Review: The Summer Children

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book cover was beautiful. I picked it up the book from Net Galley when I found the average rating which was well above 4. I had huge expectations from the book but somewhere I could not connect with the characters.

This is about FBI agent Mercedes Ramirez working in the Crimes Against Children Dept who finds herself investigating murders when children are dropped at her home after being rescued from their abusive homes. She is aided by her colleagues Eddison, Vic and Sterling who, I guess, made an appearance in one of the previous book in the series. The agent herself has a dark history and mysteriously the killer trusts her to safeguard these children.

The book starts with a promise but it loses its pace with myriad characters flitting in and out of the plot. The narrative is dark and horrific. The crux of the plot is superb and the subject is quite macabre. However, I did not find it thrilling enough to keep me hooked. Maybe the earlier books in the series were far better. Also the characters from the Butterfly Garden (Priya, Inara and Victoria-Bliss) make an appearance without adding any value to the plot. However at some places it becomes quite emotional and disturbing to read about the sexual abuse faced by the children.

I thank Net Galley for a free copy of the book.

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Review: 11.22.63

11.22.63 by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic ! My first Stephen King ! I never could lay my hands on Stephen King novel after watching the movie "The Shining". I simply did not like it at all. How I wish I had read his books long back ! This is a magnum opus sci-fi book about a man who is accidentally thrown into a rabbit hole, literally, and how and why he thwarts the assassination of the John Kennedy. Being an Indian, apart from the conspiracy theories and Oliver Stone's JFK, John Kennedy's assassination had little significance for me. But after reading this book, I now somewhat understand the magnitude of this crime which shook America.

Jake Epping is an English teacher from a small town in Maine who is coaxed by his friend Al Templeton to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of the President of USA in November 1963. The good thing about it is he can go back in time any number of times and stay as long as he wants but he will always enter September 1958 and if he comes back to the present, he will be gone for only two minutes. The catch here is , if Jake tries to change the past, the consequences would be better or worse, known as the butterfly effect.

Jake goes back to September 1958, lives four years, gets a job as an English teacher, falls in love with a school librarian, meets Lee Harvey Oswald (yeah, unbelievable right ? ) and his family with the sole aim of stopping him from killing the President and saving the world. Will he or won't he, looms the big question that is constantly there in the reader's sub-conscious mind.

I almost gave it a 4-star rating as I thought it was a tad too long at 740 pages. But after I read the climax, which was no less than a Christopher Nolan movie ending, I was simply struck by the stupefyingly brilliant plot. The language too is easy on reader. The characters are loveable. You even have some sympathy for L.H.Oswald and his family. This concept of time travel is different and entertaining. I am now raring to go for one of his horror books.

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