Identical by Scott Turow
★ ★ 

Paul and Cass Giannis share everything with each other. They go everywhere together and learn how to do everything like each other to be the “perfect twins” This sharing even includes knowing what happened the night Dita, Cass’s fiancé is murdered. Cass goes to jail for the crime and is released 25 years after pleading guilty. Dita’s brother isn’t so sure that it was Cass that deserved to serve the jail time. Suddenly, Paul finds himself being dragged under the spotlight with court mandated DNA testing while Evon Miller and Tim Brodie are hired to track down Cass and anyone else who may have been at the scene. What these two find shocks them as different secrets come out and more and more suspects are revealed. Suddenly no one is sure which the Giannis brothers share more, secrets or guilt.

Identical was a very frustrating book. It was based around such a great idea but the storytelling is really what made me end up not liking the read. The author kept switching how he referred to the characters. (First name or last name? Pick buddy.) This made it very hard to keep up with names I was already having trouble pronouncing/memorizing. There was also the massive confusion that Dita was short for Aphrodite which I didn’t catch on to until about halfway through the book. Did he tell me and I missed it? I have no idea. That’s pretty much how I felt about most of the book. If there were any questions I had after parts, I’d try to reread and still end up feeling like I had no idea why this was in the book. A prime example is Evon’s relationship with her ex-girlfriend.  We were forced to watch the dissolution of their relationship without there ever being an underlying theme or anything to tie it back to the story. I was really worried this book was going to throw me off my book goal as I was dragging through it. I genuinely believe that if it weren’t for being able to audiobook this while I drove, I would have never made it through. The twist is very interesting and isn’t easy to see coming, but the brilliance of it is lost in trying to get to the end to see it.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

One morning, a crowd gathers outside a job fair hoping for a break in the struggling economy. Out of the quiet fog that morning comes a stolen Mercedes and an awful massacre that no one saw coming. Months later Bill Hodges, the retired detective who had once tried to solve the case gets a mysterious letter in the mail. A person claiming to be the driver is taunting Hodges, goading him into using his father’s service weapon one final time to take his own life. Instead, Hodges sets out using the letter and an unlikely group of people personally involved with the "perk" in various ways to begin hunting down the Mercedes Killer. They better hurry though, what he’s planning next makes his last stunt look like just a Sunday drive.

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and I thought this book was a pretty good fit among the others. In his later novels, King has steered away from his movie monster villains like Pennywise and Christine. Aside from Flagg, he tends to stick with villains that are normal everyday people hiding severe emotional and mental problems. He has gone from creating monsters for us to be afraid of to pointing out the monsters that already walk among us. Brady (not a spoiler) was a very typical character in this way. Not especially charming, he’s exactly what one imagines now when they ask themselves what a typical serial killer is like. He has an unhealthy relationship with his mother and is oddly intelligent; it’s just misdirected.

Hodges is a very interesting role for King since his protagonists usually rise from everyday people. It’s refreshing for him to create a detective thriller. It’s nice to watch Hodges go from a very low point to being a character happy and on the chase. It gives the reader a glimpse into what Hodges might have been like in his prime. King also carefully navigates the typical detective thriller tropes. Early on he establishes that Hodges gets no pleasure from drinking, even though he thought retirement might give him the opportunity to embrace alcoholism. Hodges also mentions his previous divorce and his estrangement without dwelling on it and causing an unnecessary side plot.

One of my favorite parts of reading King is the fantastic talent he has to create strong female characters with weaknesses. Janey is a very strong woman for being able to say what she wants and what her limitations are. Holly is also wonderful for being able to start as such a twisted character and grow into well-rounded and likable person (having seen her parents, this is actually impressive).

Mr. Mercedes is well-paced and is a book that you genuinely are disappointed to put down when real life demands it. I would not say this is one of Stephen King’s best works but it’s definitely one a King fan should check out, if only for the little Easter eggs that King always leaves us. 

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Everyone knows the Day family. They’re infamous for their bright red hair (a feature only three people in the family actually have) and that they’re the “free lunch” family without any money. (Much like another fictional red headed family). Patty Day runs the farm with the help of her kids, but maintaining that and her brood of four is becoming increasingly hopeless. Ben, the eldest, is a loner and increasingly unpopular around town and in his own house. His younger sisters, Debby and especially Michelle, see him as more of a scapegoat to get into trouble for their own amusement. The youngest, Libby is the only one Ben likes and that likes him back. One night in the midst of horrible rumors around town, Patty, Debby, and Michelle are brutally dispatched and only Libby manages to escape into the cold of the night. It’s Libby’s testimony more than anything else that gets Ben locked up for the murders. She swears she heard his voice in the house that night. But how reliable is the testimony of a little girl? Now an adult, Libby is contacted by a “Kill Club” offering her some much-needed money to examine what happened that night again. To reach out to different people who hold secrets about what happened that fateful day. The “Kill Club” is intent on proving Ben’s innocence but Dark Places leaves the author wondering, is anyone really as innocent as we’d like to think?

There are certain books that are impossible to put down once the first chapter is over. For some reason, every book Gillian Flynn writes falls into this category. This book was delightfully frustrating. It is told between three main points of view. Flynn is excellent at changing these perspectives as soon as you start getting answer, inevitably leaving you with more questions and an ache to keep going. Libby was a fantastically flawed character that you can’t help but root for, despite her constantly proving to you how many flaws she truly has. Flynn made a character that you truly saw grow during the course of the novel. I rarely get attached to main character but I loved Libby Sticky Fingers and I’m genuinely sad the novel ended because I won’t get to read about her stealing anymore. Ben was another wonderfully complicated character and the entire book you bounce between complete conviction of his guilt and feeling genuinely sorry for him. As all the reviews say and the title suggests, this is a very dark book. However, if you’re familiar with Gone Girl or Sharp Objects, you’ll be ready for the gore and sexual context as these aren't themes Gillian Flynn has shied away from previously. All in all, a great read. This was not my favorite of her books, but I am really glad I finally got the book from my library to read.

Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design by Deborah Nadoolman
★ ★ ★ ★ 

I was surprised by how huge this book was when I ordered it from the library. It was the perfect thing to curl up in bed with though. It was nice to see familiar beauties like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot wearing costumes that they’ve made iconic. It was also really interesting seeing little anecdotes from more modern movies like Grease, Pulpfiction, and Moulin Rouge. I’ll admit that while I read every caption, I skimmed the pages looking for the movies I recognized to learn more. This is the sort of book you see people buy more for its collector’s quality than anything else. This is the perfect book for a living room end table or a coffee table to add a little bit of class. And like I said, there’s some real joy in looking back throughout the history of movies told by as told by the clothing.

Death of the Black-Haired Girl by Robert Stone

★ 

Maud Stack, a bright student at a New England University, has been having an affair with her professor Steve Brookman. Upon finding out his wife is pregnant, Steve decides it’s time to end the relationship with Maud. This leads Maud to drunkenly visit her professor’s house in a night that ends in her death. No one is sure who killed her and conflicting eyewitnesses aren't helping the case. Did Brookman push Maud or did he try to save her? Was Maud’s murder a crime of passion or an attack of retribution for an article received as insulting to the religious?

I was so absolutely disappointed with this book. The title makes you think it’s going to be something like the Girl with the Dragon tattoo. I know that it isn't a fair assumption to male, but you’d think if your title centers on the murder of a female character in your book….that your book would be more devoted to that murder. Maud isn't made to be a likeable character at all as she drunkenly stumbles home, knocks her dad off the wagon, and then makes a scene at her professors. It’s completely unfathomable as to why so many people are distraught after she does finally die. Then instead of focusing on trying to find the killer, the book focuses on red herrings that even the characters don’t even seem to find worthwhile to pursue. This book honestly felt like a waste of my time. If you decide to read it, I hope you find something likable in it because I really didn’t.

Horns by Joe Hill 
★ ★ ★ ★ 

Ig “Ignatius” Perrish, the son of a famous musician and brother of a famous talk show host was really going places. He has a job in London that he’s moving for and a wonderful girlfriend named Merrin. Then one day, the police show up and arrest Ig. It turns out he’s suspected of murdering Merrin, whose body was found showing signs of sexual assault. Months later, Ig is a drunk and overwhelmed by grief. Everyone thinks he killed Merrin, except for his brother.

Ig’s downward spiral finally culminates in a night where he gets more drunk than usual and does some very sacrilegious things. The next morning he wakes up with what he thinks is a throbbing headache. When he looks in the mirror, he sees a pair of horns protruding from his head. Like any normal person, Ig decides to go see a doctor about his new look. On the way, he discovers that his horns make people confess their darkest desires and temptations. Finally, Ig decides to use his powers to find Merrin’s killer…no matter the cost. Even if that cost is his soul.

I really loved the idea behind this book. I thought the idea behind the “confessions” was actually very clever and thought-provoking. If the people you knew had to be honest about what they thought of you, could you handle it? I kept putting myself in Ig’s shoes and wondered how I’d handle hearing what my parents and significant other thought of me.

I really recommend this book to anyone that wants an interesting read. The book does have explicit language and very adult themes/situations. Some people may find problem in how religion is handled as well. This book could be really enjoyable for anyone able to keep an open mind.

The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry

★ ★ ★ ★ 

Harry is making a special birthday dinner for his wife, Robin when he realizes that he left her birthday present at a friend’s home. The only problem is his son Dillon is sleeping in the other room. Dillon is impossible when it comes to falling asleep so Harry decides to just run out quick, it’s only down the block a little and he really wants tonight to be perfect for Robin. Suddenly, the ground starts moving beneath Harry’s feet. He runs home to make sure Dillon is okay and finds the rubble where his house used to be. Dillon is assumed dead in the tragedy, even though his boy isn’t recovered. Years later, Harry and Robyn have found a sort of peace in between them. Harry has been having an affair and Robin continues working. Robin realizes she’s pregnant just as Harry sees a familiar face on the street. Harry is shocked to see a boy that looks exactly like Dillon with a woman in the street. Could it be that Dillon survived? If so, where has he been and with who? Or has Harry’s guilt driven home the edge to the point of hallucination?

Karen Perry wrote this book with a great deal of skill. By taking awhile to reveal some events, she lets you fall into a sense of false security that you know what’s coming. That’s when she reveals that there’s more to the story than what you thought you saw coming. I enjoyed this book. Parts moved very slowly, so I was a little caught off-guard when things sped up out of nowhere. The reveals were very interesting though and made it very difficult to put the book down for work. For those attempting to read the book and having a hard time, I highly recommend sticking with it for this. Now I’m not a huge fan of cliffhangers, so I wasn’t a huge fan of the end, but it seems like many of the other reviewers appreciate the freedom in choosing to believe what they want at the end of this book. This is a good read for those who are looking for a good book to read. However, if you’ve got a pretty extensive to-read list, I’d say throw this somewhere on the bottom and get to it when you have time.

Watching You by Joseph O'Loughlin

★ ★ ★ ★ 

Marnie Logan’s husband has vanished into thin air and she’s running out of hope that he’ll be found alive. A gambling addict, he has left behind more debt than unemployed Marnie is capable of paying off. Now some very serious guys are doing their best to get the money they’re owed from Daniel through Marnie by proxy. Marnie is struggling to keep her children fed and her lights on while she attempts vainly to prove that Daniel is dead so she can have access to his bank account and the life insurance money. Her therapist, Joe O’Loughlin, contacts his friend Vincent, a former detective to help find Daniel, alive or dead. Suddenly, a man’s body is pulled out of the river and the evidence points to Marnie as the killer. After all, her kitchen knife is missing and those marks on his body certainly look like stab wounds. More information comes to light as a recently discovered present of Daniel’s shows a suspicious trend. For some strange reason, every person who has hurt Marnie has come to regret having ever met her. Is Marnie more vengeful than she seems? Or is someone laying down their own brand of justice on behalf of poor Marnie? Only time and Marnie’s forgotten memories will tell.

I should start by saying that Watching You is not the sort of book I usually read. For starters, the #7 after its name really made me pause before starting. I hate starting a series in the middle and was worried that I’d have no idea what was going on or that I’d feel I was really missing out. For anyone with the same concerns, there aren’t any plot holes that you’re going to trip on by not reading the first six. The character of Joseph O’Loughlin does reference events that I assume happened in the past books, but the references are done in a way that you understand enough about what happened and how he feels to be able to understand the situation. They come off as more of a nod for the past readers but they don’t have much of a bearing on the current story. Second, I’m not a huge “detective stories” kind of reader. I picked this up because it was on a list about stalking books and the title seemed to keep that theme. It was surprising delight to find that this book had both. All in all, I really enjoy this book. It was one of the few books that I was genuinely sad to put down when I had to go to work or force myself to sleep at night. The twists at the end really caught me off-guard, as I assumed early on that I knew exactly what was going on. Michael Robotham does a great job of letting the reader know enough of what’s going on to assume they know everything, which is not the case until the last couple of chapters. I’m tempted to even try out the rest of the series now.

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
★ ★ ★ ★ 

Grasshopper Jungle is a book that you’ll only survive if you’re extremely open-minded. Even then, it’s not quite a guarantee that you’ll enjoy it.

Austin is the main character and the self-appointed person in charge of keeping track of history in Ealing, Iowa. Austin has a wonderful girlfriend named Shann and an amazing best friend named Robby. Robby and Austin spend most of their days skating around Grasshopper Jungle and dealing with their sexuality. Robby is gay and Austin has absolutely no idea what he is. Except horny. Austin is horny very often. One day, Austin and Robby get beat up by the usual group of homophobes and accidentally begin the end of the world. And this is how the world ends…not with a bang but with genetically modified insects resembling a cross between grasshoppers and praying mantis. The bugs have bulletproof exoskeletons and are roughly 8 feet tall (before they start molting and growing), Like normal insects though, they’re only interested in two things….eating and procreating.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I didn’t take it seriously though so the multiple conversations about semen and naming one’s balls didn’t really faze me. If I tried to look at the book as the piece of literature it kept being passed off to me as, I could see the attempted metaphors between the bugs and teenage boys going through puberty. The book did have moments of being really clever. For some reason though, the cleverness had to be drowned in commentary about erections. It was also an interesting tool to jump from the modern parts to connect them to brief historical facts that connected different characters related to Austin or characters that lived in his periphery. It was also really interesting to watch the outbreak happen, I was just confused that Andrew Smith chose to be bold and take chances with all of Grasshopper Jungle except for the ending.

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman
★ ★ ★ ★ 

One day Felix Brewer started his morning like many men do. He kissed his wife and daughters goodbye, headed out the front door, and mysteriously disappeared. As time goes by, Felix’s daughters grow and his wife, Bambi struggles to give her daughters all the designers and events she thinks they deserve. Felix’s mistress, Julie, takes the coffee shop he left her and turns it into a successful inn and an attempt at a restaurant as well. That is, until Julie disappears. Everyone assumes she left to join Felix. Then her body is found with a bag containing her passport, barren and completely void of stamps. Now Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez is trying to find out what exactly happened to Julie. And as he discovers all the secrets and twists that have been a part of all the lives of the women left behind…maybe he can find the killer and where Felix went too.

This book was a random add for me. I just saw it on a list somewhere and thought it was worth giving it a try. I’m so glad I did. This book had a lot of elements that I really enjoyed. I love books that switch between multiple points of view and this book manages many transitions amongst a very diverse cast of character without ever becoming confusing or causing a “now who was this again” headscratch. This diverse cast makes it very easy to connect with different characters and creates many different opportunities to view the same conflicts from different angles. Laura Lippman also managed to create a story that shows development in all of her characters, despite the large amount of them. Even better, the majority of her characters were strong and wonderfully flawed women.
I’m not usually a huge fan of mysteries, but this book was refreshing in that there were other goals in the story besides just figuring out who killed the stripper. This is a really good book for those of you who are looking for a good book but don’t really have an idea of what to read. You can trust this book not to waste your time.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
★ ★ 

Years ago, Kirby was viciously attacked while playing with her dog at the beach. A man cut her throat and left her to die, leaving behind only a cigarette lighter to identify him. Somehow, despite all the odds, Kirby managed to survive. Years later, she begins using her internship at a local newspaper to begin hunting down her would-be killed with the help of Dan Velasquez. Dan used to be the ex-homicide reporter that covered the case and he reluctantly begins to help her pursue a killer straight out of time.

This was such a weird book. It was great at building characters you could connect with, like the shining girls and the scenes that featured there were by far the shining moments of the book. The rest falls rather flat. Harper is neither a compelling serial killer, nor one that inspires sympathy. It’s never really made clear why the house is sending him after these girls or how it even time travels in the first place. The unnecessary romance is also remarkably uninteresting. It was a great premise and there author obviously has talent in writing strong female characters, the rest of the book just needed that same amount of spark

Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity by David Kirby
★ ★ 

One night I was sitting on my couch and trying to find something to watch on Netflix. I had heard a lot about this documentary called Blackfish so I thought I’d give it a try. Now, as a kid I LOVED Free Willy so it was understandably a little hard for me to watch the movie and see how harmful SeaWorld actually was to their whales. It was also very eye-opening to be reminded that the whales weren’t performers or animatronic showstoppers. With all the tricks that you see performed in front of you, it can be all too easy to forget that these are really animals and therefore they’re uncontrollable and unpredictable. Watching the footage of the different whale incidences made me go on to Wikipedia to find out more about Dawn and more about the other dangerous attacks that had happened prior. I was shocked to find that Wikipedia actually had a list of different whale attacks and even listed the number of incidences for each whale, including Tilly. If this had happened so often, why hadn’t I heard about it? So I went onto Google and tried to find more information. That’s how I found Death at SeaWorld.

This book was well-researched and provided many more eye-opening looks into the many incidences that have happened in the parks. It makes you question why, if there are so many attacks or problems in the parks, why we haven’t heard more about them. It helps to open eyes to see how corrupt a company SeaWorld is. Now, don’t get me wrong. The book is very obviously biased. It does its best to represent SeaWorld fairly at first but with Dr. Naomi’s (from the Humane Society) story taking up such a large part of the second half of the book, the bias quickly sets in. The book also goes into FAR too much detail about various people’s childhoods and college experiences to show you how they got into their line of work. The amount of detail is wholly unnecessary and could have been summarized better to provide the same effect. It was a very educating book but, with a bit of editing it could have remained a consistently interesting book as well. Instead, this book has amazing moments where you can’t put it down and then pages where it’s all you can do not to skim to get to the good stuff again.

Above by Isla Morley
★ ★ 

Blythe has been kidnapped and wakes up in an old missile silo. The man who kidnaps her, a survivalist, has these crazy theories that the world is about to end and has saved Blythe to spare her the sure disaster of the apocalypse. Blythe fights to escape her prison to no avail. Her captor thinks that he is saving and only reports ruin from is visits to the surface. Blythe struggles to keep her sanity and struggles to raise the child she conceives and gives birth to in captivity. She tries to forget the world above so the child never realizes the reality of their situation. Eventually, a chance at freedom changes everything Blythe knew to be true.

I read a lot of kidnapping books. I really do. There’s something about watching these amazing characters (both real and fictional) overcome a horrifying experience and remain strong and determined to be free that really speaks to me. I’d yet to read a kidnapping book that I was disappointed with. Then I read Above. Now I really enjoyed the book at first. I loved the twist that Blythe’s captor was a survivalist. It was interesting that it was a different reason than the one’s I usually saw in books like this that led to Blythe’s capture. But things quickly went downhill near the end . It’s hard to say more without spoiling it. I just didn’t like the turn the book took. I respect that Isla Morley tried to do something different. Sometimes though, it pays off to stick with the norm.