The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

This ended up on my reading list because I'd seen it go on the public domain. The summary sounded interesting. There will be spoilers in this review. It's something of a short book, and I have a few choice words for it.

When the bridge collapses, five lives are snuffed out. The priest that witnesses the event goes on a mission to try and explain if there was a specific reason God let that happen to those specific people. What follows is the story of three and a half people. One is a clingy mother and her maid(?), another is 1/2 of twins, and the last one is a weird guy who guilt trips a longtime "friend" to let her sickly son accompany him to Lima (this takes place in Peru). Later, the priest also had a system where he was evaluating parishioners on their value, and he's eventually put to death for heresy.

This book was so weird. Half the time, the text wasn't even focusing on the person the priest was researching. I read so much about the other twin and the girl the weird guy was obsessed with. It was just odd. And the idea that any kind of explanation to a random tragedy would result from exploring people's backgrounds is just ridiculous. The priest thought that a bridge collapse was a more controlled tragedy than other types of deaths. Umm, ok. Things like that aren't "controlled" more than anything else. It happened when the structure gave out. The whole book was just weird. At least it was short.

A False Mirror (Ian Rutledge #9) - Charles Todd

This is one of the paperbacks from the HPB trips. I didn't realize it was part of a series when I picked it up, but the main character, Ian Rutledge, solves mysteries and has 8 previous cases under his belt. I was intrigued by the setting of post WWI, and the summary for the mystery was unique.

A man is attacked while out walking by the water in a smaller town. When his wife's former lover hears of it, he freaks out and rushes to her house and ends up taking her hostage. After that, the husband is barely alive, and people are being killed. The former lover served with Rutledge in the war, and the suspect insists that he'll only talk to his former comrade.

The thing about this novel is that it was weird. First, it's number 9 in the series, so I wasn't used to Hamish-in-the-head. This is also one of the men he served with, but this one died and now harasses Rutledge day and night as a sort of conscience ghost (?). Another thing was the plot. It was unique, and normally, I love that. But this one got super weird. The initial victim disappears, and we assume he's dead, and then other people die, and we're not sure if the assumed dead guy is committing the acts, or if there's another murderer. And then the answer just didn't seem to make enough sense to satisfy. I suppose it made sense, but it also kind of didn't, so I was torn on the "villain." And then it just ended. There weren't really many people to root for in this one, and you didn't find out what really happened to them anyway, so it's a lot of unresolved feelings. 

The book overall was enough to keep me entertained, but I wouldn't pick up another one. Rutledge kept referring to a case in London that I didn't know about, so there was that. I also didn't ever really get used to Hamish. And at the end of the book, I didn't really get a feel for enough of Rutledge's personality to say one way or the other whether he was interesting enough to follow. Since this is his 9th adventure, I'm not very optimistic about his prospects to show up in my reading pile again. The writing style was fine, I just wasn't a fan of the weird plot or the detective.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 9-14) - Koyoharu Gotouge

To continue my personal summaries of Demon Slayer:

Volume 9 - It's time to go to the entertainment district. Tengen Uzui has lost track of his 3 wives, and the friends are sent to infiltrate the same houses to find out what happened. Of course there's a demon involved, but it's not a straightforward enemy. I really love the imagination used to create these demons. It's not the usual "they fight with a sword" or "they're skilled with a bow." I'm just impressed every time. Big fight coming up next! 

Volume 10 - Well, the fight has taken an interesting turn as a new player (brother) has joined the fight. These two are connected but have very different skills. Tanjiro gets himself into trouble, and Nezuko comes to the rescue. She's even stronger than she was before, but she's also more dangerous. The fight isn't over yet! But we've got some reinforcements, and the two groups have to work together to deal with this double demon threat.

Volume 11 - We're still dealing with the siblings with the different skills. It's going to take all the fighters working together to defeat this strong team. But even after they're defeated, Tanjiro finds the compassion to try and mend their relationship with each other. It's an interesting facet to the demon personalities. Seeing their backstories and feeling some sympathy for their predicament, in spite of what they've done and tried to do to the heroes, is so unusual. I'm constantly impressed by the creativity involved with this manga.

Volume 12 - It's recovery time. I really liked the first part where it was from the POV of the person that found them and thought they were hugging. As I get deeper into this series, I am falling more in love with Inosuke's character. I can't get over where he was when Tanjiro woke up. Anyway, the group is split up as everyone gets sent on a different mission. Tanjiro is sent somewhere else (he's still healing), but it's a secret place, so he has to be blindfolded and taken there by multiple escorts. They think it's a safe place, but they don't know that a couple demons are already on their way. A feisty demon slayer, Genya, is on the scene, though, and we'll see what happens next. 

Volume 13 - The demons are relentless, and Tanjiro is going to have to dig deep. Genya wants the glory of killing an upper rank demon, and Tanjiro doesn't care as long as everyone is safe. The demon has basically five "aspects," and tracking down the main one isn't going to be easy. They're going to have to look high and low. Then, it's going to take timing. Meanwhile, another fight is going on with a Hashira back at the swordsmith village. And it's not going well with the vase demon. He's a complete putz, and he's really cruel to the smiths he's captured. There's hope toward the end, though, as the peppy Love Hashira, Kanroji, is back on the scene!

Volume 14 - Goldfish/Bubble demon is finally taken care of, but Tokito is paying a high price for fighting it. The insults were flying for a long time with those two, but seeing the backstory was intriguing and knowing Tokito had a twin brother was interesting. We get another backstory in this volume as well. Kanroji gets herself in trouble and sees her past. It's one where she's had to hide who she was, and it reminded me of someone close to me. I love how that scenario turned out in the fight, even though the fight is ongoing.

Berserk #10 - Kentaro Miura

So, I'm getting close to caught up with what's released with Berserk. Casca has a possible way of being healed, but the issue is that they aren't there yet! And at the end of this tome, they still aren't there!!

The Kushans are using spellcasters to control monsters and attack the gang and later the city. The only way to really defeat the overpowered monsters is to take out the spellcasters. Fortunately, Schierke is able to locate them. Guts just has to buy time until Serpico can get to the spellcasters and take them out.

Also important in this tome is Farnese. She ends up back with her family, but it isn't a happy homecoming. The gang needs a boat to travel to the elf land where they will heal Casca, but all the ships are currently being used for the war efforts. Farnese is approached with a way to secure passage for her friends, but it will mean sacrificing her new life for the greater good. The funny thing is, Casca takes care of that in a short amount of time, and then it's up to everyone to get out of there before the Kushan attack again. But it's too late, and it's deja vu trying to get out of the city.

I was particularly struck by the art in this one. Specifically, I keep remembering one double-page picture of a ship. It was incredibly detailed, and I just kept wondering how long it took to make it. How many hours? Days? The child has to show back up. It would be really weird if he didn't, but I'm a bit confused about his role in the overall story. I won't make any predictions. I can't guess where this story goes! Maybe...just maybe! Can we please heal Casca in volume 11? I know Guts was told she may not come back the way he hopes, but I'm ready for her to do more than "Ooooo."