One Night Read: a review of One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc of this book that I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Now I have to actually write that review, and that is the hard part. It’s going to be hard because, frankly, I was just so in the middle about this book. Nothing was horrible, but nothing was particularly good, either. 

One Night Gone is going to be a hard one for me to review, simply because I feel really ambivalent about it. I liked it. It was a fast, easy read, which—lets be honest—is what you want out of a mystery. The multiple perspectives format seems to be almost the norm in a thriller these days, so that was almost expected. The storyline itself was fine. 

One Night Gone is the story of Allison, a recently divorced meteorologist who takes a job as a house sitter in a beach town while contemplating her next move. While there, she meets Tammy, a local, and is quickly embroiled in a decades old disappearing person mystery. There are all the basic themes that we’ve all come to associate with small beach towns: class issues, family secrets, and lots and lots of infidelity. 

I don’t really have any problems with One Night Gone except that there was a lot of what felt familiar and kind of cliched and everything interesting and different fell flat. We have these characters with rich potential: Allison has some mental health issues, Maureen is a carnie, Tammy has an ailing mother that she is responsible for. All this great potential to deepen the story, but instead we have mostly interchangeable characters with little that sets them apart. Like the rest of the story, it was just fine. To me, this is a book I could recommend to someone who sees it in stock at the library, but wouldn’t recommend buying. It’s a quick read, the story is very easy to get into, and it’s entertaining. It’s just nothing to write home about.

3/5

This book would definitely be banned in Big Burr: A reviewof Under the Rainbow

A review of Celia Laskey's Under the Rainbow

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of Under the Rainbow that I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I really liked this book and not just for the obvious reasons. Yes, it had an interesting plot that really drove the story. Yes, the characters were well-written and felt very authentic. But there is a lor more to it than that. The style, that of a composite novel told in non-repeating shifting perspectives (which I was really resistant to at first) actually showed the evolution of the town and the way all the interactions did eventually feed off each other. It really served to make Big Burr the main character, as it should be.

This book reminds me a lot of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and not just because of the composite novel form. Also, in many ways its almost like an update of the plot: a quiet, idyllic small town where one would suspect innocence is really harboring darkness beneath the surface. Not too earth shaking when I describe it like that, but mixed in with the idea that this small town (Bigg Burr Kansas), "the most homophobic town in the country" is--and I am struggling to find the right word because everything that captures how the residents would feel, like invaded by, feel problematic to be as a staunch LGBT supporter--visited by a task force of LGBTQ advocated who have agreed to spend two years trying to bring around the bigoted community, it is really a pretty complex and engaging novel with a lot of really interesting moments.

Deep and Darkest Page Turner: a review of Anna-Marie McLemore’s Dark and Deepest Red

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of the beautiful Dark and Deepest Red that I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

With a talent for weaving a story that rivals that of Neil Gaiman, Anna-Marie McLemore has created a dazzling and heartbreaking fairy tale with her newest book, Dark and Deepest Red. 

Starting with the fascinating story of the dancing plague of 1518, McLemore crafts a tale that challenges the idea that the past ever leaves us alone. 

Emil is a scientist, Rosella a strong willed artisan, Lala a girl who loves with all the loyalty and fire she can muster. Despite two timelines that keep their worlds separate, the three lives intertwine as each struggles to find their own spot within their culture, family, and community. Faced with the same question, each must come to their own question: should they deny what makes them unique in order to blend in to their communities, or should they reclaim their own roots to fulfill their own destinies? How do you save yourself from the curses of the past? 

The novel Dark and Deepest Red is one that will stay with me— fitting for a novel that teaches the importance of history. Pushing all that aside, straying from ideas of themes, all I can say is that this was the most beautifully written, breathtaking story I might’ve ever read. Anna-Marie McLemore’s lyrical, poetic language dances alongside the victims of the fever, capturing you more and more with its spell. I couldn’t stop reading it. At times, I couldn’t stop the tears. I was so invested in the fates of these characters that at times, I could barely catch my breath.

Despite the praise I’ve lavished upon the text, I won’t say that it’s perfect: the more modern timeline is ever so slightly less compelling than that of the 1518 Strasbourg timeline. But that’s almost not worth mentioning and resolves itself in time. How can you really care about that when you have a novel that takes one of the most fascinating phenomena in history—the dancing plague—and weaves it into a gut wrenching fairy story of love and passion? Short answer: you can’t. It’s beautiful. Buy it now.