Friday, January 26, 2018

Dark Pines by Will Dean

Dark Pines by Will Dean
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After moving to a rural Swedish town to be closer to her terminally ill mother, Tuva Moodyson finds herself working on a once in a lifetime story for the local newspaper. Tuva starts investigating the murder in connection with a series of similar cold case murders that took place in the same forest. Unfortunately for Tuva, she is forced to keep facing her fear of nature by constantly having to return to the forest during her investigation, which puts her on edge during this already dangerous story.

Tuva is such a well-written protagonist who is relatable from the very beginning. She's continuing the struggle with the death of her father, which leads her to strive to report the facts delicately so that she doesn't cause any additional suffering to the victim's families. Tuva also has a rocky relationship with her mother, which makes her feel guilty even though her feelings are justified. Plus, she's smart, strong, and driven, which makes her an extremely interesting character to follow. She's also deaf and bisexual, and neither of these characteristics are the sole reasons for her presence in the book. It's nice to see some positive representation!

In addition to Tuva, there's a cast of characters that range from fascinating to bizarre and suspicious. There's an eccentric ghost-writer, a man who is believed to have hoarding disorder, sisters who create trolls with a variety of items including some of their own hair, and a seemingly perfect couple hiding failing marriage. There's also Tuva's close friend Tammy, who is being submitted to racism at the hands of the people living in their rural town, and a cast of supportive to silently grumpy co-workers and acquaintances. Each of these characters and their circumstances are brought to life in a way that is easy to see them living their lives somewhere in reality.

The murder mystery is well planned and had me glued to the pages. I found a handful of characters highly suspicious and zeroed in on a character that was not the murderer on the loose in the forest. The way that Dean develops the murder plot is gripping and had me wanting to continue reading even when I couldn't. The case is eerie and jarring but, unfortunately, the killer's motives lack depth. The big reveal is also a bit rushed and the story has an open ending that I wish had been tied up. I think the story could benefit from an additional chapter or two to wrap things up. Regardless, I enjoyed following Tuva through the twists and turns the story takes her through and find myself looking forward to reading more from Dean.

Friday, January 5, 2018

Join by Steve Toutonghi

Join by Steve Toutonghi
My Rating: ★★★★

As humanity faces devastating storms threaten their future on Earth, new technology emerges that allows multiple consciousness into a single mind across each of their bodies. This technology, Join, gives humanity a chance at immortality because their mind will outlive their bodies as long as it's joined with at least one living person. The joined slowly ignore the environmental threats to their habitat in favor of what emerging technology can bring while those who choose to remain solo are more concerned about fixing Earth. When the shroud is ripped from the eyes of two close friends, Chance and Leap, they soon discover that Join and the companies behind it are not what they've been led to believe.

I was a little confused at first because each person who is joined has one name, so it threw me off that Chance was Chance One, Chance Two, and so on. I was able to fully get into the story once I got used to how the clusters worked. After that, I enjoyed this complex story that covered the science and human aspects of the world it takes place in. At some point, I was reading it like Join was a totally normal and real scientific discovery. The science behind it in this world is fascinating. Picture something like Sense8, if you've seen it, but taken to another level where each person in the cluster are all one person once they've joined. Add how anyone can complete the procedure as long as they pass all the medical and psychological checkpoints and afford it, and you've got Join.

Underneath the science of this world, it's a story about mortality, technology, and environmentalism. Many people wish that they could live forever, and technology solves that in this story. People are dazzled by new technology and begin to overlook how it can help us save the environment. It's a great dystopian novel that amplifies the things that concern many on a daily basis and turns it into a scenario covering what could go wrong.

Above all, it has complex and rich characters that had a hold on me. I loved learning about each of the characters and why or why not they chose to use Join. The way these people interacted with each other and brought their valid concerns to light is extremely captivating. The mystery plot that surfaces is just one of the many elements that goes on to answer questions one may or may not have. I'm excited to see what Toutonghi's future work has in store for us.