Pixi Reads

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wineglasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body―but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?

As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within―and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.

Oh my goodness! The writing! The characters! The descriptions! I couldn’t get through this fast enough. I loved this book!

I had recommended this to my Director at work before I’d even read it. I was in a slump and had heard it was good, and I knew my Director had read most if not all of N K Jemisin’s other books. I felt weird having recommended something I hadn’t read, I already owned the book and had been wanting to read it myself. I was in a slump of sorts and maybe this would be the book to pull me out of this reading funk thing I was in. This book was almost exactly what the doctor ordered. (Spoiler, I tried picking up others after this and went right back to the funk I was in.)

The characters were great. I wish I could meet them for real. They are written in a way which makes me feel like I could run into them on the street somewhere in New York City. They have disagreements between them I feel I’ve had, felt, or witnessed. It’s a nice thing to see those things through these characters eyes and I felt I got a bit of an understanding of these things.

I can’t say enough to recommend this book. I have never been to New York City, but of what I have heard of what people there are like from wherever we hear things of other areas, these characters fit those ideas and taught a few others. These stereotypes and how they get along and interact together made me think about my own thoughts and actions a bit. I don’t know if that was a thought when N K Jemisin wrote the book, but this did make me think.

This book was enjoyable watching the characters think about and learn what was happening to their city, and learn what they are, what they are to the city. There were battles to be fought, although not the kind of battle I usually enjoy, but they were battles and I enjoyed reading of these battles.

I loved this book and think you will to. You don’t have to be a fantasy lover, or urban fantasy lover. This is just a great story; a well written, well thought story.