Reviewed Books

Edition: Digital

Publisher: Ecco

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Where to even start with this novel. It's disturbing, it's grotesque, it makes you feel like you've just picked up something illegal and that the police are going to bust down your door for having even read the contents of this book. This book reads like someone's smutty fantasy; someone's deepest desire. Imagining just trying to put yourself in the headspace to write this novel is why I've given it 3 stars, however based on the content and principal of the book alone, I've subtracted 2 stars.

This is a hard topic that, despite the explicit smut, did need to be written about. It's absolutely mind numbing how much careful and meticulous planning and premeditation goes in to grooming children to be used and abused. This just further illustrates that your children really aren't safe.

Character-wise, Celeste has no redeeming qualities. She's selfish, determined, resourceful, and a little dead inside, save for her encounters with her victims. Janet is suspicious, but allows her gut feelings to be buried and ultimately begins to overlook the red flags that Celeste gives off. Ford is in denial, and lies to himself to keep the peace. And Celeste's victims? They are going to have very difficult lives ahead of them, especially as a victim that did experience pleasure at the hands of an abuser.

This novel is hard to read, I finished it in one sitting, as it's only 153 pages long. But the topic really makes you leery, as a mother, of anyone outside of yourself.

Tender is the Flesh

Edition: Digital

Publisher: Scribner

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Overall, I rate this book 4.5/5 Stars.

This book was so... unassuming. At first it has a slow start, where it has you thinking, "Wow, someone really put a lot of thought into how the world would work if we had to start eating people." It seems almost clinical in the way it describes The Transition. But about midway through the book (around the 50% mark), the book picks up and becomes an actual story that you want to continue reading to see what happens next. You become more invested in Tejo and his life, and you find yourself kind of accepting this world of cannibalism. By the second part of the book, you've probably got a gut feeling happening. This makes the second half of the book move a little quicker. Then you reach the end and the conclusion leaves a few more questions than answers and leaves an opening for a second book if the author wanted (though that could potentially tarnish the abruptness of the current ending).

3/5 ⭐Stars

The Disenchantment, is exactly that. The novel starts out strong by introducing Baroness Marie Catherine, a wife you begin to sympathize with. Haven't we all had a less than perfect relationship that made you think of what life could be like if you could just escape it? In that, we soon learn of Victoire Rose de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti, a free-spirited woman with a lack experience in the realm of maturity, with whom society allows to roam feral. So what happens naturally, is exactly what we would expect from Victoire. A couple of other major characters in this story is the painter Lavoie, and policeman Gabriel Nicolas de le Reynie and the Lady's Maid Jeanne.

I so wanted to love this story. I really liked the way the perspective switched and changed in a way that felt like you were watching a movie (and it wasn't confusing at all). I also appreciated the storytelling that took place throughout the novel, as it shows you exactly how the Baroness and Victoire could have gotten into the situation they found themselves in. Of course a woman that spent so much time in a make-believe land would find herself facing very real perils of her actual life. And of course she could easily pretend that it wasn't as bad as it actually was.

The reason I call this book a disenchantment, in itself, is because though the story is very slow, it does tug you through the emotions of the Marie Catherine and Victoire. You find yourself starting to become disenchanted with the story, you already know how it's going to end. You can taste the way the deed as tainted an otherwise exciting experience and just how fragile the concept of their love was.

I also find it disenchanting that the end of the story is a loose end. This must be because the author is going to write a sequel to the story-- otherwise, it's a very poor attempt at tying loose ends. What of Victoire after her talk with King's favored Mistress? What about Lavoie and Reynie after the chase? And Marie Catherine and her children? How did that play out on the night of her departure? And of course you cannot forget Jeanne and Henri. Was Henri ever punished? Did Jeanne make it to a better place with her treasure? I'm hoping the ending is not just a sloppy tie together.

Clytemnestra

Debuts: March 7, 2023

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Clytemnestra is a story about a Spartan woman from her teenage years as being young and a bit naive, to her adult years where she is rife with grief, anger, and revenge. It is an origin story of villainy. Clytemnestra, begins with the Spartan being of age to marry and choosing her husband, who is different from any of the Spartan men she grew up with. It tells a story of love and happiness, though brief. From there, it dives into intense stifling grief and hatred. Having endured the worst, Clytemnestra begins to let vengeance take root in her heart, and this changes her from the Spartan woman that people revered and loved, to a Spartan woman that people feared. Again, Clytemnestra experiences an intensely troubling test of internal strength, when again she loses what she loves the most. This further and more completely pushes her into villainy (to those on the outside), and begins the story of the ultimate revenge.

The plot of this story did have a couple of loose ends at the ending, but that would leave more room to continue with a sequel. Like what happened to Helen and Menelaus? What of Timandra and Crysanthe or Timandra and her husband? What about Clytemnestra and Aegisthus? Does Electra ever come back 'round? What of Clytemnestra's youngest daughters and their Servant, Aileen? What eventually happens to Odysseus in regard to Clytemnestra, if anything? Does Clytemnestra avenge her family and take out everyone who was involved, or does she become just like Agamemnon and rule with fear, taking anything she wants? I have so many questions!

This story was captivating from the beginning. I found myself wanting to come back to this book, even though I had to do other things (like work, ew). On my breaks, I would open this book and dive right back in, because the story of Clytemnestra (a Greek myth that I am not at all familiar with), sang to something within me-- having experienced something similar on a lesser scale. This book is also one that is easy to fall into, but hard to get out of, because it reads like a YA novel in ease and pace.

Kindred - Rated 4/5 Stars

This story is unique in that the main character time travels from their time in 1976, to the antebellum south (1815 onward). What makes it even more interesting, is that she is a person of color and has to learn how to navigate the life of being a slave when all she's known is freedom. Tied to a white "Master Rufus", Dana-- the main character, has to put aside her feelings and ensure that her bloodline continues, by saving him when she is transported back in time.

While this plot-line does have a good premise, the story is left feeling a little sloppy at the end. There are a few plot-lines that could have been expanded upon, such as how Kevin adjusted to what he experienced and why he was suddenly "okay" after a few hours of being back in his own time, and how Dana sloppily ended Rufus's life. Though we do expect that there isn't much in the way of information on slaves being printed in the local paper at the time-- Dana and Kevin find virtually nothing and the book ends with what feels like a big open end. This story could have the makings of a sequel, but there are none so far (and because this was written in 2004, I do not expect any).

Rated 3/5 Stars

It seems that Julia is starting to run out of steam or content for her books. This story compared to the first book, The Duke and I, and her second very steamy and dreamy, The Viscount Who Loved Me is paled in comparison. Quite frankly, it's uninteresting. Not even the revelation of Lady Whistledown is enough to perk the story up. The relationship between Lady Danbury and Penelope is more interesting than that of Penelope and Collin, whom she's loved for years. Even the spicy bits of this book seem to lack fire.

After having fully finished both the book and the second epilogue, I can definitely say the announcement of Lady Whistledown and onward are the best parts of the story. The ending of this book also makes you more interested in Eloise's story (To Sir Phillip, With Love), than in Penelope's.

Rated 3/5 stars

This story is one that has peaks of excitement, but valleys where it's easy to just put the book down for a while. Much like Grenouille, is unremarkable until olfactory descriptions or olfactory pursuit is introduced. In some instances in the story, you can feel the eroticism that certain scents and olfactory situations/presences bring Grenouille, and one can catch a glimpse of the hidden world he lived in-- and preferred.