Agnes Grey

Anne Bronte is the youngest of the Bronte sisters. Also the meekest. Her works are more reserved as well. She wrote two novels in her lifetime before she died at the age of 29 from tuberculosis. Agnes Grey is the shorter of the two, an almost biographical story. I loved The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and so I was more than sure that I would like this little prior gem. I did.


Synopsis: 

Agnes Grey tells the story of one woman's search for love and happiness within the boundaries of pre-Victorian society. Forced by her family’s declining circumstances to find employment, Agnes Grey takes the only position open to her—governess within a wealthy family—and faces hardships that challenge the boundaries of her experience.

Review:

I had a longing to read another Bronte novel. I'm running out of Bronte novels to read. I got one left after this one. Anyhow, I finally got to Agnes Grey. I should have read this one before I read her second novel, but for some reason or another I didn't. This story has to be the shortest of all the sisters' works. And I loved it. Surprise, surprise.

Agnes does not waste time telling us her story and getting to her point. She was an intriguing and yet flawed protagonist. Not as overly pious as her lead in her next novel. Her circumstances were good ones, too. I think part of the reason I enjoyed this novel had  to do with the not so dark circumstances the Bronte sisters are known to put their characters in.

Agnes' mother used to be wealthy and married a clergyman who her family did not approve of, but she was happy and raised two daughters on her own. Mary and Agnes. For several reasons the family goes into debt, and Agnes volunteers to help out as a governess. At first her family doesn't like the idea or find it necessary, but Agnes wants to find her own way in life and not depend so much on anyone--like her mother.

The first set of children she schools are a bunch of brats. And their parents, the Bloomfields, blame Agnes for not being able to tame them. Eventually, they fire her. Her time comes to an end and she moves back to her parents. She learns a lot about people in her stay with the first family. But Agnes, being as resilient as she is, decides to give it another try.

Her second family are the Murrays, and although the mother is very similar to the last one, Agnes gets to school teenage girls instead of children. The eldest daughter, Rosalie, is a selfish and vain girl who wants to flirt and win the heart of any man she comes across, her sister, Matilda, is a tom boy. The girls don't often listen to their governess, but they do take her around, and because of this Agnes gets to meet interesting people in her life, but often feels alone as she is away from home.

Edward Weston is a country parson who Agnes gets to know more in her walks from church and from visiting the poor. He is a nice man. She admires him a great deal and through time starts to grow feelings for. She fights these feelings knowing well that her love may well not be returned. I love how practical Agnes is with everyone including herself on matters of the heart. And her views on external beauty were wonderfully explained, not to change a readers mind but to make one think. I happen to agree with her. This is one of the reasons I liked Agnes Grey more than Jane Eyre. She was more experienced and although life proved to be less than great to her, she made sure to let no one see her decline and smiled as much as she could.

The story doesn't have to tell you that you reap what you sow, the Murray sisters choices and endings were good enough indicators. Another reason I liked this novel, it didn't try to walk me through and hold my hand, explaining everything. It was short and sweet.

A family tragedy happens in the last act and Agnes is forced to go home to her family and start over again from scratch. However, she does get a visit from an old furry friend and a person she has admired from the start. A sweet and practical ending to a straightforward and lovely novel.

Revival

Stephen King needs no introduction and so I won't bother with it. However, as for my personal experience with the author I have never read a book from him that I loved. Just liked. Or didn't like too much. I have finally found the one a thoroughly enjoyed. I present, his newest release: Revival

Synopsis:

Hardback copy

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

Review:

I can finally say that I have found a Stephen King novel that I truly, truly love. Not liked. The novel's conclusion is terrifying. I was left thinking about my own destiny for several days after finishing it. What happens after it all ends? Jamie discovers the answer to this question and it's one that I dreaded so much, maybe because these thoughts plague everyone from time to time. People like to think that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe there's not. What made this novel utterly terrifying was not any monsters or psychos or any other 'horror' tropes. What made this novel terrifying was simply not knowing.

Who knew?

I'm very much aware that many King fans were disappointed thinking this story would be a straight horror novel, and if that's what you are expecting, don't bother with reading it. We don't get anything 'scary' until the last act. Let me give you the gist:

The story centers on Jamie from the age of six all the way into his sixties. You are introduced to his family, his town back in the 'good' old days, and life around a religious town and the new pastor in the neighborhood church. Charles Jacob. The man is fascinated with electricity and whenever he can, he applies his discoveries to his preaching. He has a wife and small child. Our main character loves him and so does the rest of the town until the TERRIBLE SERMON.

The terrible sermon was one of the reasons I enjoyed this novel. The thoughts and conclusion the Rev. states in the midst of grief are very similar to my own. I also grew up in a very Christian home and had a lot of questions. I enjoyed his speech but was saddened by the reason he came to it. Tragedy does make us see the world a lot differently. I won't reveal more than I have to in this review. I hate spoilers. Just know that the pastor ends up leaving town but also leaves a mark in little Jamie's heart and life.

Later, Jamie grows up to be a musician and is deep into drugs. A theme Stephen King uses a lot. You know what they say, draw from life experiences. However, this here is where the story lost a tad of momentum. Jamie's drugs and musical life turned the story into a whole different one. Not at all the novel we started out with, the one that had me reading the first act in a single night. The second act sat too long in secrecy and Jamie went on and on discussing old musicians and bands and you know, all that shit that starts in E. It got a tad tedious after a while. I was almost let down until Rev. Danny came back into the picture.

Throughout the novel we are hinted at the strange electricity Charles Jacobs is working with. One that has cured and been curing people for decades, but leaves aftereffects that in some cases can be fatal. Jamie grows more curious as he himself gets a volt dosage and well, Something Happened. The last act concentrates on finding out all the answers and the conclusion is one you are either going to love or hate.

The book as a whole had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. There were so many passages that I loved. The characters intrigued me. I would have liked to have seen more of the family instead of the musical people in Jamie's life. And I'm not completely convinced that Jamie would have gone out of his way to help Jacob at the end. But overall, the novel was a great read that I deeply recommend.

The Culling

Robert Johnson is an Okie who moved to California later in life. He's studied film and became a screenwriter. He's won plenty of awards. The Culling is his first book.


Synopsis:

Hardback copy

Carl Sims, a young virologist, discovers a plot hatched by a group of international scientists to cull, in a matter of weeks, two-thirds of the world's population - some 4.5 billion people, by releasing a deadly virus that kills two thirds of those it infects. Their goal is to reduce Earth's population from an unsustainable seven billion to two billion. What is he to do? Try to stop the conspiracy, or join it?

Horrific, yes, but what if this culling could prevent the extinction of some forty percent of our planet's flora and fauna? Or if he was certain it was the only way to prevent an even larger human die-off, incurring significantly more suffering, by the end of this century? Or if he were convinced it represented the only hope for humanity surviving at all? This is at the heart of this thriller, for these viruses do, in fact, exist.






Review:

The title alone drew me in to this little gem of a novel. Yes, some of us are very aware of how overpopulated the planet is, but culling the herd is most def an inhumane way to go about it. This novel takes a look at scientists who are looking at the bigger picture. Save the earth by taking out a good percentage of the reckless population who can't seem to stop breeding.

This actually got me thinking about deer. How every year we have a season where hunters are allowed to bring down the deer population. If we culled the human herds one has to admit we would be of a manageable size. One: people would stop having so many children if the fear of them dying this or the next year was eminent. Two: we would have a smaller population if a lot of us got wiped out yearly. TIs it more humane or inhumane than dying from a deadly virus? Okay, I got a little carried away there. Back to the novel.

Carl Sims is a virologist who works for the CDC. He gets sent on a mission to investigate a potential outbreak of the flu in China. Jenna, epidemiologist, and two interns have to figure this out while not getting contaminated and not getting killed. The first half of the novel has us dealing with the Chinese outbreak, and I enjoyed the facts the novel tries to tell the reader through Carl and Jenna's discussions with the interns. Yes, it was not as subtle as it could have been, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Later, Carl gets sick and travels back to the USA and decides to leave quarantine and go to Alaska to find out about a deadlier strain of Influenza. This part had me a little annoyed with Carl. He is a virologist. He knows how important it is to take safety precautions. His delusional belief that he wasn't sick was a little too unreal for someone who knows how his job works.

The other half of the novel gets to the reveals, and I can't expand on them because of spoilers. I understood the motives and the reasons for the scientists wanting to do what they did and I was not surprise with who the scientist were because the novel doesn't try to hide much. What you see is what you get all the way until the ending which was  sad but so real. I enjoyed this novel.

About the characters, I liked them all. They were all diverse and all had their own reasons for doing what they were doing. No, they were not likable. Not all. But they were real. Even Carl's ex girlfriend, when she lost her cool and wanted to make the antiviral so bad that she does something seen as evil, its explainable. I saw her point. Her reasoning. The novel does spend time with a few folks at the CDC that I didn't know enough or cared enough to remember, but they were crucial as well. Everyone had a purpose in this story. No characters wasted. From the interns who needed to be imparted knowledge, to the wheelchair bound friend who helped get Carl out of a lot of bad situations.

About the plot, first, I loved the narration. I love the pan in and pan out feel of every spot Carl finds himself in. The first chapter, the intro, was perfect and it set the tone for the rest of the novel. A mosquito comes down to poor village in South America and bites our host, our MC. From there on we go on a trip from country to country and scenario to scenario. All at a great pace.

Good book.

Nano

Robin Cook, again...

My last review was my first introduction to the doctor/writer. It was an old eighties novel: Outbreak. The back cover had the picture of the prolific man and his optimistic smile. Although Outbreak was not as good as I expected or wanted, it was not bad, either. I also happen to be one of those readers that if by chance discovers a 'new' author and their style or themes interest me, I will give it another go, or three, or four or...oh Dean Koontz. But I digress, point is, if I liked you a first time, I will read you a second. And so here I am again with the New York Times Bestselling Author. This time I picked a newer book: Nano

Synopsis:

Hardback copy

 Intrigued by the promise of the burgeoning field of medical technology and the chance to clear her head, Pia takes a job at Nano, LLC, a lavishly funded, security-conscious nanotechnology insititute in the picturesque foothills of the Rockies. Nano, LLC is ahead of the curve in the competitive world of molecular manufacturing, including the construction of microbivores, tiny nano-robots with the ability to gobble up viruses and bacteria.

But the corporate campus is a place of secrets. She's warned by her boss not to investigate the other work being done at the gigantic facility, nor to ask questions about the source of the seemingly endless capital that funds the institute's research. And when Pia encounters a fellow employee on a corporate jogging path, suffering the effects of an apparent cardiac arrest and seizure, she soon realizes she may have stumbled on a possible Nano LLC human guinea pig. Is the tech giant on the cusp of one of the biggest medical discoveries of the twenty-first century—a treatment option for millions—or have they already sold out to the 
highest bidder?

Review:

I finished reading the book a week before I started this review. Why? I had mixed feelings and wanted to sit on it for a while, let it marinate. In the mean time I finished another book that was quite good, and solely because I want to get to that review, I finally decided to finish this one...or start it. Either way, here I am.

What initially intrigued me about Nano was the topic. Nanotechnology happens to interest me. Maybe because the field hasn't been explored enough--or maybe I just haven't read enough books on the subject. Intrigued as I was, I was even more drawn to this book because the author is a doctor. I figured Cook would explore the topic in depth and maybe even teach me something I didn't know. Wishful thinking, I guess.

I did enjoy some scenes and the science aspects. Yes, there were great scenes and mysteries early on that captivated me enough that I kept reading, but ultimately I was disappointed.

Let me start with the plot, Pia is a young woman employed by a corporation working on new treatments and technology in an unethically manner. Pia is like a dog with a bone and once she discovers something is off, she goes to incredible lengths to find out what exactly happened, which reminded me of the character in the last Robin Cook book I read who pretty much did the same thing. Except that Pia was ridiculously hard to like. Everyone loved her. Everyone wanted to be in her company. But she was a loner and not a social person. They explain the reasons for her detachment, and still I found it hard to believe everyone would want to be friends or even have in their life some girl who didn't like anyone. I was not a Pia fan. I did not root for her and more than once I wanted something terrible to happen to her, or better yet, have George--her friend--tell most of the story.

George, her doctor friend, disappeared after the first few chapters and didn't return until the end when Pia needed him and then another time in the middle where she needed him again. That was his whole character, coming in for the rescue. Pia used everyone in her life to get what she wanted. Her boss, her friend, her other friend who seemed to have been set up to be a love interest and later we discover that not to be the case, and the reason for this was not as much a surprise but an unnecessary twist. There was no plot requisite for us not to know sooner or for Paul to have had a great interest in her. Pia also put herself in dangerous situations in order to discover facts that were not crucial to her life. I had the same problem with Cook's last novel. I didn't really understand the MC's motive.

The other characters were not very rounded or interesting except Berman, the CEO. Essentially, the bad guy. He had a great motive for everything he did. His research would eventually lead to a the cure to Alzheimer or so he was aiming for that goal, which ran in his family. He had some rich, book, movie, man flaws. He wanted to conquer and dispose. Not the most original, but believable. He kept me intrigued.

Paul and George were one in the same. Two doctors. Two friends of Pia. Two men concerned with finding her when she put herself in one dangerous situation after another. They gave her sound advice. She didn't listen, and yet, they still blamed themselves when the ultimate bad happens--again. George recruits the help of her father who had never really been in her life only once before. In another book. This was not Pia's first book. She was kidnapped in the last book and her father tried to help her get out of that situation, too. Same plot here.

The ending was the most disappointing part of the story. We have a new setting. London. Great. We have new characters--last minute--but cool and so many opportunities for a kind of ending like the ones Cook is known for, rapid fire, a real thriller. But no. The ending had the main villain as nothing more than an incompetent fool. New villains took his place, and Pia became utterly useless as all the 'smarts' she had used thus far were thrown out the window when she again and again refused to cooperate after having no leverage. I was surprised she didn't die sooner or in the book that came before Nano. The ending was fuzzy. You are supposed to guess if our MC made it or not. I didn't care.

Outbreak

Robin Cook is a doctor and author of medical thrillers. A New York Times Bestselling author. I have heard of him before but never actually picked up one of his books until now. Better late than never. Others have said that all his novels follow the same pattern of a doctor finding out something is wrong in the system and then running around trying to beat the clock. I can't either agree or disagree because I haven't read one of his novels yet...well, I have now. Let's talk about Outbreak:

Synopsis:

Hardback copy

When the director of a Los Angeles health maintenance clinic succumbs, along with seven patients, to an untreatable virus, Atlanta's Center for Disease Control goes on red alert. Unless the virus is isolated and checked, mankind may be facing its gravest medical crisis since the Black Death.

Assigned by the CDC to investigate the disease, Dr. Marissa Blumenthal is soon caught up in the ultimate nightmare. The California case is merely the first in a burgeoning series of outbreaks that occur in unrelated geographical areas but with puzzling commonalities: The locations are always health-care facilities, and the victims are only physicians and their patients.

As her investigation takes increasingly bizarre turns, Marissa finds that behind the natural threat lurks a far more sinister possibility: sabotage.

Before she discovers the truth, Marissa must overcome her superiors' fury, her colleagues' doubts—and the wrath of a powerful cabal, sworn to achieve its aims, no matter what the cost in human life—including Marissa's.

Review:

This novel was many things. A thriller was one. I picked it because of the title alone. It so happens to be about an Ebola outbreak. Seemed like another timely novel. It was a quick read and fun. I happen to be studying epidemiology at the moment and so there were smiles on my face whenever he reference medical terminology that I actually understood. The medical jargon was fun! There was a lot to like here--and some not.

The author is a doctor in real life. I always find that those little details to be intriguing. Makes me feel like the author knows what he's doing. Of course, maybe he tried to drive that point a little bit too hard. There were scenes where our MC spends too much time in contaminated hospitals doing the same thing over and over again, and we were told step by step why she was doing and how she was doing it.

Example: Marissa had to travel from hospital to hospital whenever an outbreak got out. She was sent by the CDC. In each situation there were steps that needed to be taken. After the first outbreak, we were well aware of the procedure. No need to hammer that in every single time she visited another hospital. It got repetitive at best. Repetition was one of the factors of the novel that I didn't enjoy. Marissa goes to the airport about a dozen times. Marissa with Ralph. Marissa eats hotel food. Marissa's feelings on Dubchek. Marissa gets attacked--and always gets away. Marissa at the CDC at night doing things she shouldn't be doing...so and and so on. I would've liked to have skipped to the chase.

The love stories in this novel also rubbed me the wrong way. Not because I don't enjoy them. But because there wasn't one, really. Ralph was an older friend of hers. He was always just there. Not much happening with him, which made me wonder about him. Tad was a younger co-worker who did whatever she wanted her to and then fizzled out at the end. Then there was Dubchek. The man hit on her once and kissed her without her consent. She rejected him and so he spent the rest of the book making her life a living hell. Marissa spends too much time blaming herself for the whole incident and that just didn't sit well with me. I won't say how that part of the relationship unravels, but lets just say, that alone ruined the ending for me.

Marissa's motives also bothered me. She went far and beyond to find out the truth when it could have caused her a good job and friends. Her obsession with the outbreak was taken to extreme levels. Marissa had up to that point been a bit of a people pleaser and then suddenly she just needed to travel all around the country, breaking the law, and fighting criminals in order to learn the truth. Why? I just never felt that she had a really good reason to do any of it. At one point she acknowledges that she was endangering herself and that she had little proof of anything. I agreed. I also didn't buy that she was the only doctor who understood what was going on. The index case and everyone who began the individual outbreaks had all been mugged or attacked at one point. No one seemed to have noticed this or taken note except for our MC who also happened to have been new at her job.

Despite all the flaws in the novel, I still enjoyed it. The first part was spent learning and setting the scene for the second half which is  the thriller part. I wanted the story to end with more of a bang because the second half rode hard, but it didn't. I was left wanting a tad more. Again, despite all this the last few chapters kept me at the edge of my seat, and I did not stop reading until it all ending. For this alone, I give the book a huge amount of credit. It entertained me and taught me. Also, it was fun reading about the 80's.

Hidden Empire

There has been a lot of controversy about Orson Scott Card and his 'beliefs'. I personally don't care what I person does in their private time--unless it's against the law--as long as it doesn't affect or seep into the writing. Unfortunately, I can't say that's the case with Hidden Empire. Shame since OSC is not a bad author. He's imaginative and his stories are interesting. A lot of folks I know still love Ender's Game despite disliking the man who wrote it. Fair enough. The novel I'll be reviewing today was a gift. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own. However, I don't regret reading it even though sometimes it was a difficult task...

Synopsis:

Hardback copy

The war of words between right and left collapsed into a shooting war, and raged between the high-technology weapons on each side, devastating cities and overrunning the countryside. 

At the close of Empire, political scientist and government adviser Averell Torrent had maneuvered himself into the presidency of the United States.  And now that he has complete power at home, he plans to expand American imperial power around the world.

Opportunity comes quickly.  There’s a deadly new plague in Africa, and it is devastating the countryside and cities.  President Torrent declares American solidarity with the victims, but places all of Africa in quarantine until a vaccine is found or the disease burns itself out.  And he sends Captain Bartholomew Coleman, Cole to his friends, to run the relief operations and protect the American scientists working on identifying the virus.  If Cole and his team can avoid dying of the plague, or being cut down by the weapons of fearful African nations, they might do some good.  Or they might be out of the way for good.


Review:

I wanted to like this book. I really did. The premise interested me. I was in the mood for outbreaks and deadly viruses. The world handling a crisis. It was even a timely read with this current Ebola crisis, but man was this heavy on the politics. If you are a right-winged, Christian who loves Fox News and don't believe in Global Warming, you'll like this a lot. If you like military jargon and vague action scenes, you'll love this novel. If you enjoy a lot of backstory and too many references to the previous novel (which I didn't know existed or read) then you'll enjoy this story. If you enjoy precocious children who are ridiculously wise for their age and who love to banter with Mommy, you'll also like this story...I could do this all day. Fact is, I didn't enjoy any of those aspects of the novel. I read to be entertained, not to be told what's right and what's wrong. This was supposed to be Science Fiction. It read more like wishful thinking on the author's part.

Anyhow, I'd like to believe that every novel has some good in it. So, I'll concentrate on what I did like. The novel starts with this little African boy whose whole family dies from an outbreak started by a monkey. I won't say more. Did I already say too much? A captivating start and I kept hoping the kid wouldn't die since he was so interesting. I also enjoyed learning about the different languages in the various African tribes.

The president of the United States wanted to quarantine the whole continent of Africa in order to prevent the virus from reaching the states. A lot of people found issue with that. As they should. A lot of folks wanted to go to Africa and help the sick. The whole thing is a PR nightmare for the president and his people.

About the president's people, Cole, a military officer, and Cecily, a mom who loves to bake cookies for her five kids and councils the president on the side. I didn't connect with the mother too much. Not with how she handled her eldest son's, Mark, whole do-good crusade. But I did like Cole. He was smart and knew what to expect and who not to fully trust. Before being sent to Africa to check out what the deal was, Cole knew the whole operation wasn't right. As a good soldier, he does what he must, but suffers deadly consequences. Action ensues and they find themselves trapped in a country they can't leave and sick. The Muslim bad guys are coming to get them! But are they really the bad guys, or are the bad guys 'friend's? The pre-ending was big. The real ending was anti-climatic. It should have ended several pages before it actually did.

Hidden Empire has its moments and all the epidemiology and author knowledge over how outbreaks occur was what made me enjoy it the most. Enough that I overlooked a lot of the other stuff that bugged me throughout the story.

The Girl in the Road

A first novel by author Monica Byrne. She's a writer, playwright, and traveler. She holds degrees in biochemistry from Wellesley and MIT. Just mentioning all these things explains a lot about her novel, and the ideas used and the very vivid world she created.

Synopsis: 

Hardback copy

Meena, a young woman living in a futuristic Mumbai, wakes up with five snake bites on her chest. She doesn't know how or why, but she must flee India and return to Ethiopia, the place of her birth. Having long heard about The Trail -- an energy-harvesting bridge that spans the Arabian Sea -- she embarks on foot on this forbidden bridge, with its own subculture and rules. What awaits her in Ethiopia is unclear; she's hoping the journey will illuminate it for her.

Mariama, a girl from a different time, is on a quest of her own. After witnessing her mother's rape, she joins up with a caravan of strangers heading across Saharan Africa. She meets Yemaya, a beautiful and enigmatic woman who becomes her protector and confidante. Yemaya tells Mariama of Ethiopia, where revolution is brewing and life will be better. Mariama hopes against hope that it offers much more than Yemaya ever promised.

As one heads east and the other west, Meena and Mariama's fates will entwine in ways that are profoundly moving and shocking to the core. Vividly imagined and artfully told, written with stunning clarity and deep emotion, The Girl in the Road is a true tour de force

Review:

Two girls. Two stories. Two different decades. One side of the story centers on Meena, an Indian girl--yes, the protagonist is Indian which was so refreshing--and the other pov was centered on Mariama, an African girl--yes, already liking the diversity here.

Right off the bet you get a sense that Meena is not right in the head, and that she's keeping a lot from the reader. First point of view. She thinks she's being followed and decides to leave the country to go to Africa, where her parents were murdered long ago. Meena is a smart girl and went to the best schools. She's a tad entitled with strong prejudices. This make sense since she grew up with a family and culture that looked down on certain races and lower classes. Meena also has a rebellious streak and has lots of sex with guys and girls. Doesn't matter to her. The one thing that was going well for her was the relationship with a transgender performer. However, as the story continues one starts to wonder why her girlfriend didn't come along. Is she even alive? Does she exist? Meena sees all types of things that aren't really there.

The midpoint of her journey has Meena walking a trail. And this concept was amazing to me. The trail starts from India all across the ocean to Africa. It's walkable but very unstable. It's like backpacking on ocean scales. I liked a lot of the devices that Meena took with her and all the names for the futuristic tools. Like the sunbits and scrolls. Very clever. Meena did often go into her head to think about her past and some parts in the middle got a little tedious because of it, but eventually something else would happen or she would encounter a person.....there's more here with Meena, but honestly, I thought her problems were just okay in comparison to Mariama's side.

I also found a lot of her decisions unnecessary. Like leaving the country in the first place...at least it seemed that way to me for so long, and so it was hard to relate to her because I thought her leaving was a tad over the top, and she had no good reason. I think if there's one thing I didn't enjoy about Meena's story was how much the author withheld from us. Too much to the point that I just couldn't cheer for Meena. Like there was a bit where she intentionally tossed the equipment that filtered the water to make it drinkable, something she desperately needed on a trip from India to Africa on foot! Delusional or not, it just didn't seem like something Meena would do. However, she would sometimes redeem herself with her cunning nature.

Now for the fun part, Mariama. I loved her whole story. In fact, I often wanted to skip Meena's aka Durga's chapters just to get to her story. Unlike Meena who's a wealthy twenty something-year-old, Mariama was a slave little girl. Her mother was abused and raped and tells the little girl to run off and be free. To find someone who can take care of her. This is how this little girl's journey started. She does find two men who are on the road doing a delivery that will take them about six months--give or take. Mohammed and Francis. I liked these two. I liked that they were good to her. Mohammed was a tad more wary and Francis was a loveable character, probably my favorite of the side characters.

Another person that eventually joins the three of them is Yemaha. Little Mariama becomes obsessed with this lady named after a goddess, and Yemaha is kind to her. Teaches her a language, as does Francis, and sleeps beside her at nights. Mariama takes to her very strongly to the point that her entire pov is dedicated to her. She doesn't address the reader. She addresses Yemaha. It took me a while to get used to that, but once I did I found it interesting. A lot of adventures happen on their journey and the sights are beautifully described. Either the author did a lot of research--which she did. Or she visited some of these sights--which she also did. It was a learning experience for me and I loved the richness, the nuances, learning about other cultures. Even if the story does take place in the far future.

Overall, the two tales come together and a lot is revealed at the end. I do believe that my connection with Meena would have been stronger if I had known a lot of her issues a lot sooner. For Mariama I felt like I was given a very straight forward story and even though there were twist and bends and her ending was indeed surprising, I can't say the same for Meena. Mariama was more chaotic and wanted more out of life. Meena just wanted to find the person who killed her parents, an odd motivation since she'd never in her life really cared about it up until that point. Sure, she missed having parents, but nothing warranting a long trip. Again, there was more to it, but I didn't know at the time so I couldn't connect. By the time we are told all the truth, my attention had already shifted to Mariama and stayed with her. Even when I knew how Mariama's story was going to end, I still wanted to see how she would end up doing what we were hinted at throughout the novel. I cared to see. I cared about the character.

There were so many layers to this novel, and you have to pay attention to everything because if you miss something, you really missed something. I enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed the world and the tools in it. The diversity. The places explored. I enjoyed it. Good stuff.