Booksparks 2014 Summer Reading Challenge - Jessica Hickam's The Revealed

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In her novel, The Revealed, Jessica Hickam has imagined a world in the not-too-distant future where the United States is holding its first presidential election following years of chaos from a war that wiped out many cities and citizens. 

Hickam's protagonist, Lily Atwood, is the daughter of the liberal candidate running for the presidency. As a high profile family, they live a life very different from most of America's citizens. They have a beautiful mansion in Washington D.C., a full staff and their compound is tightly guarded by top-notch security. But there is another reason that security is so tight, Lily has recently turned eighteen and some kids disappear when they turn eighteen.

A mysterious organization called "The Revealed" has been kidnapping eighteen year olds and once they're gone, they are never heard from again. Not taking any chances, Lily's parents are keeping her prisoner in their mansion. However, their security is no match for "The Revealed", who have been taunting Lily with letters that they tape to her bedroom window, letters that remind her that her days are numbered.

As she waits to be taken, Lily finds herself falling for Kai Westerfield, the son of her father's rival candidate. The knowledge that "The Revealed" cannot be stopped by security causes Lily to act impulsive and sneak out of the house to carry on her romance with Kai. It's a bit Romeo and Juliet.

As an adult who isn't a huge fan of Young Adult Fiction, this book was okay. Hickam is a good writer and the plot intrigued me, especially the first third, when she was building the mystery of "The Revealed". It is a long build and there was too much angst-ridden-teen-romance for my tastes. The story had a decent twist that I didn't anticipate and Lily was a likable enough character. The story was a hybrid of Divergent and X-Men, which isn't a negative, although it may be too similar to what's already out there to really take off. This is a small complaint, but I didn't like how so many of the characters ( the revealed) had unusual names, it just seemed silly. 

Here's the low-down, if I had been in my early teen's, I would have been all over this book. It will do well in the Young Adult market. It will probably be made into a wildly successful movie or television series on the CW. It has that slick vibe. This is the first book in the series and the ending is a set up for the continuation, so there is more to come and these YA series are really popular right now. Hickam may have herself a cash cow with The Revealed. 

Book Review- Max Barry's Lexicon

A few months ago, I was perusing the shelves at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena and sitting on a display of new paperbacks, I came across Max Barry's Lexicon. Lexicon was prominently displayed and caught my attention with the notation that it was one of Time Magazine's Top Ten Fiction Books of the Year and an NPR Best Book of the Year. "Well, if NPR liked it... "

Thrillers are not my normal go-to genre of fiction. Whether it's a movie or a book, they are a hard sell for me. 

Lexicon starts out intriguing enough, with a man, Wil Parke, coming to consciousness after being kidnapped and waking up to discover that he is in the middle of a medical procedure. No, they're not stealing a kidney. His captors tell him not to move, as there is a needle in his eyeball! Whoa!

The story bounces between Wil Parke and homeless teen, Emily Ruff. Emily has been living on the streets of San Francisco, using her abilities of persuasion to work as a scam artist, when a mysterious man approaches her and offers her the opportunity to train at highly secretive organization.

Lexicon never drops in intensity or intrigue. For a majority of the novel, it is hard to see where the two stories are going to intersect, but they finally do in a surprising and blood-soaked conclusion. 

As gripping as the first third of the book was, it failed to keep my interest. I started it two months ago and I've read several books before finishing Lexicon. This was a huge hurdle to my enjoyment of the story. There are a lot of characters and a lot of plot. It's not the type of book that should be read over a long time span.

My boredom with it, was due to Barry's focus on plot over characters. There was so much action, that there was never a chance to develop a relationship with the characters. I didn't connect with them or care about them. They were flat. The plot is well planned and interesting, but if I don't care about the characters, the plot becomes fairly irrelevant. This isn't a horrible book by any means, I just found it lacking depth. 

There is a great deal of creativity with word play and with authors. It's a thriller aimed at literary geeks. In the end, I felt like Lexicon was the love-child of Michael Crichton and Jasper Fforde. Not quite my cup of tea, but I know people who would probably very much enjoy Barry's novel. 

Booksparks 2014 Summer Reading Challenge - Abdi Nazemian's The Walk-In Closet

Kara has just turned thirty and she's living a fabulous life. She had a gorgeous apartment, designer clothes and a car, all courtesy of the Ebadi's. Leila and Hossein Ebadi are the parents of Kara's best friend, Bobby. Bobby is a one-hit wonder screenwriter and party boy, with a serious failure to launch problem. The Ebadi's have fallen in love with Kara and they fund her lifestyle in hopes that she will marry Bobby. They desperately want to see their son settle down, the only problem is Bobby is gay. Gay and very much in the closet when it comes to his family. The arrangement is mutually beneficially and they keep the guise of being in love to keep the financial benefits from his parents. There are two problems, first, the Ebadi's are not the type of parents to stay uninvolved and second, Kara has met a mysterious man whom intrigues her.

Abdi Nazemian's debut novel, The Walk-In Closet, isn't going to be for everyone. The novel, which centers around the lives of friends in their late 20's/early 30's, living in Los Angeles, is filled with frank and often crass dialogue. It's a bit like Sex and the City for a new generation. I found this often salacious story, to be a guilty pleasure read and I enjoyed every minute of it. That said, I would be very careful of which friends I recommend this novel to, just because of the language and subject matters discussed. It presses comfort levels. 

Another layer that made the story compelling, was the peek into a different culture. The Ebadi's have made Kara an honorary member of their family and through this, she learns a lot about Persian culture and the thriving Persian immigrant community in Los Angeles. Growing up in Los Angeles, this is not a community in which I know very many people, so I found it fascinating. Overall, this is a very "Los Angeles" story, filled with many references to the city. I'm not sure how much will be lost on someone who is not familiar with the L.A. As a native, all of the references rang true and felt relevant.

If I were to try to describe these characters, they wouldn't come across as very likable people. They would probably seem shallow and vapid. However, I actually cared for all of them. These are people who are raised during a time of mass consumerism and delayed adulthood. They may have the fortune of being wealthy, but I don't think that makes them unique, it just gives them the ability to consume on a grand scale. These characters feel real, because they are echoed in people that I know. They act the way they do, because it is how they were raised and it's hard to overcome it, especially when the parents keep giving them money. Nazemian has written a very timely story.

The Walk-In Closet is highly entertaining, socially relevant and it even has a few good plot twists. I look forward to future novels by Nazemian, he is a strong new voice in the literary world.