reviews
My Missing Book Review – A Crying Shame by William W. Johnstone
Leave it to me to completely leave out the actual book review from the last post I did about William W. Johnstone. So; my apologies, and here it is!
Sheriff Mike Saucier has his hands full when the Links stop keeping themselves hidden, and start taking revenge on the townspeople. They seem to have been infected with some sickness, and these half-human beings are going mad and no longer concerned about staying hidden.
Jon Badon is a mercenary brought to Fountain Parish, home to the Crying Swamp, by Paul Breaux. Paul had discovered what he since named the Links, as in “the missing link”. Part human, part animal, the Links had been around for hundreds of years.
As a genetic mutation took hold, they could no longer have female children, so in order for them to not die off, women of the parish were kidnapped and used for childbearing. Any babies that were human enough were left on doorsteps in town, to be raised with, and by, humans.
Jon Badon is determined to do what he was paid to do; get rid of the links. His Scientist and Doctor friends disagree. As Jon grows closer to Linda Breaux, he promises both of them that after this last mission, he will retire, and they will get married and start a family.
Can humans and half-humans really exist together? It may not always be necessary to fear something just because it is different than you.
I would love to tell you how it ends, but you know my policy; no spoilers if I can help it. This is a quick read, and a great story! I hope you give it a try!
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Sweet Dreams – William W. Johnstone
I have to say for not having read this story in at least 20 years, it took less than 2 pages into it that I remembered the story, the main characters, and numerous other things I should have long ago forgotten.
I either read this book more times than I could even guess when I was a teenager, or I have a place in my brain where I lock things away that are safe from my forgetfulness.
Heather and Mark are young teenagers who are both new to the same small town. The same small town where very strange things are happening with some of the residents. There is no rhyme or reason. Young or old, boy or girl, random members of the town are behaving in ways that are very disturbing to a couple of the adults who see what is happening.
Jerry is the town doctor, and Maryruth is a psychiatrist. And the numerous side characters are easy to follow, and you quickly get a vested interest in them.
It is all about Satan, and pure evil, and I will tell you right now, this book is very graphic in the horror department, so consider yourself warned. And my Mom bought this for me when I was 11… 🙂
It is a good read, and you will not be sorry you picked it up. I highly recommend it, and I would have recommended it 30 years ago before I reached out to the author and began a snail-mail communication.
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Truth in Reading!
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Mr. William W. Johnstone are you done turning in your grave?
I was so excited to see that my favorite author, who I had written to and had much communication, was having his family re-release all of his books.
I have all of these books, somewhere, but have rebought many on my Nook.
And whomever edited for ebook release needs to be shot.
I started reading Sweet Dreams, a book he wrote in the 80’s, and sent me an autographed copy of, and the spelling errors are horrible. I fear that the family is so intent on making money, that they are not paying attention to the quality of his work.
I was a 13 year old girl who read his books, and literally wrote him a letter. I received many letters back, and autographed books. But the fact that they would re-publish his work, so fast and haphazardly, is really sad.
He stopped writing the horror books I loved as a teen, and started writing westerns. But he always replied to my letters, and encouraged me to write, and never give up.
Good gracious, I would edit these ebooks for free rather than see the crap they are putting out.
Mr. Johnstone, thank you for being kind to a teenager, and encouraging me.
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Bittersweet Dreams – VC Andrews
Okay, I have to say I got sucked into this book just like I would get sucked into any VC Andrews’ book when I started reading them 30+ years ago.
Mayfair Cummings is a 16 year old with an IQ that would make Albert Einstein jealous. She had the perfect family life, until her mother died from an aneurysm. Her father got remarried, and she suddenly had a step-mother and a step-sister.
I like to avoid spoilers, but this is the standard fare that you expect from VC Andrew novels. It is full of suspense, and I definitely had it read in record time.
Now; about the grammatical errors. There were a few, and they were too ridiculous to even ignore. Nothing frustrates me more than spelling and grammatical errors in a book I spent good money on.
I’m just going to give you one example, and it is a single sentence. Although I am not including the sentences before or after it, this sentence is not going to be misunderstood because you don’t have those sentences with it. This is a sentence that was meant to stand alone, and make sense.
Chapter 5, Page 81
I have this tendency to compare Julie to animals often.
That’s it. That one sentence. Maybe I am being too picky, but there are so many other correct ways that sentence could have been constructed. There are a few of these poorly written sentences throughout the story.
With all of that said, I will definitely be reading some more VC Andrew books that I have not read before.
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Truth in Reading!
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The Last Anniversary – Liane Moriarty
I really enjoyed this book by Liane, and I believe it is her third story I have read. The first one I did not care for, the second one I loved, and I definitely liked this one.
I am still trying to get a feel for her style of writing, and it is not something I have been able to pinpoint yet. I do not get that familiar feeling I have from other authors who have multiple books that I have read. Her style of writing seems to change with each book, but I do not think it is done intentionally to help set the tone of the story.
So after all of that complaining, I really did like this story. I promise! I did have the initial problem of keeping all of the characters straight, because there were several, and they all seemed to be introduced very quickly, and very briefly. This does seem to be her method-of-operation when it comes to writing.
A small island with a small population and a big mystery seem to be the only thing keeping some of the characters going. Introduce a new person to the mix, and see what begins to happen. It seems that everyone knows everybody else, and there are some long-stretched ties connecting basically every single resident to everyone else. It can make things familiar, and also very interesting. You would think in this type of environment there would be no secrets. It seems as if every resident has secrets falling out of their ears, they have so many.
Without giving away any spoilers, this is definitely a book full of suspense, mystery, laughs, and some romance. It is a page turner, and I think you will be glad to have read it!
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The Best Book Picture; Ever!
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Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
Wow! Just wow! I absolutely loved this story, and was much happier with this one than I was with “The Husband’s Secret”.
I read it every available moment I could. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about when the next time would be that I could read it. At first I was a bit put-off by the way the story was constructed; going back 6 months prior to the main event that the story was revolved around. I could see very quickly, though, that it worked brilliantly for this story. I do not think it would have read as well as it did if it was written from a different viewpoint.
You quickly become attached to the main characters here, and there are a few of them.
Jane is new to the small town and a single mother to her son, Ziggy. One to move every 6 months, Jane is hoping she has found a place where she can stay on a more permanent basis.
Celeste and her husband Perry are extremely wealthy, but Celeste seems to be embarrassed by it as much as Perry is proud of it. He does not flaunt it, and he is generous, almost to a fault.
Madeline and Ed have a great marriage and the usual issues of raising her teenage daughter from her previous marriage. Her ex-husband Nathan is now married to Bonnie, and they have a young daughter together. The fact that her youngest will be in kindergarten with Nathan and Bonnie’s youngest seems to only be an issue with Madeline.
I try to not give away spoilers, so you will have to read this book yourself to find out what happens to all of these fascinating people. You will not be disappointed!
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