Gerald's Game by Stephen King

Gerald's Game by Stephen King

First let me say, I did NOT finish this book.  I got one third of the way through and I just couldn't finish  it.  Too much head noise for me.  

The book is a psychological thriller about a couple who have been married for 20 years and have taken a romantic trip to their remote lake house in Maine.  During a kinky sex episode, the wife is handcuffed to the bed against her will and accidentally kills her husband.  She is now alone with her thoughts and fears and her husband is dead.  Page after page we read how she feels, hear the voices inside her head, and I guess we are supposed to be scared but I was anything but.  Unless of course you count the mangy hound that came in and started feeding on the the dead husband.   I was actually bored throughout the few chapters I did read because of the monotonous details of thought and pain and misery.  And if that isn't bad enough, I didn't even like the woman.  

Way over the top!!

But if that is your thing, then you might enjoy it.  By all means, go for it.  

I want to add that this is the first book by Mr. King that I didn't enjoy.  He is the author of one of my all time favorites, The Green Mile. 

Published in 1993 by Signet.

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh

Newlyweds, John and Laura Foster have set sail on their honeymoon on the SS Vandervere from San Francisco to New York in 1857.  Somewhere near the Carolinas, they are overtaken by a hurricane and the ship begins to sink.  Fortunately, the women and children are rescued by a smaller ship but the men are forced to stay behind.  Some of the men find objects to use a life preservers or rafts but others drown and go down when the ship sinks to the deepest depths of the sea.  

Laura travels with the other survivors on the smaller ship in deep despair as she believes her new husband to be drowned and her future uncertain as John's family in New York doesn't even know about her.  

Meanwhile, John and hundreds of other men are floating in the sea for days on end with no water or food.  

I don't want to give away too much so if you want to know how each of them fair, then you'll have to read the book for yourself. This is the second book I have read by Dan Walsh.  The first being, The Reunion which I have also reviewed and loved.   I thoroughly enjoyed the Deepest Waters and I must say that Mr. Walsh has a unique and wonderful style of writing all his own.  I said this before but I believe he writes a story as if he is telling it to a friend which I most enjoy.  I haven't encountered this style before from any authors I have read. There is a Christian flair to the story along with love, hope, faith, and courage above all.

Published in April 2011 by Revell Publishers, The Deepest Waters is an 2012 ACFW Carol Awards Finalist and was based on the true story of the steamship SS Central America.  

Dear America: I Walk in Dread, The Diary of Deliverance Trembley Witness to the Salem Witch Trials by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Dear America:  I Walk in Dread, The Diary of Deliverance Trembley Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

The story unfolds through the eyes and voice of twelve year old Deliverance Trembley, an orphan in Salem Village, Massachusetts in 1691.  Deliverance, or Liv as we come to know her, lives with her seventeen year old sister, Mem, in the house of her uncle who has left them to go on a whaling expedition with instructions that they are not to tell anyone in the village that he is away.  

During his absence, Mem becomes ill and Liv must care for her as well as do all of the chores.  The girls try to attend church when they can.  One Sunday they learn that four girls from their church have become possessed and claim that some of the good ladies of Salem Village are witches and have cursed them and damned them to the devil.  Liv is friends with one of the accused but doesn't believe the good Christian woman she knows could possibly be a witch nor does she believe in witches.  

Soon, the town becomes privy to the fact the uncle has been away and threaten to take action for the orphans.  Fortunately, their brother Benjamin, who has been in the militia returns and saves the girls from an uncertain future.  

Meanwhile, the accused witches are tried and eventually convicted.

While Liv and her sister are fictional characters, most of the other characters are real and the events portrayed in the story are real and given to the best of the writers research and knowledge.

While, I hardly ever read children's books or young adult fiction, I loved this book!  I read the whole thing in one night. Ms. Fraustino really did her homework and gave us an historical ride through the times and lives of the people during the Salem Witch Trials.  I can't wait to read more of the books in her Dear America series!  

Published in 2011 by Scholastic Books.