The Lost Girl

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination--an echo. She was made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her "other," if she ever died. Eva spends every day studying that girl from far away, learning what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But sixteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything and everyone she's ever known--the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love--to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

 

With echoes (no pun intended) of the brilliant Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Lost Girl was completely captivating.  I loved, loved, loved this engaging debut novel from Sangu Mandanna.  While it wasn't my original intention, I read The Lost Girl in a day devouring each new page as quickly as I could.

The opening section, introducing the reader to Eva, was pitch perfect.  Showing her relationship with each of her caretakers and examples of how she feels like a prisoner.  By the end of part one I was on Eva's side no matter what, and this allegiance carried on throughout the book.

Then there is the sinister Loom where the Echoes are created. The name makes the process sound like a fairy tale, yet it is anything but.  There are three scientists who work at the Loom, and through their story Mandanna presents the old idea that brilliance corrupts.  How far does the science push you until you're not you any more?  Is there a point where what you've created becomes more human than you? 

When I finally finished it got me wondering: Is The Lost Girl classed as YA because the narrator is a teen? Because what I had just read was a diverse and adult exploration of the grieving process.  There were so many discussion points that I found myself still thinking about The Lost Girl long after I had finished reading.

As a side note: If not for a review link on twitter, I would have never of found/read The Lost Girl.  I know for a fact that I wouldn't have picked it up in a bookshop; the cover doesn't grab me, and neither did the blurb on my copy.  Just goes to show you that the old adage is true...

Prodigy

Missing

June Iparis

Agent, Los Angeles City Patrol,

15, Female, 5 FT 4 IN. 

350,000 Republic notes reward.

 

If seen, report immediately to your local official.

 

That's what the republic wants their people to think.  That I'm missing.  What they don't say is they want me dead.  I helped Day, the country's most notorious criminal, escape his execution, aided the rebel patriots in a staged uprising and turned my back on the republic.

 

But I won't turn my back on Day...

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't as obsessed with Marie Lu's first dystopian novel Legend as other bloggers seemed to be.  While I thought there was plenty of good stuff in there, I was totally anti a June and Day romance.  Why couldn't they just admire each others abilities and similarities and then build up to the smoocholas in either the second or third book in the trilogy? 

However, the coupling that I hated in the first book become a strength in Prodigy.  Lu provided of a sense of who these characters are, and consistently showed me why I should be rooting for a Day/June relationship.  Prodigy has so much to love (including the fact that Lu isn't afraid to kill off her characters, as I like it when peril actually means peril) and I couldn't put the book down; a complete contrast to my experience of when I was reading Legend. 

With Prodigy, Lu successfully expanded her damaged world, that has been ravaged by the effects of global warming, beyond the Republic.  I don't want to be too spoilery, but the contrast between the Republic and the Colonies is rather interesting. I hope that the dichotomy between the two is explored further in the next book. 

My one criticism is that I guessed some of the plot twists early on.  This explains why, when Day and June finally figured that there were shenanigans taking place, I was all Dennis Duffy from 30 Rock, actually shouting, "FINALLY DUMMIES!" 

So how does the Legend series progress?  And how does Lu even begin to wrap up her trilogy in a satisfying way?  We'll have to wait until next year when Champion is released.  Is it wrong that I am hoping for a they all die at the end scenario?

The Book Thief

I don't know why I hadn't read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak until recently and I couldn't tell yo why I decided that it was finally time to read it.  I did a little bit of research beforehand and had seen a comment on Goodreads that this wasn't a book you could read quickly.  I'd argue against that as I steamed through the Book Thief like a locomotion on it's way to get Anna Karenina.  I thought it was one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction that I have ever read. 

Here's the blurb from Goodreads (the picture is from there too as I forgot to take one of my copy, d'oh!): HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH. It's a small story, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES

Captivating and harrowing at the same time, I thought that Zusack had found a perfect voice in which to tell his story.  The narrator, Death, wasn't a characicture like you'd expect, just an observer who had become fascinated with Lisel's story.  The reasons for this are left unclear.  Did Death follow Liesel and those who lived on Himmel Street to prove to itself that there was some good in humanity during a time when there appeared to be none?  Or as a prime example of the evils that others can do to each other? 

Even though it may have been heartbreaking, there were proper consequneces for everyone in this sad tale.  The narrative was set up like a stack of dominoes that the Zusack was waiting to flick at just the right moment, so that they all topple.  When he knocked his dominoes down I was in tears, heartbroken for Liesel and all of the people I had grown to love over the course of the novel.  Yet even in death there was beauty and I'm definately going to buy my own copy of this tremendous book.

Rebel Heart

 

It took me a few days to read Blood Red Road, and I thought that the same reading time would apply to it's sequel, Rebel Heart.  Not the case.  I read this thing in a day.  It was a couldn't put it down, didn't look at page numbers, totally in the Dustlands with everyone, situation.  Here's my warning that there may be spoilers ahead...but I'll try my best to be as vague as I possibly can.

 

There's a price on Saba's head.

They call her the Angel of Death. She defeated a tyrant, but victory has come at a cost. Haunted by the ghosts of her past, she needs Jack. His moonlit eyes, his reckless courage, his wild heart. But Jack has left, and a ruthless new enemy searches for Saba across the Dustlands...

 

While not as action laden as Blood Red Road, Moira Young's second Dustland book features plenty of character development.  Rebel Heart has a lot in common with Lauren DeStefano's Fever in the sense that just because you defeated/escaped the big bad of the first book doesn't mean that all of your problems will fade away and your happily ever after will appear out of nowhere.

 

For a start Lugh and Saba's once close relationship has completely fractured by the events of Blood Red Road.  It's frustrating because throughout the book there's no communication between any of the characters.  If only Lugh would tell Saba of his experiences of being held hostage by the Tonton.  If only Jack could tell Saba his plan.  But then if these secrets were divulged, Rebel Heart would be rather boring... 

 

Lugh's not the only one with problems.  Saba's own guilt has been manifesting over all the girls that died during her stint as a cage fighter and also over her part in Epona's death.  It's a tough choice to take your strong narrator and show her weaknesses, but it pays off by making Saba appear human.  The only grating part is when Saba tries to go off on her own again, only to be chased down by the rest of the gang.  You'd think that by now she'd realise that her friends and family aren't going to let her go that easily.

 

Then there's the developments between Saba and DeMalo.  I sort of knew that Young was going in this direction ever since DeMalo's first appearance in Blood Red Road, so it wasn't a big shock.  I'm not one for love triangles, but people do silly things when they feel that they've been betrayed.  At least Saba realises that she may have made a mistake, and the portrayal of that is at least an adult, and real, representation of what life sometimes throws at you.  Though I am interested as to who the heart stone was directed at in the last scene, and to have DeMalo's ambiguity of character cleared up.  Just what does he want?

 

Rebel Heart isn't as thrilling as Blood Red Road, but that's not to it's detriment.  If anything I have a clearer idea about who these characters really are.  I do wonder what direction Young will take the plot and her characters in for the third book.  It's a shame I've got to wait until January 2014 at least until I find out.  Bah.

Blood Red Road

In the Dustlands, you fight or you die.

There are no laws in Saba's world.  When her twin brother is stolen, she pursues his captors through a wild, wasted land.  She must become a warrior to survive.  On this dangerous road she can trust no one.  Not even the handsome thief who saves her life - and steals her heart.

 

Prior to reading Blood Read Road, I had heard lots of good things about Moira Young's Dustland series.  From what I could garner from goodreads The Dustlands was a better executed version of Lauren DeStefano's The Chemical Garden Trilogy.  Now that I've finally read both Blood Red Road and Rebel Heart (and Wither and Fever) I just can't see the parallels between the two series. Yes, they both feature twins, one of whose job it is to locate the other, but that's where the similarities end.

 

Where the Chemical Garden trilogy is set in a recognisable futuristic America, where all the states are still intact, the Dustlands could be set almost anywhere, on a different planet even.  I sort of wish that there hadn't been the few dystopian elements to root in our world (like the sky scrapers) and that Young had made this into an all out, foot stomping, cut throat, futuristic western. 

 

Saba's quest to find Lugh is a brutal journey that goes in directions that are unexpected and thrilling.  From the moment Lugh gets taken I wasn't expecting anything but peril for these characters.  And this isn't the type of danger where everyone magically lives at the end.  No, this was a world where tragedy happens and it sticks.

  

I thought the dialect would be grating, but after a while I didn't notice.  However, I am fed up with love interest having a lopsided smile, and then there's the whole heart stone maguffin...But even I have to admit that it did set up some interesting dynamics for the next book.  Plus Saba's a hard headed as a stubborn mule.  She doesn't want to accept that she could be falling in love, so maybe Young did some reverse psychology on me in that I was actually rooting for Saba and Jack by Blood Red Roads end.

 

What stood out for me was the relationship between sisters Saba and Emmi.  Young's duo are a reflection that not all sisters get on, and not just on a superficial 'they'll grow out of it' level either.  The disdain that Saba shows towards Emmi in contrast to her unconditional love for Lugh made Saba a real person with complex feelings that aren't always considered to be the right ones.

And don't even get me started on what should have stayed on Saturn...

I could go on all day about the different things I loved about Moira Young's novel (I haven't even mentioned Nero and The Free Hawks) but I'll stop here and leave some surprises.  Blood Red Road is an extraordinary start to what hopefully will be a thrilling and unique series.  I just can't believe I waited so long to start reading it! 



Emilie and the Hollow World

I got an advance copy from Strange Chemistry (via Net Galley) of Martha Wells new book Emilie and The Hollow World.  I thought it would be good company for me on my usual train journey up to Norwich.  1 hour and 45 minutes later I was lucky to have got off at the right station.  

 

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.
Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.
With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

Reminiscent of Jules Verne's Journey To The Centre of The Earth, with a sprinkling of Gail Carriger, I found Emilie and The Hollow World wonderfully imaginative.  Wells' plot takes Emilie down to the depths of the sea only to pop up in a place where merpeople exist, among other interesting creatures. This brilliant story was adventurous and light hearted, but most of all a lot of fun to read. 

The introduction is fantastic, and within a few pages I knew exactly what to expect from this book, where the plot was headed and what kind of characters I would be reading about. I couldn't stop my self from laughing every time Emilie found herself in a situation more perilous than the last.

Once the action moves to the Hollow World, as a reader you have to use your imagination to interpret Wells' fantastically written creation.  It is completely different to a lot of YA titles where my brain just goes into auto-pilot because most of the plot is set somewhere that is vaguely familiar.

Yet Martha Wells' story is not all action; but there's certainly no romance either.  In fact Wells offers something more interesting all together and that's the relationship between Emilie and Miss Marlende.  An apprentice and teacher bond forms between the two, Miss Marlende being a great example of a strong women who has a career and no time for smoochies.  It was interesting and somewhat refreshing to have not one but two characters who were not completely focused on the opposite sex.  This meant that these characters could be defined in their own terms, rather than those of what would impress the object of their affection.

If you've read Jonathan L. Howard's Katya's World (another great Strange Chemistry title that is all adventure and no romance) and fancy trying a bit of steam punk then give Emilie and the Hollow World a read.  I'm hoping this is the start of what could be a wonderful series.

Fated

Camden, North London.

 

A tangled, mangled junction of train lines, roads and waterways.  Where minor celebrities hang out with minor criminals and where tourists and moody teenagers mingle.

 

In the heart of Camden, where rail meets road meets leyline, you'll find the Arcana Emporium, run by one Alex Verus.  He won't sell you a wand or mix you a potion, but if you know what you're looking for, he might just be able to help.  That's if he's not too busy avoiding his would-be apprentice, foiling the Dark, outwitting the Light and investigating a mysterious relic that's just turned up at the British Museum.

 

Benedict Jacka's first novel in the Alex Verus series is marketed as a cross between Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London and Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.  While for me Fated wasn't hate at first read, it wasn't a book I'd be raving down the street about either. 

Fated has an interesting plot, involving the British Museum, but it doesn't have the sense of place that the Rivers of London series has, and it doesn't have the wit of Jim Butcher.  There is also the problem that there are too many similarities to my favourite fictional Chicago native (even if Jacka does give that wink at the beginning that Verus exists in the same universe as Harry. Maybe there could be a cross-over book collaboration between Jacka and Butcher in the future?).  However, this is only the first book.  As the series continues, I hope that  Benedict will brake away from the Dresden comparisons and find a niche for his characters.

Another problem with Fated is that there is too much telling and not enough showing in the first half of the book.  There's so much that the reader needs to know about Alex's world, it did feel like I was the apprentice being lectured.  I was pleased that the final act seemed to have found a good balance between action and information, making me realise that this series may be worth sticking with. 

The characters already have clear personalities, but not ones that I'm totally in awe of.  Due to all the telling, Alex has a teachers tone that makes him sound a lot older than his years and a little bit too serious for my taste. Then there's Luna, who I wish had a bit more of a backbone.  Although Jacka does hint that there's more to Luna than he's letting the reader privy to.  Therefore, it will be interesting to see how he expands not only her character, but her mythology, throughout the series.

I've got the second book Cursed and I've read other reviews saying that the series does improve, so I'm sticking with Verus for now.  

Across the Universe

Amy has left the life she loves for a world 300 years away.

Trapped in space and frozen in time, Amy is bound for a new planet.  But fifty years before she's due to arrive, she is violently woken, the victim of an attempted murder.  Now Amy's lost on board and nothing makes sense - she's never felt so alone.

 

Yet someone is waiting for her.  He wants to protect her - and more if she'll let him.

But who can she trust amidst the secrets and lies?  A killer is out there - and Amy has nowhere to hide...

I am finding it hard to write a review of Across The Universe by Beth Revis.  I finished it two weeks ago, and I can't really remember any thoughts I had while reading.  Revis' tale was pleasant enough, and yay for a bit of SF YA, but there seemed to be something missing.

The only problem I can recall is that I wasn't as grabbed by Across the Universe as I wanted to be, finding it very easy to put it down and leave for a couple of days.  This could be because I didn't really care too much for one of the protagonists: 'daddy's girl' Amy.  I was very glad that the narration was split between her and Elder, as I don't think I could have stood for a whole 400 pages of Amy's inner thoughts. Although I wasn't so keen on her, one of the redeeming features of Across the Universe, for me, was the relationship between Elder and Amy.  I couldn't quite figure out if Revis was aiming for her characters to fall in love at first sight or for them to have an instant curiosity about something different.

Overall, I think there's more of me wanting to like this book than actually liking it for what's on the page.  However, I am still interested as to what will happen in the next book, and maybe that will be a chance to convince me that this series is better than it first appears...

Ascend

Wendy Everly can barely remember what it was like to feel like a normal girl.  She'd wished for her life to be different but everything is so much more complicated than she'd expected.  And she certainly hadn't dreamt she'd be getting married at eighteen to a man she didn't love - all for the sake of duty.

As the big day approaches, Wendy can't stop thinking about two different men - and neither of them are her husband-to-be.  Finn, quiet, strong and determined to do what's right, and Loki, dark and seductive - a sworn enemy who once saved her life...

With all out war just days away, Wendy needs to act quickly if she is to save her friends and family.  But while her loyalties and duties are to her people, deeper passions are leading her elsewhere.

And as her worlds collide Wendy must sacrifice everything she loves to save them.  But will it be enough?

WARNING: This review *might* be a bit spoilery.

Ascend is pretty much a good conclusion for Amanda Hocking's Trylle series.  It is all about growing up and how to make the right decision.   Most of the supporting characters get pushed aside in this book (with the exception of Willa, who is allowed some growth, too.) and it really is a chance to show how much Wendy has changed over the course of the series.  She is unrecognisable from the somewhat selfish person she was in book one.   Now an adult and making mature decisions not only about her kingdom but her love life, too.  There's still the annoying love triangle: Wendy's relationship with Loki grows over the course of the book, and her relationship with Finn deteriorates into something new.   I'm extremely glad Hocking didn't back track on the ideas she had put in place in Torn, as I think this would have ruined the entire series for me.

These books have never been about action, but about world building and character interaction.  Therefore, the climactic fight between the Vittra and the Trylle may have been short and sweet, but I did laugh at the Buffy-esque moment when Wendy finally gets the upper hand over her father. 

Right up until the last few chapters, I was content with how the series was wrapping up.  Then I started to notice the direction Hocking was corralling her characters in and I thought....oh balls.  The last moments I spent with Wendy and co. read like the epilogue in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.  I get the need for a happily ever after, but this was way too happy, way too neat and tidy.  Then there was the short story included in my edition.  Normally I sing the praises of these extra stories, but this time around Hocking further hammered home how twee and perfect everything was for the Trylle.  I'm not cruel...it's not like I wanted everything to turn out like one of Elora's last paintings, but maybe the ending could have been a touch more subtle?

Another problem I had was the contradiction of Wendy not wanting a one-night-stand with Finn, because it would only be for one night.  Flash forward to her saying a 100 pages later that she was okay reversing the situation when having a chance to sleep with Loki.  Was this a case of double standards or was this intentional because things would eventually work themselves out?

Overall,  I'm not sad that this was the last book.  I think there's room for more stories (perhaps from a different narrator?), but everyone is in their perfect happy bubble, so maybe they should be left that way.

The Holders

17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother - from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland's "problem" and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.

She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family's heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they've been waiting for... but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.

I shouldn't like The Holders as it contains three of my pet hates: A whiny narrator, love at first sight and plenty of telling and hardly any showing. And yet...I couldn't stop reading Julianna Scott's debut novel.

Scott had me hooked as soon as Becca and Ryland were leaving America behind, and heading to a boarding school in Ireland.  Those first few chapters contained so much potential for where the story could eventually lead and I was excited to follow Becca on her journey.

What kept me reading, even when I had my doubts, was the logic that was behind the tropes that I normally hate.  Becca is whiny teen because she doesn't get to whine to other people.  She has had to be an adult in order to protect Ryland.  The whole love  at first sight thing is explained in a way that relates to the mythology of the Holders.  Also, for Becca it isn't necessarily insta-love.  Finally, there is so much information that Scott needs to relay to the reader that maybe there will be more showing in the second book now that the world has been established.  Maybe I'm making excuses because I found this book charming despite it having flaws that I normally abhor.  Or maybe The Holders was genuinely a good read.
 
An interesting, and somewhat fun, introduction to what could be a fantastic series.

Legend

Los Angeles, California, Republic of America.

He is Day, the boy who walks in the light.

She is June, the girl who seeks her brother's killer.

On the run and undercover, they meet by chance.  Irresistibly drawn together neither knows the other's past.  But Day murdered June's brother and she has sworn to avenge his death...

I saw Legend on so many TTT lists last year that I had to know what all the fuss was about.

While I enjoyed Marie Lu's dystopian tale, I could have done without the smoochies.  It just read like this: "Oh I find you attractive, now I must save youuuuu!".  I know I'm a grinch, but Lu had developed more than enough to bind Day and June together.  Without the romance there would have been a far more interesting dynamic between the two of them and how they represent the same ideals whilst having completely different backgrounds.

Other than that one disappointment, I was astounded and fascinated with the world that Lu had created.  Maybe I haven't had my share of Dystopian novels yet, so I'm still pretty amazed that writers can come up with all these different post-apocalyptic situations.  I'm not surprised that the film rights have already been snapped up.

I'm still interested to see how Lu will develop her characters, and expand the world outside the Republic, when book two in the planned trilogy, Prodigy, is released at the end of the month.

Divergent

This is the blurb on the back of my copy:

One choice decides your friends.

One choice defines your beliefs.

One choice determines your loyalties - forever.

One choice can transform you.

Bit vague, huh?  For those wanting a bit more info, here's the blurb from waterstones.com:

She turns to the future in a world that's falling apart. For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs. Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead...A debut novel that will leave you breathless.

 

 

It has been a week since I finished reading Divergent.  I tried to hold off writing a review straight away as I instantly came away thinking that not a lot happened story-wise.  However, if this had been true, I wouldn't have felt so compelled to keep on reading Veronica Roth's dystopian YA novel.  While Divergent could never be compared to the works of speculation fiction genius Margaret Atwood ( but then I wasn't looking for another Onyx and Crake, I was looking for a end of holiday read), it had a good momentum and interesting characters.  The first in a planned trilogy, it suffers slightly from having to build a world, so very different to our own, with so many rules, but is a great introduction nonetheless.

What stood out for me, and what was ultimately gratifying, was that Tris wasn't a typical YA narrator.  She wasn't perfect, or helpless and she wasn't unaware of her stunning beauty, waiting for a boy to notice this and save her from the big bad evil world.  Tris has plenty of major flaws, her pride and selfishness to name only two, and I liked how Roth explored this young girl's desire to do not only the right thing, but what was also in her best interests.  Of course there was the obligatory romance, but I'll let it slide as it wasn't love at first sight.  Roth aptly decided that this romance, and the feelings of her two characters, would be shown through their actions rather than just told through their exclamations and thoughts of all conquering love.

I've already ordered Insurgent from the library and I'm hoping that now all the introductions are out of the way, and the characters have been established, that there will be a stronger storyline in place and that the series reaches its full potential. 

 

Gone Girl

Just how well can you ever know the person you love?  This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears.  The police immediately suspect Nick.  Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him.  He swears it isn't true.  A police examination of his computer shows strange searches.  He says they aren't his.  And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.  So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?


Gillian Flynn has one dark mind as Gone Girl is a boat load of crazy.  The narration is split into two, alternating between Nick's thoughts while searching for his wife and Amy's diary entries that reveal more about their marriage than Nick will share.  Right from the start each section of prose has this jittery quality which promptly informed me that this was not going to be a bog standard thriller.  Sure enough, the further I followed Flynn down the rabbit hole that is Amy Dunne's disappearance, the more intense my feelings for the book became.
  I don't want to go into any detail so as to spoil Gone Girl, but it has so many twists, some obvious, some not, and by the end it is hard to know who to empathise with.  A great well paced story, that has some truly horrific moments, I was up until 2 am two nights in a row reading this noir-esque thriller desperate to know what happened next. 

Enduring Love

One windy spring day in the Chilterns, Jose Rose's calm, organised life is shattered by a ballooning accident.  The afternoon, Rose reflects, could have ended in mere tragedy but for his brief meeting with Jed Parry.  Unknown to Rose, something passes between them - something that gives birth in Parry to an obsession so powerful that it will test to the limits Rose's beloved scientific rationalism, threaten the love of his wife Clarissa and drive him to the brink of murder and madness.

 

Enduring Love didn't capture my attention, much to my dismay.   I have loved reading every other Ian McEwan book that I could get my mitts on (Attonement, Saturday, Amsterdam, Sweet Tooth, Solar) but I couldn't continue reading this tale of obsession for any prolonged amounts of time.

  Maybe I have been in an odd mood for the past week, or maybe I found the
prose alienating. Rose rattles on like an elitist madman about his scientific
beliefs for much of the book. I know this was supposed to add to the confusion
and cement Rose as a character but I was only interested in finding out who was
the madman - Rose or Parry? - and couldn't really engage with Joe and his
plight. This is odd, as normally McEwan can make the most detestable characters
readable and interesting. I'm not denying that Enduring Love is a good read, it just wasn't a good read for me.

Lost in a Good Book

Thursday Next is back.  This Time, it's personal.
For Thursday Next, literary detective without equal, life should be good.  Riding high on a wave of celebrity following the safe return of kidnapped Jane Eyre, Thursday ties the knot with the man she loves.
  But marital bliss isn't quite as it should be.  It turns out her husband of one month actually drowned thirty-eight years ago, and no one but Thursday has any memory of him at all.
  Someone, somewhere is responsible.
  Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday heads back into fiction in search of the truth, discovering that paper politicians, lost Shakespearean manuscripts, a flurry of near-fatal coincidences and impending Armageddon are all part of a greater plan.
  But whose?  And why?


Lost in A Good Book is the second instalment of the Thursday Next series written by Jasper Fforde.  Lets get all the gushy stuff out of the way first.  I love the alternative Britain that Fforde has created. I love all the wacky literature references and the silly character names.  I love how Fforde plays around with the form of the text (conversations happening in the footnotes!), but most of all, I love Thursday.  Landen has disappeared but does she sit around and mope like any other heroine would?  No, she investigates!  Is this all Thursday gets up to in Lost in a Good Book?  No!  There's neanderthals, the Chesire Cat and even Miss Havisham.  Plus if you need a supernatural hit, like in the Eyre Affair, there is what I like to call the intermission moment where the main plot is put aside and Thursday goes off on an amusing adventure with SO-17 officer Spike Stoker. 
  Lost in A Good Book isn't always a barrel of laughs and the quieter thoughtful moments come from scenes with Thursday's parents and the Landen who now only exists in her memories, all adding a more detailed history for Thursday and the Next family.
  Sometimes I do get a bit lost with all the goings on in Thursday's world, and not all chapters captivated my imagination or even my attention.  However, there is still plenty to enjoy when reading Lost in a Good Book.  Although I'm not rushing to order the third book in the series, if The Well of Lost Plots happens to be in the library, I will be revisiting Thursday and Pickwick the dodo sometime next year.  

Seven Wonders

Tony Prosdocimi lives in the bustling metropolis of San Ventura - a city utterly gripped by fear, a city under siege by the hooded supervillain, the Cowl.
  When Tony develops super-powers and acts to take down the Cowl, however, he finds that the local superhero team, the Seven Wonders, aren't anything like as grateful as he had assumed they would be...

 Adam Christopher's homage to the super hero genre could never be accused of being dull.  Seven Wonders is jammed packed with action sequences and various characters that you'd normally find in various graphic novels - some have gloriously funny names - and all of the core players have their chance to shine and their potential explored.
  
  My scatter brain benefited from the overall structure of short chapters that proceeded rather long ones and I also felt that the jumps in narration allowed more freedom to explore how certain characters viewed themselves and then how others viewed them which further emphasised the central theme that power corrupts, even if you don't intend for that to happen...Seven Wonders is exactly as advertised, yet it never keeps in the direction you think it's going to head in.  I thought I had it all figured out and then half way in everything changed!  A fantastic stand-alone novel (but in true superhero fashion, the ending leaves plenty open for a sequel) that would be a great Christmas gift!    

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.  

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.

The Killing Place/The Silent Girl

A couple of weeks back I was rummaging through the library shelves and stumbled upon the two Rizzoli and Isles books (I've been slowly going in the right order when the library has them rather than ordering them) that I hadn't read yet.  This has been a great series so far, and Gerritsen's books are never a chore to read so I looked forward to a thrilling double feature.

 

The Killing Place

He Watches.
Something terrible has happened in the snowbound village of Kingdom Come, Wyoming.  Twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned.  The people who lived in them appear to have vanished, seemingly into thin air.
He Waits.
Maura Isles is driving through the area with a group of friends when they find themselves trapped in  snowstorm.   They stumble into the abandoned village to take shelter.  Their nightmare has only just begun.
They Disappear
Days later, Jane Rizzoli flies to Wyoming to search for her missing friend.  A crashed vehicle has been found with four badly burned bodies still inside.  Can one of the corpses be Maura's? 
Jane's hunt for the truth leads her to Kingdom Come.  Where the person who was watching Maura now lies waiting for her...


The Killing Place was superb, and is joint first with Body Double as the best entry in Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles series. The dialogue may be a bit shoddy, and very cheesy, but the plot was fantastic. Gerritsen sets it up as horror story and I was genuinely getting a bit creeped out. The Killing Place captivated my attention for a whole train journey, and would probably fare well for a long-haul plane ride as I wanted to find out what was going to happen to Maura. The only fault was that the ending was a bit of a let down, but it was an enjoyable ride nonetheless.



The Silent Girl

Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.
  In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.
  Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.
  Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.


I didn't enjoy The Silent Girl as much.  I found it hard to keep reading, and guessed who the culprit was about half way through, which is unusual for a Gerritsen book where she normally keeps the identity of her killers hidden until the last few pages.  However, this was still an enjoyable read as I liked the cast character development that wasn't related to the case; like Maura testifying against a cop; and Jane trying to navigate her new family unit. 
  Not every entry in a series can be excellent (apart from the Dresden Files...), so I'm hoping that the next book will go back to combining a great murder mystery with personal development for both Rizzoli and Isles.   

Apocalypse Cow

The title alone made me order this crazily brilliant debut and joint winner of the inaugural Terry Pratchett Prize.  There are echoes of the movie Black Sheep and while there's nothing totally original about Apocalypse Cow, it's a fun ride nonetheless.  The characters are all literary/film cliches but they are well written cliches that made me laugh with their sometimes absurd actions and thoughts.  Logan holds nothing back, as there is plenty of gore,Apocalypse Cow has a somewhat creepy ending implying that while this could remain a standalone book, this strange world in which animals become zombie-esque could spawn a sequel.