Book review: The Children's Crusade

Title: The Children's Crusade
Author: Ann Packer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Audiobook

Summary: Bill Packer buys land when he's starting out in the Bay Area as a young doctor.  It will be the perfect place to raise a family that doesn't exist yet.  He meets Penny Greenway and they have four kids.  Years later, the youngest, James, appears and uproots the other kid's lives.  What does James want after all these years?

Review:  As previously stated in past reviews, I'm a sucker for three things--post apocalypse stories, addiction tales and dysfunctional families.  Side note; Imagine a story about all three?  Well, this one is just the latter but it's still good.  There's a good balance of shifting between the parents and the kids, although the ending is a bit fuzzy for me.  Also, it takes place in the Bay Area.  Overall, good character depth and things aren't fully resolved, which I like.

Time to write: 2:56

Book Review: Dark Places

Title: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: To say that Libby Day's had a rough life would be an understatement.  Her two sisters and mom were killed in the famous "Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas."  Libby's brother was convicted for the murders, largely because of Libby's testimony.  Twenty-five years later Libby is broke and running out of ways to to profit from her infamous family and her troubled upbringing.  When Libby is approached by The Kill Club (a group obsessed with notorious crimes), she sees a way to continue to profit from her family's demise.  Her investigation uncovers long buried secrets that force her to face what really happened that day.

Review: For those that don't know, Gillian Flynn is the author of Gone Girl.  Dark Places is one of her earlier books.  If you read Gone Girl, you know how dark it is, and I'd been told that her other books were also dark.  I listened to this book on CD and I kept thinking, "huh, I don't find this book that dark.  I wonder what that says about me."  This was a great book.  It doesn't go into it specifically, but the amateur psychologist in me would say that Libby's trauma stunted her emotional development at the age of seven, when her family was killed.  You can feel sorry for her early losses, but trust me, she's no saint.  There's great buildup in this book to find out what really happened that night.

The main reason I didn't give this book the full five stars is I just didn't buy the explanation for the killing.  I couldn't suspend disbelief, it was all too..coincidental.  I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just leave it at that.

Time to write: 6:46