Bogormen

Title: Where Do I Go?
Author: Neta Jackson
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 370 pages
Date read: May 2009, July 2015

Gabrielle Fairbanks has nearly lost touch with the carefree, spirited young woman she was when she married her husband fifteen years ago. But when the couple moves to Chicago to accommodate Philip's business ambitions, Gabby finds the chance to make herself useful.

It's there she meets the women of Manna House Women's Shelter; they need a Program Director-and she has a degree in social work. She's in her element, feeling God's call on her life at last, even though Philip doesn't like the changes he sees in her. But things get rough when Philip gives Gabby an ultimatum: quit her job at the shelter or risk divorce and losing custody of their sons.

Gabby must take refuge, as in the song they sing at Sunday night worship: "Where do I go when there's no one else to turn to?... I go to the Rock I know that's able, I go to the Rock."

This is my second attempt at reviewing this book, because I don't think I did it justice the first time around.

At a first glance the book was a huge disappointment. I'd come to it expecting warmth and comfort, I left it crying of frustration and hopelessness. Any book powerful enough to do that to me deserves more than the original three stars I have it - for writing, even if it doesn't for plot.

And the plot was very unpleasant to read. Instead of starting with a person who was ill off and whose circumstances improved through the book, we're here presented with a person whose life at the outlook seems... if not great, then at least satisfactory, but whose circumstances deteriorate through the book, leaving her with the rug pulled out from underneath her at the last page.

It's the first few chapters of Job, before God stepped in.

What really annoyed me about the book was that this was where it ended. There was no resolution, no last-minute waving of a magic wand (which is good, I guess - I don't like last-minute wavings of magic wands in an otherwise realistic book). All there was was an incredibly open ending, and a woman whose life had suddenly hit rock bottom.

This is where my thoughts were at last night, and why I wrote the review I did.

Now that I've slept on it and thought about it some more, I've realized that my mistake was in assuming it was a self-contained novel. If instead I view it as an introduction or a prequel to the series, it changes from being frustrating an disappointing to being incredibly powerful and captivating. What I wrote yesterday (review saved here for reference) still stands, but my perspective has changed. It'll be interesting to see where Neta Jackson takes the series from here.

I guess I'll know come September.

Reread 2015: It was with some trepidation that I picked up this book for a reread - I remembered only too vividly how I'd felt on first reading it. Fortunately, knowing what was coming made it a lot easier to stomach, and the later books definitely make up for it. Still, I had to put it down from time to time, when I knew something unpleasant was coming up :-P But the end was not nearly as much of a shock to the system when I could go straight over to my shelves and pick up the next book.

Title: The Fetch
Author: Laura Whitcomb
Genre: Fantasy, paranormal, historical fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 378
Date read: May, 2009

Calder is a Fetch, a death escort, the first of his kind to step from Heaven back to Earth. The first to fall in love with a mortal girl.

But when he climbs backward out of that Death Scene, into the chaos of the Russian Revolution, he tears a wound in the ghost realm where the spirits begin a revolution of their own.

My expectations of "The Fetch" were very, very low - practically non-existent in fact... Which is probably why I couldn't help but be positively surprised. I was fascinated by the story and had a really hard time putting it down, although now that I'm looking back at it, I'm hard pressed to say why. It was definitely more the writing style and the atmosphere than the people and the plot that caught my attention.

The book does have its problems though. It can't seem to decide on a genre and keeps switching back and forth between fantasy, historical fiction and paranormal fiction; the plot is very flimsy and the characters 2-dimensional at best. It's marketed as YA but will probably be more likely to appeal to an older audience.

The basic premise was enjoyable, but the execution could definitely have been improved.

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Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 674
Date read: May, 2009

Long ago, in a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

I'm not sure whether this deserves 2 or 3 stars... wish half-star ratings had been implemented. It's not exactly boring, but very slow-moving. It doesn't usually take me a couple of weeks to read a book of this size, but I found it much too easy to put it down and was never totally engrossed in it.

I think part of this may have been that it was so dark and bleak from the very first page. The main characters were heading towards a miserable future, and it made me hesitant to like any of them, because I didn't want to feel too badly when things went wrong.

Of course I couldn't stop myself from liking the sympathetic characters regardless, so it frustrated me that those were a) the ones that were given the least page time and b) the ones whose future was left wide open for exploration in the next books. I've always been of the opinion that even books in a series should be able to stand somewhat on their own. Of course threads can and should be left open to be explored in future books, but it always annoys me when the thread I'm most interested in is left unfinished, making me feel "forced" to read the next book.

I don't know that I will... I'm very interested in knowing what happens to Daenery Targaryen, and desperately want to know whether or not Arya returns safely to her family, but are those two issues enough to make me want to wade through another 6-700 pages without even knowing for sure that they'll be resolved in that book? That I don't know.

So on the whole, unfortunately quite a big disappointment. I had great hopes for it, because it came highly recommended, but unfortunately it couldn't live up to it, and won't be a series I'll be rushing to follow.

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Title: The Shack
Author: William Paul Young
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 250
Date read: May, 2009

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

I approached this book rather hesitantly. I'd heard a LOT of good things about it, how it'd changed the reader's life - but just as many readers turned around and accused it of heresy and blasphemy. However, I trust my minister not to lead me astray, so once I heard that he'd read it and approved of it, I decided to give it a try and see what the fuss was all about.

Well, as you can see from the rating, I ended up really liking it. I had difficulties putting it down, and have found myself thinking about it, ever since finishing it. I have to admit I don't see the heresy or blasphemy, and the so-called "controversy" seems a stretch as well. To me it seemed a straight-forward, if perhaps somewhat simplified, way of describing/explaining the different aspects and faces of the Christian God.

I can't go into more depth about the blasphemy/heresy accusations without including spoilers, but I'd be more than happy to discuss it with anybody who might be interested, so please do leave comments or send me a message. For now it'll suffice to say that I didn't see either, and would recommend the book to anybody without reservations.

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Title: Bibelen fortalt for store og små
Author: Ingrid Schrøder-Hansen
Genre: Christian non-fiction
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 436
Date read: May, 2009

The title literally translates to "The Bible told for big and small" and is a retelling of the Bible by a famous Danish story teller. She has an amazing talent for story-telling and it was extremely well done. Many of the old tales I suddenly saw in a completely different light, from the new way of telling it, and even the most well-known stories (like the Christmas and the Easter gospel) affected me more strongly than ever before. Gorgeous book.

The illustrations included are a bit 'over the top' at times, but then I've never been a huge fan of that genre of paintings.

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Title: Blood Sins
Author: Kay Hooper
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 296
Date read: May, 2009

Young, vulnerable, attractive, Tessa Gray made the perfect victim. Which was why Noah Bishop of the FBI's Special Crimes Unit recruited her to play the role of grieving widow. As the supposed new owner of property coveted by the Church of the Everlasting Sin, she'd be irresistible bait for the reclusive and charismatic Reverend Samuel. His fortified compound in the mountains near Grace, North Carolina, had been the last known residence of two women murdered in ways that defied scientific explanation.

Blood Sins is the 11th book about Bishop's Special Crimes Unit and the second book in the Blood-trilogy. I haven't read ANY of Kay Hooper's earlier books, so was somewhat anxious to see how utterly lost I would be, by jumping straight into the middle of the action, so to speak.

Fortunately, not much. Granted, there were naturally references I didn't get and background stories I had to guess at, but mostly the important elements were well described, and I had no problems following the plot of this book by itself, even if I did find some of the characters quite two-dimensional because of the lack of time spent on their characterisations - probably assumed well-known territory.

I rather enjoyed the book regardless though. It was interesting and the plot engaging. It did seem like Kay Hooper couldn't quite decide on her genre though. It seemed to be marketed as a horror novel, but I was left remarkably unspooked by it... (but whether that's just because I've been conditioned by Stephen King's novels, I couldn't say ;) ). The main characters never seemed in any real danger, and thus I was left firmly planted in the middle of my seat the entire time. I think that, more than anything else, is the reason for my average rating. I did appreciate that this for once seemed to be a paranormal novel NOT aimed at a YA audience though.

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Title: Betrayed (House of Night, book 2)
Author: P.C. and Kristin Cast
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 305
Date read: May, 2009

Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night. She's come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters. Best of all, Zoey finally feels like she belongs--like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend--or two.

Then the unthinkable happens: Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey's old life, she begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night, and Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world.

I mostly enjoyed "Betrayed". It was mostly a fun and well-written book that I liked a lot and had difficulties putting down until the last page was turned.

Mostly.

Because I occasionally had to stop and just shake my head in bafflement, because Zoey is such a Mary Sue! I don't usually notice Mary Sues, but with Zoey it's so blatantly obvious that even I would have had to be blind not to notice it. If she had any more guys pursuing her, they'd have to stand in line and take a number, and of course she can do anything she sets out to do, because the goddess Nyx is with her.

But that aside I did really enjoy the book. I liked reading about Zoey's growing friendships with the other students of the House of Night, and was fascinated by the complexity of Neferet and Aphrodite both. Especially the latter is probably the most complex character in the series so far, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what will come of her in the later books.

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Title: Finnikin of the Rock
Author: Melina Marchetta
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 399
Date read: May, 2009

Summary: At the age of nine, Finnikin is warned by the gods that he must sacrifice a pound of flesh in order to save the royal house of his homeland, Lumatere.

And so he stands on the rock of three wonders with his childhood friend Prince Balthazar and the prince's cousin, Lucian, and together they mix their blood. And Lumatere is safe.

Until the 'five days of the unspeakable', when the King and Queen and their children are slaughtered in the palace. And an imposter king takes the throne.
And a curse is put on Lumatere, which traps those caught inside and forces thousands of others to roam the land as exiles, dying of fever and persecution in foreign camps.

But ten years later Finnikin is led to another rock to meet the young novice, Evanjalin. A girl plagued by dark dreams, who holds the key to their return to the Land of light...

Review: I wasn't sure whether to give this 3 or 4 'stars'. It's good, but not great. I was interested enough in the plot and the characters, but it wasn't completely un-put-downable, and I occasionally found my thoughts wandering, leaving me to reread the same passage several times, because I couldn't concentrate properly on it the first time.

I was rather disappointed by this, because I so wanted to love it. I really enjoyed seeing a fantasy novel where magic wasn't in the main seat, and I grew to quite like the characters - especially the thief Froi, who provided a refreshing new perspective on the events. But at the end of the day, it just wasn't good enough to warrant a 4-star rating.

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