In Long Bright River, we follow two sisters, Mickey and Kacey, who lost their mother young to addiction and their father soon after to abandonment. They were then raised in the harsh unloving environment of their grandmother. Mickey eventually joined the police force, but Kacey could not resist the call of addiction. When Kacey goes missing and women starts turning up dead in their neighborhood, Mickey is compelled to uncover what really happened.

This book starts out amazingly. The story of the two sisters, coming from similar circumstances but with one building a life for herself while the other falling to addiction and petty crime, is a compelling one. So is the dynamic between the two, especially Mickey's pain and dilemma when faced with her sister's deterioration.

But then about half way through, the book just lost steam for me. One of the most difficult aspects of addiction is the agony it has on loved ones. Should they intervene or respect the addict's autonomy and right to make decisions? How many chances do they give the addict before they write them off for good? This book starts to address these, but it didn't go anywhere. Instead, Mickey tramples all over Kacey in her effort to save her, yet never gains any insight into what she did wrong in the process.

Also, for a policeman, Mickey is awfully naive and slow-witted. There were so many moments when she was faced with some common situation, and she would freeze up and not know what to do or say. She clomps around in her heavy-handed effort to "help", but she just makes things worse. At one point, after she was given a tip from a source who wished to remain anonymous, she went ahead and broke that confidentiality. She makes many questionable and unethical decisions throughout the book, which were then never adequately addressed. The more I read, the less I could relate to Mickey.

For me, having a dumb and slow female protagonist is a pet-peeve that drives me crazy. Combined with the fact that this book never really reached beyond the surface when addressing the complexity and nuances of addiction and its fallout, and this turned out to be just a middle-of-the-road read for me.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

I know I shouldn't judge a book by its title, but The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires got me real good. It sounds like a fun, lighthearted take on slaying vampires, mixed in with some Southern hospitality and book club joviality. And it started out that way. But then it went somewhere else altogether.

If I were to sum up this book with one word, it would be gross. Every time I picked it up, I would read some passages on rats eating people alive, or cockroaches wiggling into ears, or blood-sucking appendages flopping out of mouths, and I just wanted to hide my eyes. One time I made the mistake of eating while reading (one of my favorite activity combos), and I couldn't get my gag reflexes to stop for a long time afterwards.

But it wasn't just the gore that turned me off. I also found this book to be overwritten. There were moments when it was supposed to be serious, like with the women rallying together or the bad guy taking a last stand, and I just cringed at the cheesy dialog. It sounded so fake to me during what should've been emotionally pivotal moments.

And this book had the dumbest, most slow-witted characters I have ever read. When presented with evidence of something strange going on, they just refused to believe, over and over. Sure, in real life, if someone told me there's a vampire loose and they had evidence, I would be skeptical. But this is fiction! I don't want to spent 80% of the book reading about non-believers doubting and naysaying. What a downer.

But please don't let my review dissuade you. So many people have loved this book, so I think this is a serious case of this book just not being for this reader. However, not all is a loss. I do walk away with a new personal record: the longest time it has taken me to get through a book.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars