The BookFetish Blog

I really enjoyed The Last Time I Lied . And that made me excited to read Riley Sager’s latest release, Lock Every Door.

But y ‘all. I didn’t love it. I loved the summary of the book when I read it. And the book started off with just the right creepy factor. But then, it took a turn and I nearly put it down because I was so disappointed.

One of the things that annoyed me at first was the premise of the plot overall. The adage is true: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yes, we have to get Jules into the Bartholomew, but I didn’t quite buy Jules’ stubbornness and desperation.

Sager employs a few well-worn plot contrivances (the best friend can’t be reached just when Jules needs her the most) that felt predictable. I did like the nefariousness of what was actually going on, and sadly, it may not be that far-fetched. But I felt like the book was trying to be Rosemary’s Baby to some extent, and agains that backdrop, it falls flat.

This book isn’t terrible. Once I decided to stick with it, I was OK with how it ended. But there are other thrillers out there I recommend more than this one.

It seems like everyone is talking about Where The Crawdads Sing. At this writing, it has 19,702 reviews on Amazon, and 85% are five stars. Can that many readers be wrong?

No.

The audiobook was enthralling, though I wish I had time to sit down and savor actually reading this book. I kept finding a few minutes here and there to listen because I needed to know what happened.

The writing is rich and succulent. There were a few points in the plot where Owens could have taken things in a much different direction and created a tawdry and salacious story. She never does that, and the narrative is better for it.

I absolutely loved some of the characters, like Lightning and his wife- more people should be like them. Tate, who mans up. The sheriff, who was intense in his job, but fair. The marsh and the water and the wildlife are all characters in their own right. And of course, Kya herself.

Owens certainly holds a couple of great twists until the end. And she packs an emotional punch. I found myself tearing up more than once.

This one lives up to the hype. I highly recommend.

It’s part Pride and Prejudice, part its own story, and a delight to read. One of my Facebook friends recommended this one as she read the ARC, and I immediately added it to my to-read pile on her recommendation.

The Harry Potter references in this book really made it for me. How can you not be in for a treat when a trivia team name is “You’re a Quizzard, Harry”?

The family angle in the story is what keeps the story from being too predictable and cliche- after all, most of us know how Pride and Prejudice ends for Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Family, is of course, more complicated, and Waxman doesn’t make things too simple.

This one is chick lit that does’t come across too saccarine, and I like that about it. The characters are believable without being caricatures, and of course I love that books figure prominently as characters. The writing is straightforward and the dialog realistic. I had a good time reading this one. Definitely put it on your list!

I listened to Lisa Hall’s The Party. I was intrigued by the description:

It was just a party. But it turned into a nightmare.

When Rachel wakes up in a strange room, the morning after a neighbour’s party, she has no memory of what happened the night before. Why did her husband leave her alone at the party? Did they row? Why are Rachel’s arms so bruised? And why are her neighbours and friends so vague about what really happened?

Little by little, Rachel pieces together the devastating events that took place in a friend’s house, at a party where she should have been safe. Everyone remembers what happened that night differently, and everyone has something to hide. But someone knows the truth about what happened to Rachel. And she’s determined to find them.

I’m not completely sure how I feel about this book. The narration was good and I mostly found the story entertaining. But there’s a lot in this one that leaves me unsettled.

First, there are some character inconsistencies I felt came from nowhere and served only to advance the plot a little bit but didn’t add much to the story. I’m thinking primarily of Ted and his seeming left turn towards the end of the story. Other characterizations were more effective. I’d ask myself why on earth Rachel stayed married to her husband, then he would endear himself, which answers why she stays.

While I enjoyed the way the plot plays out and reveals the villain, I found the villain to be somewhat implausible. And I really didn’t care for the ultimate resolution. It feels contrived to me.

I think this is the first of Lisa Hall’s books that I have read and I will definitely give another of her books a chance before rendering a final verdict on whether or not her books are for me. But I think there are better thrillers out there to read over this one.

My book club recently read The Great Believers, and while there was some discussion about some of the author’s choices (which I will get to later), it was one we all really liked reading.

From the publisher’s summary:

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.

I was very young when the AIDS crisis first hit in the States. And I remember my mom admonishing me, when the news about it first came out, not to eat or drink after anyone. “They’re not really sure all the way AIDS is transmitted right now. Better to be safe,” I remember her saying. I didn’t know anyone who was gay (well, in hindsight, I’m sure I did. I just didn’t know they were gay). I didn’t have the concept of entire communities being decimated by an illness. And that is where The Great Believers made me think.

I had such empathy for this community of men, who had become each other’s family, as one by one they said goodbye as another and then another and then another was diagnosed with AIDS. Fiona’s unconditional acceptance of her brother, and her adoption of his friends as her own family, was a powerful thing to read.

My biggest criticism of the book, also shared by my fellow book club members, is the story of Fiona and her daughter Claire. The estrangement that was the conflict between them seemed almost extraneous. We had no real backstory on why Claire felt so abandoned and antagonistic against her mother and why there was such animosity amongst people who had been friends. It was a plot point to move the story, but I didn’t find myself terribly invested in it.

I still recommend The Great Believers. I love a book that grabs me on an emotional level, that makes me think and feel empathy for so many people. Reading it against the backdrop of knowing that I have close friends and family in the LGBTQ+ community, and the ongoing assault on their rights makes it more personal. I can’t imagine people I care about in this situation. I can’t imagine the fear and grief and anger this community suffered at the onset of the AIDS crisis.

I don’t recommend this one as a beach read. But I do recommend you read it.