Catch Up Reveiws #1

I am really trying hard not to get behind on book reviews this year, but of course I already am.  I really need to learn to review as soon as I am finished reading, or as I'm reading a book.  Oh when will I learn?

So here are some short reviews to catch up on my review pile:

Winter's Bone
by Daniel Woodrell

My Thoughts:  I listened to this on audio and it made for a great listen.  It was our February book club selection and there were some members who loved the book, like me, and others that didn't care for it.  I thought Ree was a wonderful character and that her struggles, though bleak, showed that people can accomplish great things if they have strength and determination.  Yeah, Ree could kick my ass, but so many teenage girls in books are weak or passive.  Ree is anything but passive.  With her father missing and her home on the line, she battles with her crazy backwoods family and still manages to take care of her loony mom and little brothers.  There is lots of drug use, and half her family manufactures meth and/or takes it, and this book may make you want to drink.  Heavily.  There aren't a lot of fluffy Lisa Frank rainbows and clouds, but I liked it.  A lot.
I liked it so much I bought the movie and plan on watching it soon.  It'll be cool see Jennifer Lawrence in a pre-Katniss role.  I'll let you know what I think about it after I've watched it.

Winter's Bone gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Fallout (Crank #3)
by Ellen Hopkins
 
My Thoughts: I won the ARC of Fallout many moons ago, but for some reason it sat on my tbr pile (remember the poem and drawing of Shel Silverstein's Sarah Cythina Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out? Well, replace the trash with books, and that's what my tbr pile looks like right now). Because I read this in the beginning of the year, I'm still working hard at chipping away at the tbr books, so I picked up Fallout and skipped off to work. 
No, really. I skipped. Bluebirds help me get dressed in the morning and deer open my car door while bunnies wipe the frost off my windows with their cottontails. Truth.
I get to read a lot at work, depending on the client (by which I mean elderly ladies I care for, and not johns I meet on the street corners), and the day I read Fallout was perfect for reading. Despite the book being over 600 pages, I flew through the pages (verse rocks!), and passed the 500 page mark before I even left work. And I did manage to do laundry, make lunch, do dishes and take out trash, so I wasn't reading the entire time, although I may have avoided telling my client what my book was about when she asked, or rather I just showed her how it was in verse form and skipped the whole meth angle. I try hard not to talk about meth with anyone over 70. 
Fallout is the last book in the Crank trilogy, and it's by far my favorite. The book is told from the point of view of 3 of Kristina's children- Hunter, Autumn and Summer. Each child is still struggling with the legacy of their mother's choices. Hunter has anger issues and despite having a great girlfriend, his head is turned by the fame he's attained through his radio job. Autumn is unaware of her origins and falling in love for the first time, but the truth arrives in the form of her recently released from prison dad- Trey. Summer is the youngest, and going from foster care to her dad's and back. She's also the closet to finding herself on the slippery road her mom forged before her. 
Autumn was my favorite character, because I can easily relate to her, while Summer made a lot of choices in the beginning that had me shaking my head. Hunter's chapters were also very interesting, and his character probably showed the most growth. And Kristina? Still the same old Kristina. Having dealt with addicts in my own life (and no, I'm not talking about my own addiction to lip balm), it's easy to feel for Kristina's family and be frustrated by her total lack of self-awareness.
The ending was good, although it's hard not to wonder what the future holds for Hunter, Autumn and Summer. Hopkins may have finished the series, but who knows what she'll publish ten years from now. I just know that I'll be there, eager to read whatever she comes out with.


Fallout gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Dirty Little Secrets
by C.J. Omololu

My Thoughts: This book was exactly what I was hoping it would be, and more. Lucy's struggle throughout the book was heartbreaking- I just wanted someone to come to her rescue. The ending, while good, left me wanting more. I really thought Lucy was realistic, the way she felt towards her mother, the way she dealt with what happened- which seems ridiculous to a normal person but in her case fit well with how she'd be brought up.  There's still so much shame and misunderstanding for those that hoard and those that live with them.  Lucy is always very careful to make sure she smells good because of the smell in her home, which although I didn't grow up in a hoarder's house I can relate to since I did grow up with parents who smoked heavily.  The first time someone pointed it out, I was devastated.  You don't smell it if you're around it all the time.  Like Lucy, my room became my refuge, and my heart broke for her, because I was lucky, I could wash my clothes before going to school, and shower the smell out of my hair.  Lucy has to go to so much trouble to hide her living situation from her friends, so often going to extreme measures to avoid the truth coming out.  If you have any interests in hoarding, or if your looking for a contemporary YA read, then you might want to give this book a read!

Dirty Little Secrets gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

 

The Third Victim
by Lisa Gardner

My Thoughts:  So I mistakenly thought this was the first book in the Quincy and Rainie series, but it's actually the second one.  But I started it so I just went ahead and finished it.  Trust me, it wasn't a hardship!  The book opens up with a school shooting in a small town.  Rainie takes lead on the case because the alleged shooter is the sheriff's son.  But all isn't as it seems, and FBI Agent Quincy lends a hand.  There's an attraction between Rainie and Quincy, but both characters are pretty dark and twisty and broken, so it's a slow build.  In the meantime, the reader knows that there's more to the shooting than meets the eye, but even with that information a lot of the ending is surprising.  I got several of these books off of Paperback Swap and all I want to do is sit and read this series, but of course there's so many other books clamoring for my attention.  Next up will be the actual first book in the series though! After I finish with the audio of Catch Me, which is the latest in Gardner's series fearturing D.D. Warren. 

The Third Victim gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

 

I noticed that a lot of books that I read are highly rated, but I think part of that is because I know what I like, and I tend to gravitate towards books I'm already pretty sure will be good reads. Life's too short to read books I don't like, but occasionally a bad apple will get in there.  This year has been pretty good so far though!  

I'll be busy the next few days with work, the Hub's birthday and the Book Blogger and Publisher Online Convention, but I'll try to post- especially if I learn cool things on BBPOC!