Category: Reviews

The Last Word by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last book in the Spellman series, and it feels like it. You have to decide for yourself if that speaks ill or not. Personally, I don’t think it does, but then, I waded through all six Spellman documents without much break in between. I can imagine that reading one novel a year from 2007 through 2013 (with a break in 2011 for a stand-alone novel) would leave one wanting more out of number six. And it was only after publication that subsequent editions of number six were subtitled “The Next Generation” which, too, I think, set some unrealized expectations.

The theme throughout has been farcical dysfunction, and how Izzy is a reformed-screw-up. Here in number six, she’s fully adult, and screwing that up too, but it’s inexperience, not selfish indifference, that fuels the chaos. Thankfully, a tragedy of sorts brings the family back to being on the same team, and everything works out. This is what I mean when I say it feels like a final novel. A couple of dangling threads get tied up a bit too neat, and while I want to lambast Lutz for laziness, I’m going to instead forgive her the desire to just move one.

As a person who likes to write, I have a lot of respect for all of the various plot lines that Lisa Lutz manages to weave together. Dozens of different stories intertwining, some of them tied together, and some of them disparate. But for all of that, the Spellman novels were usually more about character than anything else. And let’s face it: everyone’s a foil for Izzy. So too in 6, the final foil, if you want.

As I’ve said in previous Spellman doc reviews, I don’t know who would read a review for this novel—if you’ve read one through five, I can’t imagine you’d look for a reason to read six. You’d just read it. Nor can I imagine someone wanting to check-up on the series’ worthiness before diving in. You decided if the first one is right for you, and if it is, so are the other five.

But for what it’s worth: Six is a nice finish. A little bit slower, a little bid sadder, a wee bit nostalgic, but ultimately, a nice smile and satisfaction at a series well-read.

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Lexicon by Max Barry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Went to the library to pick up a book, saw this one on the “New” shelf. How come no one told me Max Barry had a new novel out? I need to update my Google alerts.

And it’s about words and more specifically linguistics and even more specifically neurolinguistics (actually, psycholinguistics, but let’s not split hairs). Even better! The NLP thing taken to it’s inevitable end, nice. I’m all in.

21 hours later and I’m all done. Max Barry knows how to pace a thriller, doesn’t he. With just enough pseudo-science thrown in to keep this from being a Lee Child joint but not so much that you feel you’re getting Dan Browned.

However, once I stepped back, found myself trying to explain the book to my wife, I realized it was a bit thin. A blurb on the book jacket used the phrased “weaponized Chomskian linguistics.” But no, not really. More like J.K Rowling’s magic-word-creation trope used to good effect. Another blurb said “Elmore Leonard high out of his min on Snowcrash.” Not really.

I realize I’m more reviewing blurbs here than the book. Fine, whatever. My point is—it’s better to go into Lexicon with no expectations, because then it’s a mighty good read. But you’ve read this review now, the shape of the book is already haunting your expectations like a ghost. I’m programming you.

Unwittingly, though. I’m just saying—not as deep as Jennifer Government, or even Company, but it has their paranoia and Barry way-ups the thrill ride, so worth it.

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The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can’t imagine that anyone who’s read The Spellman Files, Curse of the Spellmans, and Revenge of the Spellmans won’t wind up reading The Spellmans Strike Again. Nor can I imagine anyone deciding to start with this fourth novel before reading the others. So what they heck am I supposed to review here, exactly? Maybe someone’s considering the entire series and reading reviews to make sure the books don’t start great then go bad. Fine: that won’t happen. What you get out of the first novels you’ll get out if this one too.

Hijinks and such. The same mish-mash of intertwining plots that don’t really intertwine all that much. I’ll say this: Lisa made me feel some of Izzy’s emotions, especially frustration, more than before. I won’t give it away to people who haven’t read it, but: the file room incident? Morty? Yeah, I was more in touch with Isabel Spellman than in any of the previous novels.

Which makes me wonder what I’m going to get out of Spellman #5, which I’m hoping to start reading later today. And I WILL read it. But will Rae be in it (of course she will be). What about the Unit (they will be too—sometimes I think, as an author and therefor God of the Spellman fiction-verse, Lutz must somewhat identify with Olivia). Will Henry have more of a role?

I could go on, but the point is: questions to be answered in the next review. I hope. Or not.

If you take nothing else away from this “review” (finger quoted, Izzy, just for you) let it be this: read the first three books, and read this one too.

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Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember, once, someone complaining about a video game sequel that I’d enjoyed, saying “It’s just like the first one!.” But I liked the first one, so, to me, the sequel was more of that goodness. So too with Revenge of the Spellmans. I don’t feel like there’s much more here than in the previous two novels, The Spellman Files and Curse of the Spellmans—which I thoroughly enjoyed. And there’s certainly no less in this third novel.

(Here’s a thought—can I get away with writing the same review each time? Eh, probably not.)

Anyyway, for those who are wondering, rest assured: here are the same old Spellmans. Mom is still manipulative, dad is still stubborn, brother is still aloof, sister is still uncontrollable, and main character is still a little bit off-kilter. Maybe not as much as in the previous two, but enough to keep the reader liking her.

And, for what it’s worth, Lutz introduces a few more characters to keep this cavalcade fun and immersive. There’s the crush’s new girlfriend, there’s the bartender’s cousin, there’s an old foe come back to play havoc with… and more.

So, as much as I’m saying that Revenge is just like Curse and Files, the truth is you’ll enjoy Revenge all the more if you read the other two first—and despite extensive explanations, footnotes, and an appendix, you really do need to read the first two.

And once you do read the first two, reading this third one is inexorable.

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Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Curse of the Spellmans had been waiting for me, patiently, as I crawled through a few other agonizingly slow reads. Here’s how good it was when I finally got to it: 25 hours from page 1 to page 409, (meals, work, sleeping, but no video games).

I’m not a fast reader, but I’ll stick with a tome if I’m enjoying myself. I thoroughly enjoyed Curse of the Spellmans. I knew I was going to read it as soon as I finished The Spellman Files, and as soon as I’m done writing this review, I’m finding the closest library and heading over there for the third in the series.

Ignore the back of the book, where it says “part Bridget Jones, part Columbo.” Nobody’s into both, so it’s only meant to be a surface-level comparison, and it’s wrong. Izzy Spellman’s no stereotype, and these mysteries aren’t so pat. They’re fun, with enough of a serious edge to not come across as goofy or silly.

Because otherwise, the people in Izzy’s life comes across as goofy and silly. But in that way that your own friends and family do—doesn’t mean you don’t respect them. Doesn’t mean they don’t have depth.

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Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Look at me, turning in a Gillian Flynn scholar. A reluctant one. Like my read of Dark Places, with Sharp Objects I was in a situation where I was done with one book and nothing else to read, nor a handy way to get something new. Sharp Objects already on the e-reader (my wife’s). I realize I’m repeating myself, introducing a review like this. But I think it’s apt: some books are only to be read because there’s nothing else to read.

So, let’s see: I’ve read the Flynn novels now in reverse order of publication. Oddly, this one, Sharp Objects, is the best of the three, in my opinion. I’m trying to damn with faint praise, here—Sharp Objects is only better because Gone Girl has that terrible ending and Dark Places is just gritty and mean and hateful.

Sharp Objects is a bit of a combination of the two. We’re in Missouri, we’re surrounded by people who justify the term “fly-over,” we’re inundated with alcohol, drugs, and sex. What Bret Easton Ellis would have written if instead of a small college town in Vermont, he had pig-factory town in the Midwest to work with.

Most of all, Sharp Objects reaffirms my take from the other Flynn novels: misogynistic. Every female character is cliché, a stereotype. Here’s a direct quote from the main character: “illness sits inside every woman, waiting to bloom.” Go ahead, tell me that this is a fiercely political point of view, more “gonzo feminism.”

Maybe. If the writing was better. If the “twist” ending wasn’t so tossed-in-at-the-last-minute, if half the things the main character did made sense, if, as I mentioned above, the threadbare storyline was patched together with more than sex, and alcohol, and drugs.

If you liked Flowers in the Attic but are all grown up now, you’ll love Sharp Objects. Here’s my prediction: Lena Dunham will star in the film version. Not the creative force-to-be-reckoned-with-Lena from Girls. No, I mean the Lena Dunham who’s been castigated for the terrible things she proudly, gushingly confessed to in her autobiography.

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