Tag Archives: ARC

Blog Tour and Giveaway: The O’Briens, Peter Behrens

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The O’Briens by Peter Behrens is a sprawling family saga that follows the life of Joe O’Brien. Chronicling Joe’s life from his childhood protecting his siblings from an abusive stepfather Joe’s business building a section of the railroad to his children going off to fight in World War II, The O’Briens also depicts a  slice of Canadian history. I haven’t read Behrens’ first novel, The Law of Dreams, and at first I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to understand this novel, but I found that O’Briens works wonderfully as a stand-alone as well.

Joe is a fascinating character, and I enjoyed watching him grow from a protective older brother to a scarred father. Like his own father, Joe has a thirst for travel, and I love how this restlessness was later inherited by Joe’s son Mike. In a novel about exploring North America and eventually settling down with a family, the O’Brien wanderlust is an apt family trait. The best parts of O’Briens are where Behrens really delves into very raw emotions, to the point that the situation can make the reader uncomfortable. The section, for example, where Joe leads his siblings in dealing with their stepfather is rather disturbing, mostly because the persons involved are young children, but I love seeing Joe’s struggle to be the father figure for his siblings and his desire to force them to grow up as well so they can survive even without him. I love the scene where Iseult has to give birth without Joe around, a terrifying episode, and Behrens captures the emotions wonderfully.

I also love the little quirks that define characters. Iseult’s obsession with photography for example, reminds me of my own mother, who loved taking pictures, though thankfully not to the extent Iseult does. The part about Iseult stopping to take a photo of her crying child before running over to see if first aid is required could have come off as gimmicky, but Behrens has set it up so well beforehand that the extent of her obsession feels natural.

Behrens’ descriptions are poetic, and I really liked some of the phrases. About stained glass windows, Behrens writes, “Rich shards of colour broke through those exuberant windows, and exotic scents — silver polish, English tobacco, China tea — drifted through the chiaroscuro rooms.” At times, I would’ve preferred a bit more subtlety in the way he depicts emotions: “Iseult felt her lungs deflate, withering as grief closed in. […] As [the phone receiver] dangled on its wire, she got slowly down on hands and needs, touched her forehead to the Tabriz carpet, then rolled over and lay on her side on the mottled wool, gasping and wheezing…” While I actually liked the image of lungs withering with grief, I found the scene getting somewhat melodramatic as it went on. What I did like, however, was that Behrens then immediately balances it out with humour, having the housekeeper Cordelia walk in and trip over Iseult’s body.

I liked the novel best when it was focused on Joe growing up. I wished it had shown more of his siblings other than Grattan — with the priest character so prominent in the first chapter, I was interested in seeing how the siblings who entered the religious life dealt with it — but I can understand Joe being completely separated from them. I didn’t find the chapters with Joe’s children as compelling, with the major exception of the part about Mike running away from home. The latter part of the novel, switching between Joe’s three children, felt somewhat disjointed, and I would’ve preferred having a central character in the next generation at least, or even Joe himself, to have provided a focal point of view.

Overall, a good book and compelling family saga. The book’s publisher Anansi has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of the book for to give away (Canadians only, please). To enter your name in the draw, just leave a comment telling me where your family is from and where in the world you would settle if you had the choice. Please also leave your email address, so we can contact you if you win. I’ll pick a random winner on June 13th.

Peter has also been kind enough to write a guest post for my blog. Keep an eye out for it tomorrow. Leave a comment on his post for an extra entry into the contest.

Now You See Me, S.J. Bolton #50BookPledge

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Young detective constable Lacey Flint walks to her car after interviewing a witness and finds a woman bleeding to death draped over it. An anonymous letter to a reporter points out alarming similarities between the killer and Jack the Ripper, and mentions Lacey by name. Turns out Lacey is a lifelong Ripperologist, and has some dark secrets in her past, which slowly get revealed as the investigation progresses.

As a crime buff, I’ve always been fascinated by Jack the Ripper, and S.J. Bolton’s Now You See Me takes off from one of the lesser known theories about Jack the Ripper’s identity. This book kept me guessing throughout, and I love how Bolton put in all these twists that made me think that I knew what was going on, only to find out later on that I was wrong.

Ultimately, while the mystery began as being about Jack the Ripper, it soon became more about a contemporary crime and a secret from Lacey’s past. Lacey is an intelligent detective, and while I was afraid I’d be disappointed in whatever secrets she had (with so much build up, I would’ve hated to be let down), when the big reveal came, everything just made sense. Even the minor characters, Tulloch and Joesbury, were fascinating figures, and I could never tell what Joesbury thought about Lacey. I shared Lacey’s confusion about whether he was attracted to her or suspicious of her, and I loved that ambiguity.

Bolton effectively builds an atmosphere of creepiness, with killings taking place to the soundtrack of such an innocuous song as My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music. At first, I didn’t like the chapters from the killer’s point of view, because they began as mostly atmospheric and vague, and I felt they detracted from the primary story, which was already so exciting in itself. There were also times when I wondered if plot points were going anywhere or if they were just put in randomly (e.g. flashbacks, My Favourite Things, the case Lacey was originally investigating before getting sidetracked by the Ripper copycat). However, the killer’s chapters soon became more action-packed, revealing the thoughts of the victims, and all the minor plot points turned out to be very important for the ending and for understanding the killer’s character.

Finally, I love all the discussions on Ripper lore in Now You See Me. It’s never pedantic, always in the context of trying to understand the latest murder, but it gives crimes buffs like me interesting details about Jack the Ripper. There’s even an Author’s Note where Bolton explains some of the various theories about his identity. Now You See Me is an exciting murder mystery and an original take on the Jack the Ripper myth. Highly recommended for mystery buffs.

Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson #50BookPledge

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Oh. My. God. S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep is amazing. Read it, read it, read it. But first, and trust me on this one, make sure you have a few hours to spare. Sleep kept me awake till 2:30 am.

My tweets while reading:

May 18th, 4 pm: Engrossed in ARC of S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep. Out in June, watch for it. Incredible so far.

[I stopped reading for a few hours, then decided to read just a bit more when I went to bed around 11 pm…]

Midnight: OMG, the twists keep coming. S.J. Watson’s fault if I sleep super late tonight.

1 am: Literally gasped out loud while reading.

2 am: I knew it! I knew it!

2:05 am: Holy crap. I didn’t know anything after all. Chills.

That was when I realized I should just stop live tweeting my reading experience before I flooded my followers’ feeds with even more “Aha!” and “Oops.” moments.

How much do I love this book? And why do I love it so much? Check out my full review on Savvy Reader or read below.

S.J. Watson will be reading at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, June 22nd.

Or check out this Vizme token to see an excerpt, a bit about the author and other cool stuff.

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Full Review

[I just noticed that my review has been archived on the Savvy Reader site, so I’m republishing it here.]

Before I Go to Sleep is pure psychological thriller. Christine wakes up in a strange bedroom beside a middle aged married man she doesn’t recognize. It is only when she goes to the bathroom and sees her hand that she realizes that her skin is wrinkled, and that she too is wearing a wedding ring. She sees photos of herself, twenty years older than she thought she was, taped to the bathroom mirror. She also sees photos of the man from the bed, labelled “Ben, your husband.”

Ben explains that an accident eighteen years ago has destroyed her memory. While she can usually remember things that happen during the day, she will have forgotten them by the time she wakes up the next morning. She sometimes gets flashes of memories about her childhood, but most of her life is a complete blank. When Ben leaves for work, he says, “I love you, Christine. Never forget that.”

I thought Sleep was going to be an emotional, heart breaking tragedy, and in many ways it is. What if you lose your memories every time you went to sleep? There are events and people I remember vividly — sometimes, the most random of things, like riding the spinning teacup when I was three. Then there are events I remember, but am not too clear on the details. Memories are notoriously unreliable, and I love the security of looking at photos and knowing that that moment, at least, was real. To lose even the most tenuous hold on memory, to look at photos and have them evoke no sense of recognition, to have lost the last two decades of your life — I don’t even want to imagine how that would be like. In one scene, Christine is angered by Ben’s seeming indifference to a past event. Then she realizes that, for Ben, the emotions have already scabbed over, years before. Yet for her, emotions will always be raw, because she will always, every day, be experiencing them for the first time. So Christine’s condition is tragic; the last sentence in the book almost made me cry.

But Sleep isn’t just a beautifully crafted drama. Christine receives a call from Dr. Nash, who tells her she’s been his patient for a while now. He returns to her a journal she’s written, from which Christine reads about her past, but as disconnected from it as if the journal were a work of fiction. How much can we trust this journal, when Christine herself can’t remember writing it? More importantly, why does she have snippets of memories that don’t agree with what Ben has told her about her past? Are these real memories, or has Christine created them herself? Is Ben lying to her, and if so, is it just because he wants to spare her pain? Who are these people she remembers, who seem so familiar and yet whom she can’t identify?

Watson takes us right into Christine’s mind, and I, at least, was just as confused as she was. I’d think I knew who to trust, and what the truth is, only to find out later that I was wrong. As readers, we have a bit of an advantage over Christine — unlike her, we don’t have to begin from scratch with every new day in her story. Yet, even with that advantage, I found myself frustrated, dying to know more, wishing I knew the truth. Watson depicts very vividly how much more frustrating it must be for Christine.

Before I Go to Sleep is a powerful, gripping, and yes, tragic, psychological thriller. I didn’t want to go to sleep when I was reading it; I just kept wanting to find out more. I also found myself getting caught up in Christine’s fear and paranoia; I certainly didn’t want to go to sleep with that kind of mindset.

More importantly, however, the title perfectly encapsulates Christine’s own, much more urgent, desire not to fall asleep yet. Each slumber is a kind of death. We expand our life by building on our memories; Christine must live as full a life as she can each day, because she starts completely from scratch again the next. And she must do this while dealing with potential half-truths and lies from people she has no choice but to trust.

Trust me: read this book.