Simon
“Nearly every day I wake up shocked at how little in this world I comprehend.”
An incredible achievement. I stopped short of giving it five stars purely because I struggled with the opening part of the book and some of the bits set in Mexico. However, the 2nd half of the book is something else and when you get to end it's an almost euphoric experience. Read the blurb and the other reviews because I don't have the words.
Slightly bonkers, waffly in places, but great fun and I know more about rocks and giant mushrooms than I did 2 days ago. Will spend a few minutes marvelling at the fact that this was written 161 years ago.
Generous 4, probably a 3 but I really like that idea of being shot out of a tunnel clinging to an Icelandic man mountain, that earned an extra star.
The Iraq war. A bunch of soldiers loot some ancient artifacts from a museum in Baghdad in the hope of making lots of cash when they return from the war. Little do they know that among the stuff they looted is something truly unholy, and people in the shadows are waiting.
This is Charlie Parker #9, and if I had to grade this one it would probably be bottom half. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's not bad it's good, but when the bar is so high, something good can feel a little bit meh. Liked it, didn't love, didn't hate it, 3.5 rounded up. ......... Is The Collector a good guy?
Always a sense of fear when I read one of these classics, like I will be mocked if I don't like it, understand it, or fathom the significance of the red flowers in the blue vase on page 342.
FRETT NOT!! I loved it. Everything that is great and glorious about Rebecca has been said by greater people than I, However I am slightly stressed as to the fate of Frank & Jasper and I will think about that a lot.
Simply brilliant.
This story follows the lives of three women, mother, daughter and mother ln law, living in the leaden fallout following the deaths of their Krayish husbands and fathers. Jan, the troubled daughter who sleeps around for booze, tabs, lifts home and comfort, desperate to get away. Carol the mother, broken, living out her existence while caring for her daughter's baby and Nedra who burns on a catholic flame, happily burdened with the sins and shame her family has brought upon her.
Its grim, bleak and an extremely uncomfortable read in places. Almost a masterpiece but the prose is dense and difficult to follow at times and I had to go back and re-read passages for them to make sense. If Mike Leigh & Shane Meadow had a baby, it would probably look a lot like this.
“He was outwardly calm but inwardly bleeding to death.”
Historical fiction mixed with fact. The kind of thing I really like. This one is a bit like the film SEVEN, but here the madman is using Dante's Inferno instead of the seven deadly sins as a template to carry out a series of quite horrific murders. Enter the Dante Club. Holmes, Lowell, Fields and Longfellow (real historical figures). It's up to them to solve this insane mystery before more people are slain.
Overall, this was just ok. I think I enjoyed this learning experience more than the story itself. The highlight for me was the dialogue between the main characters which was excellent, puts you right in the room with the books, cigars, the fantastical beards and various other forms of facial hair. I gave this a 4, it's quite a generous score tbf but I did feel like a learnt something. Those first 50 pages though..... like someone dangling live eels in your face, not very nice.
Quits strange this one. My rating reflects my enjoyment compared to the previous Dublin Murder Squad books. This one, unfortunately, just isn't as good as the previous four.
I think the main sticking point for me was the bits with the school girls just felt a bit odd. Think of that middle ground between Catherine Tate's Lauren and the girls from Picnic at Hanging Rock. I just found it a really strange drawn out read. Way too long for what it was. Those last 100 pages were a real battle, but I guess I won out in the end.
“You say you felt a presence, but I only sensed an absence”
Being completely honest, I found it a lot harder to connect with this book., It lacks the cohesion of Kite Runner & Thousand Splendid Suns. Sticking with it and finishing it, however was hugely satisfying and yes, I was a blubbering mess at the end.
4 women who have been friends since school ditch the beach holiday and decide to climb a mountain in Norway instead. What could possibly go wrong!!! It has everything, big beardy man (with man bun), poorly packed rucksacks, twisted ankles, beanie hats, fog, storms, landslides, murder, cocaine...... and breathe.
I blasted this out in 2 days, quick fun read, pure escapism. If they film it, you could cast it with the people from Smack The Pony, it would really work.
I really enjoyed this. The story, or stories as it is, do meander about a bit and I think if the book had been a bit longer I might have got a tad frustrated because it dangles the fish, and then it takes the fish away again, a bit like a 15 minute journey with a 1 hour detour. However, the light humorous prose makes it extremely readable, felt a bit like a slightly darker Midsomer Murders, but only slightly.
Very readable but feel about meh after finishing it. Probably due to the fact I've seen the film and I think the imagery adds something the book failed to give me. Also I am completely terrified of Willem Dafoe, and every time his character appeared in the book all I could think about was his mad eyes and his horrifying mouth, expecting them to appear over the top of the page at any moment (((SHUDDERS)))
Set between 1914 and 1948, Mothers Boy is a fictional / biographical account of the early life of poet Charles Causley and his mother Laura. More of a series of linier moments than a novel, and perhaps lacks the emotional punch of say, A Place Called Winter. it is however, really really lovely. I got a bit emotional at the end, not sure why because it isn't sad, in fact, quite the opposite.
This one really got under my skin.
An extremely unpleasant and uncomfortable read about bullying. The story starts off flipping between then, when Todd is young victim of bullying, and now when Todd is a single parent about to start a new job in a new town. Todd then comes face to face with the person who bullied him at school and the results are devastating. The ending, beyond bleak.
I think the author got most of this spot on, especially the bits with young Todd. But, some bits in the 2nd half of the book just felt a bit off.
“For it was easier to blame the Devil for the bruises on their wives and daughters, easier to blame witches for their emptied barrels of beer. Easier to brand the maids, heavy with unwanted pregnancies as followers of the Devil.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Lots of elements; historical, folklore and a tinge of fantasy, and as much as this book is about witches and witchcraft, it is also about the often brutal persecution of women in the 17th century by frightened men with tiny minds who somehow find themselves in positions of power (sounds terrifyingly familiar), all of which makes the ending feel beautifully triumphant.
One of our signature flaws as a species: we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid
With Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel wrote a story about the end of the world and made it something beautiful and uplifting. With The Glass Hotel, she does something similar with investment fraud, exploring the ripple effect caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme.
Although it didn't move me as much as Station Eleven, I really enjoyed it and found the non linier telling of the story, and the way everything linked together hugely satisfying.
Summing up. Somewhere between a 4 and a 5. But, because I just ate a Tunnock's Teacake, which was so awesome it transported me to another plane of existence, it's a 5.
Dark & musty, with a smell of death and abandonment.
Very well written, but totally ridiculous, mystery thriller with a bunch of unpleasant characters doing extremely odd things just to make the plot work. Setting the story in a smart house in the isolated highlands of Scotland, rather than the leafy snoburbs of a large city, was a neat idea and added to sense of dread and loneliness . The resolution made me sigh but the big twist was Star Wars(ish).
Summary... Utterly bonkers, but was I entertained? Yes I was.
Vampires take LA in this epic battle of good v evil. It's down to a grumpy policeman, a bullied schoolkid, a comedian on the verge of mega stardom, a dying priest, a gutter journalist, a drug dealer, a spiritualist, man who has lived in the sewers for 20 years and a little bit of the Pacific Ocean, to save humanity from the terrors of vampiredom.
This book is great fun with few dull moments and the ending is really good, something Roland Emmerich would be proud of.
I feel rather drab and shy for a few minutes. But then I remember that I am old and nobody is looking at me
Deeply moving story about 80yr old Maud who is suffering from dementia and can't find her friend Elizabeth. Elizabeth is Missing just like her sister Sukey who went missing in 1949.
For the most part I thought this was incredible. Maud's memory slips between then and now are brilliantly done and you really feal the frustration and anger building up in Maud when she is struggling to work things out. I did find the “Elizabeth Is Missing” part of the story a little bit drawn out. I'm pretty sure someone would have said SOMETHING at some point it just irked me a little bit.
This is a beautifully insane love letter to the strange weirdness that was Victorian England. It's all here; the love of the occult, the mad fashion, mechanical moon men, serialised fiction, crystal balls, life size chocolate gorillas, public viewings in insane asylums, sugar mice (are they still a thing?), tarot cards, tea leaf readings. AND THE BAT PEOPLE!!! Don't forget the bat people.
I did have some issues with this book, mainly the start which is beyond confusing and I think it could have been laid out a little better. However, this was quite possibly the most fun I have ever had reading a book. I laughed out loud, I welled up and I nearly puked at one point, and for the reason alone, it's 5 stars. Also, completely and utterly BONKERS!!!!