Flasks and Fiction

Faithful by Alice Hoffman Rating: 4/5 stars Recommend: Yes Shelby's best friend is brain dead, stuck in a hospital bed in her childhood room, and it's Shelby's fault. Helene and Shelby were supposed to go to NYU together in the fall, but neither of them make it, instead both wasting away. For two years Shelby lives, depressed, in her parents basement until she finally moves from Long Island to New York City to start moving on from the tragedy that will always define her life. I almost gave up on this book about 10% of the way in because I wrongly assumed it would be about Shelby's pity party in her early 20s. Instead the book winds its way through the ups and downs, the break-ups and job promotions and, most importantly, the love- both romantic and other- of the next 10 or so years. I wanted to dislike Shelby with her self-hate and pessimism, but by the end I understood why she felt the way she did and I was rooting for her as she slowly let go of those traits...

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Cheslea Sedoti Rating: 5/5 stars Recommend: Yes What a fun, quirky book. Lizzie Lovett disappears one night while camping with her boyfriend without a trace. Hawthorn, three years her junior and a senior in high school, knows what happened- she turned into a werewolf, of course. Enlisting the help of Lizzie's 25 year-old boyfriend, Enzo, while simultaneously pushing her best friend Emily away, Hawthorn sets out to find Lizzie. This book was really a treat. Everyone has felt like the social outcast at some point, and Sedoti does a great job of capturing that feeling in Hawthorn. She cares about what others think just enough so isolate herself but not enough to give up her convictions. I related very strongly with her and not because could see myself coming up with a crazy idea for why the popular cheerleader in high school now turned hippie disappeared. Hawthorn's obsession with Lizzie boils down to wanting to understand what makes ...

The Light Fantastic by Sarah Combs Rating: 3/5 stars Recommend: No I liked the idea of The Light Fantastic but didn't necessarily enjoy the execution. Set four days after the Boston Marathon bombing and skipping between narrators, Combs explores gun violence and what may lead teens to those dark feelings. The wide range of narrators was not executed as well as it could have been. I would have appreciated it if it was either from the perspective of those connected to April or the Assassins, not a few of each. Some of the kids had only a few chapters and that was adequate for their stories. Others characters were kind of floating stories with no, or little to no, connection with everyone else, which confused me a little. April was by far the most developed narrator. With a photographic memory, April gives glimpses of not only her life but her classmates growing up. It is a good exploration into how others view you when contrasted with narration of these classmates themse...

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Rating: 5/5 Stars Recommend: Yes On his way home from the bar one night Jason is kidnapped and drugged. When he wakes up he's strapped to a gurney being welcomed home by people he's never met before in his life. In this new world he was never married and his son was never born. Was his life ever his life? Can he get home? Definitely my top book of 2016 so far, and it was such a quick read, there's no excuse to pass on it. This is a sci-fi/thriller/romance novel all in one. Usually a romance twist in a sci-fi can be cheesy or too obvious, but Crouch knows how to write a good romance, he did it in Wayward Pines  and does it again here. This is the kind of love we all aspire to have- the happy settled down life that has weathered the test of time. Jason loves his wife of 15 years and would give up anything to find her again. His need to find Daniela is so primal and not forced you can't help feeling those emotions too. Crouch also know...

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley Rating: 3/5 stars Recommend: No For 18 minutes one Sunday night a Red Sox player has the longest time at bat in history. In that short frame a plane takes off from Martha's Vineyard and crashes into the Atlantic. Scott, an artist traveling back to New York City for gallery meetings was invited last minute to join the Batemans and their friends the Kiplings and wasn't supposed to be on the plane at all. Suddenly, he finds himself floating in the water, little recollection to the events leading up to the crash. By some really great luck, Scott is a trained open water swimmer and manages to get himself and the other survivor, a small boy, back to the shore with a dislocated shoulder. Why did the plane crash? Why was Scott on the plane? Was he involved in the crash? These are questions that everyone, including the Batemans news anchor friend, want answered in the aftermath of the tragedy.  This book had great potential. The set up could have led...