Stuff I Read in 2017
- Franklyn Thomas
- Feb 13, 2018
- 7 min read
Hey all!
Last year, like usual, I participated in the Goodreads Reading challenge. I dared myself to read 15 books, knowing full well I’d likely fall short. Even so, I got through 10, and that’s not so bad. 2017 showed me some really powerful novels, and for the first time in a couple of years, the best book I read wasn’t a sci-fi novel. So here’s the stuff I read in 2017, along with a snippet of the reviews I did.
The Accident by Chris Pavone: (From the review posted 2/12/2017) The Accident starts very slowly – the first act took six or seven attempts to get through – but it finishes strong as the action unfolds. Strangely, though, even though The Accident is the earlier work, the pacing, the action, and the storytelling seem a bit stronger here. Isabel Reed is a very likable protagonist; an everywoman dropped in WAY over her head. I respected her smarts as she used common sense to get past most of the obstacles put in her way. I was very impressed with The Accident, and I’m becoming a fan of Chris Pavone. I’m going to have to find The Expats and see what that was about. Rating: 4 stars.
How The Mistakes Were Made by Tyler McMahon: (From the review posted on 2/15/2017) Every year, it seems, I read a book that sucks me in and makes me take notice. It makes me power through it despite fatigue, work, other things to do, and it does so by sheer strength of will. It’s a story that needs to be read. Enter Tyler McMahon’s 2011 debut, How The Mistakes Were Made, a book I picked up because of a cool-looking cover. Mistakes is part rock mockumentary, part tortured confession, told in first-person by Laura, the band's drummer who is widely blamed for The Mistakes’ epic flame-out. It succeeds by not only showing Laura as a
reliable narrator able to look at even the most personal bits of this objectively, but interspersing and directly correlating the trajectory of her new band with her old one, though with The Mistakes, it’s played out on a much larger scale. The prose is tight, and the characterization is strong. I especially liked the way she came across people from her former bands, from her former life, on opposite trajectories from The Mistakes’ meteoric rise. To say I was pleasantly surprised is a horrific understatement: How The Mistakes Were Made is going to be hard to beat as the best book I’ve read this year. Rating: 5 stars
American Gods by Neil Gaiman: (From the review posted on 6/7/2017) Since 2001, I would pass by American Gods in the bookstore and think, “Oh, hey, that’s the guy that wrote Sandman, the comic book dude.” And then I’d keep moving. Fast forward to a month ago, when I saw the first episode of American Gods on Starz Network; I was blown away, so much so that I bought a copy of the book the very next day. What I found was a modern American fairy tale, a surreal romp through the heartland with fallen gods and their American replacements. I found a sparkling commentary on what people allow to have power over them. And I saw a skillfully woven tale of one man’s redemption. American Gods is a fantastic read that’s a terrific way to kick off the summer reading season. My only regret is that I walked past it for 16 years. Highly recommended. Four stars.
Dogs of War by Jonathan Maberry: (From the review posted 9/5/2017) If you’re a fan of this series, all of its hallmarks are on display: gruff, badass hero; cutting edge science; the world on the brink; and a mustache-twirling super villain. With all the overt and passing reference to previous entries in the series, this book is almost entirely fan service and is one of the better entries in the series. However, if you haven’t read any of the previous books, this isn’t as easy to follow. If the names Sebastian Gault, Hugo Vox, Mother Night, or Seif al Din mean nothing to you, the first third of this novel makes very little sense as Maberry doesn’t slow down to explain. Despite that, Dogs of War is a fun read that speeds by quickly. Rating: 3 of 5 stars. Read if you’re a fan.
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman: (From the review posted 9/5/2017): My second Neil Gaiman book this summer, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a much shorter, more concentrated burst of the surreal storytelling found in American Gods. A fantastical story of repressed memory and the magic of childhood, Ocean clocks in at a sparse 178 pages, but everything in those pages is dense, filling, and dripping with beauty. Pros: Slim novel, engaging read, wonderful story. Cons: Very short, ambiguous ending. Rating: 4 stars.
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead (From the review posted 12/13/2017): The Underground Railroad is one of those books that’s profoundly affecting. I finished it just before Thanksgiving, and I still struggle with my feelings toward it. Slave narratives in general—this one especially—tend to be blunt, graphic, and matter-of-fact about humanity’s capacity for cruelty to one another, particularly along racial lines. Moreover, the lasting effect of that cruelty leads to the kind of post-traumatic stress that gets passed down through generations. The Underground Railroad pulls no punches in its handling of this, doing so in a manner that shows an astute and open-minded reader one of the lasting struggles African-Americans deal with to this day, living in the remnants of a society built on the subjugation and exploitation of an entire people. This novel is powerful, lingering, and surprisingly—sadly—relevant. Must read. 4 out of 5 stars.
Artemis by Andy Weir (From the review posted 12/20/2017): Let’s start with the things Artemis is not: This is not The Martian. This is not the sequel to The Martian. It’s got its similarities—solid premise, realistic and plausible science, and a protagonist whose smarts and humor keep them one step ahead of certain death—but that’s about it. There’s one other thing Artemis is not; it’s not a bad book. Artemis proves that Andy Weir is not a fluke, and will likely be counted among the greats in sci-fi. And like the best of the genre, it doesn’t take a huge leap of plausibility to see that. 4 out of 5 stars
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero (From the review posted 12/20/2017): This was a blast to read; well-paced, great action, and just plain fun. Cantero balances funny and freaky in a deeply engrossing tale about friendship, PTSD, and the things we repress as children. It was similar in theme to Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane but less morose and wistful. Cantero’s pop-culture references are perfectly dated, and the whole thing feels like a thoroughly twisted Saturday morning cartoon, complete with laugh-out-loud moments peppered throughout. At just over 310 pages, it’s a perfect weekend read. Of course, like the show that inspired this book, there are certain leaps in logic you have to make to have the plot make sense in its third act, and there’s a small but noticeable deus ex machina toward the end. This story is so well told, however, these things can be easily overlooked. A fun weekend read. 4 out of 5 stars.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (From the review posted 12/20/2017): Telling the story as a series of short poems was a stroke of genius. It lent a very animated feel to the tale; the action—and inaction—on the page flowed effortlessly and the sparseness of the words made every one of them of life-or-death importance. The story itself read like a ghetto version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with Will as Scrooge and the six people that get on the elevator acting as a Ghost of Gun Violence, Past, Present, and Yet To Come. It takes place over the course of maybe five minutes, but in that time, we see Will change from someone resolute in his decision to do what needed to be done, to someone who sees the cyclical trap he would step into and becomes increasingly unsure about it. Long Way Down is a quick read that is shocking in its depth. It burrows into your mind and takes root there, leaving you to ponder its message for several weeks. 5 of 5 stars.
The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey (From the review posted 12/31/2017): Richard Kadrey infuses his characters and world with a sparkling wit, and I found myself laughing in public at certain scenes (such as a gang of vampire tweens robbing the hapless member of a doomsday cult). The world’s setup was reminiscent of an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, with vampires, ghosts, and zombies all integrated into various spots of society. I found the whole thing to be great fun. However, I did have issue with the pacing. All the action scenes—the heists, the standoffs, etc.—were enjoyable to read and sped by. The downtime, however, was very down, and slowed the books pace by an order of magnitude. Fortunately, the joy of the heist scenes outweighed the dull nature of the other scenes, and that’s a credit to how well Mr. Kadrey knows his characters. I also found the ending to be a bit anticlimactic, but it did put a neat little bow on the story. The comparison to Christopher Moore is fair, but uneven pacing makes this story, albeit fun, fizzle at the end. 3 of 5 stars.
Bonus Review: A String of Pearls by Thom Carnell: I was asked to read Thom Carnell’s second short story anthology, A String of Pearls and provide a review in return for an advance copy.
In this follow-up to his brilliant collection Midnight Serenades, Carnell has assembled a strong roster of short tales ranging from the heartbreaking (Life, Death And The Girl in the Cloth-Covered Box) to the terrifying (Sword of St. Michael), all revolving around Song of the Dragon, a highly entertaining novella centering around a young boy’s journey through an enchanted land. While the stories themselves are great for the most part (and anything involving Cleese, the hero of his debut novel No Flesh Shall Be Spared is welcome and coveted), I found there was no defining theme this time around. In his previous collection, Carnell was very open about the fact that the stories included in that collection were a coping mechanism for grief, and brought us along for that ride. In Pearls, it seems he has unburdened himself from that grief—and good for him—but the stories seem to be more free-flowing as opposed to thematically locked into place. Then again, maybe that’s the point. Several of these stories read like pilots for later novels, novellas, or short story anthologies, and there are some of them I’d personally love to see again (I’m looking at you, Sword of St. Michael).
A String of Pearls may not be the tour through one man’s grief that Midnight Serenades was, but it’s an amazing collection of shorts by a writer people should appreciate at the top of his game. 4.5 of 5 stars.
And that’s that, all 11 books I read in 2017. 2018 is off to a slow start, but hey, start slow, finish strong, right?
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