Tag: book review

book review

Exciting YA Debut Novel

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Review of The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen

I started The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen not knowing what to expect. I had read only a brief, enigmatic description of the plot and seen an image of the gorgeous cover art. Reading the opening scene soon assured me of Hansen’s talent. She accomplishes a great deal quickly without making the prose or plot too caught up in exposition. She introduces her protagonist and one of many narrators, Beet MacNeill, as well as some of her family while executing major plot points that will reverberate throughout the book. Hansen clearly knew her story intimately and had planned its opening with exceptional care.

            This attention to detail and elegant construction of plot remains consistent throughout the novel. The story progresses along two timelines, one moving forward in time in 1950 and one moving ever further back in time, even to pre-historic human history. While in the 1950 timeline Hansen switches between established character narrators, in the past timeline many of the narrators are tangentially connected to her primary characters or even one-off characters we never encounter again after their narration concludes. Hansen handles these techniques admirably, keeping the focus of the past timeline more on plot events and establishing a pattern of supernatural occurrences than on the narrators themselves. Hansen clearly trusts the intelligence of her readers in order to be able to connect the dots between the pattern established in the past and ongoing events in the 1950 timeline. My one complaint about these timelines was that were one or two too many repetitions in the past timeline that did not contribute much to the supernatural mythology with which Hansen was working because the events had already been depicted several times.

            In addition to the well-planned structure, I loved Hansen’s ability to blend her historical setting of Prince Edward Island with the mythology of the sea and the Scotch heritage of some of the island’s inhabitants. So many YA novels are either realism or fantasy that The Coming Storm’s use of both genres felt fresh and innovative.

Prince Edward Island | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo courtesy The Canadian Encyclopedia

            Finally, Hansen’s writing style and characters offer ample reading incentive of their own. The characters of Beet’s world are a delight. They range from her supernatural-story loving best friend (how convenient for a posse attempting to fight demonic influences 😊), the town’s otherworldly librarian, and a boy visiting from Boston for the summer. What’s more, Beet’s love of music and the sea are expressed through gorgeous prose describing these passions.

            If your last literary visit to Prince Edward Island was reading Anne of Green Gables or one of its sequels, it’s time to return and see it afresh through The Coming Storm.

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Review of Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

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Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, one of my favorite new releases this year, pairs page-turning plot twists with well-developed characters and stellar writing. Alternating between two perspectives, a white mother of two in her thirties and a black babysitter in her twenties, Reid unspools her story of these two women fumbling through different chapters of their lives. (I don’t want to reveal more of the plot than that because experiencing it unfold was a huge point of interest while I was reading.)

Photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Pexels.com

Reminiscent in all the best ways of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere in its discussion of the politics of race and motherhood, Reid embraces the absurd humor of each of her characters’ situations without sacrificing the emotional realities of the story’s more somber moments.

Each type of experience Reid portrays: racism, babysitting long term for a family, the relationship between viral media and the news cycle, feels completely grounded in reality and specific to the character living it. In particular, the relationship the babysitter develops with her charges and the way Reid fleshes out the toddler character feels realistic without ever becoming overly precious.

After reading her debut novel, I’m eagerly awaiting Reid’s next release.

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Dear Readers

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Review of Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy

I remember standing in Target’s book section several years ago and picking up a book titled Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy about a fat girl who loves Dolly Parton and enrolls in her local beauty pageant. Enchanted, I picked up a copy but didn’t get around to reading it right away (although its cover of a blonde woman in a red evening dress standing in thrall to a tiara never failed to elicit a chuckle when I walked past). Fast forward to December 2018 when said book was adapted into a Netflix movie. It’s heartfelt and funny with a great Dolly Parton soundtrack. So, last winter my reading consisted of a binge of all of Murphy’s novels (including Puddin’, a sort-of-sequel that focuses on some of Dumplin’s secondary characters). Then, once I exhausted her canon, I pre-ordered of her new middle grade novel (designated for readers roughly eight to twelve years old), Dear Sweet Pea, which is on bookshelves now.

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Dear Sweet Pea is set in a small Texas town where, following a recent and amicable divorce, thirteen-year-old Sweet Pea’s mom and dad live in near-identical houses on the same street. Sweet Pea finds this same-but-not-the-sameness frustrating as she splits time between the two houses. School is equally challenging as well since a former best friend, now frenemy, creates new drama. In the middle of all these changes in Sweet Pea’s life, her eccentric neighbor and newspaper advice columnist, Miss Flora Mae, asks Sweet Pea to water the plants and forward the advice column correspondence while Flora Mae’s out of town. Sweet Pea intercepts a few letters and gives some advice of her own.

Despite transitioning to a middle grade book after her earlier YA novels, Murphy’s writing is confident in both its style and storytelling. The vocabulary and sentence structure are streamlined for younger readers (but also kept this big kid reader very entertained). Murphy creates a beautiful array of characters from Sweet Pea and her classmates to assorted teachers and parents. My favorite might just be the deliciously eccentric Miss Flora Mae who keeps her most important documents in the oven and who the local kids suspect may be a vampire. Murphy perfectly captures the feeling of being caught halfway between childhood and teenagedom as well as the uncertainty of not knowing how to move from one stage to the next. Dear Sweet Pea is ideal for fifth to seventh grade readers (and anyone who remembers what those in-between years were like).

For fans craving the next movie adapted from Julie Murphy’s work, Disney Channel has your back as they are developing a movie version of Dear Sweet Pea!

Read if you like: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh as well as Dumplin’ and Puddin’ by Julie Murphy.

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How to Become a Citizen Sleuth

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Review of Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen

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Gone are the days when Dateline and Forensic Files were the mainstays for murderinos (the affectionate name given to fans of the podcast My Favorite Murder) seeking details on infamous or puzzling cases. True crime podcasts now routinely place in the top ten of Apple’s podcast chart and whether you’re flipping through channels on basic cable, tuning into HBO, or searching Netflix, true crime is sure to be one, if not more, of the offerings. Now, the problem is not seeking out true crime stories but discerning which ones to spend time consuming when faced with a plethora of choices.

Enter Billy Jensen. He spent much of his journalism career writing about true crime, specifically unsolved cases. In recent years, he’s gained attention for helping to finish Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark about the Golden State Killer who was famously identified and arrested just months after the book’s release in 2018. McNamara died unexpectedly while writing the book and Jensen worked with a collaborator to piece together drafts and write new material as well, focusing on techniques like familial DNA searches and geoprofiling that McNamara was using to help solve the case. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is already a true crime classic not only because of McNamara’s stellar writing but also because the techniques she advocated for were actually used to identify the suspect after decades of searching. I highly recommend I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (although it is disturbing and, full disclosure, it did give me nightmares).

So, back to Billy Jensen. If his involvement with I’ll Be Gone in the Dark fails to convince you of his pedigree, let me explain what distinguishes his new book from other true crime releases. While Jensen’s work on both the Golden State Killer case and McNamara’s book about it are woven throughout his true crime memoir, Chase Darkness with Me, he focuses on a number of cases he worked (and sometimes solved) using targeted ads on social media platforms to solicit witnesses and tips leading to suspects. The majority of these are cases are likely unknown to readers since most of them rarely received media attention outside of the area where they occurred. Yet, Jensen clearly outlines the stakes for the families and communities impacted by each crime, making each compelling. Although he covers a large number of cases, his explanations of the details make them unique enough to remain distinct rather than blurring together. In addition, Jensen explains how his techniques have actually solved crimes and includes an addendum explaining best practices for those who want to be become citizen sleuths, as he refers to them.

Jensen’s years as an investigative journalist have honed his prose into concise yet informative sentences. Yet because this book is at least partially a memoir, the crimes and investigations are always filtered through Jensen’s perspective and that prevents the book from feeling too clinical or like a mere list of facts. Rather, he weaves stories about his own life into the book in ways that feel organic instead of forced, providing brief respites from the crimes themselves. Much of his interest in true crime came from his father, and those anecdotes are particularly evocative in placing the reader within Jensen’s point of view.

I knew Jensen from I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and the podcast he currently co-hosts with retired investigator Paul Holes, The Murder Squad, but this new book and his work on citizen sleuthing is sure to establish his important role in the future of true crime. Jensen’s strong writing skills and compassion for everyone affected by these crimes are striking. Chase Darkness with Me is a page turner that asks how citizens can harness technology to help chip away at the ever-growing backlog of unsolved cases in America. True crime fanatics and people interested in the future of criminal investigation should seek out Chase Darkness with Me.