I'm behind on posting reviews, but I'm working on getting caught up. Two new ones are up, and I have a couple more that I'll get up soon hopefully. I've just been really busy with school. I am still reading, though, and my reviews will be a little late, but they will get posted eventually.
Monday, October 13, 2014
The Likeness
Published May 26, 2009
About the Book:
The haunting follow up to the Edgar Award-winning debut In the Woods
Tana French astonished critics and readers alike with her mesmerizing debut novel, In the Woods. Now both French and Detective Cassie Maddox return to unravel a case even more sinister and enigmatic than the first. Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons Cassie to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who is this girl? A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction. And look for French's other mysteries In the Woods, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.
Tana French's newest novel, The Secret Place, will be published by Viking on September 2nd, 2014.
My Thoughts:
I am so glad that someone suggested Tana French to me. In the Woods was amazing, and then The Likeness was even better. The premise of the book is pretty unbelievable, but French works some magic here to make it seem totally plausible. I think what I love most about her books are her damaged, complicated characters. Man, she writes them well, and her characters are developed so well that you feel as if you know them. Her stories are unnerving and disturbing but so good. The way she pens a psychological thriller could have me reading nothing other than books in this genre if all were like hers. They are so incredibly well-written. I don't want to give anything away about this one, so I will leave it at that. I HIGHLY recommend French's books, and I suggest starting with In the Woods and working your way through them in order as I am doing. Though they can be read as standalone books, they are a series and each main character has a role in the book prior to theirs. You get pieces of them that are important to their story from the previous book.
Rebel (Rebot #2)
Published May 13, 2014
About the Book:
Wren Connolly thought she'd left her human side behind when she dies five years ago and came back 178 minutes later as a Reboot. With her new abilities of strength, speed, and healing—along with a lack of emotions—Wren 178 became the perfect soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation). Then Callum 22 came along and changed everything.
Now that they've both escaped, they're ready to start a new life in peace on the Reboot reservation. But Micah 163, the Reboot running the reservation, has darker plans in mind: to wipe out the humans. All of them. Micah has been building a Reboot army for years and is now ready to launch his attack on the cities. Callum wants to stick around and protect the humans. Wren wants nothing more than to leave all the fighting behind them.
With Micah on one side, HARC on the other, and Wren and Callum at odds in the middle, there's only one option left...
It's time for Reboots to become rebels.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the follow-up to Reboot. The book is told from both Wren and Callum's point of view, and Tintera does a nice job of giving each of them a unique voice. I liked Wren to begin with, but I really liked Callum's chapters. He's more someone that most can identify with, where Wren is fascinating because she's so different, at least so different from me personally. She evolves and grows a great deal in this book, though, and Tintera did a great job of developing her character and Callum's as well. The book brings up some significant moral questions from the perspective of the society and world Wren and Callum are living in, and seeing how both respond and handle those issues is very interesting. Like with all dystopian books, politics and world-building are significant to the story, and Tintera does a great job with making things interesting, well thought out, and unique. Sometimes dystopian novels can start to all seem too much like each other, but she really came up with something very unique here. She has really developed, complex characters as well. I'm impressed with her writing and look forward to more books by her in the future.
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