This is one of the most captivating books I've read in a while. I started it within a few days of receiving it and had finished it within a few more. If you understand how many books I read at once (seven, right now) you might then understand that this was a remarkable change from my typical pace. It can take me months to read a book, especially if it's dense or requires research but, the right novel will make me plow heedlessly forward, forgetting all other novels, responsibilities, and people around me. This book was the right novel. I read before work, while eating lunch, and all evening after work. Finally, when it ended, I was so furious I didn't know what to do with myself. Once I calmed down, I realized that I loved the book. Sometimes it's hard to love something when it makes you angry. 

If Southern Gothic is a fully recognizable genre, after this book, I would argue that Midwestern Gothic ought to be one as well (like this reviewer). Rich's characters are fully realized, even the ones in the background, which make it incredibly easy to get sucked into the novel. You feel like these are people that you know, or maybe have met somewhere before. You want to find out more about them and how they interact with the world. In particular, for this novel, you want them to interact with the world even more so you can get your bearings, figure out what about this specific iteration of Midwestern America isn't quite right. 

Stanza is our main character, returning home to Kansas after five years away and the death of her fiance. Many things have changed and America now resembles something out of a modern Shirley Jackson story--dark, angry, and scared. Her community is covertly but deeply oppressive in almost every imaginable way. The open discussion of religion is not welcome nor, for that matter, is anything that falls outside of the conservative framework. Think Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale. It's a bleak society. ​

Stanza doesn't quite fit into this network of people and lives simply in a fishing cabin on her father's property. She is kept company by her dog and the ghosts of her loved ones. Once she begins to heal and starts teaching at the local college, she begins to draw attention to herself by simply being an independent woman with strong ideas. Most especially, she draws the attention of a former classmate, now her boss, who has carried a torch for her all these years. When their encounters escalate to the breaking point, the resulting storm breaks over her. 

Sara Rich takes you on an emotional journey through one family's history and brings it to a stark, angry boiling point in a world that could be our own, that mimic our own in terrifying ways. Her writing is beautiful and her thoughts are precisely wrought. I devoured it and it moved me deeply.

I recommend this book for lovers of Margaret Atwood, Flannery O'Conner, Shirley Jackson, or Charles Frazier. Grab your copy at Foggy Pine for $8.99 (seriously, the best deal on a book this month).

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

​

Michael Jasper's Finders, Inc. is a charming and thoroughly enjoyable read. Set in our very own Watauga County, the novel follows a team of detectives through their most recent case. Hank and Bim have been friends since childhood. They work with husband and wife team, Juan and Marly, to investigate a variety of cases but their specialty is missing persons. When retired Appalachian State University professors start going missing, the Finders team are the perfect choice of investigators. 

Jasper does a wonderful job creating characters that you fall in love with, root for, and want to follow through the book. Bim was my favorite character but Marly is probably my second, with her husband as a close third. I found myself wishing I could find the characters walking around town and sit down with them for a chat. Plus, Jasper does such a great job integrating local businesses and land marks that it makes you feel like you're hearing a story from a friend. All the relationships are fully fledged too, though they have room for growth, something I find promising in the first of a series. The author really knows his characters and does a wonderful job bringing the little town of Boone to the page. 

If you're looking for a fun fall read, something to curl up with by the fire and spend more time with than you meant to, I highly recommend this cozy mystery. Grab your copy from the store for just $16.99!

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

​Matt Wilven does something wonderful and much needed with his debut novel, The Blackbird Singularity; he makes mental illness approachable and real. In an age when every act of mass violence is pegged either on radical fundamentalists or "crazy" people, having and managing a mental illness is an unheard of feat. The media tend to paint those with mental illness as unmanageable members of a society they refuse to fit into, implying that mental illness has something to do with choice. In fact, depressed individuals are often looked on with pity and given patronizing, though well-meaning, advice to "just cheer up". Those that suffer from ADD or ADHD are often told they simply need to meditate and focus on one thing at a time, as if those thoughts simply hadn't occurred to the sufferer before--they just needed your advice on what to do. Particularly with behavioral disorders, like bipolar and schizophrenia, there are a great many stereotypes that abound. This novel explores a case of grief-induced bipolar disorder and gives such an honest, unflinching look into the mind of someone with bipolar that it's hard to think of "crazy" in the same way as you did before this book. 

The story centers around Vince, a writer, who stops taking his medication when he finds out that his wife is pregnant. Two years previously, they lost their young son to a terrible disease. After his death, Vince went off the deep end and almost took everything in his life with him. Finally, he was hospitalized in a psych ward and prescribed lithium for grief-induced bipolar. When he learns of his wife's new pregnancy, he hopes that he can be the person that he knows is underneath all the chemicals but is truly afraid that person is lost to him forever. He forges an unexpected friendship with a blackbird as the withdrawal from his medication begins to set in. Slowly, Vince loses his grip on reality, eventually driving his wife back to the home of her judgmental parents. All Vince wants is to prove that he can be a functioning person without medication but can he really go back to "normal"? Wilven sends his reader down the same dark path, wondering if the protagonist will ever recover or if the road to redemption is a delusion. There are so many things I want to say but I'm afraid of giving away the end, which was completely and entirely unexpected. The entire book will make you laugh, worry, gasp, cry, and, finally, smile. I thought this book was beautifully written and thoroughly haunting. 

Wilven masterfully directs his reader through the dark and twisty narrative to a place of lightness and hope, leaving you with a final lesson: we must all make the choice to either be who we are or be who everyone else wants us to be. Being who you are can be a beautiful thing. 

A must read for lovers of The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, Madness by Marya Hornbacher or anything by Haruki Murakami (so much magical realism...)
​
I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟​ 🌟

Note: This book comes out in paperback November 1, 2016 & will be available at Foggy Pine Books.