This was a good idea that wasn't executed particularly well. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, I just found myself getting really frustrated with the characters and the events. The lack of subtlety was also an issue. There was also a tendency to beat the reader over the head with the significance of a small act. However, that said, the premise of a curse running through a family because The Story demands it is a good one and it made for an interesting twist on the Fairy Tale Genre.
The real problems come with the characters rather than the plot. Wilhelmina Grimes is a major pain in the proverbial. Yes, I get that the whole clumsy, socially inept shtick is there to juxtapose against who she really is and what she will have to become to beat The Story at it's own game. Unfortunately, this means that she comes across as alternately arrogant, rude, obnoxious and very, very needy. Not exactly personality traits that you want in your protagonist. Maybe the intention was to make her a strong, modern teenage girl but she comes across as the one you would actively avoid because she is toxic.
There's a lot of peril thrown in, but most of it in places where it would make no sense for Mina to be written out of the story so it loses it's impetus and just seems to be a way to get her together with that holy grail of teenage girl existence BOYS. Yes, there is a lot of Mina mooning over boys. I get it puberty makes you dumb and those raging hormones make your preferred gender all but irresistible but it does start getting very old, very fast.
So, why did I scrape up the 3 Stars for something I clearly have issues with large parts of? Quite simply the whole premise of the book is a strangely good one and the explanation behind how the Grimms came to be cursed and what that means for their descendants is really well thought through and explained. The balance between the Fae World and the Human World is excellently handled and there are some quite chilling moments when they intersect - I don't think these are necessarily where, or what, the author intended but more happy coincidences.
At the time of reviewing this book there are another 4 in the series. Would I rush to read them? Sadly, no. Initially I did think that this could be a wonderfully immersive series but by the end of the first book I have lot patience with Mina completely and the thought of voluntarily subjecting myself to more of her shenanigans is a non-starter.
Sunday 30 June 2019
Dead Haven by Flint Maxwell
Despite having read an awful lot of horror stuff over the years somehow I have managed to avoid ever reading a zombie book before. To be fair, I'm not really a fan of zombie movies so have pretty much avoided them based on that fact. I was a little tentative going in to this one to be honest but I found myself really enjoying it. Yes, it is as corny as all get out and you pretty much know where things are going and the reason for the zombie apocalypse descending on Small Town America is ridiculously cliched. You know what, that is what every zombie film I've ever had the misfortune to sit through was like so I'm guessing the more literary version should be the same.
Whilst Dead Haven doesn't bring anything new or innovative to the table, it does entertain. There's plenty of shuffling, groaning dead flesh that is managing to wander about (okay, so they only murmured "Brains" in my mind) and do a moderate amount of problem solving to get at the lovely warm human flesh. Nicely gory scenes that manage to walk the tightrope between gross and disturbing adeptly. There is a sort of plot but honestly it doesn't really matter that Jack Jupiter is obsessed about getting back to his fiancee Darlene. It doesn't matter that he is cooped up with the father of his school bully (who clearly taught his son all he knows). It doesn't matter that we get introduced to a fair number of people because most of them are going to die anyway.
This book gave me a great deal of reading pleasure. I could unplug from the world for a bit and just enjoy myself bobbing around on the periphery of a videogame treatment with a few authorly bells and whistles. For all I know this could be a terrible exponent of the genre but that matters less to me than how much fun I had reading it. Would I look out the following 7 books in the series? Probably not to be honest - it was fun but I don't care about the characters or their situation enough to want to see what happens next.
Whilst Dead Haven doesn't bring anything new or innovative to the table, it does entertain. There's plenty of shuffling, groaning dead flesh that is managing to wander about (okay, so they only murmured "Brains" in my mind) and do a moderate amount of problem solving to get at the lovely warm human flesh. Nicely gory scenes that manage to walk the tightrope between gross and disturbing adeptly. There is a sort of plot but honestly it doesn't really matter that Jack Jupiter is obsessed about getting back to his fiancee Darlene. It doesn't matter that he is cooped up with the father of his school bully (who clearly taught his son all he knows). It doesn't matter that we get introduced to a fair number of people because most of them are going to die anyway.
This book gave me a great deal of reading pleasure. I could unplug from the world for a bit and just enjoy myself bobbing around on the periphery of a videogame treatment with a few authorly bells and whistles. For all I know this could be a terrible exponent of the genre but that matters less to me than how much fun I had reading it. Would I look out the following 7 books in the series? Probably not to be honest - it was fun but I don't care about the characters or their situation enough to want to see what happens next.
Saturday 29 June 2019
Arctic Zoo by Robert Muchamore
Starting the book you do wonder where this is going to lead as it almost has a One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest vibe in the opening stanzas. Starting, as it does, in a UK Mental Health facility and introducing us, via a group therapy session, to a group of struggling teens. It isn't immediately obvious who the book is about as we get introduced to several characters in a few lines but all is soon made apparent. From Alex's breakdown with Henry in the session to Julius's dramatic entrance on to the unit we then move back in time to before all of this happens.
Centering around Georgia Pack and Julius Adebisi the book follows a, more or less, chronological timeline describing the events that led both of them to land up needing help. Whilst being disparate teenagers in very different socio-economic groups and lands there is a lot that unifies the characters; not least the struggles and pressures of growing up and making a path for yourself in the world. There is a strong sense, initially, that things happen to the characters rather than them making any overt decisions about where their lives are heading or controlling the situations they find themselves in.
Even reading as an adult there is a lot to engross you and make this book enjoyable. The characters are well thought through and come to life in the pages of the book, you really do feel that you know as much as these shuttered people will let you know about themselves. There is also a very pronounced sense of hope in the book, that no matter how bad it looks, or indeed gets, there is always a little chink of light out there.
The plot felt a little outlandish at times but the author always manages to distract you with a gentle swell of unexpected humour or a quick subject change. I found it all too easy to slip in to Georgia and Julius's lives for protracted periods and ended up reading this book in almost one sitting. Whether you find yourself in rainy London or sweltering Akure the settings are brought to life by the characters and you do feel like you understand a little about their individual worlds.
The forward by the author mentions his own battles with Mental Health and it does give you pause before starting the book. However, don't let this put you off picking it up and giving things a chance. Yes, there are some tough subjects dealt with but the telling is so good you don't even really start to contemplate the bigger picture until you have finished reading. Yes, it does lead to some tough questions about your own opinions and beliefs but it could also open up some really useful conversations about important topics (this book touches on suicide, homosexuality, the nature of protest, corruption and many more). If that all sounds a bit "heavy" then just enjoy a cracking good tale that is very well told.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.
Centering around Georgia Pack and Julius Adebisi the book follows a, more or less, chronological timeline describing the events that led both of them to land up needing help. Whilst being disparate teenagers in very different socio-economic groups and lands there is a lot that unifies the characters; not least the struggles and pressures of growing up and making a path for yourself in the world. There is a strong sense, initially, that things happen to the characters rather than them making any overt decisions about where their lives are heading or controlling the situations they find themselves in.
Even reading as an adult there is a lot to engross you and make this book enjoyable. The characters are well thought through and come to life in the pages of the book, you really do feel that you know as much as these shuttered people will let you know about themselves. There is also a very pronounced sense of hope in the book, that no matter how bad it looks, or indeed gets, there is always a little chink of light out there.
The plot felt a little outlandish at times but the author always manages to distract you with a gentle swell of unexpected humour or a quick subject change. I found it all too easy to slip in to Georgia and Julius's lives for protracted periods and ended up reading this book in almost one sitting. Whether you find yourself in rainy London or sweltering Akure the settings are brought to life by the characters and you do feel like you understand a little about their individual worlds.
The forward by the author mentions his own battles with Mental Health and it does give you pause before starting the book. However, don't let this put you off picking it up and giving things a chance. Yes, there are some tough subjects dealt with but the telling is so good you don't even really start to contemplate the bigger picture until you have finished reading. Yes, it does lead to some tough questions about your own opinions and beliefs but it could also open up some really useful conversations about important topics (this book touches on suicide, homosexuality, the nature of protest, corruption and many more). If that all sounds a bit "heavy" then just enjoy a cracking good tale that is very well told.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.
Hudson's Kill by Paddy Hirsch
3.5 Stars
I have not read the first of the Justy Flanagan series, The Devil's Half Mile, but I am happy to report that did not spoil this book for me. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of re-capping that tale either and there is enough information given about the characters that you can get to know them through this book without having read the first. Overall a win-win, if you have read the first you don't have swathes of text to skim through that are covering the first book and if you are new to it then this is almost a stand alone tale.
The setting itself is evocative and completely believable. When reading you can almost hear the sounds and, regrettably, smell the air. This is helped by the language used throughout the book, how accurate the "Flash" is we will never know but a glossary is provided at the back of the book to help you out if you don't understand a term or can't figure it out from context. The sources for the language are also cited so any inaccuracies are definitely not the author's. In fact, the research that has gone in to the whole book is incredible and gives it not only a sense of veracity but also a freshness; almost as if the author has transported themself back to the earliest days of New York and is writing from there.
Characterisation is very strong and not necessarily sympathetic. Kerry O'Toole and Justy Flanagan are our main protagonists and both are very flawed human beings. I like this in a fictional character, it makes them feel whole and more relatable than a perfect literary protagonist does. Justy in particular has a wonderfully warring personality, where what is right is not necessarily what wins through - more what is right for the situation.
Discussions of class structure are also dealt with well and there is a real separation between the "haves" and the rest of the populace. The delineation of the gangs between The Irish, The Negroes (contemporaneous term and not used to denigrate) and The Nativists is clearly described and there is a real sense of menace between the warring factions; all of whom want control of this burgeoning city. I also found the blurring of the lines between The Watchmen/City Marshals as the infancy of a regularised police force and the gangs to be interesting and well handled.
My problems came with the plot, I just couldn't really buy in to it. Far too much seemed to rely on coincidence and hot headedness. The initial discovery of the mysterious, murdered girl is handled well and a sense of intrigue builds up well. Somehow it then all got lost in a miasma of plots at the highest level of society, warring gang factions and a charismatic preacher. Such a shame as so much about this book is completely wonderful. It would probably have benefitted from one or two fewer "incidents" and concentrated on honing the whys and wherefores of the main plot.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
I have not read the first of the Justy Flanagan series, The Devil's Half Mile, but I am happy to report that did not spoil this book for me. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of re-capping that tale either and there is enough information given about the characters that you can get to know them through this book without having read the first. Overall a win-win, if you have read the first you don't have swathes of text to skim through that are covering the first book and if you are new to it then this is almost a stand alone tale.
The setting itself is evocative and completely believable. When reading you can almost hear the sounds and, regrettably, smell the air. This is helped by the language used throughout the book, how accurate the "Flash" is we will never know but a glossary is provided at the back of the book to help you out if you don't understand a term or can't figure it out from context. The sources for the language are also cited so any inaccuracies are definitely not the author's. In fact, the research that has gone in to the whole book is incredible and gives it not only a sense of veracity but also a freshness; almost as if the author has transported themself back to the earliest days of New York and is writing from there.
Characterisation is very strong and not necessarily sympathetic. Kerry O'Toole and Justy Flanagan are our main protagonists and both are very flawed human beings. I like this in a fictional character, it makes them feel whole and more relatable than a perfect literary protagonist does. Justy in particular has a wonderfully warring personality, where what is right is not necessarily what wins through - more what is right for the situation.
Discussions of class structure are also dealt with well and there is a real separation between the "haves" and the rest of the populace. The delineation of the gangs between The Irish, The Negroes (contemporaneous term and not used to denigrate) and The Nativists is clearly described and there is a real sense of menace between the warring factions; all of whom want control of this burgeoning city. I also found the blurring of the lines between The Watchmen/City Marshals as the infancy of a regularised police force and the gangs to be interesting and well handled.
My problems came with the plot, I just couldn't really buy in to it. Far too much seemed to rely on coincidence and hot headedness. The initial discovery of the mysterious, murdered girl is handled well and a sense of intrigue builds up well. Somehow it then all got lost in a miasma of plots at the highest level of society, warring gang factions and a charismatic preacher. Such a shame as so much about this book is completely wonderful. It would probably have benefitted from one or two fewer "incidents" and concentrated on honing the whys and wherefores of the main plot.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
The Woman In The Photograph by Stephanie Butland
3.5 Stars
This is an undeniably well written book with solid pacing and a strong narrator in Vee. Starting with the Ford Dagenham women striking for equal pay and taking us up to the modern day it charts Vee's rise as a professional photographer and as one of the Second Wave Of Feminism. Split in to 7 Sections (like the Seven Ages Of Man - I see what you did there author, I see) each is prefaced by a description of a photograph and the major events of the year it was taken and then goes on to tell us, from Vee's perspective, what happened in her life during this period. This is effective and helps sink the reader in to the setting.
My issue really came with the introduction of Leonie. She represents everything that makes my teeth itch about Feminism. This is a woman that espouses equality but really wants domination over and the subjugation of men. Strangely this is best shown in her interactions with other women, even her supposed Sisters, who she browbeats in to accepting her ideology. Whilst she appears to be good for Vee initially I really felt that she, ultimately, ruined Vee's personal life and hopes for happiness.
When we finally met Erica, Leonie's niece, who is setting up the retrospective of Vee's work we are invited to see her as a repressed woman. Concerned with trying to juggle family and professional life, initially you empathise with her as these are struggles any parent can relate to. The problem comes when Vee gets to know her on a personal level and indoctrinates her in to the ways of Feminism. I got so angry with the portrayal of Erica's husband as being infantilised and almost a second child for her to raise. Yes, there are men like that but equally there are a vast number that genuinely co-parent and have a partnership with their significant other but this is a relationship stuck in a 1950s time warp.
Unfortunately there is no separation between the author and the subject and her own views come through strongly. These are views that I, personally, find borderline toxic and it did really spoil the story for me as I could feel my blood boiling regularly throughout the story. Yes, I am female. Yes, I am a married working mother. Yes, I do believe that all people should be treated fairly and equally. No, I do not believe that this what the Feminist Movement wants.
The book itself is very well written and the author should be applauded for having the courage of her convictions (even if in my case it would be with a somewhat sarcastic slow handclap). The characters are well drawn and, with the exception of Leonie, are mainly sympathetically written, multi-faceted people. Emotions feel genuine and in proportion to the events. However, my personal bias against the subject matter did colour my enjoyment and subsequent review of the material.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
This is an undeniably well written book with solid pacing and a strong narrator in Vee. Starting with the Ford Dagenham women striking for equal pay and taking us up to the modern day it charts Vee's rise as a professional photographer and as one of the Second Wave Of Feminism. Split in to 7 Sections (like the Seven Ages Of Man - I see what you did there author, I see) each is prefaced by a description of a photograph and the major events of the year it was taken and then goes on to tell us, from Vee's perspective, what happened in her life during this period. This is effective and helps sink the reader in to the setting.
My issue really came with the introduction of Leonie. She represents everything that makes my teeth itch about Feminism. This is a woman that espouses equality but really wants domination over and the subjugation of men. Strangely this is best shown in her interactions with other women, even her supposed Sisters, who she browbeats in to accepting her ideology. Whilst she appears to be good for Vee initially I really felt that she, ultimately, ruined Vee's personal life and hopes for happiness.
When we finally met Erica, Leonie's niece, who is setting up the retrospective of Vee's work we are invited to see her as a repressed woman. Concerned with trying to juggle family and professional life, initially you empathise with her as these are struggles any parent can relate to. The problem comes when Vee gets to know her on a personal level and indoctrinates her in to the ways of Feminism. I got so angry with the portrayal of Erica's husband as being infantilised and almost a second child for her to raise. Yes, there are men like that but equally there are a vast number that genuinely co-parent and have a partnership with their significant other but this is a relationship stuck in a 1950s time warp.
Unfortunately there is no separation between the author and the subject and her own views come through strongly. These are views that I, personally, find borderline toxic and it did really spoil the story for me as I could feel my blood boiling regularly throughout the story. Yes, I am female. Yes, I am a married working mother. Yes, I do believe that all people should be treated fairly and equally. No, I do not believe that this what the Feminist Movement wants.
The book itself is very well written and the author should be applauded for having the courage of her convictions (even if in my case it would be with a somewhat sarcastic slow handclap). The characters are well drawn and, with the exception of Leonie, are mainly sympathetically written, multi-faceted people. Emotions feel genuine and in proportion to the events. However, my personal bias against the subject matter did colour my enjoyment and subsequent review of the material.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
Friday 28 June 2019
Want To Know A Secret? by Sue Moorcroft
Despite the subject matter, I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a big fan of books that deal with some of the harsher realities of life as I read for escapism. However, Ms Moorcroft writes with such warmth and humour I found that I was really enjoying Diane's story and actually willing things to work out for her.
When her husband, Gareth, is critically injured in a helicopter crash Diane's world goes in to a tailspin of it's own. Finding out that he has been lying to her for 2 years is a shock, finding out that he has a whole other grown up family that seem ready to welcome her in to the fold is perhaps an even bigger one. Her whole married life has been about scrimping and scraping and making do; something Diane has been very happy to do. Now, the knowledge that Gareth has been leading a double life throws everything in to doubt. Throw in an attraction to an unavailable man and Diane is sure to go through the wringer.
Despite the bleakness of the topics covered in the book there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from this book. A well paced plot was vital to this story and we have that in abundance. Everything moves at a natural feeling pace, even some of the more random plot points (Diane's sewing business for instance) slot in well and feel believable. The real drivers for the story though are the characters of Diane and James. Both are well constructed and have strong, individual voices that come across well on the page.
Covering betrayal, the nature of romantic love, familial love and paternal/maternal love it also touches on mental health issues, alcoholism and just the general struggles of daily life. Set in the beautiful landscape of The Fens it all just gelled together quite wonderfully. All the characters act more or less believably, apart from Gareth. Unfortunately Gareth has no redeeming characteristics and this spoilt the story somewhat for me because if he is such a reprehensible person then how did Diane fall so deeply for him in the first place? Even the flashbacks to their courtship make it clear he was a prize pranny then as well, it just spoilt the veracity of the rest of the tale.
It is a strangely charming tale that really did suck me in and make me want to keep reading.
When her husband, Gareth, is critically injured in a helicopter crash Diane's world goes in to a tailspin of it's own. Finding out that he has been lying to her for 2 years is a shock, finding out that he has a whole other grown up family that seem ready to welcome her in to the fold is perhaps an even bigger one. Her whole married life has been about scrimping and scraping and making do; something Diane has been very happy to do. Now, the knowledge that Gareth has been leading a double life throws everything in to doubt. Throw in an attraction to an unavailable man and Diane is sure to go through the wringer.
Despite the bleakness of the topics covered in the book there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from this book. A well paced plot was vital to this story and we have that in abundance. Everything moves at a natural feeling pace, even some of the more random plot points (Diane's sewing business for instance) slot in well and feel believable. The real drivers for the story though are the characters of Diane and James. Both are well constructed and have strong, individual voices that come across well on the page.
Covering betrayal, the nature of romantic love, familial love and paternal/maternal love it also touches on mental health issues, alcoholism and just the general struggles of daily life. Set in the beautiful landscape of The Fens it all just gelled together quite wonderfully. All the characters act more or less believably, apart from Gareth. Unfortunately Gareth has no redeeming characteristics and this spoilt the story somewhat for me because if he is such a reprehensible person then how did Diane fall so deeply for him in the first place? Even the flashbacks to their courtship make it clear he was a prize pranny then as well, it just spoilt the veracity of the rest of the tale.
It is a strangely charming tale that really did suck me in and make me want to keep reading.
Double Visions by Matt Drabble
This book sort of falls between two genres melding a supernatural tale with a more straightforward thriller - well, as straightforward as any serial killer tale can be said to be. It was moderately successful in bridging the gap between the two but just seemed to have something missing. One of the most jarring things was British police carrying guns, simply doesn't happen, and for a story set in the UK and written by a British author this annoyed me.
The supernatural elements of the story centre around Jane Parks, a psychic who was instrumental in capturing The Crucifier. Now, 8 years later he seems to be back and terrorising the same small English town. Unfortunately for Jane his victims seek her out to get their justice and it seems that The Crucifier also has a link to her. Jane's sections are actually quite well written and have been thought through. She is a sympathetic character and there are definitely "legs" to a series of stories featuring her.
The real problems come from the Police procedural sections. The author's research seems to have come from watching TV shows, mainly American, rather than actually speaking to anyone even peripherally associated with the police. Detective Meyers Junior is a reasonably strong character but never really comes alive on the page; there's always something missing about him and he does seem to be defined by his sense of duty and his sexuality.
Unfortunately, as things progress and the body count rises I did find myself losing interest in finding out who was behind this latest spate of murders. This was mainly because it felt like a series of set pieces bolted together and each murder grows gradually more gruesome. I voluntarily read Richard Laymon so gruesome isn't an issue for me but when it is merely there as an intention to shock it grates; regrettably that is how this book felt.
Enjoyable enough but there were just too many ideas battling for page space to satisfactorily explore any of them. Nice twist to the identity of The Crucifier but the final showdown is cluttered and has some gaping holes in it's execution.
The supernatural elements of the story centre around Jane Parks, a psychic who was instrumental in capturing The Crucifier. Now, 8 years later he seems to be back and terrorising the same small English town. Unfortunately for Jane his victims seek her out to get their justice and it seems that The Crucifier also has a link to her. Jane's sections are actually quite well written and have been thought through. She is a sympathetic character and there are definitely "legs" to a series of stories featuring her.
The real problems come from the Police procedural sections. The author's research seems to have come from watching TV shows, mainly American, rather than actually speaking to anyone even peripherally associated with the police. Detective Meyers Junior is a reasonably strong character but never really comes alive on the page; there's always something missing about him and he does seem to be defined by his sense of duty and his sexuality.
Unfortunately, as things progress and the body count rises I did find myself losing interest in finding out who was behind this latest spate of murders. This was mainly because it felt like a series of set pieces bolted together and each murder grows gradually more gruesome. I voluntarily read Richard Laymon so gruesome isn't an issue for me but when it is merely there as an intention to shock it grates; regrettably that is how this book felt.
Enjoyable enough but there were just too many ideas battling for page space to satisfactorily explore any of them. Nice twist to the identity of The Crucifier but the final showdown is cluttered and has some gaping holes in it's execution.
Thursday 27 June 2019
The Other Half Of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen
3.5 Stars
I wasn't too sure what to make of this novel at first. Augusta Hope and her twin sister, Julia, may have shared a womb and now share a bedroom and their lives but they could not be more disparate characters - from their different birthdays (each born different sides of midnight), to Julia's penchant to people please and be a delicate feminine daughter happy to settle down with a husband and family to Augusta's unquenchable need for knowledge. They really are nothing alike and the juxtaposition of their characters works very well. The foil for their relationship is the grey staidity of their parents and the brightness of the Alvarez family who move on to the Crescent one fateful New Year.
Augusta's tale takes her from precocious child, through her tweens and teenage years and through student fun to an untethered adulthood. There is love, of many types but mainly sororial, the bittersweetness of loss and the sheer mundanity of suburban life. Augusta is determined and inflexible which does make her both infuriating and strangely likeable - you can sympathise with her parents though, she would have been a nightmare to raise.
Augusta's story is then contrasted with that of Parfait. Born to the war torn country of Burundi and no stranger to violence and tragedy we also get to follow him as he loses almost everything in a quest for a better life. Somehow, I never really bought in to Parfait's character as much as I did Augusta's; something just never really clicked and he never really came alive for me. Maybe he was too many stereotypes or too obviously used as a counterpoint for Augusta's assurdness.
The story meanders along very nicely with a gentle pace. The Hope family are believable and their world may be shuttered and parochial but it works for 3 of the 4. Augusta has a firm voice and is entirely believable and really comes alive for the viewer. Things do lose their way towards the end with a set of coincidences that stretch credibility just that little bit too far to bring the threads together to shamble in to a conclusion. A conclusion that I found a little bit twee, if I'm being honest.
It is a good strong story that does engage the reader but it is not without it's problems. For me most of those centred around Parfait and I will admit to mostly skim reading through those bits to get back to Augusta. I can see why those sections were there but they were not nuanced enough for me and their purpose and placement were jarring against the treatment of the Hope's story.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
I wasn't too sure what to make of this novel at first. Augusta Hope and her twin sister, Julia, may have shared a womb and now share a bedroom and their lives but they could not be more disparate characters - from their different birthdays (each born different sides of midnight), to Julia's penchant to people please and be a delicate feminine daughter happy to settle down with a husband and family to Augusta's unquenchable need for knowledge. They really are nothing alike and the juxtaposition of their characters works very well. The foil for their relationship is the grey staidity of their parents and the brightness of the Alvarez family who move on to the Crescent one fateful New Year.
Augusta's tale takes her from precocious child, through her tweens and teenage years and through student fun to an untethered adulthood. There is love, of many types but mainly sororial, the bittersweetness of loss and the sheer mundanity of suburban life. Augusta is determined and inflexible which does make her both infuriating and strangely likeable - you can sympathise with her parents though, she would have been a nightmare to raise.
Augusta's story is then contrasted with that of Parfait. Born to the war torn country of Burundi and no stranger to violence and tragedy we also get to follow him as he loses almost everything in a quest for a better life. Somehow, I never really bought in to Parfait's character as much as I did Augusta's; something just never really clicked and he never really came alive for me. Maybe he was too many stereotypes or too obviously used as a counterpoint for Augusta's assurdness.
The story meanders along very nicely with a gentle pace. The Hope family are believable and their world may be shuttered and parochial but it works for 3 of the 4. Augusta has a firm voice and is entirely believable and really comes alive for the viewer. Things do lose their way towards the end with a set of coincidences that stretch credibility just that little bit too far to bring the threads together to shamble in to a conclusion. A conclusion that I found a little bit twee, if I'm being honest.
It is a good strong story that does engage the reader but it is not without it's problems. For me most of those centred around Parfait and I will admit to mostly skim reading through those bits to get back to Augusta. I can see why those sections were there but they were not nuanced enough for me and their purpose and placement were jarring against the treatment of the Hope's story.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
Moonstomp by Tim Wells
This is a short book, very, very short and before you know it you are at the end. Well, the book ends but that's the problem it just stops. There is no resolution, no grand reveal and old Bovshover still has no clue what's going on - in all honesty we, the reader, are only surmising as well. This is such a shame as the writing is great, the setting wonderfully rich and evocative, peopled with slightly drawn characters who are brought to life by their environs. Honestly, this was heading for a 5 Star read all the way and then it just stopped as brutally as a Doc Marten to the face would stop you. Can you tell I left the book feeling mighty disappointed?
Set on the cusp of the 1980's and focusing around a volatile music scene - punk is yet to mutate in to the New Romantics (how that happened I still can't quite fathom and I lived through it), Two Tone is bringing a mix of SKA and Reggae to a mainstream audience. Politically it is the Winter of Discontent, Labour are on the outs and Margaret Thatcher is poised to become the first Female Prime Minister. Unemployment is about to sky rocket and for the young it is all about the weekend down the pub, finishing off a work week in the only way you know how - at the bottom of a glass and maybe with a fight or two thrown in for good measure.
Joe Bovshover may be a stereotypical skinhead, with decidedly strong views on the nastiness of the National Front, but he has a decent printing job and a real passion for Punk and Reggae so the weekend for him is about the gigs he can get to and the records he can buy. The author brings him to life on the page and there is a real sense of occasion in getting ready for those nights out, and a healthy dose of rose tinted nostalgia too. When people start turning up dead in brutal fashion all over London during nights of the Full Moon it doesn't look good, especially for Joe.
A great blend of the resilience of youth and a little supernatural undertone to the murders and it is a joyous ride. The werewolf element is given a light touch with little nods here and there to the potential for the murderer to be this mythic creature but it is not overt and it is never resolved. Everything points to the identity of the killer and his transformation but it is not resolved - for the reader or the Lycanthrope in question.
It is a very fun read but expect it to be over before it really gets in to high gear.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK SUPPLIED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Set on the cusp of the 1980's and focusing around a volatile music scene - punk is yet to mutate in to the New Romantics (how that happened I still can't quite fathom and I lived through it), Two Tone is bringing a mix of SKA and Reggae to a mainstream audience. Politically it is the Winter of Discontent, Labour are on the outs and Margaret Thatcher is poised to become the first Female Prime Minister. Unemployment is about to sky rocket and for the young it is all about the weekend down the pub, finishing off a work week in the only way you know how - at the bottom of a glass and maybe with a fight or two thrown in for good measure.
Joe Bovshover may be a stereotypical skinhead, with decidedly strong views on the nastiness of the National Front, but he has a decent printing job and a real passion for Punk and Reggae so the weekend for him is about the gigs he can get to and the records he can buy. The author brings him to life on the page and there is a real sense of occasion in getting ready for those nights out, and a healthy dose of rose tinted nostalgia too. When people start turning up dead in brutal fashion all over London during nights of the Full Moon it doesn't look good, especially for Joe.
A great blend of the resilience of youth and a little supernatural undertone to the murders and it is a joyous ride. The werewolf element is given a light touch with little nods here and there to the potential for the murderer to be this mythic creature but it is not overt and it is never resolved. Everything points to the identity of the killer and his transformation but it is not resolved - for the reader or the Lycanthrope in question.
It is a very fun read but expect it to be over before it really gets in to high gear.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK SUPPLIED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Still Lives by Maria Hummel
I read this book quite a while after purchasing it and couldn't remember anything about the blurb so when I started reading and was immediately thrown in to The Rocque Art Museum my heart did a little sink. Especially as we got in to the description of Kim Lord's exhibition I genuinely thought that I was going to be swamped in Arty language, flowery descriptions and a Feminist Diatribe loosely covered up as a Thriller. Fortunately, my initial knee-jerk prejudices were soon swamped by an intelligently written work and by the second chapter I was absorbed and thoroughly on board with wherever the author wished to take me.
This would be a great read for a Book Club as there is a lot that can be dissected here. The Kim Lord Exhibition itself has a lot of scope with it's portrayal of the artist as victim of real life violent crimes against women. The author manages to treat these crimes with a blood splattered matter-of-factness that both highlights the atrocity and yet reduces it to the artists canvas. Then you have the various relationships that our protagonist, Maggie, has. Her overprotective mother, failed love, friendship and work acquaintances all blend well on the page and Ms Hummel manages to show how multi-faceted and compartmentalised the Human Animal really is without beating you round the head with it. I would suggest that if you do have a Book Club that you prepare for a late night discussing this one - you will find A LOT to talk about.
If you just take everything at face value and don't think about all the different things we are being told about what it is to be a woman, both historically and contemporaneously, then this is still a cracking good read. When Ms Lord seems to have missed her opening party I felt sure that when the guests entered the final room of the exhibition where the Still Life was displayed that her corpse would be displayed there. All through the many chapters leading to that point I was more and more convinced that would be the case - was it? Well, read the book to find out (you really thought I was going to insert a sneaky spoiler didn't you?)
The pacing is perfect and Maggie genuinely comes alive on the page. It is refreshing to have a main character that is so genuinely human - with all the nasty and nice bits that make up a real personality. Yes, she can be infuriating and her still clinging to her past relationship with Greg drove me slightly potty (in all fairness I think Maggie hated herself for being so enraptured with him, so it balanced out). Mainly she is just trying her best to get through each day, staggering through like most of us with no clue how she managed to see another 24 hours off.
Great characterisation, good plot but with a couple of crevasses that lost it a star. Not recommended for reading when you have a deadline to be somewhere because you will be late; the temptation for "just one more chapter" is too great.
This would be a great read for a Book Club as there is a lot that can be dissected here. The Kim Lord Exhibition itself has a lot of scope with it's portrayal of the artist as victim of real life violent crimes against women. The author manages to treat these crimes with a blood splattered matter-of-factness that both highlights the atrocity and yet reduces it to the artists canvas. Then you have the various relationships that our protagonist, Maggie, has. Her overprotective mother, failed love, friendship and work acquaintances all blend well on the page and Ms Hummel manages to show how multi-faceted and compartmentalised the Human Animal really is without beating you round the head with it. I would suggest that if you do have a Book Club that you prepare for a late night discussing this one - you will find A LOT to talk about.
If you just take everything at face value and don't think about all the different things we are being told about what it is to be a woman, both historically and contemporaneously, then this is still a cracking good read. When Ms Lord seems to have missed her opening party I felt sure that when the guests entered the final room of the exhibition where the Still Life was displayed that her corpse would be displayed there. All through the many chapters leading to that point I was more and more convinced that would be the case - was it? Well, read the book to find out (you really thought I was going to insert a sneaky spoiler didn't you?)
The pacing is perfect and Maggie genuinely comes alive on the page. It is refreshing to have a main character that is so genuinely human - with all the nasty and nice bits that make up a real personality. Yes, she can be infuriating and her still clinging to her past relationship with Greg drove me slightly potty (in all fairness I think Maggie hated herself for being so enraptured with him, so it balanced out). Mainly she is just trying her best to get through each day, staggering through like most of us with no clue how she managed to see another 24 hours off.
Great characterisation, good plot but with a couple of crevasses that lost it a star. Not recommended for reading when you have a deadline to be somewhere because you will be late; the temptation for "just one more chapter" is too great.
The Wall In The Head by Christopher Beanland
I have a dark sense of humour and am fond of the inappropriate laugh, like many I am no stranger to the loss of loved ones so I was looking forward to this read. From the blurb it was right up my strasse, Unfortunately, it does not live up to the publisher's hyperbole. The writing felt confused and disjointed and I could not find any humour within it's pages at all, let alone any black humour.
Donald is suffering after his wife Belinda dies in a cycling accident. So much so he tries to take the ultimate solution to his pain by taking a dive off the West Mids TV building, a Brutalist construction in the heart of Birmingham. Somehow he doesn't manage it, a freak gust of wind (or supernatural intervention - it really isn't clear) blows him back on to the roof and so starts his tale.
The story is more or less split in to three separate timelines:
The story of his romance and relationship with Belinda.
Belinda's Top Ten Brutalist Buildings book excerpts (truly dire if you really dislike this particular form of architecture).
The story of Donald's working life as a writer for West Mids TV and the TV Stations inexorable decline. Particularly the making of one last show based on Belinda's paeon to Brutalism.
The best bit about this book was that it finally ended - albeit with the words "This Is Not The End". The second best bit was the sections dealing with the technicalities of filming a TV documentary on a shoestring budget. From a deranged presenter (Baxter), upbeat Producer (Kate), taciturn Polish driver (Januscz) and the relentless Director (Bob) you get a sense of the inner workings of filming against time and within budget whilst staying in bizarre hotels and subsisting off Service Station "food".
I never really got a genuine sense of the characters beyond them being words on a page. In fact Donald actually wonders how characters can come alive in a book as all he knows is writing for TV where the actors flesh out his characters with gestures and a third dimension. Sadly, Donald was proved right that you can't always get a living and breathing character on to the page; Mr Beanland certainly didn't manage to.
So, we have a lack of characterisation and a meandering plot - this was never going to be one of my best reads. Then throw in all the hearts and flowers stuff about Brutalism (and you really cannot get away from it, it infuses each and every page) and it completely bypassed my enjoyment switch.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Donald is suffering after his wife Belinda dies in a cycling accident. So much so he tries to take the ultimate solution to his pain by taking a dive off the West Mids TV building, a Brutalist construction in the heart of Birmingham. Somehow he doesn't manage it, a freak gust of wind (or supernatural intervention - it really isn't clear) blows him back on to the roof and so starts his tale.
The story is more or less split in to three separate timelines:
The story of his romance and relationship with Belinda.
Belinda's Top Ten Brutalist Buildings book excerpts (truly dire if you really dislike this particular form of architecture).
The story of Donald's working life as a writer for West Mids TV and the TV Stations inexorable decline. Particularly the making of one last show based on Belinda's paeon to Brutalism.
The best bit about this book was that it finally ended - albeit with the words "This Is Not The End". The second best bit was the sections dealing with the technicalities of filming a TV documentary on a shoestring budget. From a deranged presenter (Baxter), upbeat Producer (Kate), taciturn Polish driver (Januscz) and the relentless Director (Bob) you get a sense of the inner workings of filming against time and within budget whilst staying in bizarre hotels and subsisting off Service Station "food".
I never really got a genuine sense of the characters beyond them being words on a page. In fact Donald actually wonders how characters can come alive in a book as all he knows is writing for TV where the actors flesh out his characters with gestures and a third dimension. Sadly, Donald was proved right that you can't always get a living and breathing character on to the page; Mr Beanland certainly didn't manage to.
So, we have a lack of characterisation and a meandering plot - this was never going to be one of my best reads. Then throw in all the hearts and flowers stuff about Brutalism (and you really cannot get away from it, it infuses each and every page) and it completely bypassed my enjoyment switch.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Friday 21 June 2019
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
This book is genuinely rip-snortingly funny. I may occasionally raise a wry grin or even a subdued chuckle at a book but this one had me guffawing all over the place, so much so my other half banned me from taking this one in to work to read - fearing, I think, they would think I had lost my last fragile grip on sanity. The humour is relentlessly British which has a strange sort of comfort to it and there is no attempt made to gussie things up or explain them for a non-British audience. Not only did the strength of the humour surprise me but the book does not read like a collaboration at all, it has a distinct voice with the odd bit that makes you go clearly a Gaiman idea or I can see Pratchett all over that thought. The writing blends seamlessly together and you get the idea that the authors had an absolute blast creating this version of our world.
I did find it went off the boil a little bit towards to the end - a bit too much Newt Pulsifer and not enough Aziraphale or Crowley, but that is a minor niggle. But it does point to the fact that it was the back and forth between the Angel and the Demon that made this one for me. Having spent so long putting up with Humanity on the Earth they have become rather fond of them and don't really want to see them destroyed so when the call comes in from their diametrically opposed Heads Of Department that Armageddon is due both of them feel a sinking sense of disappointment and get their heads together to see if they can divert the ineffability of it all. Fortunately, thanks to Sister Mary Locquacious, the Anti-Christ seems to have gone missing and without him things are going to be a bit tricky to get going. Still, the Four Bikers Of The Apocalypse are primed and ready so there's that going for the Great Plan.
I could spend hours dissecting this book and reeling off favourite passages and little tics that pleased me. I shall, for once, refrain. Apart from saying that the fact The Devil gets the M25, Manchester and Glasgow makes an awful lot of sense - I work in the Transport Industry and the M25 strikes dread in to all our hearts; I'm from Lancashire and Manchester is, well, Manchester (enough said); I'm married to a Glaswegian. Finally it makes sense, it's all Crowley's fault!
The interplay between the characters is superbly written and the story sucks you right in. I am sure there is much I missed as I didn't so much read this book as absorb it over two sittings. Sadly these two sittings were a week apart.
My big issue now is whether or not to watch the serialisation of the book.
I did find it went off the boil a little bit towards to the end - a bit too much Newt Pulsifer and not enough Aziraphale or Crowley, but that is a minor niggle. But it does point to the fact that it was the back and forth between the Angel and the Demon that made this one for me. Having spent so long putting up with Humanity on the Earth they have become rather fond of them and don't really want to see them destroyed so when the call comes in from their diametrically opposed Heads Of Department that Armageddon is due both of them feel a sinking sense of disappointment and get their heads together to see if they can divert the ineffability of it all. Fortunately, thanks to Sister Mary Locquacious, the Anti-Christ seems to have gone missing and without him things are going to be a bit tricky to get going. Still, the Four Bikers Of The Apocalypse are primed and ready so there's that going for the Great Plan.
I could spend hours dissecting this book and reeling off favourite passages and little tics that pleased me. I shall, for once, refrain. Apart from saying that the fact The Devil gets the M25, Manchester and Glasgow makes an awful lot of sense - I work in the Transport Industry and the M25 strikes dread in to all our hearts; I'm from Lancashire and Manchester is, well, Manchester (enough said); I'm married to a Glaswegian. Finally it makes sense, it's all Crowley's fault!
The interplay between the characters is superbly written and the story sucks you right in. I am sure there is much I missed as I didn't so much read this book as absorb it over two sittings. Sadly these two sittings were a week apart.
My big issue now is whether or not to watch the serialisation of the book.
The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
There's something about the coast of Maine that seems to cause writers to create locations that become characters in and of themselves. Now, this may be because I have read far too much Stephen King, but that is certainly the case in The Last House Guest. There is a tangibility to the air of Littleport and a creeping sense that the town itself is alive in a way that the people who inhabit it simply aren't; a sense that Littleport lives, breathes and directs the behaviour of it's inhabitants. Strip away the bluffs, the beaches and the cliffs and you would be left with a heart that pounds erratically and is black as night.
Ostensibly the story is about Avery, a lifelong inhabitant of Littleport and her association with The Lomans. A summer family who more or less own the town. Avery has lost her family to the town, her parents in a car crash and her Grandmother a handful of years later. Her friends stick by her until she falls under the spell of Sadie Loman and then to the wider family; gradually becoming, as one summer visitor coins it, Sadie's Monster.
The story jumps between several timelines as seen from Avery's point of view. We get glimpses in to the aftermath of the accident that took her parent's lives, Avery's first meeting with Sadie, that fateful Plus One Party and this final summer. You see, Sadie washed up on Breaker Beach when she should have been at the Plus One Party and this year they are having a dedication to Sadie - a clangerless brass bell to call the lost souls home. The local Police seem to believe that Sadie went willingly in to the sea, Avery is not so sure.
The story itself is delightfully claustrophobic. A small coastal town that only really comes alive for three months of the year when the summer visitors gather. A small coastal town where no resident's past transgressions can ever be forgotten or forgiven. A small coastal town in thrall to the Loman family who are gradually turning it, and it's residents, in to their private property.
There is a nicely crafted twist towards the end regarding Sadie's death. The menace creeps slowly up on the reader throughout the book until you begin to feel as jittery as Avery. Unfortunately there are a couple of plot holes that never get resolved or explained away in a satisfactory manner which did leave me wondering "but what about..."
On the whole this book has terrific pacing and a strong narrator in Avery Greer. The strongest character, by far, though is the setting. Not just because of it's perceived beauty but because of how insignificant Littleport makes the people seem. Truly creepy and with a true sense of terror building through the story.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Ostensibly the story is about Avery, a lifelong inhabitant of Littleport and her association with The Lomans. A summer family who more or less own the town. Avery has lost her family to the town, her parents in a car crash and her Grandmother a handful of years later. Her friends stick by her until she falls under the spell of Sadie Loman and then to the wider family; gradually becoming, as one summer visitor coins it, Sadie's Monster.
The story jumps between several timelines as seen from Avery's point of view. We get glimpses in to the aftermath of the accident that took her parent's lives, Avery's first meeting with Sadie, that fateful Plus One Party and this final summer. You see, Sadie washed up on Breaker Beach when she should have been at the Plus One Party and this year they are having a dedication to Sadie - a clangerless brass bell to call the lost souls home. The local Police seem to believe that Sadie went willingly in to the sea, Avery is not so sure.
The story itself is delightfully claustrophobic. A small coastal town that only really comes alive for three months of the year when the summer visitors gather. A small coastal town where no resident's past transgressions can ever be forgotten or forgiven. A small coastal town in thrall to the Loman family who are gradually turning it, and it's residents, in to their private property.
There is a nicely crafted twist towards the end regarding Sadie's death. The menace creeps slowly up on the reader throughout the book until you begin to feel as jittery as Avery. Unfortunately there are a couple of plot holes that never get resolved or explained away in a satisfactory manner which did leave me wondering "but what about..."
On the whole this book has terrific pacing and a strong narrator in Avery Greer. The strongest character, by far, though is the setting. Not just because of it's perceived beauty but because of how insignificant Littleport makes the people seem. Truly creepy and with a true sense of terror building through the story.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Tuesday 18 June 2019
The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter
3.5 Stars
It's been a long time since I have read one of the Karin Slaughter books featuring Will Trent or Sara Linton and it seems like quite a lot has happened to the pair of them since I last picked up one of the books in their individual series. I have to be honest and say that I am not entirely sure that the merging of the two works particularly well and throwing them together as a couple just feels uncomfortable somehow. They are such disparate people beneath the surface and it just doesn't work for me. So much so by the end I was beginning to wonder if Sara is suffering from some kind of saviour complex and that is why she is with Will. The bigger problem though is that because these are such well established characters that the jeopardy that is intrinsic to making this novel work is dissipated; it is VERY unusual for an author to kill of a beloved character that is the main protagonist of a series of novels. Therefore, you know pretty much how things are going to turn out so you are just reading for the hows and not breathlessly turning the pages to find out if they are going to make it.
I was also initially frustrated at the way the early chapters unfold. The tale is told to us from 3 different viewpoints - Will Trent, GBI field agent, psychologically damaged from his childhood, dyslexic and autism sufferer (all of which defines his character on the page and always has done and is part of why I abandoned the Will Trent series); Sara Linton, GBI Medical Examiner, pediatrician, rape survivor, police widow and romantic partner of aforementioned Will Trent (a real Girl Scout whose fictional personality is as a Debbie-Do-Good and is held up as somehow perfect in many ways - a reason why I abandoned the Sara Linton series as she was beginning to grate); Faith Mitchell, GBI Field Agent that is a single mother and partner to Will Trent (probably the only one of the trio who reacts in normal, quantifiably human ways). The three pronged attack on the story is not a bad thing and the voices interrupt each other just enough that my natural annoyance with 2 of the 3 was diverted. The problem comes in the early stages as you have to sit through the same few minutes being told from the perspective of will or Sara, literally the same events unfolding over the same timeline with a slightly different vision. Fortunately Faith's minutes are substantively different so I kept reading. This format is utilised throughout the book but as the 3 are generally in different locations it is more informative and actually does begin to drive the story.
The bits I really want to discuss I don't feel that I can in a review, as they give away a major narrative to the plot and as it is really the lynch pin of the whole thing it would give too much away. It is definitely one that would work well in a Book Club setting and give the members plenty to chew over and rehash. The main plot deals with belief, brainwashing, subjugation and what happens when people become disenfranchised. Once I separated the characters form the events I began to enjoy it more - the world which the "bad guys" inhabit is richly created and their behaviours are justified to themselves in a way which is wholly believable. I do not personally share their belief and find their justifications ludicrous but in the knowledge that tens (if not hundreds) of thousands happen to agree with their philosophy.
The plotting is strong and generally well paced, the author knows the right points to ratchet tension and when to divert the reader. The research in to the procedure of police and government is solid and gives a believability to the text. My problem lies solely with the main characters as they are never really anything more than a shadow of a whole person.
It's a good enough procedural tale but lacking any true peril for the main players, leaving the reader just bumping along for the ride in the blacked out panel van. Leaving you feeling slightly dishevelled and needing a good hot shower at the end of it.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
It's been a long time since I have read one of the Karin Slaughter books featuring Will Trent or Sara Linton and it seems like quite a lot has happened to the pair of them since I last picked up one of the books in their individual series. I have to be honest and say that I am not entirely sure that the merging of the two works particularly well and throwing them together as a couple just feels uncomfortable somehow. They are such disparate people beneath the surface and it just doesn't work for me. So much so by the end I was beginning to wonder if Sara is suffering from some kind of saviour complex and that is why she is with Will. The bigger problem though is that because these are such well established characters that the jeopardy that is intrinsic to making this novel work is dissipated; it is VERY unusual for an author to kill of a beloved character that is the main protagonist of a series of novels. Therefore, you know pretty much how things are going to turn out so you are just reading for the hows and not breathlessly turning the pages to find out if they are going to make it.
I was also initially frustrated at the way the early chapters unfold. The tale is told to us from 3 different viewpoints - Will Trent, GBI field agent, psychologically damaged from his childhood, dyslexic and autism sufferer (all of which defines his character on the page and always has done and is part of why I abandoned the Will Trent series); Sara Linton, GBI Medical Examiner, pediatrician, rape survivor, police widow and romantic partner of aforementioned Will Trent (a real Girl Scout whose fictional personality is as a Debbie-Do-Good and is held up as somehow perfect in many ways - a reason why I abandoned the Sara Linton series as she was beginning to grate); Faith Mitchell, GBI Field Agent that is a single mother and partner to Will Trent (probably the only one of the trio who reacts in normal, quantifiably human ways). The three pronged attack on the story is not a bad thing and the voices interrupt each other just enough that my natural annoyance with 2 of the 3 was diverted. The problem comes in the early stages as you have to sit through the same few minutes being told from the perspective of will or Sara, literally the same events unfolding over the same timeline with a slightly different vision. Fortunately Faith's minutes are substantively different so I kept reading. This format is utilised throughout the book but as the 3 are generally in different locations it is more informative and actually does begin to drive the story.
The bits I really want to discuss I don't feel that I can in a review, as they give away a major narrative to the plot and as it is really the lynch pin of the whole thing it would give too much away. It is definitely one that would work well in a Book Club setting and give the members plenty to chew over and rehash. The main plot deals with belief, brainwashing, subjugation and what happens when people become disenfranchised. Once I separated the characters form the events I began to enjoy it more - the world which the "bad guys" inhabit is richly created and their behaviours are justified to themselves in a way which is wholly believable. I do not personally share their belief and find their justifications ludicrous but in the knowledge that tens (if not hundreds) of thousands happen to agree with their philosophy.
The plotting is strong and generally well paced, the author knows the right points to ratchet tension and when to divert the reader. The research in to the procedure of police and government is solid and gives a believability to the text. My problem lies solely with the main characters as they are never really anything more than a shadow of a whole person.
It's a good enough procedural tale but lacking any true peril for the main players, leaving the reader just bumping along for the ride in the blacked out panel van. Leaving you feeling slightly dishevelled and needing a good hot shower at the end of it.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Not Speaking by Norma Clarke
2.5 Stars
Norma Clarke and her 5 siblings (2 sisters and 3 brothers) grew up in a Working Class Anglo-Greek family in Elephant and Castle, London in the post-second world war era. With a volatile Greek mother and a hard working, mostly silent father. They were a fairly typical family of the time - loud, close and living close to her Father's relatives. The boys were almost worshipped when they came along, particularly by their mother, and the girls were expected to become "little mothers" to the younger children. The only difference is that in their number were an English Professor (the author), a successful hairdresser (brother Michael) and a celebrity hairdresser (brother Nicky). Not Speaking aims to tell their story, particularly following a large scale 2014 email argument regarding their widowed mother's living arrangements.
In an attempt to explain the dynamics of her family Ms Clarke treats us to several lessons along the way. We get a very long section about Greek Mythology, centred largely around Homer's Iliad and seems to be using this epic poem to show attitudes towards women in their family. We also get treated to lesser treatises on the lives of a couple of writers who settled briefly in Greece and also little bits of Robert Browning for good measure. We do seem to keep returning to the Iliad though.
The above was a problem for this reader. I picked the book up anticipating a family memoir that just so happened to have a couple of people we, the general populace, has heard of. A family much like one we may ourselves have come from with all it's passion and insecurities. Like it or not nurture does have a huge impact on our personalities and there is a personal comfort in finding out that maybe your family wasn't quite as messed up as you thought. Unfortunately, these digressions in to Academia (the writing is such that much of the digressions for the tale of the Clarke family read more like a lecture hall declamation) stall the family story and did cause me to lose interest in the book.
There is a reasonable blend of early years thrown in but these seem to be mainly interspersed with tales of the fall out from the email argument and centre mainly around Nicky refusing to speak to various members of his family. Initially you get the feeling that there is a resentment of Nicky's largesses, his freely given material support to the family, the holidays he funds, the events he gives them access to. So that when he asks for the siblings to help him get their mother to downsize and to chip in for he exorbitant rent in a new flat it opens a schism within the family. I actually came away feeling that he had been somewhat demonised by his family because he needed to make an economic decision. Obviously, more was not told than was and some of the underlying frictions that built up over 50 years are still lying ignored.
The sections dealing with their parents relationship are interesting and written with a curiously detached voice. The brief history of Greece in the Second World War is interesting, especially as this is how Mr Greece met his war bride. There is also a little bit of a family skeleton revealing regarding the author's paternal grandparents, much of which she readily admits she has been unable to verify. Mostly it is about their resolutely Greek mother, her foibles and her complete control of her children, even well in to their adulthood.
Had the author stuck to the memoir this would have been a far more enthralling read. However, there is far too much of the "other" about the book. If I want to read about the personal lives of George Sands, or read about different translations of the Iliad or the Odyssey, I will search out books on these topics. Sure, if the author thinks they are important to the tale and her perspective on how things unfolded and maybe even why they unfolded then sure, mention them and maybe put in a appendix so anyone with interest in knowing more can use that to delve deeper. Instead you have to wade through rather dry academic sections to return to the story we were hoping to read.
This was not one for me. Admittedly I don't often read memoirs as the ones that make it to print often do so because there is some tragedy or distressing pivotal event that made the Publisher think it was worth something. Occassionally there will be one that catches my eye and they can be a thing of beauty. Regrettably I found that this one fell very short of what makes a good memoir for this reader.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Norma Clarke and her 5 siblings (2 sisters and 3 brothers) grew up in a Working Class Anglo-Greek family in Elephant and Castle, London in the post-second world war era. With a volatile Greek mother and a hard working, mostly silent father. They were a fairly typical family of the time - loud, close and living close to her Father's relatives. The boys were almost worshipped when they came along, particularly by their mother, and the girls were expected to become "little mothers" to the younger children. The only difference is that in their number were an English Professor (the author), a successful hairdresser (brother Michael) and a celebrity hairdresser (brother Nicky). Not Speaking aims to tell their story, particularly following a large scale 2014 email argument regarding their widowed mother's living arrangements.
In an attempt to explain the dynamics of her family Ms Clarke treats us to several lessons along the way. We get a very long section about Greek Mythology, centred largely around Homer's Iliad and seems to be using this epic poem to show attitudes towards women in their family. We also get treated to lesser treatises on the lives of a couple of writers who settled briefly in Greece and also little bits of Robert Browning for good measure. We do seem to keep returning to the Iliad though.
The above was a problem for this reader. I picked the book up anticipating a family memoir that just so happened to have a couple of people we, the general populace, has heard of. A family much like one we may ourselves have come from with all it's passion and insecurities. Like it or not nurture does have a huge impact on our personalities and there is a personal comfort in finding out that maybe your family wasn't quite as messed up as you thought. Unfortunately, these digressions in to Academia (the writing is such that much of the digressions for the tale of the Clarke family read more like a lecture hall declamation) stall the family story and did cause me to lose interest in the book.
There is a reasonable blend of early years thrown in but these seem to be mainly interspersed with tales of the fall out from the email argument and centre mainly around Nicky refusing to speak to various members of his family. Initially you get the feeling that there is a resentment of Nicky's largesses, his freely given material support to the family, the holidays he funds, the events he gives them access to. So that when he asks for the siblings to help him get their mother to downsize and to chip in for he exorbitant rent in a new flat it opens a schism within the family. I actually came away feeling that he had been somewhat demonised by his family because he needed to make an economic decision. Obviously, more was not told than was and some of the underlying frictions that built up over 50 years are still lying ignored.
The sections dealing with their parents relationship are interesting and written with a curiously detached voice. The brief history of Greece in the Second World War is interesting, especially as this is how Mr Greece met his war bride. There is also a little bit of a family skeleton revealing regarding the author's paternal grandparents, much of which she readily admits she has been unable to verify. Mostly it is about their resolutely Greek mother, her foibles and her complete control of her children, even well in to their adulthood.
Had the author stuck to the memoir this would have been a far more enthralling read. However, there is far too much of the "other" about the book. If I want to read about the personal lives of George Sands, or read about different translations of the Iliad or the Odyssey, I will search out books on these topics. Sure, if the author thinks they are important to the tale and her perspective on how things unfolded and maybe even why they unfolded then sure, mention them and maybe put in a appendix so anyone with interest in knowing more can use that to delve deeper. Instead you have to wade through rather dry academic sections to return to the story we were hoping to read.
This was not one for me. Admittedly I don't often read memoirs as the ones that make it to print often do so because there is some tragedy or distressing pivotal event that made the Publisher think it was worth something. Occassionally there will be one that catches my eye and they can be a thing of beauty. Regrettably I found that this one fell very short of what makes a good memoir for this reader.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Monday 17 June 2019
Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher Of Men by Harold Schechter
3.5 Stars
I read this book on a Kindle Paperwhite which does not support the Kindle In Motion additional content so I cannot comment if this adds anything to the experience or not. What I can say is that the formatting for a standard Kindle is a little "off" and chapter titles in particular are in a startlingly large type.
The first thing I feel I should mention is that only 65% of the book is actually devoted to the mystery of Belle Gunness, for a mystery it is. The remainder of the book is devoted to a startlingly thorough research appendix and the index. Also, no conclusions are drawn by the author and no truths as to the events in that long ago La Porte are revealed; what we do get is a timeline of events that give some pointed clues but no firm answers.
The facts are that a Norwegian immigrant, one Belle Gunness, moved to La Porte following the death of her husband and having received a substantial payment from his life insurance. It is known that she advertised for a partner in Norwegian newspapers in the United States and through this corresponded with and met several men. It is known that those men who made the journey to the farm frequently went missing. It is known that the farmhouse burnt to the ground under suspicious circumstances and the bodies of three children and one woman were recovered from the smoking rubble of the property. It is known that several decomposed corpses were found dismembered and buried in gunny sacks on the property. It is known that at least one of the corpses was identified as belonging to a gentleman (Mr Helgelian) who had corresponded with and then visited Belle Gunness at her farm.
What is not known is how the fire happened - did Belle set it herself? was it set by her former farmhand Ray? What is not known is the identity of the female corpse found in the smoking remains - was it Belle herself? had Belle escaped and left the body of a similar build as a decoy? What is not known (but is presumed to be Belle) was who dismembered and buried the corpses in the hog lot of the farm. What is not known is how Belle came to have 3 children when she never appeared to have been pregnant - was she a baby farmer?
In all honesty the case of the "La Porte Murder Farm" raises far more questions than it answers. The presumption is there that Belle Gunness was responsible for the bodies found buried in the farm grounds, but the proof is circumstantial. Admittedly, compelling, but still no undeniable proof is available. This would explain why this was a series of murders that I had never heard of before - and I will confess to having something of a penchant for True Crime programming and books.
The writing itself is well constructed with a clear timeline narrative emerging. The author also does well describing the social mores prevalent at the time and you do get a feel for what it was like to inhabit the late Victorian Era in rural America. The research is exhaustive and every document is listed in the appendix and includes not only contemporary newspaper reports but also official court and police records.
I read this book on a Kindle Paperwhite which does not support the Kindle In Motion additional content so I cannot comment if this adds anything to the experience or not. What I can say is that the formatting for a standard Kindle is a little "off" and chapter titles in particular are in a startlingly large type.
The first thing I feel I should mention is that only 65% of the book is actually devoted to the mystery of Belle Gunness, for a mystery it is. The remainder of the book is devoted to a startlingly thorough research appendix and the index. Also, no conclusions are drawn by the author and no truths as to the events in that long ago La Porte are revealed; what we do get is a timeline of events that give some pointed clues but no firm answers.
The facts are that a Norwegian immigrant, one Belle Gunness, moved to La Porte following the death of her husband and having received a substantial payment from his life insurance. It is known that she advertised for a partner in Norwegian newspapers in the United States and through this corresponded with and met several men. It is known that those men who made the journey to the farm frequently went missing. It is known that the farmhouse burnt to the ground under suspicious circumstances and the bodies of three children and one woman were recovered from the smoking rubble of the property. It is known that several decomposed corpses were found dismembered and buried in gunny sacks on the property. It is known that at least one of the corpses was identified as belonging to a gentleman (Mr Helgelian) who had corresponded with and then visited Belle Gunness at her farm.
What is not known is how the fire happened - did Belle set it herself? was it set by her former farmhand Ray? What is not known is the identity of the female corpse found in the smoking remains - was it Belle herself? had Belle escaped and left the body of a similar build as a decoy? What is not known (but is presumed to be Belle) was who dismembered and buried the corpses in the hog lot of the farm. What is not known is how Belle came to have 3 children when she never appeared to have been pregnant - was she a baby farmer?
In all honesty the case of the "La Porte Murder Farm" raises far more questions than it answers. The presumption is there that Belle Gunness was responsible for the bodies found buried in the farm grounds, but the proof is circumstantial. Admittedly, compelling, but still no undeniable proof is available. This would explain why this was a series of murders that I had never heard of before - and I will confess to having something of a penchant for True Crime programming and books.
The writing itself is well constructed with a clear timeline narrative emerging. The author also does well describing the social mores prevalent at the time and you do get a feel for what it was like to inhabit the late Victorian Era in rural America. The research is exhaustive and every document is listed in the appendix and includes not only contemporary newspaper reports but also official court and police records.
Tuesday 11 June 2019
Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams
3.5 Stars
This was a fun enough read, it just didn't really grab me and absorb me in Daniel and Nadia's story. There were too many coincidences and near misses and a few plot holes that irritated me. That said I did read the book in a day - the joy's of a day off work with nothing to do but read!
Two things really bugged me about the story. The first was Nadia's job. She is clearly in a corporate world (designing artifical intelligence programs) and yet her persistent lateness doesn't seem to be a cause for concern to her employers. She just works through her lunch hour to make the time up. Nowhere I have ever worked has had such a lax attitude to timekeeping and it began to really irritate me. In fact her persistent lateness was a bit of a running joke through the story, sorry but lateness is just rudeness when it happens all the time. The second point of contention I had was Nadia's complete inability to see what was clearly happening between Elle and Gaby; how can one person be so dense and self-absorbed.
The story arc is paced well and it was really good to have the male and female viewpoints of the situation. It especially helped that Daniel and Nadia were clearly very distinct characters and the author managed to give them each an individual voice. I was less impressed by the "grand passion" and the unrealistic expectations of meeting "the one", but that is personal cynicism so I'll let it slide.
I did enjoy the to and fro in the Missed Connections column. It was also refreshing to see both characters agonising over what to write and whether they were communicating with the intended person or not. They are both adults but are kind of struggling with adulting and that is something we can all identify with - I gave up the struggle years ago and decided to remain immature for ever.
I did find myself less interested in whether or not they would ever actually get to have that first date or not as in the development of their characters over the piece. Daniel's relationships with Lorenzo (his skeevy flatmate) and Romeo (the security guard) were particularly well executed. I also appreciated the way his grief at the loss of his father was handled - especially his concern over his mother's behaviour in the months following his death.
Nadia I found less interesting, for some reason she came across as pretty annoying. I already mentioned the persistent inability to keep track of time but she also comes across as quite needy and some of her decisions made me wonder if she was actually all there. I get the insecurities about appearance, personality and being left "on the shelf" but Nadia does seem awfully ready to settle. Whilst I agree with her that a Nora Ephron film is a thing of great beauty (particularly You've Got Mail) they are not indicative of real life but Nadia seems to think they are somehow gospel.
Generally a fun read with a great deal of warmth, just not entirely for me.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
This was a fun enough read, it just didn't really grab me and absorb me in Daniel and Nadia's story. There were too many coincidences and near misses and a few plot holes that irritated me. That said I did read the book in a day - the joy's of a day off work with nothing to do but read!
Two things really bugged me about the story. The first was Nadia's job. She is clearly in a corporate world (designing artifical intelligence programs) and yet her persistent lateness doesn't seem to be a cause for concern to her employers. She just works through her lunch hour to make the time up. Nowhere I have ever worked has had such a lax attitude to timekeeping and it began to really irritate me. In fact her persistent lateness was a bit of a running joke through the story, sorry but lateness is just rudeness when it happens all the time. The second point of contention I had was Nadia's complete inability to see what was clearly happening between Elle and Gaby; how can one person be so dense and self-absorbed.
The story arc is paced well and it was really good to have the male and female viewpoints of the situation. It especially helped that Daniel and Nadia were clearly very distinct characters and the author managed to give them each an individual voice. I was less impressed by the "grand passion" and the unrealistic expectations of meeting "the one", but that is personal cynicism so I'll let it slide.
I did enjoy the to and fro in the Missed Connections column. It was also refreshing to see both characters agonising over what to write and whether they were communicating with the intended person or not. They are both adults but are kind of struggling with adulting and that is something we can all identify with - I gave up the struggle years ago and decided to remain immature for ever.
I did find myself less interested in whether or not they would ever actually get to have that first date or not as in the development of their characters over the piece. Daniel's relationships with Lorenzo (his skeevy flatmate) and Romeo (the security guard) were particularly well executed. I also appreciated the way his grief at the loss of his father was handled - especially his concern over his mother's behaviour in the months following his death.
Nadia I found less interesting, for some reason she came across as pretty annoying. I already mentioned the persistent inability to keep track of time but she also comes across as quite needy and some of her decisions made me wonder if she was actually all there. I get the insecurities about appearance, personality and being left "on the shelf" but Nadia does seem awfully ready to settle. Whilst I agree with her that a Nora Ephron film is a thing of great beauty (particularly You've Got Mail) they are not indicative of real life but Nadia seems to think they are somehow gospel.
Generally a fun read with a great deal of warmth, just not entirely for me.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
The Ingredients Of Us by Jennifer Gold
I never really settled in to this book. Some of the publishing house decisions don't actually help the reader. I understand that the recipes are supposed to be extracts from Elle's binder but the handwriting font chosen is not the best to read on an eReader; there are clearer handwriting fonts out there that would have worked better from a reader's perspective. Whilst it may be a lovely font on printed media it really didn't translate well to a digital format.
To be honest the recipes were just one of a litany of things that irked me about the book. For someone who is supposed to make baking her profession the first thing you learn is that any form of baking is a science so measurements matter. All this a handful or a sprinkling as measures just doesn't cut it and really annoyed me. I have read a lot of books with a fascination for baking held by one the characters and they detail recipes that actually work if you wanted to try them. I fear that if you tried any of these (except for the box pancake mix one) then you would end up with an inedible lump.
Then we have the time lapse formatting of the story. It really does leap about at random. One minute it is "6 days after finding out", then "nine years before finding out", then "2 days after finding out", then "3 weeks after finding out" - I'm sure you get the idea. You really, really have to pay attention to the chapter heading or else it is very, very easy to get lost in the time frames of the story. This is a real shame as I feel it would have actually worked better if we had alternated the romance between Elle and Tom from it's starting point and the present day problems on a more natural timeline. It doesn't build tension for the reader as the historical timeline builds to tell us about their initial meeting, it builds frustration as you are never quite sure where and when things took place.
Then we come to the characterisations. Tom does not have a character, he is just cheating husband. Even when Elle finally gets her confrontation with him we never really get to hear Tom's side of things. Now, bear in mind here that Elle runs a bakery. She starts at silly o'clock in the morning and stays at the store until it closes at 6pm and then usually gets some bakes ready for the next day. This woman is home maybe for 6 - 8 hours a night and you can bet most of that is spent sleeping; so I wonder why Tom strayed - any chance he felt abandoned? Any chance he was after companionship? Any chance he just wanted to feel like he mattered to someone? Couple this with his desire for Children and Elle's refusal to be honest about the issue (her biological clock is not ticking at all) then you can clearly see they aren't communicating. I am not condoning having an affair but I can genuinely see why Tom might have looked elsewhere - wouldn't you if you genuinely felt unseen by your partner? This could have been explored but isn't even really touched on, Tom's loneliness is paid lipservice to when he tries to get a word in but he has been tried and found heinously guilty without being allowed to give a defence.
Elle herself is a strange combination of completely insecure and completely up herself. The whole thing with her friend Bonnie's husband is ludicrous. Seriously, he hit on you once, in a bar, when he had just started casually dating Bonnie and suddenly he has this big passion for you. Honestly, get over yourself woman.
Can you tell I didn't really enjoy this book?
Unpleasant characters, recipes that just wouldn't work in real life and a bizarre timeline decision means it is too much work to read for too little reward. I did manage to read it all and there are some good ideas in here and some splotches of good writing with an understanding of the human animal but it needed much more refining and better editorial decisions - the blame cannot be laid solely on the author, a good editor is vital and sometimes they need to be brutal for the sake of the story and I fear this editor let the author and the reader down.
To be honest the recipes were just one of a litany of things that irked me about the book. For someone who is supposed to make baking her profession the first thing you learn is that any form of baking is a science so measurements matter. All this a handful or a sprinkling as measures just doesn't cut it and really annoyed me. I have read a lot of books with a fascination for baking held by one the characters and they detail recipes that actually work if you wanted to try them. I fear that if you tried any of these (except for the box pancake mix one) then you would end up with an inedible lump.
Then we have the time lapse formatting of the story. It really does leap about at random. One minute it is "6 days after finding out", then "nine years before finding out", then "2 days after finding out", then "3 weeks after finding out" - I'm sure you get the idea. You really, really have to pay attention to the chapter heading or else it is very, very easy to get lost in the time frames of the story. This is a real shame as I feel it would have actually worked better if we had alternated the romance between Elle and Tom from it's starting point and the present day problems on a more natural timeline. It doesn't build tension for the reader as the historical timeline builds to tell us about their initial meeting, it builds frustration as you are never quite sure where and when things took place.
Then we come to the characterisations. Tom does not have a character, he is just cheating husband. Even when Elle finally gets her confrontation with him we never really get to hear Tom's side of things. Now, bear in mind here that Elle runs a bakery. She starts at silly o'clock in the morning and stays at the store until it closes at 6pm and then usually gets some bakes ready for the next day. This woman is home maybe for 6 - 8 hours a night and you can bet most of that is spent sleeping; so I wonder why Tom strayed - any chance he felt abandoned? Any chance he was after companionship? Any chance he just wanted to feel like he mattered to someone? Couple this with his desire for Children and Elle's refusal to be honest about the issue (her biological clock is not ticking at all) then you can clearly see they aren't communicating. I am not condoning having an affair but I can genuinely see why Tom might have looked elsewhere - wouldn't you if you genuinely felt unseen by your partner? This could have been explored but isn't even really touched on, Tom's loneliness is paid lipservice to when he tries to get a word in but he has been tried and found heinously guilty without being allowed to give a defence.
Elle herself is a strange combination of completely insecure and completely up herself. The whole thing with her friend Bonnie's husband is ludicrous. Seriously, he hit on you once, in a bar, when he had just started casually dating Bonnie and suddenly he has this big passion for you. Honestly, get over yourself woman.
Can you tell I didn't really enjoy this book?
Unpleasant characters, recipes that just wouldn't work in real life and a bizarre timeline decision means it is too much work to read for too little reward. I did manage to read it all and there are some good ideas in here and some splotches of good writing with an understanding of the human animal but it needed much more refining and better editorial decisions - the blame cannot be laid solely on the author, a good editor is vital and sometimes they need to be brutal for the sake of the story and I fear this editor let the author and the reader down.
Are We Nearly There Yet? by Lucy Vine
3.5 Stars
Alice Edwards is having a crisis - just turned 30 and has lost her job, her flat and her best friend. fortunately she has some inheritance put by that she was saving towards a house deposit but seeing as her whole life is crumbling she decides that she is going to emulate her favourite Blogger, Constance Beaumont, and go on her travels to "find herself". So, after a disastrous 30 birthday dinner that sees her hiding under the table in a very drunken state and texting her ex Dan (TD) she sets up a travel blog on AWOL.com and sets off for 3 months of adventure. Alice has it all planned out; one month in LA, followed by a month in Thailand and then she will see where the fancy takes her for her last month.
Initially I really couldn't take to Alice. She comes across as completely self-absorbed and unable to see anyone else's point of view. She refuses to discuss the declining health of Steve, her stepfather, with brother Mark; is completely estranged from her mother and generally treats her friends like dirt. Even when she meets up with aspiring actress Isy in LA, a friend from way back, you get the impression that Alice is entitled. There is no warm reconciliation or joy at being there in the flesh instead of over Skype. Everything is about her and it isn't funny, it grates.
Honestly, if this is life for a 30 year old woman these days I am so glad that I am Gen-X.
I did enjoy the juxtaposition between the blog posts where everything is sunshine and lollipops with the ramblings of Alice as she goes through the day. Actually, some of the snarky responses to her blog posts are the funniest bits (but even they didn't make me laugh out loud). Each chapter starts with some made up, life is so perfect post to Alice's blog and then goes on to see the reality behind that post. This is pretty much what you would expect - Alice lurching from disaster to disaster and occasionally hooking up.
The LA month seems to drag on interminably. Isy gets tickets for them to attend a second rate award show, where Alice makes a complete idiot of herself. Alice has a disastrous Uber ride with a 3.5 driver who could turn in to something more. Alice manages to ruin everything with Mr 3.5 by dragging her Airbnb host along to outings with them. The best bit has to be the workshop she attends in the name of wanting to experience being recruited to a cult - sheathology is genuinely hilarious (and probably a thing).
By the time she is ready to leave LA for Thailand she has fallen out of touch with Eva - Alice, it seems, is too busy to Skype her best friend and flatmate or even really respond to her texts. She is driving her brother Mark ever so slightly mad with her evasiveness and still isn't speaking to her sister Hannah - who writes the single weirdest family newsletters imaginable.
So things go until Alice gets her epiphany in Thailand and you realise that that you know exactly where she is going to spend that third month. Of course, you know this from when the trip is first planned, that ultimately Alice will realise she is bordering on being a monster and that she needs to let go of her perceived hurts (yes, they very much are perceived as we find out) and reconnect with her friends and family.
It was an okay read and I did start to warm to Alice towards the end. I just found some of her choices and self-rationalisations for those choices to be entirely cringy. There is a certain humour in the book but most of it is at the expense of someone (usually Alice) rather than just being funny. It also didn't make me laugh out loud, a mental titter on occasion but nothing more. A good read for your holidays as it is light and frivolous so easy to pick up and put down by the poolside.
Alice Edwards is having a crisis - just turned 30 and has lost her job, her flat and her best friend. fortunately she has some inheritance put by that she was saving towards a house deposit but seeing as her whole life is crumbling she decides that she is going to emulate her favourite Blogger, Constance Beaumont, and go on her travels to "find herself". So, after a disastrous 30 birthday dinner that sees her hiding under the table in a very drunken state and texting her ex Dan (TD) she sets up a travel blog on AWOL.com and sets off for 3 months of adventure. Alice has it all planned out; one month in LA, followed by a month in Thailand and then she will see where the fancy takes her for her last month.
Initially I really couldn't take to Alice. She comes across as completely self-absorbed and unable to see anyone else's point of view. She refuses to discuss the declining health of Steve, her stepfather, with brother Mark; is completely estranged from her mother and generally treats her friends like dirt. Even when she meets up with aspiring actress Isy in LA, a friend from way back, you get the impression that Alice is entitled. There is no warm reconciliation or joy at being there in the flesh instead of over Skype. Everything is about her and it isn't funny, it grates.
Honestly, if this is life for a 30 year old woman these days I am so glad that I am Gen-X.
I did enjoy the juxtaposition between the blog posts where everything is sunshine and lollipops with the ramblings of Alice as she goes through the day. Actually, some of the snarky responses to her blog posts are the funniest bits (but even they didn't make me laugh out loud). Each chapter starts with some made up, life is so perfect post to Alice's blog and then goes on to see the reality behind that post. This is pretty much what you would expect - Alice lurching from disaster to disaster and occasionally hooking up.
The LA month seems to drag on interminably. Isy gets tickets for them to attend a second rate award show, where Alice makes a complete idiot of herself. Alice has a disastrous Uber ride with a 3.5 driver who could turn in to something more. Alice manages to ruin everything with Mr 3.5 by dragging her Airbnb host along to outings with them. The best bit has to be the workshop she attends in the name of wanting to experience being recruited to a cult - sheathology is genuinely hilarious (and probably a thing).
By the time she is ready to leave LA for Thailand she has fallen out of touch with Eva - Alice, it seems, is too busy to Skype her best friend and flatmate or even really respond to her texts. She is driving her brother Mark ever so slightly mad with her evasiveness and still isn't speaking to her sister Hannah - who writes the single weirdest family newsletters imaginable.
So things go until Alice gets her epiphany in Thailand and you realise that that you know exactly where she is going to spend that third month. Of course, you know this from when the trip is first planned, that ultimately Alice will realise she is bordering on being a monster and that she needs to let go of her perceived hurts (yes, they very much are perceived as we find out) and reconnect with her friends and family.
It was an okay read and I did start to warm to Alice towards the end. I just found some of her choices and self-rationalisations for those choices to be entirely cringy. There is a certain humour in the book but most of it is at the expense of someone (usually Alice) rather than just being funny. It also didn't make me laugh out loud, a mental titter on occasion but nothing more. A good read for your holidays as it is light and frivolous so easy to pick up and put down by the poolside.
Monday 10 June 2019
This Green And Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik
This is a book with so many levels that really one read through probably hasn't done it justice. It is complex and multi-faceted and you find yourself drawn thoroughly in to this world that Ms Malik has created for us. A world that is strangely familiar but manages to feel like it is one that only ever existed in the imagination, a place of nostalgia and of comfort but a place that only ever appeared in stories. A Little England that our collective consciousness recognises and yearns for but that has never had a real place on the planet but that we have a faith that it existed and could exist if we only knew how to get there - a nirvana of English properness, old-fashioned but modern, full of upright propriety but truly inclusive and welcoming.
The strange thing about the book is not that the author can see both sides; it is her tale, her characters and they dictate their own behaviours. It is that she can make the reader see both sides. I found myself variously empathising with the pro-Mosque faction and then realising that the anti-Mosque faction had valid points too. Personally speaking I have no Faith and have religion-based issues but to each their own and if it gives you happiness, hurts nobody and brings your soul peace then for goodness sake do it. Somehow this seemed to be a message through the book too - live and let live, do the best you can and be the you that gives you contentment and peace.
On the face of it this book is about a small English Village that has accepted a Muslim couple in to their fold. Bilal and Mariam with their son Haaris may be the only three brown faces in the village but they are included, they belong. That is until Bilal's mother asks him to build a Mosque with her dying breath. Suddenly their whole world changes, worse the whole village changes as it begins to fracture against change - some standing with Bilal, others opposing him. At first I felt a sinking in my heart about this but as the plot develops and you realise how intricate each character is, their own personal back stories you can't help but be enchanted.
Shelley is the archetype of the Village busybody. She runs the local Village Committee with the same iron fist she ran her school. Her views are clearly delineated and she sees no need to change. Then you slowly realise that her life is empty without the Village, her marriage is moribund and she is deeply, deeply lonely.
Richard is the local Vicar who has a sure and certain Faith. His Faith though isn't enough, personally he is all at sea and still searching for his niche, even after 15 years at the local church he isn't sure where he fits. He has not lived up to his own expectations and now he is experiencing feelings, feelings that disturb him and leave him wondering how he should live.
Bilal is stuck, stuck between a Faith he isn't really a part of but is strangely defined by. Stuck with a stomach ulcer that plagues him. Stuck in the grief of a lost mother. Stuck with a Khala who is now his responsibility. Stuck between doing what he promised and stuck not knowing what is right. Even worse he feels stuck in a marriage that is unravelling.
As the story unfolds it is Khala Rukhsana who is the catalyst for change. Who through her simple devotion to Allah. Her trust in Kismet. Her ability to let people just be. It is she who helps the village to reset, to admit their personal failings and move towards a better life. Khala Rukhsana is the touchstone of the book, a truly beneficent soul who asks little of others but that they just slow down and accept life and themselves.
I could go on and on about the intricate relationships, the intricate personalities in the book but that would take another 450 pages and I am sure a review should not be as long as the book. This Green And Pleasant Land urges you to look at yourself and to ditch your preconceptions about others and about yourself. It urges you to really look around you and to look closely at those you see every day and to realise that they are a person too.
Even if you only surface read the book and take it all at face value it is a wonderful story that sucks you in until you realise hours have passed whilst you wandered the Village Green and dodged Tom's Red Robin Bush, maybe even whilst you popped in to The Ox for a refreshing drink or several. Although you will find it hard not be sucked in to the subtler undercurrents and undertows.
A wonderful read that I was sad to complete.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
The strange thing about the book is not that the author can see both sides; it is her tale, her characters and they dictate their own behaviours. It is that she can make the reader see both sides. I found myself variously empathising with the pro-Mosque faction and then realising that the anti-Mosque faction had valid points too. Personally speaking I have no Faith and have religion-based issues but to each their own and if it gives you happiness, hurts nobody and brings your soul peace then for goodness sake do it. Somehow this seemed to be a message through the book too - live and let live, do the best you can and be the you that gives you contentment and peace.
On the face of it this book is about a small English Village that has accepted a Muslim couple in to their fold. Bilal and Mariam with their son Haaris may be the only three brown faces in the village but they are included, they belong. That is until Bilal's mother asks him to build a Mosque with her dying breath. Suddenly their whole world changes, worse the whole village changes as it begins to fracture against change - some standing with Bilal, others opposing him. At first I felt a sinking in my heart about this but as the plot develops and you realise how intricate each character is, their own personal back stories you can't help but be enchanted.
Shelley is the archetype of the Village busybody. She runs the local Village Committee with the same iron fist she ran her school. Her views are clearly delineated and she sees no need to change. Then you slowly realise that her life is empty without the Village, her marriage is moribund and she is deeply, deeply lonely.
Richard is the local Vicar who has a sure and certain Faith. His Faith though isn't enough, personally he is all at sea and still searching for his niche, even after 15 years at the local church he isn't sure where he fits. He has not lived up to his own expectations and now he is experiencing feelings, feelings that disturb him and leave him wondering how he should live.
Bilal is stuck, stuck between a Faith he isn't really a part of but is strangely defined by. Stuck with a stomach ulcer that plagues him. Stuck in the grief of a lost mother. Stuck with a Khala who is now his responsibility. Stuck between doing what he promised and stuck not knowing what is right. Even worse he feels stuck in a marriage that is unravelling.
As the story unfolds it is Khala Rukhsana who is the catalyst for change. Who through her simple devotion to Allah. Her trust in Kismet. Her ability to let people just be. It is she who helps the village to reset, to admit their personal failings and move towards a better life. Khala Rukhsana is the touchstone of the book, a truly beneficent soul who asks little of others but that they just slow down and accept life and themselves.
I could go on and on about the intricate relationships, the intricate personalities in the book but that would take another 450 pages and I am sure a review should not be as long as the book. This Green And Pleasant Land urges you to look at yourself and to ditch your preconceptions about others and about yourself. It urges you to really look around you and to look closely at those you see every day and to realise that they are a person too.
Even if you only surface read the book and take it all at face value it is a wonderful story that sucks you in until you realise hours have passed whilst you wandered the Village Green and dodged Tom's Red Robin Bush, maybe even whilst you popped in to The Ox for a refreshing drink or several. Although you will find it hard not be sucked in to the subtler undercurrents and undertows.
A wonderful read that I was sad to complete.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST
The Witch's Tower by Tamara Grantham
I usually enjoy a good twist on a Faery Tale but somehow this one just fell consistently short of the mark for me. It may not have been helped by the fact that the story of Rapunzel was never one of my favourites or it may just have been that it seemed to be based on the more sanitised version of the tale peddled by Disney (Tangled is an awesome movie though!).
Somehow I never felt a sense of the world that Gothel and Rapunzel existed in. It was all too fractured and disparate with no real meat on the bones of the places. There are forests and desert lands and even icy mountains to contend with but they don't come alive in your imagination as you read, they remain on the page. This may be because little description is given to them - this can help your imagination spark and create the lands for yourself or it can leave you feeling that you have no knowledge of the place our characters inhabit. Unfortunately, for this reader, I found it to be the latter.
We then have a range of characters that we are introduced to. Gothel who is guarding Rapunzel as penance for her mother's curse that put her in the tower. Raj who was the Princes' squire, the Prince who is now trapped under the same spell in the tower because his heart is not pure enough to save Rapunzel. Together they must go on a quest to get the one thing that cut Rapunzel's hair and so break the spell. As is the nature of quests they will somehow manage to draw together a motley band who help them - in this case a dwarf cursed to shape shift to a wolf (yes, THAT dwarf - we all know his name even if he doesn't), a dark elf who plays a fine lute but would rather get drunk and a mysterious maiden who becomes a fire breathing dragon thanks to a curse.
You know, writing it all out like that makes it sound quite fun and enjoyable.
Sadly, it really wasn't. I never got to really know the characters as they all seem two dimensional at best. Gothel in particular drove me to distraction and as the bulk of the book is about her and told from her perspective you can see the problem.
Strangely, this is one case where I think a few more pages would have benefitted the story. Give it more room to breathe, more room to help the reader picture the exotic fairyland locales It would have also allowed the motley crew to have a little more camp fire downtime on their quest and so given them the chance to get a personality going on the page. Instead of they were here and then they were at this stop on their journey and then they sleep under the stars and then they are here. It really is moving from one set piece to another.
By the time they got to the Ice Mountains and we finally meet Gothel's evil aunts I will admit I was just reading to finish the book. There are no real surprises to be found in the ending either - everything falls in to place as you expected it to from the start. Not necessarily a bad thing but unfortunately the getting there was, and I don't like saying this, boring.
Not one for me, which is a real shame as the genre itself is usually so good.
Somehow I never felt a sense of the world that Gothel and Rapunzel existed in. It was all too fractured and disparate with no real meat on the bones of the places. There are forests and desert lands and even icy mountains to contend with but they don't come alive in your imagination as you read, they remain on the page. This may be because little description is given to them - this can help your imagination spark and create the lands for yourself or it can leave you feeling that you have no knowledge of the place our characters inhabit. Unfortunately, for this reader, I found it to be the latter.
We then have a range of characters that we are introduced to. Gothel who is guarding Rapunzel as penance for her mother's curse that put her in the tower. Raj who was the Princes' squire, the Prince who is now trapped under the same spell in the tower because his heart is not pure enough to save Rapunzel. Together they must go on a quest to get the one thing that cut Rapunzel's hair and so break the spell. As is the nature of quests they will somehow manage to draw together a motley band who help them - in this case a dwarf cursed to shape shift to a wolf (yes, THAT dwarf - we all know his name even if he doesn't), a dark elf who plays a fine lute but would rather get drunk and a mysterious maiden who becomes a fire breathing dragon thanks to a curse.
You know, writing it all out like that makes it sound quite fun and enjoyable.
Sadly, it really wasn't. I never got to really know the characters as they all seem two dimensional at best. Gothel in particular drove me to distraction and as the bulk of the book is about her and told from her perspective you can see the problem.
Strangely, this is one case where I think a few more pages would have benefitted the story. Give it more room to breathe, more room to help the reader picture the exotic fairyland locales It would have also allowed the motley crew to have a little more camp fire downtime on their quest and so given them the chance to get a personality going on the page. Instead of they were here and then they were at this stop on their journey and then they sleep under the stars and then they are here. It really is moving from one set piece to another.
By the time they got to the Ice Mountains and we finally meet Gothel's evil aunts I will admit I was just reading to finish the book. There are no real surprises to be found in the ending either - everything falls in to place as you expected it to from the start. Not necessarily a bad thing but unfortunately the getting there was, and I don't like saying this, boring.
Not one for me, which is a real shame as the genre itself is usually so good.
One Last Greek Summer by Mandy Baggott
What would it be like to be 21 again? The last ten years of your life wiped away, no more responsibility just that wonderful fortnight you spent in the sun with your best friend. Too much drink, watching the stars come out over the beach and still being awake to watch the sun rise over it, dancing all night inbetween. Ah the pure hedonism of the 21 year old on holiday. A bit different when you are 31 but visiting Corfu again gives Beth and Heidi the chance to revisit that period of their lives and Heidi is determined that they are both going to be 21 Again for these two weeks.
The story starts fairly unconventionally with a divorce party. It is supposed to be a surprise for Beth but she is watching the preparations from her office whilst trying to hide. The problem being that the man she is getting divorced from is the owner of the company - fortunately he is away on business so the workforce feel safe celebrating. From there it meanders through a couple of chapters as Heidi tries to convince Beth to just go for it and celebrate the divorce by rekindling their last holiday in Corfu. Eventually convinced they head to head to the island together and Beth can only think of two things - how to get her stubborn wedding ring off and the holiday romance she had with Lex the last time they were there.
The book reads like a love letter to Corfu. The author clearly loves the island and takes you to several beauty spots as the women while away their days in the heat of a blue, blue sky. The food is rhapsodised about alongside the white beaches and cool forests. Throw in some boisterous nightlife and quiet tavernas and it is the perfect holiday location. Honestly, the Corfu Tourist Board should have Ms Baggott on commission.
Initially I really adored Beth. She comes across as brutally honest about herself and has no qualms admitting (to herself at least) that hers was never more than a marriage of convenience and that love never entered the equation. Charles could make her terminally ill mothers last years so much more comfortable and was happy to do so. That was enough for Beth then, but now she almost resents him for it. As the book progresses she began to irritate me a little bit and I felt like I wanted to grab her shoulders and give her a good shake. Despite her initial signs of being fairly settled about who she is soon becomes apparent that the only thing she is honest about are her feelings towards Charles and that this strength does not hang over in to other areas of her life. I think it is this ditheriness that began to grate.
We also get to spend some time with Alekos, a native to Corfu and trying desperately to achieve his dreams whilst holding the family together. His mother Margalo is depicted as a controlling harridan and is deeply unpleasant. She was perhaps the worst character in the whole book as she has no depth and is just this virago who feigns illness to keep her son tethered to their small farm. Alekos has other plans though and is hoping that with his cousin Elektra and some Kumquats he can break free.
It doesn't take long before Beth and Heidi's holiday world collides with Alekos and Elektra's and, unfortunately, once it does you know exactly how things are going to turn out. There are some misunderstandings, collapsing ceilings and dance floor hijinks before you finally get there but yes, you were right about the ultimate destination. Then again, when you pick up this genre you do so in the true and certain knowledge that everything is going to work out, you just want the fun of getting there.
To be entirely honest I would have probably enjoyed this book far more if I had been on holiday and not trying to squeeze it in around 12 hour work shifts. For me this is not a full 4 Star book, it is more a 3.75 but, for once, I rounded up.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
The story starts fairly unconventionally with a divorce party. It is supposed to be a surprise for Beth but she is watching the preparations from her office whilst trying to hide. The problem being that the man she is getting divorced from is the owner of the company - fortunately he is away on business so the workforce feel safe celebrating. From there it meanders through a couple of chapters as Heidi tries to convince Beth to just go for it and celebrate the divorce by rekindling their last holiday in Corfu. Eventually convinced they head to head to the island together and Beth can only think of two things - how to get her stubborn wedding ring off and the holiday romance she had with Lex the last time they were there.
The book reads like a love letter to Corfu. The author clearly loves the island and takes you to several beauty spots as the women while away their days in the heat of a blue, blue sky. The food is rhapsodised about alongside the white beaches and cool forests. Throw in some boisterous nightlife and quiet tavernas and it is the perfect holiday location. Honestly, the Corfu Tourist Board should have Ms Baggott on commission.
Initially I really adored Beth. She comes across as brutally honest about herself and has no qualms admitting (to herself at least) that hers was never more than a marriage of convenience and that love never entered the equation. Charles could make her terminally ill mothers last years so much more comfortable and was happy to do so. That was enough for Beth then, but now she almost resents him for it. As the book progresses she began to irritate me a little bit and I felt like I wanted to grab her shoulders and give her a good shake. Despite her initial signs of being fairly settled about who she is soon becomes apparent that the only thing she is honest about are her feelings towards Charles and that this strength does not hang over in to other areas of her life. I think it is this ditheriness that began to grate.
We also get to spend some time with Alekos, a native to Corfu and trying desperately to achieve his dreams whilst holding the family together. His mother Margalo is depicted as a controlling harridan and is deeply unpleasant. She was perhaps the worst character in the whole book as she has no depth and is just this virago who feigns illness to keep her son tethered to their small farm. Alekos has other plans though and is hoping that with his cousin Elektra and some Kumquats he can break free.
It doesn't take long before Beth and Heidi's holiday world collides with Alekos and Elektra's and, unfortunately, once it does you know exactly how things are going to turn out. There are some misunderstandings, collapsing ceilings and dance floor hijinks before you finally get there but yes, you were right about the ultimate destination. Then again, when you pick up this genre you do so in the true and certain knowledge that everything is going to work out, you just want the fun of getting there.
To be entirely honest I would have probably enjoyed this book far more if I had been on holiday and not trying to squeeze it in around 12 hour work shifts. For me this is not a full 4 Star book, it is more a 3.75 but, for once, I rounded up.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.
Monday 3 June 2019
The One That Got Away by Annabel Kantaria
This is a fairly solid book that starts off really well. Stella and George meet up at their school 15 year year reunion and events begin to spiral beyond their control. You see they were childhood best friends, that then morphed in to so much more and then George, George decided that Stella wasn't enough for him and left her in the lurch for one of the popular girls, Ness. Somehow Stella is still alone and George is married to Ness, both of our main protagonists though are very successful business people and have made their own impressions on the world. Neither of them really needs the other but this is about want and not need.
Part One of the book works really well. The push and pull between Stella and George; each of them being given the space to explain their side of the story and lay bear their obsessions. The voices are nicely distinct but I couldn't help but feel that George was somehow lacking on the page and that we never really get to know him in the way we know Stella. By the end of the first section, moving through the tension of will/they won't they cave in and have an affair, will they both throw caution to the wind and break George's marriage for a legitimate relationship of their own, I was thoroughly hooked.
Unfortunately we then get in to Part Two and it becomes all a little bit too predictable and there is no doubt about what is happening between George and Stella. Virtually from the very start of this section the reader knows exactly where this is going and how it is going to play out. Even worse, for me, I felt that there were strong links to Gone Girl in Parts Two and Three - right down to a diary that is not what it seems.
The third and final part is just bizarre. Sure enough the characters get what is coming to them and the peripheral bunch of characters that populate the village get the wrong end of the stick. Then, instead of a nice tidy ending the author decides that what it really needs is the twist of retrograde amnesia. It left me wanting to bash my head on the wall hoping that I could wipe that out of my own brain.
As a whole it starts strongly and deteriorates throughout the telling until, by the end, you agree with George and Stella - it just all needs to end. Maybe if it hadn't been made so clear to the reader what was happening in the George/Stella relationship it would have been a much better read, it was just a little too transparent on the plot for me.
Part One of the book works really well. The push and pull between Stella and George; each of them being given the space to explain their side of the story and lay bear their obsessions. The voices are nicely distinct but I couldn't help but feel that George was somehow lacking on the page and that we never really get to know him in the way we know Stella. By the end of the first section, moving through the tension of will/they won't they cave in and have an affair, will they both throw caution to the wind and break George's marriage for a legitimate relationship of their own, I was thoroughly hooked.
Unfortunately we then get in to Part Two and it becomes all a little bit too predictable and there is no doubt about what is happening between George and Stella. Virtually from the very start of this section the reader knows exactly where this is going and how it is going to play out. Even worse, for me, I felt that there were strong links to Gone Girl in Parts Two and Three - right down to a diary that is not what it seems.
The third and final part is just bizarre. Sure enough the characters get what is coming to them and the peripheral bunch of characters that populate the village get the wrong end of the stick. Then, instead of a nice tidy ending the author decides that what it really needs is the twist of retrograde amnesia. It left me wanting to bash my head on the wall hoping that I could wipe that out of my own brain.
As a whole it starts strongly and deteriorates throughout the telling until, by the end, you agree with George and Stella - it just all needs to end. Maybe if it hadn't been made so clear to the reader what was happening in the George/Stella relationship it would have been a much better read, it was just a little too transparent on the plot for me.
The Last Week Of May by Roisin Meaney
I will have to be really careful about what I say about this book, it will be so easy to give the events of this one week in a small Irish town away. Considering the time frame and relative size of the location where we are transported by the Author an awful lot happens to a large range of people. That is the real beauty of the story, the various people that litter it's pages.
May has a rather eccentric outlook on life these days, rather than follow the usual career path she has decided that life is too short so she hires herself as a Jill of All Trades and she loves it. This also means that she is our link between the disparate bunch of characters we meet; they are either, friends, family, neighbours or her clients. It is a simple enough device but it is used to great effect in this book.
I was going to list the other range of characters but found that I could not really mention any of them without giving away a little bit of the plot. Considering this is really a book about people it is very strong on plot and each person's personality is an intrinsic part of the plot. Very deft writing that I found completely sucked me in. The only issue I had with it was some of the coincidences were just a little too much for believability and the travelling necklace was a bit of a bone of contention as well - I felt that it was overplayed just a little.
Although only split in to 7 distinct chapters - one for each day of the week - each chapter is split in to multiple smaller tales, each giving a view in to one character's current situation throughout the day. Told more or less chronologically you do find yourself jumping between some characters multiple times during that chapter. By keeping to a more or less third person telling of the tale you never feel at a loss as to who is the focus of this particular section, which was a relief as with such a wide ranging cast of characters it could have been a disaster.
The stories told deal with aging, homophobia, adultery, domestic violence, the search for love, mother love and, above all, friendship. Beautifully told and completely engaging I can heartily recommend this read.
May has a rather eccentric outlook on life these days, rather than follow the usual career path she has decided that life is too short so she hires herself as a Jill of All Trades and she loves it. This also means that she is our link between the disparate bunch of characters we meet; they are either, friends, family, neighbours or her clients. It is a simple enough device but it is used to great effect in this book.
I was going to list the other range of characters but found that I could not really mention any of them without giving away a little bit of the plot. Considering this is really a book about people it is very strong on plot and each person's personality is an intrinsic part of the plot. Very deft writing that I found completely sucked me in. The only issue I had with it was some of the coincidences were just a little too much for believability and the travelling necklace was a bit of a bone of contention as well - I felt that it was overplayed just a little.
Although only split in to 7 distinct chapters - one for each day of the week - each chapter is split in to multiple smaller tales, each giving a view in to one character's current situation throughout the day. Told more or less chronologically you do find yourself jumping between some characters multiple times during that chapter. By keeping to a more or less third person telling of the tale you never feel at a loss as to who is the focus of this particular section, which was a relief as with such a wide ranging cast of characters it could have been a disaster.
The stories told deal with aging, homophobia, adultery, domestic violence, the search for love, mother love and, above all, friendship. Beautifully told and completely engaging I can heartily recommend this read.
The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott
The basic premise of the book is that Ailsa Calder is left her mother's half of her former childhood home, a remote Scottish Manse. This leads her to reminiscences of her father who has been missing since she was 7 and to reconnect with her half sister Carrie. It also gives her time to pause and consider her role as a field news producer and her subsequent relationship with a much older broadcast journalist.
Slotted in to the Crime and Mystery genre by the publishers, you do start to wonder where either of those fit in. Is it the mystery of her father's death? Is it the crime of the diamonds that went missing with him? Certainly her father, Martin Calder, plays a large part in the book despite being missing. Each chapter is preceeded by a short paragraph detailing what Ailsa thinks he might be up to, where he might have vanished to and very much hinging on the fact that he is alive. Then, as events at The Manse start to catch up with her the thoughts become darker as she presumes he has met his death in a multitude of countries, in a multitude of ways.
Then you have The Manse itself, the house is very definitely set up as being a character in it's own right. Initially this works well. From Ailsa and Carrie's arrival at the property and the claustrophobia Ailsa feels, despite the sheer size of the property. Unfortunately, the early tension is dissipated by the glacial pace of the story. There is a constant rehashing of how Ailsa feels watched and unsafe in the house, how she can't sleep, how things happen but she is not sure if she is imagining them or if they are real.
I really struggled with this book as nothing really happens that draws you in to the story or the characters. Ailsa herself is pretty much moribund and whiny, Carrie is flighty and never really exposes herself to the reader. Even worse you then have the friendly neighbour who intrudes on their first night and his bizarre sister. A range of stereotypical villagers who are either super friendly or completely antagonistic to the sisters. The biggest issue is that it treads water for around 300 pages and then everything rushes to an ending that is, not to put too fine a point on it, ludicrous.
It turns out that there are lots of little crimes revealed in the book, there are some mysterys that get answered, and some that don't. However, the main thrust of the book seems to be trying to unsettle the reader and give the impression that The Manse is somehow sentient. I'm not entirely sure what the author was going for with the tale but it falls through so many gaps of genre and disappears down it's own plot holes frequently that it is pretty much unreadable in it's current format. There is a good story battling to get out but page count seems to have triumphed and resulted in a book twice the length it needed to be to really ratchet up tension and involve the reader.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.
Slotted in to the Crime and Mystery genre by the publishers, you do start to wonder where either of those fit in. Is it the mystery of her father's death? Is it the crime of the diamonds that went missing with him? Certainly her father, Martin Calder, plays a large part in the book despite being missing. Each chapter is preceeded by a short paragraph detailing what Ailsa thinks he might be up to, where he might have vanished to and very much hinging on the fact that he is alive. Then, as events at The Manse start to catch up with her the thoughts become darker as she presumes he has met his death in a multitude of countries, in a multitude of ways.
Then you have The Manse itself, the house is very definitely set up as being a character in it's own right. Initially this works well. From Ailsa and Carrie's arrival at the property and the claustrophobia Ailsa feels, despite the sheer size of the property. Unfortunately, the early tension is dissipated by the glacial pace of the story. There is a constant rehashing of how Ailsa feels watched and unsafe in the house, how she can't sleep, how things happen but she is not sure if she is imagining them or if they are real.
I really struggled with this book as nothing really happens that draws you in to the story or the characters. Ailsa herself is pretty much moribund and whiny, Carrie is flighty and never really exposes herself to the reader. Even worse you then have the friendly neighbour who intrudes on their first night and his bizarre sister. A range of stereotypical villagers who are either super friendly or completely antagonistic to the sisters. The biggest issue is that it treads water for around 300 pages and then everything rushes to an ending that is, not to put too fine a point on it, ludicrous.
It turns out that there are lots of little crimes revealed in the book, there are some mysterys that get answered, and some that don't. However, the main thrust of the book seems to be trying to unsettle the reader and give the impression that The Manse is somehow sentient. I'm not entirely sure what the author was going for with the tale but it falls through so many gaps of genre and disappears down it's own plot holes frequently that it is pretty much unreadable in it's current format. There is a good story battling to get out but page count seems to have triumphed and resulted in a book twice the length it needed to be to really ratchet up tension and involve the reader.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.
Sunday 2 June 2019
The Night Raven by Sarah Painter
This book just didn't seem to ever really settle in to any sort of flow; even when it ended I still felt like I was settling in to the locations and the characters and getting my head around the overall premise. The central disappearance of a Crow family member merely serves to introduce us to Lydia's family and, by extension, some of the other London powerful 4 and never really acts as more than a manipulation of the reader to introduce us to Crow family lore and the Fox clan. It provides the opportunity to reveal the historical "facts" of the Crows but never really works as its own situation. There is no jeopardy associated with Madeleine's disappearance at all and, as a reader, I never really much cared about the whys, wherefores or if she was living or dead.
Then again, I found that I wasn't really invested in any of the characters. Lydia is pretty much meh on the page and I still don't feel that I know much about her other than she is easily manipulated, can communicate with willing spirits, has been kept on the outskirts of the Family and wants to be a Private Investigator. Sounds like a lot I suppose but these are all superficial things in getting to know a character, as to her personality and what drives her I have no real idea - apart from caffeine, she does like her caffeinated beverages.
I found it frustrating to read as the bare bones of a good tale are all there, they just never really get fleshed out in this first book; so much so that I do wonder if the 2 books in this series were intended to be one longer work and the publishing house hacked them in to 2 or the author was failing to meet deadline so it was forced as a compromise. This is a shame as an Urban Fantasy there is so much potential here and I would happily read the second book in the hope that the world is expanded more and that I actually start getting to know Lydia.
Then again, I found that I wasn't really invested in any of the characters. Lydia is pretty much meh on the page and I still don't feel that I know much about her other than she is easily manipulated, can communicate with willing spirits, has been kept on the outskirts of the Family and wants to be a Private Investigator. Sounds like a lot I suppose but these are all superficial things in getting to know a character, as to her personality and what drives her I have no real idea - apart from caffeine, she does like her caffeinated beverages.
I found it frustrating to read as the bare bones of a good tale are all there, they just never really get fleshed out in this first book; so much so that I do wonder if the 2 books in this series were intended to be one longer work and the publishing house hacked them in to 2 or the author was failing to meet deadline so it was forced as a compromise. This is a shame as an Urban Fantasy there is so much potential here and I would happily read the second book in the hope that the world is expanded more and that I actually start getting to know Lydia.
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Lego Tony Stark's Sakaarian Iron Man 76194
I know nothing about the "What If" TV show but what I do know is that I absolutely LOVE Mechs and Lego always manage to put somet...
