Tag Archives: Fiction

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.

Review | I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga

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7766027As the teenage son of Billy Dent, the most notorious serial killer of the 21st century, Jazz feels constantly under scrutiny. It’s only a matter of time, he imagines people thinking, before Jazz turns out just like his father. It doesn’t help that before Billy was imprisoned, he trained Jazz to join him in killing. As Jazz observes, “For Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round.” [p.11] Jazz likes to believe that even if his father hadn’t been imprisoned, he would have been able to shake off his father’s influence anyway, but a part of him can’t help but notice how easy it would be to knock a cop unconscious. A part of him understands that a killer had removed his victim’s fingers not just for trophies, but to symbolically give the finger to the police. Despite his best efforts, Jazz had indeed absorbed his father’s lessons, and would make a great serial killer.

Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers has an incredibly audacious premise. As a mystery and thriller aficionado, I’ve read quite a few serial killer stories, and the Dexter Morgan character is utterly compelling. But to explore the potential of a teenage boy to be a serial killer — and more importantly, to have that boy not be a psychopath, but rather someone who is fighting desperately to avoid what he fears is his destiny.

In his quest not to be his father, Jazz is determined to use his father’s training to hunt down a serial killer currently terrorizing his neighbourhood. In doing so, he is faced with how much he really has learned about being a successful serial killer. This is dark and twisty territory, the kind that in an Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride or Val McDermid novel would probably have the hero drinking or doping heavily. Lyga keeps it PG-13, with Jazz being more like a tortured superhero than a truly broken man, but kudos to the author for not shrinking back from the darkness in Jazz’s psyche. The mystery itself is puzzling enough, but Jazz’s relationship with his father is just as complex and frightening as you might imagine it would be in real life. At times, Jazz seems much more mature than a teenager, but then with a childhood like his, it’s certainly understandable.

I Hunt Killers is a daring, complex, disturbing novel. Lyga pulls it off with well-paced plotting, fascinating characterization and pure guts. The ending felt a bit too superhero serial, dialling back a notch on the disturbing possibilities with a fairly standard promise of a new adventure. Still, after the rest of the story, I have no doubt Lyga will pull it off again with the next books in the series.

Finally, the hardcover edition has probably one of my favourite book designs from last year. Kudos to jacket and book designer Alison Impey. The experience of opening the dust jacket to realize what lay beneath is an apt introduction to the impact of the novel itself. Striking, horrific and memorable, with the rather audacious, almost defiant title I Hunt Killers, this book draws you in even before you turn the page, and it simply refuses to let go.

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Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.