Book Review: Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

Lavender House

by Lev A.C. Rosen (Rosen)

 

San Francisco, 1952. Evander ‘Andy’ Mills has just been fired as a police inspector because they found out he’s gay. His plan is to drink all day and take a permanent bath in the bay, but a high class woman comes into the bar and offers Andy a case: find out who murdered her wife. Irene Lamontaine was the famous owner and scent designer for a large soap business. Her secluded country estate, Lavender House, is home to a found-family of queer people. It’s a place where they can be themselves openly, but big business is always a motive and the relationships among the people living in Lavender House have their tensions.

 

This historical mystery was lovely to read for the setting. The author clearly put a lot of work into researching the San Francisco area of the time. Despite being about a murder, I found it to be a story that moves from despair to deeply rooted hope as Andy discovers a form of community he’s never known.

 

It felt a lot like the film Knives Out due to physical and social setting, except with better human beings.

 

( official Lev A.C. Rosen web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Black Tide by K.C. Jones

Black Tide
by K.C. Jones (Jones)

Black Tide is a horror novel reminiscent of disaster thrillers. Instead of something bad happening to people insolation, two people who were in relative isolation come out to find a civil disaster in progress and everyone too busy dying to explain what’s going on.

 

Beth has had trouble keeping her life together but is currently on a good streak as she house-sits (and dog-sits) for a wealthy couple in the Pacific Northwest. Mike is a burned-out film producer trying to drink himself to death next door. There’s a meteor shower the night they meet that leaves strange objects scattered down the beach. Outside their empty-for-the-season neighborhood, they encounter people trying to flee the area by boat and by road. The two of them — plus Jake the yellow lab — soon become stuck on a beach with a violent, unknown threat.

 

Highly engaging.

 

(Recommended for fans of Stephen King’s short stories “The Raft” and “The Mist”, the Strugatsky short story “Roadside Picnic”, the films Attack the Block, Skyline , and Nope, or Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.)

 

( official K.C. Jones web site )

 

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Book Review: The Spite House by Johnny Compton

The Spite House

by Johnny Compton (Compton)

 

Eric is on the run with his daughters when he sees an ad to stay in a haunted house. It’s enough money to make a safe new life for them all.

 

An old woman, terrified by what comes for her cursed family members when they die, hires Eric to stay in the thin house on the hill overlooking her Texas town. Could he be the one to make the house perform on camera to prove the dead are truly active? Then maybe someone will find a way for her to die peacefully.

 

In The Spite House, the violent Civil War history of a small community endures for those capable of seeing it. Eric’s youngest daughter is both the reason they’re in hiding and the most attuned to death. This book is about the twin mysteries of the spite house and of Eric’s family. The old woman is right about this particular family being a catalyst for the house.

 

Strong read-alike for The Shining by Stephen King in terms of a father interviewing to watch a building and bringing a special child into contact with it. It also reminded me of The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson because both are by Black writers uncovering a connection between local history and the present. Finally, it reminded me of The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as Told By His Brother) by David Levithan when I read more about why the family was on the run.

 

( official Johnny Compton web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

The Scourge Between Stars
by Ness Brown (Brown)

If the cover of The Scourge Between Stars reminds you of the film ALIEN (1979), you’re very much on target! This is a fantastic read for anyone wanting another story about an isolated crew hunted by something completely new to them, especially when queer representation or its slim novella length is a plus. One difference is that while Alien has a theme of corporate space exploitation, The Scourge Between Stars concerns interstellar migration following environmental collapse.

 

Contact has been lost to the rest of the migration fleet. Jacklyn, who was born on the enormous ship, is unwillingly in charge after the captain — her father — locked himself in his quarters. Something that functions like invisible turbulence has severely damaged their ship. Things are terrible before Jacklyn starts to hear something moving in the walls.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes or All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes.)

 

( official Ness Brown web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Patricia Wants to Cuddle
by Samantha Allen (Allen)

Patricia Wants to Cuddle is for everyone who wishes that an episode of The Bachelor were interrupted by a killer cryptid. It felt like both a love letter to this style of reality TV and a violent critique of its heteronormativity. At any rate, the writing is so frequently laugh-out-loud fun that I kept reading banger lines to my partner.

 

The setup is that four women are making their way to an island near Seattle for the pen-penultimate round. As an early page that I referred back to frequently puts it: “your official Final Four are: Christian influencer Lilah-Mae Adams, fashion vlogger Amanda Parker, auto show model Vanessa Voorhees, and HR rep Renee Irons.” One woman on the production crew also gets multiple point-of-view chapters. Plus, there are epistolary novel style chapters that cover discussions on the show’s fan forum and a series of diary entries concerning missing hikers from decades before.

 

The contestants are so vividly written that my one complaint about the book is that the horror novel plot does ultimately derail the reality TV drama that I was more invested in. But what can an author do, write poorly instead? This book was a delight to read! My thanks to the library staff member who recommended it recently.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Hide by Kiersten White, Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews or The Grace Year by Kim Liggett.)

 

( official Samantha Allen web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

The Mimicking of Known Successes
by Malka Older (Older)

This science fiction novella is billed as “a cozy gaslamp mystery and sapphic romance set on Jupiter.” Yes, the Earth has become uninhabitable and everyone has somehow managed to relocate to ring stations within the atmosphere of Jupiter. Forget feasible: this is a cool setting to visit!

 

The mystery concerns a scientist who disappeared from a small station on the edge of the settled areas. The obvious conclusion would be that he jumped or was pushed into the cold, crushing gases of the planet. Investigator Mossa — a woman of little small-talk — takes the case and crosses paths with her college girlfriend, Pleiti, a scholar who works with the missing man. Most of the story is told from Pleiti’s perspective. There is an obvious and intentional riff on the relationship between Holmes and Dr. Watson compared to Mossa and Pleiti.

 

I found the case progression a little hard to follow at times, but that could well be my fault. What I really enjoyed was the little reveals about humanity living on Jupiter (of all places), plus the slow burn re-acquaintance of former lovers. This is the start of a series. Book #2 is scheduled for release in February 2024 with the title: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. I, for one, am a sucker for wordy, evocative titles.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal.)

 

( official Malka Older blog/web site – not updated lately ) | ( Malka Older entry on Wikipedia )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Such Sharp Teeth
by Rachel Harrison (Harrison)

Such Sharp Teeth takes the point of view of one identical twin, Rory, who has come back to her hometown to help her sister Scarlett through her first pregnancy. Rory goes to a party and runs into a man who had a one-way crush on her in high school, then — much more literally — runs into something on the road on her way home. When she gets out of her car to investigate: werewolf attack! She survives, heals in hours, but has a whole lot gross things happening to her even before the next full moon.

 

This book is not at all subtle about drawing comparisons between pregnancy and lycanthropy, but that’s okay because that’s what we’re here for. This is a genre blend that respects the complexity of mundane relationships in realistic fiction while also holding nothing back on the supernatural bits. Content warning for child sexual abuse and, separately, for being an adult with an emotionally immature parent. Also plenty of body horror.

 

The wolf is also explored as a metaphor for the rage of women who have to contain themselves either for personal safety or for prioritizing the emotional well-being of other people. The idea is: what if you didn’t?

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage or Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder.)

 

( official Rachel Harrison web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD/Movie Review: Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies
(DVD Bodies)

Bodies Bodies Bodies is variously characterized as a satire, a whodunit, a black comedy, and a horror film. I say “yes” to all of these! I found it strongly reminiscent of Glass Onion, though more realistic and messy. A group of college-age rich kid friends (and a couple of their current partners) are having a house party during a storm with drugs, TikTok video filming, and intense ongoing personal conflicts. They start to play a social deduction game where someone plays the murderer and others tapped in the dark have to play dead. Then the storm knocks out power and one of them is truly dead.

 

This film’s lighting is striking. Much of the film is lit only by cell phones, flashlights, and glow sticks, yet it never feels too dark for the audience to clearly see what’s going on in the foreground. The characters are intense, as concerned about their relationships, their image, and their secrets as they are about being the next to die. The opening scene shows two of the young women making out for a couple of minutes while discussing the upcoming visit. Without giving the audience enough information to make sense of what they’re saying, you can feel their deep insecurities and needs, which sets the tone for the whole story. Bodies Bodies Bodies succeeds in holding tension for the whole runtime and has a reveal that will make you want to watch it all again.

 

Bodies Bodies Bodies was written and directed by women and is queer inclusive. Other recommended watch-alikes are Heathers (1989) and the interactive drama PS4 game Until Dawn (2015).

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

Paladin’s Grace
by T. Kingfisher (downloadable audio)

Stephen is a berserker paladin afraid of losing control now that the god who kept him from harming innocents has died. He and the other surviving paladins serve as clerical guards and emotional support for people giving legal testimony. Stephen knits socks for the paladins to pass the time.

 

Grace is a perfumer with a turbulent past who becomes drawn into a dangerous political conflict, and a serial murder case, and somehow keeps running into a certain large, overly polite paladin. She far exceeds Sherlock Holmes in the olfactory department.

 

Paladin’s Grace is the first volume in a series that has intrigue, violence, hot romance, heart, and humor. Recommended to fans of Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree or Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell.

 

( publisher’s official Paladin’s Strength web page ) | ( official Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Goblin by Josh Malerman

Goblin
by Josh Malerman (Malerman)

I picked up Goblin from a “Goblincore” library display, then looked up what “goblincore” means. According to Collins: “a fashion style that celebrates aspects of nature that are not considered traditionally beautiful, e.g: mushrooms, insects.” I’d say this book counts because of its motifs of near-constant rain, forbidden woods, and dark-plumed owls with creepier than usual eyes.

 

This book bills itself as “A Novel in Six Novellas” though I suspect only one of the stories — “Happy Birthday, Hunter!” — is long enough to count as a novella. The good news is that this long story midway through is truly the star of the collection. Neal Nash is a big game hunter in the small city of Goblin, where it’s almost always raining. It’s his 60th birthday party and everything is pushed to excess (his cake is made from a dozen kinds of game meats). The narrative itself feels like Ray Bradbury’s exuberance. Nash’s house is filled with animals from around the world, but he doesn’t have one of the legendary owls from the forbidden woods north of Goblin. No one has ever killed one. Tonight he’s going to be the first, no matter the cost.

 

The other five stories are all connected to this community in the style of an anthology horror with a wrap-around narrative about delivering a mysterious box. If you liked Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, I’m pretty sure the story “Presto” is a direct tribute. Reading the whole collection straight through adds a lot in terms of setting and vibe, but if you have limited time, I would still recommend “Happy Birthday, Hunter!” as a great standalone experience.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Books of Blood by Clive Barker, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury or A Taste of Honey by Jabari Asim.)

 

( official Goblin page on the official Josh Malerman web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: HellSans by Ever Dundas

HellSans
by Ever Dundas (Dundas)

HellSans has a lot going on, but the first thing you’ll notice is that there are two options for where to start reading. The book as a whole is divided into three parts labeled:

 

• Part One or Two: Icho
• Part One or Two: Jane
• Part Three: HellSans

I opted to start with the Jane narrative which follows the protagonist, Jane, the billionaire head of a personal assistant robotics company who is having a very bad day. As you might guess, the other option is to follow the other protagonist, Icho, who is secretly working on a cure for HellSans Allergy and is also having a very bad day. Not for sensitive readers.

 

The titular “HellSans” is a typeface which produces euphoric “bliss” effects in most people who look at it. It is, of course, used heavily by government and news agencies. Some people are immune to this effect. Still others have a severe allergic reaction to seeing or even visualizing in the typeface. This has led to social ostracization to the point where allergic people are not legally considered human. The personal assistance robots are free to kill them. So, as you might imagine, there’s a lot of political analogy and satire happening in this book.

 

This all might have made for a fine sci-fi novel, but once you’ve gotten through both of the first parts and into the final section, this book gets bold. There’s metatexual play and the stakes change dramatically. I was left with as much appreciation for what HellSans *does* as I did for how it told the story.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, or Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin.)

 

( publisher’s official HellSans web site ) | ( official Ever Dundas page on the Scottish Book Trust web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore

Acts of Violet
by Margarita Montimore (Montimore)

Half of Acts of Violet is composed of a missing person podcast, news articles, emails, and similar coverage of a superstar stage magician (Violet Volk) who disappeared mid-act a decade ago. The other half is a more traditional narrative from the point of view of Violet’s sister, Sasha, who doesn’t want attention from Violet’s fans or podcasters. But Sasha has been waking up in strange places. She’s worried about her daughter who idolizes Violet without knowing the whole story. Is it time to tell her side after all?

 

This book kept me up late two nights in a row and snatching time where I could in the middle. I was glued! There’s some good info here about the history of stage magic and Russian American culture. Is it better to know or not know how an illusion is done? This is a question that comes up throughout this book. Personally, I’ll take a little of both.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan or The Mysterious Disappearance of Aiden S. (as Told By His Brother) by David Levithan.)

 

( official Acts of Violet page on the official Margherita Montimore web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Manhunt
by Gretchen Felker-Martin (Felker-Martin)

Manhunt is one of the most gross and gory books I’ve read. The sci-fi setting is that a pandemic has transformed anyone with high testosterone into monstrous beasts. It’s *almost* a gender plague book crossed with zombie apocalypse. The difference here is that the pandemic doesn’t know anyone’s gender, only their testosterone level. The story centers on two trans women, one trans man, and one cis woman who are trying to find safety in this hellscape of transformed men (mostly) on one side and a military legion of TERF women on the other.

 

From glancing at other reviews, it’s clear that many people dismiss this book as gratuitously violent and insensitive for portraying rapes. It is hard to read; I’ll give them that. For many — even most — readers, this book is not for you and that’s an okay thing for both you and the book. But I think I get it. A while back I read the book Ice by Anna Kavan. That book is also about an apocalypse with horrible sexual violence written by a woman. In both cases, the point is to show something extravagantly horrible on the main stage that we normally expect people to endure, to hide, to be quiet about. We’re comfortable with that status quo: the hellscape already here. Authors should be able to scream about it.

 

Plus, under all the gore, it’s often a funny and poignant book. Strongly recommended to no one in particular.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński or Ice by Anna Kavan.)

 

( publisher’s official Manhunt web page ) | ( official Gretchen Felker-Martin Twitter feed )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes (plus Let's Get Book Together book group tonight!)

Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes

by Travis Baldree (Baldree)

 

Legends & Lattes is a book with serious buzz. The author, a professional audiobook narrator, drafted it during National Novel Writing Month in 2021 then self-published it on Amazon in February 2022. It became an instant word-of-mouth success thanks to social media. Traditional publisher Tor Books hustled to put out a trade paperback by November 2022. Nine translations are currently in progress. And, of course, there’s an audiobook version performed by the author. An amazing success story!

 

The story opens with Viv, an orc warrior, delivering the fatal sword strike to an enormous monster. She wrenches a fabled stone out of its head and walks away into retirement on the spot and without explanation to her Dungeons & Dragons style adventuring party. Viv has a secret plan: open a coffee shop in a city where the ley-lines and the stone will bring fortune. She’ll need all the luck she can get, as she has no experience running a business and the people in this city have never heard of coffee. What she does have is patience, strength, and way of sizing up people (all of whom are considerably smaller than herself). Some of the obstacles seem like they’d be easier if she picked up her sword, but she wants a fresh start with herself as well. On top of all this, one member of her old adventuring band is not satisfied with how things were left off.

 

This book is as cozy and warm as the coffee shop Viv and her new friends create.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis or A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.)

 

( official Legends & Lattes page on the official Travis Baldree web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

Join the discussion of this book tonight at the December 2022 meeting of the Let’s Get Books Together book discussion group at the Gere Branch Library, at 6:30 p.m.