The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an incredibly great read, I enjoyed it immensely. I liked that the author made the whole scientific part of the story entirely plausible.

The whole premise is just intriguing; bringing back a man who has frozen in hard ice for over a hundred years. Bringing a frozen body back to life is not all that unbelievable, because it has happened in real life. In fact, many times, though I can't account for the accuracy of the articles.

However, bringing back a person who has been frozen for a hundred years... now that's interesting! It's like Sleeping Beauty, but after the kiss. You know how the story ends after "...and they lived happily ever after"? This is the story of what happens after. Well, not really.

Jeremiah Rice's story is as far from Sleeping Beauty as you can get, and he was brought back by science, not a kiss. Obviously though, we can't help but be curious about how people who lived in the 20th century would think about our technology-filled lives now. All the cars, airplanes, computers, iPhones, wide-screen TV... it would be overwhelming to take in all at once.

Not to mention, of course, the huge culture shock itself; the immodest fashion nowadays compared to way back when, the vulgar everyday language a lot of us speak in without thinking twice, the fact that there's actually a black president now when a hundred years ago, blacks were seen as slaves.

Seeing these things through Jeremiah's eyes are interesting, sure, but there's more to the story than that. The story is told in a few other POVs, one which was told in a second-person narrative and influenced my feelings of the character very much, and there are other characters who I really feel for as well.

This is definitely one of my favorite books in 2013. I thought it was very well-written, and honestly, I can't praise the whole second-person narrative POV enough. It just made me take a step back and really look at the person who was "speaking". It looks like this might be made into a movie as well, and I look forward to watching it on screen.

You are reading The Curiosity. You are enjoying the story so far, but you are fascinated with the author’s use of second-person narrative for one of the book’s characters.

You have never read a book that have done this, and you can’t help but wonder about the author’s reasons for doing so.

The character is an unlikable one, an arrogant man whose POV is told in the second-person, while all the other characters’ POVs are told in first-person.

You ponder on the author’s choice in using the second-person narrative for this character and how it influences your feelings about this particularly unlikable character.

You think that it is a very interesting writing method and you feel that it does contribute to your feelings about this character. This character, speaking of himself in the second person, remains distant and aloof to you. You do not relate to him, you do not understand him, and you do not like him talking down to you. You think the author is brilliant in his choice for using the second-person narrative for this character.

You have not finished the book, and this character is far from the main character, even though he plays a crucial role in the story, but nevertheless the story has kept you intrigued with what will happen next.

You will not talk about the book right now, as you did not intend for this to be a review of the book. You will review it when you have finished reading it, but for now, you are satisfied with sharing your fascination with story-telling in the POV of a second-person narrative.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles series, I read the first book, Cinder, last year for a book club, and I loved it. Of course I had to read Scarlet!

Cinder, obviously, is a retelling of Cinderella, and Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. All the important elements; the red hood, the grandmother, and the wolf, are still intact, but the story is told so very differently. Cinder's story is continued here as well, though it has gone beyond the original Cinderella story.

Well, truth be told, the first book, Cinder's story, was already way beyond the original Cinderella story. Cyborgs, aliens (well, Lunarians anyway), mind control, genetically modified creatures... it was so wonderfully creative and I thought Cinder's story was very masterfully crafted.

This second book, Scarlet, weaves Red Riding Hood's story into the already creative plot. It turns out Scarlet's grandmother is the pilot who smuggled Princess Selena, and Wolf is part of a pack of genetically modified soldiers who was working for the evil Lunar Queen Levana to find the Princess.

Wolf isn't all that bad though, I really liked him, even from the beginning. I liked the dynamic between Scarlet and Wolf, fleshed out so much more than from the old fable. Scarlet is another great addition to the cast of strong female characters.

What I liked about the Lunar Chronicles is that the female characters aren't portrayed as weak, stupid females who sit around waiting for their prince to come rescue them, but instead take charge of their own fate and make their own choices, and the way Marissa Meyer puts them all together into this remarkable world is just amazing to read!

I'm looking forward very much to the next books in the series, Cress, which is based on Rapunzel's tale, and Winter, which is based on Snow White. I can't wait to meet the new characters, and I can't wait to find out more about the old.

Beta by Rachel Cohn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elysia is a Beta, that is, she is a test clone. Created to serve, the Governor’s wife bought her to act as her surrogate daughter and to please her children as their sister and playmate.

Clones are not meant to be able to feel or to want, but Elysia feels and wants more than she should. There are people who want to destroy Defects like her, so she has to keep her feelings a secret.

Inevitably, things happen that forces her secret out, and she has to run for her life.

This is the first book in the Annex series, and it’s been a really exciting read. The backstory about clones and how things came to be is smoothly woven into the story and is really quite interesting. The mystery of Elysia’s First, the person she was cloned from, is intriguing as well, and leaves us wanting to know more.

I finished the book in one sitting, and let me just warn you, this book ends with a really exciting cliff-hanger, and I’m cursing the fact that the second book isn’t out yet! I want to know what’s going on and what happens next! A great read!

The Postman by David Brin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Postman movie starring Kevin Costner was one of my favourite Kevin Costner movies. I don’t like a lot of movies he acted in, but I thought The Postman was really inspiring and hopeful.

I never knew it was based on a book, and even when I came across this book, I wasn’t sure if it was just another book with the same name as the movie. I was curious to find out though, and sure enough, it was the same story as the movie.

Well, not the same exactly, movies based on books are always different because there’s no way you can fit everything in the book into a 2-hour, or in this case, a 3-hour movie.

There were enough similarities in the book and the movie that I was sure the movie was based on the book, but mostly, it was a completely different story. There were more complications in the book, for one, and some techno stuff thrown in, like modified human beings and the concept of “living computers”. It was also bleaker and slower-paced than the movie.

This is an unusual case where I liked the movie better than the book, but still, it was really interesting to see where the story came from and how it was originally written.

Article first published as Book Review: Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano on Blogcritics.

I had been seeing Wither by Lauren DeStefano a lot in bookstores and was intrigued by the premise. A genetic experiment gone wrong has given all newborns a fixed lifespan of 25 years for males and 20 years for females. How could I not get hooked?

Apparently, it happened when scientists were trying to discover a cure of cancer and other degenerative diseases. They found a way to genetically engineer fetuses so that all the babies would be born strong and healthy and immune to any disease. It worked great, and the first generation all grew up and grew old and never got sick.

Unfortunately, their children and their children’s children all started dying at the age of 20 and 25, and they’ve been looking for a cure since. In the meantime, it was important not to let the human race die out, so they started kidnapping girls in their teens to become child-brides and produce babies.

Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is one of the child-brides, but although her husband Linden loves her and she gets along well with her sister wives, she longs for her freedom and the love of a servant, Gabriel, who is as much a prisoner as she is. It’s a bittersweet story, and I can’t help but root for Rhine and Gabriel even as I’m rooting for her husband, Linden.

Reading this book makes me think of all the reasons people are against cloning, genetically modified foods, genetic engineering, and anything that interferes with the natural order of things.

It’s hard to say where I stand on this issue, because on the one hand, I can see all the benefits that could be achieved, but on the other, who knows what kind of effects all these experiments could have on us in the long run?

People have been saying for a while now that our lives are getting longer, but they haven’t considered the fact that these statistics include a lot of terminally sick people whose suffering are being prolonged by drugs and surgery. In contrast, the inhabitants in the world of Wither are all healthy and strong until they reach their curtailed life expectancy, then they get sick and die quickly.

In my opinion, if our lives were limited to 20-plus years, we wouldn’t be spending so much of our childhood learning lessons we’re never going to use, playing video games, and wasting time. We’d probably be living hedonistically and we’d definitely be having children as soon as we’re able to - we wouldn’t have time to read or do anything that didn’t contribute to our survival. We’d basically be living like animals.

The only thing that keeps the inhabitants of Wither from living like animals is the fact that the first generation of genetically engineered humans are still alive, although the youngest of them are already seventy years old. They are the ones that try to keep a semblance of a normal society intact, but what’s going to happen in a few more decades when the first generation dies and they still haven’t found a cure for the younger generation?

I’m interested in seeing what happens next with Rhine, Gabriel, and Linden and I want to know more about what happens to the people in Wither. Will they ever find a cure? What will happen when the first generation dies out? Wither is the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading the next books in the trilogy.

Article first published as Book Review: Thirteen Days To Midnight by Patrick Carman on Blogcritics.

If you could have only one superpower…what would it be?

This question is asked over and over again in the book, and I have to admit, I still don’t know what my answer would be.

In the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Jacob Fielding, ponders the possible answers to this question and he discusses the pros and cons of a couple. Flying would be dangerous, for example, and invisibility seems to be the best superpower, except that it would lead to all sorts of temptation since you’d basically be able to do almost anything without consequence. So he decides that invisibility isn’t a superpower, it’s a “lose-your-soul-to-the-devil power”.

He has a point. With great power comes great responsibility, famous words from another superhero story, and true, because power can be used for good but it can also be abused. Jacob, his girlfriend Oh, short for Ophelia, and his best friend Milo, find out the hard way what happens when they abuse a power that they don’t understand.

Jacob and his friends discover that he has the power of indestructibility, and that he can pass on that power to others and use it to save lives. It would be a really cool power to have, except how do you decide who gets to live and who dies?

They experiment with it, get into fights with it, save a few people with it, and let some others die because the power can only be given to one person at a time. Unfortunately, all those deaths that didn’t happen, have to go somewhere, and so Oh becomes home to all that darkness. Jacob and Milo have to kill her to save her, but how do you kill someone you love?

I enjoyed the story itself because it was well-written and has an interesting plot, but what I really liked about it is that it makes you think. Obviously, there’s a moral to this story and it’s telling us not to abuse power because there are always a consequences. But here’s the thing, what if there are no consequences?

There Jacob is, telling us about invisibility being a temptation at the beginning of the book, because nothing would stop you from doing anything you want with it if you were never caught. Then he tells us the story of what happens with his own superpower, of how he and his friends abused it, only to find out that there is a consequence, and when they realized it, they stop abusing the power.

My question is, if there was no consequence, would they have gone on abusing the power forever? Are we all “good” citizens because we’re afraid of the consequences, of getting caught, or are we good because we want to be, because we believe it’s the right thing to do?

It really makes me wonder; if you knew you would never ever have to face any consequence of your actions, would you lie, steal, cheat, murder? How far would you go and where would you draw the line? Or would you still be a “good” person simply because you choose to?

Now, I’m not sure if the author intended for his readers to ask these questions, but it was written for the young adult audience and most young adults are naturally inquisitive and imaginative. I’m sure they will enjoy this book on many levels.

Article first published as Book Review: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore on Blogcritics.

This book is the first in the Lorien Legacies series about nine alien kids with special powers, or Legacies, from the planet Lorien, who are hiding on Earth from the Mogadorians.

The Mogadorians are sinister beings who wants to kill them and destroy Earth like they destroyed Lorien. Three of the nine kids have been killed, and Number Four, the protagonist of this book, is next.

The mysterious author, Pittacus Lore, is described on the back cover of the book as Lorien’s ruling Elder and having been on Earth for the last twelve years, preparing for the war with the Mogadorians.

Now obviously this book is a work of fiction, but I like the idea that it could be true. Do I believe that there are aliens? Of course I do. The universe is so vast, I think we’d be arrogant to think that we’re the only intelligent life forms living in it.

Do I think that this particular story about the Loriens and the Mogadorians is believable though? Not so much, even factoring in suspension of belief and all that. I mean, forget about all the super powers, healing stones, shape-shifting animals, and all that stuff for a moment. It’s the simple details that gets me.

Firstly, every time Number Four and Henri, his guardian, had to move, they move within the United States. Why? Why can’t they move to some other country in some other continent? Wouldn’t that be more effective if they really wanted to hide from the Mogadorians? I understand that there are nine other Lorien Legacies and if they meet each other, the spell that they can only be killed off in the order of their numbers will be broken, but I’m quite sure that there are more than nine countries on Earth.

Secondly, just how clueless can Number Four be that he fails to notice that Bernie Kosar isn’t a regular dog? The dog runs into one part of the woods and then appears from the other side, don’t you think that’s more than just “peculiar”? Wouldn’t a supposedly intelligent person have guessed that there was more to Bernie Kosar, especially since he had already seen the Lorien animals in his dream-memories?

Also, the way the Mogadorians were described, and the way they killed so easily and so quickly before, with Numbers One to Three, you’d think that with so many of them surrounding Number Four and his friends, that they’d be killed just as easily.

Sure, the difference is that Numbers Four and Six have gotten their legacies already, but seriously, as ruthless and strong as the Mogadorians are, how are Mark and Sarah able to get close enough to hurt them, much less kill them, so extremely easily and without getting hurt themselves?

I won’t even go into character development, except to say that most of the characters were shallow and not very likable. I liked Bernie Kosar though; I thought he was the best character in the book.

There are so many problems with this book that make it hard for me to really enjoy it, but I won’t go into all of them. I’m sure it will make for a great movie with all the special effects and all, but I expected a lot more from the book.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I’d been wanting to read this book for a long time after seeing so many people loving and recommending it.

I had no idea what the book was about though, only that it was a utopian vs. dystopian world, or something to that effect.

Well, utopia and dystopia really quite describes this book. It’s about humanity’s quest for the perfect world; always stable, always enough for everyone, and everyone happy.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite so simple. To get this particular utopia, we have to lose our freedom to think, choose, and be different. So you’ll have to wonder, is this really utopia, the perfect world? Or is it a dystopia, a hell on earth?

This is a thought-provoking read, and there are so many things I could discuss about it. Foremost on my mind, is that we’re are already living in a sort of utopia/dystopia. Not as extreme as the one that Huxley writes about, but to a degree. That is, if we recognize it.

Books like these are scary, because they’re entirely possible. It could happen if we let it. This is definitely a book everyone should read and think about.

The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper

I’d been a huge fan of Tepper’s ever since I read Beauty, which was one of the most amazing fairy-tale retellings I’d ever read.

Since then, I’ve read only this book and Grass, and I am so amazed by her ability to weave such complex worlds in her books.

In The Margarets, humans on Earth have exhausted Earth’s natural resources with overpopulation and indifference, to the point that the intergalactic government have decided that something has to be done to control the population, or some other entities will decide to destroy all humans instead, to preserve Earth.

Humans try to negotiate with the other beings, but the only resource they have an abundance of are people, so they export their children out as bondslaves.

Margaret is one of them… Or should I say, she is seven of them. Margaret was the only human child living on one of the colonies, and to keep loneliness away, she created six imaginary companions, who are all aspects of herself. As she grows up, one by one, these companions are separated from her.

They go on to live different lives in different planets around the galaxy, but it is crucial to the human race that the Margarets find one another again.

As I’ve said, I love Tepper’s complex worlds, she gives so much details of the background, the places, and all the different inhabitants of the planets. I also love her characters; all the Margarets, so different yet so similar, and the other colorful characters, including the vile but so interesting K’Famirs.

Because her stories are so complex, it’s sometimes hard to dive into them, but once you’re in, you’re completely engrossed, and they’re always worth it.

Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee

 

I've been a huge fan of Tanith Lee ever since I read White as Snow, so I ordered this book from Amazon.com. The thing is, I had the book Drinking Sapphire Wine, and it included Don't Bite the Sun, but I hadn't read the book, and I didn't realize it was the same book.

 

I found it really curious that she titled the second part of the book Drinking Sapphire Wine, remembering that I had a book by the same name written by her. So I compared both books, and it turned out they were exactly the same!

 

It turned out that Biting the Sun is actually two books in one, Don't Bite the Sun, and Drinking Sapphire Wine.

 

Anyway, it was an amazing book (or books)! Tanith Lee creates a whole other world, Four BEE, where hedonism rules, and everyone can commit suicide and come back in a different body of their own design everyday.

 

They can get married, for a minute, a day, or a year, to whomever they choose. They can choose to have a female or a male body, or alternating between either as they wish.

 

The main character of the story is pre-dominantly female, though we never actually find out her name. She's tired with life in Four BEE, feeling that everything they do is meaningless and boring, and hating that the Quasi-Robots and the machines are doing everything for them, effectively rendering them useless.

 

Eventually, she rebels and find another way of life for herself and some other people, though of course, the process isn't immediately easy. I loved the story, and I love the whole concept of being able to commit suicide and coming back in another body, though of course, it wouldn't be such a great idea in reality. Tanith Lee works the concept well in the book though, and I'm an even bigger fan of hers now!

Grass by Sheri S. Tepper

Rating:

Sheri S. Tepper is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. When I read the reviews on Amazon.com about this book, I was intrigued. It's a science fiction novel set in the future, mostly on a planet called Grass.

Apparently, humanity have migrated and set up communities in many different planets, and somehow every single one of those planets have been infected with plague except Grass. Somehow Grass, which like its name implies, is a planet covered almost completely with grass, is immune to the plague.

So as the plot goes, the main characters need to find out what it is that makes Grass immune, and how to find the cure so that they can save the rest of humanity. Of course, stories are never that simple. There are obstacles to overcome, not least of all, the original inhabitants of Grass, the terrifying and malicious Hippae, who steal the minds of humans who come in close contact with them. Marjorie and Rigo have to find a way to save humanity from the plague, and themselves and their family from the malicious plans of the Hippae and the people who are controlled by them.

In one word: amazing.

Tepper is a master of plots, weaving stories within stories, putting everything together in a way that seems complicated but makes complete sense. This book reads like an epic historical account, although set in the future, and I was extremely disappointed that it had to end. I felt so engrossed and pulled into the story that I actually had withdrawal symptoms after I finished the book two days ago.

I spent these last two days thinking about the story, the amazing characters that I fell in love with, most notably Marjorie, and Sylvan, whom I loved the moment I met him, and all the intricacies within the story. I felt terribly afraid when the characters were in danger, I felt grieved when they grieved, I felt relieved when they escaped danger, I felt love when they loved, and I felt abandoned when the book ended.

Even now, I wish there was more to read about Marjorie, Sylvan, Rigo and all the other characters. I am only appeased by the fact that Tepper has written many other great books, and I am eager to let her bring me on more of her imaginative adventures.


More books from Sheri S. Tepper:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Date Started: 11th Mar 2007
Date Finished: 12th Mar 2007

Rating:

Arthur Dent is an earthling whose home is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic freeway. Then comes a great many adventures for Arthur and his friends, and a new and exciting world is revealed to us as the masters and creators of earth are unveiled.

I'm sure many of you have heard of this book. I'm sure some of you have seen the movie.

I haven't seen the movie, but I heard from a source that it wasn't very good. I've heard many things about the book, and they're mostly good. Which of course, prompted me to read the book.

No doubt it's a great book, and I can see why some people might think that the movie wasn't good. There were many jokes in the book that I'm sure couldn't have translated easily onto the big screen.

One thing I didn't like about it; there was no real ending in this book, you have to get all the other books and read them all before you know the whole story. Another is that I had to skip through some parts of the book where the descriptions and explanations got a little bit too tedious for me.

Other than that I think it's great. I love the humour, and I love the whole creativity of how everything links up.

Well, I'm a little late with my reviews...*sheepish* Sorry! As the books I read piled up, I kept putting reviewing off, which is obviously a bad idea, because they pile up even more. LOL!

So I decided to just write a sorta general review of the books I've read since I last blogged, and then after I've caught up, I'll write 'proper' reviews for the books I'll read in the future. I can't remember much about the earlier books I read anyway, which normally happens when I don't blog fast, so I've learned my lesson and I'll blog asap next time. =P

Anyways, here are the books I've read since the last time I blogged:

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Date Started: 14th Dec 2006
Date Finished: 16th Dec 2006

Rating:

Well, this was a fun read, as Neil Gaiman's books usually are. His books are always a little mixed between reality and fantasy...the lines are always a little blurred, and that's exactly what I love about them. His books are portals into another world, reading his books are like opening the doorways and staring right into a fantastic world.

Reading Anansi Boys, I was torn between screaming in frustration at all the misfortune faced by Fat Charlie, mostly caused by his brother, Spider, and laughing my head off at how ridiculous it all was. Everything works out in the end, but the journey is so exciting, so unbelievable, so stressful, you just have to sit back and let it take you wherever it's going.

Enjoy the ride, Gaiman is always a joy to read, and this is another one of his gems.

Cell by Stephen King

Date Started: 16th Dec 2006
Date Finished: 18th Dec 2006

Rating:

Would you believe this is my first Stephen King novel? I've always wanted to read his books, and I've tried many times, but never managed to finish one. My first purchased King novel was Dolores Claibourne, which I bought a long long time ago, and couldn't get into. I tried Carrie, and It, and his Dark Tower series, but never finished any of them, until now. It's not that his writing is bad or anything, it just happened that I never finished a single one.

Now that I've finally finished one of his novels, I can see why he's so successful. This book is a work of genius. The storyline is basically similar to all those zombie movies which are so popular recently, but the way he crafts the book is amazing. Most horror movies or books try to scare you with gory and suspenseful scenes, and then shock you when something suddenly jumps out of the closet, King builds up horror slowly, logically - yes, logically- and it scares you because you think, oh my god, this could actually happen.

Reading a King novel for the first time, I finally understand why he's so popular. He's a master at his craft, and I can't wait to read more. I'm getting out all my other King books, and I'm going to finish them this time.

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch

Date Started: Fall 2006
Date Finished: Spring 2007

Rating:

I bought Book 1, 2 and 3 many years ago, I believe it was in 2001, and I've read Book 1 and 2 many times before. I started Book 3 but didn't finish it.

Recently I read them all again, and I was awed by what I got out of them. I believe my understanding of the world, life, and my views have changed since I last read these books, and reading them again brought me to another level of understanding.

In my humble opinion, this book is a must-read, whether you believe in a God, or in many Gods, or Goddesses, or if you don't believe in a God at all, it doesn't matter. There are a lot of hard truths in the books, but whether it comes from God, or from Neale's subconscious, or even if he made it all up, there is a lot of wisdom in these books. Read it, and you will never feel alone again. You will live your life differently and see everything with new eyes.

Children Who Have Lived Before by Trutz Hardo

Date Started: 26th Dec 2006
Date Finished: 28th Dec 2006

Rating:

I've always wondered about reincarnation. I definitely believe in it, but my curiousity about life and beyond always lead me to read books like these.

This book is a collection of case studies of possible reincarnations. I believe anyone with an open mind and a desire for truth who reads this book will have no doubt about the possibility of reincarnation any longer. All these cases can't be hoaxes, and there is just no other explanation for the behaviour and knowledge of some of these reincarnated souls.

If you have an interest in reincarnation, or if you're looking for more evidence to support the theory, read this book for yourself.

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Date Started: 11th Jan 2007
Date Finished: 13th Jan 2007

Rating:

This was an easy book to read, obviously. I thought I'd read it because it's a classic children's book, and it's being made into a movie with Dakota Fanning, who I really like. But hype aside, it's a wonderful children's book. I love Charlotte and I thought she was the kindest, bravest, wise, and intelligent soul.

A lot of it was hilarious, all the antics of the characters, both human and animals, were exaggerated and 'caricaturized'. But it was also sweet and heart-warming, touching and a little sad too. Read it if you love animals, miracles, comedy, and a good story.

Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

Date Started: 20th Jan 2007
Date Finished: 24th Jan 2007

Rating:

I was taken in by the storyline; four men and one women journeying into the living body of a man? A great story if I ever heard one. Asimov is known for his futuristic tales, most notably I, Robot, which was made popular recently as a movie, but while his name is a recognized one, I've never read any of his books.

This book was made into a movie about more than a decade ago, I didn't watch it either, but as I said, the storyline hooked me.

What hooked me even more, was the way he made the voyage exciting for readers. A journey into the living body of a man? Definitely an interesting story, but how do you make it less of an anatomical lesson and more of an action-packed adventure? Well, how about if the fate of the entire world lies in the success of that journey! Hooked yet? Yeah, me too. So I read it, and I loved it.

Panic by Jeff Abbot

Date Started: 24th Jan 2007
Date Finished: 26th Jan 2007

Rating:

It's weird, I remember I enjoyed reading this, but thinking back now, I don't remember much about it.

I remember the basic storyline, but not much of the details although this was the most recent book I read. I guess it's a good beach read, a thriller, but not something you'd ever read again for anything other than a 'one-night-stand'.

It's exciting and quite plausible, and definitely scary, discovering your mother dead and finding out that your whole life was a lie. It's a great story, without much of a foundation, sort of like a beautiful person without much of a personality. You'd be fascinated with the way the person looked, and you could probably spend hours marvelling at the perfection of that person's features, skin, and hair.... but probing for something deeper would leave you entirely empty-handed. It's still well worth looking at though.