Book Review | Book Chatter

Fever Dream Book Cover

Fever Dream
By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Grand Central Publishing
May 2010
405pp

The Short of It:

A solid addition to the Special Agent Pendergast series. It contains all of the witty anecdotes that I’ve come to expect from Pendergast, but it’s also a bit of a page-turner.

The Rest of It:

I have a long-standing love affair with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Years ago…I picked-up Relic, which was book #1 in the series and since then, I’ve been enjoying the series every couple of years. There have been a few misses, so I consider these books guilty pleasures and nothing more. However, every once in a while I am reminded how good they are. This is one such case.

Fever Dream is about Special Agent Pendergast and his discovery that his wife’s death, years ago, may not have been the accident he imagined it to be. You see, he knew she was mauled by a lion while game hunting in Africa, but what he didn’t know is that his wife’s rifle, her only means of protection, was filled with blanks. With this new piece of information, he sets out to find the true killer.

What makes these books special are the characters. Pendergast is a rather refined individual. Not your typical FBI agent. There are lots of asides and witticisms that are quite enjoyable. On the other hand, D’Agosta, his liaison in the police department is not as refined and a bit more stereotypical so the contrast between the two is quite entertaining.

Overall, Fever Dream was a quick read and provided a much-needed distraction but wasn’t all “fluff” and pat endings. If you shy away from crime fiction because of the million little details or mystery because of the formulaic quality of it, then I think you will like this one.

It should be noted as well, that it really doesn’t matter which order you read these books in. They are all pretty much stand-alone pieces.

Source: Purchased for Duckie (My Kindle)

Mockingjay Book Cover

***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!*** ***SPOILERS!***

Mockingjay
By Suzanne Collins
Scholastic, Inc.
August 2010
400pp

The Short of It:

Although I enjoyed the series as a whole, this last book was a total letdown.

The Rest of It:

I imagine that the pressure to write a satisfying third installment to this series was great, but from the get-go the book sort of limps along with poor pacing and writing that was so forced in places that it actually made me wince. I mean really, what happened here?

In my opinion, I feel as if the author did not event attempt to deliver with this one. Why bother? People will buy it, good or bad just because of the popularity of the series itself. I am so angry over this book that I would have thrown it across the room had it not been on my Kindle.

Things that contributed to my dislike of the book:

-Katniss. I never got the “girl on fire” thing. To me, that title belongs to a heroine that blazes a path to victory. Katniss is SO not that. The constant self-deprecating, the wide-eyed innocence, etc. Girl!! Get a grip. Get it together and kick some ass!

-Gale. What happened to my lovely Gale? Bitterness! Although a lot of you may think differently, this is the only character that I feel was true in the end. Yeah, he was a bit more violent in this book and seemed to have a blatant disregard for human life, but I could see where he was coming from. His eyes were on the prize, so to speak and that prize was not Katniss. I can’t fault him for that. I mean, how many times can a guy be turned down? My issue with him is that if he really wanted to end up with Katniss, he should have fought for it as he did for everything else.

-Peeta. Good lord. What the hell happened to Peeta? I know he was brainwashed but come on, even before the brainwashing he was…meh. He always seemed so juvenile to me and not as mature as some of the other characters. Supposedly he was a good-looking hunk with curls but it seemed as if he was sort of vacuous in my book.

-The suicide pill. So much mention of the pill yet no one took it. I sure wish some of them had.

-The entire book had this detached quality to it. Big things would happen but there would only be a little bit of description about it. Usually a startling image to send it home instead of a paragraph or two and then the chapter would predictably end with a shocking sentence like “…and then his legs blew off.” Ugh.

-The pomp and circumstance. The costumes and make-up and base zero beauty were all too much for me. Perhaps if I thought they were going on a true hero I’d think differently, but for Katniss? Seemed like a waste of good lip gloss to me.

-Prim. Killing off Prim in a one-liner seemed like a pot shot to me. She was one of the few characters that seemed to have her act together.

-Finnick. Sort of the same feeling here. No future for the good ones I guess.

-Katniss deciding to have kids just because Peeta wanted them. What? So now you are breeding weak-minded, ambiguous little darlings to boot?

Overall, I found myself cringing throughout the book. The story itself, the plot to destroy the Capitol had promise but with such a weak crew carrying out the orders, it’s no wonder it fell apart.

When they put that crack-pot team of snipers into one special unit I couldn’t help but think they were leading the lambs to slaughter. I suppose at the end they succeeded in taking down the Capitol and that could be interpreted as success but I would have preferred a true battle of the wits instead of them putting on wigs and going undercover.

Source: Purchased for Duckie (my Kindle).