My First Lovecraft

Review:

What I heard in my youth about the shunned house was merely that people died there in alarmingly great numbers. That, I was told, was why the original owners had moved out some twenty years after building the place. It was plainly unhealthy, perhaps because of the dampness and fungous growth in the cellar, the general sickish smell, the draughts of the hallways, or the quality of the well and pump water. These things were bad enough, and these were all that gained belief among the persons whom I knew. Only the notebooks of my antiquarian uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, revealed to me at length the darker, vaguer surmises which formed an undercurrent of folklore among old-time servants and humble folk; surmises which never travelled far, and which were largely forgotten when Providence grew to be a metropolis with a shifting modern population.
-from the story

This is the first time I read a book by Lovecraft. I love horror stories, but I will admit my tastes run more along the lines of Stephen King and not the classic writers. But, once again the Serial Reader app encouraged me to read a new type of book.

The story was good and mildly creepy. I think there was too much other information in there for it to be intensely scary. Maybe the line was different back in the day. It didn't take as much to scare people.

The scene in the basement was creepy, I will admit, but it was such a small part of the story. It was a quick read, only 4 issues compared with 23 for War of the Worlds.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1363554/my-first-lovecraft

The Recovery

Review:

Six months after the fall of The Program, ex-handler Michael Realm is struggling with his guilt. After all, he was instrumental in erasing the memories of several patients—including one he claimed to love. With a lifetime of regret stretched before him, Realm vows to set things right.
- from the Amazon description

The Recovery gives us Michael Realm's story. It is a short story sequel to the Program series. It follows Realm as he tries to make amends to the people he feels he has wronged.

Good story, adds nicely to the world of the Program.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1363539/the-recovery

In a world before The Program....

Quinlan McKee is a closer. Since the age of seven, Quinn has held the responsibility of providing closure to grieving families with a special skill -- she can "become" anyone.
- from the book jacket

I loved The Program and The Treatment. Suzanne Young writes books that you can't put down and adds in twists that you don't see coming. The Remedy is a prequel to The Program but is about completely different characters. It takes place before the epidemic that brought about the Program in the first place and has an interesting, but creepy premise.

There is a company that provides you with a "closer" to come live with you and pretend to be your deceased child. This process is supposed to provide families with closure - families that are having a hard time accepting their loss. It is considered therapy. Usually, the parent has something they need to say to the child or they need to apologize for something that is making them feel guilty and unable to move on with their lives.

Quinn is on her longest assignment ever and she is having difficulties keeping herself separate from the dead girl she is impersonating. Her father works for the company and he pushed her to do this job, but why? And what are the mysterious circumstances surrounding the girl's death that aren't in the file?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The plot twists at the end totally floored me.

Recommended to:
Fans of The Program series and young adult fans who like dystopian novels.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1363516/in-a-world-before-the-program

Serial Reader

Review:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
- Chapter 1, First sentence

So, I found this app called Serial Reader. It allows you to read classic books, one issue at a time. You schedule when you want to receive them. I receive one issue, every day at 8 am. This is supposed to make it easier for people to read the classics, I think. I actually really like it. War of the Worlds is the first book I read with the app. I wouldn't have read this book without it.

The book was kind of slow and unexciting, but I did want to see what happened. It was written in 1898, and I can appreciate the imagination of the author. But the book was slow moving and didn't have a lot of action. There was a bit of suspense, wondering what was going to happen and if people were going to die or survive. It just took so much time to find out the details.

Recommended to:
Adults who want to read the classics.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1361709/serial-reader

Ella Enchanted

Review:

That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not itend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift. when I cried inconsolably through my first hour of life, my tears were her inspiration. Shaking her head sympathetically at Mother, the fairy touched my nose. "My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient. Now stop crying, child."
I stopped.
- First sentence, Ella Enchanted

Ella has to obey. She can ignore a request, but an order, she has to obey. This made her into a rebel, or maybe increased her naturally rebellious behavior. Ella is constantly in danger, and she cannot tell anyone about the curse. She spends her time trying to find the fairy that cursed her and trying to figure out how to get her to remove the curse.

This is a variation on the Cinderella story we all know. I didn't realize how much before I started reading. When Ella goes to the ball, she goes in a pumpkin coach with magical coachmen that all revert to normal at midnight.

I read this book as part of my graduate school project on strong female protagonists. Ella is for sure a strong person. She does everything she can to postpone her obedience. She knows she has to do what people say, but she doesn't have to do it in the way they expect. She tries to find ways to delay it as long as she can, even though it pains her to do so.

Recommended to:
Readers in grades 3-5 who like fairy tale princess stories.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1361695/ella-enchanted