Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Review

This was the April choice for my book club, chosen by Helena. I was a little uncertain about it when I read the blurb, and for the first few chapters of the book. But then I just decided to lean into it, into the weirdness, and then I ended up really liking it. It is odd and it did split the group a bit, but I think more people liked it than not. 

Piranesi is the main character and he lives in the House. It has big halls and vestibules, is made of marble, and has three levels. Below, there are tides that wash through the halls, and above as clouds. Piranesi has spent years journalling and mapping the halls where he finds himself. He lives a simple life; he passes through the halls, he visits the skeletons of the thirteen other people he knows to have lived, he fishes and keeps note of the tides, and on Tuesdays and Fridays he meets with The Other.

The Other is the only other person that Piranesi knows to be alive currently. Piranesi doesn't know where he goes when they're not meeting, but assumes he is in the vast House somewhere. The halls are filled with marble statues depicting any number of things; Piranesi knows them all intimately. He also has reverance for the skeletons even though he doesn't know who the bodies were. As far as he knows, only fifteen people - includimg himself and The Other - have ever lived. 

One day The Other mentions something about an unknown sixteenth person. He warns that if Piranesi was to talk to them, he would go quite mad, so he must not talk to them. Piranesi trusts The Other so believes him. He sees evidence of the sixteenth person a little time later, in the form of arrows through the confusing labyrinth of halls and vestibules. Then Sixteen leaves a note for Piranesi but he, mindful of The Other, erases the words. But little by little things start to unravel. Piranesi discovers gaps in his journals, and the names of some other people. He can't trust himself and he has no idea who, what, or where he is. 

I thought at first Piranesi might be in heaven, because of the many rooms. Then I realised it has shades of Plato's Allegory of the Cave which I know about but can't explain in good enough detail to explain why I thought of it, but I really did. I liked how the story unravelled and I thought it was a satisfactory ending. I just leaned into the weirdness and got involved in Piranesi's life and thoughts. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Vipers by Katy Hays - Review

I read The Cloisters by Katy Hays and didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either, so I don't know that I would have given her another chance but then someone chose this for an online book club that I'm in so I bought it on eBay for a few quid and picked it up. And I ended up liking it a lot more! So that's good.

The book is set on the island of Capri so it has the summer gothic feel that I love, where everything is so bright and sunny but there's an undercurrent of threat and something sinister. I loved the setting and could picture it perfectly. 

The main characters are Helen and Lorna. Helen is the daughter of the Lingate family. Her dad and uncle, Richard and Marcus, have a lot of money and are very rich and influential. Thirty years ago, on Capri at the villa they always stay at, Helen's mother Sarah, a famous playwright, fell over a cliff and was killed. The family maintains that it was an accident, but Helen, who was a small child at the time, has always had her doubts. Her father and uncle - and Marcus' wife, Naomi, who drinks too much and takes a lot of prescription drugs - keep her on a really tight leash. She went to college but had a driver and so on; she's  never been free. 

She's determined to make things happen, so she's looped in Lorna, who is Marcus' assistant, to help. Pretty soon in the book the reader knows that Lorna has disappeared, but not exactly why. But as soon as the family arrive on Capri they run into an old friend, who was on the island the day Sarah died, and there's something for Helen too - a present. It turns out to be the necklace that Sarah was wearing when she died. 

A ton of things happen and it did get slightly confusing in places, and there are quite a lot of people involved, but I liked the story and the setting. I thought it had a good ending, too. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths - Review

 

So you know I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths and have read everything she's written for adults, and a couple of her books for children, but when I first heard of this book I wasn't thrilled about it. It involves time travel and I was like ....sure. So I didn't buy it. But then when I was at Stockport Noir in January Elly was there and the way she talked about this book was enough to pique my interest. So I bought a copy of it for Elly to sign. Then when I mentioned it to my mum and to my friend Sarah, who both also really like Elly, they both said that it's really good and I should give it a go. Sarah said that you just accept the time travel premise and how it's done, and that the book carries you along with it. 

So I picked it up in March and I have to say my mum and Sarah were right - I really liked it and the story is good enough to forget my misgivings about time travel. I will definitely read the second and more in the series! 

The protagonist is Ali, she's in her forties and has a son called Finn who is about twenty five. She had him pretty young and was married to his father (Declan? Duncan? One of those) but they have divorced and don't particularly get on. Ali's job is for the police, ostensibly in 'cold cases', but in actuality, a scientist in the department has cracked time travel. Ali has been back in time just once, when she and a colleague went to the 1960s to witness a crime to bring back to the present day for relatives to get closure. There's just six people in the department and it's obviously on a need to know basis. 

Finn works for a Tory MP called Isaac Templeton. Ali is disappointed if he believes in Tory politics, which I thought was very funny, but she appreciates that he has a good job and is learning his way in politics, etc. Then Isaac gets in touch with Ali's department and she has to go see him. 

He explains that his great grandfather, Cain Templeton, was a bit of a wrong 'un, that he might have belonged to this group called The Collectors - and rumour has it that to join the group, you had to kill a woman. There are details in his diary of a murder in a house he kept, and Isaac wants to be sure that Cain didn't kill this woman so Ali has to go back in time to see. Cain certainly did collect some weird things, like people's brains and so on, so it seems like he really might have murdered this woman. I liked the similarities here to Jack the Ripper and to other groups like The Collectors. 

Ali is helped in her transformation into a Victorian lady by several people, including the scientist in the department, whose name I've forgotten but I liked her a lot too. The time travel goes well and Ali arrives in the 1860s and goes to Cain Templeton's house. It isn't where he lives - he's posh so he has a manor house in Sussex or something - but he keeps the house for artists he's patronising and other waifs and strays. Ali sees the murdered girl and isn't sure who has murdered her, so does some enquiries. She is supposed to return home at the same time the next day, when the 'portal' will be open again, but when she gets there, it doesn't work. 

She's stuck. She rents a room in Cain's house and starts trying to unravel what has happened there. She poses as a widowed lady and tries to get herself back home. Victorian London is not a fun place to be...

Meanwhile Finn is in legal trouble back in the present day but with his mum 'away' for work he's having trouble too. 

I liked Ali a lot and can't wait to read more about her. I liked Finn too. The set up was just good, and it was a good story for the first in a series. I'm giving it four out of five. 

2 Mysteries by Enid Blyton - Review

The Secret of Moon Castle was one of my favourite Enid Blyton books when I was a kid. I had it in a compendium of three stories, and it was the first story in that book. The book is probably still in my mother's attic, but a few years ago when I wanted to reread it I bought this book, which has two stories in it. I am entirely sure that I've never read the first story in this book, so maybe I just read The Secret of Moon Castle when I bought this several years ago. 

I was looking for something short to read so picked this off the shelf. I decided to read the first story, even though I didn't know the characters. It's cute, I quite liked it. The main character is Nicky and he has a dog called Punch. In the book, it's the first day of the Easter holidays and Nicky is exciting to be rushing around with the dog and his best friend, Ken, who lives next door. 

Then they get the good news that Nicky's Uncle Bob is coming to stay! He is a private detective and Nicky is thrilled, and wants to set up some mysteries for Uncle Bob to unravel, even though he is supposed to be coming to rest and recuperate. Nicky and Ken start flashing lights at night - but then someone flashes back! Nicky and Ken set up a note for Uncle Bob to find, thinking they are clever, but Bob is on to them. But then they end up embroiled in a real mystery, including Ken's sister Penny and her friend Winnie. The boys can't stand them but they end up having to work together. I thought this was a cute mystery. 

The Secret of Moon Castle stars Jack, Peggy, Mike, Nora, and Paul. Peggy, Mike and Nora are biological siblings. Jack is their adopted brother - I can't remember if this is explained in earlier books, as I know I read a couple of them. And Paul is Prince Paul of Baronia, because of course he is. He has his manservant, Ranni, with him. There is some racism in how these two characters are portrayed, which did make me roll my eyes. 

Anyway Paul's parents, the King and Queen of Baronia, obvs, want to come and stay in England and rent a castle. Of course. So the childrens' mother, Mrs Arnold, requests the particulars for castles, and starts looking through them. The children pick up one of the ones she's discared, about Moon Castle. They don't understand why she has discarded it so ask her; she thinks it is far away from anything. But they decide to go visit anyway and set off on a two hundred mile round trip in Ranni's huge car. Of course. 

When they stop for lunch they mention to the castle to the waitress, who says that strange things happen there, that the place is haunted. The children and Mrs Arnold ignore her and go anyway. They meet a hostile welcome, though. The caretakers are Mrs Brimming and her sisters, and they do not want to show everyone around the castle. They keep saying that Mrs Brimming's son, Guy, who is a scientist, will be fuming that they let the visitors in. Mrs Arnold insists on it, though. 

She decides the castle will be fine for Paul's family so rents it, but before the Baronians can come over, two of Paul's brothers get the measles or something, so their visit in postponed. No matter, the children can go visit instead, supervised by their nanny? type of woman, Miss Dimity (who they called Dimmy). They go, assured that Guy has cleared out of the Tower, which they are desperate to visit. 

But as the children settle in, strange things do start to happen! Stringed instruments start to play themselves, and vases jump off shelves! The children start to investigate and visit the nearby ruined village of Moon. 

I still loved this mystery, it's really cute and kept my interest. In all I'm giving both books four out of five. Nostalgia reasons, I'm sure, but I liked my reread. 

 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - Review

Demon Copperhead was the February choice for my book club, and I started listening to it way back in January. I had finished Cuddy in good time before our meeting, so I decided to start this. It is LONG, it's like 23 hours of audiobook time. So I was getting a good start, I thought!

But then, it's just SO depressing. I didn't realise that it's meant to be a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in the 90s in the opiate addiction crisis in the south of the USA. Maybe if I had known that to begin with I would know what I was getting into, but I didn't, so. Not that I am particularly familiar with the plot of David Copperfield, but I do know it's depressing, so that might have helped. 

Demon is the protagonist of the novel and it's all told from his point of view. His real name is Damon, but most kids call him Demon. He lives with his mom in a trailer on land belonging to the Peggots. She is a teen mother and an addict. Demon gets close to the Peggots' grandson, Matt, whose mom is in prison. He is better known as Maggot and he becomes a goth teenager which was quite funny. 

Demon's dad died before he was born, and there's little other family around. Life is hard. Then his mother takes up with a guy called Stoner who is incredibly abusive towards Demon. His mom overdoses and goes to rehab and Demon enters foster care for the first time. He is with an old farmer nicknamed Creaky, who has four boys in his care and who is abusive towards each of them. The eldest one, Fast Forward, is popular and the others dote on him. He introduces them to drugs. 

Demon's mother overdoses again and dies, and Stoner takes off so Demon ends up in foster care with a family only in it for the money. He is forced to sleep in the dog room and is starved by the family. He works for a man called Ghali and manages to save up some money. Just before his foster family move a way away, Demon takes off, determined to hitchhike to Tennessee to find his dad's mother. He considers Knoxville, where Maggot's aunt and cousin live, but ends up in Tennessee. He finds his grandma and spends a few happy weeks with her and her disabled brother, but ultimately they can't keep him. But they find better foster care for him, in the shape of Coach and his daughter Angus, who are vaguely family. 

Demon is good at football and Coach starts to whip him in to shape as a star player. As he moves into high school he is quite popular because he plays for the team, and he meets a girl called Dori. He injures his knee playing football and thus begins an addiction to opioids himself. I know that he ends up with Dori for a while, but unfortunately I don't know the end of the book because I had to give up on it. It is SO depressing. I liked Demon a lot and felt for him, but everything just kept going wrong and even when it went mostly right - like when he's living with Coach and Angus - he sabotages it and then life shits on him some more. I just couldn't listen to more than just over half. I'm counting it though because I listened to over half of it, so there. Three out of five. 

 

The Chemist by A A Dhand - Review

I bought this book at the crime book festival that I went to at the end of January. A A Dhand was there, and I didn't realise he was the author of the TV series Virdee, which is set in Bradford and which I watched a few episodes of. He was talking about this, his new book, and I liked the sound of it so I bought it and got him to sign it for me. He is a really lovely person, but I didn't enjoy the book that much.

It's about a pharmacist, Idris, who has a pharmacy in Headingley in Leeds. He is married to Maryam, a GP, but he has an ex wife, Rebecca, who he is still in touch with and who he's still fond of. He deals a lot with methadone users - who come to the pharmacy daily to take their methadone under supervision - and he has a lot to do with the local sex workers of Beeston. Rebecca does too as part of her job, so when a sex worker called Amy calls on her, Rebecca goes to help. 

Amy's punter was a man called Patrick, who is part of a big crime family, and he's just got out of prison. He tries to pull a fast one on Amy, she calls Rebecca, and Rebecca kills him. Then she phones Idris for help. He does indeed try to cover it up, with the help of a local called Al, a Syrian refugee, who is a drug runner inside a notorious load of high rise flats called The Moorings. Idris has been blackmailed into providing drugs for the estate, because his money is in short supply and he is scared of the kingpins there. 

It's a very complicated and convoluted plot and it was just so confusing for me. Then there's a few people whose names are really similar - for example two men called Daniel and Damon - which made it hard to keep them straight in my head. Every time I thought the plot surely had to be over now, something else would pop up and someone else would come along and threaten Idris and he would have to make even stupider decisions. 

I did like Idris and I liked Rebecca as well. I couldn't tell you if I liked Maryam (I'm not even certain on the spelling of her name) because she's in it for like two scenes. I understand that this book is the first part of a series and I would like to read more for Idris, but I am just not putting myself through it again. It's way too complicated for me. 

Two out of five. 

Winter by Val McDermid - Review

I got this book with one of my Waterstones vouchers, I bought it not long after Christmas in my haul then, and I knew I wanted to read it before this winter was over. I kept meaning to pick it up and finally got round to it at the beginning of March. I don't know about you, but winter returned with a vengeance at the beginning of March - we had sleet, hail, and tons of wind! So it was perfect to read this book then. 

This is only a short book and apparently it's one of a series on each of the seasons, by different authors. I would really like to read the other ones so maybe I'll seek them out. My review won't be very long because it really is a short book, but I really enjoyed it, and recommend it. 

Apparently Val settles down each winter to write a new novel, so it's a time of creativity for her, a time to hunker down and work. I really liked knowing that about her writing structure, it was interesting as I've read a lot of her novels. She also writes a lot about her Scottish childhood and the brutality and beauty of a Scottish winter. I found her writing really evocative of the time and space and learnt a lot about Scotland in the 1950s and 60s. Did you know for example that the puritanical church didn't celebrate Christmas so it wasn't a bank holiday in Scotland until the mid 1960s, which explains why they celebrated New Year/Hogmanay so much more! So interesting. 

I lent the book to my friend Morag, who I go to craft club with, and who is only a couple of years old than Val. She is Scottish herself - obviously, with a name like Morag - and I thought she would find it really interesting and evocative of her own childhood too. 

I'm giving it five out of five and will definitely read it again!