Tales From an Asylum by Steven LeShay

Tales From an Asylum is touted as a memoir of one person (the old man) reliving a number of personas in his head that span 100 years. These personas range from children to adults, men to women, some with names and some without, and a variety of themes from politics, to travel, to being in education or the navy, sports and board games.

 

When it comes to reading a book, I always believe it’s polite to leave a review, especially when it comes to self-publishing. So it’s seldom that I don’t finish a book as it’s important to be able to give feedback on the whole thing. Unfortunately, this counts as one of my DNF’s at 65%. I tried. I really tried a number of times to keep pushing through, but I was eventually skipping sections of text to try to make it to the end.

 

Before even looking at the story, the big issues were the formatting and the editing. It looks like the print version was uploaded instead of the eBook as there were still pages numbers in the ToC and random headers kept appearing. The chapters were divided into numbered sub-sections, which were also confusing in a fiction book. Some areas were edited well and then you’d get half sentences tacked onto the end of a full sentence with no space between or sentences repeated for no reason.

 

As to the story. Because of the cover and the idea of an asylum, I had it in my head that we would be introduced to a character in an asylum either dealing with DID or actual memories. But there is no setup. You are thrown directly into someone’s story and then into the next. Some are long and some are short. Some end and you go back into them later. Lots and lots of factual info about a number of topics bombards you and takes away from the story aspect.

 

I kept pushing on and hoping it would tie together and make sense but I just couldn’t go any further. I did jump to the end (it’s quite a long book) to see if the epilogue could help me out, but found appendices, and an interview, and when I read the last bit of the epilogue, I was in as much confusion still. It’s a pity, as the main idea behind it had promise.

 

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

You Did This by Jamie Millen

You Did This is a serial killer thriller that keeps the questions coming.

 

Claire hated her sister, Tina. With the face of an angel and the mind and heart of a devil, Tina has everyone fooled. Claire hates the fact that Tina is their mom’s favourite and can do no wrong in others’ eyes while behind closed doors, she is a psychopath.

 

Claire is somewhat worried about the gaps in her memory, and on a day when she is supposed to walk Tina home from school but comes home bloody and with cuts, sans Tina, she begins to question her memory of falling down. Tina never makes it home and is found murdered.

 

Claire eventually leaves home, qualifies as a detective, and comes back to town to look into the case. But when she gets back and murders begin again, with girls that look like Tina and are the same age, and the memory gaps are still there, Claire begins to wonder if the fact that her mom blames her for Tina’s death has grounds.

 

With her new partner helping out and an old flame, now in the FBI, also roped in, Claire should be able to get to the bottom of this. When evidence begins piling up against her, Claire doubts her sanity and must decide what drastic measures she will take to solve the case.

 

But is she prepared for the shocking truth?

 

I really enjoyed it and didn’t enjoy it at the same time. I appreciated the twists and turns and the misdirection, but the ending was a little hard to swallow. Without giving away spoilers, surely some of the police procedures would not have been allowed or access that people had to evidence be more limited to outsiders?

 

First off, I understood Claire’s obsession with the truth and the memory gaps allowed you to follow on her path of doubt. But lots of decisions were questionable and she seemed to have more than luck on her side. It was a good example, however, of the damage that parental abuse can do to a child, and how that could influence which direction the child chooses to take.

 

While most of the secondary characters had parts to play and personalities in the book, I never really connected with any of them, including the ex-flame. Maybe it’s because there were so many red herrings that you weren’t quite sure who to trust and thus didn’t become involved with them. Lots of tangents also made you feel like you had to keep track of a lot when quite a bit of info became throwaway.

 

The sniper and what happened made me raise “the eyebrows” in disbelief and the hair dye... oh dear. Black hair to natural looking blonde in one pack and then keeping it as it takes a while to come out??? Bleach doesn’t “come out”!

 

I did appreciate that there was not a plethora of spelling mistakes or punctuation/grammar errors and that the book could be read while concentrating solely on the story. It kept me entertained so I’ll up the average rate and give it slightly higher just because I had to finish it and didn’t want to put it down before finding out the truth... 

   

Eve in Overdrive by Faith Gardener

Eve in Overdrive is a psychological thriller novella. It’s a quick read (took me thirty minutes) and it’s best to read it in one sitting.

 

Journalist Eve Alexopoulos doesn’t cover the hard-hitting news as such. However, her column “What’s Your Problem, Bro?” certainly ruffles more than a few feathers as she targets and outs online trolls. The problem is that sometimes the trolls fight back.

 

When Eve is offered a huge cash advance on a book based on her column, she decides to splurge on a Sunray. The exclusive solar-powered, self-driving, tech-filled car of her dreams. But someone has to be behind the tech, right? And what if that person just happens to be someone Eve exposed...

 

The author has done an awesome job of setting Eve up and allowing the reader to either back her 100% or say to her to back off. And then placing Eve in a deadly situation. Without giving away any spoilers, you are taken through the physical pain, the psychological terror, and the inevitable “what if” moment.

 

The author’s writing style is smooth and quick to read, but the lack of commas before direct address became a bit annoying. Overall, though, it’s a ride of the stuff of nightmares with the reliance on tech and the loss of control. This is the second book of hers I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed the thought-provoking moments behind both.

Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston

Six strangers come together as the will of Alexei Vasiliev, one of the world’s top puzzle makers, stipulates that they must take part in his latest work to receive a portion of his fortune. The strangers don’t seem to have a connection. Henry, previously a cop, is in jail for murder and Atkins is the security guard sent to accompany him. Then there is Oscar, a doctor riddled with cancer, Illeana, a state senator, Rudy, an archaeologist, Jessica, a dean at a university, and Joy, Alexei’s estranged wife.

 

They meet at Alexei’s house and are immediately thrown into a puzzle. Six rooms await them where the puzzles will test not just their mental abilities, but their desire to survive at any cost. Will working together be the way to go, or is it a case of fewer survivors means more money...

 

I really wanted to love this book as it started out so well with the different characters being introduced and yet still being in the dark about their connection. Then, as we moved to the house and the puzzles, it became a lot more complex and unless you are a fan of mythology and know quite a bit about ancient history when it comes to gods and beliefs, then it’s tricky to keep up as the facts just keep coming. Sometimes it was quite difficult to picture the puzzles and in one instance the chosen solution was very odd as there were other things around them that could have done the same thing. I guess it’s in keeping with the room “belonging” to a character.

 

The connection is eventually explained but it’s a slow reveal and seems buried under the facts of the puzzles themselves. The whole experience is exposed to have been years in the making and I felt the reader needed to really allow for literary leeway. As I was reading, I was going yes okay, hmm, and then the eyebrow raises got a bit too much. The ending, well... it’s like the book went in an entirely different direction and left it open for a sequel.

 

The writing was good and the proofing well done but the book left me feeling ambivalent about its success.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

Godthread by Caleb Brabham

Azrael Abaddon, better known as The Destroyer, has been tasked with an unusual quest. Reunite Eve with her son Cain.

More than a little intrigued, Azrael accepts the task, even though the mere act of kindness is very un-demonlike. But Azrael has no idea of the interwoven stories and their butterfly effects he is about to encounter, both in heaven and hell, and places in between.

When Morningstar meets his demise, uncertainty and chaos abound, which is to be expected, but Azrael can work off this. The Godthread, however, now that’s a different story…

When asked to review this, I had no idea how I’d feel about it. Would it be a story filled with fire and brimstone and an Old Testament wrath, or would it be a satire on an old story? It was neither and yet it was both, written in a noir style that captured a fascinating way of looking at the relationship between the angels and demons, their history, their interactions with the devil and the Almighty, and their view of the “flesh” on Earth.

The author cleverly moves back and forth to the telling of the first sin and the repercussions, both at the time and later, with the punishment inflicted on those involved. As we are taken between the realms, the descriptions of the demons and angels (both terrifying) and the worlds and lands they are dominion over (both terrifying) are vivid and give new imagery to the idea of fire down below and clouds up above.

Azrael’s journey is somewhat surprising in that some actions would not be expected from a demon, and the sub-plots and secrets, both with demons alone as well as demons and angels working together, are hinted at gradually until an ending that I did not foresee coming. Probably should have, but there were a number of ways this could have gone and the author definitely picked the right one!

What let this book down were a number of different proofing errors. From action and dialogue tags being mixed up, which influenced punctuation and capital letters, to backwards quotation marks, to wrong words being used. The writing style, however, was fluid and so descriptive that it was easy to consume this story rapidly.

A well-imagined tale, with the focus on a clever story, in a setting and with characters as old as time.

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for the opportunity to review the book.

The New Husband by Brian O'Rourke

Brent and Mary have been married for a number of years and are a quiet and unassuming couple. She works as a data analyst and he deals with coding. Brent came from a dysfunctional family and his parents and brother verbally, physically, and emotionally abused him. Consequently, Brent suffers from terrible depression and low self-esteem. Even when his brother dies, he refuses to attend the memorial service. When the opportunity comes up for him to attend a wellness retreat filled with meditation, counselling, and farm labour, they dig into their savings and Brent leaves for a month where contact with Mary is not allowed in any form.

When the month is up, Brent comes back but is a changed man. He is full of energy, his body looks amazing, and he wants to go all out to start a new business. Initially, Mary is thrilled with the change, but as time goes by and his behaviour becomes more and more erratic and he refuses to speak about the retreat, she becomes suspicious of him. Is the new Brent just too much?

I figured out the ending quite early on but still wanted to see how it would all tie together. The story was an interesting idea but the execution felt somewhat forced. To have the reader believe that Mary picked up on so many things but did nothing about it was odd. Brent’s behaviour was ludicrous and his physical change rapid, yet Mary believed that the changes could have happened at a retreat in thirty days. The fact that Brent was so focused on one thing should have been a big clue to Mary, but I guess when you love someone, you want to believe them.

As for the stalker and the PI. Really, Mary? For someone who watched Netflix, she needed to brush up on her police procedures.

So while I enjoyed the story and the fact that it was a quick read, one thing struck me as strange. In one section, a character places a rag over the mouth of another and knocks them out with chlorophyll. Now I am no biologist and perhaps chlorophyll has properties I’m unaware of, but should that not be chloroform? The staple of crime tv shows?

It wrapped up a little too neatly for me, but an interesting idea, nonetheless.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book. 

Other People's Lives by JE Rowney

Other People’s Lives is a psychological thriller, but tries to be clever about it and I thought it missed the mark.

 

Sophie’s husband, Jack, is considered missing as he never arrived at his work trip’s destination and she is distraught as she thinks someone is watching and stalking her. Determined to work through the issues, she meets with Dr Thacker, a psychiatrist, who is ready to help her. But with each session Sophie opens up a little more and the truth may be stranger than anyone suspected.

 

After reading the story I felt meh. There were places that felt confusing and slightly off and the writing hinted at something else. With so many people saying wow about the book, I decided to read it again to see what I missed. And yes, I had missed the early signs but I felt cheated. If the smoking gun is going to be used in the final scene, the smoking gun must be introduced early in the book. You can’t suddenly spring an ending on a reader when the actual “tie” is not there. I will give the author credit for the different way it was done, but I felt it was too forced into what it was.

 

It’s really difficult to say much without giving away a spoiler about the script or the ending, but I honestly thought the ending was a no. Even newbie crime thriller readers would be questioning police procedures and what would really have happened. There is literary licence and a request to suspend disbelief and then there is straight-up nope. And the more you reflect on the ending, the more holes show.

 

We see Sophie’s interactions with Jack through letters she writes to him and as the book progresses, the tone changes and the clues are more obvious. Some people felt the letters annoying while I enjoyed looking at the underlying intention.

 

I’m glad the book was short to be able to read it again, but I wouldn’t read it a third time, not even to look for more clues. Maybe I just prefer my psychological thrillers more guided and less deus ex machina... who knows...