Book Reviews |
 A nostalgic read in more ways than one. First of all I hail from the city of Liverpool and the references to many of the places, such as Lime Street, the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and the Blue Coat School, as well as the statesmen who also came from the city, bring the comfort of recognition.
0 Comments
 Immediately dropped into a world of cover-ups, espionage, mercenaries and dodgy goings-on with guns, threats and fights - I had to stop for breath before the story began.
 This book was not what I was expecting, which was a powerful courtroom drama. Instead it is an average read that was published at the right time, when sexual assaults among rich famous people, including inside the British parliament, were exposed and spurred the spread of the #metoo movement.
 Andrew Michael Hurley knows landscapes intimately. Forests, rivers, moorland as well as the weather that shapes them and the animals that live there. More than this, he can write about nature in all its brutal guises so much so that the reader feels it in their bones.
8/1/2019 0 Comments You by Caroline Kepnes The appeal of this psychological thriller is really quite straight forward. An aspiring writer is stalked by a bookshop owner. Sounds like a fantasy to me, but this story definitely is not. Dark and disturbing.
Billed as a 'Heart-Warming Holiday Tale' ('holiday' in this instance means Christmas), I looked forward to some light reading over the festive period. And I loved the cover, which shows a steam engine in the snow. Lovely.
21/12/2018 0 Comments The Mistletoe Murder by P.D. James14/12/2018 0 Comments Milkman by Anna Burns I wasn't long into this Man Booker Prize winning book of 2018, when I realised that it was set in 1970s Northern Ireland, probably Belfast. Although nothing is named, the place 'over the water' and the people who live 'over the road', who follow 'the other religion' was very reminiscent of The Troubles as I remember them. I was living in Liverpool, close to Northern Ireland, and I still have childhood memories of such terms as 'kneecapping', 'car bombs' and 'paramilitary'. And the more I read, the more my belief was reinforced.
29/11/2018 0 Comments Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill An unusual take on the ghost story, where a successful rock star buys a ghost to add to his bizarre collection of occult and disturbing items. The ghost comes in a funereal suit packed in a heart shaped box. A great start to this debut novel by Joe Hill.
2/11/2018 0 Comments Pet Sematary by Stephen King Sometimes dead is better. This is a frequently said comment by one of the central characters in this novel about coming to terms with loss.
18/10/2018 0 Comments Circe by Madeline Miller My favourite film of all-time is, and has been since I first watched it as a child, Jason and the Argonauts. It probably was the catalyst for my love of Greek mythology. So it was with great anticipation that I read Circe, the second book written by Madeline Miller about the Ancient Greek gods.
16/10/2018 0 Comments The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins This book appeals to the many thousands of voyeurs who love to watch ordinary people go about their mundane business while secretly hoping something interesting happens.
5/10/2018 0 Comments God's Country by Ross Raisin A novel set almost entirely on the North York Moors, with its dramatic landscape, rural life and conflict with change. This is the backdrop to the story of a disaffected teenager working on his family's farm.
 Unashamedly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock films, this bestseller and debut novel reads like the script of the dark psychological thriller film it will become. It is easy to see why there have been over a million copies sold.
19/7/2018 0 Comments Twisted by Andrew E. Kaufman A psychological thriller about a psychologist. That was the draw.
The title of this novel refers to perceptions of reality and the example given in the book explains it perfectly: like a broken mirror the reflection is real but distorted. 26/6/2018 0 Comments Pompeii by Robert Harris This book was chosen to coincide with my visit to Pompeii. I finished reading it as the wheels touched down at Luton Airport. And what a great read it was.
18/5/2018 0 Comments Horns by Joe Hill An original concept that starts in a rather comic way - a hungover man wakes up to find horns growing out of his head - and then the story develops into something much darker.
 In one respect, A Clockwork Orange is of its time. Written in 1961 when the 'teenager' as an entity had just come about, (complete with its own language, dress code, music and culture) the novel deals with this 'problem', finds a solution and then considers the consequences.
4/4/2018 0 Comments The Dark Half by Stephen King The symbolism depicted in this novel is familiar to all of us. Just like The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, we all have a dark half that we try to keep buried. In this book, the dark half will not stay buried of course.
|
RSS Feed
