The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware

2/1/2020

*I want to start by apologizing for not writing anything last month. It is the first month since I started this blog in April of 2014 that I haven't written a single thing in one month. I will update everyone on my life this week, but for today, here is a new book review. Can't say I loved it.

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware was not the best book I've read of hers. The main character, Isa, is a new mother who is unable or uncomfortable leaving her new child, Freya, and who continually states she isn't sure she loves her partner. One night she gets a text, one she dreads, and she finds that she in entangled in something with friends from her childhood, something that is a secret she doesn't want to deal with. Her friends, Kate, Thea, and Fatima, all were in on the secret, something that happened and caused all of them to leave the boarding school they were attending together.

The entire point of this game was in part the title, the lying game, a game the girls play and enjoy while in school. This game was something they did to entertain themselves and something they used to combat the boredom they felt. However, the secrets were all mostly harmless, until they weren't. When Kate's father disappears things go to hell, and her step-brother, Luc, is sent back to live with his drug addict mother. Kate, at sixteen, is unable to take care of both Luc and herself.

I didn't find the main character, Isa, to be very interesting or very entertaining. She was annoying and I thought she was not at all likeable. There were times during my reading that I wanted to switch to another character, I begged for one of those books that followed more than one character. This novel did go back and forth between present day and the past, but it wasn't anything special. None of the characters were very interesting, and the rest, to be honest, weren't very developed. I would have liked more about Thea and her alcoholism, or about Fatima and living a Muslim life with her husband and children, or Kate and how she had been living in the house she had grown up in, the one where bad things happened.

The biggest issue I had with this book was that it was obvious pretty early on what happened, and it wasn't what the author was trying to lead you to believe. While I have enjoyed one of the three books I've read by Ruth Ware, I feel that she tries too hard to try making things "surprising" but in reality they never are.

This was not a great book, in my opinion. I understand others enjoyed it, and I will admit that Ruth Ware isn't a terrible author, I only think her sense of disbelief is misplaced and that she should try a little harder to write a cohesive and appealing story, and not try as hard to mislead the reader as to what is happening.

Book Review - MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite

11/24/2019

Braithwaite's My Sister, the Serial Killer is a fun book about a young woman, the dependable Korede and her younger sister, Ayoola, who murders people. This novel has both good and bad in it.

The novel starts off when Korede is cleaning up another murder her sister has done. The young man who was murdered, Ayoola, claims to have killed in self-defense. Throughout this novel this goes back and forth, with Korede continually cleaning up after her sister, and everyone else stating how beautiful and perfect Ayoola is, even Korede.

I liked this book, but I wanted to like it more than I did. There were moments when the story was stagnant and the pacing was slow. For a book about a homicidal maniac, there was not enough murder. Korede is a young woman who has taken on the life of her sister. She keeps the guilt for herself, feeling guilty and continually seeing and stalking the young man killed at the beginning of the book. She is the one worried about getting caught, while Ayoola continues to do as she does, going out with whoever she chooses, doing as she pleases, thinking that nothing is wrong. Their mother even thinks that all of the issues are with Korede, not Ayoola. In fact everyone seems to think that all of the problems are Korede's not her murderous sister.

This is where I didn't like the book. I think that Ayoola was given too much credit, and I didn't enjoy reading Korede be so down on herself and her looks all of the time. She, in her own right, was beautiful, even as described by the author. I eventually got a little bored by her covering and discussions of Ayoola's beauty and flaws. I wanted more. I wanted more death, and really a reason to care for the characters, which is something that was missing. Even that main love interest, Tade, became a dud.

I was not happy with the ending, but I will say it was fitting for the tone and plot of the book, it also was not a surprise. The most interesting aspects of this novel was the setting, as it was not set in a familiar place. Not only that it was not set in a country that a lot of novels have been set in, being in Nigeria. I enjoyed the setting, the things I had to look up because I had no idea what they were, and the culture that came about. So for that reason I gave this book three stars.

I can't say either way if you should or should not read this novel, but I can say it will likely be like nothing you have read before. It might also be something that someone else might get more out of than me.

Book Review - YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE by Nicole Baart

10/28/2019

You Were Always Mine by Nicole Baart is about a woman who learns that life can change in mere moments when she learns of her husband's death. Evan and Jessica Chamberlain have been separated for a few months, leaving her life with her two sons in turmoil. Things get worse when Evan is found dead, and the questions keep piling up and keep Jessica awake at night. Everything seems to revolve around their adopted son, Gabriel. Gabe's mother wanted a closed adoption, and Jessica was fine with that, but when she stumbles upon clues that things weren't as they seemed, she becomes suspicious that Evan's death was not an accident at all.

I actually quite enjoyed this novel. This is the first book I've read by Nicole Baart, and I might in fact try to find another by her to see if her books stack up to this one. There are some issues with this book, but the characters were interesting, and Jessica was realistic in her grief. I thought how she went from day to day and through each step felt true to what someone does go through. Trying to pull herself together enough to deal with her children and continue to take care of life as things come and go.

When Jessica finds that a lot of things were not as she thought they were she realizes how much she wanted Evan back, and how little she knew about what he was trying to do. In the end Jessica learns that those who she trusted were the ones who betrayed her, and that her husband was doing more good, even though he was keeping some serious secrets from her..

The family dynamic was interesting, yet is was clear that the family loved each other. The ending wasn't quite what I expected, but I did in fact see it coming, in some of the ways that it did. One of the characters I thought suspiciously about from early on in the novel.

It was not a bad novel at all, and I thought it was a good read. It was an interesting book, with a lot of secrets to figure out. I'd recommend it to people who enjoy Jodi Picoult, as this did seem a little along the lines of the few books of hers that I have read.

Book Review - PHANTOMS by Christian Kiefer

10/22/2019

Phantoms by Christian Kiefer is told from a recent Vietnam Vet's point-of-view. John Frazeier comes home from Vietnam not knowing what to do with his life. A broken young man, like most who came back, and has decided to spend time with his Grandmother and a distant Aunt. The story floats through several decades, from before World War II to 1983. It also includes the lives of several different families, the Takahashis, who were displaced and sent to an interrnment camp during the second world war, the Wilson's, who owned the land the Takahashis lives on and rented a place on, and Frazier himself, as a war hero who wonders what happened to another war hero, of a different time. Ray. Ray Tahahashis arrived home after serving in WWII to find that his family had been removed, and that he was no longer welcome. Then he disappeared. After losing friends, John finds that he can't let the story go, and finds himself obsessed later in life with the outcome.

As a story that involved different time periods it was interesting how these stories intertwined. Seeing a man coming home from the Second World War to find his family and everything he loved gone, then to find out later what happened and how much life had screwed him over, was upsetting and fascinating. Most won't think of the repercussions of the life some leaves behind and the life they return to, especially given the time some soldiers spent away, and still spend on deployment. After most wars, the man or boy sent away is not the man or boy who comes back, and often the lives they are coming back to is not the same either.

Ray finds this to be the truth when he returns to what he thought of as home, only to find that everything has changed and he is no longer welcome. As the story moves on the reader gets to see how unwelcome Ray is when the woman he loves and the people of the town react to him in an unexpected way. Decades later, when John returns from Vietnam with the same kind of feeling about where home is, he find himself embroiled in discussions between his distant Aunt, Evelyn Wilson, and Ray's mother Kimiko Takahashi, who only want to know where her son is. Evelyn Wilson however is full of secrets that she is unwilling to share, keeping a family in the dark, and creating more and more unnecessary heartache.

John, is dealing with his own issues, memories and ghosts from his time in Vietnam. He spends some time with another soldier who was with him, Chigger, but in the end, no really gets their happy ending.

This novel not only shows a portrayal of what it looks like for a soldier to come home, but also what secrets can do when left unspoken. One family doesn't find out the entire truth, and another searches for something they let go of. In the end, there isn't justice for anyone, even John loses by not reaching out to someone he should have reached out to.

There are parts of this novel that were hard to read, especially as someone who has been military for most of their life and who has sent men off to war. Parts of this novel were hard to read because of the blatant racism and disgust that some of the character portrayed, Evelyn Wilson was not a pleasant person, and neither was her daughter, Helen.

In the end, the only issue I had with this book was the slipping of time forward and backward. There were moments that were confusing, and there were moments that were overdone, but overall, the book was pretty good.

Book Review - IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware

9/23/2019

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware should have been an interesting book, it should have been a fabulous and suspenseful book, but it was in fact not. Not because of the book itself, no, it was because of other books like it.

Nora is a fictional crime author, one who doesn't often leave her flat. She is invited to her once best friend’s "hen" party, a party for brides-to-be before their weddings. She hasn't seen Clare in ten years, so it is all a surprise to her that she is invited, that is until she finds out who the groom is. Once at the party site Nora, her old friend Nina, Clare, and a few of Clare's friends, Flo, Melanie, and Tom, start the party. Flo wants the party to be perfect, for some reason she feels Clare has saved her life, although we only find out a little bit about that. Nora finds out a devastating fact, and things wander around from there. In the end the reader sees Nora in the hospital, being questioned by the police, about the last day of the hen party, and a shooting that happened.

The issue I have with this novel is not on that is based on the novel itself, but instead it is based on other novels like this. I can compare this novel to Girl on a Train, Final Girls, Our Little Secret, or Tell Me What Happened Again. All of these books have one thing in common, they all involve a woman who has lost part of her memory after some sort of trauma or tragedy, and the police are wondering what happened, and trying to figure it out. In a Dark, Dark Wood, would have been better if it had been the first of this trope that I had read, but unfortunately, it was not, and the story is one that has already been told and I have already read.

While Nora could have been an interesting character, I think both Nina and Flo were more interesting characters, and I honestly wouldn't have minded getting to know Tom a little more. Melanie seemed to be a superfluous character, and besides being there to set Flo off a little more and make her seem a little more unhinged, she didn't seem to be a necessary character.

Beyond the fact that this is like a lot of other books I have recently read, it is actually well written, and more interesting than some of the others mentioned above. I do not think that due to this book trope being overdone that I will never read anymore of Ruth Ware's novels. In fact, I look forward to reading more of her books, I'm just not sure which. I need to get through more of my TBR pile before I pick up a brand new book and bring it home.

Book Review - THE NOT GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER by Sharon Lamb

8/12/2019

The Not Good Enough Mother by Sharon Lamb was not really what I hoped it would be. I won a copy of this book in a goodreads giveaway, and it sounded like it would offer an insiders view of what it was like to work as someone who could recommend parents be reunited or permanently separated from their children. Also this is non-fiction, I like to inform my internet people because I know not everyone reads non-fiction.

What this book actually was as a rambling assessment of other parents and children, and the authors own issues and regrets and guilt with her own children. She had two sons who ended up addicted to drugs, and often her stories about other parents lead her to some rumination of only one of her son's addiction and rehab process.

What I wanted in this book was stories about the woman's work, and less about her life. Also, she continued to state that people either were or weren't "good enough." I get that this was part of the title, and I get that she needed to make sure that people understood her branding, but it got tiresome. At the end I wasn't quite sure what I had read, and I wasn't quite sure I had enjoyed it. I, personally, felt muddled, like I was being judged by someone who only knew me from tests she felt were relevant. In fact, proving how muddled this book was, there was an entire section on the Rorschach test and how it came into existence, then the author stated that she couldn't say any of the secrets about how they were read because she would be giving away secrets. I rolled my eyes at that. Her attempts at humor fell flat.

So, while I was excited to read this book, I felt it glossed over the things that should have been important, and it left me wondering why she had inserted herself into it so deeply. I can't say I recommend this, even with the several good reviews that is had. For me it was a little too shallow.

Book Review - THE ROANOKE GIRLS by

5/8/2019

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel is about a young girl, Lane, who has to move in with grandparents she never knew, and a wild cousin, Allegra. The reason for this is her mother's death, and her mother seems to have had a complicated relationship with her parents. Lane, has also had a complicated relationship with her mother, often feeling as if her mother did not, nor has ever, loved her. When there she falls in love, and learns of a dark family secret. Years later when Allegra disappears, Lane returns to Roanoke house to search for her, or clues as to why she might have left. While there she learns that the family she left behind continued to be as screwed up as they were the one summer she was there.

*Spoilers*
First, let me state that if you have any issues with sexual misconduct, molestation, rape, incest, any deviation in a person's sexual life, you should not read this book. Also, this book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I thought this would be more of a domestic noir, but it wasn't quite that either.

Lane finds out that her grandfather has been having sex with Allegra, and this is why she left when she was sixteen. The reader is also given the stories of the rest of the Roanoke family. Yates (the grandfather) has had sex with his sisters, his niece/daughter (who he is unable to consummate the relationship with due to an accident), his wife (who bore him three daughters), and two of his three daughters, as one died in infancy. Allegra was left behind when her mother ran away, and when she reached the age of fourteen Yates started having sex with her as well. He claims that the females of the family all wanted to do it, and from the stories told most of them entered into the sexual relationship willingly, and continued because there was something about Yates that drew them to him.

I was disturbed by this novel, as in the fourth chapter (or about there) it went straight to incest between Yancy and his sister, Jane. I didn't expect to read a story about continual, generational incest, otherwise I would not have picked up this book. I am really not interested in reading about incest, which is why I stopped reading the Game of Thrones novels.

The story itself was frustrating as Lane was not a likeable character, nor was she reliable narrator, always going between anger, and pretty much nothing else, it was always anger. It bothered me as there didn't feel like there was any relief for the reader.

The story was predictable, and the ending was a little obvious, as there was some foreshadowing to what might have to happen for Allegra to leave Roanoke. It was at times a very interesting story, but then at times it was predictable what the characters were all going to do.

I found the incest to be a little overwhelming, and the grandmother's attitude was a little off and off putting. I wouldn't have minded if there were more signs of what Allegra wanted, or why Lane didn't try to stay and help her, or find help. The family issues were all huge and yet, in the story, they all seemed so small.

I don't know if I would recommend it or not, it wasn't anything like something I have read before. So I guess that is a good point, and the reason I was stuck between 3 and 4 starts.

Movie Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

4/8/2019

The Girl With All the Gifts does share some similarities with the novel, but it isn’t really a lot like the novel. There are a lot of places in the movie that the divergence is clear, and it starts in the beginning, which I think might also be understandable. The book has a lot of information in it, and they cut some of it, probably due to the length of the movie. If they had kept it all it would have been longer than it hour and fifty-one minutes.

This movie is about a girl, Melanie, a scientist, and a teacher, who are trying to survive a dystopian/apocalyptic future full of zombies, which are called hungries in both the movie and the novel of the same name. In one instance everything changes, and Melanie finds herself defending her teacher in a way she didn’t know she could, and the teacher, scientist, a couple of soldiers, and Melanie find that they need to find a way to safety, to the Beacon of hope. However, a landscape full of hungries stands in their way, and they don’t know if they will survive, if they will be eaten, or if they will become a monster themselves. Of course, one question a lot of movies like this pose is who is the real monster?

Throughout the movie, Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua, portrays an innocent, playful, inquisitive child, well. She does not know what she is, although she does know that she is different. While she does still seem to be the same character in the movie as she is in the book, I feel that the movie made her a tad more intelligent and inquisitive than she was in the book. She still loves her teacher, Helen Justineau, and she does what she can to help her, but she isn’t as curious about the other children, nor is she as frightened as she was in the novel towards Doctor Caroline Caldwell.

Speaking of the other children, the movie makes a hasty introduction, but it isn’t really as thorough of the book, so it feels as if some of the information that made the story interesting is left out. The interactions between the children and the instructors and soldiers, isn’t as built as it could have been. In the novel, the reader knows how Melanie feels about Helen because there are several interactions, however in the movie there is only one scene in the schoolroom, and one outside, before everything goes to hell. The viewer of the movie doesn’t get as much background on the rest of the children, so there is no reason for the viewer to have as much sympathy for them as there was built in the novel.

Throughout it was obvious that several things had been changed due to the time restrictions of the film. The only monsters they had to face were the hungries, whereas in the book there are not only the hungries, but also humans with nothing to live for but their own selfish survival. The ending is a little different, but it isn’t a bad movie. Part of it, like a lot of movies, are a little slow, but overall, not bad. I will say, this is another case of I prefer the novel over the film, but that isn’t always true. I felt there was more depth to the novel that was lost in the film’s translation.

Book Review - DOLLHOUSE by Tim Miller

2/11/2019

I was torn between recommending and not recommending Dollhouse by Tim Miller. I will be honest, my problem wasn't with the writing, mostly. The story revolves around Jodi, a woman who has a bad attitude at times, and a needy, or strong attitude at other. Ernie Lester is a man on a mission, to build a dollhouse full of his new family. He loves his family, and he believes that his family loves him, even though they can't respond to his questions or advances. Ernie meets Jodi one day and can't get her out of his mind, so he decides to make Jodi one more addition to his dollhouse.

This is registered as extreme horror, and I expected a little more graphic violence throughout. I wondered if it was extreme because of how many "fucks" were said throughout, but even the rape scenes seemed a little toned down, especially if you have read authors like Edward Lee and Richard Laymon. I honestly would have like a little more direct and explicit violence, and I would have liked a little more brutality. In the book there were three main characters, Jodi, Ernie, and Bob. Bob adds an element of brutality, but he doesn't quite go there enough. I also would have liked a little more backstory to the characters. Parts of the story were just a little confusing as Ernie states that all of his issues started when there was a death in his family, but another minor character states that it was a different death that changed who he was, and so we never really know what started him collecting his dolls. We never really know why he chooses Bob to be his buddy after a time either.

That being said, my big issues with this were the bad grammar and wording throughout. I hate the continuous use of the word "just" as it often doesn't need to be there, or can be replaced with "only." There were several misspelled words. or the use of the wrong word. The characters all spoke the same, so the dialogue started to run together and it didn't differentiate the characters enough from one another. In fact, I wished that one or the other would use a word besides "fuck." Ernie kept saying that he had been doing this for a long time, but the reader is never given any insight as to how long. However, even with all of this, I could have read the book and not had issue with it. My main issue with this book is that the spacing was double or triple per page, and the end of each chapter was like three to five lines in the middle of a separate page, which made this a fast and frustrating read. I feel like, for this version, it was a waste of money as a book that claims to be 206, if formatted properly, would have been under 100 pages. This type of formatting doesn't make indie authors look good, and it causes people not to by a book written by an indie author.

Now I know Tim Miller has done well for himself, and this is in no way meant to cut him down. He has been successful, and continues to be successful, making sure he continues to write a new book as often as he can, and going to as many conventions to help stay known and relevant. I admire him for that. And, this book was not a bad read, although I could have used a little more depth, and less of a predictable ending.

I really wasn't a fan of the formatting, and I personally found the errors and the formatting very distracting. I can't say I do or don't recommend book by Tim Miller, as several of them sound interesting. I, personally, might let this book percolate before picking up another.

Book Review - OUR HOUSE by Louise Candlish

1/28/2019

Our House by Louise Candlish was a chore to get through, such a chore I almost didn't finish it, but at a certain point I just had to know how it was going to end. There will be SPOILERS so if you don't want to read those, skip this review.

Fi is a woman in love, until she finds her husband knocking boots with someone not her in their children's playhouse. This isn't the first time Bram, her husband, has been caught cheating. The problem this time is that the woman he cheats with is someone they both know, someone Fi has considered a friend. Fi is given the lead, and Bram hopes that she chooses to save their marriage, and save him. She suggests something called a "bird's nest" arrangement, where the parents keep the children in the house, while the parents take turns in the house with the children. It works for a while, until Bram's mistakes become bigger and bigger until he can't do anything to save himself, and he is close to killing his family. Bram is blackmailed by a dangerous couple. The crime, he has been driving with a banned license (meaning he has no license to drive with at all) and has an incident with one of the blackmailers, and an accident happens. Bram makes a decision, and Fi makes a decision, and both of them end up hurting the other. Fi loses the one thing that seems to mean anything to her (her house), Bram loses the one thing he should have realized wasn't worth giving away (his freedom and his life), and Bram, once again, screws over Fi, by telling the truth about one of the characters, who Fi states she does not know.

I had a tough time getting through this book. Part of my issue with this book was the writing. There are basically three sections, present day, Fi recording an interview after the fact, and Bram after he has sold the house and before he has killed himself. The sections with Fi are boring, and the writing was very dull, I didn't get to know Fi, and I didn't care about her or what happened. If I could have, I would have skipped all of her parts in this, until the very end when she finally became a little interesting. The writing for Bram was poor in the dialogue. He continually says things through text, dialogue, and his own thoughts, and everything he says is cliche.

The characters themselves weren't very interesting. In fact the only things I took away from the way the characters looked were that Fi is a little overweight, and Bram has blond curly hair. As characters they are boring. Fi is naive and doesn't seem to care for anyone but herself, and she doesn't seem to talk an interest in the changes that are happening to her soon-to-be ex-husband. Bram continues to whine about how he should have been a better husband, and time and time again he has a chance to come clean and doesn't, for absolutely no reason at all.

The only thing that made this book semi-worth it was the very end. We know throughout the book that Bram is going to kill himself, but what we don't know is the bad thing Fi does towards the end, nor do we know what Bram has been writing his story down for.

I can't recommend this book. It was difficult to get through and every day I read it I wished I was reading something else. I only finished it because I was wondering how it was going to end, and if Fi was going to get to keep her house or not. But, the characters weren't likeable, and the story was so incredibly slow.