Sad Sadie

Sadie by Courtney Summers 

New York : Wednesday Books, 2018. 

311 p. ; 21 cm.

I think I picked up this book after a student returned it last month and said they liked it. It's a thriller dealing with a dead girl and a her missing older sister. The novel is woven from two strands. The narration from the missing older girl - Sadie - and the transcripts of a fictional podcast "The Girls." The podcast is one that was set in motion when the producers heard of the murdered young girl and her missing older sister. We follow the podcast host as he tries to figure out - through visits, research and interviews - what happened to Sadie.

In the narration from Sadie we figure out that her young sister was probably raped and killed by someone she may know and she has taken off in a car to see if she can find him. Along the way she interacts with people and tries to figure out who killed her sister and where he lives. We also learn that Sadie has been the victim of pedophiles and is in search of revenge for both her sister and herself. You might be wondering about parents. Her father has never been in the picture and her mother is a long-time addict who abandoned Sadie and her little sister.

So the novel is a mystery, a road trip, a podcast, and a revenge tale - one that will leave you with as many questions as answers when you finish.

I think Sadie is a good novel and I'd recommend it for someone wanting a thriller/mystery dealing with murder/family troubles/ and sexual abuse. However, I just never really found myself taken with the book. I think there were too many times where the plot felt a little overwrought and many times where I got confused about who was who (after all there are several abusive men involved and one of the villains has several aliases). The who podcast set-up also didn't resonate with me, but it might with other readers. I'd say it's a solid read, but one that just didn't appeal so much to me.       

Got Blood?

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin

New York : Wednesday Books, 2020.

326 p. ; 22 cm. 

This novel calls up the Elizabethan & Jacobean revenge tragedy.  I had to chuckle in that while looking for references on revenge tragedies I found this in an article by Justin Cash in The Drama Teacher:   

Revenge tragedies typically consisted of one or more of the following:

• ghosts and the supernatural
• murder
• insanity/mad scenes
• a character seeking revenge against a strong(er) opponent for a real or imagined wrongdoing
• personifications of revenge / the supernatural
• a clear villain (although interestingly the character of Hamlet was a hero seeking revenge)
• onstage violence, often sensational
• blood-filled conclusions
• disguise
• corpses
• often isolated revenger(s)

Yep, Foul is Fair has most of that in spades! The novel is about Jade, a wealthy it-girl who is drugged and gang raped by wealthy/arrogant prep-boys after she and her "coven" of friends crash a party.  The assault is not graphically portrayed, but the victim recalls the words and brutality of the four assailants and their accomplices and promises murderous revenge. Let's just say she keeps her promise! 

This book got a starred review from Booklist which notes: "...this isn't a how-to-murder-your-classmates manual; it's a ferocious, frenzied reaction to a world that has, for too long, treated women as collateral damage in stories that have been deemed more important than theirs....The plot is not rooted in any sort of reality; it is a fever dream, a vicious fantasy, an allegory with bloody teeth." That gets it about right.  In my mind it gets to what is the strength and weakness of the novel.  

I liked a lot about the novel; it is a good escapist read, but Jade and her friends who assist with the bloody revenge plot are extremely unlikable souls themselves. There are no heroes in this tale, just a group of depraved characters who get to exact revenge on a set of even more depraved villains.  I also found some of the supernatural overtures a bit distracting (weird flocks of birds, sudden storms, visions of winged flying characters, unhinged stream of conscience, etc.). But some will love that overwrought drama, and if they do fair enough (of should I say foul enough!). 

If I mention the book to a student, I would definitely let them know it deals with some serious triggering issues - sexual assault, violence, and murder. But if they are looking for a bloody read, I'd suggest it. Oh, and it also strongly echoes Shakespeare's Macbeth, something that students who are reading the play might really enjoy.

  

Insanely Plotted, but Complusively Readable

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
376 p. ; 22 cm.    

There is a lot to like about this revenge tale of murder and mystery set in the late 1800s.  The writing is smart, the characters are interesting and the novel has a dark edge that will appeal to readers who don't like their plots sweetened with syrupy romances and neat, happy endings.

The main character, Grace, is a striking figure - a young woman of a wealthy, influential family who is imprisoned in a Boston insane asylum because she has become pregnant.  The author has done a bit of research into the treatment of the "insane" and of women declared insane and developed a disturbing and satisfying novel out of the material.  If you want to see the benign asylum where Grace escaped to in Ohio, you can check out this page from Ohio University.

A lot of the plot springs out of the fact that Grace is an incest survivor who - having escaped Boston - wants to protect her younger sister from the perpetrator, and wants to exact revenge on him.  Did I also mention that she works undercover with a doctor in order to solve (by profiling) murders, particularly a murder involving a serial killer.  Her victimization, escape, hopes for revenge and protective zeal for her sister all come together in a dramatic conclusion that strains credibility, but is satisfying nonetheless.

Overall, I wasn't crazy about A Madness, but I will recommend it - with its historical background, strong female characters, and grim storyline it has a lot to offer a reader.

I Think I'll Skip the Movie

Yellowstone River

The Revenant by Michael Punke
New York : Picador, 2015.
262 p. : maps ; 21 cm.

Given that the movie version of this book was critically acclaimed, I decided to give it a read.  I'm glad I did.   It's not a great book, but it is a good one.  Punke has taken the mostly true story of Hugh Glass, an 1823 frontiersman, and fictionalized it into a solid revenge and survival tale.

I found The Revenant a compelling read, hard to put down, as Glass manages to survive harrowing experience after harrowing experience.  Beginning with his near fatal mauling by a grizzly to his almost being killed in an ambush toward the end of the novel, Glass is a fascinating figure - damned to experience shocking pains and injuries, and yet charmed in that he always walks away from them a survivor.  The revenge aspect was less interesting to me.  Part of what fuels Glass' survival is his determination to live and bring retribution to the men charged with watching over him, who instead robbed and abandoned him.  It's not a noble pursuit, but it feels realistic.

Along the way, there is some subtle and fascinating changes in Glass' attitudes about satisfying his desire for revenge.  But the power of the novel lies in Glass' remarkable skills, grit and ability to make quick and risky decisions that ultimately save his life.

The movie on the other hand, seems to have opted to bump the violence levels up several notches and to make revenge and gore the heart of the film - "pain porn" one reviewer calls it.  I think that's too bad, since in a more compassionate director's hands the film really could have wrestled with the troubled spirit of the frontiersmen and the ultimate emptiness of revenge attained.  That is at the heart of Punke's novel and is why I'll stick with the book and let others suffer through the film.    

Like _________ on Steroids

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
New York : Del Rey Trade Paperbacks, 2014.
400 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I don't know if I would have read Pierce Brown's Red Rising but for a student who recommended it to me.  This student is an exceptional reader who comes to the library, checks out a trilogy of novels (such as the Red Rising trilogy) and brings them back in three or four days - having read them all! Yes, as a middling-fast reader I am jealous.

So I had to jump into the Red Rising series when this student returned them saying, "These are the best."  Did I have a choice?

I'm glad I read Red Rising.  It is a satisfying read.  As Booklist and Library Journal note, it is in the tradition of The Hunger Games, and should appeal to fans of that series.  I especially liked the opening of the novel, where the underground mining world of the main character, Darrow, is developed.  It is a grueling and brutal world of miners on Mars, laboring to harvest an element necessary for the terraforming of the planet. The miners are the Reds, and as the novel develops we learn that world (solar system) they live in is a hierarchy of genetically modified colors dominated by the beautiful and ruthless Golds - with Reds occupying the lowest rung.

The novel quickly moves from the realm of the Reds to a story of rebellion as Darrow is secreted out of his miserable (but meaningful life) and quickly inserted into a shadowy rebellion that aims to overthrow the entire order of the Golds.  From the paced opening, the novel rushes pell-mell into high-tech, high-combat mode with genetically modified beings and a deadly competition among the young adult Golds which will allow Darrow to gain access to the highest realms of power.  And how did Darrow a Red gain access to this elite competition?  Sorry, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

There is a lot of battle violence, romance, intrigue and tight plotting that holds everything together.  But for me, I found it a bit over-the-top, reminding me of how I feel with many contemporary movies--yes, the special effects are awesome and compelling to watch, but I want more finesse and subtlety.  That criticism aside, I would definitely recommend this series to dystopian, survival, science fiction, and thriller novel fans.  It delivers.

Admit It, You Loved It

Confessions by Kanae Minato
New York : Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
234 p. ; 21 cm.

Ok, maybe I didn't love it, but it is a good read.  It's funny to see a book praised as "a nasty little masterpiece" or "the most delightfully evil book you will read this year" - but that is the verdict on this well received first-book phenom of Japanese author, Kanae Minato.    

I found the opening of the book to be slightly disorienting - the avenging teacher at the heart of this novel is addressing her students in a way that no middle school teacher would in the US, but once you get past the slightly different mannerisms of the opening, the novel quickly pulls you in and doesn't let go. The novel opens with a punch, a teacher knows that two of her young students have killed her child, and she is leaving the school - but will get even.

The novel has been compared favorably to Gone Girl, and like that novel, it presents a really nasty view of human relationships - in this case between parents and children, children and children, and teachers and children.  There's really no redeeming characters in the book, but that doesn't stop it from being well plotted and compelling.  Part of Minato's success is the shifting narrative viewpoint.  We hear the story from about six different characters' perspectives - and from each come disturbing and/or shocking revelations.

I would definitely recommend this to a student who wants to read a good murder-thriller, revenge novel.  After all it's a vile little read that you just can't put down.

Bleak and Beautiful

The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz
New York : Anchor Books, 2008, c1984
158 p. ; 21 cm.

Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, and this little gem of a novel gives an example of why.

It is the tale of a man emerging from four years of harsh and humiliating imprisonment, only to find that his wife and her new lover are the ones who betrayed him to the police, and that his criminal mentor is a hypocrite and a man of means and power.   Bent on revenge, Said Mahran ends up destroying the only treasure he has left, his humanity.

In it's short, but intense meditation on the human spirit, this novel reminds me of another Nobel laureates fine little novel, Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea.

I really appreciated this novel of set in 1950s Egypt.  It is straightforward, compelling, and easy to finish, but leaves you with a lot to sit back and think about.

Payback and Karma

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook
New York : Simon Pulse, 2010.
261 p. ; 21 cm.

Well written fun! What more can I say about this very readable revenge tale.  The plot seems straight-forward enough: 8th grader gets horribly betrayed and humiliated by her best friend (a popularity-aspiring "mean girl"); moves away for 3 years; and then returns for her senior year with a very different look, and a lusciously detailed plan for payback. 

As you might guess, her campaign for revenge doesn't go in exactly a straight line, but instead leads her to discover a few truths about herself and the costs of deception and revenge.  All of this is woven into a very enjoyable, thoughtful, occasionally humorous and believable story that is hard to put down.

Getting Revenge is not a great novel, but it doesn't aspire to be that - but it is a novel that exceeds its modest aims, and has more depth to it than you might think on just glancing at it's appealing cover (see the graphic above), and the humorous by-line on the cover: "This time, the mean girl is going down."

Next time a student asks for something "good to read" and is looking for something fun, I won't hesitate suggesting this solid work of teen revenge and self-discovery fiction.

The Unbeaten

Source of graphic: Robbie Veldwijk

Sucker Punch by David Hernandez

New York: Harper Teen, c2008.
217 p. ; 19 cm.

I first knew of David Hernandez as a poet (check out this poem of his or his web page), so I was intrigued when he came out with Sucker Punch, a work of fiction for young adults.

I enjoyed this book about two brothers who bear the scars of an abusive father who has recently abandoned his family when the novel opens. The older brother, Marcus was not beaten by the father, but Enrique, the younger - more attractive, more physical - brother was often attacked by the father. These dynamics play out in the action of the novel, which revolves around the complicated emotional ties and tension between the two young men as they pursue revenge plot on their father who is planning on returning home after a year away.

Though the writing is gritty, mature and harsh at times, there is a lot of subtlety to Hernandez' style - and his characters are fleshed out in full. Thankfully, the novel ends without being tied up neat and tidy - instead the reader is left to wonder how the plot will continue and if the characters will be able to overcome the weight of their past and the demons that haunt them.