Malorie

Malorie by Josh Malerman   320 pages (e-galley)

This is the sequel to Bird Box (which was made into a Netflix film . . . which I did not watch).

When we last saw Malorie in Bird Box, she has led her children to a safe place. Still blindfolded and threatened by the dangerous creatures outside, this sequel to Bird Box focuses exclusively on Malorie and her two children. Now teenagers, her son is especially eager to explore the outside world. When a stranger finds them and tells them of a special Blind Train, and that Malorie's parents are listed as alive, Malorie makes the wrenching decision to leave all that is safe and try to find the train. But once they find this train, will it deliver them to people she loves and to a safer place?

I was intrigued by this story, since I enjoyed Bird Box (and did not watch the Netflix adaptation). While I liked the sense of danger running through this book and the focus on one character and her children, I found the ending of the book to completely unsatisfying. Too many loose ends for my taste.

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom  224 pages

I admit that I’ve often wondered over the last fifteen years if Mitch Albom would ever write a sequel to “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” What happened to Annie after the tragic accident at the amusement park when she was just eight years old? Did she carry the scars of Eddie’s death? Did she even remember him? Well, now I know; my wait is over.

Annie is a nurse and a day shy of her thirty-first birthday. Readers get to watch Annie marry Paulo, a childhood friend who had been out of her life for many years. As they embark on their honeymoon, they stop to help a man change a flat tire. That moment of kindness changes Annie and Paulo’s life forever.

Later that night, Annie and Paulo are involved in a horrific accident. Annie goes to heaven to meet the five people who explain her life to her. But that’s not how the story ends, so this wasn’t a spoiler. 

I was a little disappointed in this sequel. I took the title literally, and thought there would be a sixth person. Or something. The structure of the novel follows the same structure in the original story, so that gave it some continuity.  However, I feel as if the title was misleading and that is why  “The Next Person You Meet in Heaven” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Jaws 2

Jaws 2 by Hank Searls, 244 pages

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."

The small town of Amity, New York, is still recovering years after a series of deadly shark attacks gave it an unfortunate reputation with the summer tourists it depends upon to survive.  The town's hopes are now pinned on legalized gambling, with a real estate developer already beginning construction on a new casino in anticipation of Albany's consent.  Police Chief Martin Brody, the man who killed the killer shark, is also recovering after his traumatic experiences, as is his older son, Mike, who saw a man eaten alive mere feet away from him.  At least there isn't much police work in the quiet town, until an ornery vacationing cop shoots a seal on the beach, and Brody ends up with a wounded baby seal convalescing in his garage and an angry cop cooling off in his jail.  Brody's stubborn unwillingness to drop the case leads to trouble with the state authorities, endangering the casino deal, and this concerns some shady characters who provided some of the developer's financial backing, the kind of men who are willing to take drastic measures to protect their investment.

And, also, a shark is eating people.  

The film Jaws 2, sometimes derisively referred to as "Jaws the 13th" for its aping of slasher movie tropes, is a very different beast from its novelization.  The movie largely rehashes the first film's plot, with Brody recognizing the danger and fighting to take the necessary precautions against the resistance of the mayor and town council, who fear the financial disaster that will result, all while the shark picks off victims a couple at a time.  In the novelization, Brody doesn't even know another shark is out there until three-quarters of the way through, just in time for the climax.  The involvement of organized crime in the Amity real estate market, which is the real focus of the novelization, was alluded to in the original novel Jaws, and was apparently part of an early script for Jaws 2 before being dropped, leaving behind the vestigial character of Len Peterson, the real estate developer who is Ellen Brody's boss in the film (but not the book).  Although Searls deserves credit for not merely repeating what was done before, he negates that goodwill by reducing the killer shark to a mere subplot, especially when his main plot is not particularly interesting.

Beyond the Chocolate War

Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, 278 pages

The school year is almost at an end, and the chocolate sale is considered by most students to be old news. Archie Costello, commander of the Vigils however still has plans before he graduates. Meanwhile his right-hand and man, Obie, has started to move away from the Vigils, and Archie. When Archie tries to fix this by sending his stooges, but what he may end up causing could be worse than anything he could possibly plan.
I picked this book up hoping that it would answer some of my questions about the ending of The Chocolate War, which I felt it did, as well as providing questions to answers I hadn't even thought about.

It differs from the first book in that it has a wider focus, which I felt helped to make it more character driven and helped to add more layers to the plot. Having enjoyed The Chocolate War, I felt this was the a really good sequel and that it did a great job tying everything up.