I struggle to find the words to describe this book for me. It centres around two characters: Patricia and Laurence. Patricia is a witch who can cast spells, heal people, fly, and talk with animals. Laurence is a tech geek who can build incredibly complex machines and AI. The two should have absolutely nothing in common but they find each other as outcasts in school. When Laurence learns of Patricia's skills, they drift apart but reconnect as adults. Meanwhile, the world around them is turning to shit and it could be on them to fix it.
In a book of science fiction and fantasy, I expect some realism to ground the story but there were things that just didn't make sense. For example, in school, Patricia is made to look like she is cursing and throwing a dead animal at the guidance councilor. She runs away from the school and the entire town groups up to find her. Excuse me? Why does a town care enough about a school kid an a supposed curse to hunt her down?
There's also the trained assassin sent to kill the kids. He has a heavy presence at the start of the book, completely disappears for a while, then pops up again with an incredibly quick and unsatisfactory resolution to the point where I dont even understand the purpose of introducing this character at all.
The book was riddled with weird problems like the two described. I liked Patricia and Laurence as characters and the premise of science vs nature was a good one, but the execution just wasn't satisfactory for me.
First Line: "When Patricia was six years old, she found a wounded bird."
Rating:
(2.5/5)
When the disease hit, the midwife was right in the thick of it working at the hospital as it took out almost all females and children. No babies survived childbirth and hardly any of the mothers. Men were contracting the disease as well, but the mortality rate wasn't as high as the females. When she falls sick she thinks this is the end for her as well.
Libby Day was the victim of a horrific crime when she was a child. Her brother killed her mom and two sisters but Libby managed to escape and run away, only to finger him to the police later. Now in her 30s, she has run out of the money the community pooled together for her and needs to find a new way to sustain herself. She is offered money to appear at a nearby club that is interested in true crime and despite no interest in doing this, the money wins out. Attending this event, she finds that everyone thinks her brother innocent and Libby's testimony spoon fed to her by the police. Libby starts to question that night.
Dr. Tony Hill is bedridden after an attack at a mental ward and an axe to the knee. It's really not a good time to be immobile when a top footballer is admitted to the hospital and the staff finds out that he has been poisoned with ricin. He passes away and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan is called in to investigate. Researching from a hospital bed, Tony is frustrated at the lack of progress he makes, but eventually finds a possible connection to another mysterious poisoning case.
Since she was young, Maddie Fynn has been able to see people's death dates. She first recognized it on her dad's forehead, but wasn't aware of what it meant until he was killed in action. Now a teenager, Maddie's mother is a drunk and Maddie is convinced her mom blames her for her dad's death. To try and make ends meet, and pay for mom's habit, Maddie sees clients who want to know when they will die. A lady brings a picture of her daughter who is undergoing treatment for a medical issue to determine if she will survive. Maddie gives her the good news that she will survive, but her son has a death date within a week. The mother leaves in a huff, unbelieving what she has been told.
This epic tale of the Bell family spans three generations. The Bells are from Charleston, South Carolina in the time leading up to the Civil War. One side of the Bell family is progressive and believes in the emancipation of slaves, the other side of the family treats their slaves horribly and are incredibly racist. The story of this family starts in Charleston during the revolutionary war when the British controlled the city, then the time period between the revolutionary war and the civil war while racial tensions ran high, and finally the Civil war.
After dark in Japan, sees a teenager nursing a coffee in a Denny's, reading a book. A young man walks up to her and recognizes her. He knows her sister and asks if he can join her. Her name is Mari but she doesn't find out what his name is. He talks about her sister and how he had a crush on her. He leaves to go to band practice and soon after, another woman walks in frantically looking for her, because she has heard that Mari speaks Chinese. A woman has been assaulted but only speaks Chinese. Can Mari help?
A storm in Kansas City has pilots concerned. Thunderstorms are rolling through and the airline doesn't take kindly to delays. One pilot is on the ground and decides not to take off, another is in the air and despite hitting a microburst on his first approach, he circles around and tries again. When he comes down, he ends up landing directly on the waiting plane, tearing it in half and killing most people on board the two flights.
Slahi is a Muslim originally from Mauritius, but lived for stints in Germany in Canada. While in Canada, the police followed him around at the US' request. The Americans were convinced he was part of the Millenium plot to bomb LAX. Slahi decides Canada is not the place for him and returns home where he is asked to turn himself in. Since he believed he had nothing to hide, Slahi dutifully turned himself in and the start of his horrific 14-year journey began. Again, acting on behalf of the Americans, his own country questions him and his involvement with Al Qaeda. Slahi doesn't give them much because there's not much to give them. His government believes him, but the American pull is bigger and he gets transferred to Jordan. Jordan is where torture begins for Slahi, but those officers also find that there isn't much Slahi is giving them and that's when he gets transferred to Guantánamo Bay.