General Fiction
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Plot: Between the intrigues of the central romance and the stirrings of the anti-Shah uprising, the tension in this book never lets up—until the very end, when the narrative seems to veer off in another direction entirely.
Prose: The writing is as economical and succinct as a film script. The narrative moves along swiftly, and yet it's studded with evocative detail.
Originality: This gripping book is a romance with humor and cultural insights that readers will find original and intriguing.
Character Development: The characters here are well developed and fully formed. Marco in particular feels vivid and real.
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Plot: Most on-the-road stories don’t involve fathers, dentists, or dead grunge rock idols—or an attempt to return to normal suburban life—but this unusual and winning novel turns the genre inside out.
Prose: The writing here is sharp, knowing, and bitingly funny.
Originality: This novel take a conventional plot device—the road trip—and turns it into something unexpected and enchanting.
Character Development: The author provides dead-on, quick, and funny character studies. Even minor players are well defined.
Blurb: The author of this unlikely, funny novel is one to watch.
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Plot: This is an outstanding novel. The success of the plot depends on the strength of the protagonist, and Erin is a perfectly flawed heroine.
Prose: This novel is a pleasure to read. The prose is of the highest quality and perfectly suited to the story.
Originality: Erin's voice and fantasy life are original and drive this poignant story.
Character Development: The characters are all well rendered. The ending might be the strongest part of the book: emotional and close to perfect.
Burb: A misfit bulimic whose fantasy life both protects and isolates her finds a real musician to save. A quirky read with a lovable, flawed protagonist.
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Plot: Fiore's novel is a wild, exuberant ride through a picturesque Italy, its plot offering as many twists and turns as a Bolognese street. Incorporating an art heist, a murder mystery, and an entertaining dose of marital strife, the book is difficult to put down and perfectly engrossing.
Prose: Agile prose and laugh-out-loud humor enliven the tale, which delights with its many original turns of phrase. Fiore's verbal dexterity and creative swagger bring freshness to every page.
Originality: Sympathetic characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, and clever problem solving bring a refreshing originality to this art heist/murder mystery story. Readers who enjoy these action-packed genres will find much to love in Fiore's inventive approach.
Character Development: The main characters, Scott and Holly, are sympathetic, fully realized, and frequently humorous. The secondary characters, often a bit archetypal, provide a fine foil to the story's flustered protagonists.
Blurb: An exuberant, wickedly funny mystery that delights from beginning to end.
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Plot: Alexander writes a darkly comic novel about an eccentric Jewish family that hatches a novel plan to raise a genius child.
Prose: Alexander’s prose is droll, yet highly readable, humming forward with whip smart observations that never come across as pretentious or overreaching.
Originality: The story’s originality lies in the author’s ability to craft fresh and full characters; there is no other family quite like the preposterous and wholly lovable one he introduces here—and that is quite a feat.
Character Development: The novel excels at providing sharp insights into characters through effective dialogue and succinct descriptions. The extended family members Alexander introduces are entirely real in their neuroses, insecurities, and absurdities.
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Plot: Carter's captivating, vividly imagined tale unfolds with terrifying beauty as protagonist Sarah Steinway grapples with survival in a future climate change disaster. The story relies on Steinway's tenacity and wit to navigate her new life in a drowned world, drawing the reader into the life of a mind so alive and singular that at times the work feels like memoir.
Prose: Carter is a true craftswoman, nimble and inventive and unafraid to take risks. Though dialogue can at times feel less than real, the narrative, told from Steinway's perspective, offers such breadth of mood--playful humor to dreadful illness, determination to aching nostalgia--that its emotional truths resonate deeply.
Originality: Carter's novel is an utterly original imagining of a post-apocalyptic world, lightly using the tropes of dystopian and disaster fiction while depending on ingenuity and emotional depth to carry the story. Savvy cultural references bring an immediacy and freshness to the text.
Character Development: Sarah Steinway is the most capable of protagonists--an elderly woman living in isolation, yet able to carry the full weight of this lucid and eloquent tale on her shoulders. The questions asked by the text--what could you endure, and how might you thrive, at the end of the world--are capably answered by her character, in a way that leaves the reader with a sense of hope.
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Plot: The novel is deftly plotted and moves along at a good clip. Readers will likely find the ending a bit abrupt—but this may be the author's way of hinting at further mayhem; if so, it's a touch too subtle.
Prose: The writing here is nearly faultless. The author's prose has verve and is a pleasure to read.
Originality: This novel is original and engaging. The author has clearly done a lot of research and tells a tale that is fascinating and entirely relevant to current events.
Character Development: The author creates interesting, vivid, and fully-formed characters. Readers will be invested in this story and its unique characters.
Blurb: This vividly imagined historical novel is a compelling, eye-opening, and important read.
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Plot: This powerful story, based on an actual events, is engaging and will stick with readers. Well plotted, the novel will grab readers and offers a plot twist they won't see coming.
Prose: Well crafted prose mixed with news articles brings the characters and their story to life.
Originality: While the story is built around actual events, the mix of truth and fiction is well done and balanced.
Character Development: The characters here are skillfully developed. They are manipulative, God fearing, religious, caring, young and eager, ambitious, reasonable, cunning, egotistical—like people who walk among us.
Blurb: A well-researched piece of historical fiction for all readers not just history buffs.
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Plot: This novel is structured well and engaging. While the first third of the book drags a bit, with very little action, things pick up once Steve joins the police force.
Prose: The writing here is exceedingly good. The words and story flow smoothly, and the author is particularly adept with word choice. The author also does a great job capturing the spirit of the 1970s.
Originality: Though it deals with historical material that will be familiar to readers, this novel is a new, refreshing twist on the coming-of-age story.
Character Development: The author does an admirable job developing main characters Steve and Roxy, as well as many of their friends, colleagues, and family members. The author also does a stellar job reflecting the mindset of the age.
Blurb: Set in the volatile days of the early 1970s, this superbly-written work is an absorbing story of youthful ambition tempered by real life.
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Plot: The pacing ebbs and flows, but Mulhorn's talent for prose carries it well. A subtle uncertainty about climactic events requires good, old-fashioned reader involvement. Sentience is breathed into Earth and animals, and the use of an “Optional Penultimate Chapter” is intriguing.
Prose: The prose is reminiscent of Proust or Thomas Wolfe, if they favored shorter sentences. The simultaneous classic and contemporary feel is impressive. At times, the book reads like an extended poem.
Originality: This book offers a fully unique approach to illustrating how a special child can be damaged. The girl's reality—raw and often dark—is occasionally tinged with sweet magic. It sometimes hurts to read about the girl's pain; it is both vibrant and dense.
Character Development: The author employs a fascinating approach to characterization: none of the human beings have names -- and they are not necessary. The girl is fully formed, the man slightly less-so, while the parents and the aunt are relatively (and usefully) static.
Blurb: This emotional adventure is about the darkness of humanity and nature, told in a haunting, poetic style.
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Aunt Sookie & Me: The Sordid Tale of a Scandalous Southern Belle
by Michael Scott GarvinRating: 9.25
Plot: This novel is well plotted and skillfully executed, with humor and genuine characters. Readers will be drawn into the story immediately.
Prose: The prose here is solid; the tone and language are fluid and consistent.
Originality: While the subject matter is not new, the author puts a distinct spin on it and takes readers on a compelling ride.
Character Development: Readers will engage with the book's characters—both the major and minor players. The characters are well-rounded, entertaining, and true to life.
Plot: The plot of this winning novel is straightforward, well crafted, and engaging. The book moves along at a good pace and will keep readers turning pages.
Prose: The prose here is excellent. The author's style and his attention to detail are both consistently strong.
Originality: The dark underside of the music business has been written about before, but here it seems real and fresh.
Character Development: Spider's obsession with his music is well rendered, and the way music pulls him back from the depths is believable. The struggles of those he leaves by the side of the road along the way sound genuine.
Plot: A dead husband, two longtime friends, and a road trip to visit their past. It’s an intriguing combination. What could possibly go wrong?
Prose: Although some of the dialogue could benefit from fewer adverbs, the prose is strong and true to the characters.
Originality: Although road-trip stories are part of our culture and our literature, this one offers a narrative that moves both forward and backward—in search of the past.
Character Development: By the time the book ends, the characters have developed, changed, and faced each other and the truth. This is a compelling, honest, and enjoyable book about two friends who confront their pasts and are changed by what they discover.
Blurb: Readers of women's fiction will appreciate and relate to this novel of missed (and second) chances.
Plot: This novel is a rip-roaring adventure: well plotted, well paced, and full of action that will keep readers turning pages.
Prose: The book is well researched and boasts clear, skillfully crafted, sometimes philosophical, and thoroughly enjoyable prose.
Originality: This is a historical adventure in the tradition of Patrick O'Brian that is nonetheless fresh and original.
Character Development: The characters are vivid, consistent, and varied. Female characters are as multi-dimensional as their male counterparts. Character interactions are authentic and interesting.
Blurb: A fast-paced, skillfully told, and thoughtful adventure. Fans of Patrick O'Brian will be delighted.
Plot: Thought provoking and well-executed; characters are truly in turmoil and a metaphor for the human condition. The reader is left a little heartbroken yet hopeful at the end.
Prose: Fluid and well-crafted prose. The reader will find herself rereading sentences and reflecting on her own life; the writer has a knack for finding just the right words.
Originality: The novel feels fresh and new. Conjoined twins named Hope and Faith – when there is none – is worth contemplating.
Character Development: The reader sympathizes with the weak and hopeful and criticizes those that cause harm. The characters are true to life and walk among us.
Blurb: Thought provoking -- book clubs will rejoice!
Plot: This entertaining novel moves along at a good clip and is well structured. The beginning is often funny, with the main character finding himself in some awkward predicaments. However, after he leaves his family, the story loses its comedic flair and becomes more serious. The author may want to consider keeping the humor consistent throughout.
Prose: The writing here is straightforward and easy to follow. Dialogue flows well as characters interact. Awkward situations are conveyed to the reader skillfully.
Originality: This is a cleverly spun tale that includes a collectible out of the 1985 film Back to the Future, which is used to visit friends from the past.
Character Development: The novel features strong, consistent characters attempting to find their fate; readers will recognize these people in their daily lives. The author has done a good job of focusing in on the main character as he interacts with others.
