It is so rare that I don't finish a book so when I don't, I feel really bad about it. But I've not been reading like a smart reader recently, for one reason and another, so I decided to fall back on a rule I read once. The rule said that if you're under 50 years old, you should read fifty pages of a book before deciding whether to give up on it or not. If you're over 50 years old, you can deduct every year over 50 off the pages you should read. So my mum, who is about to turn sixty, should read forty pages of a book before giving up on it, and my grandma, who is 91, should read just nine pages of a book before being allowed to toss it. It makes sense, right, no one who is 91 has time to spend on a book that just isn't grabbing them!
I'm 33, so a fair way under the fifty years old, so I'm stuck with fifty pages. So I picked up This Beats Perfect as I've heard loads of good things about it, and I also knew I was about to start editing my own novel, which is about a band. As This Beats Perfect is also about the music scene, I thought it might be good to read.
However, I just couldn't get into it. At the beginning of the book, it's Amelie's birthday and she's going backstage at a gig that her dad is doing the sound for - he's pretty famous at doing that. The band on stage is The Keep, a boy band that Amelie feels she is far too good for. She gets photogrpahed with one of the band and wakes up to a million Twitter notifications, all wondering who she is.
I was a bit unsure about this beginning to the novel, because it just didn't grab me. It seemed to be existing in nothingness. We saw Amelie and the band and her dad and a couple of other people, but we didn't care about them enough to get emotionall invested. The second part of the book (around 60 pages in, I actually went over the 50 pages before I gave up because I really did want to give it a chance) has Amelie celebrate her birthday with her mum the next day, but it seemed to flash forwards and backwards in time with no warning, and I couldn't centre Amelie very well in that world either.
So, I gave up. Do I feel bad about it? Yes. Do I think this author is a bad author? Of course not. I would give her another chance, for sure. I just didn't click with this book - and that's okay.
Reading the beginning of this combined with reading my own novel brought one thing very clear to me - writing about music is hard. Music is such a sensory experience, but it's auditory, and auditory traits don't tend to translate well on to the page, which we read and don't always otherwise interact with. There's a couple of bits in my own novel where I hope I get across the idea that playing a gig is scary and exhilarating and thrilling and sometimes painful and often amazing. I probably need to work on them more, but it's definitely something I want to pay attention to.
There are a couple of books about music that I really do love, like Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell and My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend by Eleanor Wood. You can check out all my posts with the label 'music' here.
The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths - Review
Monday, October 23, 2017
It's no secret that Elly Griffiths is one of my favourite novelists. I really like her Ruth Galloway novels, which are set in modern times and focus on Ruth, an archaelogist, who is asked to help the police on a number of investigations. I love them, so when I first heard that Elly was writing a new series set in the 50s I was excited to read them. This is the third one in the series and I've read all three. I think this is the best one, actually!
The series focusses on Edgar and Max. Edgar is a policeman in Brighton, but in the war he was part of the Magic Men, an elite group trying to fool the Nazis in Norway. Also part of the group was Max, who is a magician. In the first novel we see the two of them reunite after several years not seeing each other, and Max helps Edgar solve a crime relating to someone else who was in the Magic Men.
In this novel, a Roma fortune teller has been killed and her death has been put down as an accident, but Edgar isn't sure that it was. It's the eve of the queen's coronation in 1953 and there's some concern that there is a threat there. Then a general comes to ask Edgar and Max for their help looking at the death of a colonel that he thinks might be linked, and there's still the mystery of the fortune teller's death to deal with.
I like Edgar, he's pretty reliable and down to earth, and I like him as a narrator. Max's points of view can sometimes irritate, especially when it comes to his daughter, Ruby, who is Edgar's fiancee but who is in show business like Max, but he's basically a good person and I like him. In this book we also got the point of view of Edgar's sergeant, Emma, who is a really good egg, I like her a lot.
I figured out some of the twists in this but there was a really good one that I thought was brilliant and which I didn't see coming. It's all about magic and sleight of hand and I really liked it. It's not a perfect book by any means, but I did like it. I can't wait to read the next one!
The series focusses on Edgar and Max. Edgar is a policeman in Brighton, but in the war he was part of the Magic Men, an elite group trying to fool the Nazis in Norway. Also part of the group was Max, who is a magician. In the first novel we see the two of them reunite after several years not seeing each other, and Max helps Edgar solve a crime relating to someone else who was in the Magic Men.
In this novel, a Roma fortune teller has been killed and her death has been put down as an accident, but Edgar isn't sure that it was. It's the eve of the queen's coronation in 1953 and there's some concern that there is a threat there. Then a general comes to ask Edgar and Max for their help looking at the death of a colonel that he thinks might be linked, and there's still the mystery of the fortune teller's death to deal with.
I like Edgar, he's pretty reliable and down to earth, and I like him as a narrator. Max's points of view can sometimes irritate, especially when it comes to his daughter, Ruby, who is Edgar's fiancee but who is in show business like Max, but he's basically a good person and I like him. In this book we also got the point of view of Edgar's sergeant, Emma, who is a really good egg, I like her a lot.
I figured out some of the twists in this but there was a really good one that I thought was brilliant and which I didn't see coming. It's all about magic and sleight of hand and I really liked it. It's not a perfect book by any means, but I did like it. I can't wait to read the next one!
Book Haul with my Austen tenner
Friday, October 20, 2017
I had seen some people on Twitter spending their first new ten pound note, the one with Jane Austen on, on books by women. It sounded like a great idea to me so I kept hold of my first ten pound note with a view to spending it in the charity shops and secondhand shops of North Yorkshire while I was away on holiday.
It was interesting to be solely focussing on books by women. I tend to just pick books up by title and then by blurb if I like the sound of them. The first book I picked up, The Light Between Oceans, is by an author called M L Steadman, so I had to google to see if that was a woman. She is! I haven't heard of the film, but the book sounded intriguing. I bought this in a bookshop in Sedbergh, known as England's Book Town, apparently.
I next picked up The Help in an Age Concern shop in Bedale. I've seen the film and really liked it, so I'm intrigued to see whether the book is as good.
The next three books I bought from a tea room just a few doors down from our holiday cottage. There were tons of books in there and I spent a while browsing, but came away with The House at Riverton, The Tea Planter's Wife, and The Spy Game.
Some of these don't seem like my usual kind of book, but I liked the sound of all of them and am looking forward to reading them. Have you read any of them?
It was interesting to be solely focussing on books by women. I tend to just pick books up by title and then by blurb if I like the sound of them. The first book I picked up, The Light Between Oceans, is by an author called M L Steadman, so I had to google to see if that was a woman. She is! I haven't heard of the film, but the book sounded intriguing. I bought this in a bookshop in Sedbergh, known as England's Book Town, apparently.
I next picked up The Help in an Age Concern shop in Bedale. I've seen the film and really liked it, so I'm intrigued to see whether the book is as good.
The next three books I bought from a tea room just a few doors down from our holiday cottage. There were tons of books in there and I spent a while browsing, but came away with The House at Riverton, The Tea Planter's Wife, and The Spy Game.
Some of these don't seem like my usual kind of book, but I liked the sound of all of them and am looking forward to reading them. Have you read any of them?
Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens - Review
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
This book sees us in the winter term at Deepdean, when Hazel, Daisy, and their friends are fourth formers. There's a new Head Girl, Elizabeth, and five of her friends as prefects. The six of them are terrorising the younger years, handing out punishments left, right and centre. Then on Bonfire Night, the whole school is on the playing fields when Elizabeth is murdered. It's made to look like an accident, but Hazel and Daisy soon realise it isn't. The school headmistress, though, believes it is an accident and sacks the caretaker. Daisy and Hazel enlist the help of their dormmates Kitty, Beanie, and Lavinia to uncover the mystery and track down which of the Five prefects murdered their friend.
Meanwhile, Hazel writes secret letters to Alexander, who she met on the Orient Express in the previous book, and tells him about the case. Daisy is getting quite jealous of Hazel's friendship with a boy, driving a wedge between her and Hazel. I found Daisy quite annoying here, actually, and I was a bit frustrated when Hazel immediately forgave her after a brief conversation. But that may be my adult head looking at a book not meant for me!
This is a really lovely addition to the series and perfect for any middle grader from around ten years old. I know if I was ten I'd be all over these books like a rash. They're so much fun.
You can see my reviews of all the books in the series here.
After the Fire by Will Hill - Review
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Where did I get it? I bought it on Kindle when it was really cheap a few weeks ago.
What's it about? Moonbeam is seventeen and right at the beginning of the book, there has been a fire at the compound she has lived in for most of her life. Moonbeam has been injured in the fire, and first wakes up in hospital, then in a secure unit. She begins to have therapy with Dr Hernandez, but doesn't trust him at first. But through the book we read about Moonbeam's life within The Lord's Legion, a cult in Texas.
The cult was led by the charismatic Father John, a self-proclaimed prophet who took over from a looser, less rigid leader called Father Patrick. No one was allowed to leave the compound and John preached about the evilness of the world and the fight that would occur and bring about the end times. Moonbeam's mother had been Banished from the cult and Moonbeam was no longer allowed to talk about her. All the adults of the cult have died in the fire and Moonbeam is one of the eldest that is left.
After a few days with Dr Hernandez he is joined by an FBI agent, Agent Carlyle, who is part of the team investigating the Lord's Legion and the fire. Moonbeam doesn't trust either of them, but she tells more and more of the events that happened within the compound. After therapy each day she has group therapy with the rest of the children who remain, including Luke, who is angry that he isn't dead and hasn't been able to Ascend to Heaven with the adults, and her friend Honey.
I really like reading about religious cults. I did Theology for my undergraduate degree and particularly enjoyed a module called Christian Communities, Sects, and Cults. The way that cults develop and the way they cut themselves off from the world is endlessly fascinating to me. Charismatic leaders like Father John fascinate me and I felt the author did a really excellent job of portraying him.
There are a lot of parallels with the true events that happened to the Branch Davidians in the siege at Waco, parallels that Will Hill himself acknowledges at the end of the book. I felt like there were a few TOO many parallels, really, although Hill did a good job of trying to imagine what a survivor would feel like. There's also a lot of repetition in the book. I understand the decision to write the book set from "after" the fire, but it does mean that some things, like Moonbeam's distrust of the psychiatrist and the police, are gone over again and again. If the book was linear, this could've been avoided.
Finally, I felt like the end was a little bit too neat. I liked Moonbeam and her story, and I think the setting of the cult was a really good one, but I didn't gel entirely with the book.
What age range is it for? There's a lot of really heavy stuff including abuse and violence, so I'm going to say 16+
Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No
Are any main characters people of colour? No, and I wish this had been addressed. Cults like the Branch Davidians are often exclusively white because of racist interpretations of the Bible and of racist ideas like keeping the believers 'pure'. It would have been an interesting side note.
Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Yes.
Is there any sex stuff? There's sexual assault and abuse, so trigger warning
Are drugs mentioned or used? No
Is there any talk of death? Yes, lots, and trigger warning for suicide too.
Are there swear words? Very few
What criticisms do I have? I think I've covered them above! The book seemed to take me ages to read and I think that was mostly due to the repetition. I also felt there were places where there was too much telling and not enough showing. Like there's a few times when Moonbeam asks a question the doctor and Agent Carlyle about her mother or her friend Nate and is told they don't know anything. The next lines are something like "I believe him". But why? We're not shown in enough depth as to why, and that sort of frustrated me.
Would I recommend the book? Yes, it is a really interesting story.
Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? It's one of Zoella's current book club choices and I wanted to see what it was like for myself!
What other books is it like? It's a lot like Seed by Lisa Heathfield which is also about a religious cult, but it's also a lot like Paper Butterflies by Lisa too. I'd be interested in more books like this.
How many stars? I gave it four out of five on Goodreads so that would usually be eight out of ten, but... I 'm going to go for 7.5. I felt like there were good bits and bad bits, but it is overall a very strong novel.
Lips Touch by Laini Taylor - Review
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Where did I get it? Remember that my friend Lucinda lent me several books before she went to Canada nearly two years ago? This is one of them. When I went through all my books I was reminded I've still got a few to read, so I picked this one up after I'd finished my last book. One of my purest joys now is being able to go into my "library" and browse my books.
What's it about? This is a book of three short stories. In the first one, Goblin Fruit, Kizzy, whose family is odd, falls for a new boy at school. In the olden days goblins offered fruit to tempt the souls of young girls, so will Kizzy fall for the same too? I liked how this was a very modern retelling, and I thought Kizzy was a great character. I wanted to know more about her family!
In the second story, an old woman travels to hell each day to beg for children to be spared from death. She spars with a devil, and on one occasion, barters for the lives of 22 children in an earthquake. The devil she barters with instructs her to make a curse on the youngest child of a rich British family living in India. Anamique is cursed with never being able to speak, and if she does, she'll kill everyone who hears. She lives a quiet life until James arrives, an ex soldier wounded in WWI. She falls in love with him, but eventually learns how to use her voice for good. I liked the nods to Hindu religious beliefs in this story and the setting of the British Raj after WWI.
In the third story, which is the longest by far and really more of a novella, Esme wakes up one day when she is thirteen and discovers that one of her brown eyes has changed to an icy blue. Her mother, Mab, grew up as an enslaved pet of a powerful Queen, queen of a set of shapeshifting demons. Mab tries to escape the demons, who are coming after them as wolves. Esme starts to remember a pervious kiss from the person who helps them to escape. I loved the setting of this novella, I could have read a whole novel about this creepy land, the beasts near the citadel, and the Queen and her powers.
I'm not much of a fan of fantasy, but I took a chance on this book and I ended up loving it. I liked the worldbuilding the author had undertaken and the strict rules that each world adhered to. I liked the mix of religions and folk religion and different bits twisted together. I liked the magic and the way each story focussed on something as small as a kiss but were so huge in scope. I would definitely like to read Laini's full length novels and other works.
What age range is it for? I'm going to say from 14+
Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No
Are any main characters people of colour? No, although there's an interesting race aspect in the middle story
Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Yes, I'm going to say somewhat
Is there any sex stuff? There is some sexual assault mentioned in the final story, in a fashion. It's part of the creepiness.
Are drugs mentioned or used? No
Is there any talk of death? Yes, quite a bit, especially in the middle story
Are there swear words? No
What criticisms do I have? Honestly none! I have even decided I'm going to try to write some more magic myself. Thank you for the inspiration!
Would I recommend the book? Yes, one hundred percent, especially if you like fantasy. I'm not a fantasy fan, I'm not into Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter, I don't always understand how fantasy works? But I do know when I enjoy reading a book and I definitely enjoyed this.
Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? Well Lucinda probably deserves her books back sooner rather than later!
What other books is it like? Not my forte so I've no idea!
How many stars? Five out of five! Thoroughly enjoyable.
Where is the book going now? To Lucinda, maybe to where she is in Canada, but I'm not sure!
The Rental Heart and Other Stories by Kirsty Logan - Review
Monday, October 2, 2017
I'm just going to write a short/quick review of this book, not in my usual style because I don't feel like it fits into my book questions! I read this book for my online book club, started and run by Jenny, which meets every other month on Skype text chat to discuss a book (on the off months we've started discussing films!). October's theme was short stories, so we suggested a few at the meeting in August and voted on them in the Facebook group. I was excited to read this as I follow Kirsty on Twitter and have her novel The Gracekeepers although I haven't read it yet.
(Having not read books I own is the story of my life, isn't it? Lee and I recently went through all my books because we bought new shelving, and we put them all into a spreadsheet. I have over 700 physical books; I've read only around 1/3 of them.)
I also went to a workshop run by Kirsty at Grrrl Con in 2016, a workshop on inserting magic into your writing. So I was expecting there to be plenty of magic in these stories and I wasn't disappointed! There are twenty stories in total, and they were all good. Several stick out to me as being excellent - the one about the coin operated boy, the one about the couple moving to the Outback, the one about the lady taking girls into her castle to work for her and have sex with her, the one about the teenage boy whose sister has died, the one about the couple living in the caravan. Some of the stories are retellings of fairy tales, others are entirely new fairy tales. There's an element of steam punk to a lot of them, and an apocalyptic vibe to quite a few. There are a couple which talk of the loss of babies, which are really sad but beautifully done. A lot of the stories have queer protagonists which I really liked. Kirsty has a real talent at imagery and at twisting words in a certain way to set a scene.
This is an excellent anthology of stories and I want everyone I know to read it! I can't wait to discuss it with my fellow book club members in a couple of weeks. I always think that the hallmark of a good short story is that you want to know more - the few thousand words just aren't enough and leave you gasping for more. I definitely felt that here, there were several stories where I would have liked a whole novel about these characters! It takes a lot of talent to write short stories like this and Kirsty definitely has it.
(Having not read books I own is the story of my life, isn't it? Lee and I recently went through all my books because we bought new shelving, and we put them all into a spreadsheet. I have over 700 physical books; I've read only around 1/3 of them.)
I also went to a workshop run by Kirsty at Grrrl Con in 2016, a workshop on inserting magic into your writing. So I was expecting there to be plenty of magic in these stories and I wasn't disappointed! There are twenty stories in total, and they were all good. Several stick out to me as being excellent - the one about the coin operated boy, the one about the couple moving to the Outback, the one about the lady taking girls into her castle to work for her and have sex with her, the one about the teenage boy whose sister has died, the one about the couple living in the caravan. Some of the stories are retellings of fairy tales, others are entirely new fairy tales. There's an element of steam punk to a lot of them, and an apocalyptic vibe to quite a few. There are a couple which talk of the loss of babies, which are really sad but beautifully done. A lot of the stories have queer protagonists which I really liked. Kirsty has a real talent at imagery and at twisting words in a certain way to set a scene.
This is an excellent anthology of stories and I want everyone I know to read it! I can't wait to discuss it with my fellow book club members in a couple of weeks. I always think that the hallmark of a good short story is that you want to know more - the few thousand words just aren't enough and leave you gasping for more. I definitely felt that here, there were several stories where I would have liked a whole novel about these characters! It takes a lot of talent to write short stories like this and Kirsty definitely has it.
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