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Two days after the family had missed their flight home.

Six days after all the texts and social media had gone dark.”

Every Last Fear by Alex Finley was the thriller I needed this month. I have been reading loads of Rom-Coms, which I love, but until I picked up this book I didn't realize how much I missed the thrill of a thriller. 

It pulls you in right from the beginning line…

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.

Two days after the family had missed their flight home.

Six days after all the texts and social media had gone dark.”

and keeps on going from there when Matt Pine finds out his mom, dad, sister, and little brother have all been killed while on vacation in Mexico. Now the only family he has left is the older brother who is in prison for murdering his girlfriend. The one his father was convinced was innocent and would go through hell to prove, even going to Mexico on a fake vacation to follow a lead.

Matt goes to Mexico after FBI Agent Sarah Keller informs him that he has to go and pick up the bodies, he also finds out that his family was not killed by a gas leak as first thought, but murdered. Strange things start happening to Matt as well, he gets pushed into oncoming traffic by a stranger and once in Mexico, meets a girl who seems to be in on the plan ( whatever that is ) and tells him to run when finding out that it is his family that has been killed, then goes missing also. 

Every Last Fear twists, and turns, it will leave you questioning everyone and racking your brain trying to figure things out. The plot seems to intensify as the story moves forward. It contains everything you want in a thriller/mystery, excitement, surprises, coverups.  It kept me guessing until the end. 

The book is very character-driven, the author doesn’t go into much on the locations that are in the book, and you do travel, to New York, to Mexico, to Chicago, and to Nebraska. The characters are flawed but likable. Matt’s friends from college, who are called  “ The Island of Misfit Toys “Gather around him, and support him, and show the meaning of true friendship. You get to know his parents and brother and sister through their narrative that gives you the story of what happens in Mexico. You also get bits and pieces of Danny’s story through transcripts of a Netflix Documentary called A Violent Nature.

It is a hard book to discuss without giving too much away, but it is a wonderful introduction to Alex Finlay, Every Last Fear is his debut book, and proves he has strong writing and storytelling skills. I am looking forward to what he throws at us next.

Also, this book says it is a thriller/horror book. I disagree with that. Hear me out. I am a big scary cat, I have trouble reading Riley Sager books, they creep me out, I can only read them during the day. I spent the majority of my time reading The Lost Village in the dark, alone. Is it a horror …yes..but it is not scary. The horror is that people fall prey to religion and religious leaders. I have questioned that so many times in my life, and here again with this book I found myself questioning it, especially as this book unfolds and you are beginning to understand what has actually happened in 1959. Maybe it is easier to fall prey to these people than I realize, people certainly “ drink the Kool-Aid “ so to speak…The Salem Witch Trials, Jim Jones, Waco, you could even count in Hitler and Manson, however, they were less religious-based. What must people's life be like to grasp so heavily at the words of these people?  Ok sorry off point…back to the story…

The Lost Village is fast-paced, bouncing between two time periods, Then ( 1959 ) and Now.  The then takes you through events that lead up to the cause of the mysterious disappearance of the entire village and the chapters are interspaced throughout the Now chapters that deal with a film documentary crew who has come to make a film about the disappearance. Shortly after arriving they begin to notice small things, often wondering if it isn’t their imagination getting the best of them, but they soon realize they are not alone out there as more and more things happen, and the things begin to get worse.  The timelines also connect the two times together fairly neatly. I found myself more invested in the Then timeline, I really wanted to know how a village of 900 people could just disappear off the face of the earth, and I think it was that want that kept me reading, as I was not very fond of any of the characters, I felt a bit detached from them.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad book, I give it a solid three stars, which to me is neither great nor bad. I read it through the worse snow and ice storm we have had in years, and it felt like the perfect setting even without the book dealing with winter weather, and it kept me entertained. If anything I would say it was a good mystery, it has its moments of suspense, a feeling dread mostly, but if you were looking for creepy, or horror, or an outright thriller, you might be better off looking elsewhere.

** Thanks to Minotaur Books for the Advanced Copy **

What changed and made me pick it up? This year, with the exception of BOTM, I am trying to not buy books. My TBR shelf is overloaded and at the moment I am getting plenty from publishers to keep me busy during the month, so what the heck, let's read The Secret History..finally.

The book starts with a murder... you even know who has committed the murder, but you do not know why. The story takes you back to the first of the school year, you meet the main players in the story, 5 students that are studying Greek and a small college in Vermont.  In the first part of the book, you are getting to know the characters, just as they are getting to know each other, learning to trust or not trust each other. They face a tragedy together that will ultimately lead to the murder.  And while it was a bit strange reading one half of a more than 500-page book knowing that at the end a murder would take place, the story twists and weaves and surprises you, as well at times shocks you. 

The characters are different, and of course, they all have secrets. They feel immortal almost, the way they are so proper, almost from a bygone era. They are highly intelligent, well-spoken, and very pretentious. They are not perfect, they have addictions that they don’t even notice. Cigarettes, one too many cocktails. To them this is normal, it is how their lives are normally lived. They are also devious. I am not even sure if they are likable, but the trauma they face is raw, and you feel it, sometimes more than they seem to.

While I think the first part of the book is interesting and I enjoyed the relationships of the characters and getting to know them, I imagine some people would find it slow, and if you are one of those, I recommend staying with it, as it is worth it in the end. Part two of the book deals with the chaotic aftermath of the murder, and can at times put you on edge. 

The second part of the book is where Tartt’s writing shines. It is beautiful all through the book, but her world and character-building here are exceptional. She builds a world few of us will ever actually know, and lets us feel part of it, even at times when we don’t want to feel that way. She sprinkles in classical languages and literature, giving it a mysterious feel, but by doing so, she also gives you the feeling of being among the players, the preverbal fly on the wall I suppose.

I absolutely adored this book, and it now has the ranking of one of the few books I call “ my favorite “. I imagine picking it up again at some point and revisiting it. It was dark, and classic, a modern masterpiece and it is a book that will stay with me for quite some time.

"It's a very Greek idea and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn."....The Secret History 

When it comes to reading Historial Fiction I do gravitate to WWII, maybe because it is not so distant in the past, or that being Jewish, it reminds me of the horrible obstacles my people overcame, or that it is a way to learn and honor the 6 million Jewish people that died for no reason other than believing differently than others. Mostly I think I enjoy the stores of the preserver of the common people, the ones who quietly fought against the Nazis away from the front lines, their small stories and actions are what made this was so different from others.

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles was the first HF book I picked up this year. Drawn to it by its gorgeous cover, I was quickly taken in by the story, especially having had worked in a library for years. The story has dual storylines. One taking place in 1939-1944 during the war, and the other later in the 80s. It is the story of Odile Souchet, a young determined girl who gets her dream job at The American Library in Paris ( ALP ) It also features Odile in later years living in America in a small Montana town, lonely and alone until she meets her neighbor Lily who comes to visit wanting to interview her for a High School class.

While I enjoyed the small glimpses of Odile in the more present day, the part of the book that captivates me was the period in Paris during the war. I fell in love with the American Library and understood Odile’s need to work there. I also fell in love with the people of the library, they were the soul of the building. As a former librarian, I understood their need to make sure people were able to read,  the need to get books to people who wanted them, such as the soldiers and the Jewish subscribers that had been banned from reading. In fact, for the book to have taken place in WWII, there is little mention or details of the war, you are transported to the library during the occupation of Paris by the Nazi’s. That is the purpose of the book, showing how the library and the people inside risked their lives for the love of books and reading.

The entire book was well researched by the author. Many of the happenings and people in the book are base on truth and real people, it is a flawless blend of fact and fiction that will keep you captivated. The Paris Library held so much magic for me. The friendships, and how they are depended on trust and easily torn apart when that trust is tested. The love of family, and how the dynamics of a family can change at any given moment. But mostly it was reading about the power of books and literature, and how much these things actually mean to people, especially when they are no longer readily available, and people who are willing to risk their lives to continue to provide the means to read.

** Thank You Net Galley for providing me with a review copy **

American Library in Paris