Recently, I found three Agatha Christie novels that I had bought years ago.

Even though this was one of Christie’s most popular novels, I have managed to be unspoiled. It was well done and genuinely one of the better mysteries and twists I’ve read in a long time.

It is a suspenseful thriller and horror novel. Everyone in the novel is unlikeable and there is no one to truly root for. I usually would not be able to tolerate that. However, Christie makes the novel interesting and quickly develops all the unsavoury characters. I became engrossed in the plot and the whodunit.

This novel is also more gothic and horror filled. I read it before bed which was probably not the best idea. I felt there was more casual racism and misogyny in this novel than other Christie novels. There is a lot of it in general through her novels because she was of the time. This one felt more so especially considering the original title of the book. It has been awhile since I read Christie though.

It was a fast read and a classic in the mystery genre.

Read December 21, 2019.

If you read my previous review on Hodgman’s Vacationaland, you would know I am a fan Hodgman. It’s a bit funny because like Hodgman admits in this book, he is not a typical celebrity or famous person. The Judge John Hodgman podcast is my absolute favourite podcast.

I really like Hodgman’s humanistic style. I liked Vacationland too. Hodgman admits that Meallion Status was harder to write and it does show. While I like some of the chapters and the writing style, I found there lacked some cohesion in these stories. It also didn’t help that I heard some of these stories via podcasts. I could tell the author was digging deep to tell these stories. Contrast to Vacationland which was breezier.

I still liked it. I think the stories in Hollywood proper and Maine worked the best. I listened to a few chapters via audiobook which was a pleasure. I will continue to support the author. I hope he keeps writing and finds the right level of fame to go to more secret rooms.

Read and listened to audiobook Dec 16-17, 2019.

This post contains one spoiler.

I started this book so I could get rid of it. I bought the book years ago at a used book sale. The paperback is from around 1986. Its pages are all yellow and the spine had already started to come apart. I dug this up from my book stash after dinner at my parents’ home. I am glad I did as the book proved to be engaging.

It moves along at a very steady pace with lots of details of prehistoric times. I liked most of the Clan characters. I even got use to Ayla being basically perfect by prehistoric and modern terms. I liked that with the exception of the villain Broud, the books characters seemed reasonable and human. Like Ayla, I began to love Iza and Creb. I thought those relationships were sweet and real. Ayla’s coming of age, learning, and her trials were decently written and even believable. The pacing is quite good. I read this book once on a weekday night then picked it up before bed on a weekend. I found it hard to put down and finished it in the middle of the night. I actually have not read a book late into the night for awhile. I really shouldn’t read novels like this before bed. It did give me that pleasure of reading a novel that makes you forget your problems and your world.

There was a lot to like about this novel and I look forward to the next book. When it came to how I would rate it, I just couldn’t give it a full four stars. The writing had some deficiencies that I couldn’t ignore. For example, there was a lot of repetition. Ayla is constantly referenced as being “ugly” because she is “Other”/ Cro-Magnon. This is irony as we know Ayla’s blonde and blue-eyed looks are not ugly by modern terms. The author kept hammering that detail. The villain of this novel is a cartoonishly grotesque sociopath who is obsessed with hating Ayla. While there were small attempts to give him more depth, he was just too broadly drawn and lacking rationality in everything. I think it may have been an intentional choice by the author to make him that “backward” but it makes you wonder how the other Clan members could sustain it throughout the years.

The novel had some moments where the omniscient narrator waxed a little too much about how intelligent Ayla is because of her “frontal lobe” and her birth as an Other. That was a bit too modern and superimposed. I did not mind the supernatural or ritualistic aspects, but the science interjections were incongruous to the story especially when it was basically tacked in after one of the character’s point of view.

All in all, these were minor issues. I wouldn’t say this novel is essential reading, but there was a lot of research and effort. I liked the characters and the pacing and setting were relatively well done. I will read the next book, but I may not finish the series as I’ve read the series becomes more of a romance drama with even more anachronistic elements.

Read October 15, 19 into the morning of the 20, 2019.

I think I am going to give up looking for an alternative to Georgette Heyer. Reading this book only made me want to reread Heyer.

This is the second in a series and my library did not have the first. The books seem fairly stand alone and share a cast of central supporting characters.

This book was ok. It wasn’t bad exactly, but it seemed just too frivolous and superificial. I didn’t really like most of the characters and there were too many schemes and comedic elements. Heyer has her faults, but she’s actually good at rounding her characters out quickly. Chesney has too many characters and most of them are jerks or idiots.

I didn’t even care about the central romance in it as I didn’t really like how things kept happening to most of the women. I will say that the novel is short and some of the characters are not bad. As the book was written in the early 1990s, the language and interactions are a little more adult than Heyer’s writings which I appreciated.

I’d give Chesney a try if you are into the comedic Heyer bent. Some Heyer fans will like it. It didn’t work for me.

Read September 24-25, 2019.