New Releases: The Ferryman Institute and All Our Wrong Todays

After these two review copies, I will be caught up on reviews. Yay! Considering this first one was the book that finally interested me after the election last November, you will agree that I have been in a bit of a slump. It's nice to have the time and will to do some of the things I love again.

The Ferryman Institute by Colin Gigl was indeed the book that finally got me reading again after the shock and horrors of the election. I needed a true escape and I found it with Charlie Dawson, ferryman extraordinaire. Ferrymen are the ones who are there at the moment you die, meant to help you head to the afterlife. Charlie is the best at the Institute but the job has taken its toll on his sanity and he wants nothing more than to leave and rest. Then he gets a mysterious assignment where he is given a choice whether or not to save someone from suicide. His choice changes everything.

I got so lost in this book. It was deep and dark, delving into hopelessness and depression, but beautiful. There are chase scenes but also long, thoughtful talks with friends. There's even a romance -- though I didn't find it very probable. It reminded me of a Georgette Heyer mystery where two people bicker non-stop through the entire novel and then VOILA, they are madly in love, with no logical reason why. But, as with Heyer's improbable couples, it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the book. I loved its quirkiness and heart and plan on rereading it at some point.

You've probably seen All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai around. It has been getting a lot of press and publicity. It's a pretty basic story -- boy grows up in ideal future, loses his mom and best girl, messes with his dad's time machine, and inadvertently screws everything up, giving us, well, the "dystopian today" you and I are living now. He then has to decide whether to find a way to reset the future, restoring the people who ended up not existing in this timeline, or accepting the current timeline where his mom is still alive, his best girl is even better, and there's a sister who he is beginning to love.

Mastai is a screenwriter and this book definitely reads like a movie. That's not a bad thing. In fact, if you're having trouble focusing on books for any particular reason right now, this might be a good one to pick up. The time travel is very well thought out and is different from any method or process I've read about before. There are also some serious philosophical questions to ponder and I definitely kept thinking about them days after finishing the book. (Also, I have an extra ARC of this one if anyone wants me to send it their way.)

Wishing for that alternate today or an unexpected way out,

K

#RIPXI: 1, Ghostly Echoes

I have a goal to review each RIP book I read this season the day I finish it (or the next day if it's late) so that I don't end up with a backlog. And yes, I already finished my first book -- Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter, third book in the Jackaby series. I actually reread the second book right before so I was totally in the mood to spend more time with R.F. Jackaby, supernatural detective, and his apprentice, Miss Abigail Rook. I really love this pairing. Jackaby is definitely a Sherlock-like character but he knows his limitations. While he is a Seer and can see things like auras and spiritual residues, he knows that this causes him to overlook the more mundane but just as important details. Abigail is perfect at spotting these things and quickly seeing their value. This book ends right in the middle of the overarching storyline so if you want to wait until the fourth (and final, I believe) book is published, feel free. But if you just can't wait to read about creatures, ghosts, mad scientists, and peril in nineteenth-century New England, by all means, pick up this series ASAP!

I read the first book, Jackaby, for RIP in 2014 --

I loved, loved, loved this book. It has some of everything and it is all brought together in an interesting and fun way. Jackaby is smart and amusing and Abigail is brave and also intelligent. But what I loved most is that they still needed each other. Their world views are very different but they are definitely complementary.

-- and reread Jackaby and read Beastly Bones for RIP last year.

With a smart and secretly caring detective and a strong and capable female assistant, these stories are a pleasure to read. The crimes are bloody and the climaxes are explosive but everything is tempered with a bit of humor and romance, which makes these my ideal RIP books.

This series is definitely one of my favorite new traditions and I know I'll be rereading them over the years.

Straining to see,
K

Long-Awaited Reads Month: The Ghost in Love

I believe that this book, The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll, made it on to my TBR years ago after a rave review from Lena (who I don't believe is blogging anywhere at the moment). I guess I never picked it up in the interim because I had forgotten exactly what it was about. It turns out that it's about many things and it's hard to describe but believe me when I say that its uniqueness makes it fresh and thought-provoking and beautiful, all in an unusual way -- because this is definitely a strange book and it's not ashamed to be that at all.

This story has a ghost and the man whose ghost she is, and a dog (of sorts), and an ex-girlfriend and a complete stranger, and angels and many other characters that come together in an ensemble that causes one to reflect on the tenuous border between life and death, the essence of each of our beings and the things that allow us to love each other past all our faults and flaws.

I'm very excited to explore more of Jonathan Carroll's work and, as Chris has highly recommended The Land of Laughs, it will be my next read of his -- and I promise that it won't take me years to get to it.

With love and ghosts,
K