House of Glass - Susan Fletcher

"June 1914 and a young woman - Clara Waterfield - is summoned to a
large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their fear: for something - or someone - is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook's dark interior - and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing - not even the men who claim they wish to help her - is quite what it seems."

I had such high hopes for this book. A period novel with lonely women, ghosts, gothic houses and reclusive men. It sounded like Jane Eyre with botany, something I was all for. But I got absolutely nothing. 

It does some things well. A main character that has a disability and is different and she stayed clear of the “this girl has a disability so she must be sweet and lovely” trope which I was grateful for but apart from that this book just did not quite know what it wanted to be. Completely all over the place. If I wasn’t so incredibly bored I could perhaps gather up some disappointment. This book is confusing and plotless from start to finish and there is nothing gothic about it at all. 

A promising start with a beautiful and atmospheric description of the protagonist's childhood and mourning of her mother. But all this promise petered out with a weak middle and was absolutely destroyed by the many pointless and unearned revelations at the end. The ending was truly abysmal with plot holes galore and absolutely nothing making sense. 

House of glass turned out to be less of a ghost story and more of a tale of loss and lies. Strangely, the plot spiralled into an odd half-baked romance that seemed to belong to a whole other story. By the time I read the last page, I just ended up feeling drained and sad.

There were some beautiful lines and sentimental moments that were truly memorable, for sure. The author took a lot of creative liberties with her grammar, which can be effective when done properly. As I said, there were many beautifully written lines. However, she did it a little too often for my taste, and sometimes for no reason at all. Many sentences just seemed incomplete.

Overall a deeply disappointing read. 

Age Rating 16+. Some surprisingly sexual and violent scenes. 

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. 

Holy Fools - Joanne Harris

"In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary
at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil, and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in remote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother.

When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Père Colombin. A man Soeur Auguste, with secrets of her own, knows all too well and the one man she fears more than any other."

A gorgeous, compelling story set in mediaeval France, Holy Fools has all the ingredients I love in Joanne Harris’s books. There’s a strong, complex heroine with pagan inclinations, a flamboyant villains, a gothic setting, a rich luscious atmosphere and a lot of less than comfortable reflections on the human condition. Harris has a very warts and all approach to portraying people. She doesn’t tend to do clear lines between the wholly good and the wholly bad, and I love this about her work.

First thing first, I adored the overall feel of this books. It's sets, atmosphere, themes and general aesthetic was wonderful. It truly felt unique and rich, something that could easily be translated into a beautiful movie. 

One of the themes running through this novel is that way in which people are often complicit in their own oppression. In trying to please the oppressor, and trying to avoid punishment, we give other names to the witch hunter. We accuse someone else to take attention from ourselves. So often what is called for in oppressive scenarios is a banding together to fight off the tyrant. If there’s one tyrant and many people being mistreated, weight of numbers should fix it, but often it doesn’t. Instead, in trying to protect ourselves, we uphold evil systems and support those who abuse us. It was also a fabulously interesting exploration of the fusion of religious mania, trauma, female repression, redirected sexual need and guilt complexes. 

However, I did have a few problems with this book. First of all was a relationship between Juliette (Soeur Auguste) and her daughter fell flat. The daughter is less an actual person then a plot device, which, unfortunately, completely emotionally undercuts the weight of the story. I also found the relationship between Juliette and Le Merle deeply frustrating. (SPOILERS) For a book supposedly so strongly about female empowerment, strength and sisterhood I found the ending thematically confusing. Le Merle has out right emotionally and physically abused Juliette, once even pimping her out without her consent leading to her being raped. I understand having a dark emotional connection, a sort of deep understanding of each other's darkness, and I truly love these relationships being explored. But I don't think it was in character for Juliette to consent to be with Le Merle, nor should she. While she might have had a special bond with him, this doesn't mean that it would be healthy for them to be anywhere near to each other. 

Age Rating 15+. Some sexual elements but only alluded to really. Small acts of violence. Death, suicide, religious mania and forced exorcism. 

The Frolic of the Beasts - Mishima Yukio

"Set in rural Japan shortly after World War II, The Frolic of the
Beasts tells the story of a strange and utterly absorbing love triangle between a former university student, Kōji; his would-be mentor, the eminent literary critic Ippei Kusakudo; and Ippei’s beautiful, enigmatic wife, Yūko. When brought face-to-face with one of Ippei’s many marital indiscretions, Kōji finds his growing desire for Yūko compels him to action in a way that changes all three of their lives profoundly. Originally published in 1961,  The Frolic of the Beasts is a haunting examination of the various guises we assume throughout our lives, and a tale of psychological self-entrapment, seduction, and crime."

Sorry for the break guys, just moved house and couldn't access my laptop. 

This was my first Mishima and I was thoroughly intrigued as to what kind of book a man with such a strange and interesting life story would write. He committed Seppuku in 1970 after failing to start a Nationalistic semi-military coup. Please do me a favour and just google this man, his life was certainly unique and he must have been quite a character. 

As I said, this is my first Mishima and I am walking away not really knowing what to think or how much I really liked this book. As with most theme-heavy, rhetorical works of fiction, the characters in The Frolic of the Beasts read more like archetypal placeholders in an allegory than they do representations of persons but that serves well one of the novel's principal themes: Fate's destruction of agency. With exaggerated characters and recurring poetry that echoes like a refrain, The Frolic of Beasts reads like an tragicomic opera, and who will emerge as hero or villain will be determined by whose story you find most sympathetic.

The prose is romantic with pleasingly rambling meditations on imagery even when describing the acts and aftermath of violence. Atmospheric descriptions of a hot Japanese summer leave the reader feeling even more claustrophobic and here is sense of unrealism to the prose, a rambling disjointed simplicity that recalls the sense of a fable. 

I found the premise of the novel deeply interesting and there where moments of real brilliance. However the character where just too one dimensional for me to fully undertand their motivation or their emotional state. This, unfortunately, undercut the impact of the novel for me. There are many moment where more exploration of the character's inner thoughts would have served to heighten an already interesting plot point. For example (SPOILERS) why does Yuko decide to invite Koji to work for her, what emotion drives that decision? Then when he is there, why does she not initiate the physical relationship that she obviously desires? A sense of guilt, the enjoyment of punishing Koji, the tantalising joy of a pleasure not partaken in? 

Because of this lack of emotional fleshing out I found the side characters and stories increasingly interesting. Kimi, for example, and her personal tragedy and story was impactful and almost fairy-tale like. 

Overall an interesting but not brilliant read. However I would like to trey a few more of Mishima's works to get a better understanding of his writing and thematic style. 

Age Rating 16+. Mature content. Rape, sex, violence. 

The Sound of the Mountains - Kawabata Yasunari

"Ogata Shingo is growing old, and his memory is failing him. At night
he hears only the sound of death in the distant rumble from the mountain. The relationships which have previously defined his life - with his son, his wife, and his attractive daughter-in-law - are dissolving, and Shingo is caught between love and destruction. Lyrical and precise, The Sound of the Mountain explores in immaculately crafted prose the changing roles of love and the truth we face in ageing."

A deeply meaningful book that I didn't understand at all. It is a book that I don't think can be read casually, as I did. It would better suited in a book club or high school literature lesson. It must be dissected. The motifs. The meaning of the Noh masks, the different flowers, the stray dog giving birth under the porch. The themes, of aging, love, family, loyalty, trauma and modernity. The subtle word choices and rhythms that Kawabata chooses to employ. If not then you loose much of the authors intent. 

As a metaphor for aging and the difficulty of family relations, it works well. As an actual story... there is barely any plot with nothing coming to any resolution. It was a slice of life book, a slice of the main character's life and existential ponderings used to illuminate certain human foibles to the reader but not to engage us. Not for us to have any conventional feeling of pacing, plot or character development. 

Kawabata crafts the relationship between Shingo and Kikuko beautifully on the cutting edge of sensuality and sympathy. Both the characters thrive separately in their miseries and still somehow in a bizarre way find a spiritual connection with each other, making the reader curious for the unheard. The tension of the unsaid and nervously wanted was certainly the highlight of the book for me. 

A beautiful and unique bit of writing that deserves study but certainly not a story. 

Age Rating 15+. Abortions, affairs and a creeping sensuality. 

Killing Commendatore - Murakami Haruki

"In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in
Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art."

This is my second Murakami and I think I prefer this book to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. While still infused with Murakami's trademark surrealism and many similar metaphors and motifs, Killing Commendatore seemed more coherent. The plot was simpler and the message that Murakami was trying to convey was elegant and present. 

The painting elements were compelling and beautifully written. There's also a deep point about the life of ideas and how they travel to people and places, moving outside of time and how ideas have a life of their own outside their original thinker. 

However, I feel pretty conflicted. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading it until the final 100 pages or so turned into a slog. I genuinely love Murakami's focus on the mundane and the sense of ennui that it encourages in the reader. On the other, it's repetitive and minimalistic in a way that felt generationally out of touch.

The unnamed main character is in one of these classic Murakami in-between periods in his life, where everything has fallen apart but he's somehow fairly financially comfortable and has time to re-evaluate things. He gets involved with a questionably shady guy, and they start investigating some slowly unfolding mysteries.

That should be great, but the edge parts simply don't work. In particular, the main character has a lot of deeply uncomfortable conversations with a teenage girl about her breasts, conversations which continue on and off for about 400 pages. She's such a poorly imagined character that it seems like it's all she thinks about. Also pretty much every women we meet has their breasts sized up to the point where it is the first thing that we know about them. That's never been ok in these books and it's not ok now.

Murakami novels rely on the uncanny, on coincidence and strange encounters that seem normal but have an undercurrent of anxiety and oddness. The main reason I love them. Some of that was here in a watered down form. The problem is the novel is simply too big for the small amount of story it contained. It has the essence of his tropes but the prose is too weak and stretched to utilise them fully.

Age Rating 16+. Some weird sexual elements with the main character having many affairs and being mildly obsessed on his dead 10 year old sisters breasts. 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon James

"Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a
nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written an adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf explores the fundamentals of truths, the limits of power, the excesses of ambition, and our need to understand them all."

Defying the more Western belief in one definitive version of a story, this book is structured as an oral epic in which stories lead to more stories which lead to yet more, ultimately providing the reader with a conundrum of reliability: who tells the truth and whose story is being told? Marlon James chooses to leave that entirely up to the reader. There are many elusive layers of detail to sift through from the very beginning: a test of endurance, almost asking "do you really want to hear this story?"

And I found that my answers was...No, not really, thank you. 

This is a deeply disturbing book. 

First, my purely literary criticism. I don't mind having to sometimes work for a story. some of the best stories take patience to dissect deeper meanings. But what is really happening here is Marlon James hiding behind his fancy words and complicated sentences to distract the reader from the lack of substance and development. The rhetoric in this story is dense, convoluted, and bogged down with false promises of something worth reading. The prose is evasive and meandering, dragging the reader around and around in circles without an end in sight. The pacing is uneven and the whole experience one of crazy disorganisation. It reads like a dreamscape, full of portent and stark brutality. The writing is often staccato, list-like, with small, well-crafted sentences that are a perfect foil for Marlon James’ ability, showcasing his striking imagery and unusual connections. Well, I would like to think that this was a stylistic choice of James's to create a feeling of unreliability or a drug induced haze and the book wasn't just an disorganized mess. Yes, it’s beautiful at times, but, for me at least, emotionless.

Now onto the really disturbing part. The amount of lewdness in the book is obscene. I'm not easily deterred by things sexual in nature, even perverse stuff as sex and the way we use it can give us a huge amount of insight into the human psyche. Bring it on. But this is too extreme for me. A big neon flashing trigger warning is necessary for the following: rape, gang rape, paedophilia, bestiality, incest, mutilation of bodies, graphic murder, physical and emotional abuse, repetitious orgies, torture, constant misogyny in all the characters, etc. and none of it has any relevance to the plot or progression of the storyline. I understand that mythology doesn't shy away from such brutality, but there is a difference between being aware and having these events happen for a reason and just being down right offensive for shock value. This book is the latter. 

Characters have limited realism, some act as symbols, some merely a means of upping the violence levels still further. When read all at once, it’s an endless and eventually numbing litany of misery and horror that loses any meaning. Such a lack of humanity ensures there is nothing redeemable or relatable about this book. Had this been a story about a tracker and a shapeshifter finding love while in search of a missing boy, deeply rooted in African mythology and cultural folklore fantasy, I would have loved this to bits. The concept is phenomenally creative. but this book is nothing that it claims to be. Instead is showcases toxic relationship after another, a disturbingly misogynistic and awful main character (that I really hope doesn't mirror the author's own feelings towards women)  that has zero character growth and reduces queer men's relationships to nigh-  on bestial sex. 

I wouldn't recommend it but it was certainly an experience that brought something new. 

Age Rating 18+. Please believe me on this one. I am not being overly sensitive, just trust me.

The Wind - Up Bird Chronicles - Murakami Haruki

"In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his
wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force."

This is a thoroughly confusing book and very difficult to review as I feel a person's experience of this book will be highly subjective. It certainly is a book to be experienced and left a deep impression on me. The book is a lonely world full of half finished stories, abrupt departures, missed connections and deep silences. A highly atmospheric novel, which I feel is more the point of the book then the confusing and meandering plot. To immerse you in this world of confusion, existential dread and urban ennui. 

While Wind-Up Bird didn't employ traditional clichés, there is the constant introduction of psychic characters who simply "know" things because they were "supposed to know" became slightly trite. Also, while half the characters were functionally omniscient, the other half did things without knowing why, claiming they were compelled by some uncontrollable, unknowable urge or force that often leaves them empty or numb of all feeling (literally, this happens with half of the characters in the novel). This started to feel old and frustrating because of the lack of character motivation that leads to characterisation. 

Some people have also argued that this 600 page book is functionally meaningless. An author can get away with a lot if ultimately the theme or message of the novel is intact. Try as I might, I can't find a coherent message Murakami was trying to express through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami did include a character that thoughtfully reflects on war crimes in World War II, but this subplot was unfocused, and by the end of the novel this story within the story fizzles and suddenly ends without reaching a climax. 

However despite my rather harsh criticism, I actually enjoyed this novel. It danced on the edge of being surreal however I personally never felt that anything that had happen was completely unbelievable just really freaking weird. I think this book is a wonderful representation of the mental space that many mentally ill people can find themselves in. A strange mix of pain, common sense, confusion and loneliness. 

I would suggest if you do decide to give this book, just give up trying to understand it from the beginning. Nothing makes sense, and I think that is actually the whole point. It reminds me slightly of the existential surrealism of Camus or Kafka. 

Age Rating 17+ Sex, murder, war, cheating, rape, concentration camps, rather explicit torture scene. 

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. 

Heroes and Villains - Angela Carter

"After the apocalypse the world is neatly divided. Rational
civilization rests with the Professors in their steel and concrete villages; marauding tribes of Barbarians roam the surrounding jungles; mutilated Out People inhabit the burnt scars of cities.

But Marianne, a Professor's daughter, is carried away into the jungle--a grotesque vegetable paradise--where she will become the captive bride of Jewel, the proud and beautiful Barbarian."

I haven't read anything close to this book. Possibly the closest is Kundera's "Unbearable Lightness of Being." They share the same brutal isolated tone and sex is a main theme in both. But other then that they share nothing. Heroes and Villain's is stunningly unique, in content and writing style. It sucks you in and leaves you reeling. Truly an excellent novel. 

However, it certainly isn't an easy read. As said above it is brutal, but it is also twisted and dark. The themes that it covers ranges from abusive relationships, rape, abuse, toxic co-dependency, the break down of society, religion and the viciousness of the human spirit. 

If you come into the book expecting it to be structured like a normal novel with a likeable protagonist and clear goal you will be disappointed. Marianne is a terrible women. As vicious and brutal as Jewel. Heroes and Villains is dreamlike, brutal and beautifully twisted. Gothic fantasy storytelling at its finest. Marianne and Jewel are two incredibly compelling characters, who I loved, despite disliking them very much. They are less characters and more symbols. They are tools with which Carter uses to construct certain arguments and contrasts. The writing is so so beautiful. Full of full bodied prose. Even when describing awful things, it envelopes you in the cloying atmosphere of the story. There is such a strong sense of place even with minimal world building. 

As a reader I enjoyed the progression of Jewel and Marianne's relationship, this unlikely romance, if you can call it that,  that would go sour in some places and then pick up again when you least expected it. It was so human yet so primal. Their story is symbolically underpinned by the Adam and Eve mythos, and this also handsomely features in the form of a grotesque tattoo on Jewels torso of the scene where Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit. In fact, Jewel is somewhat of a synthetic messiah; a puppet controlled by the ominous 'Doctor'; a madman who is trying to fabricate his own religion using members of the savage tribe. Jewel with his imposing physique and handsome looks doubles as Adam, Jesus and other religious characters. This aggressive reliance on each other, the love and hate sitting side by side was an interesting dynamic. It is definitely the best representation of an unhealthy relationship I have read. 

I really enjoy dark novels that deal with mature content, contemplate the human condition and what we can do to each other. However there were moments in this book that genuinely disturbed me and I am unsure if where entirely necessary or handled in the best way possible.  Marianne gets raped by Jewel, but it is so offhanded and quickly dealt with. Marianne isn't even very angry at him for it and she doesn't seem to suffer any emotional consequences. If fact she goes on to marry him and have a lot more sex. I just... 

Another scene that really got to me is the scene in which Marianne rapes a mentally unwell 13 year old boy. I am sorry but why was this scene necessary. I understand that Carter was exploring the human condition but what did this scene bring to the overall story. If the point was to shock me it sure did that well. 

Age Rating 16+. A brutal novel. 

Tithe (#1) - Holly Black

"Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she
travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death."

Yes, Yes I know. Another Holly Black. I am just a sucker for her description of Fae. So first of all, on the good side… the fairies . The way Holly Black draws her fairy worlds and fairy characters is genuinely so imaginative, gorgeous, and… creepy. Every time I dive into one of her books, I find myself both terrified and enamoured with her fairy world. Holly Black always knocks the fairy stories out the park. Tithe is a raw, dark faerie tale in keeping with Black's usual style. While not suitable for younger readers (lots of swearing, torture and violence, and mature themes), I loved its take on the darker side of faerie. Black's understanding and vision for Fairies is excellent and is exactly how I imagine them.  It also deals with faerie themes like Changelings and the knowing of one's True Name very well. 

Roiben had a lot of potential. The idea of being trapped in a different court, sent there by your beloved Queen where she knows you will be humiliated and tortured, but can do nothing about the terrible things you are made to do because they have your true name and have to do everything they say. I mean how absolutely horrific. However he did need to be fleshed out more as he did feel a little one dimensional at times. 

Kaye, though, is a bit of a blah main character. I found that she was one of those early YA protagonists who’s written just generic enough that she’s easy to make into a self insert, but at the cost of an engaging motivation or quirky personality. Cool outfits do not a character make. I think this book really suffered from being so short, and I mean it is really really short. The characters don't have time to be developed, and neither does the romance that is probably one of the worst Insta-loves I have ever come across. I just don't see how these two characters could fall for each other - especially in such short amount of time. Kaye saw Roiben once and fell instantaneously in love with his ... hair?  I mean, they know each other for 4 days max, have nothing in common, never really have a heart to heart talk to make us understand what attracts them to each other. 

It dallied with some themes but didn’t stick with them in any meaningful way. I find Black’s work tends to do this often. I’ve never read something by her that had anything to it. It’s all aesthetic for aesthetics’ sake, which is fine but undeniably tiring after a while. A quick, light read with plenty of beautiful descriptions. 

Age Rating 16+ Surprisingly high rating, drugs, sex with dubious consent, domestic abuse, swearing, minor's having sex, torture and humiliation. Other than that,
though completely fine. 

The Seed Collectors - Scarlett Thomas

"Great Aunt Oleander is dead. To each of her nearest and dearest she has left a seed pod. The seed pods might be deadly, but then again they might also contain the secret of enlightenment. Not that anyone has much time for enlightenment. Fleur, left behind at the crumbling Namaste House, must step into Oleander’s role as guru to lost and lonely celebrities. Bryony wants to lose the weight she put on after her botanist parents disappeared, but can’t stop drinking. And Charlie struggles to make sense of his life after losing the one woman he could truly love.

A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire, and family trees."

A deeply unusual and unexpected book. This offbeat novel about obsession, sex and inheritance is set in Kent in 2011 and stars an extended family of botanists. The concept of a family tree has a more than usually literal meaning here given the shared surname is Gardener and most members are named after plants. We have Great-Aunt Oleander, recently deceased; cousin Bryony and her children Holly and Ash; siblings Charlie and Clem (short for Clematis); and half-sister Fleur, who has taken over Oleander’s yoga centre, Namaste House. The generation in between was virtually lost, perhaps to a plant-based drug overdose, on a seed collecting expedition to the South Pacific. Oleander has left each motherless child one of these possibly deadly seed pods.

First, did I mention the book is saturated with sex? Incest, adultery, illegitimate children, S&M, Internet porn, you name it. But beyond that, the metaphorical language is highly sexualized – bursting with seeds, fertility and genital-like plants. I can’t think when I’ve encountered such oversexed vocabulary. It was unexpected and raw and quite shocking. 

I found the plot very loose. I would say it is my main disappointment. Nothing was really achieved or resolved. There was no momentum or push.  Not all the story lines are truly essential, so the book seems aimless for its final third as it doesn't really know what to do with itself. It definitely could have been shorter and tied together better, perhaps with some flashbacks to the previous generation’s experiences on the island to make the past feel more alive. The spiritual element also remains incredibly vague and a tad shoehorned in, I am still unsure if they where high, crazy or experiencing reality. Although it was a pleasant touch of magic realism along the way in the midst of the raw and brutal character studies. 

Finally on to the characters. They really are the driving point of this book, it really does feel like a long character study. Unfortunately all of these characters are complete unlikable for a variety of different reasons. They are obsessive, cold, angry, stupid, apathetic but all the time so uncomfortably real. I have read some reviews of people commenting that the characters are unrealistic and unlike anybody they know, well then I really envy you. Sure the characters could be said to be boiled down to their key traits but as someone from a large and highly dysfunctional family, the characters and their mannerisms where all too recognisable. 

Despite these reservations, I truly enjoyed Thomas’s unusual writing. She moves freely between characters’ perspectives but also inserts odd second-person asides asking philosophical questions about wasted time and what is truly important in life. I like the range of questions you’re left with as a reader: Is nature malicious? Can we overcome our addictions? How much of who we are is down to our parentage? Does life really just come down to sex? 

Age Rating 15+. Large amounts of sex, drugs, mental illness, alcohol addiction, realistic family dysfunction, abuse and suicide. 

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock - Imogen Hermes Gowar

"This voyage is special. It will change everything…

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.
As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This chance meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, a journey on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost…

What will be the cost of their ambitions? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?"
The scene is set for a picturesque romp through the teeming wharves, poverty stricken alleyways, gentrified squares and quaint rural areas, all of which we now know as inner London! The sights, sounds and smells of the time roll off the page.

The theme of mermaids and how they lure sailors onto the rocks seems to mirror the plight of some of the women in the novel who, in these deeply misogynistic times, use their femininity to lure men to gain influence, riches or simply to survive. Angelica Neal the grand but fickle courtesan is a wonderfully flawed and nuanced character and a key player in the story.

Part gritty and realistic, part whimsical and magical, this story of eighteenth century life is well told. However is didn't fully deliver. I was expecting magical realism, fantasy and mermaids based on the blurb. What I got was a well written historical romance novel, steeped in descriptive prose that felt a little flat to me.

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock follows a humble merchant and his love for a courtesan, whom he meets after a chance encounter with a mermaid. Jonah was a little dull in character, and felt as though he was severally lacking in any emotional depth (and backbone). Angelica, our courtesan, in comparison is scatty and all over the place. I wasn't keen on her characterization either at first, as she felt so different to Jonah, and I couldn't really understand her interest in him at all. She did become more sympathtic as the story porgresses but the romance was still incrediably forced. 

The pace is agonizingly slow, and the romance takes a long time to develop. I understand that the constraints of the time meant a romance of this nature would be upheld with trepidation and many longing glances - but unfortunately I felt it meandered too much before anything really happens. The ending, although it took a long time to get to, also left a lot of loose story lines which annoyed me. The real mermaid come completely out of left feild and it was so late in the story it felt like an odd addititon. 

I really didn't get what I expected out of this unfortunately. If it was targeted more as a historical romance it would perhaps find a better audience.

Age Rating 17+. Way, way more sexual then I thought it was going to be. Trust me, there is a bloody orgy in a brothel in one scene. 

An Almond for a Parrot - Wray Delaney

"London, 1756: In Newgate prison, Tully Truegood awaits trial. Her fate hanging in the balance, she tells her life-story. It’s a tale that takes her from skivvy in the back streets of London, to conjuror’s assistant, to celebrated courtesan at her stepmother’s Fairy House, the notorious house of ill-repute where decadent excess is a must…

Tully was once the talk of the town. Now, with the best seats at Newgate already sold in anticipation of her execution, her only chance of survival is to get her story to the one person who can help her avoid the gallows."

The way Gardner presents Tully's story is very vivid, straightforward and the language is a faithful example of the 18th century English collocations. The descriptions are lavish, detailed, from the clothes to the furniture to the daily life of the upper and low classes. The atmosphere was rich and luxurious.

Most importantly, the depiction of the prejudices and the stereotypes imposed on women by their fathers and their husbands is brutally honest. This is a world where a woman has to use her body as a merchandise in order to retain or to gain some form of dignity and self-respect, to acquire the necessary means to live her life in some form of freedom, however controversial. 

The magical realism element was a suprise but it is successfully woven into the story, adding an aura of mystery to Tully’s character. I do wish this element was explained more but I really enjoyed its inclusion. 

People have described this story as erotica, I personally disagree. It does have graphic sexual scenes but it's plot and characters is foremost. And as for the racy scenes? Well, this is the 18th century and our main character is a courtesan, so that’s that. In any case, you can easily skip them if they bother you.


Tully is an engaging main character. Naïve, sincere, brave and unafraid of her sexuality. She tries to make her life better, using the means that are accessible at the given moment and I don’t think that the readers should judge her. We all struggle to live our lives as best as we can given the era, the circumstances and all the unpredictable factors. I refuse to judge her choices and probably would have made the same ones in her prediciment. 

I personally thought that the speed that Tully feel in love with Avery was rushed. I would have liked if their relationship was fleshed out more and there was more time for the audience to get invested. They just sleep with each other a few times and I am supposed to believe they have a deep emotional, spiritual connection?

Overall a really good book that I personally enjoyed thoroughly. Won't be for everyone as it does have a very whimsical and otherworldly vibe to the whole thing, that is added to by Tully's ability to see ghosts.

Age Rating 16+. Very graphic sex scenes, rape and references to child rape. Not for the feint hearted. 

The Vegetarian - Han Kang

"Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether."

Sometimes you are lucky enough to read a book that you know will stay with you. This is one of them. I can never properly identify what makes some books like this. What makes them stick in the back of your mind. I have read many excellent books that do not effect me. I have read many 'ordinary' books that have stuck with me.

This book isn't super long. In fact, it reads like a novella, so it's easy to consume and fast paced enough that about the time you feel really into it, it's over. It's not a bad thing though because there is a LOT packed into this little story. Despite being a story that is explicitly about Yeong-hye, it is actually never told directly from her perspective. Instead, we are give about 60 pages a piece from her husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister. The oddest part about this formatting is, unlike many book of this type, the perspectives do not overlap. Some take place at the time of Yeong-hye's decision to become a vegetarian, and others take place years after the fact.

To be totally honest, this book is weird. It might actually be the weirdest book I've ever read. But there's still something beautiful about it. It's an honest while surrealist look at mental illness and how it affects not only that individual, but also everyone that cares about them. 

We see how her vegetarianism, which later leads into a kind of manic catatonia, affects first her callous and at times sexually abusive husband, then her brother-in-law who becomes completely enthralled with her sexually because of her Mongolian mark, and her sister who is the last one standing when Yeong-hye’s psyche begins to peel away. Each persons POV bring a unique insight and atmosphere to the writing. The first being deeply hate and disgust filled, the second saturated in sexual obsession and shame and lastly, the final part is so deeply and quietly desolate that it is almost painful to rea. 

In addition to the serious topics that The Vegetarian brushed up against: the effect of cultural mores on women, body image, conformism, familial ties and abuse, and, of course, mental illness - this was also a tale of family dysfunction. It was a tale of familial ties that were severed painfully, of violent confrontations and realizations, of physical and emotional starvation, and a parable about the woman, the vegetarian, at the centre of it all.

The Vegetarian was sensual, and it meandered toward its climax in a way that was both unsettling and prophetic. Honestly, this may or may not work for everyone. It was deeply unsettling and uncomfortable to read, not for the faint of heart or people unable to suspend disbelief. 

Age rating 17+. Incredibly adult material that isn't shied away from. 
Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.