Book 25 - Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James

I don't know about you but there are certain authors I will read no matter the subject.  +Simone St. James is one of those authors.  I picked up this one and The Other Side of Midnight without reading any synopsis about them.  I know she's THAT GOOD!  She typically writes about ghosts and a strong female protagonist.  I had previously read The Haunting of Maddy Clare and An Inquiry into Love and Death so I knew I would not be disappointed by Silence for the Dead.  

Silence for the Dead takes place post World War I in Great Britain and centers around Kitty, a girl on the run from her abusive father who takes shelter pretending to be a nurse in a 'mental' hospital.  I use the term 'mental' loosely because I don't think men and women who have been to war are mental.  I think they have seen things no one can possibly imagine and they bear that burden forever.  I have seen what PTSD from war can do to a human being and it breaks my heart and pisses me off all at the same time.  Anyway...Kitty forges some information and pretends to be a nurse who worked at a casualty hospital in order to get a job working at Portis House where the only patients are 19 men who have been in the battles against Germany during World War I.  Of course when she arrives, the head nurse in charge, known as Matron, knows Kitty has lied but the hospital is so understaffed she lets Kitty stay.  There is something just not quite right about Portis House and the previous owners, the Gersbach's, just up and disappeared one night.  No one in the town saw them leave: no moving trucks, no unusual activity, nothing...just gone.  

Kitty tries to find her footing and tries to prove that she can do the job of a nurse because she has no other options.  She's been running from her father for four years, but in all honesty he was such an alcoholic and just dead beat that he never actually went looking for her.  While she's at Portis House, Kitty cannot seem to stop breaking the rules.  The rules are very much centered around keeping the 19 men calm because you never know when any loud noise could trigger a breakdown for them.  To make matters worse, the house is haunted.  OF COURSE IT IS!  Let's go and put men who have seen hell in a haunted house and hope they get better.  UGH!  Early on in her stay at Portis House, Kitty goes into the room of Patient Sixteen despite not having clearance.  I spent a good bit of the beginning story wondering just who the hell Patient Sixteen was and why he was treated so differently from everyone else.  Turns out, he is Jack Yates, Britain's golden boy of a war hero and no one wants it out that he came back broken just like the rest of them.  Think Captain America except not invincible and with some serious issues from what he has seen.  

It isn't until Kitty goes on Night Watch that she realizes the house truly is haunted.  She sees a ghost go into a stairwell at the same time a patient has a nosebleed and another has a fit in his sleep.  She and Jack eventually put the pieces together and realize the men all have the same dreams.  There's always a man with a rifle calling them a coward and they just have this gut instinct they're going to die, but they always wake up.  Turns out, Mikael Gersbach was a deserter from the military who ended up being dishonorably discharged rather than executed because he was tortured by his comrades who believed his Swiss name was actually German.  Another product of war.  These men had blinders on for anyone with a foreign last name and an accent.  His father, Nils, executed him one night after he returned home.  Nils' daughter, Anna, then shot her own father in the heart.  Well poop, thanks Anna...now you've got not one, but two ghosts roaming the house and torturing these 19 men who honestly just want a little peace and quiet.  A lot of this information is learned from the nurse whom Kitty replaced, Maisey Ravell who actually was best friends with Anna.  She's on the outside of Portis House so she begins transporting letters for Jack to the outside world.  Much like today's prisons, all mail sent out or coming in to the hospital is read.  Maisey is Jack's only way of finding out information without the hospital staff, other than Kitty, knowing.  Turns out, Maisey's father, the magistrate had the bodies of the two men cremated and helped Anna and her mother flee back to Switzerland.  When Anna's mother passes away, Anna returns to Portis House thinking her home will still be empty.  She's sighted a few times but Jack and Kitty never actually get to talk to her so they begin to wonder if she too is a ghost.  It's not until the culmination of everything unraveling that they learn she's been hiding in the cellar.  Anna herself puts the final pieces together when she reveals she shot her father.  What a whirlwind caused by an abusive, hard ass father who obviously never understood what an asshole he truly was.  He has no compassion for either of his children.  He obviously does not understand what his son went through.  Dead is never better, Nils.   

In the end, everything works out for the best.  Everyone leaves Portis House.  Four men die from influenza, some are discharged home to their families, and some are reassigned elsewhere.  And of course, Kitty and Jack fall in love through all of this and end up together.  I like the wee bit of romance that St. James throws into all of her ghost stories.  No one ever goes back to Portis House and eventually it will just crumble and decay in ruin.  

I really liked this book because I feel it was a bit different from her others.  She didn't necessarily focus on the paranormal activity in this book but rather the men themselves.  The primary paranormal activity in this house were the dreams Nils caused these men to have.  Yes there were some groaning pipes and black mold in the bathrooms, but the dreams man...the NIGHTMARES.  These men were fresh from war so of course they thought they had gone even more bat shit crazy than when they arrived.  St. James really focuses on who these men were before the war and who they are now.  You know, the main thing I saw with them is they may be broken, but they're not crazy.  They don't deserve to die.  They don't deserve to be secluded away.  And none of them needed to kill themselves.  Dead is never better.  No matter how broken their mental state or their hearts, dead is never better.  I found myself really being on Kitty's side.  I felt for her when she describes the abuse she grew up with, but she came out a strong woman.  There are moments when you want to scream in frustration because of what the hospital believes to be proper care.  When Kitty was angry, I found myself being angry for the exact same reasons.  When she wanted to scream in frustration so did I.  And when she loved Jack, so did I! :D  I just...I just LOVED this book.      

Bravo, Simone, on a job well done.  Everyone, just go buy every book this woman has ever written and read them.  RIGHT NOW!  This is one ghost story that goes so much deeper and really hit close to home for me.  God bless the men and women who serve their country.  

Book 24 - Amish Confidential by "Lebanon" Levi Stoltzfus

Okay...a few disclaimers before I dive in.  First of all, yes, Levi is on Discovery Channel's Amish Mafia and no, this book is NOT about the show.  If you pick it up for that reason, you'll be disappointed.  If you pick it up because you want to learn about the Amish and learn some secrets about them, then you've picked up a good one.  Second disclaimer...this is the only book I've EVER read about the Amish and I realize it is only one man's view point.  I take it at face value and realize there may be some who are angry with this book or think he's lying...take that up with him, not me.

ON WITH THE SHOW...UH I MEAN BOOK!  

I found this book utterly fascinating!  I've always been fascinated by the Amish as I could never understand how you could live without electricity.  I'm from the South and it's hot and humid as hell during the summer.  Thank God for air conditioning.  I could probably do without the phone because I'm a text me kind of girl and I hate holding the phone up to my ear and all bluetooth devices echo and just all around suck to me...sorry for that rant.  Anyway, I've always found them to be fascinating.  Levi provides us with a little insight into their faith and their culture.  

He begins with a little history on the origins of the Amish and Mennonite.  A little word about their similarities and their differences.  From there he provides us with some of his own personal background.  His father was killed in a tragic accident when he was young.  His mother remarried to a widower and the blended family had 15 children.  Are you shitting me?!  I know for sure now I couldn't be Amish...not that there was a likelihood before but come on...15 kids?!  And that shit is normal!  My uterus hurts just thinking about it.  Then we start getting into the good stuff...

Oh the secrets this man reveals...I wonder if anyone is truly pissed at him or if some are maybe slightly relieved it's out in the open now.  Secrets have a way of burdening you, after all.  Levi covers so many topics that you've heard about but never really knew too much about.  The first one being Rumspringa!  It's a period of time, typically between the ages of 16 to 21, where the teens basically find a group they fit in with, and they get into shenanigans.  Some are very straight laced and then some are all out wild as hell.  There are cars, drinking, parties, bands, and sometimes even drugs.  Once Rumspringa is over, you decide if you want to be baptized or not.  Levi says it was during Rumspringa that he really started to question the Old Order Amish because of the contradictions he saw.  He decided eventually to be baptized in the New Order Amish Church, thus the reason he can drive his black Cadillac and have a cell phone.  The things you learn...

He then covers topics such as Shunning...boo on that unless you just want some peace and quiet and no one to talk to you.  He also discusses the taboo topic that even normal society doesn't want to talk about...incest and bestiality.  He covers them and gives names of folks that have committed such acts.  He discusses drinking and buggying...yes a buggying under the influence does exist.  The law varies though apparently and some counties say the 'vehicle' must be motorized in order for the charge to be an under the influence charge.  He talks about drugs in the Amish community and how it actually from time to time is an issue.  The only difference is, the Amish don't publicize their shit.  They keep it under wraps which I guess is why I was surprised by some of the stuff I learned in this book, but then again should I really have been surprised?  They're human beings who face temptations every day...maybe even more so given their structured and sheltered upbringing.  He discusses Sam Mullet who ordered the shaving of men's beards and the cutting of women's hair if they went against him.  He was sentenced to 15 years for hate crimes.  

He covers something known as claping which is basically some shitty teenagers, usually non-Amish and apparently quite often Mennonites, who throw tiles and rocks at buggies, houses, and mailboxes.  Once, some kids threw a tile at a buggy and an infant was killed when it struck the baby in the head.  The family of the baby, though, was not angry.  If there's anything that can be learned from the Amish, it's forgiveness.  On that note, he goes into pretty good detail on the schoolhouse shooting where 5 girls were murdered and multiple others injured.  The gunman, who happened to be the milkman, then turned the gun on himself.  The parents of those killed and injured showed up at the house of the gunman's mother...not for vengeance but with food and forgiveness.  They knew that his family would be struggling just as much as they were.  It's amazing to me how quickly they are to forgive.  They really and literally do believe in turning the cheek.  There's a hard lesson there I think we could all stand to learn.  

Levi shares so many secrets about the Amish...some of them not dirty secrets but some of them, I'm sure, people would wish he had left covered.  In the end though I just learned that they have their problems like the rest of the nation does.  They have their 'bad apples' who commit crimes just like every other subset of the population does.  They just keep that shit under wraps and prefer to deal with it within their own community rather than airing their dirty laundry.  The Amish are fiercely hardworking individuals who sometimes can be dicks to one another.  They rely upon family to take care of them when they're old rather than the Social Security Act...and let's be honest...it's highly doubtful that even my ass will be able to rely upon social security.  They're rapidly growing in numbers and honestly they're quite financially well off.  They have acres of land that now they couldn't afford and some of them have made millions selling their land to the gas and oil companies.  They're really quite intelligent and have a head for business despite only having an 8th grade education.  They're instilled with hardworking, God first, and family values that a lot of us are lacking.  I know for sure I don't know what hard work really is just as those coming after me will have no idea.  After reading this, I really do have to say that I admire the Amish.  I may not agree with them on some things and I may scoff at some of the things I view as hypocritical, but they do kind of have their shit together on some levels.  And I'm seriously just dumbfounded by their ability to forgive.  I wish I could get some of that...

I'm so glad I read this book, and I'm even more happy that it wasn't about the television show.  I feel it was a peak behind the curtain that the Amish have kept around themselves.  It was interesting and intriguing and I couldn't put the book down.  I felt it was more honest and real than anything you may see on the show.  And, now more than ever, I wish to go to Lancaster, PA and buy a legitimate Amish quilt...if it's cheap, it's not the real deal, by the way.  Thank you, Levi, for this inside view into your culture and faith.  I might just have to read up on the Amish a bit more.        

  

Book 23 - Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Die, bitch, die!  Maybe that's harsh...

Let me back up...small confession time.  I never liked Dorothy.  Granted, I'm talking movie version because *gasp* I've never read the book.  I always found Dorothy annoying, whiny, and petulant.  If I ever watch the movie now that I'm an adult, I find myself rolling my eyes through a good majority of it.  So, you can imagine a book entitled Dorothy Must Die was totally my cup of tea.

I LOVED this book and will totally be picking up the next in the series, The Wicked Will Rise.  This book was awesome because the word fuck is said several times and Dorothy dresses like a slut.  I also need Dorothy to die.  She's a total bitch who has completely been corrupted by the appeal of magic.  I know it's supposed to be fantasy, and the language isn't all that appropriate; but teachers could use this book in English class.  There's all this irony and symbolism going on.

The story opens up with us meeting Amy...a 16 year old high school student from Flat Hill, Kansas who lives in Dusty Acres Trailer Park with her pill popping mother.  Based on the trailer park, she's called Salvation Amy at school and the kids call her trailer trash.  One popular girl in particular, Madison Pendleton, is 16 and fucking pregnant with the captain of the football team as the baby daddy but yet Amy is the trailer trash.  Hello irony within the first 5 pages...nice to meet you.  I got a huge kick out of that one.  Amy gets in a fight with Madison, in that Madison punches Amy, and because Amy isn't going to punch a pregnant bitch, she gets suspended because the principal, of course, believes the popular girl.  Ugh...fuck you Madison.  Next comes the tornado which picks Amy's trailer up and puts her ass down in Oz.  Yeah yeah yeah...similarities abound.  That's the whole point.  

Turns out Dorothy did go back to Kansas but it just wasn't anything like Oz so Glinda picked her up and took her back.  From there, Dorothy has corrupted the land and is mining all of Oz for the magic.  She's drunk on its power and she now dresses like a hooker.  The ruby slippers are more like patent leather stripper shoes and the blue gingham has been transformed into a variety of slutty dresses that show as much cleavage as possible.  Glinda is also in charge of mining the magic out of the land so now all that was good before has turned to wicked.  Dorothy's comrades are all there too.  The Lion is there but he feeds off of the fear of others.  The Tin Man is basically the sheriff in town.  The Scarecrow has become a mad scientist trying to steal brains from other people and inject it into his own brain.  He creeps me out the most with button eyes and weird ass lab experiments putting metal parts onto people.  Someone needs to go ahead and light his ass on fire for real already.

Amy, of course, ends up breaking some stupid bullshit law Dorothy made up so she's hauled before the 'princess; by the Tin Man and placed in jail until her trial a week later.  Through the help of a wicked witch she breaks out and becomes part of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked where she is trained in battle, etiquette, and magic.  It's very difficult to determine the motivations of people in this book.  I honestly don't know if anyone is out to help Amy and everyone keeps saying they shouldn't be trusted...like literally.  The character actually says, Amy, you shouldn't trust me.  The common goal for the Wicked is to kill Dorothy...what happens if/when she's killed remains a mystery.  They believe Amy is the only one who can kill Dorothy because she comes from the "Other Place".  Through a magic spell, Amy's appearance changes to that of a maid in the palace so she can determine Dorothy's moves in order to assassinate her.  Things of course get screwed up along the way and we see Dorothy has absolutely no regard for life.  She only cares about how much magic she can get and everyone doting upon her.  Ugh...fuck you Dorothy.  She's cruel and hateful and Paige writes her in such a way that you're like yeah...she could die.

In the end though, Dorothy lives...fucking A man.  Just kill her already!  You learn the mysterious identities of people and the Wizard turns out to never have left Oz and he actually hates Dorothy too.  Turns out the key to taking down Dorothy is to first take down the entourage.  Take the Tin Man's heart, the Scarecrow's brain, and the Lion's courage...then you can kill Dorothy.  I'm very interested to see where the next book takes us.  You see Amy change and grow into someone who I think she's truly coming to understand as herself.  I also need to know if she and Nox are going to become an item or if he's just playing her because she's the key to getting rid of Dorothy.  He's hot and sometimes he seems sincere, but like I said, motivations are not so black and white.  I definitely look forward to seeing where Paige takes Amy's story.  I'm definitely now hooked.  On to the next!  

Book 22 - Do Not Disturb by A.R. Torre

Holy Shit, Deanna...I didn't think you'd actually do it!  I'll tell you all about...like for real...hardcore spoiler alerts.  I reveal the ending!  You can't say you weren't warned.    

So in Do Not Disturb, we find ourselves meeting up with Deanna aka Jessica Reilly, cam girl/murderess from The Girl in 6E.  Don't worry kids...she's still batshit crazy and wants to murder people.  We pick up where we left off with her going on a date with Jeremy, the UPS guy who is apparently holy shit hot.  She's trying to find a new definition of normal for herself by actually *gasp* leaving her apartment.  She goes on a couple of dates with Jeremy and even takes a couple of strolls by herself to the convenience store across the street from her shitty apartment to buy Dr. Pepper and lottery tickets.  Of course, while she's out, she imagines stabbing every fucking person she sees.  Of course though, she's still doing her cam thing which leads to the whole new premise for this book.  

Enter Marcus Renza, a rich short little shit of a man who made his wealth on real estate deals, and who just got released from prison into house arrest for brutally sexually assaulting a woman.  She was just one in a long line of women that he liked to tie up, abuse, and sexually assault...like holy shit he's fucked up.  It finally came to a head though when one of them remembered him and went to the police...damn those drugs for not doing their job.  Bad thing was, when he went to prison, he just learned from fellow inmates how to do a better job next time.  Since he's under house arrest though, he has no option but to find a woman online...which leads him to Deanna.  She doesn't submit to him which drives him fucking crazy.  He makes offers to pay her for real, live, in person sex so she blocks his ass.  When he continues to try and contact her through her personal website, he gets blocked from that too.  And cue the RAGE!  Being the wealthy asshole he is, he has a hacker of his own who finds an address that is supposed to be Deanna's.  Lucky for her, or maybe him, it's not Deanna's legit address, but rather it's Mike's...her hacker hero who keeps her identity buried behind cyber walls.  Cue the panic attack on my behalf because I actually like Mike and I knew this fucker would be bad news.  And I wasn't wrong.  He tortures Mike until he spills the beans on Deanna's true identity but also in the process gives up Jeremy.  He leaves Mike tied up to the bed, with a knife in his shoulder blade and duct tape over his mouth.  

Now would be a good time to take a left turn to Mike's life.  We learn that Mike is in a wheelchair and has a girl named Jamie stop by and help him out a couple of days a week with some housework and such, and also for the occasional blow job.  I liked that we got to learn a bit more about him.  It honestly just made me like him even more.  But yeah...Mike gives her up but he tries to warn her.  Eventually Deanna figures it out so she goes shopping for supplies for killing someone and lies in wait for Marcus to show up.  I kept hoping she would do the right thing.  Simply incapacitate him and call the cops...but no...she's not fucking normal enough for that shit.  She had to go and stab his ass multiple times and then dispose of the body.  For fucks sake girl...

I'm not sure if I was disappointed in her or not.  I guess I'm just honestly not surprised that she killed him, after all, she's killed two other people now.  I don't know...I think part of me was hoping she wouldn't, but I guess you can't have a good book that way.  And I guess it's a little vigilante of her...only killing those who deserve to be killed...if anyone deserves to be killed?  I don't know...that's a fine line into political correctness and personal views that I honestly don't give two shits about diving into.  But I mean, she killed her mother who murdered her family...she killed Ralph who was a pedophile, and now she's killed Marcus who was an abusive rapist.  Maybe she's doing the world a favor?  

While she's torturing and ultimately killing Marcus, Jeremy has been tied up and a bomb placed in his oven.  Mike tracks Jeremy's credit cards and self phone activity, or lack thereof, and alerts Deanna that something is wrong.  By the time she gets there, though it's too late...the house explodes!!  Dun Dun Dunnnnnn....

Don't worry...Jeremy lives!  And he gets to fuck Deanna!  Woot Woot for him! One can only wonder just what the fuck will happen to her next.  Will she get caught for killing Marcus?  Will she even tell Jeremy what really happened?  Will he still love her?  Will she one day kill Jeremy?  Guess we'll just have to wait and see.  

I think I liked the first book better.  Sure I liked the expanding character profiles, but I think the first one was just more educational.  This one is just as fast paced as the first one with the different points of view speeding things right along.  I don't know...she's fucking crazy and I'm going to stay on this roller coaster because I'm hooked and need to know what's going to ultimately happen with her/to her.