The Heart Goes Last ~ By Margaret Atwood – 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Conspiracies, Dystopian Fiction, Relationships, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Utopian Societies

 I received this ebook from NetGalley and Doubleday Books in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Living in their car, surviving on tips, Charmaine and Stan are in a desperate state. So, when they see an advertisement for Consilience, a “social experiment” offering stable jobs and a home of their own, they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month–swapping their home for a prison cell. At first, all is well. But then, unknown to each other, Stan and Charmaine develop passionate obsessions with their “Alternates” the couple that occupy their house when they are in prison. Soon the pressures of conformity, mistrust, guilt and sexual desire begin to take over.

“If you do bad things for reasons you’ve been told are good, does it make you a bad person?”

This is the question posed by Margaret Atwood’s heroine near the end of The Heart Goes Last. The events that lead Charmaine to this question are at times, funny and tragic which should have made for a thought-provoking read, but alas, did not.

Like in many of her previous books, the world-building is phenomenal in Atwood’s latest offering. Consilience (combines “cons” and “resilience”) is a bizarre community created by the mysterious Positron company. In many ways it harkens back to the 1950s with the residents only being allowed to listen to music by crooners like Doris Day and Bing Crosby. Their tv is equally sanitized. The whole thing reminded me of “Pleasantville” crossed with “The Stepford Wives” with a few elements of “Westworld”  and “Austin Powers” thrown in.

Contrasting with this supposedly idyllic setting are the residents who overall are obsessed with sex. It’s meant to be a black comedy but I have to admit I cringed at some of the scenes depicted, especially one which involved chickens which left me wishing I could scrub my brain. While I understood some of their preoccupation with this given their otherwise bland vanilla lives, at times it was over-the-top. Did I mention the chickens? Seriously, I think I may be scarred for life!

On the plus side there are some hysterical scenes involving Elvis impersonators which had me laughing out loud.

You’re probably wondering why anyone would chose this life, but you see, this is a dystopian story, and the outside world seems so much worse. The economy has tanked, leaving much of the population homeless, so to many, Consilience seems like paradise. So what if you have to give up a few personal freedoms. It’s better than living out of your car or on the streets, right? Well, it turns out that Positron has some sinister projects it’s working on secretly and they’ll do anything to protect them. Stan and Charmaine stumble upon the conspiracy and discover paradise may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

This leads me to the weakest part of the book. I truly couldn’t stand any of the characters. Not a single one. Charmaine is a fluffy blonde nitwit who whines, sighs and moans throughout the entire book. She’s also laughably naive to the point of ignorance and has absolutely no moral compass. Keeping in mind some of Atwood’s other books, I kept waiting for the big reveal that would show there was something substantive under the vapid shell, but was ultimately disappointed. Stan is a misogynist with a bad temper. That’s really all I can think of to say about him. He was completely one-dimensional and uninteresting. By the end of the story I couldn’t care less what happened to either of them. The secondary characters were equally boring and after putting my Kindle down to engage in other activities, I’d start reading again only to find I’d already forgotten most of the characters. It was extremely frustrating.

This is only the third book I’ve read by Atwood, (the other two being The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin) and while I loved them, I feel I can’t really compare The Heart Goes Last to the full body of her other work. I do however know of her reputation as being a prolific author who excels at creating bleak, yet mesmerizing dystopian worlds with compelling characters. Unfortunately with this book she relies on raunchy humor to get cheap laughs. When you combine that with unappealing characters the end result is a tangled mess in which any underlying message is completely lost. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t by far the worst book I’ve ever read. I think the main reason I’m so disappointed is because Atwood is a writer with such a stellar reputation. I expected so much more than an uninspiring story weighed down by frankly juvenile humor. I think if you’re a new reader of hers The Heart Goes Last isn’t going to make you immediately reach for another of her books, and I think that’s a shame. 

 

The Fixer (The Fixer #1) ~ by Jennifer Lynn Barnes – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Alzheimer's Disease, Conspiracies, Family Relationships, Friendship, Mystery, Politics, YA Fiction

 I received this e-Arc from NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis ~ Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather’s Montana ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems. 

And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess’s classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting–and complicated–for Tess.

The Fixer has been described as a mashup of Scandal and Veronica Mars and after reading it I have to agree. Tess has lost both her parents so she’s been raised by her grandfather. When it’s discovered he’s suffering from Alzheimer’s, her older sister Ivy swoops in and brings her to live in D.C. The sisters have never been close and there’s a lot of emotional baggage between them. On her very first day of school, Tess unintentionally becomes a Fixer. It’s not something she wants. Indeed, she does everything she can to stay away from other people’s problems, but somehow trouble finds her anyway. When the grandfather of a classmate dies unexpectedly, Tess is reluctantly talked into investigating, and to her surprise, she discovers that there is something sinister going on which involves some highly placed people in the government. 

I know I mention plot twists quite frequently, but there’s nothing like them when they’re done well. This book is basically one enormous plot twist! Just when I thought I had the villain, motive, etc. figured out, the story would go in a completely different direction. Jennifer Lynn Barnes does a fantastic job piling on the surprises. And the peek into politics and all the attached power plays, backstabbing, and hidden secrets is delicious.

Tess is a fantastic heroine. She’s smart, loyal, and passionate about what she believes in. She also has a sassy sense of humor which is quite enjoyable. That’s not to say she doesn’t make mistakes, especially when it comes to her sister Ivy. After their parents died, Tess wanted nothing more than to be with her sister, but despite promising they’d be together, Ivy mysteriously changes her mind. Because of this there’s a layer of suspicion and distrust between the two sisters that winds up putting both their lives in danger.

The secondary characters are equally important. Tess wouldn’t be successful in her endeavours without her Scooby gang of Vivvie, Henry and Asher. They all have their strengths which compliment Tess’s and the solving of this mystery takes all of them working together. Despite the book’s description, there is no love triangle, at least none that involve Tess. There’s actually no romance at all, which with everything going on in the story, I think was a wise decision on the part of the author. I honestly think it would have been a distraction.

The ending neatly ties everything up, yet makes it apparent that this is going to be a series. Because of the way the characters are written, I definitely want to read more about them. No, The Fixer doesn’t feature the most realistic plot or characters, but it’s so much fun you just have to leave your scepticism at the door. 

The Forgotten Room ~ By Lincoln Child – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Conspiracies, Mental Illness, Mysteries, Newport Rhode Island

 I received this e-Arc from NetGalley and Doubleday Books in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: 5/12/15

Enigmalogist, Jeremy Logan investigates mysteries that defy explanation. When he’s asked by Lux, a renowned think tank based in Newport, Rhode Island to investigate the inexplicable suicide of one of its most respected doctors, he finds a secret room with obscure scientific equipment that he soon discovers is tied to the present day events unfolding at the institution. If he can’t uncover the cause behind everything, even more lives will be lost, including his own.

The Forgotten Room is the fourth book with Dr. Jeremy Logan after Deep Storm (2007), Terminal Freeze (2009), and The Third Gate (2012). Being a long-time fan of Lincoln Child’s books written with Douglas Preston, as well as his solo books, it’s been rather fun seeing this character develop from being featured in one chapter in the first book, becoming a secondary character in the next, to finally achieving star status in the third. I found this fourth novel to be the most enjoyable to date. When Logan is asked by Lux for his assistance, he goes with mixed feelings. He was actually a researcher there before being unceremoniously shown the door because his field of expertise was considered pseudoscience. Still, he graciously accepts even though he’s faced with some of the same snobbery. The plot itself boils down to a good old fashioned mystery, which deviates a bit from Child’s previous books, which I’d describe more as action thrillers. At the center of this mystery is the question of why a distinguished professor would suddenly start behaving erratically, attack his assistant, and finally kill himself in a truly horrific manner. As Logan’s investigation progresses, he discovers a hidden room in a wing of the mansion, of which the late professor was overseeing renovations. The room is a time capsule of sorts, and has all sorts of strange equipment dating back to the 1930s. What was being done in this “forgotten room”, and why was it so studiously hidden? How is it tied to the behavior of the late professor, as well as other researchers? Child cleverly provides clues in relatively short chapters, which add up to a thrilling conclusion. Because the very nature of the institution encourages secrecy and competition amongst its residents, the villain isn’t readily apparent, which makes it even more compelling. The only thing that prevented this from being a perfect read for me was the rather long descriptions of the mansion’s architecture. While I appreciated that it was a gorgeous and massive building, I found all the technical jargon to be somewhat distracting from the central plot. Otherwise, this is a fun read and I hope the author will share even more of Jeremy Logan’s backstory in his next novel. 

The Stranger ~ By Harlan Coben – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Conspiracies, Mysteries, Suspense

 This e-ARC was provided to me by NetGalley and Penguin Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 3/24/2015

Adam Price is living the American Dream. He’s happily married to his college sweetheart, has two wonderful sons, the perfect house, and a job he loves. When he’s approached by the Stranger who tells him a devastating secret about his wife. Adam’s perfect life turns in a nightmare. Corinne disappears, leaving only a brief message on his cell phone, and he soon realizes that there is far more at stake than her deception. If he doesn’t untangle the web of lies and betrayal exactly the right way, this far-reaching conspiracy will not only destroy all their lives, it will finish them, permanently.

What I truly enjoy about Harlan Coben’s standalone novels is that they’re always based on a premise that could actually happen and then given a totally unique twist. This results with me staying up into the wee hours of the morning feverishly reading and biting my nails. The Stranger is no different. This is a warning regarding the information about ourselves that we leave behind every time we’re online, which is pretty much available to any so-inclined hacker. Can you imagine what you would do if a complete stranger walked up to you and gave you credible information that one of the people you trust implicitly may have actually been deceiving you about one of the most major events of your life? This is what happens to Adam, and when he starts to investigate he discovers his life may actually be built on a house of cards. And it’s not just his wife that may have been deceiving him. Neighbors, friends, and other loved ones could be part of the conspiracy. This is classic Coben which why I never tire of reading his books. There are so many twists and turns in this book that I really didn’t start to figure out what was going on until right near the end, and even then the conclusion still caught me by surprise. If you like mysteries with nail biting suspense and you haven’t tried Harlan Coben, I highly recommend him. He also writes the Myron Bolitar series and it’s YA spin-off series.