Book Review- Steven Amsterdam's What the Family Needed

Steven Amsterdam's novel, What the Family Needed plays with the idea of having a superpower get you through a tough time in your life. Each chapter in Amsterdam's novel focuses on a different family member and the time in which they received their super power.

The powers are not something that the characters receive with surprise. It's more like it's something necessary to help them. It's this lack of surprise that helped with the plausibility and allowed me to just go along for the ride. It would have become very tedious to read if I had to sit through all seven characters have their individual shocked reactions to their new powers. Just as the book is titled, the characters easily accept the powers as something that they need. I can suddenly dissapear or speed through water? Cool.

The family involved is two adult sisters and their individual families. I'm still unsure if I liked how the stories connected. I felt like a few of the chapters would have worked better as a individual short story. i could have enjoyed the content more, rather than thinking about how it was going to intersect with the other characters. I enjoyed the characters as part of a family unit, but overall the premise behind the stories was far more entertaining than the family dynamic. I didn't finish the novel feeling like I gained more from having the stories connected. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a collection of unrelated chapters.

My favorite chapter was, Ben, a father with an infant son who is given the power to fly in order to gain perspective. It was beautifully written and the story least connected to the other characters. I also really loved Peter, who gained the ability to materialize what he needed to have after his wife passed away. This isn't a conventional story involving super powers. The powers are much more subtle and tied to emotional needs. The story has many poignant moments.

I enjoyed the concept and Amsterdam's writing style, but admittedly, the story did not manage to hold my interest. I finished it, but there were many times where I fell asleep reading or struggled to keep focused. It was uneven. However, I look forward to checking out other works by Amsterdam, as he has a unique perspective.

Book Review- Jojo Moyes' Me Before You

Lou is in her mid-twenties, has never moved out of her parents house and is stuck in a rut in her small England village. Her own view of her life's possibilities is narrow and only becomes smaller when she loses her job as a waitress at a local cafe. Lou mourns the loss of a job that she enjoyed and finds herself on a employment hunt with little education or skills.

Lou's whole life changes when she takes on a job as a companion to Will, a thirty-six year old paraplegic, who comes from a wealthy family that owns the castle in Lou's hometown. Will is a former jet-setting CEO, who's lifestyle was shattered when he was hit by a car.

Will is counting down the days until he can head to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide. He has made a pact with his parents to wait six months in case he changes his mind and his parents have hired Lou in hopes that she can help him discover his will to live. As Will and Lou develop a friendship, it becomes clear that Lou's life is the one in desperate need of saving.

Jojo Moyes' novel, Me Before You, is a bit sneaky. The emotional punch creeps up on you. Overall, I found the plot to be very predictable, yet even when I could predict what was coming, I still felt left a little raw with the emotions. I connected with the characters on a deeper level than I realized while I reading the book. I felt for all of them

The story is mostly told from Lou's perspective. However, Moyes does a nice thing where she writes few chapters from the perspective of other characters. This was very clever, as it was easy to be heavily judgmental towards those characters, yet when I got into their minds, I felt more compassion towards them. There is very much a theme of judgment and learning to show compassion towards others.

Occasionally, I felt a disconnect from the story, usually when Lou's family crept in. I felt like Lou was becoming a bit of a punching bag. It felt overbearing. However, the more that I read the book, the more realistic her family became. I started recognizing traits that Lou's family shared with my own family, which was probably what created my disconnect in the first place. It hit close to home.

The biggest reason that the story works is that I found myself really rooting for the characters. They are stuck with impossible choices and I just want the outcome to be the best possible scenario. I read through it quickly just to find out how it was going to end.

This story has a lot of heart and compassion. I finished it yesterday morning and it has lingered with me. The best stories are those that make an impact and this one is definitely impactful.

Book Review- Richard Hine's Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch

Richard Hine's novel Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch was on the Amazon monthly Kindle deals earlier this summer and I took a chance on it.

Protagonist, Russell Wiley is in his mid-thirties and his life is falling apart. He is stuck in a loveless marriage and his career, as an executive at a major newspaper, has an expiration date. Wiley is a desperate man surrounded by desperate people. His coworkers are ruthless, each trying to stay one-step ahead of lay-offs and Wiley must manage them, while trying to keep his own head off of the chopping block. He can't figure out how to fix his marriage and his home life has become unbearable. He is even beginning to question to strength of his bond with his childhood best friend. Wiley's entire life is on the brink of monumental change and this is the story of how everything plays out.

Immediately, the story grabbed me. Hine has a slick, modern writing style. It's catchy. I liked his main characters and enjoyed the office scheming. The story read like a more realistic, less comedic version of Office Space. It's relatable to anyone who has had to deal with office politics. The story would probably resonate very strongly with anyone who has been laid-off or who has dealt with a company about to go under. Luckily, I've not had either experience!

Unfortunately, the story failed to hold my interest. It gets a bit too bogged down in mundane details, especially those pertaining to the newspaper company. Sometimes it felt like reading a business manual. I felt like Hine must have worked in a similar environment to have written a novel filled with so many dull details.

The ending didn't fit with the tone of the overall story. Everything wrapped up quickly in a neat package that was somewhat surreal. The overall story needed to be a bit more wacky to fit with the ending. It felt tacked on and unnatural.

I often got the minor characters mixed up. There were too many characters in the office to keep track of them all. It would have read easier, if Hine had focused only on those most pertinent to the story, rather than trying to give info on so many different characters. This story should have been an easy read, but the details and onslaught of characters, made me work double-time to keep it all straight.

I finished the book within a few days, but was left feeling underwhelmed. Hine is a talented writer, but this story could have been a lot stronger.