Book Review - Have You Seen Axel? by Adam Jay Epstein

 

  

Axel the axolotl wants her turn to be in the spotlight at being found. However, it turns out that she is really good at hiding, and she is nearly impossible to find. The narrator decides to help find Axel in this seek-and-find story, but Axel is done playing. Instead, she takes control and lets the narrator know what is okay and what isn’t.

The book was an okay read. I thought it was going to be like Finding Waldo, but it was not the same. The book is beautifully illustrated and has tons of fun little details. The book does have an important message, but it took me a minute or two to figure it out because I was still trying to get over my disappointment that this was not actually a hide-and-seek book.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and were not influenced by the publisher or author. 

Book Review – Eat Bitter: A Story About Guts, and Food by Lydia Pang

 

Eat Bitter: A Story About Guts, and Food by Lydia Pang is a memoir in which Lydia Pang chronicles her burnout while navigating the difficulties of life.

I wasn't familiar with the author before picking up this book. I was mainly drawn in by the title.  I expected a novel with a darker, almost gory tone. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed and wasn't a fan of the memoir.

The book is divided into eight chapters, with each one beginning with a recipe. However, I struggled to understand what the overall purpose of the book was. At times, it seemed like it was trying to offer self-help advice, but those moments felt buried beneath everything else and were rarely presented clearly or straightforwardly. Instead, I felt like there was a lot of anger and bitterness throughout the memoir, while the sweeter, more hopeful moments never really materialized.

The memoir is also filled with graphic and unpleasant descriptions that I felt were overused. For a book centered around food, some of the recipes seemed incomplete, and several had unnecessarily unappetizing names. Ironically, nothing in this book made me want to eat less than the descriptions and language used throughout it.

Overall, the memoir felt very surface-level. The author touched on several interesting topics but never explored them in much depth. For example, the book mentions the history of Hakka culture, but aside from a few brief references, I didn't feel like I learned much about it or about the author's personal connection to her heritage. In the end, I felt like the book was trying too hard to be profound, but it ultimately fell flat for me.

Book Review –Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee

 

Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee is about three people who are connected by love, war, and the things they have lost.

June Han was only eight years old when the Korean War left her an orphan. Hector Brennan enlisted to escape his small town and serve his country. After the war ends, the two meet at a Korean orphanage, where they both find themselves drawn to Sylvie Tanner. Sylvie is the beautiful wife of a missionary, but she harbors dark secrets from her past. Despite her own burdens, her kindness and compassion seem to transform the lives of everyone around her. Thirty years later, in America, June and Hector are brought together once again and are forced to confront their shared past and the secrets that have bound them together for decades.

The novel follows three main characters and alternates between the past and present. I really wanted to read this book because the premise sounded very interesting. Unfortunately, I found it incredibly boring, and the plot moved at an extremely slow pace. Just as I would start settling into one character's story or a particular time period, the narrative would switch to someone else. The constant back-and-forth made it difficult for me to stay invested in either the story or the characters.

I ended up reading more than half of this hefty novel before realizing that it didn't seem to be building toward anything meaningful. At that point, I felt comfortable putting it down because I wasn't invested enough to care how the characters' stories ended. I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if it had been shorter, tighter, and focused more on moving the plot forward.

Book Review – Doe by Rebecca Barrow

 

 

 

Doe by Rebecca Barrow is about a popular teenager, Maris Larsen, whose status is threatened when a new girl joins her cheerleading squad.

Maris is the captain of the West Eaton High cheer team. Her teammates admire her, she's the coach's favorite, and being on the squad makes her feel special, powerful, and loved—something she feels is missing from the rest of her life in their small town. When she's cheering, she doesn't have to think about how her life feels like it's going nowhere, her mother's clinical depression, her father abandoning the family, or the fact that her girlfriend will likely leave town as soon as she gets the chance.

Everything changes when Genevieve Ray joins the squad. Genevieve is talented and quickly forms a close relationship with the coach. Maris is devastated as everything she has worked so hard for suddenly feels threatened, and she's terrified of losing the one thing that truly matters to her. A bitter rivalry develops between the two, and Maris becomes determined to do whatever it takes to bring Genevieve down.

Unexpectedly, the answer seems to come to Maris in her dreams. Maris is a sleepwalker and is visited by a monstrous, decaying beast in the form of a deer named Doe. Doe is an ancient and powerful creature who was bound and trapped in her current form decades ago after those who imprisoned her died. Unable to die yet unable to truly live, Doe's only hope for freedom lies with a girl descended from the bloodline of those who bound her.

Maris is connected to that bloodline, and the two form an uneasy alliance. Maris has the power to free Doe in exchange for Doe helping her defeat Genevieve. However, Doe has motives of her own, and by the end, only one of them may be left standing.

I was initially drawn to this novel because of its beautiful cover. I didn't realize it was written in verse, but I actually didn't mind that format. At times, though, I felt the writing was a little too flowery and overly descriptive without adding much to the story. I also found the plot to be fairly predictable and didn't encounter any moments that truly surprised me. I was a bit disappointed in the ending because it felt unresolved and incomplete. 

I wasn't really sure why this was marketed as a horror novel because I didn't find it scary at all. One thing I will say, though, is that I'm glad I didn't read the book's blurb beforehand because it gives away some major spoilers.

 

Book Review –The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

 

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is about a woman, Libby Jones, who inherits her family’s home on her twenty-fifth birthday and uncovers the dark secrets it holds.

Libby has been eagerly awaiting her twenty-fifth birthday. She will finally learn who she is after spending her entire life knowing nothing about her birth parents. Shortly after her birthday, she receives a letter revealing their identities, along with the news that she is the sole heir to an abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames worth millions. Libby is thrilled by the discovery. However, she soon learns that she isn’t the only one waiting for this day, and others are just as eager to meet her.

Twenty-five years earlier, police were called to the rambling mansion after reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old baby in her crib. Downstairs, however, they discovered three dead bodies, all dressed in black. A note was left beside them, but the four other children who had been living in the house had vanished without a trace.

I thought the book was an okay read. It had a few suspenseful moments and a couple of unexpected twists.  I found it an enjoyable, straightforward read, though slow at times. The story is told through three different perspectives and timelines, which kept things interesting. However, because of the way the story was structured, I found it fairly easy to figure out where it was heading.

Overall, it was a solid read, but it lacked the extra oomph that I’ve come to expect from the author’s books. Even so, I would still be open to reading more by Lisa Jewell.