*A One Paragraph Book Review
When I outlined the rules for the One Paragraph Book Reviews, I said I would stick to books I’d read within the last year. Unless they were great…or terrible (I’ll let you figure out which side this book falls on). This book was as good as one might expect from a novel that opens with a boy (Jude) being tricked into marrying a pretty country girl when she pretends to be pregnant (because that’s always the best way to start a relationship), and closes with Jude’s (probably) son murdering his half siblings and then killing himself. We’re not even going to mention the weird “not-marriage” of Jude to his second cousin (because five sentences is not NEARLY enough to touch on that subject). If you think that all of this weirdness would result in a halfway interesting plot (or at least the occasional scene), you would be wrong.
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Rebecca Schaeffer’s 2018 Not Even Bones was a gift from my husband, given after he’d spent several weeks listening to my lamenting that science fiction (paranormal, westerns, steampunk, what have you) and fantasy don’t mix nearly enough. Enter Not Even Bones: billed as Dexter meets This Savage Song, this debut novel is both creepy and weirdly captivating (I never thought of myself as someone who would enjoy reading a book about magical creatures being dissected, but- hey, here we are). While I was fascinated by both the characters and the plot, I did find myself wishing there was a little….more… to the story. But I guess that’s what sequels are for.
I don’t read historical fiction very often and I picked up Marie Benedict’s 2018 novel, Carnegie’s Maid, on a whim but, after finishing, I began to wonder what else I was missing and immediately added The Other Einstein to my reading list. Einstein is a heartbreaking and infuriating look into what life might have been like for the famed physician’s first wife, and while a considerable amount of speculation went into crafting this perspective (facts about Mileva Marić aren’t exactly plentiful), I walked away feeling utterly outraged on her behalf anyway. If nothing else, Ms. Benedict offers a poignant view into the historical struggles faced by women who dared to deviate from cultural norms and that, in itself, is reason enough to pick it up.
Grant’s Into the Drowning Deep was another hugely anticipated novel (at least by me, I mean, how can you go wrong with killer mermaids?). It didn’t, sadly, quite rise to the heights I’d hoped. While the premise is captivating and the entire book is rife with enough scientific facts and jargon to make a skeptic halfway believe these undersea monsters exist somewhere, she fell a bit short in the character development department. Even though (spoiler alert!) most of the characters die, I just didn’t care. If the POV had been limited to one or two or five characters, I might be writing a different review, but it wasn’t. There are painfully few books that can handle the stress of SO MANY POV characters (you all know I mean Six of Crows) and this book isn’t one of them.
The Belles, the 2018 solo debut of Dhonielle Clayton has gotten huge press and praise for its diverse cast of characters (I’m a firm believer that diversity is needed across all genres of books, so that’s a point in its favor) but it was not, unfortunately a book I’m likely to recommend. It’s been described as “lush and lavish,” as well as a myriad of other adjectives which, apparently, means that a good two-thirds of the words are going to be used to describe the characters’ hair and clothes a la sentences like: “Her deep plum dress, resplendent with satin ribbons and embellished with crystals, sparkled like a sugar-encrusted pomegranate.” The plot, when you finally get to it, is mildly interesting, and the characters are well-written and relatable, but there is far, far too much time spend on descriptions (many of you may disagree, and that’s fine). This is a pity, because if you manage to wade through all the chiffon skirts and buttercream lace, there is something of an intriguing story here, it’s just hard to get to.
Erin Simpson 