Category: Book Reviews

COMING SOON. MONTHLY BOOK REVIEW OF ONE BOOK READ DURING THE MONTH.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: Drinking From a Bitter Cup by Angela Jackson-Brown

DH Hanni

Drinking From a Bitter Cup by Angela Jackson-Brown is the author’s debut novel that came out in 2014. Set in the late ’70s/early ’80s in Louisville, KY before switching to rural Alabama, the story is about Sylvia Butler. The story begins when she is 10 years old and living in Louisville with her mentally ill and alcoholic mother. They are poor and Sylvia has no friends except her mother, a neighbor, Miss Cora, and her mother’s sometimes-boyfriend Uncle Ray. Her life is incredibly rough yet it isn’t lacking in love and Sylvia thrives academically.

Unfortunately Sylvia’s life is about to become more difficult as her mother’s mental illness is accelerated by an unexpected death. Shortly thereafter her mother gives up completely and kills herself by overdosing on sleeping pills. A few days after her mother dies Sylvia is introduced to her father whom she only has seen through a picture her mother kept tucked away. Her father had no idea Sylvia existed until contacted by Miss Cora per the instructions Sylvia’s mother left behind.

The day after the funeral Sylvia is whisked away to Alabama and is immediately resented by her father’s wife. Mother Viv, as she makes Sylvia refer to her, is so angry with her father for cheating on her that instead of hashing it out with her husband, she takes it out on Sylvia. Her father does his best to get to know and love Sylvia and for the first time in her life, she has an extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins, in addition to financial stability. With the exception of Mother Viv, her life improves drastically. But this brief period doesn’t last as tragedy once again strikes Sylvia with even more horrible consequences.

In addition to the prose, the strength of Drinking From a Bitter Cup is Sylvia. She is a smart, brave, and compassionate person. One of those people that you don’t want anything bad to happen to because they don’t deserve it. And yet the bad keeps getting piled onto Sylvia. She doesn’t need any more tests in life because by the time the book ends, she’s already gone through a lifetime of them. From the start you immediately root for her and just want to hug her and keep her close. It’s also clear she is a realist and has learned early on to rely mostly on herself. It doesn’t help that many of the adults around her hurt her in some way.

Ms. Jackson-Brown does a solid job developing all the characters including the two main villains of Mother Viv and Uncle Charles. While they are horrible people, one more so than the other, they aren’t not written as one-dimensional. It’s hard to empathize with them and they are the kind of people you’d like to scream at for being cruel to a child.

I also liked how the author brings ups such complicated issues such as untreated mental illness, poverty, death, religious belief, and various forms of abuse. Because of its setting both in time and place, those issues are a reminder to the reader that society still struggles with how to handle those issues. In some areas we’ve gotten better and more understanding, but in others we’re still failing.

One thing I thought was interesting was Ms. Jackson-Brown’s usage of symbolism. The big symbol in the book is The Wizard of Oz movie. Sylvia and her mother both loved it and the themes in the movie help support what happens in the book. From the idea of what is home to what is family to reality vs. fantasy are all touched upon. For example, one of Sylvia’s favorite memories of her mother is how they would dress up as characters from the movie and act scenes out at home. Yet those happy times of living in a fantasy world are contrasted with harsh realities of Sylvia’s mother’s depression.

Another symbol, one that is more explicitly discussed between characters, is her mother’s bed. Her mother tells her it’s where she was conceived and it’s also where her mother died. Once Sylvia inherits it becomes the scene of a lot of horrible, ugly tragedy. Yet somehow it is looked upon as a place where Sylvia will also conceive her own children and comfort them at night. I wasn’t completely onboard with that connection because it does stand for the extreme dichotomies in Sylvia’s life.

While I enjoyed the book, the one thing I didn’t care for was the ending. It’s rushed and although at least one of the villains gets it in the end, for once I’m not completely okay with a book ending on ambiguity. Normally I like open endings since I enjoy speculating and life rarely has clean, definitive endings. In Drinking From a Bitter Cup it is definitely left up to the reader to decide if Sylvia’s rosy outlook, almost bordering on delusional, on life is justified. I’m of the opinion it isn’t and I can see the cycle being repeated. I guess that’s why I have a problem with it. It saddens me to think of this very special person being stuck when she has kind of personality to break it. The ending also disappoints me because the author uses a plot device I cannot stand and think is cheap and overused. I can’t state what it is since that gives away part of the ending.

Drinking From a Bitter Cup is one of those books that is incredibly difficult to read because it pulls out of the reader all kinds of emotions. Overall I give it 4 pencils out of 5. It’s very gut-wrenching and one to be read with a box of Kleenex nearby.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: Data Bank by Tonya Sharp Hyche

DH Hanni

Data Bank by Tonya Sharp Hyche is a modern day crime thriller set in Forest, TX. A suburb of Dallas this seemingly quiet and crime-free oasis comprises of upper middle class, white collar families. All of that is quickly shattered when a mysterious woman and man kidnap a doctor and her daughter. They force the doctor to perform covert, emergency surgery on a little boy. This sets off a string of events and more crimes culminating in several deaths. From the beginning it’s made clear to the reader, but not the cops investigating, this is connected to something called Data Bank. Data Bank is a software program of data compiled by various residents and service providers in the area. In exchange for the information, these people get money deposited into an off-shore bank account. The common denominator of the data gatherers being they are all gambling addicts. However, this is not what the book is about. Rather it focuses on Willow Bradley who manages to gain access to Data Bank in order to find a doctor to perform the emergency surgery on her son.

On the surface this sounded like a great idea. I picked it up because it was different from what I normally associate with crime thrillers. Instead of being about Data Bank, its reluctant creator, users, data gathers, and the morality of it, Hyche instead chooses to focus on Willow Bradley, Dr. Keri Daniels, and Detective Hudson Bray.

Unfortunately none of these main characters or any of the supporting ones is interesting. Most act and talk wooden and felt more like mannequins positioned to act rather than anything resembling a real person the reader could connect with. The main characters are one dimensional and change very little. Somehow it’s easy for people to shake off traumatic events to find time to date each other. By the end of the story all involved are vacationing on some tropical island. As a reader I got the impression Hyche wanted me to feel for them simply based upon on past history rather than on who these people are currently.

It was particularly difficult for me to care about Willow Bradley, the person who sets off this series of events. A former stripper who worked her way toward a degree in architecture, she is trying to leave her abusive marriage with her young son. Somehow two of her husband’s henchmen find her and accidently shoot the child, rather than Willow. Instead of going to a hospital like any sane person would, she instead hacks into a former lover/wannabe lover’s (their exact relationship history was never clarified) email account and accesses Data Bank for the name of a doctor. Another former lover gets the email and somehow manages to arrange for the medical care to take place in a conveniently unoccupied home he knows about. Together they fly kidnap the doctor and fly her to where Willow’s son needs help. After the doctor does her job, the story doesn’t end there as Willow’s actions and missteps continue to impact Dr. Daniels’ life and others in Forest and beyond.

There are a lot of problems with Willow’s plan and the more I think about the timing of the initial events, the more the overall plot of Data Bank begins to weaken. First, Willow and her son, Noah, live in New Orleans. He is shot there yet is transported via private jet (Willow’s husband is loaded) to Miami. They kidnap Dr. Keri Daniels and her teenage daughter from their home in Forest, TX to fly them to Miami. I’m surprised Noah didn’t die on the plane let alone the several hours it had to take to arrange the safe house in Miami and for Willow’s accomplice to get his hands on all kinds of medical equipment. And that’s before the hours spent with Noah waiting for a doctor to show up.

The subplots in Data Bank are all very conveniently constructed to quickly lead Detective Hudson Bray back to Dr. Daniels’ kidnapping and thus to start looking at the people involved with Data Bank. There are other subplots that revolve around Willow and her seemingly inability to figure out which former boyfriend would be a better fit for her than her husband.

Another issue I had with Data Bank has less to do with the story itself rather it speaks to style preference. Personally, I found the prose to be stilted and Hyche uses too much space to catalogue mundane actions such as walking across a room, getting a plate out for food, or something else that doesn’t serve the character or the plot. If this had been done for one character, especially one that is very detail oriented or has OCD or something similar, it would make sense as a way of showing the reader how the person interacts with the world. But this is not the case. It’s just paragraph after paragraph, page after page of filler. The effect causes the story to drag and doesn’t allow the reader any sort of character development.

I found the dialogue to be generic and often unrealistic with everyone speaking in the same nice way. Even the supposed bad guys are relatively benevolent. I get this is set in the American South with a cast that is mostly Southern, but my goodness, no one is as polite and nice as these people. With so little variety it’s hard to distinguish one character from another. Perhaps that is why the reader is constantly reminded of who people are by being told the character’s full name each time he or she appears for the first time in a chapter. Also, internal dialogue was way overused and was applied to most of the characters.

The way people acted and reacted also felt unrealistic. Again, if one or two characters acted odd then I could overlook it as being part of their makeup. However, when everyone either overreacts or underreacts, it becomes noticeable. For example, one very minor character, who is one of Data Bank’s info gatherers, is exposed near the very end as having been involved with a bungled robbery attempt at her ex-husband’s house. When confronted by the police at her place of work, a bakery, she stabs herself in the heart with a knife rather than be arrested and face jail time. Doesn’t matter she’s now left her child motherless.

Overall, there wasn’t much I enjoyed about this book. The one-dimensional characters, plot, and abrupt, unearned ending disappointed me. On a scale of one to five pencils, I give Data Bank one and a quarter pencils.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: Iron & Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin

DH Hanni

Iron & Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin is the first book in a new series featuring Jake Desmet and Rick Brand as treasure hunters. A Steampunk novel with a paranormal twist, it’s set in Pittsburgh in 1898. Accompanying Jake and Rick on their adventures is Jake’s cousin Veronique LeClerque. Jake, Rick, and Veronique are on their way back to Pittsburgh when they receive word Jake’s father has been murdered. The kicker is an item they recently acquired for a client may be in part responsible for his death. Back in Pittsburgh, the three of them work together to determine who killed Jake’s father and why.

What makes Iron & Blood really neat is how seamlessly both authors weave in elements of the supernatural into the world. The sub-genre of Steampunk is hard enough to pull off without getting overwhelmed by gadgets and fantastical inventions. Adding in another fantastical element, such as the paranormal, makes the challenge greater. But they make it work and incorporate it into the plot of the story in a way that makes it feel natural and normal.

Another thing I liked about Iron & Blood is the setting. In fact, I think it might be one of my favorite parts of the book. As I mentioned above, the story takes place in Pittsburgh during the time period it really was The Steel City and the Martins use that to their advantage. Many of the Steampunk novels I’ve read all center around either New York City or London so it’s refreshing to see a novel set outside of those two well-trod areas. By using Pittsburgh as the background, the reader gets to see the Victorian world through the eyes of those running the steel industry and the unfortunate workers who truly made it what it was. A welcome change from oil and railroad tycoons. Combining it with the paranormal and Iron & Blood really comes to life.

If anything, the book is more paranormal/supernatural then Steampunk. The latter element being a relatively small portion of the world at the beginning and end. By and large, we are firmly entrenched on the gritty, grimy ground of Pittsburgh. This contrast makes the scenes when the reader enters the Steampunk world really stand out. I must admit I actually preferred to be on the ground in this story then up in the sky. Perhaps because it came across as more comfortably written then the airships and sky battles.

In addition to the setting, I enjoyed the plot as it often felt more like a mystery novel. It’s not just about who killed Jake’s father. More importantly it’s about why and the domino affect having him out of the picture causes and also what could happen if the murders are discovered. We, the reader, are let in that a much larger and dastardly plan is in place due to major supernatural forces are at work. Another mystery aspect is the death of workers at a mine, all of whom have been killed under mysterious circumstances. At first the detective assigned to investigating them doesn’t realize these workers deaths are connected to Jake’s father’s death.

While I enjoyed the setting and plot, one of my biggest letdowns were the characters. As I’ve noted many times on this blog, I am character-driven as both a reader and a writer. Give me an interesting character or group of characters in an interesting world and I will read it. It’s not that the characters in Iron & Blood aren’t interesting, many of the minor characters are, it’s the main characters that I feel quite didn’t do it for me. Jake and Rick feel very typical to me. Nice guys and all, which I greatly appreciate, but they lack a certain spark to make me truly interested and invested in. This is contrast with Veronique, who while she has spark, feels like she’s a cardboard cutout of the now typical plucky heroine.

 The characters who stood out to me were the detective who not only sees ghosts, but also can actually talk to them. He even lives with one who stays primarily in the room he rents and guides him along when he’s stuck. He was a fascinating character and I found myself often wishing he was the primary character. I also enjoyed Jake’s mother, probably because I like it when an older female character in Victorian times doesn’t act like the stereotype of stuffy, uptight, and ignorant of anything their husband was involved with. I even liked the villains because they felt more developed and the uneasy partnership between the two villains felt more natural.

Overall, I’d give Iron & Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin three pencils out of five. I enjoyed and am interested in the next book to see if the three main characters are given more dimensions to match the world they reside in.