Tag: fiction (Page 1 of 11)

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio | Book Review

January 15, 2025 / Monique

Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling meets Groundhog Day. The Husbands is an absolutely hilarious novel about a woman who comes home from a hen party and finds a man in her London flat. Most alarming is that it turns out he is her husband. She has zero memories of him or getting married. As she panic scrolls through her phone, it becomes obvious that either he is an amazing spy who has infiltrated her digital life, as well as her flat, OR she is actually married. WTF.

My first thought was that poor Lauren has early onset dementia. But no. She has a magic attic. When one husband goes up, another comes down. Lauren filters through these men faster that you could swipe left or right on Tinder. There are a few keepers, but they only last a few days. The most promising one, Carter, inadvertently enters the attic and he’s lost to her forever. The least promising husband, Amos, appears a few times and he is as terrible as the Amos she broke up pre-magic attic.

Lauren has an infinite number of possible husbands but as she swaps one version of her life for another, the philosophical question arises: when will she stop looking for the best life and start living the one she has?

I thought this novel was really funny. The Husbands audiobook is a hoot. The narration is fabulous. The end of chapter 12 has a wonderful bit of back and forth between Lauren and two friends, one of whom is getting married. The dialogue is really cheeky and had me laughing out loud.

If you like Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible then you’ll enjoy this bit of romance meets magical realism. It’s a great debut from Holly Gramazio.

Read a sample or listen on Audible on Amazon.

The Tenants by Pat Dobie | Book Review

January 14, 2025 / Monique

The Tenants by Pat Dobie is a delight. Gosh, I have had such a string of mediocre reads that I was worried. But this little novel is charming and gritty. The Tenants is the winner of the 45th annual 3-day novel contest. The writing is tight and evocative, just like the Vancouver housing situation. Ok, maybe that sounds dull. But no! The Tenants is about three Vancouverites. Dave and Scott are partners who live in a rental off Victoria drive. Maeve is a homeless woman who is tenting near the blackberry bushes in an unattended/undeveloped area nearby. Happenstance brings the three of them together. And I think what’s so delightful is that you learn just enough about each characters in the same way you might if you too randomly met a neighbour over a few intersecting errands.

Writing a novel in three days requires an economy of language, and that perfectly suits the character of overly frugal Scott. It also suits Maeve, whose survival is too limit how much she says to anybody. Dave is perhaps the most hospitable in that he interacts with Maeve, welcomes her into the secret garden he’s developing on city land, but he too is holding back. So the writing style, the time constraints of the contest, and the constraints of living in an overly expensive city make this weirdly funny story a page turner. Maybe you have to live here to get it, but the story struck a chord for me.

Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway | Book Review

January 6, 2025 / Monique

First published in 1998, Kiss of the Fur Queen opens like a Greek tragedy. We are introduced to the Okimasis family through the caribou-hunter father, Abraham Okimasis, who is striving to win a dog-sled race, which seals upon himself and his family the kiss of the crowned Fur Queen.

Abraham names his next-born child Champion. And early on, Champion is a gifted musician. The next boy, Ooneemeetoo, is a gift dancer. The two boys, born in northern Manitoba, move through their world, hunting caribou with their parents and making music and dances for their family. These are well-loved boys.

When Champion is taken to residential school, he is excited to fly in the small airplane, but sad to leave his little brother. At school his hair is shaved, he is forbidden to speak Cree, and he is renamed Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s only highlight is discovering a piano and convincing the head priest to allow a nun to teach him.

Two years later his little brother joins him at school and is renamed Gabriel. Gabriel is an angel. His face is described as being so lovely that your heart aches; and of course he becomes prey to the priest.

The first part of the novel has so many Greek elements, in particular the repeating and spinning of the tale of the Fur Queen. In Greek tragedy, Athena—the bright eyed goddess—is described as the goddess of wisdom, craft, and battle. The Fur Queen appears many times in the story in different guises—perhaps meant to be a Trickster—but I think the Fur Queen is more like Athena.

More clear is that Greek tragedy deals with big themes of love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Kiss of the Fur Queen goes deep with these themes too.

The love between the brothers, loss of connection to family and culture, pride of personal artistic achievements, the abuse of power by members of the Catholic Church, and the fraught relationship both brothers have with god/God.

Residential school takes the boys away from their community and inserts them into melting pot of Cree children taken from across the North, who are then given new names, language, and religion. The boys are abused by the priests and this emotionally distances them from their Catholic-convert parents. As they grow up and move to the city to pursue their artistic gifts, they are away from the priests but not from the hostilities and limiting beliefs of colonialism. The triumph is that Jeremiah and Gabriel break expectations. Jeremiah becomes a concert pianist and playwright. Gabriel becomes a professional ballet dancer.

Kiss of the Fur Queen is a beautifully written novel of heartbreak and truth, told at a high cost. The mix of Cree words and mythology creates a sense of musicality that weaves through the story and echoes the life of the author.

Tomson Highway, like Jeremiah, is a playwright and musician. His brother Rene was an accomplished dancer and choreographer, who died too young. Their father was a caribou hunter. I do not know if the novel is autobiographical, but it draws on certain elements of their lives and reflects many of the traumas Indigenous children experienced.

Published by Penguin Random House Canada: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/79881/kiss-of-the-fur-queen-by-tomson-highway/9780385697217

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell | Book Review

January 2, 2025 / Monique

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell was the YA novel for the 2024 holiday season. Every store was promoting it as “an instant classic.” I don’t know. I was willing to love it, but actually it was only ok. It did not capture me the way Harry Potter, Percy Jackson or even The Chronicles of Narnia did. But lots of people who read similar things that I like, did love it.

Impossible Creatures is magical adventure that sweeps young Christopher into a landscape of mythical creatures that he must help save with his new friend Mal. Along the way they meet useful adults, dragons, and other creatures who help them understand what is happening to the glimourie (the magical substance that supports life in this land) and how to save not just the magical world but also Christopher’s world.

The writing is functional. You are not struck with too much detail nor too little. But each character serves to advance the plot. It’s very linear, which is ok but definitely not the making of an instant classic. It’s no Philip Pullman. I’d recommend this for young readers (5-8) who are able to deal with older reader (8-12) storylines that involve a bit of suspense, death of a character and some violence but nothing close to Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. If you like the Dragon Masters series then this is a good next read.

History of the Rain by Niall Williams | Book Review

December 29, 2024 / Monique

Longlisted for the 2014 Man Book Prize, History of the Rain is one of those books that I meant to read at the time but forgot about, until recently.

If you liked Long Island by Colm Toibin then you’ll enjoy this even more poetic look at life in Faha, a small village in County Clare, on the banks of the river Shannon. Here we meet Ruthie Swain who is home from college and bedridden. Her illness is not clearly revealed but through lopping stories we discover all the tales of her family tree from the Reverend Swain all the way down to her twin brother.

The novel is not magic realism but there is some otherworldliness to it, men turning into salmon and the like, but there is also a steady stream of literary references from Virgil to Charles Dickens to William Blake to Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s a literary lover’s dream novel.

History of the Rain is sad and affecting, it’s full of longing and loss but also it’s a great love story.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue | Book Review

December 5, 2024 / Monique

I Hope This Finds You Well is a Canadian version of The Office. Jolene hates her job but she needs it. Her colleagues drive her mad and she does, what any reasonable employee does, she snarks about them privately. Well, maybe not privately enough. Jolene has taken to responding to emails with her actual thoughts typed below her professional response. She whites out the text so that it’s white on white and invisible to the recipient. Until one day, she forgets.

As expected, Jolene finds herself in a disciplinary hearing with her boss and the new HR guy Cliff. Cliff is tasked with putting monitoring software on her computer and running her through some mandatory training sessions. Thing is, Cliff makes a mistake and instead of dialling back what Jolene can do, she suddenly has access to everything. Everyone’s inbox, everyone’s chat, everyone’s shared drive is accessible from her computer. With the cheatcodes to office life, Jolene figures out how to win friends and influence people.

As Jolene is drawn into the drama of each of her colleague’s lives, she learns their secret fears and some of the motivations behind their actions. They say hurtful things about her, but she can’t resist reading everything and then adjusting accordingly.

You know as the reader that this is all going to bite her in the arse, but it is a hilarious adventure. Jolene has a ton of snark and her word sparring with Cliff in HR is top notch.

This is a sad book but also a laugh-out-loud book. I Hope This Finds You Well has a cast of characters found in any workplace and a list of puny chapter titles. It’s like getting the last donut at the office party and it’s your favourite flavour.

If you liked How to Pronounce Knife then this story reflects the same tender comedy about loneliness and love, and immigrant parents. If you like debut fiction or the eccentricities of second-generation Canadians or wacky coworkers then this work culture, semi-romcom set in Calgary is a satisfying read.

Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke

December 1, 2024 / Monique

A deserted shipwreck off the Icelandic coast draws a group of explorers to her decks. Three of the four know each other and are travelling as a group, but the solo explorer Dominique arrives first and is put out by their presence but also reassured by them since she’s pretty sure she saw a ghost woman roaming the shores. The shipwreck is that of the Ormen, which originally was a whaling ship in the 1900s then in the 1970s became a research vessel. Dominique and the others are there to document the ship before the coast guard finally pulls it free from the shore and sinks it forever.

The story bounces between life in 1901 on board the Ormen, in which Nicky Duthie is being held against her will by the crew due to her father’s poor business choices and life in present-day 2023 where the urban explorers are doing parkour, TikToks, and other influencer activities to document their discoveries and build up an audience.

The story is really about trauma and revenge, and a little about forgiveness. The brutal Icelandic weather and the icy seas give the novel a gothic feel, while technology and the lifestyle of the explorers anchor the story in the present. Although nothing is really anchored here. Nicky Duthie was never found. And it turns out the research crew in the 1970s mysteriously disappeared as well.

The Haunting in the Arctic lays bare a ton of secrets, misgivings, and betrayals from 1901 to present day.

Long Island by Colm Toibin | Book Review

November 18, 2024 / Monique

Colm Toibin’s Long Island delves into the life of Eilis Lacey, the heroine of Toibin’s previous novel Brooklyn. It’s 20 years later, and her marriage to Tony Fiorello is falling apart. It’s tough being an Irish immigrant married into a big Italian family. Eilis is quiet and reserved, whereas her in laws are loud and boisterous. Tony’s mother is the matriarch and no one questions her plotting about what’s best for the family.

In the spring of 1976, Eilis (now in her 40s with two teenage children) is confronted by a man at her door who claims that Tony is fathering a child with the man’s wife. He intends to leave the child on her doorstep. Turns out Tony’s mother has a plan and Eilis’s wishes are not her concern.

The rift drives Eilis back to Ireland to visit family and celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday. Once back, readers of Brooklyn are reminded of Eilis’s tryst with Jim Farrell, which occurred when she returned to Ireland shortly after marrying Tony. Will they rekindle that relationship or will she return to America? Toibin is a master at crafting an enduring sense of longing and belonging, while simultaneously planting fear and danger of the undertow.

At the heart of the story is a woman grappling with the push and pull of two ways of life. Everyone in her home village knows everything about everyone. There is a lot of pretense and assumption but also a reassuring rhythm of known habits and social structures. Eilis no longer feels at home here. She misses her quiet Sundays reading the paper. She enjoys her American clothes, her job, her children’s American ways of speaking and being, but there are challenges to contemporary American life and certainly challenges to living in close proximity to all your bossy in laws.

Eilis is outwardly restrained but the novel unfolds the depth of emotion she feels. Toibin’s writing about unfulfilled longing is so good. It is leaves you wondering what Eilis will do. The choice is never clear.

Favourite passage: Eilis has upgraded her mother’s kitchen with a new fridge, washing machine and cooker. But her mother is indignant and refuses to have them installed so the items remain in the hallway, impeding everyone’s passage. But the second Eilis leaves for Dublin to get the children, her mother has the items installed so she can preen for the grandkids.

Once the front door was opened by her mother, Eilis noticed that the fridge and washing machine and cooker were no longer blocking the hallway.

“Well,” her mother said, with her grandchildren standing on the pavement outside her house, “you don’t take after our side at all. You are a pair of Italians. Come in, come in, the whole town’ll be talking about how I left you standing on the street.”

…

Martin and her mother were telling the children about Eilis’s efforts, as soon as she arrived, to make the house more modern.

“All the things were wrong,” her mother said. “Too big, too small, the wrong colour, the wrong make. I had to send them all back.”

Eilis decided not to point out that the fridge, washing machine and cooker were precisely the ones she had bought. They had not been sent back.

If you enjoyed Toibin’s previous works, such as Brooklyn or The Master, you’ll find Long Island just as compelling. This is a story of intricate family dynamics. The pace is measured, but it is a deliberate choice that allows the emotional weight of the story to unfold naturally.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny | Book Review

November 15, 2024 / Monique

The Grey Wolf is the 19th instalment of the Inspector Gamache series and readers are once again invited into the charming world of Three Pines. This time, our beloved Chief Inspector finds himself drawn into a perilous investigation where the enemies and allies are not clearly defined.

The story kicks off with a young man who breaks into the Gamache’s Montreal pied a terre. He takes a coat, yet returns it and asks to meet. Bizarre. More chilling is that the young man is run over in broad daylight while standing outside of a cafe with Gamache. He hasn’t provided any insights into who compelled him to break in, and Gamache isn’t even sure that the young man provided his real name; Charles. But obviously there is something worth investigating when the driver of the van is discovered dead.

Like all Gamache novels, Louise Penny delivers an intricately woven narrative that takes us to an isolated monastery in the Quebec wilderness, to the far reaches of the Atlantic coast, and all the way to Washington, Paris and Rome. Many secondary characters from previous novels make their appearance again. And this time the crime seems to be related to water security, but there are very few details for Gamache to work with and it looks more and more like an insight job or coverup by the RCMP and federal government.

The heart of The Grey Wolf lies in Gamache’s enduring humanity. Despite the dangers and moral quandaries, he remains the steadfast leader of his team and upholds his integrity. There is no easy route for Gamache.

Unlike previous novels, there is very little action that happens in Three Pines and I missed the comings and goings of Clare, Gabri, Olivier and Ruth, but Penny deepens the arc of characters we have met briefly before in previous novels, which keeps the richness of the story and broadens our knowledge of others in Gamache’s orbit.

Fans of the Gamache series will enjoy this must-read continuation of the story. If you’re brand new and enjoy shows like the Shetland drama series and DI Jimmy Perez, then you’ll like Gamache, who like Perez is a native to the land he serves and works together with a small group of trusted colleagues to solve crimes that often go beyond the close-knit communities being protected.

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay | Book Review

November 14, 2024 / Monique

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay is a fun heist novel set in Edwardian London. The story follows Mrs. King, a formidable housekeeper recently dismissed from the grand Park Lane home she managed for years. Rather than accepting defeat, Mrs. King assembles a team of spirited and skilled female accomplices, each with a unique talent, to plan an audacious heist. Their target? The very house that cast her out. With meticulous plotting and daring improvisation, the crew aims to steal every valuable item in the house on the night of a lavish ball—right under the noses of the rich and powerful guests.

Alex Hay’s debut novel is a charming yet thrilling heist, with a goodly amount of social critique. The world of women in Edwardian London is rife with rules. Women are often invisible, especially the below-stairs women. But they really grab society by the short and curlies in this story. Each character has some grudge against the house and they deliver a memorable performance in their con women roles.

Perfect for fans of historical fiction with a feminist edge—I’m thinking of The Phoenix Crown—as well as for those who enjoy films like Oceans 11 or the show Lupin.