4. The Dish

[tommycanyouhearme]

Alright, folks. I'm going to do some book reviews. It will be my honest, unfettered view of these books. Expect, though, that they will be mostly positive. I am not an English or Literature major, I don't do literary reviews as a profession, and I am ridiculously easy to please. That said, if you're looking for something a bit more critical from a technical/linguistic sense, or anything beyond, my reviews are not for you. This is simply me, giving my unrefined view, from the lens of someone wanting to be entertained. All of the books I've "read" in this review were listened to via audiobook, so I didn't really do the "work," but it's the best way I have time for books right now. Late nights after everyone else is in bed, often laying in bed myself. In the car, on the way to or from work or daycare or the high school (I have a toddler and a high-schooler, 12.5 years apart in age). At work via Airpods in my ears so I can hear better over the office noises. Let's dive in.

Books listened to in January 2024:

1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins


I can't rave enough about Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games books, as I enjoyed the original trilogy, but how satisfying it is to read about, if not the first Hunger Games ever and the revolution that rocked Panem, then 10 years later in the aftermath, as the Games are gaining speed. How fascinating to see a young Coriolanus Snow, not as the hardened, villainous man we've come to know, but as a young man with compassion still in his heart. It becomes clear that, though this is the case, Coriolanus is indeed at a junction in his life that we are getting a window into, knowing full well, at least by generality, what path his choices will lead him down, and generally, the kinds of choices he will make to start that path. He has the same cunning and calculatedness we'd expect, but these are skills he is learning the art of, and in some ways, through Lucy Gray, his assigned tribute that he mentors. He learns how to appeal to people on manners and countenance, social graces, and careful concealment of deeper motives, by his words and interactions. He is learning charm and composure. He is learning planning. He is learning calculation. He is learning how to manipulate with what's happening around him. He is learning the art of finesse. It was interesting to see that victors from the same district were not always mentors, but rather Capital youths. I would have figured, though the districts would have to gain a momentum to each have at least one victor per district over time, that at least someone more biased to their district's own tributes would be assigned, even if at first there were no victor available. I don't know what I expected, I guess. I just didn't expect Capital people of any sort to be essentially cheering on tributes, except through the sponsors that developed through the games. I found the inception of that concept interesting too, as well as Coriolanus' personal involvement in that and the ideas that were put to practice. Despite the fact that Coriolanus seems to simultaneously have feelings for Lucy Gray and have high aspirations for his own life, I didn't expect these two themes to be at war with each other throughout the whole book. I didn't even expect Lucy Gray to win the Games, if I'm being quite honest. I thought her death would be what catalyzed the hardening of Coriolanus' heart, teaching him the dangers of attachment (whether or not the reader agrees with that sentiment). In a way, this is true, but it happened much, much differently. I was expecting that after her death in the Games, we'd be witnessing how Coriolanus works his way up through the political rungs of society, with his ruthlessness and secrets that he collected about people. In a way, they show a bit of that, but I thought it would be completely sans Lucy. I suppose that would be another book entirely. I also underestimated Lucy Gray. I expected her to be intelligent yet compassionate like Katniss, not wanting to kill much or at all if it could be helped, but I guess I underestimated how intelligent she was and how far she was willing to go, if it came down to it. This includes after the Games were over and she returned home to District 12, and reunited with Coriolanus. I found Sejanus to be quite irritating. I know he was supposed to be the moral compass, and I realize that his District 2 ties were what helped aid this in the plot, but I found his delivery irritating. Maybe this was the point, because he angered Coriolanus, and was quite a variable and hard to control himself, and probably also because Sejanus challenged him morally and forced him to think outside of his own selfish concerns and beyond the attitudes and politics of the Capital, but I felt like Collins' delivery of his character's lines was somehow lacking enough conviction. I think was bothered me was how willingly he backed down from Coriolanus at times, and his demonstrations such as in the arena. He got too wishy-washy, despite how bothered he was by the Games. I think. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, why I disliked him when you would expect that you should like his character for all he represented. It wouldn't have served the overall story for him to die prematurely due to his own emotional outburst and reactions, his lack of thinking things through, and due to him not thinking with his head like Coriolanus, but I feel like perhaps his sympathies weren't expressed in the right way, and that perhaps his character should have been smarter, especially about what he was trying to accomplish, even earlier on in the Games, before the rebellion in District 12. His character irritated me as much as he irritated Coriolanus, but for different reasons. That aside, though, Sejanus also served as a way of shedding light on how Coriolanus thinks. It's interesting that his sympathies only seemed to be for Lucy Gray specifically, not all District tributes, and then by that vein, perhaps only because she was technically "not District" by her belonging to the Covey and stumbling upon the districts through her travels, completely at the wrong time. It seems to me that Coriolanus' motives were not entirely altruistic from the start, but more a possessiveness, hidden behind compassion, which may even be something he wasn't consciously aware of at first. Even if one had started the series with the original trilogy, therefore knowing his ultimate character development, it seems pretty obvious where his ambition and attitudes towards people not of the Capital were leading him as he is on the cusp of manhood and career, even if you picked up this prequel first. Lucy Gray represented everything he hated: lack of control, variables and the unknown, instability, and more. Ultimately, their confrontation (or lack thereof) in the woods at the end was the ultimate expression of this. Whether or not Lucy Gray survives is, of course important to the reader, we want to know. But it's immaterial. Coriolanus' rage in that moment is the key takeaway. What unravels him is what he can't control. He's denied even the choice of a face to face confrontation. Her departure is completely outside of his choosing, or even awareness at first. It makes sense that a generation or two later, Katniss would be his similar, if not initial undoing of his resolve and composure, then of his life and all he built over the next 66 years for himself. Katniss, different in some ways, is very similar to Lucy Gray, as I'm sure most readers can see for themselves. Great parallels without completely repeating the details. Well done, Suzanne Collins!

2. She Started It by Sian Gilbert


A fun little and then there was one/who done it mystery. Couldn't decide if the twist of Wendy, the sister, posing as Poppy, who had tragically committed suicide 10 years ago, was predictable, or if I was super-observant to call it. The devil is in the details. It was the first time I read a book where I literally didn't like any of the characters except for the young Poppy in her diary flashbacks (and who I was desperately rooting for, but knew it would end badly for), and Wendy when she was younger. I wasn't so much a fan of unhinged Wendy as the big reveal to Annabel at the end spills out. I can completely understand and see where her big revenge plan came from, but I don't like that she let herself fall that far to resort to murder. Ultimately, I only felt slightly bad for the ladies as they were picked off one by one, sans Annabel, the "fall guy." I wouldn't want them to die, but my God were they unremorseful! I found Chloe's narrator particularly grating. I know her character also was supposed to be, but the way that the narrator would breathe before starting a sentence was so distracting and irritating. I couldn't stand Esther for completely different reasons. Annabel I felt slightly bad for with her obvious marital deterioration and Andrew's obvious distance and unfaithfulness, probably from the start (made worse by Chloe's secret being revealed), especially because she had two degrees and was smart (she never should have become a stay at home wife, especially since they had no kids, what a waste of intellect) and had maybe some higher probability of remorse at bullying Poppy, but as the book went on and she still insisted it was just funny and not a big deal, and the fact that it's revealed that she was the ringleader mean girl, ugh. By the end, the girl I hated the least, Tanya, I even hated. She wasn't even reluctantly mean to Poppy by the end of Poppy's schooling and life, even though they once were best friends. She was as cutthroat as the rest of them. But it was enjoyable enough, besides being obviously sad for Poppy and her family.

3. Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham


This book was captivating to the end. The mystery of what it was about Lucy's allure was, how she kept people in line at her every beck and call, I was mesmerized, wondering what would lead her to being a part of a murder, until it turned out... she hadn't been. The even bigger twist was that Nicole killed Trevor, Sloane killed Lucy, and at least some part of Margot wondered if she subconsciously purposely pushed Eliza in the past. Yet another murder mystery where I cannot fathom how the hell they got away with it, despite how it was laid out that they did. I was pleased to have figured out that Lucy and Eliza had been half sisters, but the way in which it unfolded was a bit shocking. Still, not entirely surprising, since it seems like not a thing Lucy did was without purpose.

4. The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall


After reading several bad reviews mid-read (carefully to avoid my own spoilers), I was very confused as to why. After having finished it, I'm still confused as to why. Yes, there were seemingly a lot of themes and sub-plots throughout the book, but any astute reader could have strung together how they all related, and were actually all really important. Yes, she used a lot of similes. But they were colorful similes that I appreciated. I really enjoyed this book. Randall created a very rich story of Sadie and Seth, of GiGi, of the Revelare family and their history, of Sadie's history with Jake, and of the town. I loved GiGi's recipes being sprinkled at the end of chapter, even after her death, that had just made an appearance within the chapter that it concludes. I loved that the ingredients had magical purposes to them in the essences and herbs in the teas and desserts and such. I was also smugly pleased to be right, that Bethany was faking her pregnancy to Jake, once more securing the high probability that he and Sadie would get a second chance after all. For all the hate this book seems to receive rather than critical acclaim, I loved it.

5. First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston


Fantastic read with actually quite a few really great twists! First off, I didn't figure out who Mr. Smith was until pretty close to the end, probably around the time "Evie" did. To be honest I didn't even see Ryan as a possibility until the road trip to Atlanta, but I realized pretty quickly after that, that he was just a very clever foil, and you'd almost expect it, therefore it almost didn't make sense for that exact reason. I sensed a bit of unfinished business between him and Evie that just didn't make sense cutting off abruptly by him being the mysterious, perilous boss, Mr. Smith. It was about then that I realized it had to be "George," the seemingly completely harmless "UPS" delivery guy "for" Mr. Smith. It's so fitting. Every small piece of advice he gave Evie during each assignment was grooming her to not only be successful to meet his ends, but to groom her to not suspect that he was her boss, or that he was going to turn on her... yet (though I think she suspected all along, as one should in her line of work, that he'd eventually turn on her). Riveting. I was genuinely pleased she ended up with Ryan in the end, since they were both, as Amy said, shady (but not overly so, they had plenty of humanity in them). The Amy Conley plot-twist, I didn't see coming at all! I didn't think the supposedly botched job where Amy supposedly was murdered and it became extremely public, was actually carefully planned all along by her and Evie (and Devon) together. But then again, you only know what the book reveals, and in her brilliance, Ashley Elston only reveals previous jobs in flashbacks when she wants you to know Evie/Lucca's full history. I was pleasantly surprised to learn she was on a team with Evie and Devon to take down Mr. Smith for good. I had a gut feeling, too, that Evie would eventually cash in on her (until recently tarnished by the person sent in by Mr. Smith, pretending to be "Lucca") unblemished actual identity of Lucca Marino in a way other than she'd wanted to, to move on from her line of work one day. That's rarely how it works, when you know secrets that make you a liability. There's no walking away. So I figured somehow, her past and actual name would come into play on the job, and boy did it ever! It's lucky that Mr. Smith had a bit of tunnel vision in his choice of a total dead-ringer to play "Lucca" in plain sight of Lucca/Evie. Fast-paced and gripping! Well done! I mostly enjoyed the narrator, too, but I found it irritating the way she pronounced certain words with a "p" in it where there should be none, like "sumpthing" for "something."

6. Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister


I finished this last night at 11:58 PM, therefore, I finished it in January! HA! A very cool time travel, quantum physics kind of story. I loved the concept of going back in time, beyond your control, only at certain times in order to learn what you don't know and need to know. Jen's journey backwards in time to learn about her relationship with her son, Todd, her husband, Kelly, and her dad even, to prevent Todd from committing a murder was positively riveting. I had a feeling that at least some of it was going to have to do with how they parented Todd (which honestly, was mostly normal! As Jen realizes eventually), like signs they may or may not have missed, and maybe even things with their relationship that might subconsciously affect Todd (turns out it mostly had to do with what Kelly was hiding), but as she went further and further back, I didn't expect some of the twists that came later. At first, I was confused by the random chapters about Ryan, the police officer, and I thought maybe they were going to show some interrogation scenes in the present-day with him and Todd, the day after the murder. What I didn't work out until much later, which is McAllister's brilliant way of ordering her chapters, is that Ryan is actually Kelly, undercover as a cop, in the past. Since Ryan had a brother that had been involved in bad stuff, I started to think maybe Kelly was actually the brother, and that he hadn't died after all, and Ryan either wanted answers, or didn't know, or something. As we start realizing, or thinking, that Kelly is behind (sort of) some of the organized crime that Todd found out about and covered up for his father, it seems to make sense. Until we find out in the flashbacks to about 20 years ago, and we find out Kelly IS Ryan, and undercover cop, and also testifying against the crime boss Joseph Jones, under an assumed name that he can't get out of once he falls in love with Jen, for legal reasons. Using an identity given to him by the police would be illegal, but staying in an undercover job would put him and Jen and any future children at risk once Joseph Jones' prison sentence is over. So he assumes the name of Kelly Brotherhood anyway, and never goes on anyone's payroll, has a fake driver's license, etc. etc. Then to find out it was Jen's crooked lawyer father that started it all and knew/worked with Joseph, and was being investigated by Kelly... I did not see that coming! I was so relieved though. Relieved to find there was no real darkness in sweet, brainy Todd. Relieved to find out Kelly wasn't some kind of crime boss in Liverpool. I had been starting to hate him, lol. Well done! It was so lovely to see the realizations Jen came to about herself as a mother, a wife, and a daughter even. Also, I felt smug that I had this feeling Todd's girlfriend Clio was actually missing Baby Eve (and that she possibly didn't even know that herself, about her past). A very moving and healing book.


A couple of retrospective reviews added, both listened to twice, originally in April-May 2023:

7. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig


Matt Haig has a unique gift of seeing into the very gritty details of love, life, depression, of looking back through grief and nostalgia. He explores a topic very near and dear to my own tortured heart: the question of "what if," and what could have been. I have always loved the idea of time travel in any variance, or alternate realities. While in a rather deep slump of my own, my therapist actually recommended this book to me, because I had been talking about things I wish I'd done in the past, and how I wondered how my life would have turned out if I had, but realizing of course, the instant that I said it, how even a single one of those things happening instead could have meant I didn't have either of my kids, or meet my fiancée, or a number of things that wouldn't have happened or people I wouldn't have met. That despite the heartaches that my actual life contains, each and every one of those heartaches have made me who I am, and that any other version of my life would equally have had heartaches of its own. Furthermore, which Haig poignantly touches on, even those other versions of myself, and their lives, were not my own, because I hadn't lived them. I can't just drop in on another (except in of course the fictional confines of the Midnight Library with Mrs. Elm, or in Hugo's video store with his uncle, I suppose, as a "slider"). I found this book to be very healing during the junction of my life that I was at, and even more so the second time I listened to it, at an even more difficult and painful junction. Haig has a very kind and introspective approach to human life and relationships, down to the tiniest details and subtle nuances, with the wisdom of the thousands of lifetimes seemingly lived by Nora Seed, or the length of a single lifetime of another character I'll mention in a moment. He speaks with the wisdom of an old soul, the kind that you rarely seem to encounter in today's society, so obsessed with youth and, and almost willfully numb to the kind of introspection his writing achieves. A breath of fresh air to read! The midnight library itself is the most beautiful metaphor to the road not taken and its effect on the human psyche, while simultaneously peeling back layers to the heart of those regrets and longings and what they really mean. As Mrs. Elm states, "TO want is to lack." Nora learns in the end to satisfy those wants within the parameters of her own life, working with what is, and perhaps an unfair advantage of knowledge she was only privy to through her alternative paths that the rest of us don't have, lucky girl! I liked the way she ultimately was able to repair her relationship with her brother, realizing that their difficulties, while they may in some small ways have come from her from certain things she could control (like picking up the phone and calling sooner, maybe), mostly were out of her hands because they had to do with Joe's own issues, particularly his alcoholism and coming to terms with being gay despite how their father was when he was alive (repressing that to be masculine and whatnot). She only could have known these things about him (the alcoholism, she already knew he was gay) by learning in these separate lifetimes, but I like that they ultimately are incorporated into her root life as they reconcile. Her realization that her root life was the one that belonged to her and that ultimately she wanted to live, was the ending I fully anticipated and hoped for. Though I saw it coming from the start, it was the journey taken for her to get to that realization that made the book so enjoyable and significant. I loved every bit of it. Carey Mulligan, our own Sally Sparrow for Doctor Who fans, was a delightful narrator.

8. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig


Another brilliant read from Matt Haig, also placed in my life, immediately after The Midnight Library, right when I needed it. Also listened to twice, so far. Matt Haig once again provides a tender and thoughtful glimpse into the human condition, through the 400+ year life of Tom Hazzard, a man with a curious condition called "anageria," in which he ages, but very slowly. Haig explores what exactly it means to live while alive, with Tom's early life, living in hiding for fear of being killed for witchcraft, to running away from his loved ones to keep them safe, to joining the Albatross Society and having to live his life exactly the way Hendrich, their leader, tells him to live "for his safety" and the safety of those like them. This requires him to pack up and move with a new identity every 8 years after completing an assignment for Hendrich. But is one truly living if they have to watch their back every second and always start over again, never forming meaningful relationships, and always looking to the future when they're gone as a reason to never get close? What does it mean to live hundreds of years if you can't truly live your life and take a few risks? These are themes I think about all of the time with vampire stories, but I like it presented in this light with a slightly more mortal person, just one with a longer lifespan. It was a very interesting take on living, not forever, but much longer. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I absolutely loved Mark Meadows as the narrator.