Some books need more of an exercise in imagination than others. A bigger suspension of disbelief. An unborn narrator, for example, is one such. And not just unborn in a metaphorical sense but literally foetal. The narrator of McEwan's most recent book - recently serialised on Radio 4 - is a third-trimester Hamlet, set in modern London, recounting… Continue reading Nutshell, Ian McEwan
Category: Thriller
The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This certainly has a distinctive and gorgeous cover on it, which has graced the window front of local bookshops for weeks! But they do say that you shouldn't just a book etc etc etc ... The book is narrated by Isabella, a young girl on the island of Joya, who has been brought up on… Continue reading The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
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The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
This will be a fairly brief review for two reasons: firstly, I thought I'd already reviewed it and only realised when I tried to link my review of The Vows of Silence to it that I'd not; and secondly, it is very much a continuation of the second novel, The Pure In Heart. Serrailler is… Continue reading The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
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Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
This was ... not what I expected. A band of travellers in the England of 1348, travelling and telling tales to each other over the course of their journeys. The reviews and comments on it make an obvious but - to my mind - highly suspect assertion that this somehow a re-imagining of The Canterbury… Continue reading Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
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A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan
This was a pleasant enough way to round of my half term: decently written in the engaging and practical voice of Lady Trent, this book conjures up a Regency style world with echoes of Austen. With dragons. The opening sections of the novel are the most Austenesque - if that's even a word. Isabella… Continue reading A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan
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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North
"Complexity should be your excuse for inaction." I was born in 1973 in a village in Kent. So far as I know, only once. I have to say, when I die, if I were to be reborn as myself in the same village in 1973 again, I'd be a tad surprised! I mean 1973.… Continue reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North
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The Girl With All The Gifts, M. R. Carey
Oh dear. I fear I'm going to be unpopular here because I've heard so much good about this book. People have raved about it. A friend, whose book recommendations I've often been steered well by, re-reads it. Monthly. So I apologise in advance. I found it to be... okay. It was standard zombie post-apocalyptic horror fare… Continue reading The Girl With All The Gifts, M. R. Carey
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Blood On Snow, Jo Nesbø
This was not what I had expected from Nesbø. And I'm saying that in a good way. Nor is it what the sticker on the front proclaims it to be, "The Brand New Thriller" from the author of The Snowman. Well, it obviously is from the author of The Snowman, which is the only other Nesbø… Continue reading Blood On Snow, Jo Nesbø
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Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
This is a remarkable novel. Of the three CILIP Carnegie nominees I've read, this is my clear front runner. And I'm saying that having read Patrick Ness! Before I review it, however, I'm going to play a game with my sixteen year-old stepson, whose birthday it is today. Despite his protestations, he is going… Continue reading Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
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Lamentation, C. J. Sansom
I do love a book with a map in its cover! I must confess I'm not entirely sure what this map adds to the book, but at a personal level, I used to live pretty much where Shardlake's house is! Inside Lincoln's Inn. Abutting Chancery Lane. And that, pretty much, sums up the appeal of… Continue reading Lamentation, C. J. Sansom
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The Scar, China Miéville
Miéville is one of my favourite authors: acutely political, wildly imaginative and linguistically sparkling. I discovered him through Perdido Street Station and adored the sprawling city of New Crobuzon: mercantile, rapacious, brutal but utterly compelling. It is a city populated by renegade scientists, scarab-headed khepri, eagle faced garuda, the amphibian vodyanoi, the cactacae and brutally… Continue reading The Scar, China Miéville
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More Than This, Patrick Ness
I am a huge Patrick Ness fan! Let me put that out there at the start of this. I hugely admired his Chaos Walking Trilogy but was utterly blown away by the visceral emotion and mythic scope of A Monster Calls. There are few books that dig inside you as much as that one. This… Continue reading More Than This, Patrick Ness
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Summer Reading
With a week to go before the summer holidays, my reading list is starting to grow. Currently queued up on the ereader I have the following: These are crime thrillers penned, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, by John Banville who wrote The Sea. I was particularly intrigued by The Black-Eyed Blonde as a new Raymond… Continue reading Summer Reading
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Blackout, Mira Grant
I'm not going to write much about this book: it doesn't really warrant it! This is the third in Mira Grant's post-zombie-apocalypse political thriller Feed trilogy - so I have that glow of satisfaction of completion having read it - but it is a trilogy that should never have been. The first book, Feed was,… Continue reading Blackout, Mira Grant
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I am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes
Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can - sometimes - get some reception... There was quite considerable hype about this book online which led to my getting it: phrases like Bondesque and Bournesque appear to have been coined in order to describe it. It is… Continue reading I am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes
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Deadline, Mira Grant
In education, there is a chap by the name of Dylan Wiliam who espouses the theory that one shouldn't give grades out. Children look at their grade and either think "yeah, that's good enough" or they think "I'm a failure and there's no point in trying". Dylan Wiliam tells us that we should just give… Continue reading Deadline, Mira Grant
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Feed, Mira Grant
I'm a sensitive soul, me. I like books and words; I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cringe at the sight of gore and blood. So why have I been immersing myself in gore recently? The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin and now Feed, book one of the Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira… Continue reading Feed, Mira Grant
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Inferno, Dan Brown
I have used the metaphor of food to describe reading for many years now. Some books are hearty, healthy and honest like a rare steak; some are delicate and fragile, like over-wrought sugar work in a pretentious restaurant, beautiful to look at but whimsical, self-indulgent and lacking taste; some are fun, entertaining chocolates and candies;… Continue reading Inferno, Dan Brown
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Let The Right One In, John Ajvide Lindquist
Its odd how my book reading lurks in certain genres for a while: after a crime spree, I notice a range of horror books collecting on the pages of this blog - with more on my to-be-read list. I wonder what it is with Scandi-Lit. Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy; Jo Nesbø; Mons Kallentoft ... There… Continue reading Let The Right One In, John Ajvide Lindquist
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The Shakespeare Curse, J. L. Carrell
The last book I read, The Passage by Justin Cronin, took me a month to read. This book, The Shakespeare Curse, took me 72 hours. That's not a good sign. Not good at all. I like to lose myself in a book, to live, breathe, love and bleed with the characters I share my reading… Continue reading The Shakespeare Curse, J. L. Carrell
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The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler
I worry about Sweden. It keeps me up at night. I wake in cold sweats. I worry about the weather there: the snow and freezing temperatures. I worry about the trolls. I worry about IKEA. And I worry about the people. And families. It must be a terrible place. Every single novel I've read from… Continue reading The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler
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Tsotsi, Athol Fugard Analysis
So these are the ideas which I have been discussing with my class. Tsotsi is set in 1956, give or take, in Sophiatown, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was written by Fugard in the early months of 1960 after Sophiatown had been destroyed by the white community in Johannesburg and,… Continue reading Tsotsi, Athol Fugard Analysis
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