Heart Shaped Bruise

I've seen this on a couple of blogs, yet I didn't set out to read it, but it was another a case of it catching my eye in the library and me thinking why not?

They say I'm evil. The police. The newspapers. The girls from school who shake their heads on the six o’clock news and say they always knew there was something not quite right about me. And everyone believes it. Including you. But you don't know. You don't know who I used to be.

Who I could have been.

Awaiting trial at Archway Young Offenders Institution, Emily Koll is going to tell her side of the story for the first time.

Heart-Shaped Bruise is a compulsive and moving novel about infamy, identity and how far a person might go to seek revenge.

Heart-Shaped Bruise is a YA Crime/Thriller, probably a good introduction for budding crime novel devourers.  The only problem I had, and this may be a tad spoilery, was that I found myself waiting for a twist that never came.  There were too many coincidences for me and I was expecting something a little more complex from the ending.  Still I read it in one sitting.  Tanya Byrne's writing style is definitely compelling, and in Emily she has created a brittle and fascinating character, that perhaps deserved a better story to inhabit.  So, while Heart-Shaped Bruise is not a bad read, and I would recommend it, it is just not what I expected.

Cool Covers of the Future

Spotted this today over at Angry Robot's website  I've got the first book, Empire State, but haven't read it yet.  I picked that up as part of a 'buy one, get on half price' offer purely because of the cover (and okay, the blurb sounded mighty interesting too) and I might have to purchase this to have a matching set of awesomeness.

Cool Covers of the Present

Found this in the library. No surprise that it is from the beautiful Penguin Essentials collection.  Even though I've got a self-imposed book ban from the library on at present, I had to make an exception so this could live in my handbag for a few weeks.

Hollow Earth

Twins Matt and Emily Calder have imaginations so powerful that they can make art come to life.  Their powers are sought by villains intent on accessing the terrors of Hollow Earth - a place where all the devils, demons and monsters ever imagined lie trapped for eternity.  If Hollow Earth is breached, the world will be plunged into chaos.  If Hollow Earth is breached... ...the twins are as good as dead.

 

I picked this up on a whim.  I'd seen an interview with John and Carole on This Morning promoting Hollow Earth and it sounded interesting enough so I figured if they had it in the library I might as well order it and check it out.

 

At first Hollow Earth reads like a stereotypically badly written novel for pre-teens, but once it gets past the introductions and leaves London behind, the story turns into an interesting and quirky quick read.  The Barrowman's seem to have found a good balance between explaining and showing, as I never felt that the story was being dragged by exposition.  The characters may not be original, but their heritage is, and as the story develops they progress from angst ridden pre-teens into curious and somewhat responsible protagonists that I wouldn't mind following for a couple more books.



The City's Son

Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets.
  When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she find Filius Viae, London's ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most.  An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul's Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.

Without a doubt, this has to be the best Young Adult book I have ever read.  And probably one of the prettiest covers I have ever laid my eyes on. 
 
The City's Son has a great, imaginative, story that incorporates all aspects of the city of London and Tom Pollock has created some brilliant, fractured characters to inhabit his London underbelly.  I really liked Pen, Beth's best friend, and her growth throughout the course of the novel, but then I liked all the characters relationships and interactions.  I was also amazed at how every page was firmly rooted in the city, Pollock using London as another character for his intriguing cast of misfits.
  What impressed me the most was that The City's Son reads as an adult novel, and that there were consequences from the actions within the book that can't be erased or corrected by a magical/unbelievable event.  Also the momentum of the plot carried me from being a sceptic into a full fledged fan.

There's an obligatory twist in the tale that I guessed early on, but it doesn't rankle so much as it sets things in motion for the next book, The Glass Republic, which I am eagerly anticipating.  The City's Son is everything I wish Whispers Under Ground would have been, and I would recommend it for any fans of The Rivers of London/Peter Gant series.  

Coming Up

 Again, this is what happens if I make eye contact with other shelves when I'm only in the library to return books. I've been trying to limit my library allowance so I can get around to reading the huge stack of books that I bought last year. However, I have no will power and some books are just too darn pretty to be left on a shelf.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

In The Gunslinger, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.  He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
  In hi first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice, begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.


I had heard great things about The Dark Tower series, and I have liked previous books from Stephen King (even if I didn't realise it until 20 chapters in) so I thought, why not?  I had been meaning to order the first book of the series, The Gunslinger, for a while and about four Saturdays back it just happened to be waiting for me on the Science Fiction shelf in the library.

  Now, I don't know if this was because I'd been having a funny week and couldn't concentrate but I could not latch on to this book mentally.  I enjoyed the introduction and foreword by King, I think he has such a clear voice when he is talking about his work, but then when I got to the actual story I had no clue what was going on.  This usually happens with me and new books, so I was expecting to start retaining some information about a third of the way in but this never happened.  I finished the last few pages last night and I don't think I could tell you what happened apart from that Roland had a conversation with the Man in Black.

I'm not giving up on my attempt to read this series, but, I'm not in a rush to order or read the next instalment.  However, if like this one, it magically appears on the library shelf in the new year, then I'm most probably going to check it out and see if it was a first book fluke or if I really do have a problem with rambling fantasies.