Girl in Pieces, by Kathleen Glasgow, starts out with a nameless, silent girl in a mental hospital sharing her mental observations. Silent Sue, one of the other patients calls her. All the women on this floor are the self-harmers, the NSSI--Non Suicidal Self Injury, the cutters and burners.
We learn her story is small slices--the chapters are short, some a single paragraph. But the author's ability to pack so much information, characterization and emotion into the each sentence is one of the things that makes this novel so great.
Left on the lawn of a hospital, freezing and bleeding to death, her own story comes back to her in pieces. Charlie begins to open to her doctors and fellow patients as she begins to remember who she is and what happened.
I felt her anxiety as she has to leave the safety of the hospital and enter the public world in the care of her mother whom she fears.
That's all the plot I will share, because the discovery of herself and of her capacities, scraping away the surface and finding the abuses and fears below is what kept me reading, (or listening in my case).
I have written a novel where my main character is a teenage girl who cuts. It's science fiction, set 800 years in the future and I've shared some of the chapters on my blog. I've written it as "the other", as it is called in literature--writing from another's point of view, position of experience, not having lived it myself. I hurt for these girls, and the growing number of boys, who have suffered so much at their own hands, whose only break from depression and anxiety is to create their own physical pain. I wanted to say something that would bring their plight more awareness.
Kathleen Glasgow comes at this novel, not as the other, but as the person who has experienced this life first hand and hearing her own words at the end of the audio version brought the impact of the novel to an even deeper level to me.
I loved this story for the author's beautiful, some call it poetic, writing. For Charlie's ceaseless striving for acceptance and love, and her eternal struggle to overcome her weaknesses and doubts.
Note: This novel contains strong language, violence, and sexual situations.
Book Review
"Veils and Vengeance" a Book Blast Book Review
If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm trying to find my place as an author and trying different things to "build my platform".
At the LDStorymaker's conference I attended the Indie Publisher's track and at one of the panels they mentioned The Author Indie Hub. It seemed like the social network I wasn't able to establish or find on my own. So, once I got back home I signed up.
Reading the daily posts on the group, I was that Rachelle Christensen was doing a Book Blast for the launch of he newest book, "Veils and Vengeance". I signed up to participate to get an inside view of what a successful book launch looks like.
So far I've gotten more Facebook page likes for my author page, more Goodreads follows and more Twitter followers than from any other promotion I've run on my own.
But, enough about me. You are here about the book.
I figured that though the book was described as a mystery, there would also be a substantial amount of romance. I'm all for romance in the books I read. Love is a part of life and happens at the best, and worst of times. In "Veils and Vengeance" there was a continuous romantic sub-plot with the appropriate amount of tension. Knowing that the author is a member of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" I assumed the romance would be light and not heavy on sexual content. I was happily correct.
After writing my Amazon review, I read what others had written. Most described the mystery aspect of the book as "cozy". I hadn't heard this term before, but saw how it applied. There was murder, attempted murder, and mystery though not to the point that I felt uncomfortably anxious.
The book takes place in Hawaii. While I was reading it to write my review my wife was binge watching "Hawaii Five O" on Netflix. Sometimes when thinking about the story I tried to remember how Steve Magarret amd Dano Williams fit into the story.
Also, I lived on Oahu for three years when I was in the army. That was twenty-five years ago and I have never really wanted to go back. Reading the book showed a different side to the tourist trade than what I had seen and thought it might be nice to see one of the less visited islands.
I enjoyed reading "Veils" from beginning to end.
I've been reading "Indie" authors, trying to help out others trying to make it into the established author world and have read a lot of garbage as a result. Rachelle's writing was a breath of fresh air.
I recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read a Romance, a Mystery, a Travel Book, of just an entertaining story without having to worry about objectionable content. What follows is the review I wrote for Amazon and other sites.
With trying to give an honest review in mind, I tried to find a reason to not give this book a five star review.
Full disclosure: I received an advance reader copy a week ago, but after only a few chapters I pre-ordered it so that I could have it on my kindle and share it with my wife.
Rachelle Christensen's writing is immaculate. Told in the first person point of view of Adri, a wedding planner from Idaho who accompanies her client to a dream wedding in Kauai, her characterization is deep and consistent. The plot moves forward at a quick but comfortable pace with island descriptions and back story seamlessly tucked into the action and dialog. The occasional romantic interlude reminds us that even murder suspects have a need to love and be loved.
If five stars means I loved the story, Veils and Vengeance gets all five.
Water So Deep by Nichole Giles: A Book Review
As all of you regular, imaginary, reader know, I'm trying to find my was as an author, and specifically, an author of Young Adult Fiction. I'm trying various ways of connecting with people and building my platform. I tried reviewing a book for a 'Virtual Book Tour' and as you know, reading a book someone else asked me to read and review was a lot more like work than recreation.
So, this time I decided to read and review a book of someone I've met at the LDStorymakers Conference. Someone who writes YA and seems to have a pretty good foundation as an author. This review is completely voluntary, so I can say what I want, with no expectations to meet and no strings attached.
Here is my review I am posting to Amazon and Goodreads:
I just finished reading, "Water So Deep" by Nichole Giles.
This is the story of Emma, a senior in high school with a mysterious side. The story introduces her problem immediately--she's got mermaid issues. But, you know that already. You've seen the book cover. We just don't know how big of a problem that is until we see how erratic it make her life. She can't have any real friends; that would require honesty and trust; and she can't be honest with anyone, including her family or her best friend, Heather. The only one who knows the reason for her periodic need to get into the ocean is her grand-mother, on who's porch was left the baby Emma seventeen-odd, years before.
Enter, James, the amazingly handsome, totally buff, loner, with emotional needs of his own.
The story unfolds for us through these two perspectives. We are privy to their individual, inner turmoils which result in the majority of their relationship conflicts. As an adult (read that as old) man, I felt like if they had only followed through with their resolutions from one paragraph to the next, most of their problems would have been eliminated through a little simple communication. But then, we would have missed Chapter Three of, "The Book of Love", where, "You break up and then you give it just one more chance." (See, that's how old I really am... I'm referencing 1950's Rock and Roll.)
I'll admit, much of what I've read in the past which has been labeled, "Young Adult" was more fantasy than romance, and wonder if this book's plot is typical of creating romantic tension. As an old man, again, I enjoyed the romantic elements of the story, while I appreciated the development of the "Mer Lore" the most. I didn't expect a simple resolution to Emma's dilemma, as this is admittedly, "Book 1". But, I did enjoy the ending for the extent of its resolution and foreshadowing of the expected conflicts in the next book.
I happily give this book four stars and look forward to book two.
This is where my review will end on Goodreads and on Amazon. What follows is fraught with plot spoilers and addresses some of the things that came to my mind while reading that weren't resolved in this book. So, I would recommend that you read the book before you read further on this post.
I mentioned above that I thought both main characters were inconsistent in their resolutions and that if they had followed through with many of the things they had just thought out, their conflict would have been resolved and they could have moved forward with more important things, such as, preventing Emma from permanently becoming a mermaid and finding out why Keith was now stealing so much.
It bothered me that her parents seemed so unsympathetic. I mean, the first time we see her father he is absent mindedly blowing off the safety of his son. Even her high powered lawyer mother only seemed engaged when there was a legal threat to her kids. Granted, this is YA and we need to get them out of the picture somehow and focus on the youths.
Maybe I'm threatened by physically strong male characters, but I felt like James was a little too buff for someone his age. To have biceps so rock hard that blood vessels shift between them and the skin seems unrealistic to me in someone so young, unless he's doing steroids or spends all of his time in a gym. It didn't sound like James had that much time, or money.
I got the idea that contact with salt water would cause Emma's physical change, yet, when they took pizza to the beach she got her feet in the water and nothing happened. If there was an explanation given why this was an exception, or that it didn't happen all the time, I didn't pick up on it.
I was a little surprised about Emma's sudden recognition of her love for James. It was like it was a brand new realization and only the page before she had giggled at his allusion to having sex with her in the back seat of the car or right there in the sand of the beach, whatever it took to make her undesirable to Merrick.
Then there's Merrick. Granted, his motives become clear at the end of the book. Before that, I felt like his behavior was more animalistic and less rational thinking than I would expect of a creature which is part human--and longer lived than typical humans.
Finally, some mention was made to the siren call or the mer people. I wasn't clear if this was an intentional allusion in the story or if I read into the the comment that it had to do with why boys were so attracted to Emma and then she "Iced" them and shut them down.
I read the story on my tablet and I read it somewhat faster than I would have, wanting to get it read so that I could do a review for Nichole while the book was still newly published. Because of those two conditions, I may have misunderstood, or completely missed something which the normal, more intelligent, reader would have picked up.
Again, I hope you read this, if you haven't, and enjoy it as much as I did.
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