Legends of Us: The Legend of The Soul Guardian by Lorie Rea; Brilliant Protagonist and World Building Outshine Sometimes Convoluted Plot

 Legends of Us: The Legend of The Soul Guardian by Lorie Rea; Brilliant Protagonist and World Building Outshine Sometimes Convoluted Plot

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: One thing that can't be denied is that Lori Rea worked hard on her Science Fiction Fantasy novel,  Legends of Us: The Legend of The Soul Guardian. The initial idea and her lead protagonist, Amber Rose, have been on her mind for years. She fine tuned her book and based many characters on people that she knew. She created the familial relationship, the political structure, and the language of the fictitious world of Vilroh. I know all of this because the book has occasional “Break Room” chapters inserted throughout the book that describes her writing process.

Some may find the “Break Room” chapters as congratulatory or distracting but for Science Fiction and Fantasy authors who have an epic imaginary world that they want to share with others, they are a valuable educational experience. Rea gives her personal experience and offers her novel as the final document of her journey. And it is quite a document indeed.

While far from perfect, Legends of Us certainly benefits from its author's attention to detail in building the world and characters, particularly in its lead protagonist.

Amber Rose’s parents were killed in a fire and she was separated from her friends and family, particularly her sister, Victoria. She is raised in exile and is trained to become an adept warrior. She reunites with some friends and they strive to keep her real identity a secret. She lives under the assumed name of Juliet. But forging a different identity is easier said than done when Amber encounters jealous colleagues, concerned relatives, feuding enemies, and twisted secrets that could alter the new relationships that she is trying to build.

Rea’s details are well constructed. She put a lot of thought into the world of Vilroh including the history, social structures, and other information. Families are large and multigenerational. Some families have long standing feuds. Adults are referred to as “Master” and “Lady.” There is a military presence that resorts to extreme violent tendencies to meet their goals. The details make us understand the thought that went into creating this book.

One of the early chapters is a prime example of Rea’s creativity. Amber is still an infant but her extended family including her sister, cousins, aunt, and  uncle speak in an original language which looks like a composite of words from various other languages, slang terms, and pidgin dialect. For example “Du sollest haben sayertan” means “You should have awoken me.”

 It's a clever contribution to Rea’s fertile imagination but gods is it ever hard to follow when several characters have long conversations consisting solely of this dialect. Thankfully there's a helpful glossary at the beginning of this book.

Besides world building Rea excels in writing richly developed characters. Nowhere is this more evident than with the lead, Amber. She is a complex and often contradictory character that goes through many changes.

We see her originally as a sheltered flighty young girl from an upper class environment. She has her usual teen hang ups and urges but mostly she is immensely proud of her older sister, Victoria's academic successes. It seems like she was destined to follow her sister's path. 

The next time we see Amber, after her kidnapping and parent's death, she is a hardened commando who can efficiently do away with someone before treating her own wounds. She is not the sweet innocent girl that we met before. Instead, she is a sardonic tough badass who captivates those that she meets and inspires gossip and speculation.

Amber is a cypher to those around her especially as she assumes the "Juliet" alias. Despite her hardened professionalism born through years of imprisonment, abuse, and survival instincts, Amber demonstrates the difficulties of living under an assumed name. It can be difficult to remember to answer to that name, especially when she is around people who knew her as Amber.

 She also has to create various deceptions to uphold her new identity and avoid or fight against nefarious people that she doesn't want to recognize her. At times she questions who Amber really is.

Amber isn't the only one questioning her identity. Other characters offer their opinions on this woman. Some see her as a fragile innocent who needs protecting. Others see her as a master manipulator. Others see a deeply wounded broken bird hurt by the world's mistreatment. Others see her as an avatar of death and destruction. Many of her cousins see the girl that she used to be and maintain their friendship and loyalty to her. 

The secret is that Amber is all of these and more. She is a layered personality that alters between loving and fury, vulnerable and strong, cunning and empathetic, traumatized and defiant, a good friend and a feared enemy. She can't be placed into one category and moves through all of them.

Amber is the best aspect of the book that can be lost in its complexities. Legends of Us is not an easy read. In fact, this reader had to reread it twice and the opening one more time to make sure that she got it. It's worth it because of the detail but it's also too easy to become lost in the plot and multiple characters surrounding it.

These are large families where characters are related either by blood, marriage, or are involved through romance or friendship. There are character guides spread throughout the book and a family tree at the beginning that focuses on each character and that helps. But there are a lot of names and long names with plenty of middle and family names at that. Even with the character guide, it's all too easy to get tangled up by the relatives and hard to keep track of who is related to whom. 

There are plot points that are confusing. There is a love triangle that is never resolved. One character seems to be in love with Amber and her missing sister. Amber at one point has an eerie telepathic conversation with a rival that could lead to friendship and understanding but the rival later continues to warn her boyfriend and friends about Amber's questionable intentions.

 Perhaps it could use some trimming and certainty or maybe the Reader just needs to read it again. Despite the convoluted plot, the book excels because of Amber and the world in which she lives.

Legends of Us’ title comes from a line where Amber says that people create their own legends by their stories and experiences. In truth, Amber is her own legend and Rea's as well.

In The House of A Demon: A Memoir Book 1 by Tina Soctoy; Tension and Sense of Immediacy Fill Memoir About Kidnapping Victim

 

In The House of A Demon: A Memoir Book 1 by Tina Soctoy; Tension and Sense of Immediacy Fill Memoir About Kidnapping Victim

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Tina Soctoy’s Memoir, In the House of a Demon is probably the closest that many Readers will ever get to experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. It tells of a kidnapping through a survivor’s point of view with all of the tension and Immediacy that situation would provide.

When Soctoy was six years old, she was recruited to join a secret Soviet program to create child soldiers and spies. The book is set primarily within the first few months when she was held captive by a soldier named Sasha who molested and isolated her. Despite arguing and trying to escape, Soctoy eventually capitulated to her captors and became their willing pawn.

Throughout the book there is a sense of immediacy that puts us on the same level with Soctoy, the child. We are not given the particulars of her predicament within the text of the book itself, only in the "About the Author" section. In reading the book and not knowing the situation beforehand, the Reader is left uncertain who has Soctoy, for what purpose, what they are going to do to her, and when, if ever she will be free. We only see this situation through her terrified and confused six year old mind. 

She doesn’t know her captor’s names except one is called Sasha. The others are just the Men. We don’t know where she is being held except a few context clues suggest that it’s an isolated and wooded area. This adds to the overall suspense that we are kept in the same ignorance as Soctoy and can almost visualize ourselves looking upward at these larger men who overpower her.

Her captors are master manipulators. They appear nice one minute by giving her food or speaking in an almost tender tone of voice. Then the next minute they threaten her and her mother. This puts her in a false sense of security so she becomes obedient rather than do something that will change their moods. She is raped and then made to feel like she was willing to do it, so she will consider herself fallen and damaged beyond all repair. The sex is humiliating and a sign of dominance that says that Soctoy can’t even feel alone in the comfort of a bed. 

The captors also deceive her by promising that she will be reunited with her mother then put suspicion on her towards her parents. Since we aren’t given much background information, we are put in the same situation as Soctoy where we question her family’s loyalty as well. We wonder if Soctoy returns home, whether she will be put in a similar or worse situation than the one in which she is in.

Many times the dialogue and action between Soctoy and her captors get repetitive but it adds to Soctoy’s mental state. The more her captors repeat the same scenario over to her, the more Soctoy starts to believe it. Time and space are altered so she doesn’t know what day it is or how long that she has been there. Even basic facts like whether it is day or night are unknown to her. She becomes dependent on her captors to tell her anything. 

A few times Soctoy manages to fight her captivity by arguing and escaping but these become hollow victories. They always catch up to her and they use physical and psychological torture to silence her objections. The more that she remains with them, the less likely she is to run away. 

By the end, she is completely broken and is theirs to do whatever they want to her.

Soctoy wrote two more books about her young life. Maybe we will get more concrete answers to what happened to her, what the ultimate goal was, and what resulted from it. For now, we just received her six year old perspective and that was scary enough. The rest of the memoirs are bound to be even more horrifying. 

Weekly Reader: Servitude by Costi Gurgu; Grim and Suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller Set in a World of Legal Human Trafficking

 

Weekly Reader: Servitude by Costi Gurgu; Grim and Suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller Set in a World of Legal Human Trafficking

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Servitude by Costi Gurgu is another one of those Science Fiction novels that can be labeled under the file marked, "Current Times Taken to Extreme Levels." It depicts a world in which people are taken from the streets for minor offenses and forced into Servitude, in other words taken forcibly and sold into slavery in a process that is perfectly legal and sanctioned by the government.

In this book, frighteningly set in the near future of 2046, Blake Frye, a police detective and his TV producer wife, Isa decide to take a random vacation to London. Unfortunately, this is not a pleasurable holiday. As they see the sights, they are caught in various riots protesting the Servitude program. (The Servitude program is extremely active in Britain and is only being considered in the United States, so far). They see people being taken away such as the parents of two small children, who are arrested for being in debt. 

It's enough to disgust the emotional and newly pregnant Isa. Blake however has ulterior means to make this trip. Isa got into some trouble with a documentary that she made which discussed potential trafficking in the U.S. and called some elite billionaires to task for benefiting from it. Blake has to meet an informant to learn whether his wife is in trouble and what could be done to protect her. Unfortunately, all of Blake and Isa's worst fears are confirmed when they return to the U.S. and come face to face with some mysterious people that take Isa away. While Isa tries to survive her captivity and Blake is driven to rescue her, we are given flashbacks to the issues that Isa explored in her documentary and the elites' fury at being caught in taking part and controlling this deplorable institution.

Servitude is a very intense book on how people reinterpret guilt, innocence, and punishment to fit their needs. Gurgu captures what happens when the 1% seize that power and control over the people under them. Well, I mean more so than now.

 In Servitude, the multibillionaire who controls the Servitude program in the U.S. is William Wilmot, a tech mogul who uses Servitude to silence his enemies. When Isa's documentary about human trafficking names Wilmot specifically as a beneficiary to this secret organization, Wilmot and his equally conniving daughter, Gabriella definitely have her and her colleagues on their list.

There are a few real-life obvious inspirations for Wilmot, many moguls who use their money and connections to get away with the worst crimes and still have people that will defend them. They are the types who will control a media outlet under the guise of fighting for free speech and then use ruthless hypocritical tactics to silence those who oppose them.

 We've seen them all and we know them all. In the United States, nothing speaks louder than money and in Servitude, money controls other people's freedom.

Blake and Isa are the honest courageous people who would speak out against such horrors. The opening chapters show this. Even though it's set in London, the tension and ramifications are pretty clear. This is happening out in the open what is being done in the United States in secret and it's only a matter of time before it's in public in the U.S. It gives the Reader a sense that soon there will be nowhere to hide.

We also peer into Blake and Isa's characters as well. Isa is anguished and protective of the children. It's easy to see why with her pregnancy and documentary. After studying cases of families left in this situation and worrying about bringing another child into a world that allows such things to happen, her maternal instincts are in full overdrive. She would do anything to protect those that she cares about: her husband, two parentless children, and in a later chapter, her colleagues. 

Blake too reveals much about himself in this early vacation. Even though he knows what he and Isa might see, they go anyway. He is someone who works hard to get the right information to protect and later find his wife. He also knows how to find that information by asking certain people and researching what is needed. He will sacrifice his own freedom to protect people like Isa.

Besides the story about Isa's captivity and Blake's rescue attempts, we are treated to flashbacks in alternating chapters. They serve to provide much needed explanation for the documentary, the Fryes, and the people for and against them.

The flashbacks are pretty clever in that they reveal some interesting information about the main plot. One character appears to work for one side. Then in the flashbacks, one line reveals that they are a different character from another side and had their name changed and appearance altered.

 This is a pretty impressive feat because in the main plot, he's a cypher and lover to one character. Then in the flashbacks, this character appears to be an unlikeable coward who would throw anybody under the bus. Instead that is a front, until it is revealed how deeply involved they really are to the situation at hand, what their true personality is, and where their loyalties lie.

Servitude is one of those terrifying Science Fiction books. Terrifying because we are standing on the edge of what could happen, so we can keep it from happening.

New Book Alert: Vicious Ripples (The Desire Card Book Four) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Fourth Desire Card Book Brings Things to the Falling Action Act

 

New Book Alert: Vicious Ripples (The Desire Card Book Four) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Fourth Desire Card Book Brings Things to the Falling Action Act

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Stop! Before you read this review, I must give you a homework assignment. Please read either the previous books or my reviews for the other books in the Desire Card Series: Immoral Origins, Prey No More, and All Sins Fulfilled. I am going to reveal some important things in this review and I do not want any Reader to go in unprepared. Needless to say this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!!

You back and prepped? Okay good, on we go.

Any follower of Shakespeare's plays knows that each play follows a basic five act structure. Act 1 is the introduction, Act 2 is the rising action, Act 3 is the climax, Act 4 is the falling action, and Act 5 is the resolution.

Lee Matthew Goldberg's five volume The Desire Card Series is Shakespearean in structure (and come to think of it in theme and characterization as well).

The first volume Immoral Origins was the Introduction. It introduced us to the Desire Card organization and their beginnings in the 1970's as they grant the wishes of the wealthy for a price. We meet the employees operating in disguise as Hollywood stars such as newcomer Erroll Flynn and the Card's enigmatic founder, Clark Gable. We see the rivalry formed between Gable and head of the European branch, Sir Laurence Olivier and what happens when Flynn tries to get away and revert back to his original identity of petty thief, Jake Barnum.

The second volume, Prey No More is the rising action, set forty years later when the Desire Card has gained power and influence in various business and political circles. They have operators all over the world and one of them, J.D. Storm AKA James Dean, goes on the lam. This results in lots of murders and J.D.'s hatred and thirst for revenge against the card and the people behind it.

All Sins Fulfilled the third book is the climax when well to do, Harrison Stockton needs a liver transplant and solicits a certain card to fill that request. This ends in some major revelations that reveal the people behind the masks, particularly Gable who is much closer than Harrison had previously been aware. It also culminates in J.D.'s act of revenge against Gable, the Card, and all it stands for.

The fourth volume, Vicious Ripples, is the falling action demonstrating what happens after the earth shattering revelations from All Sins Fulfilled are revealed.(The next volume, Desire's End appears to be the resolution where the Card and its treacherous founder come to their long overdue finish.)

Vicious Ripples is set immediately after J.D. Storm, now using the name Marcus Edmonton, has kidnapped 10 year old Gracie Stockton, the daughter of Harrison Stockton and his ex-wife, Helene Howell. Besides combining the protagonists from the previous two volumes, the kidnapping is for a darker and more serious reason. 

Gracie is the granddaughter of Jay Howell, businessman and multi billionaire. Oh yeah and Howell has another important distinction, a side hustle if you will. He is the creator and founder of the organization behind a certain card that we have been familiar with for the past year.

That's right, Jay Howell is also known to the Readers as Clark Gable, the mysterious and sinister head of the Desire Card. 

J.D.'s demands are simple. He wants the Desire Card disbanded for good. Also, he's not the only one who is after Howell/Gable. 

Harrison has his own unresolved issues with his former father in law. Howell's European rival, Oliver AKA Sir Laurence  Olivier (wow original) wants to cut into the competition. Ambitious and driven, Detective Monica Bonner is overcoming her personal loss by investigating Gracie's kidnapping and some mysterious deaths connected to the card. Gee, it seems like creating an organization that thrives on theft, drug dealing, murder, and other illegal nefarious acts to fulfill other's darkest desires seems like a bad idea since in the end it creates so many enemies who would like to see one dead. Who would have thought?

Even though many things were revealed in the previous volume and this one, there are still enough twists and turns to make Volume Four a good read. In fact, it's better than All Sins Fulfilled because there aren't as many slow parts which bring down the protagonist until they discover the card and start using it. By this point, the Reader knows about the Card, how it's used, and who the players are. The question is what are they going to do as their world comes crashing down around them?

Of course if you are a Narcissistic master criminal like Howell, you are going to do one of two things: scheme against your enemies and get as much as you can or if you go down, you take everyone else with you. Either way, Howell is backed into a corner and is going to strike at his enemies.

His few remaining supporters are like the last survivors on the Titanic still clinging to their Hollywood identities: Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Mae West, and a new James Dean. Many of them are freelancers who stick with Howell for financial gain. Others because they have nowhere else to go. Still others, namely Audrey and Dean, have personal reasons to stick close to their fearless leader. It is a sad pathetic group that remains, not like the far reaching, intimidating, glamorous, and hedonistic Desire Card operatives of the past.

It's also pretty clear that Howell uses these operatives like he uses everyone else. While he does have the capacity to care for certain people and is genuinely worried about Gracie, the narrative makes it clear that he values the Desire Card over everything else. 

Now that Howell's mask has been removed and his true self has been revealed, he is shown to be a self centered despicable creep who would sacrifice anyone to keep his operation running. (Not going to miss this guy once he's gone.)

It is interesting the various ways in which Howell's enemies go through to take him down, never actually combining their resources to fight the common enemy (Maybe that will be saved for Volume Five). Oliver uses his own card connections such as a couple of traitors in Howell's midst and his own operatives like Evchen, his second who assumes the identity of Marlene Dietrich. He fights duplicity with duplicity and strives to be every bit as cunning as his rival.

Monica uses the law and her own detective instincts. Because she also suffered the loss of a child, she relates to the Stocktons even though she is not in their socioeconomic class. She, like Helene, is a grieving mother and wants to relieve Gracie's parents of the burden of loss that she lives with every day. In a series full of criminals, illegal activity, and narcissists galore, Monica Bonner is the lone moral center.

While Harrison is out for the count through most of the book, he and Helene use their family connection and inside knowledge of Howell's home life and what he does when he's not in the mask. In fact, much of the intel is provided by overhearing conversations and searching through private files. It also opens up a lot of development for Helene who was once Daddy's Little Spoiled Pampered Princess and now has to face the truth about her father and where her rich life came from.

J.D.'s course of revenge is by far the strongest and most gripping. He was once a hitman with a heart of gold who walked out on the Desire Card when he began to question their methods. He had a chance to build a decent post-Desire life and then lost it all.

Now in Vicious Ripples, he has become everything that he once despised. A ruthless assassin with no conscience and is willing to hurt innocents to get his needs met. He is the final result of what the Desire Card turns people into: remorseless monsters with nothing left to lose.

Some of J.D.'s best moments are when he is with Gracie. The flickers of conscience still remain as he watches over the girl and tries to explain who her grandfather really is. He also watches in bemusement and horror as Gracie begins to accept her grandfather's identity and even absorbs some of the lessons that the adults around her are teaching. She learns them all too well in some very horrifying scenes that suggest that she too is the final result of the Desire Card's sinister dealings and Howell's insatiable avarice.

As great as this volume is, there are two rather questionable things. In one chapter during a confrontation between Howell and an enemy, something strange, sinister, and almost supernatural happens. It seems to come out of nowhere but perhaps it is an intentional callback to an earlier theory about the Card's origins. (Now with that scene, is the theory back on the table?)

The other question is a missed opportunity, or rather a missing piece to the revenge puzzle. We have seen most of the previous protagonists take on the Desire Card save one, Jake Barnum, the main character in Immoral Origins. While yes his death at the ending of the first volume would mean he can't be there physically, it's upsetting that some plot threads in that book were left dangling and he isn't there in spirit.

Jake's former girlfriend, Desire operative Marilyn Monroe, was alive, well, and remained a Card operative at the end of Immoral Origins. That's the last we hear from her and she makes no reappearance nor is referred to in subsequent volumes. You think that since Jake couldn't be there, at least Marilyn or better yet a potential offspring of theirs, could be there to settle an old score. (Of course I may be getting ahead of myself. Desire's End may answer that question.)

Well, the only thing left is a resolution. It will be interesting to see what happens when Desire's End takes a pair of scissors and finally cuts the card.

Weekly Reader: Little Blue Eyes by Rob Santana; Little Baby Brings Big Trouble and Tough Decisions

 

Weekly Reader: Little Blue Eyes by Rob Santana; Little Baby Brings Big Trouble and Tough Decisions

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rob Santana has made a career of writing about people making rash and reckless decisions, usually in moments of desperation. His previous work, The Oscar Goes To and his latest work, Little Blue Eyes feature people that do things like appear in adult films, steal and withhold information, deal and buy drugs, and practically kidnap children. These decisions are often abhorrent and create problems for the characters. But Santana writes these characters with a lot of understanding so that the Reader sees that they were made not from intended malice but by other forces like poverty, addiction, revenge, envy, and simple desperation to improve one's life no matter the circumstances. They act and don't stop to consider the consequences. It's later that the consequences come back to haunt them.

That is the situation faced by Elena Mitchell, protagonist of Little Blue Eyes. Elena has been recently let go from her position at a bank even though a lesser qualified woman was promoted in her place. (The Latina/African-American Elena suspects racism since the blond woman not only cannot do the job but can't speak Spanish very well which is a requirement and in which Elena is fluent.) Worse, her sister Terry is moving in with her soon-to-be-fiance and they are having a baby. Terry rubs further salt on the wound of Elena's life that she is unable to bear children, a painful reminder for her.

 While on a fruitless job search, she hears a cry from behind a dumpster. A small Caucasian baby boy with blue eyes stares at her. Elena picks up the little one and falls into confusion and love. 

After some indecision and contacting the wrong people, Elena decides to raise the baby herself and name him Todd. That is slightly complicated when she arouses suspicion as a biracial woman carrying a white baby in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood of mostly black and Latino residents. (She tells them that she is babysitting.) Of course it isn't too long before the police, a dangerous baby broker and his team, and Todd's less-than-stellar birth parents are on the case and Elena finds herself in a world of trouble.

There are conflicts within the book and unfortunately many of them are caused by Elena's actions. The first thing that Elena does is take Todd to a hospital which is good and makes sense. But the second thing that she does is unexplainable. Instead of contacting any authority figures, adoption agency, or family services, she calls a baby broker, Carlos Ruiz. Not only that but she tells him that the baby is white, a prime catch for baby brokers, since they can sell Caucasian infants to wealthy white families and make a profit. True, Elena changes her mind and grows attached to Baby Todd. The book also makes it clear that she is not a cruel heartless person. She is driven by poverty and possibly mistrust of the police or other official services. She sees no reasonable way out. The worst that she can be thought of is reckless and thoughtless. However, her calling Carlos leads to worse complications that could have been easily resolved if she hadn't called him.

To be fair, Elena may make rash and hasty decisions but once she starts actually caring for Todd, she holds his best interests at heart. She protects him as a lioness would protect her cub, often bringing him along on job interviews, or introducing him to friends and family. She properly feeds, cleans up after, and nurtures the little one and protects him from danger. (Granted, danger she put him in herself.) When things get too dangerous, she makes a very tough decision out of love. It becomes clear that contacting Carlos was a mistake, but it doesn't diminish her love for Todd or her role in his life.

By contrast, Todd's birth parents, Sharon and Nick, make plenty of mistakes and are proven to be inferior parents. They are a pair of addicts who are more interested in their next fix than caring for a baby.

The whole reason that Todd is behind a dumpster in the first place is because Nick coerced Sharon into abandoning him at the hospital waiting room and he was left outside by accident. When they finally regret their decision to give Todd up, they harass and stalk people to get answers. (This is not only foolish but unnecessary since it's later revealed that Sharon's uncle is a cop and they could have just asked him. Though they probably didn't want him to know about their addiction or their shameful neglect of Todd.) There is a lot of covert racism as they harass Elena's neighbors and mistrust them on sight.

While they are more self centered than Elena, Nick and Sharon are also seen as driven and desperate people. They are certainly more unlikeable than Elena but they are seen as people who are so bound to their addictions that they put their own lives and that of their child at risk. Even when they search for Todd, it seems to be less out of love and more out of desperation. There is a moment though that the Reader encounters the hurting and suffering would inside and how they regret the path that their addictions led them on as they realize that they could have been a happy family, but were unable to be.

 Little Blue Eyes becomes a clear choice between a baby's addicted seriously messed up birth parents or an unemployed troubled potential adopted mother. While all three have their flaws, only one actually has the baby's best interest in mind and proves to be the real loving parent.

New Book Alert: On The Backs of Waves by Chiara Kelly; An Imperfect, but Engulfing Storm of a Psychological Thriller About Child Abduction and Obsession Dead Ahead

New Book Alert: On The Backs of Waves by Chiara Kelly; An Imperfect, But Engulfing Storm of A Psychological Thriller About Child Abduction and Obsession Dead Ahead

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: On The Backs of Waves by Chiara Kelly has the ingredients of a great summer read: tight suspenseful plot, interesting but not too involved characterization, wealthy upper middle class family caught up in some sort of thriller situation involving kidnapping and mysterious deaths, an unbalanced antagonist with a tragic past, and water imagery lots of water imagery. Like the book expects to be read by a swimming pool or a boat and is providing a visual aid.


The plot begins right after a heinous crime has occurred in which two young children, Luly (short for Tallulah) and Zack Reed have gone missing from their family's marina side home. They went on a sailing trip with their nanny, Laurel Macintosh, their aunt, Sally Conklin and Virgil Reyes, Laurel's friend from the nearby sailing club, and did not return on the scheduled date. Their parents, Miles and Moriah are practically frantic. They put the police, FBI, and Coast Guard on their trail and go over any possible leads.

Their strongest lead is Laurel since she was an expert sailor and often gave the kids lessons. She couldn't have abducted the kids could she? After all, she said that she dreamed of having kids of her own and had been somewhat vague about her past, but she absolutely doted on Zack and Luly. But kidnapping? Sure she once jokingly said that if something happened to Miles and Moriah, she would love to take them in but surely she could not have done it, could she? It's not too long before Laurel becomes Suspect #1.

The rest of the book flashes back to the friction in Miles and Moriah's marriage, their hiring of Laurel, and her obsessive love for the children, her anguished past that led her to make her unfortunate decisions.


On The Backs of Waves is one of those books that delights in giving us multiple first person narratives to give us different views of the same events. That particularly helps with the characterization of Laurel. When Miles and Moriah first meet her serving as a nanny to a nearby family, she seems absolutely perfect. She is great with kids, has a very amiable personality, and it isn't too long before the Reed children hang out with their new neighbors and their nanny and the Reeds wish that she could be their nanny Instead. Once we get into Laurel's head, we learn that while her love for children is never in doubt, her obsessive preoccupation with her biological clock is a telltale sign that all is not well with this woman.


To be fair Kelly is brilliant in writing her characters, most notably Laurel. Certainly The Reeds are the definite victims. It's easy to feel for an anguished couple worried about their babies and Kelly makes their anxiety real and almost insurmountable. Zack and Luly are also very realistic. They have charming character traits like Luly's fascination with the book, Pippi Longstocking and Zack's love of Adventure Time, complete with pet rats named Finn and Jake. The kids go from loving Laurel and thinking of her as a second mother to becoming terrified of her and the situation that she puts them in. The actual abduction is suspenseful and chilling, particularly when Laurel uses some psychological mindgames to win the kids over to her side.


Laurel is a very captivating character. The Reader alternates between liking and understanding her to loathing her. On the one hand, she is masterful and manipulative to get others to side with her such as getting Virgil to go along with her extremely dangerous and highly illegal schemes. Then we see the lost soul that she is, particularly in the heartbreaking flashback when she suffered a near fatal miscarriage and a loveless relationship with an awful man. By the end of the book, we are as uncertain as the characters whether Laurel was a terrible manipulative person who deserves punishment or a sad woman who wanted what she couldn't have at any cost.


There is also plenty of water imagery which adds to the near eascapism in summer reading. Laurel takes the kids sailing and there are plenty of delightful moments of smooth seas and scenic lakefronts. There is also tension when Laurel and the kid's sail to another country as the waters become rougher and more foreboding. The water becomes almost a symbol of the tension between Laurel and The Reeds, calm and idyllic when Laurel acts like the perfect nanny, a Mary Poppins of the 21st century, then storm ridden and catastrophic the more dangerous her motives and actions become.


There are some issues in this book that keep it from being a perfect storm of reading. It stretches credibility a bit that Miles and Moriah would not do a better job of checking for references, beyond her last job. In this day of social media, that is a huge dangling plot hole.
Another is Miles's cyber affair with a former colleague. It is an unnecessary development that ends up abruptly. It seems to serve no purpose, but as a red herring.


I would hardly call On The Backs of Waves smooth sailing, but there are no rough waters ahead. Instead, I will say be prepared for fair but at times choppy waters.

New Book Alert: Saint X by Alexis Schiatkin; Cause Celebre Crime Comes to Life in Fictional Caribbean Setting

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New Book Alert: Saint X by Alexis Schiatkin; Cause Celebre Crime Comes to Life in Fictional Caribbean Setting

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: There are certain true crime stories that we remember because of the intense media coverage. Names like Jaycee Duggard, Natalee Holloway, Elizabeth Smart, and Jonbenet Ramsey still get stuck in our minds. Terms like "Women in Jeopardy" or "Missing White Woman Syndrome" are used to describe these cases.

But what happens once the media circus is gone? The documentaries and movies have been filmed. The story gets trotted out once in awhile as a cautionary tale on the anniversary or a "where are they now" piece. What happens then?

These are the questions that are faced by the characters in Alexis Schiatkin's novel, Saint X. The murder of a young college student haunts family, friends, and the people who lived on the island where the murder happened. The characters have to fight through the public scrutiny and piece together their involvement in the murder and how their lives changed not only from the death but the suffocating publicity that came afterwards.


In the 1990's, Alison Thomas is visiting the fictitious Caribbean island of Saint X with her parents and younger sister, Claire. She and her family hang out at the beach, swim, play volleyball, and all of the other things that privileged white families do when they vacation on expensive islands filled with tourists and locals.

Alison sneaks out of the hotel to get high, dance, and have fun with the locals, all perfectly harmless until the last day of their vacation when Alison sneaks out and doesn't return. She is listed as a missing person and her disappearance receives a great deal of coverage. However, Alison's body turns up a few days later. Two Saint Xians, Edwin Hastie and Clive Richardson, who were the last to see Alison alive, are questioned and released. The case goes cold and remains unsolved as years go by.

Claire grows older, moves to New York City, and tries to put her past behind her. Her sister and the unanswered questions to her death continue to haunt Claire interfering with her attempts to get some hold onto her own life. Unfortunately, Claire has an encounter that forces her past forward. She catches a cab and is stunned to find that the driver is Clive Richardson, one of the Saint Xians who was the last to see Alison alive and was questioned about her death.


The book brims with sharp characterization and setting. It would be tempting to make this a fictionalized version of the Natalee Holloway story about the woman who went missing in Aruba. One way that Schiatkin does this is by creating a completely original setting so the novel is not pigeonholed by comparison with real life crimes. Saint X is solely created for the purpose of this novel.

That can be a slippery slope. The Saint Xians use pronuons "they," "he," "she," "I", or "we" in every instance instead of "him", "her," "them" etc. (For example, characters say "I gave it to he" instead of "I gave it to him.") In an era when a book like American Dirt exists and is the target of controversy, this can be somewhat jarring and could lead to uncomfortable accusations of stereotyping.

However, Schiatkin does a great job of describing the island itself with the flora, fauna, and topography. She makes the island come alive with description that activates the senses.

Not only the setting but Schiatkin considers such structures as the sociopolitical area, economic disparity, and race relations. This is particularly shown within the divide between the wealthy mostly white tourists and the impoverished black locals. Locals like Clive and Edwin have to live with abject poverty and a low employment outlook that causes many to leave the island. They barely tolerate the visitors who come expecting to be entertained and catch "the local experience" but depend on them for economic survival. So they bite their tongues and get to work with their wide and "Have a nice days" and "What can I get yous" while hiding exasperated eye rolls and sarcastic remarks. The young men like Edwin and Clive, can flirt with and romance the young visiting ladies as they do with Alison almost as a break from the hopelessness that they feel about their situation.

Alison is also looking to break her own tedium and feels ashamed at her privileged lifestyle. She bonds with Clive and Edwin out of boredom and to get away from the handsome Ivy Leaguers/College boys/MBA's at the hotel. She wants to experience real life outside of her comfort zone even if it's just as a tourist.


The crime aspect is top notch because Schiatkin focuses more on the aftermath rather than the crime itself. We get brilliant insights into what happens when a crime becomes a media frenzy. Claire despairs about the constant interview coverage and how the publicity was so intense that her family moved across the country.

Some humor is provided when Claire critiques a Lifetime Movie of the Week about her sister's murder. She mocks the loose party girl portrayal who was so different from the introspective woman that she knew. She also laughs at the obviouly evil hammy villain (called "Apollo") in the film. Despite the humor in the film, it is still a reminder of who her family lost. It's hard for Claire to move on when she is surrounded by constant reminders.


Schiatkin also writes how a crime affects many people involved, not just the victim, murderer, and their families. Throughout the book, multiple first person narratives are used from different characters who were at the hotel or were involved with either Alison, Clive, Edwin, or the investigation. We read this from people like the main investigator, Clive's girlfriend and her mother, and various witnesses such as a famous unnamed actor whose personal life made a steep downward descent since Alison's murder. Every person has their own separate story to tell, their own memories of the Thomas family, and their close proximity to what became a very newsworthy event. The characters's individualities come through in these chapters.





By far the strongest characters are Claire and Clive. Claire is someone who has physically grown older, but mentally and emotionally her development has arrested since those days at the beach. Her cell phone ring tone plays "Day O (The Banana Boat Song)", one of the songs that she heard during that fateful trip.

Claire works as an Assistant Editor for a publishing company that mostly specializes in True Crime books. While she claims that Alison's death has nothing to do with her current career choice, reading and editing books with similar stories to her sister's causes a lot of damage to her psyche especially when she reopens her own investigation into Alison's death. Claire has very few friends and no romantic ties. All she lives for are answers.

She even retains habits that she had as a child, particularly spelling words into the air with her finger. She tries to control that habit, but it is almost involuntary like she considers it communicating with her deceased sister. (In one eerie scene, another character recognizes her just from that habit.)

After Claire meets Clive, she ingratiates into his life by lying about her identity and faking a friendship with him just so she can finally get some final answers towards Alison's murder and whether Clive killed her. She has little regard for his feelings and whether she will hurt him. She doesn't even entertain the possibility that he might be innocent. She wants a confession from him and will sacrifice anything even her personal happiness and life to get it. Claire needs to receive closure towards her sister's death before she can move on.




Clive is also a fully realized character. His life was also shaped by Alison's disappearance and death. However, it doesn't define him as much as it does Claire. He is also driven by his economic situation and desires for a better life. He grew up in an impoverished village in Saint X. He had a childhood marked by unemployment, parental abandonment, and few opportunities. He is swept up by the schemes from his best friend, Edwin including drug dealing and romancing the wealthy female tourists.

Clive is also a father. His encounters with his young son and the boy's mother are some of the more moving passages in the entire book. He moves to New York, so he can make a life for himself and provide for the boy even if he doesn't get along with the boy's mother and maternal grandmother.

That's what makes Clive different from Claire. He has goals, ambitions, friends and family: things that Claire lacks because of her unwillingness to move on from Alison's death. As she stalks Clive, the Reader's sympathies change from the girl who misses her murdered sister to the man who befriends a potentially unstable stalker. We see that Claire and Clive are both damaged people and they both carry emotional scars from that day.




Saint X is a moving novel that asks to peer inside the media circus and see the individuals from within. Crime marked them, but it's the scrutiny, the loss, guilt, and questions that remain with them.

Weekly Reader: Room by Emma Donoghue:A Psychological Drama With A Unique Narrator

Weekly Reader: Room by Emma Donoghue: A Psychological Drama With A Unique Narrator
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers Ahead: Room is one of the most acclaimed best sellers of the 20-teens and deservedly so. The inspiration for this psychological drama (not thriller that is important.) are the cases of Jaycee Duggard, a woman who was held captive for 18 years since she was 11 and gave birth to her captor's children and Joseph Fritzel, an Austrian man who held his daughter captive for over 20 years in a secret room attached to his house and fathered seven children with her.

Those accounts are certainly grim and most novels based on them would probably be psychological thrillers. They would tell the story from the victim, their families, and probably focus more on the rescuers on the outside trying to find them. Maybe we would get into the back story of the kidnapper and why he acted as he did.  This wouldn't be a bad approach but Emma Donoghue did something unique with her narrative: she told the story exclusively from the point of view from a small child, a boy born in captivity to a kidnap victim.

As Room is told from the point of view of 5-year-old Jack, we are finding out about his world just as he is. He is inside a place called Room with his mother, Ma (called Joy in the 2015 film version.) His only friends are his Wardrobe where he sleeps,  his Rug where he sits, and the other things around him.

 Jack and Ma spend their days watching the TV which Ma tells him are pictures of people from another planet.  (For example Dora and the Backyardigans live on a Cartoon Planet).
Sometimes they play "Phys Ed" which involves creating games based on things they have lying around like cardboard boxes and plastic bags or they stand under the Skylight and scream as loud as they can. They read the same books like Dylan the Digger and Alice in Wonderland (Because of reading the books,  Jack's reading skills are well developed) and sing songs from "Row, Row,  Row Your Boat" to "Tubthumping. "
The only other person is a sinister character called Old Nick,  who visits Ma every night and gives them food,  medicine,  and other items for Sundaytreat.

These elements make the story less of a thriller and give the book almost the aspect of a dark fairy tale like Bluebeard.  Because of Jack's limited experience with the Outside World,  it is almost as though he and Ma are trapped in a dungeon by an evil ogre  who needs no backstory or explanation. Old Nick is the cruel man who entraps Ma and Jack, because to him that's all he is. To Ma and Jack,  Old Nick is nothing more than a monster and all they have are each other.

Jack is naturally confused when his mother tells him that there is a world outside of Room, that she was kidnapped at 19-years-old, and that she has a family outside. His confusion turns to terror when after a fight with Old Nick, Nick cuts off the power and reveals that his home will be foreclosed.  So Ma comes up with a daring plan of escape that actually works.

Most books would end with the rescue,  reunion with the family, arrest of the kidnapper, and a happy ending. But as the Reader has already observed, Room is not like most novels. Instead Jack and Ma's escape from captivity is in the middle and the two have an equally difficult struggle of adapting to society.

For Jack, who was born in captivity,  everything is a new experience for him. He has to get used to everything from riding inside cars to learning about social cues that he never knew like not touching people in certain areas. Even though he is 5 with a developed vocalbulary,  Jack is almost like a baby or a blank slate unlearned, curious,  and frightened of the world around him. He can't get used to the idea that Room is only one small part of a wider world and it doesn't take long for Jack to want to go back to Room since it is familiar to him.

Ma has just as difficult a time adjusting but in her case, it's getting used to a world that changed around her. She has to adjust to her brother getting married and starting a family and her parents getting divorced and her mother getting remarried during her absence. She also is protective of Jack and confrontational over anyone else helping her because for so long it was just the two of them. Of course there is also the Media Circus that forms after their release. After a disastrous interview, Ma is overwhelmed by her newfound freedom and overdoses.

In their captivity and release,  Jack and Ma are compelling characters. First in Room,  where they have to rely on each other as friends and co-horts in an awful situation,  then after their release when they have to reach out to others in a brave, new, scary, large world. Their release changes them so that even though Jack and Ma love each other as much as ever, they are willing to be a part of the world that they are learning to accept. This is evident when after they return to Room,  Jack wonders if it was always that small and Ma tells him,  yes,  yes it was.