Mad Mike's Writing blog, book of the year 2024

Welcome friends, book bloggers and avid readers alike, to my annual book of the year post. As usual, this post is not about books written or published in 2024, it’s about books I have read. I won’t bore you with a full list, for that you can look me up on Goodreads so, without further ado,

In at number five is: The Familiars by Stacey Halls

Great characters, superb writing and centred around an episode in history I knew nothing about - The Pendle Witch trials of 1612 - The Familiars is a fast-paced historical thriller which drips with secrets, intrigue, fear, hypocrisy and witches, with a constant inference of injustice, in spite the tenacious efforts of or heroine, seventeen-year-old mother to be, Fleetwood Shuttleworth.

The power struggle betwixt Fleetwood and her philandering husband and the pace and tone of the writing reminded me very much of the late great de Maurier and Frenchman’s Creek, which is why this superb debut novel earnt itself four stars and a place in my top five.

 

In fourth place: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Magical.

Scary, too, but magical.

Mixed with fear, lose, loneliness and bitter memories of a time gone by, Gaiman manages to weave a tail that can be enjoyed by everybody. There’s fantasy, magic, good and evil, all expertly mixed with a reality that still seems to bend the rules and it’s a rollercoaster of emotion, from love, wonder and amazement to that cold chill that sometimes runs down the back of your neck. All told, this book is stunning – I read the illustrated edition which wowed me visually, too – and like all good books, takes you on a journey that is difficult to forget. Four stars.

 

In bronze medal position, then: Mosquito by Rowland White

WWII has begun, but in a remote village in Hertfordshire a self-taught aviator, Geoffrey de Havilland, has a plan. He has what he believes the Royal Air Force needs, a twin engine 400 mph fighter, bomber, reconnaissance aeroplane that will take the fight to the enemy and, it’s made of wood!!

In spite the scepticism from the MOD (ministry of defence), de Havilland pressed on and creates possibly the best aeroplane ever made. It was faster than the Spitfire of the time and could carry the fight – with bombs, rockets, cameras or agents – to the enemy, and performed some off the most daring raids of the war.

Mixing history and facts with the first hand accounts of the men who flew the thousands of missions at treetop level over enemy territory, night after night, week after week, month after month for four years, this book takes you to the heart of the battle, be it the quietude of a moonlit field in Zealand, or the smoke filled cockpit of a doomed Mosquito, you get to smell, hear and feel everything and learn what fortitude, valour and hero, really mean.

Four and a Half Stars.

 

So, the runners: Someone Like Me by M. R. Carey

This is a book about domestic abuse, murder in self-defence, kidnapping, multiple personalities, mental health, young love and an imaginary fox, written with a delicacy I wasn't expecting.

From Beth's rise behind Liz's calm exterior, to Beth's cold-blooded ability to not just kill Liz's (her) ex-husband but to dispose of him with such composure is brilliantly executed. As is the relationship between Francine and Jinx, her imaginary animated fox friend that happened to turn up the day she woke after being kidnapped as a young girl. The way they speak, interact - Fran even holds doors open for her fox when she's going to see her therapist - is again, clever and very well executed as is the book in general.

With multiple perspectives: teenagers, adults, the real and the ethereal, the fictional and the fantastical, and the fear, the horror and the tranquillity, I fell that I’ve found an unexpected gem that needs shouting about. Four and a half stars.

 

And the winner: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I have a confession. I was a big tennis fan when I was younger, mid-80s to mid-90s – used to camp on the street to get Wimbledon tickets – which might have skewed my opinion, but let’s face it, this author writes superb books.

Carrie Soto won everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, so, when the new kid on the block closes in on her all-time Grand Slam record, Carrie Soto doesn’t take it lying down and we learn just how hard it is to be at the top: the fastest, fittest, the best.

Told from two timelines, the before and the now, we follow Carrie through the lows, the highs, the sweat and tears, the injury, self-doubt, the constant berating from the media: that she’s passed it, shouldn’t have come out of retirement, is embarrassing herself.

There’s her relationship with her father, the lose of her mother, the possible old flame/love interest and it’s frenetic to say the least, chapters passing in the blink of an eye – it took me just 9 days to read, I just couldn’t put it down.

So, like Daisy Jones & the Six, where you don’t need to be mad on music to enjoy it, I don’t think you need to be a tennis fan to enjoy this, it’s just a fantastically fast paced story full of emotion wrapped up in a sporting environment and is, by me at least, heartily recommended. Five stars.

To finish, I would just like to wish you all the best for 2025 and hope you find happiness in whatever form that takes.

The Girl with all the Gifts, book review. (M.R.Carey)

Post-apocalyptic horror books come in all different shapes and sizes, from the true epics like, The Stand, to thin slivers of excellence like, I am Legend, but most of them fit into just a few categories: The Virus, The War or the Invasion; this book however, is harder to categorise.

There is a virus of sorts, but we only know that it turns people into 'hungries', zombie like creatures that feast on non-infected people, but, and it's a big but, there are the infected children, like Melanie, the girl with all the gifts: super intelligent, nice, articulate and more, who has the virus, but has no desire to feast on humans - or does she?

The book is told predominantly from Melanie's point of view, and it's all the better for it. She is kind and thoughtful, sad when her fellow classmates go and don't come back, but after the facility she has been kept, (imprisoned in), gets overrun by hungries, driven and herded by non-infected humans that eke out an existence in the wild, she and her teacher, the lovely Miss Justineau, have to leave, and leave quickly.

Together, with two soldiers and the doctor who was about to cut her up, they must travel across mile upon mile of unfamiliar, untamed territory, to London, and this part, for me, was of particular interest, because they are heading south through Hertfordshire, (which is where I live), Barnet, and then through north London, which I know well.

As the story develops, Melanie earns her freedoms: first, her handcuffs are removed, then, she's aloud to remove her face mask and find food, feast, but we don't see that, we don't need to, because we know how hungries feed!

There's something else, too. Some of the hungries have died and sprouted what look like organic tentacles! Could this be part two of the virus? After all these years, could it be mutating into something else?

With food and water shortages, Melanie's need to feed, Sergeant Parks trying to get the power back on and fix up an abandoned armoured vehicle, along with doctor Caldwell still readying herself to kill Melanie, things look bleak, but then, then the kids come and . . .

No; no spoilers here, you'll have to read it to find out how it all ends, but suffice to say, this book has pace, intrigue, and is quite different to anything else I've read. I love the characters, even doctor Caldwell, who you dislike intensely, and the tension, the constant threat that the author builds, the feeling that someone, or something, is always watching, that our band of survivors are just one wrong turn from death - or worse, zombiehood - is profound and creepy.

This book was not what I was expecting, it's not a save the world, 'The Passage trilogy', kind of thing, it's more, I am Legend, creepy, which was a nice surprise, and so, with the hairs on the back of my neck still prickling, a thoroughly well-deserved four stars for, The Girl with all the Gifts.