Ariadnis - Josh Martin

"Back then I thought that if it weren't for that cliff, our cities
would be one and there would be no need for all this fierceness toward each other. But then I learned about pride and tradition and prophecy, and those things are harder than rock.

Joomia and Aula are Chosen. They will never be normal. They can never be free.

On the last island on Erthe, Chosen Ones are destined to enter Ariadnis on the day they turn eighteen. There, they must undertake a mysterious and deadly challenge. For Joomia and Aula, this means competing against each other, to end the war that has seethed between their cities for nine generations.

As the day draws nearer, all thoughts are on the trial ahead. There's no space for friendship. No time for love. However much the girls might crave them.

But how you prepare for a task you know nothing certain about? Nothing, except that you must win, at whatever cost, or lose everything."

This book turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting it to be. 

There is a lack of information at the start of the novel, unfortunately that was frustrating and I nearly stopped reading. I was confused about what exactly was happening, what the Wise One was, why there are Chosen Ones, where the past Chosen Ones are, why they were competing, for longer than I should have been. But soon enough the explanations start to roll in and the bizarre yet beautiful ideas behind Ariadnis come to the fore.

The writing itself is lovely; there is a touch of slang to give it character, the girls both have distinct voices and personalities, and Martin manages to utilise time skips really well. I personally really didn't like the slang at the beginning, I found it distracting. However Martin doesn't over use it and it actually helps demonstrate the difference between the two characters personalities. 

The world building was interesting and incredibly unique. A vine treetop city, sentient owls, metal wrapped trees, prophets with shining tears, singing tree spells. I can truly say I haven't read anything that feels similar. The conflict is centred between a patriarchal, technology based city and a equalist, nature based city. I am interested to see how Martin will further explore this dynamic in his second book, as it is only lightly touched on here. 

I also really enjoyed the diverse cast. There are many POC characters, actually being the norm now in the amalgamated cities where past cultures have ceased to be separate. There are also plenty of bisexual characters, and it is just treated as completely normal, which was so surprising and absolutely wonderful. 

I thought the characters themselves were really nicely realised. The bold, impetuous Aula and the sensitive, unsure Joomia both stood out, and I loved their magical powers. Taurus was a great best friend and a moving character in his own right. Ade, the mad prophet was also one of my favourite characters and I loved her. 

However there are a few minor criticism I'd level at this book. It did get confusing from time to time, especially when other characters' prophesies were revealed. There were a few times I had to dip back a few pages to check I was following what was going on! There are also quite a bit that is left unexplained like where are the past Chosen Ones. Where people really going mad when they left or was that a conspiracy? why was Ade the only Chosen one in her generation for both cities?

Also, I wasn't quite sure all the swearing was necessary as it didn't serve much purpose. The same goes for the amount of talk about sex. These girls are supposed to be 17 and it just felt incongruous. Everyone, even in the middle of an awful and emotional situation is thinking about sex. It just didn't feel realistic and actually brought me out the story a few times. There is one scene where Aula, one of the Chosen One's mother figure has just died, and all Aula can think about is how much she ones to sleep with this dude. I mean, your emotional loss obviously isn't that bad then and I no longer really empathize with you. 

Age Rating 16+ Because of aforesaid sex and swearing. 

This Savage Song (#1) - V E Schwab

"Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city
where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters."

It seems like V E Schwab is taking over the YA world. I have read quite a few of her books now, with out especially going out of my way to find them. I would say that out of all of her books, this is probably my favourite so far. 

This book was a solid read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to someone as a holiday read. The writing was good, I’ve never had a problem with her writing. It has always felt punchy, shading to lyrical. The worldbuilding was handled well too. The concept that an act of violence could actually spawn real monsters was just fascinating to me, and I thought it could open up some really interesting moral discussions and parallels. It was intricate and woven into the text, neither info dumping nor overly confusing. Which is rare in worlds this elaborate and extensive. Overall, this was creative and pretty well done.

While I loved Schwab's "A Darker Shade of Magic's" world building, I found the characters flat and emotionally disconnected. In this book, I felt more connected to the characters. However while this is true the actual characters occasionally irritated me despite the more connected feeling that I had for them. 

Kate Flynn, while obviously meant to be strong willed and bad ass, occasionally just came across as a bitch. There is a difference between a strong, fierce female character, and one who is a rebellious jerk just for the sake of being one. I disliked her from the first page, as she ruthlessly set fire to part of a school run by nuns for the grand, noble reason of "I don't want to be here." However that being said, she did grow on me, as you start to see her more vulnerable and broken side. 

August was the one that frustrated me the most. He's one of those emo, martyred, tortured souls that seems so lost in his own self hatred and guilt complex that he actually endangers those he cares about. It got really irritating. The current tope of the love interest being a guilt ridden monster only for it to come out they don't really do anything monstrous but are actually a sort of avenging angel with an punk make-over...yeah not overly emotionally moving. 

It sounds great to have a female lead yearning to be a proper villain to appease parental pressures. It sounds excellent to have a male lead who is vulnerable and searching for his humanity. But somewhere in the process of breathing life into these characters, Schwab missed the mark.

Even with Schwab's amazing talent for weaving words together I cannot in all good conscience tell you that this book will blow you away.

Schwab's writing style is undeniably interesting and fluid in a way that only a master of writing can achieve.

However, the story, the characterization, and unfortunately even the world building will leave you feeling like something crucial is missing. Which is disappointing with such a promising and potentially deeply philosophical premise which is never fully actualized. 

Age Rating 15+. A few quite brutal murder scenes. 

Dune - Frank Herbert

"Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul
Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream."

This book is in no way perfect but boy, is it good. 

The atmosphere of the book is stunning and the world building is top - notch. There is a seriousness that pervades the entire story, it is a deeply esoteric book that is far from the traditionally 60's green women sci-fi. 

The politics and world dynamics are both unique, original and deeply recognisable. We get a new planet, and while it's obvious that Herbert based his desert planet on real sights and cultures, it's still absolutely awesome. The Fremen and their culture, the stillsuits, the worms, the plight for water... It's all explained in such a vivid detail without being boring or repetitive. You feel the sand rubbing, you can feel the sun beating down. The dynamics between the Houses, the Emperor, the CHOAM all felt fleshed out but never bogged the story down. 

This is classic sci-fi that really deserves the label. What Frank Herbert accomplished in one novel is stunning, he built a fascinatingly detailed universe in which the politics, religion, economics, espionage, and military strategy are all equally important. He then blended these more grounded concepts with bigger sci-fi ideas like being able to use spice to see through space-time, and the scope of that encompasses trying to pick the proper path through various potential timelines as well as free will vs. fate.

I think one of the factors that helps this story stay timeless is that so much of it is based on what humanity becomes vs. trying to predict what futuristic technology would be like. This is a society that once had a war with machines and has since rejected any type of computers so people have developed to fill the gap with the help of the spice. The Mentats are trained to use data to predict outcomes. The Navigators of the Guild have use the spice to help them move through space that they’re mutating. The all female Bene Gesserit have developed a variety of skills to place their members alongside positions of power to help advance their breeding scheme that spans generations. Herbert also cleverly came up with an excuse that explains why knives and hand-to-hand combat are so important with the idea of the personal body shields.

I personally loved the more esoteric side of this book. The Bene Gesserits and their abilities, Paul being able to kind of see the future, the turning of the poisonous water of life into something harmless, the terrifying Alia. It was all brilliant and so unique. 

The plot is straightforward and follows a 'Chosen One' pattern.
Paul, is the 'Chosen One', the Lisan al-Gaib, the Kwisatz Haderach. He gets many names. After a betrayal, he finds refuge among the Fremen and seeks revenge from those who wronged his house. While simple, it fit the feel of the book and never got boring. 

But I would be remise in not pointing out the problematic parts of this book. First is the gender politics. It is very problematic with women being shown to be irrevocable different from men. They where either terrifyingly manipulative Bene Gesserits or completely useless cardboard cut-outs eg Chani.

"[Paul] began tightening his still suit. "You told me once the words of Kitab al-Ibar," he said. "You told me: 'Woman is thy field; go then to thy field and till it.'"

"I am the mother of thy firstborn," she agreed."

How romantic. I am sorry but what! Why say that! It's so demeaning and vulgar. 

The Fremen, while wonderful, do have slightly racist butchered Arabic nomad feel to them. I don't know, I might be wrong. I would love to have other's opinions on this. 

The Baron being gay and a paedophile, while being the only gay character well.. using gayness as a short hand to show depravity of a character and then to link gayness with paedophilia ….not great. But hey 1960's, times change. 

Last, but not least. The ending is incredibly abrupt and I did not like it. It felt jarring, incomplete and I kept checking if I had missed a page or a chapter hasn't loaded onto my kindle. 

Age Rating 15+. Adult ideas, murder, mentions of sex, off screen paedophilia. 

The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

"In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers."

This is my first Kundera book and I will definitely be reading more of his work. This book definitely, however, wins the award for Most Pretentious Title Ever. People would ask me what I was reading, and I would have to respond by reading the title in a sarcastic, Oxford-Professor-of-Literature voice to make it clear that I was aware of how obnoxiously superior I sounded.

As far as the philosophy of this book goes, it isn't dense and is fairly easy to comprehend. I thought the writing style actually presented its deeper thoughts in a very accessible and relatable manner. The sub textual messages and thought-provoking ideas were actually my favourite part of the book. Kundera has a strange style that feels like, instead of introducing you to a new concept, he is rather putting words to a feeling you have always felt. Or that was what it was like for me at least. 

What I didn't quite like was the surface level, such as the plot and characters. I honestly didn't enjoy any of the four main characters as people, but I could see that they where merely tools for Kundera to explore certain theme. Kundera even owns up to that fact within the book. I felt for each of the people as they felt so very human in the most highly caricatured way. The descriptions of the quiet despair and entrapment where incredibly moving. 

And we haven’t even touched on the sex yet. Kundera’s book is  rife with sex, sex is the other engine driving this dually powered writer, sex both passionate and routine, sex filled up with deep emotional meaning and sex stripped down to its tangible physicality, sex as recurring motif in one’s life illuminating greater insights into one’s personality and sex as secret door into the aesthetics of our time.

To write, as some have, that the book is primarily about erotic encounters is I think to miss the point. Instead it is a book about tyranny, the large and the small, the ones we endure and the ones we resist, the ones we submit to for love and the ones that always rankle silently. The tyranny of kitsch, as understood by the novel, kitsch to mean a subjective, sentimental folding screen that hides away the sight of death. The questions that the book seeks to explore circle around the ideas of polar opposites, truth and lies, love and hate (or indifference), freedom and slavery, heaviness and lightness. 

The Kundera style is a very delightful bit and piecework manner. We focus on one character, that character’s perceptions, that character’s perspectives, in little miniatures, some essay-like, that elaborate on the character’s psychology or history. Then we shift to another character and learn new things about that person, sometimes touching on the same pieces we’ve seen already.

Overall a wonderful, crazy and unique book. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, however I think worth reading. 

Age Rating 16+. Adult content. Sex, sexual encounters, death and military occupation. 

There will come a Darkness - Katy Rose Pool

"The Age of Darkness approaches.

Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it... or unleash it?

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations―until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.

All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. As chaos takes hold, five souls are set on a collision course:

A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

One of them―or all of them―could break the world. Will they be saviour or destroyer?"

This is a strange book. So much happened, and yet… nothing actually happened??? The way I see it, this book was a long introduction to a story that is yet to actually come.

It book follows five different POVs. Five seemingly unconnected people with five different goals and five different plot lines. However you soon start to see how they interconnect and link with each others lives. 

Honestly this book is a masterclass on how to write multiple POVs correctly. More often than not, when several main characters are present, all with their own POV/chapters, things can go downhill. The plot gets easily lost and confusing, some characters get developed better, others end up being unlikable, some POVs are slower paced and more boring than others, etc. the list can go on. But this is the first story where I enjoyed every character and there is no POV that is lacking. Each perspective helps the plot instead of hinders it.

I also really enjoyed the Roman inspired setting, a setting honestly not used enough in Fantasy. However I did find this section of the world building odd, they have trains yet the rest of the world building feels very ancient, there are paladins with swords for goodness sake. It threw me a bit, one second I was imagining everyone in togas and then trains, which means a whole different aesthetic to me, like Roman steampunk... I hope that gets dived into more.

The characters are diverse with plenty of POC and even some LGBT representation, which was handled well. It wasn't spotlighted or made into a major plot point, just kind of like yeah why wouldn't these people be here. So the right why to go about writing a diverse cast. I also hope we find more about the characters different cultures as they all seem to come from countries modelled on vastly different cultures, it would be interesting to see if that is explored. 

This is the book where the world and the characters are set up but where nothing much happens plot-wise. We got introduced to all the major players and plotlines and then are left hanging, waiting for the sequel. 

The main villain, The Hierophant, is talked about constantly and yet we meet them in the last 15% of the novel for two scenes in which they do nothing that lives up to all the talk we’ve heard of them. Even the prophecy that connects all the characters and drives the plot forward has no real bearing in this specific book. It’s just sort of there to serve as a plot device.

Even the characters are just introduced. We only know the basics of them. We’ve yet to dive deep into their minds and see them as their truest selves. Basically, this book was the preview. Still, in spite of all that I just said, I actually enjoyed the story.

It was easy to read through, the writing was pacey and fun. It was interesting and I liked seeing the prophecy come together as the story went on. I did call a lot of the plot twists but there were definitely a few that I didn’t see coming and I appreciate that.

The characters were all interesting, even Hassan that I didn’t love, and I can’t wait to read more about them and see how the prophecy unfolds.

This might have just been the introduction, but I am excited to see what comes next in the sequel when Pool can really get into her stride. 

Age Rating 14+. Abuse, murder, large scale death. 

The Golem - Gustav Meyrink

"The Golem is a haunting Gothic tale of stolen identity and persecution, set in a strange underworld peopled by fantastical characters. The red-headed prostitute Rosina; the junk-dealer Aaron Wassertrum; puppeteers; street musicians; and a deaf-mute silhouette artist.

Lurking in its inhabitants’ subconscious is the Golem, a creature of rabbinical myth. Supposedly a manifestation of all the suffering of the ghetto, it comes to life every 33 years in a room without a door. When the jeweller Athanasius Pernath, suffering from broken dreams and amnesia, sees the Golem, he realises to his terror that the ghostly man of clay shares his own face...

The Golem, though rarely seen, is central to the novel as a representative of the ghetto's own spirit and consciousness, brought to life by the suffering and misery that its inhabitants have endured over the centuries. Perhaps the most memorable figure in the story is the city of Prague itself, recognisable through its landmarks such as the Street of the Alchemists and the Castle."

This book is easily the most disturbing, unsettlingly, nonsensical, confusing book I have read in a long time, maybe ever. It feels like an incredibly macabre adult version of Alice in Wonderland. You are dragged from nonsensical reality warping situation to the next, each infused with dark occult symbolism. 

Gustav Meyrink's unique infusion of Kabbalism, Freemasonry and the Wandering Jew mythos into the Golem legend can get murky at ti
mes, but in light of the author's own divided spiritual pursuits it makes sense that clarity remains elusive. As an early fictional reflection of this restless search for inner truth, it is disjointed, confusing and thoroughly disturbing. This novel is at times highly episodic in nature (it was originally published in serial form), alternately dwelling on various possible explanations for what is going on, while only tangentially maintaining contact with the overarching narrative. What is truth, imagined, dreamt or the result of madness is always unclear and I think purposefully so.  Though it comes full circle in a manner of speaking, it is still deliberately vague in its conclusion.

While the actual prose and lyrical descriptions are truly wonderful and haunting in the best way possible, I found the actual content of the book too disturbing to enjoy. It is a relatively short book but I found it a slog to get through as you never really understand what is going on. The characters while all so very promising, such as Rosina, Miriam, and the silhouette artist, are never fleshed out and are reduced to boring paper cut-outs. While I can see that Meyrink is trying to make a point in this book, his use of occult symbolism and narrative structure is too abstract to get his themes across with any poignancy. 

Age Rating 16+. Thoroughly disturbing atmosphere with some sexual illusions.

The Hare with the Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal

"The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as

the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox.

The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection of netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection.

In The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal unfolds the story of a remarkable family and a tumultuous century. Sweeping yet intimate, it is a highly original meditation on art, history, and family, as elegant and precise as the netsuke themselves."

This is a stunningly written book. A keen sense of aesthetics and beauty pervades the pages. de Waal is a fine writer, bringing an artist’s sensibility to this other medium: a meticulous attention to the detail of language, its rhythms and its evocative potential. Read the book for its exhaustive descriptions of interiors, whether bel époque Paris or Wiener Werkstatt Vienna; for its evocations of historical moments like fin de siecle France, or Austria at the time of its annexation by Hitler and his Nazis, or immediately post-war, bombed-out Tokyo; or for its compassionate portrayal of flawed and fascinating human characters. De Waal's family history is fascinating and I was particularly interested in the link to Proust, Monet and Great Great Uncle Charles being the model for Swann, I found myself googling certain artworks to spot the family members. I loved this book from the way that is pulled you into these spaces, and made you feel the grandeur of the past. 

However I must say, there were a few things that frustrated me. A wronged sense of entitlement pervades much of the book. The accumulation of wealth is seldom a neutral thing; especially in a family of bankers. A lot of energy/ time goes into describing how the family lost most of its wealth under the Nazis (the description of the Kristallnacht mob entering the Ephrussi building and ransacking the furniture is blood-curdling). I did feel for the family, to watch your family home ripped apart and your belongings forcefully packed up and sent away. The pages describing the packing up of the father, Viktor's library, were heart breaking. However, no moral judgment is passed on how the Ephrussi had been spending their money until then, nor is the reader left any clearer as to how the Ephrussi's fortune was amassed so quickly in a few short decades only. I would have been interested in some detail about the lives of those who made them and the conditions in which they were made; and perhaps some sense of the contrast of fabulous wealth with society around them. I also felt a little uncomfortable that the servants were just referred to by their first names, could they really not find out their surnames?

The one character I genuinely would loved to have learned more about was de Waal's grandmother, Elisabeth. At a time when women were tied to the house, Elisabeth broke all glass ceilings and became a lawyer. She was one of the first women to enter the University of Vienna. Her accomplishments flare up time and again in the book and I enjoyed those bits. However, she did not play a major part in the narrative.

The book is supposed to be about the journey of the netsuke that Edmund de Waal inherited from his family. These netsuke are beautiful works of art plundered from a Japan reeling from civil war by Europeans who bought up everything cheap, and then called it their own. In a story touted as a book about objects so intrinsically Japanese there is one Japanese person in this entire book. de Waal never tries to find anything about the netsukes before they came into his families possession. It felt painfully euro-centric. Just a little bit of exploration of where these netsuke originally came from would have been appreciated. 

I understand that Japonisme was a trend and I don't expect incredibly wealthy Charles Ephrussi to give a damn about the Japanese, however de Waal talks about his own uncle buying more treasured artefacts from the impoverished Japanese at a throwaway price after the Second World War. How shameless can you possibly get? Weren't your family members just subject to the same humiliation by the Nazi's? Why would you do that to others? At least, pay the right price for what you basically stole! And you dare to write a book about your family's avarice?!

I would definitely suggest this book to anyone who is interested in art, history and beautiful things. It really was a feast for the senses. Charting history and changing social times through one family is a brilliant way of making history feel alive. I thought that was inspired. Just be aware of the drawbacks to the book. 

Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward. 

The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

"In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields—are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbour.

The members of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome killings are modelled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante's literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret."

This is not a long book, but it often felt that way. Verbose, densely-written, with constant references to the state of literature, and publishing, in Boston just after the end of the Civil War. It really helps if the reader has some knowledge of the history, location, and the social and political complexities of the time. Seriously, it often assumed we all know who Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a few others are and that we are privy to a large amount of personal information about each. Because of this fact, there is unfortunately very little characterisation and growth in the characters. None of their voices felt unique, nor did I  feel like I was seeing a literary hero come to life on the page before me. Now I do know who they are, but I still mixed them up.

I'd be reading about one of them dashing off somewhere and then the scene would change to the study of a house where another was sitting, reading, perusing - and I'd think, wasn't he just running down the road? No, no, no! Get your famous, mid-nineteenth century New England, literary figures straight!

The book is a mixture of real historical facts and a well - crafted fictitious story. Most of the characters were real people and the main ones are celebrated poets. This is one of the most interesting features that I have found in Pearl's book. This feature gives realism to the story, and in this story, the poets of the Dante Club assume the role of detectives in their attempt to find a serial killer. 

However there where many side plots that weren't dealt with. The police officer of mixed-race, Nicholas Rey, is just... kind of there. We never delve deeper into his phycological state, he never says or is used to demonstrate anything interesting about the social time/ racism in Boston. There is nothing said about the hypocrisy of the Northern States who fought for the freedom of slaves but where still battling against their own racism. It would have also been interesting to see how these old rich white men would react to having to work closely with a mixed race man. 

There where also no women in this book. No main characters and not even an interesting side character that felt well fleshed out. It was frustrating and disappointing. I don't need every book to have a strong female protagonist, and watching a group of grandpa's trying to solve crime was sweet, but at least have a fleshed out supportive wife or spunky daughter/granddaughter, please. 

It was, overall, an interesting read. There were many surprising twist and turns. The historical facts relating to the time of Dante translation were quite intriguing. However, I found the flow of the story choppy, awkwardly cutting from scene to scene and the pace very, very slow. There was suspense, but it was built up so incrementally and only towards the very end. When Pearl finally does start to delve into the psychology of the killer (which was intriguing and actually my favourite part of the book), it was far too little, far too late.

Age Rating 15+. The murder scenes are really quite brutal, far more so than I was expecting from the tone of the rest of the book. 

The Otherlife - Julia Gray

"I always get away with it when I try stuff like this. Partly it

comes down to sort of assuming that I'm going to. I've got loads of confidence. And Loki got away with everything. Well, almost everything.

When troubled, quiet Ben begins at the ruthlessly competitive Cottesmore House, school to the richest, most privileged boys, he is befriended by Hobie: the wealthy class bully, product of monstrous indulgence and intense parental ambition.

Hobie is drawn to Ben because he can see the Otherlife: a violent, mythic place where gods and monsters roam. Ben has unnerving visions of Thor and Odin, and of the giant beasts that will destroy them, as well as Loki, god of mischief. Hobie is desperate to be a part of it.

Years later, Ben discovers his beloved tutor Jason is dead. And he can’t help wondering if Hobie – wild, restless, dangerous Hobie, had something to do with it…"

A surprisingly great book which has many element which I enjoy such as magic realism linking to Norse Mythology, something I absolutely love. Such a myth nerd. 

I half expected, from the blurb, of this to be a tale of jumping between worlds and being chased by an individual uncannily like Loki. But it's not and I was slightly disappointed by the fact that the Norse Gods didn't appear as often as I expected nor did Ben, one of the main characters, flit between worlds.

However what we do get, a dark academia-esque murder mystery, was very fun to read. The writing was also beautifully done, with subtle humour and realistic dialogue. As someone who has lived in England, I found the English culture that was very prevalent amusing and wonderful to read. 

The tale is told between two perspective: the diary entries of Hobie in 2008, and present time from Ben's point of view. At first, I wasn't sure where this story was going. There was one mention of the Gods in Ben's POV, then we changed to Hobie's perspective and that had no Gods in it whatsoever in the beginning. But slowly, slowly, the story built and I found myself reading faster and faster to find out the ending, to discover the truth of what happened to those boys at Duvalle Hall and how it all went so very
wrong.

Hobie is awful, but it was also incredibly interesting seeing his perspective? He's a bully, he's spoiled and he bullies his little sister into having an eating disorder. However, you can also see that he's falling apart and the cruelness is how he copes with the anger and pressure he is under. So I disliked him as a person, but seeing from his perspective was so interesting and I loved reading the POV of both boys. 

Ben on the other hand is a quiet metal head loner. He speaks old Norse, tattooed himself at 12 and is surprisingly kind and gentle towards others. Both characters felt well fleshed out, realistic and I could relate to both of them. 

The 'Otherlife' as Ben calls it is softly woven into the main story line, a kind of off-to-the-side extra that made me wonder if it was all in Ben's head or if he really was seeing Asgard and the Gods of Norse mythology. The ending of the book ties everything in nicely, giving the readers the final explanation of everything that had occurred.

This book is good but not in a nice way. It features a lot of horrible events from horrible characters and it shows a really dark side to parents/parenting who drive their children towards ambition so hard that they destroy them. It's also very much about undiagnosed mental illness and people making mistake after mistake until it destroys them.

However, I did find the book to be a little emotionally flat. I wasn't that deeply involved. However, I think that might have just been from the shortness of the book, only 225 pages on my kindle edition, rather than any lack of characterisation. I also didn't like the shoehorned romance element between Ben and Zara. There was no chemistry, no history and they felt like polar opposite personalities. 

Age Rating 14+. Bullying, eating disorders, broken marriages, academic pressure, drug addiction, death, broken family. 

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

"When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future."

I adore Hardy's writing. His prose and writing style is understatedly sublime, and there where many stunning passages about nature, religion and the human condition that left me breathless. 

However I take exception to Hardy's characterisation, plot and the widely accepted reading of this book.

In my humble opinion, I believe this book has been fundamentally misunderstood by English Literature curriculums everywhere. They often say that Alec represents Tess's debasement, Satan, and Angel her salvation, making many biblical allusions to Original sin and Tess being Eve. I don't see that at all. Alec does not seduce Tess, she never gives into temptation. He rapes her forcefully even though she refused his advances repeatedly. Tess is never debased other than on the eyes of society. 

Angel, the man supposed to be her salvation and so oh so subtly named, is an idiot. He doesn't love Tess for Tess, he barely knows her. Rather he loves the idea of her that he has conjured up for her, the biblical virginal Mary figure of his imagining. (I am sorry but what kind of pervert refers to a women they have just met as virginal? Even in their own thoughts?)His concept of a purer, less worldly milkmaid is so false and his romanticisation of the lower working classes was bordering of fetishist. This clash between his Christian idealised pastoral concept with the reality of the more pagan, more earthy workers was telling.  

I also found the emphasis on Tess's copying of Angel's ideas, attitudes, even speech and movement horrifying. Maybe a link between the easy acceptance of religious doctrine and how it abolishes free thought? Her acceptance of Angel's abandonment is also judged by Hardy as foolhardy. She should have pushed harder, but her own values have so demonised her in her own mind that she now views herself as unworthy of .. well pretty much everything. Hardy having Angel admit to having sex a few lines prior to Tess's confession of rape further highlighted the hypocrisy. Angel gave into temptation, if we carry on with the biblical allegory, he sinned and sinned willingly. Tess however, a women forcibly raped, someone who never gave into Alec, is seen as more "dirty", more sinful? I call BULLSHIT. 

I can understand the biblical allusions that have been read into the book but I found, while reading, this book to be, rather, a subtle critic of religion. Tess, through her and her societies religious beliefs is demonised for something completely out of her control, something she should be pitied for. Hardy makes a point of showing that the farm workers, ostensibly more "pagan" didn't hold Tess as accountable as the otherwise more civilised, read Christian, upper classes. 

Both Alec and Angel represent a dominating power, a wish to mould Tess in their own image. To own her completely, both physically and morally. Tess is a blank slate for them to project anything they want onto. Alec at least was able to see his own hypocrisy, he immediately drops his new biblical image after realising that he still lusts after Tess. Angel is not so honest with himself.

Tess's eventual murder of Alec felt more induced by shame and a feeling of entrapment, unnecessary shame as Hardy takes point in assuring us. Her violence could be read, not to stem from a debauchment of the soul but rather a very Christian shame that has been forced on her by Angel. 

Sorry for the very long rant. I have no idea if Hardy wished his book to be read in this way, but this is how I interpreted it. 

Age Rating 15+. Some serious topics are covered like rape, poverty, abandonment and death of a child. 

The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

"In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her

country’s violent past in a vivid and colourful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its centre is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlour and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale."

I really loved the first two third's of this book. The prose is stunning. The descriptions of Istanbul, while sparse, where rich and beautiful. The dialogue was snappy and fun, and there where just some sentences that made me stop and re-read them a few times. 

 

For example, “The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.” and  

“Imagination was a dangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, and words could be poisonous for those destined always to be silenced.”

The characters were intriguing and are certainly the driving point of the story: the Aunties, each with their particularity but still had that tolerance and love that made them able to live together. 

Asya, the nihilistic bastard impressed me with her realistic teenage anger that wasn't diminished or written off as childish. I resonated with her refusal to accept the past as part of her, her wish to leave a big blank spot behind and stay in that moment with nothing to be charged for. I related to her deep and instilled anger that seems to radiate from her and her refusal to accept the world as it is.  

On the other hand is Armanoush, living with her ancestor's memories and history tied up to her present, half Armenian half American, deciding to find her roots by taking a trip to Istanbul. The city of her ancestors and their old enemies. She believes that returning there would help her find herself in between her mother's hate for Armenian culture and her father's Armenian origins.

I was surprised by, but really enjoyed the magical realism of this story. Auntie Banu's djinni were a great inclusion and where incredibly important in the plot. 

Now, onto the things that I didn't enjoy. The writing in this one was great, as I said before, but the story felt a little flat for me. It was both too much and too little. There was a lot of extraneous material as it seemed like the author was in love with this Turkish family and wanted to tell us all about them. There could have been more focus on the relationship of the characters, the Armenian genocide and the Turkish nationalisation vs Ottoman state. 

In the last third of the book, it felt like the author has taken a step back from the characters and all of the emotion left the story. It devolved to telling not showing. The great reveal as well was just so contrived and the coincidence was just... no,no. I don't like such contrived story lines that beat you over the head with the moral of the story, it becomes too didactic. The reveal of who was Asya's father, was horrifying. I am not sure why Shafak made that decision and I am not sure I can stand by it. That coupled with Asya's seeming acceptance of it by calling him "Baba" just didn't sit well with me and didn't fit with her character up till now. 

There where also a lot of story-lines left open. What happened with Asya and the Cartoonist? Who was "The Baron" that Armanoush had an online crush on? Where the Kazanci men freed from the curse? Did Banu give Armanoush the brooch? 

Overall worth a read from an introduction into the Armenian/ Turk conflict, beautiful atmosphere, great characters and lovely writing. 

Age Rating 16+. There is a rape scene,incest, mentions of heavy domestic violence, mentions and brief descriptions of genocide. 

The Birds Have Also Gone - Yaşar Kemal

"There is an ancient Turkish tradition that promises the person who

frees a small bird a place in paradise. Three boys set up a business of catching birds to enable people to free them, but city people are now sceptical and tragedy lies in wait for the boys."

Only about 150 pages, this was a short but impactful read. The second of my books set in Istanbul, it gave a brilliant yet ephemeral look into the culture. The writing style and descriptive passages are stunning, even if some of the content was brutal and thought provoking. I was disturbed by the tradition of freeing birds, captured for only this reason, that would then be released by a well meaning if deluded person only to be caught again. Trapped in this horrible cycle of capture and release.  

The characters of the boys are equally as unpin down-able as the rest of the story. They are, like many others in the book, disturbed by the fact people no longer want to buy the birds and partake. They take this failing to signify the moral failings of the modern Istanbul and the lack of faith in it's people. They also seem to feel pity for the many tiny beautiful birds they stuff into cages far to small for them, killing many birds everyday. Whether this pity is real or just a selling tactic though is truly hard to make out. The boys don't seem to understand how horrible their actions are, and put all of the blame for the birds captures and deaths at the door of the people who won't buy the birds freedom. 

This was my first Kemal and it did not disappoint. The book is so many things in one: a celebration of a great city, half reality and more than half myth; a lament for passing traditions and a disappearing way of life; a bewildered exclamation against the ravages of modernity, which has brought in its wake so much grief to so many. 

Above all else, this is an environmental story, and the author marvels at the gifts of nature so prodigiously showered on the Bosphorus, so cruelly treated by ambivalent and blinkered custom. The ending is truly shocking - but could it really have been any other way?

Age Rating 14+. Deeply moving, quite shocking and sad. 

Istanbul: Memories and the City - Orhan Pamuk

"A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or–hüzün–that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving."

Because of my trip to Istanbul, I decided to read 4 books set there to get the vibe of the city I was to be visiting. 

This was the first on my list. It was unfortunately a disappointment. Pamuk spends a lifetime sitting indoors bemoaning an Istanbul which, he says, doesn't exist anymore. How he can remain isolated in a busy city year after year says more about him, his non-Turkish background, wealthier heritage, self-centred habits, etc. than it probably does about Istanbul.

We're left to slog through four hundred pages of angsty ennui which is purport to represent the zeitgeist of a city that mourns the days it stood at the centre of the world and a divided identity, but in fact does little more than chronicle the thin complaints of a wealthy man who never manages to move out of his mother's house. It would be fine if melancholy simply pervaded Pamuk's memoirs as he spun tales of his youth, but there are almost no tales told here, just endless, smothering atmosphere. 

I can't speak, obviously, for the Istanbul of his youth, but the Istanbul I have experienced is far from the black and white melancholy suffused landscape that Pamuk conjured up. Rather than a melancholy of a city, I think Pamuk writes about the melancholy and claustrophobia of a deeply dysfunctional family and his own deep bouts of depression. To layers those feelings and impressions over an entire city feels unfair and awfully self - centred. 

One positive of this book is that it did give me a good idea of where all the different neighbourhoods of Istanbul are, and helped me navigate a surprising amount. I would be interested to read more from this author, I think his prose, writing style and talent for creating atmosphere would be brilliant in fiction. 

Age Rating 14+ Deeply dysfunctional family, depression and sex. 

Beneath the Rising - Premee Mohamed

" A coming-of-age story about two kids in the middle of a war of eldritch horrors from outside spacetime…

Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her.

But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.

From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive…"

This is an alternate history, cosmic horror, globe-travelling adventure Science fiction that's primarily a study of the relationship between two young people: Joanna "Johnny" Chambers who is a 17-year old super-genius who has single handedly rewritten the history of the early 2000s with her amazing inventions and discoveries and her best and only friend, Nick Prassad, an ordinary Canadian teenager.

When Johnny invents a new shoebox reactor that seems to generate free energy she also opens a gate into our universe for creatures of cosmic horror known as "Them", to flood in a true Lovecraftian manner. They want Johnny and her invention so that they can enslave humanity and take over the world. So Johnny and Nick go on the run to try and stop them. Pretty basic plot. 

However, what was very interesting to me while reading this book was the dynamics displayed between the two characters. Joanna is the pretty, genius,ridiculously wealthy and slightly psychopathic girl Nick has loved for most of his life, after a violent incident brought the two together. Nick and his family are well below Johnny on the economic scale, and by putting us in his head for the whole book, the author gives us a chance to reflect on the “hero”, as well as the myriad ways in which Nick’s and Johnny’s very different experiences affect them as they suffer threats and attacks, and how the fear and anxiety of their situation exacerbates their differences and their feelings for each other. The racial aspect, the references to race, colonialism, and privilege are not incidental, and were a great addition into a Lovecraft inspire Sci-Fi, someone who was so racist and expressed so much racism through his works. 

While there are many otherworldly horrors present, it’s the many problems that lie at the heart of their relationship, as well as the very real economic and racial issues between them that affected me the most about this story. I struggled to feel anything but irritation for Johnny, and her often blithe approach, her unthinking dismissal to so much that someone without her options, or skin colour, has to live in the world. However she is a very interesting character, she came across as slightly inhuman. Cold, calculating and deeply unfeeling, but at the same time vulnerable and trying desperately to do good. Nick, while supposed to be the "normal" friend was equally interesting, the mixture of love and hate he felt for Johnny, the anger, the claustrophobic closeness of the friends. 

I also need to mention the writing. I really enjoyed it, it got under your skin and made you feel unclean and claustrophobic. 

This is imaginative and fun in parts, the banter was great, there where some dated pop culture references that where a bit weird but didn't ruin the book. However, it was a tad long and dragged in points, and something just didn't hit right with me. The ending disappointed me and the two characters, while interesting felt slightly separated from the reader. 

Age Rating 13+. Could easily be read, enjoyed and understood by a younger audience.

The Kingdom of Copper (#2)- S.A. Chakraborty

"Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid, the unpredictable water spirits, have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.

And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad's towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve."

Just a stunning, stunning series! I am loving it more with each instalment. I read City of Brass and while I had some problems with it, I really enjoyed it. One of my main issues with it was that it read very much like a YA novel at times, and while I do love YA novels, it made the characters seem childish at times that didn't mesh with the high stakes plot. 

However, with this novel taking place five years after the end of the first, and with the stakes having been tremendously raised, there was no time for being juvenile here. This change in tones is seen throughout the book, through the more gritty writing, matured characterisation and the deep exploration of personal loyalties and morals. 

This is the book where the characters fully come into themselves and are able to really develop, especially Dara. While I don't particularly like him as a person, his character is so interesting. Here we get to read from Dara's point of view for the first time and it was fascinating to see the world, war and all that was happening through his eyes. His contradicting beliefs and inner conflict when it came to both his and Manizheh's actions definitely added depth to his character and I loved every moment. 

Also, Ali! He has grown so much! While I liked him in book one, his chapters were a bit on the boring and long-winded side, but that was part of his personality in a way. In this book, we get to see some action and way more emotion out of him and it was so wonderful. He was coming into his own as a person. Stepping out of his brother's and father's shadows and becoming his own person with his own beliefs and morals. 

All the other characters were fabulous too. I really enjoyed all the minor characters, they feel too well fleshed out to be called minor, and their arcs. Muthandhir, Zaynab, Jamshid,and many others. I think that that is my main love of this series. No character feels extraneous. They all give us a different and valid insight into the politics, morals and society so you find yourself as confused and conflicted as the main characters. 

Now, the perfect segway into politics. I really enjoyed them in book one although they oftentimes felt overwhelming. This book, with a better handle on what was up, had just the right amount of intrigue, family drama and city politics. There was no one right side. Everyone is standing in a morally grey area, doing what they need for what they believe is right. Everyone believes themselves justified in their cruel actions and their hatred. Everyone was equally wrong, and yet, in a way, I could completely see and understand where each of them was coming from. Each had valid points and each group is shown to be equally at fault and equally innocent. It was an amazingly nuanced portrayal that mirrors modern day real-life racism, nationalism and tribalism experienced all over the world. To manage such a complex system in a book this big is certainly a talent that Chakraborty has clearly mastered. 

That ending though! I was honestly so stressed for the entire last 20% of this book. The pacing for this book is excellent and the tension only ramps up, without leaving it dull in the middle. I was at the edge of my seat, wondering what the heck was going to go down. So many questions have been answered in this book and now I have even more questions than ever before! I am super excited to see how it's all going to end in Empire of Gold! 

Age Rating 14+. Some adult themes. Reality of war (as much as a fantasy can provide), mass scale violence and hints to sexual violence.