply involved in trying to solve the case.

The book became the feel of a mystery, who did it, and what was the motive. This is where I felt the story really took off for my enjoyment. The rest of the world building was explained enough already and the characters more solidified.

There are some themes that were teased at in the book, most were not addressed instead brushed aside, yet one or two were more front and center. Perhaps some of those themes would be addressed in a more satisfying way in the next book.

Note: I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.