Sunday, February 24, 2008

Finally Friday Fun - Book Review


I picked up the book Deja Dead, by Kathy Reichs, because of its affiliation with one of my favorite TV shows; Bones on Fox. I had read that the book is not much like the show, and I will have to agree. Other than the main character’s name and the fact that she is a forensic anthropologist, there aren’t too many similarities.


Having said that, I admit that I did like this book and I really liked the main character Temperance Brennan . I liked this original Tempe much better than her TV version. I find the made for TV Tempe a bit shallow, and pretty unbelievable. I found the Tempe in the book, however, to be all too real. As with many really well done protagonists, this one comes complete with a fatal flaw that she realistically struggles with throughout the book. Not only does she possess this flaw, but I find that she struggles with it much the way I think a real person would.


If I have a complaint about this book, it would have to be the setting. I have only been to Canada once in my life and it was not Quebec that I visited, so it was very hard for me to relate to the scene the author setup. Luckily, much of this book takes place in the lab and in an apartment, so I was able to place Tempe in a more familiar place in my mind.

Let me also note that this book is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. It is a murder mystery, and actually, this particular book has to do with a serial killer and many of the scenes are pretty gruesome. I didn’t find the gore to be gratuitous in any way, and the story would have been much less real without it.

I find that in my two favorite pastimes, TV and reading, that I am looking for escape. I am not interested in real crimes, or reality TV . . . I want fiction baby. This book probably won’t win any awards, but then, not many of my favorite reads have. If you are looking for a CSI like read for a long winters day, this just may be your book.

1 comment:

Mackenzies Momma said...

I LOVED this book. I agree this 'version' of Tempe, is much more believable and relatable, than the T.V. version by a long shot. Though I have read in several articles, and seen a couple interviews with Kathy Reichs, and according to her(she is a creative consultant on the show) the show's version is supposedly a 'younger version' of book Tempe(I hope that makes sense).

I have read the whole series now(all 10 books) and while some of them are set in Quebec, a good portion of them are set on her 'home turf' of North Carolina. I hope you continue to read the rest as I think the series is quite good and does a WONDERFUL job fleshing out Tempe, Ryan, Katie, Pete, Birdie and all the other characters(like Luc Claudel, and his parter).

Some of the other books are a little more 'squeamish friendly' but I didn't have a problem than again I do have an 'odd' line of work.