9 Heart Review: Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

Sorry for the late review but it's finally up!!!

Mind of Winter
Laura Kasischke

Page Count: 276
Release Date: March 25th 2014
Publisher: Harper (Harper Collins)
Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher via tour publicist in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you, Harper Collins and TLC!)
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Something had followed them from Russia.

On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens, the fragments of a nightmare—something so important that she must write it down—floating on the edge of her consciousness.

Something had followed them from Russia!

It was thirteen years ago that she and her husband, Eric, went to Siberia to adopt the sweet, dark-haired child they had wanted so desperately. How they laughed at the nurses of Pokrovka Orphanage #2 with their garlic and superstitions, and ignored their insistent warnings. After all, their fairy princess Tatiana—Baby Tatty—was perfect.

As the snow falls, enveloping the world in its white silence, Holly senses that something is not right, and has never been right in the years since they brought their daughter home. Now Tatty is a dangerously beautiful, petulant, and often erratic teenager, and Holly feels there is something evil lurking within their house.

She and Tatiana are alone. Eric is stuck on the roads, and none of the other guests for Christmas dinner will be able to make it through the snow. With each passing hour, the blizzard rages and Tatiana's mood darkens, her behavior becoming increasingly disturbing... until, in every mother's worst nightmare, Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.

Buy the book from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Books-A-Million | iTunes | Kobo | Publisher

Review

They never speculated whether Tatiana might have inherited her love of horses from some Mongol ancestor or whether her lovely singing voice had been passed down from a gypsy grandmother. Neither of them speculated as to whether there might be manic depression tucked away in those genes, as there was in Holly's, or heart disease, cancer, anything. Their daughter had come to them without legacy. She was so beautiful and perfect she did not need one.

On Christmas morning, Holly Judge comes to with a startling message from a foggy dream she's just awaken from: something had followed them home from Russia.

Something had followed them home from Russia! These words, in the context of her daughter, Tatiana's adoption from Pokrovka Orphanage #2 in Siberia 13 years ago, should send chills up your spine. As Holly deals with the domestic mishaps of stressful Christmas dinner preparations, readers tap into the reflective, wistful dusty corners of Holly's mind. Her thoughts drift from her troubled childhood, to her hardest battles, to Baby Tatty's excruciating but worthwhile adoption, to Tatiana's adolescence; these flashbacks are what make up the secure, nostalgic portion of the book.

In the present, however, Holly must face something far more frightening than her personal tragedies and memories: her daughter. The frustration of motherhood is really well captured through Holly's third person narrative. She's excessively sensitive—paranoid, easily startled, a bit overbearing—but her egocentric way of thought is forgiven solely because of how relatable she is, how easy to sympathize with.

Tatiana and Holly's relationship is slightly morbid, a bit eerie to begin with. There's something lurkingly alarming about Holly being trapped inside the house in a snowstorm with a daughter that isn't acting like herself anymore, and although their interactions only occur within a span of eight hours (or so), they take up the entire novel, which should be an indication of just how scrutinizingly—just how comprehensively—Holly's life story unravels.

No matter how much you reflect, the past will always catch up with you, Holly realizes when her reminiscences culminate with a jarring, unexpected revelation that tilts her perspective, sense, and reality a several degrees. The ending of the book—which I won't give away—will make your mind reel and have you rethinking the virtues of destiny, sanity, and delusion of perfection.

Laura Kasischke is a clear poet, with smooth and imaginative style that sets a perfectly chilling and increasingly distressing mood. I noticed a lot of readers on Goodreads complaining about the repetition of certain lines and the exaggerated alarm with which Holly perceives the world, but—hello?—that's the entire POINT of her writing style! Kasischke's merit isn't quite literary, but it's sensuous, it's poetic, and it needs to be read like a movie script would: dramatically, frenetically.

I know the cover is really creepy, and while I can definitely vouch for a disturbing quality to this novel, I also have to say it isn't all blood and guts and gore; I wouldn't call this a horror novel, exactly. It's more about horror of the mind; Mind of Winter is a shadowy psychological thriller that won't only have your heart leaping up in your chest, but will also make you consider the limitations of a solitary perspective, and what it means to truly understand a story.

Pros

Completely absorbing... it was hard for me to stop reading! // Mind-blowing turn of events // Structurally and stylistically bizarre, but that much more impressive // Nothing violent or explicit, but as a trigger warning, there is definitely some emotionally disturbing content // Poetic, repetitive flow to Kasischke's voice // Vivid, detailed style // Introspective // Presents accurate remarks about the joys and dangers of what's inside of us // One of those books that will make you double-take and think hard

Cons

No chapters or clear structure to the book, which I understand is intentional, but it made it hard to find stopping points while reading (not that I wanted to stop reading) // Creeped out the living sh!t out of me (which is actually pretty cool, now that I think about it)

Love

"It isn't repression to acknowledge the horrors of this world and let them go. It's freedom."

Verdict

Tranquilly dark, hauntingly portrayed, and ultimately, completely mind-bending, Laura Kasischke's latest novel is a hair-raising glimpse at not only a repressive household's mother-daughter relationship, but also into the scariest place possible: the human mind. While not explicit or particularly horrific, Mind of Winter has some disturbing content that keeps me from recommending it to the average Jane. However, if, like me, you can stomach that kind of psychological manipulation from the author, and if you're a fan of unreliable narrators, macabre portraits of repression and denial, and characters that come with no baggage or legacy, then this is your next must-read. Buy yourself a copy now 

9 hearts: Loved it! This book has a spot on my favorites shelf (x)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: The Angry Woman Suite by Lee Fullbright

The Angry Woman Suite
Lee Fullbright

Release Date: March 10th, 2012

Publisher: Telemachus Press 

Page Count: 366

Source: Complimentary copy provided by publicist, Little Bird Publicity, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!)

When overbearing former big band star Francis Grayson mentions the "murdering bitches" who supposedly ruined his life, his resentful stepdaughter Elyse — always on the lookout for simple dirt on Francis — takes note. Intertwining narrative with Francis, Elyse stumbles across glimmers of big murder instead of simple dirt, while Francis moves perspective of his "bitches" back to the 1930's, to his childhood in Pennsylvania. His coming-of-age story centers on a mysterious painting and search for the artist who he believes can fix his feuding family. Aiding him in his quest is his mother's lover, Aidan Madsen, who not only mentors Francis' music career, but knows everything about two murders implicating the women in Francis's family. The three narrators of The Angry Woman Suite — Elyse, Francis, and Aidan — weave together a picture of two disturbed families who meet their match in the young, determined-to-survive Elyse Grayson, and human-to-a-fault hero, Aidan Madsen.

What Stephanie Thinks: They say there are multiple sides to every story, but what do you do when you hear all of them at once? How do you know which one to believe?

The Angry Woman Suite introduces us to our three tragic heros: Elyse, a young girl who's always just wanted to know to love and be loved; Francis, her stepfather, who's always been too good, too good for even himself; and Aidan, confidante to both Elyse and Francis, the epitome of both wisdom and weakness. Readers are exposed to Elyse's terrifying and beseeching childhood, and the even-more disturbing upbringing of Francis, which allows us to understand how he has turned out the way he is, and just how that might affect his future. The different perspectives are fascinating to stick with and attempt to unravel. What makes this book stand out the most is that we don't only have an unreliable narrator; we've got three. 

Elyse's story is the most believable just because her voice is so fresh, so wholesome, and it revolves around the confusion and uncertainty — and horror — she's felt ever since Francis came into her life. Francis's is even rawer and even more shocking, but it seems to be influenced greatly by his histrionics, which is plausible given how he is portrayed by both Elyse and Aidan. Aidan's is rather mellow, at least at first, but it ends up being the most deceitful, the most revealing, of all. He's such a sage, experienced character... or so we think. It was interesting to watch each character develop as time passed and memories faded.

Oftentimes I found the story's progression confusing because of the different situations and time periods of each narrator. Dates are included at the beginning of each chapter, but it still is hard to untangle the three separate storylines from each other. Too many characters are introduced in the beginning at once, which also contributes to the cloudiness of the plot initially. However, where The Angry Woman Suite is nebulous in structure, it is equally excellent in style. Fullbright has a tender, glimmering voice who knows how to portray each narrator differently, but still very vividly. I found myself being able to relate to each of the main characters, sympathizing with one, then contradicting myself by feeling for another.

A warning would be the book's heavy themes of child abuse. I personally found it tough reading through the more difficult scenes, but the topic is one I am intrigued by in fiction, and therefore could really appreciate. It may make some queasy.

The Angry Woman Suite would probably classify as a mystery, one that involves clandestine family histories, twisted relationships, pretense, ill timing, and a certain ironic sense of tragedy. The constantly swirling questions definitely made this one hard to put down, but at the same time, I was a bit turned off by the length (it dragged on at times) and the disorganized compilation. The characters however, are so real, so crude, that they, as well as their deepest of secrets and greatest of fears, will definitely resonate with readers who give them a try.

Stephanie Loves: "'They need to be exercised, hearts do ... to keep them strong.'"

Radical Rating: 8 hearts: An engaging read; highly recommended. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥