Simon
A generous 4 stars. Utterly bonkers but great fun and I think I enjoyed this more than Girl On a Train. At the end of the day it is what it is, no better and no worse than the thousand of other thrillers out there, full of the usual twists turns and bits that “you didn't see coming”. There are stories within stories and, at times, it gets a little confusing AND the ending is... strange. Laura is a great character and should be played by Diane Morgan if this ever gets made into a tv series or film.
Hold on to your friends.
Historical fiction, WW2, German occupied France, Books, Libraries, bla bla bla. Yes it's all that, but for me, this is a book about friendship, trust and acceptance. It's about making mistakes and living with consequences. Duel time line (WW2 France and 1980s Montana), wonderful characters, happy tears at the end = + 1 star.
I didn't think I would ever be able to describe a story set in WW2 occupied France as CUTE, but this is it. Emma (Emmanuel) wages her own style of resistance against the occupying German army. This involves baking bread, stealing fuel and distributing supplies amongst the villagers, all behind the German's backs. Obviously there are some grim moments but generally a really good uplifting story.
“And it's crazy” she says “So crazy you're not going to believe it”
LOL Well, that was so far beyond ridiculous, I gave it an extra star. First half of the book is your standard child abduction story with the parents' lives spiralling out of control. Then, I think someone put something in the authors tea and he went full on bonkers. So many WTF moments I lost count. In fact, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of alien invasion and tap dancing polish rugby players during the stories conclusion.
Enjoy, but remove logic circuits first.
Another excellent instalment of the Charlie Parker series. I didn't think this series could get any darker but here we are. It does plod a little at times, there are huge chunks about some of the darker elements of European history and those chunks do feel like you are reading another book (intentionally) BUT they are important to the mythology of the story.
I did really enjoy this, in a way it's more like the first CP novel and it does lack the tension and cohesion of the previous 3 novels, the pace is a lot slower, there's no build up to a conclusion and you just sort of arrive at the end, then it's all over in 4 pages. It really does sort of feel like this is the start of something new.... Happy ending for someone but not Charlie.
“You thought you could trap a god in freakin' roll of film”
So nearly something really special. A ghost story, coupled with a human story about coping with illness while bring up an autistic son. The writing is supreme, there are some exquisitely creepy moments, BUT all that stuff about film, types of film, independent film, processing film, film, film, film, just messes with the pacing of the story. No doubt in my mind that sometime in the future Gemma Files will write something truly extraordinary, this was almost it, but not quite.
Definitely a case of “not really my thang”. The human side of this story, set during and after the Bosnian War, is really good. Kara's life reduced to nothing, sowing the seeds of fanaticism. It's the other side, the black ops, the chest pounding, muscle showing and Euro politics, that I found a bit boring. If you like that sort of stuff then this is probably for you.
Jane Harper has a real knack of plonking you right in the middle of the dry, parched, desolate, snake ridden Australian outback. My Jeans are caked in dust, there's sand in my unmentionables. This is a really good story. The prose is stark, it's a slow burner really explodes into life in the last 100 or pages. Not for you if you like quick page turners with twists you weren't expecting.
Without a doubt, this book has some incredibly uplifting and emotionally charged moments in it. BUT, it was also one of the most irritating reading experiences I've had in a long time. No quotation marks? Pffffft!!! Mrs Wolstenholme would not be pleased. Also, the visions about the Olympics and the World Cup? Utterly bonkers. Equal amounts of...... amazing, beautiful, weird, horrible.
So, this is the story of Jake/George who travels back in time (through an anomaly located in a storeroom at the back of a Burger joint) to prevent the assassination of JFK. Sounds like a pretty cool story? Thing is, it's so much more, in fact, the bits with Oswald in it are probably the least interesting thing about this book.
I don't really have the words to explain just how special this book is, there are plenty of reviews out there that do it better than I ever could, but for me it contains some real emotional punches the best characters and one of his best, if not the best ending to one of his books. Probably overtakes The Stand or Revival as my favourite King story.
Starts off really well, really compelling and utterly filthy. However, halfway though the novelty of the 2nd person narrative and Victorian smut wares off and it becomes tiresome and tedious. I nearly DNF'd a couple of times but there is just enough to keep you going. Overall, it's just too long and a little bit too pleased with itself.
Absolutely glorious. I have read quite a few of these gothic ghost stories and this one is right up there with the best of them. The narrator, Stella, is real joy and the exorcism that happens halfway though the book is truly chilling, a brilliant piece of writing by the author. If a sequel featuring psychic Annie and Mr Sheers isn't in the works I will be terribly cross.
Ok, so my enjoyment of this book was only slightly dampened by seeing the film first. Of course, the book is infinitely better than the film which looks really good but the message the book gives is lost and IMO George Clooney is horribly miscast as Augie and a grumpy Brian Cox would have been much better or maybe Max Van Sydow.
I guess you would shelve this next to Station Eleven (which I loved) because the dystopian setting is just the backdrop, you don't even find out what cataclysmic event has taken place. The story itself is about relationships, regrets, loneliness and coming to terms with the new way of living. It's almost impossible to say anything else about the book without giving away the two major twists, so do not read the questions at the bottom of the goodreads page for this book or it will spoil the story. However, I will spill all for 2 magic beans and a Curly Wurly.
3.5 rounded up
I think Tana French could write a book titled “The Fourteen Fungus Ridden Toenails of Henry VIII” and I would rush out and buy it on publication day,. There's just something about her style, it puts you right in the scene with the characters and the ash trays and the lace doilies. This story is about families, relationships, secrets, unresolved tensions etc etc. It's pretty grim to be honest, not in a gruesome bloodthirsty way, but a bleak way with no happy endings and main character who is so unlikeable I didn't care if he lived or died. Probably not as good as the previous book but enjoyable anyway.
Well, that was a bit weird. Sometimes funny, often brutal but utterly confusing (and it doesn't take a lot to confuse me). So many names, so many characters to deal with, some of which had more than one name (I think) and the meandering prose didn't help with it's many many tangents. BUT, I sort of did enjoy myself just not as much as I wanted to.
I will finish with these wise words that an old lady in the Hospital waiting room said to me while we were discussing the benefits of well stocked spice racks.
“If ever a book needed a glossary of terms it's this one”.
“I am not the whore who abandoned her at some pox-ridden baby farm” This is my 3rd Stacey Halls book and the 2nd published. It doesn't, however, quite live up to the other two.I was aware of The Foundling Hospital before I started this story so I was prepared for something quite horrible and part one does not disappoint. In fact, it is such a gut wrenchingly tragic opening that the rest of the book sort of falls flat, leaving us with a somewhat underwhelming happy ending. Still, it is beautifully written and well worth it if you love the gothic. 3.5 rounded up.
I really enjoyed this, a nice addition to my dystopian shelf. The premise is the usual, a virus wipes out 99% of the worlds population and things are bad and people are mean and men are stupid. What I really loved about this was the protagonist, the unnamed midwife (Karen, Dusty, Jane or whatever), I loved the wit and her outlook on life that comes across in her journal entries. It's not perfect by any means but there is enough quirks and differences to make it stand out. This is the first book of 3, I will read the next one but this stands on its own really well.
Quite astonishing really that so much beauty and so much pain can be found in just 150 pages. I found it hard to feel any kind of sympathy for David, I knew somebody like him. They like to dipped their toes into the queer pool, enjoy the freedom and the excitement but when things start getting a little serious, when possible commitment beckons they flee leaving a trail of emotional destruction in their wake, back their safe lives just like in this book and with devastating consequences. If ever a book were to be described as timeless, it is this one.
Really enjoyed this. Two of my favourite TV shows are Secret Army and Wish Me Luck so this was obviously right up my street and I would go as far as saying that I think it's better than Charlotte Grey.
Two timelines. One set during WWI centred around Eve who is recruited as a British spy and joins the Alice Network run by Louise de Bettignies, and the other set just after WW2 ended centred around young American Charlie who comes to Europe to search for her cousin who went missing in German occupied France, both timelines are tragically linked. Although this is a work of fiction a lot of what happens is based on fact including the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre and mentions of Edith Cavell.
Just brilliant.
Someone recommended this to me because I loved The Terror by Dan Simmons. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting it to be as dark and as brutal as it was. The first chapter is draw dropping; pain, brutality and suffering leap from the page. As a baddie, Drax is humanity at it's basest level, almost animal like. Very good indeed.
Not really my thing, I tend to stay away from action thrillers because I find them a bit corny, full of self loathing and chest beating. The corn factor is fair to middling with this one but it's more good corn than bad corn. The premise is sound and quite exciting and The Blackwell Brothers well written and highly original psychos, there's a decent twist towards the end that “I didn't see coming” and all the plot holes that will be messing with your mind are filled in over the last few pages. Unfortunately it's the high number of what, how, why, seriously let me roll my eyes moments that made me knock off a star at the end.
