People Like Us by Dana Mele

4 Stars

“We should definitely be nicer to people. You should think about that.”

“Nice is subjective.” 

 If your reaction to a “Mean Girls” type of story is . . . .







Then we probably shouldn’t be friends. Just kidding. Maybe. Whatever. At minimum you probably don’t want to read this book. I obviously lurrrrvvvvvv mean girls stories so I wanted this as soon as I saw the title and cover. Oh those private school uniforms. You just know all the characters are going to be twats!!!!



The story here is about Kay, or as my brain liked to call her . . . .







And her fellow In Crowd who happen to discover a dead body floating in the lake near campus. The slit wrists and floating corpse would make one think it was a case of suicide, but when mmmKay receives an e-mail threatening to out her sins of the past unless she follows the instructions contained in a website link, things get a little grey and everyone might be a suspect.



At some point this was popping up for me (even though I already had the sucka on hold at the library) as a “Recommended To You” selection because I enjoyed One Of Us Is Lying. Much to my surprise, that comparison isn’t half bad, actually. I really did have a fun time with both books. Lying due to The Breakfast Club similarities and People Like Us for the beat to death aforementioned Mean Girls. I’m telling you, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of these little bitches. Especially the rich ones. Oh how they go from this . . . .







To this . . . .







In a nanosecond.



Once again I did know what was going on way early.  The good news was it didn’t even matter because I was having such a good time . . . .



“So. Are we finally going to trust each other?”

“Trust is a strong word.”

“Fair enough. We’ll keep things casual with a side of paranoia.”



4 Stars. Until next time . . . .

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

4.5 Stars

“You guys are sick in the head,” said Genevieve. “Prove it,” replied Tom. 

First things first – I would like everyone to notice that little sticker in the corner of the cover of this here novel indicating that it was a National Book Award Finalist proving that I is kind, I is smart, I is important. Okay, maybe not, but . . . . .



Oh wait, I spoke to soon. I have no recollection of how Then We Came to the End wound up on my radar, but I do remember that I requested both library systems to buy the Kindle edition a waaaaaaaaaaay long time ago. We’re talking like two years. When my wish was finally granted, I woke up real early on Saturday morning, made my cup of Starbucks Veranda Blend in the ol’ Keurig and prepared to commence some slothery in the doublewide reading chair. And then for some reason I looked over at the bookshelves . . . . .



See that red arrow? Yep. I waited years to read a book I already owned. You know what Jack Burton would say about that???? Probably something that would turn my “yay me” into . . . .



So that’s that. Now on with the book.

If you’ve never worked in a large office environment, you may not be able to fully appreciate the near perfection which is Then We Came to the End. But, if you have you will recognize sooooooooo many of your current and/or former co-workers. People like the guy who just got “right-sized” out of his job and is taking the high road . . . . .



Or the guy who knows “right-sizing” is just a fancy term for being laid off/fired and isn’t taking things so well . . . .


(Have y’all seen Falling Down? It’s a pretty good ‘un.)

Or Karen Woo . . . .



Or half of my co-workers this guy . . . .



Or me . . . .



This was a read that was well worth the wait. Written in a style that won’t be everyone’s cuppa of the “we” (I’m no English major so I’m going to call it first person plural and hope that’s close enough to correct that y’all know what I mean), the tales of pointless meetings, pillaging the offices the recently departed, coffee bar gatherings and cubicle discussions were just like coming to the office for me. Except I’m not smart enough to have ever thought of pulling a Hank Neary . . . .

“Hank Neary was an avid reader. He arrived early in his brown corduroy coat with a book taken from the library, copied all its pages on the Xerox machine, and sat at his desk reading what looked to passersby like the honest pages of business.”

And I’d get fired if I ever said what I really think like some of these guys do . . . .

“What are you doing right now?”

“Well, unlike some people, I’m trying to get some work done. Some people actually generate revenue around here, you handjob.”

Instead on bad days I passive-aggressively sip out of my favorite Office Space mug in hopes that my co-workers will get the point that I’m this close to pulling a Milton and seeting the building on fire . . . .



And make all important decisions using my Jump To Conclusions mat . . . .



Literally the only thing that kept me from calling in sick today was the fact that we get free lunch for March Madness kickoff. God help everyone if there isn’t cake . . . .

Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman

2 Stars

WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A HOT MESS.
You ready???? Okay . . . . .



Carol is “dead” – her evil husband (who was TOTALLY Justin LaMonte in my brain). Sidenote (yes already a sidenote): Do y’all know who Justin Lamonte is? Probably not because you’re not ancient, but if you too are old you might remember him as a super douchebag from North and South . . . .



Anyway, Justin Lamonte Dwight wants to get Carol in the dirt stat so he can have all of her dollah dollah bills yo. Buuuuuuuuut he’s in a race against time as Carol’s former beau was sent a telegram regarding her “death” and is coming to save the day – which again made my brain take a trip on the wayback machine and James Moxie was all Jessie from Kathleen Turner’s novels in Romancing the Stone . . . . .



But should have probably been more like this . . . .



Because you kind of get beaten over the head with the fact that he’s an outlaw Josey Wales.

I have to admit I had to give a little bit of the side-eye to that very necessary plot point because . . . . .



Would the maid really notify this long-lost love that Carol told her about for like two seconds before eating the dirt and falling into one of her spells/comas/narcoleptic limbos that Carol was dead???? Probably not, but she has to here or there’s zero book.

And that’s my problem with most of the book. Ideas that weren’t fully thought out, characters who REALLY weren’t fully fleshed out and a synopsis that was way more interesting than the end result turned out to be left me feeling seriously meh throughout my entire reading experience. I should have known this might be a miss for me after not only having a bit of a rough go of it with Black Mad Wheel, or as I like to call it . . . .



But doubly so when it was pretty clear this story would take place in the Old West which makes me all . . . .



However, all I can ever think about when I see Malerman’s name is Bird Box which pretty much results in me being like . . . . .



Unbury Carol did not end up being the book for me, but Josh Malerman definitely knows how to words good so as soon as I see his name again I’m sure my reaction will be . . . .



Head’s up for any of you who are thinking this is going to be a horror: Prepare yourself because it sure as pig shit isn’t. And speaking of all the talk about pig shit, Mitchell has this to say about that . . . .



I say don’t turn it into a drinking game or you will quickly discover the following is a huge lie . . . .



ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz

2 Stars

I picked The Rains up after my friend Lynn posted a status update about it being pretty gory for a teenie-bopper book. I didn’t really need to know anything else. Now that I’m finished????



Yeah, I may have been more than a bit long in the tooth to fully enjoy this one. But let’s not get ahead of things. I don’t know why, but for some reason I was expecting a story like this . . . .



Which was 100% inaccurate. Then I figured it was going to be yet another zombie story, which had me all . . . . .



But that ended up not being the case either. Instead it was all about . . . .



Ha! Just kidding. It actually started with . . . . .



But most definitely resulted in being the end of the world as we know it and, as always . . . . .



As a grown up, there were some issues that just kept niggling at my brain much like a sliver under my fingernail – one example being that this is supposed to be Chase Rain’s diary of events, yet he tells what happened that started it all EVEN THOUGH HE WAS MOVING HAY IN A DANG BARN AT THE TIME. Dudebrah had no clue what was going on at the neighbor’s. Otherwise it was just a little – okay A LOT - too young for me. But if you have a kid who enjoys LOTS of gore and tons of action with very little storyline to propel things along and isn’t allergic to the cliffy ending like I am, this might be a winner. 2 Stars because according to Goodreads that means “it was okay” and this one just aiiiight for me.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

5 Stars

“Cat and mouse, cat and mouse, but which is the cat and which is the mouse?”

In an effort to prove I read everything wrong – even the stuff I like – I’m giving The Woman in the Window the full monty of Stars while the majority of my friends experienced “meh” . . . .



Credit goes to debra and Trudi and Melissa and Liz and Deanna and Diane S whose mediocre ratings helped lower my expectations. (Now that I’m done I can go read all of your reviews.) Credit to myself for putting my name on the looooooooong wait list and then nearly forgetting all about this one until it was due to be returned. Braintrust. I is one.

Here’s what I knew before starting: The Woman in the Window was going to be about . . . . you guessed it, a woman in the window. Said woman was housebound for some reason and also liked more than her fair share of the drinky drinky. Same woman would see “something” from her window – or maybe not. And almost everyone thought it was too long and slow-going for their liking.

Now that I’m finished and have read the blurb, I’m actually quite surprised to see it not being compared to The Girl on the Train because really? Not only was this kinda like The Girl on the Train, but it was EXACTLY what I was hoping The Girl on the Train would be like. I am quite pleased, however, to see proper credit given to A.J. Finn’s inspiration . . . . .



I think that is why this one worked so well for me. I am a Hitchcock superfan. Please don’t get that twisted to think I wrote some thesis analyzing his works or know the answer to every trivia question about him. I appreciate Hitchcock the same as I appreciate a book – for the entertainment value it provides me. As a kid I was raised on Hitchcock classics (as an adult I’ve discovered some of the books/stories his films were based on) and they are my go-to films of choice even if I’ve seen them a thousand times. The Woman in the Window succeeds in bringing little snippets of so many of Hitchcock’s films together seamlessly. From the obvious selection . . . . .



Which is brilliantly the one mentioned the least by our leading lady, Anna. To the selection that is applicable in so many cases of an “unreliable narrator” . . . .



To the twists and turns that serve as an homage to . . . .



A reader who isn’t a fan of Hitchcock might easily miss out on some “inside info.” Or they might just think it’s slow because it’s definitely not a roller coaster full of twists and turns. For me, though, it was the perfect mystery. Not only due to the Hitchcockian shout-outs, but also because Anna was a phenomenal unreliable narrator. Bonus was she even had a sense of humor about how fucked up she was . . . .

“I’m running on fumes. Grape fumes.”

It also didn’t bother me one bit to know what was coming. Some things were foreseeable because they were events that followed their movie inspirations and some were just things that an avid mystery-thriller reader is going to pick up on.

Once again, thanks to all for making me go into this with no hopes at all. It obviously worked out great : )

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

5 Stars

I wouldn’t say I actively avoided Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, but between the cutesie title, even cutesier cover and hundred person waiting list at both library systems, it didn’t even make it to my TBR until my friend JENNIFER read it. Once it became a recommendation for the Winter Reading Challenge, it was a done deal that I’d have to read it by March 15th. And now that I’m finished?????



This seriously should have been a 3 - 3.5 Star selection for me – at best. It was a mystery, which I read a ton of which has made me super judgey. It featured a character who had a superbadawful happen to her in the past. Same character would then find herself amateur sleuthing about a new dead body. So what happened????? Welllllllllll, the setting was pretty much the fictional equivalent of . . . .



The patrons were the equivalent of . . . .



The co-worker was someone who I might not try to hide from and instead want to be besties for the resties with because not only was her name PLATH which was just awesomely bleak, but she also said things like . . . .

“Sweetie, you’ve got too much heart. Do yourself a favor and let it shrivel. Read some Henry Miller. Some Ayn Rand. Some Deepak Chopra. That’ll shitten your outlook.”

The writing was beautiful and simply spot-on in its description of bibliophiles and bookstores/libraries . . . .

“This was his Thanksgiving table. His couch-cushion fort. He could get lost in here like nowhere else on earth.”

Despite Lydia tested my patience at times, she was still obviously my type of person . . . .

“You do anything but read?” he said. “Not much.” “Sounds nice.”

The superbadawful?????



Mitchell dug it. (That should tell you all you need to know about that.)

And last, but most certainly not least, the big reveal at the end about the why behind the death almost made me have a feeling . . . .



I’m giving this one my first 5 Star rating of the year because it came in like a little sleeper and completely blew me away, I didn't ever see the ending coming (and really didn't even care because I was so wrapped up in the storytelling) and I’ve already recommended it to two people in my real life . . . .



Props to the library for putting this on the recommendation for the WRC