Book Review: A History of Fear

A History of Fear, by Luke Dumas

Publisher’s description for A History of Fear, by Luke Dumas:

“The Devil is in Scotland.

Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it.

When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?”

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Five stars. A History of Fear is atmospheric, creepy, and unlike anything I’ve read before. A slow burning, uneasy read that keeps you off-kilter throughout. Masterfully done, Dumas lays the groundwork thread by agonizing thread to keep you on your toes, never knowing what to expect or who to trust. With the protagonist’s somewhat odd and arm’s-length writing style, you’re somehow both sucked in and unnerved, not sure what’s happening or what is coming. I was hooked and especially could not read the second half fast enough. All the way through to the very end you’re sure there is still more coming—and you’re not wrong.

This is a perfect spooky season read. I only wish it were going to be available before December!

Book Review: Man's Search for Meaning

Photo from Amazon

Publisher’s description on Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl:

Based on his experiences in Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz, from 1942 to 1945, Frankl's timeless memoir and meditation on finding meaning in the midst of suffering argues that man cannot avoid suffering but can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

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OOF. Oof. This should frankly be required reading. A psychiatrist examines his experience of life in Nazi concentration camps. The stunningly clinical yet emotionally raw way he relates his experience in Auschwitz and other camps is remarkable. This is one of those books that I will always remember reading. It’s brutal and necessary. At times you almost can’t quite believe what you’re hearing—how could humans do this to each other?—but you look around and you know they can. This book is full of both trauma and hope. Evil and resilience. I got a little lost in the last part of the book that goes over the clinical theory, but otherwise, truly, I can’t recommend this enough. It made me think a lot about resilience, our place in the world, and how we keep moving forward. It is somehow both a hard and easy read. You can’t look away—and you shouldn’t.

I listened to this on Audible, and I recommend it. I found it easier to hear this as someone’s story than I think I would have trying to get through it on the page. The narrator does an excellent job.

Book Review: The Water Dancer

Photo from amazon.

It’s hard to know how to rate this book. Ta-Nehisi Coates is an excellent and important writer. If you haven’t discovered his nonfiction yet, don’t waste another second. Between the World and Me made me uncomfortable, and then it made me better. The Water Dancer is his first novel, and it’s a mystical take on the Underground Railroad. It feels important—especially coming from him, especially given his other writing. It was literary, spooky, gripping to start. I never knew where it was going. I wanted to know what happened.

Yet it took me a bit to get into. It picked up the pace and then slowed down again. It was so slow in the last third, it took me over a month to finish. I didn’t care that much by the end. Everything felt very much at arm’s length. But the thing is, the whole time I kept wondering if it was me? I think it was styled that way on purpose. Coates is an incredibly deliberate and intelligent writer and it makes me think that I just didn’t understand everything in this book, and what it has to say. I want to. I want to attend a class on it, read every article and interview to get my head around it and figure this out!

Have you read this? I’m so curious to hear what other people think.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!