Taste the Books: Review Morsels #68 Frances White, Sean David Robinson, Rebekah Faubion

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

The Bone Door by Frances White (ARC Review)

★★

A group of children who woke up in a maze with no memories (and a few missing body parts) band together to complete a series of quests across four dangerous realms - but what will happen when (or if) they cross the last door?

***

Rated 2.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Harper Collins for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Right off the bat, I realised the story was different from what I'd envisioned (highly classic-fantasy coded, for one, which is a dealbreaker for me), but I trudged on...until, after Ch.9, I had to admit that reading was becoming a chore, so I threw in the towel. Along with the world and the tone of the quest(s), there were a few other things that put me off. The cast is composed by children and early teens, but the story is definitely geared to adults, which creates a cognitive dissonance. The fact that the characters are essentially blank slates and get thrown together in an out-there situation right away (yet, for some reason, take it in stride) prevented me from getting attached to them - not to mention, there's a fine line between endearing and annoying, and Hop was close to crossing it for me. Speaking of annoyances, early teen Amber uses a bunch of substitutes for swear/bad words (like "feck"), which I found ridiculous in a book meant for adult consumption (oddly, there are a couple of instances where she uses their stronger counterparts, but I suppose those were the remnants of a former draft). Anyhow - I don't know what I expected, exactly...probably a multiverse or a videogame-like world, definitely a group of teen characters (and no talking owls, or maybe-talking skulls)...but this wasn't it. If there had been more reviews available when I requested this book, I guess I would have realised I wasn't the right audience for it. I'm sure there's a great story unfolding in the 3/4 of the novel I haven't read, and according to some reviews, an emotional one as well - but I can't bring myself to go on my own quest for it.

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later, and of course I don't plan to reread this book).

The Door in Penrose Forest by Sean David Robinson (ARC Review)

★★★★

The son of an entomologist who vanished after climbing an impossible staircase in the woods returns home as an adult to investigate her disappearance, but what he'll find might force him to make an equally impossible choice.

***

Rated 4.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

The Door in Penrose Forest is a soft-sci-fi novel that reads like a portal fantasy, thanks to its blend of beautiful imagery (butterflies, nature, more butterflies - seriously, ALL the butterflies), clean yet lyrical prose and emotionally charged plot. Twenty-six years after witnessing the impossible disappearance of his mother at the top of a staircase in the Penrose forest - years spent trying to convince himself he couldn't have seen what he did - a series of inexplicable events and a fresh loss prompt Nico to investigate the mystery that shaped all his life. What results is a tale that puts its own unique spin on the "staircase in the woods" trope. Told in three perspectives - Nico's, his mother's in 1997 (via her field journal) and a valet's at Penrose Mansion in 1915-16 (via his memories), TDIPF is a story where past and present (or you could say, future) intersect, multiple dimensions live side by side, and cause and effect loop on themselves - but it's also a very human story of grief, regrets, family bounds, unwavering love, hubris, hard choices and sacrifice. Bonus points for including a certain non-fictional character (one that sci-fi/fantasy show are fond of - see Doctor Who or Sanctuary - but here with a totally different agenda). Totally recommended even if sci-fi isn't in your wheelhouse.

Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.

Lost Girls of Hollow Lake by Rebekah Faubion

★★★

Months after returning from an impossible island where three girls from their group were left behind, the surviving five - still suspected of foul play - are caught in a web of deaths and mysteries, and must finally confront the truth about the island and what they did there.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

Similar in premise to Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley, but lacking its strong found-family core and feminist vibes, LGOHL has, however, a lot going for it. Eight girls are drawn to a mythical island that only they can see - one rumoured to be linked to a string of disappearances. From there, the narrative moves between their time on the island and the events that follow the five survivors' return, with a three-month gap in between. The girls who came back (especially the protagonist) are still suspected of slaughter and stalked by the press (and a medium), more so when the sea finally returns a body. The story weaves trauma, unspeakable secrets, romantic feelings that refuse to stay buried, gruesome finds, and a new, impossible menace that gets real very fast. While the tension and the horror - both supernatural and mundane - work very well (especially in the island chapters), and the epilogue is appropriately empowering for once (something that horror tends to do less and less nowadays, leaning towards shock value instead), some aspects are not equally developed. I couldn't buy that the culprit would be able to perform such ghastly acts without being caught, or at least suspected (especially when they infiltrate a house with people in it). The previous disappearances on the island are never explained - sure there should be remains there, at least? Also, I wasn't a fan of the staccato writing - YA doesn't mean "simplistic", for goodness' sake. Regardless, LGOHL is worth a read, with its gripping mix of horrors/trauma and resilience/coming-of-age and its lesbian romance angle...as long as you can stomach graphic violence, mutilation, near-drowning, bug horror, fire injury and more. But hey, at least the dog doesn't die 🙂.

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later).

So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?