ARC Review: Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell

Breaking the Dark
Author: Lisa Jewell
Series: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel
Publication: Hyperion Avenue (July 2, 2024)

Description: In her most imaginative novel yet, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell (None of This Is True) launches the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with an original story starring the private detective Jessica Jones.

Meet Jessica Jones: Retired super hero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.

The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night’s poor choices. But something about Amber Randall’s story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don’t act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something “perfect.”

Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins’ new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community?

A mother’s intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect—not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.

Breaking the Dark, the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introduces fans to a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, and will continue with original novels featuring fan-favorite characters like Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby, and Daredevil, written by Alex Segura. Marvel Crime novels build on one another but do not require in-depth familiarity with Marvel or the other books in the series.

My Thoughts: Jessica Jones has given up her life as a superhero. After unspeakable trauma, she's living in Hell's Kitchen, drinking too much and trying to make her living as a private investigator. She's also worried that she might be pregnant.

When a distraught mother comes to hire her to find out why the teenage twins she sent away to visit their father in England have come back changed. Now they are like zombies who have become perfect. 

Jessica takes the job and finds herself in a small English village that was once the site of a horrible tragedy. The twins' father is renovating a house built on the site of the tragedy. He has a mysterious new girlfriend. When Jessica tracks down the young girl who became the twins' friend while they were in England, she finds herself swept up into a situation where someone is trying to make her perfect goo. 

Interspersed with this main story are flashbacks to an immortal woman who falls in love with a serial killer obsessed with blood and a young woman who wants to gain fame and make her fortune by making an app that makes the user's all perfect too. 

I came into this story knowing nothing about the Marvel Universe and nothing about Jessica Jones or her backstory. I had questions after I began this one and consulted wikipedia for some answers. Anyone who already knows about the Universe will find that this story fits right into the canon and adds depth to Jessica's story.

I really enjoyed the book both for the science fictional aspects and the underlying question of what it means to be a mother and what being a mother can cost. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Starter Villain
Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Publication: Tor Books (September 19, 2023), Audible Studios
Length: 8 hours and 5 minutes

Description Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

My Thoughts: Charlie Fitzer has hit a down period in his life. He's recently divorced, has lost his job as a business reporter, and in living in his father's house after his father's death. However, the house is jointly owned with his older stepsiblings who want him to sell. He has less than $200 to his name and his dream of buying a local pub is just a dream. 

Then he learns that his billionaire uncle has died. Uncle Jake was his mother's brother. He hasn't seen him since his mother died when he was a child. To say that he was surprised when his uncle's assistant comes and asks him to greet people at the funeral home would be an understatement. 

The surprises continue when he realizes that all of the mourners at the funeral home are only there to be certain that Uncle Jake has died. When his house is blown up, he learns that he has inherited his uncle's estate. Only part of it is legal. His uncle was a villain and the other billionaire villains all want what Charlie has inherited. But Charlie isn't alone against this league of supervillains. His uncle's assistant Matilda Morrison and his cat Hera are also on his side. 

Charlie soon finds himself in a different world. In this one there are cats who communicate using keyboard, talking dolphins who want to go on strike, and commando whales. There are also many plotting villains who are trying to take advantage of Charlie's lack of knowledge about his new life. 

This was a fun story ably narrated by Wil Wheaton. I enjoyed the talking cats and Charlie's ability to outwit the supervillains.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

The Friday 56 is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including them.

Beginning:

I learned about the death of my uncle Jake in a deeply unexpected way, which was from the CNBC Squawk Box morning show.

Friday 56:

The inside was dim from shaded windows and the lack of artificial lighting. The furniture was sparse, and the walls were festooned with cat stairs and cubbyholes. Whoever lived here was clearly much more involved with their cats than I ever was. Maybe a little too involved.

This week I am spotlighting Starter Villain by John Scalzi. This story is a recent addition to my TBR mountain. Here is the description for Amazon:

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

YA Book Review: Slayer by Kiersten White

Slayer
Author: Kiersten White
Series: Slayer (Book 1)
Publication: Simon Pulse; Reprint edition (January 8, 2019)

Description: From bestselling author Kiersten White comes the first novel in a series set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that introduces a new Slayer as she grapples with the responsibility of managing her incredible powers that she’s just beginning to understand.

Into every generation a Slayer is born…

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…

But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.

One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.

My Thoughts: This story extends the story told in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series by focusing on what is left after Buffy ends magic on Earth. Nina and her twin sister Artemis are in training at the Watcher Academy - what is left of it. Most of the Watchers died in the last battle.

Nina has been training as a medic since her Watcher mother doesn't want her to be anything else and, in fact, almost ignores her. Her sister Artemis failed the test that would let her become a Watcher and is being trained as support for the remaining Watchers.

But things change when Nina, who had been content with the idea of being a healer, learns that as a result of that last battle she is actually a Slayer. Since she became a Slayer at that exact time, she is the last Slayer that will ever be.

Nina has very mixed feeling about becoming a Slayer. She blames Buffy for the death of her father, the distance of her mother, and all the problems currently besetting the Watchers. The idea of being like her is very troubling to her.

Nina has no choice but to embrace the fact that she is a Slayer when she discovers hellhounds focusing in on the Watcher Academy and some sort of demon killing Watchers and Slayers and almost killing an ordinary friend of hers.

She doesn't know who to trust. Her sister has changed toward her since she became a Slayer. Now, Nina doesn't need her sister to protect her. She can't go to her mother. Her new Watcher is the boy she had a major crush on when she was younger and is the source of her most embarrassing moment.

This was an entertaining story for people who wonder what came after the television show ended. I found Nina to be a little whiny in the beginning of the story but came to like her better as the story progressed. It has lots of great detail for fans of the television series.

Favorite Quote:

But monsters never respected endings in real life. They just kept coming and coming and coming. They never stopped needing to be defeated.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.