Well That's Too Bad

 Fired up the ol' blogger to post my annual book roundups but Google has made yet more changes to Blogger that finally cross the line into Not Worth It so this is likely the last post. Yes, this was a mostly dormant blog but I still liked it being here and posting every great (great!) once in a while.

 I wouldn't mind deleting the entire thing (I have all my posts downloaded into my own file) just to have one less thing sitting under Google but I couldn't bear to lose the Joint Post Series. 

 So here it will sit, no longer used, but housing the Joint Post Series and other ephemera I hold fondly in my memory.

2023 Favorites

Favorite fiction: Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott

Favorite non-fiction: A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips

Favorite historical fiction: Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings by Tina Makereti (honorable mention to Kāwai by Monty Soutar which was hugely ambitious but distracting-ly clunky in its writing)

Favorite fantasy: Crown of Stars audio version, one of the best narrations I've ever heard. It was such a pleasure to experience this series again via audio

Favorite Sci-fi: see favorite fiction :)

Favorite Romance: n/a, romance was all meh for me this year but I did re-read The Lion's Daughter by Loretta Chase which I still adore

Favorite Thriller/Mystery: Racing the Light by Robert Crais


Beyond the pages...


TV:
Favorite - Nothing really stands out to me this year so see surprise hits for shows I didn't expect to like but did.
Surprise hit(s) - Lucifer tied with Celebrity tied with The Glory
Surprise blunder - See You in My 19th Life

Video games:
Favorite - Paperback: The Game (still lol)
 

Past Editions:

2022 Favorites

2021 Favorites

2016 Favorites

2015 Favorites
2014 Favorites
2013 Favorites
2011 Favorites
2010 Favorites

 

Year in Books

Started:          55
Finished:        46
non-fiction:    10
poetry:            1
short story:    1
audiobook:     5
Total pages:    14,438

 

Longest:     Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott
Shortest:    Āria by Jessica Hinerangi

Most catalogued:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Most catalogued DNF:
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Only catalogued by me:
Āria by Jessica Hinerangi
The Cloud Dream of Nine: A Korean Novel by KIM Man Jung
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Oman and Zanzibar: Family Ancestral Edition by Emily Ruete
Under the Covers: Secrets of a Magazine Editor by Jenny Lynch

NB:
I switched to LibraryThing for tracking my books so this is my attempt to create a Goodreads end of year summary. I always liked their graphic and will miss it.

2022 Favorites

Favorite fiction: Kuragnaituku by Whiti Hereaka

Favorite non-fiction: Struggle Without End by Ranginui Walker

Favorite historical fiction: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Favorite fantasy: The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

Favorite Sci-fi: The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (must laugh at myself for this one as it was a re-read but I didn't realize until I'd almost finished it that i'd already read it. i'd even reviewed it on goodreads, apparently i liked it the first time, as well)

Favorite Romance: The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Most re-read book first read in 2022: Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Most re-read author in 2022: This was a year of heavy re-reading with lots of Kameron Hurley, Courtney Milan and Kate Elliott in the mix


Beyond the pages...

TV:
Favorite - Marriage, Not Dating
Surprise hit - Lupin
Surprise blunder - Love in Contract

Video games:
Favorite - Paperback: The Game

 

Past Editions:

2021 Favorites

2016 Favorites

2015 Favorites
2014 Favorites
2013 Favorites
2011 Favorites
2010 Favorites

Year in Books

 

NB: Child of Flame was a re-read since the audiobook came out so that should actually be 38hrs vs 916 pages 

Willy Nilly is that Least Shelved title. Sadly, if I want ISBN13 numbers in my goodreads records, I often have to choose the edition with no cover.

 

Another year of not reading as much as usual... or maybe I just don't read as much as I used to. I admit I don't have the patience I previously did. I've become a little pickier, quitting books with so few pages read they don't even make it on my "read, did-not-finish" shelf, and not wanting to read yet another version of the same old story unless it has some sort of variation that really pulls me in. 

I also don't think I click with current fads. Something about the pacing and voice of newly published works all read exactly the same to me. I took this as inspiration to re-read old favorites and to spend more time in the stacks. I have a feeling I'll be doing that again in 2023 (with, as always, the exception of my auto-buy authors:).

The Last Duel by Eric Jager

Title: The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France
Author: Eric Jager
Publisher: Broadway Books (2004) 

I was delighted when Michael sent an email my way asking if I'd be interested in a revisit to the joint post series for a book that has recently been adapted.

For those that are new to what was once a monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of The Last Duel 

at It Rains... You Get Wet

 The Last Duel, while technically a misnomer, is perfectly summarized by its subtitle. If you decide to pick this one up, you will indeed learn the true story of France's last trial by combat. The combatants were Jean de Carrouges, an unlikeable, litigious knight of good family, and Jacques Le Gris, a newly influential squire and former friend of the above. Le Gris was also a very close friend to the overlord of both men. The trial comes about because Marguerite de Carrouges accused Le Gris of rape [note: the assault and thus the testimony is graphic]. He is acquited of the crime by the above-mentioned overlord and thus Jean de Carrouges, Marguerite's husband, appeals to the king to seek justice via trial by combat. And so began what was a surprisingly (to me) bureaucratic chain of events. Trial by combat was an old and, by this time, unusual legal proceeding which had very strict rules governing it. Additionally, under fuedal law, Marguerite herself had no legal standing in this case without her husband's support and so rather than being the plaintiff, she was the chief witness. This was not a position without danger, if her husband lost the combat she would also be seen to have been false in her testimony and so would be put to death.

 

Eric Jager does an excellent job of placing the reader inside medieval France. The interwoven threads of contemporary political, cultural, social, and geographical elements are well described and make it easy to understand the relationships, political connections, and what is truly at stake. That being the case, it was not only jarring but quite sobering to read a statement that could come from any number of sources published this year.

 

So if in theory rape was a serious crime for which the law provided heavy penalties, in practice it often went unpunished, unprosecuted, and even unreported.

 

It's a credit to the writing that we can easily slip into these lives and understand their experiences and motivations. It's disquieting to feel those experiences can resonate so fully with us today.

 

In addition to firmly establishing the local political framework, Jager takes special care to describe civic infrastructure. Pardon the dry term but it does seem the best way to encapsulate how clearly he helps the reader to understand the types of roads that were being traveled, the layout of the cities, and the buildings wherein events took place. It was often in these thorough descriptions that I would find myself most firmly in "the past is a foreign country" territory. For instance, the trial took place at a monastery because Saint-Martin-des-Champ maintained a battlefield! It also contained a tribunal and a prison since it was the local criminal court. I will never think of a monastery in quite the same way again. And while we're here, let me not forget to mention that animals(!!) were also tried and condemned at Saint-Martin's.

 

I found too that Jager's committment to bringing medieval France to the modern reader hid entire books in throwaway sentences.

 

The altar was maintained by a tax on lawyers and alms paid by the accomplices in the murder of Evain Dol, a judge of the Parlement slain by his wife's lover in 1369.

 

Um, excuse me? You hit me with that and then just immediately carry on to the next paragraph?

 

One last little detail that really caught my attention was the fact that the trial had to be watched in total silence. The layout of the field of combat is detailed in the relevant chapter and, also, all the ways in which fairness was ensured. Most of this was in the design of the grounds and fencing but another rule was silence. Nothing was to distract either combatant. I truly cannot imagine watching two people fight first on horseback and then on foot, to the death, in total silence but for the sounds of the combat itself.

All in all I found this a rich, accessible text that wonderfully brought forth the humanity of those at the center of what were very violent and traumatic events. It can be hard to read violent testimony but I think Eric Jager takes care to present this accounting, as best he can, from the perspectives of those that left it.

 

Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post. 

rating: 4 of 5 stars
 

 

Want a little behind the scenes on this book and the movie? Listen to an interview with the author here.

Want to hear a couple of historians chat about the movie? Click here (same podcast as above, different episode).

Want a little trial by combat in your fiction? Don't miss this must read! It's great in audio, as well.

Click here for an index of the joint post series

.

Four Years of Dramas

To celebrate four years of drama watching, here is my top ten

Chicago Typewriter
Healer
Hotel del Luna
It's Okay to Not Be Okay
The Legend of the Blue Sea
My Country: The New Age
My Love From the Star
Nirvana in Fire*

Search: WWW
Sell Your Haunted House

 

228 dramas started (and counting), 108 completed

 

*the one and only cdrama I've watched :)

Dusting it off

 I've been off and on going through this blog for *mumble, mumble* years to tidy it up. I downloaded the whole thing to preserve for myself as a diary of sorts but also to go through each and every post. I wanted to evaluate if posts a) should still be taking up space on the internet or b) needed some editing. To that end I have...

Deleted posts that-

• were relevant in that specific moment in time (sales, contests, events)
• centered on topics that I've moved beyond and others had/have more thoughtful things to say than me (like how many posts of me ranting against the BCS does the internet need to preserve?)
• were connected to dead ends (the internet is forever except when it isn't)
• were the 4th, 9th, or billionth link to a particular author/writer; feels like I should just link directly to their work at this point in the link widget
• highlighted people we ("we the public", I imagine a certain collection of folks always knew) now know to have been actively damaging to their colleagues/communities

[revert to] Drafted posts-

• where my thinking has evolved so much that I want to revisit/refresh the topic. This didn't end up being that many posts. That's not at all because I am some bastion of wisdom and knowledge knowing all things on all topics but because I was trying to be very careful to not wholly discard snapshots of my thinking in the past.

Edited posts that-

• had dead links
• had typos
• had unclear language
• used language I've tried to remove from my vocabulary
• had titles that were too connected to in-jokes or what was happening very specifically that week/month/year and so weren't really descriptive

There were a few posts that I outright wanted to delete for no better reason than I thought they were badly written, or lacked a coherant through-line of what my thoughts were. I can read between the lines since I remember the experience but I expressed myself so poorly the post absolutely did not make the point I wanted it to. Or the posts that address topics I know more about, or have more context for now so they feel embarassingly inadequate. However, in the end, I left them as part of preserving not just snapshots of my thinking but also how self-expression/knowledge changes... or how sometimes you just have a bad writing day.

2021 Favorites

Favorite fiction: Tie!
The Story of a New Zealand River by Jane Mander
Circe by Madeline Miller

Favorite non-fiction: Merchant, Miner, Mandarin: The life and times of the remarkable Choie Sew Hoy by Jenny Sew Hoy Agnew

Favorite mystery/thriller: N/A

Favorite historical fiction: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Favorite fantasy: N/A, the fantasy I read this year just did not click with me

Favorite Sci-fi: Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

Favorite Romance: The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Favorite Short Stories: N/A

Surprise hit: Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett

Favorite author discovered in 2021: N/A

Most re-read book first read in 2021: N/A

Most re-read author in 2021: Kate Elliott


And since I do occasionally do something other than read...

TV:
Favorite - Sell Your Haunted House
Surprise hit - Tie! Happiness and Nirvana in Fire
Surprise blunder - Thirty-Nine

Video games:
Favorite - ibb&obb

 

Past Editions:

2016 Favorites

2015 Favorites
2014 Favorites
2013 Favorites
2011 Favorites
2010 Favorites

I did not read a blog post by Jesus today.

Purely by accident, I came by my very first blog post via a google search for something else (but still including sgwordy - let's not kid ourselves that I'm some kind of presence offered up by google searches). I barely remember writing it, but all the sentiments remain: I still mourn that email is dead all these years later. And now blogs are dead. Well, mine at least. Though I like knowing it's here for the memories - and if I ever get a wild hair to write something (wild hair here) - it's pretty obvious it's in some kind of comatose state. I don't think it's just me either. Of the blog community of which I used to be a part, I'd say about 95% of those blogs are quiet now. It feels like the only ones that really continued are those that were turned into commercial ventures.

I wonder if other folks visit their quiet blog corners and smile at the memories. I know I do.

King Rat by James Clavell

Title: King Rat
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Nelson Doubleday, Inc. (1962) 

I was delighted when Michael sent an email my way asking if I'd be interested in a reprise of the joint post series for a book that harkens back to a past pick of ours. I think he picked an evocative novel to revisit as we remember the sacrifices of American soldiers who have died in service to their country.

For those that are new to what was once a monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of King Rat 

at It Rains... You Get Wet

King Rat is set in 1945 in the WWII Japanese POW camp of Changi.The King is the operator around whom this novel revolves. He is variously seen as a thief, liar, oppressor, caretaker, and friend. Despite being in a POW camp I don't think anyone ever sees him as a victim, he certainly doesn't. Nor would he think of himself as any of the adjectives I used above.

Peter Marlowe meets the King by chance and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Unlikely not just as regards personality or class, but unlikely in that Marlowe might be the only person to know the King and still think he can have friends. The King is clearly portrayed as having come from a lower class background (though he is American, not British so his views on this would be different than Marlowe's) and his entire world is centered on camp business opportunities. Marlowe is descended from several generations of highly regarded British soldiers.

"Well, I couldn't go into business. Marlowes aren't tradesmen..."

While the King absolutely does not understand non-transactional interactions, Marlowe is bound to a personal honor code that he brings to any friendship. It is against this relationship that we see the last months of the Changi POW camp before liberation.

I wouldn't say I'm an extensive reader of WWII POW camp books but what strikes me every time I encounter one is the absurd normal that evolves for the prisoners. Much of it is easy to see as microcosms of a prisoner's home culture: Factions and alliances form, secret economies are maintained, debts and favors are scrupulously guarded. As a reader, it's easy to fall into these familiar rhythms and, despite it being the daily norm for the prisoners, be genuinely shocked when they don't have food or clothes or medicine. It's the familiar routines of life overlaid on a horrific existence that can take chapters to assimilate. (However, on the one hand, I don't want to assimilate it. I don't want to forget the horror of war simply because people are resilient enough to survive it.)

James Clavell himself was from a British military family and was imprisoned in Changi. This story and its characters are supposed to be fiction but it's hard not try overlay Clavell onto Marlowe and he was inspired by an actual American prisoner for the King's character. Regardless of how autobiographical the novel is, it's undeniable that his experience in the prison camp brings this book to life in a way that is at once searing and disturbing. Even in its touching or lighter moments one can't escape the underlying tension and fear carried by everyone in the camp. It's a gift to readers that those who had these experiences are able (and willing!) to so eloquently share them.

**Note: the rest of this review is spoiler-ish

The King and his entourage (for lack of a better word) - and his enemies - play several cat and mouse games in attempts to maintain power, either through control of resources or control of behavior. This includes the guards (the officer-prisoners) setting up various spying plans to the King's rat breeding program (yeah, that's real!). But what has lingered in my mind far past reading the last page is how in the midst of, again, this horrific experience some people were able to be themselves for the first time.

The King was a fairly obvious one to me. It was pretty clear that he was not going to be happy when the prison camp was liberated. I know how bizarre that sounds but it was certainly where his character was going. Clavell brilliantly reveals this in the juxtaposition of Marlowe and the King's response to the American soldiers who come to extract the prisoners.

The sea welcomed her and made her sleep easy, and then, in the course of time, devoured the clothes and body and the time of her.

It's not heavily explored but often hinted at that several of the prisoners find intimacy with each other who may not necessarily be gay. Also, though, I speculate that many soldiers who were gay but unable to be open about it could explore it here. I'll make no comment on whether that was a positive or a negative considering the prison camp backdrop but Clavell makes a very compelling case that one of the soldiers was transgender and might never have been able to fully accept that outside of the prison camp. This is not exactly a happy book with happy endings but I found it especially heartbreaking that Betty didn't survive liberation.


And that is something that will be on my mind today. So many do not survive. Let's honor them by getting it right next time.


Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post. 

rating: 4 of 5 stars
 




Click here for an index of the joint post series

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

I really adore this poem.

Untitled

I was recently reading a book that was somewhere in the vicinity of 500 pages. It was holding my attention well at first but eventually those few things that weren’t connecting with me as a reader (mostly craft but a little bit characterization as well) kept pushing me further and further from the story until I got to around page 400 and abandoned the whole endeavor (possibly temporarily, possibly forever, who knows). However, I remain fascinated by the book being a perfect example of what I don’t like about my own writing.

 

My own writing, I must say, is a meager and not oft seen thing. I enjoy writing and have outlined dozens (hundreds?) of stories but I seem way too easily distracted by “research.” Reading is my favorite brand of research but I can be distracted for weeks on random scientific or historical topics in the internet rabbit hole. Despite that, I have a distinct aspect of craft that never changes no matter what writing challenges I might otherwise explore. I like using the fewest words possible and I like writing built as much around what is not said as what is.

 

So, back to this book I was reading. Scenes were constructed and dialogue used in eerily similar ways to my own writing. But to my own writing that I discarded or re-wrote because I wasn’t quite hitting the right balance. The exact right balance is a thing nebulously defined in my own head and constantly refined as I write (seriously, I’ll go back and revise something I wrote 10 years ago just because I think I’ve finally found the exact right turn of phrase). But, whatever it is, this book was not hitting it. I was constantly editing it in my mind and rearranging scenes or dialogue to tell the story better. It was like I was revising a first draft and who wants that in a reading experience? I might have got over it but I was also finding the main relationship between two brothers increasingly tedious (turns out there is a finite number of fist fights I can tolerate between two people before I’m over it) so it was time to set the book aside. But, but, but! I’m glad to have come by it as I thought long and hard as to why someone who employs my own darling craft preference could be so majorly striking out with me. And now I have words! Words!

 

There was no emotional resonance.

 

The thing about saying less and using what is not said as a way to communicate with your reader is that, if done incorrectly, connections can feel abrupt and flat.  An emotional connection with the characters or situation becomes a lot more difficult. Obscure dialogue or interactions can result in an inquisitive reader avidly turning pages or to a confused, disinterested reader not much bothered at giving up 4/5s of the way through the book.

 

What I want is the balance of less leading to that tug in my chest that means I can’t imagine not staying with a story on its emotional path.

When will we get off this merry-go-round?

One hopes that with each successive year we move to new and more interesting places but, alas, we are still having the same conversations our foremothers had 100 years ago. Will today's vigorous conversations mean that in another 100 years this will finally be history?

Hmmm

Andrew rattles off information about the music playing in the pizza to his girlfriend, Nicole (Melissa Benoist). Sebastian, of course, plays for Mia and teaches her to appreciate jazz. Music, then, effectively serves as both an emotional conduit and a subtle affirmation of power: where Fletcher uses his status as Andrew’s teacher as a cudgel to assert his dominance, Guy and Sebastian — and, indeed, Andrew — maintain their status as the more worldly, dominant partner in a subtler way, through the assertion of their artistic skill and cultural knowledge. With the exception of Mia, the women on the receiving end of this treatment are directionless and therefore ideal counterparts: Madeline’s field in graduate school is never specified, Nicole doesn’t even know her major, and all we know about Elena is that she is so incompetent that she has to have a man show her how to boil water. (That is the stuff of fantasy.)

Full article here. Warning: spoilers for all the films in the article.

2016 Favorites

Favorite fiction: Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi (Dick Davis translation)
An unusual pick as it was a year long read but a very worthwhile endeavor

Favorite non-fiction: Margaret Mahy: a writer's life by Tessa Tuder

Favorite mystery/thriller: N/A

Favorite historical fiction: Mr Allbones' Ferrets by Fiona Farrell

Favorite fantasy: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

Favorite Sci-fi: Planetfall by Emma Newman
The end left me a bit unsatisfied but this one otherwise really kept me turning pages

Favorite Romance: Mr Allbones' Ferrets by Fiona Farrell

Favorite Short Stories: Best of Women's Short Stories, Vol 3

Surprise hit: Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
This title sort of petered out for me but still, for a random audio pick at the library, I was really into it.

Surprise blunder: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Favorite author discovered in 2016: N/A

Most re-read book first read in 2016: N/A

Most re-read author in 2016: Laura Kinsale


And since I do occasionally do something other than read...

Movies:
Favorite - Moana
Surprise hit - Love & Friendship
Surprise blunder - The Hunstman: Winter's War

Video games:
Favorite - Portal 2


Honorable mention to 3% but I didn't watch a lot of TV so I don't really have much of a list to begin with



Past Editions: 
2015 Favorites
2014 Favorites
2013 Favorites
2011 Favorites
2010 Favorites

Year in Books

Still a sucker for my Year in Books

That's a wrap!

After seven years of great fun exploring books and their adaptations, Michael and I are rolling credits on our duo posts. I guess this is an epilogue of sorts... just to make sure we keep in line with our chosen media.

My partner in crime (and science fiction and horror and drama and Etc) in what I ended up tagging the joint post series has a wonderful summary of what we analyzed over the years (with charts! be still my heart!) which you can find here:

Seven Years in Parallel at It Rains... You Get Wet

Have a wander over there to see exactly what we've been up to over the years. That includes genres, authors, directors, etc. It's an excellent breakdown.

I'm truly surprised 7 years went by for this series without me really noticing that holy shit(!) 7 years have gone by! What a fun ride it's been. Finding Michael in the blogiverse (back when we were only a car ride apart rather than an ocean) and then finding our Craisie love overlapped in scifi as well, is what got this whole ball rolling. I asked Michael if he would (please, please) review Minority Report because I loved the movie and his film reviews and wanted to see what he would have to say. He's a clever one and said "Yes, but..." And that resulted in me reviewing the short story that inspired the film. I love that that one kicked us off as I still watch and enjoy the film these 7 years later; and it's fitting for a Duo that had the most overlap of enjoyment in that genre.


My favorite reviews for whatever reason

I'm definitely also including Minority Report. I'd never reviewed a short story before and hadn't thought to give it a re-read after seeing the film. Jurassic Park and Life of Pi were definitely up there as faves since they are enduring favorites in my reading life. A Scanner Darkly was a true delight as I'd never even heard of it and ended up loving it. I'm going to throw Hombre in there as well as I'm not a huge fan of Westerns but this one charmed the heck out of me (but please don't be confused, it's not charming:)

My favorite reader pick
Movie: Edge of Tomorrow
Book: Breakfast at Tiffany's

My favorite collection of reviews is also 2011's.

My favorite and least favorite reviews to do for titles we each picked
  Me
Favorite: Jurassic Park
Least Favorite: Gonna repeat on that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
  Michael
Favorite: Empire of the Sun
Least Favorite: Hell House


Thanks for an amazing run, Michael! Without you I'd never have learned to listen to audiobooks, read so many books published in the 70s or had this much fun spread over 7 years! Cheers.

rating: 5 of 5 stars ;-)

The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz

Title: The Sentinel
Author: Jeffrey Konvitz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (1974) 

It's that spooky time of year again when the pick of the month is a creepy title to stick with the mood of ghosts, goblins, and the like. Funny, these never feature candy...

For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of The Sentinel 

at It Rains... You Get Wet

Allison Parker has returned to New York after spending 4 months at her family's home. She left 7 years ago due to traumatic events within the family and her father's funeral has brought all those memories to the forefront. As she tries to settle back in with work and friends, her over-bearing and prickly boyfriend turns out to be the least of her daily annoyances. The neighbors in her new apartment building take quirky to an entirely different level.

Allison's physical health also seems to have deteriorated. She suffers from acute, blinding migraines; sporadic paralysis; and blackouts. Along with the visit to her childhood home, the mental and physical stress she is experiencing have inspired her to re-explore her Catholic faith. Her desire to rekindle this, and the conflict that arises with her boyfriend (Michael) because of it, was an interesting angle that wasn't really pursued beyond what was convenient for the plot. I found that a disappointing hole in the book in light of what is slowly revealed about Allison.

Speaking of slow reveals, that was probably my favorite thing about this title. There is a very pleasing blur between horror and mystery in the plot. In fact, the horror comes rather later and it's the mystery that hooks from the beginning. Not only do events start to unravel for Allison (and the reader) but the possibly ominous backgrounds of Allison's friends and neighbors become known as Allison's poor health lands her in the hospital.

Konvitz sets up a mystery within a mystery when the reader learns that Michael has a history with a local detective. When the homicide detective hears that Michael is connected with Allison (and as such with the strange happenings around her) he takes the case and becomes a thorn in almost everyone's side. The fun part is, as a reader, you're never quite sure if it's the detective or Michael you should be suspicious of. 

It's slightly aggravating that Allison's story slowly gets taken over by Michael. As a character, Allison is presented sometimes very pro-active in investigating what is happening to her and sometimes as Michael's puppet. I found it annoying as a reader but also it just didn't seem to fit with Allison. The plus side of Michael taking over is, again, you're pretty sure you should be suspicious of him but he's also the only one finding any kind of satisfying answers as to who might be orchestrating a very bizarre series of events designed to undermine Allison's mental and physical well-being. 

For all that I enjoyed the mystery and character reveals there are a lot of really annoying tropes found in this book. I'm pretty limited in my horror genre reading but it seems like any horror title I peruse from the 60s and 70s relies heavily on sexual deviation* and sexual violence, women as victims, and caricatures. Obviously there is nothing wrong, in and of itself, with any of that (though I don't really care for the writing shortcut of caricatures) but a pattern seems to have been popular in those decades for horror novels that really doesn't speak to me as a reader. (I'd love to know if current horror readers feel the genre retains these tropes and patterns or if new ones have come into fashion.)

*I have to take a moment here to say that the sexual deviation is, way more often than not, simply sex against prevailing convention. For instance, the homophobia on display in this particular book is rampant and, while the two women in question were quite rude, their defining characterization was Lesbian and, for this book, lesbian = sexual deviant. Pretty terrible.

I also didn't find the prose to be particularly smooth. I was often distracted by over-long sentences and weird strings of adjectives. I suppose, in the end, we're here for the mystery and the horror but I could have done with a little more polish to the text.

For those looking for an intriguing mystery and a bit of horror (with what can only be described as a balls-out audacious ending) you'll certainly find a lot to enjoy in The Sentinel. However, be prepared that the prose and prejudices can be quite distracting.



Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post. 

rating: 2 of 5 stars
 

Coming up next:  
The Finale

Click here for an index of the joint post series