COJoebro

Mixed Experience

Reviewed: 06-09-24

Ms. Ervin took risks in telling her story. I am sorry for the horrific, violent murder of her mother! I don’t underestimate what it might’ve taken to share such a personal story. I regret to say, it wasn’t the listen I hoped for. there were definitely some strengths but there was a fragmented quality to the narrative. I don’t know if that was intentional, it might’ve been a way to convey the quality of trauma. Also, that quality of fragmentation could be a way to show that some thing about the author’s mother was always out of reach. This is a moment in time when I receive information about the power of women differently than I did before the Dobbs Decision. I just didn’t find it to be paced with the reader in mind. There was a great deal of disclosure in the book. The listener gets insight into some very personal situations and painful ones at that. Still, disclosure and intimacy aren’t synonymous. The book conflates those conflates those qualities.

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Discover the Compelling Reality Behind the Headlines, and the Journey of Someone Discovering Her Potential

Reviewed: 11-14-23

Believe it or not, Alex Murdaugh is the least interesting or important part of the story. Don’t miss this page turner. Discover the deeper story, follow a woman coming into her own!

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A Story of Profound Betrayal, Predatory Entitlement, Justice Delayed, and a Dogged, Hard-Earned Triumph

Reviewed: 11-12-23

Lynn Joy Dawson matters. Her love, loyalty, and legacy come alive here. The story of her betrayal, abuse, murder and lonely plight were nearly lost to history despite laudable efforts by her family of origin to get justice for her. This also a complex cautionary tale about the ripple effects of a greedy, cold, malignant narcissist with insatiable sexual appetites. He openly groomed, seduced, and employed cohesive control a student. Thomas invites the reader into his relentless commitment to investigative reporting and to securing justice for Lynn.

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A Meditation on Female Friendship, Loss and Reconciliation

Reviewed: 09-26-23

Murnick explores the power of friendship she built as a young girl, the way it changed, and the process of reconciling what loyalty is when a friend dies violently.

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Meh.,, Mixed Beach Candy

Reviewed: 07-18-23

I wanted to summer read. I got a summer read. I wasn’t looking for high art. But the writing with clunky and the story was predictable. The characters were a little flat, and yet I finished it. If you’re looking for some thing, you don’t have to think about, or invest in, and you have a credit to spare…meh.

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An Achingly Beautiful and Painful Explanation of Loss and Memory

Reviewed: 05-22-23

This book is included in Anne Boggle’s 2023 Summer Reading Guide. It’s the first I’ve finished. This absorbing story of family, love, loss alienation, and the fragments that are passed down is beautiful. It’s a reckoning. This book needs to be read today.

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1 person found this helpful

Well Told Story of Dedication to Truth and Recognition of the Foresaken

Reviewed: 04-04-23

This is a story about forsaken boys, and the torture they endured in a place that hope forgot. It’s about men and families who never forgot. It’s a tale of complicity, whitewashing and obstruction of memory. It’s an account of a town that depended on the industrial scale dehumanization of kids to prop up its economy, and the cruel complacency of a racist state power structure. AND it is a story of dedication to unearthing the truth, respect and tenacity. It’s about being seen, found, remembered and loved. Kimmerlee tells an important story well. Janina Edwards is pitch perfect.

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Well Written, Absorbing ,Search for a Sad Truth

Reviewed: 04-09-22

Catch the Sparrow will stay with me. Rachel Rear paints a vivid picture of the sister she didn’t meet in life.Stephanie leaps off the page.She is forever 27. Finding answers and finding justice are different things.Rear doesn’t shy away from the complexities.

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Disappointed

Reviewed: 02-14-22

I am a fan of the author and narrator. The story takes place in the late 70s through the middle 80s and is full of twists and turns.

Without any spoilers, an important element of the story is the main character’s deceptive nature including deception about his sexual orientation. To some extent, the attitudes of the day were different. That is something that could be expected. Still, I didn’t like the depiction of the gay characters. I have found those characters to be portrayed as flat, one dimensional people. The sexual detail and tone didn’t serve the story. There is no doubt the main character was deviant but it wasn’t because of his same sex interests or insatiable appetite for casual sex. Rather than revealing much about the murderer I found the authors approach to gay characters reductive, disrespectful, stereotypical, and disappointing.

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1 person found this helpful

Engrossing, character driven, embraces complexity

Reviewed: 10-25-21

This is one of the best listens I’ve found in the last 18 months. The characters are memorable and fully developed. The author doesn’t flatten the story. The narrator was pitch perfect. If you have missed the kind of novels that develop a world and fill it out, don’t miss this.

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