Tag Archives: 50BookPledge2012

Review | Trust Your Eyes, Linwood Barclay

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Stephen King calls Trust Your Eyes “the best Barclay so far,” and who am I to disagree with the master of horror? I’ve been a fan of Barclay’s work since No Time for Goodbye. His mysteries begin with a killer hook (in No Time, it was a teenage girl waking up to find her whole family gone), and while his stories usually turn out to have fairly conventional endings (mildly disappointing only because the hook is so gripping), they are fun, entertaining thrillers. I definitely agree with King however that Trust Your Eyes is Barclay’s best one yet — it’s the most tightly plotted of his books, and probably the one I found most difficult to put down.

Family relationships play a big part in all the Barclay books I’ve read, and in Trust Your Eyes, the author focuses on the strained relationship between brothers Thomas and Ray. Their father had just died, and Ray has had to put his life on hold to figure out how to best care for Thomas now that their father is gone. Thomas is a map-obsessed schizophrenic who spends most of his day in his bedroom, travelling the world through a Google Maps-type program called Whirl360. Part of Thomas’ schizophrenia is the belief that it’s his job, practically a calling, to study the world through Whirl360 and commit the streets to memory. The mystery kicks off when Thomas sees an image in a New York window that looks like a woman being murdered.

I have to admit — a major part of this book’s attraction for me is the techie spin on a concept similar to one of my favourite Hitchcock films. The amazing thing is, this story isn’t even futuristic anymore. Who hasn’t used Google Maps and Google Street View to find places? A character admits using Whirl360 to find a restaurant and research their menu, and that’s not even awe-inspiring anymore. The average person probably wouldn’t get involved in a murder mystery like Thomas does — like Ray, we are more likely to choose to ignore odd images and focus on our own lives. So I love how Thomas’ obsession with online maps is disturbing voyeurism on one hand, yet also offers itself to superhero potential in this story.

The mystery itself is fairly straightforward. We know fairly early on the circumstances and key players behind the scene that Thomas witnesses, and a plot thread leading up to that scene runs parallel to Thomas and Ray’s story. Despite our access into the perspectives within this plot line, however, Barclay deliberately obfuscates the thread, so that we are treated to various surprising revelations throughout.

The real hook to this story however is the family dynamics between Thomas and Ray. Their relationship adds a tender, complex angle to this fast-paced high-tech thriller. You feel for Ray, who has no idea how to teach his brother to take care of himself, yet you also feel for Thomas, who, as another character points out, is treated with condescension. There are several subplots about their family — the circumstances around their father’s death, an incident from Thomas’ past that seems to have scarred him — and, to be honest, there were times I found those even more compelling than the main plot. I wanted to learn more about these characters, and Barclay’s given both of them very rich backgrounds.

I generally find Barclay’s endings the weakest part of his books, and Trust Your Eyes is no exception. His endings are still good, just difficult to live up to the expectations set by the absolutely gripping beginnings. I especially love how Thomas’ unique talents played such a big role. Still, the big thriller ending in Trust Your Eyes felt a bit rushed — having taken up all these plot threads, Barclay had to tie all of them up neatly. The big action scene also involves a couple of really convenient twists. The ending also included some really big revelations that, while fairly central to the story, felt like they were placed at the end just to elicit a last minute gasp from the reader. True, there was a last minute adrenaline spike, but it felt artificial.

Still, Trust  Your Eyes is his most tightly plotted, possibly his best novel that I’ve read yet. Compelling mystery, and fascinating story about brothers.

Review | Trevor, James Lecesne

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The story that inspired the Trevor Project, a 24-hour crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for LGBTQ youth, James Lecesne’ Trevor is a young adult novella whose power lies in its simplicity. Lecesne notes in his Afterword, young adult novels these days “are full of complex lesbian and gay characters.” He cites as examples authors like David Levithan, Alex Sanchez, Jacqueline Woodson, Bill Konigsberg and Mayra Lazara Dole. Unfortunately, stats still show that LGBT youth are “four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.” I haven’t had a chance myself to read YA that deal with LGBT issues, but I applaud any author who is able to positively change the life of a troubled youth through fiction.

When I think of the issues facing LGBT youth, I imagine kids feeling ostracized, possibly bullied, simply for being attracted to people of the same gender. Possibly because I only really started thinking about these issues as an adult, or perhaps because my friends from school who are LGBT are fairly open about their sexuality, but I never really thought much about the confusion aspect of the experience. I suppose the Q part of LGBTQ (which I learned from this book stood for questioning) was something I was intellectually aware of, without really thinking about what it really means.

That’s why Trevor was such an eye opener for me. The protagonist, a thirteen year old boy, does not identify as LGBTQ. He’s a teen who happens to love Lady Gaga and wants to build a career in theatre. He doesn’t understand why his long-time best friend is suddenly avoiding him, or why a guy he forms an immediate connection to is not allowed to talk to him on the phone.

I found it striking that Trevor doesn’t actually say that he’s in love with Pinky — he’s “the coolest guy I had ever met,” but the whole idea of being attracted to other guys isn’t something Trevor ever really allows himself to reflect on. Rather, his classmates do that for him — calling him derogatory terms and telling him that his interest in musical theatre is “so gay.” In a rather disturbing, yet quite realistic, moment, Trevor’s best friend gives him the friendly advice to be careful.

“Careful?” I said. “Of what?”

“Of becoming a gay,” he answered. “Boys doing it with boys is gross, and you can end up a pervert. Or worse.” [p. 36]

Note that at this point, Trevor has done nothing more than form a new friendship. It’s disturbing to see a friend pigeonholing him into a label, worse still to see it as friendly advice, confidently given.

The whole pressure to be labelled is a recurring theme throughout the story. Trevor deals with it with humour and utter bafflement, which only heightens the emotion at the realization that the situation is actually bothering him much more than he lets on. In a real eye-opener (for me, at least), Trevor says that the Gay Straight Alliance members were the worst, because they kept insisting he identify as homosexual. When he asks them to leave him alone,

They suggested I consider labelling myself as “Questioning” and leave it at that. Or maybe I could declare myself an “ally.” I asked them why I needed a label at all; why did I need to declare myself as anything other than Trevor? Isn’t that enough? [p. 54]

Apparently not. He is bullied for being gay before he even realizes himself whether or not he is gay, and the inability to escape from a label his classmates affix on him is what eventually pushes him past his breaking point.

The story progresses a bit too quickly for the author to really delve deep into Trevor’s psyche — it’s more a narration of events than an in-depth look into his mind. The events are told fairly casually, and the drama lies in the events themselves rather than in Trevor’s reflections on them. The author therefore lets Trevor’s story speak for itself, without trying too hard to elicit emotion from the reader, which actually heightens the impact of the tale.

Trevor is a compelling novella, told in engaging, straightforward language that belies the complexity of emotions its protagonist undergoes. The novella also includes information on the Trevor project, as well as other resources for LGBT youth. An eye-opening book, one that will resonate not just with LGBT youth, but also with anyone who has been labelled as different, and pigeonholed into that label.

A portion of proceeds from the book will benefit the Trevor Project.

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

Review | The Kill Order, James Dashner

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To be fair, I haven’t read The Maze Runner. So while the prologue with Teresa and Thomas may have resonated with Maze Runner fans, I was just mildly curious. Also to be fair, this series is written for a younger audience, though with the narrative sophistication of contemporary YA, that probably shouldn’t say much. If you like Maze Runner, I hear this book is very similar, and so you’ll probably like it as well. If you haven’t read Maze Runner, this book is still fairly easy to follow, though personally I’m wondering if Maze Runner has a more interesting storyline. The prologue, at least, was intriguing enough to make me curious about the original trilogy.

The Kill Order is the prequel to the best-selling Maze Runner trilogy. Sun flares have destroyed a huge chunk of civilization and now a mysterious virus, originally spread by poisoned darts, is turning survivors into raging lunatics. The story follows Mark, Trina and their friends as they struggle to survive. I originally assumed Mark and Trina were teenagers, both because this is YA and because of the way they act. But a passage describes Trina as a woman, so I’m not completely sure about their ages.

The Kill Order is mostly an action-packed apocalyptic zombie story. I liked that Dashner showed how Mark and his friends had to sometimes make the difficult decision to leave behind infected friends. I also really like the Mark and Trina romance and wish Dashner had explored that a bit more. The fight scenes are fast-paced and suitably gory, and descriptions of infected individuals are definitely shudder-worthy.

Kill Order reminded me somewhat of a simplified, YA version of Justin Cronin’s The Passage. The main difference is that Kill Order focused a lot more on the action at the expense of character development. Dashner has created some interesting characters, in particular the heroic elderly soldier Alec, whose sense of duty and emotional connection to fellow soldier Lana compels him to keep going. I only wish there was more character development. I usually like action-packed books, but Kill Order was mostly just confusing, and I ended up caring a bit about characters’ relationships (e.g. the Mark and Trina romance), but not much about the characters overall.

The best part of the novel is when we find out the real reason behind the virus. From an action-packed but mostly aimless zombie story, The Kill Order reveals the beginnings of political commentary. I wish Dashner had explored that angle a bit more — I would’ve loved to find out more about the story behind the people who committed such an act, and how they would’ve reacted to seeing the unintended consequences. I’m unsure if this is explored in Maze Runner, but there are definitely interesting implications from the revelation.

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