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Book Review: Look Out For The Little Guy!

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Look Out For The Little Guy!
by Scott Lang with Rob Kutner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Movie tie-in, humor

Part movie reference, part self-help book, I enjoyed reading this book that was shown in the most recent Ant-Man movie. The author (actual) did a great job of making it sound just like the character in the movies. There were some strange things about it, like the random pictures that didn’t usually go with the text on the page or the caption, but the “FAAMQ” (Frequently Asked Ant-Man Questions) sections were always great. I did get to a point where I thought, “Yeah, we get it, you missed a lot of time with your daughter when she was growing up; do you have to remind us every chapter?” But overall, for what it is—a quick, mostly funny book for Marvel fans—it’s done very well.

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Book Review: The Parasite

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The Parasite
Michael Vey #8
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

Even though the Elgen have been effectively defeated and scattered, other threats have come out of the ashes of Hatch’s defeat. One of them is ready to strike and catches the Electroclan off guard.

Considering the obvious ending Evans put on the previous book, not just feeling like an end to the Elgen threat but an end to the Electroclan’s fight, a return to normal life, such as it could possibly be, I don’t understand why Evans felt the need to open it back up again. In the past, when authors or movie makers have done that, it’s ended up feeling like a rinse and repeat of the original arc. I can’t say yet if that’s the case here, because this first book in the new arc was only part of a story. I will at least say that the new bad guy isn’t as over-the-top sadistic as Hatch, at least not overtly. Maybe that will come. But in a situation like this, I feel that Evans maybe should have considered shifting the focus somehow, from Michael to a different lead, maybe someone we didn’t see much of in the previous books.

Whatever may or may not work with the re-opening of the series with the same characters, though, the writing style hasn’t changed, and it’s starting to bug me even more. Maybe because the characters are in college now, but it still feels like high school. For example, there’s a reunion scene near the beginning, and it’s absolutely vital that we know who is paired up with whom (I don’t care). I’ll be happy if I never see the phrase “we man hugged” in a book ever again. Taylor apparently okayed her twin sister to kiss her boyfriend as a test or bet or something…what girl would do that? People tell each other that they sound like Ostin (the genius of the group who tends to spout facts at length) whenever they state a single fact about something, and this happens several times (and comes across pretty derogatory). And conversations are still so forced and stilted and feel like everyone is just standing around in a circle waiting for their turn to speak. Not to mention that some of these people were vehemently fighting against one another until the very end of the previous arc, and now they all act like super close friends who have fought side-by-side together through a war.

A lot of my issues with the style were present in the other books, but the plot was interesting enough that I was willing to look past it and keep going. This book, though, spent so much time on unimportant details that it didn’t have time to tell a full story. At least in previous books, while there was an overarching plot and cliffhangers, at least one smaller story goal was tied up in each book. That did not happen here. By 8 books into a series, you shouldn’t need to resort to cheap tricks like telling only half a story to get people to come back for the next book. This book does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, with a plot twist involving one of the original members of the Electroclan, but I realized something unfortunate at that point—I don’t care enough about these characters to care much about that twist. Eight books into the series with the same characters throughout, the writing style is so shallow that I just don’t care if any of them live or die. There have been a few deaths along the way, and we’re told often about how the characters feel the losses, but we’re not really given any reason to feel that loss alongside them. 

Now, after a 2-star ending to the major arc before this and a 1-star start to the next one, I had planned right up to this moment to still read the next one, mostly because I don’t like to walk away this far in. But after writing this review, I’ve realized there’s just not that much about this series that I like anymore, and my reading time is limited. Now I don’t know if I’ll read the next, but I will at least say that if you’ve read the rest of the series and are wondering if you should continue with the next arc, I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially if you are bothered by any of the things I mention above. If not and you also liked The Final Spark, then you might just enjoy this book a lot more than I did.

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Book Review: The Visitation

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The Visitation
by Frank Peretti

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian thriller

When supernatural religious sightings occur in a small town, former pastor Travis Jordan isn’t interested in getting involved. But then a man claiming to be Jesus Christ, though without necessarily saying those words, takes a special interest in Travis. While the national media and many pilgrims flock to the town looking for a certain brand of spiritual awakening, Travis is headed toward a confrontation that might test everything he’s ever believed.

I read this book many years ago, when I was a teenager or young adult, and I remember not caring for it all that much. While reading it again now, I came to realize that, most likely, I didn’t fully get it back then. I’m not saying that this book can only be appreciated by someone who grew up in the church, is old enough to have seen many years of “church stuff,” and has become disillusioned by it, but I think it helps a lot. Travis’s church background reminds me quite a bit of the types of churches I grew up in and the movement my family traveled to take part in, and for all of the promises and flash promised, it’s really easy to lose God in all of that. That is what Travis is dealing with as his small town becomes a mecca for those who are looking for healing and inspiration, but not necessarily salvation.

The vehicle for this plot, though, is the man with scars on his wrists who mostly provides what people are looking for. Local clergy debate whether or not his deeds are from God, and though this is a small town, there are a lot of different churches, though it doesn’t appear that many of them are biblically sound. This might be normal, but it makes me really sad. In fact, the whole book made me sad, and what makes the story all the more realistic is that there isn’t exactly a “happy ending” for the bulk of the people. I’d say the main takeaway from this is a reminder to not let tradition and religious trappings get in the way of what Christianity should be—a relationship with Jesus. Peretti’s signature writing style brings suspense to the story, and while I think the subject matter isn’t going to be for everyone, if it sounds like something you’re interested in, I definitely recommend it.

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October in Review

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I read 14 books last month, a couple more books than September, but about 100 pages less than September. Of course, I spent half of the month listening to 80% of a very long audiobook, so the numbers are a bit skewed, since I didn’t finish it within this month, but oh well. It’ll boost next month’s numbers!

Here are the books I read in October:

talking
abby
hangman-audio
baskervilles
divergent
Right Ho, Jeeves
tcw-26
ramona-7
39-7
snow-place
the-event
hope
tcw-27
glipwood
white placeholder

Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham (4.5 / 5)
Abby’s Letters by Dana Romanin (2.5 / 5)
Hangman’s Curse by Frank Peretti (5 / 5)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (4 / 5)
Divergent by Veronica Roth (4 / 5)
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (4 / 5)
The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun (2 / 5)
Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary (4 / 5)
The Viper’s Nest by Peter Lerangis (3.5 / 5)
Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly (2 / 5)
The Event by Whitney Dineen (2 / 5)
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (3.5 / 5)
The Cat Who Went Bananas by Lilian Jackson Braun (3 / 5)
A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 1 re-read. My favorite book from October was Talking as Fast as I Can. I started 3 series, continued 4 series, and finished 1 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

Book Review: The Cat Who Went Bananas

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The Cat Who Went Bananas
Book #27
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

The death of an actor from a neighboring county and the sudden, unusual marriage of a wealthy local woman invite intrigue during the excitement surrounding the opening of a new book store in Pickax. Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats are on the case.

After the last few books in this series greatly disappointed me with lackluster mysteries, I enjoyed most of this book a lot more. Though there were still some repetitive sections that could have been edited out, Qwilleran was more involved in investigating. I appreciated the remembrance of the late bookseller that once recurred in the series, and I took note of a special moment in which Qwilleran gets recognition for something other than his twice-weekly column, questionable books he’s published since moving to Moose County, or simply being a wealthy philanthropist.

Sadly, though, the book ends without the mystery really being solved. Multiple deaths and even a robbery have potential solutions, but nothing is solidly stated. Qwilleran muses over his suspicions at the end of the book, but, for some reason, the author isn’t willing to give us any real closure. I still have my doubts about the series using a ghostwriter at this point, because some specific points of Braun’s style are still intact. I suppose a good ghostwriter could mimic style, but I just don’t buy it. Whatever the situation, though, I don’t anticipate the last 2 books of the series being any better than this one, but I will definitely still give them a try.

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Book Review: A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest

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A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest
by Andrew Peterson
Illustrated by Aedan Peterson

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s fantasy

This travel guide through the dangerous and wondrous Glipwood Forest was written by one of the founding members of the Glipwood Official Rangers Guild (GORG). Not only does he share the best and safest (relatively speaking) path through the forest, he also tells of how he met each of the other original eight members of the GORG.

I really wasn’t sure what this book would be like when I first picked it up, and it turned out to be a really fun, quick read. The humor and whimsy of the original series can be found throughout this book. At times I felt like Andrew Peterson was making up as outlandish of names and descriptions of items as he could to try to stump his son, who drew sketches of Glipwood Forest flora as well as the members of the GORG for the book. I particularly loved the sketches of Owin and Chonis Ponius Groverly, the “in-world” author and illustrator of the guidebook. Fans of The Wingfeather Saga will enjoy this return to the land of Skree, with many references to locations they’ll remember from the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: November 7, 2023

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Book Review: Hope Was Here

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Hope Was Here
by Joan Bauer

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: YA fiction

It’s a difficult transition when Hope moves with her aunt from an urban area to a small town in Wisconsin. Her aunt is going to take over the kitchen of a diner owned by a man who has been diagnosed with leukemia, while Hope works as a waitress. Hope expects to be bored in this new environment. She certainly doesn’t expect to get swept up in local politics as the diner owner, G.T., runs for mayor against a corrupt regime.

I found Bauer’s writing style to be mostly engaging and easy to follow (though the book does switch between present and past tense a lot, and I’m not sure why). Some of the themes in the book, especially that of finding family, were what made this book enjoyable to me. Hope is certainly used to disappointment and relies on her name to help her remember to have hope, but it’s hard to come by at certain times throughout this story. The outcome of the book might have had its predictable moments, but the author still managed to surprise me in a few spots, one of which was even emotional for me.

The characterization could have been better, though, as G.T. was pretty much too perfect, Hope’s aunt was one-dimensional, and there were a couple of romances that weren’t developed well, so they kinda came out of left field. Even Hope herself, though overall being the most well-rounded character, had a strong desire to be part of the mayoral campaign with very little reason for it, at least that was shown to us, other than that G.T. was a nice guy. Overall, though, the story is touching, and my thirteen-year-old daughter liked it quite a bit. I think that’s enough to recommend this to teens and anyone else who is interested.

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Book Review: The Event

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The Event
The Creek Water Series #1
by Whitney Dineen

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Contemporary romance

Emmaline Frothingham left home to prove herself in the wide world, rather than let it always be assumed that she was dependent upon her family’s money. But an embarrassing moment at a work function leads to a life-changing event, and she returns home with the baby that resulted from that night, determined to work hard and keep her head held high in her judgmental hometown.

I normally stay away from contemporary romance, but I got this book for free so decided to give it a try. I appreciated the closeness of Emmie’s family, though at times they are a bit ridiculous. Right off the bat, she’s put into a difficult situation due to the meddling of her aunt, and though she certainly could have chosen not to go along with with the lie thrust upon her (that her baby’s father was a recently deceased fiancé of Emmie’s rather than a one-night-stand), there would be no plot if she had. I wrote down my prediction of a “twist” about 1/3 of the way through the book, though even in my notes I said that it would be ridiculous, yet it seemed obvious that it was heading that way, and yeah, it was. I won’t spoil it, but as twists go, it’s one that is not very surprising (I’m really not one who normally guesses correctly about twists, if that tells you anything) and requires far too many obvious contrivances in the plot. That doesn’t really make for a fun read.

On top of all of that, there’s the fairly extreme bullying, done both by the clear bullies but also by the other side, and the ridiculous amount of references to Emmie’s nursing apparatuses (I know that’s a terrible euphemism). If it hadn’t been such a quick read, I don’t know that I would have finished it. I’m sure the series continues on to showcase some of the side characters from this book, but I don’t plan to read further.

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Book Review: The Viper’s Nest

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The Viper’s Nest
The 39 Clues #7
by Peter Lerangis

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Children’s mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

With both police and a storm closing in on the island where Amy and Dan Cahill just watched one of their rivals in the hunt for 39 Clues die, they first must escape and then try to continue the hunt. Next, it’s off to South Africa to follow the trail of a famous British statesman.

This is the 7th book in the series and the 2nd written by this author. His first book was when I first noted that having a different author for each installment in the series could be annoying, and I noted some glaring differences in this book too, mostly in the way of some of the main characters talking very differently than I’m used to. Dan talks and acts like a 4-year-old sometimes, and Nellie (Amy and Dan’s au pair) suddenly talked like a teeny bopper. I don’t fully understand the reason behind having 7 different authors write the 11 books in a series, unless it’s to get their names in front of people, thus promoting their own works, but I feel like it could have been done better. They should have compared notes more/better.

Still, with all of that being said, it did not diminish my overall enjoyment of the book or series enough to keep me from moving forward. There was still intrigue and some suspense, and a HUGE secret was revealed in this book. I’ve suspected this secret for several books, now, almost to where I didn’t see how it could work out any other way, but I don’t think it will be as obvious to most kids of the age these books are meant for. Instead, it will probably come as a pretty big shock, and it leaves us all unable to trust even more things that we’ve learned throughout this series. I also am sure that things about this book that frustrated me would probably not bother those in the demographic the book was written for. I still have another theory or two related to the big reveal from this book, so I’m looking forward to seeing if I’m right.

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Book Review: Snow Place for Murder

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Snow Place for Murder
Mountain Lodge Mystery #3
by Diane Kelly

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Misty Murphy, owner of a mountain lodge, becomes entangled in a murder investigation when a resort developer is found dead on her property. As suspects include the other guests in the lodge, as well as some locals, Misty takes it upon herself to dig into motives and opportunities to help the local law enforcement solve the crime.

I have not read the previous 2 books in this series, but figured if I enjoyed this one, I’d go back to them. I can safely say this is not a series I’m going to be delving into, though, as I didn’t care for the author’s style in this book. I am not used to quite so much hand-holding in a mystery book, as the narration includes every single thought the main character has about the case, large or small, sometimes repeated. As I read, I had to assume that her speculations through most of the book were all wrong because otherwise, it wouldn’t be a very engaging plot. Also, there is a lot of detail that was wholly unnecessary, including a long stretch of time before the mystery really got going. When Misty listens to conversations between others, just about every line of dialog is followed up with her thoughts about that statement—sometimes her doubting that they were telling the truth (even though she seemed to have little to no expertise in the matters they discussed most of the time), but most often bringing it back to herself with thoughts about how she would feel in that situation, how that situation reminded her of something that once happened to her, etc.

On top of all of that, Misty’s reactions to finding out the deceased man had actually been murdered, and later similar reactions to seeing a potential key piece of evidence, are over-the-top dramatic and not really what I look for in the MC of a mystery series. Finally, there were a few 1-page chapters scattered throughout the book that were from the POV of Misty’s cat Yeti. When the first of these chapters came up, it took me several minutes to understand that it was a cat’s head into which we’d just jumped, though that was probably my own fault. I thought at first that the cat’s POV would give us, the readers, some clues that would help us solve the case for ourselves, but in the end, the cat chapters provided absolutely nothing. I’m a cat person through and through, but this was unnecessary to me.

Add to that some personal preference issues, like the immediate assumption that a stranger is dangerous and could resort to violence at any moment simply because he has a gun on his hip; and the fact that the MC and her ex-husband were divorced simply because the “romance had wanted” (though he did try to romance her with a bottle of wine during this story…just saying) and they wanted different things from life. I’m really not a fan of cavalier divorce, much less celebrating it as a good thing. And I noted one glaring mistake involving characters returning from skiing twice in one day (and no, they did not leave to go skiing again in between). In the end, though I’m sure that there is an audience for this kind of cozy mystery, I am not that audience. If you think you might be, please do check out other reviews at the link below.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: October 24, 2023

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