Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2021

Welcome again dear 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 this being the year of the re-read, there might be some old favourites, too. I won't bore you with a big long list of all my reads from 2021, for that you can check out my historic posts or look at Amazon/Goodreads for my reviews; so without further ado:-

Kicking things off at number five with a punch in the face is, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This is not a short book but it's a page turner, feeding you just enough information to keep you guessing and speeding through, and I liked the characters - although there did seem to be a rather high proportion of weirdo's to non mentally challenged people in this book - and when it gets violent it gets seriously X rated violent, so it's definitely not a book for the faint hearted. Highly recommended though, for it has depth and intrigue and to all those who like books with grit, mystery, multiple characters and with a good dose of back-story, you'll love it. (Full review shortly).

My number four is Clive Barker's sublime, Weaveworld. (07/04/2021 post) "Barker's writing throughout is a triumph, from character believability to the mystical worlds he creates, and although slightly dated in some aspects, the book is simply superb. There is horror and destruction, death and pain but there is love and hope, too and in the cold snow blanketed hills and vales at the end, when good faces evil, you get the feeling that only a truly excellent book can give . . . the feeling that you just don't want it to end," I said back in April. Its been near thirty years since I first read this book and I've fallen in love with it all over again. Pure escapism and highly recommended.

In bronze position then, is the third instalment of one of my all time favourite authors, Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. (04/02/2021 post) 'The Prisoner of Heaven is written in the same beautifully menacing but somehow witty prose that led me to attributing the first two books in this series with top honours and possesses the same, must-keep-reading-whatever-the-time-is-because-I-just-can't-put-it-down, style that will have readers up well into night, early in the morning and late for their Zoom meetings. A fantastic read then,' I told you all back in February and I suspect it always will be.

So, the runner up spot goes to the all-time classic and must read, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. (27/o6/2021 post) “Opening with one of the most famous lines in literary history, Du Maurier writes with such skill and passion throughout that even when we encounter the mundane, those elements of daily life . .  you are still enveloped in the scene . . . and it is this skill, along with her amazing ability to create tension out of nothing, like the change in the weather, a thunderstorm with no rain, Maxim de Winter confessing his crime two thirds of the way through the book but leaving Rebecca's secret, the fate of Maxim and Manderley to the end, that elevates the author and this novel to one of the best I have read,” I said at the time, and I stick by that now more than ever.

And the winner, my book of the year 2021 is the epic (albeit short), All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. (13/11/2021) "If you have no interest in history, war, death et al, I won't hold it against you, but put those prejudices aside and buy, download and read this book because no other fictional book I've read has ever taken me closer to understanding just a smidgen of what people went through when they fought during World War I," I said back in November and I felt so passionate about this book then, and still do now, that I believed it should be part of our school curriculum (if it's not already), so that every child in this country can learn what not to repeat in the future.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them, message me with your recommendations.

Stay safe everyone, get your jabs and we'll do it all again in 2022. Happy New Year to you all.

Weaveworld, book review. (Clive Barker)

Another throwback to my youth this one. Hellraiser had just been released - the film, not the book - A Nightmare on Elm Street was on its third of fourth sequel, Jason was still murdering at will and we teens' were lost in a whirlwind of blood drenched horror, and then - Weaveworld.

Wow!

It was in the horror section so it had to be horror, right? Right? 

Wrong.

This book is an epic (in both depth and length) and begins in a little Victorian house in the heart of Liverpool, backing onto a railway with the soft cooing of racing pigeons in their loft and takes you on one hell of a journey to the secluded vales of the Scottish highlands, through African deserts, the rolling hills of the West Country via the fantastic and magical depths of the Fugue - a land of such wonders and delights, such beauty, that it has been hidden in the weave of a carpet these last hundred years for safekeeping.

When Cal accidently chances upon the carpet as it is being removed from its dead guardian's (Mimi) house and gazes briefly into its depth, he is hooked, addicted, and so it begins.

Shadwell, the charming salesman who's been searching for the Weave, along with the incantatrix Immacolata, for quite some time, soon arrive on the scene - Immacolata is from the Fugue and can sense its presence but has never quite been able to find it whilst Mimi was alive - and with his jacket of wonders (the shimmering inner-lining mesmerises all who gaze upon it when they see their hearts desires) Shadwell and the incantatrix have the advantage.

Mimi had little family and no friends, so when she felt the end was nigh, she summonsed her grand-daughter, Suzanna, but she's too late. Mimi is too far gone and the secret of the carpet and what it houses is lost, or so we think.

With Cal on its trail, he and Suzanna soon cross paths but there is a confrontation and Immacolata and Shadwell take the carpet. During the tussle a small piece is torn off and some of the Seerkind - people who live in the Fugue/Weave - are freed.

With so much magic flying around and general destruction - Cal is lucky to escape his own garden when Immacolata attacks - it's Hobart, a dodgy cop (who likes nothing more than to beat a confession from people) who is assigned to the case, and with Cal on the run and Susanna arrested, there seems little hope; but what's this? What's happening? What can she feel, how can she . . .?

With Susanna escaping custody - in rather spectacular fashion I might add - she and Cal track the Weave to an auction in a stately home, and from there, where Susanna cuts the Weave at its heart and it begins to unravel, to the vales of Scotland, where we experience the Fugue in all its amazing depth, meet the Seerkind and the myriad creatures that live in its folds, through the cold dark nights and searing days of the African desert - where Shadwell has gone in search of the Scourge (an Angel he hopes will destroy the Seerkind, once and for all) to the knee deep snow of the frozen West Country, this book never ceases to amaze, thrill and entertain.

Barker's writing throughout is a triumph, from character believability to the world he creates in the fabric of the Weave, and although slightly dated in some aspects, the book is simply superb. There is horror and destruction, death and pain but there is love and hope, too and in the cold snow blanketed hills and vales at the end, when good faces evil, you get the feeling that only a truly excellent book can give . . . the feeling that you just don't want it to end. 

It's been near on thirty years since I first read this book (which I always remembered liking) but now, having reread it, I love it. Four and half stars. Pure escapism and highly recommended.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them yet why not message me with your recommendations.