Dust Child by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

June 11, 2025

Dust Child by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Forty years after the Viet Nam war ended, the country is still feeling the after-effects of a senseless war. The story follows three characters: Dan, an American veteran suffering from PTSD who fathered a child with a Vietnamese bar girl, and returns to Vietnam about 40 years later with his wife to try to find the woman and their child; two Vietnamese sisters, Trang and Quynh, who became bar girls during the war to support their family; and Phong, a mixed race man who is a “dust child” fathered by a Black GI, who desperately wants to find his father so he can move his family to the United States. 

A look at the aftermath of the Viet Nam war from a different perspective, that of those left behind to deal with the consequences, told from three different POVs. The Viet Nam war is the background here. A dust child is a mixed race child, the illegitimate child of a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier. Thousands of American GIs left behind these dust children, who were often discriminated against and denied basic human rights. Many of these children were abandoned or given away by their mothers, who feared retaliation from the Viet Cong for associating with American soldiers (which thankfully did not happen). While the children of white GIs suffered, children of Black GIs were treated far worse. I found the character of Dan, the American veteran, to be the least appealing. Themes and triggers include PTSD, exploitation of women, sexual abuse, poverty, and racial discrimination. Recommended for readers who want an alternate perspective on a controversial war.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in the 21st century

Northwoods by Amy Pease

October 7, 2023

Northwoods by Amy Pease

After serving in Afghanistan, Eli Woods suffers from PTSD and self-medicates with large amounts of alcohol. He has a job as a sheriff's deputy only because his mother is the town sheriff. When a teenaged boy is found dead and his friend is missing, Eli partners with an FBI agent and joins the search. But the more answers he gets, the more tangled the mystery becomes.

The whole story here swirls around addiction. Although this is a decent mystery, the author tried to cover too many big topics: PTSD, alcoholism, addiction, the opioid crisis, big pharma, white collar crime, family relationships. The narrative would have benefited from less description involving extraneous characters (is it really important that the wife of the guy who owns the fishing camp wears a ton of make-up and has her boobs practically hanging out of her top?). 

Set in the North Woods of Wisconsin, this really could have been set in any small vacation town. I know this area - we vacationed there several times when I was a kid, and later with my husband. "Resort" is something of a misnomer - the term resort makes me think of luxury linens, spa facilities, golf, and fine dining. The resorts in the North Woods are more like fishing camps. Nothing bad about that, we loved them as kids. I've never seen a country club in this area like the one described in the book, but I do know the gangster John Dillinger had a hideaway in Wisconsin called the Little Bohemia Lodge (it's still there today).

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

North Woods fishing camp

The Instructor by T. R. Hendricks

March 10, 2023

The Instructor by T. R. Hendricks

Derek Harrington, a retired Marine who teaches survival skills, is hired by a fringe survivalist group to teach advanced military tactics in a remote wilderness area. The group's leader has promised to pay him $20,000 for four weeks' work, which will go a long way toward Derek's delinquent child support payments as well as the care home for his invalid father. It sounds too good to be true but he takes the job anyway. He warns a friend in the FBI of his suspicions about the group, agreeing to update the FBI weekly. As Derek teaches extreme boot camp tactics, he gradually realizes that the group leader's influence extends a lot farther than just living off the grid and staying under the government's radar.

I'm not big on spy/covert ops books (too much fighting, shooting, beating, screaming, killing, and rather complicated plots), so this one wasn't for me. Anytime people deliberately go off the grid, you know it's not going to end well. And yet people continue to do it. First book in a planned series. Fans of Jack Reacher as well as readers who enjoy spy books and plots against the government should enjoy this thriller.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

February 20, 2020

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Vanessa is a bright student who is seduced by her English teacher at a prestigious Maine boarding school.  Even while she was attending the school, rumors flew around about her and the teacher.  Many years later, a current student who has accused the teacher of misconduct contacts Vanessa, asking for her support.  The story line moves back and forth from the time Vanessa is a high school student to Vanessa at age 32, working a dead-end job as a concierge at a high-end hotel, still dealing with the fallout her experiences with the teacher as she comes to realize that it wasn’t a love story, it was exploitation.

This book made me furious.  Yet it is an important topic that needs to come out of hiding.

The teacher (Strane) made my skin crawl, he was such a slimy jerk who manipulated children, referring to it as "grooming."  He is so creepy that I had to skim over a number of the sections where he featured prominently.  Strane gives Vanessa a copy of Lolita to read – by this point, Vanessa is so under his spell that she sees it as a tragic love story, not as the story of a morally bereft pedophile who is sexually obsessed with a child.  Strane has so much control over her that she lies and takes the blame so that he can keep his job.  It takes Vanessa over 15 years to accept that the experiences traumatized her.

This is definitely not going to be for everyone, since there are repeated graphic scenes of statutory rape of an underage child.  While it is well-written and there are many cultural and literary allusions, it is also quite disturbing, and I sort of wish I could un-read it.  Vanessa and Strane debate about whether all girls mature at the same rate, and can a 15 year old be mature enough to have a sexual relationship with a 42 year old man – the answer is no, when you're a teenager, it’s the hormones talking – 15 year olds are NOT mentally mature enough to make that kind of a decision.  I'm pretty sure most 15 year olds (girls and boys) are infatuated with at least one teacher at some point.  I know I was, and it would have been devastating to have been abused that way by a teacher that I adored.

It’s been all over the news this week that the Boy Scouts of America organization has declared bankruptcy in order to protect its assets from the growing number of sexual abuse charges that have been filed against the organization (the cases number in the thousands).  What is wrong with so many men????  They can’t keep their hands off boys, they can’t keep their hands off teen-aged girls, they don’t understand the word “no” when it comes to adult women.

Despite accusations of plagiarism from another author (Wendy C. Ortiz wrote a memoir called Excavation was published several years ago and covers the same story), My Dark Vanessa is already hitting a lot of lists as a best book of 2020.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.