Nevermore - William Hjortsberg

This was a find from HPB. I'm always up for a good mystery, and this one had Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini teaming up! I thought it would make for an interesting story, especially when I read the murders were mimicking Edgar Allan Poe tales. 

I've basically summed up the story in the sentence above. Harry and Arthur butt heads when it comes to spiritualism at times since one is a believer, and the other goes out of his way to disprove the theory. There doesn't seem to be any obvious suspects, but strange things are happening to both men. Doyle is seeing Poe's ghost, and Houdini is being pursued by a medium calling herself Isis.

This book started out pretty good for me. I liked the atmosphere, and the premise was interesting. The problem began to arise when random tidbits were inserted for no reason. Events that occurred during the time period are just crammed in there for no reason. Doyle goes to a baseball game. Why? So, he can see Babe Ruth! Another thing was the sex scenes. There weren't a ton of them, but the ones with Houdini were detailed and wholly unnecessary. The other thing, and this is 100% personal, was referring to Houdini as "the magician" and Doyle as "the knight." For some reason, that irritated me, and it was constant.

I had the villain figured out pretty early on. I don't know why it was so hard for them. I don't understand what the purpose of Poe's ghost was. He didn't have a role in the story other than to annoy Doyle by crushing his ideals of the afterlife. Overall, this book was one I started out enjoying and ended up being glad it was over.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 1) - Koyoharu Gotouge

I'm going to start this review with a side note story. Because I want to...I have a fairly decent list of manga I want to read. It's a problem, I know. Well, I read finished this one the other day. My husband and I went for haircuts over the weekend, and we were early so we stopped in GameStop. I hadn't been in there in a while, so it was strange seeing so few games in there. Anyway, I saw Demon Slayer all over the place. The first thing I saw was a figure, and I felt impressed with myself I could identify it for my husband. Then I saw a game and a T-shirt. Then I was confused. Because I live under a rock and had no idea there was a movie coming out! LOL!

And now on to the review.

Tanjiro heads down the mountain to sell some coal, but when he returns, he finds his family has been slain by demons. His sister, Nezuko, has been turned into a demon, but she doesn't attack him. Tanjiro is determined to find a way to save her. He defends her from a demon hunter and is led to Urokodaki, who trains him to take the test to become a true Demon Slayer. He's going to need those skills if he wants to avenge his family and find a way to heal Nezuko.

I liked the first volume of this one. The art wasn't too busy, and the story was easy to follow. I feel bad for Nezuko, hiding from the sun and having that thing in her mouth to keep from biting people. I don't know if she's a demon the whole time, but I hope not. It seems really uncomfortable. Maybe that's just my TMJ talking! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next one! Good Story!

The History of Caliph Vathek - William Beckford

I have no idea where this one came from. It's been on the list for a while, so who knows?

A caliph has power go to his head. If scholars dare to contradict him, they end up in prison. One day, a merchant comes and sells the caliph some swords where the words on them change from day to day. An old man was able to read them one day, but not the next so Vathek burned off half his long beard...rude! The merchant disappears before the caliph is done with him, but when he's caught the merchant is turned into a ball and kicked by the caliph and later the town until he falls into a chasm.

Later, the caliph does all sorts of things to make the merchant's spirit (?) give him the keys to a Palace of Underground Fire. Normal things, like sacrificing 50 children. The caliph has numerous chances to repent and change his ways, but the caliph, his mistress (that he basically stole from someone he was staying with) and his crazy mother (that traveled around on some kind of zombie camel and had mute ninja-type slaves) are doomed for eternity. 

This story was so weird, and I could go on and on about the strange things in it. I kept thinking I was reading it wrong or missing something. It wasn't that long, and I was about to quit on it when it ended. I was at the 37% mark, and I guess the rest of my copy was notes. Since I finished it, I looked up the story to see what I missed. I hadn't missed anything. The story was just weird. I think the biggest mystery was: how did it end up on my To Be Read pile?

A Silent Voice - Yoshitoki Ōima (manga)

I read about this manga in an article a while back and thought it sounded interesting. The story revolves around a boy who bullies a deaf girl. Years later, he tracks her down to try and make amends. It's not an easy task, and wounds heal slowly.

The story in this was super good. There were many times when it was emotionally heavy as well. I wouldn't recommend it to really young kids. Things like violence and suicide are in there, so just be aware if you're sensitive to those topics.

A movie was made from this story, and I'm not sure if I'll track it down or not. I was really invested in the manga and had trouble putting it down. The end was a bit open-ended, and at first I was a bit sad about that. But, after thinking it over, it made sense.

The only criticism I have is the similarity in the names. Shoko and Shoya are so close in spelling that I would have to pause and think about who was who. Any time names have similar spellings, I have this issue. Most of the time, it was obvious who was being referred to, and many times they were referred to by their surnames, so it wasn't a major deal.

Overall, this was a really great story, and it was much more emotional than I was expecting. If you're ready for something this heavy, I totally recommend it. Good Series!

In the Woods - Tana French

This is one of the paperbacks I picked up during the HPB trip. I was excited for the plot of this one. Psychological thrillers are my jam! Also, warning: there will be spoilers in this review!

Detective Ryan is a survivor of a mystery that resulted in the disappearance of his two friends. He was only a child at the time, but he's never been able to remember what happened. The murder of a 12-year-old girl brings him back to the scene of the crime, but he's not going by the same name, so he stays on the case. Are they connected, and will they finally solve the mystery of what happened all those years ago?

No. The answer is no. I'm just going to be upfront and let you know my biggest problem with this book. The whole story keeps bringing up Ryan's memories, his issues with what happened, little possible connections, and then at the end, he's okay not remembering any of it except for one happy afternoon? Yeah, okay. I hated that. Also, he's a jerk and that never changes.

The other thing is the present day mystery is not as mysterious as Ryan would have us believe. He says, "well, you were fooled just like me." Sorry to say this, man, but it was just you. I had the mastermind figured out.

The writing started out pretty good, but then it started turning into a slog. I felt like a lot of the random nonsense could've been removed, and I wouldn't have noticed. The way he acted after the night with Cassie was just ridiculous. He didn't deserve anything good, and in the end, he didn't get it. I guess that's a win. Skip this one unless you like unsolved mysteries you've spent hundreds of pages investing your brainpower trying to figure out.

Dog Heroes of September 11th - Nona Kilgore Bauer

It took me awhile to get through this one, and that's because it was heartbreaking. It had me on the verge of tears numerous times. Also - I didn't finish it...

The book tells the stories of many of the canines that were involved in recovery of remains from the World Trade Center site, a place where they took rubble from the initial event (Fresh Kills), the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania site. There are lots of pictures, and those really would've looked better in color (I was reading this on my Paperwhite). It really was a great book. I loved how the dogs performed their duty, but almost all of them also served as therapy dogs. Those were the stories that really got me. Stoic firefighters, policemen and other rescuers wrapping their arms around these dogs and sobbing for a few minutes because they've lost their friends in one tragic morning. It was just heartbreaking.

I didn't finish it because about 2/3 of the way through, it switched from telling the stories of the individual dogs to describing the history and role of search and rescue in general. I read a bit of that, but I realized it wasn't what I was looking for in this book. I have great respect for working dogs and their handlers, but this part of the book just wasn't as interesting for me.

I'd definitely recommend this book. I think it's important to recognize the role that was played by so many after the disaster that was 9/11. It was a long process that isn't talked about enough. Every one of these wonderful workers have gone over the rainbow bridge by now, so it's important to never forget. Good Book!

The Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys #8) - Franklin Dixon

I wanted to get through something light and fun, so I picked up the next Hardy Boys in public domain and settled in for a quick read. Little did I know, this one was a bit different.

The boys want to spend the Christmas holiday camping on Cabin Island. They get permission from the owner (a man whose car they recovered in a previous mystery), but there's a man scoping out the island for his own nefarious purposes. And what's on the line? A missing stamp collection!

Okay, this one was fairly fun, but I did not like the whole fox hunt. I'm a critter person, so when we're hunting for tiny pieces of paper and shooting foxes in the same book, I'm a little upset. It wasn't just, "oh, hey, we shot a fox." No, they describe the hunt, the kill and took trophies back to the cabin. Blech. 

Other than that, I suppose this was okay. The villain was mid-tier if you ask me. They even let him go in the end, since I guess the worst he did was hide some food and trespass. Maybe some menacing? He never got his greedy little hands on the stamp collection, so there wasn't any crime there. Anyway, this one sits lower to the middle on enjoyment for me. And yes, it's all because of the fox hunt...