June 22.23: Coping, but barely

June 22, 2023 by Oddment 94 Comments

I was never much of a reader. My misspent youth was at the piano. But sometimes there would be a Nancy Drew book in the summer, and the piano would wonder where I was. I was with Nancy and her chums, of course, in her roadster and wearing a frock!

Then my own chums and I would talk about the books.

That is my impressive background as a book reviewer. But a book review is an opinion, yes? And I do have a vast experience giving my opinions. Opinions, I find, are quite the fashion these days anyway.

I’ve followed Dan Antion’s blog for some time now. When Dan started to talk about the books he was writing, I followed along but didn’t see that they would be anything I’d be interested in. I rarely read fiction, let alone anything that might border on science fiction or fantasy. But the title of the first book was “Knuckleheads,” one of my favorite words. The hook was in.

This is my review of his trilogy: I have not done so much daytime reading since Nancy Drew! I am in a state of disbelief at how I was so unexpectedly, wholemindedly pulled into Dan’s story.

Yesterday I read the last word of the last book, slowly uncoiling from the tension of the final chapters, and then just sat, trying to remember what my daytime routine used to be.

I am sending Dan’s trilogy to my life-long friend Ann, in NY. How appropriate since she shared her Nancy Drew books with me so long ago. She is deep into “Knuckleheads” and her chum there is waiting impatiently for her turn with it.

A bonus: the pages in all three books have wonderful white space.

 

“Knuckleheads”

“The Evil You Choose”

“When Evil Chooses You”

With congratulations to Dan on his gifts as a storyteller!