To Evil Comes a Daughter

There are a couple of things you can say about To Evil Comes a Daughter.  First and foremost is that its beginning and end almost feel like two different stories.  Second, its conclusion is not something you see coming … not even close.  You can decide whether that is good or bad.

A writer of one sort or another trying to solve a mystery he has suddenly found himself in the middle of is a conventional plot for books.  (The Screaming Mimi comes to mind.)  Author Allen Caraway undoubtedly knows this, but forges ahead anyway, leaving thankful readers waiting to see what happens next, though fairly unsure of what they will encounter.  What starts out like a ghost story ends up being a murder mystery that is as touching as it is surprising.  There are a few bumps along the way (chiefly being the supernatural element that dominated the beginning of the story and was soon forgotten), but that is fairly forgivable given the strong characters and unseen twists that are thrown at readers.

If anything, I would have liked to have spent more time with Caraway’s characters.  That said, it’s a weak complaint because the story wastes little to no time in getting to its destination, and that’s not something you can easily say these days.  Improbable?  Yes.  Entertaining?  Yes.  Intellectually stimulating?  No.  Not everything has to be, though.  There is, however, another problem that needs mentioning: the book’s title.

I originally read this book under the title Drowning in Shadow.  Its current moniker evokes a Hammer film and acts as a spoiler.  Readers expecting Gothic horror are going to be in for a bit of a surprise, though the beginning of the story will solidify those expectations for a while before crushing them callously.  The original title was better, and I cannot emphasize that enough.

Minor distractions aside, if murder mysteries are your thing -- especially those with a hint of the otherworldly -- then you may want to give this novel a chance.  It won’t change your world, but it is a welcome, simplistic read while waiting for tires to be put on your car, or for when you are enjoying a glass of wine and Ayn Rand seems a bit too heavy.

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer:  I did receive this book to review, and clicking on a link could earn me a commission.

A Simple Study in Economics

Kersten Kelly’s Ec•o•nom•ics: A Simple Twist on Normalcy takes a lot of inspiration from Freakonomics.  Anyone expecting a rehash of that book is going to be sorely disappointed, however.  Kelly’s work stands on its own, and its goal is to make a vast, complex subject a little more understandable.  Does it work?  Yes, but with a price.

Kelly writes in a very conversational style, which helps when dealing with economics and the theories that drive the marketplace and consumers.  She examines the complexities behind things like what dictates lipstick purchases in a struggling economy and the how people’s decisions are swayed on a show like Deal or No Deal and then ties them into simple economics.  If you have a passing interest in this subject, this book will whet your appetite for more.  If you are a seasoned pro, however, you may find it a little too basic, but that is the book’s allure.  While Freakonomics, a book I enjoyed, took strange situations (such as how legalized abortion affected the crime rate) and applied science to it, Kelly takes ordinary situations that we take for granted and examines why they work the way they do.  Fast food, car purchases, the Cold War, extreme couponing, dating sites – she hits them all, and while this is a good starting point, many of these issues are far more complicated than this book would have you believe.  That doesn’t matter, though, because sometimes a simple understanding is more than enough to give you solid ground to stand on.

Freakonomics took relatively simple ideas and problems and showed how complex they were.  Ec•o•nom•ics takes complex issues and shows how simple they can be.  The two books, while vastly different, complement each other quite well.  There is still much for Kelly to uncover, however, and it makes me wonder if she is working on a new volume.

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer: I received this book to review.  Clicking on a link may earn me a commission.

Writing For the Masses

I recently finished Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism and decided I wanted to write a review of it for Associated Content.  I figured this might be the place to get the biggest audience of people who would never seek this book out on their own.  There's one problem, though: How do you write a review for the masses about a subject that most people have either no knowledge of or are totally misinformed about?

It is a lot harder than it sounds.

A vast majority of people get their views on anarchism strictly from the local news, which has never covered it correctly.  Even those in unions, which exist thanks to the past fights of the anarchists, have little knowledge of their group's anarchist roots.  Combine that with a nearly 400 page academic book and you have a situation where you almost can't write for a general audience.

I want the review to make the book sound appealing to those who would never consider reading it.  People interested in anarchist politics would have either already read it, or they would have it on their radar.  That isn't the audience I want.  I want the people whose knowledge of books is what they see in Borders.  So, in order to do that, I have the write the review as simple as possible (no detailed analysis of issues such as the role of gender in anarchist movements in Japan in the 1930s), while at the same time making sure the book's complexity is highlighted as to not mislead anyone.  I have to write the review to ensure that anyone who reads it and would be remotely interested in the subject matter will want to keep the book on their radar.

It's not often where you see books this specialized reviewed in venues that are designed to appeal to general audiences.  Usually they are given page space in journals and on specialized web sites.  That's because of the difficulty in writing such a review for general audiences.  It is almost an exercise in failure, and nobody wants to pay for that.  Luckily, Associated Content pays by page views, so it is up to the author to make his or her work appealing enough to get paid.

I don't know if I'll succeed.  I have a rough draft done, and I'm liking it so far.  It is simple enough not to bore, and it gives readers a good idea if they'll want to pick up the book or not.  Of course, my goal is to get people to read it, but I'm not hopeful enough to think someone is going to pick this up as a light summer read.  (That's why the Twilight series exists.)  But if I can get just one person to give it a shot, then I've done my job.

Book Review Up On My Other Blog

My other blog, Published and Unpublished Works, is where I reprint or link a lot of my (duh) published and unpublished pieces. It's obviously a work in progress.

Today a posted a piss-poor book review I did back in 1995 for Da Qiang Ji. You can read the review here, if so inclined. The book was published by Paladin Press (link in my links section of this blog). Here's an interesting footnote to all this.

I published this review in a 'zine I was doing at the time, Married Punks. Paladin was happy to supply us with books to review (and I welcome any publisher that wants to see its books reviewed here to contact me) until one day they cut us off. The reason? We were too extreme politically. Go figure.

For Those Interested ...

It looks like I will be reviewing books once again for Fearlessbooks. I'm kind of excited about that, as I was exposed to some really interesting reads. I'll post more info on this later. I have to update my bio this week, so I think this will start happening in the next few months.