Verses for the Dead

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
337 pgs  (Pendergast series #18)

Verses for the Dead is the 18th book in the Pendergast series, and while it's not a bad book, it, along with some of the more recent books in the series, makes me question how well the series is aging. It seems to have lost a step or two along the way, and I'm starting to wonder whether Preston and Child are struggling to come up with unique and seemingly bizarre cases for Pendergast to investigate. The fact that their next collaboration, Old Bones, which will be published in August, is a departure from the series and begins a new one featuring Nora Kelly, makes me that much more certain that they have.

The story begins with the discovery of a human heart left on a gravestone in a Miami Beach cemetery. The heart is accompanied by a literary note signed by "Mister Brokenhearts" and is left on the grave of a woman who committed suicide a decade ago by hanging herself. The case is assigned to Pendergast and his new partner, who has been assigned to him as a result of the Bureaus' efforts to keep Pendergast, and his unorthodox methods, in check. It's soon discovered that Mister Brokenhearts killed the heart's owner by slitting her throat and splitting her breastbone, and his work is only beginning. Soon other women are killed in similar fashion, their hearts also being left on the grave markers of other cases of women who committed suicide by hanging.

As Pendergast and his partner Coldmoon race to discover the true identity of Mister Brokenhearts and stop him, they realize the clue to discovering who he is and why he's doing what he's doing, lies in the suicides that took place so many years ago.

Verses for the Dead is an interesting enough story. But ultimately it didn't live up to my expectations. Like the last few books in the series have been, it was good enough to keep me reading, and I'm sure I'll pick up the next book in the series as soon as it comes out. But it's a disappointment when compared to the great books from earlier in the series.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Inspection

by Josh Malerman
387 pgs

Deep in the northern woods of Michigan, there's a tower, which serves as the home for 26 gifted 12-year-old boys, all of whom have been raised there since they were babies by a man they know only as D.A.D. The boys, whose names are simply the letters of the alphabet, have been raised their entire lives with no knowledge of the world outside their tower and beyond the grounds immediately surrounding it. Unbeknownst to them, they are the subjects of a bizarre and unsettling experiment. D.A.D. believes that "genius is distracted by the opposite sex," and so is raising these boys without any knowledge that females exist, believing that by doing so, he will help them to unlock their full potential.

While these boys have been growing up in their tower, being taught by special teachers, and reading books and watching movies made specifically for them to reinforce the idea of a one-gender world, a similar experiment has been going on in a separate tower a few miles away. Only in this tower, there are 26 girls, being raised by M.O.M. with no knowledge of the male gender.

But these children are all extremely gifted, and for M.O.M. and D.A.D. to assume they will never figure out something is wrong with the world they've been raised in is naive. In fact, a boy named J has recently begun to suspect that D.A.D. has been hiding something from them, and a girl named K has been bothered by something she thinks she's seen off in the distance, something that doesn't seem right.

Inspection is the second book by Josh Malerman that I've read, and they've both made me excited about him as an author. I've yet to read his breakout book Bird Box. But with its sequel scheduled to be coming out in October, I plan to read it soon. I'm looking forward to both books and I'm pretty confident I'm going to enjoy them even more than I have these first two.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Someone Like Me

by M. R. Carey
500 pgs

In the opening scene of Someone Like Me, Liz Kendall and her ex-husband Marc, an ex-marine with a propensity for violence, get into an argument about his returning their two children, 16-year-old Zac and 6-year-old Molly, to her late again. As the argument progresses, unsurprisingly to Liz, it becomes physical and Marc knocks her to the floor and begins to choke her. But what is surprising to Liz (and to Marc) is the fact that she fights back this time. She gets ahold of a bottle, breaks it, and shoves it into Marc's face. The wound is significant, but not deadly, and the evening ends with the police taking Marc away and Liz comforting Zac and Molly.

But the events of the evening to continue to haunt Liz for the rest of the night, and not simply because of what Marc tried to do to her, but because of what she tried to do to him, and because of the way she felt when she did. When Marc had her on the floor, with his hands around her neck, Liz felt like she became a spectator in her own body, no longer in control of her body as she ground the broken bottle into his face.

Fran Watts is a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped when she was a toddler by a deranged man named Bruno Picota. Although she was quickly rescued and returned to her family, she has suffered from PTSD ever since. The trauma also left her with an an imaginary companion named Jinx and a unique perception of the world around her. Sometimes, when she looks at things, what she sees "shift," almost as if she can see both it and a shadow version of it at the same time. Fran and Zac are classmates, and when Fran meets Liz, it happens again. She sees two separate and distinct versions of Liz.

Someone Like Me is a ghost story, but not your typical ghost story. It's smart and eerie, and Carey keeps the pace moving along throughout the story. It's the third book I've read by him, and while I'm still waiting for him to right a book as good as The Girl With All the Gifts, this one was still really enjoyable.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Skyward

by Brandon Sanderson
510 pgs  (Skyward series #1)

Skyward begins a new series by Brandon Sanderson (which brings the running total to four active series he's writing). The series is targeted to young adult readers and falls into the science fiction genre. The book reminded me of both The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game, two of my favorites in the genre.

Spensa is a young girl who has dreamt her entire life of following in her father's footsteps and becoming a fighter pilot, protecting what remains of the human race from the Krell, the alien race that has continually been attacking them, ever since they landed on the world of Detritus. But the likelihood of that dream coming true, and Spensa ever being given the chance to attend flight school, are remote at best. Because Spensa and her widowed mother have been living with the shame of what her father did on his final battle against the Krell. In one of the largest battles in history, Spensa's father, one of the greatest fighter pilots ever, inexplicably deserted his squadron and was killed, leaving Spensa to spend the rest of her life branded as the daughter of a coward.

Skyward is a promising start to a series Sanderson has said will likely be four books long, and it has everything you would expect from one of his books. It has fast-paced action scenes, characters that are relatable and endearing, and just the right amount of Sanderson's subtle sense of humor.

Starsight, the second, is due out in November, giving me another Sanderson book to look forward to while I wait for the fourth book in The Stormlight Archive series.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆