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Book 5, 2017
Jan. 7th, 2017 08:39 pmEarlier this evening, I finished reading Nine Lives Last Forever by Rebecca M Hale. It's the second book in the "Cats and Curios" mystery series.
I spent several days slogging through this book, because IT MADE NO FUCKING SENSE. The author writes the main character (who also happens to be named Rebecca Hale--WTF?) in first person pov. However, several chapters and/or sections of chapters segued off to the viewpoint of other characters (including both of theauthor's main character's cats and even a frog or two--WTF?), and these were presented in third person pov. It made reading this book a chore, rather than a pleasure.
The entire premise was that several characters kept interacting with frogs, or else encountering them in odd places. Our intrepid heroine finds something in her deceased Uncle Oscar's handwriting, saying to 'Follow the frogs'. She is reluctantly drawn into the chaos that seems to be entirely created by other characters, one of whom is convinced that Oscar is still alive.
You know what? I'm having trouble describing the plot, because it was so convoluted and confusing. There was no actual mystery involved--no murder, no missing person, nothing stolen...nothing but the damned frogs. There seems to be this overlapping theme (from the first book and, presumably, continuing into others) of treasures that Oscar may have discovered/hidden or been on the trail of. All I got from reading this is that several people conspired to get the main character chasing after stupid shit by baiting or manipulating her, and I had no idea why, when it seemed that it would have been simpler for them to follow up on this themselves. I mean, why involve her at all? They were Oscar's contemporaries, and she has no idea what her uncle was up to when he was alive. She continually learns things about him that astonish her. Also, I was losing track of all the different disguises that various characters donned throughout the story. It was like a bad episode of Scooby Doo.
In short, this was a frustrating and disappointing read, and it's going in the donation bag as soon as I hit "Post", because this book is in no way a keeper. It's only redeeming feature is that it touched on a lot of the history of San Francisco, especially concerning activist Harvey Milk and his assassination.
Favorite line:I guess she might have been pretty if she weren't so scary--if there'd been Dalmatian puppies on the premises, I would have hidden them in the basement.
Confusing and annoying, it gets two stars--one for the cats, and one for the history.
**
I spent several days slogging through this book, because IT MADE NO FUCKING SENSE. The author writes the main character (who also happens to be named Rebecca Hale--WTF?) in first person pov. However, several chapters and/or sections of chapters segued off to the viewpoint of other characters (including both of the
The entire premise was that several characters kept interacting with frogs, or else encountering them in odd places. Our intrepid heroine finds something in her deceased Uncle Oscar's handwriting, saying to 'Follow the frogs'. She is reluctantly drawn into the chaos that seems to be entirely created by other characters, one of whom is convinced that Oscar is still alive.
You know what? I'm having trouble describing the plot, because it was so convoluted and confusing. There was no actual mystery involved--no murder, no missing person, nothing stolen...nothing but the damned frogs. There seems to be this overlapping theme (from the first book and, presumably, continuing into others) of treasures that Oscar may have discovered/hidden or been on the trail of. All I got from reading this is that several people conspired to get the main character chasing after stupid shit by baiting or manipulating her, and I had no idea why, when it seemed that it would have been simpler for them to follow up on this themselves. I mean, why involve her at all? They were Oscar's contemporaries, and she has no idea what her uncle was up to when he was alive. She continually learns things about him that astonish her. Also, I was losing track of all the different disguises that various characters donned throughout the story. It was like a bad episode of Scooby Doo.
In short, this was a frustrating and disappointing read, and it's going in the donation bag as soon as I hit "Post", because this book is in no way a keeper. It's only redeeming feature is that it touched on a lot of the history of San Francisco, especially concerning activist Harvey Milk and his assassination.
Favorite line:I guess she might have been pretty if she weren't so scary--if there'd been Dalmatian puppies on the premises, I would have hidden them in the basement.
Confusing and annoying, it gets two stars--one for the cats, and one for the history.
**
