Book Review: The End of Alice by A.M. Homes

Title: The End of Alice
Author: A. M. Homes
Published: New York: Scribner, 1996
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 143,697
Text Number: 422
Read Because: reviewed by Blair, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A convicted murderer and pedophile receives letters from a young woman who is planning her first seduction of a child. The End of Alice is a self-aware successor to Nabokov's Lolita, but is in tone as grotesque as that book is seductive. This narrator is blatantly unreliable, but his conviction rarely wins the reader's sympathy—in large part because the narrative is a contrived trio of overlapping storylines which feels manufactured rather than immersive, especially in its overly neat conclusion; in short, for all of its excessive and dirty detail, the book never feels real. It's as compelling as a car crash and has the ingredients for success—the voice is strong, the themes thoughtful (though often problematic, especially while demonizing female sexual maturation), and it's carefully compiled. But there's more artistry than mastery here, and besides that it's joyless and horrible to read. I appreciate the attempt but find it unsuccessful, and don't recommend it.

Book Review: The Holy Road by Ginn Hale

Title: The Holy Road (The Rifter Book 2)
Author: Ginn Hale
Published: Bellingham: Blind Eye Books, 2013
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 487
Total Page Count: 144,184
Text Number: 423
Read Because: continuing the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: John has created a secure, if uneasy, life for himself in Basawar, but change is coming that will link John's present with Basawar's tumultuous future. These middle arcs have less worldbuilding and more plot than their predecessors, and Basawar feels more vibrant and alive as a result; the revelations of the plot aren't terribly complex, but they're satisfying. The Rifter has forethought without predictability, the sort of plotting which encourages theorizing without giving away all its secrets. The developing relationship between the protagonists is more transparent—despite the complexities of the characters and setting, the relationship has an underlying, nearly saccharine purity; the utter absence of sex scenes is glaring against the amount of detail everywhere else, and contributes to the sense that the central relationship lacks the depth and complexity of the world which surrounds it. But on the whole, the series continues to be a surprising success. It's overlong in places, strangely shallow in others, but always thoughtfully developed and engaging. I'll see it through to its end.