Sisterland is about identical twin sisters, both with psychic abilities, but with diverging ideas on what that means for them. One, Violet, embraces her gift while the other, Daisy, rejects them in favor of living a “normal life”. This disharmony is at the center of the book, and, as such, was a delight to read. Sittenfeld was a bit of a darling around these parts thanks to Eligible (and the fact that one of us knew her at one time), so I knew that I’d give […]
Finally, an unreliable narrator who isn’t horrible
I’ve written fairly extensively about how much I dislike unreliable narrators, and how books written to damage the psyche are, I think, grotesque and antithetical to everything I want in a book. The narrator here is struggling through a fairly difficult time in her life, and therefore can’t always be relied on to objectively perceive her reality – but I think it’s handled in a way that is fair to the characters, and it’s done in service to the story, not as some cheap ploy […]
So much yawn
I got my degree in archaeology. Despite this, the Indiana Jones franchise has two of my favorite movies of all time. So, clearly, I’m not much of a stickler for authenticity in my fiction. Stretching the bounds of what happens in the real world is perfectly acceptable for me. Spin me a good yarn, and I’ll forgive the shortcuts. But I absolutely detest the expert who is equally well-versed in all things. You know the type. CSI popularized this, with their forensics experts engaging in […]
April stat round-up!
All the way back in 2009-10, CBR2 saw 103 come together to review 1,381 books. Through the end of April, 2017, we’ve reviewed 1,7771 books. For CBR6, we didn’t reach 1,700 reviews until July. In both CBR7 and 8 we reached it in June. We are having a banner year. On with the stats! April stats: 392 reviews (April 2016 saw 278 reviews) Average rating: 3.69 stars (Feb: 3.61) Most popular book: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (4 reviews, 4.50 average) Most popular author: Lemony […]