The 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is not a bad movie, however it is much different than the book of the same name by Jack Finney. The book was written in 1955, and has some of the same characters and ideas, but it is set in a small town, and doesn’t end the same. The movie takes place in New York, which seems odd, as I was wondering how pod people could take over the entire city of New York without anyone noticing.
 
The movie and book both have the same plot, an alien species comes down from where ever and they take over the lives of others. They not only insert themselves, but they become the other person, forcing the other person to no longer exist. The one thing that sets humanity apart from the aliens is that they have emotions, they have these things that make them freak out or gather to help each other.
 
There are four movie versions of this book, and none of them are the same. They all involve an invasion, and they all involve people becoming something else, but that is where the similarities stop. If you have not seen the 1978 version before, you are in for a treat. A young Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy (after his role as televisions Spock).

The movie follows Sutherland and a few of his friends, as they struggle to figure out what is happening. Their friends and loved ones are changing, and they don’t recognize who they are anymore. As people keep turning into these pod people life changes and those who have not yet changed must figure out how they can survive. This is where things diverge, and this is where I will put some SPOILERS.
 
The book ends with the Aliens being defeated, and the ones who have traded their lives for the lives of humans, must live the rest of their short existences here on earth. The lifespan of one of these pod people is about five years, so once they start dying off, they are gone.
 
The movie ends with a twist, and those who you expect to be pod people are not. It is an interesting movie, and the theme of humanity is strong, as it is what holds the world together. We don’t know, if there are aliens, if they will be like the ones in one of the variety of movies out there. Of course, we do have to wonder if aliens will have any emotions, or if they will understand what our emotions or lifestyles are like.

Watch this one if you can, skip the later two, but if you can find the earlier one, watch that one as well. Plus, if you have time read the book, because it is interesting for the time it was made.

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach is about a young man who is trying to gather what happened to him when he was younger, and who learns that life was not as it seemed.

During a class project in Kindergarten, the narrator learns that their penpal experiment is more than it seems. The entire class sends a balloon with a letter attached off to the ether, hoping that someone will write them back with a picture of where they live. After a long while the narrator receives a letter, and a picture, but the picture doesn't make any sense. This continues and the narrators mother becomes frightened. The reader learns throughout the story that his neighbor might have been murdered, and several other horrifying things that probably happened throughout the years as he grew up. Finally, his mother tells him the whole truth, ending with the disappearance of his best friend.

There are quite a few people who don't like this book due to the writing style or the storytelling, but I enjoyed this novel. Well, enjoyed may be a strong word for it as I did become annoyed at times, but the length the story went through to keep things from me was fantastic. It had a creepy factor that I haven't really received from many books in the past few years. Most novels didn't have me checking the locks on my doors, or making sure all of my windows were shut properly. Most novels don't have me looking around at my surroundings as I wonder who might be watching me.

There was something about this novel that made me want to keep reading to learn what really happened, who was the bad guy, how was it all going to end? There were times that I felt the story was too much, and the main character was too annoying - both in negative ways. I wanted more from the book, I wanted more details. It was a fast read, but the ending didn't satisfy me as much as I would have liked.

I wanted to know the who and the why, but maybe there wasn't an answer to that because maybe there aren't always answers. Either way, it was a good book, and I do recommend it. You might not want to read it at night, alone in your house, with most of the lights off.

I wanted to apologize to anyone who reads this blog. I have not been posting, and honestly I haven't missed a month since I started this blog. I have a million excuses - I work two full time jobs, I am tired all of the time, one job has been unbearable, the other is fine, I ma making life choices, and I have to plan a book release so I am ready for Phoenix Fan Fusion in May. I don't have time to write, relax, or even think.

I promise to get back to my normal posts, but not until next month. I am tired, but I think a lot of us are.

I know I am tired because of this pandemic. I am vaccinated, and wear my masks constantly, but I am exhausted. I am emotionally exhausted. I am physically exhausted. I am in the same place as so many of you out there in internet land.

So, I am going to get back to it next month. After the holidays I hope to be better.

Life choices are being made. Life choices.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is about Mariana Andros, a therapist who has become fixated on a professor, Edward Fosca, who she believes is a murderer. He is the group head of The Maidens, a young group of women who attend his Greek mythology classes. Zoe, her niece, calls when one member is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana is not untroubled herself. Working her way through grief at the sudden death of her husband, Sebastian, she is concerned about her grief and one of her patients, Henry, who has an unsettling obsession with her. Then another body is found and Mariana must deal with he niece, her concerns about Edward, a you man named Fred who has taken an interest in her, and the murders that unsettle.

I read about halfway through this book and almost did not finish it. It was pretentious and most of the characters were not interesting, especially Mariana. The grief was overwhelming, not in an I feel bad for her way but more in a can she stop being so stupid way. It was not written well. I felt like the author wanted me to feel bad for her but I couldn't when she was ignoring the world she kept trying to live in. She was often preoccupied and boring, which made me preoccupied and bored. I would have liked more about their relationship for the end of the book to be more poignant.

The most interesting character in the book was Henry, one of Mariana's patients, and he was not developed in a way he could have been. He was the type of character that someone could feel something for, and he was the type of character that some would want to root for to get healthy. Instead, he was made into a character that had no point in the story. He was there to threaten the main character, but there was no reason for it. It felt obviously like a misdirection. Again, this was one of the things that made me feel like the author thought he was "getting something over" on me.

While the ending was a surprise and quite interesting, I needed would have liked more from that as well. I would have liked to know more of how and why things started between the murderer and their companion. I would have liked to know why things happened the way they did. I would have liked to know more about Sebastian's death and his life with Mariana. I would have liked so much more. The problem was that there were so many "red herrings" in this book that it felt overloaded when it didn't need to.

All of that being said, I did like it. And honestly, I liked it much more than I liked The Silent Patient. That was another book by this author that took me forever to read and that I almost gave up on. Now that I have given the author multiple reads, I don't think I will read any more books from them. I don't think I have the stamina, and I while the endings of both books were good, I would have appreciated less pretentiousness and less filler.

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is the sequel to his novel Five People You Meet in Heaven. 

This novel follows Annie, a newly married woman, who was also the child Eddie saved in the first novel. After a wondrous wedding day, Annie and her husband, Pablo, decide to go for an evening hot air balloon ride. Things change after this ride, and both Annie and Pablo are forever changed. 

This was not as good as Five People You Meet in Heaven. Annie is not as compelling of a character as Eddie was in the first novel. She whines a lot about the hand that was cut off and reattached in the first novel. She feels that she has never done anything right, and that her entire live is a mistake. This only makes her character unlikable, and overly dramatic. Throughout the scenes with people she meets she continually asks the same questions, and it becomes repetitive and dull. 

Each of the people Annie meets is predictable, and none really seem to add to the story as once again she continues to question and state that she was a mistake. In the end, it seems as if we were misled as what happened to Annie isn't what we expected. 

I don't care if a book or movie misleads me, but I don't like a book that lies to me, and I am not sure Annie was the character this book should have been written about. I would have liked to see a new story, and a new person that had nothing to do with the original book. The ending felt forced to give the reader a feel good moment, but it wasn't necessary, as in the original (SPOILER here is you haven't read the first book) Eddie dies. He gets answers, and he gets happiness (even in death), but it feels like a real story, not a forced story written to make money. 

I wanted to love this novel, as I did Five People You Meet in Heaven, but it is too forced, and I didn't love it.

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones is about a group of teens who decide to pull a prank involving a mannequin. Shauna is the girl who the prank is being pulled on, and Sawyer is the one who decides to pull the prank.

I now have to figure out what to say about this book without giving away too much.

After the prank, Sawyer realizes that things are not going they way they should. Not only is Shauna in trouble and fired from her job, but at least one other member of the group gets grounded. This isn't the first time the group has gotten Shauna in trouble, but this is the final time for her assistant manager and manager. After Shauna is killed in a freak accident, Sawyer realizes and believes that the mannequin, who he has named Manny, may now be torturing and killing the teens.

So, that is about as much as I can say without giving anything away. Let me move onto the characters.

This is a short book, so the reader doesn't get much time to get to know any of the characters, so, when characters start dying off it really doesn't matter very much. I didn't get to know any of the characters enough to care when people started dying. The most interesting thing about the deaths is who is killing them, in the end. The reason for the deaths is actually more interesting than the deaths themselves.

The plot was a little bit thin and the characters were all pretty annoying. There wasn't one character that I liked, at all. The dialogue and inner dialogue was what really bothered me. It was all very all over the place, and after the first couple of pages especially, I really wanted the narrator to shut up and give the story over to someone else. Even as the narrator, I didn't get to know enough about the character to care about what happened.

The ending of the book was not at all satisfactory, and again it was one more thing that left me annoyed. I wanted more for so much of this and I am beginning to wonder if maybe Stephen Graham Jones is not really for me as this is the second book of his I have read. The other book I am still considering and have not written a review for. It could just be that this specific book was not for me.

The only thing that really was enjoyable about this book was that it was short, which made it a fast read. So, I can't recommend this book, but I am not going to say don't read it because maybe this kind of writing is exactly what you are looking for.

Relentless by Jonathan Maberry was a pretty good book. From the synopsis:

Joe Ledger's world has been torn apart. The people closest to him have been savagely murdered and Ledger is on the hunt for the killers. His already fragile psyche has cracked apart, allowing a dangerous darkness to overwhelm him.

His hunt takes him deep into the world of the deadly black market weapons sales, and standing in his way are a new generation of private military contractors. These mercenaries have been enhanced with cutting-edge cybernetics and chemical enhancements, transforming them into real-world super soldiers. Stronger, faster, harder to hurt, and fitted with built-in weapons. They are beyond anything Joe has ever faced.

But he is not the Joe Ledger they expected to fight. He is defined by the Darkness now. The attempt to destroy him--to break him--has backfired. Instead his enemies have turned him into a far more fearsome weapon.

I have read almost every Joe Ledger book and short story that is out there. This book follows a little bit of a different Ledger than you may have read before, except possibly in Maberry's novel, Rage.

Joe is dealing with depression and a possible psychotic break. The novel takes a few heartbreaking turns as the reader wonders about his psyche and the delightful pup, Ghost. Joe starts the novel on a mission that he may not be prepared for. Later, on this mission, the reader sees him kill someone that seems to cross the line of who does and does not deserve death. The point of this singular killing was an act of mercy, but in reality it may not seem that way. After this killing Joe leaves the team and disappears.

Throughout the novel I was concerned for Ghost, as Joe's psychotic break was so dramatic. I wondered if his demons would be too much for both of them. Throughout the novel the entire team is concerned and tries to help or find Joe. I was a tad bothered by the treatment of Junie, only because I thought at this point she would be a tad bit stronger.

To me the most interesting character in the novel was Mr. Sunday, another character who is not who he seems. He is a man able to sell anything to anyone. I enjoyed reading his scenes, and finding out the secrets behind who he is.

I did not think the end was suited perfectly to the story. I felt that at least two of the characters were killed off and died too fast, especially since so much was built up throughout the novel about them. I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to give anything away. I will say that one character, I would have liked to see go down a little harder.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel. At almost 500 pages it is not a light read. It probably could have been edited in a few places, and still held it's meat, but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed seeing Joe Ledger continue to develop. I also really enjoyed the character of Toys (had to end with that).

Girl A by Abigail Dean is about a young woman named Lex, who, along with a few siblings, survived a traumatic childhood. Lex, or Alexandria, was the one who escaped and got help for her siblings.

Lex is the main character in this novel, and the reader doesn't really learn much about her siblings or their life as children. I see that a lot of people liked this book, but I really don't understand why. Each chapter is about a different sibling, and each is chapter is interspersed with past, present, and future information. This makes it really hard to read and follow as we never know what timeline we are reading, and it really hurts the reader who is trying to get to know the characters. I don't mind books that skip through chapters and changes through characters, but none of the information was reliable, and so the reader never got enough information to really care for any of the characters.

The other big problem I had with this book was that it took a really long time to get to the trauma of the children. I didn't even feel that it was fully explored. We keep being told that the children went through unimaginable horrors, but the details weren't really delved into until we learned what we already knew - the conditions the children were found in when Lex escaped and got help. The father is described as an evil man, but we aren't really given reasons or answers as to why or how. The reader finds scenes where there is obvious cruelty but nothing is delved into further.

I almost gave up and stopped reading this book. I didn't care for the characters, nor did I care for the range of the novel. The novel took too long to get to the point, and the "twist" was obvious from the very beginning. Nothing was developed as far as if could have been because there was too much jumping around in the chapters between the timelines. I never really got to how one child was killed (I don't think it was delved into) or how the other children felt about it. There was so much that could have made this a better book than it was, and I really do hate giving bad reviews, but so many people are seeing this book and wanting to read it, when there are so many other great books out there.

I know you will make up your own mind whether you read this or not, but I had to add my "two cents" to the conversation.

Behind Her Eyes By Sarah Pinborough was not a bad book, not fabulous, but not bad.

The story revolves around Louise, David, and his wife, Adele. Louise meets David in a bar and ends up kissing him. The next day Louise learns that David is her new boss, and his wife is Adele. Adele is a beautiful young woman and Louise feels guilty. One day she runs into Adele and a friendship forms. Louise is having a difficult time because she knows that she much eventually choose to either end things with David or Adele, but she loves them both and cannot decide. She then learns a horrible secret and doesn't know what is the truth and what is a lie anymore.

The main character, Louise, is not a very interesting character. She doesn't develop as much as she should and even when she learns part of the truth she continues to do something stupid, which may end up with the death of those she loves. Adele is not who she seems, and the twist at the end was not quite what I was expecting.

Overall, most of the characters were annoying, and this book could have been shortened and edited to make it more interesting. It almost seems as if most books these days have too much in them and people are afraid to edit them for content, interest, and length. There were quite a few scenes that just didn't add much to an already long story line. It was very repetitive, and it seemed as if most characters did not learn from their mistakes.

I did like the ending, but it also made me wonder why one of the characters was so stupid. I mean can't most people tell the difference between one person and the next? I would think if I had known someone most of my life, I would have learned to recognize if they were the person that they said they were or not.

So, I do understand some of the hate this book as received. I, personally, would recommend it if you had some time on your hands, but really only because I liked the ending.

Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman is the thirty-sixth book in the Alex Delaware series. Unlike other authors who I have given up on, Jonathan Kellerman continues to deliver.

This novel revolves around a difficult decades old cold case. Milo is forced to take the case on, and he reluctantly does, and seeks out Alex's help in trying to figure out where to start. As the two try to figure out what happened, they are stopped frequently by other people and someone who doesn't want the murder to be solved.

This was just as interesting as the last book, Museum of Desire. In fact, I enjoyed this more than I did Museum of Desire, but a little less than some of the previous novels. I enjoyed that this novel featured Milo a little more, and that it also had a little more with his partner, Rick. I wish we actually saw more of Rick and a little less of Robin, even though I know that Alex is really the main character.

Ellie is looking into who murdered her mother when she was only three. The murder had few clues and few answers, there is almost nothing for Milo to go on. Milo learns that Ellie knows more than she thinks, and that there is a lot that was kept from her. Her adopted father was also murdered because of her mother. There was in fact so much death around her mother that Ellie begins to think it was and continues to be all because of her.

The end was a twist that, once again, I did not see coming. Kellerman is very good at writing surprise endings, that are actually surprises. I did not expect everything that happened at the end; however, I did have an idea. I enjoy how a lot of the time Kellerman leaves much to the imagination, and lets the reader try to figure things out.

The ending was satisfying, overall, but I wish there had been a little more in regards to the "bad guy" of the story. I wanted more to satisfy my needs of vengeance, but I feel that one of the bad guys got what they should have.

I recommend all of these books to anyone who likes suspenseful mystery with well-developed characters.