The month of June is off to a great reading start. Quantity-wise, that is. Here’s the first book I read:
This book has been described as a “psychological horror novel.” I didn’t find it scary or suspenseful, just interesting and mildly amusing. In the first paragraph we learn that the main character is an eighteen-year-old girl who lives with her sister and uncle; everyone else in her family is dead.
How did they die? Well, SOMEONE put arsenic in the sugar bowl, and they were all murdered in one fell swoop. The crime was never solved, although the villagers definitely have an opinion about what happened.
This book was good. I’m glad I read it, because it’s a book I’ve always been curious about. I can’t say I loved it though, and I probably won’t read more by this author.
Next up, another reread!
This book, published in 1920, is not only the first Hercule Poirot novel, but also the first mystery Agatha Christie wrote. It was fun to reread it with that knowledge, and again I didn’t remember any of the plot! I really enjoyed it, AND, this edition has two endings- at a certain point towards the end you have a choice to read the original ending that Christie wrote, or the revised version that made it into the book. Obviously, I read both.
The outcome is the same, but in the original, unpublished version, Poirot reveals the identity of the murderer while giving evidence at a trial. In the published version, Poirot gathers everyone together in the drawing room for the denouement. I think the revision was her publisher’s idea, and it was a great one. So much better the second way.
Next I read this:
OOF. This was a hard book to read. It’s the story of a pedophile, and is told in alternating points of view- two women who were his victims as children, and also the point of view of his mother. It’s a mystery, and an exploration of the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse.
In the beginning, I liked it. A large part of the story takes place in South Florida, and I could tell the author really knows the area. I enjoyed that, and felt that it was well-written. I was really involved in the lives of these women. But as the story went on, it just got sadder and sadder. The things that happened in Florida were so seedy and sketchy that by the end I was depressed, and wanted to move.
A couple things- the scenes that describe abuse were written with sensitivity, and I appreciated that. What I didn’t appreciate was that this book is written with no quotation marks. I was able to get past that, but it’s not my favorite. Overall it was a good book- just sad. The mystery had a satisfying conclusion though.
Coming up next- I’m about to finish another Agatha Christie reread, and then I’ll be choosing one of these:
What are you reading now?
Top photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
