Stacy Kingsley - The blog of author Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS by Micaiah Johnson

9/8/2020

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson is about multidimensional travel. This novel revolves around Cara, a young woman who is a traverser. She goes between all versions of Earth to gather information and data on that version of Earth. The catch to this job? She can't visit a world where she is still alive. There are also limits to what she can do, and every trip has consequences. The twist, Cara isn't who everyone thinks she is, and she must not only hide her own secrets, but reveal the secrets of others.

I wasn't sure, when I started this novel, if I would like it. I thought for sure that it would be another lazy novel to give an author the recourse to continue writing the same characters in different worlds. It was not what I expected, which was a good thing. This novel involves people of different ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations, which led to some of the interesting ideas and segments in the novel. Not only is Cara of a dark skinned ethnicity, but her manager, Dell is as well. This in itself leads to a disparity that can even be seen today in how people react to and treat each other.

There were moments, on the different versions of Earth, when I thought the book could have used some editing and some of the information could have been left out. Some parts of the novel, especially on Earth 172, were a little long and unnecessary. I would have also like a little more development to Jean, the man who kept trying to help Cara be a better version of herself. There was a little bit of character development lacking, and for characters that were important to Cara, like Dell, Jean, her sister, Esther, and even the tech guy, Adam. This would have pulled me in a little to scenes that seemed to simply happen.

I would have like a little more on Cara's "boyfriend" Nik Nik as well. I can't say much more on this without giving parts of the book away, so I shall end that comment there.

I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a change in their science fiction. Not only is this written by a woman of color, but it's written by a woman, and the novel itself has diverse characters. Plus, it is a pretty good read.

Book Review - IF I HAD YOUR FACE by Frances Cha

8/13/2020

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha was a sad and sweet story about five young women who are struggling to find who they are in Seoul, South Korea.

The novel follows five young women, all who live in the same building, as they navigate life and try to figure out what they should be doing with their lives. Not only was this a sad and insightful look into the lives of young women in Seoul, it was also a sad and sweet look into a culture that I did not know much about.

Kyuri is a young woman who has had several facial surgeries to be as beautiful as she can be. She works in a "salon room" which is basically, as it sounds, a strip joint with less nudity but the possibility of sex later. Men go in to let lose and the women who work in the salons are forced to keep the men happy, pretend like they are part of the furniture, and drink as much as the men give them. Miho is an artist who is engaged to a man she is not sure she wants to marry. However, this man has a social status that makes him useful, and that is what all of the girls want, someone with status so they can leave the lives they have behind. Ara is a mute who is a hair stylist, and very popular among certain social status symbols. She can't speak but she wants more for her life, and she knows that life is hard due to the accident which caused her to lose her voice. Ara's roommate wants to become a salon room girl like Kyuri, and her arc follows this lead as well. Then there is Wonna, the young married woman who lives downstairs.

The novel is a little heartbreaking because of the pressure the women feel to be or look a certain way. There is so much put on social status and looks that it causes discomfort. I felt that the heartache of the women was something that I would never fully understand, being born in the US and having the ability to easily build myself and my life up. It was surprising how important the "right school" was for the women, or anyone in the Korean society to succeed. The fact that someone feels that she has to completely rebuild her face, even if it causes numbness and the loss of feeling in part of her face, to be successful, is an insane idea. I don't know how real this and the thoughts of social status is in real life, but this novel, just like the novel My Sister The Serial Killer, gave me an insight to a society that I have never experienced.

I felt for all of the women, that Wonna married because the man she married was "fine" was a sad reason to marry someone. There was no discussion of love or being happy, only making sure that who you married could lift you up or take care of you.

I think this is a novel more people should read. It had great insights into the lives of the Korean women, and offered a view of what other women go through to try having a good, successful, or fulfilling life.

I highly recommend this novel.

Book Review - THE HERD by Andrea Bartz

7/30/2020

The Herd by Andrea Bartz left a lot to be desired. The novel follows two sisters, Hana and Katie, as they struggle to figure out what happened to their friend, Elenore. They attempt to do this while keeping their own secrets, and while trying to work together around things that are hard for them.

Let's start with the characters. None of them were likeable. Katie seemed whiny and continually complained about why she could not write a book she had been working on. It became dull. Hana and her best friend, Mikki, seemed all over the place, and they were not interesting. They too continued to continually discuss something that they couldn't talk about. Elenore, before she disappears, was also a little to pretentious, and she had zero reasons for some of it. There is a moment, when the book starts off, and there is graffiti in the "bathroom." The graffiti says "Ugly Cunts" and Elenore hates the words, but it is never explained why she hates it so vehemently. This is just one of the things in the books that seemed unrealistic and unnecessary.

The secrets that everyone is keeping never seem to be that drastic, or really that interesting. In fact, Katie's secret was borderline boring. I wanted something juicy, and I got a rotten peach. Then, when I found out the secret Hana and Mikki were keeping, I felt the same. And then at the end of the book, when everything had been settled and figured out, I was done. I feel like I read this book for no reason, and I am upset that all of the positive reviews led me to waste my money on it.

I honestly hate giving bad reviews, especially when a book sounds so amazing, like this one did. However, I hated that I spent my money on this. I don't recommend this novel. It was not as well-developed as I thought it would be.

Book Review - The Shadows by Alex North

7/26/2020

The Shadows by Alex North centers around Paul Adams as he returns to the town he left so long ago to be with his mother before she dies.

The plot revolves around a series of brutal murders done by different teen boys over a span of twenty-five years. The first murder was done by Charlie Crabtree, a teenage friend of Paul's. The murder destroys the town, especially since Charlie disappears right after the murder. This sets in motion a series of events which end up affecting Paul's life when he returns. While dealing with his mother's dementia, he realizes she not only kept secrets from him, but he wonders if his mother, and now him, are being haunted by Charlie, and if Charlie actually did what he had tried to do when they were teenagers.

The characters in this novel were not badly written, although at times Paul was annoying in his indifference to his mother. He is in town to be with her when she dies and to say goodbye, but he doesn't really seem to be with her enough throughout the book, instead he wallows in his own self pity of what happened when he was a teenager. He should have spent more time with his mother, and he should have really stopped wallowing in his own feelings. I would have also like a little more from Detective Amanda and Jenny. Both were dynamic female characters, and both could have been more than what they were, Amanda especially since she is important to the story.

That being said, I didn't hate this book.

There were some spots in the novel that I thought could have been removed, and it took too long going through some of the childhood issues Paul had with his friends Charlie, Billy, and James. I don't think we needed as much of the exposition we got about their dynamics. What we did need was a little more about how Charlie behaved, and the dynamics between him and Paul. However, that being said, there were several surprises, and I found two of them to actually be surprising. One of them actually "took me off guard." I did not see it coming, and was not only surprised, but a little sad. I think this first twist was awesome, and then there were several others. Only one of them worked for me, and I felt all of them together were a little much.

I also enjoyed how this novel ended. It wasn't the fright fest that I was expecting, and the main character behaved in a supremely annoying way towards the police (it seemed unnecessary), but the way almost everything closed up was well done. It also left me questioning if there would be a part two because there was a least one huge arm left hanging out there, and the internet never forgets.

Book Review - THE KNOCKOUT QUEEN by Rufi Thorpe

6/22/2020

The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe is a book that might make some people uncomfortable, and to that I say, read it anyway. The story revolves around Bunny and Michael. Bunny is over six foot tall, and may have been since she was in sixth grade. Michael is gay, and comes from a destructive family where he feels like an outlier. Over the years Bunny and Michael become friends, only after she finds him smoking in a corner of her backyard. Their bond seems tenuous at first, but then later it seems that they are important to each other, and maybe they can save one another.

Throughout the book I will admit that there are few characters to like. Bunny is an oblivious princess who is doted on by her alcoholic father. Micheal lives with his Aunt Deedee and his homophobic cousin, Jason. Bunny doesn't know where she should be and due to her size she feels like a monster, with nothing to recommend her to the opposite sex. Michael is so afraid of people finding out that he is gay that he meets men secretly, and only after he finds them on Craigslist and Grindr. These two don't seem like a likely couple to be friends, but it does end up working.

I was disappointed a little in this book because there were no characters that I felt I bonded with. Michael is the narrator of the story, but I didn't feel close to him, partly because he didn't let anyone feel close to him. After a tragedy occurs, I felt that the reader lost Bunny, as she was and could have been a more interesting type. I wanted to know more about the relationships and that information seemed to be lacking. We never really got to know Michael's sister Gabby, nor did we get to the crux of who Bunny's mother was. After the big tragedy in this book, we don't even get to know that family and the relationships there. I wanted more so that I could feel.

I will be honest, at the end of the book I feel more should have been done about Bunny and her well-being. I feel that Michael built this little, happy box for himself, but then he didn't care when Bunny showed back up. I would have liked a little more from him in the end, after he learned what he needed to learn.

This novel spanned several years, and I feel that maybe it could have been shortened. We didn't really need the exposition about how Michael did in college, and who he dated, since the story wasn't really about that. Yes, his sexuality was important, and how he got from the beginning to the end was important, but the story was about Bunny and Michael, not solely Michael.

In the end, I would say that I did enjoy this book, and for me it was a fast read. I would recommend it as a view into a world we don't often take a look into. It may be hard, and it may make some people uncomfortable, and I can't speak towards the realism of how a young gay person might act, as Michael doesn't only put himself in danger, but he sleeps with older men, who are technically abusers due to his age. However, I would probably read another book from the LGBTQIA+ community, I'd just choose something with fewer perverts.

Book Review - THE POSSESSIONS by Sara Flannery Murphy

6/18/2020

The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy sounded like an interesting book. A young woman, Edie, acts as a body for those who want to connect with their lost loved ones. She takes a pill and for a short amount of time, she lets the spirit of the dead she is connecting with to inhabit her body. She doesn't know what goes on in these meetings because when someone takes over her body, they take over. She ends up meeting Patrick Braddock and channels his wife, Sylvia. After this she can't seem to get Sylvia out of her mind.

Question - Have you ever read a book, and you kept thinking something was about to happen, and then you finish it and nothing has happened? This was how I felt after reading this book. A lot happened, but nothing really happened. I'll explain below.

1 - A dead body is found. The body is named "Hopeful Doe" and she has been murdered. Edie and a few of her coworkers follow the case. They find out who the girl is, but nothing happens. It seemed to be put into the book as an afterthought. In fact, everything seemed to be put in here as an afterthought.

2 - Edie has a deep dark secret, but one we find out what it is, it isn't deep or dark. Also, the writing was frustrating as she was telling the story of this "deep, dark secret." It took forever and she never once said, "this is what I did when I was 12, I just had this problem and my parents didn't know what to do."

3 - Edie has a dead sister we never learn anything about.

4 - Patrick is one of the most boring men I've ever read about in a book. I don't even remember what he looks like, or how he was described in the book. He has almost no personality. I mean, if he is there to reconnect with his dead life, I wanted more from him about how he loved her, or how he hated her, or anything. Even in the end he was so totally boring.

5 - So much happens, then it ends and is never discussed again. One body, Ana, quits and we don't know what she is going to do. We learn who the killer of "Hopeful Doe" is, but this is anti-climactic. Edie has another secret at the end of the book, but again, we don't have any reason to care.

None of the characters are developed. None of the characters have anything interesting about them. We don't get all of the details. The author tried to do too much in one book and it wasn't successful.

Now, I want to say this was also a debut book. I don't know if this author will develop better stories in the future, so I am not going to say I will never read her again. I'd be interested to see what her next book is about. I thought the premise of this was interesting, just not well executed. I'd skip this book and wait to see what she has next.

Book Review - THE MUSEUM OF DESIRE by Jonathan Kellerman

6/6/2020

Unlike some other popular authors, Jonathan Kellerman has yet to disappoint me. The Museum of Desire is another in the Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis series and it may have been the most interesting yet.

The story revolves around an interesting cast of characters. It begins with.... MURDER.... but of course it does. If it didn't begin with murder then maybe people like me wouldn't keep reading. The murder this novel begins with is unsettling, and even Alex is unsure what to say about it. Through trials and tests Alex and Milo attempt to figure out what is going on, why these people were killed, and who the killers are. There is a lot going on in this book. One thing I did enjoy was we did get to see a little more of Robin in this novel, and she is the reason the case comes to a head.

I'd love to say more about this book, but I feel I would give too much away, so I'm just going to copy the synopsis here:

LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis has solved a lot of murder cases. On many of them--the ones he calls "different"--he taps the brain of brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. But neither Alex nor Milo are prepared for what they find on an early morning call to a deserted mansion in Bel Air. This one's beyond different. This is predation, premeditation, and cruelty on a whole new level.

Four people have been slaughtered and left displayed bizarrely and horrifically in a stretch limousine. Confounding the investigation, none of the victims seems to have any connection to any other, and a variety of methods have been used to dispatch them. As Alex and Milo make their way through blind alleys and mazes baited with misdirection, they encounter a crime so vicious that it stretches the definitions of evil.

This is it, this is all I can say.

There were almost no likeable characters in this movie, and every person in this movie is very Los Angeles. What I read were posh people, privileged and spoiled teens, people who used to be someone and think they still are. The only real person, the only person I didn't dislike was a nun. I think that might be the point of this novel, that in certain circles people are just total jerks. This gives a look into parts of Los Angeles I saw when I lived in California. There are people who think that just because you aren't wearing the most recent designer you are less than the toilet paper stuck on the back of their shoe when they walk out of that high end bathroom.

As I said before one thing I enjoyed was that there was more Robin. I do wish that we could see Alex do more of his actual job and a little less policing, since he doesn't belong doing some of the things he is doing anyway. I'd like to see him work with some of the kids and go back to basics.

I am pleased that I have yet to get tired of this series. There have been quite a few series that I have gotten sick of and couldn't read anymore, but the Alex Delaware series is still pretty great. If you haven't read any of the books in this series you should, and if you have, don't miss this one.

Book Review - I'LL NEVER TELL by Catherine McKenzie

5/21/2020

I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie is a novel about a dysfunctional family who find that they must make a decision about everyone's future when their parents die. The family is made up of Ryan, Margaux, Mary, and twins Liddie and Kate, and they grew up having to spends their summers at their parents camp, being campers and then counselors. One summer, Margaux's best friend, Amanda Holmes, is found bludgeoned and close to death. What happened to Amanda? Is someone in the family to blame? Twenty years later, after their parents die, they must find out who was responsible and decide the fate of their inheritance and their siblings.

At first this novel was slow reading, as most of the characters were unlikable. I also have become annoyed at books where each chapter is from the point-of-view of another character. This trope is beginning to make me feel as if I don't get to know any of the characters in a novel well enough to care about them. This did have moments like that, and as I stated in the first sentence, most of the characters were unlikable. Throughout the novel, you get snippets from Amanda, from that night to after.

There are a lot of secrets in this novel, and the fact that none of these siblings talked at all was a little annoying and it seemed unrealistic to me. I have siblings, yes you go moments without speaking, but in today's day and age there are times when you can not talk for months but you might at least send a snap to one another. After reading halfway the novel started becoming a little more interesting.

I started to wonder a little more about Amanda. In fact, I wished that there were more about her in the novel. As stated earlier, there were snippets, but we didn't really get to know anything about her, and I wanted more. I wanted to know a little more about her background and her history, even more about her family and her familial relationships would have been something. I would have liked to know more since the entire book revolved around her.

Instead, we read more about the family, and learn that no one knows anything about anyone else. There were a few things in the novel that I would have liked to know more about, and I can't write about them here otherwise I'll give away detail that are important to the novel.

Overall, I did end up enjoying this novel. I did not see the end coming, which was a relief since so many books are predictable. I liked how it ended I just wanted a little more. The reason for the bludgeoning felt a little shallow, and it didn't feel like it was worth it in the end. I wanted more, I often want more.

Now, that being said, I did like this because it did keep me interested, and I did want to know who the bad guy was. Plus, I didn't feel like putting this book down, so that is always a plus.

Book Review - THE WOMEN IN THE CASTLE by Jessica Shattuck

4/24/2020

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck has several parts and it covers several years, before, during, and after World War II.

Marianne is the main character. She is a woman who's husband is a resister of Hitler's, and when he and a few other resisters fail in their mission, Marianne is tasked with finding other lost wives and children of other resisters.

This novel followed three women, Marianne, Ania, and Benita. Marianne is stubborn in her ways, but she also wants to see everyone succeed. She is a stubborn and strong character, everything is black or white. Ania is a woman with a secret, and she is unwilling to tell anyone because it might affect her safety and the safety of her two sons. She is a strong woman, and is willing to help Marianna as much as she can, however, it might only be because she doesn't want anyone to find out the truth she is keeping hidden. Benita is a young woman, who depends too much on her looks and smarts to get and keep men. She doesn't really know how to protect herself, even though later in the book we find that in certain instances she isn't the weak little girl she often appears to be.

I, overall, liked this book. I thought it was interesting and a deep read. Being about the different sides of Germany and the reaction people had to Hitler was thought provoking. Of course this is a fiction book, so you can take from it what you wish.

My complaints are small. I wanted more women in the castle. I wanted to see a wider variety of women who had survived as well as they could have. I wanted to see more from people who had different experiences. I also wanted to see a little more development in some of the characters, or at least hear more about their experiences. We don't get too into depth with Marianne, and I feel that her character should have had more change and development. There were some horrifying parts, but I feel like some of it could have been explored more. Most of us know what happened in WWII, and this could have gone a little deeper into the experiences (even as fiction) of the women, and other people they had met.

My other minor complaint was the children seemed inconsequential. There was a part in the beginning when you thought Marianne's daughters would have more to do with the story than they did. I wanted to hear more from them, and more from Ania's sons. I feel that there could have been more written from the different point of views of the children.

This was not a bad book. I did enjoy it. I thought it was a little too long, and at times a little too slow, so it could have been edited down a little bit. That being said, I do recommend this book. It was pretty good and mostly kept my interest.

Book Review - THE TOLL by Cherie Priest

4/3/2020

The Toll by Cherie Priest is about a couple, Titus and Melanie Bell, who are traveling to their honeymoon destination, a campsite near a swamp for a canoe trip. As they get closer to the campsite strange things start to happen and Titus finds himself on a single lane bridge that seems unsafe for travel. Later Titus wakes up in the middle of the road, unsure of how he got there, his new wife missing. In a town not far away lives a cast of characters, Jess, Dave, Cameron, Daisy, Claire, and a crazy old woman (which every small town has).

There aren't many characters in this book who are likeable, and the ones who are, Daisy, Claire, and Dave, aren't used to their full advantage. I would have liked to see a little more development with them, and at least a little more in Dave's backstory since he is not only important to Jess, but Cameron and Titus as well.

Titus is a very unlikable man, and as we meander through the book it often seems as if he doesn't like his new bride. Melanie and him don't seem to get along from the beginning, which is not only uncomfortable, but it makes the reader not really care what has happened to Melanie. The reader doesn't really get to know her, so in the end we don't care what has happened because we don't get much personality. Jess is underdeveloped as well. She could have been much stronger and used better than she was. As she was there was very little to her. As Dave's girlfriend and Cameron's crush she could have been a key plot device, and yet she herself really wasn't.

I was expecting more from this book than I got. After the first chapter I became confused, and I am really getting a little tired of chapters that switch from one character or setting or even timeline to another. Can we just have one timeline? One character, even two is okay, but five is too many. Can we have strong, interesting characters?

The story didn't seem complete. There wasn't enough information for me to feel fear or scared for the characters. There was a big bad something, but since it was never defined, and it was only repeated that every few years the "something" caused people to disappear, there wasn't a defined thing to be afraid of, or scared for the characters.

I'm not sure that horror is Cherie Priest's genre. After reading Boneshaker I feel she should stick to steampunk. This was not the best novel I've read recently, and I personally don't feel that it really fits in the horror genre. I'm not sure I, personally, will read any more of Priest's novels. I wanted more, so much more.

This book was a chore to read. I had to force myself to read it over several weeks, and I am generally a fast reader.