Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2020

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 this year, it's about books I have read this year, and with dozens to choose from it's no easy task. I won't bore you with a big long list of all my reads from 2020, for that you can check out my historic posts or look at Amazon/Goodreads for my reviews, so without further ado:-

In at number five are (I know, I know but I just couldn’t separate them): The Exorcist, by William Peter Blattey, Frenchman’s Creek, by Daphne du Maurier and The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (26/07 + 29/11 + 26/12/2020 posts respectively).
‘The Exorcist is atmospheric throughout, great characters and it leaves you cold and needing the lights on for bed.’
‘Du Maurier's flagrant disregard for propriety is one thing but her depth of characters, her ability to have the reader rooting for the pirate and the adulterer as opposed the law abiding citizenry of Cornwall is simply brilliant.’
The Midnight Library was, ‘An enjoyable but thought provoking book which, especially at this time of year, brings the very important subject of loneliness to the fore . . . it does not disappoint.’

My number four is, An Untamed State by, Roxane Gay (28/06/2020 post)
‘BRUTAL,’ I said once I’d read it, and it was.
‘Brutal is about all you really need to sum up Roxane Gay's superb, An Untamed State, but there are two parts to this book (Happily Ever After and Once Upon a Time) and two sides to the story, so if brutal is one, then love is the other.
. . . the way Roxanne Gay writes just rips at your heart and you just know that if Mireille ever manages to escape, her journey would have only just begun.’

In the bronze position then, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (27/02/2020 post)
‘Oh No! Have I found my book of the year 2020 already? Well . . . Maybe!’ was what I said in February, and it came close.
Confusing, fast-paced, witty, horrific intriguing and I'll-be-damned-if-I'm-putting-this-book-down-it's-only-half-past-one-in-the-morning-and-I-really-really-really-need-to-know-who-the-murderer-is, oh, shit it’s . . .!’ pretty much sums things up.

So, this year’s runner up, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, by Kate Mosse (31/10/2020 post)
‘Atmosphere.
If you like a book with atmosphere, whether you're on the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff, crossing the causeway to Eel Marsh House, running from the ruins of Manderley, or walking the rain soaked alleyways of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona, if you like your books with atmosphere look no further than The Taxidermist's Daughter.’ I said back in October.
‘Chilling, spooky, rain soaked town on the south coast of England in the midst of a murder spree in the early 1900's with beautifully written characters, great plot, plenty of blood and intrigue; what's not to like?’

And the winner, my favourite book of 2020: Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Keneally (12/04/2020 post)
‘Read this book I beg you, for although it is horrific beyond imagination and will tear at your heart, it is a must-read if you ever want to understand just a snippet of what it must have been like to live in such conditions, and yes, if you've seen the film, both the girl in the red dress and the boy (albeit he was a teenager at the time) who hid in the cesspit, were both real, but only one survived.
To put a star rating on a book like this seems a bit crass but in the hope that it might get others to pick up a copy and read it, I will give it five.’

N.B: If you like your books spooky & atmospheric then you need to read Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who sadly died this year but left a lasting legacy with his amazing Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, of which the first two (The Shadow of the Wind & The Angel’s Game) I have just reread and are utterly amazing.

 

The Exorcist, book review. (William Peter Blatty)

Of course, you know the story, don't you?

The one where the girl is possessed by the devil. The one where she inflicts terrible injuries on herself and others, where the bed vibrates, rising into the air before crashing down. You've seen the film too no doubt; it's a little dated now so maybe you haven't - it’ll be on your favourite streaming service if you bother to look - but have you ever actually read the book? The book that led to the film that spawned a genre that still spews out multiple versions of this story every year?
Well if you haven't, maybe you should.
This book is dark and it's cold, helped by the icy American winter in which it is mainly set, but it runs deeper than that, far deeper because we’re dealing with a young girl (Regan) who we first think is traumatised by her parents' break up, or maybe it's her mother's hectic and somewhat erratic work schedule or her coming of age, we don't really know but something isn't right, and with the failure of the medical experts to assist and then the suspicious death of one of her mother's friends - he falls down a particularly long flight of steps before coming to rest with his head facing completely the wrong way - Regan's mother, Chris, reaches out to the church, to Father Karras.
Blatty's writing here is great: his characters, his setting, his slow but not too slow build-up through the book as Regan sinks further and further into her unknown illness are excellent, and all the way through, right up to the climax, he manages to keep us on tenterhooks as to what the police detective may or may not discover, whether Regan is possessed - in the eyes of the church that is - whether she can be saved, exorcised, and it had me staying up late, reading the last hundred pages or so in one long sitting because I just couldn't put it down. I had to know. (This is a reread but it’s been a good twenty years so I really didn’t remember).
There are some aspects of this book that feel a little dated now - it was written in the early seventies so that is to be expected I suppose - but there's little else to complain about. The pace is strong, it has great characters, I particularly like Karras who, with the recent loss of his mother, repeatedly questions his faith through the book, the wily old detective (who was either copied from TV's Columbo or was the inspiration for him they're so similar) and of course, there's the violent destruction of an innocent child by what claims to be a demon, and a word of warning here, the film does depict the book quite faithfully so the vomiting is here, the profanity and the . . . yes, that scene, where she masturbates with the crucifix, so go in with your eyes open, for this book doesn't hold back but is all the better for it.
Four stars then for the classic that is The Exorcist. Atmospheric throughout, great characters and it leaves you cold and needing the lights on to go to bed. Brrrrr!