Book 58.5: Tales of the Otherworld

I’m not counting this as a full book as it’s more of Kelley Armstrong’s short stories about the characters from her Women of the Otherworld series, but I only read two of them. The first, ‘Beginnings’, was about Clay and Elena, my favourite werewolves, and focuses on the early days of their relationship: How they met, fell in love, and Clay’s struggle over telling Elena the truth of what he is. It flips back and forth between their perspectives so we get to see how they both react to the situations they’re in. I like reading from Clay’s point of view and it was nice to see Elena before she became a werewolf. Mostly I was happy to finally see why Clay chose to bite her, given he knew the consequences.

The second story I read, ‘Wedding Bell Hell’, is told from Paige Winterbourne’s point of view as she gears up to her marriage to Lucas Cortez. Paige is a witch we first met in Stolen, and the next two novels in the series follow her but I’ve yet to read them, so I didn’t know everyone involved. It’s a cute little story which doesn’t add anything to Paige’s back story that I can tell, but it’s sweet and fun. I didn’t read any of the rest of the stories as I haven’t come across a lot of the characters yet, and as some are quite short and self contained it’s difficult to get involved without knowing more. I may revisit them at a later date if I do read all of the other books.

Book 58: The Strain

A well known fact about me is that I scare easily and yet happily inflict scary things upon myself, usually watching horror films when it’s dark and I am alone in the house. Like that time I decided to watch The Blair Witch Project and my mum rang to say she wouldn’t be coming home and I had to sleep with the hall light on. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch The Orphanage as yet though, but I will one day. I mention that as it was directed by Guillermo del Toro, also responsible for the brilliant Pan’s Labyrinth, and author of The Strain, co-written with Chuck Hogan, whom I’m afraid I’ve never heard of. It’s rare that a book makes me feel afraid, or tense, and yet this did so quite often. Up until the halfway point I would have raved about it and said you must read it, but I’ll get to that.

The Strain takes the idea of vampirism as a virus and runs with it, giving vampires a new lore and a new appearance, one that’s decidedly unattractive and definitely not sparkly. A plane lands at New York’s JFK airport seemingly with no problem, then shuts down completely with no communication from the pilot or crew. The blinds are drawn and there’s no movement. Fearing some sort of attack or disease outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control is called in, and Dr Ephraim Goodweather and his colleague Nora Martinez arrive to assess the situation. Suiting up in protective gear they board the plane and find all passengers and crew dead, except for four survivors, with no idea what has killed them. The people are upright in their seats with no visible marks or reactions to poisonous agents. Eph is initially baffled but his investigation is hindered by three of the survivors refusing to stay in hospital and going home to their families.

As this unfolds we learn the back story of Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor who has seen more than his fair share of horrors, and not at the hands of the Nazis. He knows what is about to happen, a centuries old truce having been broken and one of the ancients has landed on American soil, with help from a human. He is determined to stop the spreading contagion and kill the Master, hooking up with Eph and Nora as a wider conspiracy discredits them.

Added to this are the stories of the survivors as they succumb to the virus. Initially presenting as a sore throat, it rapidly spreads through the body mutating the organs and giving the host the overwhelming need to feed. A barbed stinger grows in their mouths to shoot out at their victims and incapacitate them, drawing in the blood. A homing instinct takes them back to their loved ones and so family members turn on each other in a battle to survive. Each sting turns another person into a vampire, and soon New York City is being overrun.

As I said, I really enjoyed the first half of this. Although it was a bit of a slow burner, enough was going on to keep me intrigued, and it gave me a chance to get to know the characters and their histories, so I became more attached to them. There’s a great sense of dread throughout, as you feel early on that it’s going to get out of control and most likely not end well. And there are plenty of parts where the tension rackets up a notch when unsuspecting people are confronted by turning loved ones and forced to fight or flee. It’s also sad, as the dead on the plane are reanimated as vampires, their relatives having being told they’re dead. So when they arrive on their doorstep there’s an initial feeling of hope and amazement, followed by fear and most often death of a different kind. The book is especially gripping in these moments, and scary, and I was racing through to find out what became of everyone. But this is also part of its problem, for me. There are just too many of these scenes, and after a while I was fatigued by it and skimmed through it. It was just yet another side character about to be picked off by one or more vampires, and there are only so many times you can feel afraid for someone and want them to run away before it becomes repetitive and tiresome. It began to feel a bit like filler, like they knew they were good at this stuff so keep throwing it in there., when really I wanted the plot to move on a bit.

Once the virus starts to spread and they begin hunting the Master it lost a lot of its charm for me. I didn’t find it explained very well what they hoped to achieve by killing him. Would it somehow stop the already spreading contagion? Or once they stop him can they deal with the new vampires? And could they not do a better job of alerting the world to this plague? Eh, I dunno, there were just bits where I felt it was lacking. So it’s good fun, but not amazingly well written, the writing style giving it more of a trashy feel (for want of a better word) that you can burn through quite quickly. I’m not sure I would have picked this up had I known it was the first in a trilogy, since I’m not overly fond of waiting for books to come out to finish a story. I might pick up the next one, but the ending of this didn’t leave me in any rush to. It’s a shame though, I really did enjoy this to begin with.

Book 57: Men of the Otherworld

After enjoying the first two novels in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series I decided to give her collections of short stories a go. These were originally written for her website, I guess as a thank you to her readers, and were later put together and released in book form with money from sales going to charity. Which is nice. Men of the Otherworld has four stories about the men from the Pack, those that are important to Elena. I haven’t read any of her other novels beyond the first two that focus on Elena, and the last story does contain some spoilers for later books in the series, though not enough to ruin it for you completely. I’m a little annoyed that I know some of what’s coming now, but that’s just me.

The first story, Infusion, takes place in 1946 as a baby boy is born into the pack. Remember, only male children are claimed by Pack members and taken from their mothers, girls don’t turn when born to werewolves. This is Antonio, born to the Pack Alpha, Dominic. Malcolm Danvers is taking some ribbing from his friends for not having sons of his own, and he ends up following a young waitress and having a good old time, since he can tell she’s fertile. That’s a neat trick. There’s something unusual about her though, and some chanting and symbol drawing going on. Her leaves her be, but stalks her for a while after to see if she is pregnant, which she is. He intends to claim the boy but when he realises his kid is different decides to leave him be, until his father meddles and demands he see his grandson. So Malcolm claims him, Jeremy, and pretty much makes his life a living hell from then on.

In the next two stories, Savage and Ascension, we’re in Clay’s mind, as he is bitten as a young boy and left to fend for himself as he Changes, through being discovered and beaten by Malcolm and eventually taken in by Jeremy, who earns his trust and loyal devotion. Jeremy tries to civilise Clay but it’s not an easy task, just getting him to speak in full sentences takes an age. And then there are troubles at school and his meeting with other Pack children that don’t go so well. As he ages he learns about Jeremy and Malcolm’s relationship and understands that Malcolm is a threat, and someone who wouldn’t think twice about killing his own son if money weren’t involved. In Ascension we get to see how Jeremy became the Pack Alpha we see in Bitten, and how the Pack lost so many of its members.

Finally there’s Kitsunegari, set in 2007, and follows Jeremy and a glimpse into his relationship with a woman named Jaime Vegas, who I’m assuming will pop up in the other novels at some point. He is followed by an unusual woman and, when Jaime is taken, goes to meet her and her equally unusual sisters, and learn more about his heritage and why he can do things other werewolves can’t.

It was nice to get more of an insight into these men’s lives and thoughts, especially Clay, since I have a total soft spot for him, and this gives a better understanding of why he acts like he does in the novels, particularly towards Elena. I would have liked to have learned more about his reasons for biting Elena and how he rationalised it to himself, but hopefully that will pop up in later stories. I’m still enjoying Armstrong’s writing and these are quick and easy reads to disappear into, with a fair amount of action and decent characters. I’m not sure if I’m going to like the books that don’t focus on Elena and the Pack as much as I have these, but I’ll give them a go.

Book 56: Pasadena

In 1940s California a real estate developer, Andrew Jackson Blackwood, stumbles upon Condor’s Nest and its owner, Bruder. Blackwood wants to buy the property but initially Bruder sends him away, onto another piece of land, the Rancho Pasadena, and wouldn’t you know it, Bruder owns that as well. Eager to do business, Blackwood gets to know Bruder and the past of both properties, how they came to be in his possession, and more specifically, his relationship with a woman named Linda Stamp.

Linda was born in 1903 in the small town of Baden-Baden-by-the-Sea, and grew up at Condor’s Nest. Her father Dieter is German and her mother Valencia is Mexican. We learn their stories as well as Linda’s and her brother, Edmund’s. Linda grows up a free spirit, helping out on the onion farm and becoming an expert fisherwoman and lobster catcher. Her brother Edmund is somewhat weak willed and Dieter feels he will not be able to take over the running of the farm. During WW1 Dieter joins up and goes over seas, returning with a young man, Bruder, who comes to live with them. Linda and Bruder have chemistry from the start, but how he came to meet her father and exactly what kind of deal has been made between them, Linda does not know.

Later Bruder goes to work at the Rancho Pasadena, and Linda joins him. He runs the orange groves for rich boy Willis Poore, whom Bruder also met during the war and has a deal with. Bruder assumes that once he has made something of himself he will be able to be with Linda, thinking his feelings for her are clear. But of course nothing runs smoothly and story heads towards ‘tragedy’. (I put it in inverted commas because, though I assume it’s supposed to be tragic, I didn’t get that feeling at all.)

The book is separated into sections, moving backwards and forwards in time, sometimes with Bruder being in charge of the tale, and at others its Mrs Cherry Nay, an old friend old friend of Linda’s who is helping to sell the ranch, and who knows the story from Bruder.

I really enjoyed David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife and was eager to read some of his other novels. It’s a shame that this one hasn’t left the same impression. A quote on the front of the book fromThe Wall Street Journal says ‘Wuthering Heights meets East of Eden.’ I haven’t read either and now am not inclined to, although I can only assume they are much better than this. One of the problems I had with it was that it’s trying very hard to be a moving, sprawling family saga of love and betrayal and missed opportunities, but it misses the mark. I didn’t really care about Bruder or Linda, finding it hard to be sympathetic toward people who are mostly at fault for their own circumstances. It would be one thing if it were the times or something else outside of their control which kept them apart, but it’s not, it’s just themselves and their own stubbornness. If they had just been honest with each other about how they felt they could have spared each other much of their misery. There was just no reason for either of them not to say what they wanted, there would have been no terrible consequences, and as the novel continued their lack of awareness grew more and more irritating and removed any sense of tragedy that there could have been, and I considered giving up on the book more than once.

The book also wants to keep you guessing with its revelations and withholds information for some time, but instead of making you intrigued it’s just unnecessarily confusing and by the time the revelations did come I’d forgotten what was so important about them to begin with. There’s no need for it to be so convoluted in structure, zipping about from past to present, trying to be cryptic, and I don’t really think the storyline with Blackwood and Mrs Nay works at all. I can see what Ebershoff was trying to do, but there are too many times when the story is getting going and then one or the other will decide not to tell that part, and Blackwood has to go off and find the other for the next piece of the puzzle. It’s not like they don’t both know the whole story, it’s just a way to eke it out a bit longer.

I will say that it started off quite well, and that Ebershoff’s writing is quite lovely, if a little bogged down with too much detail. I understand he must have researched Pasadena’s history but we don’t need to know it all to set the scene. I also really liked Linda as a young girl and into early adulthood. She seemed feisty and smart and looked to make her mark on the world, she wanted more than what was expected of her as a woman. And then she grows up and seems to lose all her independent spirit, becomes trapped between two men and loses all sense of perspective and the ability to judge when people are telling the truth. It was very difficult to have any sympathy for her, even toward the end when things are going rather badly.

I’m not saying I won’t pick up any of Ebershoff’s other books after this, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend this as your first read. Stick to The 19th Wife.

Book 55: Prodigal Summer

It’s my second and last Barbara Kingsolver birthday book, and alas I am not going out on a high note. Sorry Barbara. The book is split into sections, each focusing on a different character. In ‘Predators’ Deanna Wolfe is a forest ranger and protector happily living alone in a cabin, undisturbed for most of the time. She’s in her mid-forties and divorced, and doesn’t miss anything about civilisation. Part of her job sees her studying the animal life on the mountain, and she’s tracking a family of coyotes that have moved in. She’s startled one day by Eddie Bondo, a hunter almost half her age. They start a relationship, but their belief systems are at odds.

In ‘Moth Love’, city girl Lusa is newly married and trying to fit into farm life and deal with her husband’s family of five sisters. She thinks they resent her for moving into the family home and that they don’t even try to understand her. Early on in the story she is widowed and left the family farm and its debts, and she struggles to make a living and get to know her sisters-in-law better. She does befriend her nephew, Little Rickie, and an elderly neighbour, Garnett Walker. With his help she hatches a plan to make money and slowly gains acceptance from her in-laws.

And finally there’s ‘Old Chestnuts’, and Garnett Walker’s feud with his neighbour, Nannie Rawley (Deanna’s step-mother for all intents and purposes). He is outraged that Nannie refuses to use pesticides on her orchards and lets the bugs run riot. He is trying to breed American Chestnuts again as they have almost disappeared due to disease, and is fanatical in his thinking, about how to manage bugs and religion. Of course, Nannie Rawley will not be bullied and gives as good as she gets.

Ooh boy did I struggle with this one, and I’m not even sure why. I have always enjoyed Kingsolver’s writing before this, so I’m not sure if I just wasn’t in the mood for this kind of book, or if maybe it’s not quite as good as her others. I think the problem was that the story just didn’t grab me. It’s nice enough and we get to meet some quirky characters within the sections and then discover how they are connected. It’s clever with its revelations, some of which you could miss if you’re not paying attention (which I wasn’t really and I had to go back and check some things), but at least it doesn’t beat you over the head with it, it’s there for you to discover. I just found it a little…dry. I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters or their stories. I mostly meandered along with them, not overly interested but hoping I would become so. I should have been moved by some of it, as it deals with illness and the loss of loved ones, and there’s a lot of sadness in these characters’ lives. I just couldn’t feel it.

And at times it felt more like I was being preached at than reading a novel for enjoyment. Characters in each section have basically the same conversation: killing predators is bad. We need them to regulate the environment so the pests don’t get out of control. We need to learn how things work before destroying them and be more at one with our surroundings. Deanna has this conversation with Eddie at least three times. Yes it highlights the friction in their relationship and their differences, but it’s clear from the beginning neither will change their mind, move on to something else. I did enjoy Lusa’s story more than the others I think, and would have been happy to have the book concentrate on her fully and have the others be a part of that. I’m not sure I took much away from Deanna though.

I am glad I finished it, but it took far longer than I expected it to, mostly because I didn’t feel the need to pick it up like I usually do when I’m reading a novel I’m enjoying. Some days I avoided it entirely. This makes me sad, because I do really enjoy Barbara Kingsolver, just not this one. She’s definitely written better.

Book 54: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

And I’m back to Stephen King, possibly overdosing on supernatural related fiction and in need of a break from it, but this was at least less full on with its otherworldly elements. Here, 9 year old Trisha goes hiking with her mother and older brother Pete in the woods in Maine. Her mother and Pete are constantly arguing since her parents divorced and their mother moved them away from their father and friends. Trisha hangs back on the trail, sick of listening to them, and wanders off down another trail to pee. She can still her them arguing from where she is, and so decides to take a shortcut to them through the trees. She then falls down a slope and becomes disoriented, but thinks she still knows the way. Until it becomes apparent that she doesn’t. What follows is Trisha’s battle for survival, as a town girl lost in an unfamiliar environment.

Luckily she is smart, and she makes what little food and water she has last. She decides to follow a creek, rationalising that water will lead her to people. Unfortunately this takes her further and further from civilisation, and the rescuers who believe a girl her age could not have walked very far. She spends her nights huddled up under her waterproof poncho, listening to the radio on her walkman. Sometimes she hears news of her own disappearance and search attempts, but mostly she listens to Red Sox games. Her favourite player is Tom Gordon, and she wears his baseball cap with signature across the brim.

Initially she thinks she will be found soon, but as the days wear on Trisha begins to lose hope. She has to forage for food, thankfully listening to her mother when she told her which berries she could eat, but growing weaker and sicker as the creek water upsets her stomach and the endless walking takes its toll. There’s also fear to contend with, as Trisha feels something watching her in the trees. At first she tells herself it’s just her imagination, and not to be afraid. But later, as she weakens, she starts to hallucinate, picturing Tom Gordon walking with her as a guide, and other, more frightening things that she cannot determine are real or in her head.

This is a slow burner of a book, and much of the fear that comes from it is psychological rather than straight out horror. It’s the fear of what you would do if you were in Trisha’s situation, would you survive lost in the woods for over a week? Would you as a 9 year old? I don’t think I would. I don’t think I would now even. I became incredibly attached to Trisha, which isn’t hard to do as she is the main focus of the book, but she’s also a likable child, and brave and tenacious. She does make mistakes of course, but not out of stupidity, it’s just that she doesn’t know any better, she’s trying her best. Every time something bad happened to her I felt it. I wanted her to be found so badly, and feared that she wouldn’t be. King offers you glimmers of hope for her and then snatches them away in the next sentence. And, as if being lost in the woods isn’t bad enough, there’s the added creepiness of the thing that is watching her. Or is it? Is it just Trisha’s fear and sickness that is creating it?

King describes Trisha’s journey vividly, you can almost feel the mosquitoes sucking at her flesh, the bites causing her skin to itch and swell, the hunger taking over and the ever present fear niggling at her. Your hope stays alive as long as Trisha’s does, but there are moments when it wavers, and her breakdowns are very moving. I was less interested in the baseball bits, and the extended metaphor that goes on, but it works within the setting, and has a nice pay off at the end, so it’s merely my lack of knowledge of the game that’s an issue there. What I liked about it was that, in the end it’s up to Trisha to save herself, and also discover whether she is worthy of survival. For anyone looking for an action packed or horror filled King book, you might be disappointed, but for a quick, fulfilling read, it’s a treat.

Book 53: Stolen

Stolen is the second novel in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series. It continues the story of Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in existence. Following up a tip on suspected ‘mutt’ activity (non-Pack werewolves), Elena discovers werewolves are not the only supernatural beings in the world. There are also witches, and half-demons, and sorcerers, for starters. A group of these beings has banded together against a common enemy, an unknown force is capturing otherworldly beings, and they’re after Elena too. After discussing their options and finding themselves at odds, Elena and Jeremy decide not to join the group, hoping to deal with the threat themselves. Then Elena is captured and awakens in a cell. She is a prisoner, unable to escape.

Also in the cells are a young witch just coming into her powers, a half-demon, and another werewolf. Her captors show her around the facility, always with armed guard and in shackles, and she discovers they want to study her and the others to learn from them, and hopefully give themselves powers, and create a superior race. One of the doctors becomes obsessed with becoming a werewolf, and injects herself with Elena’s saliva, causing all sorts of problems and taking away Elena’s status as lone female werewolf. Elena also has to contend with mad billionaire Tyrone Winsloe who enjoys hunting his captives and sees her as the ultimate prey. Elena must decide who to trust in order to escape before she becomes the hunted.

It took me some time to get into this one, the beginning with the introduction to the other supernatural characters was quite slow and seemed to go on too long for me. I wouldn’t say Armstrong is an amazing writer, though most of it is very enjoyable, but she can tread water a bit too much, going over the same sort of things, and action, so it gets repetitive. This was especially so when Elena was captured and in her cell. There’s lots of ‘Today was much like the day before and I’m very mad about it’ bits. I wanted something else to happen. I’m also not totally sure what the people who captured her were truly after, other than having the money to experiment on the supernaturals and play with them for their own amusement, I don’t know what the end game was. I said earlier that it was to create a more powerful human race, but I’m not convinced that’s right. And those holding her were quite forthcoming about what they told Elena, showing her around and calling her a guest, which seemed to be more for the reader’s benefit than Elena’s, so we would be in on it rather than in the dark with not much happening.

The next book in the series doesn’t follow Elena, it follows Paige, a young witch from Stolen. She was fairly annoying as a character throughout much of the book, only redeeming herself slightly at the end, so I’m not sure how eager I am to spend a whole book in her head, but I might give it a go. I generally enjoy Elena’s world though, and will read her other books if I can’t get into the next one.

Book 52: Dead in the Family

I really enjoyed the first few Sookie Stackhouse books. Actually, I have probably really enjoyed most of them, but I have felt my enthusiasm wane over the last couple, and it’s the same here. In Dead in the Family Sookie and the supernatural world are getting over the Fairy War from the last book. Sookie needs to heal more than just physically, and she’s missing those she lost, and those that have sealed themselves in the land of Fae away from humans.

There’s also fallout from the Weres coming out to society like vampires did, and there’s discussion among humans about all two natured needing to register their abilities, as well as some protests at Sam’s bar. Alcide asks Sookie if his pack can run on her land, as there are hunters on his. She agrees, but this comes with a price when a body is found buried there later. Sookie’s fairy cousin Claude moves in, as he’s lonely now he’s cut off from those of his kind, and he’s lost both his sisters. There’s also more family trials for Sookie when she babysits Hunter, her cousin Hadley’s son who shares Sookie’s telepathic powers. The family theme continues when Eric’s maker, the Roman Appius Livius Ocella, comes to town with his other son, Alexei Romanov, who is somewhat unhinged and difficult to control. Eric and Sookie don’t spend a lot of time together because of this, but their blood bond is still strong.

The book is quite slow, until the end when it picks up pace almost too much in an ending that feels rushed. Not a lot happens for much of it, plot-wise, it’s definitely a slow burner after the action of the last book, and is more an attempt to regroup and spend more time with the people important to Sookie, as well as the townsfolk. To say there’s nothing going on is probably not right, but it flits about storylines and characters and it lessens the impact of it. Threads seems to be picked up and put down again on a whims, as something more interesting occurred to Harris and off she runs with it. We get the who’s who of pregnancies and relationships, but it’s not very meaty. It’s also not as funny as the past books have been.

As is often the case, putting a couple together after so long of will-they won’t-they limits the storyline and takes away a lot of the tension. I was desperate for Sookie and Eric to get together and now they are…it’s just lost most of its spark. What has happened to Eric? He was my favourite character. He was wicked and saucy and he wanted Sookie and was frustrated he couldn’t have her. And now he does and he’s lost all his personality. He’s sort of under the thumb and like a love sick teenager. He needs some oomph because at the moment he’s not nearly as sexy as he used to be, and it’s hurting the series for me.

It’s difficult for me to remember things that have happened in past books, and although I usually hate series that bludgeon you over the head with what’s gone before in case there’s a new reader, it wouldn’t hurt to give us a reminder every now and again. I feel like I’m missing out on things I should be aware of, but short of reading every book again when a new one comes out I’m not sure what to do. Anyway, it was enjoyable and a quick read, but I wish there had been a bit more to it. I’ll continue reading the series because I do care about the characters and want to see it how it plays out, but I hope there’s an end point in sight. I think any series that goes on too long wears out its welcome.

And with that I have finished my 52 books in a year challenge. I will continue posting reviews to see how many I can read by November. I’m hoping to make it to 100 this time.

Book 51: Animal Dreams

I’m a big fan of Barbara Kingsolver, and have been since I first read The Poisonwood Bible years ago, so I was very happy to receive two of her books for my birthday. The first one, Animal Dreams, is about Cosima (Codi) Noline, who returns to her hometown of Grace after 15 years away, to look after her ailing father, Doc Homer. He is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and often relives moments of Codi’s childhood as if it is happening now. Codi’s younger sister Hallie has recently gone to Nicaragua to help local people learn farming techniques, and lives among many others who are trying to help while contending with the contras and the interference from the US. Codi is afraid for her sister, but also proud of her, that she can put others before herself, while Codi runs from most things.

While back in Grace, Codi works as a science teacher at the local high school and lives with an old friend, Emelina, who has five young sons. Codi was very close to following in her father’s footsteps and becoming a doctor, but she left after an incident made her realise she wasn’t cut out for that life. She has drifted in dead end jobs ever since. She also reconnects with an old high school lover, Loyd, and through him learns more about Grace and the surrounding area, and begins putting together pieces of her past that she has almost completely wiped from her memory. There are some mysteries to be solved, like how her family didn’t come from Grace originally, yet the family name is in the graveyard, and just what Codi saw the day her mother died. There’s also a grass roots movement to save the town from developers who want to dam the river, which would kill off the surrounding orchards, and Grace’s main livelihood.

The story is told in different sections, in the first person by Codi, and the third person from her father’s perspective. Codi has always seen him as distant and cold, not understanding her or Hallie, and being the source of a lot of angst for them growing up. But his sections let us see how much he loved his daughters, and how much his illness is affecting his memory. I liked Codi for the most part, but she is incredibly flawed. Her response to most things is to run away, even when she has lots of reasons to stay. She feels like an outsider living in Grace, even though she grew up there, and never felt like she truly fit in, her mother and father moving there from Illinois before she was born. But the outsider thing didn’t make a huge amount of sense to me, seeing as all the other characters in the book seem extremely welcoming of Codi, and understanding. And her father isn’t really that bad. She kept making comments about how ‘You don’t grow up like we did and not have issues,’ or something like that, but the most hateful thing I could see he did was not be as honest and open with his daughters as he could be, and making them wear orthopedic shoes to school. And since he was grieving for his wife, I think his behaviour is mostly understandable. Mostly Codi creates problems for herself, which makes her hard to sympathise with at times.

Having said that, I did really enjoy the book. It was slow to get into at first, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. There is a lot of description to wade through, but since Kingsolver’s writing is so beautiful it’s not much of a hardship. I liked the other characters and getting snippets of their lives, and her relationship with Loyd was very lovely. One thing I would have liked more of was Hallie. She leaves ‘off screen,’ and we only get her point of view through her letters to Codi. I would have liked to have seen more interaction between the sisters. It’s clear there’s a lot of love there, but they’re very different and it would have been nice to have Hallie in there to tell Codi off every once in a while. I did find the ending to be very moving, if a little predictable, and this book isn’t as good, or I suppose as ambitious, as The Poisonwood Bible, but it was a very nice read. And I’m still very much looking forward to reading the second Kingsolver book that’s awaiting me.

Book 50: Bitten

Elena Michaels is an ordinary woman, living in Toronto with her boyfriend, Philip, and working as a journalist. She’s happily going along with her life, hanging out with Philip’s family, helping to arrange a bridal shower, when a phone call turns her world upside down. See, unfortunately for her she’s not ordinary at all, she’s a werewolf. And not just a werewolf, the only female werewolf in the world. The phone call comes from Jeremy, and since he is the Pack Alpha, she cannot ignore it. Although she had told herself she was cutting herself off from the Pack and living a normal, human, life from now on, knowing they might be in danger and need her help sends her to New York, and to Stonehaven, the country estate where the Pack live.

Elena was turned into a werewolf against her will, and her human and wolf side are things she battles with everyday. Who is the real her? And how can she ever forgive the person who made her this way? She spends her life in Toronto hiding who she is, unable to tell Philip her secret, sneaking out at night to Change and run free. But in Stonehaven she can be herself, though it’s not a self she particularly likes.

Once at Stonehaven she is welcomed back by the Pack members: Clay, a bitten werewolf too, he was a feral child until Jeremy took him in and raised him, and Clay sees himself as Jeremy’s protector. He can be vicious and kill without remorse, but he won’t go against Jeremy. He finds it difficult to understand human motivations. Nick is a born werewolf, like his father Antonio. The wolf nature travels through the male line only, and sons born of werewolf men are taken from their mothers at an early age and raised by their fathers and the Pack.

Jeremy has called Elena to Stonehaven as a woman has been found killed in town, from what looks like a dog attack. As they investigate they learn that several ‘mutts’ (werewolves who do not belong to the Pack) have come to town, and are looking to make trouble for the Pack, and pick them off one by one.

This is the first book in a series by Kelley Armstrong, and I really enjoyed it. I got it on a bit of a whim and I’m glad I did. It kind of has a Sookie Stackhouse vibe, what with the supernatural element, and there’s lots of ‘torn between lovers’ emotion going on. I liked Elena, I thought she was smart and strong, but not too good to be true. She makes mistakes and rash decisions, but she generally comes good in the end. I also have a total crush on Clay, even if he is basically inept at being a decent human being. I also liked that Armstrong kept me guessing a little in the beginning. She doesn’t dole out huge chunks of back story for Elena and the Pack, we get it gradually, and this kept me interested. I thought I knew early on who had bitten her and turned her into a werewolf against her will (and it turned out I was right), but I did second guess myself a couple of times, unsure. That’s why I’m not blurting it out here. If you haven’t read the book I’m trying to keep spoilers to a minimum. I liked that I didn’t know anything about what was to come. I think Armstrong has created an interesting world, and excellent characters, with enough new lore to set it apart from other werewolf stories, while not making it too unrecognisable. I’ll definitely pick up the next book in the series. Hopefully it will be as enjoyable and quick a read as this was.