Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review. 

 

Nothing really to say except this is not a "thriller" in my sense of the word or genre. We do have a mystery (that did not shock me when we get to the reveal) about why one character killed herself. Other than that, the book I thought did a solid job showing how women see themselves and others and how so many people can think that their life or marriage is perfect when it's not. I liked the two sisters/characters (Clare and Eileen). I also felt very sad for Clare. It definitely leaves you wondering about what things would have looked like had she chosen differently and or just accepted things when she was in high school. 

 

"Her Perfect Life" follows harried mother, Eileen. Eileen is happily married, but feels a bit overwhelmed with her life and her three children. Her husband barely seems around to help her, but she counts herself lucky compared to her sister, Clare. Eileen is jealous of Clare and it seems as if the two sisters are slightly estranged. When Eileen gets a phone call from her sister Clare's husband Simon, he informs her that Clare has killed herself. Eileen and Simon struggle with what was so bad in Clare's life that would have her kill herself. The book jumps back and forth between Eileen, Simon, and Clare and we get chapters showing Clare 2 years before her death all the way to 20 years before her death. Eileen and Simon for the most part are in the present day with I think just 1 or 2 chapters showing Simon before.

 

I really liked all of the characters. You feel sad for everyone by the time you are done with the book. Clare for not trusting those around her. Eileen for realizing that what she thought was true about a lot of things, was not. Simon for realizing he never knew his life.

 

The writing was very good. The characters all have distinct voices. Clare as a teen's voice is different than her voice set 2 years before her death which makes sense. She is the only one we get to see change over the course of years which I think made sense. 

The setting of the book moves between California and Colorado. The setting of Clare and Simon's house felt fragile and it makes sense considering what you find via the book about Simon and Clare.

The ending leaves things on a hopeful note though which I liked. 

My Friday reads are the following two books:

 

 

Happy May the 1st!

 

And we are about to end 7 weeks in lockdown (some of us anyway).

 

Hope you have some books to get you through the weekend.

My books are:

 

A Week at the Shore, Her Perfect Life, and A Touch of Gold. 

Voy a ser sincera y admitir que sólo escogí este libro por el hecho de que la portada me recordó a Grim Fandando.



Ahora no estoy muy segura de porqué, porque viendo bien la portada de Grim Fandango y la del libro, veo que lo único que tienen en común son calaveras... y ni siquiera calaveras parecidas. O tal vez fue por el hecho de que la sinopsis del libro dice que se desarrolla en el Día de Los Muertos, al igual que el juego.

En fin, el funcionamiento de mi mente es un misterio, y fuese por lo que fuese, me alegra haberlo leído.

Carmen está en un intercambio en México, y durante la celebración de El Día de Los Muertos ve la aparición de su pequeño hermanito, quien murió hace trece años atrás. Esa aparición la lleva hasta The Between, un lugar donde están las almas de aquellos "no vivos pero tampoco completamente muertos". Allí, Carmen, con ayuda de su guía Ray, deberá pasar por una serie de pruebas, muy al estilo de [b:Inferno|15645|Inferno (The Divine Comedy, #1)|Dante Alighieri|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333579470s/15645.jpg|2377563], recorriendo las zonas de pereza, gula, lujuria, entre otros. Hasta llegar ante La Gran Equilibradora, donde deberá explicar la muerte de su hermanito para lograr que esté pueda cruzar finalmente al más allá. Para realizar esa tarea sólo tiene un día, el Día de los Muertos, ya que cuando este acabe, se cerrará el portal y Carmen nunca más podría regresar al mundo de los vivos.

Voy a comenzar diciendo que ME ENCANTÓ. The Exquisite and Immaculate Grace of Carmen Espinoza es una historia fabulosa. Al principio conocemos la vida familiar de Carmen con su mamá, quien es una fanática religiosa al mejor estilo de la mamá de [b:Carrie|10592|Carrie|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166254258s/10592.jpg|1552134]. Esa parte me pareció creepy y no muy atrapante, pero luego cuando comienza EL VIAJE, no podía parar de leer.

El recorrido de Carmen por los distintos infiernos te permite ir conociendo sus distintas facetas, y mientras tu la vas conociendo ella se va conociendo a ella misma también. El personaje crece y evoluciona muchísimo a lo largo de la historia. Su esfuerzo y sacrificio por la salvación de su pequeño hermanito es conmovedor.

El "descubrimiento" que hace Carmen durante su viaje no es tan impresionante como podría imaginarse, al menos yo lo adivine casi desde el principio. Sin embargo, el desenlace final sí que es sorprendente. Y bello. Y triste. Y aun así, de alguna forma, es perfecto.

(¿Saben qué es perfecto también? Ray, el guía *guiño guiño*. Amé completamente al personaje. Y le da un toque de ligereza a la historia, con sus bromas y sus palabras de aliento a Carmen).

Así que, aunque en cierta forma es como una versión YA de Inferno de Dante, también es mucho más. Es una historia de amor, de descubrimiento y de redención.

Definitivamente volvería a leerla.

Originally review for my blog: http://vanillamoonblog.com/2013/10/06/review-inheritance-hopeless-maine-2/

There are dead ones who walk. Restless. And others who sleep. There are the oblivious living and those who pause to think. There are the missing. The might-be-dead. Walking. And not walking.
(...)Once upon a time, we fought demons together. Now we are older, wiser. We give our demons different names. And no names at all.
This is not a story about growing up.
This is a story about thinking you had grown up already.
And finding it wasn't simple after all.

"Inheritance" continues Salamandra's adventures in the same style as its predecessor, in the shape of beautifully drawn gothic illustrations.

Sal discovers she actually has a relative - her grandfather, who is living on the island and is thought to be mad. However, she seeks him out to get some answers about herself and her past, but his answers are vague. They may or may not have much sense, and Owen thinks the rumours are true and her grandfather is actually crazy. But is he?

A mysterious disease is taking down  Hopeless' inhabitants one by one, and Owen thinks the doctor is responsible in some way. But, as you would expect, his priest-father doesn't believe him. Nobody does, for that matter, except for Salamandra.

Compared to the first book in the series, I found this one slightly worse. I was expecting a somewhat longer sequel after reading "Personal Demons" and instead of getting the answers I was seeking, I got even more mysteries I want solved. And with the rate at which these graphic novels seem to be published, I probably won't be getting them any sooner than next year.

I was a little confused by the transition between different scenes - which was rather absent in my opinion. It felt as if there were missing pages, but my tablet clearly indicated I didn't skip any - the page numbers were in order. Unfortunately, by the time the third novel comes out, I will probably forget some of what happened in these first two and I won't be able to enjoy them as I should - like it was the case with this one.

I can't really tell exactly what the problem was with this book. I liked it, of course, but it wasn't as good as the first one. It had a good plot, but everything felt a little bit chaotic - as if you couldn't really make any sense of how what previously happened a page before was connected to what you were currently reading. I can't really explain it that well. The way I phrased it just now makes it sound so much worse than it actually was. The mystery of it all is definitely the series' charm, but in this installment, it felt a little bit too much.

I still loved the story and the characters and still want to know why everything is so strange in Hopeless and whether the rest of the world in this series is as full of ghost and monsters and mysterious events. With the first book in the series, I felt it was too short and that was the reason I only gave it 4 vanilla flowers out of 5. Now this second novel is even shorter - with 20 pages or so.

A welcome addition was the detailed descriptions of Hopeless' founding families' history, habits and their current surviving members. I hope in the next book, some explaining about the monsters and ghosts will be made. I look forward to it and recommend giving this series a try, especially if you like books that raise a lot of questions.

P.S.: I found out that these two authors and found out they were (or still are) living on a narrowboat and had to generate their own electricity. Drawing and writing in these conditions - wow! The two of them gained my respect. :)