Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Posted by Anonymous

Reviewed by: Elia Juarez

What I Read: Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: Ever since her parents died, 17-year old Emmerson can see ghosts just about everywhere she goes. The problem is, no one believes her, and her older brother has sent her to psychiatrists, psychologists, and hospitals trying to “help” her but the only thing that seems to help is heavy doses of medication that leave Emmerson feeling like a zombie. As a last ditch hope, Emmerson’s brother hires a man from an organization known as “Hourglass,” which claims to be experts in this sort of thing. That’s when Emmerson begins to the dangerous truth about what she’s really seeing, what she really is, and why this is all happening to her. 

What I Thought: Though it has an interesting premise and includes elements of both fantasy and science-fiction, this is pretty typical teen fare. Everyone is impossibly beautiful, impossibly rich and impossibly brilliant (even though none of them are even old enough to legally drink yet) and of course, there’s a kind of love triangle that starts to emerge by the end.

However, this is part of a series, and because of that, lots of strings are left loose, and frankly some of what happens here makes very little sense. Still, I want to give it the benefit of the doubt BECAUSE it is only book 1 of 3 and I am hoping a lot of my unanswered questions get answered before the series is over (book 2 is Timepiece and book 3 is Infinityglass). I did like the uniqueness of the premise, but too many characters seemed one dimensional. And the time travel elements just sort of seem scientifically unsound.

Readalikes: Possess by Gretchen McNeil

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Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins

Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins

Posted by Anonymous

Reviewed by: Becky Brendel

What I Read: Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: Luz and Ray are squatting in an abandoned mansion in Southern California after a natural disaster has wiped out most of the water supply. They're free yet aimless, and when they find themselves responsible for a toddler they've rescued from an abusive situation, staying put no longer seems feasible. Yet many obstacles - natural, man-made, and internal - stand between them and a better, wetter world...

What I Thought: Gold Fame Citrus is a book you read for its words and its world - surreal and mythological, punctuated by short stories that flesh out the mysterious sea of sand encroaching on what had been Los Angeles. The barren beauty of the prose matches the setting well, and the book's metaphorical components work both as symbols and as fun bits of weirdness in and of themselves. Watkins' two main characters also feel pleasingly real; I could relate to both Luz and Ray even when they succumbed to their own individual weaknesses.

The second half of the book, however, is much weaker than the first, relying more heavily on cliches and tropes from post-apocalyptic fiction. Watkins has done an amazing job setting up her world, but once she gets down to populating it with people other than her central trio (Luz, Ray, and baby "Ig") she doesn't seem quite certain where to go from there. That impression might be my own expectations betraying me, however - I was expecting more of a travel story/Odyssey once Luz and Ray set out on their journey, and when the second half of the book ended up centering around just one stop, in a cult headed by a mystic who claims to be a dowser capable of finding water in the sand dunes, I was disappointed. Gold Fame Citrus did a terrific job at evoking a mood, however, and for that I still recommend it to anyone who wants to be transported to a world both strange and familiar.

Readalikes: Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block, for more survivors of a ruined, poetic world; The Water Knife by Paolo Bachigalupi, for more fiction about the Southwest and its coming water crisis

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Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

Posted by Anonymous

Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: A successful advertising executive, in an attempt to flee his inner demons by moving to remote Scotland, finds himself instead confronting demons of the ordinary human kind…and possibly a werewolf. Ray Welter made a fortune as an advertising executive whose ads promoted a toxic product. He got the idea from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a work with which Ray is strangely obsessed. When his marriage and life fall apart in Chicago, he decides to move into the house where Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four; a house located on the remote Scottish island of Jura. What seemed like a good idea at the time ends up having rather twisted (and darkly funny) consequences.

What I Thought: I picked this up to read based solely on the great title, but after reading for about ten minutes I knew this was going to be good. Ray’s desire to escape the ‘Big Brother’ world of technology and “civilization” is something a lot of modern people can relate to. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Ray, depending on how you look at it, the island of Jura is populated by eccentrics and other malevolently amusing characters who really stick it to Ray and his dream of escape. Ray took inspiration for his manipulative ad campaign from Nineteen Eight-Four, and then Ray ends up being manipulated himself by everything dark and light, sinister and hilarious, human and maybe not so human in George Orwell’s house on the island of Jura.

Readalikes: 1984 by George Orwell. Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

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The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister

The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister

Posted by Anonymous

Reviewed by: Becky Brendel

What I Read: The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: The Amazing Arden won fame as a female illusionist by cutting a man in half on stage. When her husband's body is found in the wings of her latest venue, split just like the men in her tricks, police jump to Arden as the prime subject. Captured by an officer but not yet turned in, Arden pleads her innocence, but claims explaining will involve revealing her entire life story. Which she does - but is she telling the truth?

What I Thought: Like Arden's magic acts, this book spans genres - one part 1,001 Nights, one part historical thriller, and one part commentary on women's rights, with a little magical realism thrown in for good measure. To Macallister's credit, the book doesn't feel stitched together: no one element of the story outweighs the other, and alternating between Arden's life story and what's happening to her in the present ratchets up the tension in both narratives while also allowing Arden to "misdirect" both her in-book audience and the reader: a crucial part of any illusion. It helps that she's telling a harrowing tale: a major character in the book is so overtly evil he nearly becomes a stereotype, but he's also so convincingly creepy and slimy that instead of rolling my eyes, I shuddered and awaited the day he'd be out of Arden's life for good.

Aside from a few clunkily-ominous pieces of foreshadowing on Arden's part, the prose flows smoothly, and there's several clever metaphors contrasting Arden and her captor. Whether the book can pull off those metaphors convincingly, making this illusion act more than just a trick of the light, is for each reader to decide - but I was diverted, and I'll definitely be attending Greer Macallister's next "show".

Readalikes: The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman, for more historical fiction about women making the best of bad situations; Madam by Cari Lynn, for the same - except laced with magic.

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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Posted by Yuma County Library

Reviewed by: Becky Brendel

What I Read: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: Tsukuru Tazaki's close-knit group of friends abruptly cut him out of their lives nearly twenty years ago. He never asked why. Now he's finally feeling ready for a relationship with someone else, but she believes he needs to track down his former friends for closure.