While I am taking a break from book buying this month, that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little borrowing from my local library to help me curb any new book cravings there!
My latest library visit lead to a nice trio of novels that should liven up my spring reading and I’m already in the midst of one of them here; Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet, a debut YA novel that reimagines the Louisa May Alcott classic.
Yes, Beth March has died at the beginning of this story set in our present day and even before her untimely demise was rather famous as a character in the book written by her father( entitled Little Women, of course) which strangely enough, had Beth dying as well.
Since the book became controversial due to their father openly basing it on the real lives of his four daughters , he left town for awhile yet might be a suspect although most folks are hard pressed to believe that gentle, shy Beth had any enemies.
Determined to find answers and not trusting the police, particularly a certain detective, Jo decides to seek the truth out herself.
While plenty of their friends and relatives do have something to hide(especially her younger sister Amy, who took Beth to a party that night and Meg, whose college career is more complicated than anyone in her family knows)the secrets and lies that are revealed could either lead to mending hearts or destroying many other lives in the process.
As a longtime fan of the Alcott original, I’ve wanted to dive into this book as soon as I heard about it . Based on what I have read so far, Berber clearly knows the source material by heart and has crafted an engaging narrative that mixes Little Women with a CW style teen drama and yes, that is intended to be a compliment!
The smart and savvy storytelling doesn’t hesitate to keep the strong emotional notes held by the characters in tune while arranging them into her own operatic composition. I am trying not to rush through the book as such a modern blend with old fashioned flavor deserves to be slowly sipped as any storyteller’s brew ought to be:
Meanwhile, during that last library visit, I came a new Jane Austen themed novel from Gil Hornby(who wrote the lovely Miss Austen, a recent BBC/PBS adaptation) that was another must have for me.
The Elopement has as it’s leading lady Mary Dorothea Knatchbull, who becomes the stepdaughter of Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight once her father marries into the family.
At first, Mary is less than thrilled about this new extension of her family line but as time goes on , she begins to make friends with some of her new cousins and even Aunt Cassandra, who has some helpful hints to share about life and love.
When Mary becomes of age, those hints prove to be more useful than she ever imagined and like many an Austen heroine, she must make a choice between listening to sensible advice or following the sensibilities of her heart.
As I did greatly enjoy the Miss Austen miniseries and wound up reading one of Hornby’s other Austen family books (Godmersham Park), this new look at classic romance felt like the perfect page turning party to attend this season:
Speaking of romance, my last pick was Say You‘ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez.
When Samantha meets Xavier, it’s not a magic moment at first due to his diagnosis of a wounded kitten at his veterinary clinic.
However, they do find some common ground (yes, the cat gets better) and after one wild time in an escape room, the possibility of love is definitely in the air.
Unfortunately, Samantha must move back home to help her mother out(she has Alzheimer’s disease) and forces herself to break things off with Xavier before they get too serious about each other.
That doesn’t deter Xavier from trying to make a long distance relationship work, down to sharing musical playlists and providing emotional support when needed. Can their love really hold up under such pressure or should they truly go their separate ways?
Jimenez knows how to create realistic romantic couples that you can’t help but root for despite their situation and this sounds like a bittersweet joy to behold here:
Well, my bookish needs certainly feel met for the moment but rest assured, I will be back in buying mode for summer reads all too soon.
To wrap this post up, I just wanted to share my thoughts about the new movie version of Wuthering Heights that I watched on HBO Max the other week.
Let me start off by saying that I am NOT a big fan of the original Emily Bronte novel-read it once and once was enough-more of a Jane Eyre person( and yes, I need to read more Charlotte Bronte).
However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate a good film adaptation of WH such as the iconic 1939 movie with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and the 1992 rendition starring Ralph Finnes and Juliette Binoche. Those films made changes from the source material yet still managed to invoke the spirit of the original work successfully enough to inspire viewers and readers alike for generations.
This current movie has it’s fans, no doubt, yet this fever dream take on the doomed love story and the traumatic consequences of that relationship is more fever than dream and not in a good way.
Setting aside the casting controversy, many of the changes made by writer/director Emerald Fennell(whose original film Promising Young Woman, I did like) just seem to be nonsensical; the wallpaper meant to look exactly like Cathy’s skin, a reoccurring bit between Cathy and Heathcliff to hide eggs under the bedcovers as a gag, the costumes that would be over the top even at the Met Gala?
I don’t even want to get into how Heathcliff turns into some BookTok Shadow Daddy(I know his character is supposed to be disturbing but this was repulsive in more ways than one) or how Nelly Dean seemed to be most sympathetic character out of the bunch.
If this was meant to be some sort of satire or twisted homage to old school Hollywood adaptations of classic books, I could be onboard with that yet Fennell insists that was her teenage fantasy take on the novel, one that I hope no one uses as a source for a book report there!
It’s a shame that such an immature overblown version like this got a green light in the first place. Look, I’m all for adding a new creative touch to classic material but when I’m reading a great updated take like Beth Is Dead and then seeing what a hot mess this version of WH is, the disappointment is great indeed.
On the positive side, the original songs created by Charli xcx for the movie are awesome and could’ve been a better blueprint for what this Wuthering Heights could have been; a gothic chiller with haunting flair.
Perhaps this take on Emily Brontë ‘s work will inspire a more thoughtful and innovative film in the future. My best recommendation is to just stick with the soundtrack and watch an earlier WH movie or play this music along with your favorite adaptation instead-now, that’s imaginative meta mixing there!:
One of the scariest things about my reading for this year’s Spring Into Horror readathon (hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading) was how out of control my library loans were, causing me to deal with either my renewal number reaching it’s limit or certain titles not being renewable at all!
Nevertheless, I was able to finish two out of the three books that were set aside for this challenge, starting with Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays, set in a very modern day Hollywood indeed.
Misha is a successful screenwriter whose TV and film credits have garnered him much acclaim, not to mention an Oscar nomination for the quirky short film he created on the side.
However, the big studio executives producing his current hit show are insisting that he use the title trope against the female leads of the series for the season finale. Sick of that particular pop culture prejudice,he refuses only to be met with the strangest intimidation campaign ever.
Various characters from his horror/sci-fi catalog of work appear to be stalking him and his friends. Thinking at first that this is being either a studio stunt or deranged fans, Misha is annoyed at first. Yet, it all too quickly becomes way too real and much too elaborate for the average corporate boss to pull off.
Can Misha write his own happy ending or will this cinematic showdown destroy any chance of a sequel?
I don’t want to give too much away but this book is eerily prescient in its depiction of corporate Hollywood embracing high tech without considering the serious consequences of recklessly diving into these uncharted waters.
Yes, there are some heartfelt moments as Misha looks back on what inspired him to create the various monsters literally pursuing him and a touch of twisted humor as well. However, the fictional menaces imaged by Misha are incredibly creative and terrifying all at once.
If even a hint of such fright fiends were to be depicted on screen, quite a few fresh nightmares would be born. Of course, the worst villains are behind the cameras…
Tingle has a new novel due out this summer (Fabulous Bodies) and I’m looking forward to that as part of my regular reading. In the meanwhile, this meta take on Hollywood’s true horrors is hauntingly great, with some X-Files energy to boot:
After that, I picked up Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison.
Rory never planned to go back to her hometown, having a rather solid good single girl life in the big city. Yet, when her pregnant twin sister Scarlett asks her to be with her due to the father of her impending child being out of the picture, Rory can’t really say no.
Early on in her visit, she’s driving back home late at night and gets into an accident that may have caused her to hit a dog in the road. Upon investigating, Rory discovers all too late that it wasn’t a dog out there…
Recovering from that incident, she soon realizes that she’s now a werewolf with no hope of a cure. On top of that, her mother is coming for a visit and that’s just as bad as being bitten by a supernatural creature.
The already complicated issues of her life become even more so as she struggles to deal with some personal demons and a potentially serious romance with a former high school crush as well as seeing if she can control her full moon frenzy before her sister’s baby is born.
Thus is the second book that I’ve read by Harrison and I don’t know why it took me so long to give her work a try. Her emotionally complex characters and the fearsome situations they find themselves in have realistic depictions that refuse to shy away from the otherworldly (or body horror for that matter but not in excess) are smartly written and compelling reads.
Plus, her werewolf metaphors for women dealing with their outward appearance and inner rage are well crafted with a sense of snark that any Buffy fan(like me) would appreciate there:
Sadly, I didn’t have time to read Ava Morgyn’s The Bane Witch before the end of April but I will save it for the fall.
Part of that was due to my library loans getting out of hand yet I did manage to finish a couple of those books before too much time ran out. Since one of them happened to be a light murder mystery, I thought it deserved a honorable mention here.
Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is a debut novel by Amanda Chapman, set in modern day New York where literary expert Tory Van Dyne runs the title establishment and for the most part, has a relatively quiet life.
That is, until an elderly woman claiming to be Agatha Christie suddenly appears in the section of the library that’s a recreation of the Queen of Crime’s own parlor.
Mrs. Christie(who prefers using the the surname of her last husband Mallowan for this particular occasion) has been allowed to return to the mortal realm in order to help Tory solve a mystery , one that doesn’t seem to have happened just yet. A knock on the door from her ditzy cousin Nicola changes all of that and leads Tory down a precarious path that she thought would only be available to her in the pages of a book.
Is this appearance of the world’s greatest literary detective most fortunate or oddly convenient at best? Can Tory save the day with or without the assistance of Mrs. Christie before the final chapter arrives for all involved?
This is such a charming read, light and lively with the right amount of pathos when needed. Tory and her new found group of amateur crime solvers that includes a clever pre-teen and her dog as well as Tory’s well attired assistant, form an engaging alliance that should continue for a few more books to come(Yes, a second entry entitled Mrs. Christie & The Mystery in the Mews is set for release this October!).
If you’re interested in a blend of Agatha Christie with Only Murders in the Building (which is name checked in this book btw!), this is definitely your cup of crime solving tea to enjoy:
My thanks to Michelle Miller for another round of great reading and my hope that everyone else had a hauntingly good time here.
I’m hoping to do better in June with the Sci-Fi Summer challenge, especially since my TBR is going to be fully science fiction this time around (fantasy is also included here).
One of my picks is an old school Star Wars novel where the romance between Princess Leia and Han Solo is the major plot point and this should be fun. I know Star Wars Day was yesterday but the force can be with you at any time, it seems to me:
