21. Dark Places

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

Back in 2009 I read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I liked it. I said I would read more of her writing. I am glad I finally did. Ms. Flynn's writing has made her one of my favorite female authors.

He stories are not happy. They have a very dark side to them. They are full of dysfunctional families and females with violent streaks. Her website says one reason she writes these novels is because:

"I think women like to read about murderous mothers and lost little girls because it’s our only mainstream outlet to even begin discussing female violence on a personal level. Female violence is a specific brand of ferocity. It’s invasive. A girlfight is all teeth and hair, spit and nails — a much more fearsome thing to watch than two dudes clobbering each other. And the mental violence is positively gory. Women entwine. Some of the most disturbing, sick relationships I’ve witnessed are between long-time friends, and especially mothers and daughters. Innuendo, backspin, false encouragement, punishing withdrawal, sexual jealousy, garden-variety jealousy — watching women go to work on each other is a horrific bit of pageantry that can stretch on for years."

This book is full of all that. The book bounces back and forth between present day investigation and past events that took place 24 years ago (1985). A family was devastated by the murder of a mother and two sisters by their teenage brother. A surviving sister testified against him. She was seven at the time. All these years later she is finding out that maybe what she said was not true and her brother was wrongfully convicted. Unraveling the events of that time and the repercussion it had on the lives of many people is an outstanding tale.

Sharp Objects was good. Dark Places was even better. I will read anything Flynn writes.

"I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ."

99. First Blood

First Blood - David Morrell

This book shocked me. It was nothing like the movie. Well, other than having a character named Rambo being the person of interest during a police manhunt in a small town.

Before I cover the book I will relate my memory of the movie. It was a long time ago, so I may have forgotten some. The thing is, there is no way I got it as wrong as I would have to for this book to be what that movie was.

In the movie I remember Rambo being a good guy who was hassled by some overzealous sheriffs deputies in a small town. They didn't like him passing through the town and arrested him. While in the jail they abused him. That is supposed to be where the "first blood" was drawn. Then he escapes and the cops chase him. I remember policemen dying, but never because Rambo killed them. It was always something stupid the cops did that caused their own deaths. Eventually Troutman shows up and brings Rambo in. Everything turns out just peachy, Rambo is a hero. The corrupt and overbearing cops get their just desserts. All is well in the world. I recall this movie being one of those action adventure films.

The book on the other hand was nothing like that. Rambo is just a psycho ex-green beret who can't leave the war behind who goes on a rampage killing so many policemen that the National Guard and state police conduct a massive manhunt. THIS Rambo is not a hero. He is nuts. He likes killing. He convinces himself he is self-righteous, but he even argues with himself about his being full of shit and lying to himself to convince himself he is correct.

What sets him off in the first place? He is a drifter. He is dirty and unshaven. He is approached by the Sheriff (Teasle) who is not mean, but is not going to allow Rambo to be in his town causing problems like other drifters had in the past. He gives Rambo a ride through town and drops him off at the far side to continue his journey. Fair enough I think. Rambo decides he "won't be pushed" any more and heads right back to town. Again, Teasle picks him up and makes it very clear that he should continue on his way. Teasle lets Rambo eat in the diner and then gives him a ride out of town again. Once more, Rambo walks right back into town defying the Sheriff. Needless to say that defiance gets him in trouble. Teasle confronts him with questions. Rambo will not give a name, has no ID, is a wise-ass in every way he can be. Teasel then arrests him.

When they get to the jail Rambo realizes he did not think it through. He sees the cell and it brings back memories of being a POW and the cages he was imprisoned within. Does he explain any of this to the sheriff? Does he give his name? No, he starts planning his escape. He is told to shower before donning his prison clothes. He is then told that per policy he must have his hair cut. Everyone arrested gets a haircut. Even to this point the police have done nothing wrong at all. The only person being a jerk is Rambo.

When they attempt to cut his hair he takes a knife and slashes a deputy across his midsection. The man's internal organs fall out on the floor. Another deputy is brutally assaulted and Rambo escapes. From there the hunt is on to catch a crazy man who is now a cop-killer.

A group of police go into the mountains after him. He picks them off one by one. Shooting some. Slashing throats. Killing 17 or 18 all together. Eventually he works his way past the search lines and back into town. He blows up gas stations. He burns the court house. He blows up the police station with dynamite. All the while justifying his actions within his own head.

The book is not about being sympathetic to the plight of an American war hero being unjustly persecuted by a demonized police force. The book is about the actions of a man returning from Vietnam with such deep changes to his psyche that he never really left the war. The lines of morality have been obscured within him. The war is all he knows.

The end is totally different. In this story Rambo is killed by Troutman and Teasle dies also.

The story is totally different and I loved it. This was much better than the movie. Read it. I just hope I didn't give too much away in this post. Sorry if I ruined it for you.

I wish they would make a movie more in line with the story as the author has written this book. It could be a great statement of the psychological effects of war on some soldiers.

97. Survivor

Survivor - J. F. Gonzalez

This psychological horror novel is extremely disturbing to read. It felt like i was driving by a horrible car accident that just occured, seeing dismembered bodies in the street, and finding it impossible to look away. The book really did feel like that.

The story is about a couple, Brad and Lisa, who are taking a vacation. That vacation is cut short and Lisa is kidnapped by a group of men who make snuff films.

These are some seriously twisted and demented deviates. The writing tied my stomach on knots. Gonzalez did a very good job with that.

What I found very interesting is that this was a horror novel, but it did not feel like any other horror novel I have read. It also felt like a crime or mystery novel. Yes, there are horrible beasties for the hero and heroine to fight, but it was much more than that.

This book took the reader into the minds of the abusers and the abused. That could be extremely revolting in a few cases. It explained motivations for the actions of characters and how events in their pasts had helped form the people they were presently.

I also found it interesting how the actions of the characters had repercussions. The biggest one being Lisa's decision to try and save her own life by baiting the bad guys with a homeless girl and her infant. The guys take the bait. Lisa escapes. The girl and the baby are horribly mutilated. That whole scene will haunt me for a few more nights. The interesting thing is how throughout the rest of the book that one decision changes the course of everyones lives, forever. It can not and will not ever be normal again. Especially for Lisa.

I also found the charachter of Tim/Caleb interesting. He is the guy who kidnapped Lisa. He has spent his entire life doing dispicable things within an underground extreme porn industry. Despite his serving Lisa up as the star of the next snuff film, he is doing it solely for money and harbors no ill will towards her. He is strange in that way. It really is just business and he is totally desensitized by it all...but that changes. Animal (Jeff) mutilates Mandy (Alicia's infant daughter) and Alicia (the girl Lisa set up) for a film, well, Tim is disgusted. Animal crossed a line and from that point on Tim is planning his disappearance and how he will take down the entire industry. He thinks it will only continue to spiral into more and more deviant practices including cannibalism. He is not wrong.

I found this to be a very well written book that was much better than I expected. I thought I was getting into a quick little horror book that would fit into the same old mold as so many other hack and slash type stories. I was wrong. This writer actually has some talent. His characters have multiple dimensions. The plot twists and turns and creates suspense. There is more going on than it seems on the surface, and yet, I found it impossible to predict where it was going.

I recommend it to horror fans, but only those that can put up with being absolutely disgusted by the worst in humanity. It can be hard to read due to some subject matter, but it is a good read.

55. Angel Rock

Angel Rock - Darren Williams

I read this book because I wanted to read something written by an Australian author and this one was on my shelf.

It was a good book whose strong point was probably the strength of the characters and the depictions of the surroundings. It was a bit like reading poetry as the author described people and places. I enjoyed that aspect of the story a lot.

The story itself took place in a small town in the Australian outback. Two young brothers get lost, one reappears days later. Shortly after a teen girl is found dead in Sydney, a suicide, and is from the same town, Angel Rock.

A Sydney policeman goes to Angel Rock to check on the suicide. A local policeman investigates the disappearance of the younger brother. They talk with lots of folks in the town and through these investigations a history is revealed.

The story meanders through the lives of many people in the town. What is revealed is that there are many folks who have had losses in their lives and they deal with these losses in different ways. The book spends a lot of time in the heads of a few people trying to deal with these hurts from their pasts.

I enjoyed reading the book despite the story being kind of depressing. Children die. Children are abused. Suicide. Depression. Sadness. Loss. I was impressed by the writing despite the dark subject matter.

54. Dirty White Boys

Dirty White Boys - Stephen Hunter

What can I say other than this book was a waste of my time? I will give you a few reasons.

1. This book had one of the most predictable plot line I have ever read. No surprises. I hate that.

2. The characters were not believable to me. They all had flaws that didn't seem to fit my image of who they were.

3. Odell, a cousin of the antagonist and fellow criminal, was retarded. He reminded me of Benjy from The Sound and the Fury. He could not speak or think for himself in almost every situation...yet he was in a maximum security federal prison in the general population. He was even the room mate with his cousin, his criminal accomplice. Right! A man this retarded would not be in that prison. It was ridiculous.

4. These types of books are supposed to get you hating the bad guys, loving the good guys despite their being the underdogs due to the situation, etc. This book never did it for me.
Yes, the bad guys were bad. I did not like them all that much. I also felt like they could have been a lot badder. This guy Lamar was supposed to be the baddest dude in the prison. He tried to act like it, but it fell short for me.
Then there were the good guys. The protagonist was a State Trooper named Bud. He had a wife and two sons and was an all around super guy that everyone loved. This is the dude that is supposed to get us rooting for him. He is also the guy who was having an affair with the wife of a rookie officer he had trained. That rookie happened to be assigned as his partner. Still knocking boots with his wife. That rookie then got killed by the bad guys and Bud had these recurring nightmares and visions about it forever...but still banged the guys wife as often as he could lie to his family and slip away or meet her in some far away town.
Sorry, but this is not the guy I see as a hero. He is just some sneaky piece of shit who happens to be lucky a LOT in this book.

5. The coincidences are ridiculous. Nobody can find Lamar and his gang for months. So, how does Bud Pewtie repeatedly stumble upon him and keep getting into gun fights? Bud and Lamar must have some kind of attraction or something that wills them to being in the same place at the same time. It was stupid.

6. The first line of the book set up the tone. I knew immediately I was in for some writing that was supposed to act tough but actually be crappy. The opening paragraph is as follows:

"Three men at McAlester State penitentiary had larger penises than Lamar Pye, but all were black and therefore, by Lamar's own figuring, hardly human at all. His was the largest penis ever seen on a white man in that prison or any of the others in which Lamar had spent so much of his adult life. It was a monster, a snake, a ropey, veiny thing that hardly looked at all like what it was but rather like some form of rubber tubing."

It went down hill from there.

42. Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

A young reporter, Camille Preaker, works at a small Chicago paper and is assigned to write about the nasty murders of two children in her home town. A small town in Missouri. There is a strange cluster of people living in this town. Throw in a few neurotic people and numerous psychiatric problems...and you get this book.

Camille is a reformed cutter. She cut words into her skin. The words formed scars in her flesh. The words heat up when events make her feel whatever way the word describes. She can "feel" the words. Oh, and she is an alcoholic. And a slut. And has a problem with authority. And has deep seeded feelings about her mother. And has big problems with her childhood "friends" in her home town of Wind Gap. In other words, Camille is a mess.

The murders of the two young girls are definitely not the ugliest part of this book. The Preaker family is far nastier. The dead sister, died almost 20 years prior, is probably the luckiest one. The 13 year old sister who still lives in Wind Gap is nuts. About as nuts as Camille, but at a far younger age.

I liked the book. It was a fascinating to read the thought process of the woman as she wrestles with her past, and recovery, and a trying to do her job. I found it interesting how she fell right back into old habits with her mother rather than just telling her to bite the big one. I also found it interesting that the little sister was able to exert control over the close to 30 year old Camille. Little Amma, by no means an innocent, was able to talk her adult sister into going for a ride with her friends in the drug dealers Camaro, heading to a party full of teens, taking Extasy during a disgusting version of "spin the bottle", and generally doing all kinds of stupid stuff. Was Camille acting like an adult? Heck no. She was so weak as a person she couldn't even tell a 13 year old no.

I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the plot. I enjoyed the relationships. I enjoyed the characters and all their problems. I did think the end, the solution to the crime, was rushed. Build, build, build and...wham...that was it. I don't want to say she should have drug it out, but it seemed like it was written to just tie up the loose ends and get the book to the publisher. The end did not flow like the rest of the book. other than that, it was pretty enjoyable. Well, as enjoyable as reading about peoples multiple psychological problems can be.

40. A Maiden's Grave

A Maiden's Grave - Jeffery Deaver

Three escaped convicts hijack a bus load of children and chaperones from a girl's school for the deaf. The are chased and end up barricading themselves in an old abandoned slaughterhouse outside a small town in Kansas. The standoff begins.

This book never let up. It was a constant pounding of gut wrenching emotionally charged suspense. There was never a moment when there was not something happening to someone somewhere that could get many people killed, raped, maimed, tortured, etc etc etc.

The characters within the slaughterhouse were outstanding. The uber-violent criminal with a psychologically sadictive streak, his partners, the beautiful young timid deaf teacher who is labeled a freak of nature, the defiant and strong-willed 17 year old deaf girl, the 8-10-12-and early teen girls with personalities of their own. I especially liked the two girls who were totally into the X-Men. :-)

So much happened in this book that I am still looking back and thinking about what and when and why. Some of it was a long stretch. Some of it was dead in line with reality. Either way, the story was a real pisser to read and made it hard to put down.

The compression of time may be one way this book kept up the suspense. The entire story, 400+ pages, takes place in an 18 hour span. There is a LOT that happens in that 18 hours.

The only thing I didn't like was one of the twists at the end. I thought it was really obvious that the twist would be where the story should go. It did not twist. They moved on...and then came back and twisted it just like I had though in the first place. So, the twist was predictable for me, but my timing was off. I would prefer to have been taken by total surprise. Maybe I just got lucky and figured that part out.

If you are looking for a book that would be a page burner this one is perfect.

Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes- Dec 08

I was supposed to read this book in junior high school. It was called "Charly" then. It think that was the name of a movie version of this book. Anyway, I never finsihed reading it. I have felt bad about that.

I decided a few months ago to go back and read many of the books I was supposed to read at one point or another. I did't read them all. I remember reading "Animal Farm", but the rest, well, I really doubt I put in much effort. I was busy playing baseball or exploring the sand pits.

So I read this one. It was awesome. Written as a journal by a retarded man who undergoes an operation which makes him extremely smart. All that intelligence is great, but it comes at a cost. What an excellent story.

At the end I feel really sad and almost relieved for the man at the same time.