Melody Writes

It is impossible to read Meg Elison's Number One Fan without comparing it to Stephen King's Misery. Both feature a famous novelist kidnapped by an unhinged fan who grows increasingly terrifying over the course of the novel. Both books speak to toxicity in fandom and the entitlement some fans develop towards creators. I cannot recommend Misery enough - it is a fantastic book - but I'm going to focus on Elison's book here. It is more than just a "gender-flipped" Misery. Note: My discussion will include some spoilers, but I will do my best to avoid the major ones. Eli Grey is on her way to a speaking engagement when she gets kidnapped by Leonard, a man who she thinks is a stranger, but knows her all too well. For years, Leonard has been circling at the edge of Eli's life, and he has finally decided to make his move. What follows was one of the most harrowing, uncomfortable reads of my life. The level of entitlement and intimacy that Leonard expects of Eli is ...

Maybe I’m a sick person. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Because when I read the book’s tagline, “Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive,” it skyrocketed to the top of my to-read pile. When I read the rest of the blurb that promised a child on a murderous rampage, I got even more excited to read it. “Part fairy tale, part horror story” – it seemed perfect for me.   Unfortunately, what I got instead was a bit of a mess. The book does deliver on its promises – everyone dies, it has a fairy-tale flavour, it’s definitely horror – but the way the deaths play out felt forced and even at times, ridiculous. The balance of the tale shifted widely. Some of the deaths were almost slapstick in their delivery, while others were quite gruesome. There is one death right near the end that is particularly disgusting and drawn out far too long. I think even hardened fans of gore may struggle with this one, a...

This one made me nostalgic for my university days! Studying in the library, chatting with my friends about ancient history, hoping to uncover something shocking and cool! I admit the nostalgia may have coloured my enjoyment of the book, but even without that, it's a good story. Ayef dreams of being a Curator, historians who edit the past and present their version to society, but after a bit of a shake-up, her dream shifts to becoming a Historian. Curators obscure the past, while Historians reveal it. But first, Ayef must study under a Curator to learn what exactly it is that they are obscuring. This is the source of the main conflict of the plot and the mystery/reveal about the ancient secrets is interesting and complicated. The quote "history is written by the victors" is often tossed around (and it is mostly true). McMahon's story touches on this idea, and others, while exploring the complicated ideas around who should have access to what information. Considering t...

When I first went to Trent University, there was an introductory week where you could attend sample lectures to test out classes. I said to myself, "how smart would I sound if I knew Latin?" so I went to the Latin lecture. Out came this funny man with a bag of sidewalk chalk. His enthusiasm and charm immediately won me over and learning Latin became about more than just "sounding smart". That man was one of my professors, David Page. Each year I was at Trent, I made sure I had classes with David (as he preferred to be called). He taught me Latin and Roman history. He made each class interesting using that sidewalk chalk "to make it colourful" and explaining concepts so we could all understand. I struggled a lot with the languages and the nuances of translation, but his patience never ran out - or if it did, he hid it well! But because of him, I stuck with Latin. To this day, I can still chant Latin conjugations like he taught me. One year, I was not set to...

I grew up a country music fan. Born in the early eighties, a teen in the 90s, while everyone else was wild over Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and Britney, I was listening to Paul Brandt, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Alan Jackson. I got used to being the odd one out when it came to music. People would tell me how my music was “too whiny” and crack endless “dead dog” jokes. Some even made crosses with their fingers and hissed at me like I was a vampire for loving my country music.   What did I do? I doubled down. I held my head high and dared them to name me all these “dead dog” songs (never could), proudly listed happy country songs when they asked for examples, and quietly gloated when I caught them cranking up King of the Road or singing along to Johnny Cash. Later on, I started studying Tae Kwon Do, and everything was familiar. People who had never trained a day enjoyed telling me how “useless” my martial art was. How no one in UFC ever used Tae Kwon Do moves, so clearly it was ...

This was a fun, little read: an engaging novella that can be completed in one sitting (or two).  Mallory lives in a dark, post-apocalyptic world where no one sees the sun. Through climate change, the temperature of the world has risen to the point where the sun scorches, and the heat is unbearable. Driven to extremes, humanity has built giant towers that spread thick clouds everywhere, blocking out all light from the sky. Mallory lives mostly content in her dark world, until Rein comes into her life. Rein is from somewhere Mallory thought impossible and upends Mallory's entire life. The strongest part of this book is the world building. It may be a short novella, but the work Pichette has put into research and developing just how a world like this would function is impressive. I would love to see a movie or show based on this novella just to see how they present this dark world illuminated by fungus. It sounds eerily beautiful. The plot is simple, but not in a negative way. Mallory...

This week, I am once again pulling from my archives. I am almost finished the writing course I've been taking, which will free up a lot of my writing time and let me dedicate some time to this blog. The two reviews I'm sharing today are paired together because they are rather unusual. The first, Abduction Revelation, came to me from Twitter long ago. My profile listed "book nerd" as a descriptor, and this author suggested that I read his book. Maybe memoir, maybe fiction, it's the story of his life and how he was abducted by aliens. It was a fun read, but kinda weird. The second is Awoken by Serra Elinson, a person who does not exist. This was produced by Lindsay Ellis as a parody of Twilight-style romances and I played a teeny, tiny part in its creation. She asked her followers to vote on tropes, and that included me.   Original Review: This is probably the strangest book I have ever read. Not just for its subject matter, but also how it came to my attention. M...

Original review posted to Goodreads July 29, 2016, review written 2014.   Review: I was wary of Stolen at first. The premise was of a young teenage girl who gets kidnapped by a handsome stranger and he holds her hostage in the Australian Outback until Stockholm Syndrome starts to sink its teeth into her mind. Too often, I find, stories (esp. young adult) try to sell that stalking=love, and typically with older men and young girls. "He's just SO IN LOVE with her that he can't help but be obsessed with her - isn't that romantic?" That kind of thing bothers me on a fundamental level. So, I entered this book worried. And at first, the book did nothing to soothe those fears. I listened to the book in audio format during a couple of long drives and my solitude as I cruised down road amplified the story in an unpredictable way. The vast majority of the tale is spent with only Gemma and Ty, her kidnapper, alone in the harsh Australian desert. The audio book, w...

It's been a busy few weeks keeping up with my Fright Club writing assignments, so I thought I'd pull a couple of my old reviews out from the archives and post them here. Both were posted to Goodreads in August 2016, but were written before that. The books are Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang and Equal to the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani. I am pairing these two together because they are historical fiction and feature characters exploring different gender roles. One is a young woman from a rigid society who performs duties that are traditionally male, and the other stars a eunuch. Equal to the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani Review:   I wanted to read this book because it was about an interesting woman in a time period and country I know little about (Iran around 1576). What I found was an emotional and strange story of political intrigue and the love that can develop between a eunuch and the princess he serves. Javaher is a brave man who is willing to risk and sacrifice everyt...