Charlie Belleville

More lecturing than insightful, fleshing out previous works rather than standing on its own

Évalué le: 2024-11-14

Definitely read the works of Ressler and Douglas before this one. It mostly assumes you have, even as it reiterates a lot of what they’ve said.

While this does add the much needed voice of the third pillar of the BSU, it ultimately fails to be as insightful air scientific as one would hope. Instead it mostly oscillates between summarizing crimes, giving a shallow dive into the psychology, and then recriminations the audience for even reading/listening to that.

It’s frustrating that Ann herself has such a passion for this subject, but is angry about others who share it. She almost seems loathe to be writing this book. While she dedicates it to the victims, in truth she spends next to no time talking about them; Douglas actually did a better job speaking about the importance of victims and how profiling them matters, too.

I just don’t think Ann wanted to write this. I think she felt she had to.

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A solid entry in Cathy’s post-fostering career

Évalué le: 2024-09-06

Some spoilers ahead.

While the previous book from Glass was meandering and ultimately a bit pointless, feeling like a slow coast to a stop as she wrapped up fostering for good, this book manages to recover some momentum after all. Cathy’s new job as a community liaison who helps support families in their homes to prevent them from sliding into the disarray that necessitates removing children is as vital a role as she played before, although now she finds herself caught up in the story of the parents more than the children.

This was an interesting change of pace. Cathy knows how to manage children, and even in the writing of this book often gives our advice on incentives, child-rearing, discipline and consistency. But this is her first time managing an adult who behaves like a child, and her usual techniques are stymied in the face of toxic behaviour and cycles of poor decision making. It’s one thing to break a habit in a child and make new, healthy ones - what do you do with a parent who has children because of the bad choices and habits they had, and therefore will continue to have as it becomes their source of coping with those mistakes?

It’s painful, hearing Janey repeatedly verbally abuse her kids and endanger their new puppy. But it’s even more painful to realize that her trust is routinely betrayed by others in her life, as she’s preyed upon by people she believes to be her friends. A single mother on benefits is somehow still a target for the monsters of the world. Her loneliness is palpable, and it isn’t surprising that she tries to fill it in all the wrong ways - by dating bad men, getting a dog, and cosseting her youngest like a doll.

I also enjoyed the reflective visits to the retired foster care woman, whom Cathy has such an obvious bond with. As Cathy contemplates moving to senior care, I find myself looking forward to the stories she might tell from the other end of human existence.

Finally, the brief respite care of a child who comes out swinging against the foster care system repeatedly returning her to her unfit mother raises a question Cathy has occasionally rumbled on in the past - if the attempts to reunite children with their parents at any costs is actually a detriment. This comes to a head near the end of the book, where Cathy makes a call that ultimately removes Janey’s children from her. Janey feels betrayed that the one truly honest person in her life had “turned against her” - especially sad given her loneliness and bad judgement - but as Cathy rightly states, it was Janey who had betrayed herself. And yet Cathy’s guilt drives her to help Janey get her children back - even though she is weighed by doubts that it’s the best thing for them. Unfortunately this is a recent story, so time will tell if returning to their mostly well-meaning but very immature mother was the right thing for Janey’s three children and Max the dog.

I really enjoyed the self-reflection Cathy did in this book. It was more engaging than in the last, and featured her doubts and uncertainty in her new role in a way I haven’t seen since her first novels. Though she may have drawn out the material a bit too much, there is something to say for the repetitive self-destruction Cathy witnesses in Janey’s life, and the helplessness she feels trying to “parent” an adult.

Finally, this is the first time I feel Danica Fairman let down Cathy a bit. Her performance as Janey was a redo of Cass from “Cruel to be Kind”, but lacked the humanity and eventual warmth she lent that poor woman. Janey is given a distinctly detestable tone throughout, even in her more vulnerable moments.

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Some of the best of Glass

Évalué le: 2024-09-01

This was my first book from Cathy Glass, and now that I’ve read almost two dozen, I feel I can declare it one of the very best with some authority.

Max may be a pseudonym, but it’s a sadly well-chosen one for the boy at the center of this book. He’s a boy experiencing a very particular kind of abuse - one not done with intent, but out of ignorance. Despite his corpulence, Max is clearly a wonderful child, and one who’s stuck with me. I know you shouldn’t pick favourites, but he’s one of mine.

Some of Glass’ usually frustrating writing problems are here - her tendency to repeat everything constantly, to proselytize from the pulpit about her beliefs about child rearing and health (not just as herself, but puppeting other characters in the story to repeat her words over and over to grant them even more authority) - but it’s not as bad as other books, which seem to assume you have severe brain damage with their amount of constant recapping. There’s actually some nice writing here and there, good turns of phrase, and most importantly, the shine of humanity emanating from just about every character who lingers in the pages. There’s some keen observation and rueful tragedy that Glass illuminates, often very loudly, but occasionally with a touch of subtlety. Danica Fairman also brings a lot to the performance - what at first could seem gross caricatures soon become heartbreaking and real, and the caricature revealed to be put-on shell that the real person needed to construct to survive.

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About as generic as revisionist fantasy gets

Évalué le: 2024-06-03

There is nothing here not done before and often better in other works in the genre. Of all the characters, Marie was the most fresh, but even she retreads Princess Fiona’s storyline from Shrek with little addition. Jack is literally the same Jack as found in a plurality of these revisionist tales, although he had perhaps the only interesting wrinkle in his backstory.

The performance of the male narrator was particularly good, managing multiple male voices. The female voice actor played two characters very well (Marie and Jack’s Mother), but all others were painful to listen to, nails on chalkboard level, which heavily interfered with enjoyment. Thankfully those characters moved on fairly quickly.

There’s just nothing unique enough to recommend here. It does the job, but is mostly going through the motions.

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Sensationalized and assuming, occasionally chiding

Évalué le: 2024-05-30

This is a book about a real thing written as if it were a fictional book. It doesn’t help that the author honest to God says “parents always know better than their children” multiple times throughout, which is just not at all true nor helpful. The author is often patronizing, even as she does sometimes do a good job getting into a teen girl’s head and relating the thoughts she thinks they may have had.

It is an interesting way to experience this story, but I don’t know if it’s the best way.

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A mix of news stories and one man’s harem through a lifetime

Évalué le: 2024-05-05

I very much liked the concept, and following one particular, seemingly small man rather than someone at the epicentre. Unfortunately his side of the story deteriorates into a series of vignettes about his various loves - all who seem like the exact same woman. They’re all beautiful in the same way, talk the same, and all are pretty boring. Aside from one who seems like a lampshaded attempt at justifying jailbait.

It reads very much like this had a male author to whom females are a strange, mysterious but ultimately identical species. By the end I was so sick of John that I looked forward to the breaks from his incredibly horny and barren mind, as the wider story of the world and premise was much more intriguing. I wish any one of those vignettes had been the main story, rather than the harem of John we got.

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Cathy winding down

Évalué le: 2024-01-26

This feels very like the penultimate chapter in Cathy Glass’s fostering career. The first story, taking up the majority of the book, is not a very interesting one, and lacks a proper denouement as the children go on to a different foster family. Even if compassionately written, it lacks the insight and familiarity that marks the best Glass stories. It is interweaved with Cathy looking in on previous fosters of her and assuring their well-being in a more grandmotherly way, which is a nice evolution of her previous work, but which are repetitious and don’t add much to the narrative other than foreshadowing her stepping back from fostering and concentrating on such post-fostering supports (brilliant thing to do and perfect for Cathy, not very interesting to read).

The narrative is more of a victory lap than a story in itself, though it ends on the short but intriguing case of a young girl who ran away from cult. I do think Cathy has earned such a thing, and it’s no doubt rewarding for people who’ve read her books over the many years.But on its own, I don’t think this is a story I’ll return to.

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Please Sir, I’d like some more!

Évalué le: 2023-09-26

Comedy should be funny, and this one is. It’s also the best thing Croshaw has written so far. Having a straight-laced, sincere protagonist counters his nihilistic edge, and makes the cynical world all the more interesting because she has no desire to buck the system. Allicent’s earnestness is a refreshing island in a world where everyone is looking to weaponize “kindness” for their own benefit, throwing all the hypocrisy into sharper relief than Croshaw’s more jaded protagonists ever could. She’s far from perfect, as she may go along with the madness and be a part of it, but she is a well-meaning straight man who allows the cast to shine while remaining likeable and intelligent in her own right. While the world and concept isn’t anything terribly new in fiction, I do like this cast of characters and the commentary on modern society, even if neither has really been explored as much as I think they deserve.

In a year of some bad audiobook reads and unfunny comedies, Croshaw continues to deliver the laughs. But this is his first series where I actually want to follow the cast to many, many stories. I hope we get them!

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Good Enough, but basic Pulp

Évalué le: 2023-09-26

While we’ll likely never know how much of the story came from the case Kenda insinuates inspired it, I find it hard to believe that truth makes up more than 10% of this extremely basic beach thriller. Still, it is a fun read, with an excellent narrator who kept the characters straight for me with a unique performance for each one (though I did miss Joe Kenda’s iconic voice for his own character).

It is exploitational, lurid, bloody and everything you could want from a breezy summer read. But maybe not everything I wanted from Joe Kenda. I liked the messiness of his stories, how they didn’t fall into basic cop fiction tropes but explored mundane tragedies. This is very much a catch-the-psychopath-serial-killer-before-he-strikes-again jaunt, just with a fictionalized Kenda on the case - except he never really, as far as we know, took on big international cases where he hunted down former mercenaries on a for-fun killing spree.

It wasn’t what I hoped for, nor expected, but it was entertaining enough.

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Klara and the Sum being Less than its Parts

Évalué le: 2023-09-26

- there’s so, so much filler. This story could’ve easily been a short story, but instead dialogue repeats ideas over and over again, and then has scenes repeat them over and over until you start to wonder if the author thinks you’re stupid or something.

- the dialogue is awkward and, though the characters are meant to be English speakers, one even from English, their syntax is very Japanese and isn’t how a native speaker would communicate. It’s like a poorly translated manga, relying on filler words and odd structure that lacks depth or subtext. So much of it is “Is that so? I see! As you know…” That could work for a robot, but all the characters speak in this repetitive, boring and unnatural way.

- Dull, dull, dull.

- I like the central premise of a robot who creates a religion and tries to influence the world through that, rather than her assigned role. But that premise isn’t really explored, and Klara has no arc or introspection on that topic. She never faces a real challenge nor price for her beliefs, not even skepticism. At one point she has to give something up to achieve what she believes in. I kept waiting for that sacrifice to really hit her and cause a domino effect that would lead into some interesting problems, but all she gets is a little light-headed, despite the big deal made about it.

- the voice does a great job, but reading such dull, repetitive text as slowly as she does makes it even worse. She also gives Josie a very dislikeable voice, which I assumed had something to do with where the character would go - but no, you’re meant to really like and invest in a kid with a valley mean girl accent. It’s not a bad choice, considering there was initially some tension there, but it’s still an unpleasant sound that kept me at arm’s length from her.

All in all, one of the worst reads I’ve had all year.

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