The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi

Book: The Windup Girl
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Nightshade Books
Hardcover, 359 pages
My Rating:
              

The Windup Girl is a dystopian biopunk novel that occurs in the city of Bangkok. Vehicles run on fossil fuels are scarce and most food and many animals have been genetically altered. Anderson Lake is a farang businessman for a calorie company and searches the streets of Bangkok for food that is resistant to disease. His assistant, Hock Seng, is a Yellow Card that helps Anderson run the factory. The two work hard to keep the factory ahead of the pace of diseases like cibiscosis and blister rust that ruins foodstuffs and causes famine and death. When Anderson meets a windup girl named Emiko his life changes. Windups are viewed as less than human in Thailand, and Emiko is discarded by her owner and works at a club where she is abused. Torn between his obligation to serve his company and his desire to take care of Emiko, Anderson inadvertently sets events in motion that have serious implications.

The Windup Girl was given the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel at AussieCon in Melbourne about a month ago. This excited me because I have been looking forward to reading The Windup Girl all year long. I have never read anything by Bacigalupi before, but the book has gotten so much attention and the cover of the book was so appealing that when I finally got a copy, I couldn’t wait to crack open the pages and read the book. What I found was a book that had a thoughtful social commentary on the dangers of GMO foods, corporate control of our food system, and raised ethical questions of genetic engineering. For being a fairly short book at 359 pages, the world building was amazing. There were times that Bacigalupi’s description of the heat in Thailand made me feel like I needed to turn my ceiling fan on and there were times when I could feel the humidity of the Bangkok air. The setting was vibrant but also full of turmoil.

The world building was so well done that the plot didn’t really begin to take shape until midway through the book. I knew the basics of the plot with Anderson searching for the fruit the Thais called gnaw, but the story with Hock Seng, the Environment Ministry white shirts, and Emiko didn’t come together for me until about 150-200 pages in. I have to admit that I struggled some through the first half of the book but once I hit the midway point of the book, I really started enjoying it. The politics of the Environment Ministry, the calorie companies, and the Trade Ministry were complex and felt like it could truly be within the realm of possibility. Food is such a commodity in our society now, that a dystopian vision of GMO foods is something that was very interesting to read about.

The major issue that I had with the book was what Stephanie from Read in a Single Sitting characterizes as a “plate glass" style of writing. For me, the writing was choppy and disconnected from the story. There were times the flow was there but other times the sentences were so short that I felt like I was at a slam poetry performance. Mr. Bacigalupi may have intended this for the novel because society is disconnected in it and there is a constant sense of chaos throughout, but because of this, I admit that I had difficulty getting immersed in the novel. However, I am glad that I persevered and continued reading because the ideas in it are worthy of a read and the world itself is one that is likely to stay in my mind for years to come. While talking to my husband at dinner tonight, I compared this novel to The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. That was also a book I struggled through at times, but over time, it was one that really grew on me. I have a feeling The Windup Girl will be much like The Diamond Age in that I think it’s a book that months down the road I will still be digesting. I would recommend this book to people that enjoy dystopian literature that has a striking social commentary, especially with regards to corporations and how they influence the industrial food system, and it challenges readers to contemplate what constitutes our humanity in reference to biological systems.


Note of Interest
Paolo Bacigalupi wrote two short stories related to The Windup Girl in Pump Six and Other Stories. They are called Yellow Card Man and The Calorie Man.


*Notice of Disclosure: I received The Windup Girl for review from Nightshade Books.

**I am a Book Depository and IndieBound afilliate so If you purchase any of the books I have featured through the links I posted or from the banners in my left hand sidebar, I get a small commission from them. I am in no way compensated for the reviews I post of my books.

Texas Book Festival!

I haven’t gotten much reading done for the past few days because I went to the Texas Book Festival this weekend! I’ve lived in Austin for 11 years and only recently have I been making an effort to go out and about and participate in Austin life (I had this crazy notion for years that I wouldn’t be in Texas for long…a crazy notion I still maintain which is why it’s CRAZY).

Amanda from The Zen Leaf organized a blogger meetup on Saturday. I was the only lazy one that didn’t take picture so I’ll just list the awesome bloggers that I met. All their blogs are great and some are new to me!

• Amanda from The Zen Leaf – San Antonio
• Jenn from Picky Girl – Beaumont
• Iliana from Bookgirl’s Nightstand – Austin
• Trish from Love, Laughter, and Insanity – Dallas
• Debbie from Reader Buzz – Houston area
• Karen from Books and Chocolate – San Antonio

We met for lunch on Saturday and then Iliana and I headed over to the Vintage Anchor event that featured authors Abraham Verghese and J. Courtney Sullivan. Vintage Anchor gave out a tote bag that included a few books. I was purchasing my copy of Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Westerfeld’s event was happening at the same time…argh) so I showed up right before the Vintage Anchor event and missed the tote bag. Iliana, being the super nice person she is, gave me her tote bag and one of the books! A children’s librarian that I sat next to offered me a book from her tote too! Texans are so nice!



Iliana gave me A Saint on Death Row by Thomas Cahill and the librarian (whose name I didn’t get) gave me The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam. The talk was called Writers on Reading and was VERY interesting. Dr. Verghese was extremely interesting and funny. He’s an infectious disease physician so I definitely want to read his novels now! I also found out that he helped my sister-in-law’s uncle some years ago when he was ill. How cool! After the event, I went and had my copies of Leviathan and Behemoth signed by Scott Westerfeld who was EXTREMELY cool and nice. The line was about a block long for his signing but it went very fast. I loved Leviathan and will probably read Behemoth in the next week or two. I can’t wait since Leviathan ended a little unresolved.





Sunday, I went to the festival by myself. Iliana was at the Justin Cronin event, but I hid myself in a corner since I had to leave before the end of Cronin’s talk to go to another event so I didn’t see her. Justin Cronin was speaking in the Texas Legislature’s Senate Chamber so the room was fairly big which accounted for me not being able to find Iliana. He read from his book, The Passage and then answered some questions from the moderator. I was sad that I had to leave because he was talking about some really interesting things—I left as he was talking about how talented a writer Stephen King is.

So after Justin Cronin’s talk, I headed to a book that I found through the Texas Book Festival schedule. I admit that I hadn’t heard of it before I saw the book on the schedule, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to go. The book is called Escape from Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War by John D. Lukacs. I read about the Davao prison break in The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose earlier this year, but when I saw this book, I wanted to read it because I figured it would be a more focused and complete account of the story than the one Ambrose wrote about in his book since his was focused on five different stories. The talk was extremely interesting and I wish it would have been able to go on longer than it did.



The last event of the day was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who also spoke in the Senate Chamber. She was awesome. She was so intelligent, well spoken, funny, and had such a sense of self that I was blown away. I am one of the few people (or at least it feels that way) that hasn’t read Adichie’s work so I bought two of her books and waited in line to have her sign them. I can’t wait to read them. They sound so fantastic. She talked a lot about how she views Nigeria and Africa and encouraged people to read more African authors. She even talked about some authors that wrote about Africa that she didn’t care for. She also talked about how she never worried about race until she moved to the U.S. and then was identified as black or African (but generally not Nigerian). She was quite matter of fact about said it was just something she had to adjust to, but I found that statement really telling about race relations in America. It was really sad that that people come to this country not thinking about the color of their skin but are forced to think about it once they are here. I have to say that she was a woman that knew exactly who she was (Dr. Verghese also had this quality) and so she did not seem bothered by this revelation.

One funny little note about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was that she commented about doing the talk in the Senate Chamber. She looked around the room, appeared a little amazed and said something like (and I’m paraphrasing), “I’ve never done one of these in a Senate Chamber before. While we are here we should change some laws!” It got us all laughing and clapping since a lot of the attendees were sitting in the chairs at the desks of the Senators. It did look a little like it might be a legislative session!



      
I did a bad thing during the talk. While the talk was going on, I was IM’ing Amy from Amy Reads because she is a BIG fan of Adichie. So it wasn’t the most polite thing to do, but I didn’t feel like it was so bad because it was nice to be able to share what was happening with Amy as it was happening. I actually told Miss Adichie this when she signed my book and she laughed about it and said that Amy deserved a smiley face in the book I purchased for her. I’ll let Amy show it on her blog when she gets it in the mail!

In all, I had a lot of fun at this event and really enjoyed meeting all the bloggers from around the state (and they really were from all over—Beaumont, Houston, and Dallas are not short drives!). I also met a bookseller from Odessa at the Justin Cronin event. I was so surprised that so many people came from all over the state! I will definitely go back next year! We’re pretty lucky in Austin because one of the local bookstores, Book People, often has author events as well. However, I’m going to be on the wagon when it comes to book buying because I have managed to acquire MANY books this month so I need to concentrate on reading them for a bit!

Friday Coffee Chat (14) – What’s Important to You? The Story or the Character…

Are you plot driven or character driven?

Last week on Friday Coffee Chat, we talked about book bullying. Most of us admitted that we tend to be nosy about what people read and sometimes judge people by what they read, but we rarely vocalize it. I think it was a fairly eye opening conversation for me, and I feel like I learned a lot. This week, Jennifer at Girls Gone Reading is talking about reading out of your comfort zone. Head over to her blog after you are done commenting here to let her know if you have ever ventured out of your reading comfort zone!

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This week on Friday Coffee Chat I wanted to talk about something that I’ve been noticing about the books that I tend to enjoy. For four months this year, I read Middlemarch with my friends Ellie and Lydia from The Literary Lollipop. This book was huge and not much really happened in it. The book was largely about the people in Middlemarch and how society functioned at the time. Now, I know there are TONS of Jane Austen fans, but she largely falls in the same category. Lots of characters, but not a lot of plot. The characters undergo some transformation during the book, but it doesn’t take a war, tragedy, or any other huge event for these characters to have a huge impact on us. I say that these books are character driven and largely introspective. The books talk about the human condition or are social commentaries, but the plot can play second fiddle to the characters themselves.

After finishing the book, I felt so conflicted. I liked it. It challenged me to think in so many different ways, but quite frankly, it was boring for large parts of the book. A lot of people complain about Oprah’s Book Club choices to fall into the same pit of misery. The books are about the characters change, not necessarily the plot. After finishing Middlemarch, we decided to pick up The Count of Monte Cristo for a read-a-long which is VERY plot driven. Who hasn’t heard of Edmond Dantès quest for revenge against Fernand Mondego—the man who had him falsely imprisoned for many years? It’s such a popular story that is has been made into several movies. It’s exciting. There is plotting, revenge, swordfights, and the transformation of the characters is external rather than introspective. I am excited to read it because it is so plot driven and is so much more exciting to read than Middlemarch was.

All this got me thinking about what kind of reader I am. I tend to be a plot driven reader. I mostly read books where the plot is a huge factor. The journey in the book tends to override any changes the characters go through themselves. I like action in my books and I like it to be frequent! I do enjoy that the characters learn from whatever conflict happens in the book, but it’s the plotting, revenge, etc. that keep me turning the pages of books. The character driven books are usually more of a chore for me even if I do enjoy them in the end. I’ll even admit that these are the books that tend to have lasting impact on my life.

For example, take Sophie’s Choice by William Styron: nothing good ever happens to poor Sophie and you don’t find out why until later in the novel when you learn what her choice is. The book was torture because the entire time I just wanted to shake the woman and tell her what a huge mistake she was making with Nathan and say how out of control she was. I hated almost every moment of the book, but it has had this incredible lasting impact on me because it was SO character driven. The book was about Sophie and why she ended up the way she did. In some ways, the plot with Nathan was fairly incidental because the epiphany in the book was just on a few short pages. Those few short pages were so profound that the book is lasting (same thing in Middlemarch—the epiphany was one sentence on the last page). However, these books are just few and far between for me because I find them such a task to read.

I will go so far as to say that for every 30 books I read, I may only read one character driven book. Should I change my habit? I don’t know. I definitely have opened myself up a whole lot in the last two years as to what I will read, but I still maintain that the plot driven books are the ones I enjoy most even if the character driven ones tend to be lasting in my memory.

So, my questions for readers this week is:

• What kind of reader are you: Plot driven or character driven?
• Do you like books that have a good combination of both plot and character development or do you normally pick one over the other?
• Do you get frustrated that other people might not understand your book choices?
• What is your favorite book(s) that is/are plot driven and/or character driven?

Leviathan – Scott Westerfeld

Book: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Trade Paperback/440 pages
My Rating:



It is the eve of WWI and a Hapsburg prince named Alek is unaware that his life is about to drastically change. The Germans have been itching to start a war and the assassination of the Archduke has given them the opportunity. To avoid capture, Alek flees his Austrian homeland in a “Clanker” called a Cyklop Stormwalker with a few loyal men that are entrusted with his safety. On the other side of Europe, Deryn is a young woman who desperately wants to serve in Britain’s military so she disguises herself as a boy and signs up to fly in “Beasties” and is assigned to Leviathan. Little do either of them know that the war will make them cross paths and set them on a dangerous mission together.

I do not read a lot of YA novels, but I was desperately looking for some steampunk to read. I picked up Leviathan because Scott Westerfeld is coming to the Texas Book Festival on October 16-17 this year and I am going to try to make it in to his event where he will talk about the second book of the Leviathan series, Behemoth. I really wanted to read this before his talk so that I won’t be completely lost!

I think Leviathan is a great introduction to steampunk. The novel reads really fast and has a compelling storyline that feels familiar since the events in the book roughly follow WWI. Alek and Deryn are both likeable characters that are struggling with their place in the world. Alek is a prince without a throne and Deryn is a girl that desperately wants to be seen as an equal. Together they form an alliance that quite possibly is not what their respective parties want. In this first book in the series, a good portion of the time is spent exploring their individual stories so I got a good feel for them as characters and what motivated them. Neither of them have the typical teenage angst that can weigh so heavily in some books. They are truly characters of their situations—thrust into very stressful situations and they show their strength of character throughout.

I also loved the world. I think I’m addicted to steampunk now! I especially like the way Westerfeld made the novel as a clash between Clankers v. Beasties. The Leviathan is simply awesome. The description of it was vivid—I felt like I could see and smell everything that went on in that giant ship. The illustrations by Keith Thompson add so much to the novel as well. They are simply beautiful drawings and lend such description to the scenes. A picture truly is worth a thousand words in this book. Being that it is my first foray into the genre, I found the artwork helped me imagine what the world was like—what the ships and land machines looked like. The novel is a clash between two types of technologies which are each unique and well thought out.

At the end of the novel, Scott Westerfeld writes an Afterword about the historical period and what artistic license he took with the history of WWI. These last few pages made the book more interesting to me and made me want to read more on The Great War. I will warn you that the book doesn’t really have a true ending so you will most likely want to run out and buy Behemoth after you finish. For parents who want their pre-teens and teens to show more interest in history class, this is a great novel to pick up and read. I also think this is a good novel for people wanting to expose themselves to steampunk without getting bogged down in complicated explanations of technology that might exist in adult novels. It’s a quick read, plot driven, and kept me turning the pages. I feel a little less intimidated by steampunk and look forward to reading Behemoth and further exploring the genre.


 Links of Note
Samples of the illustrations in Leviathan
Scott Westerfeld’s Webpage




**I am a Book Depository and IndieBound afilliate so If you purchase any of the books I have featured through the links I posted or from the banners in my left hand sidebar, I get a small commission from them. I am in no way compensated for the reviews I post of my books.



I read this book for the Steampunk Challenge.

It Begins! The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Last week I posted a “review” of Middlemarch by George Eliot. I don’t really call it a real review per se because it was more about my experience reading it as a read-a-long with Lydia from The Literary Lollipop and my Shelfari friend, Ellie. After four months of reading Middlemarch, we finally finished and Lydia is now hosting a read-a-long of The Count of Monte Cristo for get this…the next 5+ months! Is this daunting? No! It’s only five chapters a week and the last one was so much fun that I can’t wait to start this one.

Lydia will be using the Modern Library edition of The Count of Monte Cristo which was translated by Chapman and Hill in 1846. This is the unabridged version that is most widely available and includes the Oxford Classics publication.



I will be using the Penguin Classics edition of the book that was translated by Robin Buss in 1996 and updated in 2003. It includes some portions that were removed in the Chapman and Hill version and includes updated language. I chose this version because searching around the internet looking for which version was the most complete translation, the Robin Buss translation seemed to be the most complete. So, if you are looking to read this, you might want to pick up both copies and determine which is most important to you—the updated language and less omissions or the preservation of the Victorian language and the original translation.


To get us in the mood to read, here are a few tidbits about the book and Alexandre Dumas:


The Man:

• Dumas was a popular writer and wrote for money (he was paid by the line…hence the LONG 1200+ page The Count of Monte Cristo) so he was dubbed, “Alexandre Dumas and Co.”
• His work was frowned upon by those in serious literary and art circles because he wrote for pay.
• George Eliot thought that ‘the French’ [writers] looked for melodramatic situations and characters rather than dealing with everyday life which she felt revealed human nature (taken from A Note on the Text in the Penguin Classics translation). –After just finishing Middlemarch and reading this in the notes, I feel this is an especially satisfying way to spend the next read-a-long! hehehe
• The lack of respect for Dumas in literary circles has most likely contributed to the book not being retranslated very often.

The Book:

• The Count of Monte Cristo is a precursor to other detective novels—the man who finds the truth and uses it to prosecute the wrongdoer.
• Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have some of the same elements in their work that is contained in The Count of Monte Cristo
• The story of Edmund Dantès is inspired by the true story of a man named François Picaud who was denounced by his friends as an English spy shortly after he became engaged to a woman named Margeurite.
  • The plot was concocted by a cafe owner named Mathieu Loupian who was jealous of Picaud’s relationship with Margeurite.
  • Picaud was a servant to a rich Italian cleric while in prison and became very close to him. The cleric died and left his money to Picaud and also told him where to find a hidden treasure.
  • Picaud was eventually released from prison and found the treasure and began to investigate who betrayed him so he could exact his revenge.

See?! The truth IS stranger than fiction! Does this make you want to read the book any more than if you hadn’t known these things? A few people have told me that they are intimidated by Dumas, but I find him to be one of the more accessible classic authors. It’s most likely due to him being a writer for the masses rather than a writer for the art.

If you have any interest at all in the intrigue, betrayal, and revenge of this novel, head over to The Literary Lollipop EVERY Wednesday starting October 13, 2010. We will be reading this book in five chapter increments. Totally doable! Easy peasy! I hope you’ll join in. The story is just fantastic! I know this because as some of you know, I accidentally read the abridged edition some years ago. I felt I had to remedy my error.)!

Friday Coffee Chat (13) – Have you been book bullied?

Book Bullying: Are you a victim or a perpetrator?

Last week on Friday Coffee Chat we talked about Weird Reading Habits. We all have some and maybe sometimes people look at us funny for our odd reading habits. This week, I want to talk about bullying of the book persuasion. Jennifer at Girls Gone Reading is talking about movies that are BETTER than the book this week on her portion of Friday Coffee Chat. Can you think of any? I think I actually can so make sure you go put your two cents in on her blog as well!

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Book bullying. Does such a thing exist? For weeks we’ve been talking about things like judging a book by its cover, the YA phenomenon, and odd reading habits we have. But are any of these things embarrassing enough that we actually hide what we read around others for fear of being made fun of or just outright bullying?

Last week on Twitter a fellow book blogger tweeted that she had been mocked and made fun of in the lunch room for her choice of reading. Not only did they make fun of what she read, they went through her Kobo and refused to give it back until they had all had their bits of fun. I was honestly horrified that this person was basically bullied. These aren’t kids in grade school—these are grown adults that were making fun of her for choosing to read YA and some Middle Grade books. Never mind that this woman is a mother and who reviews YA and some younger fiction regularly on her blog; these people decided that it would be a nice thing to mock her by saying things like, “What are you going to read next, Clifford?!” Hmmm…she’s a mom so it IS in fact possible that she might read Clifford to her children. Instead of fighting back which would almost certainly end in more retribution, she sat there quietly until they had finished. She felt humiliated.

I have to admit. I felt so bad for her. I think what is worse is that I felt bad for her because while I may not have gone to that extent to humiliate someone, I have definitely judged people on their reading choices at times. That’s right. I am openly admitting that at times I have vocally said things about the choices that people make about their own personal reading! I am ashamed. After doing these weekly chats for three months, I have learned so much from all the bloggers that stop by and give their input. We don’t always agree, but we usually have a good laugh, give each other a virtual handshake, and move on because we all know we have different personalities and therefore, different tastes. Because of this, I have become much less judgmental of all those people out there that choose to read things that I would never pick up. I no longer care if someone has an Edward or Jacob obsession, or if they like reading Gossip Girl. I don’t care anymore if people like reading steamy romances or erotica. We’re all unique and there are enough books in the world to satisfy us all. I might even throw some glitter on my friends who like the sparkly vampires to show my support!

My point is, what exactly does it accomplish when you question what someone is reading? Is there ever a time when it is justified? I still struggle some with people reading books by Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, Michael Moore or other polarizing figures. I might even make an off-handed comment if I saw people reading it. Is that ok for me to do? I think good conversation is ok. I think it’s ok to disagree, but I’m beginning to see that it’s possible that my off-handed comments can hurt someone’s feelings. I also think that sometimes we all can be overly sensitive and that stepping back from a situation and looking at things from a different perspective can open our eyes to what people may be trying to get across (in the blogger’s case at the beginning of my post I think she was truly bullied and the people in question should be ashamed of themselves). I have taken comments on my blog and on Twitter personally sometimes, but then I realize that I am who I am and I can only control my reaction to things—the world will not change for me as much as I want it to. I will say that I am trying harder to be more aware of what comes out of my mouth and my fingers while typing. I may still disagree with people, but I hope that I will never be disrespectful or make that person feel bullied.

So this week, I want to ask you readers:

• Have you ever been bullied for what you read OR have you ever bullied someone for what they read (be honest here…we’ll be respectful of admissions)?
• Have you ever hidden what you read for fear of someone making fun of you or criticizing you?
• Do you think people are too sensitive when it comes to the books they enjoy?
• Are there any times that you just cannot keep your mouth shut when you think you should (like me and my penchant for ranting against political pundit books)?
• Do you think it’s possible to be opinionated about reading/books without backing someone into a corner?

Link of Note

I saw this really good blog post by a man that was bullied as a child. Good food for thought:

Dan and Noah’s Single Dad Laughing – Memoirs of a Bullied Kid

The Alienist – Caleb Carr

Book: The Alienist
Author: Caleb Carr
Publisher: Random House
496 pages
My Rating: 1.5 of 5 stars



New York Times reporter John Moore is paired with criminal psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler to solve a series of crimes against young child prostitutes in Caleb Carr’s first book, The Alienist. The murders are heinous and no one knows who is committing them. There is also little interest because the boys come from the immigrant community and their occupation is taboo. Corruption is rampant in New York City and police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt charges Moore, Kreizler and a small group of others to search for the killer.

Just writing that little summary makes me feel like this book would be interesting. I was actually very excited to read this because so many people had said it was one of their favorite mystery reads of all-time. Sadly, it was not to be. I slogged through this entire book. I even fought with it and wanted to throw it across the room more than a few times. I read the hardcover version of the book too so those 496 pages would have been even longer in paperback. There were so many problems that I had with this book that I am just not sure where to start.

The storytelling was overwrought with foreshadowing. I would say a good half to two-thirds of the chapters ended with some form of foreshadowing. Chapter 24 ends like this:

“We watched the burning pieces of paper turn into flakes of smoking ash, both of us silently hoping that this would be the last we’d ever need to speak of the matter, that Laszlo’s behavior would never again warrant investigation into his past. But as it turned out, the unahppy tale so sketchily referred to in the now-incinerated report did surface again to a later point in our investigation, to cause a very real—indeed an almost fatal—crisis.”

Now doing this a few times throughout a book would not have bothered me, but it became so habitual that I found myself anticipating the “duh duh duh” moment that was surely coming at the end of every chapter. The book tried so hard to be literary and it actually accomplished it at some points in the book, but overall the literary devices were so overused that they became clichéd.

Then there was the initial question of whether or not the attacker was a male or female. Based on physical evidence, they postulated that the attacker was 6’2”. It must be a male, right? That’s what they thought. Well, later in the book another boy is killed and a team member named Sara goes to view the crime scene. She is so horrified by what she sees that she says something like (and I’m paraphrasing), “The murderer is a male. There is no way a woman could do this.” All the men on the team were taken aback that Sara knew this so definitively. Really?!!! You think?!!! You just finished going on an on in previous pages about the murderer being 6’2” tall. Now how many women in 1896 were over 6 feet tall? At this point in the book I just let out a sigh and a groan. I had to finish it since it was the choice for my book club.

Then there was Dr. Kreizler. The man was a caricature. I think Richard Attenborough’s portrayal of John Hammond in Jurassic Park would have fit Dr. Kreizler really well at some points. The man would never divulge information. It was a murder investigation and he was working with a team of detectives, a newspaper reporter, and a female employee of the NYPD. You’d think that they would be open with their ideas so that they could find this person that is ravaging New York City. No, he wasn’t. Everything was riddles with him up until the end of the book. I found myself wanting the killer to make Dr. Kreizler his next victim.

I can say that I did like some of the non-fiction aspects of the book. The historical parts of Theodore Roosevelt being the police commissioner and just what the city was like was interesting. I also enjoyed the parts of the book where the alienist studies were examined (though it wasn’t very detailed). For me, the story is what fell far short of being remotely interesting. The best part of the story was the villain who actually had depth to his character despite only physically being in the book for a very short period of time. I wish there would have been more storyline with the killer’s story than there was because it was the only part of the book that I found hard to put down.

I am in the minority as far as my opinion of this book goes. Most people love it. They think it’s fantastic so I won’t tell anyone not to read it. I think my book club enjoyed it (I actually showed up late because I had not finished the book by the time they met—the only time this has happened to me in 11 meetings). So, instead of saying that people should just let this one fall by the wayside, I think I would recommend that they read the description of the book, some reviews of it, and decide for themselves if they think it’s worthwhile to read. I am definitely interested to see what other people have to say about this book.