Ok we're back at it with the book reviews. I need to do a blog reorganization/overhaul anyway & this'll just live here for now. I read two books this weekend that were fantastic to read back to back,  because one was terrible and the other one was absolutely gorgeous. 

The first book was begins at the end by Chris somebody. I did not like this book and I don't want it in my search history so I'm not checking. Basically, it is a murder mystery/thriller where all the caretaking adults in these two kids' lives get picked off by a psychotic real estate developer (so just a regular real estate developer) except for the protagonist (cop named Walk who becomes a cop because he discovered a classmate's dead body as a child, most normal ?? person in this whole book). He has Parkinson's instead, so he can't adopt these kids but he does makes sure they don't completely die of neglect. Their dad was accused of killing their aunt when they were all children and is freshly out of a 30 year prison sentence because of it, and their mom is an addict who gets murdered after parentifying the shit out of her oldest child. Ok I did end up googling this because I was like surely the plot is not as stupid and convoluted as I remember (it is) and I've learned it's actually WE begin at the end by Chris Whitaker. 

Chris, this is an L. I'm sorry. The alleged protagonist is the elder sister Duchess, who's 13 and is very protective of her younger brother (Robin, 5. So protective that she ABANDONS HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT so he can get adopted by a loving perfect couple. btw the reason the couple won't adopt both siblings is because they're worried Duchess will make A FALSE RAPE ACCUSATION which she kinda did do against a foster dad in a blackmail scheme a few chapters prior this book is fucking insane). I love a plucky child hero with a healthy disrespect for authority as much as anyone else but Duchess did not read like a 13 year old. She read like John Wayne's coldest cowboy trapped in a middle schooler's body. That Microsoft proto-AI twitter bot they had to shut down because she became a Nazi read more like a teenager than Duchess did. Duchess reads like a bad fan-fiction version of True Grit. She introduces herself multiple times in a re-occuring bit as follows "I am the outlaw Duchess Day Radley. And you are [insert Joss Whedon style pithy remark]" It hurt to read. Duchess does go after adult men with weapons with intent to kill but even that did not redeem her as a character for me. I was not surprised to find out the author was British. I do think he's been to Montana (the kids have a brief idyllic respite on a cattle farm before the murdering picks back up again) but I do not think he has been to a small California beach town with complicated local politics. Or if he did it was only to use the bathroom and keep driving. This is tough because most of the book was set in such a town. The plot was disorganized and I'm sorry that Duchess wasn't written better because in theory this could have been sick as hell.  

On the other hand Kittentits by Holly Wilson fucking ruled. RULED! Weird dreamy free associative, really captured the rapid-fire weird thinking kids have and the intense older-girl hero worship you have as a pre-teen. It had a specific kind of Americana I love where everything is fucked up and crumbling and Midwestern and sad (looking at you, The Rabbit Hutch UGH I love that book) Ghost nun and spiritual forgiveness, big points for that. World fair that never really happened. Ghosts in general. Grief and missing your mom. Psychotic sibling rage and pen pals that don't write back. I love books that are like reality but slightly to the left. I'm being vague because I loved it and I think you should read it. Gillian fucking Flynn said she loved this book, okay? You should read it.