dnf @ 54%

I struggled with this book from the very start but kept pushing myself to read just a bit more until the story had a chance to grab me. Unfortunately, after reading more than half the book I am still finding it a struggle so it is time to give up on this one. I think that the premise is pretty interesting but I just feel nothing for the characters. I actually thought that Fern's voice was the most interesting part of the story. This was a book that I was really excited to get the chance to read but it just isn't working for me.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Perfect psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend!

[Review posting on November 11th at http://pagesbelowvaultedsky.wordpress.com/]

I feel like most of this review will boil down to "A lot of cool things happen in this book but I can't really discuss them because spoilers. But I swear the cool things do happen!" So I won't go into details about the plot, but I will wink and nudge and say that this is no ordinary psychological thriller.

I can most definitely talk about the characters, though!

The story swaps back and forth between Liz, a mother of two children and the ex-wife of an abusive husband, and Fran, a teenage girl who had been kidnapped as a child and is still dealing with the aftereffects of the incident. With Liz's storyline we explore the horrors of domestic abuse and the lasting scars it leaves on a person, all of which Carey portrays with poise and care.

Both characters are dealing with mental health issues--or, at least, what they believe to be mental health issues. Liz has discovered that there's an angrier, more volatile side of her that surfaces during stressful moments. And Fran has been dealing with the fact that physical properties of the world randomly changes for her and only her (the colour of a bedroom wall, for example).

Fran was my favourite of the two, however, and a large part of that is because of Lady Jinx, her "imaginary" anthropomorphic fox companion who wields a sword called Oathkeeper. That sentence alone should have you reaching for this book. Jinx is an awesome, awesome character--hands-down my favourite of the story. I also quite loved Fran's interaction with her father, who is just the most supportive, protective, goofy parent you could ask for (can I get an "Amen" for positive parent-child relationships in speculative stories?) and Zac, Liz's empathetic teenage son, who becomes Fran's partner-in-crime as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her kidnapping.

I also found Fran's struggles--the doubting of her sanity and desire for normality--incredibly relatable. Both Fran and Liz are well-

While I found the two main characters (and the orbiting side characters) interesting, I did find the main villain a bit too campy, especially towards the end. I also feel like the book could have been shorter. Carey's writing is meaty and introspective and there are scenes that have you completely engaged, but there are also scenes that feel overly dense and not all too necessary. As a result, my interest rose and waned in waves.

Overall, though, Someone Like Me is an entertaining genre-bender that successfully juggles many heavy topics and has you exclaiming "Oh!" as it slowly reveals its many fantastical secrets.

~
Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I was so excited to receive the Kindle copy of Someone Like Me by M R Carey. I absolutely loved The Girl With The Gifts. I still remember my gasp when the truth was revealed . I read the Kindle book and have slistened to the audiobook two times. I also have the Kindle and Audible copy of The Boy On The Bridge. I so loved those books. I know I can’t compare all of his books to those two but it’s hard not to .
I preferred the Fran story to the Beth story. If more ( or all ) of the book has been devoted to Fran I would have enjoyed it much more. I felt I didn’t get a chance to know Beth enough before Liz took over and changed the feel of her story from family in danger to horror story.
This book won’t stop me from reading more by M R Carey.
Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to read and review the book.

With an author like M.R. Carey, who made himself known with such outstanding works like The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge, there is no question that the announcement of a new book of his would catch my attention, and my curiosity: Someone Like Me deals with a totally different genre compared to the two previous books I read, but still it offers a compelling, impossible-to-put-down experience.

Reviewing Someone Like Me proved to be something of a reviewing challenge, however, because I found myself walking the thin edge between description and spoiler and trying to avoid the latter as much as I could, since there are some revelations, in the course of the book, that should be met on their own, so this post might sound a little vague, for which I apologize in advance.

The story revolves around two main characters, quite different from each other: Liz Kendall is a single mother, who is trying to raise her two kids – child Molly and teenager Zac – while facing the aftermath of the divorce from her husband Marc, a violent man prone to domestic abuse. Returning the children to their mother after a court-sanctioned weekend with them, Marc enters into an argument with Liz and blinded by rage tries to throttle her: in the past Liz never reacted to Marc’s violence, partly because she did not have the strength of character to resist and partly because she thought that offering herself as a target she would turn Marc’s rage away from the kids. This time, however, something seems to take control of Liz’s willpower: grabbing a broken bottle from the kitchen’s floor, she hits her former husband’s face, shocking him so much that he breaks the assault for a long enough time to allow the neighbors to intervene and call the police. The authorities’ involvement shines a spotlight on Marc’s past and present behavior, and Liz is able to obtain a restraining order and to start the process of removing the ex-husband’s poisonous presence from their lives, but the incident also seems to have woken up something that Liz did not even know she harbored…

Fran Watts is a sixteen-year old girl burdened by a dramatic past: ten years before she was abducted by a very disturbed man who thought she was a monster and kept her captive for a couple of terrible days before the police found her and arrested the man. Since then Fran has tried to deal with the nightmares from that experience, but there seems to be no amount of medication or psychological counseling that can help her completely: there are times when the reality around the girl seems to shift in small but still frightening details – a bedcover changing color, a differently shaped armchair or a different image in the pictures hanging on the wall. These alterations of the surrounding reality make Fran somewhat skittish, and therefore a loner since she has been dubbed as ‘weird’ at school and she can only rely on the support of her widowed father and the friendlier of her hallucinations, the fox Jinx, a character from a cartoon series Fran loved as a child, the only one of the unreal elements plaguing her mind that the young girl feels comfortable with.

These two apparently unrelated individuals do indeed share a certain element of commonality, and here comes the tricky part of the review, because talking about it would be a huge disservice to the readers of this gripping book: what I can safely share is that it’s an interesting take on a well-known theme, and one that kept me turning the pages in a compulsive way until the end. Since I need to steer away from that avenue of discussion, I can only concentrate on the characters – and as I’ve come to expect from M.R. Carey’s work, they are both interesting and realistically drawn.

Liz, despite having endured Marc’s abuse, is not what you could expect from a victim: she does suffer from many insecurities, granted, and she knows she was not strong enough to defy her husband’s progressively worsening attitude, but she found her strength and courage through her children and the need to protect them from the physical and psychological abuse that the man might have visited on them. We see through her recollections how she used to be a different person, one with a strong spirit and some dreams (like her love for performing music with her band) that were slowly subsumed, as it often happens in these cases, by her acquiescence to Marc’s desires first and to his violence later. Yet she does not see herself as a victim, does not act like one, because all her drives have been channeled into making Molly and Zac two strong, self-reliant kids, so that her success in that respect is what gives her the motivation to remake herself into a different person and what makes her a very relatable – if not completely positive - character.

Fran stands somewhat at Liz’s opposite end of the spectrum: even though the repercussions of the kidnapping have left unhealed scars on her soul, she has learned to draw strength from that past and the knowledge that she survived it, despite the nightmares that still afflict her. She is very independent and more mature than her age would entail, one of the sides of her character I most admired being her constant strife to avoid burdening her father with her troubles: the relationship between the two of them is indeed one of the highlights of this novel, one based on affectionate jokes that hide the deeper concerns each of them harbors for the other.

The main concepts around which the novel revolves are those of identity and of the road not taken, of the way life’s experiences shape people’s characters and inform their psychological makeup – in a way the subject of parallel universes is touched on, but in a different, novel way that gives this story an added level of intensity. This is the best I can do without spoiling the overall arc of Someone Like Me, and I can only add that it’s a story that builds up at a relentless pace and keeps you glued to the pages with no chance of coming up for air. And if the final resolution seems to come a little too easily, or the inevitable fallout looks a bit on the light side – at least in comparison with the highly dramatic events piling up over the course of the story – I can still call myself satisfied with the overall result.

In my opinion, this book manages to surpass M.R. Carey’s previous novels in narrative strength and characterization, and considering how strong those earlier stories were, you can get an idea of how compelling this one is.

Highly recommended.

Just fabulous! I have read all of M.R. Carey's books (FELLSIDE is my personal favorite) and they are all terrific. In SOMEONE LIKE ME Carey explores what would happen if our shadow self took over and relegated our best self to invisibility and incapacity. Liz Kendall is an abused woman who is fighting to live independently and protect her children. But when her ex comes after her one last time, she finds a part of herself that she never knew existed - a strong but narcissistic woman. Across town, a young girl lives with her imaginary friend, a warrior fox who has protected her since she escaped the hands of a maniac. When her life intersects with Liz Kendall's, everything gets a lot more dangerous for everyone. A story about the true strength of the human mind and spirit, SOMEONE LIKE ME will stick you long after you have read the last page.

I can't actually decide if I like the perspective of Liz, the domestic abuse survivor, or Fran, the young girl struggling with the aftermath of trauma. Both are incredibly compelling as their stories and challenges are laid bare. Someone Like Me is a story that is difficult to talk about without spoiling a lot of the plot - and the joy of discovery. Because there are moments that will make your jaw drop.

It has all the aspects of the writing I have come to associate with Carey - a plot that never ceases to amaze you, characters who have hidden layers, and an eerieness from the very first pages - and peaks my interest even more. Unlike Carey's previous books which, for me, revolved around the mystery of what happened in the past, Someone Like Me is taking place in the direct present.

Someone Like Me is very good, very creepy, and very inventive. Definitely check it out if you enjoy stories of psychological horror and twisty mindgames! (See the link for full review)

Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey is a psychological thriller/horror/supernatural marvel.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Orbit Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:
16-year old Fran Watts is the freaky girl at school. Everyone thinks she’s crazy. That’s okay, because she is. She has the right to be. When she was six years old, she was abducted by a crazy man with a knife, held in an old motel for 2 days, and almost killed because he thought there was something wrong with her shadow. Fran has never gotten over this ordeal, although there are a lot of blanks in her memory. She has an imaginary friend/fox called Lady J, or Jinx for short. Jinx is always there to protect her, dressed in armor and carrying a shiny sword. Fran has decided it is time to face her demons.

Liz Kendall is trying to raise her two kids on her own. 16-year old Zac and 6 year old Molly are her life. She has divorced her abusive husband, but Marc is still stalking her. When he attacks her in her own kitchen, Liz has had enough. But when she sees her hand breaking a bottle and repeatedly smashing it into her ex-husband’s face, she is scared. It doesn’t feel like her hand doing the damage. It does not feel like her anger. She is not in control. When she later becomes enraged and verbally and physically abuses a women in a parking lot, she is more than frightened. Where is this anger coming from? Why does it feel like there is someone else inside her trying to take control? She needs help.

When Liz and Zac run into Fran at the psychiatrists office, Fran sees two of Liz…and one of them is a monster. That monster is about to come out and take over, putting everyone in danger.

My Opinions:
Another amazing book by M.R. Carey!

As always, Carey created wonderfully deep characters that you can relate to, a wonderful plot that you can immerse yourself in, and enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The writing is good, as is the dialog. I loved the relationship between Liz and her kids, but I loved the one between Fran and her father even more. I loved the strength of both Liz and Fran.

I can’t say enough about this one. It is long, but the time just flies by.  I wouldn't have minded more.

Highly recommend it.

Liz is a meek and quiet single mother, raising two kids and trying to hold down a minimum-wage job. When her abusive ex-husband becomes violent with her, a darker, more aggressive side of Liz suddenly comes out and she finds the strength and ability to fight back...HARD. Fearful that she might not be able to control this more violent version of herself, Liz must try and figure out what is happening to her before her new “personality” takes over her life. I really enjoyed this “domestic she-hulk” story...it was super weird and wish-fulfilling and creepy and I thought M.R. Carey did a great job developing Liz and her alter-ego storyline while grounding the outrageous plot with interesting supporting characters, including a teenager experiencing similar multiple personality symptons.

What I love about all of M.R. Carey’s books is the tease. The covers, while all distinct, have a certain continuity to them. Even without the author’s name, you know that it is an M.R. Carey novel. There is a mystery to his covers, no hint to the setting, nothing to suggest what the story could be about, other than a nondescript, shadowed character.

Beyond the cover is the synopsis, it vaguely suggests something, without giving anything away. The synopsis to Someone Like Me simply opens the gate, the path that Carey leads his readers down is a complete mystery.

Someone Like Me left me in a bit of a conundrum: the execution of the story was flawless, the characters were whole and complete, the idea was unique, the only thing it lacked was a connection. While I can appreciate all of the excellent work that Carey did in the creation of this story, it’s hard to be head-over-heels for a story when I just didn’t care. Why did that happen? It’s difficult to say. Perhaps it was simply a timing issue, wrong story - wrong time. At the same time, to a certain extent, it’s the author’s job to take his or her readers away, make them forget about the world for the time that they dive into the universe that the author has created. In that respect, Someone Like Me didn’t work, for me.

Someone Like Me may not exactly have been what I wanted or needed right now, all it really lacked was the je ne sais quoi that connects me to the story. Despite that fact, I know that Carey can and has created this connection in the past, and I look forward to more time being whisked away by his vivid imagination.

*3.5 Stars

I did enjoy this book but it took me a long time to read. Nearly 500 pages was already a red flag that I normally heed. I liked the characters and, yes, some of them were a bit unbelievable. Yet, the story flowed quite well. Domestic abuse is one of the subjects I do teach - and it was quite to the core. The "sci-fi fantasy" parts were OK, but maybe could have been altered or even left out. All in all I give M.R. Carey credit for an extensive journey!


Many Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an interesting read!

I know I will be in the minority, but this book didn’t capture me. It was fine while reading, but each time I returned to it I had to find my footing again. It was a bit like making a new friend each time, so I had to work at it instead of sitting back and enjoying the journey. Parts of the story I liked, while others I didn’t like at all. While very well written, not the book for me.

This thriller was so much more than I expected it to be and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. There are multiple narrators, all of whom have unique and clear voices, and who bring various puzzle pieces to the story. I liked seeing the inside of Liz's mind, and how she slowly starts to be overtaken by this 'thing' that is very much like her but also very different from her, and I liked Fran as she tries to deal with her PTSD with the help of an imaginary friend named Jinx, a fox from a children's TV show. But I also loved the strange places that Carey took this story, especially since it continuously surprised me and kept me guessing. What started as general unease gradually built into full on terror at times, and I couldn't wait to see where the story was going to go next. Carey has always approached traditional horror tropes, be it zombies or ghosts, in new and refreshing ways, and he's done the same for 'possession', as viewed through a supernatural lens, but also through a lens that addresses trauma and abuse.

SOMEONE LIKE ME is an eerie and incredibly emotional new horror story from M.R. Carey, and I cannot recommend it enough. If you liked Carey's previous works, this is a must read, and if you haven't read anything by him yet, this is a good place to start.

It's incredibly difficult to write a review for a book where the publisher has offered so little information in the description. Honestly, I didn't care if it had a description at all, it's written by M.R. Carey and that's all I needed to know.

Perhaps the reasoning behind the vague synopsis is that this story defies a simple summary, and really must be read if you want to understand what all the brouhaha is about.

If you're reading this because you're a fan of The Girl With All the Gifts, I suggest you go into this with an open mind because the two books share no comparisons. In my opinion, this story is more suitable for a mature audience.

I've noticed a lot of reviewers have given very detailed descriptions about the plot of this book, I, however, do not feel that it is my place to do so. Therefore, I'm just going to detail my general feelings about the book.

This is a long book, 512 pages, but I didn't feel like any of the pages were unnecessary and I got through it pretty quickly. Other reviewers have compared it to a Stephen King novel and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. It's very difficult to categorize this book.. it's family drama meets science fiction meets paranormal with a splash of horror.

"...palimsest...something that has been written on, imperfectly erased and then written on again."

(that's the only hint you're going to get from me)

M.R. Carey's writing is descriptive and engaging as always.

I fell deep into the first half of the story, it's so interesting and unlike anything I've ever read before. The second half fell a little short for me and I never felt like there was any crescendo to the story.

All in all this was an enjoyable and interesting read that I've no doubt fans of this author will eat up like peanut butter cups.

⭐ 3.5 Stars rounded up for originality


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is messed up…and I mean that in the best possible way! I love unreliable narrators (especially of the quite-possibly-bonkers variety), and this book is full of them. Our two main characters have suffered physical and emotional trauma (trigger warning for spousal domestic abuse & peril to children), and they both know that it has left them with psychological issues.

Liz has discovered a dark, violent side that first surfaced when she had to defend herself against her murderous ex-husband, and Fran, a teenager, has had hallucinations and other mental aberrations since surviving an abduction as a child. As their lives intertwine (Liz’s son becomes Fran’s friend), their interactions and perspectives on each other give us some hints of what is really going on while things spin increasingly out of control…and I can’t go into any more detail than that without spoilers.

There were a few points in the book where I felt that the teenage characters’ catty bickering and sneaking around to keep parents/adults in the dark took this into clichéd YA territory, but overall I enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it if you enjoy the kind of book where you get popped right into the action and have to figure out what is going on (and even what genre you are reading).

This is the first book I have read from this author. It will be my last. I found it to be a long drawn out book that just did not make sense. A book I would not recommend to others.

Someone Like Me, written by M.R. Carey is a stand alone book that will have you shaking your head, thinking what just happen and still leave you wanting more. This is not the first book by Mr. Carey that I have absolutely loved and I am sure it will not be my last. I love when I find a book that becomes embed into your psyche, rattle around in there until you are consumed by the story. Someone Like Me is one of those books. I find that books like this are very difficult to review, I don't feel that my review can do it the justice it deserves, it's just that good.
There were so many aspects of this book that captivated me, the first being the strong female characters in this book. Liz, a survivor of domestic abuse, is trying her best to raise her two children, Zac who is sixteen and Molly who is six years old. The other female character is Fran, who survived an abduction when she was six and at sixteen she is still trying to cope with all the issues she is left with. I admired the relationship she shares with her father, who is trying his best to raise Fran on his own. There were times throughout this book that I actually cheered for Liz and Fran, but there were also times that my heart ached for them. Last but not least, Lady J, she is definitely my hero!
The storyline - where do I start, without giving too much away, that is the difficulty here. Two women who are trying to cope with what life has thrown at them… how these two women's lives crash into one another, the same but different. There are so many things going on in this book, from selfless love to intense hate, from sanity to insanity, from reality to.….
This book explores not only the vastness of how our minds work and how our minds can protect us, but it puts an incredible twist right dab in the middle of it all. What you need to know about this book is that you will be totally obsessed with it, it will slowly wrap its tentacles around you until you will not be able to put it down. If you are looking for something different to read, look no further. I highly recommend this book. Happy Reading!
***I kindly received an ARC of this book by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked or required to leave a review in order to read this book. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. This is my honest review.***

This book did not work for me. It should come with a trigger warning for domestic violence. I did not enjoy the fantasy aspects of this book. Also the pace of the book keeps changing which makes it hard to keep at it. Overall not my kind of writing style. The plot was interesting but largely not believable.

like a dopus, i read this way back in august and did that thing where you’re like, “oh, this doesn’t come out until november - i have ages to review it!” and then suddenly it’s a week before halloween and even though the book hasn’t been archived on netgalley, the “lending period” or whatever for the e-copy has expired, taking all of my virtual bookmarks with it.

i’ve redownloaded it to make sure i get the basics right, but the way i usually write reviews (OOH, AN INSIGHT INTO MY <I>PROCESS</I>) is through the candytrail of bookmarks/folded-over pages; seeing what struck me during my reading - particularly well-stated passages that i wanted to quote or plot points that contributed to whatever assessment i was making of the book in my head while i was reading, and then i shape the review out around that.

now i’m just going to have to wing it.

i just went back and reread the publisher-approved synopsis to make sure i don’t go spilling any beans willy-nilly. 

because this book is FULL of beans to spill. 

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/gdtYjkuhnzFQc/giphy.gif"/>

it’s about a woman named liz - a single mother of two, a survivor of domestic abuse, struggling to make ends meet but otherwise happy; a good woman adored by her two children, with the respect and admiration of her community.

it’s about a girl named fran - a teenager, a survivor of a childhood abduction, struggling with PTSD-hallucinations and social awkwardness, protected by her imaginary friend - a fox named jinx who’s a battle-ready vulpine knight when she needs to be, and her father, who is doing his best on his own.

things happen, boundaries blur, decisions are made.

it’s about damage and coping mechanisms and recovery and violence and literal and figurative confrontations and notions of identity. it’s the perfect blend of speculative fiction/horror/dark fantasy with psychology/social philosophy/metaphysics that tumesces my jonathan carroll-lovin’ heart.

i liked this book very much, but my biggest swoons are entirely for fran’s half of the story. i love her, i love her relationship with her father, and obviously i love jinx more than anything. if there are any merchandising plans in place for this book, i want to be first in line for a jinx of my own.

that’s all i’m going to say about this one, partly because i’m hamstrung by my demoralizing bookmark loss, partly because loose lips sink ships, partly because this book is such a twisty genre-blendy journey, it's hard to pin down and it’s best if you experience it for yourself.

and you will.

because of jinx.

who is

<img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/2f324d8437fcb86a243b3a48d53a8836/tumblr_mx2nd9EA4C1qkgh4go1_500.gif"/>

the best.

<img src="https://em.wattpad.com/56ebc2722b91f97682b132f94039e7ac0003e3bd/687474703a2f2f32352e6d656469612e74756d626c722e636f6d2f74756d626c725f6d3834796f70557a35433171626b7072786f325f3530302e676966?s=fit&h=360&w=360&q=80"/>