The Fourth Monkey

 

The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker  404 pages

For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.

As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.

With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer’s identity remains a mystery. Time is running out and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written fast-paced thriller.

This book kept me guessing. I enjoyed the diary entries the most. It was almost like three stories in one. I recommend it. 

Red Rising Trilogy - Pierce Brown

Red Rising Trilogy - Pierce Brown - 1390 pages

The tl:dr version of my review is this: don't waste time putting your pants on, run out RIGHT NOW and grab this whole trilogy. Don't bother with socks either, because they're about to be BLOWN OFF into the inky blackness of emotionally unforgiving space.

I am a commitment-phobe when it comes to series reads, because I've been burned before (I'm looking at you, Laurel K.). But I passed by this one on the shelf several times and finally picked up Red Rising despite what I thought was my better judgement.  This series proceeded to surprise, engage, and utterly emotionally destroy me, and isn't that what we're all looking for in a great book, after all?

The upshot of the story is that Darrow, a young dude who lives and works in the dangerous mines of Mars, witnesses his equally young wife commit a relatively innocuous act of treason by speaking out in her way about the injustice of the caste system their society has imposed. She's hung for it, and in their Red tradition, Darrow is forced to participate by pulling her feet to snap her neck.  It's an eloquent metaphor for everything Darrow does over the course of the trilogy, from subjecting himself to extensive surgeries that make him one of the pinnacle elite Golds, to molding himself into an instrument of violence and war.  He is forced over and over again to make the choice between preserving his personal humanity and offering it up as a sacrifice for what he believes is the greater good.

But this guy is not a messiah of Red or Gold. (Okay, well...there was this one time...two times? Whoops. Maybe there is room to draw a parallel there.) He's desperately, basely human in so many ways, from the love he shares with his new bloodthirsty family to the strategic mistakes he makes in both over- and underestimating the people around him. And that's really what's at the heart of these stories: humanizing the big picture, and a mix of grand scale loss with the intimate losses that win or lose the war.  It could not be more personal than witnessing and participating in a revolution with Darrow the Reaper as he builds family and loses family for his cause. That cobbled-together family crosses all the castes, and each member of it humanizes another strata in this dystopian society where your Color defines who you are.

Real talk: I can't say I wasn't kind of frustrated by the message here; Darrow struggles internally with the difference of change through peaceful measures and through violent ones, and I really wanted him to find a peaceful out even if that meant a dreadfully boring third book. That does not happen, and these books are a bloodbath. By the third book, I was seriously concerned that none of the characters were going to make it to the last pages...and not very many did. But Brown is a master of twisting the knife by orchestrating emotional and symbolic deaths for almost every character. He also has a great handle on the negative space of novel crafting; you are literally in Darrow's head for every twist, every strategic happening, and Brown still manages to surprise and mislead in a way that makes this story an adventure on every page. It's a trilogy that demands that you appreciate the orchestrated violence and also appreciate the depth of the philosophical questions the premise raises about our own society. Borrowing a gaming term, it's a tank of a thinker.

In terms of relatively contemporary works, this trilogy combines elements of several mythologies, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Tolkien's works, and the first book in particular could generally be described as The Hunger Games on some kind of hypothetical literary steroid that makes book muscles and brains explode by interplanetary proportions. It's thoughtful, extraordinarily and creatively violent, and it's unsettlingly timely to the social struggles we're facing right now. It is a trilogy well worth the emotional scarring you will suffer reading it. Get some kleenex, prepare to cringe through the next 1300+ pages, and resign yourself to staying up until 4am to finish "just one more chapter." It is an amazing ride.

Black Butler (Manga) by Yana Toboso

Black Butler (Manga) by Yana Toboso, 704 pages
v. 5 - 176 pages  - Introduces Prince Soma and his butler Agni. Earl Ciel Phantomhive has Sebastian enter a curry contest to win the Royal Warrant and foil the plan of an ambitious business owner who will stop at nothing to get what he desires... including blackmailing the prince's own butler.
v. 6 -176 pages - Children are disappearing without a trace. The trail seems to follow the circuit of Noah's Ark Traveling Circus. What better way to infiltrate than to become a part of the circus act?
v. 7 -176 pages - Having successfully infiltrated the circus, Ciel and Sebastian must now discover what sinister plots lurk under the big top. Most especially why there is a letter written with Ciel's name and birth date on it.
v. 8 -176 pages - Uncovering the secrets held inside an estate, Ciel faces a living nightmare from his past. While Ciel and Sebastian are battling away from the Phantomhive manor, the servants of Phantomhive will have to protect Ciel's home from invasion. As the chapter closes on Noah's Ark, yet another case awaits for the Queen's Watchdog.

Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak

Newtown:  An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak, 264 pages

I am not sure words can express how this book touched me.  This is the first detailed account written on the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School. December 14, 2012 changed the world forever.  I remember how I felt the moment I heard about this shooting on the news.  It was one of disbelief.  I felt the reports must have the numbers wrong.  How could one individual murder 20 students and 6 educators in only 2 classrooms.  The first accounts identified Ryan Lanza as the shooter and Nancy Lanza as a teacher at the school.  That made a little more sense.  The shooter had probably gone to the school to kill his mother who had possibly been one of the teachers at the school.  My immediate thoughts were who could possibly shoot 20 innocent 6 year olds?  Who is so cruel and heartless?

Details began to come in.  That day we found out it was Adam Lanza who committed the crime, but not before first shooting his mother, Nancy, in the head at their home.  What Matthew Lysiak writes is taken from numerous accounts of that tragic day.  This book is extremely well written, one of the best I have read in years.  It is shocking and chilling.  It is written with extreme sensitivity to the lives of the children that were lost that day and to the families who lost loved ones.  Words cannot describe how I was moved by the details of that tragic day.  He details every step Adam Lanza made that day.  The author pieces everything together for the reader from Adam's childhood until the very end of his life.

Adam Lanza's upbringing was not typical.  He was a very troubled child stemming not from just being autistic but also from suffering from mental illness.  He was also very troubled by his parents divorce, which Nancy Lanza received a large amount of alimony, close to a quarter of a million dollars.  The book also details Adam's passion for the military, guns, and violent video games from a young age. His mother took him shooting from the age of four and encouraged his passion for shooting.  Nancy also purchased all his guns for him.  The book paints her as a devoted mother, but also a mother who was very troubled by her young son's behavior. I just could not help asking myself throughout the book if she new how troubled her son was why did she continue to keep buying him guns and leave him alone for days while she was away on spa vacations?

I for one was changed by this tragedy.  It affected every parent who sends their child to school believing they are safe.  Sandy Hook Elementary did everything right.  The school was secured and had a buzzer system, but that did not stop Adam Lanza from entering the school; he shot his way in. The school went on lock down, although some classrooms did not have locks, the teachers were trained on intruder alerts.  I also believe if it happened at Sandy Hook, it can happen anywhere. I also pray that an event so horrific as this never happens again.  One last note of irony, in the book it was written that first grade was probably one of Adam's more happier school years.

 

Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story by Shanna Hogan

Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story by Shanna Hogan, 342 pages

Picture Perfect is a very well written book that tells the story of how Jodi Arias murdered her Mormon lover, Travis Alexander in a very gruesome way.  The author, Shannon Hogan, writes in great detail how the relationship spiraled out of control.  She interviews Travis' closest friends and writes details from the very beginning of their relationship. She even gives us background on Jodi's and Travis' childhoods.  Travis Alexander was an up and coming executive for the Prepaid Legal Group, which is how he came to meet Jodi Arias.  This book describes in great detail how their relationship started innocent enough, but then turned sexual and at many times, perverted.  Jodi was extremely obsessed with Travis and could not let go of him even when she discovered he had been seeing other women.  The author describes in great detail the day of the murder and the day Travis' friends discovered his body.  I had not known that the body had been in the house five days before it was discovered, but what was even more shocking was that he had two roommates that were living with the dead body and did not realize it.  This book covers so much more than the trial and reveals shocking details of Jodi and Travis' twisted and toxic relationship.  This was the best true crime book I have read in a long time.  Also, included in the book are many graphic and disturbing photos.

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston, 166 pages

Sick and twisted this book reads like you are in the head of a person with schizophrenia. Valley lives with her mom, Da and brother Bo in the wilds - or so you get the impression. They are survivalists living in the modern USA-- Although at some points it feels apocalyptic. Da is definitely not all there and teaches his children to be violent people who fear/hate the government. When the mom passes away, he blames it on the government. Everything that goes wrong is the government's fault. Bo is an odd ball. You get the impression that he might not be all there mentally or at least lacks a moral compass entirely. Valley is treated poorly by those around her. She is physically, emotionally and sexually abused. The extreme sexual abuse gets pretty descriptive at a certain point in the book and she is forced to watch it play back on video by her abuser. Most readers will find child pornography and child molestation very disturbing and should avoid this book. We watch as Valley slowly drifts into the world where her life no longer matters and she becomes a suicide bomber by her own choice. The book is bleak, sad, horrible, and shows just how sick and twisted a mind can become when subjected to extremes. There are no happy endings, no answers ... just complete chaos and confusion until the end.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, 465 pages

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, 465 pages

Mikael Blomkvist has been convicted of libel against a pretty corrupt businessman.  So when Henrik Vanger calls and says that he can give Blomkvist proof of the man's corruption if he agrees to investigate an unsolved murder, of course Blomkvist agrees.  He starts investigating a family mystery from the 1960s, and with the help of Lisbeth Salander, hacker extraordinaire, he comes so close to the truth that his life is in jeopardy.

I really wanted to like this book, because Lisbeth Salander is an appealing character- a tech-savvy young woman who doesn't care about anyone or anything, but handles her own and takes care of business.  However, this book was really unpleasant with the amount of graphic violence and rape.  I want everything to turn out alright for Lisbeth Salander, but not enough to finish the series.

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, 352 pages

16 year old Kali is not your ordinary teenage girl ... every day. Every other day she's something entirely different. She isn't sure what possesses her to hunt out the things that go bump in the night, but she's been tracking/killing monsters since she hit puberty years before. She doesn't have friends and isn't close to anyone - her single-parent father included. That all changes one day when she meets a peculiar girl during school and saves the life of another student. What follows is a story that spans no more than four days but is so action packed you are sure it's months. The story moves fast enough to where you really don't form a connection to any of the characters, but is well told enough to keep you turning pages. The plot isn't exactly original but the premise is - totally vulnerable human one day, totally not the next.

Apocalyptic Moon by Eva Gordon

Apocalyptic Moon by Eva Gordon, 362 pages

 Dr. Dora Adler is celebrating her 27th birthday in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Every female member of her family has died on their 27th birthday and she is worried the curse will make her its next victim. When she is bitten by a zombie, Dora fears the curse has succeeded in ending her life. Surprisingly, she doesn't succumb to the virus and instead becomes a guinea pig for a test facility. While there she meets a gorgeous alpha werewolf to whom she is immediately attracted. Together they attempt escape from the facility and try to find Dora's step-brother and niece. In the meantime, there is a huge war brewing between religious fanatics, human-hating werewolf packs and zombies.
The author seemed to have a lot of agendas in her writing -- Everything from gay marriage/parenting, to religion and politics are interwoven in the story. This might offend some readers. Still, it's an interesting mix of romance, zombies, werewolves, shape-shifters and witches. (Although I could have done without the graphic descriptions of zombies eating people.) I liked that the main female character was strong and intelligent. The storyline is a bit disjointed, but  enjoyable.