The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

October 22, 2024

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

The mighty red is many things: the river, the local high school football team, history, sugar beets. Crystal works as a trucker, hauling sugar beets from farms to the local processing plant. She named her daughter Kismet, hoping for a better future for her. At least two boys are in love with her, Hugo and Gary, and want to marry her. Kismet, meanwhile, has plans to go to college instead. 

I have an on and off relationship with Erdrich’s writing. I have loved some of her books and a few I really disliked. This one is somewhere in the middle. The first half of the book was really slow - the second half was better. There are many themes:  guilt, shame, resentment, destruction of the land through farming and mining, parental relationships, crimes and passion. I know a lot more now about sugar beet farming than I did a few days ago. Not her best effort. Fans of Erdrich’s writing will still want to read it.

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

A sugar beet, one of the villains of the story

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

October 27, 2021

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

El, the potential dark sorceress from Novik's previous book A Deadly Education, is now in her last year at the Scholomance, the school for magically gifted children. She and her friends have managed to stay alive for all four years, despite a variety of monsters and what appears to be the school's determination to kill them. But graduation is the most dangerous time, with only 10% of the students making it out alive, and those students are usually from the large wealthy enclaves who have the resources to assist them. El and Orion Lake (her sort-of boyfriend) are determined to improve the odds for their classmates, while also protecting the under-classmen at the same time.

This is the second book in the Scholomance series. At times, it's difficult to figure out exactly what is happening and what kind of monsters are attacking them. But it's still a fun and creative read and I'm looking forward to the next book.

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.