Category Archives: Book Review Blog

My book reviews and fun bookish news as a book blogger. All about other people’s books, and not my own. :-)

Review | The Maladjusted, Derek Hayes

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I12859621n the title story, a man is so terrified of leaving his apartment that he lowers a basket with cash from his fourth floor fire escape landing to pay the pizza delivery guy. “I have a mental illness,” he explains whenever people give him strange looks.

Such characters form the stories in Derek Hayes’ compelling collection The Maladjusted. These individuals go beyond awkwardness — some are painfully shy, others deeply insecure — and many seem acutely aware of the confidence with which others approach the world.

In the book blurb, Martin Amis calls Hayes “a talented new writer from Canada worth keeping an eye on,” and it’s easy to see why. Hayes’ stories are snappy and engaging, yet full of compassion. One of the first rules taught in writing classes is to show, not tell, and Hayes’ stories prove why this rule works. His prose is straightforward, yet restrained. His stories give the impression of presenting everything the narrator sees and thinks, while still holding back on so much more going on.

In “That’s Very Observant of You,” probably my favourite story, a woman regularly orders takeout Chinese from a restaurant with an attractive waiter.

“No, I’m not eating here. I always get takeout.” She smiled nervously and said, “My friend is waiting for me outside.” [p. 39]

Except she goes straight home, and when invited by a neighbour to a party, pretends she has evening plans with her sister. Truth is, she eats the meal while watching a video, the volume turned down low so her neighbours don’t realize the truth. “Her fingers rubbed grease into the folds of her flabby belly and legs” and she wishes her sister, the “only person in the world who loved her” was with her [p. 41].

In the hands of a lesser writer, this woman could have been a pathetic, maudlin mess. In the hands of a different type of writer, the story could have been a caustic take on the social pressure to conform, or perhaps on this odd woman who refuses to admit she’s alone. Instead, with Hayes, we get a figure so real, we can almost picture her in front of her TV. We get a character depicted with such vivid detail that she inspires compassion while having too much dignity to deserve pity.

The smallest detail means a lot, and the smallest shift in character behaviour implies so much more. The characters are on the fringes of society, or otherwise so screwed up that they’re unlikable, and yet Hayes manages to make them all feel real, and in making us feel something for them. I absolutely loved this short story collection, quick reads suited for the subway, with characters that will resonate long after you’ve arrived home.

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Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | An Echo Through the Snow, Andrea Thalasinos

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13122120Last spring seemed to be my season of dog books. I read and reviewed both Puppy Love and A Dog’s Journey, both novels that, like The Art of Racing in the Rain, speak about the bond between a dog owner and their pet. Andrea Thalasinos’ An Echo Through the Snow depicts a different kind of human/dog relationship by exploring the world of competitive dogsled racing.

Rosalie is stuck in dead end jobs and a horrible life until she meets Smokey, an abused guard dog she takes under her protection. Being placed in a position of responsibility over someone else forces Rosalie to mature, and more importantly, leads her to discover a sense of purpose and a job helping a local couple train dogsled teams.

The bond between Rosalie and Smokey is touching, but it’s interesting to see the difference in dynamic with human characters and the dogsled team. Despite the clear affection, the dogs are primarily there to be trained, and to work as a team, rather than to provide companionship to their owners. As such, there is less anthropomorphizing in this book, as well as more focus on the human characters’ stories. I found myself caught up in Rosalie’s story — painfully shy, troubled, and dealing with an abusive husband, Rosalie is a sympathetic figure, one who grows and develops through her experiences with the dogsled team. Apart from an unnecessary (in my opinion) plot twist, this storyline is well done, and one I think Thalasinos should have spent more time developing.

Less successful, in my view, is the parallel storyline, of a Chukchi woman named Jeaantaa, Keeper of the Guardians (Siberian huskies), who lives around the time Stalin’s Red Army is about to invade her land and displace her people. This storyline had promise and a compelling beginning — Jeaantaa is dealing with the death of her childhood sweetheart and so devotes herself to her role as Keeper to her community’s dogs. The future security of these dogs, however, is placed in jeopardy, and she then has to fight to protect them.

A promising beginning, but one that unfortunately failed to maintain the momentum. It may be because of the constant switching between story lines without any sense of real connection, such that it felt like I was reading two separate books put together in a rather slapdash fashion. Or perhaps I just found Rosalie’s storyline more interesting. Jeaantaa’s story just seemed disjointed, and less interesting than I’d hoped. I wish Thalasinos had developed the storyline in more depth and revealed more about the Chukchi people and how the community felt about the impending threat to their way of life. This could have been a rich, evocative historical piece, but as it is now, I just wish Thalasinos had done away with this storyline and focused completely on Rosalie instead.

An Echo Through the Snow is a different kind of dog book, one that keeps the focus wider than the bond between a human and her dog. The Jeaantaa story line could have been more interesting, and the Rosalie story line definitely did not need that plot twist, but overall, an interesting read for dog lovers.

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Thank you to Raincoast Books for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | S.E.C.R.E.T., L. Marie Adeline

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16099174Despite being partly influenced by the publishing success of E. L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey, L. Marie Adeline’s S.E.C.R.E.T. is nothing like 50 Shades. There is a romance in Adeline’s book, but it’s almost incidental, barely even explored. Rather, S.E.C.R.E.T. is about a woman’s journey to self-discovery through sexual fulfillment. At times, S.E.C.R.E.T. reads more like a self-help book than erotica, and that’s not just because the erotic scenes are (in my limited experience with erotic fiction at least) very vanilla. The focus of the story is very much on protagonist Cassie Robichaud’s struggle to gain self-confidence and believe in herself, independent of a relationship.

I received the 89 page sampler of this book over the holidays — I was drawn in to Cassie’s situation and wanted to keep reading to see her succeed. I love the concept behind the book — a woman has a series of sexual fantasies fulfilled, and she is in control the entire time. The men are, for the most part, meant to be anonymous — they are there primarily to give the woman pleasure, in ways she decides. It’s a reversal of traditional notions of porn, and a welcome departure from the usual literary formula of women having amazing, mind blowing sex only when paired with romance.

Unfortunately, Adeline ends up emphasizing the self-empowerment angle a tad too much. It’s great seeing Cassie come into her own, and I love that when offered a couple of chances at romantic relationships, Cassie instead opts to continue with the S.E.C.R.E.T. program. But there were times when reading the book felt like watching Oprah or Dr. Phil. Particularly in the latter half of the book, the dialogue and narration became much more earnest, even saccharine, and while I’m all for self-empowerment, I hate feeling preached at. Enough, already. For a book with such an innovative concept, the latter half devolved into more traditional, touchy-feely fare. One of the scenes near the end, a non-sexual step, where Cassie is prompted to do something she’d never dared before seriously felt like a Saved by the Bell episode.

The erotic scenes, as I mentioned were fairly vanilla. I understand every woman has a different set of fantasies, and Adeline appears to have attempted to cover the most generic ones, so that at least one of them would probably appeal to each reader. Personally, I thought the fantasies could have been hotter, and even the hottest ones seem to have been toned down. There are erotic details, but the fantasies themselves seem like a Disney-fied version of Harlequin Blaze. Adeline does not pull back on sexual details, but the men were a series of sweet, gentlemanly Prince Charmings. This, admittedly, is a personal response more than anything. Each woman has different sexual fantasies, and while some of Cassie’s fantasies may leave me cold, I’m sure they will appeal to a lot of other readers. As well, some of the erotic scenes are really well-written and sensual, taking the reader into Cassie’s experience.

That being said, and I think this is because Adeline tried to cover such a wide range of fantasies, the scenes themselves felt generic. The men were one-dimensional, which is understandable given the story’s focus, but they seemed faceless, cardboard cutouts and hardly erotic.  Worse, after the first few, they started to feel like paint by number scenes — different man, different situation, perhaps different method, but overall, utterly bland, forgettable and almost interchangeable. It felt like going through the motions of fantasies, ticking a number of boxes, but ultimately lacking the fire. There is a development to Cassie’s responses to the fantasies, which is good, but with the exception of the subplot love interest, who was woefully underdeveloped, the men eventually started looking like a succession of Ken dolls.

I did like how many of the men complimented Cassie’s looks. At first, like Cassie, I figured it was all just part of the fantasy, but as other men started doing it, like Cassie, I also began wondering if perhaps she really was much more attractive than she realized. The scattered references to 50 Shades were amusing, and so subtle that I wondered if they were even planned. (I hope they were!) I also liked the bit of romance at the end, though I found it much too rushed. The ending felt forced, written only to set up for the sequel.

Wonderful concept, uneven execution, but overall worth a read just for the idea behind it.

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Thank you to Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.