Category Archives: Book Reviews

Perfectly Horrifying: The Little Stranger

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Marion

The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters, Riverhead Books, 2009  Caution: It is difficult to write about The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and not give anything away, so I’m going to say this post might contain spoilers.  The Little Stranger is … Continue reading →

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The Manual of Detection

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Marion

The Manual of Detection, Jedeiah Baker, Berry,Penguin Paperbacks,2009  “There is always an Agency, always a Carnival to belong to.  The problem is belonging for too long to either of them.”  The Manual of Detection, p 227  The night I finished … Continue reading →

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Fathom, by Cherie Priest

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Marion

Fathom, by Cherie Priest, Tor Books, 2008 If Sam squinted, he could make out a shape at the top of the steeple; but it was difficult to identify.  He was just concluding that it was the strangest rendering of the … Continue reading →

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Pretty Pieces all in a Row

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Marion

The Glister, by John Burnside, Anchor Books, 2009 “. . . They should pull everything down and start over, maybe in shacks or mud huts, so that people could learn how to live again, instead of just watching TV all … Continue reading →

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Aegypt Alphabet

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Marion

Someone at work asked me what John Crowley’s Aegypt quartet was about, and I gave the answer I’ve always given, no matter where I was in the cycle.  I said, “I have no idea what these books are about.  I … Continue reading →

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The Viral City: Palimpsest

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Marion

Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente, Bantam Books, 2009 This isn’t a review of Palimpsest.  Many better writers than I have already done that. For example, here, here and here.  I do have some thoughts about the book, though. The premise … Continue reading →

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Two Bleak and Slender Books: The Painter of Battles

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Marion

“She was leaving, do you understand?  She was already leaving me.  Suddenly I wanted to know how far . . . I don’t know.  How she was leaving didn’t depend on me.  Maybe geometry had something to say on the … Continue reading →

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Grave Goods

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Marion

Grave Goods; Ariana Franklin, Berkeley Books, 2009  “So, what are you reading?” “I just finished Grave Goods, a history mystery, by Ariana Franklin.” “Never heard of her.” “It’s a pen name for a British writer named Diana Norman. She’s a … Continue reading →

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A Child’s Garden of Mystery

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Marion

The Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie  Alan Bradley Bantam Books, 2009 (Warning: Spoilers)   “It was as black in the closet as old blood. They had shoved me in and locked the door. . . Luckily for me, … Continue reading →

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The Most Ingenious of Foxes

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Marion

9Tail Fox Jon Courtenay Grimwood Nightshade Books, 2007       By page 45 of 9Tail Fox, the book’s hero, police detective Bobby Zha is dead.  Not psychologically or spiritually dead, not dead in a there’s-no-cure-for-the-poison or the-bullet-will-eventually-destroy-your-brain kind of … Continue reading →

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