Bookend To End

This book touches some topics that are a lot bigger than most of the books I read. With that, I want to give a few disclaimers before my review:

1) I listened to the audiobook version, so I don’t have a physical copy to reference back to when typing out my review

2) I watched WithCindy’s review of this book prior to reading the book, and may be slightly influenced in my review based on hers

3) I am white, and while I can empathize with Asian issues, I can’t say I understand them fully or can relate to them.

That being said, I think this book does a PHENOMENAL job of making me understand the issues of minorities in the publishing industry further, and the passive nature of white people when it comes to this topic, and I’m incredibly happy I read this book.

This book follows Juniper, a white author who did not have the best luck with her first go at a debut in the book publishing industry, and her rise and downfall after stealing a book idea from her dead friend, Athena, a Chinese author writing mostly on topics of what her ancestors have dealt with in the past (more on that later.)  The book that Juniper steals is about the Chinese laborers involved in World War I, and then goes on to change her name to appear more racially ambiguous to attempt to avoid backlash for being a white author telling the tragic story of these Chinese laborers, but ultimately not only gets called out on it, but eventually gets caught for stealing the book from Athena.

There were SO many things I loved about this book.  First of all, every single microaggression Juniper commits made me physically cringe. Between making remarks about minorities being favored in the publishing industry and therefore she was the victim as a white girl, to taking a story about Chinese laborers and choosing to dehumanize them and empathize with the Christian missionaries attempting to convert them, to making comments to Asian americans about “censorship” when asked if she was really the right person to be telling the story; the book does an amazing job of making you realize all these microaggressions that many people, but especially white people, may choose to ignore because they’re not “violent” enough to truly be racism.  While this book was meant to be “dark humor” it did not make me laugh a single time, but because I was too busy cringing at the very realistic comments and actions of its main character that I have seen so many people do, so I do think the point did still come across.  And I did love that at the end, Juniper did not actually learn a lesson, and instead will continue to get revenge on the person who outed her for stealing the book, because that feels completely realistic to happen.

The book also touches some really interesting debate topics that either I have thought of in passing or never thought of at all.  The first being- if someone does all the research, and is accurate to the history (Juniper is not completely,) should someone of a different race be the one to tell a story of the traumas of a different racial group? For myself, and I feel for the author as well, I think stories based on traumatic events for racial groups should be told by members of that group.  The author even brings up the point that while Athena was Chinese, she certainly did not experience these traumas- but her family went through several of them and she can recount and tell those stories. But does that mean you can’t write characters that aren’t the racial group you belong in? Several parts of the book talk about reviews that Juniper’s stolen book saying that specific parts of the book are racially insensitive, but those were parts that Athena wrote, and leads Juniper and the reader to wonder if this book were written and published BY Athena, if those same critiques would still come up.

The book also does try to explain why Juniper might feel morally okay with stealing from Athena- in college, Athena took Juniper’s sexual assault story and wrote it as a short story without asking Juniper’s permission OR giving any sort of credit for it. She also interviews Korean war vets and published their stories.  Is taking the stories of other people’s traumas and publishing them morally objectionable, or is it fine if you’re publishing it in the name of bringing awareness to the topic?

My ONE critique of this book is something outside of the book itself.  Juniper is lower/middle class and feels a big part of Athena’s success is due to being upper class and getting a lot of opportunities that were only available because her or her family could afford the price tag.  These things are being said by an unreliable narrator, as if to sweep those issues under the rug as Juniper just being jealous of Athena.  However, I learned from WithCindy’s review that I linked earlier that these are very real critiques that the author R.F. Kuang has received and is using Juniper as a mouthpiece to show just how “minor” those critiques are without ever really addressing how money really does provide people with opportunities that others could not have.  This is not to put down the author’s talent: This was my first book by her and I was blown away and look forward to reading some of her other work. But I’m sure there are tons of other authors, especially non-white ones, who are equally or even moreso talented whose books will never be read by the majority of the public because they might not have been able to go to college for writing, or they were not afforded the luxury to focus on writing as opposed to paying the bills. It just feels strange for the author to not really refute these claims but instead use the unreliable mouthpiece to downplay them.

Overall however, I felt like this book was incredible and I look forward to reading more of R.F. Kuang’s work (especially Babel!)

Full transparency: I listened to the audiobook version of this book while driving home from a fun Halloween weekend after seeing one of my favorite bands live two nights in a row, and suffering from post-concert blues.   I opened the Libby app (support your local library!) hoping for something spooky to listen to and settled on this as it was the first thriller available.  The book did a great job of keeping me fully entertained for the entire 7 ½ hour drive home… because it was like watching a car wreck you couldn’t look away from.  This being said, I don’t have a physical copy to reference back to in case I make a mistake on something that happens in the book.

The book follows Grace Evans, just your typical bookworm loner gal who selects her solo vacations by throwing a dart at a dartboard and going wherever the dart lands (except all this is a lie, but we’ll get to that) and Calvin Wells, sad tragic backstory country boy running an Airbnb out of his ranch to ease his loneliness (also a lie) and their budding romance while the entire town feels like it’s falling apart around them. The book goes back and forth between these two character viewpoints.

Grace gets to her vacation home and *to no one’s surprise* she has no cell phone signal and no wi-fi access. (Why does she not question how Calvin is running an Airbnb without wi-fi?)  There IS a working landline phone, which Grace never uses until towards the end of the book despite saying that she needed to text her friend to let them know she made it safely.  Grace DOES, however, have enough signal to stream Spotify while taking a run up and down the driveway, which is the point where I realized this was not going to be a good book.

I have so many random complaints about the writing of this book. Grace’s identity is that she loves books, so much so that she just *had* to describe exactly why she chose the books that she wants to read and why she’s reading them in the order she’s reading them, and yet she sat and read her book once for maybe 20 minutes.  But a huge “clue” for Calvin being a liar was that he also apparently liked to read but she never saw him read, as if the man didn’t literally run a farm on his own and spend all of his alone time trying to woo Grace.

This book has too many characters and WAY too much going on for its own good.  There’s jealous childhood friend who can’t get over the one night stand she has with Calvin who straight up tells Grace she hopes she dies, Calvin’s estranged brother who may or may not have purposefully killed Calvin’s ex-girlfriend a year before, an older lady who runs the local clothing shop who acts as Calvin’s mother but also is off her medication, which apparently means she is not to be trusted?  Then there are Calvin’s dead parents who went from just dying in a fire to the mother murdering the father and then setting the house on fire while she was still inside, which was meant to act as a shock to the reader but it had literally nothing to do with what was actually happening in the book. Many of the characters also make passive comments about the house potentially being haunted so you sit and wonder if that’s true (unfortunately not). Random mountain lion attack? Yep. Falling into a pit of animal corpses that also, just like 90% of the events of this book, has no relevance to the plot? Check.  The only side plot that matters in any way was the missing girl who was supposed to be a previous Airbnb guest of Calvin’s.  This alone would have been a plenty interesting plot without everything else but I truly feel like the author didn’t know what direction they wanted to go in, so they included everything.

Then the ending happens.  Turns out, Grace isn’t Grace but is actually using an alias because she’s a serial killer and goes to Airbnb’s to murder their hosts and it just turns out that Calvin also happened to be a serial killer.  I don’t HATE the ending but it felt almost out of nowhere.  Other than one offhand moment Calvin makes about Grace acting like a different person while they were all drinking at a bar, there was no build up to this happening at all, and it just felt like the author couldn’t figure out how to end the book in a way where Not Grace and the missing girl that was being held captive live at the end. I don’t read thrillers, but according to other reviews I’ve read this is apparently a cop-out kind of ending.  I could definitely see that being true.

When a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

I picked up this book mostly because I had a sneaking suspicion I would probably like cozy mysteries. I've never read one before but I love mystery movies and games but I am not really interested in anything too gory. This book felt like a good starting point for me as it felt like a good mixture of comedy, mystery, and Bridgerton-like setting (no, I have not read the books but I loved the show!) I was very correct that this was a good starting-point book for me to get into the cozy-mystery genre.

There is not really anything to say about the characters in this book. They are very face-value overall. That is not to say they're not still charming. This book being a comedy makes sure of that, but they are not really the strong point.

The comedy in the book is the strong point. I loved the inclusion of a werewolf, the ridiculous rules that the women of swampshire had to adhere to, the sailor character who spoke in ocean puns, the bachelor whose favorite color is all of them, the bachelorette who was just so perfect in everything she does that it borders on ridiculous. There were some characters that wore out their welcome (Mr. Speaks-Constantly-In-Rhymes comes to mind) but the goofy nature of each of the characters made for a fun mytery satire.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, but I wouldn't rate it in a top favorite books of the year by any means. I'm glad to have read it to take a step into the cozy mystery genre.

The third addition to the beloved Redwall series takes place during the summer of the Golden Plain. Preparation for a great feast are underway at Redwall Abbey, and the young mouse Mattimeo is contributing his share of the labors. But Mattimeo is the son of Matthias, the guardian of Redwall Abbey, and it is this fact that makes him the target of a fiendish kidnapping plot contrived by the vicious fox, Slagar the Cruel. When Matthias and his brave followers abandon their homes and face enslavement for the return of their children, the captive Mattimeo stands to prove his worth--and an unexpected hero is born.

And again, Brian Jacques writes his characters in a way that makes them feel incredibly unique from each other and still within the realms of reality for the world. Mattimeo, son of Matthias and Cornflower, is a known troublemaker in the abbey. He feels so completely unique, moreso even than Martin to Matthias shown between Mossflower and Redwall. And despite being a troublemaker and being a bit full of himself, Mattimeo still feels likeable. The returning cast of the first book felt completely welcomed except for one: Slagar, previously Chickenhound. Slagar feels like a completely different character between the two books, and I feel like he just should have been. His insistence on exacting revenge on Redwall really would not not change if he was just another fox gathering young woodlanders as slaves. Slagar just in general was a lot less interesting of a villain than both Cluny in the first book and Tsarmina in the second in my opinion.

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD:

The deaths of both Warbeak and Log-A-Log hit HARD. It helped that I already had an attachment to these characters, but moreso both of them died in ways that felt like perfect situations for them. Warbeak fought to protect her friend Matthias, putting her own safety aside; Log-A-Log died with a smile on his face because he followed through with his promise to help find the woodland children.

The reveal of the cult-ish activities in Loamhedge was interesting, and I would love to have gotten more information about it all. Unfortunately, that entire part of the book just felt kind of thrown in and not really expanded upon; however I know there are still 19 books in this series to read and things are constantly being expanded upon in those stories.

Mattimeo makes a point to Slagar that he will kill him, and this is the turning point for Mattimeo as a character. He goes from just troublemaking childhood antics to rage and becomes a leader to the other woodlander children enslaved with him, becoming more of an adult. However: Slagar dies in a very anti-climactic way, robbing Mattimeo of his chance to really prove himself as a warrior and exact the revenge I felt he rightfully deserved. The end of the book makes it clear that Mattimeo does in fact become the next warrior of Redwall, but I feel like that would be more deserved if he were given the chance to actually prove himself. This is the first time where I felt like the main villain's death was disappointing within the series.

Despite all of this: I still hold this book up as an example of a near-perfect story. My ratings are less so about removing points for plot issues and more on how much I enjoyed it, and I absolutely loved Mattimeo and will absolutely be re-reading it again someday.