Murder in the Secret Garden by Ellery Adams

There's a point toward the end of this novel that Jane Steward, the heroine asks herself  Have I misjudged others as well? and you're screaming at the book Well Yes, just about everyone you've come in contact with this book, you idiot!  I have no idea what her problem was in this book but the author has her going off on so many people and thinking the absolute worst of everyone;  Especially Edwin whose only crime is having not rushed back with the manuscript.  But she doesn't wait for a logical explanation he's guilty as charged.  Although, he finds ways around that.  He is a clever man and used to being punished. 

Anyway, two things are going on at the hotel: The Medieval Herbalists are having their annual meeting and Victoria and Connor are getting married.  Victoria's sister, Hannah is a medieval herbalist and she suggested the place to Victoria as a place to get married at.  The herbalists are a calm bunch, though, one Kira Grace had taken photos of one of the herbalists who was married to the Poison Princess, a famous herbalist who grows and talks about poisonous plants.  When Kira is found dead of poisoning the husband and wife and the Poison Princess are all questioned but they have alibis. Who else was Kira blackmailing?

Tom, the local plant store owner is offered membership if he takes the group to meet the druid and see his garden.  Tom does this knowing that it will anger the druid because he wants answers.  Someone kills the druid.  Was it for what he was doing now or something he did in his old life?  On top of that, an ancient herbal text that was locked but on display in the library has gone missing.  Who has stolen this book that came from the special hidden library?

Truth be told this was not one of my favorite books.   I did enjoy it when she finally turned to Eloise, her best friend after seeing the druid die and having an overall really bad day.. She gives her a shot of really fine whiskey then makes her a cup of coffee with whiskey in it,  Then she closes her shop and goes with her to be with her as she does whatever else needs to be done. That's a true friend and that's what my friends would do for me.  Only we'd skip the coffee cause I hate coffee and just pour me another shot.  The ending sucks and takes some getting used to to come to accept it.  I hope for better things in the next book.  I give this four out of five stars.

Quotes

The night flowers see but one moon

-Jean Ingelow

The heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care.

-Emily Dickenson

Men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

-Thoreau

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.

-Virginia Wolf

We all keep parts of our stories hidden, Jane thought.  A chapter or two buried deeply within ourselves so that it can’t hurt us anymore.  But the words and images find a way to the light. They always find a way.  Stories aren’t meant to be hidden. Even the ugliest, most painful ones must be revealed or they’ll rot inside of us like moldy pages.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Secret Garden p 254)

A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself. That’s how I hold your voice.

-“Buoyancy”

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Secret-Garden-Retreat-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01839Q2M4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KL3OZD4ZKHP9&dchild=1&keywords=murder+in+the+secret+garden&qid=1593428482&sprefix=murder+in+the+secret+gar%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

Occupy Avengers Vol 1:Tacking Back Justice by David F. Walker (Writer), Carlos Pacheco (Penciler), Rafael Fonteriz (Inker). Sonia Oback (Colorist), Wil Quintana (Colorist), VC's Clayton Cowles (Letterer), Travis Lanham (Letterer)

Clif Barton, aka Hawkeye, has just killed his best friend Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, at his request with a special bullet and a special arrow they devised together,  It's haunting him what he has done. And so he is traveling the US looking for people to help to get this weight of guilt off of his chest. That's when he arrives in Sweet Medicine, a Native American Reservation where there is indeed something wrong.  Years ago the water got contaminated and someone was supposed to fix it but no one did.  Now they drink out of plastic water bottles.  One night he meets up with Deputy Red Wolf when some men come on the Reservation looking for Clint to investigate him and see what he knows and find out who he is.  The two are doing pretty good fighting off the men until they run into Hydraman and he overwhelms them and they get caught.  When they do get caught, they find a reservoir of water that is on Reservation land that greedy men are stealing.

When that is over with it turns out that Red Wolf has traveled through time and has died before but he is not ready to die yet until he has learned life's lesson, decides to wander the US with Hawkeye and they decide to right wrongs;  They discover a mechanical head of a dead president from the 80s and go to Chicago and face Nightwing's wrath in order to speak to his sidekick Deadly Nightshade who is a whiz with mechanics. And she says that it\s made with Epidurim which makes Life Model Decoys.  No sooner has she finished her analysis than Colonel Nick Fury arrives to attack them with an army.

Also included in this book are two Avengers comics; One from 1980 and one from 1981.  This was an amazing book! It was so well written! I have to say that Hawkeye has always been one of my favorite Avengers and this book really shows off his talents and explores how he is getting praised from the public as a hero for killing the Hulk when he feels he did the wrong thing.  And this new character Red Wolf is mysterious and intriguing.  Overall this is one of the best comics I've read in a long while.  I give it my highest rating of five stars out of five stars.

Quotes

 There are three kinds of bad guys with machine guns. The first have really good aim and they kill you end of story.  The second have really bad aim and you get away throw a party afterward.  And then there’s the third. The’re deliberately missing you because they don’t want you dead.  They want to capture you. Interrogate you.  Maybe throw in some torture cause there’s some psycho-sexual thing about being in control and causing pain.  It's best to avoid the third type of guy with a machine gun as much as the first type of guy with a machine gun.   Both are bad for your health.  Biggest problem is you don’t know which kind you’re dealing with so you have to assume the worst.

          -Hawkeye (Occupy Avengers Vol 1:Tacking Back Justice)

Guns are impersonal. Knives are brutal.  But here’s the thing. But the arrow…that’s the elegance.  It’s an unwritten letter in an age of text messages.  A bow and arrow really says “From me to you with love and kisses.”

-Hawkeye (Occupy Avengers Vol 1: Taking Back Justice)

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Occupy-Avengers-Vol-Taking-Justice/dp/1302906380/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1M4KOOQ943F66&dchild=1&keywords=occupy+avengers&qid=1593189412&sprefix=occupy+av%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

Agents of S.H.I.I.E.L.D. Vol 1: Coulson Protocols by Marc Guggenheim (Writer), German Peralta (Aritst), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist). Chris Sotomayor (Colorost). and VC's Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

The members of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team are: Bobbi Morse-Barton, aka Mockingjay; Henery Hayes, aka Deathlok; Daisy Johnson, aka Quake; Melinda May; Jenna Simmons, Ph.D.; Leo Fitz; and their leader Phil Coulson.  One of Tony Stark's old Iro Man suits goes missing. On top of that an old girlfriend of Coulson's, Lola, once got him to tell her how to defeat all the superheroes; Then she wiped his mind clean as she's a telepath and gave the info to the Department of Defense whom she was working with who put it onto a hard drive. Now that hard drive has been stolen and is up for sale to the highest bidder. 

The Iron Man Uses Lola to redo what she did before and get the information out of Coulson so he can go after superheroes.  However, S.H.I.E.L.D. goes after the superheroes to help them and sends the word out to them about their weakness.  Who is behind the Iron Man mask? Can the team survive with the knowledge that Coulson came up with ways to take them out just in case they went rogue?  This is a fabulous book and I give it five out of five stars;

Listed on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Agents-S-H-I-L-D-Vol-Protocols/dp/0785196285/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2C3CZN059NN9W&dchild=1&keywords=agents+of+shield+vol+1&qid=1593005536&sprefix=agents+of+shield+vol+1%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-1

The Vanishing by Jayne Ann Krentz

First off this is not one of Krentz's best works and the bad news is there's a good chance there will be a sequel.  Catalina and Oliva as teens go into the caves at Fogg Lake at home like all teens do only two men come in while they're there and one kills the other by injecting a needle into him leaving them to run into the deepest darkest part of the caves where they find the Devil's Chandelier a source of powerful psychic energy.  They wait till dawn when the town will come looking for them and they'll be safe.

Now it's fifteen years later and Catalina and Oliva are living in Seatle and have opened up a detective agency.  Olivia feels that tonight is the night to tell her boyfriend about her psychic abilities and see what happens.  But when she doesn't turn up for work the next day and it turns out she never made it to her boyfriend's house the previous night, Catalina is worried and knows that she needs to call in the Foundation a group that polices the psychics.  Oddly enough one of them lands on her doorstep that morning wanting her help on a case. His name is Slater Arganbright and he's just gotten out of spending six months inside the "attic" of his uncles' house going mad and recovering from being gassed. His powers are changing.

They talk to Maggie a homeless woman who has some powers who hang out near their offices and she says that she sees two clones take Olivia in a vehicle and inject her with a needle.  They figure out that the clones she saw were really twins and that they need her to use her powers to do something.  Slater believes they need her to find the Devil's Chandelier which is one of the old labs that used to exist.

This book is dull and it feels like she's gone over this territory before a million times.  There's nothing fresh and the characters are boring and the sex scenes are short and lack sizzle.  I'm a huge Jayne Ann Krentz fan and this book was a huge disappointment for me.  I give it two and half stars. The half star goes for the fork.

Quotes

“A fork? Really?” “People think it’s odd if you carry a knife or gun in your handbag.” “But they don’t take much notice of a fork,” “No,” Catalina said. “They don’t.” “Have you ever had to use it before tonight?” “Once,” Catalina said. “What happened?” “I’m still here.” “I think I’ll get myself a fork.”

-Jayne Ann Krentz (The Vanishing p 26-7)

“But revenge is still revenge, and you know what they say about embarking on that journey.”  She sighed.  “That business about first digging two graves? I don’t think it will come to that, but I can tell you one thing.” “What?” “Payback doesn’t feel nearly as good as it should.” “Karma bites.”

-Jayne Ann Krentz (The Vanishing p 131)

Listed on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Fogg-Lake-Book-ebook/dp/B07QZNKK2H/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=the+vanishing&qid=1592830853&sr=8-3

   

The Amazing Spider=Man Vol 6: Absolute Carnage by Nick Spencer (Writer), Franacesco Manna (Artist), Carlos Lopez (Colorist), Ryan Ottley (Peciler), Cliff Rathburn (Inker). Nathan Fairburn (Colorist), Rob Fee (Writer), Sean Ryan (Writer). Patrick Gleason (Writer). Pete Woods (Artist, Colorist), Ray-Anthony Height (Artist), Marc Deering (Artist), Dono Sanchez-Almaro (Colorist), Protobunker (Colorist). VC's Joe Carmagna (Letterer), (VC\s Joe Sabino)

In the previous comics, the F.E.A.S.T. community center opened by Aunt Mae was wrecked twice before it could open. Once by crime Syndicate lawyer Janice Lincoln in her Beetle form, though she is trying to make it up to her boyfriend Randy Robertson who is a friend of the Parkers.  Meanwhile, Mary Jane saved theatergoers from Electro by impersonating his real target and wound up with an incredible job offer. 

He helps MJ pack and then goes to help Aunt Mae paint and has a heart to heart with her about how do you know if that person is the love of your love and the one you marry.  Then his newfound sister and S.H.I.E.L.D. superspy drops by and asks for his help. It seems that someone she cares deeply for has been taken and she needs his help getting him back. This will probably mean that he won't see MJ off at the airport like he promised, but he does it anyway.

The last comic is about Norman Osbourne as Carnage and how he tells the symbiote that he can have one kill a night and when he has that kill there are witnesses so he kills them too and soon he's burning down an apartment building and Norman feels bad for like one second.  Then he runs into an old college friend that screwed him over and he gets revenge.  Then they show a young boy out trick or treating who goes to the wrong house. 

The middle comic makes no sense whatsoever.  It seems to be two dream sequences at the same time and reality thrown in there.  The reality seems to be Norman locked up in a mental ward but you're not sure if he's the one having the dreams or not.  There's a creature, Kindred who's outside Norman's cell and seems to be controlling the dreams which involve Carnage fighting Spider-Man and Peter Parker protecting his friends, some of who are dead. 

Overall, this comic was okay, but not great.  The first comic was rather boring, the second one was confusing as hell, and the third one was okay.  It was interesting to see Norman and others as Carnage and to see Peter Parker with a sister.  This wasn't a bad comic, it just wasn't great.  I give it two and a half stars out of five.

Listed on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Nick-Spencer-Vol/dp/1302917277/ref=sr_1_1?crid=44I8B4YDAE2E&dchild=1&keywords=the+amazing+spider-man+vol+6&qid=1592570170&sprefix=the+amazing+spider-man+vol+%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-1

Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith Vol 1: Imperial Machine by Charles Soule (Writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (Penciler)Cam Smith (Inker), David Curiel (COlorist), VC's Joe Caramaga(Letterer)

The Clone Wars are over and Anakin was left for dead by Obi-Wan on Mustafar where the Emperor picked him up and restored his body in a cybernetic creation.  Anakin is devastated that Padme is dead and can't be brought back to life.  The Emperor tells him he must pour all thoughts of revenge into the building of the Empire. The Emperor becomes rather pissed when he finds that Darth Vader doesn't have his lightsaber. This means that he'll have to defeat a Jedi and win his lightsaber and then take all the grief and anger in him and turn the kyber crystal red, giving him a Sith lightsaber.

He attacks the Jedi historical collection housing base in order to pursue the database of Jedis who took the vow to stay out of it or those who before the conflict and taken the Barash Vow to live outside the Jedi Order until his path becomes clear to him.  Now that the Jedi are gone and the man standing before him is one of those responsible for the destruction of the Jedi his new path seems clear: to take him out and his master.

Also included in this comic is a funny mini-comic that features Darth Vader and a small droid in their adventures. This was a fantastic comic as you never hear the story of how Vader gets his Sith lightsaber.  And it doesn't come easy.  Also interesting is the foreshadowing of the end of the clone army.  I give this book five out of five stars. 

Listed on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Darth-Imperial-Machine-ebook/dp/B076C129TM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=star+wars+dark+vader+imperial+machine&qid=1592398657&sr=8-1

Murder in the Paperback Parlor by Ellery Adams

Jane Steward is the widowed mother of twin sons Fitzgerald "Fitz" and Hemingway "Hem" and is the general manager of her aunt and uncle's hotel getaway for booklovers in the Virginia mountains.  She is also the Guardian of the secret library that exists on the grounds filled with unpublished works by famous authors.  Each day she trains with the Fins, the men who also work at the hotel in combat training to defend that library. 

This week is the Romance Readers Week at the hotel.  Several writers will be coming to rub elbows with their fans and make things available to auction off at the auction.  Rosamund York, the number one writer will be auctioning off copies of her yet to be published book Eros Steals A Bride to anyone who bids at least $25, while Georgia Dupree will be auctioning off the naming of a character in her new book, Barbara Jewel offered to critique a work in progress, and Ciara Lovelace presented a special book club package.  But everyone wanted a copy of York's book, which makes the other authors green with envy because their offering is not as good.  

Maria Stone, her biggest fan and an even bigger feminist who gets royally pissed off with this new series that features a male chauvinist and not the feminist hero she had been known for writing.   Everyone hates the book.  Then at five a.m., the Fins find Rosamund dead outside in the garden with vomit around her, indicating she had been poisoned.  

Was it Maria the rabid fan, or Georgia who once threatened her and who could now finally stand in the spotlight, or one of the other writers hoping to boost their sales? Or was it the journalist Nigel Poindexter who was overheard saying to Rosamund that he was done and that it was over.  To which Rosamund replied not if I can help it. What is their connection and what is her hold on him?  Or did her faithful publicist Taylor Birch do her in?  

As with the first book, Adams does an amazing job of writing a mystery.  I still want to find this place and go there.  She's added a new character to the hotel, a Fin named Lachlan who suffers from PTSD and has a painful past that might be alleviated by Jane's friend Eloise.  Jane and Edwin become closer only to hit a snag when her aunt and uncle and Sinclair tell her about Edwin's past and why they didn't want her seeing him she is shocked.  I give this book a five out of five stars.

Quotes

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.

-Mark Twain

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.

-C.S. Lewis

Jane bit into a biscuit and couldn’t help but sigh.  There was something profoundly soothing about the taste and texture of the buttery dough.  It was as though someone had wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and placed her feet in a basin of hot water. The feeling of comfort sank into Jane’s bones and gave her strength.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 97)

The drowning man is not troubled by rain.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 103)

There’s no such thing as bad whiskey.

-William Faulkner

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.

-Mark Twain

Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied.

-Mark Twain

Oh, what lies lurk in kisses.

-Heinrich Heine

Too many relationships start off like a romance novel and end up like a horror story.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 251)

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Paperback-Parlor-Retreat-Mystery/dp/0425265609/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1UOS5RY0XLL4U&dchild=1&keywords=murder+in+the+paperback+parlor&qid=1592222981&sprefix=murder+in+the+pap%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-2

Locke and Key Vol 4: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill (Writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (Artist). Jay Fotos (Colorist), Bobbie Robbins (Letterer)

This comic focuses on Kinsey who kept her younger brother alive by going up onto the roof.   Now she has changed her appearance from the wild dreadlocked crazy clothes chick to a more conservative look that blends in and doesn't get noticed.  She joins the track and field and a girl there makes overtures of friendship and offers to go running with her in the morning but Kinsey shuts her down.  On top of that, the man who was responsible for her father's death and for their moving into Key House has escaped prison and is heading right for them.  Kinsey is a difficult character in that while she was able to do her sisterly duty and protect her brother she still feels guilty and to blame for what happened, hence the changing of the clothes and the hair.  She refuses to get close to anyone for fear of getting them in danger.   She lives in constant fear and she's worried about her younger brother.

Kinsey begins to change some. She dyes part of her hair green and makes friends with some misfits from school. But things go wrong with her friendships when she uses her key to take away her grief and agrees to share a memory with one of them, then does so with the other as well making the first one jealous.  Also, she is looking at getting back together with Zach, who it turns out is the Dark Lady of the Well and a bad person who is just using her to get the Omega Key that her brother Ty has. 

Ty has been hanging out with Zach and others and been noticing odd things like the pack of wild dogs that happen to come by.  Or when he visits his gay friend in the hospital and he describes on to the people who hurt him as having a lip ring like Zach's.   Or how Kinsey is now begging him to let her have to Omega Key to hold for a while which was Zach's idea. 

This was one of the best of the series.  Kinsey begins to realize the power of the keys and how a lack of fear is not always a good thing. How grief can be necessary.  Ty, I think has figured this out, but he's older.  Bode, the younger brother, is innocent and wants to see the good in people.  He also wants to have fun with his key, the ghost key, where he becomes a ghost.  This book shows the family divided and at odds with one another.  Will they be able to come together to battle Zach and see him for what he is?  I give this book five out of five stars.

Quotes

 

It’s hard to make relationships work with others when you don’t have a good relationship with yourself.

-Brian (Locke and Key vol 4: Keys to the Kingdom)

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Locke-Key-Keys-Kingdom-Vol/dp/1613772076/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=AUK0RJD7OR81&dchild=1&keywords=locke+and+key+volume+4&qid=1591968298&sprefix=Locke+and+key+%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzU1UzNTI4NE00NFZYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTY1NTgwMklUTlIyNDdRUDJEUCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjY3NjE3OU9HRzBDTUE0SEVTJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Cloak and Dagger Vol 2: Negative Exposure by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum (Writer), Francisco Manna (Artist), Ruairi COleman (Artist), Giada Marchiso (Colorist), VC's Travis Landam (Letterer)

In the previous comic, Cloak and Dagger, Tandy and Tyson, have broken up and Tyson hasn't accepted it, while Tandy felt the need to move on.  They still meet to allow Tyson to let off some of the Darkforce.  Tandy is working with the police on raids and Tyson is working for a rapper as a bodyguard.  When Tandy goes on a raid and discovers a body that has been sucked grey it brings back a memory of another body in her teen years with Tyson who used his power to do that to someone they knew.  Detective Ikeda comes over to her house demanding answers that she can't give.  While she keeps him at arm's length, she has feelings for him. He tells her there have been more bodies over the past few months. She doesn't know what to make of this. Tyson has been trying to get in touch with Tandy for three days to relieve his Darkforce but she won't return his calls because she can't face him thinking he killed all those people.  We see back to when Tandy and Tyson were teens to when one day on the subway when they met Grey a guy filled with smoke who calmed an edgy Tyson.  The three were inseparable.  Grey had the ability to fog people's minds and get away with stealing things.  Then Tyson killed Grey and left a grey husk. But it's not Tyson leaving these dead bodies as Tandy accuses him of when he breaks into her house in order to get her help with the Darkforce and confront her with why she's been ghosting him.  It's Grey.  He didn't actually die and now he's back for revenge and to take their life-force.

The defeat Grey and find peace in their relationship;  They realize that they really need to work together again so Tandy convinces Ty to come to work with her and the police which is a big sell considering how he feels about them.  Tandy is dating Detective Ikea and has her and Ty working with him in the field and it's a bit of a disaster.  He's overprotective and doesn't trust her to be able to do the job which leads to lots of fights between them. While that's going on Ty has met a lovely woman named Vi who is into danger and thinks he's cool as hell and loves to play in the Darkforce.

Meanwhile, Mr. Negative made a deal with a planet killer for power if he delivered Ty all powered up and got rid of Tandy, which meant separating them.  When Tandy takes Ikea down to the sewers to find what might be there they find more ghouls controlled by Mr. Negative.  They get out but Mr. Negative manages to gain control of Ikea's mind and he uses him to keep Tandy and Ty apart.  He's being the perfect boyfriend, yet Tandy is turned off.  There's someone else she's thinking of.  But first, they must save Ty from the planet killer and get rid of Mr. Negative for good.

This series is proving to be a great one.  I hope this means that Ikea is out of the picture because he was annoying.  I hate men that won't let women fight their own battles especially when they are strong enough to do so.  Vi was an interesting character.  She has some kind of control over the dark force and doesn't seem to be aware of it.  She's wild and unrestrained and is good for Ty. She is someone who loves his talent and thinks he's awesome the way he is.  The art was amazing especially the dark force imagery.  This book had a good storyline and I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

“Anytime I’m getting my ass kicked you run away.” “I’m a cop, Tamdy, not a coward.” Brandon wants to protect me , wants ot be the big strong man. When he’s so obviously the breakable one.

-Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum (Cloak and Dagger Vol 2: Negative Exposure)

Have you ever hated somebody so much you're not sure you want to see her save the world?

-Vi (Cloak and Dagger Vole 2:Negative Exposure)

“You know you never think of yourself as a plucky alterntative cast member until your girlfriend slices a doorway into a dimention to go save the world…and you realize there’s nothing left for you to do but wait.

-Detective Ikea (Cloak and Dagger Vol.2: Negative Exposure)

Listed on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Negative-Marvel-Comics/dp/130291510X/ref=sr_1_24?dchild=1&keywords=cloak+and+dagger+vol+2+negative&qid=1591792461&sr=8-24

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Collins does the impossible: She makes young Coriolanus Snow a sympathetic character.  Don't get me wrong there are still times you want to whack him on the head for some of the things that go through his head and how he feels he is above it all, but honestly that last part comes directly from his grandmother who has beaten into his head that a Snow is practically royalty his entire life.  There is even a moment in the book when his grandmother says "Remember, Coriolanus, that wherever you go, you will always be a Snow. No one can ever take that from you.” He wondered if that wasn’t the problem. The impossibility of being a Snow in this postwar world. What it had driven him to do. But he only said, “I’ll try to one day be worthy of it.” Maybe if his mother had lived she would have steered him in a different direction, as she was a sweet and kind woman.  But as a young man in this book, he is not the fully formed evil president from the Hunger Games books that went after Katniss.  You'll watch as he is molded unwittingly by the devious and truly evil Dr. Gaul the Gamemker who has plans for him.

The Dean of Students, Dean Highbottom hates Coriolanus because of bad blood between him and his father and he's taking it out on him so Coriolanus winds up with the girl from District 12.  This year for the first time they are using students as mentors and doing an interview segment to promote interest in the Hunger Games. This is the tenth games and no one is watching.  They will also have a host. Coriolanus is worried about his chances because he needs to do well in this thing in order to get a university scholarship.  Then he watches as his Ruby Gray Baird is called out for District 12 and she saunters in a colorful dress-wearing makeup and tosses a snake down a girl's dress.  Then she sings a haunting song and Coriolanus sees his chances going up.

Tigris, his cousin who works to support the family any way she has to who still manage to live in the ancestral penthouse because they owe no rent or taxes on it, tells him to go and meet her at the train station and to bring her something so he decides to bring her one of his grandmother's roses.  The next night he goes to see her and Sejanus is there with food for the tributes but he who is from District 2, where he moved from won't eat any of the food he brought.  Coriolanus, who is starving eats one of the sandwiches with Lucy Gray.  He sees an advantage in being friends with Sejanus, a rich kid who wishes he still lived in District 2.

Snow comes up with the idea of allowing people to buy food for the tributes and betting on the tributes. It becomes a huge hit.  When they go down to see the stadium some rebels had set up some bombs to go off and people died.  Three of them ran off and were killed for trying to escape.  So the competition is nearly cut in half and a few of the mentors haven't made it to the opening of the Hunger Games.

Snow goes through quite a transformation. Any humanity in him is dead by the end of the book.  Granted he believes as does his cousin that "Snow Lands on Top" which is something that said to each other to get through the war that they continued to use in the hard times that followed.  You feel sorry for the young man who is starving and doesn't see a future for himself.  He falls in love with Lucy Gray his tribute and will do anything to keep her alive in the Games. Lucy Gray is a Covy a part of a group of roving musicians where she is the lead singer and a wild child who does as she pleases.  She's smart as a whip and falls for Snow too.  Sejanus is an innocent young man who is the truest idealist who wants to save the world, much to his parent's chagrin.   Snow keeps getting him out of trouble but there might come a time when he can't save him. This book is a worthy addition to the Hunger Games collection.  I was captivated from page one to the last page.  Snow is such a complex character that we get to watch devolve into the horrendously evil creature he would become.  I give this book five out of five stars. 

Quotes

Your own father used to say those people only drank water because it didn’t rain blood.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 77)

What young brains lack in experience they sometimes make up for in idealism. Nothing seems impossible to them.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 93-4)

I’ve no use for liars. What are lies but attempts to conceal some sort of weakness.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 114)

Courage in battle was often necessary because of someone else’s poor planning.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 182)

Without the threat of death it wouldn’t have been much of a lesson.  What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed.  The tributes.  And you, too.  How quickly civilization disappears.  All your fine manners, eduction, family background, everything you pride yourself on, stripped away in the blink of an eye, revealing everything you are.  A boy with a club who beats another boy to death.  That’s mankind in his natural state.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 243)

Did you tell your best friend his crush was a cannibal? Never a rule book when you needed one.

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 251)

“Remember, Corolanus, that wherever you go, you will always be a Snow. No one can ever take that from you.” He wondered if that wasn’t the problem. The impossibility of being a Snow in this postwar world. What it had driven him to do. But he only said, “I’ll try to one day be worthy of it.”

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 327)

This was his life now. Digging for worms and being at the mercy of the weather.  Elemental.  Like an animal. He knew this would be easier if he wasn’t such an exceptional person. The best and the brightest humanity had to offer, 

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 495)

And he didn’t like love, the way it had made him feel stupid and vulnerable.  If he ever married, he’d choose someone incapable of swaying his heart.  Someone he hated, even, so they could never manipulate him the way Lucy Gray had. Never make him jealous. Or weak. 

-Suzanne Collins (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes p 516)

Listed on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Songbirds-Snakes-Hunger-Games/dp/1338635174/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QRPQCSEP7O0H&dchild=1&keywords=the+ballad+of+songbirds+and+snakes&qid=1591629138&sprefix=the+ballad%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1

All New X-Men Inevitable Vol 1: Ghosts of Cyclops by Dennis Hopeless (Writer) Mark Bagley (Penciler), Andrew Hennessy (Inker), Nolan Woodard (Colorist), VC's Cory Petit (Letterer)

In the previous X-Men series, Scarlet Witch took away the powers of 99% of all mutants on earth.  The Phoenix decided to get involved and possessed and corrupted Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men who then struck down Professor Xavier. It took all of the Avengers and the X-Men to bring him down.  The Phoenix Force was dispersed across earth creating new mutants. Cyclops, with Emma Frost, have joined forces to start recruiting mutants for the new Charles Xavier School for Mutants.  At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Kitty Pride, Beast, Iceman, and Storm are concerned about this as no one has ever trusted Magneto and now they aren't sure about Scott after what happened to the Professor.  They would, of course, rather have these mutants under their roof learning.  It goes without saying that in this world the law and others like them want to lock up mutants. Beast, however, has another plan to try to change things.  He finds a way to go back in time to when he and Scott were just starting out as X-Men in order to bring back the past Scott to see his future self in order to prevent him from becoming that.  Like a Christmas Carol in a weird, yet cool way.  Only it all goes awry when all of the X-Men insists on coming too. Along the way, they meet Laura, or X-23, Wolverine, and she and Angel hook up.

Scott has left the group because he feels that he can't change the future and who he turns out to be and what he does and he stops using his powers because he ls they are dangerous;  This also means that Hank can't track him and find him.  Meanwhile, here are a group of mutants that are calling themselves the Ghosts of Cyclops and are taking a comment he gave out of context to mean that they can loot and wear masks with X's on them.  He decides he's had enough of their nonsense and to go after them. So do the X-Men and that's how they finally meet up with Scott again.

Then the Blob has been stealing exotic animals around Europe and eating them and the X-Men decides to do something about it.  When Angel and Wolverine are out walking one night they come across him in a restaurant and Laura jumps in to attack without waiting for backup and gets her ass kicked.  Angel believes that she is dead.  When he finds out she is alive he breaks up with her because he has had it with her running in and getting shot up with bullets or firebombed when she doesn't necessarily have to.

This comic does a great job of picking up where the other series left off.  And Scott is a character deeply troubled by the Scott he has met who did such horrible things. The Scott that he is supposed to become.  Unless you follow Terminator time-traveler words of wisdom: No fate but what we make.   And Wolverine needs to learn to slow down and let others help her because she's not immortal and while she had a healing factor there are some things you can't heal your way out of if it's enough of them.  And why should you continuously destroy yourself unless you have a death wish or are a masochist?  I don't blame Angel for breaking up with her. He has his own demons he has to battle. He doesn't need to deal with a girlfriend who doesn't care enough about him or herself to stop destroying herself. The other characters are also suffering their own crises;  Isiie is one of faith and Bobbie is of being gay and whether to come out.  This was an incredible comic and I give it five out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/All-New-X-Men-Inevitable-Ghost-Cyclops/dp/0785196307/ref=sr_1_3?crid=NKEMMJ8RP0J4&dchild=1&keywords=all+new+xmen+vol+1&qid=1591190208&sprefix=all+new+x%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-3

Superior Spider-man Vol 2: A Troubled Mind by Dan Slott (Writer), Humberto Ramos (Penciler), Ryan Stegman (Penciler, Inker), Victor Olazaba (inker), Cam Smith (Inker), Edgar Delgado (Colorist(, Chris Eliopoulos (Letterer)

Dr. Otto Octavius, known as Doc Ock, upon finding himself dying swaps minds with Peter Parker.  This gave him Parker's experiences and his need to be Spider-Man and remember that the greater the power the higher the responsibility.  So Doc Ock became Superior Spider-Man and has taken over Peter Parker's but not in control though he can influence Doc Ock  He keeps trying to get back together with Mary Jane Watson who wants to take it slowly.  But he isn't interested in going slow with her for very long.  Also, Claire, who works for the NYPD and was there when Doc Ock died has a memory of Doc Ock saying to not kill him because he is Spider-Man.  But Claire is recovering from the Vulture's attack and staying with Mary Jane for a while.  She is the only one to sense that something might be off. Spider-Man will go up against the Vulture and his minions and decide to go back to college in order to get his doctorate because he can't abide being called Dr. Peter Parker.  Doc Ock makes improvements to his way of doing things like with the spider bots and with his time management.  Parker is still trying to control Doc Ock and he is barely keeping him from killing anyone.

Jester and Screwball make a fool out of J.Jonah Jameson at a press conference and he asks his "pal" Spider-man to hunt them down for him. He is happy to oblige.  Meanwhile, the Avengers are concerned about Spider-Man and want to kick him out of the Avengers.  Wolverine pipes up and says that they all have blood on their hands and suddenly they're going to hold Spider-Man to a different standard? So they decide to wait a while and see where he goes. 

Where he goes is to beat Jester and Screwball within an inch of their lives.  And then he goes after Cardiac a man who isn't really a bad guy but sometimes steals stuff, it turns out for his private hospital where they do experimental surgery on poor patients who can't afford it.  He crosses Ock when he steals something that once belonged to Octavius;  Ock puts a spider-bot on Cardiac so he can find out where he's going with it.

The Avengers have had it and demand a physical which makes Peter inside Ock happy because he believes they will find him inside Ock. Only they don't.  But they warn him he is close to being kicked out of the Avengers.   Meanwhile, MJ is wondering why Peter hasn't tried to contact her so she looks him up and he's all brushing her off.  Ock has found another woman from his Med school classes named Marie Claire.  And Ock has finally realized that Peter is inside his head so he goes about to get rid of him but Peter intends to fight him with everything he has.

This was a great comic in that it showed Ock at his worst and his best, actually helping people.  You almost like the guy. Almost, but not quite.  Now if only Claire would come around Ock and pick up something that is wrong.  Marie Claire is a sweet woman and a little person whose life is hard enough as it is that you wonder what she sees in Ock.  And poor MJ who is used to Peter being there when she needs him and this time he's not.  The artwork is amazing with pages where there are random squares scattered across the page indicating the delusional mind of Peter Parker. This is turning out to be a really good series and I give this book five out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Spider-Man-Vol-Troubled-Mind/dp/0785167056/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2U56HE7DVKO3A&dchild=1&keywords=superior+spider-man+vol+2&qid=1591014434&sprefix=superior+spider-man%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-2