Show Us Your Books:: May Edition

I'm finally linking up with Steph for "Show Us Your Books"! The first book I actually read a few months ago, but I didn't get a chance to review it; the other two I read last month.

Dark Places- Gillian Flynn

From Goodreads:
"Libby Day was just seven years old when her evidence put her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars.

Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realize that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find."

My Thoughts: 
I already had a good idea of what to expect with Gillian Flynn, as this was the third book I read by the author. This was probably my least favorite, but it was still very well written and a solid thriller. I never thought Ben did it, but I was wrong in who i thought it might be, and I love being proven wrong. 

I took me a while to really get into this book. I just thought Libby was really whiny and self destructive, and she could have had a much better life if she actually tried living it at some point. I feel that she should have thought about different angles and other possible suspects before she's used up all of her money and the Kill Club enters and basically forces her to look at the massacre differently 24 years after the fact. Also, who walks into a weird isolated looking building with some stranger just for money?? She was lucky but it seemed really irrational, especially since she points out that she's quite petite and scrawny. 


Hyacinth Girls- Lauren Frankel

From Goodreads:
"Thirteen year old Callie is accused of bullying at school, but Rebecca knows the gentle girl she's raised must be innocent. After Callie is exonerated, she begins to receive threatening notes from the girl who accused her, and as these notes become desperate, Rebecca feels compelled to intervene. As she tries to save this unbalanced girl, Rebecca remembers her own intense betrayals and best-friendships as a teenager, when her failure to understand those closest to her led to tragedy. She'll do anything to make this story end differently. But Rebecca doesn’t understand what’s happening or who is truly a victim, and now Callie is in terrible danger.

This raw and beautiful story about the intensity of adolescent emotions and the complex identity of a teenage girl looks unflinchingly at how cruelty exists in all of us, and how our worst impulses can estrange us from ourselves - or even save us."

My Thoughts:
This book was not what I was expecting when I read the cover. I was thinking of a cliched YA bully story, and this was nothing like that. Callie comes across in the beginning of the book as a popular, blonde, clique-leader (think Regina George and the Plastics from Mean Girls).   Both of her parents died when she was young and Rebecca, her mother's best friend, steps in to take care of her. 

Rebecca has never had children of her own, she struggles to make ends meet, she doesn't have any love interests, and she basically comes across as a loner who is also suffering from the death of Callie's mom. She has known Callie from birth and tries to raise and understand Callie, but constantly comparing her to her mother puts  a strain on their relationship that Rachel doesn't see until it's almost too late. 

I admit that I didn't believe Callie was all innocent like Rebecca believed, but I didn't expect the outcome whatsoever. I liked that this story flipped back and forth in time between Rebecca and Joyce as teenagers, the original "Hyacinth Girls," and now. I really got enthralled when we got Callie's point of view halfway through the novel. It was unexpected and what (finally) captured my attention. I know that in Callie's part we are given a glimpse into how she is coming undone bit by bit, and the fact that she didn't want to be noticed anymore, but there was too much of her imagining that she was turning into a tree or grass to be believable. Also, once my questions as to how her parents died were answered, I became more invested in finding out the ending. 

What I found somewhat remarkable were the actual emails, texts, and Facebook messages. It made the story feel so much more real, because we use all of those things today, and I could easily see how this could have played out (and probably does) daily.  I really wish I got to see Robyn's side of the story, or more from her, particularly at the end, but overall I think this is an important read for anyone who works with, or has, children. 

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.



Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale- Pamela Ferderbar

From Goodreads:
'Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale' is an uplifting and hilarious fable about empowerment and perception, and the magical things that happen when we begin to see the glass as half full. 

Charlotte Nightingale has the worst luck in the world. Her cluttered apartment is the poster child for *shar chi* - poison luck in the realm of feng shui. Her boyfriend's a jerk, her job sucks, she s broke and her own family seems to hate her. Every day is a bad hair day. Kwan, a handsome Chinese food delivery man and aspiring feng shui practitioner, takes pity on Charlotte. While Charlotte searches for the money to pay for the Emperors cashew chicken Kwan has delivered, he surreptitiously begins to move things around in Charlotte s apartment in accordance with the ancient art of placement - hoping to improve her life. 

My Thoughts: 
I absolutely loved this book. It was light-hearted and funny. Charlotte is a hot mess. Her boyfriend is an unemployed jerk. She seems completely unrelated to her thoughtless and uppity family. Her job is a joke, as are her employers, who treat her like dirt. She lives in an overly cluttered (aka messy) one bedroom apartment that seldom even has proper running water, and the worse feng shui of all, she lives in dreaded #4. In walks Kwan, who takes it upon himself to "fix" her messy apartment when she's not looking. Her luck seems to go from bad to worse, but then turns around for the better.

I'm not sure if I liked this so much because I was already somewhat intrigued by feng shui, or because I found Charlotte and "Frank," Kwan and his friends to be easily relatable, even if they were a caricature of themselves. Though the whole bit with Dirk was a bit far-fetched, to say the least, it did add a touch more ridiculousness to Charlotte's life which seemed to fit right in. This was a quick, fun summer read.

*I received this book from Netgalley for this review.