Such a Pretty Girl

Meredith thought she had 9 years of freedom from her abuse father... but the system only gave her 3 years. In those 3 little years, she never got over the abuse suffered by the hands of her father. She never forgot the emotional damage. She'll never forget that little gold baseball slapping against her skin throughout the entirety of the sexual abuse. However, she found close friends she could trust and confide in. She found Andy, a boy who was also abused by Meredith's father. She found a women, desperate to get revenge, even if it meant waiting for God to drive her plan. She found the officer her arrested her father and he looked after her in so many ways. 

Charles was an opportunity sex offender. He molested children of any age, gender, even his own daughter. He's not supposed to be left alone with her under any circumstances, yet he finds a way to make that happen. He needs Chirp to "forgive and forget" the sexual abuse he pushed on her..

And then there's Andy. You can't help but hate to love him, or love to hate. There's really no inbetween. He's paralyzed from the waist down because of an accident in high school. But he too was abused by Charles and finds a form of solace in Meredith. They need each other to survive. They have to be strong together. Meredith needs closure whereas Andy needs support.

What I found most troubling about this book was how comfortably Meredith was being nude with Andy. As a victim/survivor of sexual abuse, I expected her to be more closed off. I was expecting her to be strong but relapse when things got rough.

The other issue I have is that this book was about rape. I have read several books with this topic, but this one was not like any of the others. This almost ignored the abuse so much that all you could think about was the abuse. It was in no way graphic, which I almost think is necessary to get a point across a topic like this. You can't just hint around and expect readers to see the big picture when you're only giving them small flashes.

Finally, the God factor. It was strange and quite frankly, out of place. This woman was so obsessed with religion and spirits and healing that she believed that was the only way to get her son out of a wheelchair. She believed the only way to save Meredith was to pray for her. I understand the metaphors tied to this, but I never would have put all the pieces together until Meredith spelled it out on literally the very last page.....

Who Killed Kurt Cobain?

I never read graphic novels, but this one stuck out to me.

There are so many speculations of what happened to Kurt. Honestly, we'll never know for sure what happened, why he did it, or what drove him to it. But what we do know is what was left in his suicide note....

Nicolas Otero took a completely different stance, one that I'm not sure has ever been explored. 

Boddah.

Who Killed Kurt Cobain? was written in Boddah's voice. 

Boddah almost works as Kurt's conscious or alter ego, whichever you please. 

We all know his suicide note was written "To: Boddah" so it makes sense that Boddah would have something to do with it.

From this viewpoint, Boddah walks us through Kurt's life. Boddah has been with him for many, many years; longer than anyone and far before he was in the spotlight. Boddah tells us about Courtney, about how Boddah was there that night.... but Courtney wasn't.

This graphic novel addresses all the rumors floating around and sculpts them into something for Boddah to explain to us.

 Very neat concept about a rock star that I have loved for many years,

So I applaud you Otero, for dragging my attention away from a regular book to try something new.

Thank you.

Looking for other books on Kurt Cobain?
Heavier than Heaven
27
Life on Planet Rock

Kurt Cobain: The Last Interview

Don't Close Your Eyes

OH. MY. GOSH.

Okay, so you guys all know I loved Try Not to Breathe, but Don't Close Your Eyes is 4,000X better.

 Holly Seddon creates another thrilling twist of fate between twin sisters Robin and Sarah. They had been together their whole life when their mother has an affair and tears their family apart. Sarah moves to the States and Robin gains a new brother.

 Don't Close Your Eyes is not only told through alternating viewpoints between Robin and Sarah, but it is also told through alternating time frames that start in the '90s and working its way up to 2017. 

But how could this be a thriller?

Well Robin becomes a hermit. Never leaving her house, spying on neighbors, and paralyzed by virtually everything.

Then there's Sarah.... Sarah lost a child, maybe even two. She needs to find her sister to help her execute a plan to get her little girl back.

So, which sister is it?

Which sister do we know nothing about?

Which sister is telling lie after lie and deceving the ones she loves?

 Find out July 4th when Don't Close Your Eyes hits shelves!

Big thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy of Don't Close Your Eyes!

Looking for other books by Holly Seddon?
Try Not to Breathe
Love Will Tear Us Apart

Want to hear my exclusive interview with Holly?
Meet Holly Seddon

Meet Holly Seddon

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I know it's a cliché, but I'm not sure I ever had that realization, it was just always there. As soon as I could write, I wrote all the time. When I was very young, I wrote stories or I would do 'animal research' in little books and try to sell them to my family. I knew that I wanted to be a novelist but it seemed out of reach to a normal girl from rural England, so I focused on becoming a journalist, a similar job in many ways, and one that I was passionate about. The desire to write a novel never left me though, and I'm very glad about that!

What are some of your favorite books?

This question gets harder to answer every time I'm answering it! There are those books that meant a huge amount to me growing up, that helped me work out who I was (or who I wanted to be) but I don't read those now... I tell you what I'm loving at the moment though, classic British crime books. Finely tuned mysteries set in the twenties and thirties. I also got an amazing Sherlock Holmes collection for Christmas and I'm working my way through that!

What inspires you to write?

Writing is how I make sense of the world, so everything feeds it. Good, bad, weird. There's a line in Try Not to Breathe about my character Alex Dale but actually it's entirely true of me. Her mother dies and she writes a newspaper column about it. "[Alex] didn't cry until she read her column that Sunday, and finally knew how she was supposed to feel." I sometimes understand things only when I'm looking at them at a slight remove, when I'm writing. So I realize I sound like an oddball, but maybe it's less about inspiration and more about a coping mechanism!

Where is your favorite place to write?

Realistically- my bed. Ideally- by a pool in St. Lucia.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I could try to think up something really cool and/or chic but the truth is that I'm happiest wearing my comfies, lying on the sofa with a glass of wine, watching Netflix with my husband. My characters are way cooler than me, I live vicariously through them while in reality I'm wearing a bath robe.

What is your newest book about?

Don't Close Your Eyes is a thriller that follows the story of Robin and Sarah twins who were torn apart as kids through a cruel twist of fate. Now in their thirties, Robin lives alone in Manchester, obsessively watching the neighbors- until one day she sees something the shouldn't. Meanwhile, Sarah has been accused of something so terrible that only Robin can help her. Tracking Robin down unleashes a whole can of worms though and I'm really excited to see what readers think of the ending!

Are you currently working on anything new?

Yes. I've actually written book three already and that's ready to be edited but I'm grappling with the early days of book four. I love the idea, I love the opening lines, I love the structure... actually writing the thing is HARD! It's always this way though, it starts with a big, lumpy, holey, messy, terrifying draft and then gets- hopefully- crafted into shape!

Now let's get down to business....

You're stranded on a deserted island, you get to pick one book to take with you. What do you choose and why?

I think I would take that complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories I mentioned- maybe then I'd actually finish it!

You have been given a week vacation to visit ANY fictional town, where would you go?

Oh man, that's a great question. I think I would say London. Not the real London that I've previously lived in and that smells of bus fumes, but the London that only exists in the golden age crime books, where everyone wears a suit or gown and every weekend dinner party is a right old caper.

Quick! You have a date with your favorite fictional character, who are you meeting tonight?!

Oh gawd! This is SO hard. A lot of the characters in my favourite books are kind of a*sholes! I've been mulling this over for a ridiculously long amount of time, standing in front of my bookcase trying to choose. I've decided that I'm going to go for Jack Reacher. I read Lee Child books every bedtime, pretty much without fail. So if nothing else, Jack could talk me through the exact workings of a very specific type of gun until I nod off. Not much of a fun date for him....

So guys you've met Holly, now check out her social media!!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hollyseddonauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hollyseddon

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollyseddonauthor/

Try Not to Breathe, Don't Close Your Eyes, and Love Will Tear Us Apart can be purchased at www.hollyseddon.com and online at all major book stores!

Spotlight: The Dead Inside

Here's an introduction to The Dead Inside!

You're not going to believe this. Seriously, nobody does. But this stuff happened, right here in America. In the warehouse down the street. 

The warehouse had a name: Straight, Incorporated. Straight called itself a drug rehab for kids, but most of us had barely even smoked weed. Take me, for example. In September, at age thirteen, I smoked it for the first time. I tried smoking again in October. In November, I got locked up in Straight- for sixteen months. The second we entered the building, we all stopped being kids. We stopped being humans. Instead, we were Straightlings.

Other than my father and me, each person you read about here has a fake name. Many of the Straightlings are smooshed-together versions of different people, but everything happened exactly how I describe it. If you want proof, hit the epilogue. There you'll find court records, canceled checks, newspaper reportage, and Straight, Inc. international documents. Want more proof? Go online and read all of the survivor stories that are just like mine.

And to my fellow Straightlings? Put your armor on. You're going back on front row.

If you're interested in this memoir I do have an additional chapter from the book that I can share with you! It's far too long to include the entirety of Chapter 18, but I will be more than happy to share it with you!

Guys! I reviewed the follow up companion book to The Dead Inside!

Check out We Can't Be Friends!