The Riders Book Review

There are some books that I’ve read in which I had a feeling of where it was going, but then, it went in a different direction. Today’s subject, the 1994 novel The Riders by Tim Winton, did just that. At first, I thought it was going to be Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? with less geography and more drama. However, the book turned out to be an intriguing character study of a man descending into madness and commentary on if people truly know the ones they love even if it can be frustrating at times.

The Riders is about a father and a daughter’s journey searching for a mother. After traveling throughout Europe for two years, Fred Scully and his wife Jennifer end up in Ireland, and on a whim, they purchase an old cottage, which stands in the shadow of a castle. Scully spends weeks renovating the place, while Jennifer goes back to Australia to liquidate their assets. When he arrives at the Shannon Airport to pick up her and their seven-year-old daughter Billie, only the girl gets off the plane. There is no explanation as to why Jennifer vanished. Soon, Scully’s life falls to pieces as he and Billie look for her throughout Europe.

Part of what made me truly understand the novel is that it utilizes the Norse myth of the Wild Hunt. For those who don’t know, the Wild Hunt is a legend about a ghostly leader and their group of hunters flying through the cold, windy, and stormy night during the winter solstice. Anyone who passed them by was said to have been carried away and dropped off at a location miles away. The Riders uses this myth as a reminder of Scully and his family’s wandering spirit as well as to foreshadow his doom. A group of riders and their horses first show up in the beginning when Scully is preparing the cottage for Jennifer and Billie’s arrival. Then, they come back when he and Billie watch some Romani boys ride their stallions from the train while they’re going to France. Finally, they see the riders once more when they finally arrive back in Ireland.

In addition, the characters are fascinating. Scully is an Australian man who loves his wife so much that he follows her to the ends of the earth for her. But once Jennifer doesn’t show up at the airport, he stops at nothing to find her. During that search, he looks back at their relationship, specifically the good times in Athens, the fights in Paris, and how he sacrificed everything so she could be a painter. He realizes that he may not have known her at all even though they were married for seven years. Scully represents the type of person who puts all of their identity into their partner.

Billie is Scully and Jennifer’s daughter. At first, readers are told that she is a tough cookie who got into fights with classmates at the schools she was at and doesn’t follow the rules. When she gets off the plane, she refuses to speak. Scully wants to know why Billie came alone, but he respects that she is too traumatized to say anything. Eventually, she regains her voice, yet she never reveals what happened to her mom. Instead, she assists her dad as much as she can even if it means committing some crimes like stealing money. I found it interesting that she saw him as Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo because of how helpless he becomes during the course of the book.

Throughout, I wanted to know at least something about Jennifer. All we really get from Scully is that she’s got great legs and came from a well-to-do family. I’m not asking the book to spell out the reason why Jennifer didn’t come to Ireland, but I wanted more clues as to what she was feeling. The book could’ve done that and have Scully not realizing it until the very last minute. It wouldn’t have ruined the novel’s integrity.

As for pacing, it starts off slow with Scully working on the cottage in Ireland and the book taking its time to establish the main characters. This sluggishness didn’t bother me since the novel did a good job with keeping my interest, especially with the recurring telegram from Jennifer telling Scully when she and Billie will arrive. It also helps that a postman named Pete was a good supporting character to Scully. In fact, Pete is genuinely invested in Scully’s life in Ireland since he has an alcoholic brother who’s going through a downward spiral. It’s such a wonderful foreshadowing of the main character’s fate. It takes about 90 pages for the main event at the airport to occur. Afterwards, the pacing picks up pretty quickly.

For most readers, much of the book’s enjoyment depends on how much they can tolerate Scully and his actions. He makes some incredibly stupid choices while on the journey. For starters, Billie gets bitten by a dog while they’re in Athens. Instead of visiting a doctor, Scully tries to heal the wound himself. Then, after he and Billie visit his friend Alex while they’re in Athens, the latter is found dead. Police reasonably want to ask Scully some questions about it. He, who had nothing to do with Alex’s death, responds to this in the most logical way possible: by leaving the country. At the same time, these actions ring true for a man whose life is falling apart. He’s not going to think straight while panicking about finding his loved one.

The Riders by Tim Winton defied my expectations on what it was going to be in a good way. The use of the Wild Hunt myth helps it to stand out from other stories about missing persons and the looming sense of doom. Also, most of the characters are three dimensional and have clear reasons as to why they do what they do. I recommend this novel to those who love missing people stories, books set in Europe, and most importantly, can withstand a certain amount of stupidity that comes from Scully’s actions. 

Before I go, the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast is up now. Guest Alex Aaron and I discuss how we would adapt this book. The link will be here.

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The Personal Librarian Book Review

I love historical fiction. Specifically, I enjoy learning about real life people and events from those books, so I can do more research about them. I also love libraries (and I’m not just saying that because I work in one). These two aspects found their way together in a historical fiction novel called The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict (the pen name of Heather Terrell) and Victoria Christopher Murray. I didn’t know anything about Belle da Costa Greene prior, but once I read it, the book made me want to learn more about her because it contained three-dimensional characters and realistic world building.

The Personal Librarian explores the little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene – J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian – who became one of the most powerful women of New York despite keeping a dangerous secret that would prevent her dreams from coming true. In her twenties, Belle is hired by the legendary J.P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. She becomes a staple in New York society and one of the most powerful people in the book and art world, known for her taste and negotiating skills as she helps to build a world-class collection. However, she has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. Her darker complexion is not because of her Portuguese grandmother, but it’s because she’s Belle Marion Greener, daughter of Richard Greener – the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. This tells the story of a woman known for her style, taste, and wit and the lengths to which she must go —for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

Before I get started, I want to give credit to Benedict. She recognized that as a white woman, her perspectives on the black experience in the United States is limited. As a result, she reached out to Victoria Christopher Murray – a black woman – because the former liked the latter’s work. It was also good to hear that they became friends while writing the novel, and I’m glad that they have collaborated on more than one novel together (my review of their latest title The First Ladies will be up in the near future)!

I really like the supporting cast. Each one of them carries a specific motivation and their own secrets. For example, Belle’s mother Geneiveve encourages her family to pass as white to ensure their survival in a society that discriminates against black people wholeheartedly. However, this decision also led to the separation between her and Richard. Throughout the novel, Belle struggles with her identity as she wants to be herself, yet society won’t allow it. She and Geneiveve fight over this, yet it’s revealed that at one point, the latter thought, like Richard, that black people could live as equals to white people during the Reconstruction period.

Another character who holds secrets is Anne Morgan – J.P. Morgan’s youngest daughter. Anne spends the majority of the book barely acknowledging Belle’s presence in her father’s professional life. However, she doesn’t want to thwart Belle. She simply desires recognition of her work by her father despite being a lesbian who’s in a Boston marriage with another woman.

The obvious main strength of the novel is Belle herself. She’s a savvy librarian and art collector, and I enjoy the sections where she displays her style and wit. At the same time, Murray and Benedict are not afraid to show Belle’s vulnerability, especially when she gets close to Bernard Berenson – one of Morgan’s rival art collectors. When she becomes pregnant, readers understand her concerns, even if Bernard doesn’t. Moreover, they display her frustrations in life realistically. This is especially true with how Belle’s money supports not only her family, but also her sibling’s families too. She knows that she has the best opportunities for a successful life, yet she seeks gratitude from them, especially when they try to split the salary that Belle just received. The authors blend these aspects together seamlessly. In addition, the fact that Belle da Costa Greene was a real person adds more to the story.

My only complaint is that the plot of The Personal Librarian feels too similar to that of Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict. I haven’t read the latter, but I couldn’t help but notice that their blurbs are almost identical. Both stories deal with women from a lower class who end up working for rich men. They display their business instincts so effectively that their bosses began to rely on them and even grow closer to them. However, they have to keep their guard up because of secrets that they harbor. For Belle, it’s that she’s a light-skinned black woman, and for Clara Kelley from Carnegie’s Maid, she’s a poor farmer’s daughter who assumes the identity of an Irish maid after the latter woman has vanished. It’s almost like Benedict has the same Mad Libs sheet, and she only changed the nouns. At the same time, I’m not going to jump into any more conclusions until I read it. What do you think of this?

The audiobook is narrated by Robin Miles. While Miles has acted on and off Broadway and in TV shows like Law and Order, she’s best known as an audiobook narrator. She has received accolades for titles like Just As I Am by Cecily Tyson and Michelle Burford, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, and Charlotte’s Web. Miles has also recorded audiobooks for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate, and Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Miles provides the main character with the needed elegance, wit, and vulnerability to make the character believable. She also distinguishes other characters well. While her male characters tend to have a similar Mid-Atlantic accent (unless they are explicitly from another country besides the United States), she sprinkles some vocal differences in them. For example, Morgan himself has a stern tone, and Mr. Berenson displays a kinder one. 

All in all, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a really good historical fiction novel about a librarian who shook New York in the early 20th century despite the secrets she keeps. Readers will clearly understand each of the character’s motivations, especially Belle’s, even if they don’t personally agree with them. I also like the theme of how every one of them harbors their own secrets and how it flows quite naturally throughout the book. I would recommend it to those who enjoy reading about librarians and libraries, passing, and life in the early 20th century. Now, I must do some more research on Belle da Costa Greene, like reading the book An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege.

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Interview with Joan Cohen

Hello Everyone,

We have something special for you all on Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything today. We have Joan Cohen on today. She is the author of the new book The Deepfake and had a career in sales and marketing at technology companies. You can see my interview with her down below.

Emily: Many books about AI have been mainly nonfiction or speculative fiction. What was the catalyst for writing this book and making it a purely fictional story?

Joan: I’m a novelist. My objective in writing The Deepfake wasn’t to write a story about AI so much as to show that AI is here and a part of our lives. It’s a part of my characters’ lives in ways they don’t expect. To write non-fiction about AI, requires the writer to have considerable technical expertise and be targeting a reader who expects to learn. As for speculative fiction, I have never written it, but no matter how futuristic it is, I think the writer faces the same challenge as any fiction writer faces to create characters and a story that engage the reader.

Emily: You address the ethical, legal, religious, philosophical, political, and cultural issues regarding AI. What made you want to highlight all of these instead of just one or two?

Joan: In my reading, I’ve found articles that address some of the areas you’ve asked about, but it was never my intention in The Deepfake to seek answers to all the questions AI raises. Instead I wanted my characters to wake up to the complexity of those questions. Perhaps my reader will wonder how a self-driving car is making decisions when there are no good alternatives in an impending accident. Do we care that the day is coming when human creativity in art and literature will be surpassed by AI?

Emily: People often tend to think of AI in a negative light. You chose to show how AI can be helpful in solving problems that were previously unsolvable. What makes it beneficial in those situations? 

Joan: AI is improving productivity and the accuracy of predictions in many fields including banking, finance and education. The benefits in medicine are already impressive. AI can detect and diagnose disease. It can also help provide superior medical care by freeing doctors from tedious tasks like note-taking during visits so they can spend more time with patients.

Emily: At the same time, many of the characters are fully aware of the dangers like AI-created disinformation. Can you explain more of those dangers? How can we identify them?

Joan: AI-created disinformation worries me the most at this point in time. Anyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news will hear about messages and posts on the internet that show a person, perhaps a political leader or celebrity, saying and doing things they never said or did. Your favorite politician can be portrayed as a degenerate. Revenge porn is an online weapon that victimizes ordinary citizens. Foreign adversaries plant fake stories intended to sway opinions. The government wants to find a way to “watermark” fake images, but hackers will surely find a way around that.

Emily: How is AI already a part of our lives?

Joan: When we use Siri or Alexa, we’re using AI. Our GPSs use AI. The military uses it in drones. There are already refrigerators that will tell you about the expiration dates of food you’re storing or suggest recipes (although not in my kitchen!).

Emily: What compels people to please others? How does that affect women more than men? How can this hold them back professionally?

Joan: Pleasing people is part of our culture. It largely represents a lack of self-confidence. Women in the past occupied largely domestic roles or worked in the helping professions, where people-pleasing was expected. Those expectations can affect pay disparity between men and women, because women don’t always speak up and ask for raises. They’ve typically been the ones interrupting a career to care for a child or an elderly person. Sometimes pay disparity reflects plain old sex discrimination. For younger women, some of this has changed, yet the self-help books on people-pleasing keep coming out.

Emily: A sexual assault occurs in the book, and I admire how you protray it in a such a thoughtful and sensitive manner, especially the consequences that follow. Why was it important to show it in that way?

Joan: The sexual assault is complicated because the protagonist sees it as part of her pattern of people-pleasing, although she’s smart enough to know she shouldn’t feel guilty about being assaulted.

Emily: How do you think AI is going to affect people in the future?

Joan: I can’t predict how AI will affect people in the future because I think it will be in every way imaginable plus ways we can’t imagine. I’m concerned that some people are dismissing it out of hand believing they don’t need to worry about it yet. It’s easy to educate yourself. Just go to Google, which by the way, uses AI algorithms.

Emily: I run the “Adapt Me Podcast,” where a guest and I talk about books that have never been adapted and how we would go about it. Who would you cast as the main characters in a possible adaptation?

Joan: I’d cast Amanda Seyfried as Sylvie and Zac Efron as Rip.

Emily: What are some projects that you are working on now?

Joan: Right now I’m working on a new novel. It’s different from the work I’ve done before and has a lot more politics in it.

Emily: Where can people find you?

Joan: I’m on Facebook as Joan Cohen Author, and my website is joancohenauthor.com.

The Deepfake by Joan Cohen is out now. You can get it wherever you get your books.

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The Deepfake Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Books Forward in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: this review discusses sexual assault.

No one can escape artificial intelligence (AI). It has started to affect how we create and perceive content. Many books about AI are usually either nonfiction or speculative fiction because it’s still new. People want to understand and connect with it, but they don’t really know how. But, what if someone wrote a fictional story involving AI? After all, fiction helps readers connect with topics on an emotional level. Author Joan Cohen does just that with her new book The Deepfake.

The Deepfake is about a woman caught in between illegal activities conducted at her workplace. Sylvie thinks of herself as a team player at her AI company. However, when she discovers some shady business dealings, she’s torn on what to do. She confides in Rip, her personal trainer who’s not only appalled by the choices she faces, but also by her advocacy of AI. He believes that it’s dangerous. Despite their different viewpoints and the spurs they throw at each other, they’re drawn to one another. In addition, Sylvie’s life is made more difficult by the constant summons to her mother and stepfather’s Miami estate. Illness, death, a disputed will, and an old flame swirl into a disaster that follows Sylvie back to Boston, which threatens to harm her and the people she cares about.

I’m going to be very honest. I’m not a fan of AI. I get that it allows people to be more creative with their content in a quicker amount of time as well as aid them in times of need. For example, Vasya Baev’s illustrations in Lily’s Wondrous World: A Day in the Park by Marc Polett had some help from AI, and it looks good. It’s that I’ve seen way too many instances of bad AI art and people taking advantage of it. To this day, I can’t look at digital art without checking to see if the person in it has 6 fingers or not nor a news story that has AI assistance.

I carried this opinion while reading The Deepfake, yet I still maintained an open mind about AI. Sylvie, our main character, is a cheerleader for the technology, but she doesn’t know what it’s fully capable of. She hears different opinions of it from people like Warren – the IT guy – and Rip – her personal trainer whose father was a rabbi. The latter expresses concern about AI because he feels that it could take over the world like a fictional robot. Rip serves as the mouthpiece for many of the negative effects of AI, but readers understand where he’s coming from since he has his own relationship with the company Sylvie works for. Luckily, the book does show that AI can be good. Towards the end, after an incident that lands Sylvie in the hospital and months of recuperating, she conducts research on how AI could be useful while understanding its ethics. This could’ve been incorporated more into the story, but I appreciate how Cohen chose to display both the pros and cons of utilizing AI.

I also liked Sylvie very much. There were times where I wanted to yell at her to live her own life, yet I would’ve done similar things in her situation because I’m like her to a degree. She’s very witty, especially when she’s sparring with Rip about her life and AI. In addition, I know all too well about Sylvie’s dilemma of trying to please everyone. She got into a technology company to prove to her ex-husband that she can stand on her own. At that organization, she tries to help both sides with finding information regarding illegal activity involving a new AI software. This exhausts her to the point that she has to set boundaries with certain co-workers. Unfortunately, one of them creates the titular item utilizing her likeness and voice approving of the product. Although she is forced out of the company under unfortunate circumstances, I’m glad that in the end, she’s able to forge her own destiny.

What also puts Sylvie’s stress on a high level is her stepbrother Carlos. This entire subplot was the most gripping, especially how it played into the whole story. She had a fling with Carlos in the past, but when she and her friend Eileen fly to Miami to visit her mom and stepdad, he rapes her. This is not the first time that I read a book involving the protagonist getting sexually assaulted by their stepbrother, yet this was well handled. Cohen portrays this assault and the consequences thoughtfully and with great sensitivity. At first, Sylvie blames herself for it because she and Eileen were tipsy and out at various night clubs with him and her other and nicer stepbrother Miguel. I would’ve yelled at her for that, but other characters like Eileen, Miguel, and stepfather Luis made her see the light. Luis even recalls how Carlos got a girl pregnant when he was a teenager in Cuba. All of this has ramifications as he stalks her in Boston and snakes his way into the AI industry.  While people speculate that his mother preferred Miguel when they were children, it’s clear that Cohen wanted to show how far sexual predators are willing to go to get what they want. This is even to the point that Carlos does the following: run over Rip’s dog at the park, stab Sylvie in the back while at her home in Boston, and attempt to murder Miguel at his wedding to Eileen in Miami. 

The Deepfake by Joan Cohen is a fascinating look at how AI affects one worker and her family. It taught me that AI can be used for both good and for evil. Moreover, it shows the importance of knowing exactly what AI and other new technology are capable of and not being a blind follower. Above all, it has an interesting main character, whose overall dilemma is about drawing the line between pleasing others and making their own choices. It helps that her family could easily be in a soap opera. I would recommend this book to those who want to know more about AI and who love stories about people discovering themselves. The book is out now, so go check it out wherever you get your novels.

Before I go, I want to let you know that I had the opportunity to interview Joan Cohen for the website. The transcript has been posted here.

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The Poisonwood Bible Book Review

Content warning: this review contains a major spoiler alert.

Since I started this website, many people have recommended various books that I should read. The one that got the most recommendations from those I’ve known was none other than the 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Now that I’ve finally read it, I can say that it’s a great book that explores five different perspectives on pivotal events in the history of the Congo.

The Poisonwood Bible is about Orleanna Price and her four daughters, who witness significant parts of Congolese history as part of a missionary trip. Orleanna’s husband Nathan Price is a fiercely devoted evangelical Baptist who takes his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry everything with them that they think they need from their home in Georgia, yet they soon find that all of it is transformed on African soil. They soon witness the most dramatic political chronicles in the 20th century: the Congo’s fight for independence, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to replace him, and the progress of a world economic order that robs the African nation of its independence. Against this backdrop, Orleanna recounts her husband’s actions in the Western assault on Africa. Additionally, her four daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May tell their tales and how they are forever changed by the land of Ham.

The writing is top notch. I love how the book sets the stage of what’s going to occur just in the prologue with the opening line, “Imagine a ruin so strange it must have never happened.”

That’s a line I’m going to remember for a long time.

Because the book deals with religion, each section is named after a book from the Bible like how Book One is called, but what else, “Genesis.” It’s a great way to get people into the religious theme and how each character feels about Christianity and its role in colonization. The writing also allows for each of the main characters to express their thoughts while keeping the narrative going.

It’s rare for a book to have 5 narrators, and it’s even more scarce that it’s executed so well. Each person has a clear and different viewpoint that I was able to clearly identify who was talking even if I didn’t look at the chapter title. For example, the four daughters have clear definite personalities. Rachel is the vapid, self-centered, and malapropist eldest. Leah is the idealistic tomboy who idolizes her father to a point. Adah – Leah’s twin – walks crookedly due to half of her brain not being developed, but she loves wordplay, especially palindromes, and observing others. Ruth May is the courageous and youngest one. And of course, the most fascinating character is the mother Orleanna. Orleanna is the typical 1950s minister’s wife with her softness, quietness, and femininity. At the same time, she’s constantly brooding on the decisions that led her to meet Nathan, marry him, and allow him to take the family to the Belgian Congo. She eventually cracks and leaves him after something significant happens to one of the daughters.

Some of the criticism of this book is regarding the depiction of Nathan, especially how it’s anti-Western and anti-Christian. It’s true that he comes off as a stereotype of the fire and brimstone evangelical baptist. At the same time, he’s meant to represent the kind of people that came to Africa and wanted to help without understanding the culture nor the language. He also has more of a backstory than the abusive dad from The Great Alone did.

Prior to reading The Poisonwood Bible, I knew little about the colonization of the Congo and less so about its independence. For example, I didn’t know about the democratic election of Patrice Lumumba as prime minister in 1960, his murder a year later, and how the CIA replaced him with a leader who was “willing to work” with American interests. Kingsolver packs in so much about this part of history in a way that allows the story to move along. Considering that she lived in the Congo when she was a child after that country gained its independence, she’s very knowledgeable and respectful of multiple perspectives. Anatole – a teacher in the village of Kilanga where the Prices resided in and later Leah’s husband – tells Leah that many children died in the area, so why should a white child dying be any different after Ruth May passes away after a snake bite. Reading so much about the Belgian colonization of Congo and the latter’s independence makes me want to learn more, so I will have to look at King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild at some point.

The only aspect that I have to complain about is the ending. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. I like how it explores what Rachel, Leah, and Adah do after their time in the Congo. Rachel becomes a hotel owner in South Africa, while Leah marries Anatole and becomes a political activist, and Adah studies medicine and biology back in the states. However, it felt tacked on. The book spends a good chunk of the time gradually unfolding how the Price women feel about their new surroundings and about the events that occur following the Congo’s independence. After they leave, it jumps decades only to tell us what each is doing. It could’ve ended after Book Five titled “Exodus.”

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is an excellent historical fiction novel about one family’s experiences with the colonization and independence of the Congo. The writing is excellent as it goes in depth about the history while exploring each of the main character’s thoughts and maintaining a steady pace throughout. Speaking of the characters, Orleanna and the daughters are so well developed that I wanted to know more about them, even the shallow Rachel. I would recommend this book to all readers, particularly to those who want to know about the history of the Congo and love stories about religion and missionary work.

In the meantime, you can listen to the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast. Guest and host of the Women in Session podcast Amy Thomasson and I discuss how to adapt this book into a HBO limited tv series and why we don’t know more about colonization of the Congo. Check out at this link.

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Adapt Me Podcast – The Poisonwood Bible

Hi Everybody!

Grab your Bible errata and take a trip to the Congo because guest Amy Thomasson from the Women InSession podcast and I talk about how we would adapt The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver on the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast! Check it out at this link!

My review of The Poisonwood Bible will come out next week.

Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates. Also feel free to email me here for any review suggestions, ideas, or new titles!

Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Books Forward in exchange for an honest review.

Adoption stories have always been compelling to me. Even though I’ve never experienced that myself, I’ve found it fascinating that plenty of people have had a different family from the one that they were born into. What rarely crosses my mind regarding these tales is about the birth parents, specifically about the birth mother. What were the circumstances? How did they feel about giving up their child? Did they ever find them? Today’s wonderful subject Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self by Tracy Mayo made me consider what it was like to be a birth mother pre Roe vs. Wade.

Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self is a memoir about a woman who had to give up her child for adoption. In 1970, 14-year-old Tracy was the only child of a high-ranking naval officer and a socially ambitious mother. After 8 different moves, she longed for a normal life, one filled with friends and feeling rooted. Instead, she got pregnant at that age and was exiled to a maternity home. There, she gave birth to a boy, but she was forced to bear the guilt and shame of being an unwed mother. On top of that, she had to surrender her child and pretend that it never happened. Twenty-two years later, with her longing still undiminished, Tracy set out to find him and perhaps, to reclaim herself.

The book is divided into three parts. The first two, labeled “Dazed” and “Lost,” deal with the events before and up to 20 years after her pregnancy. It’s these sections that were kind of hard to get through because of how much I felt sorry for her that she had to go through that. When her parents found out that Tracy was pregnant, they put her in a maternity home because that’s what people did when their daughters were having children before getting married prior to Roe vs. Wade. This didn’t make it any better as Tracy recounts. She expressed her grievances towards both her dad and mom for this. With her dad, it was him who made the formal decision without even consulting her, yet she’s more forgiving towards him because he was a problem-solver due to his military background. Tracy had a harder time with her mother because she was the one who told her, “Tracy, we agreed never to say the name of that place out loud, don’t forget. Some things can never be discussed. You were never there” (p. 125).

In other words, her mother wanted her to forget about the baby, maternity home, and her pregnancy overall. It didn’t help that Tracy’s mother wanted her to be the daughter that Tracy knew that she never could be.

Prior to reading this book, I’d only heard about maternity homes. Mayo paints a dreary atmosphere while describing her time in one. Apparently, the pregnant girls and ones who just gave birth lived on separate floors. The former had to restrict their time outside the home to limit the risk of public exposure. That same group also had to go on diets, which only allowed them to gain half a pound a week, so it’d be easier to lose the baby fat after they gave birth. I’ve never been pregnant, yet I was like, “What?!”

It was difficult for Tracy to forget about what she went through. She recalls taking a bunch of drugs like LSD in the Duke Forest while she studied medicine at Duke University. She later utilized meditations to cope with her trauma, and at one point, she had a vision of her son whom she named Thomas. In one, she asks him what has happened to him, and he reveals certain things like an accident, in which he got burned when he was 10 years old (p. 143-150). 

The third and final part is called “Found,” which details how Tracy found her son and she reconnected with him. She started her research in 1992 before the Internet. This meant going to various archives, including Old Dominion University, which housed records from the maternity home she was at and consulting a person called The Searcher. I can imagine how difficult it would’ve been to research where her son would’ve been at or if he was even alive. She even got in contact with the search and support group Adoptee-Birthparent Support Network (ABSN), who gave her important advice when dealing with family services. The love for this organization is very clear because of how helpful they were and how they validated her experiences.

She hit some dead ends with her research and had to deal with certain social workers. One even went on a tone-deaf rant about how it’s hard to get pregnant; how Tracy was lucky to have a baby; how sons don’t always try to find their birthparents; and how there were not enough infants available for adoption, especially healthy white ones. Again, I was like, “What?!”

Regardless, when Tracy finally discovered her son’s whereabouts and was able to connect with him a year later in 1992, it felt so satisfying. Her son, now named David, seems like a wonderful guy. She portrays him as a good man who was raised in a loving, albeit flawed family. Tracy is able to bond with him with no problem.

Childless Mother certainly made me rethink adoption reunion stories. At one point, when Tracy bonds with David, he mentions to her that sons don’t try to find their birthparents, echoing what the vapid social worker said. At that moment, I realized that he was right. Many of the stories I read about adoptees attempting to find their birth mother or father were usually the daughters. The only one that I can think of, in which the son tried to do that was Son of Harpo Speaks by Bill Marx (the adopted son of comedian Harpo Marx), and that was just a subplot.

Here, it’s the entire story of a birthmother finding her son and then some. Most adoption tales end after the adoptee finds the birth parent, yet Mayo wanted to stress how she and her son maintained a relationship over the years. After she and David get to know each other, he starts living in her home after she divorces her second husband. Tracy also describes how he integrated into her life after they reunited. This includes dating her friends, who are older than him. This makes her judge him which I thought was intriguing because her mother used to do the same thing.

Again, while I’m not an adoptee nor had to give up a child for adoption, I can see how a story like this can strongly impact people who have experienced that in some form. Mayo is personable and emphatic with her writing. She paints a clear picture of the trauma first and then how she dealt with it over the years. She admits that some of her decisions weren’t the wisest, but she perseveres. People might cry while reading it, but feel happy when Tracy reclaims her story of being a mother.

Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self by Tracy Mayo considers the life of a birth mother in effective and realistic ways. Mayo’s writing is honest and emphatic while painting realistic pictures of the relationships she’s had as well as the environments she’s been in. On top of that, it makes it painfully clear that no person should’ve gone through what Tracy did when she was pregnant. I am and other readers will be happy to know that she was able to reclaim her story. I would recommend it to anybody who’s willing to read it, yet I suggest it to those who are adoptees and/or birthparents the most. The book will be out on Thursday, March 28, so get it wherever you can.

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LOY and Beyond Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from Stress Free Book Marketing in exchange for an honest review.

I have read a handful of books that were the second or latter titles in their series without reading the first one. Some of these like Richville, Another Tale of Travail and Treachery by Robert C. Jones and Death in a Gilded Frame by Cecelia Tichi come to mind. I can add another one to this list, which is LOY and Beyond by Todd David Gross. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into it except for two things.

LOY and Beyond is about a group of native people who have extraordinary abilities and have a special relationship with nature. In this entry, the Rehloy face the invasion of a barbarous and technologically superior group of people – the Ontarans. The Ontarans are the first great civilization to rise from the ashes. While they try to conquer the new land and weaponize the beasts native to it, they discover something far more valuable and potentially dangerous. Meanwhile, the Rehloy have a child named Tremlo, whose extreme sensitivities force him to live in seclusion. In order to find himself, he leaves the tribe to travel with Jormah – the Shaman in the making. This story is about first contact.

Even though I am in the minority when it comes to this, I couldn’t get into LOY and Beyond for two reasons. The first is that I didn’t read the first novel in the series Loy: In the Forest of the Mind. While I enjoyed certain aspects like how the Rehloy function (specifically how they are born blind, but shed the skin over their face at puberty,) I wasn’t able to care about other ones. With the exception of some people, the Ontarans felt like another typical colonizer as they tried to confiscate knowledge and resources from the natives and the land. If I had read the first book, I would’ve cared more since that one had great reviews.

The second reason is that I felt like I was dropped into the world Gross created right in the middle as opposed to the beginning. Yes, I know that this is the second book in the series, but it was so sudden and jarring. It starts off with a man named Daniel trying to remember a woman/girl named Jennifer, and then it shows the map of the world, in which the book takes place in, and a cast list. Daniel doesn’t really appear in the rest of the novel. This soured my experience reading it. If that prologue took place after the map and character list and if Daniel played a bigger role, it could’ve been a smoother transition, and I would’ve gotten into it more.

And despite my grievances with the novel, I still finished it, and that was because of Tremlo. Tremlo is a super sensitive child who had a special ability to blend in with the nature around him. In other words, he is autistic-coded. Sure, the adults in the Rehloy group know that he is odd, but they are fully aware of the potential that he has. They believe that Tremlo is the way that he is because he became “conscious in the womb.”

I’ve never seen that explanation for autism since the causes are often debated. Nonetheless, it reflects how many autistic people in real life are overly sensitive people who notice too much. This paints a more realistic picture of what it means to be autistic than what regular media is willing to portray.

I enjoyed Tremlo. He has his quirks like referring to himself in the third person and has worries about belonging. There are even times, in which he believes that he has to sacrifice himself in order to truly find himself. The ending pays that off well. When he senses that Jormah – the Shaman in training – is coming back to the tribe, he immediately attaches himself to him. Tremlo even leaves with Jormah despite the latter’s protests. Together, they work on strengthening Tremlo’s skills and self-esteem. There’s even a scene, in which Tremlo has to save Jormah after the latter is captured by the Ontarans. This proves to Jormah that he had been underestimating Tremlo the entire time. I was totally invested in their journeys.

LOY and Beyond by Todd David Gross is one I couldn’t get invested in no matter how hard I tried. Tremlo and his relationship with Jormah were the only things that kept me going because of how authentic they felt. I feel like I would’ve liked it more if I read the first book in the Rehloy series. It would’ve made me comprehend the world more. This novel is good for readers who like science fiction, dystopian titles about new and unique civilizations, and have read Loy: In the Forest of the Mind. 

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Fiona’s Fury Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from Stress Free Book Marketing in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warning: this review discusses stalking and abuse.

When I read a book, it might take me a while to get into it. Something has to happen to make me invested in the story. On the other hand, there are times that I’ve gotten on board right away. This may be because of the premise, or it could be the author’s writing that immediately sucks me in. The latter occurred when I read Fiona’s Fury by Roxy Blue – a chilling, sardonic book that had me scared and laughing.

Fiona’s Fury is about a woman willing to risk everything for love. Fiona Turner – the CEO of Fiona’s Floral Shop – has no time for men. She talks to a flower vendor on the phone, which makes her feel things that she doesn’t really want to admit to. Fiona has remained friends with her ex-husband Quade, but she never would’ve expected him to become a terrifying, controlling, law-bending monster. When she displays the first signs of wanting to move on with her life, Quade threatens to take everything from her. Luckily, a weekend at a floral conference answers all her questions about the floral supplier and man on the other end of the phone, Bo Thompson, except how she could possibly have him. She must find a way if she wants to know what she’s missing.

I knew that I was going to like this book right away when I read the words “naked ass” on the first page. That told me everything I needed to know about Fiona as well as the tone. Specifically, she is strong and confident and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about things that don’t appeal to her. At the same time, she uses her sarcasm as a mask for her true feelings and desires, especially after years of trying to please her father. These are more apparent when her best friend Holly tries to talk to her about the floral vendor on the phone.

The chapters switch between Fiona and Bo’s perspectives. Bo – the Prince Charming in this case – is a simple and handsome man who lives on his family farm in Florida. He spends his time tending to the plants he eventually sells and restoring the house. Also, he has visions of a woman in trouble. This might seem silly, but there have been romantic comedies that have more ridiculous situations. Also, what Bo does in the third act is completely in line with those movies.

I totally bought into their romance because of their undeniable attraction towards each other and how both want simple things in life. They also bond over their sad backstories. Fiona has a father that never really respected her because she’s a girl, while Bo lost his parents in a tragic accident when he was 14. The middle portion of the book is devoted to their romance as it blooms at the floral conference. This part can drag a little bit, yet their hesitancy to advance the relationship is interesting. 

Bo also vows to respect Fiona’s agency, unlike her ex-husband Quade. Quade starts off as a dorky, but friendly man who is still in love with his ex-wife. It begins with him asking her out to dinner when he’s in town and coming over to the house she lives in. Then, it turns into him breaking into that same home (also, he owns it). He threatens to take everything away from her, especially the flower shop, and he’s buddies with the local police. He believes that he is losing her. These scenes were tough to get through since they riled me up that this delusional man could take advantage of Fiona in such a way. I understand her fury even if she comes off as foolish sometimes. If this novel gets adapted, I would love to see Will Ferrell as Quade.

The supporting characters are pretty good too. Holly and Jose are friends with Fiona and Bo, and they are super supportive. When Holly finds out about Fiona’s troubles with Quade, she immediately has her stay at her house. I got the feeling that they only exist just so the main ones can have someone to talk to. Given that both are of color (with Fiona at one point calling Holly her “beautiful bi-racial friend”), this is a bit questionable. On the other hand, Blue is writing other romance stories involving characters from this book. This includes Maxine, one of Fiona’s employees, who goes to London for an advanced floristry course in the novel Some Kind of Angel. I hope Blue will explore Holly and Jose in future books, especially the former. Readers know a bit about her like that she is an architectural drafter, a divorcee, and has a boyfriend named Levi.

Fiona’s Fury by Roxy Blue is a pretty good romance-suspense book. The writing drew me in with its wonderful thrilling and sardonic tone. The main characters are compelling, and readers will completely understand why they are drawn to each other. It helps that the antagonist is disturbing. I would recommend it to readers who like romantic comedies with some suspense. While it’s not perfect, the book got me on board right from the start. It’ll be out tomorrow, March 12, so get it wherever it’s available.

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The Raven Boys Book Review

I’ve talked about intriguing titles before, but when I came across The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, I had three thoughts. 

1. Who were the Raven Boys? 

2. How does one become a Raven Boy? 

3. Will they pester me like Bart does with Homer in the first Treehouse of Horror episode from The Simpsons?

These questions were answered when I read the book. Along with that, the novel offered realistic and fantastical world building, memorable characters, and a great audiobook.

The Raven Boys is the first book in “The Raven Cycle” series. Every year on St. Mark’s Eve, Blue Sargent stands by her mom as the soon-to-be dead walk by in the churchyard. Blue has never seen them – until that day, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. The only reason that she sees him is either he is her true love, or she killed him. His name is Richard Gansey III (aka Gansey), and she soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby Academy, the local private school. Her mom told her in the past to stay away from Aglionby boys (also known as the Raven Boys due to the mascot being that bird) because they only mean trouble. 

Despite that, she is drawn to Gansey for some inexplicable reason. He has it all – family money, good looks, and devoted friends, yet he’s looking for more. Gansey is on a quest to find the Welsh King Owain Glyndŵr (Owen Glendower,) and it has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam Parrish, the student on scholarship who resents the privilege around him; Ronan Lynch, the fierce soul battling his own demons; and Noah Czerny, the watcher of the four, who notices so much, but says so little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die if they kiss. She never thought that this would be a problem, but once she gets caught up with the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

The world building is well established. Blue lives with her large family, who happen to be psychics, in the rural town of Henrietta, Virginia. She is the only one who doesn’t possess such powers. Even Nino’s Restaurant – the place that she works at and where she first meets the Raven Boys – is portrayed as the location where the cool, Aglionby kids go even if working there can be a pain in the butt. Speaking of Aglionby, it’s seen as a typical private school, where there are perceived snooty students and buried secrets even among its staff. As for the fantastical stuff, it blends into the real world well. There’s even a plot development that illustrates this point.

Moreover, the characters stand out. Blue is your average female protagonist in a YA fantasy novel. She is the only normal person in a family full of quirky people. As it progresses, she befriends Adam and gets closer with Gansey as she helps the boys to find Glendower. She has to decide how she is going to handle those relationships despite the “curse.” I hope the series gives her more character development because her character arc is interesting so far. 

With the Raven Boys themselves, each is memorable in their own right. Gansey is charismatic and mature for his age and has a single-mind focus. He is determined to locate the Welsh King even at the expense of his friends as he slowly falls in love with Blue. Adam is a boy who comes from the lower class and managed to obtain a scholarship to study at Aglionby. He also has a horrible home life, but he doesn’t want to live with Gansey no matter how many times the latter asks him. Adam values his agency. I liked him the most because of how sweet he was, and I’m also drawn to characters who are “outcasts” in their own groups. Then, there’s Ronan. He comes off as aggressive, cynical, irritable, and sarcastic. He doesn’t care much about school unless it’s Latin. But, underneath, he is compassionate and loving towards his friends, family, and animals. I hear that the second book Dream Thieves is all about Ronan, so I can’t wait to read more about him.

The only complaint that I have with reading this book is that its flowery language slowed the pacing down a bit. This was most apparent in the beginning where everything was being established. Although it’s good with setting up the world within, it felt too much when all was needed was to move the plot and characters along, especially the sections with the Raven Boys. It got better once they went to Blue’s house for a psychic reading.

Now, of course, I have to talk about my favorite part of the book: the audiobook! It was narrated by Will Patton. For those who don’t know, Patton is an actor known for work in movies like Armageddon, Remember the Titans, and Minari as well as in television shows like Yellowstone. In addition, he has recorded audiobooks for authors like James Lee Burke, Stephen King, and Maggie Stiefvater. In fact, this was the first one he did for Stiefvater, and he has narrated all titles in both the “Raven Cycle” series and the “Dreamer Trilogy.” 

Patton is great at voicing all the characters. He gives them subtle, but notable distinctions. Blue sounds the most normal of all the people in the book, which illustrates her main problem of wanting to feel special despite her “curse.” Gansey is voiced with maturity, class, and determination, while Adam possesses a sweeter tone with a Southern accent at times to demonstrate his outsider status in the group. Ronan broods, yet Patton provides a fierce compassion and vulnerability to him when needed. Furthermore, I enjoyed how he portrayed Persephone – one of the women who lives with Blue. She has a quiet, but cheeky voice. 

Another thing that stood out with this vocal performance was Patton’s ability to switch from the private school dialect to a more rural one naturally. The book mentions how certain characters possess the Henrietta accent, so he translates this into a county one. This makes sense because the town is supposed to be rural. One last detail that impressed me was how Patton’s voice dubbed twice over when two characters speak at the same time. It was effortless, and I could tell which ones were talking at that moment. I can see why Stiefvater has continued to work with Patton since 2012.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is a pretty good start to a YA fantasy series. One could easily imagine what Henrietta, Virginia looks like and all the places within. The characters stand out in one way or another. Additionally, Will Patton does a fantastic job with the audiobook. I would recommend this book for people looking for a fantasy series, especially ones focused on psychics, the occult, and teenage protagonists. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to go read the next novel in the series Dream Thieves!

In the meantime, you can listen to the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast. Returning guest Amanda Garrison and I discuss how to adapt this book into a series. Check out at this link.

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