The Talisman
The Jack Sawyer trilogy, Book 1
Stephen King and Peter Straub
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer knows his mother is dying, but doesn't know what to do about it, or about anything else that's gone so terribly wrong with his life since the death of his father years ago. What he does know is that his mom has drug them across the country to avoid the predation of family "friend" Marcus Sloat, his father's former business partner, but Sloat somehow keeps tracking them down. Jack feels lost and alone and utterly helpless... until a stranger tells him there's a way to fix everything, a quest that will take him across America and another parallel world known as the Territories, through dangers human and otherwise - a quest to retrieve a mysterious magical artifact known as the Talisman. But Jack isn't the only one on a quest, nor is he the only one who can travel to the Territories and back; Morgan Sloat and his foul minions are on his heels almost from the moment the boy takes his first tentative steps westward. And if Morgan gets his hands on the Talisman, whole worlds may fall.
REVIEW: I admit I mostly tried this one to get ahead of a rumored Netflix adaptation. Though billed as its own story (or trilogy, now), it is tangentially associated with King's Dark Tower series, which never tempted me past the first book. Maybe that was part of what I found subtly unsatisfactory here, though there is quite a bit to enjoy.
Jack was born knowing of the Territories, which he called the Daydream lands (after the vivid "daydream" visits he'd take there), but - in the way of many children who grow up, especially too fast - he lost track of that part of himself until forced to remember. The Territories themselves are an interesting portal world, smaller than Earth but full of magic and marvels and terrors that form a sort of surreal mirror of our world, with several mysteries that Jack only catches glimpses of in passing. They are something Earth forgot about itself, something both wonderful and terrible, condensed into a purer, more potent form. His enemies in both worlds are cruel and monstrous, especially the ones that purport to be human, often twisting kindness and perceived benevolence into horrors and pain and outright torture. Morgan Sloat, who has a Territories "Twinner" (alternate self) every bit as horrid as himself, is aided and abetted by an insane zealot at least as terrifying as Morgan, though Morgan's son Richard - long a friend of Jack's when the families were closer - turns into an ally. More than once, Jack stumbles, but he manages to climb to his feet and keep going, slowly growing into his role as a hero as the journey strips away the last vestiges of his innocence. The whole takes on an epic quality, if one soaked in blood and pain and horror.
Where the book narrowly lost a half-star was in the sense that it was dragging its feet almost from the start. Jack must be pushed, repeatedly, into taking his first steps on the quest, even after seeing proof of the Territories and the potential truth of the stranger's claims more than once. Once on the road, he often slows to a standstill, mired in his own head or in some horrible situation (or both) that sometimes plays out long past effectiveness, as though the narrative just wanted to wallow in the depravity of some of his situations. More than once, Morgan's page time is just so much mustache-twirling and hand-rubbing at his own evil schemes without actually advancing the plot much. (And if, once again, a Black man exists mostly to enable a white boy hero, even to the point of self-sacrifice... well, it seemed to be a Thing that hopefully can be relegated to older books like this one.) All this caused just enough irritation to hold the book down from a solid Good rating. As to whether I'll pursue the second installment... I doubt it, as it seems like it ties more closely into King's greater Dark Tower series, and I just have no real interest in that right now. (I may change my mind later, but for now the to-be-read pile's plenty full.)
On an unrelated note, this paperback marked the end of the line for the best, most reliable, hardest to lose bookmark I've ever owned. After five years of faithful service and innumerable stories, it finally succumbed to a fatal tear. Rest in peace, Woodland Park Zoo map from Summer 2017. We went on many adventures together, you and I.
You Might Also Enjoy:
City of the Beasts (Isabel Allende) - My Review
The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger (Stephen King) - My Review
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Friday, August 12, 2022
Firekeeper's Daughter (Angeline Boulley)
Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Daunis Fontaine of upper Michigan was born with a foot in two worlds, never feeling she belonged in either. Her mother's family is old money (and very white), while her late father was from the local Ojibwe, the prominent Firekeeper family. She tries to honor her Native American heritage as best she can, but, not being technically enrolled, she still feels too often like an outsider looking in. Now eighteen, she plans to earn a degree, maybe even a doctorate, pursuing a love of science.
When her grandmother suffers a debilitating stroke, Daunis decides to defer her enrollment for a year, studying at the local college instead to help support her fragile mother. It won't be all that bad; she'll get to go to classes with her best friend since forever, Lily. And there's a new boy in town, Jamie, who's not only easy on the eyes but great on a hockey rink (hockey being Daunis's second great love after science). But he's oddly vague about his past, and has a way of asking far more questions than he ever answers. After tragedy strikes, taking Lily and her estranged boyfriend Travis in a single terrible moment, Daunis learns that Jamie and his "uncle" are undercover FBI agents, investigating a meth ring that's been devastating the local kids, white and Ojibwe alike. Jamie wants Daunis to become a confidential informant, using her insider and local knowledge to help them ferret out the criminals. She has mixed feelings; on the one hand, nobody can deny the damage meth has been doing to the community, but on the other it feels like betrayal to use her friendships and family bonds like this, on behalf of a government that hasn't exactly been friendly with her father's people since forever. Once again, Daunis finds herself forced to walk with a foot in two worlds. If she succeeds, she'll do immeasurable good, but if she fails, she wouldn't be the first informant to die...
REVIEW: This book has been getting plenty of praise from plenty of sources, and it mostly lives up to the hype. Daunis presents a strong face to the world, but inwardly is still struggling to find a balance between the various opposing forces of her life: a mother who never got over the death of Daunis's father and who crumbles in the face of change, a grandmother who tried to raise her as white as possible and never truly accepted her Native American heritage, a tribe that she strives to be part of that nevertheless often seems to hide certain parts of itself from her, and more. She has plenty of friends and family, and a few rivals, but almost nobody is flat or stereotypical, with inner complexities that blend good and bad and truth and lies. The setting and the characters feel alive on the page, the traditions and stories and landscape richly described without being verbose or tedious. As Daunis is pulled into the FBI investigation, she learns truths about people she's known all her life that she'd rather not have known, even as she tries to find a balance between helping find the meth dealers and protecting her community from federal agents who clearly do not know or care about the wrecking ball their work will almost inevitably swing into their lives; where she sees a whole body in need of healing, they see only a tumor to be tracked down and excised with as big a scalpel as possible. Her relationship with Jamie is even more complicated, not just due to the very real feelings that spark with a man she literally does not know the real name of; he's struggling, too, a young man of Native American descent who was taken and adopted out to white parents (as far too many were) and who has no idea how to find his own people, let alone if they'd want him back. It's unclear at times how much he sees Daunis as herself and how much he sees her as a possible way into a tribal way of life he was denied. Meanwhile, the investigation wends through the local Ojibwe and hockey communities, with more casualties along the way and several dead ends and false turns and close calls before coming to a tense and satisfactory conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Daunis Fontaine of upper Michigan was born with a foot in two worlds, never feeling she belonged in either. Her mother's family is old money (and very white), while her late father was from the local Ojibwe, the prominent Firekeeper family. She tries to honor her Native American heritage as best she can, but, not being technically enrolled, she still feels too often like an outsider looking in. Now eighteen, she plans to earn a degree, maybe even a doctorate, pursuing a love of science.
When her grandmother suffers a debilitating stroke, Daunis decides to defer her enrollment for a year, studying at the local college instead to help support her fragile mother. It won't be all that bad; she'll get to go to classes with her best friend since forever, Lily. And there's a new boy in town, Jamie, who's not only easy on the eyes but great on a hockey rink (hockey being Daunis's second great love after science). But he's oddly vague about his past, and has a way of asking far more questions than he ever answers. After tragedy strikes, taking Lily and her estranged boyfriend Travis in a single terrible moment, Daunis learns that Jamie and his "uncle" are undercover FBI agents, investigating a meth ring that's been devastating the local kids, white and Ojibwe alike. Jamie wants Daunis to become a confidential informant, using her insider and local knowledge to help them ferret out the criminals. She has mixed feelings; on the one hand, nobody can deny the damage meth has been doing to the community, but on the other it feels like betrayal to use her friendships and family bonds like this, on behalf of a government that hasn't exactly been friendly with her father's people since forever. Once again, Daunis finds herself forced to walk with a foot in two worlds. If she succeeds, she'll do immeasurable good, but if she fails, she wouldn't be the first informant to die...
REVIEW: This book has been getting plenty of praise from plenty of sources, and it mostly lives up to the hype. Daunis presents a strong face to the world, but inwardly is still struggling to find a balance between the various opposing forces of her life: a mother who never got over the death of Daunis's father and who crumbles in the face of change, a grandmother who tried to raise her as white as possible and never truly accepted her Native American heritage, a tribe that she strives to be part of that nevertheless often seems to hide certain parts of itself from her, and more. She has plenty of friends and family, and a few rivals, but almost nobody is flat or stereotypical, with inner complexities that blend good and bad and truth and lies. The setting and the characters feel alive on the page, the traditions and stories and landscape richly described without being verbose or tedious. As Daunis is pulled into the FBI investigation, she learns truths about people she's known all her life that she'd rather not have known, even as she tries to find a balance between helping find the meth dealers and protecting her community from federal agents who clearly do not know or care about the wrecking ball their work will almost inevitably swing into their lives; where she sees a whole body in need of healing, they see only a tumor to be tracked down and excised with as big a scalpel as possible. Her relationship with Jamie is even more complicated, not just due to the very real feelings that spark with a man she literally does not know the real name of; he's struggling, too, a young man of Native American descent who was taken and adopted out to white parents (as far too many were) and who has no idea how to find his own people, let alone if they'd want him back. It's unclear at times how much he sees Daunis as herself and how much he sees her as a possible way into a tribal way of life he was denied. Meanwhile, the investigation wends through the local Ojibwe and hockey communities, with more casualties along the way and several dead ends and false turns and close calls before coming to a tense and satisfactory conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Good Guys (Stephen Brust)
Good Guys
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Saturday, August 6, 2022
Paradise Lost (John Milton)
Paradise Lost
John Milton
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Fantasy/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cast out of Heaven after rebelling against God, the fallen angel Satan broods in Hell and concocts a new plan: revenge himself by corrupting the Creator's newest and most favored creation, man.
REVIEW: From the outset, I admit that I am not the best person in the world to review this classic poem, written in 1674. For one thing, I have all the literary education and awareness of a block of wood. For another, I am not in any way a Christian, and only know of Milton's source material - the Bible - through cultural osmosis (and nothing of his more specific beliefs, influences, circumstances, or worldviews as undoubtedly expressed in this work). That said, it was something I consumed, and therefore, after a long debate with myself over whether it would be worth my while to do so given the aforementioned deficiencies and overall defects in my admittedly non-religious ability to adequately review such an obviously religious epic, I nevertheless shall offer my review. Consider yourself forewarned.
I've been slowly picking away at classics thanks to Overdrive and my local library (and my job being so mind-numbingly dull I need something to do to pass the hours), and it was a day of thin pickings when I needed to restock my loans for work, so this one ended up in the queue. If I'm being honest, I almost stopped early on, with a foreword loaded with classical references that went way over my undereducated head. But at last I got to the actual content, which - while also full of classical references (despite the narrator/author seeming to consider the ages that produced several of them inherently inferior for not being Christian) - at least was more interesting, written in "blank verse" that does not need to rhyme to have rhythm. Milton relates the fall of Satan and of man in epic format, with a nice flow of words and evocative imagery, painting vivid pictures of Heaven, Hell, and other realms and their inhabitants. To an outsider like myself, certain cultural assumptions and quirks of the source material start looking like plot and motivation holes (or simply rationalizations of cultural beliefs and biases, such as an inherent frailty and inferiority of women making Eve the inevitable failure point), with an air of predestination and manipulation about the whole affair. As for matters of sin and salvation and whatnot as related here... again, I'm not a Christian, so I'm not the intended audience to even begin to dissect Milton's theological points. (I will say that I came into this disinclined to practice Christianity, and I depart the same way, and leave it at that.) Though the plot is a bit thin and sometimes meandering and (yes, I'll say it, though it was doubtless one of the main reasons this verse was written) preachy, I wound up rounding it up to a fourth star for some truly resonant verse and imagery that holds up reasonably well given its age, even as I'm aware that an entire library's worth of references and nuance and literary devices were completely wasted on me. It is a compelling work of epic verse, regardless of one's beliefs.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Comfort Me With Apples (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
John Milton
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Fantasy/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cast out of Heaven after rebelling against God, the fallen angel Satan broods in Hell and concocts a new plan: revenge himself by corrupting the Creator's newest and most favored creation, man.
REVIEW: From the outset, I admit that I am not the best person in the world to review this classic poem, written in 1674. For one thing, I have all the literary education and awareness of a block of wood. For another, I am not in any way a Christian, and only know of Milton's source material - the Bible - through cultural osmosis (and nothing of his more specific beliefs, influences, circumstances, or worldviews as undoubtedly expressed in this work). That said, it was something I consumed, and therefore, after a long debate with myself over whether it would be worth my while to do so given the aforementioned deficiencies and overall defects in my admittedly non-religious ability to adequately review such an obviously religious epic, I nevertheless shall offer my review. Consider yourself forewarned.
I've been slowly picking away at classics thanks to Overdrive and my local library (and my job being so mind-numbingly dull I need something to do to pass the hours), and it was a day of thin pickings when I needed to restock my loans for work, so this one ended up in the queue. If I'm being honest, I almost stopped early on, with a foreword loaded with classical references that went way over my undereducated head. But at last I got to the actual content, which - while also full of classical references (despite the narrator/author seeming to consider the ages that produced several of them inherently inferior for not being Christian) - at least was more interesting, written in "blank verse" that does not need to rhyme to have rhythm. Milton relates the fall of Satan and of man in epic format, with a nice flow of words and evocative imagery, painting vivid pictures of Heaven, Hell, and other realms and their inhabitants. To an outsider like myself, certain cultural assumptions and quirks of the source material start looking like plot and motivation holes (or simply rationalizations of cultural beliefs and biases, such as an inherent frailty and inferiority of women making Eve the inevitable failure point), with an air of predestination and manipulation about the whole affair. As for matters of sin and salvation and whatnot as related here... again, I'm not a Christian, so I'm not the intended audience to even begin to dissect Milton's theological points. (I will say that I came into this disinclined to practice Christianity, and I depart the same way, and leave it at that.) Though the plot is a bit thin and sometimes meandering and (yes, I'll say it, though it was doubtless one of the main reasons this verse was written) preachy, I wound up rounding it up to a fourth star for some truly resonant verse and imagery that holds up reasonably well given its age, even as I'm aware that an entire library's worth of references and nuance and literary devices were completely wasted on me. It is a compelling work of epic verse, regardless of one's beliefs.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Comfort Me With Apples (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Like Never and Always (Ann Aguirre)
Like Never and Always
Ann Aguirre
Tor Teen
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since grade school, Olivia and Morgan were best friends. They even wound up dating brothers, Nathan and Clay. Liv thought they'd spend the rest of their lives together - until the crash.
Waking up in the hospital, Liv is confused: it's not her father who visits, but Morgan's. And it's Clay, Morgan's boyfriend, sitting by her bed, not Nathan. When everyone calls her by Morgan's name, she thinks it's a mistake: her face is bandaged, so maybe they don't know who she really is... until she sees herself in a mirror, and it's Morgan looking back at her.
Somehow, after her body died in the crash, Liv managed to survive in Morgan's body. She always thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend's life and family... but she soon learns just how much Morgan was hiding from everyone, secrets that just might get her killed - again.
REVIEW: This is a decent thriller with supernatural overtones, as Liv - unexpectedly given a second chance at life, if at the expense of her best friend (whose memories linger in her new brain) - learns the hard way that even if you think you know a person, you rarely actually know a person. From the outside, Morgan had everything one could possibly want: a fancy home, a six-figure bank account, a father too preoccupied with his job to hover or make demands, a reputation as their high school's most popular girl and fashionista. From within, a far darker and lonelier picture emerges, even before Liz stumbles across Morgan's darkest secret of all, tied to the death of her mother and a creepy family "friend". As Liz struggles to both fit in with her new life and solve this final mystery in honor of Morgan, she gets the rare chance to see how her own death affects the world. Meanwhile, she finds herself trying to figure out her relationship with Nathan, her boyfriend, and his older brother Clay, once Morgan's companion. There are undercurrents of what it means to live one's own life, and how women and girls are too often seen as possessions or trophies, even by those who love them most. From a fairly fast start, the story generally keeps a fast pace, following Liv as she juggles Morgan's secrets and tries to fit into Morgan's life without losing everything that made her Liz. There are a few red herrings that grew distracting, and one character I thought needed a little more of a redemptive moment (it's brushed aside with off-page events), but it comes to a decently powerful conclusion. Overall, it made for a solid, emotionally involving thriller.
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarh Mlynowski) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
Ann Aguirre
Tor Teen
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since grade school, Olivia and Morgan were best friends. They even wound up dating brothers, Nathan and Clay. Liv thought they'd spend the rest of their lives together - until the crash.
Waking up in the hospital, Liv is confused: it's not her father who visits, but Morgan's. And it's Clay, Morgan's boyfriend, sitting by her bed, not Nathan. When everyone calls her by Morgan's name, she thinks it's a mistake: her face is bandaged, so maybe they don't know who she really is... until she sees herself in a mirror, and it's Morgan looking back at her.
Somehow, after her body died in the crash, Liv managed to survive in Morgan's body. She always thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend's life and family... but she soon learns just how much Morgan was hiding from everyone, secrets that just might get her killed - again.
REVIEW: This is a decent thriller with supernatural overtones, as Liv - unexpectedly given a second chance at life, if at the expense of her best friend (whose memories linger in her new brain) - learns the hard way that even if you think you know a person, you rarely actually know a person. From the outside, Morgan had everything one could possibly want: a fancy home, a six-figure bank account, a father too preoccupied with his job to hover or make demands, a reputation as their high school's most popular girl and fashionista. From within, a far darker and lonelier picture emerges, even before Liz stumbles across Morgan's darkest secret of all, tied to the death of her mother and a creepy family "friend". As Liz struggles to both fit in with her new life and solve this final mystery in honor of Morgan, she gets the rare chance to see how her own death affects the world. Meanwhile, she finds herself trying to figure out her relationship with Nathan, her boyfriend, and his older brother Clay, once Morgan's companion. There are undercurrents of what it means to live one's own life, and how women and girls are too often seen as possessions or trophies, even by those who love them most. From a fairly fast start, the story generally keeps a fast pace, following Liv as she juggles Morgan's secrets and tries to fit into Morgan's life without losing everything that made her Liz. There are a few red herrings that grew distracting, and one character I thought needed a little more of a redemptive moment (it's brushed aside with off-page events), but it comes to a decently powerful conclusion. Overall, it made for a solid, emotionally involving thriller.
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarh Mlynowski) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
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