"A room without books is like a body without a soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell



Ada Goth is an only child and lives with her widowed father and an abundance of servants and ghosts in the enormous Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Ever since her mother died in a tight-rope walking accident, Ada’s father has developed the belief that children should be heard and not seen, forcing her to walk about the castle in ginormous clomping boots so that he can hear her coming. As such, it’s difficult for her to make friends, and she’s rather lonely.

One day William and Emily Cabbage come to stay at the Hall - the former enjoys chameleon-like powers and the latter is an avid painter - and together with Ishmael, the eponymous ‘ghost of a mouse’, Ada and her new friends set off to solve and foil the dastardly plot that the indoor gamekeeper is hatching before it’s too late!

Goth Girl is a really enjoyable little book, filled with references to plenty of classic gothic novels which adults will appreciate, such as Jane Eyre, The Yellow Wallpaper and Frankenstein.

The book itself is gorgeous: it is a small hardback filled with lovely illustrations by Riddell - who also illustrates several of Neil Gaiman's books - on almost every page, it is sewn at the spine, the inside cover is embossed with beautiful silver skulls and the pages are trimmed with a deep, metallic purple colour. There is also a ribbon bookmark, and a tiny book placed in a pocket inside the back cover, which is a poem detailing the memoirs of Ishmael the mouse.






Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is a solid children’s story with spooky overtones and tons of delightful illustrations as well as much humour and peril, and some clever nods to gothic literature. The characters are diverse and entertaining, and there are lots of magical, unusual creatures that Ada and her friends encounter on their adventure; all of which make this beautiful little book a worthy venture for adults and children alike.

Rating: 8/10

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières



Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a novel I have been urged to read by my Aunty for years, but I never got round to it because it didn’t sound like my sort of book. I was very wrong! 

Set on the small Greek island of Cephalonia during World War 2, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is both a romance story and a bitter tale of the devastating consequences of war on a small community. Studying the effects of such destruction on a tiny island gives the novel the emotional and personal touch that makes this book so special. 

The story follows Dr. Iannis and his daughter Pelagia over a long period of time, following their lives both during and after the war. Pelagia becomes betrothed to the handsome young fisherman Mandras, but he leaves the island to fight and Pelagia’s letters to him go unanswered; fearing the worst, she finds herself instead falling for the Italian captain stationed on Cephalonia, a mandolin player named Antonio Corelli...

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a brutal, heartbreaking and honest story, but at the same time it manages to be sweet and poignant. Because the plot spans such a long time, the premise doesn’t reveal much about the events to come; it’s just the very beginning of this tragic yet beautiful story. The plot is enticing, albeit a little slow in parts - particularly when history-enthusiast Doctor Iannis details a lot of the island’s past. However there are also really lovely, almost anecdotal chapters (such as ‘Snails’) which are heart-warming as well as sweetly saddening since the characters we have grown to care so much about are all trying their best to remain positive, strong, and happy together despite meagre possessions and devastating circumstances.

The writing is beautiful and descriptive, seamlessly incorporating subtle humour. The characters are carefully crafted and wonderfully real. Mandras was my favourite, though I can’t say too much here about why this is; he is complex and fascinating and represents how damaging war can be on a person, as well as the theme of villainy and heroism. Pelagia is a strong, fiery woman who questions the role of the female in Greek society with her yearning wish to become a doctor; de Bernières addresses other controversies such as homosexuality in the military through the character of Carlos, adding multiple layers to this already awe-inspiring novel.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin blew me away: it is bitter, heart-warming, sad and romantic, with an addictive plot, real characters and gorgeous writing. Don’t wait like I did - just read it! 

Rating: 9/10

Thursday, 31 October 2013

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini



And the Mountains Echoed opens with a haunting folktale, told in the form of a bedtime story by the impoverished Saboor to his children, Abdullah and his beloved little sister Pari, of a monstrous div who visits a poor household and demands one child from the father, or it will kill all of his offspring. The child is chosen and taken away in a sack. Years later, wracked with guilt and half-mad with anguish and sorrow, the father sets out on a quest to find his son, whom he finds living in luxury at the div’s palace, much better off than he would have been living at home, and with no memory of his original family. The story serves as something of a heartbreaking allegory; it swiftly becomes a nightmarish reality for the young siblings, as shortly after the tale is told, Saboor sells his small daughter to a wealthy family in Kabul.

The novel deviates somewhat from Hosseini’s first two novels in that it does not focus on one character alone, nor is it set mostly in Afghanistan. And the Mountains Echoed is instead reminiscent of a collection of short stories as each of the nine chapters rotates in perspective and follows characters all over the globe, from Afghanistan, to Paris, California and Greece.  

All of the separate narratives are linked by the devastating event that occurs at the beginning of the novel - the brutal separation of Pari and Abdullah - which forms the foundation of the main plot.

The novel begins strongly - Hosseini’s beautiful, lilting prose eases you into the tale, telling the story with a gorgeous simplicity. The folklore story of the div made for an innovative opening, and the tragic removal of little Pari so early on was reminiscent of the shocking and tearful events of both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns; I thought this was going to have me bawling.

Nonetheless, this is where the positive aspects end. The adoption of so many different voices meant Echoed lacked the depth of character that brought his first two books alive. Since the novel does not focus as much on the plight of one character, it is not as emotionally wrought or as intricate and personal. Some of the stories felt a little unnecessary - such as the one set in Greece - which was a touch boring, seemed to come to nothing, and had little to do with the main story. All I cared about was Pari and Abdullah; I was desperate to know if they would ever find one another again, and I think Hosseini might have benefited by focusing on this a bit more, as overall the plot is not very strong. 

What’s worse, this is the only Hosseini novel which has failed to make me cry! I think this is because it lacked the subtle complexities of his other two novels, as well as a character we get to know on a personal and emotional level. It is undoubtedly a sad book, but it is not as deep, meaningful or tear-jerking as I was hoping and expecting it to be. 

If you liked Hosseini’s first two novels, don’t expect quite the same with this. I was beyond excited when I heard Khaled Hosseini was releasing a new book, and although this one is - despite my grumbling - very good, it doesn’t have the same magic and emotion which make both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so special. It’s definitely worth your time and is a solid novel, but if you’re new to Hosseini, I would recommend trying his other books to begin with. 

Rating: 7/10

Friday, 25 October 2013

NOS4R2 by Joe Hill



NOS4R2 is an intelligent, thrilling and highly imaginative supernatural horror novel, which in spite of its title has nothing to do with traditional vampires; no, Charlie Manx’s leaching power is far more sinister and insidious. Manx drives around in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith which bears the license plate NOS4R2 (a reference to the vampire of the classic 1922 German silent-film enititled ‘Nosferatu’), capturing children after murdering their families to take them to a place called ‘Christmasland’. In Christmasland, it is Christmas every day and unhappiness is against the law; it is a place that exists solely inside Manx’s head, it is his ‘inscape’. Manx traps the children there forever and ever, stealing their life to retain his youth, leaving them as empty, soulless, hook-toothed monsters.

But other people have inscapes too, such as Maggie Leigh, who can read the future in her magic Scrabble tiles and the protagonist Victoria “Vic” or “The Brat” McQueen, who uses her inscape - a magic covered bridge - to find things which are irretrievably lost on her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike. As a child Vic encounters Manx, and is the only person to ever escape the Wraith, but now Manx is on the road again; Vic is desperate to forget, but Manx has not forgotten her, and he has acquired a new target - Vic’s own son, Wayne.

In NOS4R2, Joe Hill achieved something that most would consider to be impossible - to make Christmas into a scary concept. This inversion of an archetypal Christmas is very clever and I must salute Hill for his intelligence and inventiveness. The story is incredibly well thought out and interesting, and it is actually frightening. Manx’s ability to spirit children away into his own private inscape is chilling, as it is virtually impossible to retrieve anyone from Christmasland; the evil place existing only inside Manx’s mind. The transformation of the children into creepy little demons is also horrifying and visually written. There is a particularly unnerving part when Wayne has been kidnapped and is travelling to Christmasland with Manx, his teeth falling out to make room for the hooks, and some of the things he thinks are downright disturbing:



“Wayne waved. The little girl saw him and waved back. Wow, she had great hair. You could make a rope four feet long out of all that smooth, golden hair. You could make a silky golden noose and hang her with it. That was a wild idea! Wayne wondered if anyone had ever been hung with their own hair.”



Despite the inspired and twisted nature of the story and the sharp writing style, for me the characters let this book down a little: Vic’s personality in particular prevented me from really loving NOS4R2. I understand that Hill wanted her to be troubled and to highlight the difficulties of mental health issues, but I found her to be very self-pitying, whiney and overall quite unlikeable. She is also purposefully quirky and unconventional as a protagonist - for example her love of motorbikes and the fact that she’s covered in tattoos - as though this should make her interesting, but it doesn’t. Furthermore, this sort of character has already been done in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy.

Although the concept of Christmasland and the creepy soulless children are terrifying, the villains themselves are not very scary. In fact they sometimes act like bumbling idiots - particularly Bing, or the Gasmask man, who works for Charlie Manx. Bing is an unhinged, sociopathic individual; he uses Gingerbread flavoured gas to put the parents to sleep and then will do with whatever he pleases with their unconscious bodies until he finally decides to kill them; he constantly yearns for Manx's approval. Manx for the most part seems like a rather jovial old man - albeit one who can turn at any second; he reminds me of a fairy-tale creature who can transform from an kind elderly woman into a wicked witch at whim. He genuinely seemed to think he was doing the kids a favour by taking them away from their parents, which makes him more mad than evil; he didn’t seem to have coherent motivations.

Furthermore, the book is long - nearly 700 pages, and it feels a little padded and not very well-paced; the story spans from when Vic is a little girl in 1986 all the way to present day, which means some parts are boring and drawn out. 

NOS4R2 does not live up to Horns, but it is enjoyable, clever and inventive. The characters were mostly lacking for me - except for Wayne and his father, the superhero fanatic and horrendously overweight Lou - and it is too long. Nonetheless, NOS4R2 manages to be both a horrifying story and emotionally rich at the same time. The writing is engaging, the concept is spine-chilling, and the story is captivating.

Rating: 8/10

My other Joe Hill reviews:

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn



When two pre-teen girls are found murdered and toothless in the small Missouri town of Wind Gap reporter Camille Preaker, now residing in Chicago, is sent to her home town to gain the inside scoop for her paper. Camille is reluctant to return to Wind Gap, origin of her deeply troubled past, which left her both physically and mentally scarred; due to her trauma Camille used to be a cutter, and now bears the scars of hundreds of words she gouged into herself during her youth. Even less inviting is seeing her cold, hypochondriac mother again, to whom she rarely speaks anymore, and her strange half-sister Amma, whom she barely knows. Nonetheless with her job on the line Camille returns to her mother’s Victorian mansion where she discovers that, like her, almost everyone in Wind Gap has dark secrets, and ugly scars to hide too...

After my sheer amazement with the brilliance of Gone Girl earlier this year, I could hardly wait to read another of Flynn’s novels. Sharp Objects is her debut, and although it is a good book for various reasons, it is flawed and I did not enjoy it as much as Gone Girl at all.

The characters are the highlight of the novel; everyone is nasty and disturbed, they are creepy and complicated, and you want to know more about them; even as you want to know less about them. Camille is an ugly and damaged character - refreshing traits for a protagonist. There is something very unhealthy and almost dirty about this book; a miasma of vileness hangs over it and the novel revels in the dark side of humankind. The writing is surgically executed and hooks you in, whilst the story is focused and stays on target, never meandering or leaving you wondering where the hell you are.

However, although Sharp Objects is dark and edgy - an aspect I like - it sometimes tries way too hard to be unique by using this almost Chuck Palahniuk level of darkness and weirdness. As such, it ends up being a bit too odd and disgusting in parts. Furthermore, behind the murk of hideous secrets, murder, drugs, abuse and mental health issues, Sharp Objects is really just an average thriller, with a very predictable outcome, and no interesting plot turns.

Sharp Objects is a book with numerous positives, but remove the pervading dark tone and you are left with a straight-forward, predictable plot. It is worth a read and I did enjoy it, but Flynn accomplishes so much more in her latest work, the thrilling and highly unpredictable Gone Girl.

Rating: 6/10

My other Gillian Flynn reviews: