She's Still At It Roja and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

 I'm going to add some more stuff in addition to my Netgalley review. 

Something I enjoy in books is when they make a reader want to learn about things he/she read in the book. If it mentions something historical, scientific, literary, philosophical or fantastical and the reader can't wait to look up more information. I found both The Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments to be these kinds of book. Roja, the protagonist, is so curious about the world and her is contagious. I hope other readers find her knowledge intriguing, too.

Now for the rest:

I sure do enjoy the personality of Roja, the protagonist of Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments and of The Library of the Dead. She has this foul mouth but a tremendous intellect, way past your average 15-year-old or 65-year-old for that matter. She knows history, philosophy, science; she knows Occam's Razor for heaven's sake. I wish I knew half the stuff Roja knows. (I'm jealous of a fictional character. Sad.)

I admit I miss her ghost talking and playing the mbira to help understand the ghosts. Even though her magic is now beyond ghost talking, I liked the personalities of the various ghosts and the way they always said, "Booga Wooga!" (Disclaimer: As a child I used to play ghost--I was, um, that kind of child, and I always said, "Booga Wooga!" Who knew I could speak ghost when I was a mere tyke.) Maybe in future books we'll see more ghost talking.

Roja, her family, her friends, and her boss are likeable. The badies are nasty, foul, and super unlikeable. And, I got to learn some super cool Scottish phrases and terms. Now I'm going around saying "I dinnae know that."

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments.

The Library of the Dead, or I wish I was as smart as this 14-year-old

 

I'm reading Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, book 2 of Edinburgh Nights, so I thought it might be helpful to read the first book, The Library of the Dead.

I enjoyed the protagonist, Ropa, a lot. She's funny, smart, has a fox for a pet, and is weirdly well educated for a 14-year-old dropout. I wish more people were as well self-educated as Ropa. Yet, she isn't dry when talking about the audio books she listens to because she's clever and her "reading" helps her navigate the wild world she lives in.

The title is a little bit of a misnomer because most of the story takes place outside of the library. It's also more of a library for magic. Nobody dead is there except for the philosopher David Hume. He stays dead dead and doesn't get up and talk or haunt or buy anything in the snack bar.

There is some eyeball rolling and you know how I feel about eyeballs rolling all over the place. It's not bad in Library which is good because my eyeballroll-o-meter is out for repairs.

I'm enjoying Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments so everybody who liked Library has something to look forward to when it's published. (I read books before they're published because I'm psychic.)

Review of Sundial by Catriona Ward -- Twisted and Twisty

 Catriona Ward is the mistress of the twist. Once I thought I figured something out, it turned out that my reading path zigged when I thought it zagged. Few of the characters are who they seem to be, except for one who starts out awful and stays that way. Who to root for? Who to condemn? There's enough twists to keep the reader guessing through the book.

Be aware that there is physical and psychological (but not sexual) abuse of children, a spouse, and animals. It's almost overwhelming for me to read, but Ms. Ward is just so very good with words. An excellent writer.

Some day I suspect Ms. Ward will write a straight-forward book with no twists and her readers will wrack their brains out trying to find the red herrings. We'll be flooding the question section of Goodreads begging for help finding the twists.

Kind of like a 1960's B Horror Movie A Review of Mestiza Blood

  

Most of the stories in Mestiza Blood fall into the category of "Don't Go In That Room/House/Drainage Pipe/Hot Tub Unless You Are A Fool.  As it turns out, most of the characters choose to be fools. A big vulture/human thingy with dried blood all over it asks you to follow it down into the sewers so of course you go. What could go wrong? Something is eating both the wildlife and the humans at the isolated ranch house of a porno shoot--and the characters decide to stay an extra few days--and one decides to go hot-tubing all by himself, even though something is noshing them for the main course.  

Even though there are hopeful endings to most of the stories, they didn't feel realistic--as if horror is realistic. I'm willing to believe a teenage girl stabs a monster/flying/human-faced thingy to death, and then finds a chest full of gold, but I found it hard to believe that a random drug dealer and his fence are willing to help her turn the gold into cash and expect nothing in return. Who knew criminals could be so helpful? And the teen was able to carry her baby and the chest full of gold, no problem.  Do you know how heavy gold is? How about babies? Some of them are tubby.

It was a fun read, though. The key for me was to read it like it was the old-time horror, the kind B movies were made from. Most of it was so over the top that I couldn't help but laugh. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the reader is looking at the stories as if they are a 1960's double feature following "Hell's Angels A GoGo. The stories didn't scare me, but I had a good time with them.