The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter - Review

I first read The Bloody Chamber years and years ago when I was a teenager. I didn't do English Lit at 6th form but tons of my friends did, and a lot of them did this book and we were all obsessed with it. I'm pretty sure I read a library copy way back when, and I'm not entirely sure where this copy came from, but I've had it forever and not picked it up. When we moved last summer I was reminded of its existence, but then didn't pick it up until just before Christmas. 

However, I read the first few stories and then put the book down and didn't pick it up again until April, by which time I was determined to finish it. However, I didn't really like it as much as I remember liking it. Maybe it was just because I was seventeen and it was all new to me, so maybe stories just don't hit the same now I'm in my forties. 

I did still really like the story The Bloody Chamber, which is a retelling of the fairy tale Bluebeard. It's exactly as creepy and gothic as I remember, which I liked. I also really liked the story of Puss in Boots, about a cat who spends his days with a rakish young man. Some of the others were so graphic - something that the collection is controversial for - that they left me cold. 

In all I am glad I reread this, but it wasn't quite my jam anymore. Still, I would recommend it to young adults who haven't read anything similar before. I'm giving it three out of five. 

Frozen by Ann Cleeves - Review

This is a really short story that I must have got on Kindle at some point and when I was scrolling my way through what I wanted to read I came upon it. So I'm reviewing it even though it is really short! I loved being back with Vera and will have to pick up another of her books soon. 

Vera is having a day off and heads to a bookshop in Corbridge. She's interested in a book about Hadrian and the wall, but she ends up walking into a crime instead. The bookshop is in an old church, and the owner and her teenaged son are working on opening up the old baptismal underneath the floor of their shop. To their surprise, there is a dead body in there. 

A skeleton, to be more precise. And what's more, Vera recognises who it is from the bracelet on the skeleton's wrist. It is a girl who went missing years and years ago, a case that Vera has never forgotten. And of course, she's involved now and she wants to solve it. 

I'm giving this four out of five, I liked it a lot for such a short story. 

Athelstan by Tom Holland - Review

This was the May choice for my book club and I read it way back in mid April, so I was in plenty of time before book club. As I write this, we haven't yet met, so I don't know what everyone else thought, but I really enjoyed the book. It's non fiction, it's about the King called Athelstan who I had never heard of, although I'd heard of some of his relatives for sure. But that period of England is not something I know a lot about at all, so it was good to learn more. 

Athelstan is arguably the first King of England because he managed to unify the country more than anyone had done previously. There is apparently little documentary evidence about Athelstan himself, but what there is Tom Holland manages to pull together in a very readable and dramatic fashion. This is a short book so I raced through it, but it is also compelling. Also, presumably he's not THAT Tom Holland, haha. 

I also found it really interesting how Athelstan became king of all of England. When a different king died, others would rush in and fill the gap - what an absolutely mad way to do anything. So Athelstan managed to get a couple of places before anyone else, including some Irish kings, did. Wild. 

I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about this period of history. I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Eternal Return of Clara Hart - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch. It is a pleasure to welcome you here! Please do click around and have a look at my other posts. I love contemporary YA and don't feel like I've read one in ages, so I was eager to sign up to this blog tour and to read the book!

The main character of the book is James Spencer, and he is in his last year at 6th form so he's already eighteen. His dad calls him James but everyone else calls him Spence. He has a car, an MG Midget which I've got major envy for, and on this particular Friday just before exam leave, he wakes up in his car. 

It is the year anniversary of his mum's death and he and his dad haven't been getting on very well, so James has chosen to sleep in his car to stay out of his dad's way. He is woken up by a car hitting his. A small red Micra, driven by Clara Hart. They have a bit of an altercation about it and then James goes into school and sits with his friends Anthony and Worm. They have forgotten the significance of the day and are their usual selves - mocking girls, catcalling, and giving all the girls ratings out of five. They are also planning a party for that evening. James doesn't really want to go, but he does. He and Anthony pick up alcohol and get ready.

At the party Worm strips naked and jumps into the pool. James ends up asleep. A girl called Mia gets incredibly drunk. Clara's friend Genni gets off with a guy called Jay and Clara ends up upstairs with Anthony. James rescues her, covering up her naked body, but she's drunk and upset and runs out of the house. She is then killed by a car coming past. The party ends with everyone at the police station giving a statement about what happened. James is obviously distraught and ends up asleep in his own bed, taken home by his dad. 

But then he wakes up again in his car, and Clara is again close by in her red car. James is obviously confused, and moreso when the day repeats itself. Can he save Clara this time, though?

Through more than a week of Fridays James tries and tries again to save Clara, to make a better hash of the day than he did the first time around. He's sure there must be some kind of key - but what is it?

I loved the book, I liked James a lot and loved the setting he found himself in. I liked the mystery of how he was going to get out of the mess he was in and I liked the ending. In all I'm giving this four out of five. 

Star by Star by Sheena Wilkinson - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Star By Star by Sheena Wilkinson! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do click around and have a look at my other reviews. 

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and signed up for it without realising that I have already read something by Sheena Wilkinson. I finished the book and when I was adding it to Goodreads I realised I read Name Upon Name by Sheena, which is actually related to this book! That book's main character is Helen, and she has a cousin Sandy, and in this book the main character Stella meets Helen in the first chapter, and she ends up living with Sandy! So that was delightful to learn and I'm glad I did learn it. 

So yes, Stella is fifteen and the year is 1918. The Spanish flu is endemic across Europe and the Great War is roaring. Stella has grown up in Manchester with her Mam after her mam had to leave Ireland when she was pregnant with Stella. Her mam has been a suffragette, fighting for women's rights to vote, and eventually, women who are over thirty and are householders are entitled to vote. It's a great victory! But Stella's Mam catches flu and Stella has to nurse her as she dies. 

Stella is left alone in the world and has to travel back to Ireland to live with her mother's sister Nancy. Nancy runs a kind of boarding house and Stella is to go and help her. She meets Helen on the train from Belfast; Helen is trying to visit Sandy but it doesn't go well. He is a wounded soldier, wounded in the trenches of the war, and has some kind of PTSD that means he rarely leaves his room. Also in the house are two elderly women and a young nurse, Kit, who nurses at the local convalescent home for soldiers.

Things are changing in Ireland - after the Easter Rising of 1916 the spirit of independence from British rule is in the air. Reading this as someone in 2026 who knows what happened in Ireland it was interesting to get into the head of someone living in Ireland at the time. Stella is an independent forthright young woman who wants to sort everything out. She has no malice in her and people's best interests at heart, but the way she goes about things sometimes rubs people up the wrong way! 

I loved the book, I am so glad I joined in this tour. I loved Stella and I liked the setting and her aunt and all the other inhabitants of the house. I liked Sandy and thought he was very compassionately portrayed. He is only 22 and has been an officer and has been permanently wounded by the war. I'm giving this four out of five and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Sugar & Other Stories by A S Byatt - Review

I have never read anything by A S Byatt but have always wanted to, so when I saw this in a charity shop in York for just a couple of quid I picked it up. 

I really enjoyed the selection of stories, but it's a few weeks since I read it so I don't remember specifics of many. I think generally the theme was people, and relationship, and quite a lot about middle class people. The book was published in 1987 so all of the stories were dated before that, but some felt quite a bit older - more like Agatha Christie type of time period. But some really felt set in the 1980s, too. 

This definitely has inspired me to read something else by A S Byatt, so I'll keep an eye out for something else by her! I'm giving this four out of five. 

Shorelines by Ruth Ennis - Blog Tour and Review

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Shorelines by Ruth Ennis! It is a pleasure to welcome you here today. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. 

I love novels told in verse and I love mermaids, so when I saw this book come up on the blog tour I signed up immediately! This book really did not disappoint. I loved the artwork on the front and inside; I would recommend it on artwork alone. But the writing is beautiful too. I raced through this and loved it. It is somewhat a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but in a modern setting. I loved the glimpses of the original story peeking through. 

Muireann is a mermaid. She has lots of sisters, including her twin sister Mairead. One day, they are searching for pearls as gifts for their mother. The twins are obsessed with the world above the surface and want to go one day. Mairead goes missing and the whole family has to look for her. When they find her, she is dead - killed by a mass fishing net. Muireann's mother sinks into a deep depression and Muireann feels totally alone.

She is a fat, strong, powerful mermaid. She knows her place within the ocean, but she really wants to see the surface. She and Mairead had spotted a ship in trouble and saw a man there - obviously the handsome prince. 

But when Muireann does go ashore, the real world isn't like she imagined it to be. She has to become someone else in order to be safe. And she wants more than anything to return to the sea.

I loved the book and would definitely read something else by Ruth Ennis in the future! I will keep a look out for them for sure. I'm giving this a high four out of five.