The Towpath: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jonathan David Walter; The Intricate Fragility of Time Travel

 

The Towpath: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jonathan David Walter; The Intricate Fragility of Time Travel

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Time travel can be a precarious subject with the possibilities and paradoxes. Like going back in time to kill Adolf Hitler or prevent John F. Kennedy’s assassination could lead to history changing for the better or worse. Perhaps the Soviet Union becomes the victor in the Cold War or another dictator is created from the ashes of World War I or II. Imagine going back in time and accidentally killing or falling in love with your ancestor. You wouldn’t be there to travel back but then who killed or fell in love with them? What about seeing the future knowing what is to come but being unable to prevent it? Time travel can be very excruciating and produces many migraines to figure out the rules and fiction has explored the concept in different ways. Jonathan David Walter’s The Towpath is an example of a novel that explores the complex intricacies and fragile strands that the concept of time stands on.

A mysterious character called The Redeemer is in mourning for her daughter, Hannah, who committed suicide. She is searching for a powerful medallion which will allow the wearer to go back in time so she can prevent the girl’s death. Unfortunately, the medallion is accidentally found by Aaron Porter, a teen boy. Once he learns what the medallion can do, Aaron wants to use it to find his missing brother, Owen. The discovery puts Aaron and his friends, Simon and Libby in immediate danger as The Redeemer pursues them with the assistance of a group of Iroquois warriors that she gathered from the 17th century. 

The Towpath has plenty of depth, particularly with its main protagonist and antagonist. The Redeemer alternates between troubled and terrifying. While searching for Aaron, she gives one of his classmates a particularly painful and grisly death. She is willing to kill for the medallion or send the Iroquois to do it and has no conscience when it comes to inflicting pain on the teen. In her desire to save her child from death, she has no qualms about inflicting it on other children.

However, The Redeemer is not completely soulless. Her intense grief over her daughter’s suicide is very real. Her telepathic conversations with Hannah’s younger self pours out the unhinged rage and despair over the girl’s death and the extreme lengths that she goes through to save her. This is a woman whose traumatized grief has driven her insane.

There is a possibility that time travel itself has played a hand in The Redeemer’s cracking mental state. She has completely disfigured herself and has become desensitized to the historical violence in which she encountered. She has some bouts of kindness such as helping the Iroquois in their fights against white settlers but they’re almost always with the specific goal in mind to save Hannah. As she travels back and forth, The Redeemer loses parts of herself more and more until in one heartbreaking moment she is rejected by Hannah who is frightened of and angry at her. She has become the person that she didn’t want to be because of her grief that has eaten away inside her. 

Aaron is someone who if they were on the same side, would understand what the Redeemer is going through. He too has felt tremendous loss. He has no memories of his birth father. His stepfather, a kindly veteran, died. His mother lives in a drugged and depressed stupor so he is cared for by Owen.The loss that he feels after Owen disappears is just as harrowing as The Redeemer’s mourning. He is not just mourning his brother, but someone who had become another father figure to him shortly after losing his last one. 

The twin stories of grief and obsession are fascinating parallels because it serves as a warning. The Redeemer stands as someone that Aaron is in danger of becoming if his sadness and anger overpower him. He could become just as driven, just as heartless, and just as insane as the woman who is chasing him. 

The intricacies of time travel are brilliantly explored particularly after Aaron and The Redeemer both travel backwards in time and encounter Hannah. She is bruised, morose, and detached. Aaron has to help the troubled girl and repair the rift between her and her mother, without running into his past self. However, he desperately wants to warn and protect Owen from his own fate. 

There are plenty of existentialist questions that are asked. If they rescue them from these specific incidents, are they really saving them or postponing the inevitable? Hannah is clearly troubled and her mother’s presence unnerves her. In her drive to save Hannah, is The Redeemer airbrushing the past and not acknowledging her own culpability in creating the tormented soul that Hannah became? Would Aaron’s knowledge of Owen’s future drive him closer to his brother or further away? If they are saved by their loved one’s trips to the past, then what happens to them in the future? They wouldn’t have this drive to travel back in time or maybe not the ability, so they wouldn’t be able to go back to save them. Would running into their past selves lead to a paradox by their mere presence and would they have any memories of this meeting or the circumstances that led to it? 

These questions are addressed and explored in ways that weigh these potential consequences and change things for better and sometimes for worse. 

Weight of a Woman by Judith Jackson-Pomeroy; Substantial Characters Counter Light Development

 

Weight of a Woman by Judith Jackson-Pomeroy; Substantial Characters Counter Heavy Length 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: There is an old trick or piece of advice with storytelling. It’s “Tell people what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you already told them.” It works well when you are writing short works like a review, a political column, even a short story or a novella. It doesn’t work so well when you are trying to write a longer work like a novel. That’s the biggest problem with Judith Jackson-Pomeroy’s novel Weight of a Woman, a romance with fascinating leads but not enough to do that changes them.

Sara Wolfe is a Women’s Studies college professor and outspoken Feminist. She is a popular teacher and bonds with her students. She is in a long term but open relationship with Tom, another professor and has close friends in Jane, director of the Women’s Resource Center and Marco, an award winning poet. Even though she is well respected at this university, she has her sights set on a Wellesley fellowship. However, her seemingly perfect life hides some disturbing secrets. While attending a concert with her friends, Sara becomes enamored with Seth, a rock singer who is also one of her students. As if a romance with a student wasn’t controversial enough, Seth also has secrets of his own that could jeopardize his career and his relationship with Sara. 

The sad part is Weight of a Woman is actually very good, particularly in terms of characterization. The core romance is between two people who are seriously damaged and are in desperate need of psychiatric care. The type of romance that could strengthen or tear them apart and this book suggests that this s in danger of doing both. 

Sara projects an image of great confidence, wisdom, and integrity who courageously shares her convictions and stands by them. But that image disguises the troubled broken soul underneath. Her relationship with Tom is very toxic and emotionally abusive as Tom condescends her with his misogynistic and homophobic views and chips away at her Feminist views as a means of control. 

She is riddled with insecurities and anxiety that manifests itself as severe Anorexia. She starves herself and degrades her own appearance. In social situations, where she has to be seen eating, she chews her food, but doesn’t swallow. Instead, she empties it out into a napkin.

Sara is also a sexual assault survivor which has given her massive PTSD and trust issues. She can’t trust the men that she’s involved with and often has a hard time trusting herself. She stands as a paragon of Feminist values because they represent the type of woman that she wants to be, not the woman that she actually is.

 Even though Seth expresses his views through his songs and is just as committed to his beliefs as Sara is to hers, he has problems of his own. His music career is at a crossroads and he is torn between staying true to his artistic integrity and signing with a major label to get more money and exposure but selling out. 

Similar to Sara, Seth also has self-destructive tendencies. He has a history of cutting and is addicted to various drugs. Like Sara, he also projects an air of charisma and creative defiance, but his addictions reveal his vulnerabilities. He can't hide the needle marks on his arms or scars on his body just like Sara can't hide her dangerously thin weight.

Sara and Seth are memorable characters, either alone or together. This book is a brilliant character study of this pair.The conflicts are interesting because they expose their frailties and leave them at their most naked, honest, and defenseless. Unfortunately, Sara and Seth are hampered by constant repetition and little changes in their development. 

There are only so many times where we can hear the characters argue about the same things over and over. Marco and Jane arrange various interventions for Sara so often that they are practically scheduled. Sara and Seth confront one another about their addictions but these confrontations appear to have little bearing since they still fall into them. Yes, that happens often in real life where people often don't seek help or have the same issues and this book brilliantly explores that. But at the same time, it also stands as a red flag for why Sara and Seth might not be good for each other. 

Their disagreements about the trajectory towards Seth’s recording career, particularly his selling out, are almost hypocritical on Sara’s part since she too desires to ascend to a higher position with more money. Also they are divided by different views on sexuality which is a huge wedge between them that becomes more prominent the more they argue about it.

The book could benefit from a tighter narrative structure with more character self reflection and evolution. While individually, Seth and Sara are intriguing and could be a compatible happy couple, they could just as easily break up. They already have plenty of emotional baggage and different views on how they see their future. Because of having the same arguments and discussions, they can’t seem to reconcile them. A late complication suggests happiness, but it could just as easily lead to more strife and trouble. 

Because of the little change in character, Pomeroy does them a huge disservice. She gives plenty of good reasons why they need to work on themselves and get some serious psychiatric and emotional help separated or at least as friends. But she doesn’t give us enough good reasons why we should be rooting for them to stay together. 

March-April Reading List

 March-April 

For a short month, I got a lot done. Not all of the books on the list, but they are here. I will continue in this manner as well as doing any other projects that come along.

The Slither Queen by Tamera Lawrence 

The Towpath by Jonathan Walter

Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr

The Gift (Book 2 in The Others Trilogy) by Evette Davis*

Weight of a Woman by Judith Jackson Pomeroy 

Chomp, Press, Pull by Elaina Battista-Parsons

Mantis Equilibrium (Book 2 of The Mantis Gland) By Andrew Adams Johnson

Folded Steel (The Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardians Series Book 3) by G. Russell Gaynor 

Blunt Force Rising (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mystery Book 4) by Russ Colchamiro 

Reaping By Numbers: A Dead End Job by Nicole Givens Kurtz 

 All Silence Must Cease (The Peacebringer Series Book 2) by Raymond W Wilkinson

Ismene and The Voice by Juniper Calle 

Paper Castles by Ellie Ember 

The Corsico Conspiracy by Raphael Some

The Lindens by Barney Jeffries

The Mantis Corruption (Book 3 in The Mantis Gland Series) by Adam Andrews Johnson 

Justified Anger by Jennifer Colne

If you have a book that you would like me to review, beta read, edit, proofread, or write, please contact me at the following:

Amazon 

Bluesky

Facebook

Goodreads 

Instagram

LinkedIn

LitPick

Reedsy Discovery

Threads

Upwork

Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com 

Prices are as follows (subjected to change depending on size and scope of the project):

Beta Read: $50.00-75.00

Review: $50-100.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $100-300.00

Proofread: $100-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$200-400.00

*These are books reviewed for LitPick and will only feature a summary and a few paragraphs. The full review is on LitPick's site.

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, Coffee and Thorn Book Group, LitPicks, BookTasters, Reedsy Discovery, Voracious Readers, and other noted book groups. Payments are already arranged through groups like Michael Cheng and Books Validator.

Payments can be made to my PayPal, Payoneer, or Google Wallet accounts at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.

 

Memories of MK Ultra: A Journey of Discovery From Darkness to Deliverance by Bill Yarborough; A Truth Inspired and Terrifying Tale of Child Abduction and Mind Control

 

Memories of MK Ultra: A Journey of Discovery From Darkness to Deliverance by Bill Yarborough; A Truth Inspired and Terrifying Tale of Child Abduction and Mind Control 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Of the human experimentations, the one that is probably the most enigmatic, controversial, and infamous (and that’s saying a lot) is undoubtedly MKUltra. It was designed by the CIA, lasted from 1953-1973, and was a series of experiments that used numerous methods, such as psychoactive drugs, brainwashing, electroshocks, sensory deprivation, isolation, psychological manipulation, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, and torture, often on unsuspecting people who did not know that they were being experimented upon or if they did, what the studies were actually for. The goal was allegedly to develop and produce drug interrogations that could be used to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and torture.More than 80 institutions were involved including military, colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies.There were many deaths connected to the project, most notably Frank Olson, a US Aemy biochemist and biological researcher. Olson was secretly given LSD without his knowledge or consent and died after falling from a 13th story window a week later. MKUltra was a blatant violation of human rights and revealed the CIA’s abuse of power, particularly with regards to withholding consent and an inability to uphold democratic principles.The project officially ended in 1973 and was revealed to the public in 1975. In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 20,000 documents related to MKUltra. Surviving information was declassified in 2001. 

Despite the declassification, there is plenty of speculation about many other experiments, methods, real goals, how far it reached, who was experimented on, and even more frightening whether it’s still going on. Some of it can’t be officially confirmed or verified but many first hand accounts and personal testimonies suggest that some of those theories might be more fact than fiction. Among those speculations are whether MKUltra targeted or experimented on children. There are no confirmed or definitive answers whether or not children were experimented on, though there are first hand testimonies from those who claim to have been child victims of MKUltra’s experimentation programs. One of those people is Bill Yarborough. He believes that he, his brother, and sister spent the summer of 1958 being experimented on for MKUltra, They blocked the memories out only to begin recalling them in the 1980s. Their experience was the inspiration for Yarborough’s semi autobiographical novel, Memories of MK-Ultra: A Journey of Discovery from Darkness to Deliverance.

Now it’s worth noting that even though Yarborough insists that the kernel of his book that he and his siblings were part of an MKUltra experiment is true, the book is not actually about them. It is only based on them and is considered a work of fiction. The perspectives from doctors, researchers, and military personnel are speculated upon by Yarborough himself. Also he acknowledges that many of the esoteric themes and paranormal situations might have been triggered not by actual events but by trauma, drugs, and altered memories. Because of this, from this point forward, I will treat the book as fiction and refer to the context within the book itself for the remainder of this review. 

In 1958, Tommy Matthews, his sister, Beth, and brother, Curtis were kidnapped during a family vacation in Washington D.C. They spend several weeks being educated and monitored in a secret MKUltra facility by various personnel including Dr. Rudolf Holtzman, an expert on mind control. The children are subjected to sexual abuse, sensory deprivation, mind control, psychoactive drugs, extrasensory perception tests and various other tests. Even though the experiment only lasts for a few weeks and the children are eventually released to their parents, they are left seriously damaged well into adulthood, particularly Tommy. He develops a very aggressive and violent sex drive and mysterious outside forces influence him to one day become President of the United States. 

The book alternates between Tommy's perspective and Holtzman’s. Holtzman's chapters present detail by detail what exactly happened to the children during those weeks and the experiments are harrowing. They are prostituted by a pedophiliac soldier. The researchers create mental associations with actions such as putting a fear of death into Tommy if he fails in school. They use hypnosis and subliminal messages to make Beth see ghosts and spirits and brainwash and drug Curtis to the point that he can barely function as an adult. It's hard enough to imagine this treatment on adults but to picture it on children makes it ten times worse.

The experiments make one wonder whether the military and researchers even thought about the long term effects of what they were doing. Okay, they might have created people who could withstand torture or in the case of the book get elected into positions of power but they could just as easily have created people with extreme psychological disorders that might be unable to function within any society. Holtzman does consider these possibilities up to a point becoming a moral center in MKUltra, well sort of.

Holtzman questions some of the ill treatment and the means and motives of his colleagues, particularly those who had ties to the Nazi Party in Germany. However, he still allows the experimentation to happen and monitors the children's progress as though they were lab rats. He is also concerned with outside influences on the children particularly Shoney, an older boy who shows a protective big brotherly streak towards the Matthews children. Shoney becomes their only link to the outside world and the closest thing to a positive parental figure that they have during that time and one would argue even afterwards since their parents are ultimately found wanting. 

Holtzman cares about the children, but is threatened by Shoney’s bond with them.

The impact of the experiments is felt even after the children return to their parents and into their school days. It makes their mark forever and shapes them into adulthood. Tommy in particular is affected by the expectations set on him by his parents and the researchers. The fear of failure equated with death causes him to become an overachiever throughout school and conjure up paranoid delusions about authority figures. He also has very aggressive sexual impulses connected to violent images and news. Energetic fast paced music connects him to his ambitious side and future goals. All of these associations and connections lead to him becoming an ambitious political figure one who will lead, connive, conspire and if that doesn't work destroy everything around him to fulfill his vision.

While Tommy's path is set towards outside ambitions, Beth’s is more set towards the mystical and otherworldly thanks to MKUltra’s tests on remote viewing and astral projection. A literate and creative girl, she became tormented by visions of aliens and ghosts that she sees out of the corner of her eye and very vivid dreams of other worlds. Beth rebels against her parents and in the late 60’s walks the hippy path. She constantly looks to different religions such as Christianity, Occult, and New Age practices for spiritual validation. Her mystical experiences inspire her to become a best selling Science Fiction author and study hypnosis to retrieve her and her brothers’ memories.

Even though Beth and Tommy were traumatized by MKUltra, they are still able to function as adults and carve out something resembling lives of their own despite the ill treatment. They are shaped but not entirely beaten. The same could not be said for Curtis making his story the most traumatic of all. He obtains a fascination for masculine and virile images of superheroes and larger than life performers like John Wayne inspiring him to become an actor and stuntman. However, inside his masculine and virile exterior is a frightened little boy. Of the three siblings, Curtis has the hardest time adjusting to the outside world and is tormented by visual and auditory hallucinations and paranoid violent delusions. He ends up institutionalized under Tommy's care. 

Three children were used, abused, and betrayed and became completely damaged, programmed, disturbed, and ruined as adults. All because of a secret government project that led to decades of distrust, suspicion, violence, and insanity, destroyed many lives, and ultimately proved nothing. 

Tangles: A Cold War Love Story and Mystery by Kay Smith-Blum; Uncovering Environmental Destruction and Familial Disruption

 Tangles by Kay Smith-Blum; Uncovering Environmental Destruction and Familial Disruption

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Kay Smith-Blum’s novel, Tangles, tells two separate stories and links them with the theme of something pleasant and beautiful torn apart by greed and gain. One story focuses on the changing environment and the other is that of lovers separated and unable to connect.

Along with the two plots, the book has two narrators separated by almost twenty years. The first is in the 1940’s and features Mary Boone, a secretary. She is trying to survive an abusive marriage during WWII. She works at the new power plant in Hanford, Oregon which is preparing new weapons against the Axis Powers. People around her start getting sick so she investigates the origins of the illnesses despite objections from her employers, the U.S. government, and her husband, Matt who is the plant spokesperson. 

The second narrator is Luke Hinson, a young scientist in the early ‘60’s. His studies are halted when he is diagnosed with a highly suspicious form of thyroid cancer. This diagnosis leads him to his own research into the environment. As Mary and Luke continue their investigations, they find the same solution: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation tainted the environment for twenty years and is slowly killing the environment including its plants, animals, and people. Besides their concerns about the local environment, Mary and Luke share more personal connections. They were once neighbors and despite their huge age gap, the two share a mutual attraction that evolves into friendship and eventually romance with heavy complications.

The duel stories and narrators could have made the book confusing but actually works well. I would argue that it works even better than if we only had one narrator and one time span. In alternating Mary's story with Luke’s we see both the beginning and the end of this story. We see how greedy industrialists first poisoned the environment and then the results of long term illnesses years later. We also see how Mary and Luke’s relationship evolved from being casual acquaintances to Mary eventually becoming the one that got away for Luke. The two narrative halves work together to make the book a complete whole picture of a decaying environment and rocky but meaningful relationship.

This book connects the stories about the environmental investigation and Luke and Mary’s romance in ways that make them interchangeable. They are separate threads that, as the title suggests, are tangled together, affecting each other and the people around them. Neither story could exist without the other, just like neither narrator could finish their story without each other.

Both the natural setting and Luke and Mary’s relationship start out beautiful and become tainted by outside forces. The Oregon setting is filled with trees, woodland, animals, and small towns. Enough progress for people to raise families and find work but not enough to overwhelm and spoil the nature around them, at first. The plant begins the way most industries do, with promises of the future with more jobs and a chance to fight the US’s enemies which were the Axis during WWII then the Soviets during the Cold War. In a community that has plenty of natural resources but is just getting through the Great Depression and facing a war where many men are called up to serve and civilians work in government jobs, But like any offer that’s too good to be true, they don’t stop to think of the consequences.

The citizens don’t think of what nuclear waste would do to the waters around them, how it would get into the food supply and inside birds, animals, and people. They don’t think about the health risks and illnesses that will shorten life spans or prematurely end lives or that future generations will be affected for years, even decades afterwards. They don’t think that the community that they once held dear and thought would benefit from this plant would break apart because of early deaths, separation, and people moving away from a place that is not only unhealthy but is filled with too many haunting memories. 

It’s not entirely the fault of the citizens for not knowing.They are not told of the consequences. The officials in their usual drive to maintain plausible deniability and keep everything under wraps hide the truth from the residents. Oh that polluted lake? Oh that’s natural. People showing symptoms of cancer? Well have they checked their family history? It certainly has nothing to do with what they eat and drink.

 The officials make sure that the worst news doesn’t get out and they aren’t above threatening doctors to give different diagnoses, changing statistics, threats, coercion, or murder to make everyone believe that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about. Beating the United State’s enemies is the most important factor and anything else is secondary. The fact that there won’t be any workers at this plant, because they are either ill, dying, or moved on because of the scarcity of resources never occurs to them. The environment and people’s health are destroyed for others’ gains. 

The environment and health aren’t the only things that are destroyed. The bond between Mary and Luke builds and falls apart by outside forces. They relate to each other despite having a tremendous age gap because they are both lonely and suffering. Mary is in an abusive marriage and her parents are dead or dying. Luke’s father has died and he has a loving but sometimes distant relationship with his mother. They both reach turning points in their lives where they have to make serious decisions about their future. At first their bond is simply a friendship between two people that are in similar circumstances and can ask and offer advice based on their personal experiences. 

Now there are many that may question their evolving romance because of their age gap and in many ways, they would be justified in doing so. Their relationship can be seen as grooming and certainly crosses many boundaries. It’s not an easy decision for either character and to their credit both Mary and Luke are concerned about the ramifications and consequences of such a union. It’s not a relationship of passion and unbridled sexuality. It’s more of one of two lost souls that were hurting and at their most vulnerable and most emotionally naked and honest, they came together. It happened and they can’t go back and change it. The only thing that they can do is accept the consequences and live with the results.

Just like with the nature surrounding them, outside forces disrupt any future plans that Luke and Mary have. They are separated in the worst way imagined and the truth is concealed for years. It takes a long time, over a decade of loss and regret before any type of reconciliation or reclamation is made between them. When it finally does happen, there is a restoration of balance but also a wistful longing of what might have been if they had acted sooner and did not hide the truth from each other. 

Perhaps in a strange way just like the Plant officials were keeping the locals ignorant in their goals of fighting foreign enemies and keeping the US safe, Mary and Luke were keeping each other ignorant in the goal of fighting their own enemies and keeping each other safe. In both plots and both narrations, withholding secrets in the name of safety and security ended up becoming the cruelest action of all.

Girls, Crime, and The Ruling Body by Barry Ziman; Secrets, Murder, and The Political Elite

 

Girls, Crime, and The Ruling Body by Barry Ziman; Secrets, Murder, and The Political Elite

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: In the hallowed halls of the rich, famous, and powerful lie some of the darkest secrets: sexual assault, rape, pedophilia, abuse, shady business deals, racketeering, corruption, fraud, mismanagement, cooking account books, workplace violations, safety and health violations, double dealing, treason, murder, supporting and sometimes committing genocide. They think that their wealth and famous names will prevent them from facing any accountability or punishment. Unfortunately, in many cases, they are right. Barry R. Ziman’s Girls, Crime, and The Ruling Body is about people like that and how the wealthy and powerful do terrible illegal things and quite often get away with it. 

Ryan McNeil is the chief of staff for Assemblyman Nickolas Somatos, a brilliant and ambitious New York based politician who has his sights set on higher positions of power. Cathy Wilet, a beautiful intern, is reported missing and foul play is suspected. This concerns Ryan because by chance he was one of the last people to see Cathy alive. He is questioned by police after he reveals his connection with her. Ryan is considered a person of interest so he becomes obsessed with the case and Cathy. This puts him at odds with his job when Ryan's notoriety affects Somatos’ approval ratings and his relationship with his girlfriend, Caroline who leaves him. Seven years later, Ryan is still chief of staff to Somatos who is now a U.S. Congressman. He also has an advantageous though unhappy marriage to his sophisticated but troubled wife, Annie. Ryan's new life begins to crumble when another woman ends up missing in a case similar to Cathy's and because of the similarities, Ryan becomes a primary suspect.

What is particularly striking about Girls, Crime, and The Ruling Body is the inside look at the wealthy and powerful and how they function, operate, and maintain control over the United State's population. It's the type of world where everything and everybody has a price and quite often that price is high.

Somatos is a politician who might have started out with good intentions and ideals, a real concern and desire to change the world. However, idealism has been replaced by pragmatism. The good intentions became mired in compromise and gain. He still has certain beliefs that he wants to come to fruition but knows that the price is his soul to become the arrogant hypocritical judgemental politician that he once ran against. He is one of many in this book who live a life of unchecked privilege, of wealth, power, influence, and glamor. Decisions are made by people like him on behalf of the people who are expected to follow along without complaining.

It's the type of glamorous surface that occurs so often in these types of works. We might admire or envy those people from afar but fear or are suspicious towards them when we learn what is inside. Various other characters in the book are seduced and fall susceptible to this life: politicians, business people, lobbyists, spouses, lovers, interns, media. Everyone is held under a microscope as their inner selves are revealed. Quite often those inner selves are repellant, repugnant, and filled with naked aggressive, hateful, decadent, violent, and murderous intentions.

 This behavior is seen by Ryan who stands on the outside and wants in. He is no better than anyone else. He has frequent affairs and has an ambitious drive to climb higher in this cesspool. Even his concern for the welfare of Cathy and the other women isn't based on any real concern but is actually based on his lustful obsession for them and fear over what these cases could mean for his long term career and family plans. 

This book has a very cynical view towards politics, justice, and the American system. That cynicism carries over to the end. For spoiler’s sake specific points won't be mentioned. Let's just say it doesn't end the way many mysteries and thrillers do. Instead it continues the cycle of powerful people doing horrible crimes to innocent people and facing no accountability for it. Everything gets swept under and covered by complacency, apathy, and insulating privilege. 

We want to believe that everyone is created equal but unfortunately some are born at the finish line and are able to influence everyone and everything else in their favor. Money, fame, and power often interfere with the actual pursuits of justice, equality, mercy, and compassion. That won't keep many from pursuing them and helping people to actually be seen as equal no matter their race, sexuality, gender identity, country of origin, faith, beliefs, or income status. Maybe then when we are truly seen as equal, justice can truly be met. 

German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present

 German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For obvious current Presidential Administration-sized reasons, many people are reading and studying various times of dictatorships, how those under them rebelled and fought the system, the ways and means that the ideals and values that propel such action are spread, and most crucially of all how the dictatorships were overthrown and the important steps to be taken afterwards to rebuild the country and not make the same mistakes of the past and fall under the spell of another dictator.

One of the most obvious examples because it has been shouted out so frequently lately is The Holocaust under the genocidal tyranny of Adolf Hitler. One of the books that illustrates what life was like under that tyranny is J.C. Berger’s German But Not German about a German-Jewish family whose world implodes because of the reign of a former paperhanger and failed art student with a destructive and fatal vision for the continent in which he lived.

Inge Schoenberg is raised in Germany in the 1920’s-’30’s by her frivolous mother, distant father, bickering but charming uncles, and her stern but loving grandparents. Their internal conflicts of changed jobs, school worries, and a frequently absent and eventually estranged wife and mother become minimal as Hitler begins his reign of terror. Many Jewish families are stripped of their rights, detained in mass arrests, forced to obey dehumanizing laws, and are deported somewhere never to be seen again. The Schoenbergs are left with a very important decision, should they remain and stick things out or should they emigrate.

Let's get the elephant in the review out of the way first. Yes, there are a lot of eerie comparisons between what is happening in the book to what is happening right now. Berger not only gives us a deeply personal story about the Holocaust, he expands it by showing how Hitler got his reign started and how it quickly engulfed the entire country, continent of Europe, and threatened to destroy the entire planet. 

Throughout the book, we are given updates about what is going on in a historical context throughout the book. Berger offers not only the historical dry facts, but the perspectives that many had at the time. For example, the publication of Mein Kampf concerned some with the Antisemitic rhetoric but many simply saw it as the ravings of a lunatic, a nobody, someone that no one can or should take seriously. They were wilfully ignorant of what Mein Kampf really was: Hitler's biases for his hatred, goals that he wanted the country to do, and most importantly a master plan of how he wanted the country to accomplish this. It was not the rantings of a madman, it was a cold methodical plan of a hateful person who studied the character of others, knew what buttons to press and what to say to influence them, and a willingness to use other people to carry out those desires. Dare I say it, it was the work of an evil genius that was only recognized as such in hindsight. 

I'm sure many might feel the same about Project 2025, and let's be honest with ourselves, Art of the Deal. Readers didn't take them seriously. They dismissed them. They thought the detractors were exaggerating or part of some conspiracy meant to make the preparers and fans look bad. They didn't want to admit that Art of the Deal point blank explains Trump's behaviors and justifications for his later behavior as a President, someone filled with avarice and heartlessness who only looks at gain for themselves, never apologizes or accepts blame, attacks the critics and accuses others of what he himself is doing, thinks that everything is for sale, and never takes no for an answer. 

These are traits that Trump still inhabits and is often surrounded by Elon Musk and others who also exhibit those traits. We saw and read for ourselves what Trump was really like and instead of seeing Trump as a potential dictator and autocrat, we simply just saw him as an example of 80’s excess. Someone who had power for a time but is now outdated. Others actually took him to be a savvy businessman and thought that his views were admirable. But we didn't see the long term implications that those characteristics that he extolled for business were later used in politics to shape, transform, and change the country to his liking.

Project 2025 was the blueprint for what Trump and his cronies, particularly The Heritage Foundation wanted to accomplish. Many of us read it, recognized it for the plan for dictatorship that it was, and warned people. We highlighted the passages that were particularly problematic and sent messages through social media. We endorsed Harris and other politicians, even Republican ones like Lynne Cheney who spoke out against it. We helped people register to vote and made them recognize the importance of voting. We talked about it, warned about it, made videos about it, shared it, and voted against it. 

Unfortunately, we became Cassandra in Greek mythology, gifted with the power of prophecy but unable to make opposing forces listen to or believe us. Most people didn't want to believe it. They told themselves that checks and balances would prevent it. They told themselves that we survived Trump's first term (though not everyone did), so how bad could it be? Maybe some wanted it to happen to gain power for themselves by dehumanizing and criminalizing others. Instead of investigating for themselves, understanding our fears, and working towards keeping it from happening, they chose willful ignorance and the whole country is paying the price. If you don't believe me, then I challenge everyone reading this review to read Project 2025’s manifest for themselves and point by point match their goals and what has already been accomplished. You will see that not only is the Trump Administration following it, it is already looking to exceed the Heritage Foundation's initial expectations. Keep in mind, this is only February, the second full month of the current Administration.

There are other obvious parallels as well. The dehumanization and mass arrests of Jews during the Holocaust can be seen in the dehumanization and mass arrests of immigrants. DOGE’s closures of departments is similar to the Nazi Party reshaping the central German government to make their actions possible without accountability. That also can be parallel to the legislative and judicial branches having a Republican majority to make Executive Orders easier to enforce. Trump chose a Cabinet and advisors that are inexperienced sycophants with criminal and unethical reputations like Hitler chose his inner circle. There are comparisons between the Beer Hall Putsch and January 6 and their aftermaths in which the leaders became convicted felons but served little to no time and still became leaders. Even some parallels between the Reichstag Fire and the Gleiwitz Incident resonate alongside the assassination attempt on Trump. Unfortunately, history runs in cycles and we can either learn from it or make the same mistakes. 

Because of this parallel situation between the past and present, it is very easy for Readers to identify with and understand Inge’s plight. Sure, we may have had familial problems as she did, or other issues related to work or relationships. but they were our individual problems. Under the weight of the traumatic stress of living in a dictatorship, those issues are often cast aside for larger political concerns. 

It is easy to see the confusion, terror, and anxiety when everything around you from schools, to stores, to media, to arts and entertainment sources, to friends and family change to fit the new normal. You don't recognize the world anymore and feel like somehow you landed in some other world. There's a lot of denial and a lack of acceptance clinging to the hope that it will be over soon.

It's also perfectly understandable why it takes so long for Inge and her family to decide to emigrate and for Inge to become proactive in the fight against the Nazis. It's easy to stand on the outside thinking “If it's so bad why don't you just leave.” But then other factors have to be considered like cost, obtaining paperwork and passports, finding employment, living in a new country and getting used to its culture and language, keeping from being stranded in this new place, trying to make new friends, and reuniting with friends and family. They also have to weigh the possibility of whether it's better to remain and fight on the inside, trying to find and retain the values that they once held, even if it means facing prison, institutionalization, sent to a concentration camp, or death. 

Emigration and outright rebellion are not easy decisions to make and this book explores those options. Inge and her family are put through tremendous stress and trauma and some members don't make it. Some have a hard time adjusting to the changing world around them, even when they are safe in another country. They still stand out and have high levels of anxiety and PTSD. Also the older characters are often set in their ways and don't want to adapt. They can only hold onto old times and a nostalgic past while younger characters, like Inge, at least try to find a new path in their current home. In adapting, Inge finds the anger to strike out at those who hurt her family and former country and the courage to serve in the RAF and take a real blow towards those who perverted the world in which she lived.

In reading about the past, Readers can find parallels with the present, recognize the warning signs, learn how to live under such a system, and most importantly become inspired to find ways to fight and rebel against it. I found my way through reading and writing. Now it's time for you to find yours.