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The Guest Room
The Guest Room
Chris Bohjalian | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Richard and his younger brother, Philip could not be more different. Even so, Richard decides to use his home for his brother's bachelor party. Knowing how Philip and his friends are, he expects that this will be a wild party, but out of respect for his wife and child, he hopes it doesn't get too terribly wild. So when two strippers show up with their two bodyguards(apparently they're supposed to keep the men in check)this does not alarm Richard. What does alarm him though, is how young they look and the things Philip are doing with them even with the bodyguards present. When the girl, named Sonja jabs a knife into the neck of one of the bodyguards, all of the men are in total disbelief. Even more shocking are the two gunshots heard after. Sonja along with the other stripper/dancer/call girl, Alexandra, make their escape in the truck they arrived in. Richard is left with two dead men in the middle of his living room and a lot of explaining to do to his wife, Kristen.

The Guest Room will have you quickly turning pages to determine what is going to happen next. Told from two perspectives, third person narrative giving us the story as it unfolds through each character and first person narrative, told by Alexandra in which she tells her entire life story including the fateful night where her life changed forever.

I have read two of Chris Bohjalian's books previously. I was first introduced to his writing through a book club selection of Midwives. After that I added all of his books to by TBR. So far, this has been my favorite, but I'm just a juvenile in reading his books. This book had me go through a whole host of emotions. At the end, I cried. This is an amazing book that everyone will enjoy. One of the best books I have read this year.
  
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Burning Blue
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well, Kahlan and Lupe and other members of book club who think I'm negative over every book, I hope you're happy. REALLY happy!

Burning Blue has got to be one of the best book club reads of this year – I might even have my vote finalized for the 2014-15 Gateway Readers Award.

Of course, I want to get my hands on Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gragnon and Croak by Gina Damico first before voting... unless I don't get to it by March.

It's not all about the acid – that's a bonus – being thrown at wealthy and popular beauty queen not-a-bee Nicole Castro of New Jersey or the mere fact that a hacker is the one who decides to look at the situation more closely to find out who did it, it's the other stuff that I really enjoyed.

The writing's engrossing – we don't read from just Jay Nazarro's view, we read from Nicole Castro's journal, and a few of Dr. Julian Nye's (apparently he's like the shrink of the book) notes about Nicole. It's almost as though we're watching CSI, NCIS, or Law and Order with all the likeness to an investigation going on behind NJPD's backs, though CSI and Company (those other fun shows we call Law) are certainly less predictable than Burning Blue. Plus, TV shows have detectives, not an outcast hacker deciding to find out who the culprit is by hacking and whatnot.
<blockquote>What day is it? What night? I'm burning, burning, burning blue.</blockquote>
That obviously doesn't mean reading about Jay's past wasn't highly awkward though... or more accurately, a tad bit gross.
<blockquote>You don't get a lot of homework in the fourth grade, and I didn't have anything to do except make mini snowmen with my earwax.</blockquote>
Although the perpetrator was very predictable, I found it enjoyable to read the rest of the story and see how it would all play out in the end. I obviously watch too much TV (which by the way, isn't even close to true because I don't even watch TV most of the time and I pretty much live under a legit rock) to take a fantastically, pretty whopping close to accurate stab.

I did not, however, take a stab at who actually threw the acid. I merely guessed who came up with the entire plan in the first place.

To top it off for the non-romantics out there, Jay falling in love with Nicole as he investigates the situation further doesn't overshadow the plot at all. There are brief mentions from Jay and Nicole's journal, but that's about it, much to my delight. Really, I'm done with romance currently – eclipses suck, okay? Euphemism intended.

Perfectly paced and with great dialogue among the characters, Burning Blue is a fantastic book. Plus there's acid. Yay, chemistry!
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Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Original Review at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-burning-blue-by-paul-griffin.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
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