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Manga Classics: The Jungle Book by Crystal S. Chan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


i've mentioned in other reviews there is this big trend in adapting western classics in manga styles. If you only know The Jungle Book from the Disney movie you don't really know the Jungle Book, at least not fully. Mowgli and his jungle friends are only first three stories. It's actually a collection of seven short stories.

These days Rudyard Kipling would probably be considered a problematic creator ditto his subject matter but it was written in the time period (and about it) of intense colonization of India. In the case of Mowgli you don't see much about that. White people aren't in the story. Mowgli's Brothers and Kaa's hunting are mostly about Mowgli and the wolf pack (which is a bit darker than I remember the Disney movie but to be fair that's many decades ago and most of what I remember is Louis Prima's I wanna Be Like You bop). Tiger Tiger might be the most interesting in that it shows Mowgli isn't really at home in jungle or village but at least there is one decent person in the village (the whole love story thing from the animation isn't in the book, sorry, spoilers I guess)

But that means 4 stories aren't about Mowgli. They're not even really connected other than they're about animals. The White Seal is about two things perseverance and how much humans can suck. Kotick the white seal doesn't want to become someone's fur coat and while other seals think if you get killed by a human you deserve it. Kotick wants to find a place for his people to live free (I took from this that maybe Kipling wasn't a fan of the fur seal trade)

Toomai of the Elephants and Her Majesty's Servant are actually rather awful. The former is about a boy from a family of elephant trainers who wants to be able to go out and hunt up fresh ones so yay pro elephant in servitude (eye roll but yes it was a part of life back then in India) Skip that one unless you're up for a lot of art of elephants in leg chains and being so scared of humans they won't disobey. The servant one I can't even remember and I read it last night. It felt unfinished.

That leaves only book 5 Rikki Tikki Tavi. This is probably one of my favorites. I remember the animation coming out when I was a little girl. I loved Rikki Tikki. It's also the sweetest and most hopeful story in the bunch. Young Teddy and his parents save Rikki Tikki (the mongoose) from nearly dying and he repays them by sticking around and saving them from cobras and other snakes.

I liked the art in this. It felt like it fit. That said I'm glad it's a library book and not one I bought (though I pretty much say that with this entire manga classics line)



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Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A solid 4.5 read for me but I rounded up because I love Annie so much. It is so refreshing to have a female PI who isn't there as comic relief and also is strong without embodying more toxic masculinity than the men around her. That said she's ex special investigator with the Air Force and is a muy thai boxer in the past. She's smart, strong and Appalachian which is relevant here.

Annie is asked to investigate the death of Ezra King by his estranged daughter, Katie. She hasn't seen her father in decades but when she was told of his death she found the fact that the snake handling preacher died from a snakebite and was buried without any autopsy or anyone looking for next of kin within a day. She just wants Annie to be sure nothing hinky really happened so off to rural Kentucky Annie goes in Honey, her vintage Datsun Z (which was practically a character in her own right in book one).

Annie didn't think there was much to see until someone brings trouble to her door. No one would do that if there wasn't something to hide, right? One thing Archer Sullivan excels at is giving the supporting cast distinct and interesting personalities. We have Will, the preacher in training who worshiped at Ezra's feet, the Shepard family and their King of Weed leader, Chief Dishman who is the local police chief who isn't fond of Annie at first but isn't a ridiculous hardnose about it either. He is no doubt the most endearing of the characters. Thelma the church account, Gavin, Dishman's up and coming office, Zelda, owner of the local diner and Katie's childhood friend and Hollis the owner and nebnose of the local hotel.

Sounds cluttered right? Not at all. The crime(s) and the investigation are engaging as is Annie. I did figure it out (mostly, the ending surprised me) but that isn't too surprising. I have decades of mystery reading under my belt and it was no less enjoyable for it. This little town is great and if I had had the time I would have devoured this in one setting. My only regret is I didn't get this review done on time (but thanks for the arc, Netgalley).

So why 4.5 vs an enthusiastic 5 star? It was a bit repetitive here and there.

And oh, like book one there's this whiff of the paranormal. Is it real? Is it hypnogogia? Annie would say the latter but it's a nice added layer to the rich story. Can't wait for book three.



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Half Moon Bay by Jonathan Kellerman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


2.5 read, rounded up for Alex Delaware nostalgia. I used to really like Kellerman but this was meh (it's also the first time reading anything in partnership with his son). I didn't see the first two books in this series and it sounded interesting as Clay works for the coroner's office. Doing what, who the heck knows? It is never clear what he actually does and much more time is spent on an off the books project than the one he's assigned two.

So yes, there are two mysteries, one that spurred on the other. Sleep deprived Clay - he and his partner are trying to get their sleep regression baby on a sleep cycle - is called out to Berkley's campus as bones have been found. It turns out it's an infant wrapped up with a little glass eye as if off a toy. This sparks three things.

1. The archaeology student who was there decides this had to be an Indigenous grave in spite of modern wrappings and later DNA from the baby proving the baby is of European descent and she starts up a protest movement that does nothing but add page after page of the most tedious prose. It is boring as heck and adds zero to the overall story. This is where being a long time bestseller works against the story because I swear editors stop editing when you have an author you know will be a megahit. This whole storyline could have been dropped and we'd lose nothing. I can't even tell you why they never even presented the evidence as to why this couldn't be Indigenous bones (which yes I do believe should be repatriated)

2. Starts the actual investigation into who this baby is and since (mild spoiler) we have the DNA, the find the baby boy's birth father as he's a White Supremacist in prison and now they have to find the mother but the whole White Supremacist family are unhelpful jerks. And again oh the need of an editor doing their actual job. For some reason they don't just say he's a racist and his sons run a racist blog/podcast. No, they go on for pages!!! about all the terrible racist, homophobic, misogynistic stuff that Daddy said. Why? It added zero other than to make me wonder about the authors. You can tell us he's a racist without giving us endless examples. We'll believe you.

3. Before the DNA is back on the bones (you can't gender prepubescent bones with any accuracy) someone contacts Clay because he thinks it might be his sister. Since a friend of Clay's had suggested him to this man (who is a wealthy tech dude) Clay agrees to look into it. And honestly this is the biggest part of the mystery, not the actual bones found.

Clay goes along trying to find out if this little girl (who would now be in her 50s) is dead or alive and that's the main thrust of the story (which telegraphs its ending about midway).

It's plodding. It doesn't make me want to go back and read the first two or read on to the next book (who knows I may have it on the shelf). If I wasn't reading this for a reading challenge I might not even have finished it. Kellerman has been much better than this.



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The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read most of the Nancy Drews that were available in the 70s when I was a child. A friend knowing I loved Nancy sent me this. The 'original' Nancy 'as you remember it' (not unless you're 100 at this point) What a lot of people don't know is during the McCarthy era, Nancy was gutted out under the guise of removing the racism but really under that particular brand of White Nationalism, all characters of Color, and Jews were simply white washed, 'problem solved' as far as the 1950s were concerned. But they also took the opportunity to turn independent Nancy into a 'more acceptable' brand of young lady, more subservient, more dependent on men, hence the rise of her boyfriend Ned into a more prominent role.

This Originals series puts Nancy back to what she was intended to be: an independent adventurer. But yes, since it was written in the 30s you have to expect a level of casual racism thankfully not tolerated today. There is also a strong vein of classism while we're at it. Nancy and her friends, the cousins George and Bess are all rich girls who don't need to work. And oddly another thing added in the 50s was a deeper fat phobia. Bess is 'plump' (not according to the illustrations she's not) which she accepts and frets about in the original a little but it's far more pronounced in the ones I read as a girl.

Anyhow, history lesson aside, let's get into this. Honestly it's a 3 star read but I gave it an extra star because of Nancy's historical importance. She was one of the first times girls saw themselves as something other than to proper up a husband and respect men always. Nancy, George and Bess run across Millie on the train where she's so hungry she faints. She tells them she needs a job in town in order to help save her grandmother's titular Red Gate Farm, at least until they can get it set up for borderers who want to experience farm life (that was a thing in the 30s? Farm tourism is hot right now, so that took me by surprise)

Millie, driven around by Nancy, tries to get a job but fails. (and the run across the Chinese girl who was rude to Nancy and friends earlier, and yes there was some racism there). They decide to go to the farm with Millie and help her save it (remember, rich girls with nothing better to do).

Meanwhile on the farm up near a cave system is a Nature Cult (note the cover with the KKK style robes. I was surprised it wasn't the KKK) Naturally they're the villains of the piece. It's not much of a mystery really but it was fun. Rather preposterous to an adult reader but keeping in mind the time period and the intended audience it was fun.





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The Séance Garden by Juliet Blackwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This stand alone (or maybe not) mystery toes the line of also being a paranormal gothic horror. Professor Harper Grae has lost a bet to her graduate school friend, Tariq and they're going on a ghost tour that concludes at the infamous Perles Mansion now owned by the eccentric artist Delilah Mason and this begins the one problematic theme for me (more on that later). Naturally being a mystery, you know where this is going: the tour ends up stumbling over Delilah murdered in the garden.

Harper, fearing Tariq who turns out to have know Delilah will be blamed, starts helping with the investigation unofficially. It doesn't help that her PhD was in witchcraft/death rituals and folklore because there is a ritual element. She's also written papers on poison which da da daaaah, plays a role.

Other suspects include the contractor (Delilah's current lover), her ex-husband, Sigrid the witch who was helping her with herbal healing, Highbaugh the gallery owner who showcased her work, and her overprotective brother, Asher. And oh, right, the ghosts of the house. Into this mess are two of Harper's students, Blanca and Jenny, who also have a true crime podcast and have an interest in Delilah's death but also the contaminated grounds of the defunct army base Delilah's ex is trying to turn into exclusive housing.

Dovetailed into this is Soren and Isabella Perles' history which is something of a mirror to Delilah and Asher. I think it worked quite well. I liked the characters and the resolution made a lot of sense. Harper is forty at the beginning of the book and having to start all over after her partner left her and her not getting tenure at her last college so she's at a small college in Monterey Bay reconnecting with Tariq who does jellyfish research (cool).

The detective in this seemed a bit under developed but on the other hand, he's not ridiculously pig headed about blaming her or super solicitous of getting help like you see in some amateur sleuth mysteries. The paranormal aspects have a good gothic feel to it. Is it ghosts? (Harper isn't a believer) Is it psychology? Time will tell. Over all I really liked it so why not five stars? It's not much of a spoiler so I'll put it here.

Also content warning - murder (naturally), mentions of incest, mentions of child death

So what bugged me is how Harper's college handled the ghost tour. The author isn't an academic but her sister is (almost afraid to ask where given how academia is portrayed here). As for me I was a medical doctor and is now a professor (who does research herbal medicine) and I can honestly say I have never heard of a college threatening a professor's job because they went on a ghost tour. It would be one thing if it was just her 'nemesis' saying it because whatever but the dean isn't happy either. I have been on my college's tenure committee for over a decade and I can tell you never once have we cared that someone went on a ghost tour. I give ghost tours and I'm a tenured school of science professor. No one cares. Maybe there's an uptight university that might (I'm thinking religious ones but that's not this) And what bugged me most about it, is Harper fears this so why in the world would she ever agreed to go on a ghost tour? If you wanted to threaten her tenure, her being in the off-limits army base or being around crime scenes would be much more believable. And since nothing comes of it, it felt utterly unnecessary but that was my only big problem with the book



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When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I think this book was a bit confused as to what it wanted to be. Alien 'abduction,' childhood grief, and whatever the heck that end was? Paranormal? In some ways I feel for The Ordinaries, a group of friends at the cusp of adulthood, almost ready to graduate and go off to school. They've grown up in a small town in Ohio where everyone has some tangential relationship to the Mill which is no more and the town is dying. Been there, lived that.

Franny and Arthur are siblings whose brother Mark is in a coma thanks to a mill accident, tearing their family up. Sofia is Franny's friend who wants to be a lawyer some day. Nick also lost someone in the mill accident and his mother had a nervous break down (at least this YA is creative about getting parents out of the way), he is a shoplifting/compulsive liar trying to keep his family afloat, Remy the sheriff's son and his wealthy cousin, Levi (whose parents are away on an extended trip)

Together they break into the Jenkins house when a bright light of something falling from the sky envelops them all, transforming them somehow. They naturally think it's aliens especially when Black Mailbox Bill starts emailing Franny with his conspiracy theories. And there's Wayne, the man who was blamed for the accident who is now a hostile hermit near Franny and Arthur's home.

The bulk of the book is them trying to figure out their abilities, what to do with them, how to get rid of them, what if the government comes to disappear them? What if Wayne is out to kill them and end the world? It's interwoven with the accident that ruined their families and their deep grief. These two don't always mesh well with the latter, while good, slowing the pacing down.

I wasn't sure about the ending. It felt a little too paranormal for the otherwise Sci-Fi setting. It's a good read but not great. I liked the characters (except maybe Arthur who never really came alive for me) but it also felt overly long in places.



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The Harvesting by Melanie Karsak

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I bought this at Rathacon a few years ago and I'm not 100% sure why. It's clearly stated a zombie apocalypse novel. I don't like zombies much. That said, this was good for what it was. Let's face it the big four have been done a thousand times over (ghosts, vampires, werewolves and zombies) so you need to do something different with it.

For one, we have a strong female character in Layla Petrovich who is an expert in medieval weapons and fighting and a grandmother with psychic abilities that you wait for Layla to develop too. There is a big Slavic folklore influence on this and I don't want to say too much about that because there are some big twists with the additional paranormal in this which is what makes it stand out in the zombie realm and I don't want to spoil it.

I like Layla and Jamie. Jamie is the brother of Ian, her high school boyfriend but managed to get another girl pregnant and married her instead. Oddly enough I was reading two books at once that had the woman partnered with one brother but wanting the other and he wanting her. It worked...okay. Ian's an idiot so you're definitely rooting for Jamie. Layla was summoned home by her grandmother but (trying not to be spoilery here) if granny has second sight/tell the future then why did this play out as it did?

Hamletville has a handful of survivors and the majority of the story is about how they survive from this fast spreading whatever the heck this is. Infection, let's go with that. There is some suggestion that they aren't utterly undead and unthinking.

The last third of the novel is where it takes that paranormal twist which will either work for you (it did for me) or make you think no, this is too much for one book.

I did like this but I'm not sure I feel entirely moved to read the rest of the series (points to my opening comment, I'm not into zombies so this isn't for me) It's well written enough so it's more a matter of personal taste.



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The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book had flown under my radar until a few book tubers I watch put it on there, solidly. They loved it. I only wish I had enjoyed it more. Too many of the themes felt too familiar to me, especially the 'haunted doll' idea (in this case the life sized companions). I also read two books back to back using the trope of basically telling us the ending and the book is about how we got there. That worked less well for me. I'll put the content warnings at the bottom as they are spoilery except this one. There is on page graphic harm to farm animals (horses and cows)

It opens in an asylum in the 1800s where the main character, Elsie is being held, mute and rebellious and her new doctor believes she can be reached and encourages her to write her story to see if she's sane enough to stand trial for murder. In spite of acting insane being to her advantage, she does as he asks and so begins the two main dual time line plots (the asylum is a sporadic interlude)

Elsie is going to The Bridge, her husband's ancestral home. He has died suddenly and she is pregnant. She goes with his cousin, Sarah, a young woman with not many prospects being the sole member of her family, cut out of her inheritance because of Elsie and the expectant new heir but she and Elsie get along passably well. When she arrives there, she learns the village hates the house and the two unacceptable maids Mrs Holt, the housekeeper, had hired are from elsewhere because no one will work there.

Without a doubt, Purcell does a great job with the Gothic setting. Isolated home, check. Creepy home, check. Rumors about the home, check. Weird sounds in the night, check check. And at the same time it never moved from what I was already expecting from the gothic horror genre. Elsie investigates the noises and the house. Naturally they knock their way into the locked room (only to find it mysteriously opened) where she uncovers the Silent Companions, which do have historical precedence in the real world. One has her face. I'd have been gone then and there but of course she can't go because of the limits put on women in the 1800s.

We also have (equally as creepy) is a nursery that looks different to different people adding to the creepfest.

The other story line is about Anne and Josiah the owners of the Bridge in the 1600s and the original purchasers of the silent companions. Josiah is playing host to King Charles I which should set his star in the sky. Anne is worried over her daughter Hetta, born with problems that the townspeople think are because Mom is a witch. You can imagine where this plot line is going. We know about this because of her diaries that Sarah is reading (found in the garrett)

My bigger problem getting into this is nothing I didn't anticipate with these 'dolls' happened. I'm there predicting exact events chapters ahead and setting mental count downs for how fast the dolls will be back once destroyed. No surprises there.

I was annoyed that when Elsie's brother shows up that no one in the house hold backs up Elsie's story so he thinks she's losing it. Let's never forget how easy it was to put a woman in a mental hospital back then.

It's by no means a bad story but I just didn't connect with it. I'm probably in the minority there. I was very torn about the ending. Yeah I could see it happening but also it felt so 80s horror eyerolling ending and I wasn't a fan.

spoilers for the remaining content warnings

how easy it is to institutionalize women, miscarriage, grief, the demonization of women.



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Fun with Kirk and Spock: A Parody by Robb Pearlman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was something I saw floating around in Facebook ads and then it was at a raffle at one of my comi-cons. I won it. I was quite pleased.

The art was very nice.

The parody was mildly funny. It's written in the style of Dick and Jane. But overall it sadly fell flat. It does expect you to have a good familiarity of all the original Star Trek episodes or it wouldn't be funny at all.

It was fun but I wanted so much more from it.



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Purranormal Activity: A Cat Cafe Mystery by Cate Conte

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received this one from the publisher via netgalley and I did research it to find it's book 10. I usually won't jump into a series that late in the game but cat cafe and paranormal lured me in. I wasn't disappointed. I didn't know who anyone was but it wasn't hard to figure it out. Maddie is our amateur sleuth. She's the owner of the cat cafe with the help of several people including her mother. Her grandfather was the chief of the police.

It opens with Maddie getting a request for a cat birthday party for a 4 year old girl, Piper and for her mother Tess. It's being paid for by Olivia the grandmother who a) owns a historic home on the island of great importance b) was Maddie's mom's best friend but then after Olivia's aunt Delila disappeared 20 some years ago, Olivia disappeared and her wealthy family stopped the investigation.

Guess who ends up dead? Does it have to do with Delila's disappearance? Does it have to do with the fact that Olivia wants her home to be a B&NB and not a museum like some of the Islanders want? Does it have to do with her blacksheep brother? What does Puck the Ghost Cat have to do with things?

I thought the secrets and clues were dispensed nicely. Maggie doesn't bull over the police or make too many TSTL choices which you can see a lot in cozies. I liked her, the cat cafe and the surrounding characters.

The one sour note for me was the fact that everyone on the island knows about the ghost cat but Maddie. They try to explain it away as the lonely cat upset her as a child. Okay fine but she's an adult She lives on this island (okay she's come back) so it's nearly impossible to believe she never heard of Puck and it didn't add anything to the story to have her not know.



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