A Gentleman in Moscow

Review #59: Fiction

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

My main take away from Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow is that overall it is joyful, playful, and fanciful, which seems impossible given the general plot and themes of the book, but is true nonetheless.

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, is sentenced to confinement in a Russian hotel, The Metropol, rather than death. He is immediately stripped of his title and his money, receiving room and board at the hotel, but nothing else. He is moved out of his luxury room and given meager quarters in the attic. With what seems an unshakable spirit, Rostov goes about his life as usual. Reading, exercising, fine dining, keeping up relationships with the staff. He spends little to no time dwelling on the severity or perilousness of his situation. He says, “But imagining what might happen if one’s circumstances were different was the only sure route to madness,” which really stuck with me. Count Rostov’s is a story of resilience in so many ways.

As Rostov goes about his days, a 9-year-old girl living in the hotel, Nina, befriends him. She has a key that opens all the locked doors in the hotel, and knows all the hidden passages and unknown nooks and crannies to hide in. Using her key and her hiding spots, she and Rostov explore the entire hotel, they rescue his belongings from the basement, find a hidden room connected to his own in the attic and use it as a secret meeting place, and eavesdrop on important political gatherings held inside the hotel. Eventually, Nina must return to school, and leave the hotel and the Count. When she goes, she leaves him her key to allow him to continue to explore and to learn.

Rostov has also stuck up a relationship with a movie star who frequents the hotel. They have a casual relationship, seeing each other for a night or two before she goes, gone for months or more at a time. A close friend of his also comes to visit, infrequently, bringing news of the outside; he brings news of the less-than-perfect aftermath of the revolution, exposing the failings within Lenin’s Russia. To find purpose in his life within the hotel, Rostov eventually becomes a waiter in his favorite restaurant, further building a relationship with the hotel staff, and the regular guests.

One night, Sofia returns to the hotel, grown and with her daughter. Her husband has gotten into trouble working with the resistance and has been sent to Siberia. Nina must go to attempt to save him, and wants to leave her daughter, Sofia, with the Count until she returns—a few months maybe. The count accepts, but Nina never returns. Rostov is left to raise Sofia as his own, growing his family within the hotel, finding further purpose in this life.

As Sofia grows up, she becomes a talented pianist and eventually is asked to perform with the Moscow Conservatory, traveling to Paris and Progue. Sofia intends to turn this offer down, not wanting to leave the Count at the hotel. Rostov realizes he cannot give Sofia the life she deserves by being confined to the hotel forever, or a real relationship with the woman he loves. He must make a choice, one that puts himself and everyone he holds dear in danger, but would a life half-lived be a worse fate?

Towles uses this story, this one charismatic, charming man, to address Russian political unrest in the early-mid 1900s. As readers, we are consuming the social and political movements in this era through the eyes and experiences of Count Rostov—through his relationships with friends and family, and friends that become family, and through the changes we see taking place in the hotel itself. The staff of the Metropol are the eyes and the ears, and they go largely unnoticed, unless something is wrong. And these are the Count’s friends, and then the Count himself becomes one of them. Through him we are witness to the most private and confidential aspects of Lenin’s Russia.

Through all the hardships the Count endures, he adapts to his situation at every turn, he touches so many lives along the way, and along with Rostov, we see how ridiculous the concept of equating wealth with superiority is. Rostov proves to be every bit a decent, caring, man regardless of his status and wealth, and those he befriends in the hotel prove themselves the same regardless of their lack of both, forcing us to question what the Bolshevik Revolution was really about, and if the Russian people were any better off.

Heartwarming and charming, entertaining and informative, A Gentleman in Moscow piqued my interest, broke my heart, renewed a sense of hope, and perfectly captured the concept of found-family. With subject matter that could easily turn bleak with no respite, Towles manages to create an uplifting story, focusing on the slivers of light rather than the overwhelming dark.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. 

📚📸: @_amber.reads.a.book_ 

The Wishing Game

Review #58: Fiction 

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer 

What a quick and whimsical read! This reminded me of so many childhood favorites, as if Shaffer created a patchwork quilt out of beloved stories to wrap us in and warm our chilly adult hearts. A square of Peter Pan, some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory thread, a little Matilda trim, and finish with Ready Player One backing and you get The Wishing Game quilt, perfect for a cozy night in. 

Lucy Hart is a member of a very exclusive club, though she doesn’t know it. As a child, after feeling unloved and neglected by her family, Lucy ran away to the home of her favorite author, Jack Masterson. He wrote the Clock Island book series that Lucy always imagined herself the brave, adventurous heroine of. Masterson, notoriously reclusive, keeps to himself at his home on the real Clock Island, where Lucy comes knocking late one night, hoping Jack will take her in, become her guardian and go on real adventures with her. Beyond disappointed when she is returned home, Lucy must grow up and leave her fantasy world behind.  

Years later, Lucy becomes a teaching aid, sharing her love of books with her students, namely a young, orphaned boy named Christopher. Lucy has fallen in love with this little boy, and has plans to adopt him, but she is running out of time to get her finances and home together to make that happen. At just the right time, Jack Masterson announces a new book, years after his last, and has created a contest to bestow the one and only copy on a lucky winner. Only a select few have gotten invitations to Clock Island to compete in this contest; those who were once young children looking for answers in their favorite books. Each person had once run away to Clock Island and were now being invited to return.  

Lucy debates not participating, remembering the hurt of being turned away so many years ago. But the chance to have a new Jack Masterson book, to return to the series, to sell the manuscript to the highest bidding publisher, would bring her everything she wants; it could give her her life with Christopher. 

Clock Island is as mysterious and magical as Lucy remembers, but as she starts completing the tasks to win the contest, she must grapple with a more sinister and somber reality. 

The Wishing Game packs a ton of heart, adventure, and some tough topics into 300 pages. With a dazzling setting pulled straight from a child’s most imaginative dreams, Shaffer seamlessly weaves in hard issues with breathtaking care. Using Lucy, Christopher and James as the conduits, Shaffer tenderly addresses childhood and generational trauma, addiction, loss of family members, toxic relationships, and the disappointments of the foster system (to name just a few) allowing us to face these topics directly without losing the heart of the story to the darkness.  

A story about facing your fears, making wishes and following your dreams, and the healing power of laughter, The Wishing Game goes down like a warm glass of milk, reminding us to escape every now and then into the silly and punny side of life, to let our inner children out to play. 

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars. 

📚📸: @_amber.reads.a.book_ 

This Is How You Lose the Time War

Review #57: Fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 

This is such a unique story, there’s nothing to do but jump right in. Red and Blue are two operatives of competing agencies dedicated to the upkeep of their own idea of the correct version of time (think Loki and the TVA). Each works to change, or prevent changes, in time to bring about the future they believe is right. Red and Blue jump through time disrupting events, or cleaning up said disruption, and setting traps and leaving antagonistic notes for each other to find – egging each other on. However, these notes are against the rules of their time war, and someone is following them through time, spying on them—The Seeker—so their methods of communication need to be clever and untraceable. As their correspondence becomes more personal, and loses its antagonistic tone, Red and Blue must fight against everything they know, everything they’ve been fighting to uphold, to keep each other safe. Afterall, what good is all the time in the world without love? In This Is How You Lose the Time War, El-Mohtar and Gladstone weave an intricate enemies-to-lovers story within the threads of time.  

To be honest, I found it a bit difficult to visualize the characters, and I think rereading would lend itself well to build more concrete understandings of not just physical attributes, but also of origin of existence. From what I gathered, Blue is from an agency of sentient machines, with a consciousness that seems to be AI of some kind. This agency seems to be made up of agents that are built. Red, conversely, seems to be from a larger consciousness, grown in nutrient pods, that is given individual organic bodies to work and travel through time. Eating is mentioned as something that is done for fun, not necessity. I imagined a humanistic body for both Red and Blue, though Blue is more a metal skeleton with a human looking shell (not unlike the Terminator). Both are also referred to with she/her pronouns which let me visualize more feminine features and make this a queer love story. 

This Is How You Lose the Time War is told through scenes of time travel and the secret letters sent between Red and Blue. Both scene and letter flow like prose poetry; it’s all very flowery and fluid, slippery and slow and wistful. There’s a romance that is so prevalent but almost also out of reach and understanding, like we’re grasping at smoke as it dissipates. This feeling of knowing but not knowing is heightened because the letters that Red and Blue leave for each other are not written (a form that could be so easily intercepted spelling disaster for each of them) but woven into the threads of the time they’re visiting, made into chemical reactions and food and lava and tree bark and tea leaves.  

These letters are so intimate. I found myself almost blushing, bashful, as if they aren’t meant for anyone else to read. They are beautiful, and vulnerable, not overly sexual but sensual and sexy. The dynamic between Red and Blue reminded me of Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens. Something exists between them that is so pure and deeply ingrained that they must be soulmates.  

SPOILERS AHEAD 

Though the exact nature of Red and Blue’s relationship is not found out, Red’s agency begins to suspect something may be going on, and they find Blue to be a major threat to their cause. Red is tasked with illuminating Blue, hiding poison in a letter. Red tries to warn Blue, tells her not to open any more letters from her, ever. She knows it means never communicating with Blue ever again, but Red knows the sacrifice is worth Blue’s life. Blue doesn’t listen. She knows the letter is poison, but now knowing a life with Red, would rather die than never hear from her again.  

The Seeker that has been watching, following Red and Blue through time, and we believe attempting to catch them corresponding, to punish them, is seemingly revealed to be Red. After creating the poisonous letter, she returns through time to all the moments she and Blue had left letters, even back to a time when Blue was young and nearly died. Red has been infusing parts of Blue into herself through time, she infects Blue as a child, nearly killing her, but leaving part of her own biology behind in Blue. Red has done the only thing she can think of, mixing herself with Blue, leaving enough of herself in Blue to hopefully inoculate her to the poison that Red will leave for her so many years later. I was reminded of Interstellar when the was revealed.  

This love story, told through the most imaginative of means, across time and space, is one of the most genuine, beautiful, and raw love stories I’ve ever read. Though so much is blurry and out of reach, the love is fully tangible and leaves no question. I cannot wait to reread this, as I’m sure this is a book that will expose more and more of itself with each read. A book that is both devastating and hopeful, This Is How You Lost the Time War will become a timeless classic in both sci-fi and romance.  

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

📚📸 : @_amber.reads.a.book_ 

You’re Invited

Hardcover book, You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa, laying on a pile of envelopes and invitations.

Review #56: Fiction 

You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa 

This story’s twists and turns have twists and turns! Though I didn’t love every decision that was made along the way, it’s impossible to call You’re Invited boring or predictable. I had as many theories as there were characters in this book; some panned out, and some Jayatissa took in entirely different directions. In the end, the resolution simply pales in comparison to the tantalizing possibilities we are lured into imagining along the way.  

Amaya and her longtime best friend Kaavi have had a falling out. Amaya has not heard from Kaavi in years and has satiated her curiosities by cyber stalking her across multiple social media sites, all under fabricated accounts. So when an invitation to Kaavi’s wedding arrives (Amaya had no idea Kaavi was seeing someone!) she’s not just intrigued, she’s hopeful. Which is why when she realizes the groom is not just someone she knows, but in fact her ex-boyfriend Spencer, Amaya decides two things: One, she has to go to this wedding. And two, she has to stop it from happening. 

Shortly after Amaya arrives in Sri Lanka for the wedding, she finds out Kaavi didn’t invite her after all, and still wants nothing to do with her. Kaavi allows Amaya to stay and attend to keep up appearances, but there is clearly no love lost between them. Then the night before the wedding, Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead the longer she goes unfound. Jayatissa utilizes the present and flashbacks to tell Amaya and Kaavi’s story, filling the reader in on what caused their falling out, and all the details from the time Amaya arrived in Sri Lanka up to Kaavi’s disappearance. These present scenes are interwoven with police interviews with the various guests of the wedding after Kaavi is reported missing. 

The interviews as plot progression are one of my favorite things about You’re Invited. They’re a unique way to tell the story and introduce readers to all the various players at the same time. Since these interviews are incredibly self-serving, we develop a mistrust of everyone. They’re all just a little bit unreliable, which makes them all suspects. With the inclusion of the intricate and extravagant depictions of the Sri Lankan culture and elaborate wedding celebrations of the wealthy, You’re Invited feels like the love child of Crazy Rich Asians and an Agatha Christie novel.  

None of the characters is more suspicious than Amaya herself, at times in a way that is far too heavy handed, to the point of being ridiculous and obviously an attempt to steer the reader in her direction. This only made me more sure that Amaya would not be whodunit. Amaya has a highly active, violent imagination and dislikes everyone. She has some online friends, and I questioned if they were even real a few times with how detached from reality Jayatissa portrays Amaya. It would not have been much of a surprise if we ended up with Amaya the obsessed, jilted stalker as kidnapper and possible murderer. 

In the flashbacks, we find out Kaavi’s parents adopted a baby girl right before Amaya and Kaavi stopped speaking. Whispers suggest that the little girl is the love child of Amaya and Kaavi’s father. This rumor adds to the understanding of the rift that tore Amaya and Kaavi apart, and explains the frigid welcome Amaya receives from Kaavi’s mother when she arrives. The truth of who this little girl is is what the entire story hinges on.  

When the loose ends are all tied up, what we’re left with in You’re Invited is a story of strong, powerful women who are ruthless when it comes to keeping up with cultural appearances. There’s a wife’s shame because of her husband, a mother’s pride, and a daughter’s unwillingness to become her mother or allow herself to be treated how the generation of women before her were treated. All of these secrets and lies come spilling out the night before Kaavi and Spencer’s wedding, revealing which leads were real and which were red herrings. The truth is still scandalous, but for me, what could have been was far more entertaining.  

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars 

📚📸: @_amber.reads.a.book_ 

Thistlefoot

Review #55: Fiction

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

In Thistlefoot, GennaRose Nethercott brings the Baba Yaga folklore into the modern-day, using a magical realism backdrop to tell a unique story of both blood- and found-family. In a debut novel that doesn’t shy away from the painful and grotesque aspects of life, Nethercott builds a world with Grimm’s fairytale bones, complete with whimsy and magic, and modern accents throughout. 

When the Yaga siblings, Bellatine and Isaac, inherit a house from a long lost relative in Eastern Europe, the house getting up and walking around on a pair of chicken legs is just the beginning of the oddities that lie ahead. When a shadowy figure crosses countries and oceans to claim the house for himself, the siblings must band together to understand and protect not just their present, but their past. An epic fantasy that spans thousands of miles and hundreds of years, Thistlefoot breathes new life into Jewish folklore. 

Bellatine and Isaac have not spoken in years—Bellatine pursuing woodworking and looking to settle into a normal life, and Isaac following the whims and impulses of a street performer and petty thief wherever they take him. When they each get the call that a great-great-grandmother has left them an inheritance, they meet again at a shipyard to open the giant container together. When the shock of a sentient house on chicken legs walking out wears off, they strike a deal. If Bellatine joins Isaac on a cross-country tour to perform their family’s old puppet show, he’ll take the spoils, and she can keep the house. What they don’t know, is that the Longshadow Man wants Thistlefoot for himself to settle a century’s old debt. To save themselves and Thistlefoot from a deadly fate, both Bellatine and Isaac must confront their very worst fears from their past and start using each of their unique abilities for good. 

With a cast of characters from the past and present, told through the perspectives of Bellatine, Isaac, and Thistlefoot (who gives us the backstory to understand the Longshadow Man’s pursuit), Thistlefoot will walk right into your heart and soul like a hot cup of tea next to a roaring fire. Nethercott has created a beautiful, whimsical tale of love, loss, and memory through a fantastic adventure complete with ghosts, betrayal, and vengeance. But the ghosts in this story are not just people, they are places and events, and the horror of experiencing a ghost is not shied away from. Nethercott does not hold back on visceral depictions of pain and suffering; she is unashamed of broaching taboo topics and showing the gritty, violent realities of the world. 

Existing in a world of magical realism that I didn’t question for a single second, Thistlefoot is a captivating story of generational trauma, exploring what being bound by blood really means, what a family really is, and the price we’re willing to pay for love. 

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

📚📸: @_amber.reads.a.book_ 

The Last Letter from Your Lover

Review #54: Fiction

The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

I have no patience. A slow burn is one of my arch nemeses when it comes to reading, especially with romance because I just want them to get together already! I find a lot of times the wait is never worth the pay off. In The Last Letter from Your Lover, the combination of the past (before Jennifer’s accident) and the present (after her accident) really helped the slow burn establish a purpose. Moyes makes each scene matter, and the pacing added to the connection the reader has to Jennifer and her condition, her confusion, and the mystery of her life before she forgot who she was. The slow burn here maybe gave the reader a bit too much time to figure out the twists and turns of the mystery, but the ending lives up to those expectations and makes the journey there worthwhile.

Moyes delivers a pretty standard star-crossed lovers romance, mixing in bad timing, and friends who think they’re helping but are hurting, and misunderstanding after misunderstanding resulting in a car crash (no pun intended) of chaos you can’t look away from. I think we could have done without one or two of the red herrings; there’s a touch of whiplash from being misdirected again and again in quick succession. I found myself frustrated with what characters were saying and doing, keeping the most important things from Jennifer in her attempts to reclaim her missing memories, but it was a frustration that kept me reading because above all, I wanted Jennifer to figure it all out.

The Last Letter from Your Lover is a rich and detailed love story that incredibly overcomes the obstacles of injury and time and the status quo on top of those obstacles uniquely created by those suffering a broken heart.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

📚📸: @_amber.reads.a.book_

Again, but Better

Review #53: Fiction

Again, but Better by Christine Riccio

I need to preface this by saying this wasn’t a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t great, and I read it after reading one book after another after another that was just “meh,” so it’s possible that timing (ironically) played a part in my lack of enthusiasm.

Again, but Better follows Shane, a college student doing a semester abroad in London. She has a lot of plans for this program, making real friends, kissing boys she likes, writing her Great American Novel. She also has one big secret—the program she’s enrolled in is a writing program, but she’s told her parents she’s attending the medical program. As the story plays out, Shane makes friends, she meets a boy she likes (Pilot—his name, not his profession), and she gets a great writing internship. As is inevitable, her parents find out she lied, ruining their relationship, she finds out Pilot has a girlfriend and never tells him how she feels, and she leaves the program to go back to her pre-med studies in the States.

Six years later, when she’s entered the back half of her 20s, she’s about to get a position as a gastroenterologist, and her boyfriend has just asked her to marry him, but she hasn’t yet said yes. She has a strained relationship with her parents and the rest of her family, and she’s still thinking about Pilot and how she never told him how she felt. Shane tracks Pilot down and when they get stuck in an elevator, the next thing they know, they’re back in London. And not just back in London, but back in time in London, reliving their study abroad program. Now the question is, what will they do with their do over?

Again, but Better is equal parts time travel, coming-of-age, first-love romance, and nostalgia—all things that are right up my reading alley. It’s the execution of these troupes that left me underwhelmed.

The biggest issue for me was that I didn’t connect with the characters. After reading a bit about how Riccio came to write this book, I fully understand her reasoning, and I wholeheartedly support writing the book you need when you can’t find it already out there. For me, some of the quirks given to the characters were over the top and unrealistic to the point of being annoying. For example, Shane is constantly knocking chairs over when she stands up, and she puts her cups down loudly when she drinks. There’s no explanation for this other than having the other characters notice and comment, or for Shane to feel self-conscious about it. Babe, one of Shane’s flat mates, is too sweet-as-sugar and innocent to be believable as a real person that exists. None of the characters behave in a way I’ve ever known any 20-year-old to behave. There’s next to no cursing, Riccio opts instead for words like “heck” and “fudge” and “oh Mylanta”. I’m sure there are plenty of people who did connect with the characters, but it’s very clear they were not meant for me.

What I did love about this book is the travel. Not just London; Shane and Co. visit Rome and Paris going to all the big landmarks and staying in quaint B&Bs and sketchy hostels. I got a real feel for each city and the way Riccio describes these settings put me right into it, even to some of the places I’ve never personally been to. Along with the physical locations, the time was illustrated wonderfully. The hints of nostalgia that are peppered throughout brought me right into 2011. There are so many distinct music, movie, and book references that it’s impossible not to be transported. And if you’re a Beatles fan, the many references are sure to delight.

Not everything about Again, but Better worked for me, but I enjoyed the ride as Shane experienced new things in new places. And when given the chance at redirecting her life, she found the strength to go after what she really wanted.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

📚 📷 : @_amber.reads.a.book_

Drive

Review #52: Non-Fiction

Drive by Daniel H. Pink

I’m legitimately shocked that the business world is still run the way it is when this book has been out for over a decade. Daniel H. Pink makes it so obvious that the way things are, the way things have always been, is crippling the workforce. And now, with a global pandemic that has devastated the on-site, desk and cubicle, 9-to-5 work model, it’s even more clear that it’s time for something new. There is a reckoning happening in the workplace, and Drive is a great place to start.

Everyone should read this book. It should be required reading for CEOs and company presidents, anyone with the job title of Supervisor or Manager, employees of all kinds. It should be in the curriculum of every MBA program. Parents should read it. Their children should read it. Athletes and artists should read it. Everyone.

Pink doesn’t deliver a collection of motivational and inspirational quotes and platitudes. There’s no corny, “Just love yourself,” “Work harder,” “You can do anything you set your mind to,” basic and vague space-fillers. Drive is a work of science, of theory and experimentation, of research and critical analysis. It doesn’t just tell you what motivates people in general; it explains various ideas of what motivation is and what it does, where it comes from, the types (biological, extrinsic, and intrinsic), and what we think motivates us versus what actually does, all based on years of research and innumerable data.  

For such a small book, Pink covers an impressive number of topics and thoroughly explains each of his points. Though some sections (how motivation tactics relate to parents and children and athletes for example) are shorter, they are still saturated with digestible and impactful information. Some of my favorite topics included whether most people are working for the paycheck or working for their own enjoyment, for the challenge, for the sense of achievement, etc., and how to either attract employees who truly want to do the work rather than who just want to cash a check, or how to find a job working for something that means more to you than money. Pink’s discussion about “Now that” incentives rather than “If/Then” incentives was insightful and thought provoking, and again had we wondering why motivation tactics in business haven’t changed.

One thing I will think about for the rest of my life is Pink’s theoretical question concerning some of the most accomplished artists of all time. He asks if artists (let’s say Picasso or Michelangelo or Frida Kahlo) were given restrictions such as what days a week they could work, what hours during the day they could work, what they needed to create, what tools they could and couldn’t work with, and who they could collaborate with or have as apprentices or assistants, would they ever have become the artists we know? Would they have created the art we know?

Drive is especially relevant now, as we struggle to find a “new normal” with on-site work, and employees are leaving jobs at higher and higher rates. If you didn’t read this ten years ago, it’s time to pick it up now. There’s never been a more opportune time to rethink our outdated ideas about work, drive, and motivation.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

📚📷: @_amber.reads.a.book_

The Final Girl Support Group

Review #51: Fiction

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

This was such an interesting concept to me. A support group for the girls and women who survived mass murders? For the girls and women who killed their attackers and were the only survivors? Who usually then had to do it all again when copycats popped up later in their lives? How could you not be intrigued?!

In my head I was picturing Sidney Prescott, Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Alice Hardy, and Sally Hardesty in an imperfect circle of metal folding chairs in a church basement, a fold out table with a sad offering of cookies, stale coffee, and water along the back wall. One or two of them smoking, body language completely closed off, no one making eye contact. I do think Hendrix incorporates these women into his characters; they were very clearly the molds Hendrix was working with and built off of when bringing his story to life. I also think that with these women and their well-known stories in mind it maybe heightened my expectations of what this book could deliver, and I don’t think it quite lives up to them.

One aspect that I absolutely adored was the chapter titles. Each chapter title gives a nod to the sequels, prequels, and reboots of the slasher films that gave us the Final Girl. They sprinkled the text with a little extra nostalgia and paid homage to the Final Girls that have come before.

Something that didn’t work well for me was how much action the text has. Given the topic, of course there will be action sequences and fast-paced situations, but more than once I felt I wasn’t able to visualize what was happening or keep up with the scene in my head. There was just a bit of a disconnect between the written word and what I was able to picture.

Throughout the book, Hendrix is cagey with some details and doesn’t give full backstory or explanation that left me confused and with too many questions when I was finished. Because each Final Girl had her own story, her own killer and experience becoming a Final Girl, and we don’t have those exact stories as a foundation for this book, this story felt incomplete. I think if any reader didn’t have an extensive knowledge of the Final Girl troupe and the slasher films and the villains that The Final Girl Support Group is inspired by, they probably wouldn’t be able to connect with the text well at all. It doesn’t stand on its own.

That said, I enjoyed the other elements of the Final Girl troupe and the slasher film throughout—the killer always comes back, there will be a copycat, make sure they’re dead, there might be two killers, etc. You can tell this book is an homage to those women and their stories, and Hendrix honors the Final Girl by finally telling her story after the killing is over. Hendrix shows that the Final Girl is not just the one who lived, but a full person with a life, family, friends, wants, and needs. The Final Girl is someone.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

📚📷: @_amber.reads.a.book_

It Ends With Us

Review #50: Fiction

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

*This review contains spoilers*

I was working as a bookseller when the paperback of It Ends With Us was released, and I watched as it flew off the shelves and answered calls asking if we had any in stock and set numerous copies on hold for customers to pick up. It created a ton of buzz for several months in the online book community, and with the announcement of a film adaptation, it’s once again been all the rage. I’m wondering if all the attention surrounding It Ends With Us led to heightened expectations that the book just didn’t end up delivering.

It Ends With Us is a heartbreaking story chronicling generational trauma and intimate relationship violence. Lily, who grew up witnessing her father abuse her mother, finds herself in a relationship with Ryle, a man who is perfect on paper but has a jealous streak and a violent temper. Lily swears she would never have a relationship like her mother and father had, and does end up distancing herself from Ryle, ready to leave him, when she finds out she’s pregnant.

As Lily navigates her pregnancy without much assistance from Ryle, she questions whether the right thing to do is leave him or give him another chance to prove he’s not like her father. In the end, though Ryle has hit her, pushed her down her apartment stairs, and attempted to rape her, Lily nearly chooses to stay. The thing that changes her mind is when she gives birth to her own daughter. Knowing that she watched her father abuse her mother all her life, and how much she despised her father even after his death, Lily chooses not to go back to Ryle, not for herself or her own safety, but for her daughter, so she wouldn’t hate her father the way Lily hated her own.

I didn’t dislike this story; I just didn’t love it. I understand it’s semi-autobiographical, which I appreciate and commend Hoover on being so open and honest and vulnerable with her readers, but with material that’s so close to home, it can be hard to deviate from “what actually happened” even for the sake of the story.

Things that worked well were the character development; most characters were fully dimensional and there was a lot of growth from the start of the book to the end for many of them; and the story itself is strong and powerful. Lily is extremely relatable; I found my own thoughts and hers were nearly identical many times. Hoover uses Lily and her experiences to shine a light on so many similar real-life stories and gives those who may have experienced the same things a voice. She also pulls the curtain back for those of us who haven’t had these experiences, showing just how complicated these situations really are. Where it loses me is in the details.

Throughout there seems to be a thread of rationalizing or excusing abusive behavior. Ryle behaves disgustingly, but because of an incident when he was a child, his blind rages and violence are made to be seen as, if not acceptable, at least understandable. It was awful reading the passages where Ryle, Ryle’s sister (and Lily’s best friend) Allysa, and even Lily herself use Ryle’s past to explain away his behavior.

In the end, Lily chooses not to stay with Ryle, but not because she has chosen her own happiness and safety; Lily leaves so her daughter can love her father. It’s an ending that is both beautiful and excruciatingly frustrating. On the one hand, good for Lily choosing to end the cycle of trauma and abuse before her daughter gets pulled into it. On the other hand, I really wanted to see Lily choose herself. Had she not been pregnant, had it not been a girl, would she have stayed? I’d like to think not, but since she only made the choice after seeing her daughter and wanting a different experience for her, we’ll never know. It Ends With Us is a brave and bold step in the right direction for female empowerment in fiction, it just didn’t go far enough.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

📚📷: @_amber.reads.a.book_