Module 5: Thriller: The Woman in Cabin 10

Photo taken by me.

Ware, R. (2016). The woman in cabin 10. New York City: Scout Press. 978-1-5011-3293-3. 

Summary:

Thirty-two year old Lauren--Lo--Blacklock is a travel journalist living in London. The Woman in Cabin 10 starts with Lo’s flat be burgled while she is sleeping. She surprises the burglar, and he slams her bedroom door in her face, locking her in. After jimmying the door open several hours later, she gets help at her neighbor’s. But she is well and truly shaken by the experience, which is compounded by her anxiety, for which she takes medication. Despite an attentive and sympathetic boyfriend, she doesn’t really get the chance to recover because she is swept up in a last-minute work assignment: cover the maiden voyage of the luxury cruise/yacht Aurora Borealis with approximately twelve other guests and the owner of the yacht, Lord Richard Bullmer and his wife Anne. In her haste post-burglary, Lo had forgotten to pack her mascara, so she goes next door to cabin number 10 to borrow some, where she is loaned a green-and-pink tube from a young, brunette woman wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt. The yacht is luxury to the maximum, and the food and drinks are worthy of royalty. Her first night on the Aurora Borealis, Lo is awoken from a alcohol-induced sleep by a scream and loud splash. She rushes onto her room’s balcony and sees a smear of blood on the sliding glass door of the cabin--number 10--next to hers. Despite calling the stewardess, speaking with the head of security, and interviewing the crew and other passengers, the Pink Floyd-wearing young woman is nowhere to be found. There’s no record of her and no one knows who she is. Did Lo imagine her in her heightened anxiety? Was the scream and the splash a product of her alcohol-sodden mind? Is Lo just a paranoid woman? These are all doubts that compound on Lo from her fellow passengers, the security head, and her own mind. I don’t want to give away the ending, but Ware keeps readers turning page after page well past their bedtimes with twists, messages written on mirrors, a surprise kidnapping, and identity switches!

As a Genre Example:

The audience’s adrenaline is definitely pumping while reading The Woman in Cabin 10! Just as Lo is unsure of whom she can trust, so is the reader left in suspense thanks to Lo’s first person narration. While there aren’t really the profession details as heavily mentioned in the textbook, there are still details about the yacht, about the individuals, and about the crimes Lo witnesses. Additionally, The Woman in Cabin 10 has a breakneck speed. I stayed up way past my bedtime because I wanted to find out the answers that Lo was searching for! As for the characters, there are some major twists (another pointer of identification as a Thriller according to the textbook), and our protagonist prevails after a lot of uncertainty and author-produced misdirection. Additionally, there is an underdog character who also “wins”, though that victory isn’t revealed until the very last page.

According to the Module notes, The Woman in Cabin 10’s categorization as a Thriller is less obvious. The module notes make the distinction of a Thriller as a book where the danger is to a society/culture/country or group at large vs. a Mystery as a book where the danger is to a single person or their immediate group/family/friends. However, due to the fact that there are so many unanswered questions (Whose body was dumped over the side of the boat? Why were they killed? Are the rest of us in danger?) in The Woman in Cabin 10, the line is severely blurred when, in the end, the danger was only to Anne, Carrie, and Lo.

Like our classmates in the first discussion post of the module, I questioned how The Woman in Cabin 10 should be categorized: Suspense or Thriller? In the end, it is probably more so a Suspense with Thriller characteristics than a Thriller with Suspense characteristics. However, the distinction isn’t the important aspect of reader’s advisory. The important aspect is helping the reader find a book that they will enjoy. And if they like edge-of-your-seat, solving-a-puzzle, who-can-the-protagonist-trust, and a fast pace, then The Woman in Cabin 10 will meet their needs.

Evaluation:

I really enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10. I’ve been in a bit of a book slump since the new year, so it was really nice to be so absorbed in a book. I wasn’t annoyed by any aspect of it. Some readers might not like the constant self-doubt that Lo has running through her mind--and thus the narration--but I also am plagued by generalized anxiety disorder, so I appreciated the realistic and authentic portrayal, especially in regards to how the others doubt her because of her anxiety and how she still endeavors to fight those trying to stop her from investigating. I would recommend The Woman in Cabin 10 to others, for sure! In fact, I posted a picture on my Instagram of the cover, and a friend commented saying that it was on her to-be-read list and wanted to know if I would recommend it to her. But, I would also recommend it to patrons in reader’s advisory: it is suspenseful, a page-turner, and makes the reader think.

Reader's Advisory:

I think readers of other genres would like The Woman in Cabin 10, namely fans of Mystery and Literary Fiction. There is definitely a puzzle to solve: who is the woman Lo briefly met in cabin 10? Is she dead? Is anyone dead? Is Lo unstable? Who is trying to warn her? Readers of Literary Fiction tend to read widely, and those who don’t mind a darker tone would probably also enjoy this book because of its contemporary setting and realistic style.

The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie

The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie is likened to Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. I haven’t read Goobie’s, but I added it to my TBR list as soon as I saw this review from Booklist. For those of you who teach Speak or include it in a Lit Circle, you may want to check out The Pain Eater!

Here’s the review from Booklist: https://www.booklistonline.com/The-Pain-Eater-Beth-Goobie/pid=8611771

For Fans of Ruta Sepetys!

Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden (YA fiction) is lauded as a good match for fans of Ruta Sepetys! Here’s GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31451001-crossing-ebenezer-creek?from_search=true It’s out on May 30^th—add it to your TBR lists!

Module 3: Inspirational Fiction: I Heard the Owl Call My Name

Photo taken by me.

Craven, M. (1967, 1980). I heard the owl call my name. New York City, NY: Laurel. 0-440-34369-0. 

Summary

Anglican (Episcopalian in United States) Vicar Mark Brian is sent to the Kwakiutl First Nations tribe of Kingcome in British Columbia, Canada. His bishop purposely sends him to the remote and “hardest” (Craven, 1980, p. 9) parish because Mark is dying-- although Mark is unaware of how soon his short life will end. After a harder-than-should-be-in-the-1960’s journey up the fjord to Kingcome, Mark arrives. Mark’s first view of his new environment includes the rock slide that happened many, many years ago on the side of the mountain Whoop-Szo. This barrenness wells within Mark as he thinks to himself: “‘If man were to vanish from this planet tomorrow, here he would leave no trace that he ever was’” (Craven, 1980, p.17). At the village, Mark is welcomed by a dilapidated vicarage, an uninsulated church building, no electricity, an outhouse, and a professional wailer mourning the accidental death of a young boy. He doesn’t verbally question anything, but pulls on his cassock, helps with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police paperwork, and performs the burial rite. Thus begins Mark’s two-year tenure and the tone he sets for his time as pastoral carer for his parish. Not a lot of happiness occurs throughout I Heard the Owl Call My Name; indeed, much of it is death-oriented, but since Mark is dying, it is relevant to the lessons that the bishop knew Mark needed to learn as a young man living his last years.

Yet this story is not post-colonial, despite the archetypal white-man-goes-among-Natives-for-Christianity plot. Indeed, it’s almost the opposite: Mark takes his time and doesn’t force anything on the villagers; he listens to their stories, their mythologies, their customs, and learns their culture until they come to him; he learns how not only do people die, but so do cultures, and the Kwakiutl culture is dying because that way of life isn’t really possible as the white man’s culture creeps closer with formal and structured education, alcohol, and bureaucracy. And they accept him, they love him, they recognize that he is dying --that the owl is calling his name-- just as their way of life is being called by the owl. In the end, it is not Mark’s illness that kills him, but a rock slide accident, which is a poignant end for Mark based on his first thought upon seeing Whoop-Szo. Indeed, Mark leaves no trace that he was ever in Kingcome, except on the hearts of the villagers who loved him like one of their own.

As a Genre Example:

Within the subgenres Mort identifies, I Heard the Owl Call My Name falls within the Literary Christian Fiction one because it is more thought-provoking than Evangelical Christian Fic is described to be. Through Mark’s journey, the reader learns how to build a relationship with a community that is different from you: by listening, by not questioning differences, by accepting them unabashedly, and joining them when available. That type of Christianity is very different from the fire and brimstone of the Left Behind series.

Evaluation:

I enjoyed I Heard the Owl Call My Name. My mom recommended I read it several years ago when I was still living in Washington, and I’m glad I remembered her recommendation when I was looking for books this week. Because it is more literary than typical Christian Fiction, it is not for everyone, but as an English major, I enjoyed the opportunity to identify symbolism and thought-provoking themes that are spiritual and secular. As such, I would recommend it to readers who prefer Anne Lamott over the Evangelical Christian Fiction by Karen Kingsbury and Tracie Peterson. None of the characters annoyed me; Margaret Craven is very succinct in her characterizations and narration, but that verbosity isn’t required since the content, symbolism, and themes are so deep.

Reader's Advisory:

I Heard the Owl Call My Name, like I mentioned above, is more literary fiction than Evangelical Fiction, so fans of realistic and/or multicultural literature would enjoy it. The story takes place in the past (1960’s isn’t so far in the past), so some fans of Historical Fiction would like it, especially if they like the Native American setting/characters.

Module 2: Western: Lakota

Wisler, G. C. (1989/2014). Lakota. Lanham, MD: M. Evans. 978-1-59077-263-8. 

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Summary:

Lakota is the life story of Mastincala (Rabbit), a member of the Sicangu Lakota (Teton Sioux). As a boy, Mastincala’s father is killed in a fight with the wasicun (white soldiers), so he grows up with his uncle Hinhan Hota (Gray Owl) teaching him the ways of the Lakota: how to find the Tatanka (buffalo) and kill them, use every bit of them, how to scout, how to steal ponies from the Crow tribe, how to be a warrior, how to travel across the plains and Big Horn Mountains as the year progresses, how to commune with Wakan Tanka (the Great Mystery), and so on. Other important people in Mastincala’s life are Louis De Doux, his ¾ white and ¼ Native American friend who becomes a brother-friend (kola) and is named Hinkpila (Short Hair), and He Hopa (Four Horns), the community’s medicine man who teaches Mastincala about curing medicines and chants.

Lakota follows Mastincala as he becomes a man and is re-named Tacante (Buffalo Heart, the Heart of the People), the name Mastincala’s father had. Tacante and his friends --including Sunkawakan Witkotkoke (Crazy Horse)-- participate in skirmishes with various wasicun troops from Little Big Horn in Montana/Wyoming to the Black Hills in South Dakota to Custer’s Last Stand. Sometimes the wasicuns were victorious and, at other battles, the Lakota were the winners. But life was difficult: in treaties, the white men promised to leave a certain land to the Native Americans, but would then allow pioneers, wagon trains, soldiers, forts, and/or gold rushers to infiltrate. This angered the Lakota and other Native Americans. All of these Euro-Americans chased away the buffalo and game, starving the Indians and their children-- include Tacante’s own wife and three small sons.

The winter after Custer’s Last Stand, during which Tacante lost his fifth and final kola, was especially hard. Few groupings of Lakota had not submitted to agency (reservation) life. Hinkpila convinces Tacante to surrender for his sons’ sakes. Tacante, Crazy Horse, and the remaining warriors submit to peace, but the way of life that their ancestors had practiced for generations was dead, even if their bodies were not.

As a Genre Example:

Lakota is not the typical Western: there are no cowboys, cattle drives, nostalgia for the Old West, or a mythic hero. Nor is there the lyrical waxing of the landscape. Instead, Lakota falls into the subgenre Western with Native American point of view according to the Saricks text or the Custer’s Last Stand subgenre according to the Module notes. It is set in the years after the Civil War, and the Lakota do try to overcome the wiscun and wagon trains with strategy before violence (they often liked to make the pioneers from wagon trains strip, burn their wagons and pilfer their supplies and make them return to the nearest fort with nothing). The resolution is not as “riding-off-into-the-sunset” because it can’t be. Obviously, the Native Americans do not win and are forced onto reservations where they are stripped of their stories, history, culture, and identities. But, Mastincala/Tacante does live until the end of the story, as do his wife and three sons, so it’s not a completely unhappy ending.

Evaluation:

I did not like Lakota. It was very boring, and I did a countdown the last 80 pages. Because Lakota is told in third person, there is very little emotional connection to Mastincala/Tacante or the Lakota people in general. I felt sorry for them when they talk of how the wagon trains are scaring off all of their food supplies, but the gnawing of hunger as emptiness rattles through a grown man’s stomach and the fierceness of the Dakota winter wind that rips through parkas as easily as buffalo hides is absent. Wisler does a lot of telling instead of showing (except for the graphic description of what happens at a sun dance; I could have done without knowing that!). I was also annoyed by the lack of a map and glossary. I understand that Lakota is not a textbook, but I kept going to Google to see exactly where the Big Horn Mountains, Fort Laramie, etc. are located. And there are lots of Lakota terms, which is great ethos to the story, but I didn’t understand them, so, again, to Google I went. Either Wisler needed to build in better denotations in his text or include a glossary at the end that I could easily flip to to better understand important concepts that were thrown about with such casualness as “making straight A’s” or “trending on Twitter” are used in 21^st vernacular. Mastincala/Tacante is rarely vulnerable and there is very little dynamic growth. The few sentences or paragraphs that attempt to be emotive are lacking in getting to the heart-rending pain and despair that happens when a little brother or kola is killed or the protectiveness and tender affection that swells in a new father’s chest when a baby is first held against one’s thumping heart. From the “fly on the wall” point of view that Wisler installs, the Lakota as humans, as people, as individuals is not well established; instead they are two-dimensional, little better than caricatures--which, based on Wisler’s dedication “In grateful appreciation, Lakota is dedicated to Victor, Lionel, and my other friends at Sinte Gleska College and among the Sicangu Lakota people” was not his aim. Because of the slow pacing and lack of emotive connection to the characters and story as a whole, I would not recommend Lakota to readers.

Reader's Advisory:

I chose Lakota because I have family members who are Sioux (my grandparents adopted a brother and sister who are Sioux back in the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s), and I am always intrigued to learn more about where they come from. Additionally, I’m fairly familiar with South Dakota since that is where my grandparents live, so I figured I would know some of the towns/landmarks described. Bearing this in mind, Lakota could be enjoyed by a reader who is really curious about the history of the Lakota --because of family connections, visiting Crazy Horse and the Black Hills or the Big Horn Mountains, etc. As such, readers looking for information on the Sioux and who like Travel or History books might enjoy Lakota.

Module 1: Mystery: Malice at the Palace

Bowen, R. (2015). Malice at the palace: A royal spyness mystery. New York City, NY: Berkley Prime Crime. 978-0-425-26038-8.

Summary:

Photo taken by me.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch (Georgie) has returned to London in Malice at the Palace, the ninth in the Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen. At tea with her semi-distant relative Queen Mary, Georgie is asked to escort Princess Marina --Prince George’s wife-to-be-- around London and to make sure she doesn’t learn of Prince George’s playboy relationships. Georgie consents and moves into Kensington Palace, where, several nights later, she stumbles across the dead body of Bobo Carrington, a woman-about-town and one of Prince George’s former flames. Who killed Bobo? Why did they kill her? And why did they leave her body in the courtyard of Kensington Palace? Detective Chief Inspector Pelham and Sir Jeremy ask Georgie to discreetly look into the crime so that the matter can stay out of the press and Prince George’s nuptials can continue without scandal. After some ingenious sleuthing, some subtle questioning, some rather innocent breaking-and-entering, a dinner with matronly great-aunts, a few outings to keen nightclubs and soirees, some clumsy accidents, some protective ghosts, and some kissing with dreamy Darcy O’Mara, Georgie discovers that Bobo Carrington’s real name is Kathleen Boyle, formerly of Ireland. That previous summer, she had had a baby with an unknown father. Despite the absence of family money and a sugar daddy, Bobo was incredibly rich because she learned the secrets of rich and important men, whom she then blackmailed to keep their secrets safe. One of these men was Major Gerald Beauchamp-Chough, the man-in-charge at Kensington Palace. His secret: he’s homosexual. Why he doesn’t want his secret getting out: he’s up for a promotion to colonel. Why he kills Bobo: he doesn’t want his secret getting out and he can’t pay her bribe because his army salary is measly.

As a Genre Example:

As explained in both the ALA textbook and the module notes, Malice at the Palace is a Mystery in the Amateur Detective sub-genre and Cozy sub-sub-genre. The case is a puzzle for Georgie to solve. Georgie doesn’t have any formal detective training, but her grandfather was on the police force and her boyfriend is in the secret services department. Georgie investigates parallel to the police’s investigation because she can be more discreet in her questioning. The body is found, but it is killed offstage, and there is no blood in the entire book. Georgie is a female protagonist, who is quite quirky, as is her maid Queenie. There isn’t really a sense of community, although different characters belong to different communities: the royals and their sense of duty (minus David, Prince of Wales), the up-and-coming artiste types who like bacchanalian parties and sex, and the poor aristocracy who have titles and big manors but little to no money. Georgie is able to move amongst all three communities with little-to-no-problems, which also makes her a helpful sleuth for the police who often ask for her help in solving cases.

Evaluation:

I give Malice at the Palace 3/5 stars: it was good enough, but not captivating to my reading interests. I loved all the 1930’s slang: “Bob’s your uncle” and “ducks” as a commoner’s term of endearment. These little diction tidbits add so much authenticity to a story. I also appreciated Bowen’s historical note at the end. After reading a historical fiction novel, I want to know what’s true and what’s fiction. Bowen’s short note cleared it up in a very succinct manner. I didn’t like how the ghosts save Georgie from Major B-C. It just seemed too convenient, and I had to stop rolling my eyes to focus on the words to finish the story. Georgie was an okay protagonist. Everything is a little too neat: she’s the only of her friends who doesn’t have sex before marriage, she and her maid Queenie are clumsy, she just happens to stumble across helpful clues, etc. For RA purposes, of course, I understand that this “neatness” is all just part of the cozy mystery suspension of disbelief. As such, I would recommend the Royal Spyness series to readers who want a jaunty, easy read-- those who don’t read too much into helpful coincidences that help the story end with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Reader's Advisory:

Because the Royal Spyness series takes place in 1930’s UK, some fans of Historical Fiction will like the series. It may seem like these books would fit in with fans of Gentle Reads, but our textbook defines gentle reads as those that don’t include profanity or explicit sex or violence and adhere to conventional values and happy endings (Saricks, 2009, location 2487). Because Malice at the Palace includes references to drugs, parties, sex-before-marriage, abortion, and blackmail, it would not be the best fit for Gentle Reads fans.