The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

Book #134 of 2022:

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

An excellently twisty thriller in the Gillian Flynn fashion that’s kept me guessing throughout, with plenty of plausible culprits and a compelling group of protagonists striving to uncover the truth behind two identically horrific murder scenes, fifteen years apart (although the action mostly takes place in the present with a few flashbacks, rather than the parallel timelines and full-on 90s nostalgia I expected when I picked up this book). Back then, it was three teenage girls working late at their Blockbuster Video store who were stabbed to death, with a fourth barely surviving the attack. Now grown and a therapist specializing in trauma, she learns that a similar massacre has just occurred at a nearby ice cream shop, likewise leaving only one young survivor amid three slain peers. The police’s main suspect from the first case vanished from their small New Jersey town after posting bail, never to be seen again. Was he truly guilty or not, and is the same serial killer responsible for the later crimes, or is there a new copycat to blame?

Our other focal viewpoint characters are the fugitive’s kid brother, now a public defender hoping he can someday clear his name, and an FBI agent with major Marge Gunderson from Fargo vibes, who’s assisting the local cops as a favor despite being eight months pregnant with twins. As they each learn more about the figures connected to the slaughters and their respective investigations converge, the plot goes to some fittingly dark places. But author Alex Finlay’s tight control over the story never wavers, and brings all the threads together for a satisfying resolution in the end.

[Content warning for domestic abuse, gun violence, suicide, gore, pedophilia, and rape.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

Book #133 of 2022:

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

A dark and powerful YA rural fantasy novel, complete with witchcraft, murders, monsters, a sapphic love story across small-town Georgia class divisions, and major southern gothic vibes. Our two teen protagonists are the sister of a wealthy missing girl and the daughter of a family from the other side of the tracks — or more accurately, situated on the outskirts of the local nature preserve — who has inherited a potently cruel magic for righting the wrongs done to people with nowhere else to turn. When their paths unexpectedly cross, Della finds she can’t say no to Nat’s angry plea to track down her sibling and figure out who’s responsible for her disappearance — even though the witch suspects it’s her own mother, who’s been transforming into a wild beast each night and returning from the woods caked in blood.

What follows is a thrilling tale steeped in the young women’s paired fury and righteous vengeance, and while the identity of the ultimate villain is somewhat predictable given the thematic focus against the patriarchy and the careful details author Erica Waters either does or doesn’t give us, it’s still a solid twist that might surprise readers who are less genre-savvy. More interesting are the characters, particularly the prickly couple slowly learning to lower their walls around one another in a connection of hesitant trust that boils into romantic passion over time. The plot even avoids any contrived drama when the big secret finally comes to light! A definite gem, although not for the faint of heart.

[Content warning for gun violence, torture, gore, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, racism, and mention of rape.]

★★★★☆

TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 3

TV #42 of 2022:

Classic Doctor Who, season 3

Airing from 1965 to 1966, original Doctor William Hartnell’s last full year in the role marks a turbulent time for Doctor Who both off-screen and on-, as is perhaps best exemplified by the sheer volume of companion turnover: starting the season with Vicki and Steven and ending with Ben and Polly, with Katarina and Dodo and arguably Sara Kingdom all in between. The producers came close to replacing the star himself here too, leading to a few odd moments in the writing that seem to be almost queuing up that initial recasting / regeneration but then hurriedly backing away from it.

As ever, the serials are of mixed quality from a modern perspective. THE WAR MACHINES is probably closest to later versions of the program, setting the pattern for an outlandish sci-fi threat against contemporary Britain, and the 12-part saga of THE DALEKS’ MASTER PLAN is sometimes silly but suitably epic, with the title villains, futuristic worldbuilding, a chase across time and space, the return of the Meddling Monk, companion death(s), and beyond. On the opposite end of the spectrum, THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER is okay enough in concept but borderline racist in execution and pretty miserable to actually sit through, so if its antagonist is truly making a long-rumored appearance on the revived show soon, I can only hope they’ve completely retooled the character and his games.

Between those extremes, the typical adventure in this run is either of variable effectiveness across its episodes — like whenever the mostly fine western THE GUNFIGHTERS slams to a halt for another stanza of its repetitive recurring ballad — or generally solid but less remarkable, as my rankings below reflect. The Doctor is firmly cemented at this point as a clever thinker and righteous yet nonviolent defender of good, and while not all of his companions or guest stars are so well-drawn, the overall ethos of the series has come a long way from the educational historicals of the early days. It’s not all great, but the highlights at least are worth seeking out for any fan of the franchise.

Serials ranked from worst to best:

★☆☆☆☆
THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER (3×30 – 3×33)

★★☆☆☆
GALAXY 4 (3×1 – 3×4)
THE MASSACRE (3×22 – 3×25)

★★★☆☆
THE MYTH MAKERS (3×6 – 3×9)
MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN (3×5)
THE GUNFIGHTERS (3×34 – 3×37)
THE SAVAGES (3×38 – 3×41)
THE ARK (3×26 – 3×29)

★★★★☆
THE DALEKS’ MASTER PLAN (3×10 – 3×21)
THE WAR MACHINES (3×42 – 3×45)

Overall rating for the season: ★★★☆☆

Book Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Book #132 of 2022:

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

This time-travel novel honestly struck me as a little gimmicky at first, and I’m not sure we ever do get to know the heroine’s son well enough for his actions in the opening chapter to make complete sense. But I found myself getting more and more engaged with the plot as the story went on, with its protagonist receding ever further into her own past, and by the end I was both fully on-board and pleasantly surprised by some of the twist reveals.

The basic premise: an ordinary British woman sees her teenager suddenly stab a man to death outside their home one night, and can’t fathom why he would have done so (or why he refuses to tell her). The next day, she wakes up that same morning, witnessing the events leading up to the stabbing all over again. And come the following dawn, it’s another day earlier still.

She has no idea why she’s in this bizarre scenario or how to escape it, although she plausibly decides to assume her task is to find the answers to those initial questions about her boy. There’s additional evidence to consider on each new date she revisits — which eventually begin speeding by, with new jumps taking her weeks and months and finally years further back at a go — as she either listens to conversations more carefully or explores avenues she’s previously never imagined. In the process, she uncovers quite a few troubling family secrets and hilariously has to keep readjusting to a slower and bulkier cell phone model, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen depicted in science-fiction before. I also really enjoy the final note, after an academic acquaintance has repeatedly mused how a time loop would require some massive transfer of force to create, that mothers and other caretakers have been known to demonstrate feats of incredible physical strength when their children’s lives are threatened.

Ultimately this is a twisty tale with engaging explorations of parenthood and partnership and how their associated roles gradually transform us. I think the beginning could have been fine-tuned, and the interstitial chapters from a different POV probably could have been dropped altogether, since they tend to interrupt the narrative flow and contribute mainly red herrings to our understanding of the big picture. Plus I have a hard time believing that a character explicitly identified as coming from the year 2022 wouldn’t say anything about Covid as she travels into the past until one stray thought when she’s reached all the way to 2003. But overall, this title is much richer than the flimsy Memento knock-off thriller I initially took it for.

[Content warning for child endangerment and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie

Book #131 of 2022:

They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #6)

In this novel, also published under the title Murder with Mirrors, the elderly Miss Jane Marple goes to visit a childhood friend whose sister reports feeling vaguely worried about her situation, in part because the woman’s latest husband has turned their estate into a reformatory school for criminal and/or mentally ill young men. While there the amateur detective meets a standard cast of Agatha Christie suspects, and eventually one of them strikes, killing another guest. That murder scene is an interesting one that remixes a few of the author’s earlier plots — the lights have blown out, there’s a loud argument at gunpoint that distracts everyone, and later someone else is found shot to death in a separate wing of the house — but it comes a bit late at 38% through the short text, leaving less room for actual investigation of the crime(s) and not much propulsion in the story beforehand. I do like getting to hear a bit about the heroine’s younger days, and I’d say overall that this is a decent mystery with plenty of red herrings and a not-implausible solution, but it doesn’t ever feel quite as clever or memorable as it could.

[Content warning for ableism and racism including slurs.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: The Absolute by K. A. Applegate

Book #130 of 2022:

The Absolute by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #51)

Another thrillingly propulsive installment of the ongoing Animorphs endgame. Since the Yeerks gained the alien cube that bestows morphing powers at the end of the previous story, this one immediately feels like no other volume before it in the saga. Though the team’s ability is still powerful, it is no longer a guaranteed advantage over their foes, who are now shown adopting a variety of animal forms themselves for both combat and surveillance. And finally knowing that the “Andalite bandits” are actually local humans, and that their own creeping infiltration of earth will soon turn into all-out war under the bloodthirsty Visser One, the Controllers are more willing to openly engage and fight the kids, too. Thus, a routine visit to the Gardens to acquire new duck morphs instead becomes a bloodbath, as the troops stationed there either morph into something violent or pull out Dracon beams and open fire.

On a continuity level, I guess we’ve skipped over Tom’s reconciliation with the visser and delivery of the cube, when it seemed before like he might be splitting off into his own faction. But I wouldn’t call that a plot hole, and the ratcheting up of the stakes here proves well worth it. The Animorphs are even intentionally and explicitly causing human Controller casualties now, which is a pretty major escalation even without Cassie around to call it out. (She’s on a separate mission with Rachel and Jake, who doesn’t trust her out of his sight after she stopped him from killing his brother to secure the morphing device. But that tension mostly simmers unresolved in the background as our narrator Marco spends the majority of this novel off with Tobias and Ax.)

Their goal is one they’ve debated pursuing in the past but regularly decided was too risky: approach a high-level government official, in this case the state governor, explain the truth about the Yeerk invasion, and enlist their help against it. This turns out to be just as dangerous as the group had always feared, and results in the trio having to flee with the politician in a wild scramble across the capital city, pursued both by their actual enemies and by uninfested authorities who think they’re witnessing some sort of bizarre kidnapping scheme. Ultimately, however, the heroes do manage to barricade inside her office and have her order the National Guard to stand down all mobilization activity, thus thwarting Visser One’s plan to gather them together for infestation. Meanwhile, the other half of the team is out attacking the temporary Yeerk pool with the auxiliaries and some free Hork-Bajir, further slowing that effort and I’m sure infuriating the visser, though we don’t yet see his reaction or discover how he’ll retaliate.

It’s a good thing the stakes are so clearly deadly throughout, and the plot so fast-paced, since otherwise, readers might stop to ask author K. A. Applegate / ghostwriter Lisa Harkrader a few awkward questions. Like… How is it that the high school teens who understood specific details about a previous governor’s agenda and political ambitions all the way back as middle-schoolers in #6 The Capture don’t even know the current one’s name or gender? And why don’t they do the bare minimum of research to learn those things before setting out, as well as hatch a better advance escape plan for their meeting with the woman? And why on earth would the Yeerks have infested — spoiler alert — her husband and not her?

These are the issues that stick out a bit on an adult reread, although perhaps the poor strategizing underscores how young and foolish our protagonists can still be, despite all the trauma they’ve experienced to prematurely age them. I also wish we had stronger thematic material for Marco’s last stint as solo narrator, rather than just jokes and gorilla hijinks, but I suppose his deeper arc has come to a natural conclusion already. Regardless, the book as a whole is a thoroughly enjoyable rush, and because the governor does go on live TV and tell the world what she’s seen, the series plot takes another big step forward. While the story here concludes without revealing to what extent she’ll be believed, the momentum is plainly building towards crisis on a global scale.

[Content warning for body horror, gun violence, and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Book #129 of 2022:

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Unfortunately the weakest and least mind-bending of author Blake Crouch’s recent string of sci-fi thrillers. The premise here of gene-editing increasing a person’s intelligence to superhuman levels is too straightforwardly similar to so many other stories, from Flowers for Algernon to the movie Limitless to the Ted Chiang novella “Understand,” and the action/spy sequences feel likewise derivative of something like the Jason Bourne series. I’m also just not a great fan of the trope where a family man has to nobly leave his wife and child(ren) behind to go be a violent loner somewhere else, generally whilst faking his death and/or continuing to spy on them without their knowledge, and this book never really justifies going down that route to my satisfaction.

It’s not a terrible read overall, and I’d probably recommend it for fans of Michael Crichton or maybe the early seasons of Fringe. As with any post-2020 work, the sections on a new pandemic outbreak are appropriately chilling (though regrettably leaning into the paranoid idea that such medical crises are caused by unsafe laboratory research), and the writer definitely knows how to keep the plot at a pulse-pounding pace. But ultimately, I’m only lukewarm on the title as a whole.

[Content warning for gun violence, gore, and suicide.]

★★★☆☆

TV Review: Bob’s Burgers, season 7

TV #41 of 2022:

Bob’s Burgers, season 7

Here’s my original review of this season from when it aired in 2017:

“There are typically few real surprises this late into a show’s run, and although this particular show is still making me laugh, I’d probably be okay if it got canceled. I’ve always loved how the humor on Bob’s Burgers is so specifically character-based, but at this point, I don’t really feel like the characters are still growing at all. It’s getting harder and harder for anything on the series to surprise me, so it would probably be for the best if it bowed out now before it got too stale. The season 7 episodes were solid enough, but there’s no real classics that jumped out at me.”

I’d maybe be a little bit more charitable today — the episodes “Ex Mach Tina” and “Bob Actually” are pretty great, and Tina and Louise both do show some growing confidence toward their romantic interests (or maybe just base acknowledgement on the younger girl’s part, which is still a solid development) — but overall, I stand by that. This run also crams a lot of holiday episodes into a short span of time, with Halloween, an out-of-order Tax Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day all getting their moment, which is a bit counterproductive in terms of the effectiveness of conveying each distinctive festive spirit. The show’s definitely still worth watching at this stage, but I’m sticking with my initial 3-star rating for the year.

★★★☆☆

TV Review: What We Do in the Shadows, season 3

TV #40 of 2022:

What We Do in the Shadows, season 3

Another hilarious and eventful year with the Staten Island vampire crew, this time taking a page from the final season of Angel and placing the heroes in charge of the organization that had previously been opposing them (although the delta of morality between the two groups is far slimmer in this case). With the household heading up the local vampiric council, the show has shifted to become more of a supernatural-tinged workplace comedy, although in actual practice these plots mostly involve “co-leaders” Nadja and Nandor, along with Guillermo — now promoted from familiar to bodyguard — and the nameless guide played by Kristen Schaal in one memorable season 1 episode, who’s now a full guest star appearing every week.

Rounding out the cast, Laszlo and Colin Robinson spend a lot of time hanging out with one another more or less by default as they avoid the new responsibilities, but the dynamic of their particular friendship turns oddly charming by the end of this stretch, especially given the momentous nature of that arc’s conclusion. This is honestly a great showcase for the energy drainer all-around, deepening his characterization and giving him a clear motivating drive, all without sacrificing his terribly funny/boring/annoying personal quirks. Meanwhile, Nandor is also doing a fair bit of soul[less]-searching at this point, to the continual frustration of the human lackey he’s still finding excuses not to turn. Theirs is a relationship that grows thicker in its romantic subtext by the moment, but we might well be reaching a stage where it needs to actually be addressed out-loud one way or the other.

My main critique here is the lingering one I’ve had from the start of this program, which is that the storytelling is just a bit too loose and meandering to wholly satisfy my narrative itch. I think this third round offers the biggest improvement in that area yet, but there remains a sense that these decadent immortals are too unconcerned by developments in general to ever serve as effective protagonists. It’s possible to simultaneously care about sitcom characters and laugh at their antics, and this series isn’t quite hitting that proper balance for me throughout, much as I tend to enjoy it on a scene by scene basis.

[Content warning for gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher

Book #128 of 2022:

Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher

This new Star Wars novel is intended as a bridge into the sequel trilogy of films, which means it’s unfortunately saddled with fleshing out some of the stranger plot decisions introduced by The Rise of Skywalker. So Rey’s parents are — spoiler alert — the clone son and daughter-in-law of Emperor Palpatine, and most of this book follows their ongoing attempt to flee from Sith agents with the unlikely team of Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian seeking to protect them but somehow continually a few steps behind. We also get a subplot of that latter protagonist agonizing over the daughter who was kidnapped from him as an infant, a concept that featured in early promotional materials for Episode IX but was ultimately cut from the finished movie.

Overall, the story is fine if a bit long and tedious. (We know that the heroes can’t actually catch up with six-year-old Rey’s family, for instance, since it’s important to her later character arc that she doesn’t know any Jedi yet here. And this is a lot of pages spent just to explain why she’s alone on Jakku at the start of The Force Awakens.) There’s some neat new lore surrounding the Dark Side — sythology, if you will — and of course the franchise’s requisite number of space battles. But generally speaking, I don’t think this is a title that casual fans need to particularly worry about picking up.

★★★☆☆