the X VARIANT

The author sent me a copy of her novel to review:

When the author, Rosemary Cole, said her novel would be a post-apocalyptic/time travel/zombie novel, I thought no way. She did accomplish that, but I think that it would have been a smoother trip without the time travel part. Couldn’t they (the Unathi) figure out a cure for the zombie-like virus without going back in time? For that matter, couldn’t the author come up with a better name for the surviving human race of the future other than Unathi...how do you pronounce that? (I’m being picky) Mutating viruses in novels are not new. I wonder if the author got some of her ideas from Michael Crichton. Crichton’s Andromeda Strain (1969) deals with a out of control virus that mutates. And Crichton’s Prey (2002) deals with the nanoswarm similar to Cole’s dronet. If she did read the Crichton novels to get ideas...kudos to her. I can’t think of two better novels to read to gain insight to the future scientific world without boring the reader to death with technical hodgepodge. Rosemary Cole gave the reader just enough technical information to understand what was going on. More importantly she gave the reader (in my opinion) an original story with three dissimilar predicaments in the same novel...well done Rosemary.  

It’s 2616 and life on earth is utopian. Humans have evolved into a super post-apocalyptic being known as the Unathi after a virus notoriously called SHAV (synthetic hemorrhagic airborne virus) almost wiped out earth’s population in 2079. Originally SHAV was created to cure cancer, then unwisely used as a weapon against the United Islamic States...later it mutated into a worldwide killer. The new human model known as the Unathi knows no violence. The current human of 2616 was of the old flesh and bone version combined with a symbiont and undetectable drones. What? Okay, I’ll let our main character, Kala, explain what they are, as she answers a question on how she can detect people, if they are around or not, from a human of the 2079 past, “My symbiont lets me do that,” explained Kala. At his blank stare, she went on. “I am Unathi. We are a symbiotic race, two combined species dependent upon each other - human host and symbiont. Our symbionts evolved from the SHA virus over hundreds of years. It produces drones inside our bodies that can tell us where objects or living things are in our vicinity. They can also pacify humans.” She almost said “or kill them,” but stopped herself just in time. Do you see how easily you can understand the science in this novel without all the technical jargon? Simple and to the point.

Anyhow, The 2616 Unathi rarely had any health issues; that’s why it was a surprise when some of the population developed problems with their drones and the Dronet that connected everyone directly mentality. “Every Unathi individual was carefully engineered (They have careparents, not a mom and dad) in a science that had developed over the centuries since the pandemic, selecting the most desirable genetic material from around the globe...but now there was something wrong. People’s drones had stopped functioning, and no one knew why.” Our heroine, Kala (who has a sentient symbiont and is stronger and faster than the rest of the Unathi’s, but is smaller in stature), was meeting her bondmate (apparently Unathi’s don’t get married), Liet, for lunch at a nearby open-roofed dining room. Liet seemed troubled over what was going on. “Kala fully expected someone to figure out what was going on and make the disappearances stop (people were disappearing from all over North America), but they went on and on...she heard their cries on the Dronet.” Suddenly a man in the dining room started to breathe heavily. Unexpectedly, Kala’s drones couldn’t feel him, it was like he was a animal. His eyes bugged out, bared his teeth and attacked a woman near him. He was killing her, but since the Unathi knew no violence in their utopian world, no one knew how to help her. Kala and Liet ran for their lives. They ran to the airtrain station. A woman on the train turns on a man, sinking her teeth into his neck. The woman had mutated into what’s called a Xin (a X-person, later called a ghal) causing her to become a killer. Kala, Liet and some passengers they met on the train are forced to jump off the train or face death. They are badly hurt from the jump, but the symbionts in their bodies quickly healed their broken bones and other severe injuries.

Afterwards, Kala and the train survivors find a woman who was building a hovering device. They attach it to a floating barge and look for food. They find a rooftop where a holocast conference for the living is just starting. The main speaker is a scientist named Wilm. “Greetings, he said. I am Wilm. I know you’re all thinking that there’s no hope. And you’re right, there is none-not for us personally. But there is hope of saving our kind. Please listen to what I have to say.” He explains that the 2079 virus mutated into different strains. The epsilon strain was flawed and these genes are latent. “We don’t know why they’ve suddenly switched on now, but that’s what has happened in the symbionts of the Xin, and we have the X-variant mutant as a result.” So what’s next? “However, we did discover something we didn’t know: there is one strain that doesn’t have the genetic flaw. Beta has no flaw, Wilm said, Beta is perfect.” Okay, how can they defeat this virus and survive as a race? Alright I will tell you and end this teaser...what happens later is worth the price of this novel. “Now, you’re probably wondering what this discovery can do for us. Well, it can’t save us personally, but it might save the Unathi race. As luck-or fate-would have it, after decades of work my colleagues and I have just completed testing a device for faster-than-light space travel...we are now attempting to convert that technology to time travel, and I believe it will work. If we can go back to 2079 and change the past, we have a chance to save the Unathi.”

Wilm believes that if they go back to 2079 and kill all the humans that have the epsilon strain and protect all the people that have the Beta strain, the future will change and the current virus of 2616 would never have happened. Wow, what a story. But since the Unathi are nonviolent, will they be able to kill? If they succeed, will they be able to get back to 2616? What happens if they don’t succeed? What if Wilm’s theory is wrong? Okay, I covered the first 67 pages, now you will have to read the next 234 pages to find out what happens. By the way, this is only book one of a planned trilogy...book two will be out in 2018. As I said in the first paragraph, Rosemary Cole would have had an easier time writing this novel if she would have left the time travel part out, nevertheless she triumphed big-time on her own accord. Get your copy of this exciting novel now...you will be glad you did.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I loved the two Michael Crichton novels, but my favorite mutated virus novel is a Stephen King’s novel, The Stand (1978). I read the novel in 1978, so I never got to review the novel on my site (I would have to reread the novel...it’s too long to do that again) because I started my review site in 2010. But I’ll tell you what Goodreads.com and Amazon.com said about King’s novel:

Goodreads.com says: This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.

And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

Amazon.com says: Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge-Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

Kidnapped

Sharpen up your Gaelic and colloquial language skills if you want to get through this classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson set in 1751 Scotland...smoothly. Although published in 1886 in a boy’s magazine, Young Folks, the story is told in the local Scottish dialect with lots of Gaelic thrown in for good measure. I loved the challenge. I’ll give you a sample of what I’m writing about. When our narrator (young seventeen year old David Balfour) meets his crotchety Uncle Ebenezer for the first time at Ebenezer’s dilapidated estate and while David’s having something to eat, Ebenezer answers David’s question of: Why is he so hostile to him? “Hoot-toot!” Said Uncle Ebenezer, “dinnae fly up in the stuff at me. We’ll agree fine yet. And, Davie, my man, if you’re done with that bit parritch, I could just take a sup of it myself. Ay,” he continued, as soon as he ousted me from the stool and spoon, “they’re fine, halesome food - they’re grand food, parritch” (I’m assuming that he is talking about porridge). Later he says, “Na, na; na, na, I like you fine; we’ll agree fine yet; and for the honour of the house I couldnae let you leave the way ye came. Bide here quiet, there’s a good lad; just you bide here quiet a bittie, and ye’ll find that we agree.” Did you notice that Stevenson is a big fan of the semicolon? Later, I’ll give you some examples of the Gaelic language in this story. Some of the characters are real, such as the Jacobite rebel, Alan Breck Stewart, who has been fleeing from the British redcoats in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion (Charles Edward Stuart’s failed attempt to grab the British throne from King George II, in 1745/1746). There are a lot of innuendos of actual happenings in this excellent work of historical fiction to go along with the compelling fictional story.  

The story opens with David Balfour talking with Minister Campbell of Essendean. David’s father has recently died (his mother previously), and Campbell reads David a letter in which states is his inheritance, “give my boy this letter into his hand, and start him off to the house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That is the place I came from”, he said, “and it’s where it befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad, your father said, and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well lived where he goes.” So off he goes to live with his Uncle Ebenezer, who he has never met. On his walking trip to his uncle’s estate, he ask people on the road about the House of the Shaws. The responses are not good. The last person he asks is a woman on top of a hill as they look down to the valley at a ‘great bulk of a building’...with anger, she says, “Blood built it; blood stopped the building of it; blood shall bring it down. See here!” she cried again “I spit upon the ground, and crack my thumb at it! (what does that mean?) Black be its fall! If ye see the laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner and nineteen time that Jennet Clousten has called down the curse on him and his house, byre and stable, man, guest, and master, wife, miss, or bairn-black, black be their fall!” Wow, it doesn’t sound like David is going to a friendly asylum. Once David gets to his uncle’s estate, he finds Ebenezer unsympathetic with his situation. During an evening storm, Ebenezer sends David up an unfinished tower with missing steps and without a candle to retrieve a chest. David realizes that his uncle might have been trying to kill him after he almost falls to his death. Why is Ebenezer trying to get rid of David? A irritated David locks Ebenezer in his room with the promise that Ebenezer will answer all of David’s questions in the morning.

The next morning, before David can quiz Ebenezer, a ship’s cabin boy comes with a letter for Ebenezer from the Hawes Inn at the Queen’s ferry. It’s from a Captain Hoseason of the ship Covenant. It reads: “Sir,-I lie here with my hawser up and down, and send my cabin-boy to informe. If you have any further commands for over-seas, to-day will be the last occasion, as the wind will serve us well out of the firth. I will not seek to deny that I have had crosses with your doer, Mr. Rankeillor; of which, if not speedily redd up, you may looke to see some losses follow. I have drawn a bill upon you, as per margin, and am, sir, your most obedt., humble servant, ELIAS HOSEASON. Agent.” Now you can see for yourself why this novel was so hard to understand. The cunning Ebenezer says to David, “You see, Davie, I have a venture with this man Hoseason, the captain of a trading brig, the Covenant, of Dysart. Now, if you and me was to walk over with yon lad, I could see the captain at the Hawes, or maybe on board the covenant if there was papers to be signed; and so far from a loss of time, we can jog on to the lawyer, Mr. Rankeillor’s. After a’ that’s come and gone, ye would be swierto believe me upon my naked word; but ye’ll believe Rankeillor. He’s a factor to half the gentry in these parts; an auld man, forby: highly respeckit, and he kenned your father.” What is Ebenezer scheming? What is he trying to hide from David? Later on that day, Ebenezer tricks David to come aboard the ship where he is knock out, chained and stowed below after which his uncle is seen sitting in the stern of a boat pulling for town. The ship was bound for the Carolinas...David realized that “white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.” This is where the story takes off...and prospers. End of my 43 page review.

I liked this novel but thought Treasure Island (1883) was more exciting and was easier to comprehend the language (see my review of 8/23/2016). I promised you something in Gaelic. Okay, half way through the novel, the ship David was on (the Covenant) sunk. You can say, a little hole will sink a big ship, or you can say in Gaelic, bathaidh toll beag long mhor. I have no idea how you would pronounce that. Lastly, the author, China Mieville constantly uses the word ‘that’ consecutively (that that) in his novels, but Stevenson used ‘there’ consecutively (there there). Here is the sentence on page 144, “Now,” said he, “there is a little clachan not very far from Corrynakiegh, and it has the name of Koalisnacoan. There there are living many friends of mine whom I trust with my life, and some that I am no just so sure of.” So there there you go (Haha).

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Robert Louis Stevenson died at an early age of 44 in Samoa. He was sickly all his life, suffering from consumption (now called tuberculosis). In his later years he found the sea air helpful to his health. He travelled to the Hawaiian Islands (where he became a good friend of King Kalakaua), the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Samoan Islands. In Samoa, the natives loved him, naming him Tusitala (teller of tales).

A CHILD MADE TO ORDER

The author sent me an autographed copy of his novel to review:

Norwegian filmmaker and author Piotr Ryczko offers the literary world something unique. He has written a quality enigma/thriller novel whereas the reader may dislike the personalities of (as I did) all the main characters (six). Is that a good thing? I say yes, if that was the author’s intention. And I believe that to be so...since there is no joy or time for commiseration in this novel. In fact, it is a very dark story involving the obscure business of permanently modifying genes in living cells to correct mutations and treat the genetic cause of the disease (CRISPR). It also features IVF, a medical procedure whereby an egg is fertilized by sperm in a test tube. All these procedures are performed on unhappy infertile woman. Why is everybody so angry in this novel? I’ll bet that Cormac McCarthy would love this novel. Did any of these women think to get married so they could adopt? Apparently, it’s next to impossible for a singleton parent to adopt a child in Norway. I did like this novel, however it was not without it’s flaws. Why didn’t Viola or Magda give the reader a good layman’s explanation of what mitochondrial disease was? I couldn’t find a easy answer to this disease on the internet. I also didn’t understand why it took so long to tell the reader exactly how Marcus died. Lastly, why did it take over half the novel before the reader finds out that Pål was a suspended cop? These are details that seem minor, but cause the reader to somewhat stumble through the story in a wishy-washy way...if that makes any sense.

The story is based in Oslo, Norway in 2016. Marianne Stine, a women’s rights campaigner, had disappeared three years earlier. Since her disappearance, her video blog that catered “to the community of infertile women” has been inactive. Marianne has a condition known as mitochondrial disease, which caused her to have three miscarriages in a row. Where did she go? Meanwhile, Viola Voss, the investigative reporter who tried to find Marianne with the help of Police Officer Pål, is being promoted to Middle East correspondent in Syria. She was being promoted by her mother, Anne, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Aftenposten. While the party was downstairs waiting for Viola to join the festivities, Viola, who also suffers from the mitochondrial disease was…"Upstairs, in the bathroom. Dressed in her onyx Sherri Hill one-shoulder cocktail dress. Hiding like a wounded animal, scraping her knees against the bathroom tiles. This was the only place where she didn’t feel like she was about to lose her mind. And the only thing that took away some of the numbness, stabbing at her heart, was the scrubbing. Her hand clenched onto a piece of wiry cloth, while she did her best to remove a practically non-existent stain from the bathtub.” What happened in that tub five years ago?

Her boyfriend, Ronny (a doctor), finally gets Viola to come downstairs for the promotion celebration. Everything goes well, including the news that Ronny has given up his practice and will go with her to Syria...until the doorbell rings (note to the author: I also love the ellipsis). It’s Mrs. Stine, Marianne’s disgusting mother. “Three years earlier, Viola offered to help look for Stine’s daughter. She was a public figure, a known personality in the blogosphere, but most of all, she was the voice of the many childless women out there.” What did Mrs.Stine want of Viola? The missing person case was dropped a long time ago. Viola tries to push Mrs. Stine nicely out the door, “But just as she had almost managed to get rid of the older woman, Stine shoved a phone into her face.” Viola says, “But. But. But...The blog has been dead since she disappeared. Right? So, what is this? Stine pressed her finger at a snippet of text from Marianne’s blog. A fresh comment read: Don’t let the bed bugs get under your undies-Anon.” Viola tells Mrs. Stine that it could be anything...probably a prank. But Mrs. Stine vigorously disagrees, “These are my words, Miss! I sang them when I put her to sleep. Don’t you see? My baby...She is alive.” Wow, what’s going to happen now? Will Viola disappoint her pig headed mother and give up her promotion to look for Marianne again? Did Marianne find a clinic that can cure her disease? If so, can they cure Viola’s? Or is what’s to come a criminal hoax? I only reviewed the first twenty pages of this suspenser (notwithstanding my first paragraph of analysis), the other 276 pages are on you. I do recommend reading this dark tale...it’s a trip.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: I wondered how authors like Piotr from Norway heard about my reviews. Then I checked my internal stats and saw that I’ve had 1,373 “hits” on my site from Scandinavian countries. Enough said...the internet is truly worldwide. Are there any great Norwegian writers? I couldn’t find any, but there are several great Scandinavian writers. Surely you have heard of the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen and his The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales (1835). And what about the great Swedish children’s writer, Astrid Lindgren and her Pippi Longstocking character (1945).

But I saved the best anecdote for last. Swedish writer Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004. After his death, three manuscripts that he wrote for his own pleasure (with no intention of publishing) came to light. They are; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2007). Besides becoming bestsellers, all three novels were adapted as motion pictures. Go figure.       

the BEAR and the NIGHTINGALE

Although Katherine Arden is a Texan by birth, she writes like a seasoned Russian novelist. I presume studying Russian literature in Moscow had a lot to do with her Russian folklore style. I especially admire her using the Russian peculiarity (to us, not to them) of each character having multiple names. Sometimes this causes confusion for the reader. But when you realize that Russians have a first name, patronymic name and surname spelled in many varieties each, it’s less puzzling. They might also have a peasant name or a cutesy/loving name to go along with their other names. For example our main character is Vasilisa, but she is also known as: Vasya, Vasilisa Petrovna, Vasochka, and Vedma by a bathhouse spirit named Bannik. Oh yes, Vasya sees lots of spirits and they all relate to her. If you want a better example of multiple names, read Dostoevsky’s 1866 masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (see my review of 11/17/2014). Katherine Arden’s descriptive writing is in play when writing about the approaching cold winter in northern Russia, “The season was just turning, the drab fields full of shaved stubble and dusted with snow...it was cold, but Vasya did not think of it. She had been born to cold.” Throughout the novel the author has a foreboding style of writing that makes the reader wince when thinking of what’s going to happen next...and the heebie-jeebies usually transpire. I find it hard to believe that this novel is Katherine Arden’s first.

Katherine Arden recreates fourteenth century Russia with this fresh tale drawn from old Russian fables. Pyotr Vladimirovich was a great lord living on rich lands with many peasant workers. He enjoyed a good life with his wife, Marina; sons, Kolya, Sasha and Alyosha and daughter, Olga. Longtime nurse and nanny, Dunya, also lived in the big house, now the chief cook and family storyteller. Early in the novel, Dunya tells the tale of The Frost King, “The master of the white snow, the black firs, and the silver frost”, to the children. All the peasants believed him to be real along with all the other woodland spirits. Later in the day, Marina tells Pyotr, “I am with child.” Pyotr was concerned because Marina was older now “and she had grown so thin that winter.” Marina said, “I want a daughter like my mother was.” Marina’s mother is a story in itself. During the reign of Ivan the first, “A ragged girl (Marina’s mother) rode through the Kremlin-gates, alone except for her tall gray horse. Despite filth and hunger and weariness, rumors dogged her footsteps. She had such grace, the people said, and eyes like the swan-maiden in a fairy tale...when Ivan first saw this girl, he sat unmoving for a full ten minutes. A year later he married this mysterious girl.” Who is she? Where did she come from? “The princess would not say where she had come from: not then and not ever.” The Church didn’t like the princess or her  daughter, Marina. “At the bishop’s insistence, Marina, her only child, was married off to a boyar (Pyotr) in the howling wilderness, many days’ travel from Moscow.” The stage is set for the birth of Vasya. Will she have the same special abilities and attributes as her grandmother had?

Vasya is born. “Marina breathed out once, gently, and died.” Before Marina died, she named the baby girl, Vasilisa...Vasya. “All that winter, the house echoed with the child’s cries. More than once, Dunya and Olga, despaired of her, for she was a scrawny, pallid infant, all eyes and flailing limbs. But the winter passed and the child lived. She ceased screaming and throve on the milk of peasant woman.” As she got older, Vasya had a habit of going into the woods alone. One day she didn’t come home for supper after a day in the forest. Who was Vasya calling when she sat in the snowy forest and said, “I know you sleep when the snow comes, but couldn’t you wake up? See, I have cakes (stolen from Dunya’s kitchen).” With no answer, Vasya decides to go home, but for some reason gets lost in the woods. She sees a tree unlike another. It was big, black and gnarled like a wicked old woman. “A man lay curled like a beast at the foot of this tree, fast asleep. She could not see his face; it was hidden between his arms. Through rents in his clothes, she glimpsed cold white skin. He did not stir at her approach.” With Vasya’s urging, he finally woke up. One side of his face was fair with a gray eye. The other side of his face was a mass of bluish scars with the eye socket sewn shut. He says, “What manner of girl-child comes here, all alone?” And then softer, “Such eyes, Almost I remember...Well, come here.” He made his voice coaxing. “Your father will be worried.” What did this thing (?) almost remember? I know that I told you a lot, but so far I’ve only reviewed the first 24 pages of a 314 page novel...are you ready to buy your own copy yet?

Before the one-eyed man could do any harm to Vasya, “There came the crunch of hooves in the snow, and the snorting breaths of a horse. A horse and rider stepped into the clearing. The horse was white and strong; when the rider slid to the ground, Vasya saw that he was slender and bold-boned, the skin drawn tight over cheek and throat. He wore a rich robe of heavy fur, and his eyes gleamed blue.” I told you that the author’s descriptive writing was to my liking. Anyway, who are these strange men and is one of them the Frost King? If so, who is the other man? The man in the rich robe of heavy fur says to the one-eyed man, “What is this?” The ragged man cringed, “No concern of yours, she came to me-she is mine.” The newcomer said to him, “Is she? Sleep, Medved, for it is winter.” So, they obviously know each other. Vasya is now frightened and turns around and flees. The stranger doesn’t follow. Vasya is eventually found by her brother, Sasha and returned home. Later, “Sasha, though he told no one, ranged the forest to the west, looking for this one-eyed man, or an oak tree with roots about its knees. But never man nor tree did he find, and then the snow fell for three days, straight and hard, so that none went out.” Okay, that’s the end of my 29 page review. The real good stuff is still ahead...and I mean real good. Did you notice that I never mentioned the bear or the nightingale? I also didn’t mention all the Russian folklore spirits and demons that you will meet. Only one thing annoyed me. I had to keep going to Google or Wikipedia to decipher some Russian words; such as, devushka (girl) or domovoi (a household spirit in Russian folklore). Guess what? I didn’t realize that the author had a glossary at the book’s end that would have answered all my questions. Oh well!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: I looked up a listopia that Goodreads.com had on the internet concerning the top novels based on Russian folklore. They all seem to be recent novels, so I don’t know what the criteria was when the vote took place, but the following are the top two novels:

1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012). This was a surprise because it was a novel that I reviewed in 2013. Goodreads.com said, “Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before-when a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding...is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?” What did I think? Check out my review of 4/13/2013.
2. Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire (2014). Goodreads.com said, “Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russia countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village…”  

HOTEL BRUCE

This review is done by my Children’s Picture Book Specialist, Pat Koelmel:

Not every sequel, be it a sequel to a movie or a book, can live up to its original. Well, in the case of Hotel Bruce, a picture book for ages 5-8 by author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins and sequel to the fabulously popular Mother Bruce (had I reviewed it, I’d have given it five shiny stars, that’s how much I loved it), it came close...real close.

Okay, so here are the bare facts about Hotel Bruce. A grumpy bear by the name of Bruce, upon migrating back north in the spring with his charges (four geese who believe him to be their mother), finds his home transformed into a hotel by three mice. What happens after that will have kids roaring with laughter. As for Bruce, well, he just plain roars. But what else would you expect from a cantankerous bear whose home has been turned upside down? By the way, if you want to know how a bear ends up the mother of four geese, pick up Mother Bruce, recipient of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor.

Kids will also flip over Mr. Higgins’ laugh-out loud illustrations. Detailed and colorful, each spread will give little ones plenty to look at. Bruce’s expressions alone (which range from grumpy to grumpier to grumpiest) are worth the price of admission.
 
So if you’re looking for someplace a little different to stay for your next vacation, check out Hotel Bruce. It’s got all the amenities.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
 
Comment: Coming soon (September 26, 2017 to be exact) is Ryan T. Higgins’ third installment in the Bruce series, Bruce’s Big Move. Other picture books by this author include Twaddleton’s Cheese, Wilfred, and Be Quiet!   

WE GOT IT ALL WRONG: death and grief, heaven and hell and mental illness

The authors sent me an autographed copy of their book to review:

I’m sure Beverly Hafemeister and Kym McBride are very discerning ladies, but I have to treat their dual work as a novel and not as a workshop type book. I didn’t see any credibility in anything I read, but it was sorta entertaining. The reviewers that gave this book five stars are obviously friends of the writers. I repeat...their story didn’t have an ounce of believability. Beverly is the healing recipient and Kym is the psychic medium conducting phone seances (for the lack of better words) between Beverly and her minister friend, Hal, who passed away the year before. Beverly has many mental problems including “fits of weeping and heavy depression followed by feelings of weighty despondency.” Kym writes that Beverly will serve as the experimental “lab rat” in this book. Beverly writes, “You will find, as Kym and I did, that we go through life unaware of our largely invisible spiritual support system no matter what our preferred religious dogma is.” That’s right, they both have spiritual guides that that help them through life. Beverly’s guide is Bob (or Cherith) who “is a master of disguises with a droll sense of humor and is the perfect compliment to an uptight client.” Kym’s guide is Timingo, who is “level-headed and rather straight laced...the perfect guide for a medium.” By the way, good news: according to Kym, we all have invisible spiritual guides to help us through life...as they would say on the TV show Laugh-In...“I didn’t know that.”

One of the main themes in this book (out of respect, I don’t want to use the word novel again...in case they are right, you never know) is the Invisible Structure. What is that? Okay, I’ll tell you what it is, but you will not understand. “It is a beautiful, organized, multifaceted support system that surrounds all people at every stage of life. This structure’s parameters guide you back to Source that is achieved through levels of enlightenment (knowledge).” If they are talking about thanking the Lord (the Source?) for watching over you everyday, then I agree one hundred percent! I’m also a little foggy on some of the invisibles, such as, a crossed spirit, which Hal (Beverly’s deceased friend) was one of. By the way, all Beverly had to do to talk to Hal was make a phone appointment with Kym and start talking to Hal after saying her name and Hal’s name three times. Anyway, “crossed spirits still have their personality, intelligence, sense of humor, and style of speaking. Their feelings of love do not stop. They still have their free will. These souls can decide if they feel a loved one is ready or not to know things about them and their transition.” But you have to understand that they are on the otherside, ghost are not. Crossed spirits cannot see ghost, because ghost are still stuck on earth. Ghost tend to be mischievous. And most importantly, “not unlike some of the living, they feel they are trapped by their circumstances.”

Kym says that she has “talked to close to 1,000 dead people” since working as a medium. At the end of each chapter, the authors summarize their life theme’s progress. Kym’s thoughts are relayed to the reader under the heading of, Kym’s Professional Journey or Personal Growth Questions. For instance on page 87, Kym asks, “What’s your attitude towards ghosts wanting to take up residence in another person’s aura? Anger, compassion, a desire for revenge? What’s triggering your feelings? What’s your opinion of the host? Are they weak-willed, a victim, empathetic, a sinner?” Wow, that’s a lot to chew on! I’ll have to get back to Kym on that later. Beverly, in one of her Beverly’s Personal Journey segments says, after a phone conversation with Kym and Hal (still dead), “Another surprise of the reading concerns automatic handwriting. I don’t feel really comfortable with that idea (I wouldn’t either). As Edgar Cayce (a non-profit Org. in NYC that runs workshops on spiritual growth) warned, you never know who’s on the other end. To whom are you connected? Oh well, maybe I’m being too much a worry wart. It should be a fun way to communicate directly.” Well I’d be a little worried myself. Anyway you get the essence of this dual written workshop type book. Obviously I’m a nonbeliever, but a lot of people do believe in the spiritual world. With that in mind, I recommend this book to all doubters and followers of the spiritual world.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Comment: If anything else, the world of spiritualism is certainly entertaining. Recently I enjoyed David Jaher’s The Witch of Lime Street (see my review of 12/10/2016). Basically this novel pits Harry Houdini against Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, the author) and the world of spiritualism and the mediums who oversee it. It was a true story and very entertaining.

I also read Irene Weinberg’s, They Serve Bagels in Heaven (see my review of 10/11/2016). This novel wasn’t even close to being believable, but again it was enjoyable. The novel that makes you think twice about afterlife is neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s, Proof of Heaven (see my review of 8/10/2013). The doctor’s credentials make his story convincing.

INTO THE WATER

Whoa Nellie (no pun intended)...Did Paula Hawkins write this book or did somebody else write it? It has an almost separate style and tempo than her recent bestseller, The Girl on the Train (see my review of 8/16/2015).This is a somewhat puzzling story encompassing an English country town (Beckford) full of apparently guilty people who occasionally commit suicide by drowning themselves in the pool of the town’s river (or were some of them murdered?). Sigmund Freud could have made a nice living in this town. When you read this novel make sure that you have pen and paper handy because you will need to take notes to remember the myriad of characters in this story. Paula, if you are going to have what seemed like twenty five main characters...insert a dramatis personae in the novel. Okay, as the story starts to unravel, the reader remembers who is who, but it took me almost two hundred pages to get there. In your new novel, I did like the short chapters and the different narrators for each chapter. I’m going to say that Paula Hawkins narrowly missed having a sophomore jinx on her hands. But in the last two hundred pages, she pulled a "rabbit out of the hat" and saved the novel. Her endgame was intense and maybe a tad brilliant. Paula Hawkins made the river seem like it was alive...was it a drowning pool or “a place to get rid of troublesome woman?” That’s for you to find out.

Jules (Julia) Abbott hears from the police. Her estranged sister, Nel Abbott, has drowned in the pool of the town’s river...they think it might be suicide. Jules ponders to herself, “I was thinking about what I was going to say to you when I got there, how I knew you’d done this to spite me, to upset me, to frighten me, to disrupt my life. To get my attention, to drag me back to where you wanted me. And there you go, Nel, you’ve succeeded: here I am in the place I never wanted to come back to, to look after your daughter, to sort out your bloody mess.” Jules goes back to her former town and old house. It’s empty, so she lets herself in and starts looking around Nel’s old room (which is now Nel’s daughter Lena’s room). Jules is looking under the bed when she hears, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Nel’s teenage daughter, Lena, has arrived. Jules says, “I’m sorry. I’m Jules. We haven’t met, but I’m your aunt.” Lena instantly dislikes her Aunt Jules. Lena tells Jules that the police are downstairs. Jules meets Detective Inspector Sean Townsend and Detective Sergeant Erin Morgan (two more of the main characters). Det.Townsend tells Jules, “DS Morgan will be your liaison with the police. She’ll keep you informed about where we are in the investigation.” Jules asks, “There’s an investigation?” DS Morgan tells Jules, “Your sister’s body was seen in the river by a man who was out walking his dogs early yesterday morning...she was fully clothed, and her injuries were consistent with a fall from the cliff above the pool.” Jules asks, “You think she fell?” Lena says, “You don’t think she fell, do you?” “You know better than that.” Did she commit suicide, fall or was she pushed over?

Nel had been writing a history of all the drownings that occurred in the pool of the river that was below a cliff. Most of the town’s population were annoyed with Nel’s version of the drownings. Lena Abbott’s best friend, Katie, recently committed suicide in the drowning pool. Katie’s mother, Louise Whittaker, blamed Lena and Nel for her daughter’s death. Was Louise involved in Nel’s drowning? Was Katie’s teacher, Mark Henderson, the reason Katie drowned herself? What did Katie’s brother Josh know about her drowning. The town’s psychic Nickie Sage had her own theories on how Nel and Katie drowned. Nickie thinks their deaths are linked with the long ago drowning of Detective Sean Townsend’s mother, Lauren. And what does Sean’s father, Patrick, the town’s retired disciplinarian policeman, have to do with these deaths? Why did Sean’s wife, Helen Townsend, hate Det. Erin Morgan and seem to have a schmaltzy type relationship with her husband’s father, Patrick? I told you that this story starts out very confusing with many characters. This is probably where a lot of the reviewers abandoned this story and issued one or two stars. If they would have continued reading, they would have seen how all this tied into a clever conclusion. My opinion of this novel changed from negative to positive halfway through the story, so I understand why the reviewers (who vacated the story) rated it so low.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: The writing style of Paula Hawkins’ second novel was (in my opinion) very different from her first novel. It made me think of the old argument about Harper Lee’s novel, To kill a Mockingbird. Many pundits say that her lifelong friend, Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) wrote that novel for her. That notion was reinforced when her less than great second novel, Go Set a Watchman (see my review of 2/23/2016), was published 55 years after her first novel. I don’t believe in those rumors, but it did make me mull it over.

Ghostwriting must be a lucrative job, but why would you want to write a book without getting credit for it? The dictionary says, “A ghostwriter is a person who writes one or numerous speeches, books, articles, etc. for another person who is named or presumed to be the author.” Think about it, how can James Patterson write six novels every year? How can Bill O’Reilly pump out books from his Killing series seemingly every two or three months. Check out how many books in this series he has published in the last four years while hosting a television show.