Hannah Morgan-Lewis
Was expecting slow burn, forbidden romance, this didn't have enough foreplay as it was so short! Hoping that the sequel will put some meat on the bones. Particularly maddened by the rushed sex at the end - they went from one meeting to full on penetration barely getting to know each other in the process.
The Burning House by Neil Spring
Delighted to find this Neil Spring novel on Netgalley, having enjoyed The Watchers and Ghost Hunters. Spring writes a good variety of fiction related to the unexplained and even better, he's from South Wales 😉.
I didn't realise until the end that he had taken the story of the real Boleskin House and weaved the story around it. Boleskin sounds an absolutely fascinating place, owned by Alistair Crowley and Jimmy Page and reputedly incredibly haunted and the site of some odd rituals and occurrences. Spring explains in a footnote that a mysterious fire did really happen, do unfortunately you can't exactly visit the real place.
The story is a fantastic mix of the paranormal and a psychological thriller. Clara is working as an estate agent trying to escape her tragic past by living in a small Scottish village on the edge of Loch Ness. In the course of her job she accidentally kills a man which is witnessed by a stranger, a man who had an unusual interest in the creepy dilapidated Boleskin house and is extremely into mind control and the rituals Crowley performed at the site.
The plot is skillfully woven around three main characters, and is gripping enough that I didn't want to put it down. Clara is a great character, and I thought that Spring did a good job with the mysterious stranger and Karl, Clara's abusive ex. The descriptions of Boleskin house are also very good. This is a shocking, sometimes gruesome but very well researched book and I highly recommend it.
Drawing comparisons with The Handmaid's Tale, this imagines a present day where in the course of a year, the right wing takes over America completely altering society. Dr. Jean McClellan has gone from a doctor specialising in neurolinguistics researching a cure from a brain condition to living as a bored housewife in an impossible situation. She remembers how a charismatic pastor takes over and forces women to leave work, to wear bracelets limiting their words to 100 a day (or else receive an electric shock), give up passports, money, bank accounts and all reading materials apart from the Bible. Even worse, Jean's children are affected - her daughter is not allowed to read or write or speak over 100 words and s therefore not learning to speak properly and her son has been brainwashed by the school to find all this perfectly normal and right. Her husband has a job at the government so they cannot rebel from this. Reproductive rights are nonexistent, homosexuality is outlawed and anyone caught doing something the state disapproves of is sent to a concentration camp or executed.
I thought this was brilliantly imagined and completely gut wrenching at times, so prescient. I listened to the audiobook and had to turn it off at times as it was making me angry on Jean's behalf and the plot was enthralling. I think that the central message was that we are all responsible for freedom, we can chose to turn a blind eye to injustice or take a stand. As recent events have shown in America, women's rights are being eroded now by the right, this is not just happening in fiction. The characters are very well drawn, particularly the family at the centre of it, and Jean's discussions with her brainwashed son are terrifying.
A fantastic collection of short stories inspired by Wuthering Heights. I have a complicated relationship with the book probably due to the crazy love story and weird second generation story, I appreciate it more as I get older. However, you don't need to be a big fan to appreciate these stories. Particularly liked the slightly creepy stories drawing on the gothic elements of the novel.
An utterly bonkers gothic historical mystery set in America during WWII. The heroine sees ghosts and has returned to her home after a stay in a psychiatric hospital having lost her memory after the death of her mother. The plot moves on at a cracking pace, which doesn't leave a lot of room for characterisation, and the romance part of the plot is rather rushed and you don't really get a sense of who Zeke is. Nevertheless, this is a fun Kindle Unlimited read, and I want to give the rest of the series a chance.
A creepy gothic house inhabited by a possibly sinister family. Hal, a young Tarot reader may have inherited it. A Little confusing in parts but I did enjoy the mystery.
I really loved this book. The character of Circe is wonderfully written as the outsider who discovers that she can harness the power of witchcraft and metamorphosis. Miller writes about the gods and heroes in a fresh way. I also like the way that she portrayed Odysseus - like many of her characters she shows the hero as the mortal, flawed man. I hope that she wins many awards for this as this is really the kind of lit fic that I think deserves it - both brilliantly written and completely readable and resonant with current readers despite the fantasy setting.
A really gripping thriller about family secrets, the author skillfully uses multiple perspectives to tell the story of a bereaved family coping with a series of strange occurrences related to their childhood. One of those novels where you don't quite know who to trust. Easy to get into, difficult to put down, and I thought it had a great ending.
A beautifully written Australian novel ideal for lovers of gardening, flowers and the language of flowers. After a tragic accident, Alice is sent to live with her grandmother on a flower farm that also acts as a retreat for women. But Alice and her grandmother find that they are unable to escape the secrets of the past or their own guilt. Holly RIngland very cleverly interweave the ideas of Kierkegaard, in particular she was inspired by the quotation “life is lived forward but only understood backward”. Kierkengaard believed in the idea that we are unable to be ever completely happy as we are constantly forced to make impossible decisions. Poor Alice and her grandmother both make some difficult decisions throughout the book with mixed results. Will Alice ever find out the secrets of her past and be able to move forward? I loved this book, though it was a hard read at times due to some of the themes.
I listened to this on audiobook narrated by the author and I loved it. I think that she has a natural gift for making history accessible as she covers major fascist regimes from Nazi Germany up to Putin's current regime in Russia, analysing their impact and how they relate to modern fascism. Really informative and interesting, particularly for the parts of history that I am not so well versed in. Albright envisions a future where either the extreme right or extreme left takes control and society ceases to function, coming to the hopeful conclusion that by taking the best ideas of the right and left and by not allowing Trump or Putin to destroy American democracy, we can make things better but that Human rights are the responsibility of all.
My first and probably last James Patterson. I hated how much italics were used to show that another character was speaking, it felt really patronising to the reader. The plot was okay, if a bit daft. But President Mary Sue got on my nerves, he was such a hero you expected girls to swoon wherever he went. I think the reason why I quite like Bill Clinton is that he is a complex character, so I would have hoped that a character in a book he'd supposedly contributed to would be more human and less fan flippin' fantastic!
This would be a great beach read. Filled with glamorous, substance addicted, self destructive rich people spending too much money and behaving shockingly. This is narrated by an outsider who becomes friends with the monsterous Lavinia. It makes a good point about the nefarious uses of social media. A page turning thriller filled with some suitably unpleasant characters.
I really enjoyed this entertaining tale of woe about a dysfunctional family coping with the loss of the mother. Arthur, a failing professor of engineering has realised he can't afford the family home anymore and the only solution to his problems is to tap his two children for the inheritance his wife only left for his children. Unfortunately, he's not on good terms with them. Ethan has spent all his inheritance after quitting his job and buying an overpriced apartment, and he is stuck in a kind of extended state of inertia, whereas Maggie has decided not to spend anything at all and steals things to give the money to charity. The themes running through the novel are that their attempts to help other people backfire continually because of their self-interest (there are similarities in that respect to Franzen's Crossroads) and how money and the attitude to money can affect family relationships. The characters are very well drawn and this is a funny, sometimes quite touching novel which I recommend.
The kind of book that you press into your friend's hands. I loved this so much. I thought that the idea about the companions worked really well, building a very spooky atmosphere. I liked how the author used the alternative timelines to tell the house and Elsie's stories, giving us clues about the history and Elsie's future in the asylum. I read this on Pigeonhole and couldn't wait for the next stave to be released. Really hope that the author writes more in this genre.
Mildly amusing, but definitely not hilarious. Some interesting entries but a bit too heavy on the US sports for me. I don't usually skip parts of books but I couldn't be bothered to read those parts! Liked the short lists of truths such as the original names for novels and pen names of famous authors, but I didn't like no footnotes or bibliography. I think maybe it's a US thing, but it drives me nuts particularly in the case of history books and books covering political areas where there is inevitably a bias. Reveal your sources, it might be more work but it makes your book more credible!
A very well written courtroom drama centering on the lives of an MP accused of rape, his wife who has give everything up to support his career and the barrister prosecuting him. One of those books that makes you question attitudes to sex and consent. The characters are well drawn, particularly the barrister and the author avoids making the MP too much of a pantomime villain.
Difficult to review on the basis of not knowing enough about India to understand the references. This is quite a challenging, dense novel, nevertheless the warmth of the author shines through in the way the characters are depicted, and the language and poetry is beautiful. It is difficult at times, however, particularly in the way that the timeline jumps around and is from multiple perspectives. I think I probably should have devoted more time to reading it, but it was a quick read at the library and had to go back. I think it may be appreciated better a second time.
I loved this book & thought that Ursula was a brilliantly written character. It was getting five stars right up until the end parts. I had no problem with the resolution of the plot, but in contrast to the other depictions of love in the book, Lawrence did his old trick of trying to bludgeon me over the head with it. All the delicacy of Ursula's other love got lost amidst the Lawrentian preaching and I got a bit suspicious that I had become dazzled by style over substance. But this is probably why I have such a satisfyingly challenging relationship with him - he is one of the most lyrical, poetic, intimate authors I've read and his work can be incredibly erotic and sensual. Then he swoops down with another tirade about sex and all you can do is cover your head and run !
The plot is a bit meandering and the main characters, Julia and her husband are pretty dislikeable. In fact, Julia is quite monstrous at times. She conceives a love for a younger man out of a combination of boredom and to satisfy her ego. It could be a tragedy but her husband is so vain and self-satisfied he barely notices. It was okay but I found it a bit hard going at times.
Really conflicted about this book. I think it started off well and I could get on board with the premise, but ultimately it felt over-stuffed. It was way too long, I think that the author tried to do far too much and the second half just trailed off. I don't have a problem at all with long books, but this didn't really managed to sustain the storyline and it got a bit confusing. Due to the focus being on the first half of the protagonist's (plural) lives, and having to avoid making the book even longer, Archie ended up a quite insufferable child prodigy at times, and world events and cultural references ended up as large lists of books that he read, women he slept with or things that happened. I would've given it four stars but I HATED the ending, it was just too smugly clever for it's own good (much like the protagonist I suppose).
Read on Pigeonhole. An enjoyable historical novel weaving different generations of a family connected by a house. This was well written and I liked the way that the author weaved the different storylines togetger, but I wasn't completely convinced by the paranormal elements which seemed to be tacked on at various moments as I thought they were a bit superfluous.
A major reappraisal of the life of Catherine Howard, this book explodes how history has portrayed Catherine as an empty-headed flirty bimbo. Here, Catherine is shown as a woman manipulated by men, who did do some silly things but ultimately paid with her life. Russel has gone back to the source material and shows time and again that many of the little ‘facts' about Catherine's life as not actually true. In addition, many of the images previously identified of her are of someone else, as Henry tried to destroy many of the things associated with her. This is meticulously researched and full of references, but I also found the style accessible and it was an interesting read. Fascinating both from Catherine's point of view, and of the ageing lothario she was forced to marry.
A strange, satirical, funny, difficult but rewarding novel chronicling the growth of a tiny village into a megalopolis within the span of fifty years. This is accomplished by scheming, theft and prostition carried out by the Kong family and their associates. The narrative is not that difficult to follow but the author uses allegory and magic realism liberally. I would really like to know more about the satirical elements of how he was using the allegory to express his fears about the growth of modern China as I am not that knowledgeable either about China or Chinese literature. I did, however, think that this was a worthwhile, highly thought provoking novel.
Clever and stylish but not a book I enjoyed reading and I felt that it went over my head. Part of me wishes I could be more positive as there were parts of the book I admired, but then I found myself rushing to the end and there were parts of the writing style I found quite off-putting at times. Maybe not the best introduction to this author's work for me.
Narrative history that sometimes misses deeper analysis of why it happened. It seems well researched, using the accounts of the period. I don't generally have an issue with footnotes, but I think the author overuses them sometimes, and many of the footnotes could be incorporated into the text or dropped entirely as they sometimes go off at a tanget. Not always a fan of her writing, it's quite wandering and tries to mix an accesible history style with more of an academic writing style. It doesn't really give the reader a great sense of the period atmosphere and concentrates very heavily on what happened at the trials. She was apparently deliberately avoiding explainations, however she attempts to explain the instigators' “hysteria” that originally prompted the accusations of witchcraft; that the symptoms occured in the parsonage, the most repressive environment. The accusations gained the “victims” attention and a respite from chores. I was surprised that there was no map of the village.