Weekly Reader: Luck by Chris Coppell; Lucky in Premise, Unlucky in Execution

Weekly Reader: Luck by Chris Coppell; Lucky in Premise, Unlucky in Execution

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Luck by Chris Coppell has so many things going for it: a suspenseful horror tale about someone with the power of mental manipulation even before they are born and a savage political satire about an inexperienced presidential candidate winning people over with those same abilities. However, somewhere this idea gets lost in a narrative of inconsistencies, plot contrivances, and possibilities that would have made a better story than the one we ended up with.

Daniel Trapp is born lucky, so we are told in the first line, and he would be. I mean after all if your father and seven months pregnant mother are killed in their car by an incoming train and you are saved by an emergency Cesarean section, yeah you'd be considered lucky too. He is adopted by his mother's sister, Mary and her husband, Henry and it isn't too long before they notice something odd about Daniel. Daniel also notices that he can see auras surrounding people, usually red or blue, and if he gives those auras a slight tap, he can get people to do whatever he wants. As he grows, so do his power and ambitions.

The book starts out promising. When Mary and Henry arrive in Colorado where Daniel is born, there is a self-awareness that borders on parody. Once they visit the hotel in which they are staying in, they compare it to the Overlook in The Shining. The bartender, who bears a strong similarity to Lloyd in the film, even jokingly refers to Henry as "Mr. Torrance."  

The locals practically have to hit the couple over the head with signs that Daniel's parents were "troubled" and something weird is going on. There is a genre savviness in this book but apparently not enough when the main characters stumble right into such a scenario.

It is kind of fascinating to read as Daniel learns how to use his powers to get what he and his family wants. He is able to get teachers to give him good grades, kids to play with him, or bullies to back off. He influences future nannies to display their worst qualities until he finds one, Christy, that he sees the blue aura around.

Good luck doesn't just benefit Daniel. Henry's hologram technology takes off and he gets a great position at CERN. Mary's house flipping business is a success and Daniel gets involved while still a teenager. Daniel and his adopted parents have the world at their feet.

Everyone follows them and if they don't  or the lad feels that they "outlived their usefulness" they have a tendency to disappear or take their own lives. 

However, the plot loses something as the tone shifts from horror to political satire. The commentary about someone using their cult of personality to gain power is interesting and very obviously patterned off of certain real life figures but that's also when the book loses itself. What could be its strongest asset becomes its greatest weakness because the plot falls apart under the political commentary.

A character gets introduced who finally proves to be a match towards Daniel's abilities and could be just as powerful as he is. Unfortunately, they are removed in a very anticlimactic manner before we get any answers to their abilities.

While one character is removed in an actually moving passage, another gets sidelined until they are useful to the narrative. Daniel's story gets resolved in a manner that had no hints of foreshadowing or points leading to this denouncement. Instead, it's a twist ending just to provide a twist. It's a book that starts strong but could be so much better.

What else can I say but paraphrase the old gambler's motto: Chris Coppell's book is unlucky in plot but lucky in premise. 

 

Weekly Reader: Malibu Burns by Mark Richardson; Science Fiction Novel is Aflame With Psychic Powers and Internal Conflict

Weekly Reader: Malibu Burns by Mark Richardson; Science Fiction Novel is Aflame With Psychic Powers and Internal Conflict 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Sometimes with a Science Fiction novel, the fact that it's set in the future is merely incidental. That is the case with Malibu Burns by Mark Richardson.

Richardson's previous books were more about world building. The Sun Casts No Shadow takes place in a futuristic world that has fantasy creatures like nymphs, dwarves, and anthropomorphic animals. The Hunt for the Troll is set primarily in the world of cyberspace where characters are hunting an Internet troll who might also be a magic troll from legends. These books are intrinsic in their setting and world building, what goes on outside affects those within.

That is not necessarily the case for Malibu Burns. 

There are some tropes that are evident to reveal the tech heavy world of 2040s San Francisco in this novel. No one owns a personal vehicle and all drivers are AI. Police officers are paired in human-android teams. The Internet is outlawed. Sea levels have risen to astronomical heights and environmental changes are present. Historic landmarks such as Alcatraz have become casinos. 

Most of the external is less important than the internal, of what goes inside the head of its lead protagonist, Malibu Makimura.

Malibu is psychic and empathic, able to read thoughts and emotions. She works as a caricaturist in a nightclub. While working, she meets a mysterious man named Max. He says that Luciana, the very wealthy woman that he works for, would like to meet her. Malibu is then sent to Luciana's Presidio Heights mansion. The wealthy seductive eccentric wants to hire Malibu to burn down old cottages and Malibu gets to pick them. It's illegal but Luciana points out that the cops won't care. Malibu will be well paid and if she suffers any guilt, don't worry about it. Some places want to die.

This book focuses less on plot and larger questions than it does on character and excels at that. Malibu is a great lead with a rich interior life that Richardson explores.

Malibu's past was not an easy one and helped shape her into the troubled woman that she is. Her father was obsessed with expanding his mind through LSD and then testing Malibu's abilities to the point of sharing thoughts with her. Then he abandons his family for another woman, leaving his wife to commit suicide and his daughter to be institutionalized.

Malibu's institutionalization isolates and infantilizes Malibu but it is instrumental in her artistic pursuits. She makes an abstract portrait of a fellow inmate, capturing his soul instead of his face. Upon her release, she continues painting caricatures of people's souls such as a seemingly quiet pleasant woman holding a knife. (She says it looks just fine.) Because of her time in her own mind and the intrusive thoughts that Malibu hears in her own head, she is more interested in what's inside other's minds and souls than their appearances.

 That's why her caricature portraits are abstracts. It's her own way of continuing the experiments on her of exploring someone else's consciousness. It is an outlet to channel her confusion, depression, and frustration with the world around her and the abilities that isolate her.

Another safety net is her love of movies, particularly from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Many of the situations in which Malibu finds herself in parallel her situations in this life. She watches Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and later she is caught in memories and thoughts that she isn't sure whether they are real or created outside of her. She sees Vertigo and has an affair with a woman, whom she is passionately in love with but can't trust. She compares Max to Max Von Mayerling, Erich Von Stroheim in the movie, Sunset Boulevard because of his physical similarity to the butler in the film and also because he works for a wealthy eccentric. No points in guessing who his employer Luciana is similar to in Sunset Boulevard.

In fact, Malibu's fondness for movies could be less of an escape than it is another sign of a troubled mind. Many of the situations that she finds herself in are so close to her favorite movies that it could be coincidences, hallucinations of a troubled mind struggling with their sanity, or evidence that Malibu is somehow controlling the world around her.

The longer Malibu remains working for Luciana, the weaker her grip is on reality. When she finds the cottages, she hears voices telling her that they are in pain and want to die. With each cottage that gets burned, Malibu loses parts of herself becoming someone who craves danger and hurting others. Her darker impulses takes over until she becomes someone lost in her own insanity.

While many Science Fiction novels take their Readers through the outside world to see how it affects their characters. In Malibu Burns' case, we are taken inside a character's mind and perception to show she affects her world.

 

Weekly Reader: Music Boxes by Tonja Drecker; Pas De Dark Fantasy Pirouettes Into The World of Ballet

 

Weekly Reader: Music Boxes by Tonja Drecker; Pas De Dark Fantasy Pirouettes Into The World of Ballet

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What a way to return after a long hiatus. Tonja Drecker's Music Boxes is a complex YA Dark Fantasy that takes the Readers to a strange and disturbing ballet school. 

Lindsey's family moved from rural Nebraska to New York City, so her younger sister, Bridget, could attend a pre-college program at Julliard as a violin prodigy. Lindsey is out of place and more than a bit jealous, particularly since moving meant that she had to give up her ballet classes and now has to take lessons at the Community Center. 

Lindsey's anger and confusion about her surroundings leads her to Madame Destinee's dance school, a school conveniently located within walking distance of her family's apartment. It is every ballet student's dream: beautiful costumes, talented dancers, and an understanding teacher whose only payment is an agreement to perform in every recital after midnight. "I only desire your talent," Madame Destinee says. What could go wrong?

Music Boxes is a contemporary fantasy that isn't too far from a fairy tale, you know like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. A fairy tale that would make a lovely ballet. 

What makes that type of story often are the visuals and the way that Drecker writes Music Boxes focuses on the strangeness of Madame Destinee and her studio.

Once a character walks into Destinee's studio, it is clear that they practically wandered into a seemingly enchanted world. There are golden staircases with plush cushions. The dancers wear the most beautiful costumes and are so agile and limber that their dancing almost looks like flying. There is no music playing around the studio, just inside the dancer's earbuds and even though the music is different for each person, they move in synchronous choreographed formation.

Destinee is also a one of a kind teacher who knows each dancer's personal struggles, strengths, and weaknesses. She also gives them all sorts of good food, even if it isn't always healthy, but it is very delicious. She is very encouraging towards the newcomers, like Lindsey, and willing to allow them demonstrate their talents. Even the least talented of dancers would want to visit this beautiful, colorful, warm atmosphere.

It's a perfect place for Lindsey to nurture her talent and ambition to be a lead dancer, a prima ballerina.

However, as with many fairy tales there is another side to this wonderful setting. The gingerbread house is the home of a child eating witch. The beautiful singing voice is a mermaid luring sailors to their deaths. The beautiful ornate mansion or palace is the location of child abuse and infanticide. In this case, the dance studio harbors many dark secrets.

There's the fact that the dancers came from different places like Santiago, Boston, Paris, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg. No, they didn't move from there to New York City. They claim to live in those places right now and found their way to Madame Destinee's studio like Lindsey did. It just appeared wherever they lived.

Who is this audience that appears to Destinee's performances every night after midnight? The dancers can't see them but they hear their applause and know that they are there.

Creepiest of all is the collection of music boxes. Each one has a lifelike dancer inside and were made by Destinee's brother who was an expert inventor and toy designer who disappeared one day and was never seen again. Lindsey can't help but notice new ones added to Destinee's collection, new ones with dancers that look awfully familiar.

Definitely the fantastic aspects are the strongest parts of Music Boxes. In fact, it outweighs many of the more realistic tween drama of the rest of the book. Lindsey has an instant rivalry with Adela, one dancer and sort of a romance with Robert, another dancer. Typical stuff for a YA novel and nothing surprising here but I suppose every fairy tale needs the Jealous Antagonist and Prince Charming.

Lindsey's rivalry with Bridget is much more compelling. While Bridget is at times a spoiled brat and Lindsey, a moody whiner, their love for each other is also evident. In an early chapter, both sisters admit their concerns about the move and their worries about their father working two jobs and their mother working in a diner. Bridget asks if these changes were her fault because of her violin talent. Lindsey assures her that they are not and that Bridget has a gift which should be studied and practiced. This dialogue comes back into play in one of the best moments when Lindsey fights Destinee for Bridget and she admits that her love for her sister is stronger than her desire to be a prima ballerina. 

There are some frustrating unanswered questions by the time the book ends and some ambiguity concerning the fates of some characters. But for a contemporary fairy tale, Music Boxes is en pointe.

May's Schedule

 May's Schedule

After four months of editing and writing projects, I am finally back to the blog!

When the time comes, please search for Wonderland by Hassan Sharifi, In Search of Cognizance: A Search of Mt. Kailash and Sacred Landscapes by Nabraj Lama, and Life is Possible: On Personal Development by Waseem Akbar and me.

Well here are my new reads:

The Cuban Gambit by Jay Perin*

Madame Pommery: Creator of Brut Champagne by Rebecca Rosenberg 

Midlife Incantation Paraval Book 2 by Kate Swansea

The Fairytale Plague (Anne Anderson Book 2) by Cameron Jace

The Cloud by Robert Riverbank

The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Luck by Chris Coppell

Music Boxes by Tonja Decker

Malibu Burns by Mark Richardson 

Fearghus Academy Book 2; Crystal Shards by I.O. Scheffer

Sailing by Orion's Star by Katie Crabb

Arabesque by Amy Shomshak

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

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Mastodon  

Upwork

Reedsy Discovery 

Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Prices are as follows:

Beta Read: $15-20.0

Review: $25-35.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $75-300.00

Proofread: $75-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$100-400.00

*These are books reviewed for LitPick and will not be featured on my blog, only on LitPick's site. 

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, Coffee and Thorn Book Group, BookTasters, Reedsy, Online Book Club, and other noted book groups 

Payments can be made to my PayPal account at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

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

New Book Alert: blue:season by Chris Lombardi; Disturbing But Meaningful Look Into Mental Illness and Academic Obsession

 

New Book Alert: blue:season by Chris Lombardi; Disturbing But Meaningful Look Into Mental Illness and Academic Obsession

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Chris Lombardi's novel blue:season is a disturbing book because many academic geniuses who also have mental illnesses might understand, even relate to this book. They may recognize the point when their research becomes an obsession and takes over their life. They feel at one with their pursuit of that specific knowledge and have a hard time separating their life from their work. In this particular case, that obsession has terrifying results.

Molly O'Donnell comes from a very intellectual family. Her father was fascinated with James Joyce. So much so that he named his children after various Joycean characters: Molly, Emma, Anna, Leopold, Stephen. Unfortunately, he died of an aneurysm sending his widow to dissolve into an alcoholic daze. 

Molly, who was very close to her late father, deeply feels his loss. She decides to do her postgraduate thesis on Joyce and Finnegan's Wake. However, she becomes fascinated with the story of Lucia Joyce, James' daughter who trained as a dancer, had various unhappy relationships, suffered a mental breakdown, and spent forty years of her life in and out of mental institutions before she died in 1982. Her research into Lucia's life is so compelling that Molly begins to think of her, even seeing her. She has trouble separating herself from Lucia to the point that she ends up in a psychiatric hospital convinced that she is Joyce's daughter.

blue:season captures the voice of someone who is very brilliant, but clearly going through psychological turmoil. Lombardi handles the intelligence and fragility of such a character rather well. Molly's first person narration is full of literary references, quotes from songs and plays, and a stream of conscious thoughts where she rambles on and on, sometimes repeating herself. The writing style can be a difficult chore to read but it helps to characterize her thought process. 

Of course this style is meant to echo the work of other writers like Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Joyce himself who often wrote about troubled characters and had psychological and emotional illnesses themselves. These writers and Lombardi were very interested in the human psyche and how the mind flickers about from one subject to another, how thoughts can be both vivid and confusing. 

Molly's story alternates with that of her siblings and friends that want to discover why Molly turned out the way she did. Why would a brilliant vibrant woman suddenly require hospitalization? What happened to her to cause this? The discovery is somewhat pat and easy to guess especially since the narrative drops obvious clues beforehand. It also answers some questions about why Molly was so driven by the story of James and Lucia Joyce and how they echoed into her own life and led her down this unfortunate path.

blue:season offers a perspective of the ways in which genius and madness often coincide revealing a mind that is capable of deep thoughts but is wrapped around a tormented soul.

An Apology and Announcement

 

An Apology and Announcement

Dear Fellow Readers,

I apologize that I haven't been doing as much with the blog. Right now, I am editing three books and they take up a lot of my time. I have had trouble finding the time to read and write reviews. I am not finished with reviewing. It's just being put off for now.

Right now I am editing Life is Possible by Waseem Akbar, In Search of Cognizance by Nabraj Lama, Wonderland by Hassan Sharifi, and The Fourth Victim by Brian O'Hare.

I will try to continue with the reviews that I promised in March, maybe into April. I haven't forgotten, I just have been very busy. Don't worry, I have not given up on the blog yet. Things are just going slowly.

Thanks and as always Happy Reading 

New Book Alert: The Email From God by Neil Stevenson; Talk To Text Style Highlights Immediacy in This Science Fiction Message From The Future

New Book Alert: The Email From God by Neil Stevenson; Talk To Text Style Highlights Immediacy in This Science Fiction Message From The Future

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If all of Earth gets an email from God then we will know that we all screwed up big time.

That's the premise behind The Email From God by Neil Stevenson, a Science Fiction novel in which a small group of people from the future send an important email from God to the past to create a better world and beat the secret society determined to stop it.

Brother and sister, Fahim and Amina Graham both work at CERN in 2046 and have a very ambitious plan. In 2023, the entire world, I mean everybody in the entire world, received an email from God telling Earth that humanity messed up and caused mass environmental destruction, endless wars, socioeconomic collapse, hate crimes, and terrorist acts. However, there is time to turn it around before it's too late. So God sends a list of 23 Commandments to follow. The Commandments include ways of saving the environment, improving the economy, obtaining good mental and physical health, and ending violence and prejudice.

Oh and if anyone has trouble with that, then they get hit with a massive headache. Not fatal but just enough to let everyone know that the deity means business. 

That's all well and good. Everything begins to improve.  To make sure of this positive outcome, Fahim, Amina, and their respective husbands Mattheo and Dorje create Hindsight which contains uploads of the email, news articles about the email and subsequent events tied to it, and instructions on how to implement these plans. Then they will send these uploads on a nanochip through a wormhole into the past for Readers of God's email to create this new and better future.

Unfortunately, not everyone is excited about this prospect. The Illuminati is still around (because we can't have a good Science Fiction conspiracy novel without a certain infamous organization). They have a plan to destroy the email, kill God's message, in effect kill God, and create a dystopian society in which they will emerge as rulers.

What is particularly brilliant about this novel is its writing style. There have been other works written mostly or almost entirely in email or text form, e by Matt Beaumont, The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot, Love Virtually by Daniel Glattaur, ttyl by Lauren Myracle, When You Read This by Mary Adkins among others. This is not a new format but in this context, it particularly works.

The Talk to Text Style throughout this book exacerbates the characters' sense of urgency and immediacy. They have an important message to share and need to get it sent. They are aware that they are constantly being observed and monitored by Illuminati members (some of whom they work for) and have to make sure that their uploads and God's email are properly uploaded. We don't have time for setting description, interior monologues, and other literary tropes. These protagonists are in a rush.

There are some suspenseful moments throughout the book in which the style really helps. For example, in one chapter two characters text each other and then a third enters the chat. It becomes clear that this person is not friendly and at odds with their plans. The two protagonists instantly switch to typical office chat and small talk.

A few other chapters feature the main characters listening in on the Illuminati's plans and becoming sickened by them. It's a heart thumping moment which reveals what could be lost in their current and former lives if they should fail.

The different fonts and writing styles are jarring at first but allow us to realize who is who, even giving us insights into their characters. Amina's font is very soft and curvy, like someone who weighs out her words and considers what to write. She writes long elegant phrases and summaries letting the world know what she, Fahim, and the others are doing so they can be heard and understood. She only stops once in a while to drop a casual informal reprimand to her brother revealing their close, loving, and teasing nature. She is the one chosen to write about and deliver the message.

In contrast, Fahim's font is short, dark, and concise. It is filled with grammatical errors and lower case nouns like someone in a hurry who doesn't have the time or interest to correct his writing. He is also prone to swearing and speaking out of turn showing his pride, quickness to anger, and impatience. However, he also writes in scientific terms and theories revealing his genius in the fields of science and physics. He is the one chosen to create the Hindsight program and the nanochip.

Rather than be a pessimistic book about the future, The Email From God shows a chance of hope. We don't have to turn Earth into a dystopia out of Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, and Atwood. We have options and choices. Instead of creating the worst, we can make a clear plan to make the world better.