All the Colors of the Dark

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
6/25/24; 608 pages
Crown Publishing

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker is a brilliant literary epic drama spanning decades and genres. This exceptional, very highly recommended novel is certainly one of the best novels of 2024. If you loved Whitaker's We Begin at the End (2020) then please read All the Colors of the Dark.

It is 1975 in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, where Saint Brown and her best friend Joseph “Patch” Macauley are best friends. Saint, whose parents are both deceased, lives with her grandmother and keeps bees. Patch was born with one eye, thus the nickname and his love of all things pirate related. He lives with his neglectful single mother. When Patch sees a man attacking Misty, a popular girl from school, he steps in to stop it. Misty escapes but Patch is captured instead and held captive in a dark basement for many months. 

Saint is determined to find her best friend and never loses hope, always seeking clues about his whereabouts. Her dogged persistence and tenacity is never-ending. While captive in the total darkness of the basement, Patch meets a girl, Grace, who tells him stories from places across the country and keeps him safe. Grace gives Patch hope and a reason to survive. 

And this is just a very brief taste of what awaits you when reading All the Colors of the Dark.

What follows is a glorious, heartbreaking literary saga that covers 1975 to 2001. It is an in-depth character study that merges together, in part, as a domestic drama, a coming-of-age tale, a missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a story of obsession, and a love story, a prison drama, and more. The short chapters are from the point-of-view of Saint or Patch. Once I started reading All the Colors of the Dark I was totally immersed in the believable and heartrending world Whitaker paints. It is a long novel, but was impossible to put down.

The writing is eloquent, descriptive, poignant, and the final result is simply a masterpiece. Whitaker is such a gifted writer! All of his characters come to life as fully realized individuals with strengths and flaws. I felt like I intimately knew all of the characters and their story will continue to resonate with me for years. Bravo, Chris Whitaker - All the Colors of the Dark is a masterpiece of literature. Thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Terminal Surf

Terminal Surf by Brendan DuBois
6/25/24; 268 pages
Severn River Publishing
Lewis Cole #12

Terminal Surf by Brendan DuBois is a very highly recommended investigative thriller and the twelfth book in the Lewis Cole series. This is an excellent addition to an outstanding series!

After Lewis Cole discovers a drowned migrant woman and her child outside his home, he suddenly finds himself in the midst of a highly emotional controversy involving a human smuggling operation on the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine. The Department of Homeland Security is on a nearby beach where other bodies have washed ashore and quickly take control of the scene away from Detective Sgt. Diane Woods. Reporter and girlfriend Paula Woods does manage to take a few pictures for a story. Suddenly Tyler Beach becomes the focal point for activists from both sides of the immigration issue and a well know reporter tries to take advantage of the high emotions.

DuBois treads into choppy waters with this highly topical plot focused on human smuggling and does an exceptional job of looking at all sides of the issue without lecturing the reader. I've been known to caution authors to keep their personal political/social views to themselves as it diminishes and dates the novel but no such note is needed here. The focus of the plot is to uncover who is doing the smuggling and is responsible for the deaths. The investigation Lewis undertakes is interesting and there were several surprising twists along the way.

At this point in the series, Lewis is a well-developed character and has a complicated background that those following the series will know. Terminal Surf can be read as a stand-alone novel but knowing all the backstory of Lewis, Diane, Felix, and Paula makes the current novel a richer reading experience. Thanks to Severn River Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Glassmaker

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
6/18/24; 416 pages
Viking 

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to the present day. It is highly recommended historical fiction melded with magic realism.

Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on Murano, the island near Venice known for the craft. It is 1486 and Venice is a trade center for the glassmakers of Murano. After her father dies in an accident, her brother Marco takes over the family business and he is struggling to support the family. As a woman, she is not meant to be a glassmaker, but she learns the craft of making glass beads in order to help her family.

From this point the novel moves through six centuries, from the late 15th century, when Orsola is a child, on through to the present day, when she’s in her late 60s.  Chevalier tells us that "time passes differently" on the island and Orsola and her family age slowly as they live through historical events across hundreds of years. History moves forward as they live from the Italian Renaissance through the plague, the Napoleonic era, and world wars into the 21st century and Covid-19. I found the time jumps interesting and the novel entrancing until they rushed into more current events. It was toward the end of a lovely novel that my rating dropped a point.

The writing is extraordinary in every way. The characters are all exceptionally well-written as fully realized individuals. They come to life on the pages. The descriptions of places, glass, historical times, events, and people are wonderful and perfectly capture the essence of every scene. I loved everything about The Glassmaker until the end and the time jumps went disastrously into current events. If you can accept and go with the magic realism and jumps through time, this is an enchanting novel. Thanks to Viking for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Midnight Feast

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
6/18/24; 320 pages
HarperCollins

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley is a very highly recommended twisty locked room thriller. This entertaining novel unfolds through both multiple points-of-view and timelines

Francesca Meadows inherited the estate located by the Dorset coastline and ancient forests where she used to stay with her grandparents. She has now turned The Manor into an exclusive luxury resort built with help from her architect, now husband, Owen. The wealthy guests are arriving for the opulent opening weekend and planned summer solstice celebration. Let the celebrations begin! But wait all may not be as it seems. The locals aren't thrilled with The Manor for several reasons and there is one guest attending who is holding a grudge. 

The narrative switches back and forth between different timelines and character's points-of-view. The timelines include the present day, the past, and after the solstice when DI Walker is investigating a fire and a body found. There are plenty of warnings to "beware the birds" and to keep in mind that the Night Birds could be called upon to bring judgement to bear.

Readers will know someone has died and that there was a fire at The Manor. Characters include Francesca, her husband Owen, Bella a guest with a grudge, and Eddie, a dishwasher who lives in the area. The entertainment is in meeting the characters, learning their backgrounds, and anticipating what is going to happen next. Additionally, with all the feathers showing up randomly, has someone summoned the Night Birds to come and render judgement upon the guilty.

Once the story gets moving, The Midnight Feast is a well-written, wildly entertaining book. I was actually shocked at several of the surprising twists toward the end. 4.5 rounded up. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Same As It Ever Was

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
6/18/24; 512 pages
Knopf Doubleday

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo is a highly recommended literary, character-driven domestic drama.

Julia Ames, 57, is married to Mark, 60, and the two have a son Ben, 24, who is about to get married and become a father, and a daughter, Alma, with an attitude who is graduating from high school. While shopping for Mark's 60th birthday celebration, she runs into Helen Russo, an older woman she hoped to never encounter again. Twenty years ago Helen met Julia and Ben (3 at that point) at the botanic garden. Helen took Julia, who was floundering, crying frequently, and socially inept at the time under her care almost like a surrogate mother. This encounter lead to Julia reexamining her past actions and why the friendship ended abruptly.

While the writing is excellent, detailed, and can even be humorous, the plot is slow moving. The narrative alternates between current events and events from years ago, including meeting Helen and even earlier to Julia's childhood. The alternating time lines document Julia's emotional turbulence and her self-sabotaging behavior while trying to be a wife and mother. It does accomplish the task of examining Julia's current life, her relationship with her children, and the friendship she developed with Helen, along with reasons for the end of the friendship, years ago.

All of the characters are portrayed as fully realized, realistic individuals. Julia is a deeply flawed, complicated character. As she struggles to show affection and seems bent on self destruction, Julia is not necessarily always a sympathetic character. At other times information is revealed that makes her an overwhelmingly a sympathetic character. Thanks to Knopf Doubleday for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart by Jerry Wald
6/11/24; 362 pages
Torchflame Books

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart by Jerry Wald follows four men searching for a greater meaning in life. It is a highly recommended

Jacob Hart has always said that there is an answer to every problem. This mantra helped him succeed as an engineer with GoldOrb Diversified. He always struggled with the role of a higher power in this world and other existential questions, but retirement and his wife's death left him seeking the answer to life's mysteries at Lake Paradise. Joining him in his quest is a Rabbi who has lost his faith, an unruly Ivy League professor, and the powerful CEO of GoldOrb. At the same time a political scandal erupts that could impact the friends.

This is a story of men reflecting upon their lives and asking themselves the existential questions which can lead to a better understanding and acceptance of themselves. The men undertake the insightful personal examination of their own lives and seek the answers to some age old questions and other more recent quandaries with the goal of living a more fulfilling, meaningful life. It also looks at the growth of interpersonal relationships with friends and family.

The pages fly by quickly in this well written debut novel which explores an age old quest for meaning and direction in one's life. The characters are all presented as individuals with their own unique struggles as they deal with questions that they must come to terms with for themselves. Thanks to Torchflame Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via BookSirens. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Sandwich

Sandwich by Catherine Newman
6/18/24; 240 pages
HarperCollins

Sandwich by Catherine Newman is an emotional drama that spends one week in the life of a family on their annual summer vacation at Cape Cod. It is recommended.

Nick and Rocky (Rachel) and their two grown children, Jamie and Willa, always spend one week a summer at the same cottage. Maya, Jamie's girlfriend has joined them this year and Rocky's parents will also be stay with them for a few days. Rocky is menopausal, experiencing hot flashes, angry, and emotional in contrast to Nick, who is easygoing. Rocky narrates the novel which is in part details of what they will eat, comic episodes, reminiscing on past events and heartbreaking secrets, and her menopausal hot flashes and anger. She not only makes plenty of sandwiches for the family to take to the beach, she is now part of the sandwich generation between her aging parents and adult children.

The quality of the writing is good and includes details that create a picture of the setting. The narrative follows the present day vacation with alternating chapters reflecting back on highly emotional events in the past. The state of Rocky's emotions, which are rocky indeed, are also descriptively presented along with her relationship and interaction with her family. At times, however, the interaction between family members was entertaining as written, but seemed unbelievable and unrealistic.

Rocky is a character that I struggled with liking or even relating to on some level, which is essential to this novel because she is the narrator. The constant mention of hot flashes and menopause began to annoy me. She feels over-the-top emotions and anxiety seemingly all the time while being very much self-focused. Some of her thoughts and actions just struck me as off and unrealistic. I should be the target audience for this novel but it put me off more than once. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.