Tag: I Don't Like This Book

Nowhere Girl

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

.Morning snack at work. I’m on Instagram and my local library has just posted they finally offer Hoopla. A quick few taps and I’m checking out the selections looking for an audiobook to get me through the morning.

Then I spot a book I’ve seen promoted heavily on Instagram and decide to give it a go. Cheryl Diamond’s acclaimed memoir of her years as a child in a fugitive family who spends her childhood on the run from the people in power after her father.

Nowhere Girl it is.

<deep sighs>

I’ve been wondering how to do this review for the last several weeks.

Part of me is tempted to just cut/paste the thoughts typed at lighting speed, well as fast as you can type with one finger on the iPhone Notes app because I am An Old. Because this a book I had such a reaction to , I snatched a few moments to type out my thoughts to make them stop intruding on my concentration doing my actual factual pays my bills job.

Or I could try to put the notes in a nice coherent package with proper grammar, spelling and references.

I am thisclose to doing the former. It more tempting than the Mason jar crammed with Japanese Kit Kat on top of the Folio Society bookcase.

And those are FORBIDDEN Kit Kat.

<clears throat>

I know there are people who adore this book and the publisher is very firm this is a true story and Cheryl Diamond’s story checks out. I am not one of those people.

And before anyone huffs and puffs and pulls the “You’re An Ugly Dumb Hater” card? I did finish the book.

Listened to the audiobook as long as I could bear it at work.

Borrowed the eBook when I got home and spent the bulk of my evening reading to the bitter end.

And when I say bitter end I mean I finished at 11:37pm and went to work the next day on about 3.5 hours of sleep and all the tea.

Let me share my first furtively typed note

“This book sucks”

More notes?

“Some things yes but am very suspicious”

“It’s only tolerable if you read it like a classic VCA novel”

“Holy shit this is like every actually written by VCA novel”

I could continue but I will spare you the poorly spelled comments.

There are strong parallels with the V.C. Andrews’ novels of my 1980s youth. Cheryl is the clear Cathy Doll/Dahl meets Heaven Leigh Casteel main character. She is just a being of goodness and light who the whole family revolves around. The fragile movie star looking mother. The handsome charmer father/bully who could run cons with Damien Adare when they’re not pushing their children to be perfect at everything. Brooding sister Chiara should really be My Sweet Audrina’s Vera’s best friend. As for her brother? At one point I do remember literally muttering to myself a particular situation which is a horrific one was very Flowers in the Attic and minutes later well… <bites lip>

Looking back weeks later my thoughts on Nowhere Girl haven’t changed. Some people have compared Nowhere Girl to Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle. I’ve read The Glass Castle and find it to be much more believable. Parents being so lost to their own mental demons. Very real.

But I don’t fully believe the whole story Cheryl presents. I do think there are threads of truth and darker things happened which could really change the narrative around the family. In fact I would love to hear her sister’s version of events.

Do I think her father was a con man and a deeply disturbing man?

Yes.

Was her family damaged?

Yes.

Do I trust Cheryl.

No.

Will people believe her.

Sure. But I’m not one of them.

Surrender Brain Cells

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Years ago I wrote a post for this very blog about Caleb Carr. The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness truly hit a sweet spot for me. True crime blended with historical fiction. Formulaic yes but I really wanted a third volume.

It took years but unlike my nearly impossible to grant wish for Jasper Fforde to write a Shades of Grey sequel, my wish for a third Dr. Kreizler book was fulfilled back in 2016.

This is a bit hard to type. Either Caleb Carr has entered a season of suck or my brain has finally corrupted beyond repair over almost five decades on this big blue ball floating in space. Both are valid theories. So is the theory Caleb Carr has never been a good writer and I need to rethink my reading.

Now for a little story.

My favorite podcasts aren’t posting as much due to real life getting in the way. I’m not interested in certain podcasts or podcast companies so I’ve been using Libby/Overdrive and Hoopla to listen to audio books. And I most certainly don’t have Audible money.

I was at work, in the mood to listen to an engrossing book and what I want wasn’t available. The Libby app had a Caleb Carr book called Surrender, New York I wasn’t a firm 100% sure I’d read before so I was willing to give it a try. it was even set in Rensselaer County. I know those little tiny towns, those counties where farming still clings on, there can be more cows than people and working in the prisons is a solid job.

It couldn’t be worse than Killing Time could it?

We shall speak no further of Killing Time.

I downloaded Surrender, New York and grabbed the stack of ID cards needing mailing labels. Because I have an actual job besides reading books. And because this is a book review maybe it’s a good idea to touch on the plot yes? Okay here it goes.

Super detective Dr. Trajan Jones and his partner Mike have been exiled to tiny Surrender, NY where they teach crime solving inside a hidden plane inside a barn/outbuilding on the Jones family farm. Occasionally the local police enlist their aid. And the local police have come a calling…

No I have not eaten an entire bag of Japanese green tea Kit-Kat. I would like to do so even if I’m flirting with the diabetes but nope that is the plot. Exiled super detective stumbles across evil crimes in his historical stomping grounds. Oh and it’s in the Kreizler-verse because of course Dr. Trajan Jones is THE Dr. Kreizler expert and disdains modern science/techniques.

It took about five minutes to realize I had read Surrender, New York when it was a brand spanking new hardcover.

It took 30 minutes to remember how hard I wanted to smack the main character Trajan Jones so hard he fell off his leg prosthesis and cover him in Chick Fil A sauce as a snack for Marcianna Jones. I would also love some Chick Fil A frozen lemonade.

It took an additional three minutes to try and remember if I still have the Brotherhood of the Wolf DVD my brother bought in Canada or did I give it back to him? Because if I want to be strung along about what kind of beastie something is Brotherhood of the Wolf is the clear winner.

It took another minute to start twitching over how darn long it was taking to sum up anything. Lovecraft gets to the point quicker. Flipping never met an adjective he didn’t use Lovecraft. LOVECRAFT!

Then I paused Surrender, New York and decided perhaps the audiobook hack wasn’t working. The narrator was lovely and really captured the sheer superiority of Dr. Trajan “STFU DUDE” Jones. The utter suffocating pretentious pompous… <takes a deep breath>

Perhaps I needed the weight of a physical book and not being in a cubicle trying to remember how to spell Albuquerque properly vs “Al-bear-quirky” for mailing labels to appreciate Surrender, New York.

Three hours later I was on my couch, spouse watching his favorite You-Tubers with Surrender, New York on my lap.

I started to read.

Page 131. I carefully dog-eared page 131, my thumb firmly creasing the paper, a sharp dog ear in a sacred library book. Page 131.

It’s almost a month later. My local library in the City of Hard Hitting has auto-renewed Surrender, New York. more than once. Such a lovely gesture these auto renewals. But I never re-read past page 131. I never will re-read past page 131.

Surrender Brain Cells…