Review: Dearest

Title:  Dearest

Series: N/A

Author: Carole Marshall

Publisher: Haitsma  Literary Agency

Published: October 24, 2011

Genre:

Format: Kindle

Pages:  167

Source: Received from author in exchange

for honest review

Read: March 24-31 2013

My Rating: 1 Star

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Meet Dr. Amelia Payne: a veterinarian and educational writer. She is a single woman living in Washington State. She no longer defines herself as the daughter of a clown and a deceased mime. At the age of fifty, Amelia has built a life for herself where the past would never find her . . . or so she hoped. The tragic tale of Amelia's life is brought to the forefront, when Claude Croft, Amelia's childhood friend, calls her in hopes of locating a bracelet he had promised his father to find. Gripped by a similar promise, Amelia joins Claude in a venture to find the jewelled bracelet, only to learn that she finds more than she bargained for. Spiralled back into her old life, Amelia is right back in the thick of the eccentric characters that once coloured her youth.A story about holding on and letting go, Dearest uncovers the past Amelia thought she knew, reveals secrets she never could have known, and the truth she finally comes to know.

Melissa's Musings:

The synopsis of this book is what pulled me in, since it seemed a little mysterious, and I figured the eccentric characters would help fill out the story and maybe add a little lightness to it, since it seemed heavy. The eccentric characters were more entertaining and easier to relate to than Amelia, the main character, on all fronts. Even so, the secondary characters felt almost as flat and underdeveloped as Amelia. All in all, this story was extremely difficult to get into.

There are a lot of deaths in the story. The fact of the many deaths isn't necessarily bad, but what I didn't like is the lack of transition between the death /people leaving Amelia to the next parts of the story. There is no speculation on her part for the reasoning behind these events. She simply moves along to the next event. It's very disconcerting, and eventually, after the third or fourth occurence, it just started to feel like overkill.

Just how many deaths can a story take, especially one as short as this? I won't name them all off, but at my count there are at least 8, including two animal deaths, though I may have missed some. And there is close to no internal commentary about these from Amelia, which makes her even harder to identify with.

Amelia, as a character is very...stoic, I suppose I would say. She's very cut and dry. There's little interaction between her and other characters and when there is, it's somewhat unfeeling. She does have a relationship with Claude that is somewhat serious, but even that felt fake, almost like insta-love. Claude and Amelia have a few intimate scenes which are written in the same stiff, formal style, that just made them feel awkward. It would have been better if those scenes had been left out entirely. 

Since Amelia was so difficult for me to connect with, I felt that the ending was lacking. The story comes to a resolution, and Amelia does show some growth. But, the process of getting to this growth and the repetition of her grandfather's message to her (which is an extended paragraph that I would guess was repeatedly written out, in full, at least 20 times) made the realization of her growth fall short. Instead of feeling happy for her that she finally learned what her grandfather had intended, I had the thought of "Finally! Now that message can stop." The ending leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least.

I do think that the main plot points of Amelia's father being a mime, her mother a clown, and her being stuck in the middle, as well as the secrets that are harbored by her parents do have potential. I applaud the author for trying to weave an intricate story around these elements, but the execution just didn't come together.

Unfortunately, I can't positively  recomend this book based on my own reading of it. But, if you like characters like clowns and mimes, you might give this a try.

I am curious though, how many deaths of people close to them do you think a character can go through before it just seems like too much and starts to seem ridiculous?

Anthology I: The Other Side by Hamidah Gul

Title: Anthology I: The Other Side

Author: Hamidah Gul

Publisher: Ninety Twenty Publishing

Published: April 20, 2012

Format: Kindle/Ebook 

Pages: 122

Source: Received from the author 

in exchange for an honest review.

Read: October 31, 2012

In A Few Words: Lacking direction, but the ambition is nice

My Rating: 1 star

Goodreads:Add This Book to Your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:

A collection of stories about things that go bump in the night. Stories about the end of the world, what happens when your wishes come true, and when your emotions become your darkest enemy.

1. The Suicide Case – A story about how three lives are intertwined to balance the scales between good and evil.

2. Come Home with Me – Never invite her to come home with you. She will never leave till you are dead.

3. The Other Side – This story is written in the point of view of one man who witnesses the end of the world.

4. Mission of Mercy – This story is written in the point of view of the one who will end the world. This story is linked to The Other Side.

5. The Best Friend – Ever wondered what your best friend is thinking when she is smiling at you?

6. The Lonely Heart – A young man ponders the end of his life after being rejected by society and family but not everything is what it seems.

7. Mary had a Little Lamb – A young woman who receives a disturbing prophecy that someone she loves will end her life and the desperate measures she takes to keep that from happening.

8. Mother and the Birds - Flash fiction of what a mother wants her son to learn.

9. The Death Star – A story in the voice of a young star looking for his purpose in space and finally finding it.

10. Children of the Mist – Wishes do come true but at what expense? Five young children were given their dreams and now the time has come for them to make a choice whether they want to keep their dreams.

Melissa's Musings:

I read this on Halloween, not purposefully, just because it happened to be the next book in my review request list. I was hoping that it would be a perfect fit, being that it's an anthology of horror stories. I thought it would be the perfect way to be a little spooked on Halloween.

Sadly, I wasn't at all scared by these stories. 

The main issue that I have with these stories is really twofold. One, the stories seem aimless. They lack clear direction. It felt to me as though the author just tried free writing their way through each story without having a clear beginning, middle and end in mind. There's absolutely nothing wrong with free writing to brainstorm, but trying to use it throughout a story just leads to confusion. There's  also not enough details, or story building  to keep readers invested. I found myself trying to fill in a lot of details as I read, and asking a lot of questions as to what the real point of the stories is. Sometimes the characters didn't even have names, when having them would have really helped me to feel some sort of connection to them, especially when the rest of the story seems to meander so much. They seem to focus more on the action and not enough on small, binding details, which, no matter the length of the story, are necessary to make it work.

Of the small details that were included, one was extremely overused. The author set several of the stories in the same place, "Murberry Town". On the whole, the name itself is rather plain, and seeing it pop up again and again in these stories pulled me out of them even further.

Secondly, the writing is poor. There are many instances where the tense switches from past to present and back again within the same sentence. There are a lot of sentences where words are missing in very opportune places. These gaps are enough of a hiccup to make the reader stop to try and figure out what is being said. There are also many spots of confusion regarding common sayings. For example, the author wrote:  "she was beautiful as always, not a hair in place" when what I think they meant to write, "she was beautiful as always, not a hair out of place"

Some of these stories are more on the grisly/disturbing side. One for example, tells the story from the perspective of a dog, watching his owner sleep. He talks about how he wants to touch her, (in a sexual way,) and then he's thinking of eating her for dinner, like some strange kind of animal vs.human, predator-prey battle or something.  But again, there was a strong lack of details that left me feeling slightly grossed out, but otherwise non-plussed.

The author puts brief taglines at the top of the first page of every story, so you can tell by those that the good intentions were present, but the ideas just weren't executed all that well.  I think that these stories do have potential, but they need a lot more work and polish before they become truly creepy.

While I didn't enjoy this collection, it's worth noting that 3 of the 10 selections focus on space and aliens, so it's possible that readers who like those types of stories would enjoy this, or at least those particular stories.

Catastrophically Consequential is Catastrophic Alright

Title: Catastrophically Consequential

Author: Stephen C. Bird

Publisher: Hysterical  Dementia

Published: February 16 2012

Format: Paperback

Pages: 152

Source: Won in a Goodreads Giveaway

Read: August 19, 2012

In A Few Words: Weird, Slightly Offensive

My Rating: 1 star

Goodreads:  Add this to your TBR pile

Goodreads Synopsyis:

This prequel-sequel to "Hideous Exuberance" incorporates non-linear plots; comical rants and disturbing inner monologues; stream of consciousness dream sequences; psychedelic, surrealistic scenarios and time-traveling characters.  Revel in the chaotic confusion of sociopathic celebrities, suburban swingers, suicidal trust fund girls, decadent jet setters, D-list standup comics, medieval princesses, sinister passive-aggressive jokers, "Evilangelists", and a host of other lost souls and disreputable, vindictive losers, as they search in vain for metaphysical clarity.

Please refer to the Blog Posting on the Stephen C. Bird Author Profile Page for Quotes from Goodreads Reviews for "Catastrophically Consequential".

Melissa's Musings:

This book is bizarre. Almost as bizarre as The Sugar Frosted Nutsack. Almost. Catastrophically Consequential, at the very least didn't make me want to bang my head into a wall because it basically repeated itself all the way through.

No,  this book had a variable story. But it failed to catch my attention.

It's full of ridiculous puns. Not even clever ones. Just a bunch of words that are misspelled and made to look like they're clever. There are plenty of random name droppings and strange associations too.

And then there's an entire chapter that's written in text-speak. That made me want to gouge out my eyes. And the chapter after that is written in redneck speak. Just as bad.

I understand that the book is supposed to be satirical, but in some spots this was just down right offensive, covered in thinly veiled jokes. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to upset any readers, but I'll just say be warned. There are also some semi-gruesome violent descriptions in this book as well.

It definitely lives up to it's name being that it's catastrophic, but as for consequential, I'm not sure....

I don't even know who I would recommend this to other than someone who likes bizarro fiction, which, I guess I'm learning from reading this, that I don't.

Review: The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner

Title: The Sugar Frosted Nutsack

Author: Mark Leyner

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Published: March 26 2012

Format: Hardcover

Source: Won from Goodreads

First Reads

Read: July 17-23

In A Few Words: Utterly ridiculous and bizarre

My rating: 1 star

Goodreads: Add it to your to-read shelf

Goodreads  Snyopsis: High above the bustling streets of Dubai, in the world's tallest and most luxurious skyscraper, reside the gods and goddesses of the modern world. Since they emerged 14 billion years ago from a bus blaring a tune remarkably similar to the Mister Softee jingle, they've wreaked mischief and havoc on mankind. Unable to control their jealousies, the gods have splintered into several factions, led by the immortal enemies XOXO, Shanice, La Felina, Fast-Cooking Ali, and Mogul Magoo. Ike Karton, an unemployed butcher from New Jersey, is their current obsession.

Ritualistically recited by a cast of drug-addled bards, THE SUGAR FROSTED NUTSACK is Ike's epic story. A raucous tale of gods and men confronting lust, ambition, death, and the eternal verities, it is a wildly fun, wickedly fast gambol through the unmapped corridors of the imagination.

Melissa's Musings:

I don't even know how to begin this review. First off, let me tell you that this book is one of the most ridiculous, pointless things I have ever read.

The first thirty pages talk over and over about various gods who are in charge of random things, like chicken tenders and fibromyalgia, and who are all in some sort of weird lust competition with each other. Honestly, I don't know why I even kept going beyond the first 30 pages.

As you read, you learn about XOXO another god, who secretly is trying to sabotage this whole epic story, by inscribing on your brain whatever it is that he wants you to know. (Where the epic of it is, I honestly don't know. I'm not being snide or snarky here either, it's just the fact that this 'story' makes no sense.)

The story then gets into the background of Ike Karton, a strange man from New Jersey, who already knows that he's going to be assassinated in a week's time by some secret militant group.

Honestly, I don't even know what to say about this. It resembles the ramblings of a highly schizophrenic person. If not that then another way I could describe it would be to say that maybe it's someone on a bad acid trip or something. The main character Ike, smokes highly potent gravy, (not a code word for drugs here, it's actually described as normal brown gravy) throughout the book, so the bad trip theory is at least feasible.


I don't know if the author was trying to be somehow philosophical or deep with all of this mumbo jumbo and these random references, and just failed miserably, or if it was just supposed to be funny. Also a big fail there, by the way.

 It's described in weird  fits and starts that really make no sense and seem to have no real connection to each other. There's A LOT  of name dropping, particularly famous name dropping. There's probably well over 100 famous people mentioned.  Since Ike has a list of celebrities that he hates, maybe this is the authors personal celebrity dislike list?

The fact that the book is so repetitive really made me want to bang my head against the wall. I put this down several times because I just couldn't take the nonsense. I would give you an example, but I don't even want to open this book and read any of it again, it's that strange. Just trust me when I say it'll give you a headache.


One of the definitions of insanity is : a foolish or senseless, action, statement, policy, etc. Let me tell you this book is full of insane statements. Some people say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In this case it would be reading the same thing over and over and expecting something different to happen the next time you read it. Maybe that means I'm insane for reading this book, I don't know.


This book only made me laugh once. And the joke wasn't even all that funny. I won't ruin it, but I will tell you that it has to do with Dick Van Dyke.


At this point you're probably wondering why I even finished the book. For one, I hate not finishing books. For another thing, I was really hoping this book would redeem itself somehow. Maybe there would be some deeper meaning, some lesson to be taken away from it. (If there was one, I didn't find it.)


Plus, I'd never read anything by Mark Leyner before, and I heard he's really funny. But, I guess his sense of humor is the kind that you "just get" or you don't. It appears that I'm in the "don't get it" group. I might try another one of his books at some point in the future but that won't be anytime soon.


That's what I get for picking the books with the quirky titles I guess.


I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for a challenge, or who might like a lot of random name dropping in their books. Just a warning to anyone who might read this, there's some language that might be offensive and a lot of sexual references.


Has anybody else out there read this? If so what did you think of it?

Review: Breath of a Child by Donna M. Rinelli

Author: Donna M. Rinelli Rrt

                                                   Publisher: Balboa Press                      

Published:   February   12 2012

Format:  Paperback

 Pages:  104

How I received this book: Won in a Goodreads Giveaway

Read: May 21 2012

My rating: 1 star

In a Few Words: Choppy and erratic, but the sentiment  is nice

Goodreads: Add it to your shelf

Amazon: Buy it here

Synopsis:

Breath of a Child is about finding the things in life that fill your soul. As a child, it was once there where you felt the closest to your soul. Through that feeling, you can find who you truly are in life. We have prepared ourselves as children to be in situations that are in our life today, helping us to server others. It’s being who you were born to be, helping you to live a more content, happy, and exciting life. There are so many ingredients that make a human being, and through many of them, we tend to lose who we truly are. We can sift through them, separating them by learning to rewire our brains with better thoughts. Just because we go through suffering and pain does not mean we have to live with it in our world. By allowing it to be released, you can begin to see the love in yourself, allowing you to have a fulfilled life.

Melissa's Musings:

Let me start off by saying, while I did not care for this book, it does not automatically mean the book isn't good. It just didn't work for me. Here's why:

The Writing:

The writing in this book was extremely choppy and much too wordy. I think the author may have been trying to reiterate her passion about her points a little too much because the writing is hard to digest and doesn't flow well. There are numerous spelling mistakes and misuse of words. A few that stick out are the use of the word "quilt" when it's clear that she meant to use guilt. Even though I knew what she meant, it still interrupted my reading flow enough for me to go back and have to think about what she was actually trying to say.

      One blunder actually made me laugh out loud. The author was talking about how she moved in with her grandmother at one point. Where did they move to, you're wondering? They moved to Fort Larderdale Florida. Instead of beaches and bikinis, I imagined bunches of overweight people sweltering in the sun. The laugh was nice, but in the end it still detracts from the reading experience.

        Another part about this that was confusing is the jumping forward and backward in time. Instead of a sensible, linear timeline, the narrative jumps around A LOT. This happens in terms of time and age of the author as well as the events that she is trying to describe. At one point she is describing her parents love of music and the very next sentence has her talking about Christmas.

I suppose what I'm trying to say here is something many of us probably heard when we were in school. "Remember to show, not tell." There is a great deal of "telling" in this book, and not all of it is connected together clearly. When I first started reading this it reminded me of a free write that you might do in a creative writing class where you just write for a set amount of time and don't worry about editing or content. Not all of the narrative is like that, but it has that same sort of feeling throughout.

There is one spot in the book that is so much more descriptive, with more "showing" than telling. Rinelli is talking about a dream she has continually where she is in a beautiful place waiting to see a friend who has passed on. The pages in this part are full of descriptive colorful phrases. I found myself reading this and thinking "Now, this is what I'd like to see in the rest of the story."

To me, that means that the potential is definitely there, maybe this narrative just needed a fresh set of eyes to catch these things and it would have flowed together better.

Some of the Events Just Aren't Realistic:

The heading here is pretty self explanatory but I'll give an example to explain. Rinelli talks about a time when, as a two year old, she got into some sort of drug that her parents had left out and had a bad trip. She writes about what she saw when she was under the influence of this drug, and describes the change in the room temperature and hallucinating about a baby in the crib in the middle of the room that she knew was herself. And, that as she walked through the house a doorway appeared magically between her and her parents rooms.

It doesn't make sense to me that someone who was a toddler at the time would remember this event with such concrete thoughts of the event. 

I Couldn't Relate to the Narrative or the Author:

As a result of all the "telling" going on, I couldn't relate to the author's experiences. This was supposed to be about how the author survived experiences with child abuse. There were hints at it, sections saying things like "my abusers had power over me" but there was no description of what actually happened that was so horrible to bring about this "journey of change" that the author is on. The author does go on to explain why she doesn't go into any detail about these abusive events by saying that she chose not to provide any details because the events are over and they didn't exist, and that there are too many people involved and she doesn't want to hurt anyone she loves including the abusers. (Rinelli, 78)

I wasn't expecting explicit details of every abusive incident, but something to help us understand where she was coming from with all of these vague hints would have been good. 

My inability to relate to this narrative also has to do with the structure again, in that there were random happenings and descriptions interspersed with what I think are supposed to be spiritual/empowering guidance points. That's part of the problem though. The past events are literally mixed into the same sections as these empowering points and there's really no explanation of how the author used these tools to help herself, just generic descriptions of the exercises. Again, too much "telling," not enough "showing."

You're Probably Wondering:

At this point, you're probably wondering, "If there's so much that you didn't like about it, why on earth did you keep reading it?"

Well, for a few reasons:

1. I absolutely hate not finishing books. It's one of my pet peeves. I do have a Goodreads shelf called "abandoned" for books that I can't finish, but there are only 5 books on it.
2. It was only 104 pages. I would have felt foolish for not finishing a book that short.
3. The central idea around the book was interesting and I wanted to see if there might be any bits of information that I could pick up or learn from this, however small. (Unfortunately I didn't gain any new information)
4. I was really hoping that this book would redeem itself somehow. There might be some sort of vivid epiphany, or extremely useful technique or other resource that might have made it worth reading. That didn't happen here, but obviously the hope that this might happen was enough to keep me reading it.

In Closing:

With all that I've said about this book, you should really choose for yourself whether you want to read this or not. What may not be good to me may seem like a wonderful story to you. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys life narratives, with self help elements mixed in.

When Destiny Knocks: A Review

How I received this book: The author provided it in exchange for an honest review.

Read from: April 21-22
My rating: 1 star
I would describe this novel as: Unedited

As the cover seems to  be unavailable, here is the synopsis instead.

Goodreads Synopsis:

16 year old Karlie has had a pretty normal life... But when her Mom dies she is forced to move over 1,000 miles away to live with her Dad. That's when things start getting weird.

She can't explain the earthquakes that nobody else feels, or why she no longer sleeps. But most of all she doesn't know why she trusts Shane so much, even though his Dad wants her dead.

Suddenly, Karlie's normal life is turned upside down and she enters a world she never dreamed could really exist.(less)

 A Paraphrased blurb:

The story opens with Karlie arriving in Arkansas mere days after the death of her mother. Her relationship with her father seems strained at best. She starts at her new school and instantly has a group of friends who always seem to be there wherever she goes. They tell her to stay away from Shane, that he's not safe. Then they start to tell her that she's special. Chosen. That she has special powers. And then, there's also Alex. What path will she choose?

My Thoughts:

I recently reviewed one of White's other books, My Fairytale Life, and wasn't too pleased with it. You can read that review here .

White sent me When Destiny Knocks before I'd even read or reviewed my Fairytale Life. After reading My Fairytale Life, I was really hesitant to even read When Destiny Knocks because I was afraid of not liking it. But, I pushed that aside because I really wanted to give her another chance. I had hoped that maybe the issues that I had with the previous book would be smoothed out with this book.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The main issue with the story is the editing. Or, in my opinion, the lack thereof. There were errors present in my Fairytale Life as well, but I think there were even more errors here. From the first page I found myself editing the book both in my head and making notes within my Kindle application. And I'm not talking a word or two every ten pages, but a word, phrase, or tense change multiple times on some pages. The characters often switched back and forth between tenses in the same sentence! Also, there were multiple characters dialogue in the same paragraph. As far as I know, when a new character starts speaking, a new paragraph should be started. It's not a good sign when you have to edit as you read. A reader wants to get lost in the story, not edit it.

The lack of editing may be  the result of White's fast paced publication schedule.  When Destiny Knocks was published Dec 24, 2011. My Fairytale Life w as published 5 weeks later on January 30 2012. The next book in the Destiny series, When Destiny Strikes was published earlier this month. And the author has yet another book scheduled for publication in June 2012. This  author seems to be too focused on publication and not focused enough on the quality of their work.

 I understand that stories come quickly. And I know that it must be really exciting to say that you published another book. But, just because you want to publish a book doesn't mean that you should let the quality of your work suffer.

The pacing of this novel is fast. Though, I was pleased to see that this time the story takes place over the course of a few months rather than a few weeks, like My Fairytale life. That is one positive that I noted.

The characters, though, are lacking. There's not enough background information for me to become involved with them, or invested in their journey. Especially with Karlie. She's the chosen one. Of course, as a reader, I want to know why? I want to know what makes her so special. I understand that White is trying to keep the suspense up for the readers, but if you don't give us something, we're going to lose interest. The characters all keep telling Karlie that she's special, but that it isn't safe to tell her why or what her powers are. Well why not? Why isn't there more interaction about this between the supporting characters? I think if the supporting characters played a bigger role, the story could  have been shaped and paced a lot better

When we do eventually  find out what Karlie's powers are, there isn't much explanation to them. They're just stated briefly, without detail, and it's on to the next event in the story. I want details! I want to be able to imagine myself inside the story, to be awed at the scope of her importance, and her powers. and I wasn't able to do that here.

There's another love triangle in this story, so those who like them will be happy. This time I was at least happy to see that the love triangle  characters weren't a vampire and a werewolf. This time they were an angel and a demon. That is slightly less cliche.

 I will say that White does a decent job of ending her books on cliffhangers. Sadly, my slight interest in the next book isn't because I want to see what happens to the characters so much as I want to see just how far off track the author will take the story next.

Suffice it to say it's highly likely that I will not be reading any more books by this author.

You never know, you may end up really enjoying this book. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a quick read, or who likes love triangles.

Have any of you  read this book? If so, what did you think of it?

I would love to hear your thoughts on it.