I would not casually recommend this book. However, if you are interested in serial killers, this is really an impressively written and researched piecI would not casually recommend this book. However, if you are interested in serial killers, this is really an impressively written and researched piece. The improbable relationship between the author and subject alone is worth reading about. I admired her ability to really examine her own affection for Bundy and the fact that she was unable to look at what was a startling amount of circumstantial evidence and still believe he was innocent. This book will haunt me....more
This is the third book by Heller I have read and is by far my least favorite. The idea is intriguing, two men on a hunting trip find themselves in theThis is the third book by Heller I have read and is by far my least favorite. The idea is intriguing, two men on a hunting trip find themselves in the middle of a civil war in the U.S. However, the mental gymnastics i had to engage in to overlook the improbabilities of the way this scenario plays out was distracting. I am all about suspending my disbelief, but in this case it was being suspended from a trapeze by its fingertips. So you’ve got that going on, then the main character begins to muse, about halfway through the book, about how he lost his virginity to his best friend’s mom (of course its the guy he’s with) and what a great experience that was. To say I was gobsmacked by this detour is putting it mildly. The narrator’s perspective of this short affair is, celebratory? After he describes being raised by this woman, in his “chosen� family, how she cooked for him, attended his soccer games, blah blah blah…then she seduces him and he defends this whole experience to the reader? Himself? It was unclear. Anyway, I hope that Heller wrote this character in such a way as to reveal the lies we tell ourselves. Because if this was a sincere, straightforward story, while the sexual relationship would not be technically illegal, it is inappropriate and incestuous in the extreme. The book ends abruptly. Overall, this is an ok thriller if you are bored. Compared to The Dog Stars and The River, it’s a real bowser. ...more
This is an effective page turner with plot points that strain credulity. Sometimes I question why authors seem to try and stuff everything they’ve eveThis is an effective page turner with plot points that strain credulity. Sometimes I question why authors seem to try and stuff everything they’ve ever thought into one book, but overall it’s entertaining. Some of the sentences were real head-scratchers. I wondered about who edited this book. I read some of the one star reviews for fun and don’t disagree with a lot of them....more
Even Olive bored me. There was a Victorian pearl clutching breathlessness about this book that lacked the sober clarity of her other books. Its precioEven Olive bored me. There was a Victorian pearl clutching breathlessness about this book that lacked the sober clarity of her other books. Its precious. It’s a lot of characters agreeing with one another and being fascinated by mundane gossip....more
Weird and boring. Too long, too many confusing descriptions of the geography and navigation of this fictional resort. Lurid in the extreme but also imWeird and boring. Too long, too many confusing descriptions of the geography and navigation of this fictional resort. Lurid in the extreme but also improbable and tedious....more
This book was such a disappointment after Leave the World Behind. It’s boring and repetitive and suffers under the weight of its premise. What I like This book was such a disappointment after Leave the World Behind. It’s boring and repetitive and suffers under the weight of its premise. What I like about this book is the author’s idiosyncratic writing style. There are times when I need to read a sentence several times to glean meaning and it forces me to slow down and truly think. Unfortunately the substance of the novel is so thin and the subject (money/entitlement) so labored, that the effect feels wasted....more
I have given this one a lot of thought. I read this book based on a TikTok recommendation (which is another essay) by soTrigger warning, pun intended.
I have given this one a lot of thought. I read this book based on a TikTok recommendation (which is another essay) by someone who was an academic, so I figured it must be good or interesting or something. The praise for this book was high. I might add that the "booktoker" from whom I got the recommendation is a man.
At first, I thought that the book was just impossibly offensive and terrible. To say it is unrealistic doesn't really do this piece of trash justice. But I thought, maybe it's an allegory, why are you so wedded to realism, etc. I challenged myself to bear with it, hoping for some big payoff. But what I got was more and more offended, grossed out, bored, and awestruck that such a completely horrendous book should be the subject of all of this wonderful criticism. It's an Emperor's New Clothes situation and I have been pondering it ever since I finished the book.
So this story is written by a man, which gave me pause to begin with, because it's about a 14 year old girl who is being abused sexually and physically by her father. It's all about her journey from this hellish life into something livable, I guess.
The author describes in graphic detail the sexual abuse and violence, as well as the way this 14 year old girl and her father fetishize weapons (god save me from another meticulous description of the cleaning of a weapon...seriously it happens about 45 times in the book and no trigger pin or whatever goes without its own soliloquy). And when I say the sexual abuse is graphic, I mean in a literary smut way, which is super weird, disturbing, and an odd way to put your way with words to use. The physical violence is over-the-top and so improbable as to almost be laughable. The way this 14 year old thinks and moves through the world reads like a Marvel Comic Rape Revenge Super Heroine. It's so bad. It's so unrealistic. Also, in the end predictable.
And as a side note, this author writes about nature as if this book will be his last and he needs to cram every detail he knows about Northern California forests, grasses, and ocean life into one book about a 14 year old SA revenge superhero. Instead of creating a sense of place, it's boring. And please do not get me started on how "ugly" this girl is initially described (I guess by herself?) and ends up being this mythic beauty...
Anyhow, please, don't read this book. Don't support these narratives. It's not brave of this man to write a book about which he knows obviously nothing and he doesn't deserve praise for it....more
Don't believe the hype. This book is okay, but just. The writing is middling, I mean, how many times do we need to use the word "shred" in one book? ADon't believe the hype. This book is okay, but just. The writing is middling, I mean, how many times do we need to use the word "shred" in one book? Also, the holes in the logic of this facility, the abilities of the 'monsters', I could go on. ...more
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