the cruelest month

the cruelest month
armand gamache #3
louise penny
st. martin's minotaur
published 2008

Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat.

It's spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth.  But not everything is meant to return to life....When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a seance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil - until one of their party dies of fright.  Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along?

Brilliant, compassionate Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is called to investigate, in a case that will force him to face his own ghosts as well as those of a seemingly idyllic town where relationships are far more dangerous than they seem.

Finally!  The Arnot case, which has been hinted at throughout the last two books has been revealed in its entirety and Armand's betrayers are exposed at last.  That's not to say the repercussions of the case are not over, but at least everything seems to be out in the open and as a reader I'm no longer wondering what it was all about.

I really want to go to Three Pines.  Even though in these three books a murder has occurred in this tiny town, it still sounds beautiful and charming.  The characters are rich and so full of life you can picture them clearly in your head.  There is so much more going on in the story than the murder Gamache and his team are investigating.

In the first books I wasn't the biggest fan of Peter Morrow, but with Clara I find myself rooting for her the most.  I think it's because Clara is truly good and honest and loves Peter absolutely.  Despite her own insecurities with her art she wants Peter to succeed.  Peter, on the other hand, while I don't doubt that he loves Clara seems to go out of his way to sabotage his wife's success.  And even when he feels guilty about it he does nothing to fix what he has broken.  I wonder if this will come back to haunt them in books to follow.

Penny has a way of weaving a murder mystery that keeps you from knowing the killer until she is ready to reveal that person.  It doesn't come out of left field like some authors write or become so obvious that you don't even care to read the rest of the book.  She just keeps you guessing until the end.

twisted

twisted
pretty little liars #9
sara shepard
ya/mystery/idiocy
harperteen
published 2011

It's been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis's disappearance was finally put to rest.  Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are older, but they're not any wiser.  The pretty little liars have more secrets than ever - twisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they've worked so hard to rebuild.

Aria's jealous of her boyfriend's new exchange student.  Spencer's getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-be-stepbrother.  Hanna's one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad's Senate campaign.  And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship.

Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable.  The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore...eventually.

Oh god it's neverending.  NEVER. ENDING.  I know that when you read some fiction there's a suspension of belief, but Shepard has really taken this too far.  I can't even talk about this, it's ridiculous.  These girls are seriously idiotic.  Emily is still the dumbest one of the group.  Holding on to things she needs to literally let go of.

I don't care if any of these girls die.  I seriously hope the series ends on that note.  There is nothing good about these girls!  The worst part is, they have no idea how horrible they are!  They act like they do, but they have no remorse of sense of right.  I'm calling it people.  I cannot read any more of this crap!

every secret thing

every secret thing
laura lippman
fiction/mystery
william morrow
published 2003

Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside.  What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed.  

Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from "kid prison" to begin their lives over again.  But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police - all the adults in Alice and Ronnie's lives.  And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances.

There was hardly a redeemable character in this book.  Alice and Ronnie, Alice's mother, her defense attorney, the young reporter, even the baby's mother.  None had qualities I found I could relate to or root for.  Near the end I found myself feeling sorry for Ronnie who seemed to have been screwed over the most.  For some reason the two I disliked the most were Alice and Cynthia, the mother of the baby in the stroller.  At first it was because who leaves her baby on her front porch unattended?  Then when that was explained I still couldn't find any sympathy for her because she just seemed like such a terrible person.  And who's to say that I wouldn't react the same way she did if that were my situation?  I probably would.

I did find the detective Nancy to be a genuinely good person who kind of got the short end of the stick in her rookie days.

But all in all the book was relatively disappointing to me.  Everyone got away!  The one who deserved redemption paid the price for all the idiots.  Some things I didn't understand the point of.  Mira's character?  Annoying and unnecessary.  And then she gets rewarded in the end?  When she didn't even have a story?  It was all so pointless.  I didn't need a happy ending, but I did want a justified one.

the drifting classroom, vols. 3-11

the drifting classroom, vol. 3
the drifting classroom, vol. 4
the drifting classroom, vol. 5
the drifting classroom, vol. 6
the drifting classroom, vol. 7
the drifting classroom, vol. 8
the drifting classroom, vol. 9
the drifting classroom, vol. 10
the drifting classroom, vol. 11
kazuo umezu
graphics/manga/horror/scifi
viz media
1974

Out of nowhere, a Japanese elementary school is transported into a hostile world.  Soon, the students and teachers must struggle to survive in impossible conditions, besieged by terrifying creatures and beset by madness.

It took me two days but I finished the series.  After finishing the second one I couldn't stop thinking about what happened to the kids and had to find the rest of the series so I could read it all.  This is a series that I would recommend getting each volume so you can start the next one after you finish a volume.  Every volume ends on a cliffhanger and you will need to know what happens immediately!

Sho & Sakiko are excellent heroes.  They never gave up and most of all, never gave in.  They weren't out to just take care of themselves, or even just take care of their friends, but they were trying their hardest to try to keep all the children alive.  And even when the adults were losing their shit and trying to kill them Sho did his best to not kill if he had an option.

It is one disaster after the other and every moment of hope is dashed almost right away, but it is gripping and horrifying.  I could not stop reading until I reached the end!

the drifting classroom, vols. 1 & 2

the drifting classroom, vol. 1
the drifting classroom, vol. 2
kazuo umezu
graphics/horror/scifi
viz media
published 1974

In the aftermath of a strange earthquake, an entire elementary school vanishes, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground.  While parents mourn and authorities investigate, the students and teachers find themselves somewhere far away...somewhere cold and dark...a lifeless, nightmarish wasteland in which their school stands like a lone fortress.  As panic turns to terror, as the rules start to fall apart, a sixth-grade boy named Sho and his friends must fight to survive in an alien world....

These books are terrifying!!  The first book merely sets up the story.  A huge earthquake lasting three minutes rips through the town and when it's all over an entire school and everyone in it has disappeared, leaving a giant hole in the ground.  When we next see the students and teachers the school is surrounded by sand with nothing else as far as they can see.

As reality sets in the adults seem to go nuts while the kids hold it together and try to save each other.  By the time the second book comes around it's just simply madness!  Complete edge of your seat, disbelief and horror.  Quite fantastic!

dancing barefoot

dancing barefoot
wil wheaton
autobiographical
o'reilly
published 2003

There are five stories, spanning 30 years, between these covers.  Some of them are funny, one is pretty damn sentimental, but they are all true.  I wrote them shortly after my 30th birthday, as I looked to my past in an attempt to understand my present, and not fear my future.

Wil Wheaton writes five short, but sweet and insightful stories about love, loss and growing up but remaining a kid at heart.  While all the stories had their high points, the longest story The Saga of SpongeBob VegasPants was my favorite because it had a bit of everything.  I think that the most endearing thing about Wil Wheaton is that he is still unsure of himself.  He is confident when it comes down to it and he's in his element, but before he finds his bearings he's sort of just this normal guy who really wants to make people happy.

And his recounting of meeting WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER was painfully sweet.

astonishing x-men, vol. 4: unstoppable

astonishing x-men, vol. 4: unstoppable
issues #18-24 + giant sized x-men #1
joss whedon & john cassaday
graphics/superheroes
marvel comics
published 2008

After the shocking and brain-smashing events of Torn, the X-Men are off to protect the Earth from destruction at the hands of the Breakworld.  And when it's all over, nothing will ever be the same!

Oh, I'm bummed.  That really bummed me out.  But it was freaking good and I can see how people really get into this X-Men stuff.  I doubt I'll continue reading this series since this is where Joss's hand leaves the table, but maybe.  Maybe I need to know what happens to the cat chick.

And see!  There's another thing that bugs me about X-Men!  They have too many names!  I can't keep them straight.