The Running Grave

The Running Grave

By Robert Galbraith  (J.K. Rowling)

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. 

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. 

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . . 

I'm not even entirely sure how this happened, but I was randomly browsing books that might fit the prompt. I haven't read any earlier books in the series, but just decided to read the preview on a whim, and 10% of the book later (which turned out to be a sizable chunk, this book is over 900 pages long), I ended up checking it out. One of the biggest persuaders was "Jayson's" review on GoodReads which took multi-chapter chunks and reviewed them in turn, giving their own thoughts and predictions on the mysteries. It was just the right amount of intrigue without the dramatics. 

[Sidenote: I absolutely cannot stand the number of reviews on GoodReads which seem to exist solely to demonstrate the reviewer's library of gifs, reaction images, and emojis and describe the books only by superlatives. The YA ones are the worst, here's one I found after just three minutes of idle searching:

WHAT A GREAT BOOK!!! 🌷💖🎀

A BEAUTIFUL READ, JUST LIKE ITS BEAUTIFUL COVER! 💍🌹😼

If you’re a fan of Stephanie Garber and Holly Black, then read it IMMEDIATELY…😘
FINALLY, a lovely fantasy read after so long! 🤗

This person writes reviews like they have a brain injury. Anyway, the nicely organized review by Jayson  - and this seems to be Jayson's M.O. - was a nice surprise.]

So I was somewhat forewarned and forearmed against the potential problem of diving into a series halfway and not knowing who anyone is. I also had the bare bones of the relationship between Robin and Cormoran - apparently full of Unresolved Sexual Tension - and the nice thing about this book is that since they're separated for a good chunk of it while Robin is undercover, we spend a minimal amount of time on their interactions which, for someone like me who is only reading this because of a macabre interest in modern day cults rather than an interest in seeing whether Robin and Comoran smooch (Spoiler: they don't), bettered my reading experience.

I assume most people who read about cults assume that they themselves would never fall prey to one, which is exactly what I would assume about myself. I have enough confidence in my cynicism and venality to feel that I wouldn't be tempted by ideas of grandeur and hidden secrets to the meaning of life - if only I give up all my creature comforts.

Now, I absolutely think that anyone who doesn't have the choice to leave would be indoctrinated like anyone else - it's basically torture with a side of brainwashing. But the question is why people who have an opportunity to leave, like the retreat members, after one week, would ever stay. The Running Grave answers this question somewhat indirectly. Obviously Robin would leave, were she not investigating the cult, but we get to interact with Will Edensor, a cultist who is "questioning" - we can easily understand why would find himself trapped, as he comes across as someone who is trying to understand everything and, when given no rational explanation, finds he must believe the supernatural. He also seems to think he's smarter than he is. And people who have no experience with normal loving relationships could easily be taken in by the ersatz strings-attached kind of love that the cult provides. 

But as unpopular as Rowling is among the liberal faction these days, you have to give her credit where credit is due: she can write a doorstopper of a book that doesn't feel long at all. Little did I know that I would be gulping up a 960 page book in a matter of days (when I had other books to finish first). The sense of dread that permeates the chapters, particularly Robin's, as she gets further and further entangled, is a masterclass in keeping suspense up. And we're able to see how Robin's weeks and then months slowly begin to break her down, and the process doesn't feel rushed or unnatural.  Now I will say that with the length, I did find myself forgetting or confusing people. I had trouble keeping the Dougherty and the Pirbright families separate, even though the children were fairly distinct, since both involved young kids in the early days of the cult.

I congratulated myself on figuring out very early on that Daiyu, the Drowned Prophet, did not actually drown at the beach (and didn't even actually go), but I assumed for most of the book that she'd been drowned at the farm instead, possibly accidentally while her parents were trying to set her up as a cult icon.  I did not guess the actual mystery, or the explanation of the cult-within-the-cult. Humorously enough, the cult's actual crimes (which include concealment of corpses, medical maltreatment, rape, and baby snatching!) are basically footnotes by the time we progress to the climax. It all seemed to hang together although I can't say that I love the "detective confronts the killer by themselves in a long monologue tying it all together" which may be a hallmark of the series? I dunno, I ended up reading the first book in the series after this one, and Cormoran does the same thing in that one, so either I'm unlucky or it's a pattern. And, like the personal relationship stuff that I mostly skimmed since I care not a whit about Cormoran's exes or his and Robin's agony about whether to get together or not, the agency's other cases and shenanigans about their employees seemed like so much filler to me, but presumably for those who have been following the series from the beginning, it is more satisfying. For my part, I would have been fine with merely a 700 page book about going undercover at cults.

7: A Book About A Cult

 

 

Family Style

Family Style

By Thien Pham

Thien's first memory isn't a sight or a sound. It's the sweetness of watermelon and the saltiness of fish. It's the taste of the foods he ate while adrift at sea as his family fled Vietnam.

After the Pham family arrives at a refugee camp in Thailand, they struggle to survive. Things don't get much easier once they resettle in California. And through each chapter of their lives, food takes on a new meaning. Strawberries come to signify struggle as Thien's mom and dad look for work. Potato chips are an indulgence that bring Thien so much joy that they become a necessity.

Behind every cut of steak and inside every croissant lies a story. And for Thien Pham, that story is about a search―for belonging, for happiness, for the American dream.

 I liked Family Style, although it suffers from the same problem that so many graphic novels do: it's so fast (and relatively easy to read) that it feels less substantial than it should.  For example, I'm pretty sure I read and liked The Best We Could Do, but it doesn't stick in the memory the way a longer, heftier tome would. Anyway, maybe writing this review will help. 

 I liked the framing device that Pham uses, of focusing on certain moments in his life and spotlighting them, along with the food that they're associated with, the early chapters involving his family's escape from Vietnam and subsequent stay in a refugee camp, then culture shock in the United States, integration, and finally citizenship.  For some reason the last section felt very disconnected from the earlier parts, and I'm not sure if it's because it seemed like the author skipped so much time or what. I did read the book over several days so I guess that may be partially to blame, but it still took me a really long time to figure out that we were still following the main character (i.e., the author) and hadn't switched to his father's point of view.  

But by far the best part was the commentary and Q&A section at the end. His conversations and interviews directly with his family members (and illustrated, to boot!) were hilarious. I love the Calvin & Hobbes 20th Anniversary book for the same reason: we frequently get commentary and annotations from actors and singers but less common is an author's commentary on their own book (aside from introductions) and even less often (but very fun) is a comic artist's commentary. 

25: A Book Where The Main Character Is An Immigrant Or Refugee

 

 

One

 One

By Sarah Crossan

Grace and Tippi. Tippi and Grace. Two sisters. Two hearts. Two dreams. Two lives. But one body.

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, joined at the waist, defying the odds of survival for sixteen years. They share everything, and they are everything to each other. They would never imagine being apart. For them, that would be the real tragedy.

But something is happening to them. Something they hoped would never happen. And Grace doesn’t want to admit it. Not even to Tippi.

How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?

 

One is basically spoken word poetry about being a conjoined twin. Presumably Crossan has researched the topic so I'll trust in her characterization of Grace. While it seems unfathomable to me to want to remain physically attached to someone else, Crossan does a good job of explaining why, to Grace and Tippi, the question would be so offensive. The sisters aren't bad people, they're twins, and what's more natural than staying with your twin? And what kind of alternative is there? At one point, Grace overhears someone saying they can't imagine anything worse. Obviously hyperbole, but as Grace says, there are so many things worse than this, and brings it back to the idea that to be with a loved one forever is not the worst fate.  It reminds me that people are infinitely adaptable. What may be intolerable to someone used to living independently can be eminently reasonable to someone intertwined from birth.  

We're presented with the twins' growing pains over a period of a few short months: as they're unable to afford homeschooling and now have to attend (private) school for the first time.  They make friends, they watch their father wallow in alcohol, their sister slowly starve herself and their mother lose her job.  Grace develops a crush and a heart problem and the sisters have a choice to make. Several, in fact. 

It's a fast read, for all that it's 400 pages, since it is again, like poetry, half pages lost (another reviewer pointed out that the typeface changes alignment from left to center after the twins have surgery, which is a really cool detail) and trailing thoughts. Each "chapter" is basically a poem, and most are <2 pages. And that's fine, since the subject matter is pretty heavy. Prose would have taken ages to finish. 

 

Because of the style though, the book feels less rooted, more dreamlike. For all that Tippi is the person who is closest to Grace, I feel like we barely talk to her the entire book. We're at a crossroads in the twins' lives, which makes for more interesting dilemmas, but contrariwise, I'm not sure that the sisters' relationship feels as developed as it needs to be to support the climactic separation. And the sisters have to consider death and mortality when they consider the surgery options - but there's very little wrestling with that idea too. They make a couple of bucket lists and that's about it. Again, is that realistic? I don't know. As a sixteen year old, I was pretty confident I wouldn't die, but then again, I wasn't conjoined with anyone with a limited life expectancy. 

This feels like an incredibly interesting topic, nicely executed, but also lightly touched.  I don't know that it strikes as deeply as it ought to, considering.

50: A Book That Features A Character With Chronic Pain

The Echo of Old Books

The Echo of Old Books

By Barbara Davis

Rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer’s affinity for books extends beyond the intoxicating scent of old paper, ink, and leather. She can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners—an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance.

With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers’ tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.

I have absolutely no idea how this is so highly rated on Goodreads. I don't want to be rude about it, but I found both romances unsatisfying, the mysteries unmysterious and the inclusion of Ashlyn's magical "book-sensing" power to be completely irrelevant and unnecessary. And look, it's not that bad! But an average of 4.26 stars??? Nothing like severe disappointment to ruin the experience for you.

Maybe we'll go in reverse order: Ashlyn, bookseller, who is sad and alone because (we find out in installments) her mother died of cancer instead of getting chemo, her father shot himself a few weeks later, and her cheating ex-boyfriend committed suicide to taunt her, has the ability to touch certain books and "feel" the emotions of the owner. This ability is described in detail in the first chapter, and has no impact on any of the rest of the story. Why is it included you might ask? I have no idea! It would be perfectly reasonable for Ashlyn to be interested in a privately published book with a sad love story even without sensing anguish from its owner. Nothing else in the book smacks of magical realism. It feels so weirdly shoehorned in that I have to imagine it was left over from a separate author idea and Davis just couldn't bear not to use it, no matter how little sense it made.

Then, we have two competing storylines, Ashlyn and Ethan in the present, tracking down the original lovers, and "Belle" and "Hemi" in the past. And of course this is a personal preference issue, but every time I wanted to read "Hemi" as a nickname I wanted to cringe (it's short for Hemingway because he wants to be a writer!). This was only made worse when it was apparent that Belle and Hemi (real names: Marian and Hugh) actually called each other these things in real life and they weren't just nom de plumes.

Marian and Hugh's love is supposed to be one for the ages, one so overpowering it conquered a prior engagement, and kept them bitter and in pain for DECADES after they split. In the book, we find out that they meet at her engagement party to another man, and they're together for about four months when they're 21 and 26, respectivey. Alas, our lovers begin fighting because even after four months, Marian hasn't ended her engagement, and then she finds out Hugh has lied to her about writing a hit piece about how her father shut her mother up in an asylum because she was Jewish, but also crazy, and then slipped a knife to her so she could commit suicide. This information upsets Marian, naturally, but Hugh blames her for not trusting that he wasn't actually going to publish it. Truly, a love to last. 

Also, there's a lot of suicide in this book.

Ethan and Ashlyn's love is less overwrought but correspondingly less interesting as well, so the chapters with them slowly deciding to kiss have all the appeal of a warm bowl of oatmeal. It's good for you, but it's not what you look forward to in the mornings. 

I liked Ashlyn fine until she decides to track down the original people in the book and (1) instead of looking for Belle/Marian, who we are told was super rich and her engagement party was the toast of the town and we know the date of the engagement party and also the identity of her fiance - instead of looking to see if there was a mention of the party in the papers (WHICH THERE WAS, we find out later) instead she tries to track down Hugh/Hemi's boss, a tangential character nicknamed Goldie, because she was a lady who owned a newspaper, despite the fact that knowing who Goldie was would absolutely not give you any more information about who either Belle or Hemi were. THEN (2), she assumes that some dude banging Goldie when she died thirty years later was Hemi. Why? I'm not sure, but I guess the idea was that this guy who was apparently so hung up on Belle that 13 years later he's writing bound books to her, becomes his old boss' lover twenty years later. I mean, it makes sense if you ignore logic and reasonable probability.

Ethan has no personality other than "willing to welcome a strange and nosy woman into his house and life".  Hemi/Hugh is distractingly obnoxious, given that he blames Marian for being upset that he lies multiple times - first about the fact that he was there to investigate her father and second that he was actually investigating her mother's suspicious death. He's also upset that she doesn't trust him more. Why should she, you wonder, but it's okay because in return, he later gets told he missed the first 43 years of his child's life. 

The fact that Marian was pregnant when she left New York was totally expected, so much so that I assumed that to be the case based on absolutely nothing but my sure confidence in this book's use of cliche. How else to stuff more melodrama into this whole affair than for her to discover she is carrying her terrible lover's child, but alas, too late! They are already parted forevermore. Also pretty obvious that Cee-cee, Marian's older sister, somehow swapped the notes so Hugh got the break up one instead of the "Wait for me!" one. The only surprise there was that the little messenger boy, Cee-cee's son and Ethan's father, Dickey, wasn't also involved, given how suspiciously guilty he acted.

The book is fine, it's FINE.  But there's no tension at any point - we know Marian and Hugh separate and we know they don't get back together before 1984.   As mentioned above, none of their separation brought tension or surprise either. In fact, I began to wish Marian and Hugh would separate sooner, since they were so much more annoying when they were together. Ashlyn and Ethan also don't carry any tension or surprise. They seem to get involved with each other more because it's expected of them as two of the primary characters in this book who are single and the same age. Perhaps it's a little surprising that Ashlyn doesn't end up with Marian's kid Zachary, but otherwise, ho hum. 

The only really bizarre thing is that SOMEHOW after 43 YEARS and several missed connections, Hugh decides to show up at Marian's big event the DAY AFTER Ashlyn and Ethan discuss the whole affair with Marian and find out that Zachary is actually Hugh's child. And the two events are completely unrelated. Now that really does take some magical thinking.

4: A Book With Two Or More Books On The Cover Or "Book" In The Title