Mystery Reads – jenacidebybibliophile

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the author, Freddie Åhlin, for an honest review.

Genre: Adult/Psychological Thriller/Horror

Plot: Forty-five-year-old truck driver Tom Richards is on the verge of losing everything. To save his marriage, and find a way out of crippling debt, he takes on the dangerous job of trucking across Dalton Highway, a 414-mile (666 km) long isolated passage through the Alaskan wilderness. By his side is his beloved five-year-old German Shepherd, Presley. It doesn’t take long before Tom realizes something isn’t right out on the road. First, he discovers a bulletin board filled with missing person posters, and later, he meets an elderly man who warns him about the powers of darkness. But desperate for the money, he refuses to turn back. When a storm erupts, Tom loses control of the truck and crashes in the middle of nowhere. Presley escapes into the deep forest, and Tom is forced to follow, only to discover the place is haunted by something more sinister than he could ever imagine. In a tense struggle against the clock and the wild nature of Alaska, Tom is forced to find his dog and a way out, before whatever is out there finds them.

Opinion:

“The fiery tongue licked after them.

The lights on the road were now in front of them.

Tom’s body collapsed, and all sounds faded to darkness.

The world silenced.”

“You’re going to die, Trucker.”

Tom Richards is hard-pressed for money and about to lose everything he holds dear. His wife is fed up and ready to leave him, and their money woes aren’t the only reason for the strain on their marriage. But Tom hopes that his job across the Dalton Highway will bring back enough money to invest in their happiness…so long as he makes it back alive. 414 miles is nothing for a trucker, but this highway that borders the vast and dangerous wilderness of Alaska can be daunting for any traveler. While Tom and his German Shepherd Presley start their journey, they quickly discover the abundance of disappearances that surrounds this vast and haunting area. But when they crash in the woods, they realize something else might be out there besides your standard predator.

Something is coming for them…

…and it might not be what it seems.

“He slapped away the flies. They fell to the ground and made the piles of discarded bones shake with false hope.”

Dalton Highway was a quick read and a great debut novel by author Freddie Åhlin. It’s a chaotic tale of a man and his dog trying to escape the horrors and predators of the Alaskan wilderness. One where reality quickly begins to morph into a conflicting state of paranoia and horror, causing the reader to question fact from fiction even after the story fades to black.

What the F just happened?

This psychological thriller is perfectly categorized, in that my brain is positively reeling from the cluster of wild and disorienting events I found myself engulfed in. If there’s one thing I love in any type of mystery/thriller, it’s a completely unassuming and totally unreliable narrator. These mysterious characters are always presented in a way that feels so genuine, so authentic. And by the time things start to shift around them, the reader is drowned in the slight thought of “is this character crazy…or did we just step into the Twilight Zone?”.

Tom Richards is your typical driven and hardworking middle-aged man who only wants to provide for his family. Throughout the story we are given more detail and looks into his personality, home life and even a bit of his childhood. As pieces start to unfold about who he is and his experiences, the reader can easily find themselves gravitating towards him. In most instances, Tom seems to be totally naive and easily worked up about missing persons posters or his slight isolation within just an hour of driving. He comes across as a good guy, but one that is easily rattled and who has an overactive imagination. I quickly found myself deciding that Tom was a bit of a drama queen. That he was reading far too into every tiny instance and trying to make little details into epic signs of impending doom.

Well…color me shocked when I reached the end.

But EVEN with this ending, I am still wondering what the actual truth is! WHO IS TOM?! How much of this was real? Was it all real?

Did this REALLY happen?

Or is this another one of those ‘Lost‘ situations?

Because the reader never really finds out. Even after you read that last sentence and close the book, you are still caught between an even line of plausible reality and solid fiction. The line doesn’t even blur. It is cut right down the middle, and this book rests smack dab in the middle. And though I love not knowing the truth of what really happened, I still find myself wishing I had gotten more than just one flashback into Tom’s childhood and a bigger sense of what that entire situation entailed. Because I LOVED it. But of course, every time I find myself wishing for more information on this book, I find myself preferring to be left in the dark.

In the end, all I can really express is what a feverish and chaotic blend of reality and psychosis this story is. It has an unhinging sense of time that is practically nonexistent, and characters that may not even be real.

To be honest, this book might not even be real.

I really can’t be sure.

But what I do know?

Dalton Highway is a fever dream.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the author, Gillian French, for an honest review.

Genre: YA/Mystery/Thriller

Plot: Everyone in Tenney’s Harbor, Maine, knows about the Garrison tragedy. How an unexplained fire ravaged their house, killing four of the five family members. But what people don’t know is who did it. All fingers point at Pearl Haskins’s father, the town drunk, who was the caretaker of the property, but she just can’t believe it. Leave it to a town of rich people to blame “the help.”

With her disgraced father now trying to find work in between booze benders, Pearl’s future doesn’t hold much more than waiting tables at the local country club, where the wealthy come to flaunt their money and spread their gossip. This year, Tristan, the last surviving Garrison, and his group of affluent and arrogant friends have made a point of sitting in Pearl’s section. Though she’s repulsed by most of them, Tristan’s quiet sadness and somber demeanor have her rethinking her judgments. Befriending the boys could mean getting closer to the truth, clearing her father’s name, and giving Tristan the closure he seems to be searching for. But it could also trap Pearl in a sinister web of secrets, lies, and betrayals that, once untangled, will leave no life unchanged . . . if it doesn’t take hers first.

Opinion:

A quadruple homicide, rich Summer boys, a drunk father and unattainable love.

Pearl Haskins is about to have the summer of her life.

The Lies They Tell documents Pearl’s time working the summer at the Tenney’s Harbor Country Club as a server to the rich and dismissive families of the elite. As a lower-class working townie, Pearl is well–aware of the divide between the Summer crowd and those who reside in TH year-round. The summer boys come from extreme wealth, and they have reputations for starting flings with townie girls and discarding them by the end of summer. Having resided there all her life, and her father working as a caretaker for the homes of these families, Pearl has always known to keep her distance and to not get involved.

So naturally when Bridges, one of the summer boys who is close friends with Tristan Garrison, asks Pearl out, I was instantly screaming DON’T DO IT! He’s playing a trick on you! He just wants sex! HAVEN’T YOU SEEN CARRIE?! But don’t worry guys, she doesn’t get murdered or assaulted on their first outing, or even the one after that.

* whew *

The story takes the reader through Pearl’s summer as she gets to know the boys she has always seen at a distance.

For Pearl, she justifies her time with them as a means to get closer to Tristan in order to learn the truth of the murders, and in turn, hopefully redeem her father’s reputation (which had been soiled by rumors that he was drunk on the job on night of the murders). But as she gets closer to Bridges and his friends, she begins to see a new side of them. They seem genuine and caring, and she even begins to enjoy the friendships that begin to blossom.

Of course, my favorite character in this story has to be Pearl. She embodies the anxieties and stresses that being an eighteen-year-old girl represents. She is sassy and has quick remarks to protect herself, but deep down she just wants to feel accepted and desired like everyone else. I was constantly smirking at her quick wit and ability to adapt to the situations she was thrown in. The girl is sharp and knows how to handle herself, and I love her for it! When it comes to the summer boys, this girl can hold her own, but when it comes to her best friend Reese…

*sigh*

That boy deserves to be slapped for the way he treats her in this, and that’s all I am going to say.

But the real focus of this story is Tristan and the death that surrounds him. After losing his entire family, for some reason he comes back to TH to spend the summer with his friends – doing way too much cardio and barely eating. Soon after the murders he was brought in by the police as a suspect, but the charges were dropped after he provided an alibi and proof that he was hours away at the time of the crime. Due to the trauma that he recently had to endure, it’s not surprising that he acts distant and prefers to be alone. But what is really intriguing about him is the thick fog of mystery that surrounds his character. The author does an excellent job of making you dissect everything he says and does, because you aren’t sure if you are supposed to love or hate him.

He seems constantly lost in his thoughts and gives off the impression of not paying attention to anything around him, but its actually the opposite. He is sharp and opinionated, but not in a malicious or cruel way. His intelligence shines through and it is so easy to see the positive qualities in him that draw others in. And to be honest, he is just begging to be drooled over! With his uninterested facial expressions, quiet and closed-off demeanor, and resident tortured bad-boy aura – it was impossible not to fall in love with him. Tristan is the sorrowful beauty of a male who goes from king of the ball to social pariah overnight, and that’s just the beginning of his intrigue.

The author pulls you into the lives of the characters in such a natural and realistic way. She perfectly showcases the awkward encounters between boys and girls, the pressures and expectations that are put on you by your peers, and the person you have to morph into the fit in. These characters decisions are dictated by a look of expectancy or by a tension in the air that whispers prove yourself, prove that you are worthy. It made me angered and sad for what it means to be a teen, but it also gives me a thrill for how well French was able to shed light on how it truly is.

I was hooked on this story from the first page until the last, staying up into the wee hours of the morning to devour it. It’s a steady-paced YA mystery that gives subtle hints throughout the story, but keeps the reader completely in the dark until the end. As a true crime fanatic, I gravitate towards stories that slowly blossom and give insight into the human psyche. I want to know how the characters act to trauma or heated situations. I want to witness their reactions, read their body language and dissect the words and phrases they choose. I want to decide who is at fault by the evidence presented, and Gillian French allowed me to do just that.