Marple by Various Authors - Review

I had heard of this book on Twitter because Elly Griffiths is one of the authors inside, but when I looked it up on Netgalley I was too late to request it. So I 'wished' for it, which I've only done a couple of times before, but a couple of weeks later I got a notification to say my wish had been granted! That's never happened to me before! I was absolutely thrilled.

I was away in France for the first twelve days of September, and I decided to only take my tablet as it's much lighter than lugging a load of books with me, and it means I have access to ALL my Kindle books. I then decided that for the whole of September I would only read books on my tablet, as a bit of a challenge to myself. I started this right on the first day of the month, on the day before we flew to Carcassonne for our holiday. I read it on the two hour flight on the Friday and finished it later that evening. It is a fantastic anthology of stories and I reall enjoyed it. Thank you Harper Collins for granting my wish!

I have to admit that I'm not familiar with Miss Marple at all. I'm much more familiar with Poirot and his stories. I don't know all Marple's background and canon works, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about these stories. But the calibre of the authors involved just had me gasping - there are some I love and some I was looking forward to reading. They are twelve of the best women writing crime today, and I think Naomi Alderman did a brilliant job in putting the anthology together. The authors included are: Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware. I have to admit that I barely paid attention to who wrote which story, because they're all so brilliant that I genuinely didn't care. I was caught up in all the stories, finding them utterly believable and an excellent addition to the Marple canon. I am writing this review a couple of weeks after reading the book, so I will talk about the stories that stood out to me. I will say that there's such a variety of stories - a couple set in big houses, one at Christmas, ones with Miss Marple's friends, one with her granddaughter (written by Karen M McManus, which should surprise no one!) and one set in New York. Those are the ones I liked best, I think, but honestly there's not a bad story between them. 

I thoroughly recommend this book especially if you are already a fan of Marple, unlike me! Reading this would make me want to read some of the books starring her though, or maybe watch the TV series! I am giving this fiveo ut of five as I just liked it so much. 

This book was published on the 15th of September. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Power by Naomi Alderman - Review

I read The Power on holiday last week. I'd heard a lot about it because it won a bunch of prizes last year, but I wouldn't necessarily have picked it up by myself. But it was chosen for my book club as October's book so I thought I'd take it on holiday. I actually owned a copy of the book, which I'd received in a subscription box last year, so that was good as it meant I didn't need to buy it!

Anyway, it's basically a science fiction novel. It looks at a time when women awoke the power that was within them, a power to emit electricity from their hands which can inflict pain. It started in teenagers, but they could awaken it in older women. Soon, boys were being segregated in schools for their own safety and girls were being used in war.

The book follows four stories. There's Allie, a kid who has been in and out of the foster system and who is being abused by her adoptive father. She escapes and reinvents herself as a religious prophet. I liked Allie a lot; I think her motives were pure and I liked where she ended up. It would be interesting to read a whole book just from her perspective I think.

There's Roxy, the illegitimate daughter of a London gangster, who is extremely powerful and who uses her power chaotically, which I really liked. I liked Roxy's storyline and found it the most heartbreaking. There's Tunde, a man who sees the power just as it is awakening and who then travels all across the world as a journalist, trying to get the next scoop before anyone else can. I didn't like Tunde as a person, I sort of thought he deserved a lot of what happened to him, but I did like the storyline, and I thought it said a lot about the modern world and people who are greedy for the next big story.

And finally there's Margot, who is mayor of a city but who wishes to be governor of the state and who uses the power and everything she can gather to get ahead in her game. I didn't like Margot but I understood her ambition. I also liked the subplots with her daughter Jocelyn, which I won't spoil but which raised a lot of questions around gender in the book.

I liked the "historical" bits which were put in, I thought they were really interesting and added to the world in which the book existed. I liked the concept but just something got a bit lost for me; I felt it rambled a bit and didn't really reach any satisfactory conclusions. I have a feeling my book club is going to hate it - I think it'll have been too violent and possibly too feminist for a lot of them. I'd like to discuss it with someone who 'got' it more than me, because I just wasn't sure about what point it was trying to make. The only thing I came up with was that power corrupts people, all kinds of people, in lots of ways and for lots of reasons. And, well, I kind of knew that before :P

I'm not sorry I read this, but it isn't a favourite. I'm giving it seven out of ten, and one of those points is for the concept alone.

While this isn't a book for teenagers, it is definitely a concept that may appeal, and I think an older, discerning teen could certainly understand and enjoy the book. There's a lot of violence, in parts quite graphic, and some sexual violence too, which is also graphic. I'd say take care of yourself, but as someone who read the Handmaid's Tale at sixteen, I think this is on the same lines, so read it if it appeals!