Book Review - Strangers With Familiar Faces (poetry)

Strangers With Familiar Faces by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson...Poetry BOOK REVIEW

Previously posted in 2012...

I hunted a bit- maybe not enough- for some ideas on how to review poetry.
I managed mostly to run across everything from laughable to silly to downright ludicrous.
I took a lit class in college where we studied and wrote buckets of poetry so I have a notion of the mechanics involved. I'm not sure a review should focus on that. I'll let someone else obsess about those.
So I decided to say something about how it affected me.

To that end I'll pass on this quote to set things up a bit.

"The biggest hurdle we have to leap in this world is the one we place in front of ourselves. No one cares whether you live or die unless you care.” –Dr. Mieko Mitchell
This is a line from the novel Murder on the Pier by Jere Myles.

I mention this because this is exactly what an abusive person and relationship attacks.

This set of poems is the poets heart and soul at the very moment of these attacks. Even though in a way, for me, some of these are difficult to read they are typical of what poetry is. It's the heart and soul of the poet often in the moment and sometimes in moments of reflection. There is a message here also - maybe a warning- something that might have been useful even to me when I was seeing this happen to someone close to me and feeling so helpless.

Domestic violence is not good for anyone including the entire family of everyone involved. Because once there is the erosion of love for oneself it propagates like a disease. And these poems made me want to hold the poet and say you do matter and if you can get to the end of the tunnel you will find all of those who care. But, as the quote implies it starts with the abused person returning to the point where they care about themselves.

It's not an easy journey and these poems chronicle a part of that long winding path. They will resonate with anyone who has seen this happen. Perhaps they will even help someone identify this before it gets this far.

I recommend this for everyone.

It is a testament to a strong will that something so touching and beautiful could come forth and help.



J.L. Dobias author of Cripple-Mode: Hot Electric

Book Review ::The Originals by William Voigt

Previously posted in 2012...


The Originals by William Voigt is one amazing book that takes place in the early 50s.

Willow Rogers an adolescent girl on vacation on the rustic and dangerous wilderness Dumas Island encounters a wild boy claiming to live on the Island. She knows only that he's saved her life and that she's inexorably drawn to him.

As she grows from an awkward teen to a beautiful young woman she is still haunted by her wild boy. Her thoughts and dreams are filled with his memory though each year that she returns to the Island she is unable to find him.

As the years go by and the Island business is closed and Willow goes to college she tries to forget the wild boy. Her fiance, Barry, coaxes her to take a camping tour of the Lake Superior shore line in Canada. Willow once more finds her life in danger and everything changes.

The wild boy, Mike, has returned from a tour of duty in Korea. When a service buddy and friend gets into trouble he helps him out. This puts them both on the run. They head for the now quiet and deserted Dumas Island.

Two separate sets of thrilling and deadly circumstances are destined to somehow bring these two together again

This book is a story containing mystery and suspense along with a deep romance. What is woven into or around it is a mystical mythos that has the Island and Lake Superior moving things in a specific direction.

This is a well crafted tale I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys suspense , romance, and a bit of the fantastic.


I was fortunate to obtain a copy of this in a small used book store in Charlotte MI.
I'm not sure how obtainable are copies of this book.

Review::Murder on Michigan Avenue by Jere Myles

Murder on Michigan Avenue by Jere Myles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Murder on Michigan Avenue is not your average mystery.
It's also not your average LGBT novel.
It is a literary masterpiece that puts its author Jere Myles on par with other favorites of mine such as Hemingway.

Certainly there is a heap of murder within this trilogy. And a large mystery that unfolds to the reader. There is no doubt that the bulk of characters intersect or have lives that are bisected by gay and bi-sexual themes. Strangely, though this is not really just a mystery and certainly not an in your face LGBT novel.

This is a primer for a large discussion of an ever growing problem in the community of man. This is a story of love and how much our world today does to stifle anything related to it. The characters of Jon and Mieko and Eileen could be considered dysfunctional by many in the world because of their confusion of orientation. But, such a judgment would overlook the obvious. Their dysfunction is that they live in a world that has taught them to hold onto their love out of fear. Fear of rejection and fear of being misunderstood. The lives of these adults is only the tip of this iceberg. There is much more that is involved here. In these books we only see this piece. I wonder if Jere Myles will return to these characters and help explore the rest.

We have been carefully eroding love from society. If two close and old friends meet and hug and kiss. If they are women it may go unnoticed. If they are men it might raise eyebrows or more. We are taught from childhood onward that certain types of display of affection for members of the same sex are not appropriate. This of course in direct opposition to "Love thy neighbor as thy self." I'm talking about love here and not that sticky love/sex thing that people get hung up on.

Today we live in a world that is beginning to facilitate the denial of love of parent for children just out of fear of it appearing to be the wrong things to onlookers. We have even legislated ourselves to a point where protecting the young takes away a parents ability to reach out and lovingly care for their children. The lives of the people in these books is a mirror of the symptom of these problems. And it all goes much deeper. Because there are those who would point at these peoples lives and try to justify their problems with what they have chosen as a lifestyle while overlooking some fundamentals.

It's rather ironic since sex is more common to eating, sleeping, breathing, sensing. All pretty much autonomic responses. All at sometime necessary for continuing life. All at sometimes subject to subjective urges that go beyond the norm.

The shame is that society places Love as a lifestyle decision. Man was made to love whomever he chooses to love not whomever some lifestyle dictates. When a lifestyle chooses whom we love it restricts our ability to love to the fullest and that is definitely dysfunctional.

Yes. I suppose someone else could argue I took too much from these novels- but, I think not.

This book this trilogy is for everyone who's ready to handle it with a mature attitude.
For those who have read the other two- what are you waiting for?
For those who haven't- there is enough here to give you the full picture. But, I'd advise reading the other two.

J.L. Dobias author of Cripple-Mode Series.



View all my reviews

Review::Murder Behind Closed Doors by Jere Myles

Murder Behind Closed Doors by Jere Myles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love a good mystery and I thrive on good drama. The best old movies were well acted dramas taken from stage productions and put onto film.

In Murder on the Pier I feel that the author Jere Myles has woven a drama entwined in a mystery that is more evident to the readers than to the players. For the players it’s the story of their search for love and affirmation in a world that seems to have gone mad. Though the world would argue the players are the ones gone mad. The nature of their lives as it all unfolds is at the very least thought provoking.

"The biggest hurdle we have to leap in this world is the one we place in front of ourselves. No one cares whether you live or die unless you care.” –Dr. Mieko Mitchell

This is life seen from a place many people I am acquainted with do not often want to go. And yet in this place I found many words and ideas I've often tried to express, put on a page in such an eloquent way it drew me in.

In Murder Behind Closed Doors Jere Myles brings the players up to the level of the readers regarding the mystery, while continuing to resonate with the same voice.
"How can you expect someone to say they love something they have been taught to hate? My friends would never have let me turn my back on my...my faith.”-Eleanor Evelyn JoyLynn Moore.

Anyone who likes mysteries or suspense or drama will love these books. But, more so, if you don't mind stepping out of your comfort zone to examine yourself.
This series is like a multifaceted mirror with page upon page of interesting unusual reflections.

As for the mystery; Taking place in the 90s and considering the main characters race and sexual orientation this could easily be construed as a hate crime. Adding the dialogue of the killers to that would almost add affirmation. But, remembering the rule of mysteries; nothing is as it seems…

I don’t plan on missing the third book, Murder on Michigan Avenue, which promises to be a thriller.
J.L. Dobias author of Cripple-Mode: Hot Electric.



View all my reviews

Review:Murder on the Pier by Jere Myles

Murder on the Pier: Book 1 in the Murder Series by Jere Myles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love a good mystery and I thrive on good drama. The best old movies were well acted dramas taken from stage productions and put onto film.

In Murder on the Pier I feel that the author Jere Myles has woven a drama entwined in a mystery that is more evident to the readers than to the players. For the players it's the story of their search for love and affirmation in a world that seems to have gone mad. Though the world would argue the players are the ones gone mad. The nature of their lives as it all unfolds is at the very least thought provoking.

"The biggest hurdle we have to leap in this world is the one we place in front of ourselves. No one cares whether you live or die unless you care." -Dr. Mieko Mitchell
This is life seen from a place many people I am acquainted with do not often want to go. And yet in this place I found many words and ideas I've often tried to express, put on a page in such an eloquent way it drew me in.

In Jere Myles brings the players up to the level of the readers regarding the

I don't plan on missing Murder Behind Closed Doors and Murder on Michigan Avenue, which promise to be thrillers.



View all my reviews

Book Review -Murder on the Pier::Murder Behind Closed Doors

Murder on the Pier by Jere Myles and Murder Behind Closed Doors by Jere Myles.

Published first on 1-4-2012





I love a good mystery and I thrive on good drama. The best old movies were well acted dramas taken from stage productions and put onto film.

In Murder on the Pier I feel that the author Jere Myles has woven a drama entwined in a mystery that is more evident to the readers than to the players. For the players it’s the story of their search for love and affirmation in a world that seems to have gone mad. Though the world would argue the players are the ones gone mad. The nature of their lives as it all unfolds is at the very least thought provoking.

"The biggest hurdle we have to leap in this world is the one we place in front of ourselves. No one cares whether you live or die unless you care.” –Dr. Mieko Mitchell

This is life seen from a place many people I am acquainted with do not often want to go. And yet in this place I found many words and ideas I've often tried to express, put on a page in such an eloquent way it drew me in.

In Murder Behind Closed Doors Jere Myles brings the players up to the level of the readers regarding the mystery, while continuing to resonate with the same voice.
"How can you expect someone to say they love something they have been taught to hate? My friends would never have let me turn my back on my...my faith.”-Eleanor Evelyn JoyLynn Moore.

Anyone who likes mysteries or suspense or drama will love these books. But, more so, if you don't mind stepping out of your comfort zone to examine yourself.
This series is like a multifaceted mirror with page upon page of interesting unusual reflections.

As for the mystery; Taking place in the 90s and considering the main characters race and sexual orientation this could easily be construed as a hate crime. Adding the dialogue of the killers to that would almost add affirmation. But, remembering the rule of mysteries; nothing is as it seems…

I don’t plan on missing the third book, Murder on Michigan Avenue, which promises to be a thriller.
J.L. Dobias author of Cripple-Mode: Hot Electric.