Link: amzn.to/KZKx9k

Grade: D+

L/C Ratio: 60/40
(This means I estimate the author devoted 60% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 40% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
35% - Escape from society
30% - Drug company drama
20% - Tour of London
15% - Intimate relationships

Boyd’s novel begins with an intriguing bang. The main character, Adam Kindred, meets a stranger in a London restaurant and hours later gets wrongly accused of murdering the man.

Unfortunately, the premise reaches its peak in the opening chapters and then quickly falls flat. The author does an adequate job of describing Adam’s decision-making process, but it doesn’t make the character’s decisions any less baffling. Rather than going straight to the police to claim his innocence, Adam opts to throw away his successful career and become a bearded, homeless recluse on the run from the authorities. While this scenario helps to push the plot along and introduce some fun characters, its absurdity hurts the rest of the novel’s execution.

More generally, Boyd struggles with his genre focus in Ordinary Thunderstorms. The author eliminates every shred of suspense in this supposed mystery by jumping between character perspectives and shoving too much information at the reader. I’m sure the goal was to craft some sort of literary thriller, but all Boyd delivers is a muddled plot that fizzles out well before its tedious conclusion.

Noteworthy Quote:
It was a routine, now, and one should never underestimate the importance of routine in a person’s life: routine allowed everything else to seem more exciting and impromptu.

Link: amzn.to/JlGLuF

Grade: B

L/C Ratio: 20/80
(This means I estimate the author devoted 20% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 80% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
45% - Action thriller
35% - Corporate corruption
20% - Life of a struggling writer

Canada is a freaky place. Or at least that’s how it’s portrayed in Brooks’ latest novel, which tells the tale of an aspiring writer who volunteers for a kinky job, hoping to launch himself into literary fame. Instead, he gets framed for murder and tossed into the middle of a corporate conspiracy.

Chill Run is a solid thriller with snappy dialogue. Just when the plot appears to reach its climax, Brooks delivers a final act that ties up some loose ends and deepens the story’s complexity. Like a lot of other books in the genre, Chill Run requires a dose of awkward exposition to keep the action moving – but Brooks’ characters are more than strong enough to carry the plot to a satisfying conclusion.

Noteworthy Quote:
“Geez, it’s amazing how guys always use sports analogies when it comes to anything remotely sexual.”

Link: amzn.to/JFx8nN

Grade: C-

L/C Ratio: 30/70
(This means I estimate the author devoted 30% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 70% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Surviving high school
25% - Sci-fi
25% - Friendship
10% - Adolescent romance

Employing first-person narrators is a risky endeavor. If the reader fails to connect with that one character, all of the book’s merits can be spoiled. And that’s part of the problem with Pierson’s novel. Darren, a high school outcast and the voice of the book, displays some spunk and wit in the early chapters – but his narration grows tiresome rather quickly.

Style issues aside, The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To simply struggles to find its hook. The book’s primary conceit is given away by its title, ruining the mystique of its most interesting character. Pierson also waits too long to elevate the novel from the young adult mode to which it clings. The conspiracy and sci-fi elements tossed in at the end feel less like plot twists and more like random tangents of the author’s imagination.

It’s a shame that Pierson never gets the tone and plot to click cohesively, because with the heartfelt friendship he develops between his two main characters, the novel represents a missed opportunity for literary success.

Noteworthy Quote:
I almost always wake up pissed, from sleeping late, or not sleeping enough, and if you don’t always wake up pissed I think you’re living wrong.

Link: amzn.to/H3hep9

Grade: B

L/C Ratio: 80/20
(This means I estimate the author devoted 80% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 20% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Philosophy
30% - Post-Apocolypse
20% - Love
10% - Religion

Some passages in Colon’s debut read like biblical verses, and others sound like they were pulled from a sci-fi thriller. Somehow, that dichotomy is not nearly as jarring or awkward as it sounds. The story has a natural flow, and Colon does an impeccable job of interweaving details about a bizarre post-apocolpytic civilization alongside deep philosophical and religious discussions.

Colon’s writing style successfully sets an ominous mood for The Lost Men, but at times the flowery language is a tad overdone. And although the allegorical format fits in well with the his cerebral intentions, I wonder if some subtlety may have strengthened the impact of the book’s metaphors.

Noteworthy Quote:
But dreaming meant different things to the two. She longed for the future, he longed for a second chance; she expected, he regretted. It was cruel that despair knew of hope, but that hope never learned the lessons of despair.

Link: amzn.to/w66fyx

Grade: D+

L/C Ratio: 20/80
(This means I estimate the author devoted 20% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 80% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Destruction of civilization
30% - Technology
20% - Action thriller
20% - Science Fiction

As a hater of big books, nothing annoys me more than when an author spoils a compelling premise by dragging it out to unnecessary lengths. Freedom (TM), Suarez’s follow-up to Daemon, is one of the only books I’ve ever come across that suffers from the exact opposite problem. It’s a wildly ambitious novel, and that ambition is both its greatest strength and biggest flaw.

Suarez depicts a frightening future that is plenty plausible, but the plot quickly loses its edge and becomes a little too convenient (like when he talks about “corporate data” as if every company in America keeps its financial records on a single Seagate hard drive). The book’s relatively compact size (compared to other techno-thrillers) creates issues as Suarez attempts to develop characters within the dizzying cyber war that dominates the story. Everything feels rushed, and as a result, none of the emotional moments land with any effectiveness.

Freedom (TM) presents some fascinating societal dilemmas, but it’s not a good sign when the entire human race is crumbling and you, as the reader, don’t particularly care.

Noteworthy Quote:
”Fact and fiction carry the same intrinsic weight in the marketplace of ideas. Fortunately, reality has no advertising budget.”