(Read in the second half of January and most of February)
Hidden Pictures, by Jason Rekulak: Ugh. I’ve seen some criticism of this book as “well-written but problematic,” but…I also did not find it well-written. It felt very caricatured, random, and young. It also included an incredibly insulting portrayal of a woman who had struggled with infertility (I don’t want to spoil any good books, so I’ll just say that I know from past reading experience that it is possible to write about this – even to the point of having someone kidnap a baby – in a sensitive way. This was not that.)
Listen for the Lie, by Amy Tintera: This also read more like YA to me, and the voice was very cloying, but due to personal circumstances at the time, I didn’t have interest in something more serious.
We Used to Live Here, by Marcus Kliewer: Continuing with horror-lite…it was fine. Effectively creepy.
11/22/63, by Stephen King: I think the only other Stephen King novel I’ve read is the curséd car story Christine, which I picked up while traveling alone in Laos in the days before Kindles when the only sources of new books were hostel common spaces. This was very enjoyable, so it was nice that it was 800+ pages long. I looked forward to sinking into it every night.
Dark Wire, by Joseph Cox: I didn’t know this story – a multi-nation sting operation targeting drug cartels via their supposedly secure phones (which were secretly being not merely tapped but actually run by the FBI and other organizations after they arrested the owner of the phone company). I had a hard time staying engaged with it, but that may have been more a product of my mindset at the time than of the book.
