Tag: sequels

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…

The Sequel Question

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

So I’m at the Berlin Peck Memorial Library ongoing book sale, scouring the hardcover fiction section for treasures. And on the shelf under the L’s is Rae Lawrence’s Jacqueline Susann’s Shadow of the Dolls in pristine condition for $1.00. And I snatched it off the shelf and raced over to add it to the towering stack of treasure right on top of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Black House. And it wasn’t until I was stuck in traffic on the way home I wondered why I bought those things. And realized it was only because they were sequels to books I truly adored.

The question I really should have asked myself standing in the hardcover fiction section is this. Are sequels necessary?

I can remember too many books that seemed to be nothing more than money grabs from a deceased author’s estate (Rae Lawrence’s Jacqueline Susann’s Shadow of the Dolls, Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett, the V.C. Andrews ghostwritten series, etc). Now I fully admit to being one of those people who bought into the hype back in 1991 and begged my parents to buy Scarlett for my nineteenth birthday even though I knew they had already bought me Stephen King’s Needful Things. And I doubt my parents had even left campus before I was curled up on my bed tearing into Scarlett. Yes, I had a brand new Stephen King novel and decided Scarlett was the must read. But by the time Scarlett hits Ireland I was wondering if I had wasted my parents hard earned money. And was certain I had when I finished Scarlett at 1 am and went to sleep.

Perhaps the reading public felt the same way because I can’t seem to go to a book sale or visit the book section at Savers without seeing at least one copy of Scarlett lurking. Need a book or two to raise your computer monitor? For some crazy craft project like the book pumpkin atrocity I saw displayed at a library this week? Scarlett or any of the above will do just nicely.

And what about sequels that are amazing in theory, because your favorite author is revisiting Character X or Universe 123 and “ZOMG how can I get my hands on this” and the utter letdown when you start reading and you wonder why you were so excited in the first place (I’m looking at you MaddAddam). I’ve read Stephen King’s The Talisman so many times I could have flipped over to the Territories myself but the followup Black House lost me before Tyler Marshall got taken. Buying my own copy at the library sale? I’m only going to revisit Black House due to one of my patented Gwen’s Crazy Literary Theories. But for every Black House and MaddAddam, there are sequels so good you keep re-reading them over and over.

I think there are some books which need sequels. These are the books that leave you asking questions when you close the covers. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is an excellent example. Finishing it for the first time, I could not wait to plunge back in that world and it seemed an eternity until The Year of the Flood was in my hands and some of my questions could be answered. Another type of book that demands a sequel? The ongoing series which reveals one more part of an expanded universe with each new book. Sure I could read just one of Lauren Willig’s Napoleonic-era spy books since the spy story is usually girl becomes part of spy plot/has amazing sex/marries the hunk but the modern story being spooned out in each book keeps me coming back for more.

Other books? Well, a book that wraps up a theme or story completely doesn’t need a sequel. I’ve never been tempted to reads the bazillions of Jane Austen “sequels” that spring up like mushrooms (I’m looking at you Pride and Prejudice sequels) cluttering the new fiction shelves at the library because Jane Austen has summed up those characters in their little worlds enough that I’m perfectly content leaving Lizzie and Darcy to their unseen future. As much as I puzzle over Barbara Vine’s A Dark-Adapted Eye, changing my mind over who is Jamie’s mother with each reading, I would recoil in horror if Ruth Rendell put on her Barbara Vine hat and cranked out a sequel. The little world of Vera and Eden ending with their deaths is self-contained.

Another point to consider is this. Is your character fascinating enough to warrant another entire book? Take a character like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones. Her bumbling adventures and quirky little diary of her trials and tribulations was great fun in Bridget Jones’s Diary. And then along came Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Our Bridget wasn’t as charming and the story felt forced and flat. I wanted to keep in touch with Bridget but more “friends on Facebook” versus the full book treatment. Maybe Wendy Holden has the best solution. Her first book, Simply Divine, introduces Champagne D’Vyne, the IT girl with the tits who goes through more men than Blacklight goes through Kleenex pocket packs during an allergy flare-up. Champagne is rather a cartoon but she does capture your attention. She pops up in later books wrecking havoc on rock stars and A list movie actors and just when you’re sick of seeing her (i.e. Gossip Hound), Wendy Holden is clever enough to stop using Champagne as a supporting villian/plot twist in each book. The next time we here about Ms D’Vyne is look quick or you’ll miss it  gossip item and then nothing more is seen.

Will I give up reading sequels? No. Because there are stories that need to be continued. And those? I will read to pieces.

Doctor Sleep

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Thursday I came home from a challenging day at Company X and found something I wasn’t expecting waiting for me in the lobby. No, NOT the 1918 HP Lovecraft demanding a bracing walk around historic downtown while munching on broken crackers.  Not the Necronomicon Press chapbook I have been waiting nearly two months for. Trust me, a little chapbook the size of one of the vintage Betty Crocker recipe pamphlets I collect would not be in a huge padded envelope. No, this package was a doorstop of a thing, propped up under the bank of  mailboxes and almost as heavy as my tote bag. A little thrill rippled through me. June must have popped it the mail before the post office closed on Saturday. Either that or mail from the West Coast set a new land speed record.

Now what would have me tearing open a package before my apartment door had even closed? Two words. Okay. FOUR WORDS. Stephen. King. Doctor. Sleep. Back in the day when I wasn’t reading pure and utter sex and shopping trash, I was devouring Stephen King like the True Knot well…devours steamhead rubes. (Blacklight: “Huh? What are you talking about?”). Most of Uncle Steve’s output over the last ten years hasn’t appealed to me (Blacklight: “Wait…didn’t you want to jump up and down on the final Dark Tower novel until the spine broke and shove it in your dad’s woodstove? ” Me: “maybeeeeeee” Blacklight: “You totally DID!”) but Doctor Sleep got my attention. A look at Danny Torrance as a grownup? I put my name on the hold list at the library and resisted the urge to spend an entire Sunday morning tearing into Doctor Sleep as soon as Barnes & Noble opened once it was released. And stuffed an Entertainment Weekly right back in the library bag when I realized there was a Doctor Sleep excerpt in it. And yes, this is the same person who can’t watch at movie on her couch without having Mr Laptop on and checking out the IMBD, Wikipedia and TV tropes pages on what I’m watching. But there would be NO Doctor Sleep spoilers for me beyond grownup Danny Torrance and vampire things.

So when I slipped off the dust jacket from Doctor Sleep and settled down in the bedroom with there were two thoughts in my head. “Yes” and “Please don’t suck like Black House“. Now fast forward to 9pm Friday night and I’m lurching out to the living room to grab Mr Laptop and write down all the feels.

Uncle Stevie set himself an interesting challenge in writing Doctor Sleep. Going back to the well of one of your classics and writing a sequel with an older and maybe wiser character is beyond tricky. I almost wonder if Uncle Stevie and Helen (Bridget Jones’s Diary) aren’t instant messaging each other and nervously watching the best seller lists and reviews with their breaths held back. Is there anything new to explore about your character? Are you setting yourself up for cries of “you just want a big fat check”. And then Uncle Stevie has another challenge that I doubt Ms. Fielding has, as highly regarded of a novel as The Shining is, the movie version looms so much larger. And then my Stephen King fan girl confession…The Shining wasn’t my favorite King novel ever. It’s in the middle of the King canon for me. I’ve read The Stand so many times I need to kick my shoes off to count that high. And then there is the Black House factor. I loved The Talisman. I read the poop out of The Talisman. I can babble on about Twinners and Wolves and Black 13 until Blacklight rouses himself from his daily Minecraft coma to tell me to shut the bleep up. But I could only finish Black House by forcing myself to read it and remember how much I paid for it (ahh the days of having money to spend on new books). Would Doctor Sleep be the same awful experience as Black House? Or would I just stay up all night blasting through it in a white heat, ignoring that I needed to be at my desk at 5:45am the next day?

Doctor Sleep wasn’t as challenging to get through as Black House. And it was put away at 9pm last night, left on the sideboard while I trudged off to Company X this morning and picked up on and off through the afternoon into evening. I didn’t spend my time flicking to see how pages where left and wondering just how many trees died to print the copy in my hands (Under The Dome). My wrists and hands didn’t burn from just holding the damn thing up (once again…Under The Dome). And I didn’t fall asleep reading it and have it smack me in the face leaving a nasty red mark on my cheek  (you guessed it! Under The Dome). Shallow things to think about, but things to consider all the same.

Our friend Danny, who now goes by DAN Torrance thank you very much, has grown up to be a tormented man who like his father has a love of the bottle and a nasty temper lurking just barely under the surface. And he still has the shine. Oh my does he still have the shine. A series of what I like to call Bad Life Choice Theater lands him in a quaint tourist town were he starts working at the local hospice and gets the nickname “Doctor Sleep” for his talent with the dying. If there is a good night to go into, you certainly would want Dan Torrance there to guide you there. Now it wouldn’t be a Stephen King novel without a little kid with powers so enter Abra Stone, a little girl who reminds you of Charlie from Firestarter with a scoop of Carrie. And since we need a Big Bad, enter the True Knot, a group of “people” (think soul vampires mixed with the Library Policeman and Stevie Junior’s I mean Joe Hill’s (Blacklight: “you mean your boyfriend Joe Hill”) Charlie Manx) who cruise around in RVs and look just like you and me but are pretty much ageless thanks to a diet of “steam” from rubes just like our friends Dan and Abra.  However the True Knot is hong-ray and want to feast and gorge like I intend to with a box of Stew Leonard’s apple cider donut holes. Of course our heroes will battle the True Knot, crazy stuff will go down and Uncle Stevie will hit the best seller list.

Overall, Doctor Sleep is an interesting read. Like The Shining, it’s in the middle of my personal Stephen King canon. I was sad to know certain characters had died, surprised others made it to the last page and didn’t roll my eyes too much. Yes, I played Casting Fun Time (Rosie The Hat from the True Knot is totally Death from The Sandman graphic novels, Abra is a young Kirsten Dunst) but I couldn’t decide on who should be Dan Torrance. I googled EarthCruiser RVs and they’re more Hummer-ish than rock star palace on wheels that I imagined. And sometimes I wondered who would win in a contest between Charlie McGee and Abra. Closing the book after the last page (and I mean the last of the last pages right down to the Author’s Note) I was glad I read Doctor Sleep. It puts the “I wonder what happened to Danny and his mom and Dick” thought to sleep and leaves new ones open. Because if Uncle Stevie can revisit the Territories and the Outlook…maybe we could see what happened to a certain Miss Charlene Roberta McGee in the future? One can only hope and wait.