I'm a wimp.

It's official. I'm a wimp. I started reading The Strain last night while my daughter was spending the night with her grandma. The book is about vampires (I think). To be honest, I didn't even get far enough that they were labeled vampires, but these creatures sucked the blood out of people and brought them back from the dead, so I will assume they were vampires. Now I don't have anything against vampire books in general. I loved A Discovery of Witches. Matthew is a very agreeable and friendly vampire if you are on his good side. And I really enjoyed The Passage as well. So what was it about this book that made me unable to read anymore? Well, I guess the best way to describe it was creepy. If it were a movie (and I think one of the authors is a movie writer or director) I would be too scared to watch it I'm sure. About the time one of the newly changed humans-into-vampires started hearing the thrushing of his son and daughter's blood through their veins, after he had cleaned out the blood from the family St. Bernards, I absolutely had had enough. The last part that I read, he was chaining himself out in the shed using one of the deceased dog's collars because he was afraid of what he would do next. It was simply disturbing. No thank you.

So I have now started a new book called Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I can already tell this is more up my alley. It is about a Nigerian refugee that has just left a detainment prison in England and has called a man whom she last saw on a beach in Nigeria. She happened to have his business card in her possession and she called him to ask for his help. I'm sure there will be some sort of very sad story involved. An excerpt from the first chapter will show off adept my foreshadowing skills:

"In a few breaths' time I will speak some sad words to you. But you must hear them the same way we have agreed to see scars now. Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive. The next thing you know, something fine will happen to her, something marvelous, and then she will turn around and smile."

Now this is a story I can handle. I want to hear what fine things happen to her and even if they don't, the fact that she has the hope in her to believe they will is enough to keep me reading.