Jackie
an anthology with a concurrent story. characters reappear. the world as we know it has collapsed. I thought the opening story could have been stronger, but a few chapters in and it was quite gripping.
Eventually completed this (it was a bathroom book, so took a while).
It all ended a bit swiftly, with the reveal one could see coming.
A short tale of love, friendship and dodgy life-creating science.
Great fun to read.
Rather enjoyed this.
Book 3 of a series, but works as standalone.
Was a random 50p ex-library purchase and would happily look up the first two.
Vampires, turf war, politics and the Big Questions in life.
Was quite happy it turned out to have violence and swearing, and not be aimed at tweens.
I love short stories, and this was a good selection.
Food for thought indeed when traipsing round windy corridors on the Underground.
A wander through the mind of a twenty-something year old lad in the West Mids, with his accidental job in the pub and ex-girlfriend on his mind.
Light-hearted, descriptive, evocative of the era.
Read via ‘staves' on Pigeonhole.
First half was detailed and well written, from a young lad's POV. Second half wandered so much I got a bit lost. Was then confronted with a ‘to be continued' flag rather than ‘The End'.
Got this out of the library many a time as a child. Found out that it's being republished this Spring (2022).
Quite enjoyable, once I got into it, being as it's an autobiography within a narrative, with many a winding footnote.
Despite finding some negative reviews online, I rather enjoyed this.
Enjoyed the futuristic background (eg running the city's power off the dead), with a whodunnit and love story mingled in.
looking forward to reading this whilst listening to Steeleye Span's new album of the same name, both Chrimble pressies.
A British police detective on holiday is dogged by her past, strained family relations, and the pain of being a stranger abroad with a crime scene to deal with.
I enjoyed this, there's a sense of impending doom running through the story, and the author ramps up the tension from the start amid lush descriptions of the snowy and isolated setting.
As a ‘whodunnit', we do find out who and why eventually, but it feels a bit lost beneath the main character's thoughts and emotions.
Read it via Pigeonhole, but blasted through it in a few days rather than reading along every other day.
Read it at the pace of ‘a stave a day' via the online book club Pigeonhole.
Written pre-COVID-19 times, it follows (mainly) one young woman through her journey of being ill with the titular disease, Poleaxe, escaping from her parents to college and enjoying her studies.
The plot jumped around somewhat, as the author had several things he wanted to say.
It also needed editing for typos and to tidy up the inconsistent names, but Pigeonhole often have advanced drafts, some in better states of the edit than others.
