Review: "The Princess & the Penis" by R.J. Silver

The Princess & the Penis by R.J. Silver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Yes, I've read it - and it was as hilarious as I'd expected.

Favorite line: "There was a lump under my rump all night long."




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Review: "Fragile" by Lisa Unger

Fragile by Lisa Unger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I needed to read a book by an author whose name (first or last) starts with the letter "U" in order to finish a reading challenge, and that's how I "discovered" Lisa Unger. I didn't know anything about her and her books when I started to read Fragile, so I had no expectations. Now I wish I had known what to expect, because I wasn't in the right mood to read a "depressing" book.

This story takes place in a small town called The Hollows, where everyone knows everyone - or so they think. Their peaceful - aka dreary and hopeless - suburban lives are shaken when a teenage girl goes missing. Has she run away or has she been abducted? Why? As the news are spread around town, the memories of a similar case that happened two decades earlier resurface - and long-buried secrets can no longer stay hidden. The parallels between the two (past and present) cases seem to affect everyone's life, and no one will be the same when all is finally said and done.

I had a hard time reading this book. There were too many characters and the POV shifted constantly from one to another. It was annoying, because I didn't need to be privy to the thoughts of every character that made an appearance in the story. Some of those POV were redundant, repeating what I'd already learned from other characters' POV, and some were completely unnecessary, adding nothing to the story. Anyway, regardless of their importance, all characters were connected with Jones Cooper, the head detective at the Hollows Police Department, and his wife Maggie, a psychotherapist who added a few wrinkles to my forehead due to her lack of professional ethic. Jones' and Maggie's POV were the ones who kept the story going and Ms. Unger could have ditched the other characters' POV - but that's just my opinion...

Besides the too-many-characters issue I just mentioned, I also had a problem with their characterization. I mean, there wasn't one single character who was slightly content in this story. Considering how many of them there were, it was depressing to find out that none of them knew what happiness was. Oh Ms. Unger, just slash my wrists and be done with it, will you?

As for the mystery/suspense part of the story, it was dragged too long for my taste, but it had an interesting plot twist near the end. I suspected knew that things weren't exactly what they looked like in that sleepy little town, but I hadn't figured out what exactly laid beneath the silence held by Jones & Co.

The ending wasn't to my liking either. Everything was wrapped up too neatly, which was unrealistic and disconcerting. The ending did not fit the overall story, that's all I can say without giving it away.

Based on what I wrote above, one might assume I disliked this read. Well, I didn't dislike it - but I can't say I quite liked it because it depressed the crap out of me. Strangely enough, that's also the reason this book has its merit, as I don't think Ms. Unger was aiming at delivering an uplifting story when she wrote it. So, all things considered, I guess I could say this was an okay read to me. I'm just glad I'm not one of the depressing characters in this book.




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Review: "No Hope For Gomez!" by Graham Parke

No Hope for Gomez! by Graham Parke

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Hands down, this was the funniest book I read in 2010.

Gomez Porter is an unsuccessful antiques dealer who's decided to earn some extra cash by becoming a test subject in an experimental drug trial. As part of the trial, he was asked to keep a blog reporting his experiences, no matter how mundane or unimportant they may seem. And that's the content of No Hope for Gomez!: Gomez's quirky and hilarious blog entries.

Gomez has no idea what kind of drugs he's on, so he has no way of knowing what kind of "experiences" and side effects the doctors expect him to report. He doesn't care, though. He only cares about Dr. Hargrove, the scientist who's running the drug trial. Unfortunately, none of his feeble and clumsy attempts at charming her seem to work - until a stalker gives him the perfect opportunity to show her how great he is. It looks like Dr. Hargrove is being stalked by someone, so Gomez comes up with the idea of catching her stalker by stalking her himself - I mean, he'll be technically her stalker's stalker, but he can't stalk someone he doesn't know so he'll be in fact stalking Dr. Hargrove in order to identify and catch her primary stalker. :D

At the same time, things become stranger and stranger in Gomez's life. One of the trial participants turns up dead, then the detective investigating the case disappears. Gomez suspects there's something amiss with the experimental drug trial, but Dr. Hargrove assures him that they aren't testing anything dangerous. He loves her, but should he trust her? Would she tell him if his life was in danger? Maybe she doesn't really know what the pills she gives him weekly do. What if he's scheduled to die next? Is there Hope for Gomez???

As this story is told from Gomez's POV and I was aware that he was participating in a drug trial whose side effects were unknown, I was constantly tying to guess which of the experiences he reported on his blog were real and which were drug-induced illusions. Was he really in love with Dr. Hargrove? Was the death of one trial participant that unusual? Did his downstairs neighboor Warren really dance the meringue on an overturned bathtub in stiletto heels and stir-fry hamsters in his balcony? What about the bizarre customers who popped up into Gomez's antiques store? Did he actually meet a man wearing a fake moustache, a three-piece suit, sandals and a sombrero? Was I going crazy because some of that stuff started to make sense to me? LOL!

This book caught me completely by surprise. It was LOL funny, with the kind of humor I like: dry, sarcastic and quirky. I've seen some reviews on this book mentioning Woody Allen and Douglas Adams, and I have to agree: Mr. Parke's writing, full of witty observations about human life and its endless absurdities, reminded me of them. Not a bad thing, as I love their work. :)

No Hope for Gomez! is Mr. Parke's debut book and he couldn't have done better. I'll be definitely on the lookout for his next release.

Disclaimer: I was asked by the author to read and review this book. Once I agreed, he sent me a copy of the book free of charge. Those facts had no influence on my review/rating.




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