The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Once the toast of good society in Victoria's England, the extraordinary conjurer Edward Moon no longer commands the respect that he did in earlier times. Still, each night he returns to the stage of his theater to amaze his devoted, albeit dwindling, audience, aided by his partner, the Somnambulist—a silent, hairless, hulking giant who, when stabbed, does not bleed. But these are strange, strange times in England, with the oddest of sorts prowling London's dank underbelly. And the very bizarre death of a disreputable actor has compelled a baffled police constabulary to turn once again to Edward Moon for help—inevitably setting in motion events that will shatter his increasingly tenuous grasp on reality.

I so wanted to love this book.  I wanted to be submerged in the off-kilter  action and nonsensical setting.  I wanted the atmosphere of the book to overwhelm my senses and take me to a place I've never been before.  What I got instead was a book that reminded me of every other book in the genre.  It was a book full of unlikeable characters and plot twists that seemed to exist more for the sake of showing the cleverness of the writing, as opposed to furthering the story along. 

I' m not saying I disliked everything about it, because I didn't.  I loved the author's vision of London.  He created such a decadent, dark city that I, at times, wanted to step into the page and wander the streets for myself.  Not something I would have done by myself, mind you.  I would have had to drag a friend along.   There is no way I could have walked into a whorehouse staffed by circus freaks, without forcing someone to hold my hand the entire time.  I just wish the setting could have saved this one for me.  I would love to revisit this London, I'm just not sure I can stomach the storyline again.

The story just never felt cohesive to me.  The narrator, who's identity I won't divulge, has an obvious contempt for Edward Moon.  That contempt, which oozes off the page at times, so clouds Edward that I was never able to like the guy.  I think that if I had seen him through other eyes, I may have felt differently about it.  I'm sure it was purposefully done by the author, as was the the sarcasm that spewed from the mouth of the narrator, but it just left me feeling cold at times.  It also got in the way of the action, it felt like the story was being interrupted in order for the narrator to get his point of view across.  It ended up, at least for me, cutting the story up into sections that never really fit back together.  

The book was a disappointment for me, one that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forgive.  It had such promise, but I think the author allowed the "oddness" of the setting to get in the way of the story.    I think others will like it, I actually know a lot of gifted bloggers who loved this one, I just wish I could count myself amongst them.

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

Synopsis From Back Cover:

When they were children, Erica Calcott and hers sister, Beth, spent their summer holidays at Storton Manor.  Now, following the death of their grandmother, they have returned to the grand, imposing house in Wiltshire, England.  Unable to stem the tide of childhood memories that arise as she sorts through her grandmother's belongings, Erica thinks back to the summer her cousin Henry vanished mysteriously from the estate, an event that tore their family to pieces.  It is time, she believes, to lay the past to rest, bring her sister some peace, and finally solve the mystery of her cousin's disappearance.

But sifting through remnants of a bygone time is bringing a secret family history to light - one that stretches back over a century, to a beautiful society heiress in Oklahoma, a haunting, savage land across the ocean.  And as past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two shocking acts of betrayal... and the heartbreaking legacy they left behind.

When my roommate saw this book sitting on the kitchen table, he asked me why was I reading a "chick" book.  It told him that wasn't what it was, but I don't think he ever really believed me.  All he would say was, look at the cover.  Based off of that alone, I probably would have agreed with him.  With this cover, I don't think I would have ever picked this one up.  It's a shame really, because if I hadn't, I would have missed out on an amazing story.

As soon as Erica and Beth step out on the page, you know something is horribly wrong.  The tension between them is palpable and Beth seems like she can wilt at any minute.  Something is obviously weighing on, suffocating her to the point that she could be crushed at any second.  Whatever is destroying her has broken up her marriage, kept her from being around her son all the time, and is threatening to consume her.  Erica is at a loss of what to do, she has been trying to keep her sister afloat for years now and she is hoping spending Christmas in the country will somehow cure her.

Erica, already suspecting it, quickly figures out that whatever is eating Beth is rooted in their childhood.  Erica, who can't remember the circumstances behind Henry disappearing, thinks that summer is behind all of Beth's problems.  With the reluctant help of a childhood friend, Erica attempts to uncover the truth and remember what happened.

As she tries to cobble together the truth of what happened all those years ago, she also starts to uncover something she never suspected.  Maybe the reason why her grandmother was such a tyrant was because her mother, Caroline, never showed her love.  And the root of all of it could be found in the picture of Caroline with a baby boy, a boy that nobody knows anything about.

The two stories are intermingled as they build to a climax that will resolve what happened to Henry but will leave Erica with something other than the truth about Caroline and that mysterious baby.  She has a great theory, one that is very close to the truth, but with no concrete evidence, she has to go with the more obvious answer.

I loved the idea of us, the reader, knowing what happened with Caroline and the mysterious baby, but the characters never really knowing the truth.  Erica really never finds written proof to back up what she believes to be the truth, though all the evidence points towards her conclusion..  The fact that it isn't really the whole truth, makes the story all the more believable to me.  Something like this would not have been written down, and for a woman like Caroline to leave it all in black and white on a page, wouldn't have made sense.

Both storylines are compelling and kept me hooked the entire time.  The author built wonderfully developed characters that were believalbe in every way.  She then gave them the perfect, concrete setting that framed the story and the characters wonderfully.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  To read other opinions on this one, please visit the tour page.  If you would like to find out more about the author, please visit her Facebook page.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Arabella "Babe" Carey Chandler

I'm writing this month's posts with a very heavy heart.  One of my favorite shows, one I've watched pretty much my whole life, is ending after being on the air for 41 years.  All My Children has been a staple in my house every weekday for what seems like years.  I would watch it with my mom when I was sick and couldn't go to school.  When I left home, the love for this show came with me.  So this month, with only 13 more episodes to go (counting today's), I'm going to highlight some of my favorite characters.  Since I've watched this show for so long, there is no way I'll ever be able to discuss all my favorites (off the top of my head I can think of over 40), I have picked out some of them that have really stood out for me.  The obvious choice, Erica Kane, was a pick during my first year of blogging.  So with no further ado, I would like to introduce you to the first character....

Arabella "Babe" Carey Chandler did not have the easiest start on her arrival in Pine Valley.  She was a cocktail waitress in San Diego when she met J.R. Chandler while he was off on a merchant marine ship trying to find himself.  They quickly marry and move back to good old Pine Valley, PA.  Oddly, on her first night in town, Babe goes to a party and drinks a little too much.  She ends up sleeping with Jamie, J.R.'s brother.  Once they find out who they are, they try to cover it up, until Babe gets pregnant.

The proverbial shit hits the fan.  Everybody finds their lives in chaos and the next few years are filled with all sorts of trouble for her.  Paternity tests, deep friendship with Bianca, switched babies, and out right baby stealing complicate everything for Babe.  She continues to fall in and out of love with JR, making side romances with Jamie and Josh.  She survives a murder attempt by the Satin Slayer and is eventually killed off by a tornado as she protects the life of her son.  I told you it was complicated.  This is just the quick review, I didn't even get into any of the details about running a cosmetics company, a transgender rock star, dating a psycho who want to kill his sister, or the wonderful relationship she had with her mother, Krystal Carey.

What I loved about Babe, is that she refused to give up.  She grew up dirt poor and wanted nothing more than to make a life for herself.  In the beginning she really didn't care about how she got it, but as she made true friends and really figured out what she wanted in life, she grew up.  She became a strong, independent person who was willing to pay for her mistakes and build a better life for her son.  She was loyal and loving, would do anything to protect those she loved.  

I will admit to tearing up just a bit when she died, both times, though the last and final time put a dent in my love for the show.  She was the one character I never wanted to see leave.  I'm hoping that the rumors of her coming back are true.  I would love to see her grace the show with her presence one again before the final page of that photo album is closed for good.

Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters

Synopsis From Back Cover:

For Rent:  Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds.  No broker's fee.

Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment.

Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric.  And the elderly handyman drops cryptic remarks about the basement.  But the rent is so low, it's too good to pass up.

Big mistake.  Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs...or is it?  She awakens every morning with fresh bits, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt.  An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing.  The landlady insists her building is clean.  Susan fears she's going mad - until a more sinister explanation presents itself:  she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.

Normally I love to read horror books once the weather starts to get a little chillier.  There is something about having that nip in the air and the shorter days that makes me want to curl up on the couch, with as little light as possible, and delve into something that will scare the hell out of me.  Sadly, due to time constraints, I had to read this one when it was over 100 degrees outside and not getting dark until after nine o'clock.  For once, that didn't bother me, I was still able to forget about my surroundings and get so lost in the story, that I would be checking my pillows for any scurrying creatures before I would set my head down for bed.

I'm addicted to a lot of the horror novels written in the 60s and 70s, and this one has that retro vibe for me.  Two of my favorites,  Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin and The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz, even start off the same way.  Young couple/single woman moves into a new apartment and everything seems to being going right at first.  Of course there are always subtle hints that not everything is as it should be.  Eccentric neighbors always seem to be around, strange occurrences that only happens to one of them (normally the woman), and a miasma that seemed to hang in the air, slowly suffocating the inhabitants of the apartment.

This book had all of that and so much more going for it.  The author had an almost supernatural ability to balance the home life of the Wendt's with the growing sense of apprehension.  A lot of horror books I've read will sacrifice the characters for the story.  Thankfully Bedbugs isn't one of them.  A story that asks the reader to believe in something so personal as a malignant presence that attacks you in the bed, has to have characters that you not only believe, but care about it.  As a reader, you have to be able to relate to them.  Susan, Alex, and Emma are fully functional, 4D characters that were a treat to know.

The horror was built slowly, it worked it's way towards a simmer, and then boiled over in such a way that the sheer violence of the climax left me holding my breath and gasping for proverbial air.  I was horrified, and thrilled by the conclusion even though I saw it coming a mile away.  A good horror book doesn't have to throw out an ending that comes out of left field.  A good horror novel will allow the reader to figure out the ending, but still horrify them in the end.  It's needs to be believable no matter how outlandish the plot points.  It's hard to write a credible story that will leave a reader altering their bedtime habits. Bedbugs not only pulls it off, but it pulls it off in such a way that you won't know what hit you until you are going to bed the night after and you are still checking for telltale signs of an infestation.

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

Mailbox Monday for 9/5/11

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books and is being hosted all this month by Leah at Amused By Books.

When I walk into used book stores now, I make a beeline to the mystery section.  I have to check if they have any Mary Roberts Rinehart books.  Luckily for me, the store I went into Friday had three that I didn't already have.  I picked up Paperbacks of Alibi for Isabel, The Great Mistake, and The Haunted Lady.

I received a wonderful picture book, Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane, for an upcoming TLC Book Tour.

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Ushered into the world by a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives late in the summer of 1877 i the town of Constanta on the Black Sea, Eleonora Cohen proves herself an extraordinary gifted child - a prodigy - at a very young age.  When she is eight years old, she stows away aboard a ship, following her carpet merchant father, Yakob, to the teeming and colorful capital of Stamboul where a new life awaits her.

In the narrow streets of this city at the crossroads of the world, intrigue and gossip are currency, and people are not always what they seem.,  But it is only when she charms the eccentric Sultan Abdullhamid II - beleaguered by friend and foe as his unwieldy realm crumbles - that Eleonora will change the course of an empire.

I think I'm going to make some people howl with this review, if you are one of them, I apologize.  Well, not really, I just thought it would be a nice thing to say.  Getting the apology up front means I don't have to do it later.

To be quite honest with you, I went into this book thinking I would love it.  It had a wonderful concept and was set in a locale that I have always been fascinated with.  My grandfather was stationed in Turkey for a long time, and while I've been to Ankara, Istanbul has always been on the top of my list of places I would love to visit.  About the only thing this book did for me, was make that desire grow in leaps and bounds.

The settings was everything I expected.  The author was able to make the city breathe for me in a way that I found fascinating to read.  I felt as if I was there with Eleonora as she stowed away on the ship her father was taking to the city.  I was holding her hand as she visited the Sultan for the first time.  Everything was brought to life in such a mentally tactile way, that I found myself lost in the sensation of it all.  I just wish it had been enough to save the book for me.

Where I felt let down, was in the characterization.  There was not one character that felt completely real to me.  None of them, Eleonora included, felt as if they were flesh and blood.  Instead they all seemed to be ethereal phantoms that had just stepped out of the author's cerebral cortex, not yet fully formed.  They were mere ideas, not concrete forms.  Normally I can overlook shadowy characters if at least one of them is solid, hopefully the main character.  In this case, while Eleonora was definitely the most opaque of them all, I just couldn't buy her as a real human being.  She was too perfect, too much of the idea, that she never moved beyond it.

Eleonora is a child, but not once, do I ever get the impression that I'm reading about the life of an eight year old.  If her age hadn't been mentioned, on more than one occasion, I'm not sure she would be any different than the adult characters.  She never behaved as if she were a child.  In my experience, there is no such thing as a perfectly well behaved kid.  If you have one, please let me know how you did it.  Every single one of them do things that get them in trouble.  It's part of growing up.  Eleonora on the other hand seems as if she was born an adult.  She's too perfect.  She has no flaws, no personality defects; there is nothing about her that causes any conflict, other than those born of her being perfect.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that she is a boring character.  Unfortunately, that aspect of her influenced the way I felt about the book itself.  There was a sense of shallowness to it all, a dullness that I just couldn't overlook.

The book did leave me with one rather burning question though.  In the book the author compares the twinkling of stars to jellyfish.  I've been trying to figure out what the hell that means ever since.  At first I was thinking about the jellyfish you put in fish tanks with black lights.  I figured that couldn't be it since that part of the book took place in 1885.  So please, if you have any clue what he was talking about, will you let me in on it.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  To read other opinions, please visit the tour page.  To find out more about the author, Michael David Lukas, visit his website.