Buzz's Babbling Book Opinions- p3

Hi! It's been a while. I've been busy with college and getting sick like every other week, but I have some down time to ramble about some more books.

As stated in previous parts I do try to avoid spoilers.

1. They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces- Eric LaRocca.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

"From the author of the viral sensation Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes They Were Here Before Us, a novella written in pieces, designed to be consumed as a single, thematically cohesive work.

The only thing more brutal than nature is love."

THIS WAS SO GOOD. I loved it, and it was a great introduction to LaRocca's work through 6 short, digestible stories. That being said, I did not go into this expecting it to be as messed up as it is. I listened to the audio book, and at multiple points I had to stop and just sit there in horror as I listened. These stories stuck with me hard, and I still think of them occasionally when I can't sleep. These stories are brutal. The first story is about a beetle who falls in love with the corpse of a woman. It is told from the point of view from the beetle. Also in the stories are the point of views from humans, meerkats, birds, and a chimp. It's merciless in all the ways humans and nature can be.

It's a short read/listen, but it's unique, creative, theatrical, and just straight up disgusting at some points. The blurb does not do the content of these stories justice. I can't recommend it enough for those with the stomach for it.

(content warning: human death, violence, gore, body horror, animal cruelty, animal death)

2. Welcome to Night Vale- Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

"From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it."

Please listen to the audiobook. The first two books in this series are voiced by the same guy who does the podcast, and it's just an amazing listen. I haven't listened to the podcast since high school, and I still enjoyed getting a deeper worldbuilding of Night Vale and all the easter eggs. It's play and funny, although not for everyone. Aspects such as the glow cloud and the void may seem overly ridiculous to some people, especially those who don't have at least some understanding of the show.

3.  The Unborn- David Shobin.

⭐⭐/5 stars.

"A beautiful, pregnant woman...

A handsome sleep research scientist... who falls in love with her.

An incredibly sophisticated computer... who talks with...The Unborn."

So I bought this for two reasons: 

1) I collect old books, not all but mostly mass market paperbacks (which my copy of this is). 

2) I thought this was related to the 1991 movie, also called "The Unborn." Unfortunately for me, they're not related. Instead I put myself through 301 pages of paperback hell.

This book had the potential of a creepy medical horror, like a woman who falls pregnant but there's something just subtly wrong, and she begins to be psychologically tortured by herself and her fetus. That's freaky, but oh my god, this book is just so BAD. I can't take it seriously. Perhaps it's a product of its time, but I really just can't. There is too much sex in here for a horror book, and this scientist guy is FREAK. He really likes pregnant women, I guess. Like there is so much fascination with her chest, and it's so gross. The whole time I was reading the sex scenes it was just so ew ew ew. I can't make this shit up, one of the quotes is, "My God, he thought, a breast feeder for sure, and he pressed bid lips to get chest, chopping his cheeks with her breasts.” A BREAST FEEDER FOR SURE? BRO WHAT? A lot of time is spent on her tits like a poorly disguised fetish. You know what, scratch like. It is a poorly disguised fetish.

Anyway, don't read the book. Watch the completely unrelated movie instead. It's better and makes more sense than a computerized fetus. Because the fetus communicates with a computer. That's why it's freaky. Because somehow. The fetus. Can communicate. With a super computer. 

4. The Surrogate Mother- Frieda McFadden.

⭐⭐/5 stars.

"Abby wants a baby more than anything.

But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future. That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer that will make all of Abby's dreams come true.

Or all of her nightmares.

Because it turns out Monica isn't who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby's child has dark, twisted secrets.

And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants."

This book made me so angry. It was such an infuriating read. 

Just like The Unborn, the plot was there. Like Monica gets pregnant and then weird stuff starts happening and Abby is being gaslighted and whatever. But the characterization of everyone was just so bad. Despite the author holding your hand through every conclusion (what ever happened to show not tell?), they were all so unbelievably naive it was genuinely so frustrating. 

5. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner- Judy Melinek, TJ Mitchell.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

"The fearless memoir of a young forensic pathologist's rookie season as a NYC medical examiner, and the cases, hair-raising and heartbreaking and impossibly complex, that shaped her as both a physician and a mother.

Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband T.J. and their toddler Daniel holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation, performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking readers behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple, including a firsthand account of the events of September 11, the subsequent anthrax bio-terrorism attack, and the disastrous crash of American Airlines flight 587.

Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of America's most arduous professions, and the unexpected challenges of shuttling between the domains of the living and the dead. The body never lies, and through the murders, accidents, and suicides that land on her table, Dr. Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorized depictions of autopsy work on shows like CSI and Law and Order to reveal the secret story of the real morgue."

A nonfiction telling of Melinek's career, Working Stiff was a fascinating read I couldn't put down. This book is especially interesting to me who is pursuing a career in deathcare, although not through forensic pathology. 

The first half of the book describes the beginning of Melinek's career, including how she quit surgery to pursue medical examination. While she still worked in healthcare, she was constantly overworked, to the point where she had a cot in her office and was forced to work with the flu. It was this unsustainable lifestyle that led her down the forensic pathology path. There is one anecdote that stands out to me. She tells the story of a young man who passed away from an accidental overdose, if I remember correctly. What I do remember clearly is that his mother was unable to accept the cause of death. She constantly called Melinek, begging her to reclassify the death as a homicide, to open an investigation. I often wonder how she is doing now. 

The second half of the book is about Melinek's work during 9/11. Obviously it was difficult, painstaking, and heartbreaking work. She and her team not only had to process the bodies from the towers, but in the following days also process scenes and bodies from usual day to day life. It was overwhelming just to read, and I can't imagine the stress and trauma they were put through. 

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. I apologize as I feel like I don't have that much commentary to give this time, but I've been so sick and burnt out that I am just WIPED. I hope you appreicate the gifs, I searched hard to find Smiling Friends gifs that applied to every one. 

-buzz :)