May Readings
In an effort to archive my thoughts on the books I read, and ramp up my contributions to the Printhouse, I will be writing about my readings a given month. I will not give ratings, and will just share some thoughts, after having written a short synopsis. I will translate the titles in foreign languages if it makes sense and try to keep it relatively spoiler free. April's readings can all be read in my previous article Reading again.
Bunch of Michael Crichton stuff
I read Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton in preparation for my previous Reading Again article. As stated in it, I realised that it wasn't as great as I remembered, so I went on a quest to figure out if the guy that wrote Jurassic Park was the great writer people made him out to be online. This lead me to read Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Timeline. I will talk about those books more in my upcoming Appendix.
La Passe-mirroir: La Mémoire de Babel & La Tempête des Echos – Christelle Dabos
Where to start? Those are the last two books in the Passe-mirroir quadrilogy, but the tone and vibe are much different from the first two. Much like the previous two though, they do form a cohesive entity together; the first and second book happen one after another, then two years go by and book three and four happen after another. I won't provide a synopsis for those books; I wouldn't want to spoil anything. Book three opens two years after the events of book two, and Ophélie sets out on an adventure leading her to take on another identity and try to infiltrate a “university”. This passage is very reminiscent of the event of the first book when Ophélie had to be kept hidden from the court. We are presented with a couple of secondary characters, but, although they are written well, aren't as in-depth as the ones in books one and two, which are barely present here. The relationship between Thorn and Ophélie is a bit frustrating; it feels like we are back to square one for half of the book, however, they do work well together for the rest of the book and in book four. Books 3 and 4 are investigations, like book 2, but more of a quest-investigation than an investigation-investigation. Action, dialogue and reflection are still very well balanced and the writing is still great. We discover another Arch; it feels very fleshed out and coherent. Books 3 and 4 take place on this Arch, and throughout the series we only see two Archs in detail and four in total out of more than a dozen. This universe could easily have supported many more volumes, but I believe the author was done with it and decided to conclude it at four books. This is why the last book is a wild ride; I did not have the time to breathe. Revelations after revelations, plot twists after plot twists, complications after complications... This last volume is very convoluted and mostly focuses on Ophélie and tries to explain every mystery in the series so far. It takes most of the space and is very esoteric; I'm still not quite sure what the rules of that world are. Ophélie is still as resourceful but it seems that she is a sort of a “chosen one”, which brings about some convenient aptitude and pieces of knowledge to her. There is, to my regret, here no room for the secondary characters we had grown to love in books one and two, they make a brief appearance the time of a chapter here and there. And I hated the ending, apart from feeling a tad rushed, the biggest offense is that it didn't end how I wanted it to. Unforgivable. Despite this, the writing is still on point – although maybe a bit less fleshed out in this last volume – and the story – albeit a bit overly complex – is great and truly original. I would still highly recommend those four books even if I did sorta trash talk the last two.
The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune
I chose this book based on the recommendation of a writer here on the Printhouse (readers will know whom I'm referring to!), you can read the synopsis of this book in their article Reading Roundup: A wealth of magicians. I really liked this book, it is very much a “feel good” book, which I really needed after reading the two books above. There is very little drama here, and the tense situations are defused almost immediately. Everyone has the right words at the right time and they're all emotionally super intelligent. This is not a critique; all the points above are part of the feel-good experience. Apart from that, all the characters are well-developed, endearing and all-around walking green flags. The character arc for the main protagonist is very satisfying and develops naturally, and so does the romance here. If I had to say something negative about the book, it would be that the “big reveal” can be seen from a mile away. Overall, I very highly recommend this book.
Tu Tueras le Père (You Will Kill the Father) – Sandrone Dazieri
Colomba Caselli is an out-of-service Commissioner of the roman murder unit due to an incident. Her boss calls her back to work on a particular case; a boy was taken, his mother decapitated, and everything points to his father doing it. Colomba's boss doesn't believe it and gives her the name of an atypical consultant, who has a gift for finding lost people, Dante Torre. He had been abducted as a kid and raised by his captor, the Father, in a silo. Although he escaped, the case was never solved. As they investigate this new case, Dante finds a metal whistle displayed in plain sight; he swears it belonged to him as a kid. Could the Father be back? This was a chonky boy, but the pacing was good so it didn't feel like it. I had read this book and the sequel before, but not the third installment, which is why I decided to start again. I am currently reading the sequel. One flaw in this book is that there are a bunch of characters that are very secondary, but whose names we are still supposed to remember; it took me a while (read: halfway through the book) to have a semi-complete idea of the hierarchy of characters and who they were. I can also remember so many italian last names. The main characters, Columba and Dante, are well-developed and go through independent character development, but their relationship also evolves naturally and satisfyingly. I liked that the author didn't fall into the trap of making them fall for one another just because they're of the opposite sex, this makes their relationship more meaningful in my eyes. They both suffer from debilitating PTSD, which is shown here as such and not just as a character trait. Dante I found is a bit OP; he is a bit of a walking encyclopedia, and has seemingly endless money and connections. Colomba is appropriately resourceful and her connections are within reason what you could expect a police commissioner to have. The Father is a really interesting concept/antagonist; always making calculated moves and is almost always a step ahead, almost. The book is punctuated with “before” chapters, which deliver some cryptic exposition and break the frenetic pace of the main story, in a good way. The story/investigation unfolds in a credible manner, with a good balance of action and research. The ending explanation was a bit out of the left field and I found, unsatisfying. However, it does not take anything away from the rest of the book. If you like police-type investigation books, with a lesser focus on police and more on investigation, I would recommend this to you.
That's it for this month, 7 books; it will probably be a bit lighter in June.