unevenly paced

Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: speculative fiction

Review: Here's the thing: The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper is the absolute gold standard for books about all-female societies.  Dalcher's latest has something to add to the genre, but frankly I'm not sure that a book will ever be written that measures up.

One issue that seems to always crop up in books of this type is the somewhat obvious: "What do we do with the men?" and its corollary: "How do we procreate?"  It is this question that frequently drives the narrative tension in the book, as the main character first uncovers the big secret and then wrestles with her own morality over what to do about it.

Femlandia follows in this mold, although Dalcher throws in a few twists of her own, making this a novel both about female-only societies and one about cults.  Miranda Reynolds, like Dr. Jean McLelland of Dalcher's debut novel, Vox, is a woman who takes immediate (and possibly reckless) action as soon as she's decided which is the right path.  This rush to action creates an unevenly paced narrative, as things move along at a nice dramtic pace for the first 3/4 of the book, and then the action in the last quarter plummets off a cliff.  Although I give Dalcher a lot of credit for pulling up the reins for a well-done epilogue.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

don't let it fester

The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water by Erin Bartels

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: Kendra has written a very popular semi-autobiographical novel.  Unfortunately, it's not nearly "semi" enough for at least two people: Tyler, the antogonist of the story behind the novel, and a Very Disappointed Reader who writes Kendra a letter calling her out for not being fair in her retelling of the past.  The letter sends Kendra back to her grandfather's house on the lake, the scene of the crime, to see if she can overcome the writer's block the letter had engendered.

This is a book that can't decide what it's about.  Is it about Kendra's attempt to find out who wrote the letter, and why?  Is it about her attempt to come to terms with Tyler?  Or is it about what happens between her and the her German translator who unexpectedly (and implausibly) shows up at her cabin to complete the translation work?  Or about what happened to Cami, Tyler's sister and Kendra's childhood best friend, after their last summer on the lake together?  Or about what happened to the families on the lake before Kendra was born?

The book tries to be about all of these things, and Bartels does manage to answer all the questions and tie up all the loose threads by the end.  The result is more than readable, if not terribly satisfying, and, one hopes, cathartic for Bartels.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.