Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think is the most important idea I took away from the read and not try to dig for more.
Think about using it yourselves!
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When I Was Death by Alexis Henderson
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: A group of teen girls does Death incarnate's bidding in this haunting speculative young adult novel.
Roslyn Volk isn’t herself anymore. It’s been a year since her sister, Adeline, died in the woods under mysterious circumstances, and Roslyn is still tormented by her absence. So when the elusive caravan of girls that Adeline spent her last summer with rolls back into town, Roslyn joins them to finally figure out what happened to her sister.
Strange, beautiful, and intriguing, the girls are closed off from the world. And as it turns out, they’re brought together by a force more sinister than Roslyn’s nightmares could have conjured: Death himself.
Death has spared the girls from untimely endings, and to pay for their lives, the girls travel the country reaping souls on his behalf. Now Roslyn must decide if finding closure is worth the price of striking the same deal.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Death as a character, death as a life passage for the survivors, grief and grieving are all worthy and interesting topics to explore; the bonds of siblinghood are of eternal interest to us who were siblings and often to those who were not for the same reasons: The closeness arising from being family, born or made, never fails to involve readers.
I was no great fan of this iteration of the story because I thought it pulled its punches too often for a YA novel and not often enough for a middle-grade one. It was an okay way to spend an afternoon, but no more.
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) wants $10.99 for an ebook.
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Liar's Dice by Juliet Faithfull
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A heart-rending and hopeful debut about a teenage girl in 1970s Brazil who is unexpectedly torn away from her disabled twin sister—and who must learn what it means to fight for those we love when all the odds are stacked against us.
Everyone knows, but no one talks.
Identical twins Dolores and Mita grow up in lockstep in rural Brazil, speaking their own secret language, dancing together, inseparable even when they sleep. But at age seven, they discover that Mita has a degenerative condition—and Dolores does not. On the cusp of adolescence, Mita's illness becomes debilitating, and without telling Dolores, their parents send Mita across the Atlantic Ocean to a hospital in their father’s native London.
The rest of the family moves to Rio and begins to live a bourgeois lifestyle, but Dolores is miserable there. She misses her small-town and most especially her twin, who her parents seem to have forgot ever existed. And she has no way to contact Mita—particularly since, at twelve years old, Dolores still cannot read or write. She is desperate to speak to her again—and desperately alone and unhappy at her posh new school. But everything begins to change when she meets a brave, headstrong girl from the favelas who shows Dolores a new side of Rio, and how to survive it.
Tensions are on the rise with the dictatorial government cracking down on protesters and dissenters. Both at home and in the country at large, there are cover-ups at play—and Dolores pushes to find the truth about right and wrong, her lost sister and her place in life. In a setting where repression and silencing were part of everyday life, Liar’s Dice is about the secrets we hold, both personal and political, and the consequences of keeping them. Atmospheric and intimate, Juliet Faithfull's coming of age novel captures the intensity of forming your own identity, and the courage and love required to forge a different life.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Coming of age, authoritarian politics, intellectual disabilities, twinhood bonds, adolescent-female angst, dual timelines, disappearing siblings...holy crap, lady, pick two and master those before going wide! Debut novels get graded on a curve around here but wow is this ambitious story trying to do too much and not succeeding at most of it.
I feel sure the readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories with a political edge, and the readers who recently discovered Brazil's fascinating culture, will love this read.
Random House (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) would like $13.99 for you to legally access an ebook. I myownself would point you to the library.
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Dark Is When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Unrelentingly scary and thrilling, Dark Is When the Devil Comes is an ambitious and chilling novel from acclaimed horror author Daisy Pearce.
The woods are known as the place to avoid. What goes in, doesn’t come out.
Hazel has been gone from her small hometown of Idless in the English countryside for years. Now returned in the wake of a traumatic divorce and crumbling personal life, her simple plans are to lay low at her parents’ vacated house, reconnect with her prickly sister Cathy, and slowly get back on her feet.
Cathy is surprised when Hazel doesn’t show. Their relationship strained from a fallout half a decade ago, she didn’t expect them to get back into a sisterly rhythm…though she hadn’t counted on Hazel bailing, either.
But something isn’t adding up. Other people in town whisper of a threat that can’t be shaken. The woods are known for being restless. And Cathy knows the old saying.
If you go looking for trouble, you just might find it.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Hazel returns to her childhood home covered in mud and misery, smeared with the wreckage of a horrible divorce. She wants to see if her bond with Cathy, her sister, is still functional,if home is still home, if there is in fact another life to replace the one she's lost.
Home is, unexpectedly, scarier than her ruined life in deeply weird and uneasy ways. As she tries to make sense of the changes and the alienness surrounding her, Hazel vanishes leaving Cathy to discover dark and stormy lies underpinning both women's lives.
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) thinks $14.99 is a just and reasonable demand to make on your wallet in exchange for this story. Sure, why not.
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Morsel by Carter Keane
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: The Blair Witch Project meets The Ritual, with a generous helping of The Menu, in Morsel, a delicious folk horror novella perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, Cassandra Khaw, and Paul Tremblay.
Lou did what the children of parents with back-breaking, poor paying jobs are supposed to do; pulled up her bootstraps, went to college, and got an office job with coworkers who won’t stop talking about their multi-level marketing scheme disguised as self-betterment.
Determined to lift her ill mother out of poverty before it's too late, and in the spirit of climbing the corporate ladder, Lou accepts an assignment in the rural hills of Ohio. She quickly finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with a sabotaged truck, a dog she’s determined to keep safe, and something stalking her through the ancient Appalachian woods.
If she can’t escape the woods in time, she’ll come face to face with the fact that her job isn’t the only thing that wants to eat her alive.
Morsel is a chilling testament to the burden of generational poverty and the all-consuming nature of capitalism, where the monster and the monstrous, in the end, are not the same.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Monstruous is the right term for the system excoriated in this story. I use it in place of the modern "monstrous" to send you on the hunt that will cast you up on John Knox's tedious doorstep to show you how long (since 1558, at least) we've been shouting at the Powers That Be there's something very wrong with the way things are and, if you're all not very careful, 1789 could be prologue not footnote.
The huge challenge of the novella form is to keep the pace up while still using your story to make the point you're after making; this story chose pace over story so gets a tiny ding off its stars, but what an ambitious swing it was!
Tor Nightfire (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) needs you to give them $12.99 to read it. Unless your library is very good about buying horror, buying it's your best bet.
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Blood Trail by Matt Query and Harrison Query
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: A poacher-turned-game-warden is on the hunt for a bloodthirsty cult in this unnerving thriller from the authors of the “artful chiller” (Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Wilderness Reform.
Clark Rickert was once the most prolific big game poacher throughout the Rocky Mountain west but when he lost both his son and his wife, he turned away from hunting. Now a game warden working for the very law enforcement officers that once pursued him so aggressively, Clark is overwhelmingly successful at his job.
So, when there’s a string of disappearances in rural Montana, Clark is selected to join a task force on an operation targeting a mysterious, violent cult in the area. As he works to uncover the truth, Clark begins to be plagued by visions and starts to realize that there is a deeper purpose to his assignment and the cult might up to something far more terrifying than anyone could have guessed.
From two authors who “set themselves apart with sterling prose” (Publishers Weekly), Blood Trail is an eerie and suspenseful horror novel that will sink its teeth in you.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A dark, violent mix of dad-book, supernatural/cult thriller, and weirdly ambiguous redemption arc for a bad hombre. I was awash in acronym soup, annoyed by the way Clark vacillates between his draw towards and repulsion by the acts of the baddies, and the sheer overwhelming sausage party atmosphere of the whole exercise.
It's not bad, it's not great, and it is too damn long.
Emily Bestler Books/Atria (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) takes $14.99 for your access to the ebook.
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Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: A cursed princess must discover what her heart truly longs for in this charmingly cozy romantic fantasy for everyone who’s ever lost—or found—themselves in a bookshop.
Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar is disillusioned with life as a princess. She longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own making, and uninterrupted reading time.
During a routine royal visit to the town of Little Pepperidge, Tandy’s dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she unlocks her heart’s desire. Certain that someone will figure out how to break the curse eventually, and delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among the stacks. She finds it easy to exchange balls and endless state dinners for teetering piles of books and an irritatingly handsome pirate who seems bent on stealing her stock.
She even starts to believe she's stumbled into her very own happily ever after.
There's just one, minor problem: as Tandy's royal duties go unfulfilled, her frantic parents start sending princes to woo her, each one of them certain their kiss will break the curse. After all, what more could a princess want but a prince?
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Found-family romantasy with an utterly ensorcelling premise of being cursed to spend your life in a bookshop (!!) until you figure out what your heart's true desire is. That scenario being my heart's true desire I guess I'd be there the rest of my days. Boo hoo.
Don't look for world-building, magic-system development, or deviation from heteronormativity. All vibes, no plot, and you're golden; I was modestly involved throughout.
Ace (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks you to hand over $14.99 for an ebook. Do it if you're in need of an "aaawww" read.
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The Heavy Side: A Novel by Ben Rogers
Rating: 2* of five, all for the idea
The Publisher Says: The Heavy Side explores the unlikely and fateful collaboration of a hotshot Silicon Valley programmer and a Mexican drug cartel.
Vik Singh has developed a clever app for drug dealers, and now both the DEA and the cartel are after him. Narrated by Vik's girlfriend, Remi, the story grapples with America’s insatiable hunger for drugs and the human toll it takes on our neighbors to the south. We witness a young man confronting his artistic pride and a young couple trying to make up for past betrayals.
"The Social Network" meets "Narcos" in this suspenseful and intelligent literary thriller.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Very very dull. I took over five years to finish it but I did, so I'm counting it as a full-blown read. The idea appeals to me, the nerdy tech scum agreeing to make an app to *help*a*drug*dealer*succeed* without irony, or implicit condemation.
I wondered if the author's ever had an actual conversation with a female human. The "girlfriend" character was laughably "seductive"...even your sister could tell you no woman thinks the word "coquettish" in reference to blotting her lipstick.
CQ Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) wants $19.95 for a paperback.
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This space is dedicated to Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, or "the Pearl Rule" as I've always called it. After realizing five times in December 2021 alone that I'd already Pearl-Ruled a book I picked up on a whim, I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to track my Pearls!
As she says:
People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.
So this space will be each month's listing of Pearl-Ruled books. Earlier Pearl-Rule posts will be linked below the current month's crop.
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Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, and Kim (29%) by Brandon K. Gauthier
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Should we humanize the world's most inhumane leaders?
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.
Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world.
The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I finally admitted to myself, as I was about to embark on the chapter where Lenin's brother is executed by the tsar's regime, that I do not care. These men were not monsters, but they were bloody-handed, bloody-minded murdering bastards, so knowing they were once belovèd sons/brothers/husbands did nothing to make me loathe them less.
The author's written a darn good book, carefully sourced and cited, that tried to do something to me I did not want done. YMMV
Tortoise Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) only wants $9.99 for the ebook! Go get one!
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