Book Review: 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins

Struggling her way through divorce and alcoholism, Rachel lives vicariously through a seemingly happy couple that live a few houses down from her own former, happy home.  Everyday, she rides the train past their house and watches them as the train pauses to switch tracks.  She makes up stories about who they are and the things they get up to, soaking up every detail she can see from her seat upon the train.  But then Rachel sees something that shatters the image of the idyllic life she has constructed for the two strangers.  The next day, the woman is missing, presumably murdered.  Her husband seems to be the chief suspect.  Rachel becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery herself, even to the point of ruining what little remains of her own life.  For Rachel went on another bender the night of the disappearance and cannot remember a thing, other than that she, too, was in the area and may have seen the victim before she went missing.

The story is told from three different, equally unreliable, characters' points of view.  Rachel is the most prominent.  The second is Megan, the murder victim, who is definitely not the person Rachel imagined her to be.  The third is Anne, Rachel's ex-husband's new wife, who appears to be the perfect wife and new mother.  She is, however, almost irrationally jealous and afraid of Rachel.  And Rachel and Megan were eerily similar in appearance...

The Girl on the Train is listed as a thriller.  The mystery of who killed Megan and exactly what happened that night has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.  I honestly had no idea what happened to the victim or anything else that occurred on the night in question until it was revealed at the end of the book.  However, the narrative leans a bit too heavily upon the flaws of the main characters to build up suspense regarding the murderer's identity.  For me, that meant they were all too unsympathetic to really make me care what would happen to them.  This book reminded me a lot of 'Gone Girl', so, if you enjoyed that book, you might want to give this one a try.

Get it on Amazon

NaNo WriMo Update

It's three weeks into National Novel Writing Month now, and I'm actually pretty happy with the way things have gone.  I just reached 40,000 words today, so I'm on target to finish on time, barring any disasters.  Honestly, I write so slowly I thought I'd only be somewhere around 20,000 now, so I'm pretty excited.

At the end of last month, I found my local group and attended a few of their meetings before November began to get some advice.  I've had a chance to try most of it, now, and I think it's really helped.

First, they told me it's best to build up a buffer for yourself in the beginning, if at all possible, because you never know what's going to come up later in the month that requires your attention.  I've been lucky, so far, and haven't really needed to use up that buffer.  It does mean that I can have Thanksgiving off to spend with my family, though, so it was definitely worth it.  It also gets harder to keep yourself motivated to keep meeting those daily goals as the month wears on.  The middle days sometimes feel like the end is impossibly far away, and a buffer can help with that, too.

They also recommended attending as many write-ins as possible, where you meet up with other struggling writers to pound away at the keyboard and get more words down (or the leaps-and-bounds-ahead writers that make you suck it up and push yourself harder).  I have done a few of those and got a lot of work done, but I don't think I'd recommend trying to hit them all.  Pick the ones that most interest you, instead.  Remember to consider travel time.  The NaNo regions can cover some distance, so you might find yourself spending precious time driving when you could've gotten more work done if you'd stayed at home.  That being said, if you're having a tough time and there's a meeting during your free time, the drive might just pay off.

If you're one of the unlucky ones whose region is so big that there aren't any meet ups near you, there are also virtual ones you can find on the WriMo website.  Admittedly, I only tried one of these, so I didn't really get a good sampling of the process.  Watching others type responses and word counts in the messages after sprints didn't really motivate me as much as in person.  It does, however, work for others, so don't be afraid to give it a try if you're struggling.

Another WriMo also showed me how to find word crawls in the NaNo message boards which have helped keep me on task when writing on my own.  Other writers post stories, similar to choose your own adventure, which require you to write a certain number of words before you can proceed.  These can be extremely challenging, but, using them, I've managed to knock out 1500 words or so on a day when I didn't think I'd be able to write 5.

To any fellow WriMos out there, good luck and keep writing! Every word helps :)

Book Review: "Finders Keepers" by Stephen King (Book 2 of the Bill Hodges Trilogy)

Pete Saubers' family is floundering.  His father was gravely injured when a madman plowed his car through a crowd of people (the events from book one, Mr. Mercedes).  Though he survived, Pete's father can no longer work and is in constant pain.  His mother's hours have been reduced, and the bills keep piling up.  When he finds a chest filled with money and valuable notebooks written by a famous author who is now deceased, Pete doesn't think twice about using it to help them.  Unbeknownst to Pete, the chest is the spoils of a brutal, decades old murder, masterminded and committed by an obsessed fan of the author.  Now this murderer, Morris Bellamy, has been released from jail and can think only of reclaiming the precious books.  When he sets his sights upon the Saubers family, it is up to retired detective Bill Hodges to end Bellamy's plans of mayhem.

This second book in the trilogy is different from the first in that it is more thriller than mystery.  The reader knows from the beginning who committed the murder, and where Saubers' miracle chest really comes from.  However, this doesn't detract from the excitement of the story.  The reader follows along with Pete Saubers down a path that the reader knows will end in bloodshed, even if Pete's situation makes him believe otherwise.  The characters in this story feel very real, and that makes the story all the more terrifying.

The story follows after that of the first but is a separate story unto its self.  So, it's not completely necessary to have read Mr. Mercedes to understand Finder's Keepers.  There are, however, references to the fist book, and Hodges does spend some time with the murderer from Mr. Mercedes (Brady), but it isn't necessary to know this to understand the current story.  This arc seems, instead, to be hinting at something that may happen to the final book, End of Watch, which has recently been released.

If you like thrillers, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out.


Get Finders Keepers on Amazon

A New Start

I've been neglecting my blog for the last several months, but, as things are starting to get back to some sense of normalcy, I'm going to be posting more regularly.  For those of you who are curious what happened, last summer we realized my husband would need to relocate for his work.  At first, we hoped that would mean a move somewhere within Florida, but that didn't work out.  Instead, the ideal position opened up in my home state of Indiana.  I spent the first part of the year taking care of everything necessary to get my family moved from Gainesville to the Indianapolis area while my husband started work.

Side note: military families are awesome.  I mean, everyone made the move in one piece, but, well, let's just say I was a hot mess.

We're all settled into our new home now, and I spent the summer exploring the local family activities with my son.  He was quite pleased to learn that Indiana does, in fact, also have and grocery stores that sell the ingredients to bake cookies and parks with playgrounds.

This wasn't my first long distance move, obviously, but I had forgotten how strange it feels.  I didn't know where anything was--not even inside my own house.  Even a trip to the grocery store required an extensive search of Google Maps.  So, I still feel like we're always several steps behind everyone else, but I try to remind myself that everything's ok as long as we eventually get where we're supposed to be and no one gets injured in the process.  And we actually have found some pretty cool places and had a few fun adventures along the way.


Of course, whatever's left of teenage me is still throwing a tantrum, but, what does she know anyway? Florida is wildly beautiful, but Indiana doesn't have any flying roaches as big as canaries.

I still miss Florida and all our friends, but, the truth is, it hadn't been working for awhile.  No one ever likes to abandon a dream, but it would be far worse to stay in one that had stalled and was on its way to, if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor, car crash status.

For now, I'll take some time to recover and see where the next adventure takes us.

Next month I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time.  As someone who normally writes at glacial speeds, this will be an interesting experiment to say the least.  Are any of you planning on participating? If you've done so in the past, do you have any advice for newbies like me?

Sara's Night Out: A Short Story

I don't see horror/suspense movies in the theater like I used to, quietly trading snarky comments with a friend at the ridiculousness of the situation or the characters' choices.  The problem is that, since my journey into motherhood, I take the children's fake peril way too seriously.  I don't mean getting a bit creeped out afterward.  I'm talking about full on adrenaline dump, ready-for-a-fight against imaginary characters creating make-believe havoc.  Like I'm the mom version of the Incredible Hulk, ready to rain down my wrath on those who would harm such a precious little darling.

That's where the idea for the following short story arrived.

Sara's Night Out

I settle into the second chair in the middle row, leaving my husband to take the aisle seat.

"Aren't you proud? I haven't mentioned Sammy once tonight," I say, referring to our son who is back home with the babysitter.

I wince, but Emmet only smiles.  The house lights dim, and we turn our attention to the screen.   Having forgotten my jacket, I squirm closer to my husband.  The movie has already started, and he stares at the action onscreen.

Monsters have surrounded a secluded mountain resort, and stranded vacationers barricade themselves inside the main lodge.

"What are those things?" a young woman asks.

"I took the blood from the one we killed up to the microscope in the nature center.  It's riddled with parasitic viruses!" a guy with thick glasses says.

I giggle.  "Parasitic viruses," I say into my husband's ear.

He doesn't turn, but, even in the dark, I detect him rolling his eyes.  I bite back my other comments and turn back to the story.

The camera sweeps through the forest to a tiny, dark cabin with its own monster fan club.  The scene  moves to the cabin's interior, and my stomach drops.

"Who left that kid all alone in the woods?" I ask.

Emmet pats my hand.

The little girl on screen cowers beneath a table as the creatures crash through the window.  The biggest pushes past the others and licks his lips as he stalks toward the girl.  My heart races until I can feel its pulsing even through my toes.

They'll cut away soon...Or someone will come to help her.  Who wants to watch a little girl get ripped apart, right?

The monster has reached her now and drags her out from under the table by her leg.  She shrieks and slaps him across the face.  She kicks at him with her free leg, but he wrenches the other.  He lifts her over his head and throws her at his waiting companions.

The blood within my veins has been replaced with fire.  I grip the armrests of my seat until my knuckles turn white.

The monsters drag the screaming child outside and throw her down upon the ground.  She scrambles to her feet.  She sprints in the opposite direction, tears streaming down her face.  She screams for help, but her fear renders her little voice into unintelligible warbles.  The monsters descend, mouths open and ready for the easy meal.  The girl howls, and something bursts within my chest.

The arm of my chair dislodges itself with a crack.

"Mama's coming, sweetie!" I say as I leap over the row of seats in front of me.

People scatter out of my way as I stalk down the aisles, chair arm raised above my head.  I reach the edge of the floor lights and plunge into the blackness beyond.  My foot catches something.  I stumble and hit the ground hard.  Pain pierces my right knee, but it may as well come from someone else's body.  I rush back to my feet and whirl the chair arm at the nearest monster.  My arm vibrates with the force of the connecting blow, but the monster continues its assault.  I swing again and again, repeatedly bashing the monster over the back, but it only ripples and continues the assault.

The little girl's screams reach inside my body, a thousand needles piercing my brain and shredding my heart.  I grit my teeth and turn away as my eyes begin to burn.  A hundred eyes stare at me, but no one moves a muscle.

"Help me!" My voice cracks as warm liquid spreads down my cheeks.

The light from a room beyond ours catches my eye.

I'm attacking a reflection.

I race up the ramp toward where the real monsters wait.  Someone reaches out and grabs my arm.

"Let's go home, Sara," a voice says in my ear.

The girl's cries weaken.

"Mama's coming, baby!"

I yank free and continue my upward climb.  I burst through a door and stumble into a room filled with equipment.  The source of the light and sounds sits to my right, encased inside a strange box.  I raise the weapon one last time.

"Mama's here, baby...Mama's here."

Book Review: The Banished of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

Eighteen year old Maia was banished from her kingdom by her own father--with quite a bit of persuasion by his new lover.  Now, her only hope to save herself and her people lies in a quest to rid the world of the Myriad Ones, a nasty group of spirits drawn to all forms of human suffering.  Her dabbling in reading and magic (which are forbidden for women), however, has left her with several powerful enemies.  As she fights to stay one step ahead of those who hunt her, it becomes clear that something has already gone horribly wrong.  Something is wrong with Maia, and that something threatens to bring doom down upon not only herself, but anyone around her.

'The Banished of Muirwood' is the first book in a series entitled 'Covenant of Muirwood'.  It is a followup series to the original Muirwood trilogy called 'Legends of Muirwood.  Although Maia's story occurs one hundred years later than that of the first trilogy, 'Banished' does seem to expect the reader to have a basic understanding of its world and magic system, so, if you haven't read the first series, I would recommend you do so before trying this one.  I feel that the 'Legends' series was better than the first book of this latest series, but I did still enjoy 'The Banished of Muirwood'.  The character development and elements of magic were not as strong, but still managed to paint an interesting picture.  There is an element of Cinderella and her Evil Stepmother that I found difficult to get through, but Maia's story is, thankfully, more than that. Maia is part ruler, part young girl, and the combination of the two both saves and hinders her progress.  By the time she begins to realize that her quest has begun to unravel before it has really begun, multiple layers of the plot have converged, and the action of the story really takes off.  If you are a fan of epic fantasy, you'll want to add the Muirwood series to your list.

Find it on Amazon

Book Review: 'The Martian' by Andy Weir

Mark Watney wakes on the Martian surface, injured, alone, and wearing a suit bleeding air. He has survived the dust storm that separated him from his team during their evacuation, but he knows they have been forced to leave him behind. The good news is that the habitat has also survived and is stocked with enough food and supplies to last a few months.  He also knows that another team is scheduled to arrive on Mars and could potentially give him a ride home. There are only two problems. First, communication is down and NASA thinks him dead, so his only hope of connecting with the other team would be to appear on their doorstep at just the right time. Second, the next team will not arrive for over a year, when his supplies will have long been exhausted. Can Mark figure out a way to contact NASA, stretch his supplies, and get himself to the right location on a foreign planet that seems bent on his destruction?

This book is extremely well written.  Following along with Mark as he works out the solutions to his problems under such extreme pressure kept me up well into the night. I simply could not put the book down. The character himself is fascinating, and I loved how he kept managing to find his sense of humor, even after set backs that pushed him to his breaking point. This book reads like an adrenaline-packed 'How to Survive on Mars' handbook that perfectly balances the science detail with the action and drama of Mark's story.

Find it on Amazon