A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This year, one of my goals is to read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. I’ve always been a fan, having read the short story anthologies years ago, and after watching Sherlock I wanted to get to know more of the source material. Obviously, I had to start with A Study in Scarlet.

The first half of the book was really compelling. The Watson/Sherlock back story, Gregson and Lestrade’s anti-bromance, just seeing all the elements of Sherlock Holmes being put in place was enjoyable. I was confused, though, when the culprit was caught yet there was still half the book left. This was where the book kind of lost me.

The sudden switch to Utah and Mormons caught me so off guard that I thought maybe the Kindle file had somehow become corrupted and some other book was inserted into my Sherlock Holmes. It took several chapters before I realized that this was the culprit’s backstory. It was a gutsy move and an interesting narrative device, but I didn’t particularly care for it.

Overall, I have mixed feelings on this book. It was great to see the basic Sherlock Holmes pieces being put together, but it really lost me with that wild west adventure. Still, I’m excited to continue working through the canon.

Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Madness Underneath is the sequel to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Since this is a sequel, there will be spoilers for the first book. Really just spoilers in general.

I want to start by saying that I loved The Name of the Star. I read it in about two sittings. I loved the whole concept – an American girl in British boarding school, the way that Johnson conceived of ghosts, Jack the Ripper, secret police groups, it was great. The characters were engaging, the world was real, and the plot kept me in a constant state of anxiety.

That being said, I was pretty disappointed with the sequel. Most of the book is really just wrapping up loose ends from the first and setting the tone for the second. There’s a lot of Rory dealing with her trauma, which is interesting and character building, except that you get 75% of the way through the book and realize nothing has really happened. There was a thread, a crack in the road where ghosts seem to be leaking out, that was kind of dropped halfway through, maybe it’s connected with the events later but we don’t know yet if it will come back or if it’s just been dropped.

Rory’s actions later in the book don’t make a ton of sense. Jane’s arguments for why she should run away are pretty lightweight, and Rory doesn’t even seem that convinced until suddenly she’s throwing her phone away and totally on board. Her stupid decision (because at that point that’s what it was – they hadn’t threatened her or forced her yet) is what lands Stephen in the hospital. Also, I know there are a lot of Stephen/Rory shippers but I’m not into it. He’s older and in a position of authority over her, whether he’s only a few years older or a lot it’s still stepping into icky territory.

Overall, I’m still excited to read the end of this trilogy but I was pretty disappointed in Madness Underneath. In the next book, I’m hoping to see more friends from school again, and a good resolution to this Jane insanity as well as the crack in the road.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I know I’m late to the party, but, I really, really enjoyed Fangirl. I enjoyed the simplicity of the story- after a long bout of dystopian and fantasy triolgies, it was refreshing to have a story where the stakes weren’t so insane.

I identified with Cath so much it almost hurt sometimes to read what she was going through. Her first several chapters were like a painful retelling of my first month in college: the feeling of isolation and shame. Why am I not having as much fun as everyone else? It was so real.

I also thought the sympathetic portrayal of mental illness was well done. So often, bipolar or depressed people are either demonized or immobile (the shut-in depressed person trope) but Cath and her dad were more complex. He wasn’t crazy or antisocial like bipolar and depressed people often are in books, but he wouldn’t take medicine and there were consequences. I did feel like Rowell dropped Cath’s anxiety kind of out of the blue, though: it was prominent and then just gone.

I had were some problems with Levii- he has no faults beside being more blasé than Cath about their kiss. Even that I suspect was more an age difference than anything else. I also felt like Cath was a little too saintly: taking care of her dad, never drinking, never smoking, wearing cardigans, forgiving Wren with no anger. The only person she really stood up to was Laura, and she was just a one-dimensional demon anyway.

Overall, though, the characters were well written, the mental illness not romanticized. I wish the story had resolved a little more – I felt like there were some loose threads- but maybe that just made it more realistics. After all, unlike in Simon, story threads are not always neatly wrapped during final exams.

Favorite moments: getting dropped at college, her frenzied writing, not letting her writing partner take more.

Buy here!

Writing/Book Resolutions!

This year, I’m using a Don’t Break the Chain calendar from Karen Kavett (more info here). Basically, you cross off the date every day that you do your resolution, and you don’t want to break your chain of Xs, so you keep doing it.

My don’t break the chain is to read every day for 15 minutes (this is going to be challenging come midterms) and to write every day for 15 minutes (this is going to be challenging all the time).

Happy New Year!