Hush Little Babies

I firmly believe that Darlie Routier did not kill her children.

 

Yet, Darlie has sat on death row for nearly 25 years.

So quick recap of what happened the night her boys, Devon and Damon were killed. Darlie and her two oldest boys were sleeping downstairs in the living room while her husband Darin to their fussy 8 month old, Drake, upstairs to sleep. Around 2:30 am, Darin is woken up by Darlie screaming that someone killed the boys. Darin runs downstairs, sees the boys laying in pools in of blood while Darlie is gushing blood from her neck. Paramedics and police are on the scene in less than 10 minutes. Within a half hour of assessing the scene, Jim Cron had already decided the intruder theory was bogus and that Darlie was the perpetrator.

I'm bothered by this case because they immediately honed in on Darlie. While she was recovering from her wounds in the hospital, detectives popped in to take a statement from her. Comparing the 911 call with her hospital statement, there are some differences. But let me ask you two things. 1) If you were just attacked in your home and are watching your boys die while trying to explain what happened, do you think you'd be 100% coherent? 2) If you just woke up, groggy from medication given to you during emergency surgery, would you be able to give a coherent statement?

That's one of the many issues I have with this case.

But I also want to know how they convicted a woman with no physical evidence. Darlie's trial was 100% based on circumstantial evidence. Not to mention the prosecution's theories are absurd. They truly believe Darlie stabbed her children to death, staged a crime scene, planted a bloody sock on the street nearly 3 houses away, and then stabbed herself 5 times with her non-dominant hand AND made them look like defensive wounds.

 

I just don't buy that. I don't believe she's responsible for this.

The Book of Accidents

I know I'm about to be in the minority here, but this book was not for me.

After reading a few of my friend's reviews, I decided to impulse buy The Book of Accidents. This book has received so much praise and I just don't get it.

It was horror meets sci-fi meets coming of age. It kind of felt like he took every single season of American Horror Story and mashed them together into this weird book. There's a haunted house, an impending apocalypse, multiple dimensions, a book of magic, a serial killer, and it even incorporates weird political undertones. But I suffered through all 525 pages because I thought it might get better.

The premise is simple, Nate's abusive father dies. Soon after Nate's family is packing up and moving into his childhood home. Nate transitions from big city cop, to small town Fish & Game warden. His artist wife, Maddie is ready to tackle bigger and better projects. She'll have her own workspace and can be alone with nature to craft whatever her heart desires. Their son, Olly, is ready to start over. He might finally have a chance to forget all the dark, evil, and painful things happening in the world. But, of course, that darkness seemed to follow them.

That's pretty much when things get weird.

It's all downhill from there.

You Got Anything Stronger?

I went on my first date with Gabrielle Union in October 2020.

September 2021, she finally decided we should know each other a little better.

 So, I poured myself a glass of wine, and took a seat.

 

I felt like I had really gotten to know Gabrielle Union in her first book, We're Going to Need More Wine. She revisits many of the same topics in You Got Anything Stronger? But she also jumps straight into the new things happening in her life. She talks about motherhood, finding balance, and creating a family friendly workplace in Hollywood. Still, it wouldn't be a date with Gab if she didn't also bring up strippers and dance battles.

I heard all about the kids.

Kaavia James seems to always be on the go, running around without any care in the world. Zaya is busing living her truest self, exploring her sexuality while educating her family on what it means to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

We even went back and talked about how she feels like she let down Isis, her character in Bring It On. Even though she voiced her opinions on how Isis should speak and act, she ultimately didn't get to see her dream on the big screen. While her opinions definitely helped create a more authentic character, it still feels like it was watered down in a way that was easier for white people to digest.

I fee; like I got to meet a truly authentic version of Gabrielle Union. One that can joke about herself but also be downright honestly about the things troubling her. That's what made this book so enjoyable. I'm sure we'll meet again.

Looking for other books by Gabrielle Union?

We're Going to Need More Wine

What About Will

Ellen Hopkins writing middle grade novels makes my heart so happy.

 

Like most of her books, What About Will was written in verse. This writing style makes it so easy to fly through her books, which is probably why I read this entire book in like.....4 hours.

 

What About Will is the story of two brothers, Will and Trace. The story is told through Trace's point of view and details Will's downward spiral. Trace tries not to upset Will because he knows his anger is related to the traumatic brain injury he suffered while playing football. But Trace misses the brother he used to have. He wants to help, even if he is only 12.

Trace notices Will becoming more and more withdrawn everyday. He tries to tell his overworked dad and absentee mom, but they both brush it off as high school stress. At one point, Trace's mom tells him she's sure he'll go through this phase one day too. But Trace knows deep down that this is different.

What I love about Ellen Hopkins is that even in this middle grade novel, she refuses to shy away from tough topics. This book deals with absentee parents, prison, addiction, and even rehab. Kids today need books like this because there's a good chance someone in your class is going through the same things. Hopkins knows that first hand and regularly writes about things going on in her life. The kids she's raising are all familiar with these topics because they're living it.

Looking for other books by Ellen Hopkins?

Middle-Grade Fiction:

Closer to Nowhere

YA Fiction:

Crank (Crank #1)

Glass (Crank #2)

Fallout (Crank #3)

Flirtin' with the Monster (Crank Anthology)

Burned (Burned #1)

Smoke (Burned #2)

Rumble

Tricks (Tricks #1)

Traffick (Tricks #2)

The You I've Never Known

 People Kill People

Adult Fiction:

 Love Lies Beneath (LLB #1)

A Sin Such as This (LLB #2)

Collateral

Triangles

Anthologies:

One Death, Nine Stories

Behind the Song

Life Inside My Mind

Meddling Kids

I know what you're thinking....

"Isn't meddling kids the catch phrase of literally every unmasked villain in Scooby-Doo?"

Well yes, yes it is.

In the summer of 1977, four teenagers and a dog formed the Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club. They ran all over town looking for crimes they could help solve. Their last case helped unmask the Sleepy Lake Monster. After 13 years, the man behind the mask was released from prison. That's when Andrea "Andy" Rodriquez hunts him down in an attempt to uncover the mastermind behind the actual crime.

Soon enough, Andy's kicking misogynistic ass in Kerri's bar. They grab Kerri's dog, Tim, and head towards the Arkham facility to bust out Nate. They have unfinished business in Blyton Hills.

So this basically took the teens from Scooby-Doo, aged them up to mid-20s, gave them much darker backstories, and handed them weapons. Oh, and throw in some necromancy for spice. It was an odd little book that didn't really do much for me. But I think anyone who grew up watching Scooby and his pals would probably enjoy this book.

Generation We

Generation We: The Power and Promise of Gen Z caught my eye on Goodreads for a couple of reasons. I happen to be one of the youngest Millennials (1995) and my sister is one of the oldest Gen Zs (1997). I always believed we grew up in a fairly similar world since we're only a year and a half apart. It was crazy reading this book and being able to relate back to my sister and so many of my close friends. I have Gen Z friends out here killing it as parents and some who still live at home with their parents. Some of them have started their own businesses and some are still working for the man. But the one thing we can't deny is how powerful this generation is going to be.

I have fought with southern old white women about gender equality, systemic racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and even healthcare. It blows my mind that some people are willing to argue that some people don't deserve equal rights. But Gen Z is fully prepared to face lawmakers head. They are not sitting idly while legislation creates a less than ideal world for the future, they're taking action and holding major corporations accountable for their wrongdoings.

Author, AnneMarie Hayek, acknowledges that she is Gen X and used a team of Gen Zs to help create this book and received input from Gen Zs all over the US. Hayek is a partner of the company Global Mosaic, which is who published this book. 

All that being said, I had a few issues with it. Just doing a basic google search would discredit several topics brought up in the book. At one point, the author begins talking about Billie Eilish's career and how she became famous after posting a song on SoundCloud. When mentioning Eilish again, the author states that Eilish actually uses they/them pronouns. Now, I can't find any information stating that this is true. But if it was, someone on her team missed the potentially harmful use of she/her instead of they/them when discussing Billie Eilish.

Hayek also discusses something she refers to as Eco-Anxiety and Eco-PTSD. The idea behind these disorders is that Gen Z is struggling to cope with the deteriorating climate and what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint. Hayek claims that many teens are struggling with these new disorders. While the American Psychology Association has acknowledged Eco-Anxiety as a stressor, no psychologist is currently treating this as a diagnosable disorder.

I am glad that I read this book. I just wish some of the topics were researched a bit more.

The Dead and the Dark

Was I expecting a horror novel when I bought this? Yes.

Is that what I got? Not at all.

What I got instead was an incredibly unique ghost story with a mostly queer cast.

The story begins with Logan and her dads moving to Snakebite, Oregon. It's been 13 years since Alejo and Brandon have set foot in the dark and gloomy town they grew up in, but their paranormal TV show has them scouting locations in the area. So they packed up and moved home.

In typical small town horror story fashion, teenagers start going missing and turning up dead pretty much as soon as the Ortiz-Woodley family shows back up. Of course, secrets never stay hidden for long and when there are teenagers involved. You know they're bound to do their own sleuthing. Logan and Ashley quickly strike up an investigative friendship. If her dads can hunt ghosts, so can she. She steals a few ghost hunting devices from their bags and sets off to a cabin in the woods.

The ending is what really made me love this book.

Everything was tied up so nicely.

 

I thought I was crazy when I told my friend it felt like Murder House meets Riverdale. As I was reading the Acknowledgments, I realized I wasn't alone in that description. But, like I said earlier, it was missing the horror aspect that I was craving. Still a great story but definitely could have used a few more scares.

At The End of Everything

I'm obsessed with everything Marieke Nijkamp writes.

At The End of Everything is set in the fictional Hope Juvenile Treatment Center, essentially a detention center for juvenile offenders. The government gets away with calling it a "treatment center" by having one therapist work with literally all the teens there. All the guards are concerned with is getting the teens to follow the rules, however ridiculous they may be.

 

This book is told through multiple characters' points of view. There's Grace, the girl who somehow got promoted from solitary confinement to leading the teens through a literal plague. There's Emerson, who feels like they just don't belong in this facility. Then there's Leah's nonverbal twin sister, Logan.

While all their story lines coincide, reading Logan's chapters were my favorite. Social cues are a critical necessity when interacting with someone nonverbal, which is why it's absolutely amazing to me that Marieke Nijkamp managed to portray Logan as such a spunky and charismatic character in this book.

Okay, so let's actually get into the plot of the book.

Most of the novel takes place within the confines of Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. Right away, Grace notices something weird is going down but she never expected all of the staff to disappear. The guards, the wardens, the therapists....gone. All these teens have been left alone, but why?

A group of them gather up the courage to leave the facility they've all lived in for months. During their trek for answers, they get stopped at a roadblock. The National Guard informs them of the virus/disease spreading rapidly all over the country. The Guard then gives them the chance to head back to the Hope Facility or be met with gunfire.

Realizing there's no help coming for them, the teens are left to fend for themselves. They have little skills, little food, and little hope of getting out of there alive.

Immense thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an advanced copy of this book! At The End of Everything hits shelves on January 25, 2022!

Looking for other books by Marieke Nijkamp?

This Is Where It Ends

Before I Let Go

Even If We Break

The Lucifer Effect

If you've ever taken a college psych class, you've probably heard of Dr. Philip Zimbardo. If his name doesn't sound familiar, you might recognize his famous psychological experiment. Dr. Zimbardo created the Stanford Prison Experiment designed to study the psychology of imprisonment. What Dr. Zimbardo and his research team failed to realize was how quickly their makeshift prison would become a real prison for a handful of average college students.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil explores the concept of good versus evil and the gray space in between. It explores situational factors that allows the reader to step into the role of the research subject. It creates the impossible task of  hypothesizing what the reader would do in these instances. Would you, the prisoner in this scenario, adhere to the demanding and demeaning prison guards? Would you, the guard, force prisoners into sexually explicit stances? Would you stand up for what you believe in or would you face emotional defeat willingly?

 

This makeshift prison was shut down within a week due to the emotional distress the prisoners were facing. Of course, that doesn't mean the study was a failure. It became a real prison for the boys involved. Guards and prisoners alike were distraught with the way they acted during the experiment.

Dr. Zimbardo focuses on the Stanford Prison Experiment for roughly half of the book. The other half is spent drawing parallels between the Stanford Prison Experiment and the abuses at Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Military run prison in Iraq. The blatant torture and abuses between guards and prisoners were recorded through a series of photos that the guards passed around to the other service members. Dr. Zimbardo was invited to discuss the nature of these photos and the situational factors surrounding them. While never dismissing or condoning the abuse, he does his best to explain why these things could have been happening in this prison. He goes on to describe how he experienced a similar phenomenon in his makeshift prison.

 

This book is nearly 500 pages of in depth darkness.

I'm glad I finally got to read this insane case study but I'm very glad to be putting all this evil behind me.

Poison for Breakfast

"Reading a book makes me feel as if I am in conversation with the author."

That line is amazing. It completely describes the feelings I had while reading this book.

I've been obsessed with Lemony Snicket books since I was a kid. Weirdly enough, I found A Series of Unfortunate Events through the little excerpts stuck to my Lunchables.

So when I saw Mr. Snicket was releasing a new book called Poison for Breakfast, I immediately pre-ordered it and then read the description.

Written in typical Lemony Snicket fashion, the book begins with a scrap of paper that reads "You had poison for breakfast." Which sets Mr. Snicket off on a journey through his breakfast. That's really all a book is, someone going on a journey or someone losing something. But in reality those are really the same story. It's told completely through stream of consciousness and honestly felt like I was walking through town with Lemony Snicket while he investigated who or what may have poisoned his breakfast.

 

Honestly, I just love this book.

 

This is easily one of the best books I've read all year.