Weird Book #3 for #Weirdathon - Pines by Blake Crouch

I have totally lucked out, this month, reading weird books without even trying. Pines by Blake Crouch is definitely weird . . . and also the first in a series (future weirdness alert). When Jenny reviewed Pines, my interest had already been piqued by previews of the television series Wayward Pines, which is based on the books. Husband thought it looked too creepy and refused to watch it (which meant I didn't get to watch it because we really can only have one TV going at a time, thanks to the acoustics in this house).

Pines is the story of a Secret Service agent named Ethan Burke who awakens in a pine forest near a river. When he comes to, he can only remember 6 things, not including his own name. He's badly injured and doesn't know what happened to him or how he ended up in a forest. Across a field is a small town surrounded by cliffs. He stumbles into town but he has no wallet, no ID, no cell phone, no money so he can't call home or phone his office, can't buy himself a meal or pay for a stay in a hotel, can't prove his identity. Although it's clear he needs to get medical help, he's surprisingly wary of going to the hospital. Things start to get really weird when he hears a cricket and finds that even the cricket is not what it seems.

All sorts of bizarre things happen in Pines, leading Burke to the conclusion that Wayward Pines is no ordinary town. But, what on earth is going on and why can't he get answers from anyone?

You don't actually find out what's up till the end but it's loads of fun, surprising and super weird. I love it that Pines just happened to be such a bizarre story. I was expecting it to be creepy (and it is) but not quite so twisted. The only problem I had with the book is that the answers to why the town is so strange doesn't entirely explain why the people are so violent when someone doesn't fit in. At least, I didn't get it.

Recommended with a violence warning - Poor Ethan gets beat all to hell repeatedly and toward the end it becomes particularly horrifying just before he figures out what Wayward Pines is all about. I loved the fast pace, the creepiness, the strange atmosphere, and the fact that the answer to what was going on was even weirder than I imagined. Pines would definitely make a great RIP challenge book, in addition to being a terrific choice for #Weirdathon.

Side note: Pines was my very first Inter-Library Loan, ever! Wahoo for Inter-Library Loans! I should have tried this years ago.

©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Itch Rocks by Simon Mayo

Itch Rocks by Simon Mayo
Copyright 2014
Splinter - Young Adult (second in a series)
Source: Sterling Books

I reviewed the first book in this series, Itch (link at left leads to my review), last April and loved it so much that I went hunting for a copy of Itch Rocks in London, knowing it had already been released in the UK.  None of the stores I visited had a copy (not even the flagship Foyle's store!) so I was very excited when I got an offer to review Itch Rocks.  

Brief synopsis:

After disposing of Element 126, a new element that is extremely radioactive and also valuable for its potential as an alternative energy source, Itchingham Lofte and his cousin Jack have been treated for radiation poisoning and now they're the most protected children in England. Security people from MI5 follow Itch, his sister Chloe and his cousin Jack to school.  Agents stand outside the classroom and, in case of serious danger, they lock down the house (and the neighbor's house, which they've taken over).  It all seems rather extreme to Itch and his family. But, Greencorps still wants Element 126 and the evil former science teacher, Flowerdew is back, along with the woman he let take the blame for a Nigerian disaster, Shivvi Tan Fook. After being jailed for years and forgotten, she's very, very angry. 

When Itch and Jack are forced to retrieve Element 126, will they be able to survive to fight off the bad guys and find a way to destroy Element 126 for good?  

My thoughts:

I don't want to give away any of what occurred in the first book so let's just say Itch did a good job of disposing of the dangerous element but there was a trail of clues that he wasn't aware existed and that's what ends up leading the characters back to the place the first book ended.  It didn't bother me that eventually the characters end up in that same spot because the rest of the story is quite different. 

I liked reading about MI5 operatives taking Itch, Chloe and Jack to school, even when nothing was happening. There was just a cool spy vibe to those portions of the book and when, eventually, things start to go haywire and blow up (literally), when even MI5 isn't able to stop the bad guys, the story becomes truly exciting. Shivvi is a very frightening character and Itch must use his knowledge of chemistry and the elements to get away from her, with Jack serving as his sidekick and moral compass. There is an additional character, Lucy, whose purpose isn't entirely clear till the end of the book but who also serves as a minor love interest for Itch.  

Although Itch is the main character, Jack is very important in both books, which is nice for adventure-loving females. As in the first book, Itch, there is a lot of exciting action and I loved the way the author ended this book in such a definitive way that you know if Itch comes back, future stories will not involve an Element 126.  The ending was very satisfying and the second story isn't quite as disgusting. Some icky smells and melting hair and skin (okay, yeah, that's pretty gross) are about the extent of it. At some point, I talked to Simon Mayo -- honestly, I have no idea where, maybe Twitter? -- and I recall him telling me that there were some disgusting bits in Itch Rocks but not to the same extreme as in Itch.  Thank goodness.  More fictional vomiting would have driven me away forever, but I enjoyed myself thoroughly and hope Simon Mayo will write more action/adventure for young adults.

Highly recommended - A rocking fine follow-up to the original novel, Itch, with every bit as much action and adventure but fewer disgusting scenes. The action is exciting, the added bad gal suitably terrifying, and the ending satisfying. Loved both books and I highly recommend them but do be advised that both can be a little gory and violent, at times, so there are difficult moments if you have a weak stomach. I found Itch Rocks more tolerable in that regard than Itch but I enjoyed both immensely. I love a good action read and Itch and Itch Rocks are both loads of adventurous fun.

Update:  I've spoken to the author via Twitter and a third Itch book called Itchcraft is scheduled for release in the UK in September! Excitement!  I guess that means I have at least a year to wait for the American release.  Fortunately, Itch is a memorable character.  Simon Mayo has promised a "shiny new thing" to follow the final Itch book. 

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman

Asmat was otherworldly. Compelling. A strange and fecund universe utterly removed from the grip of the world.  The jungle was thick, but the rivers were highways, and they kept it from feeling cloying, oppressive. It was a drowned Eden, full of birds and fish and freshwater and a giant sky that was always in motion. We passed villages you could smell before you got to them, smoke and laughing children's voices and canoes drawn up on muddy banks.  Dugouts lined with standing men paddled by, smoke rising from the coal in the stern.

~p. 52 of Savage Harvest (Advance Reader's Copy - some changes may have been made to the final print version)

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman is about the author's investigation into how and why the 23-year-old child of one of America's wealthiest and best known families disappeared in the Asmat region of New Guinea in 1961.

The first two chapters read like a novel describing what the author believes happened to Michael Rockefeller, as it occurred, on the day in 1961 when he disappeared. You'll know soon enough if you open the book so I don't consider it a spoiler to tell you that Hoffman believes the young Rockefeller was killed and eaten by cannibals. If you're weak of stomach, you may want to skim the description of his death.

After those first two chapters, the author fast-forwards to 2012 and begins describing his journey to the Asmat region and how and why he went about seeking answers to the 50-year-old mystery.

I'd been thinking a lot about my obsession with what I'd called the primitive, the thing that had driven me to Asmat and Michael's story in the first place. Part of it was simple romance--the romance of the jungle and open fires, of drumming and spears and bows and arrows and dogs' teeth necklaces. But it was also the hope of seeing something, understanding something in my own life, a yearning [. . . ]

~fr. p. 256 of Savage Harvest, ARC

The book describes not only his journey into Asmat to seek answers and the journeys of Rockefeller himself, but also the people and the culture he encountered, the history of the region and its people, early interaction by missionaries and Dutch authorities with the Asmat people when they were still warring and cannabilistic, how and why the known facts about Michael Rockefeller's disappearance were hidden from the Rockefeller family, and detailed descriptions of the violent acts that led up to Michael's death.

Savage Harvest is a fascinating book and I found Carl's theory plausible, his research stellar. I also enjoyed learning about Asmat, a place I'd never even heard of.  The ARC unfortunately lacked any maps, as they often do, but I asked Carl if there would be maps in the finished print copy and he replied, "Yes -- both endpapers. Important!"

The maps are definitely critical. I used Google Earth as much as humanly possible but the portion of New Guinea described is not well covered so I'm going to be watching for a finished copy of Savage Harvest, even though I've already finished the book.  I'd like to get a better grip on the locations I just read about.

Highly Recommended with a note that there are some disturbing scenes. Excellent research, strong writing, convincing theory . . . I thought Savage Harvest was an exceptional and utterly absorbing read. There are bloody portions (the way cannibals dismembered a body is described in detail and the violence between villages is well described) and some creeping critter descriptions that made my skin crawl but surprisingly, they didn't bother me all that much, even though I'm prone to nightmares. I was so completely engrossed that the pages kept flying. The author goes to great lengths to understand a culture that's hard to even fathom, one in which the taboo of eating each other was not just about murder and revenge but about long-held spiritual beliefs.

Seriously. Captivating. Also, the book has plenty of photos so readers get a glimpse of Michael Rockefeller during his trips to Asmat, the native people and the primitive art Rockefeller spent his time buying for the Primitive Art exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Just don't read this book while you're eating. There are moments you might choke on your salad a bit if you do.

Many thanks to Carl for contacting me about reviewing Savage Harvest and to William Morrow for providing a copy.  I enjoyed The Lunatic Express and jumped at the chance to read his latest release. I can't wait to see what he comes up with, next.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

N0S4A2 by Joe Hill

Backtracking a bit, here.  I read N0S4A2 by Joe Hill in October and I think the reason I likely did not review it immediately has to do with the fact that it scared the bejeebers out of me and I just wanted to freaking forget Christmasland, but I'm over it, now.

N0S4A2 (besides being a pain-in-the-butt of a title to type) is a chunkster at nearly 700 pages, and I tend to shy away from chunksters.  However, I absolutely loved Joe Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts.  Oh, wow, look at that link.  I read 20th Century Ghosts way back in 2007, before it was published in the U.S.  Believe it or not, I have not yet managed to get the creepy Button Boy character from one of those stories to exit my mind.  So, I resisted Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.  I just wasn't ready for that level of creepy to return to my world.  Much as I adored Hill's writing and the inventiveness of his stories, I preferred the ghosts and time travel to horror and horror is the road he seems to prefer. And, yet, I knew I was missing some very fine writing by resisting.

N0S4A2 is about Vic, a girl who can travel wherever she wants to go by biking quickly across a wooden bridge. Even after the bridge ceases to exist, it remains in her imagination so she can still go there; it's her special skill to travel via the map within her mind. There are others who have a similar ability and one of them has created a terrifying world called Christmasland.  He is basically a mass-murdering vampire who is convinced that he's doing kids a favor by taking their undead bodies to this bizarre place and killing their families.  Vic, of course, has to save the world from the bad guy.  

Okay, wait, I think I know why I put off reviewing the book (well, another reason). There's a lot to this story.  And, of course, it's not fun mentally revisiting the gore. Why did I keep reading?  Because Joe Hill knows how to create characters a reader really cares about.  But, N0S4A2 is extremely bloody and I confess that I'm surprised I made it all the way through the book, in spite of the incredible characterization and some pretty rocking fine storytelling. And, I'm glad I did hang in there; it does have a knockout ending. I marked a passage to remind me that I thought one of Hill's influences, in this case (he has a tendency to make sly references to books, movies and real people) was the movie The Great Escape. He sprinkled numerous hints to that effect and then actually used the words "our great escape" (to which I said, "Ha!" aloud).  

Recommended particularly to readers who love horror.  Joe Hill is a tremendously skilled and imaginative writer; I admire his ability to create such wonderful and awful characters.  But, the book was too bloody for me.  

The ending of N0S4A2 is exciting and sad and a huge relief at the same time so I'm glad I got to the point of resolution because, damn, that evil bad buy needed killing in a big way.  But, I do think I'll likely avoid Joe Hill in the future until/unless he gets around to writing an unbloody time travel novel in the Jack Finney vein.  One of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts was clearly an homage to Finney and I personally think he could write a brilliant time travel, although I hope he doesn't go wildly overboard as I think his father did with 11/22/63 (personal opinion - loved the time travel; thought the romance was dull).  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell

Outlaw Platoon:  Heroes, Renegades, Infidels and The Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan by Sean Parnell with John R. Bruning tells the story of the author's time with a platoon nicknamed "Outlaw Platoon" while based at Bermel Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan.  His purpose -- and I think he succeeded brilliantly -- was to clearly show readers what it's like to serve in the army during a time of war.

I was thoroughly impressed with Outlaw Platoon.  In fact, I found it so gripping that it took a few days to recover from the reading hangover I got after staying up till 3AM to finish the book.  Bermel FOB is located on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, which was an incredibly dangerous place even before Pakistan (our alleged allies) made a deal not to interfere with Al Qaida.

What I liked about Outlaw Platoon:

Outlaw Platoon is beautifully paced and extremely well-written, probably at least in part because it was co-written by John R. Bruning, a man who has done a lot of military writing.  Bruning spent some time in Afghanistan and I'm sure that helped with the descriptions.  Point being, the book is exceptional for its type.  The author avoids the typical military-memoir format (which can get old if you read many memoirs of its type), skipping the description of training and diving right into the soldiers' arrival at FOB Bermel.

When I say the book is well-paced, I'm referring in particular to the fact that there are scenes from everyday life at the base to help describe the people, the life and the circumstances but, for the most part, the book focuses on times that the platoon was attacked -- or, in one case, the base itself.  Those scenes are so vividly drawn that I found my heart nearly beating out of my chest.  The actions, emotions, sights, sounds and smells are acute.  There were even times I found myself actually wrinkling my nose, imagining I could smell the rank odor of soldiers who had been out on patrol with no showers, no change of clothing, sleeping in their Humvees for 5 or 6 days at a stretch.  Ugh!

The wounded and dead were described with every bit as much detail, which may be a problem for a lot of people.  I've read quite a few war memoirs so I handled that fine.  I'm not okay if I see such graphically violent things as limbs flying on a movie theater screen, but I can read about them.  Weird.  At any rate, the violence didn't bother me because I was in the reading to get a good idea of what it's really like in Afghanistan.

It's also worth mentioning that Outlaw Platoon is among the most humbly written soldier memoirs I've ever read.  Those guys have egos; it's drilled into them that they're tough, they're warriors.  They need that confidence to get through the terror, although, as the author and others I've read explain, they're not mentally prepared for the reality.  You get to hear the good and the bad -- the author doesn't hesitate to talk about people who couldn't cope (although he gave them new names).  But, it's not a self-indulgent memoir.  It's about the platoon, the way the men worked together and the fine balance of leadership and teamwork required to keep the team functioning.  Seriously.  So impressed.

What I disliked about Outlaw Platoon:

I get so, so tired of the word "warrior" in modern war memoirs.  As I said, I know it's drilled into them and it's important because they need the confidence instilled in them, but it still gets tiresome.  "Rage" is another word that was used a great deal.  The rage bit is pretty scary, to be honest.  When you read Outlaw Platoon, you will understand how veterans can end up murdering back on home soil, after they leave the service.

Interesting addendum in the paperback:

The author received a letter from a person who also worked at FOB Bermel but did not go out on dangerous patrols.  Parnell refers to the people who seldom leave the base as "Fobbits".  The letter's author expressed his dismay at Parnell's disrespect for the other soldiers, those who don't necessarily spend time on patrol but are still important to the operation of the base and also live in a dangerous place.  Again, totally impressed that the author published the letter and wrote an apology for using a derogatory term to describe his fellow soldiers.  He didn't change the text of the book -- maybe that wasn't possible -- but he did admit it was demeaning and apologized.

Highly Recommended with Graphic Violence Warning - Outlaw Platoon is a rough read.  It's graphic, violent and disarming.  And, yet it's one of the best modern war memoirs I've read -- "modern" meaning from the last 25 years or so.   I have read Vietnam and WWII memoirs but war changes, the way people fight is not necessarily the same and the way people are prepared for war or treated upon their homecoming changes, as well, so I would not compare wars or memoirs between different wars.  I was immensely impressed with the author's humility and willingness to accept and embrace people for their unique skills and traits without judging them.  The author is a Christian (and a Harry Potter fan), but he didn't preach.

Upon closing the book, I found myself wishing that it had a small section on what individuals can do to help make the time of our men in uniform more tolerable.  If I could get in touch with the author, that's what I'd ask.  What can a single person do to make one or more soldiers get through their deployments a little easier?  I'd really like  to know.

My thanks to TLC Books for the review copy of Outlaw Platoon.  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.