Happy October! As I mentioned in my last BOTM post, I’ll be doing 2 books per month now, with one review post for both books each month (instead of the completely unmanageable 6 book reviews a quarter). This month I actually chose two new October books. Usually I choose one book from that month (which is part of my subscription), and then another older one, but I just couldn’t decide between these 2 and both got such great reviews!
The Lies We Told by Camilla Way
Now this is what a great psych thriller should be! The Lies We Told follows two alternating storylines. The present-day (2017) story follows the disappearance of Luke, the boyfriend of the main character, Clara. The top suspect is a mysterious stalker that has been after Luke for months. Clara and Luke’s friend, Mac, try to piece together who could have taken him, leading to some revelations surrounding Luke’s family and past. The second storyline takes place in the late 1980s and follows a mother and her young daughter, whom she fears is sociopathic, and a dark secret from her past that won’t stop haunting her. Of course the two storylines intercept at the end! This book had me hooked to the point where I couldn’t put it down (I legit was reading it on the treadmill) and ended up finishing it in just a few days. There’s just so much mystery to unravel and you’re constantly left wondering how everything connects together. I would say the mystery is interesting in that you kind of have an idea of who but you don’t know why until its slowly revealed. Just an all around great mystery!
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
I was missing a good sci-fi book in my life! This book was compared quite a lot to both Dark Matter and The Oracle Year, two of my favorites. Its written by Hank Green of YouTube fame. The narrator is a young woman named April who, along with her friends, goes viral for discovering and filming a mysterious robot-like statue that she names “Carl”. This statue appears in a number of other cities all around the globe at once – it can’t be moved and appears to defy all earthly logic. Intriguing! I very much enjoyed the actual story surrounding the robot aliens, especially when it picked up towards the middle. Although the ending was a bit open-ended, it was fairly satisfying. What I didn’t enjoy so much was the way this book seemed to be pushing its theme a little too heavily. It tries very hard, through the narration of April, to teach you things in sort of a very obvious and juvenile way. I was also not really into the whole side story involving April’s love life, but I wouldn’t say that took much away from the overall book. Despite a few flaws, I liked this one and I’d recommend it!