THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging (79) and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life.

When she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. 

Golly, everybody just loved this book.  Except me.  It is about the golden age of Hollywood, when homosexuality was definitely a no no, and the aging star’s biggie secret is that she was in love with a woman for all those years and husbands, but the two of them seemed stuck in their adolescence and couldn’t grow enough to make it work in spite of their fame and money.  Maybe because of the fame and money, which neither were ready to give up in order to have the relationship.  Well, you have to name your priorities, and this relationship apparently wasn’t Numero Uno.

A wicked, contrived twist at the end didn’t help this story of basically every Hollywood Big Name that ever was.  So for me, meh.

WHO WILL RUN THE FROG HOSPITAL by Lorrie Moore

A grown woman’s bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth.
 
The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger—until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help—and then everything changes.

The 40-year-old protagonist remembers an adolescent year with her best friend (a depiction of female friendship, as she reveals that she and her husband are having difficulties that only couples in literary novels have, cerebral and pointless.  However, when talking about her childhood,   the book is populated with strong supporting characters who make us fall in love all the more with Berie, as good a teenage protagonist that you can find.

It is generally about estrangement of all types, and friendship, and the shelf life of such things.

HOPPER HOUSE by John L. Monk

This is the third in the Jenkins Cycle series.  It didn’t have that total finality to it, so I am assuming there are more planned.

Dan meets a mysterious woman named Rose who says he’s not alone. Like him, she’s dead and possesses the bodies of awful people. Unlike him, she doesn’t care what they’ve done, and she hides a secret shame.

Through Rose, Dan learns there are others like them, living in the shadows, hopping blissfully from ride to ride chasing excitement and chemical highs. For them, morality doesn’t matter, virtue is negotiable, and consequence has a three week expiration date.

They call themselves “hoppers.”

This is a new turn for Dan’s afterlife experience when he discovers he’s not the only person like him jumping from body to body.  Her name is Rose  Despite her efforts, he finds himself cornered by a new nemesis, one who knows all about his “condition” and how to blackmail him. But in typical Dan style, he’s not going to give in without doing his best to make the bad guy pay.  This volume dives deeper into this bizarre world Monk  has created. He expands on the possibilities of what Dan is capable of and introduces “hopper houses” where other people suffering the same eternal punishment can come and get a reprieve, that is until the landlord decides to meddle in their fun.

The minister shows up again, and is convinced that the hoppers are demons, all evil except for a few good ones like Dan.  He tells Dan he (the minister/priest) is Enoch or like Enoch, and it is his mission to rid the ‘skins’ or ‘rides’ of their demon cargo permanently.

Well, we still don’t learn what is behind all this riding or hopping, whether it is God or god or gods or aliens, or just what.  Hence my theory that the series is not over.

 

FOOL’S RIDE by John L. Monk

Dan Jenkins is back, body hopping a scumbag at a time in his quest for the perfect ride. He doesn’t need much. Premium cable TV, good books, a well-stocked pantry, and he’s set. But the Great Whomever has other plans.

After six months waiting in limbo, Dan catches a ride as a horror novelist whose gruesome stories aren’t just fiction. Later, he hunts a man who’s escaped justice for far too long. Then, in his greatest challenge yet, he strays too deeply into the lives of the people he loves: his most foolish ride of all. 

The second volume in the Jenkins Cycle is a great progression of the story line and we find out more things about the afterlife and get some theories on Dan’s status.  Poor Dan. He comprehends the magnitude of his stupid act of suicide. His guilt is so stupendous, he somehow finds himself entering the body of a living human man. What happens to the guy’s soul while Dan occupies his “ride,” we don’t know, and we don’t need to worry about that yet. Most of these guys end up dead, thanks to Dan, who somehow manages to occupy the body of a bad guy, a seriously, horribly bad guy who deserves to die immediately. And should have died before he had a chance to ruin so many other lives.  The story progresses, one surprise after another, flying bullets, innocents to save, donuts to devour and food, food, food.  Dan reminds us of how much fun it is to be human, and how great it is just to eat in front of a big-screen TV.

Still loving this, and now want to know more about what or who is behind all this.  On to the third volume.

KICK by John L. Monk

They say suicides are damned for eternity. But if coming back to life in the bodies of violent criminals is Hell, then Dan Jenkins will take it. And he does, every time a portal arrives to whisk him from his ghostly exile in limbo.

Dan rides the living like a supernatural jockey, pushing out their consciousness and taking over. They’re bad guys, right? Killers and brutes of every sort, which makes it okay. He doesn’t know where their minds go while he’s in charge, and for the most part doesn’t care. For three weeks at a time, it’s a chance to relax and watch movies, read fantasy novels, and have random conversations with perfect strangers.

Normally, before the villain returns to kick him out, Dan dishes out a final serving of justice and leaves the world a safer place. It’s one of the rules if he wants more rides, and he’s happy to oblige. For a part-time dead guy, it’s a pretty good gig … until someone changes the rules.

“Kick” is the first book in a series of dark fantasy paranormal thrillers. If you like “Quantum Leap” and “Every Day,” you’ll love this gritty, hilarious, and original take on the body hijacking hero story. Vividly written, “Kick” is a wild ride with a sharp sarcastic wit and a flawed yet likable main character.

When Dan was a confused college kid having issues with his girlfriend, he committed suicide. Since then he’s been in – what he calls – “the Great Wherever” but regularly gets sent by “the Great Whomever” into the bodies of living humans – usually violent criminals – to dispense justice. Typically, he has about 3 weeks to figure out what the person, or his “ride” as Dan calls it, has done and what vigilante action is required. Then he is kicked out of the body again by the original owner’s consciousness.  It is funny in places, in spite of the dark basis for the storyline.  It is compelling… I couldn’t stop reading it.  What a clever take on the vigilante hero takes over someone else’s body.  Loved this book.