Books, Books, Books
Today, I offer a look at an unforgettable portrait of three women, trans and cis, who wrestle with questions of motherhood and family making.
A sweeping, masterful tale of a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born.
A creepy, unnerving deconstruction of suburban utopia where madness lurks just beneath the surface and an absorbing and psychologically immersive story about a young girl who escapes captivity but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life.
I am grateful to NetGalley for advanced reader copies of Girl A by Abigail Dean Good Neighbor by Sarah Langan Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.
It’s pretty cool to be able to read books months before they are published in exchange for my honest reviews, which I offer below.
Girl A by Abigail Dean
Publication date Feb ‘21
*** 3 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Penguin Books for the ARC of Girl A by Abigail Dean. This book was both heartbreaking and difficult to read.
A dark, upsetting novel of a young girl and the horrific abuse that she and her siblings suffered at the hands of their parents. The author writes about damaging loss of trust between sisters and brothers and how each of them survived in their own way. This book is not for everyone.
The chapters are long with timeframes shifting by paragraph making it confusing.
The choppy writing style threw me off and also made the pacing a bit slow and disjointed.
Characters lacked development. Throughout the novel I wanted more from each of them. I kept hoping the author would flesh out more of the family's experience in the house and the motivations of the parents. The pay off for this story comes at the very end but, honestly, it barely registered for me.
It is being marketed as a thriller and crime fiction but it is really more of a drama.If you like drama and heart wrenching stories, I would recommend it.
#NetGalley #GirlA #VikingPenguinBooks
Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan
Publication date February 21
**** 4 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan.
This book features superb witty dialogue.
I couldn't put it down. A must-read from the Bram Stoker award-winning author (she's known for her horror stories I am told, although I have never read anything else by her) that offers both page-turning suspense and really insightful and maybe even brilliant social commentary.
Langan uses an ambitious structure by incorporating tabloid excerpts of the featured family’s (The Wildes) past and studies of the sinkhole (the featured set-piece of the story) published in the future.
The idyllic stretch of Maple Street in suburban New Jersey has something dark lurking beneath its perfectly manicured lawns, but what dwells in the clean cookie cutter homes lining the quiet neighborhood is even more sinister.
Families on Maple Street have children who get good grades, fathers who work long hours, and housewives who revel in their domesticity with few outliers.
When the Wildes arrive, the atmosphere changes. Arlo, the rockstar father, and his former pageant queen wife and two children come to Maple street at the same time a sinkhole full of stinking tar opens, triggering the rise of a frightening current of darkness among these good suburban neighbors.
Sarah Langan weaves a dark tale of the most disturbing sides of human nature. This sharp, propulsive novel pulls off a crazy almost surreal variation on suburban gossip gone wrong.
I highly recommend The Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan #NetGalley #GoodNeighbors #Atriabooks
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
Publication date March 21
***** 5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron books for the ARC Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
This book was so good I read it in one sitting. It is beautifully written.
I could not resist the five generations of women in Cuba, Mexico and Miami and frantically turned the pages as I devoured their lives.
The novel tells the story of two families of women whose lives are intertwined. We learn about immigrants, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, sisters, love, lies and betrayals in this important relevant book.
Very engrossing and important in today's world. The story is beautiful, tragic and powerful and the writing is poetic.
Overall Of Women and Salt is a thought-provoking and a well-written portrait of the connected lives of women and a must read. A week after finishing this book I am still thinking about it. Of Women and Salt is published by Flatiron and released on March 30,2021 and you should run out and purchase it as soon as it hits bookshelves.
#NetGalley #OfWomenandSalt #Flatironbooks
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Pines
Publication date January 21
*** 3.5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for the ARC Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.
This novel is a very different and unexpected read. It is one of the first novels written by a trans woman to be published by a big-five publishing house which is cool and what piqued my interest initially.
The story is raw, chaotic, and unapologetic even if it didn’t have much of a plot. I’m not ashamed to say I learned a lot while reading this title. I am a little ashamed at the amount I had to learn. I had to stop and Google so many unfamiliar terms that I started to feel uncomfortable with how little I know about trans womanhood. But I think that’s kind of the point here and I was glad to feel challenged to learn something.
Still, Detransition, Baby featured some of the queerest conversations and situations that have probably ever been written and honestly, I loved that part and ate up every word. The hardest part for me about this book had nothing to do with its subject matter but the fact that it veers between the past and the present, going on tangents that threw me off.
I'm not sure if this book needed a better editor or what but I was nearly always compelled to skim those LONG passages. It was just a lot.
And then, after all that, the book just sort of ended, to me, without much resolution, and I felt a bit betrayed. Sadly, Detransition, Baby lacked a plot and sort of fell flat for me. Still, do not get me wrong. This is an excellent and important story, and more such stories like this need to be told. I definitely recommend it.
#NetGalley #DetransitionBaby
