This starts out as a stunningly impressive display of teenage emotion, bringing together three kids — Crisp, the biracial overachiever; Glynnie, the privileged white wild child, and JJ, the street kid doing whatever it takes to survive — on a night of reckless camaraderie that turns into a really bad time when adult criminals get …
Category: Doreen
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/26/last-night-the-searchers-2-by-karen-ellis/
Feb 22 2019
A Map of the Dark (The Searchers #1) by Karen Ellis
Insofar as flawed protagonists go, this was a surprisingly satisfying novel. At “only” 290 pages, it isn’t a dense novel, which works in its favor, honestly, as it keeps the plot moving. I can’t help but compare and prefer it to Tana French’s mystifyingly overrated Dublin Murder Squad series. Sure Ms French has moments of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/22/a-map-of-the-dark-the-searchers-1-by-karen-ellis/
Feb 21 2019
An Interview with Gareth L Powell, author of Fleet Of Knives
Q. Every series has its own story about how it came to be conceived and written as it did. How did the Embers Of War series evolve? A. The initial idea came when I was reading an article about the Titanic disaster, and idly started wondering what would happen if a star liner crashed in a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/21/an-interview-with-gareth-l-powell-author-of-fleet-of-knives/
Feb 19 2019
Fleet of Knives (Embers of War #2) by Gareth L. Powell
Oh, man, Book 3 cannot come fast enough! I readily admit that I don’t remember a whole lot from the first book, which was an intriguing novel of ideas that somehow lacked an ability to engage me emotionally. Fleet Of Knives certainly doesn’t suffer from that problem! We open with Captain Sal Konstanz on a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/19/fleet-of-knives-embers-of-war-2-by-gareth-l-powell/
Feb 14 2019
The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2) by Maureen Johnson
In book two of the Truly Devious series, Stevie’s return to Ellingham Academy comes at a price. Her benefactor, the abhorrent politician Edward King whom her parents idolize, wants her back at the school in order to keep an eye on his wayward son, noting that her relationship with his kid seems to calm the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/14/the-vanishing-stair-truly-devious-2-by-maureen-johnson/
Feb 12 2019
The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani
I think I would have appreciated this more if I were French. There were hints of subtext that I could only guess at, nuances of race and class and prejudice that are foreign even to my broad background in the mores of American, Southeast Asian and British Commonwealth cultures. So I’m not sure if the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/12/the-perfect-nanny-by-leila-slimani/
Feb 11 2019
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
Y’all, that was delightful. Ngl, I totally pictured Bradley Cooper and JLaw in the roles (and had to suffer the cognitive dissonance of her being way too young to play Tiffany) but that aside, I was incredibly moved by this surprisingly gentle tale of lost love, mental illness and sports fandom. Pat Peoples is not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/11/the-silver-linings-playbook-by-matthew-quick/
Jan 29 2019
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
The sordid tale of King Henry VIII and his six wives is probably the one most well-known to those with even only a passing interest in English history. As an Anglophile myself, I grew up reading Antonia Fraser’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII alongside other titles more obscure on the topic, and heartily enjoyed …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/01/29/the-dead-queens-club-by-hannah-capin/
Jan 28 2019
The Smoke by Simon Ings
I read a lot of novels and it is perishing rare for me to feel genuinely intimidated by the intellect of an author but here we are! Simon Ings’ terrifying intelligence is palpable throughout the pages of The Smoke, with my only quibble being why London is called such, as the text doesn’t seem to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/01/28/the-smoke-by-simon-ings/
Jan 26 2019
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
You know how sometimes you think you’ve read a literary classic but it’s only that (you think) you know the story from sheer media saturation? I thought I’d read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein decades ago, at the very least as an Illustrated Classic, but there were very many scenes completely unfamiliar to me, particularly where Adam …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/01/26/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire