Saturday, June 16, 2018

Fear Street returns again

I see that the Fear Street franchise is getting a second reboot. I read all 6 books in the most recent relaunch - "Party Games", "Don't Stay Up Late", "The Lost Girl", "Can You Keep A Secret", "The Dead Boyfriend" and "Give Me A K-I-L-L". Only the latter really felt like a Fear Street book of yore. It seemed as if Stine (or his ghostwriters) missed the memo on what an actual Fear Street book was. Essentially, 90% of the time, they were murder mysteries with a female protagonist, written in third person omniscient. The reboot was largely supernatural, with stupid out-of-left-field surprise endings that felt more suited to the Goosebumps franchise and made you want to throw the book across the room.

It was surprising that after "Give Me A K-I-L-L", the only one that actually read like a Fear Street book, the reboot was abandoned. However, Fear Street has been revived as "Return To Fear Street", with retro-style covers for those who are fans of Stranger Things.

Huh? Stranger Things is set in the 80s. Although the first three Fear Street books were published in 1989, Fear Street is largely a product of the 90s (and my favourite decade). I'm not sure I understand the relaunching of a 90s franchise and trying to shoehorn it into the 80s nostalgia revival. It feels like they're completely missing the boat again. Just like the last six book run, which felt much more like Goosebumps books, but with more gore, I worry that this latest reboot is going to lack all the ingredients that made a Fear Street book a Fear Street book. The synopsis of the first title, "You May Know Kill The Bride" sounds decidedly supernatural.

I remember what I loved about the original series. There was a book a month. They were the old-fashioned size of approximately 17cm x 10.5cm (or the other way around, whatever the proper order should be). I could save up lunch money for a couple of days and be able to afford to buy the latest. I still remember catching the train home after school and popping into Myer to buy the latest release before my mum would pick me up from the train station. I also remember staying up late on the weekend to read it. I guess those memories can never be recaptured. But the last reboot certainly got that element wrong: they were released in hardback, and large format, and cost about the same as an adult book.

Apparently the new franchise is releasing the books in softcover, and hopefully at a reasonable price. I'm also hoping they'll be in that small format edition, although that doesn't seem to exist anymore, except for Harlequin Mills & Boon books. I'm not sure of the release schedule, although "You May Now Kill The Bride" is due for release July 2018, "The Wrong Girl" is set for September 2018, and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is slated for February 2019, according to the Fantastic Fiction website. That sounds like they'll be a bit more frequent than the two books we got a year in the last reboot.

I'll definitely be reading the latest relaunch, there's absolutely no doubt about that. But after the last round, I can't help but be a little pessimistic, because so many opportunities were missed. I'll also see what I can do to actually get the books in book format. I got the last lot on Kindle, because they were impossible to find in bookstores in Australia, and something was lost in the translation. I've said before, I think the publishers need to realise that the people primarily reading these will be those who loved the books in the 90s. I'm 38 now, so if that's any indication, a large proportion of readers will be well into their 30s. Today's young adult fiction is so different to what it was in the 90s, and I don't think Fear Street will ever really catch on in today's market, which is why they need to focus on hooking in and satisfying us oldies.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

"Remember Me This Way" by Sabine Durrant

Lizzie Carter's husband Zack Hopkins died a year ago and she's still not over it. Boy, is she really not over it. On the anniversary of his death, she goes to put flowers at his grave, only to find a bunch of flowers already there, a note revealing that someone called Xenia left them for him. Lizzie has no idea who Xenia might be.

Shortly before Zack's death, Lizzie left him a letter at his apartment saying she was leaving him. When she finally works up the courage to visit the flat, she finds that the letter has been opened and read; she'd always assumed he'd died before getting a chance to read it. These two occurrences convince her that Zack faked his death, is still alive, and out to harm her.

This took me nearly two weeks to read. It was very difficult to get into. Most of this was due to the main character of Lizzie. I understand the book was being told from the point-of-view of a woman who had been in an abusive marriage, but Lizzie's unrelenting weakness really wore me out. This woman's complete inability to pull herself together and do one simple thing without falling apart was annoying to the extreme. Once again, I understand this is probably a highly accurate portrayal of a woman who has been controlled and abused by her husband, if only for a couple of years, but it was a joyless experience seeing life through her timid eyes.

It just made her look stupid. And it didn't make sense that the police didn't fully inform her about the circumstances of her husband's death. The book tries to chalk it up to the incompetence of the family liaison officer assigned to her, but I call bullshit. I never believed that Lizzie could have been left in the dark to such an extent that she would believe her husband would fake her death. She bitches endlessly about her friends and family not believing her, but come on, Lizzie! Grow a brain - and maybe a spine too - and see your pathetic ramblings for what they are! I was never once convinced throughout the duration of the book that Zack was still alive. I got that Lizzie was an unstable, over-emotional wreck with lousy decision-making skills, but not sold on anything else.

The chapters from Zack's point of view, in the past, were effective. It provided us with a much clearer picture of the abusive manner in which he treated Lizzie. (When we're in Lizzie's head, it's just constant fluttering about how perfect he was). It was a pretty good portrayal of a sociopath. He was a horrible person, of course, but he was far more believable and interesting than wet-rag Lizzie.

Note: if you're a dog-lover, beware. Although the dog doesn't die, he is horribly mistreated by the plethora of sociopaths populating the novel. My puppy Denny was on the bed beside me while I read and I had to keep putting the book down so I could go over and hug her. 

If you can get past the utterly tedious first 70 pages or so, this settles into a fairly standard psychological thriller, with some mild intrigue, but is largely predictable once all the major players are introduced and interacting with one another. It's main letdown is its frustrating main character. Yes, her personality makes sense, but it wasn't any fun to read about.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

"Think Of The Children" by Kerry Wilkinson

DS Jessica Daniel witnesses a car accident. When she gets to the scene, the driver is dead, and she discovers the dead body of a boy in the trunk. The driver had a map to a specific location. When Jessica and her team arrive there, they discover some old clothes. They eventually learn the clothes belong to a boy who disappeared without a trace fourteen years earlier. Another lead takes them to an allotment shed, where they find a list of boys' names. What could link the two crimes, and is the list an indication that more boys will become victims?

It's another British police procedural. That should tell you everything to need to know, really.

It avoids some cliches. Jessica thankfully doesn't come with a traumatic past, just some mild romantic angst. There wasn't an evil, conniving journalist waiting in the wings to try and character-assassinate Jessica. There wasn't any internal team conflicts with somebody out for Jessica's job. There was that, at least.

However, the rest of it wasn't much to write home about. I thought the various elements to the plot were interesting, and wanted to see how they would all link up. But it was pretty thin. This felt very padded out. As it typical of the genre, there are false leads and dead ends.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER When another boy goes missing, we get a few chapters from the point of view of Lloyd, the kidnapped boy, who refers to his kidnapper as "the person". It is then revealed his kidnapper is his grandmother, and has nothing to do with the case. Why the fuck was he referring to his grandmother as "the person" and not "grandmother"? It's cheap, lazy writing that treats the reader like an idiot. END SPOILER

I was about ready to throw the book across the room during an endless 17-page chapter in which Jessica makes dinner for her boyfriend and some friends. SEVENTEEN FUCKING PAGES. Why was that necessary? It doesn't add anything to the story or characterisation, as we're repeatedly told it's completely out of character for Jessica to do that! Grrrr.

Although Jessica approved somewhat towards the end, I had difficulty liking her character. She's a miserable bitch most of the time.

By the end I was skimming. I grew tired of the author's habit of telling us that Jessica had figured something out, but not actually letting us (the reader) in on it. This was particularly painful in the home stretch, where Jessica undertakes all manner of schemes to bring about a resolution to the case. I was so bored by then, I was mostly skimming, only to be rewarded with the revelation to be exactly what I expected it to be.

I won't be visiting any of Jessica's other adventures. She was annoying, the plot was slow and predictable, and the writer employed cheap, lazy tricks to try and obfuscate any plot surprises. There are too many good books out there to waste more time on a series that brings nothing new to a genre that I'm increasingly beginning to dislike.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

"Keep Your Friends Close" by Paula Daly

Natty Wainwright hurries to France when daughter Felicity is hospitalised after a burst appendix. She has husband Sean stay behind to look after the hotel they own and manage. Her friend from her teenage years, Eve Dalladay, is visiting and figures she will be able to provide some support. Oh boy, does she ever. In Natty's absence, Eve gives Sean a blow-job and in the space of just ten days he's decided he's in love with Eve and leaves Natty for her.

Natty is understandably quite shocked by this turn of events and has trouble coping with what has happened. She rams Eve's car in a fit of rage, and finds herself in trouble with the police, as Eve has sustained significant injuries and is pressing charges. As the days go on, she finds her life being slowly derailed by Eve's shenanigans, as she moves in on Natty's family. Then Natty receives a note saying Eve has done this before....

My biggest issue with Keep Your Friends Close was Natty Wainwright herself. She's a COMPLETE FUCKING MORON. The sequence in which she rams Eve's car seems to be the driving element that kickstarts the story. Natty claims to know that Eve is lying about her injuries, as she was wearing a seatbelt when Natty rammed the car. So? So what? That makes it okay? That means it wasn't a completely stupid immature thing to do? On top of that, it makes no sense. Did Eve somehow psychically know that Natty would do this sort of thing, setting her up with  the perfect opportunity to make Natty look mad and dangerous? As the story wears on, Natty can't seem to remember to bring her wallet to places with her, or do any of the things a normal, educated person would do. She at one stage lets Eve in on where she is and what she's doing. Smart move, Natty! Just give away your whole strategy! It was endlessly frustrating. Basically, many of the situations Natty finds herself in are of her own doing. She deserved what she got.

The other parts work a little better. Eve is definitely an insidious, conniving bitch, and watching her try to destroy Natty and steal her life was quite good on a Lifetime TV-movie level. I would have liked some more antagonism between Eve and Felicity, the daughter who knew she was evil and up to no good. That battle of wills was interesting. I dare say it would have been a far more interesting and suspenseful book if it had been from the viewpoint of Felicity, matching wits with the evil bitch who wants to take over her family.

The detective character of Joanne Aspinall barely needed to be there. That we had two entire chapters devoted to her struggles with her enormous breasts and attempts at a breast reduction were just beyond belief. What the fuck was up with that? Who cares. I remember Joanne also appeared in Just What Kind Of Mother Are You?, Daly's previous novel, but here her presence was superfluous. The deal with her breasts is barely referenced throughout the rest of the book, further rendering it stupid and redundant. What was the point? Urgh.

The wrap-up falls short of satisfaction. Throughout the book we are given glimpses into Eve's apparent previous crimes. This is never followed through. We never learn the full details of Eve's history of fleecing men. Why was Sean a target? Was he particularly rich? Why did she want him??? He's a moron with two bratty daughters - and Eve doesn't like children. It all remains maddeningly elusive. What did she hope to gain?

The very final couple of pages provided a little punch of satisfaction that capped off the story nicely, though.

There were some good parts. Most of it was, however, was reliant upon extreme contrivance, so a lot of it didn't really ring true. The face-slappingly stupid protagonist didn't help much either.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

"Pretty Baby" by Mary Kubica

Heidi Wood is a bit of a bleeding heart. She takes in stray cats, and works for a non-profit charity helping refugees and those who don't speak English as a first language. Her latest charity case is a teenage mother, Willow. She brings her into her home, much to the dismay of husband Chris and daughter Zoe.

So why is Heidi so intent on looking after Willow and baby Ruby? And what secrets could Willow be possibly hiding that would make Heidi's offer of a helping hand turn out to be a bad decision?

SPOILERS LIES WITHIN

In the end, not a great deal.

I read this book in a day. I have to give it credit for that. It was obviously doing something right. But it really wasn't much of a thriller. Bit by bit, we learn about Willow's past. Bit by bit, we see how Heidi loses her grip on reality. But there are no real surprises. I guess my problem is I keep thinking up much more elaborate, exciting scenarios than what actually gets revealed. I need to stop doing that. "Pretty Baby" is much more psychological drama than it is psychological thriller. There was not enough peril for it to be classed as the latter. I just never quite got the sense that anybody was actually in any danger.

That's a major fail for what is being advertised as a THRILLER.

Seriously, Heidi's neurosis over not having the full family of six kids she wanted is hard to stomach. She has a daughter. Some people don't even have that. Instead, she just bangs on and on and on AND ON about baby Juliet, who had to be aborted, because Heidi had cervical cancer and wouldn't have survived long enough to bring Juliet to term.

Also, isn't it kind of sexist to suggest that women should feel worthless if they cannot give birth? If Heidi wanted a baby so desperately she was willing to take another woman's child, why the fuck couldn't she just adopt? Her husband Chris is shown throughout the book as unable/not willing to object to her do-gooding flights of fancy, so adoption seems like the far more easy, more legal avenue for Heidi to explore. I just find the continuing insinuation in today's society that being "barren" is bad as rather troublesome, a notion this book never attempts to debunk. Heidi is defined entirely by her desire to be a mother, and this is backed up by frequent referrals in the text to Heidi's abortion as "medical waste". Huh? Does Kubica have some sort of pro-life agenda going on here?

In the current boom of psychological thrillers, this is probably the worst I've read. I suspect that's more to do with it being labeled as a thriller, when it clearly never should have been.

"Close My Eyes" by Sophie McKenzie

Geniver Loxley endured a stillborn birth eight years ago, and has never really gotten over it. Her husband Art is eager for another child, so she reluctantly participates in fertility sessions to try and get pregnant again, as it doesn't seem to be working naturally.

Then one day, a woman - Lucy O'Donnell - shows up on her doorstep and reveals that her baby is actually alive. There was a conspiracy to fool Geniver into thinking her baby was stillborn, and her husband was apparently a major part of it. (Lucy's sister was a nurse in on the ruse, and spilled her guts on her deathbed).

Geniver grabs on to this shred of hope and refuses to let go. She obviously begins to wonder if she can trust her husband at all. A TV actor from her husband's past shows up, and he winds up being her support system as she searches for the truth.

It's been a few days since I read this, as I wanted to see how I felt about it after a little time had passed. With the benefit of that time for reflection, I have to say this one is worth reading. I've been sticking with psychological thrillers of late, because I have found the process of reading them enjoyable. While a police procedural has me wanting to throw the book/Kindle across the room because the exact same cliches keep popping up every time, this current trend of female-led psychological thrillers at least offer a bit of mystery. Sure, the final revelations are never as startling as you'd hope they'd be, but they do all suck me in.

My only real complaint with "Close My Eyes" is that I sometimes got fed up with the main character, Geniver. I couldn't possibly understand the trauma associated with having a stillborn baby, but Geniver's grief was just so self-indulgent. It often seemed as if she held on to her pain because she could, not because she should. She absolutely refused to move on with her life after EIGHT YEARS, and it was a bit too much. Why nobody in her life could find a way to gently tell her to process her grief and instead put up with her poor-me bullshit is beyond me.

Other than that, this really kept me gripped. I read it in a single day. It was all a bit outlandish, but I can forgive that, as it was never boring. The fact it had me hooked also helped to overlook some of the predictability. All in all, "Close My Eyes" is a good choice for those who, like me, are voraciously consuming this flurry of psychological thrillers. It hits far more than it misses (although I can't quite figure out the relevance of the title!)

Friday, August 12, 2016

"The Lies We Tell" by Meg Carter

Despite remembering with exact clarity every other moment of her life when she was 15, Katy Parker is hazy about that one day she saw best friend Jude Davies pulled into the bushes by an attacker. When she went to get help, she wound up in hospital (it's never fully explained exactly what happened to her). Jude moved away, and Katy never really found out what happened.

Twenty-four years later, Jude reappears in Katy's life - but is she friend or foe? Her arrival coincides with strange occurrences, such as a mysterious stranger in a downstairs apartment, vandalism of Katy's property, and the mugging of her mother. What exactly are Jude's intentions? And what exactly happened all that time ago?

Psychological thrillers are a dime a dozen these days, but I still get hooked in by them. They're certainly a more preferable choice than the police procedural, which now drive me crazy with their cliches. "The Lies We Tell" doesn't do much to stand out from the pack, but it's a diverting enough read.

My biggest beef is with the "unreliable narrator" element. I'm supposed to believe that Katy can't remember what actually happened one day twenty-four years ago when she can vividly remember every single other f***ing detail of her life, including one incident when she was two! Yes, two! It just suspends my disbelief that one bit too far. Seriously, she was two. Nobody can remember what they were doing when they were two. If Katy has this magical power, why can't she SPOILER AHEAD remember something mildly heroic like rescuing her best friend from someone she believed was a rapist by bonking him on the head with a branch? END SPOILER. It just doesn't make any sense.

The Lies We Tell is a slow-burn psychological thriller, but the suspense did get upped the closer it got to its climax. As is typical of the genre, the revelations aren't as exciting or dramatic as the characters make them out to be, so it's all a bit underwhelming.

The other big complaint here is description. Way too much of it. When Katy runs off in fear after she gets close to gathering an important clue (groan), we are then bombarded with descriptions of the roads and scenery she drives down, the beach she escapes to, and all the different people she sees on the beach.

It's not needed.


Seriously, why the fuck is it important for me to know the colour of the bathers somebody on a beach is wearing? This character has no name and no relevance to the plot. It's INFURIATING. The author particularly seems to engage in this when she wants to draw out the arrival of a major plot point. If she doesn't have enough plot for a full novel, she should consider a novella or short story.

The Lies We Tell wasn't completely exasperating, and it kept me involved, but doesn't deliver anything you haven't come across before in this genre.