Simon
I've had this book for a while, twice before I've tried to read it but put it back down again after a couple of pages. The prose is bleak and dusty, almost McCarthyesque the kind where you expect to look up and find Tommy Lee Jones sat in the corner of the room chewing a snake and looking at you disapprovingly because you've put the bins out too late. I glad I persevered this time because this book is extraordinary, the perfect balance between plot and character. I didn't just blub at the end, I blubbed pretty much all the way through book. I am clearly made of fluff and nothing else.
“In the eyes of the others, those who met them saw ourselves, and there were demons there”
Fiction based on fact or maybe what might have happened directly after the Roswell crash in 1947. This story will be familiar if you've watched X-Files for Taken (Spielberg), in fact some of it is so similar to Taken, I'm surprised Strieber didn't get a credit.
Strieber has real knack of writing the most mundane prose, then he hits you with a line so devastatingly chilling you have to put the book down. There are moments of that here, just not as many of them as Communion. Decent read if you like Alien conspiracy stuff and the ending is REALLY trippy.
A long time ago (many moons) in the 1970s, I saw a news report on the Enfield haunting, I think it was on a programme called Nationwide which was the 70s version of The One Show (and infinitely better). It absolutely scared the bejesus out of me and gave me nightmares, so much so my mum confiscated my Usborne Book of Ghosts and my Encyclopaedia of Unexplained Mysteries because she thought they were the reason, nothing to do at all with the medication I was taking at the time which was later withdrawn due it's hallucinogenic effects on children under 12 years old.
The above was the first thing I thought of when I started reading this book and when I reach the authors notes at the end, there it is, mentioned briefly and clearly an influence on this novel story
Can't really say anything else without giving the plot away but If you like supernatural mysteries then this is for you. It reminded me, in style, of Neil Spring's Ghost Hunters or The Watchers. Excellent first novel by the author.
I really enjoyed this wild ride through the Russian wilderness. Part folk horror, part 1000 episode series on Discovery Channel with two blokes investigating the haunted pencil cases of Boggy Creek. Problem is, when the two parts join up towards the end of the book, it doesn't quite come together, I did LOVE the ending though. Great characters too. Another good one from Christopher Golden.
ps. I definitely up for a dating show, hosted by Richard Dreyfuss, for people who love sharks and shark related films like Sharknado.
I read Blood & Sugar last year and loved it, this blows that book out of the water. Set in 18th century London, a prostitute is found murdered and with the help of thief taker Peregrine Child, Lady Corsham sets out to find the truth while hiding a secret of her own. What a absolute triumph this book is. Brilliant characters and real sense of time and place, you can almost smell the smoke and the filth. I hope there is another book I need to know what happens to Caro and Perry.
A dark twisty tale of childhood trauma, redemption and revenge.
5 schoolgirls out playing are approached by a man, one of the girls is murdered. Years later, one by one, the girls tell the story of their lives since the murder and their stories are truly disturbing.
This is seriously good, one for fans of Gillian Flynn.
HOT MESS!!! Way too long, too much of it seemed pointless, especially the bit on the warship which was awful and poorly written (a short story edited in??) Saving graces were the characters Greer and Hoffman. Hoffman's interviews save act three. I guess, if you love Romero's work you will probably like this but it really was just OK for me.
Footnote
THERE IS NO SUCH PLACE AS MANSFIELD ON SHERWOOD. It's just Mansfield, yes it's close to Sherwood Forrest but it's never been called that. Anyway, from now on, as a tribute to this book, when I visit my friend Dave in Colorado Springs I will be calling it COLORADO SPRINGS ON ROCKIES and I'm sure everyone will be thrilled.
Utterly, utterly, utterly off the scale bonkers. In Marco we have one of the dumbest characters in the history of twisty thriller fiction. I know you have to suspend your disbelief when you read this sort of stuff, but seriously?? Saying that I had great fun reading it and I feel a bit mean with the 3 but that last chapter was just too much, even though I knew it was coming. Time for a biscuit..... A fake bourbon I think.
Politics and religion, two of my least favourite things.
There are two parts to this book, the first, set on a paradise planet, a garden of Eden rich in resources and a peaceful race of inhabitants with no concept of good or evil, deals with questions like....
Do you open a planet to human contact ?
Do you plunder said paradise planet of resources so you can make bigger bombs?
Do you open a planet to human contact when the planet in question has no concept of good or evil?
Does a planet with no concept of good or evil actually constitute a living hell for humanity?
The second part is utterly bonkers. One of the aliens from the paradise planet is raised on earth, becomes a celebrity with it's own tv show and almost brings about the total collapse of humanity.
The whole thing ends with an exorcism of an entire planet and now I'm going to have a cup of hot sweet tea and maybe a biscuit.
Beautifully bonkers, cultish horror with ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism is deepest darkest Staffordshire.. Of course, all completely plausible, I know all the places mentioned in this book and I have to tell you it explains A LOT!! Always thought there was something a bit “off” when I visit, and now I know. In fact, I'm travelling down tomorrow ,,, GULP
I hate DNFing books. I read the first 30 pages of this last night and I'm not sure if this book had anything to do with it, but I had the most fitfull of sleeps, I woke at unimaginable o'clock, tangled in shirt and duvet, pillow damp from the night sweats. Yes I am ill, or maybe hallucinating, the result of eating a whole chocolate orange to myself the night before. I may return to this another day but my mind and body just isn't ready at the moment. To the person who has given me this plague, I wish upon you an eternal itchy anus.
Sublime. This is 100% my kind of thing, and like all of Neil Spring's books it's a work of fiction based on fact, real people and real events. In this case it's the rise of spiritualism in post WWI Britain and centres around Harry Price who was an investigator and researcher in psychical phenomena and spent much of his time exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums.
This probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, it's slow paced but its rich with wonderful characters and beautiful writing. I think reading this book last instead of first really helps, there are some lovely nods to the next book The Watchers and of course there is a 2nd Ghost Hunters The Lost Village featuring the wonderful Sarah Grey.
Like The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I found this book lacking any kind feeling or emotion. When you considering the absolute horror of surviving Auschwitz and then being put to hard labour in a Russian gulag because you did what you had to do to survive, it just feels like there is something missing, some soul or heart. Like I said about book one, these stories are so important, they need to be told and never forgotten, they just need to be told better.
So here we are, two very different things going on here.
Pre-hole and post-hole.
Pre-hole is classic coming of age King. Boy meets grumpy, sweary man and forms a friendship and it's beautiful, and there's a dog and at times it gets you in the feels. It's as good as anything King has written.
Post-hole, we enter the realm of fantasy and it's an unashamed love letter to the Brothers Grimm and there's giants and Punzel and Stiltskins and all that gubbins. Up to a point I'm still really enjoying it. BUT once the dog's story is resolved (about 2 3rds of the way through), for me it's done and the rest of it is just so so, I knew how it was going to end because in fairy tale land, good always trumps evil and that's how it should be.
I don't really know what I was expecting, probably something a bit more highbrow with some deep hidden meanings. This is just a better than average dystopian novel with a pretty lame ending, in fact I hated the ending. The New Wilderness refers to a vast area of untamed land, untouched by humans, but they put 20 humans in there to see if they can live without harming the environment. I hated pretty much ALL the characters, especially Carl who basically wants to repopulate the world with little Carls, but the relationship between mother and daughter is really interesting and watching that develop was the best thing about the book. Like I said, hated the ending, nearly lopped a star off but it is Christmas.
No way on earth I would have bought this on the basis of the synopsis, but I loved the cover and it's against the law to leave a charity shop without buying at least one book. This is a story about choices, lies and consequences. The lie here is a pretty big one, the choice a bad one, the consequences are pretty dire for everyone, the ending heart-warming. I would group this together with something like Fried Green Tomatoes or The Persian Pickle Club.
When I read, sometimes I can completely loose myself, I can read for an hour or two without distraction and devour 50 or 60 pages. However, sometimes I can't focus and before I know it, I am trying to list all the Girls Aloud singles in alphabetical order, or do I have the correct ingredients for pineapple upside down cake or quite simply, where is the dog!! That's what it was like reading this book, I did love it. It's beautifully written, I loved the ambiguity of time, at the end everything fitted into place nicely and I did get a little teary. It just lost me in places and I was a bit bored in the middle.
A wonderful pan of tasty word soup. It's probably not for everyone, especially if you like your crime thrillers at 9 twists per hour. But, if like me, you love 2 pages worth of beautiful prose about someone using their big toe to move a coffee table so they can flick their cigarette ash into a marble ashtray, so much so that your toe curls in sympathy, then this is the book for you.