A Slew of Reviews (No Fooling)

Happy April 1! I've been busy consuming other people's creativity, so without further ado, here are my latest reviews. 

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier – four stars. (Spoilers be here!)

I found this suspense novel compelling even though I didn’t like or relate to any of the characters. The writing was excellent though, and Hillier kept the suspense ratcheted up throughout the story. I hesitate to use the ridiculous nonword “unputdownable,” but it truly was. I simply could not stop reading until the very end. Speaking of the ending, I was a bit perturbed because I didn’t think that Georgina had earned a happy one ~ she was an even worse person than I initially assumed. It appeared for a while as though Geo was simply a naïve teenager who fell for a very bad boy. Well, it turned out that the boy was indeed bad, as bad as they get, but Geo was equally horrible for the part she played in their friend’s murder. She was bullied into helping Calvin dispose of the body, but as soon as they were done with the gruesome task, Grace could have gone to the police. She made a conscious choice year after year to not come forward. Keeping the secret contributed greatly to the parents' suffering ~ and Grace only served five years for her crime! (Yes, she never confessed to the full extent of her participation, and Calvin kept it a secret too, but even so.) 

There was an incredible twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, and that was fun to read. It was a bit farfetched, but I still enjoyed it. Otherwise, not only do I think that Geo deserved a harsher penalty, but also I wish Kaiser hadn’t still been in love with her at the end. It would have been more satisfying for him to have said, yep, I had a mad crush on you as dorky high school boy, but now as a grown-ass man (and a cop!) I see what a terrible person you are, and my love has died. That’s the ending I would have written, but I am no longer writing books, and Jar of Hearts kept me interested until the last word. Maybe you can call it a hate-read, but that's OK: it still counts as good writing. Besides being a book club selection, this book also fit into my 2025 Reading Challenge category of taking place on the West Coast (Washington State).

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris – three stars (SPOILERS!).

I was turned off from this psychological thriller immediately because it was another one of the "perfect marriages whose shiny exterior hides beastly abuse" stories that we have seen a zillion times already (yawn), but I persevered because (1) it was a book club selection, and (2) it fit my 2025 Reading Challenge category of having a four-star review (on Goodreads). Despite my boredom with this trope, I tried to be fair ~ the solid writing and satisfying ending boosted the rating to three stars from its initial two. It's hard to feel sympathy for the female MC, Grace, as she ignores all the red flags flying from Jack because no other man was willing to tolerate Grace's lifelong commitment to her semi-disabled sister. She never stopped to question why Jack was so eager to embrace both women into his life. I mean, duh. Wouldn't that be your first question after all these other guys rejected you for it? But we don't have to like the MC to get invested in the story. We can think she's stupid and still want to find out what happens.

The first twist is that Jack the monster really wants Millie, Grace's sister with Down Syndrome, though we never understand why. Why is the idea of torturing a disabled person more exciting than torturing a fully functional woman? You would think the author might give us a clue as to what is going on in Jack's evil brain. Jack briefly mentioned his backstory after his marriage to Grace, but it didn't explain much, plus we aren't sure if we can trust what he says in the first place. His father abused his mother; Jack ended up getting turned on by that; he killed his mother; his father took the fall for it. But Jack's father was also a monster, so why would he go to prison for his son? Is he still alive? How did Jack become a lawyer with all the necessary background checks when this scandalous info was in his past? Yes, he changed his name, but given his high profile cases, you would think an opposing attorney would have investigated and outed him. OK, let's move on.

It was hard for me to deal with the section where Jack killed the puppy that he had given Grace and forced her to bury the dead body in the backyard. I almost DNF'd the book at this point. Human murder OK, but doggie murder? No way. Just no. One of last month’s books, Allegedly, described the aftermath of a cat's murder, which was incredibly gory and disgusting, but we hadn’t really gotten to know the cat at all, plus it was possible the death was quick and the maiming came afterward. The doggie in Behind Closed Doors suffered however, which was super upsetting to read, but even so the suffering was "only" imagined after his death, not described during. Anyway, I kept reading. At least Jack got exactly what he deserved at the end.

Saraband for Two Sisters by Victoria Holt (Philippa Carr) – four stars.

I vaguely remembered loving this romance novel from my teen years, and yay I was not disappointed. Usually, books/movies are not as good as I thought they were, but this one still intrigued me last week. I’m a huge fan of the way Holt creates momentous events layer upon layer, so the reader is aware that something big is coming that will change the MC's life, but we have no idea what it could be. It’s not easy to write in this way without sounding clunky or shoveling a ton of boring backstory at us, but the first-person narrative technique Holt uses, usually from a teenaged girl protagonist, works well to build the suspense. In this case, there are twin sisters, Angelet and Bersaba, who share some similarities, but ultimately are very different, especially in regard to romance. Spoiler: they both go after the same man. Like many a good gothic novel, there’s a mysterious house with a secret door to a hidden passage that no one is supposed to explore because it is “very dangerous.” The servants in the house are suspicious as well. Fun! This book fit my 2025 Reading Challenge category of involving a vacation, for Angelet is sent away on an extended holiday when Bersaba contracts smallpox. Due to this trip, Angelet meets the man who will change both sisters' lives. 

Anora – Academy Award for Best Picture, Director, Actress, etc.

Seriously WTF? A female stripper (Ani/Anora) is introduced to a wealthy young Russian dude (Vanya) at the sex club where she works because she speaks a little Russian. Vanya and Ani negotiate $15,000 for her to spend a week with him and ditch her job. Vanya and Ani have tons of graphic sex all over his lavish NY mansion ~ he is obviously loaded with money ~ and impulsively jet off to Vegas with friends where they get married on a whim. Vanya seems to have the idea that he will be allowed to stay in the USA indefinitely if he marries an American (I guess the screenplay was written before Trump II). Soon after they return to NY, his mother back in Russia orders her thugs to come after the couple because she’s enraged that her son has married a prostitute. As these goons break in and assault Ani, Vanya runs out of the home and leaves her to them. A tedious scene ensues where Ani screams “mother*cker” about 5000 times. Such wonderful writing/acting, eh? Sooo creative.

It occurred to me that I didn’t care about any of these obnoxious characters, so I DNF’d this movie and read the ending on Wikipedia. It still boggles my mind that Anora won awards, since it is literally p0rn with a very thin plot. 

More reviews soon.