Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kellenborn, How to Lose The Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame, Barside Manner by Brian Baleno

Eyes Behind Belligerence By K.P. Kellenborn 

 Eyes Behind Belligerence is a powerful and highly relevant novel about racism, xenophobia, cultural identity, patriotism, and what it means to truly call oneself an American even when others won't define you as such.

The Japanese-American population of Bainbridge Island, Washington State felt the impact of the attack by the Japanese Imperial Army on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, barely tolerated racist jokes and stereotypes become the norm. Members of the community are ostracized or treated with outright hostility by white neighbors, schoolmates, church members, and authority figures. They are forbidden from having possessions that might be used as weapons or short wave radios believing that they could be used for spying. Finally, they are sent to internment camps.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a shameful time in American history which unfortunately is still in practice today just with new names, faces, and targets for racist and xenophobic abuse. It's staggering how quickly certain groups are seen as enemies and how easily many can be swept up in paranoia and propaganda. 

The moments before and during the times in the camps feature dehumanizing practices used to isolate, divide, and internally destroy the people who are targeted. Some of the more insidious actions result in detainees not only trusting the white officers holding them but in their fellow inmates. Some act as inside informants. Others resort to random acts of vandalism and for mini gangs for survival.

 Sometimes division between Japanese born immigrants who came from Japan and settled in the US (issei) and those with Japanese ancestry but lived in the US their entire lives (nissei) is revealed. If they can be divided, it becomes easier for the American authority to break them.

The book is largely told from the points of view of teenage boys Goro/Russell Hamaguchi and Jimmu/Jim Yoshimura who are swept up in that generational divide within the camps and their own families and the racial and cultural divide from the government surrounding them. 

Both are Japanese-Americans whose parents fled to the US either before they were born or as children. They consider themselves more American than Japanese. They adopted American names, hardly understand their families’ first language, and have fully assimilated into the society around them. 

Russell in particular is fond of the country in which he lives. He mocks his parents’ traditional ways and scoffs at their ideals like honor and family loyalty ahead of individual liberty. He considers himself just as American as the white kids that he attends school with, maybe even more so.

Unfortunately that patriotism serves little use for him in a country that shows right away that it has no love for anyone who was born different. They don't see an American boy. To them Russell is Japanese and is treated like an enemy. Unfortunately his Japanese elders aren't any warmer either. Some like his siblings basically think that he sold out and question his loyalty. A fistfight with one of his closest friends reveals the buried resentment and lack of belonging simmering within him.

Jim also is torn between embracing his cultural heritage and assimilating into the world around him despite its rejection. Unlike Russell who treated assimilation like a calculated strategy for survival, Jim’s dismissal is fueled by personal trauma.

Jim’s journey is probably the most emotional even before the war begins because of his older brother's suicide. His grief over the death, his family's reaction to it, and the reasons for those actions lead him to question and defy his heritage. While many see community, Jim sees emotional abandonment and it takes a long time within the book for him to recover from the loss.

The two young men’s outlook changes inside the camps. Russell goes through periods of defiance such as defending himself from a racist guard, continuing correspondence with a Filipino-American girlfriend, and joining a gang of troublemakers in the camps. He ultimately tries to adapt, adjust, and find ways to ensure his friends and family's survival. 

Jim does the opposite. He starts out as a mostly pacifistic sensitive kid unwilling to fight alongside Russell and the other tougher kids. He tries not to do anything that would result in punishment and be the complacent dutiful detainee. 

Jim eventually tires of the mask of obedience that he is forced to wear because the officers don't care. He will always be considered an enemy and in moments of self-fulfilling prophecy, he becomes that defiant rebellious enemy. They could only push him so far enough by dehumanizing him before he pushes back. When he finally does, it's a moment of catharsis for himself and the reader.

Reading a book like this makes it easy to see the conflicts that are still relevant today so we can study them, read about them, learn from them, and maybe someday do better.

How to Lose a Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame 

How to Lose a Life You Love: A Memoir of Conditioning, Collapse, and Sovereignty is a meaningful, moving, and inspirational memoir about having and losing it all, and what happens afterwards. Mostly it's about having the resilience to pick yourself up and seize a second life.

Author Mike Karame had a childhood and young adulthood of strife and conflict. His parents’ tense marriage was rocked by bouts of temper, arguments, accusations, and emotional breakdowns resulting in a divorce.

 Karame describes his childhood in war and battle analogies because the arguments felt like a disruption of the peace that he sought. He and his siblings had to navigate their home like a minefield waiting for the next explosion to occur from their father's angry tirades and their mother's tearful silence. 

Karame’s childhood in Beirut was also surrounded by outside wars as well. He describes life in Lebanon as a “simple brutal algorithm. Your religion determines your power. Your sect determines your identity.”

Karame recalled explosions occurring during innocuous moments of watching television or studying in class. Tanks rolling down the streets, soldiers marching in formation, and people sprinting for shelters were commonplace. With wars occurring both inside and outside Karame's home, it's no wonder that he wanted to escape any way possible.

Karame later entered a law career but eventually felt unfulfilled by it. His interest in caring for and riding horses led him to a different path: opening up a horse club. Even though his friends thought that he traded a life of luxury for training horses, he said that he wasn't trading down, “(He) traded up.” It gave him a chance to do something that he loved and gave him personal satisfaction. He loved teaching people to ride and connect with horses and added to his own pursuits by learning kitesurfing, paragliding, deep sea diving, and other outdoor adventures.

This would normally be the end of the story. Someone leaves the life that tied them down and made them miserable and finds the career and life path that makes them happy. In Karame's case however, this is the middle of his story which means there were a lot more changes for him to go through and far more experiences for him to learn from.

A series of problems including a failed romantic relationship, the deaths of his parents, separation from his twin brother, and financial struggles culminated in Karame having to sell the horse club and leaving Lebanon. He had to find the strength and courage to start over in a new country where he was virtually a stranger, Australia. 

Karame described his life in Australia as a “collapse” when he encountered dishonesty from colleagues, unpaid bills, and potential bankruptcy. Despite this he purchased and worked in a bar/restaurant and maintained a relationship with his companion, Kate. He referred to the end as a demolition because a demolition “when you finally stop fearing it, is the beginning of clean ground.”

Karame and Kate traveled by caravan through the Australian outback. The connection to nature, vastness of travel, and the quiet privacy gave the couple a much needed slower pace. They ended up traveling for almost two years heading nowhere in particular. This trip gave them the freedom that they needed.

The tour also helped Karame look at and listen to himself objectively. In the silence, he examined what went wrong in his life and what needed improvement. Sometimes one needs to remove all of the barriers and noise before they can discover who they really are. That is what this tour meant to Karame: an opportunity to find himself.

This book is a memoir that shows readers that a person might have many opportunities and live many lives. They just have to 

be ready to find them.

Barside Manner by Brian Baleno 

 A trend this year seems to be short anthologized slices of life Contemporary Fiction novels set in specific places, usually dining or music establishments, and around ordinary people. The works are short on major plots but long on setting and characterization. This year I reviewed Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man and The Writing Writes, The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin’ Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. I might even throw in books from years past like Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thomson Carr, The Lindens by Barney Jeffries, Tales From Whiskey Tango From Misery Towers by James Aylott, and The Cabin Sessions by Isobel Blackthorn for sharing many similar qualities with these works.

We can add Brian Baleno’s Barside Manner to this oddly specific subgenre. Just like its predecessors, it captures the immediacy of a small setting and closed circle cast of characters. Despite the small space that confines this specific written universe, Barside Manner presents an intimate close up look that is rich in detail and purpose.

Freddy is the bartender at the local Pittsburgh bar where he greets his regular customers and the occasional new faces. He listens, advises, comforts, provides a sympathetic ear, and sometimes reveals his own personal struggles while his closest associates drink, laugh, joke, bemoan their fate, and engage in friendship and fellowship that are guaranteed until Last Call.

The book itself doesn't really have much of a plot. Mostly it's about characters debating getting rich quick schemes, figuring out the next steps in their lives, changing jobs, changing relationships, moving up, or moving down in life. Plot isn't as important as character and setting. 

We get to know the characters through their dialogue and conversations. They talk about politics, whether AI will take over the world, whether the Steelers have a shot at the playoffs, complain about their jobs or bad relationships, and just about everything else in between. They don't come to agreements but they sure love talking and arguing about it.

The bar is the type of place that is practically a character in and of itself. Freddy makes sure that it's clean and inviting for guests to enter. He knows the usual drink orders and greets both regulars and newcomers jovially. It's cozy, somewhat dim, kind of smoky, has a stench of alcohol but also has a charm and friendly atmosphere that invites characters and readers inside for a few hours.

We also get some insights into the characters that inhabit this confined space. Since there is alcohol involved, they are at their most vulnerable, open, loquacious, reckless, and honest. It is a place where they can forget their troubles for a few hours and someone, usually Freddy, will be there to lend an ear, offer a word, or at the very least fill up another glass.

There is Enzo whom Freddy describes as a “Pittsburgher’s Pittsburgher.” Tough, mouthy, loyal to his family and friends and particularly sports teams. He will be the first to insult the Steelers or the Pirates if they are losing but don't you make the mistake of criticizing them in earshot if you are from out of town. Not unless you have two hours to kill to sit through a lecture about the history of either team.

 There's also Spike, Enzo’s friend. He is a muscular surly man who might strike up a conversation, brandish a fist, or both sometimes during the same discussion. 

Edward LaRoche, AKA Fox Chapel is from a different background than Freddy and the others. His nickname comes from the more affluent area of town in which he lives, a life of wealth and privilege that only exists in his fellow patrons’ fantasies. 

Bob and Jan are a septuagenarian married couple who treat the patrons and Freddy like surrogate children. 

Then there's Freddy who has struggles of his own. At 29 years old, he knows that he has to make changes in his life but is uncertain how to pursue them. He wouldn't mind attending college to obtain a degree but thinks that he is too old.

 He and his girlfriend Lana, a doctoral student trying to get her PhD, have a loving but at times contentious relationship as they discuss their next steps: marriage, moving in together, or breaking up and moving on. As Freddy remarks by quoting U2: “(He) still hasn't found what (he) is looking for.”

There is a complacency that surrounds the characters. It says that things are okay for now. As long as they have a decent job, a roof over their heads, a place to go and destress, maybe some good friends or a loved one then everything is okay. Why aspire for anything better or different? Just stay in the same places, ordering the same drinks, have the same arguments, and remain comfortable.

Many of the situations in the characters' lives involve making changes. They seek money, love, better opportunities, innovation, something new and different. Their actions serve as a reminder to remove from their benign comfort zones to enter different possibilities that test their potential and deliver fulfillment beyond settling. They occur when the characters make changes so they aren't the same people that we met in the beginning.

This book reminds us that we can find pleasure in the ordinary everyday routine but we should also look for the changes that provide the breaks in that routine and challenge us to be different, better people. 

Empire's Cost Forged in Paper (The 500 Year Journey Book 2) by William H. Brothers; The Maritime Master in An Age of Peril by Michael Thomas Price

 Empire's Cost Forged in Paper (The 500 Year Journey Book 2) by William H. Brothers

William H. Brothers’ Empire's Cost: Forged in Paper is part of an exhaustive comprehensive look at 500 years of Dutch History and the impact that the country had on Europe, North America, and the entire world.

This book focuses on three generations of the Schutt Family from the 16th-17th century, a family that starts out as smiths and metal workers but become involved in business enterprises that create a network of several countries and businesses.

This book is rich in fascinating detail of the history but never loses the human impact and the personal touches that make this a story worth telling. For example we see Jansen and his father Wilhelm forge weapons. We see the process, intense labor hammering them over the anvil, and managing the fire with the bellows. We also see the stress involved in filling a large order. 

However, here is where this book goes beyond a dry recital of historical facts. We see what those weapons can do. Jansen travels to the battlefield and sees the weapons that he forged in action against soldiers on either side. He also sees what happens when a slight flaw in creation can cause great harm when it is unchecked. It definitely teaches Jansen a thing or two about hardship, violence, and to never accept slipshod work.

The approach to business is both historical and contemporary. The historical aspects can be found in the focus on Dutch products such as paper, china dinnerware, iron products, cheese, wine, and in one of the more provocative chapters tulips.

 The book goes into the legendary tulip mania and how quickly this little flower became a central figure in Dutch economy, a status symbol for the wealthy, and then just as quickly lost public interest (but still created a gorgeous landscape throughout the Netherlands). Various characters such as Jensen's son Hawk, are caught up in the windfall and the subsequent crash.

Despite the products such as paper, tulips, and other goods being transported by ship and cart, readers recognize many of the issues that are still surprisingly prevalent in modern business. Characters have to diversify their brand to keep up with the times. Some sacrifice efficiency and excellence for easy money and speedy production. 

There is added pressure to please guild officials, wealthy customers, and the general public. Some question a world that is becoming too fast, too greedy, and too connected to keep up with. No matter what time period, these issues recur throughout history and modern day. 

The Maritime Master in An Age of Peril: Based on the Life of Captain Matthew Price 1777-1821 by Michael Thomas Price 

Michael Thomas Price’s The Maritime Master in An Age of Peril is a fascinating, gripping, and revealing account of his ancestor, Captain Matthew Price who was a sailor.

The book tells of Price's early years serving under his father who was also a captain, then moves into his adulthood, his captaincy, his voyages, his crew, and various adventures traveling from one sea to the next. Even though he marries and fathers five children, it's clear that the sea is his real first home.

The book is a fascinating look at sea voyages from the 18th-19th centuries and the people who braved the waters putting their own lives, crew’s lives, cargo, and ships at risk to deliver them. It's a rough life, a thrilling one to be sure but the book makes the reader aware of the hardships.

Price travels from his native New England to Britain, Russia, France, the East Indies, China, Guadalupe, Jamaica, Bali, Turkey, and India. He experiences various countries and cultures and is changed by his encounters with them. His travels give him a larger perspective and understanding towards other people.

This is particularly noticeable in Price’s changing views towards slavery. He first becomes aware of the deplorable institution while serving under his father. He questions the practice and to his credit doesn't transport them when he becomes captain. However, he passively accepts and justifies it. 

Those justifications disappear when he encounters people from other races. He bonds with black sailors and recognizes that many people that he left behind in the United States would only see their skin color and not their loyalty, hard work, intelligence, and souls. Price's eyes are opened by his experiences voyaging around the world.

The book makes readers aware of the excitement and adventure but also the hardships in sea travel. There are moments when the voyages are monotonous and the crew are at one another's throats.

Characters develop friendships with crew members that are sometimes closer than family. Price is close to Randy who goes to sea as a child just like him. Randy ascends to first mate and his loss completely devastates Price.

One of the most harrowing and emotional chapters occurs when Price is the sole survivor of a shipwreck. His ship is torn to shreds by the foul weather and people who served under him through many voyages are suddenly lost to the ocean’s waves.

 He is left alone, ragged, thirsty, lost, and clinging to life. He barely survived the experience and only chances to survive by the kindness of strangers. This section opens up the risk and danger that such a life contains. One where you see much, experience much, but also lose much in the process.

In Search of Rain From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh by Syed Nourashrafeddin; Memoir About War, Hardship, Education, Trauma, and Happiness

In Search of Rain From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh by Syed Nourashrafeddin; Memoir About War, Hardship, Education, Trauma, and Happiness

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

 In Search of Rain From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh is Syed Nourashrafeddin’s detailed, emotional, inspirational, moving, and meaningful memoir. It covers topics like war, revolution, addiction, trauma, illness, immigration, and the pursuit of academic and financial success and personal happiness.

Nourashrafeddin’s life began in Iran during a tumultuous time in the country’s history. ’He was five years old during the 1979 revolution. He was too young to remember life before the Revolution and knows it from elder’s memories and documentation. They described that life as joyful and filled with vitality. They could drink and smoke in public. Women were free to pursue career opportunities. Artists and singers expressed themselves without censorship. 

All of that changed when the Ayatollahs stepped in. Nourashrafeddin’s description of a country deprived of everything that they once had like destroyed cinemas and clubs, banned music and art, women completely covered is completely heartbreaking. Even as a child, Nourashrafeddin felt that something wasn't right in a country that deprived its people of so much and used their limited interpretation of the Islamic religion to enforce and justify it.

 It wasn't the religion itself that created it because Islam was Iran’s primary religion before the Revolution. It was because the country was taken over by a sect of religious extremists with a very limited narrow view of what their religion meant and demanded that the people follow it.

Nourashrafeddin also grew up during the Iran-Iraq War and he effectively describes the after effects of a childhood in war. He bluntly describes the War as “a war for nothing.” The places where he and his childhood friends pretended to shoot each other in games were demolished by adults who really did shoot each other.

 His descriptions of a city practically annihilated with destroyed buildings, sounds of explosions and air strikes, food shortages, wounded neighbors, and casualties during a futile and needless war are unsettling.

There was also war brewing at home as well. Nourashrafeddin and his eight siblings were raised by an introverted passive mother and an outdoorsy temperamental father who was addicted to opium and heroin, “a world of smoke and addiction,” as his son wrote. His father’s addiction spiraled out of control as he lost his wife, youth, job, money, and eventually freedom to the disease. 

The conflicts at home and outside during the war showed chaos, anxiety, and trauma on all sides. It would be enough to drive anyone to despair and Nourashrafeddin revealed a lot of inner strength and determination to survive it.

Through education, Nourashrafeddin discovered his passion. Starting out as a lackluster student, he became interested in receiving a letter of recommendation to study mathematics and experimental sciences in high school. His goal was to become a doctor to earn respect, serve his community, and care for his family.

 He succeeded in school all the way to receiving a PhD in Molecular Medicine. He also obtained practical experience working in different fields like the military, administrative work in the Health Department, and worked in various medical and science laboratories, classrooms, departments, and fields.

His tireless pursuit of academic success and commitment to education is revealing, depicting him as someone who asked questions, hypothesized, theorized, researched, read, studied, measured, and shared his results. In other words, someone who was born to be a scientist but needed a slight nudge in that direction. Once he received that nudge, he excelled in the field. 

Nourashrafeddin’s adulthood was as eventful as his youth. Financial problems and overwork contributed to friction in an early marriage that ended in divorce. He was imprisoned after not paying alimony and upon release was temporarily homeless and destitute. He had vitiligo which lightened his skin and isolated him further. 

During that time, he indulged in hobbies like mountaineering and traveling to gain some perspective and a new outlook. He also had a better second marriage, found career success in Genetics, and eventually emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This section reveals that during times of difficulty that are out of one's control, it's important to find positive interests and relationships and that clear the mind, soothe the soul, and lead to personal happiness. It's also important to search for and find new directions in life that provide challenges and propel one to move forward.

Nourashrafeddin’s memoir is about a man who lived through much trauma, sadness, happiness, and success. He told his story so Readers can find ways to push past their own traumas and find their own personal success and happiness.

Survive The Cursed by Ashton Abbott; The End is A Monster Mash-Up

 

Survive The Cursed by Ashton Abbott; The End is A Monster Mash-Up

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There have been many Post-Apocalyptic works of fiction that predict the future will be overrun with supernatural monsters that will destroy humans and become the dominant species. Zombies are the most frequent survivors. Vampires have also had a shot at living forever in the Post-Apocalyptic wasteland. Occasionally, werecreatures and very rarely witches and other magic users come out to play in these future games. Well, Survive The Cursed seems like a novel length explanation that the author , Ashton Abbott couldn't decide which monsters to be the primary antagonists, so she decided on all of them.

In the future, humanity is reduced to living in enclaves on abandoned areas like Avery Winters does with her parents and other assorted humans in what used to be Eglin Air Force Base on the Florida panhandle. On a personal note, my father was in the Air Force and we lived in Eglin for a time from 1985-1987. I attended elementary school grades 2-4 there, so it is a fascinating and eerie experience reading about and imagining a place that I once lived becoming part of a Post-Apocalyptic universe. But I digress.

Anyway, Avery and the other humans hunt for monsters and kill them in brutal attacks. They study the movements, strengths, and weaknesses of witches, zombies, vampires, and werecreatures, find out where they are located, and kill or imprison them before they attack the humans. 

It's a difficult life and Avery has grown jaded and used to the constant fight against these monsters. She is old enough to remember life before the monsters, usually through minor things like eating cereal, wearing different clothes, or going to school or friend's houses. That's all gone as humanity has almost completely been wiped out except in small pockets and everyone has to fight and struggle to survive. 

Fighting for survival is such a new normal for Avery, that she is deprived of empathy, understanding, or compassion. She is so driven to kill the monsters that she ironically has lost her own humanity. She ignores the medical experiments that her father performs on the monsters that are captured. She vows that if one of her fellow soldiers is transformed into a monster, she would kill them without a second thought. She demonstrates this during an assignment when a couple of her closest friends are attacked by zombies and become zombies themselves. 

Avery only sees the monsters as cardboard adversaries until she is assigned guard duty over the imprisoned monsters. She is forced to look her enemies in the eye and converse with them. She particularly captures the interest of Whitney, a saucy temperamental Witch who wants to go down fighting and Mattias, an enigmatic and calm Vampire who wants to plead his case to his captors. 

The longer that Avery talks to and listens to her captives' perspective, doubt enters her mind. She questions the purpose of her fellow human’s, particularly her father's motives with his experiments. Avery admires Whitney's defiance and tenacity and is drawn to Mattias’s charismatic personality and almost human appearance. 

Before the monsters were a monolith, something easily destroyed and disposed of. Now she has to concede that they have names, identities, families, emotions, personalities, and possess admirable traits that she never considered. 

A twist occurs that causes Avery to challenge everything that she once believed. She is ostracized and her concept of friends and enemies have reversed. She sees humanity in those she thought of as monsters and monstrosity in those she thought of as human. It makes one wonder if there is any real distinction between human and supernatural characters and where the monsters begin and end. 

  

The Sunflower Widows by Matthew Fults; Building Community Through War and Grief

 

The Sunflower Widows by Matthew Fults; Building Community Through War and Grief 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: War brings many victims not just those who were killed but in the survivors especially those who have lost loved ones during war. For the friends and family members, the loss brings long term grief and sorrow. Even when the reasons to go into war are understandable, it still brings violence, death, and heartache. Sometimes the only things that a survivor can do is continue and find positive means of survival. One of the ways is to form a community of those who have had similar experiences so they can share their loss together. That's what happens to the women in Matthew Fults’ novel, The Sunflower Widows.

The Sunflower Widows tells the story of four women from a small Ukrainian village who have lost husbands and other loved ones in battle, particularly during the recent Russo-Ukrainian War. They meet at the home of Kathryna, an elderly woman who is familiar with death and grief. She befriends three younger widows, Yulia, a newlywed, Anna, a middle aged wife of a career soldier, and Natalya, a suddenly single mother. They form a network of support, understanding, and love.

The women's stories are individually told through flashbacks that focus on their lives and relationships before the war then moves to the present as they form a tight bond of sisterhood that encourages laughter, tears, empathy, and understanding. They are fascinating characters coming into their own separate lives before they come together as a group.

Their past stories are moving, detailed, emotional, and sometimes even funny. For example, Yulia and her husband Maksym have a meet-cute when she and her female friends have a flirting match with him and his male friends. In their one and one battle of words, they both emerge as the winners because they agree to date. The date blossoms into a relationship that evolves into a happy marriage for a time.

The flashbacks feature memories that become precious because they are gone. Even the most mundane of activities carry significance that they didn’t before. Anna’s grief is haunted by conversations that were started but never finished about how she and Borys saw their future particularly with or without children.

Their past memories parallel with their new normal in which they have to live without their loved ones.Natalya tries to put up a brave front for her infant son while her world falls apart around her as she mourns her husband, Dmitryo’s death. Her conflicts in being present for her son while wanting to withdraw into herself and her memories are understandable and relatable especially by those who have experienced similar loss. 

They don’t even have to be widows to understand the pain that these women go through. Kathryna herself was unmarried but is no stranger to death. As a child, her father was killed in WWII before she had the chance to really know him. She empathizes with these women because her mother went through the same process.

Because the characters are at different stages in life, the deaths feel like an interruption of what would be a normal process of one life transition to another. Yulia wanted to have a longer marriage to Maksym than the one that ended early and abruptly. Anna was looking forward to Borys’s retirement and spending her twilight years with him. Natalya now has a child, Zdeno, who will grow up never knowing his father, Dmitryo. Putin robbed them all of those chances when his Russian Army invaded their country.

The cause of the war is to fight against the invaders and for Ukraine to maintain its independent sovereignty. The four women understand that and want to live in a country free of invaders and Russian authority disrupting their cities, homes, routines, and daily lives. But agreeing with the cause doesn’t make the grief any less bearable and their husbands any less missed. This acknowledgement of courage and sacrifice can be seen when Kathryna lays out two more chairs when she meets the other three women. The reason that she sets the two empty chairs is because “there will always be widows.” 

The Sunflower Widows has a strong theme of community and togetherness. In their mutual grief, the four women are there for each other. They listen to each other’s stories offering tea and conversation. The other women hold and sit for Zdeno becoming honorary aunts. They encourage each other to change jobs and relocate if they have to. They wipe away one another’s tears and wrap their arms around each other with loving embraces. 

In collaborating and communicating with each other and inviting other mourners , the Sunflower Widows learn that while grief never really goes away, there can always be something positive found in sharing it and helping others. 

The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar; A Fantasy That Is Sometimes Too Dark and Somber For Its Own Good

 

The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar; A Fantasy That Is Sometimes Too Dark and Somber For Its Own Good 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When a book starts with the line “we killed God,” you know that you are in for a dark somber time. That's what you get with The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar, a dark Epic Fantasy which is mostly set during extensive battles between mortal enemies.

A group of traveling companions have spent centuries fighting against the beastly Leath. After some of their companions are killed in their latest battle, they think that they have an advantage when one of their own, Tarra returns from captivity with a Leath named Skar in tow. Having one of their enemies in their camp gives them an opportunity to study and understand the Leath and fight them smarter rather than harder. 

The somber tone is the book’s biggest strength but oddly enough is also its biggest weakness. It answers a fundamental question of whether a book can be too dark for its own good. The Last Ritual says, “yes.”

The tone is what makes this Fantasy novel realistic which sounds like a contradiction in terms but in this case it works. It serves as a deconstruction of tropes which are often found in Fantasies.

While battles are the norm for many novels and death is expected, that's often a side feature of the conflict. In this case, victory in war gives way to endless slaughter and the heroism faced by the characters is switched instead for brutal inescapable violence. There are no wins when enemy armies have been fighting against each other for a long time. Instead, it is a resigned weariness that forces them to move forward because to end it would lead them to wondering what the point was in all of the fighting in the first place.

The constant battles can be weary not only to the characters but to the Reader as well. The book starts out suspenseful as some characters are met with death pretty early giving an intentional ill ease. But the fights and violence are so frequent and repetitive, that battle fatigue sets in. It becomes harder to remember strategies, motives, and actions. After a while, the battles are interchangeable. The Reader squirms with impatience and even boredom mirroring the emotions of the characters who live for the fight but are sick of it as well.

The dour nature can be found not only in tone and plot but in character as well. The companions face not only the Leath but disagreements from within. For example, Tarra who has spent time with the Leath suggests a more communicative and understanding approach that encourages dialogue and negotiation with them. Her colleague Silanna is more fiery tempered and is in favor of slaughtering every Leath and letting the god that they just killed rise from the dead to sort it out later. Melaan, who serves as the primary protagonist, hovers between the two ideologies, violent fury at the Leath and empathetic humanity, especially the more that he talks to Skar and sees a multifaceted complex individual and not a mindless monster. 

The characters face their own views about mortality, prejudice, xenophobia, and what happens when the enemy is more within than outside. They argue and bicker a great deal amongst themselves. Just like the battles they often go back and forth on a regular basis. However, just like the fights against the Leath, the characters' personal struggles become tedious and cringy. At one point they stop an emergency situation just to have another argument that gets more shrill, irritating, and makes the Reader root for the Leath to end it. The protagonists' feelings towards each other also plays into realism that the constant struggle against the Leath is what holds them together as a unit. Without it, they wouldn't be close or even friends. 

The Last Ritual is a book that thrives on being as troubling and morbid as possible. It works but it also goes a long way and leaves the Reader feeling hollow and empty.

 

All Silence Must Cease (The Peacebringer Series Book 2) by Raymond W. Wilkinson; The Women of Vespa Academy Are Back in a Brave New Bloody World

 

All Silence Must Cease (The Peacebringer Series Book 2) by Raymond W. Wilkinson; The Women of Vespa Academy Are Back in a Brave New Bloody World 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: If there is one trend that has stood out among the books that I am reading this year so far, it's the abundance of sequels. I have read nine sequels so far so many that I am considering making a separate Best of Category just for sequels at the end of the year. It's not just that they are common sequels either. They are sequels to books that were favorites in years past. This year, I read Wallace House of Pain by S.M. Stevens, the follow up to Beautiful and Terrible Things which was my #1 Contemporary Fiction book last year. I also read Merchants of Light and Bone by Erika McCorkle and The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman the continuations of Merchants of Knowledge and Magic and Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity respectively, both of which were my top favorites from 2022. Not to mention the continuing adventures of The Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardians Series by G. Russell Gaynor, The Others by Evette Davis, The Mantis Gland Series by Adam Andrews Johnson, The Everlan Trilogy by Conor Jest, and The Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mysteries by Russ Colchamiro. Well we can also add All Silence Must Cease, the second book in The Peacebringer Series by Raymond W. Wilkinson, the follow up to To End Every War which was my favorite book of 2023.

To End Every War was a unique book in the Epic Fantasy genre in that it wasn't an Epic Fantasy. I mean it was. It was set in an Alternate version of our world in 1902 where Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Centaurs, Selkies, demon-like Abraxas, and Fairies exist alongside Humans and in this case attend university together. There were the usual tropes that can be found in such works: arcane mysteries, magic, strife among various kingdoms, and so on. 

But what set it apart was that the focus was on the characters, a circle of female friends and their conflicts with each other and adjustments to living in a new environment away from home. No epic quests, no good vs. evil battle. Just six women of different species, backgrounds, and personalities learning to live with and like each other, more Feminist than Fantasy. In my previous review, I compared it to “Lord of the Rings meets Mary McCarthy’s The Group” and said that “it's not an Epic Fantasy with an All-Female cast. It's a Woman's Fiction Novel that happens to have a Fantasy setting.” I did not exaggerate.

The second volume is less character driven and more plot driven but no less interesting. Alongside the individual characters and their internal issues within themselves, each other, and their peers, it also puts them into the larger scope of warring communities, secret societies, political backstabbing, and their own roles as future community leaders, influencers, and fighters. 

The women are definitely rife with personal trauma that has affected their lives in Vespa Academy. Esmeralda Vespa, the Human future Duchessa, becomes a central figure in various power struggles. She weighs potential marriages and obtains a very dangerous rival with an unstable prince.

Zabel Lusine, an enigmatic Elf is pregnant and has a secret marriage to another Elf while her husband's guardian is her patron. Her body is also inhabited by a simulacrum, a violent Dark Elf named Shamir.

Viatrix Corna, a scholarly Dwarf finds her image of her family and species called into question. She has to deal with her father having an extramarital affair, her brother being part of a Socialist organization that is planning violence, and her grandfather being a member of a secret society that finances many of the happenings in the other lands.

While Alya Pamoroyan, an Abraxas, is studying in Vespa Academy, her kingdom has been attacked. She is anxious about her parents who are reported missing and her newly married sister, Dina who will soon be right in the thick of things.

Kirsi Takala, a Selkie, is struggling to put a hold on her violent nature, which all Selkies possess (and makes them good but terrifying fighters). She also is trying to solve a mystery involving her mother's time in Vespa and the dark secrets that led to her dismissal and a murder.

Kamila “Kam” Ruszo, a Human/Fairy hybrid is going through physiological changes as her body transforms into a more Fairy-like form. She also learns that her mother is a spy and assassin and has the Royal family in her sight.

The six women's struggles are both external and introspective, mixing the personal and political. There are great moments that collide their private lives with their public and pushes them into a wider circle of influence and change.

One of those moments involves an assassination attempt during a public event. The characters also face various conflicts such as Kam’s with her mother, Viatrix with her father and brother, Kirsi with bullying students, Alya with Dina, Esmeralda with the prince, and Zabel with Shamir during the attempt and its aftermath. These intertwining conflicts change their lives by pushing them onto darker, unsettling, and unstable paths.

The larger big picture events surround the characters but except for some violent moments and allegiances of older friends and family members do not directly involve them. Being peripherally involved might not be the same way as physically involved but it is no less traumatic.

They might be on the edge of the events, but those edges are becoming narrower and they will soon be thrown in.

Right now they have to live with the consequences of other’s actions. They worry about family members being exiled or disappearing. They are disillusioned by family members who walk violent and treacherous paths. Their darker sides become even more present as they give into violence, sadness, and rage. They weigh the changes that will be made to end these conflicts. 

The strengths in both this and the previous book is the tight sisterhood and solidarity that form around the main characters. In this book, we still see that each character is able to put her own worries aside and use her talents to aid the others. Whether it's Viatrix’s scholarly pursuits, Kam’s interest in sneaking in and out of forbidden places, Zabel's intuitive wisdom, Alya's stoic rationality, Kirsi’s obstinate energy, or Esmeralda’s leadership and big picture thinking, these women always find a way to help one another through their various struggles. Which makes the ending all the more questionable, darker, and potentially even more tragic.

As the book ends, each character is recruited by secret organizations, go home to fight in their own way, make advantageous marriages and alliances, and settle into private lives in their kingdoms while becoming involved with the local political scene. In other words, they have to take larger parts in the worlds around them.These changes could mean that they will not only participate in the upcoming conflicts but will be forced into becoming enemies with each other. 

The school motto might be “To End Every War” but war seems to be what is going to happen. The characters have to decide whether they will take part or stick together to find a way around war and end it.

Redemption The Last Order by Anirudh Vaishya; A Broken Reflection by Shelly M. Patel

 

Redemption: The Last Order by Anirudh Vaishya 

Redemption: The Last Order is a screenplay that is both cerebral and thrilling. It is equally a mental challenge and adrenaline rush. It would be interesting to see how it resonates as a film for moviegoers who like action military movies and those who like psychological and political thrillers. 

On his first mission PFC John Brandt is the only survivor in a strategic fiasco that ended with the deaths of his crew, a base destroyed in a nuclear standoff, and injuries that put him in a coma for five years. When he awakens, he is informed that he was in a simulation and the memory was one of his lieutenant’s. He’s awake but the rest of his team are still in their comas and his CO has died. His superiors are very interested in how he broke from the simulation and woke up as though his brain is somehow immune to the computer interface that his teammates are still in. Meanwhile, his journalist girlfriend, Amanda, is missing while covering a high profile story in China and war between the US and North Korea seems inevitable because of interference from Su Hyang, a former US ally/informer turned traitor. Weapons threaten to rain down on both sides and one location hits a bit too close to home for Brandt, literally. 

This is a very effective Thriller. The opening is tense as Brandt is faced in a worst case scenario that is meant to have no positive resolution. Every decision is calculated for him to lose which puts him out of his element. It’s an overwhelming and traumatizing experience that plays on many of the fears and anxieties of being in a warzone and knowing that every decision that one makes could be their last. 

That this is a simulation offers no comfort. In a way, it is very similar to The Manchurian Candidate or other films that play on the plan of brainwashing military personnel. They study the fears and anxieties and don’t have any considerations about what it might do to the participants. It is a microcosm of the concept of war itself in which people in the higher echelons send those in the lower to fight and die, testing their resolve, physical endurance, intellect, adaptability, strategy, and survival instincts. They send them to die and consider the results either unfortunate mistakes, acceptable losses, or satisfactory when more on the other side are killed.

Brandt’s relationship with other characters flesh out his personality. While there are many characters such as his mother, friends, and colleagues who awaken Brandt’s protective nature, there are two in particular that serve as counterpoints to Brandt’s journey. The first is Amanda. Sometimes romances are a distraction or an unnecessary subplot in the genre but in this specific case and context it works. 

Amanda is just as dedicated to her journalism career as Brandt is to his military career. Their encounters are not a passionate romance between lovers but a partnership of equals who use their different talents to report the truth and protect the people doing so. Their relationship is a realistic coupling of people in high risk stressful situations. They gravitate towards each other as an emotional release so when things are settled, they have a hard time functioning with the day to day dilemmas and conflicts like where are they going to live or what their future plans are. 

The other emotional counterpoint is Brandt’s father, Charles. He seems like a quiet unassuming guy but we later learn that he is more involved than he lets on. In an extended flashback, one of the highlights of the script, we learn Charles’ backstory and his close connection to the current events. We see him as a young inexperienced brilliant student and his allyship with another character. We also see how these past decisions shaped his son’s future and those of other key players. The tragedy is human error caused this situation. Things were done and said at the wrong time,place, and circumstances. Decisions were made that only peripherally involved the lead characters but led to distrust, suspicion, and a lifetime of rage, despair, revenge, and compliance. 

Redemption: The Last Order is the kind of screenplay that keeps you at the edge of your seat but makes you think about what you just observed. It says a lot about patriotism, free will, mind control, domination, propaganda, and what it really means to fight, die, and live for your country.

A Broken Reflection by Shelly M. Patel 

This is a shorter adaptation of this review, the full review can be seen on LitPick. 

A Broken Reflection presents an absorbing investigation with multiple viewpoints and leads but ends with a resolution that is disappointing, overdone, and does very little to make this variation unique or stand out from others.

Claire and Stephen seem to have an idyllic affluent married suburban life but it's all surface. There are cracks in their home life that are becoming more evident. Stephen has had many extramarital affairs and Claire is being seen by many colleagues and acquaintances as unstable and temperamental. Stephen’s infidelities and Claire's characteristics become more evident when a woman known to the couple has been found murdered. Claire is seen as a primary suspect especially when it turns out that the deceased woman was Stephen’s mistress. As bodies pile up, evidence gathers, and Claire and Stephen become more suspicious towards each other, Claire conducts her own investigation to clear her name. Meanwhile a very devious pair observe the events with their own agendas. Jessica has a dangerous fixation for Stephen and Cole is stalking the object of his affection: Claire.

There are some engaging bits, particularly as the characters are introduced and the investigation consumes them. Since the book is told from multiple viewpoints starting with Claire's, we already see the imperfections but not outright. Our sympathies move back and forth between Claire and Stephen depicting one another as abuser and victim, innocent and guilty. This causes the Reader discomfort and suspicion as we search for the real answers.

We peer into the points of view from various characters and we experience quite a few obsessions and potential motives. No one in this book comes off particularly well or likable. When the murders occur, it's not necessarily a question of whodunnit and is more who wouldn't do it?

By far the two most intriguing characters are Jessica and Cole. It says something in a cast of unstable dangerous people, that these two are the worst. Jessica is conniving and manipulative in her approach while Cole is more immature, having an almost adolescent crush on Claire. They take different pursuits towards the objects of their affections. These two are not a mentally well duo.

Unfortunately as interesting as the investigation is, the resolution is every bit as disappointing. Because of spoilers, it won't be revealed but let's just say that it's a cliche that is often found in soap operas and Psychological Thriller.There is a final twist that salvages the reveal somewhat, but it undermines what had been revealed so far and could have done with it. 

The ending of A Broken Reflection shatters what would have been a clear image of a good suspense novel into pieces.

The Emissary (The Selanian Chronicles Volume 1) by Peter Krausche; Immersive Science Fiction Puzzles and Enchants with Immense Plot, Superlative Characters, and Visceral Setting

 The Emissary (The Selanian Chronicles Volume 1) by Peter Krausche; Immersive Science Fiction Puzzles and Enchants with Immense Plot, Superlative Characters, and Visceral Setting 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I know this is going to be a good year book wise (I can't speak for any other reason though, especially Presidential wise). But it will be a good book year when I have already found a candidate for the Best Book of 2025. Peter Krausche’s The Emissary first book in The Selanian Chronicles.

This book has everything that I love in a Science Fiction novel dialed up to eleven. An immersive visceral detailed setting. A wide spread plot that covers various situations, worlds, and time periods. Some puzzling points that hint at future revelations and hold the Reader's interest. A large cast of multifaceted deep characters. Strong themes that are relevant to their society and our own.

The book begins with a long prologue about Philip Brannon, the head of a religious order called The Selanian Society. He recounts a romance and short marriage with a mysterious beguiling woman, Silana who introduced him to her unique views.

This prologue is a self-contained story into itself which could be a separate novella. There are hints of a connection to the main plot but so far they are not expressly stated. It lends itself to speculation about its involvement in the overall book leading us to make our own speculations. It is also a nice romantic story of two very different people that shake up each other's worlds and make them think about things that they previously hadn't. 

Silana sees beyond her people's arrogance and prejudice to understand human concepts like love, devotion, and basic empathy. Phillip opens himself to deeper concepts of spiritual consciousness and universal connections. Silana settles into a marriage with Phillip and Phillip transcribes an account of her otherworldly origins. The events of the novel proper is the account.

The majority of the book is set on the planet Piral after an event called The Galactic Diaspora. Some strange ominous occasions that herald trouble are on the horizon. There are rumors that the Millennial Peace is coming to an end and greedy opportunistic monarchs want to stretch their rule to other kingdoms. The women of the spiritual Selalian Order are in disarray after the mysterious death of their High Priestess and a young inexperienced one was installed in her place. Catyana, a future acolyte for the Order, has frightening potentially prophetic dreams. There are a group of enchantresses with murderous violent intent who are responsible for mysterious deaths and misfortune. An amnesiac stranger, named Vilam Tavisan, arrives and befriends a small circle of women, notably Catyana and Nova, a woman with hidden powers and ties to the Selanian Order. There are hints that a figure from mythology called The Emissary might have finally arrived and what a coincidence, Vilam fits many of the signs. Could he be the foretold Emissary and if so what does that mean for the future of Piral and the rest of the universe?

The details in Krausche’s Piral setting are massive and quite impressive. He put together a timeline at the end of the book that illustrates the important events in the world’s history that are important to the text and some that the book hasn’t referred to at all (or rather hasn’t referred to yet since this is a series). They give background information to events like the forming of the Selanian Order and what caused the Galactic Diaspora and the results afterwards. It puts the book into a wider scope that involves the entire universe and no doubt carries important information from volume to volume. Also, it shows Krausche’s ability to create a complex history of his fictional universe.

This is one of those plots that involve a wide cast of characters and in this case various worlds. Even the prologue, which is seemingly unrelated, reveals that Earth is an active participant in this narrative. Things that happen in Piral are connected to things that happen on Earth. The fact that the religious society that is a large part of Piralian life has a small but growing sect on Earth suggests that these completely separate universes will soon have to unite on some future date. So this is unknown through most of the book but perhaps is acknowledged by Phillip’s time at least in some capacity. 

It’s also worth noting that there are some suggestions that time is not linear in this book. Philip is revealed to be the Earth Selanian Order head through a dialogue that identifies him as such in the early 90’s. In the prologue set in the early 80’s, he reads Silana’s account that we assume is most of the novel. It makes sense that Philip is reading historical documents of people that existed in the past. But what then muddies the water is within the text, Vilam begins to dream about Philip and Silana’s wedding and even indicates that he knew them. So he is having dreams in the past of the man reading about him in the future that he may have known or had even been in the past. Perhaps these are prophetic dreams. Perhaps this is proof of reincarnation. More than likely, time in this series is not linear but cyclical. Things that some characters remember are not just what happened in the past but what will happen in the future. These thoughts require Readers to pay attention to the details as they make their own interpretations. 

While the sweeping plot and intricate setting are well written, the heart of the book are the richly detailed characters. The characters go through various trials and challenges that bring out their complex motives and fluid personalities. Two characters for example, Soshia and Maralena start out as maids and comic relief characters. Soshia is particularly humorous when she openly and blatantly flirts with Vilam who is bemused but then receptive to her advances. Then she is put through a very traumatic violent situation and we learn about her and Maralena’s backstory. We find out that they are more than we originally thought.

Catyana is another character who evolves quite a bit both in terms of her gifts and through her own personality. She is a very shy, passive young woman with a large talented family. She has odd quirks that confuse and sometimes upset her so she tries to suppress them as much as she is able to. A shocking experience intensifies her power but also almost drives her insane. She is able to access a much higher power and receive training by the Selanian Order where hopefully she can learn to increase and hopefully control her abilities. This trajectory could lead her down a path of great wisdom, authority, but also insanity.

Many of the characters from opposing kingdoms or ideologies are also portrayed as understandable. Some are driven out of revenge over the deaths of loved ones. Others are motivated by a desire for power when they themselves are marginalized. Some want to maintain the status quo and are afraid of the changes on the horizon so are desperate to hold onto what they can. Some of their actions improve things and bring people together and others create more dissension and division.

Nova and Vilam are at the center of the various conflicts and become catalysts for many of the other characters to facilitate their own paths and personal journeys while reflecting and traversing their own. Nova is a leader with great power and wisdom which she contains or wields when necessary. Quite often she is an observer that mentors and guides others to achieving their potential but still has emotional ties to the people involved.

Vilam also goes through a brilliant journey, particularly when he begins to exhibit the traits of The Emissary. Many of the characteristics are done by accident or without meaning to. He is someone who befriends and defends various characters like Soshia, Nova, and Catyana. His protective nature towards those around him as well as his humility when confronted with this prophecy show that he is the right person. He is a simple but kind man who leads because it’s the right thing to do not to gain accolades or fulfill someone else’s prophecy. He fits the type of reluctant hero, someone who makes a good leader because he doesn’t want to be. 

Vilam’s regular guy persona briefly declines in one chapter where he uses one of the foretold weapons of the Emissary. His voice changes and speech patterns become more elevated. His posture and movements become more strident and he uses his weapons as though they were attached to him. Vilam briefly disappears leaving The Emissary in his place. It's an awesome but haunting transformation especially because it's only temporary and he reverts back to his original self. Vilam’s change might involve a complete evolution or overhaul of the man that he was into the man that he is destined to become. 

The Emissary is an immersive experience that captivates and puzzles Readers. The first book leaves a long-lasting impression which the next volumes are challenged to fill.

Scars of The Heart by Bob Van Laerhoven; Around the World Trip Into Loss, Grief, Love, and Terror

 Scars of The Heart: Short Stories by Bob Van Laerhoven; Around the World Trip Into Loss, Grief, Love, and Terror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Bob Van Laerhoven knows how to take an around the world trip through different countries right into the dark and damaged hearts and minds of the people who live within those countries. Alejandro’s Lie focused on the aftermath of a dictator’s reign in a fictional Latin American country and the effect on its people, particularly a man who was just released from prison and has PTSD. 

His follow up, Shadow of the Mole is a dual narrative set in WWI France involving a psychiatrist's obsession with an amnesiac patient and the patient’s manuscript which might be a novel or his memories of being cursed by a Romany couple. 

With his anthology, Scars of the Heart: Short Stories, Van Laerhoven does what he does best: peer into the tormented minds and heavy hearts of people in different interesting locations. It is less an around the world trip than it is an “around the human psyche” trip.

The best stories in this anthology are: 

“The Abomination”- In Syria, the narrator is part of a terrorist cell called the Shabah. As he languishes in a Doctors Without Borders facility with an amputated arm, he thinks about his life and what he did to get to that point. 

The Narrator is written to be a truly delusional and angry man. He sees himself as a wrestler or a superhero that he calls The Abomination. His fantasies about fictional heroes and villains, toxic masculine attitude, and confidence in his virility fill his mind with delusions. 

While in the hospital, he is faced with the reality of his actions. It is a reality of broken and injured people, dead bodies, friends and family members violently taken away from their loved ones, a country torn apart by war and hatred, and his own damaged body. His missing arm is a testament to the lives that he took.

Unfortunately, reality comes too late for The Narrator. His violent fantasies are all that he lives for and even when someone reaches out in kindness and compassion, all he knows is rage. All he can feel is anger and toxic pride. The only way that he can act is to commit destruction towards others and ultimately himself.

“Scars of the Heart”- In Belgium, a photojournalist is captivated by Jean-Claude, an octogenarian who tells his life story of being a soldier in Algiers. Jean-Claude recalls his colleague Bisserund who participated in a mission that ended in betrayal. 

Most of the story is a character study of Jean-Claude and his memories of Bisserund. He recalls details about his appearance, personality, and their experiences. It shows that in stressful times, particularly war, friendships develop. Sometimes the people that we encountered during those times are more vivid to us than our own family members. 

The twist in the end offers some interesting reinterpretations of the narrative, particularly Jean-Claude’s voice. It forces the Reader to reflect on what we were told about Jean-Claude and Bisserund. How much of it was real and how much did Jean-Claude make up? How much were his actual memories or how he wanted those memories to be? What about his confession? Why did he feel the need to tell the Photojournalist? Was there a connection between him and Bisserund like Jean-Claude hinted? Were guilt, remorse, illness, or fear of getting caught the reasons behind his end? 

In the end, we are given so much but at the same time not enough. This leaves us to investigate Jean-Claude’s story in our own minds and make our own interpretations about what we were told and what was revealed.

“The Bogeyman and Regina The Street Wench”-In Liberia, a reporter nicknamed the Bogeyman is covering the war torn city of Monrovia. He takes shelter with a nun, Sister Sponza, who is trying to escape with the children in her care. One of them is Regina, a girl who has lost her leg and seems to see right through the Bogeyman.

This story shows how stressful times can make strange friendships. The Bogeyman, Regina, and Sister Sponza are thrown together during violent circumstances. They come to depend on one another to survive. A cynical reporter, a selfless nun, and a former child soldier would have very little need to be together, but now here they are. 

This is also a time of sacrifice and asking questions of oneself and others. Some people rise to the occasion while others do not. Sister Sponza asks a question of The Bogeyman which leaves him to question his motives, the corners that he cut in the past, his earlier plagiarism, and his own egocentric desires to make something of himself. 

The Bogeyman has to examine himself to see whether he has the courage and fortitude to do what Sister Sponza asks or whether this will be the latest in his catalog of disappointments.  

“Abducted and Raped by Aliens”-In New York, failed author, Penman reflects on his ongoing rivalry with Stanislas Nakowski, a fellow writer who has an active sex life and writes about UFOs and alien abductions.

This story has one of the most memorable narrative voices with Penman’s third person point of view. His strange speech patterns like repeating the phrase “looky-looky” or non sequiturs like “this wet and slimy cold invading my nostrils is the swamp-stench of animal sex, eternal sex, war sex” portray him as someone who potentially shows signs of ADHD, or some neurological disorder. 

Penman's thought process could be someone who has difficulties processing information either from birth or trauma. It is also worth noting that he is addicted to cocaine and that may play into his mindset. His thoughts could just as easily be reflective of a mind that is slowly losing connections to reality.  

Stanislas himself is a memorable foil to Penman’s narration. He not only believes and writes about UFOs but he seems obsessed with them, almost aroused by them. A witness's story of an abduction is often interrupted by Stanislas’ lewd commentary and his interest in the witness’ sex life. 

He also had prior history of sexual assault in Kosovo when he and Penman’s paths crossed before. He is fueled by his sexual experiences and many of them either had violence during or afterwards. Stanislas equates sex, violence, and aliens in some crazed fantasy life.

With Penman and Stanislas we are experiencing two men whose minds are traumatized and fractured from earlier events. Both are completely unstable, unhealthy, and are bound to lives of further alienation, frustrations, violence, rage, and death.

“Lilies of The Valley”-In a WWII concentration camp, a Romany girl cares for her brother and ensures their survival by having sex with the guards. 

The Narrator is a resourceful young woman who is brought down to the most basic survival instincts and she knows it too. She was once a talented dancer and her brother an accomplished violinist but none of that matters now in the camps. 

She only uses her talents to be granted favors such as extra food or to live another day. Her morality and self-respect have long ago disappeared and now she is numb and unfeeling to what the guards do to her. The Nazis took everything that was precious to her leaving a broken shell.

Just when the Narrator thinks that she is devoid of all feelings beyond living for the next day, she is given a final tragedy, one that fills her heart and mind with rage. She uses her beauty and mind to engage in a one on one battle against one of the guards and others.

The Narrator becomes a blade of revenge and uses it against those who hurt her. As though she were the human embodiment of karma, she commits an act of vengeance that is equal to the cruelty that was inflicted upon her. 

“The Left-Handed Path of Tantra”-In 1970’s Antwerp, Johnny Di Machio had plenty of nightmares, particularly about a time when he was sexually assaulted as a boy. 

Johnny tries to live a normal life in Antwerp selling books and dating women, but he is completely haunted by these nightmares. His past eats away at him making him unable to function in the present. He has tried many means to overcome his trauma: sex, drugs, travel, meditation, seeking advice from psychologists and gurus. 

Johnny comes close to becoming romantically involved but he freezes upon intimacy. The nightmares and memories won’t leave. Johnny is an adult whose mind is frozen inside his bitter abused violent childhood. 

When Johnny is finally confronted with his memories, he has to evaluate his character: what happened, what he did, what he didn’t do, who was the perpetrator, and who was the real victim in the past. He is confronted with the truth and only when he has the truth can he actually begin to come to terms with himself and finally heal.

But One Life: The Story of Nathan Hale by Samantha Wilcoxson; Interesting Historical Fiction Novel About Nathan Hale Goes Beyond His Final Words

 

But One Life: The Story of Nathan Hale by Samantha Wilcoxson; Interesting Historical Fiction Novel About Nathan Hale Goes Beyond His Final Words

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Probably if it wasn't for Nathan Hale’s final words, we probably wouldn't know much about him at all. Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was a school teacher who took up arms during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence gathering mission in New York City but was caught, exposed, and eventually executed. His final words were, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” These words proved to be an inspiration to many of the Patriots fighting for American independence and are still remembered as one of the most important quotes in American history.

Just as she did with her previous work, Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl, Samantha Wilcoxson's But One Life: The Store of Nathan Hale, brings to life a historical figure who lived during important times. They are written as regular normal people that are caught in dramatic and tragic events that are beyond their scope. They heed the call, rise to the occasion, and make their mark during their time and for the future.

Wilcoxson never loses sight of Hale’s ordinariness. In fact, that is a key part of this book. Most of the plot focuses on his university years and his teaching career. The Revolutionary War does not even kick off until halfway through the book. His time as a spy only features in the last two or three chapters (more on that later). In fact during University, Hale is seen as a tag along kid brother following his elder sibling Enoch around. This earns him the nickname “Secondus” (Second) to Enoch’s “Primus.” 

Hale is someone who stumbles upon the world at large rather than charging headlong into it. At Yale, he and his classmates which include future spymaster, Benjamin Tallmadge are aware of events like the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party but are not involved in them. Mostly they study and debate whether taxation without representation is unjust and whether they are really considered British or American citizens. Like many college students before and since, Hale and his friends become aware of a larger world around them and discover their political and social identities, emphasizing and sometimes annoying everyone else with them. Their early contributions to  American independence consist of knowing that such a thing is possible and identifying as Americans. They probably never thought that the road to independence would become so bloody and violent. 

Hale’s post-University but pre-Revolution career is a series of ups and downs, some of it affected by the changing world and some of it from his own difficulties. His first teaching job in Haddan Landing is such a disaster that he resigns before Christmas and accepts a much better position in New London. His courtship with Betsey Adams is troubled by contrasting ideals and differing future plans. He even becomes more involved with the concepts of liberty and independence instead of just talking about it. He has the radical notion of educating girls as well as boys so they can embrace the enlightened values of freedom and education. He speaks out in support of the Suffolk Resolves, a declaration that rejected the Massachusetts Government Act  and resulted in the boycott of imported goods because of the Intolerable Acts. When the shot is heard around the world at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Hale officially enlists. This decision becomes a deal breaker for Betsey who ends their relationship but it leads Hale directly towards his inevitable destiny. 

Hale’s military service is rich in details about the hardships that soldiers and civilians endured during war time. From the freezing conditions, to frequent illnesses, changing orders, disgruntled enlistees, and of course the threat of violence and death in battle, this approach takes out the mindless propaganda and leaves the realism that is involved in warfare. Hale’s hopes boil down to staying alive and hoping that this fight will be worth it in the end. Maybe his country will have its independence and  Hale might gain some significance. It’s only towards the end that both goals come to fruition but not without Hale making the ultimate sacrifice.

While the book does a great job of humanizing Hale’s journey and making him a real person, it also confused me at first. I read most of it wondering when we were going to read about Hale becoming a spy. Why was the most important historical fact about Hale pushed so far towards the back of the book? After all other books like 355: The Women of Washington’s Spy Ring by Kit Sergeant put espionage front and center and Wilcoxson only devotes the final third to Hale’s missions. I was curious until I  read the chapters that covered Hale’s spying. It turns out that he wasn’t really that good at it. 

In Wilcoxson’s laudable effort to humanize Hale and the other early American patriots, she makes the Reader aware of their flaws. While Hale was a dedicated Patriot, an excellent soldier, and probably a terrific forward thinking teacher, he was not so adept at the spy game. In his first and only assignment, he manages to gather some intelligence but his cover is easily blown and he is very quickly discovered. It’s kind of humorous especially compared to Sergeant’s work where Meg Moncrieff Coughlin, Elizabeth Burgin, and Sally Townsend have much more successful multiple missions as members of the Culper Spy Ring and one may have even been the notorious “Agent 355,” one of Washington’s most successful female spies and who still to this day has remained unidentified. I was disappointed when I came upon Hale’s chapters and preferred the rest of the book, but after much thought I realized that was the point. 

Nathan Hale was not some super spy secret agent. He was just an ordinary guy thrust into an extraordinary situation. One that in some ways he was unprepared for, but rose to the occasion anyway. He was someone who was proud to be one of the many who fought and died for his country and ultimately summarized those feelings with the right words.