Book Review: The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

Book #80 of 2017:

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

Another wildly inventive thriller from author Claire North, this one about a woman who fades from people’s memory as soon as she’s out of their sight. That concept leans a bit close to North’s earlier novel Touch, since the characters who forget their encounters with Hope end up losing time similarly to those who are possessed by the body thief Kepler in Touch. Still, Hope’s powers allow for different exploits than Kepler’s, and North considers at great length the isolation that a person like Hope would feel when unable to form any lasting human bonds. That feeling of total exile runs sharply throughout The Sudden Appearance of Hope, so it’s only fitting that the central conflict revolves around a data-mining lifestyle app promising happiness and perfection through conformity. Come for the jewel thief narrator and her unique superpower; stay for the smart questions about community and individuality that a talented writer uses that character to explore.

★★★★★

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Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Book #79 of 2017:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

I mostly enjoyed this sprawling look at three generations of a Dominican family possibly suffering under an inherited curse. I just didn’t have much patience for the title character, who regularly develops crushes on girls, gets close to them as friends, and is then upset when they won’t break up with their boyfriends to sleep with him. Luckily the parts about the rest of his family were much more engaging, particularly in detailing life under the dictator Rafael Trujillo. I also liked that the narrator was a huge nerd who kept referencing things like The Lord of the Rings and Stephen King’s The Stand (although since these references are never explained in much detail, I could see this being a drawback to a reader who wasn’t familiar with those properties). But it’s hard to shake the feeling that this would have been a better story without Oscar in it.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

Book #78 of 2017:

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (Loki #1)

A great rendition of Norse mythology from the perspective of its trickster god Loki. Sometimes these tales are in line with their traditional versions and just punctuated by Loki’s droll observations, and sometimes the trickster asserts an entirely alternate course of events from what he calls Odin’s official histories. A base familiarity with the myths in question would probably benefit readers – I recommend Neil Gaiman’s recent book on the subject – but Chocolat author Joanne M. Harris has crafted a compelling picture of Loki and his fellow gods even if this is your first real exposure to them.

★★★★☆

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Movie Review: Suicide Squad (2016)

Movie #3 of 2017:

Suicide Squad (2016)

A complete mess, squandering some pretty good actors who make the most of the bad material they’re given. I’m not particularly invested in the DC Extended Universe in the first place, but this movie gave me absolutely no reason to rethink that decision.

★☆☆☆☆

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Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Book #77 of 2017:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is basically about an X-Men sort of school populated by the children from creepy vintage trick photography, all of whom have real superpowers. (The actual photos that inspired particular characters or moments are apparently included throughout the book, although I missed them by listening to the audio.)

Oddly enough, though, the story this most reminded me of was the first Twilight book. Consider the parallels: the main character is a teenager first stumbling across the supernatural, who immediately develops a problematic romance with a decades-older, functionally immortal love interest (problematic for this reader at least, although completely unexamined by the text). There’s also the fact that both novels feature far more exposition than action, with a plot suddenly developing very near the end. Nevertheless, I like this world that author Ransom Riggs has built up, and this was a solid enough first outing for it. I’ll probably read on to see where the story goes from here.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Book #76 of 2017:

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Mark of the Thief #1)

I loved Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance trilogy, but this book (the start of a new series) felt really under-baked to me. The main character mostly just reacts to the decisions of others, his relationships nearly all seem plot-driven rather than character-based, and his mouthy attitude felt very unrealistic in someone who’s been a slave for the past five years. These problems are evident right from the start, and though I kept reading on the strength of Nielsen’s other books, I was still pretty underwhelmed by the end.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Book #75 of 2017:

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Completely deserving of its status as classic literature, with an appropriately timeless archetype at its center. I’m really glad I finally got around to reading this; the familiar story is so much deeper and weirder in its original form than I’d ever imagined. There’s a ruthless alien quality to Peter Pan that’s both off-putting and alluring, and the novel perfectly captures the enormous gap between child and adult perceptions of the world. Over a century later, it’s still a triumph.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Book #74 of 2017:

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (The Crossover #1)

I’m generally not big on either novels in verse or stories that center around sports, but Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover won me over despite being both. It helps that this is a shorter book for middle-grade readers, but also the author’s characters feel very real and the poetic language really brings the basketball games to life. It’s well-deserving of its Newbery and other awards.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

Book #73 of 2017:

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (Inkworld #3)

This was an okay adventure story, but it dragged a lot in the middle, and the returning characters felt nothing like the people they were in the first two books. This trilogy has really offered diminishing returns as it went along, so as much as I liked the first book, I’m pretty happy to set the series aside at this point.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: The End by Lemony Snicket

Book #72 of 2017: The End by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13)

The A Series of Unfortunate Events books have always made clear that the Baudelaires are only a small part of a much larger story that is playing out mostly beyond our view. That expansiveness isn’t a problem per se, but it’s very frustrating for this final volume to use it as an excuse to leave so much unresolved. Author Lemony Snicket tries to paint all the unanswered questions as a philosophical reflection on the nature of storytelling, but it really comes off more like a writer who didn’t know where the story was going when he began and didn’t manage to come up with anything before his publisher’s deadline. This final adventure of the Baudelaire orphans is fine as an overall episode, but it’s pretty awful as an ending to the series.

★★☆☆☆

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