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[23] The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
Mystery Thriller, Monday Night Book Club selection

Synopsis: Avery Greer is a yearlong resident of Littleport, Maine, a summer vacation hot spot. Her parents passed away when she was fourteen, and her grandmother died a few years later, so she has no family left. After high school, she bonds with Sadie Loman, who visits each summer with her wealthy parents and brother. Avery eventually moves in to the Loman guest home and begins working for them in her mid 20s, managing their Littleport vacation homes. When Sadie dies and the police rule it a suicide, Avery is shocked. A year later, more and more signs make Avery question whether it was a suicide, and she begins to investigate on her own.

Review: I didn’t like this book; thriller is generally NOT my genre. The dual timeline went back and forth with several chapters from current day (summer 2018) to one chapter at a time from the party the night Sadie died (summer 2017), and it was too slow of a build with what happened at the party (and with Avery’s history, in general, told during her 2018 musings). I didn’t care for Avery. She was too introspective and bitter (understandably, but still) about all the horrible cards she’d been dealt in life. The ending was satisfying enough, but some of it came out of nowhere (which is weird, since Avery was so damn introspective), and I’m still not clear on what happened at the party. Just, MEH. I only finished this because it’s for the book club I just started. I wanted to quit it immediately. I did enjoy the yearlong resident vs summer resident / poor vs rich / low class vs high class parts of the book. So there’s something.

[24] The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker
Science fiction, Amazon First Reads October 2019 pick

Synopsis: Inspector General Park Yerim joins the Earth to Mars Aldrin vessel in 2083 to investigate a mutiny claim against Captain Nicolau Aames. As the Aldrin travels toward Mars, she interviews crew, who all back the captain up, despite his abrasive and unlikable personality. Yerim has increasing pressure from leadership to close the case (and in a certain way), but as she gets a bigger picture of Aames’s career throughout the interviews, the case is not as black and white as it seems.

Review: Because this book is hard science fiction, some of the reading was challenging for me, but the story was compelling and well-told, so it was worth it. Interestingly, you don’t find out what Captain Aames is accused of until near the end, in chapter 12 of 16. For most of the book, you just know Inspector General Yerim is there to collect facts on his case and make a recommendation. The chapters alternate between a present-day (2083) Yerim-focused chapter, and interview chapters where crew members share their past experiences with Aames. Aames’s story (his training, his command on the ship, a mission to Mars, an investigation he did, his love life, etc) is told out of order, but it’s interesting and mysterious that way. I didn’t feel annoyed not knowing what he was accused of into so late in the book because I liked reading his stories. And I wasn’t annoyed with the large amount of characters (it’s fun to find out how they all relate to each other), or the story going back and forth with who was telling it. I was impressed with how well developed and different from one another Shoemaker’s characters were, considering there were a lot of them (several reviewers on Goodreads do not agree with this). All that being said, this wasn’t a favorite read of mine, so it’s not one I’d recommend, but I did enjoy it (I was just annoyed that I read it so slow).

[25] Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
Horror/Fantasy, selected because it’s on my 2020 To Do list and we had originally selected it for work book club

Synopsis: Women all over the world are not waking up after they fall asleep – instead, they become covered in a cocoon, and seem to be in a dream state. If you remove or cut the cocoon to wake them, they become viciously violent, then go back to sleep and the cocoon rematerializes. One woman, Evie, is immune to it all. She murders two men in Dooling, W. Va. in the beginning of the book and is taken to the women’s penitentiary, bringing the epicenter of what the media is calling the “Aurora Flu” with her. As more and more women fall asleep, things in Dooling go haywire, and the town men are determined to get to Evie and find out why she’s immune.

Review: This was my first Stephen King book, so I had no expectations, other than it would be long (702 pages). I liked it right away, and was surprised there were little bits of humor and pop culture in it! Several reviewers on goodreads complained that the story moved too slow, that there were too many characters (over 70 – there’s a list of them at the beginning), and that it was too similar to other ideas King has written about, but I didn’t have any of those issues. I enjoyed the story (er, and was very creeped out at times), thought the writing was fantastic, and had no problem keeping the characters straight. The book could be shorter and not have so much backstory on everyone. Even though I liked it, I was frustrated it took me a whole week to read!