Review: The Curiosity by: Stephen P. Kiernan

The Curiosity by: Stephen P. Kiernan (July 9, 2013)

448 pages

Genre: General Fiction

Publisher: William Morrow

Source: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | Amazon 

Goodreads Summary: Michael Crichton meets The Time Traveler's Wife in this powerful debut novel in which a man, frozen in the Arctic ice for more than a century, awakens in the present day.

Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team make a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. As a scientist in a groundbreaking project run by the egocentric and paranoid Erastus Carthage, Kate has brought small creatures-plankton, krill, shrimp-"back to life." Never have the team's methods been attempted on a large life form.

Heedless of the consequences, Carthage orders that the frozen man be brought back to the lab in Boston, and reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns that he was-is-a judge, Jeremiah Rice, and the last thing he remembers is falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean in 1906. When news of the Lazarus Project and Jeremiah Rice breaks, it ignites a media firestorm and massive protests by religious fundamentalists.

Thrown together by circumstances beyond their control, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah's new life is slipping away. With Carthage planning to exploit Jeremiah while he can, Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love.

A gripping, poignant, and thoroughly original thriller, Stephen Kiernan's provocative debut novel raises disturbing questions about the very nature of life and humanity-man as a scientific subject, as a tabloid plaything, as a living being: A curiosity.

My Review

The Curiosity may seem like a daunting read at 448 pages with the plot being very scientific but that shouldn’t keep you away. Although this book took me a while to finish, it was a unique and memorable read. It is engaging, thought provoking, heartbreaking, and just down right life changing. What would you do if you were brought back to life more than a hundred years after you already died? What is your ethical opinion on bringing a man back to life and then treating him just like a science experiment? Those are just some of the questions that arise in The Curiosity.

All of the characters in The Curiosity are unforgettable. We get the POV of Dr. Kate Philo, a scientist at heart but she questions the project; the man in ice, Jeremiah Rice; the head honcho, Erastus Carthage; and the journalist, Daniel Dixon. Although it may seem like getting this many point of views would be confusing or annoying I think that it is actually the perfect number of different people telling the story, really rounding it out because everyone was so different and had different beliefs. The storytelling is done magnificently from Dr. Philo’s point of view. My least favorite character would have to be Dixon, he just never sat right with me, seems to be a womanizer, and just down right annoying.

When I first started reading The Curiosity the scientific terminology was throwing me off. I was slightly nervous that I wouldn’t be able to follow everything that was going on in the book since a scientific discovery is the main point of the novel, but it worked out just fine. The story gets better and better with each page. It’s captivating to say the least. The story of Jeremiah Rice is more than just science but everything in-between, and his story is heartbreaking. Overall I really enjoyed this book. There were a few out of left field moments that occurred, but in all reality it wasn’t anything too troublesome and it barely registered on my “I care” scale. I also just want to state that the title is aptly named. Read it to really find out what I’m talking about.

So if you have some time and are looking for a unique novel you should read The Curiosity. It’s sure to make you think and leave a lasting impression. Plus, I really enjoyed taking a second to think about the whole situation and trying to decide how I would act if I were ever to encounter something like that. (Sorry I’m slightly vague but I don’t want to give anything important away.)

** I received a free copy of this book from the publisher William Morrow for an honest review. Thanks!

Review: He Belongs to Me by: Theresa Rizzo

He Belongs to Me by: Theresa Rizzo (2013)

392 pages

Genre: General Fiction/Romance

Source: I received a free copy from the author for my honest review.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: He Belongs to Me is a love story . . . a tale of betrayal and deception and of a young mother's determination to recover what belongs to her.

Forced to leave her baby and tricked into relinquishing her parental rights, four years later Catherine Boyd is back and she'll do anything to regain custody of her son--even reconcile with the husband falsely accused of killing their son's twin.

All in the name of love for a little boy, generations of pain and tragedy are exposed in a courtroom drama.

My Review

He Belongs to Me will pull on your heart strings and make you boil with rage (in a good way), it’s a well written novel about family hardships and a mother who will do anything in her power to be reunited with her son once and for all. This is a strong first novel by Theresa Rizzo.

When I first started reading He Belongs to Me I was a tiny bit nervous, the plot just seemed to be really unbelievable. What woman would be dumb enough to accidentally sign away her parental rights to her child? Luckily, this question gets answered and actually made the story more unique than many other family drama novels that I've read. It works itself out just fine as the story progresses and makes more sense. 

There are so many family secrets and issues that pop up throughout the novel between both Catherine and Thomas, the parents of Drew, the boy who everyone is trying to get custody of, and Catherine's grandparents, the ones fighting them for custody. Although I could fill in some of the missing puzzle pieces of these secrets on my own while reading, there were many that I just couldn't put my finger on until later in the book when they were revealed. This made me curious and more invested in the novel.

Catherine and Thomas are great characters. They both have their flaws, but Rizzo brought them to life. Their story is hard, romantic, crazy and everything in-between. I really loved reading about their reconciliation, it was hard for them but still playful, and some of the scenes were so sweet and funny. They were super cute. The romance aspect of this book was done really well, along with the family dynamics. As for Catherine's grandparent’s, they are perfectly evil but semi-misunderstood villains. And the little boy Drew is darling, a real heart-breaker.

The part of the novel that took place in the courtroom was awesome. I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but this book did an amazing job at the back and forth questioning between the lawyers and their clients. I was on the edge of my seat.

This is a well written novel that you should not overlook. It touches on a lot of sticky subjects so you may need to be in a certain mood to read it, but when you get there you will be glad you did.

** A big thanks to the author for giving me a free copy of this book! This in no way hindered my honest review.

ARC Review: The Humanity Project by: Jean Thompson

The Humanity Project by: Jean Thompson (April 23, 2013)

Publisher: Blue Rider Press

352 pages

Genre: General Fiction

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father, Art, who doesn’t quite understand how he has suddenly become responsible for raising a sullen adolescent girl. Art’s neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Just as mysteriously, no one seems to know where Conner, the Fosters’ handyman, goes after work, but he has become the one person Linnea can confide in, perhaps because his own home life is a war zone: his father has suffered an injury and become addicted to painkillers. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?

Thompson proves herself at the height of her powers in The Humanity Project, crafting emotionally suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining characters, in which we inevitably see ourselves. Set against the backdrop of current events and cultural calamity, it is at once a multifaceted ensemble drama and a deftly observant story of our twenty-first-century society

My Review

Was this a good book? Yes. Was it an epic book? No. Maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I tired writing this review several times to make it coherent, so I apologize in advance if it is still kind of hard to follow.

Thompson writes beautiful prose and that is my favorite aspect of The Humanity Project. It captivated me from the very beginning. The writing really spoke to me. My second favorite thing is the characters. They are unique and interesting, each having their own problem they are trying to figure out/overcome, with a focus on poverty, messed up families and more. I felt a connection with these characters, I felt for them, and when I care about a character, the book is way more engaging. This novel does focus on the idea of hope and redemption, but sadly not enough to make this book epic, in a sense that it changed my life or made me stop and think for very long.

There were two aspects of the book that I was not a fan of. One was The Humanity Project plot, I felt like the synopsis was misleading. WARNING: Semi-Spoilers Ahead in this paragraph! Although the general story-lines of each character was good and had that sense of trying to figure out if people can change, the actual Humanity Project wasn’t really anywhere to be seen. I was thinking that the whole concept of “paying someone to be good” would physically come in to play, but it never did. This to me was kind of weird since it was the title of the novel and was mentioned in the synopsis. I’m not sure if I just didn’t read "deep" enough into the book or what, but I wanted to see actual payouts to people for doing good and be able to see how that would work or not work.

The second aspect of the novel that I wasn’t a big fan of was the case of the "overused point of views." The amount of point of views in this book (and its general feel) reminded me of The Casual Vacancy. Although I don’t mind this way of telling a story, I felt like a couple of the point of views (by people who were not even mentioned in the synopsis) were so minor that they were not really needed at all, especially because in the end every character wasn't really given an ending, many were left hanging.

I know I talk more about the negatives than the positives of The Humanity Porject, but sometimes I find those easier to discuss. Believe me when I say that I still enjoyed reading this book, I was just expecting a little bit more. I want to emphasis that this wasn’t a bad book, it just didn't live up to my expectations that the synopsis gave me.


If you are looking for a very well written thought provoking read with great characters then you should give this book a try. What have you got to lose?

** I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher for an honest review. 

RATING 3/5 

Review: The Borrower by: Rebecca Makkai

The Borrower by: Rebecca Makkai (2011)

Publisher: Viking (The Penguin Group)

324 pages

Genre: General Fiction

Summary: I didn’t know exactly how to summarize this book so I grabbed this from Barnes and Noble: “Lucy Hull, a children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Ian needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes. Desperate to save him from the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian when she finds him camped out in the library after hours, and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip. But is it just Ian who is running away? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?”

Review: My mother actually recommended this book to me, saying that the main character reminded her a little bit of me, and usually we have some pretty different reading preferences, but she was absolutely correct, this book is a gem. Here is my short but sweet review of this crazy story.

Lucy, the children’s librarian, is not only hilarious but down right lovable, even with her faults. If you are an avid reader and lover of books, which you probably are if you are reading my blog all about books, then you will enjoy this novel. I’m not saying it is the next Jane Eyre or anything, but I am saying that it is a very comical and enjoyable read. Not only will you fall in love with Lucy but you will without a doubt wish ten-year-old Ian Drake was your friend. Reading this book made me want to be a librarian and introduce new books to kids like Ian, addicted to reading. Ian is a hilarious and somewhat confused kid that never fails to put on a show.

I honestly am not sure I have anything negative to say about this book, and that is surprising. There are great references to other novels in this book that an avid reader will enjoy. There are scenes that will make you laugh out loud. There are more memorable and relateable characters than most books have. The plot is unique, and some say it’s too unbelievable, but I think that just makes it even more intriguing. Makkai wrote a wonderful book full of laughter and small treasures hidden inside for the reader to find.

Read this book any way that you can. Buy it, borrow it from a friend or from the library, I don’t really care as long as you read it. It is a cute and charming novel that will stay with you for a long time. The ending will leave you with a whole new love for books and the power they have on the person who reads them.

Rating: 5/5   BUY The Borrower

Review: The Casual Vacancy by: J.K. Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by: J.K. Rowling

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

512 pages

Genre: General Fiction

Summary: This novel is about a small town named Pagford, in England. A member of the parish council, Barry Fairbrother, dies and leaves a casual vacancy. The residents of Pagford now are trying to figure out who will take his seat, and it is all political. This small town might seem cute and quaint but the residents are anything but.

Review: This is nothing like Harry Potter. There is no magic. If you are looking for a book like that then you will be very disappointed. On the other hand, if you are looking for a dark and somewhat depressing novel then you are in luck. It is very well written, but it wasn’t everything I had hoped for from this critically acclaimed author.

I’m going to come right out and say it. At times this book was a little slow. I felt like the beginning of the novel, where Rowling builds up the background information on the characters, takes way to long. This may be because she focuses on a lot of different characters, but in the end I grew bored at times. It took a lot for me to really get into the novel at first. Once I finally started actually finding the characters interesting it was easier for me to want to actually pick up the book and read it instead of having to force myself to read it.

The characters in this novel are all interesting and they all have some dark secret or problem in their lives. If you are faint at heart then don’t read this novel. It has teenage sex, abuse, and much more. It can be pretty graphic at times. Sometimes it was hard to relate to the characters because they were all so messed up. At other times I was so involved in their lives that I was either cheering them on or hoping for their demise.

When this book finally started to grab my attention I would have to say that I enjoyed uncovering the secrets that are deeply hidden in Pagford. Some of them where painfully obvious, but some of them were surprising and made me cringe.

People that are not Harry Potter fans will enjoy this novel and some that are Harry Potter fans may not. I don’t regret reading this book. Like I said before, it was very well written and had some good characters and plot twists. So I suggest that you give this book a try either way. Just be prepared for a somewhat messed up and depressing town of people and their stories.

Rating: 4/5