When Rosemary is five, she is sent to her grandparents. She doesn’t know what’s happened to her sister Fern. When she is returns home the family has moved from their farmhouse and orchard to a house in town and Fern is gone. Rosemary’s older brother is angry, her mother is grieving and her father starts to drink. What has happened to the missing child, Fern? Well, turns out Fern is a chimpanzee. I came to We are All Completely beside Ourselves biased. A few years […]
It’s all about the Detectives
It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on the Dublin Murder Squad. One thing I like about Tana French is that she isn’t as prolific as many mystery writers are, making it fun to reacquaint oneself with the setting and some of the characters. I didn’t like the last book, The Secret Place, quite as much as earlier books, partly because the story was all about teenagers and that I found detective Antoinette Conway too angry and paranoid. I wasn’t sure what to expect […]
Resistance isn’t always Futile
This book is due back at the library today, so this review is written in a bit of a rush. This is one of my infrequent forays into science fiction. I really enjoyed it and may have to explore further. I read that this is a “space opera” a term I am unfamiliar with, but it makes sense in that Ancillary Justice is a big story with heroines and villains. Ancillary Justice is set in an intergalactic empire of humanoids known as the Raadchai. The […]
Caution: Damn Good Writing Ahead
The Maid’s Version is a tightly written novel, and at 164 pages, more novella than novel. The cover reveals that Daniel Woodrell also wrote Winter’s Bone. (I didn’t know the film was based upon a novel). After reading this book, I intend to read Winter’s Bone and anything else I can find in the library. Woodrell is a storyteller that economically uses words to the best effect. The story starts in 1965, the narrator is staying with Alma, his grandmother and the maid of the […]