Book Notices | Silent Echo by J.R. Rain / Illusions II by Richard Bach / Timebound by Rysa Walker / The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

J.R. Rain, Silent Echo

Amazon   J.R. Rain's Silent Echo is kind of a strange read. On the one hand, it's very repetitive. A few facts are drummed into the reader's head: the protagonist, Jim Booker, is dying from AIDS-related cancer (though he's not gay); he's being cared for by an almost saintly friend, Numi, a Nigerian who is gay; Jim needs Numi's help but is uncomfortable about being the recipient of his ministrations because Numi's a gay male. On the other hand, despite the repetition, Silent Echo winds up being highly readable. Perhaps this is because it's pretty short (though it arguably should have been shorter). Perhaps the repetitive bits just make the story go down easily because you don't have to think about them much. The story, by the way, is that Jim is a private eye specializing in lost persons cases--or at least he was before his illness debilitated him. In Silent Echo he winds up investigating a series of murders, a case which, if he solves it, could bring him some closure before death: he's been burdened by guilt related to one of the murders for more than twenty years. So, not a bad read, all in all. It makes me a bit curious to see how Rain's other novels compare.

Richard Bach, Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student

Amazon   Not really a sequel to the original Illusions, which I loved back in the day (but read decades ago). Illusions II is strange, brief account of the author's recovery (and his seaplane's recovery) from a near-fatal crash in 2012. Disappointing, really, though I hate to say it.

Rysa Walker, Timebound

Amazon   I enjoyed this YA book about a teenager, Kate, who finds out from her grandmother that she has the ability to travel through time. Turns out she's the only one who can save the world as it is from nefarious elements bent on changing the timeline to their advantage. She winds up time-hopping back to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 to set things right. If you've read your Devil in the White City you'll remember that the Chicago Exposition was the hunting ground of serial killer H.H. Holmes, so it wasn't a particularly safe place to be....

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Amazon   John Green's story about two teens with cancer who find true love in a support group is pretty much a perfect book. The subject matter is the sort of thing I would normally run from: there's enough sadness in the world that I don't normally want to subject myself to it in fiction. But while the book is sad, it is not primarily so, I don't think. Certainly one can revel in the love story Green's characters get to enjoy, whatever the confinements and brevity of their lives. I was, at any rate, forced to read the book by my twelve-year-old daughter. Having finished it she collapsed in some kind of swoon on the floor of my study. Upon reviving, she pressed the book into my hands, opened it to the first page, and commanded me to begin.