Looking forward to more!

Try Not to Breathe: A Novel by Holly Seddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This really is an excellent first novel, one that keeps you turning the pages till the end. I think this is in part due to the unique context of this crime story, where the main characters include an alcoholic journalist, a victim who is in a permanent semi-vegetative state and an old boyfriend riddled with guilt. You realise from the outset that this isn’t going to be your average crime novel and this is why it works so well. The only slight negative is that it is quite easy to figure out who the perpetrator is, although there are enough small twists to keep you wondering a wee bit till the end. Looking forward to reading more from this author!!

Many thanks to NetGallery for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

A Little Life, No Little Book…..

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The title is A Little Life however it’s not a little book, literally and figuratively. I can understand why some people loved this book and why others really hated it, so for me it averages at three stars.

I personally liked quite a lot about this book – the characters were interesting and the story was a brave one, well worth reading about. The central focus is Jude and his journey from extreme abuse to the potential for hope and happiness. The story illustrates the transient nature of life, how recovery from trauma is always a journey and not a destination, that friends really can be family, not to mention how rich your social life and monetary circumstances can really be (was quite envious!).

Unfortunately it takes at least 200 pages more than it needs to do this. Much the story’s momentum is drowned (literally) in pages and pages of internal dialogue expressing thoughts and feelings of self-doubt, pity, shame, fear, confusion, pain….over and over and over again. The writing is very strong however the content often ends up being too inward looking, for too long and too often. It seems like the author was trying too hard, Yanagihara’s next piece of work could be a masterpiece if it embodies the principle that less is more…..the result will be far more powerful.

Many thanks to Picador and NetGallery for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really good Grisham-esque style crime thriller

My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story introduces us to Detective Tracy Crosswhite, a character driven to find out the truth regarding her sister’s death twenty years ago, even when this goes against the wishes of those who were involved at the time. This is quite a tight story that doesn’t try to do too much, remaining focused whilst having a fair share of action to drive momentum. Even with a relatively probable outcome there was enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Overall an enjoyable page turner and I look forward to the next installment of Tracy Crosswhite. For lovers of a good crime novel, it’s great weekend/holiday reading!

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGallery for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sharp, Funny, Intellectual, Human……

The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fate must have known that it was time for me to read something fabulous after quite a drought. I took my time with this story, like you should with a fine wine, as it demands you do so from the first few chapters. It’s sharp, funny, intellectual and human. Did I mention it was funny? Laugh out loud lines that grab you:

“In the new world, those who don’t dance to rock n roll will be executed!”

“In due course, I came to classify writers in two categories: those who enabled you to arrive on time and those who caused you to be late….The Tolstoy period had been a bad month…..when I explained to the school porter, a student who was supervising us, that Anna Karenina’s suicide was the cause of me being late, he thought I was making fun of him….he gave me two Thursday detentions: one for being late for the umpteenth time, the other because Anna was a bloody bore who did not deserve such attention. I bore no grudge against at him. It allowed me to finish Madame Bovary.”

It’s a coming of age story of Michel, a boy who loves baby-foot (hand football), books, reading while walking the streets and is an unofficial member of the chess club in a local French bar filled with unique and passionate characters who all have fled persecution in one form or another.

The book is about the coming of age stories of them all…..because we don’t really ever stop coming of age do we? The never ending and inevitable lessons of love, betrayal, injustice, contradiction, power, hate, passion, regret, yearning and forgiveness. This book successfully weaves a rich tapestry of the characters’ stories together with wonderfully composed philosophies on life that take your breath away.

“Nowadays, people speak to one another and don’t say anything”

“What’s the use of being free to say what you think if you have a bloody awful salary and live like a dog?”

“What upset them was their mistaken analysis, their collective blindness, their failure to understand, their desire to uphold their conviction that the system could get better”

“How do you fight against the fire that destroys poems?”

I could go on and on quoting passages however I am not a fan of long book reviews and for this book I have become my own hypocrite…. buy it, borrow it, however you acquire it…. definitely make sure you read it!

NB: It would be preferable to refrain from doing so while walking the streets and crossing the road.

 

Strong premise, however needs more work…..

KINGS OF DELUSION by E.J. Findorff
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

From the beginning it had me hooked and I thought this was going to be a four star read for sure. It gets straight into the the murder of a family where the only survivor is the 16 year old daughter, who then continues to be hunted down whilst Katrina roars around the city of New Orleans.

So from a really strong start my score fell down to two stars. There are some strange scenes that just ‘pop up’, some involving sex where the timing feels quite odd/unexpected. Also there are quite a few of descriptions that sexualise the 16 year old character which are not relevant to the story and slightly contradict the outcome at the end. Overall I felt like I was watching the 1974 movie Earthquake, it had the drama and suspense but the layer of sleaze means you are not able to take it that seriously.

This is actually a shame as the premise was good and with an additional edit these issues could be rectified and the story enhanced. A particular opportunity would be the back story of the killer, I think much more could have been made of this to good effect. There could have been an opening chapter contextualising a scene from the past as well as snippets throughout the book which would really draw you in to quite a dark place. Jo Nesbo does this quite a bit and often works well for thriller reads. So overall, unfortunately, only 2 stars from me :(.

Many thanks to Maxine for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I devoured this book!!

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A big four and a half stars, I devoured this book!! It connects past and present though a piece of music ‘Incendio’. You start with Julia discovering this piece of music in Italy however as soon as she plays it when she gets home, strange and violent things start happening with her daughter. Is this connected to the music? You are then taken back in time to Italy, just as fascism was really starting to show its true and brutal face and we start to understand the origins of the composition. The story is well written, holds you captive and repackages well known history in a refreshing and suspenseful way. A great read!

Many thanks to NetGallery and Random House for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect for the weekend…….

Swerve by Vicki Pettersson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Phew! So all in all this is a good solid thriller. Kristine is caught in a cat and mouse/race against the clock type game with an unhinged predator in order to save her fiancé. How far will she go to save him?

Kicks off straight away with tight suspense and action that keeps you turning the pages all the way to the great twist (which I didn’t actually see coming). Kristine is also still affected by her past and this works quite well, though takes a little too long to get the full picture. This is also a reoccurring theme throughout the second half of the book. Whilst there is a lot going on, the story loses a bit of suspenseful momentum as we now know the score and it’s just about how its going to play out. For this reason it’s only three stars and not four.

Reflecting on this book, I think after the twist is revealed it would have been interesting to then spend time with the predator and their past, how they came to be who they are and what is driving them from their perspective (not just Kristine’s view of the situation in quick summary). Along with Kristine’s past this would have added some depth (and potentially even darker concepts) before things are brought back to the present. For me this would have kept momentum going, meant the final playoff was a shorter/tighter read and overall make for a deeper, darker thriller. All in all though a solid and enjoyable read, perfect for the weekend :).

Many thanks to NetGallery and Gallery Books for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fine wine reading…..more to come!

The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia

Still reading
I’m 40% done with The Incorrigible Optimists Club.  It’s very, very good!  However think I need to put on ice as this book should be enjoyed like a fine wine. It’s important you take the time to really savour it. Am looking forward to seeing where it goes….and really looking forward to reviewing.  Think it might be a winner read for 2015.  Stay tuned!!!

Came back haunted…..

Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was doing some lazy trawling through Goodreads and this book pops up. Well such a blast from the past!!! I came across this book when I was about 10 in my school library (which was in a developing country so we were always short of good books). I read it and it has stayed with me…..the power of the story, the fear, the danger, the tension and suspense! It all centres around a young girl who has survived a nuclear holocaust and is on her own…until one day a man arrives….

If I reread it now am sure it might not have the same zizazu as it once did, given many books have followed since then. However I think this book was an important one. It shaped my taste and thirst for the books I love. Ones where you lose yourself to the story and are taken to another (often terrifying) reality, you are kept in suspense and on the edge of your seat…..and most importantly, you are haunted by the story over 25 years later!