Dry - Augusten Burroughs
Apparently this is a sequel to another book but I didn’t know this, which maybe explains why I felt a bit like …eh…why haven’t you explained this? It’s basically the story of a guy, who works in advertising and has a really bad drinking problem. As in, his apartment is full of empty bottles and he has no motivation to clean it, bad. His colleagues end up pushing him towards rehab when his usual drinking-but-functioning goes out of the window and he begins to spiral out of control. He imagines rehab to be glamorous but of course it’s not. We get a glimpse of the other patients, some of whom are worse than him, and their weird goings on and rituals, like giving him teddy bears to keep him company because he “needs them”.
One issue I did have was that sometimes it felt a bit…overdone? How can someone with such severe alcoholism recall so much detail and dialogue? Apparently there is some controversy surrounding this guy, so I’m not sure if this is one of those James Frey situations but I will admit, I did enjoy this book. It gave an interesting insight into the world of alcoholism and the disease it can be. We see him go from a fully functioning alcoholic to falling down a spiral into total despair. The death of his friend from HIV was moving and emotional.
The Cure for Dreaming - Cat Winters
This book had some very interesting ideas. Olivia lives in the 1900s in America and it’s the height of the Suffragette movement which she completely believes in. Her birthday visit to a hypnotist turns sinister when her father uses said hypnotist to remove all her free will from her when it comes to women having the vote. For me, and I assume most people, the idea of forcibly having your free will removed from you and only being able to utter the phrase “all is well” when you are raging inside is a terrifying concept. Her father is scary, despite the fact he’s a creepy olde-timey dentist! The story goes on, with Olivia struggling to deal with the outcome of her hypnotism and dealing with her overpowering father.
I definitely recommend this book - its young adult so not a hard read, but the reality of the ideas brought up in it were thought provoking and made me consider how I would deal with that happening to me.
Rose Madder - Stephen King
I love Stephen King, but I prefer his horror to his thrillers which is what this is. After years of being beaten by her husband, Rose finally ups and leaves him, running off to nearby city. But Norman is a high up police officer and she knows he will find her. After living in a women’s shelter and finding a job, she finally gets on her feet and begins to forget about Norman, especially after a mysterious painting comes into her life.
Being a King novel, I’m not going into details as you know there’s twists and turns, suspense, creepiness and I do not want to spoil that. The middle kept me enthralled but the ending was a bit like…what? You have to kind of suspend belief in what, up until then, has been a believable story. But that’s what King does and it’s why we keep reading him (killer car anyone?).
Lies We Tell Ourselves - Robin Talley
Straight to the point - I didn’t enjoy this book. Nothing to do with the subject matter really, I just found it dull and boring and not an interesting perspective on what went on in these situations.
Sarah is part of a group of the first black youths to enter a white school in Virginia in 1959. The opening pages were moving as they describe the group moving towards the school, being heckled, spat on and knowing the police would do nothing. Naturally, no-one wants to sit near them, won’t work with them and they face teachers not being happy that they are in their classes. This is hard for Sarah who was smart at her old school but is now placed in remedial classes due to her skin colour.
Naturally, black and white are forced together when the most vocal girl against the black kids joining the school is paired with Sarah and another white girl on a project. They have to work in secret and are forced to confront what they really feel and believe. Obviously its an emotional and important book but it felt so…vanilla for want of a better word. I didn’t feel it showed truly how bad these situations could be for people and how heartbreakingly painful it would be for them. The book just read like it was so easy to change people and move on. I could maybe see it as an opening for younger readers to get into the Civil Rights Movement, as it’s not really violent but it does address the important issues as a base level. Having studied the CRM in school, maybe it was just not really addressing it enough for me?
The Cellar - Richard Laymon
Back on good old Richard. I wanted something trashy while I spent my Halloween with no voice! This was suitably trashy. There’s something about the Beast House. There’s been murders aplenty and no-one can quite explain why. The owners run tours, but don’t live there. When she runs away from her home because her husband, who abused their daughter when she was little, has been released from jail, the town where the Beast House resides is where Donna and her daughter end up.
Coincidentally they also meet up with (and Donna starts having sex with) a “demon hunter” who is helping a man who escaped the Beast House and its monsters when he was a boy. He wants to know exactly what lives in there and get rid of it.
This deals with disturbing issues (child molestation) and is very difficult to read but like the previous books, it works as part of the story and isn’t just there for pure shock value. If you’re into that sort of thing, I’ll let you read it yourself and decide.
UR - Stephen King - novella
If you Kindle suddenly showed you hundreds of new works by Shakespeare written in alternate universes where he lived longer, would you read them? What if they existed for every single author? That’s exactly what happens to this English teacher when he orders a kindle but instead of a standard one, his is pink and shows alternate universes. Oh, and the future. Which he sets out to change, and we all know you can’t do that so there will be consequences. This was an interesting wee novella but I wanted more from it!
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