The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Kevin Powers, poet, author, and Iraq veteran, has written a deeply emotional and searing fictional account of the war in Iraq as narrated by a troubled young private. Switching between the battlefield and home after being discharged, The Yellow Birds is told from the perspective of Private Bartle, a man suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and the ghost of something too horrible to consciously recall.

Powers' command of language is astounding, his prose beautiful and evocative, and his descriptions poetic and lovely of even the most horrifying scenes. Through Private Bartle's perspective, he brings to light aspects of the soldier's experience that civilians may not expect: the unstoppable, unending grind of war and the PTSD that follows soldiers home. Instead of a story of a triumphant hero, the tale is tragic and its protagonist lost and alone, as things can never be the same after Private Bartle returns to the United States. One minor complaint is that Powers' sentences are often complex, but the re-read they require is rewarding and illuminating. This novel earns its comparisons to The Things They Carried and All Quiet on the Western Front and though - and perhaps because - it is a difficult, emotionally challenging book, it should be on everyone's reading list.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Everyone knows a "woman upstairs." Quiet, polite, ever so helpful. Always single, sweet, and fading into the background. Third grade schoolteacher Nora knows with certainty that she is one of these, a knowledge that fills her with an all-consuming and poisonous rage. When Nora rents an art studio with the mother of one of her students, Reza Shahid, an obsession ignites that grows to encompass the whole family. In The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud (Find the e-audio version here and the ebook here), Nora's infatuation with the Shahids grows while she rails against the circumstances of a mundane life that is slowly smothering her.

Messud's novel is literary in every sense of the word: from her poetic use of language to her allusion to other classics such as Ibsen's A Doll's House, Jane Eyre, and more. The stream of consciousness narration is a fascinating look inside a head that is filled with turmoil and anger, a rage that intrigues and repels at the same time. Using Nora's overwhelming preoccupation with mother, father, and child, Messud uses the different types of love - friendship, romance, and motherhood - to explore how much we need from others and how much we can reasonably expect them to give. In this New York Times Book Review Notable Book, Messud explores the psyche of the forgotten and invisible in a searing portrayal of a woman whose obsession and need begin to take over her life.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

The Quick by Lauren Owen

Charlotte and James Norbury grow up in a huge old mansion out in the country, playing on the overgrown pathways and in the dusty library. From reading other gothic horror novels, you would think that it would be in the mansion that the siblings would meet some eldritch abomination, but in The Quick by Lauren Owen, it is London where brother and sister are plagued by an evil they are afraid to name. When James disappears into the bowels of Victorian London, Charlotte must find him before it's too late.

You won't find it on the book jacket, but (SPOILERS, I guess) the twist is that there are vampires in London, vampires who are not glamorous and romantic but repulsive and alien. They are both disgusted and attracted to humans, which they call the Quick, and their natures cannot be controlled like in certain other vampire narratives. I thought this was an interesting take on vampires being  truly repulsive instead of perversely attractive. However, the main characters, James and Charlotte, don't have much to do and are swept along for the ride rather than directing the action. Side characters do most of the action and planning while the two Norburys follow along in their wake. However, fans of gothic horror and Anne Rice will gobble this dark, dreamlike novel right up.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian