The Reading Corner

The Jigsaw Man - Gord Rollo This Jigsaw Man is....a book. It certainly is a book. Honestly I spent a lot of time wavering between three and four stars, and I figured if a book can make me think this much, then it's got to be good enough for four. I went into the book KNOWING he was going to lose more than his arm because of the synopsis, and when it was revealed that yeah, "Bit by bit other pieces of Michael are surgically removed" I wasn't as surprised as I'd have liked to have been. However, a faulty synopsis didn't ruin this book for me. The book starts out with Michael Fox, down on his luck and poor, at the edge of his mind and ready to end his life.. He's approached by "Drake", a beefy man with a proposal. Give his boss his arm, and get two million dollars. Simple, right? Well no, it's not that simple, and the book takes a turn down twisty lane pretty quickly. There's a LOT of twists, a little shocker in every chapter, and while it

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski Be prepared to be confused, angry, and heart broken. But...mostly confused. House of Leaves is an incredibly dense, heavy book, and not just in page count. The story is...a story...within a story...within a manuscript...within a documentary. Did you follow that? Good I didn't either. Don't go in expecting an old ghost tale or something spooky. Go in expecting...actually don't go in expecting anything. Let the book speak for itself. Let it consume you as it so heavily consumed our unreliable narrator. Be ready to not read this in public because (and I think this is half the fun) you will be literally twisting the book upside down, sideways, backwards and forwards, re-reading pages, skipping forward, skipping back, and struggling to read the swirling tiny print at the bottom of the page. This book is not a simple have a cup of tea and read. It's something you must engage with, something you must struggle to get through. When I said

Mr. Mercedes - Stephen King  Mr. Mercedes is quickly becoming one of my favorite King books. Bill Hodges is a retired detective on the brink of suicide when he receives a mysterious letter connected to an old investigation of his. Before his retirement the Mercedes killer struck, mowing down tons of people, including an infant and her mother with a stolen Mercedes. Now the killer is back, taunting the detective, trying to goad him into ending his own life. Does the Mercedes Killer get a kick out of suicide? Does he get a hard-on for death? It's clear from the beginning that the killer (who we get to meet very quickly, as the story is told for both Hodges and him) has severe mental problems, and not just because he can kill without regret. What I enjoy about this story is it's not a mystery for us. Were told right away who the killer is, and get an in depth look at Brady's life alongside Hodges' investigation to find him. This is a new take on a detective mystery, were

Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James There is BDSM, and there is abuse. The two should never meet. BDSM is based on the surrounding rule of "consent". Consent is something earned by a Dominant, not demanded, not manipulated, it is earned. Grey does not earn consent. In fact, he does everything and anything wrong. Fifty Shades brings up a few small BDSM rules such as safewords and hard limits, and then immediately breaks them. It turns safewords and hard limits into jokes, and gives Dominants a "they'll say yes if you push it" energy that they just should not have. This book is not a hot, sexy book on BDSM. This book is abuse. It teaches Dominants and submissives that the Dominants are in control, and guess what? They're not. submissives give their submission as a GIFT. To those who EARN it. It is not to be given freely, it is not to be given through manipulation, and any "contract" you sign is not BINDING to a relationship. A submissive reserves th

New book haul this week -The Institute - Stephen King  -The Cabin at the End of the World - Paul Tremblay  -House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielwsk -American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis -Eeny Meeny - M.J. Arlidge Reading these in no particular order, but did start House of Leaves this past week. Look for my review of it coming up ASAP!

The Chain - Adrian McKinty This book was tough to get through. Almost too tough.  Your child is taken, and you're told to pay a ransom and kidnap another child in return in order to get them back. How would you react? Angry, terrified, confused? These are normal feelings, what isn't normal is to just accept it, and I sadly feel like that's what happened here. Yes there's tears and cries and "what ifs", but the acceptance of the situation by the main character comes SO quickly and SO easily that I just feel nothing for her. It goes from "oh no my baby" to "wellp better get money I don't have and kidnap a CHILD" in a matter of PAGES, and it just feels like a cop out. The way she goes about getting things done is so EASY. Every goal she has in mind, every terrible step she has to take to get her kid back is solved in a page or less. The answers just come so easy to her it's like there's no bad guy! If it was THIS easy wh

Cell - Stephen King I'm unsure of where to start with Stephen King's "Cell". It has a very powerful beginning, a calm opening of a normal day that goes terribly wrong. Mass murder ensues, blood, guts, gore, action all at once. It disrupts the calm King has opened with and shoves us into the midst of a world gone insane. This is where King thrives, in the descriptions and actions. His characters are all easy to emphasize with, and their actions during what is essentially the end of the world are believable. No one acts as a brave hero, they act as human beings caught in a whirlwind of torment. Clay, Tom, and Alice are our three "main" characters, though there is a plethora of characters to connect with. It's an interesting way of writing, having all these characters to root for and think of. Each one has their flaws, but that's what makes us all human, no? We find ourselves hoping for good endings for all, but are we going to get it? Where one char

A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay I don't even know where to begin with this book. The sickening and terrifying imagery? The infuriating father figure? The depressing mother? The poor, terrified, scared little girl who's watching her sister go through the most painful and terrifying experience of her life? Or maybe I'll start at the end, and express how I had to put the book down and just stare into the darkness of my room and wonder what I just read. Is Marjorie sick, or possessed? One can't tell as the book begins, we don't know if her terrifying actions are that of mental illness of possession. See, as a mentally ill person myself (though, thankfully not to this extent) and as someone who has been around mental illness all his life, I can believe these are the actions of a severely ill person. It's not outside the realm of reality for Marjorie to act this way. But her, in all her evil actions and sickness, is not the character I hate the most. That awar

Misery - Stephen King  Ah, the first Stephen King novel I've ever read, and as always, my favorite. This book holds a special place in my heart because it features King's scariest monster of all, an obsessed fan. The book begins with famous author Paul Sheldon, who's just written his latest novel, crashing off the side of a mountain due to a snow storm. But worry not, he's saved by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. This is where the book turns sour, in a good way. Let us first look at the character of Annie Wilkes. Any reader would gush over meeting their favorite authors. And we all have fantasies in which we play the big, strong hero. Combine those two wishes and anyone on Earth would feel like they were in heaven. We'd gush and fawn and be all a flutter, which is exactly how Annie is portrayed...at first. Things very quickly take a dark turn, and we get to see Annie for who she really is. She's obsessed, she's needy, she's emotional, and she's o