Gentleman and Players - Joanne Harris

"Audere, agere, auferre. To dare, to strive, to conquer. For
generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork, and information technology are beginning to overshadow St. Oswald's tradition, and Straitley is finally, and reluctantly, contemplating retirement. He is joined this term by five new faculty members, including one who -- unbeknownst to Straitley and everyone else -- holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Oswald's ways and secrets. Harbouring dark ties to the school's past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: to destroy St. Oswald's."

The novel is a psychological thriller, which features cunning deceits, flawed childhood, hidden identity, class distinction and revenge; the story ends with a deliciously unexpected twist at the end. There are two narrators; Roy Straitley, the Classics Master, on the eve of his century (100th) term who is affectionately referred to, by his students, as Quasi or Quasimodo as he is a trifle hunched and whose rooms are in the Bell Tower. Straitley is a Luddite; ignoring all requests to attend to his email, he swears in Latin and smokes (banned by the school) secret Gauloises in his office. The other narrator is the unnamed perpetrator who is bent on revenge for a myriad of both real and imagined slights committed by St Oswalds; a sociopath who is filled with hatred and bitterness. This perpetrator knows no rules he will not break; somehow he has infiltrated the teachers' ranks, and become one of them. 

Harris is able to evoke a real sense of place and conveys a perfect understanding of when to show and not tell, and how to fully immerse her readers in this rarefied setting. Her exploration of identity is remarkably nuanced. Age, gender, class, psychology, elitism, work ethic, personal value system... all are at play in this novel. The prose on a technical level is without fault; the tone shifts effortlessly from playful to foreboding and then back again. The mystery itself is very absorbing - despite the richness of the writing, the novel is a page-turner.

I truly loved this book. It was everything I was wanting from it. An engaging mystery, with detailed characterisation, a unique aesthetic and a nuanced interweaving of many of my favourite themes. I highly recommend it.

Age Rating 16+. Mentions of alcoholism, sexual abuse and murder. 

Candide - Voltaire

"Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best."

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into when I picked up this book, with little understanding of Voltaire's philosophy or the plot of Candide. So you can imagine my surprise at the contents of this wonderful and horrifying little satire which might shape up to be one of my favourite books. 

Voltaire's novel introduces the reader to Candide, a wide-eyed, calm and amusingly bland young gentleman who resides at Castle Westphalia and who believes in the philosophy that "everything in the world is for the best." One of the first scenes is filled with two emotional opposites for Candide who first gets to kiss his love, Cunegonde behind a screen, only to then be kicked out of the castle, literally, by the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh.

Here begins Candide's incredible, fantastical adventure which takes him all over the globe with his mind always believing in "the folly of optimism". Moving on from being a soldier in the Bulgarian army to being shipwrecked, being involved with the aftermath of an earthquake, discovering then leaving the mythical El Dorado, to being robbed and swindled more times than seems fair - our hero has a lot of bad luck. One of the overarching issues of this narrative is to present that it isn't just Candide that bad things happen to and that the world is just pretty damn horrible. Tragic things happen to all our main characters including philosopher Dr. Pangloss, Candide's love Cunegonde, and a nice old lady who saved Candide from certain death. The tale is humorously and satirically presented in short, sharp chapters by Voltaire. Most descriptions of doom and degradation are presented in a highly comic fashion which not only serves to allow the reader to continue reading with less emotional scarring but also highlights the stupidity/horror of optimism and a "positive outlook" in these kinds of situations. Though somehow there where scenes that where just so horrific yet comically absurd that I couldn't help but laugh. 

The heartlessness, negativity, and cold-heartedness of humans is a frequent aura and undertone throughout. The novel features all sorts of nastiness such as rape, murder, torture, prostitution, robbery, and slavery among other nastiness and nonsense. 

The whole cast is, strangely, relatable and likable with each being a symbolic caricature of some aspect of ourselves. Some of the times they meet up with friends spontaneously all over the world is amazingly far fetched and draw attention to the satirical character of the story, allowing the characters to compare experiences, hardships, and evolving outlooks. Two of the main characters are the optimistic philosopher Dr. Pangloss and ultimately pessimistic scholar and travel companion of Candide's, Martin. The juxtaposition here is very interesting, with a "black and white"  of these two view points.

I loved the way that the book ends. I wont spoil it too much, but it was just perfect. The group of lost souls finding a unity in tending and being surrounded by nature and enjoying their own creative hobbies. The difference of outlook being forgotten in the coming together to live as good a life as they are going to get. The ending was surprisingly hopeful, at least to me, for such a horrifying story. You will not be able to avoid suffering as it is a part of life and complete optimism is a stupid outlook with so much pain in the world, however you can still find a life where you can, if not overcome you trauma, at least live with it. 

The story reminded me somewhat of the Journey of Buddha before he becomes the Buddha where the naïve and sheltered Indian Prince first ventures out and encounters all of the suffering in the world. I don't know whether this was intentional on Voltaire's part but it was an interesting thing to note. 

Age Rating 18+. As stated above this book contains every level of awfulness possible and doesn't shy away from it. 

House of Earth and Blood - Sarah J Maas

"Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying
all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it."

Yes, I have returned to my guilty pleasure of Maas's work. 

When I heard that Maas's next work would be her first foray into adult fiction I was pretty surprised as I have always felt that, despite the fantasy genre which is for some reason always felt to be YA by publishers, her other series have been pretty damn adult with the heavy focus of violence, torture and sexual content. 

Now, I am no prude, but the swearing in this book was totally unnecessary and just came across as childish. If anything, it made Crescent city feel like a young Throne of Glass trying to impress all of her older friends with her edginess. Crescent City fancies itself quite the edgelord with its filthy mouth, drugs and sex but none of it is handled well. Drugs are treated as something casually edgy that the characters do without any sorts of repercussions. Violence is casual as well, and doesn't really serve any purpose in the story. Characters are killed off before we can really care about them properly. And the sexual content is... painfully cringey. (Though somehow there was less sex then in her YA stuff. Riddle me that.)

Then there's MC Bryce. I, personally, really don't see what people would find empowering in Bryce's character. She's gorgeous. She's sexy. Everyone, everyone,wants to fuck her. She's not like other girls. Yay for a women finding her strength outside of male validation, I guess?? Lol. She feels pity for whores because she only sleeps around to self-medicate for her emotional issues. (This is never addressed by the way.) She recklessly endangers herself by doing drugs but somehow she's deep and intelligent. Like, Maas was clearly trying to use Bryce's character to show how women shouldn't be underestimated because she likes to look pretty, something I completely agree with. However then Bryce has random hookups every five seconds (this is not safe from a STD or rape point of view), romanticises drug use (a whole lot of nope), and uses her body to monetarily gain? Why do women have to be highly sexual to be empowered? Also Bryce complains about men treating her like a whore when she herself admits to dressing like one and that most half - human women make a living through prostitution? I am feeling soo empowered right now. 

Strangely I preferred Hunt's character in this novel. Shock horror he has wings, would he really be a Maas ML if he didn't have wings. He was actually somewhat relatable, enjoyable to read about and strangely funny at times. However he too is cursed with the better then everyone, only one of his kind, probably a god in disguise trope that Mass has going on with literally all of her characters. Thus he comes of as one dimensional and lacking a certain grit I was hoping for. I understand that Maas was trying to be be feminist and veer away from the "toxic masculinity" but am I truly supposed to believe that a 200 year old General who is now a an assassin is actually just a sweet softie starved of snuggles who's PTSD comes down to crying in the shower?

One of the major points of this book is that there is a war going on in the background of the entire novel, between humans and the Vanir. Yes, the Vanir. If that sounded familiar, it’s because it refers to a race of elder nature gods in Norse mythology. However, SJM liked the sound of that word but didn’t like its meaning, so in this world (also called Midgard) the word ‘Vanir’ refers to all different kinds of mythological beings, including angels, fae, werewolves, demons, mermaids etc. I love stealing words from ancient cultures and disregarding its original meaning. 

Anyway, this war is going on because humans are completely oppressed by the Vanir, who see themselves as superior to humans in every way. (Which technically, physically, magically and lifespan wise they are.) However, most of the characters are actually sympathetic nice Vanir so the human plight is pretty much pushed to the background except when the half-human Bryce is being sneered at and she gets irritated by it. There are no full human characters, the most we see of this "oppression" is Bryce being given a snooty look in a restaurant. There are literally people dying, Bryce. This war and human oppression get less screen-time than Bryce’s perfect ass. How can I take this war seriously and believe the Vanir are meant to be the bad guys when we spend so much of the book talking about how sexy they are??

Now, on to a few of my small pet peeves. Why is so many of these people called tan? It feels like a get out of jail free card of having more POC in her work without ever actually saying so. Also, and I really don't know if this will make sense, but all of her LGBT representation still somehow feels so heterosexual. Last but not least..."alphaholes." Please in the name of all that is unholy, no.

I must admit, the reason that I enjoy coming back to Mass's work is very similar to Holly Black. Both of their plots and characters are okay, however it is the fantasy elements, fun writing and world building that really gets me. The whole aesthetic of the book, the visual images that Maas conjures up for you are just so much fun. Baby puppy werewolves lying in the grass, a nightclub located in a forgotten temple, a Fallen Angel wearing a baseball cap. All of Maas's work, no matter how problematic they are, are just fun to read. Large, grand, funny, over - emotional self insert fan fiction where everyone has superpowers, is descended from someone really important and is really really pretty. I am not saying it is perfect, but this book didn't feel slow to me at all. I was engaged and interested the entire time, and Maas does actually touch on a few good themes. I enjoyed the emphasis on friendship and how powerful that can be. 

Age Rating 18+. I am 19 and I felt uncomfortable, dear god it felt like reading a Mills and Boons with swearing. 

The Goddess Chronicles - Natsuo Kirino

"In a place like no other, on a mystical island in the shape of tear
drop, two sisters are born into a family of oracles. Kamikuu is admired far and wide for her otherworldly beauty; small and headstrong Namima learns to live in her sister’s shadow. On her sixth birthday, Kamikuu is chosen to become the next Oracle, serving the realm of light, while Namima is forced to serve the realm of darkness—destined to spend eternity guiding the spirits of the deceased to the underworld.

As the sisters serve opposite fates, Namima embarks on a journey that takes her from the experience of first love to the aftermath of scalding betrayal. Caught in an elaborate web of treachery, she travels between the land of the living and the Realm of the Dead, seeking vengeance and closure.

At the heart of this exquisitely dark tale, Kirino masterfully reimagines the ancient Japanese creation myth of Izanami and Izanaki. A provocative, fantastical saga, The Goddess Chronicle tells a sumptuous story of sex, murder, gods and goddesses, and bittersweet revenge."

It's always difficult to review a translated work, because when you come across either brilliance or lack of lustre, it's difficult to assess whether that boon or bane is attributable to the author or the translator.

Such is the case with The Goddess Chronicle, by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Rebecca Copeland.

The story is a retelling of the original Japanese creation story. I suspect the original work by Kirino is a charged, tight story. Copeland's translation, however, lacks passion, and certainly this is a story about passion, in fact eons of passion as we trace the history of the Yin/Yang gods of Izanami and Izanaki reflected through the mortal lives of Namima and her unscrupulous lover.

There is much here to be said of sibling rivalry and betrayal of sacred trusts, of epic journeys both temporal and spiritual. There is a genesis story, a parallel to the Greek Eurydice and Orpheus myth. There is the struggle of the desperately poor serving religious tenets that serve only to embed their poverty and keep certain people in there place. Of female suffering and betrayal. 

It's all there. Yet not a single phrase of elegance or startling insight to lift the reader from a grey narrative to the chiaroscuro the story demands. Lack lustre characterisation leaves me emotionally detached from the story. There is no final message, no meaning to the story, no insight into the collective female experience. While all these themes are set up, not one comes to any meaningful fruition. This causes the book to feel hollow and deeply, ironically, unemotional. A real disappointment that I am not sure who to attribute blame to. 

Age Rating 15+. Sexual detail, death and certain cultural abuses. 

Cat Out of Hell - Lynne Truss

"For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec
Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him...

And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces?"

This book is certainly not for those looking for a cohesive narrative or stellar plot building. It was silly and camp and an all round fun read. It seems to be classed as horror, but I think the author wrote it tongue-in-cheek. If you’re a horror fan looking for a spine-tingler you won’t find it here. 

It certainly has its issues as a book.  You can follow what’s happening but the narrative skips and jumps for no reason. When Truss builds up to an interesting scene like a heist or a murder mystery reveal, she skips it and jumps ahead to the aftermath before going back to the safety of Alec or Wiggy’s overly chatty, rather scatterbrained narration. The ending is also a let down. Events stumble clumsily to the final act and then, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly be this predictable, when Truss MUST do something a little different to make things at least a bit interesting, she opts instead for exactly the least original choice. 

However despite my grumblings, I actually did enjoy this book. I could feel that Truss was having fun writing this book and just let herself spurt all the weirdest silliest dialogue onto the page. I couldn't help but be infected by the wonderful craziness of the whole thing, and the dry, pop culture studded humour was right up my alley. 

Age Rating 17+. Some pretty graphic murder scenes, awful torture and gore. 

A Quiet Place - Seicho Matsumoto

"While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that
his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly-spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife—who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings—ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood?

When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife’s death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life..."

At first I blamed the English translation for the unremarkable prose and plodding pace of the story. It couldn't be the author (who is praised for his psychological thrillers) could it? But the more I read, the more I understood that the dull writing was a deliberate device. The main character, Tsuneo Asai, is a middle-aged bureaucrat who has made it up the ladder in the ministry through circumspect behaviour and persistent hard work. He thinks almost exclusively about his job and, as a result, his life is as unexciting as the prose Matsumoto uses to describe it. Only through subtle clues do we eventually realise this fixation on work actually hides a deeper lack of emotional attachment. Asai’s wife is younger than he is; described as plain, quiet and unassuming. She copes well with her husband’s travel and work schedule, spending time with her sister and attending haiku meetings. When informed of her death, Asai is understandably curious and begins an investigation that quickly turns into an obsessive need to learn exactly what kind of life his wife had been leading. At this point, the tone of the story changes and accelerates to keep pace with Asai’s increasing loss of self-control and descent into obsessive neurosis. 

I really enjoyed that Matsumoto flipped the traditional crime structure, instead of the murder happening at the beginning  and the plot revolving around it being uncovered. Matsumoto actually has the murder happen in the middle of the book. I don't want to say to much as I think it will spoil the book. 

Overall, definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea. If you are looking for a rollicking thriller this is not it. It is tense, claustrophobic and has incredibly sparse bordering of out-right boring prose. It is definitely a book that requires the reader to be actively involved and engage in the subtle clues the prose gives you. 

Age Rating 14+ Murder, semi-sexual, injury detail. 

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 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. 

The Seamstress - Frances de Pontes Peebles

"As seamstresses, the young sisters Emília and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, how to mend, and how to conceal. These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called "colonels" feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire.

Emília, whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big city. Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life.

But when Luzia is abducted by a group of cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk, the sisters' quiet lives diverge in ways they never imagined. Emília stumbles into marriage with Degas Coelho, the son of a doctor whose wealth is rivaled only by his political power.

In Recife, Emília must hide any connection to her increasingly notorious sister. As she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian high society, Emília sees the country split apart after a bitter presidential election. Political feuds extend to the countryside, where Luzia and the Hawk are forced to make unexpected alliances and endure betrayals that threaten to break the cangaceiros apart. But Luzia will overcome time and distance to entrust her sister with a great secret—one Emília vows to keep. And when Luzia's life is threatened, Emília will risk everything to save her."

Hi Guys, really sorry there has been a long gap between reviews. The whole Corona thing threw me for a loop. But we will now be back to normal regular reviews. 

This book is well-written if overly long, tending toward a slight bloat of historical fact. Though the story is interesting even compelling, it's also dark, tragic, and contains a lot of gruesome, brutal violence.

The story and the characters, especially the two sisters, but other side characters too, where highly interesting. I wanted to know more about them and fully understand what they where going through, their motives and backstories. But despite the incredibly long nature of this book, here is a strange and unexplainable distance between the characters and the readers. I didn't feel like I knew any of them, even after the book had ended. I found it difficult to really connect with the characters.

I wasn't especially fond of Emilia or Luzia and I think part of that came from the split perspective nature of the book, wherein it switched from Luzia to Emilia and back again. I felt as though every time I was just warming up to one of them, the book split and went to the other and by the time I returned to the first I had also returned to a state of not caring. So in the end it didn't really matter what happened to them in my mind. I was also a bit frustrated we didn't get to learn more about some of the secondary characters like Antonio and Degas. However, ultimately, the biggest problem I had with this book was the there was really almost no action after Luzia's "life change" (to keep it spoiler free) in the early first quarter/third of the book. I kept on going, hoping something would happen to hold my interest or endear the characters to me but I just never got there.

I really enjoyed the setting of 1920's, 30's Brazil. It is something I am not knowledgeable about at all and was excited to learn more about. You do get a very good idea and feel for the time and place. I would say that was my favourite point of the book. I was truly impressed by the knowledge of the history and culture of 1920's/1930's era Brazil that the author presented. 

A quick note about the writing style, I enjoyed it but didn't find it anything to write home about. There where a few sentences and phrases that really stood out but most of the time it was pretty basic. Just an overly long book. Would have been better, with more emotional punch, if the word count had been reduced. 

Age Rating 14+. Some quite brutal violence, marital rape, threat of sexual assault. 

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

"God is dead. Meet the kids.

Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider's on his doorstep -- about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting... and a lot more dangerous."

Through the book we follow Fat Charlie as he becomes immersed into the world of the Gods, something he is inextricably linked to as the son of the trickster god Anansi- from discovering primitive magic to his secret brother. His life is quickly thrown into chaos. His fiancee leaves him, his brother swoops her up and Fat Charlie is set up to take the fall for a very terrible person. All the while, he has to deal with the fallout from his dad's embarrassing death.

I adore the humour in the book. This is easily the funniest Neil Gaiman book I read. I found my self laughing out loud and maniacally giggling with Gaiman's humorous observations on humanity. Everything was so real while still having this wonderful fantasy element. 

It was also great to read a fantasy using myths from Africa. It was a great idea and an unusual touch. I loved being introduced to the gods and found some of the writing really moving and thought provoking. Some lines I  had to just sit and reread. This book could definitely be read on two levels. One where is is just a really funny fantasy story full of giggle and mishaps. But there is another deeper level. One which explores the nature of humanity, how our trickiness makes us human and reduces our brutality. How fun gives meaning to life and gives another dimension to the act of merely surviving. 

While this book takes place in the same world as American Gods - there is hardly any overlap. This can easily be read as a standalone. My only gripe with this book it the pacing. The plot progressed at a glacial pace but once it started ramping up, I was hooked - there were so many side plots that were masterfully interwoven.

Overall another excellent book from Gaiman, employing his signature mix of exploration of humanity, mythology, humour and magic realism. Age Rating 13+ A murder takes place and there are some allusions to sex. 

The Historian - Elisabeth Kostova

"To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night,

exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of, a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to all inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself--to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive."

Kostova writes The Historian in epistolary form, primarily through letters from a father historian to a daughter (presumably) historian. The greater part of the book, however, focused not on this father-daughter team’s desperate search  for Dracula, but on the obscure history of Vlad Tepes, the historical figure who inspired the legend of Dracula, and on the geography of Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey during the Cold War. If the Travel Channel™ was ever looking for someone to host Istanbul on a Budget 1980 or Passport to Monasteries Behind the Iron Curtain, Kostova would be their woman. Whether the history and geography is true or not, the sheer volume of trivia padding this book and the work it had to have taken to put it all together is confounding. 

To add to the dullness, the way that this books plot unfurls in mainly in the form of letter. Unbelievably detailed letters! Now I have read a number of great books that use the format of letter writing to convey the plot. But this? Ridiculous. Not only are these letters insanely long, but they are insanely detailed as well, creating yet another reason why the book and the characters are completely unbelievable. Nobody writes a letter like this, no one. If that's how the author wanted to write this, why did she do the letter thing at all? 

Even with the impressive research, this story lacks any punch. Dracula would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those pesky historians! Dracula and his henchman, the “evil librarian,”, I kid you not,  don’t plague society or cause panic or murder people in large quantities to drink their blood. Rather, they make appearances in goofy disguises in libraries and cafes to give books and other clues to especially promising young historians, inspiring the recipients to begin insatiable quests to find out more about this Dracula fellow. Then, Dracula inevitably shows up again to slap people around a little, so that the historians will be too afraid to continue their research. Once, after giving a historian a book to start him on his vampire studies, Dracula disguises himself as “a stranger” and buys that historian a drink called, “whimsically, amnesia.” Bet you can’t guess what that does - all that research down the tubes! Stop the mind games, Dracula! Not to be deterred by Dracula’s or the Evil Librarian’s threats, the historians continue to stalk their prey until the reader would pity Dracula (if he weren’t annoying), because he is ultimately only trying to build a book collection and a gang of faithful research assistants.

Psychological conflict adds complexity to most vampire stories, as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, when Mina, formerly a protagonist, becomes bloodthirsty. Thirst is the most basic human experience, and all vampires started as humans. Theoretically, thirst (or, more broadly, desire) could create evil in anyone; and, therefore, of all monsters we most easily identify with are vampires. In The Historian, however, I am left with the impression that if those historians left poor Dracula alone, he would have just kept happily collecting books. It was ultimately the obsessive research and study, not Dracula himself, that took the historians away from their loved ones and almost destroyed them.

Finally, the ending. If you value your sanity, do not, I repeat DO NOT finish this book. Because if you are sane, you will get to the ending and go, 'What? What?? Are you f-n kidding me?? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!' No joke. The ending, especially after 600 pages, has got to be the biggest let down of any major novel in recent years. I won't spoil it here (however badly I want to vent about it), but I swear to you: it will cause you physical agony when you read it.

The only upside to this book are the stunning locations. Through the book your trip around Italy, France, Istanbul, England and Eastern Europe. All richly described and so wonderfully atmospheric. If you like the Dark Academia Aesthetic then you will enjoy that aspect of the book, which was to be honest, the only thing that kept me reading. 

Age Rating 13+. Nothing grizzly or dramatic. The reason for the age rating is the dullness of the writing which I wouldn't punish a child with. 

Vicious - V. E Schwab

"A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?"

I am unsure of what I think about this book. On one hand I found the characters very compelling. Both Victor and Eli are complete Psychopaths that are inextricably drawn to each other. They act like cat and mouse, constantly circling each other, watching for weakness. I adored the complex friendship between the two men that hovered somewhere between admiration and bitter jealousy and how this developed as they grew and became more obsessed with power and their own warped view of right and wrong. The deeply understand each other but still despise each other. 

The dynamic is very clever and both characters where incredibly interesting. Schwab's use of language to navigate this was also very good. There are some very quotable lines. The writing was minimal, clean and beautiful. 

However I found the plot to be lacking. It was relatively simplistic and I was never felt shocked or surprised in the way the book was progressing. The ending was also a tad disappointing. All in all I think it would have been an amazing book if the plot had been more unique and slightly more hard hitting. 

Age Rating 14+. Torture, brutal violence and swearing. 

Crooked - Austin Grossman

"Award-winning novelist Austin Grossman re imagines the Cold War as an epic battle against the occult waged by the ultimate American antihero: Richard Nixon.

Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century. Our thirty-seventh president's political career spanned the button-down fifties, the Mad Men sixties, and the turbulent seventies. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and ultimately his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: how could he have lost it all?

Here for the first time is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up. What if our nation's worst president was actually a pivotal figure caught in a desperate struggle between ordinary life and horrors from another reality? What if the man we call our worst president was, in truth, our greatest?

In Crooked, Nixon finally reveals the secret history of modern American politics as only Austin Grossman could re imagine it. Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman's novel is a masterwork of alternative history, equal parts mesmerising character study and nail-biting Faustian thriller."

The concept here is that when Nixon was an underhanded congressman trying to prove that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy he inadvertently stumbled across a hidden occult world of Lovecratfian style horrors. This discovery and his ambition paves the way for him to become a reluctant KGB spy which in turn helps him become vice-president. I won't go too much further about the plot as I don't want to give too much away but it is quite a ride. 

This book surprised me because I was thinking that it would be done in a tongue-in-cheek way that played off the idea of Richard Nixon being a hero after all, but in fact it’s the exact opposite. The portrayal of him here is still that of an insecure and bitter guy who seemed to lack the charisma and charm of a used car salesmen, but whose relentless drive and willingness to fight dirty enabled him to rise to power. This is more of a character study that just puts a supernatural coat of paint on the man rather than try to shine him up into something he wasn’t. It was very interesting and masterfully done. Truly great characterisation. 

But that leaves me not sure what exactly the point of all this was. The idea that all these weird occult happenings have links embedded in the foundation of American government was very very interesting, and it seems like there was the potential for a good story there. However, we see this through Nixon’s eyes, and he doesn’t really know the full scope of what’s going on until late in the game. Since this is an outsider telling us the story it seems like we’re only getting a glimpse of a secret history although some of the historical incidents have an interesting twist on them like the moon landing.

I wanted more however. More magic, more appalling spells and shadows, more politics and law of the other side. I wanted more backstory of the power of the President of the United States and the entanglement of the hidden and very real power of the Presidents. If this hidden word had been built on more, further investigated and fleshed out I think it would have been very good indeed. 

Unfortunately, I found myself a little let down. 

Age Rating 14+. Some creep scenes, allusions to torture and sex. 

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

"It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders.

An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?"

A truly masterful book. 

Grace is a murderess. She collaborated with her co-worker to kill their master and his mistress out of jealously. So the people say. So the people want to believe. Because, let’s face it, where’s the fascination in a murder committed only by a man? There’s no sensation, nothing to stir the crowds. Whereas a woman who took a life? Well, there’s the spectacle! Never mind that she may be innocent. This is a perfect chance to humiliate women, to place the blame on them and continue the tradition that started at the beginning of time...But Grace knows the truth. Or does she?

Margaret Atwood takes the story of one of the most famous female prisoners of the 19th century and weaves a masterpiece of a novel. Set in the 1840s in Canada and spanning almost 30 years, this is a confession and a fascinating journey to the mind and the life of a woman who has much to say and even more to hide. Is she a criminal? An innocent bystander? A cold-blooded killer? Is she a victim of her weak will? A small animal captured in a man’s well-constructed trap? And does anyone want to actually listen to her? When a young psychiatrist decides to dive into the darkest part of Grace’s mind, everything will change.

This is a novel that I consider perfect on every level. I’ve always believed that the finest writers can give us the conclusion at the beginning of the story and we’ll still be interested and invested in the development of the action. This is exactly what happens here. While Atwood doesn’t reveal everything at once, we have all the proper materials to ‘’guess’’ the end and there is still much space for suspense, agony and, speaking strictly for me, anger. Anger was the feeling that became my loyal companion while I was reading. Anger because of the double-standards of the time, the conviction that a woman is guilty by definition when accused, the habit of regarding women as objects for the men’s pleasure, ripe for the taking...

I loved the way Atwood uses the newly-born ideas of Mesmerism and Magnetism and the rising of Spiritualism movement that became in vogue a few years later. In addition, she addresses the issue of Hysteria, the common belief that all women were prone to uncontrollable, violent fits of rage, another token of a society that refused to believe that women are actual human beings with the right to seek sexual pleasure and emotional fulfilment. God forbid, these are principles solely belonging to men…. 

This theme of suppression is apparent throughout the novel. Suppression of thoughts, feelings and sexuality that become, because of its suppression, twisted and grotesque. This is mainly shown is the character of Dr Simon Jordan, the phycologist sent to assess Grace. He is very complex, in my opinion, very real and perplexing. He is not free from his own demons, he has some fairly obscure ideas about sexual pleasure but he desires progress and knowledge. The internal grappling between the carnal and "base" attributes and the socially excepted enlightened ones was wonderfully expressed and so interesting to explore. 

Grace is a complex, intriguing character. In my opinion, she retains characteristics of the Unreliable Narrator as we are never actually certain that her views on events and people are accurate. She comes across as a sympathetic, level-headed, brave, considerate and surprisingly dignified woman.  However, she keeps an air of quiet cunning and manipulation, suggesting she could very well be a murderess playing on the stereotypes of the day, a masterful actress portraying the feminine ideal.  She’s not afraid to express mistrust or uncertainty and has the self-discipline to keep her most ‘’controversial’’ thoughts secret until the opportune moment. Atwood takes us into Grace’s mind before she speaks and succeeds in creating a complete picture of our heroine. However, there is still an aura of mystery surrounding her and a strange, underlying sensuality and dark innocence.

I absolutely adored the writing in this book. Atwood lends a lyrical and poetical prose to her work, something not often seen in historical fiction. Sometimes I just had to stop and reread a sentence as it was just so exquisitely written. The whole book has a feeling of oppressiveness, trapped and in danger, like being in a locked hothouse with too many clothes on. Truly an atmospheric work of art. 

Age Rating 16+. Adult content. Sex, allusions to sex, rape, abortions, death, murder, and an disturbingly oppressive atmosphere.