Thinner, book review. (Stephen King)

A book with a very distinct message this one, and it's showing its age, too.

Like a lot of King novels (this one was originally released under his pseudonym Richard Bachman by the way), Thinner has a magical realism to it - the world ticks by and all is nice and normal, as it would be for you and I on any given day, but with a twist, a curse, an old Gypsy curse in this case, and it's one of my favourite things about this author's books. Everything is so normal bar that one thing: be it an ancient alien monster that dresses like a clown, a door in time that might help prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or an old man living with a seventy year old mouse, reality is only ever skewed just a little.

Having killed an old Gypsy woman who stepped out in front of his car (he was concentration on his wife's hand down his pant rather than the road), and the police chief and local Judge whitewashing the whole affair, William (Bill) Halleck walks away, scot-free - well, he would have if the old Gypsy, Lemke, hadn't brushed his cheek on the courthouse steps and whispered that one word: Thinner.

The weight starts to drop off immediately, and the first half of this book is all about his cloths getting baggy, seeing his doctor, friends and colleagues, who, along with his wife and daughter, think it's a good thing but then start to worry, all whilst Bill is in denial, pretending to himself that he didn't hear what Lemke said. The second half is Halleck on the road searching for the Gypsy, tracking him down, and it is the better half, more fluid, emotional, but it's also where the age of the book starts to show.

The writing on a whole is okay, some of the latter chapters almost reach excellence, but when Halleck thinks of his teenage daughter as having 'coltish legs' and a random stranger unnecessarily uses the N word amongst the many other racist slurs against Gypsies, you begin to realise how times have changed.

That disappointment aside (it was written in the mid 80s - which is NOT an excuse by the way but a possible reason), the last hundred pages fly by, and as tensions rise and Halleck's weight plummets (he was 255 at the beginning, now down to 115), and the ending nears - which I won't spoil - the message I referred to at the beginning becomes blatantly clear.

Treat people how you would like to be treated.

Whether it's yourself, your loved ones, neighbours and strangers alike, and take responsibility for your actions. Think before you speak but speak anyway, but be honest, with yourself and those around you, because if you don't, something terrible could happen, something terrible like . . .

Three stars for Thinner then but only just, and no surprise that it was first published under his pseudonym.

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.

Lycanthrope, by Michael J Richardson (Aka, me). Self promotion Sunday.

Two long have I written this blog with no self-promotion so, as of today, that's stopping.
Don't worry, I'll still be posting reviews on the many books that I read and I'll do my best to keep them as eclectic as possible so you don't get bored but in the meantime I thought it only right to share some of my writing with you - this is Mad Mike's Writing Blog after all!
Most of my writing has a similar theme - be it the short stories, poems or novels - that theme being, reality interspliced with a little something out of the ordinary. This could be a haunting, a vampire, magic or, as is the case here, a Werewolf, but I like the unreality just touched upon, hinted at, rather than it dominate the narrative so, over the next few months you'll see a few more posts like this; posts about what I write and what might be coming.
I hope you enjoy these and I look forward to any feedback too, so without further ado, Lycanthrope, the subject of this post, which I thought a perfect place to start as it is one of my oldest short stories, one I wrote when I was nineteen - now why would that be of any significance, constant readers? - and I've learnt a lot since then.
Probably one of my less subtle efforts, admittedly but I still feel it has something all these years later as, amidst all the death and violence the main theme here is that of love. So have fun discovering it for yourselves and next time I'll introduce you to a ghost, a vampire, or some good old-fashioned magic.
In addition, as a little bonus, you can also read about an unfortunate runner who trips and has a fall, in the flash fiction, Root.
Lycanthrope can be downloaded for free from:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E4X8YY8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

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.

Cujo, book review. (Stephen King)

An early one this and all part of last year's, year of the reread. It's been so long since I first read Cujo that only a few bits came back to me as I sped through its pages, but speed through I did.

Like a lot of King's books the premise is simple but the how and why are complicated, which is one of the reasons he's such a successful and well revered writer, I guess.

Set in Castle Rock (yes, that Castle Rock, the one that's recently been exposed to all the non-bibliophiles in the world by Amazon/Starzplay), one of many fictitious towns the author has created in Maine over the years, Cujo is not just about the fear of a rabid two hundred pound St Bernard trying to eat your child but the fear of separation, loneliness; losing your house because something's screwed up a work, losing your wife because she's so, so lonely and scared shitless that it will only get worse when her son starts school.

It's about being satisfied with your lot in life too, and if not, doing something about it, like Charity, who takes her ten year old son, Brett (Cujo's owner), to see her sister, something she had to bargain for in spite of the ever present threat of violence from her husband, in order to show her son that a better life was possible, even if she later decided that just having money to buy stuff wasn't necessarily better. It's about the bond between friends, like when Vic and Roger are in Boston trying to save their business and Vic his marriage (his wife has been having an affair) but Vic can't get his wife or kid on the phone and his partner shows the compassion we would all wish for in such circumstances and sends him home because, let's face it, family is more important.

Cujo is about all of those things but it is also about a two hundred pound rabid dog that gradually loses its mind and just can't stand the light, the heat and people anymore; people who might have done this to him, hurt him, been nasty to him and so, he must kill, kill, kill. The build-up, the way the book is more about the lives of the people in Castle Rock, working, drinking, raising their kids and more, is the real crux of the novel, but it just so happens that they're all connected in the end by death and a rabid St Bernard.

King's writing here is a bit archaic compared to his more recent novels but then that's borne out in a lot of his 70s & 80s books - a sign of the times one might say but not all books of this vintage are so inflicted, so! - and you might even wince at a few bits, but overall it doesn't detract too much from what is actually a clever and, especially towards the end, tense thriller.

Three and a half stars for Cujo then and on to the next one - I'm trying to read all of Stephen King's books within ten years, so I'll keep them coming.

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.

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.

The Haunting of Hill House, book review. (Shirley Jackson)

Another reread and another 'Glad I did' moment when I finished.
On first acquaintance I felt this book rather lacklustre - I cut my teeth on James Herbert and progressed to Susan Hill remember - but something niggled.

I saw reviews on Goodreads championing the book, Bookstagramers on Instagram rating it highly and then, a Netflix series, which got me thinking: what had I missed?
So, as 2021 is the year of the reread, I added it to my list.
The story begins with a Dr Montague having written to numerous individuals across the country who either think they have, or have actually witnessed 'something special', for assistance in an experiment he wishes to conduct, and so he invites them to Hill House, which he has agreed to lease for the summer in order to gain as much evidence as he can that paranormal activity exists - Hill House is widely regarded as one of the most haunted houses ever.

One of the terms of said lease is that Luke Sanderson, the heir to the house, is present, so when Eleanor (who has recently lost the mother she cared for, for most of her life) and Theodora (who is rather bohemian), arrive, being the only two who responded to the doctor, most of the cast is assembled.
The story builds slowly but not too slowly, introducing the characters gradually - and they're all different enough to have a depth and personality of their own and develop little by little throughout the narrative, revealing, right up to the very last pages their strengths and weaknesses. Later, Dr Montague's rather overpowering wife and her side kick, Arthur Parker arrive at the house and add an element of flair to proceedings. Add to that, Mrs Dudley - who doesn't stay at Hill House after dark and sets breakfast at 9, lunch at 1 and dinner at 6, but flitters almost ghostlike in and out of rooms, the house and the narrative, and an element of intrigue is created and one can't help but speculate as to what is real and what is not.

Much of the tension in the book is implied and, rightly or wrongly, I decided that the rattling of doors and thumping of walls was all in Eleanor's head, or she somehow manifested them, as others only seemed to witness it when they were with her, which got me thinking: maybe she was the conduit for the spirits, the reason there was something to witness at all, and had she not been there, whether the others would have spent a rather serene but (from a paranormal activity perspective), rather disappointing summer in an old remote house?

With the book ending the way it did (no spoilers as usual), with Eleanor being ostracised, forced to leave, separated from the others and Hill House - or was she? - I felt I might have got to the crux of this novel, but of course, many of you may disagree or, like me when I first read it, not have analysed it so deeply.

All the same, three and a half stars for this slightly creepy haunted house novel and a better experience than my first read.

Enjoy, and happy Hallowe'en.

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.

Who & what do you read? Questions I get asked as a book blogger (Pt I) Michael J Richardson

For those of you who don't know me, I've been reading and writing since I was a teenager (properly reading that is, not force fed books I had no interest in at school, which excludes Stig of the Dump of course, which was my first serial reading experience), so that's a good thirty years under my belt, but what floats my boat, gets me going back for more?

Well, why don't we start with the classics. But wait, what is a classic? A book written over a hundred years ago? Over fifty? Harry Potter will be defined as a classic in the future if not already, so do I include them? Maybe it's Austin, Bronte or Dickens (of which I've liked but not loved - except A Christmas Carol, that will always be a 5 star book in my opinion), or Du Maurier, whose My Cousin Rachel is one of my all-time favourites. Looking further afield we have Jules Verne, not bad, Platonov, weird and Kafka - seriously, I think something got lost in translation like: plot and anything that actually makes sense - and I've never really enjoyed American classics either with Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all being a bit lacklustre - although I did like, The Great Gatsby and I am Legend is a masterpiece.

How about horror then? But again, what is horror? I recently read Roxane Gay's superb, An Untamed State, one of the most horrific books I've read recently but you'll only find it in the fiction section, as with Khaled Hosseini, who writes about the horrors of war torn Afghanistan in a way that pulls at your heart. I've also read The Girl with all the Gifts and its prequel (zombie apocalypse for those who don't know), but they're no more horrific than Stephen King epics' like The Stand and It, which are simply undefinable in genre. Then there are horror classics like Dracula (superb) Frankenstein (okay) and The Exorcist (seriously creepy) to consider, all having such great characters and depth that to simply call them 'Horror' would do them a great injustice.

I have always loved apocalyptic stories, too, from the short and punchy like, The War of the Worlds, I am Legend and The Day or the Triffids, to huge tomes like The Passage series and of course, the best of the best, The Stand - all fourteen hundred plus pages of it, and how the whole experience of reading books like these leaves you feeling lonely and apprehensive but with a fierce determination that if it were ever to happen to you, you'd be the good guy/girl, be on the right side and survive.

So where does that leave us? Well, this subject is far too long for one post so I'll blog part II in a few days' time and talk it through a bit more with you then. See you soon.

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

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.

The Boy on the Bridge, book review. (M.R.Carey)

So we're back, back where we left off at the end of, The Girl with all the Gifts . . .
Well, no actually, we're not.
The Boy On The Bridge is a prequel. It is set ten years after the virus hit and ten years before the first book and although there's no film and therefore will be lesser known, it is in my humble opinion just as good.

The virus has hit and it's hit hard, huge swathes of the population are essentially dead - walking dead (Hungries). All around the country, whether town village, hamlet of city, they wait, silently, patiently, as if in limp mode, and when an unsuspecting animal or human happens upon them, they pounce, chasing down their victims until they've gorged on their flesh.

London (Beacon) has become a fortress, with towering walls to keep out the Hungries, but order can't be maintained forever, there has to be hope; and there in, is the crux of the book.

Power is shifting, law and order is teetering, people had hope and need it again. There has to be something to cling to, a hint that the last ten years hasn't been for nothing, that life might one day return to what it once was, which is where the mobile tank/laboratory Rosalind Franklin comes in.

Setting off in search of finding a cure, uninfected humans or both, a band of scientists and military personnel leave London in the Rosalind Franklin and head north.

I found the characters and their interactions in such a confined space compelling. The conflict between science and military, between Beacon's secret agenda (there's a traitor in our midst) and the safety of the crew verses the safety of humanity, all handled well and then, when they walk into a small seemingly deserted village in Scotland and are ambushed by a group of organised child Hungries, the quiet, peaceful tone of the book, with it's subtle (up until that point) power struggle, is shattered by gunfire, blood and the screams of the dying.

Bonds are forged and broken as the crew retreat, and although the Rosalind Franklin is impenetrable to the children's attempts to gain entry, there is an unease amongst the crew as they are followed. Day in day out the children attacked. Day in day out the internal battle between military and science continues, and the tension just keeps building. Hungries that are organised, that give and receive orders, attack different parts of the Rosalind Franklin with different methods each time should be studied, captured, not exterminated, surely?

Well, one crew member thinks so; so much so that they smuggle . . . Oh come on! You know I never give the game away, you'll have to read it to find out how it ends/continues/leads into the first book, but it's worth it.

Zombie/apocalyptic fiction not your bag? Well, truth be told it's not really mine either but when it's done well, as it is here, then I'm more than happy.

Three and a half stars for this atmospheric and quietly creepy prequel then and even though you know they don't entirely succeed in their mission, it's fun finding out how.

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.

Cabal, book review. (Clive Barker)

Things are getting a bit dark and very weird in my house at the moment as I revisit some of the 'horror' reads from my teenage years, and with Clive Barker, James Herbert, Stephen King, and Steve Harris being so influential all those years ago, I thought it about time I tried to feel young again!
Cabal (a group of people with a collective secret or agenda) is the story of Boone, a man with an undiagnosed mental issue - he believes he has murdered eleven people, mutilating them, but can't remember committing the crimes - his relationship with his psychologist, doctor Decker, and the woman he has fallen for but can never love, Lori.
Unable to live with his crimes, Boone decides that he must die, but death seems to shrink from him and his suicide attempt fails. So, where will he go? Heaven has no place for a man like him, nor it seems does Hell, and he is too much of a danger to society to remain free so, Midian then - the place of legend, where the half-dead go, the Nightbreed, where Baphomet rules. (You might have to look Baphomet up like I did to know what I'm talking about there).
Mixing legend with reality, the undead with the living, the sane with the insane, Barker takes us on a journey from Calgary to the wilds of Canada, and it is both intriguing and damned right horrific and should not be approached lightly - this is proper horror folks, none of that dampened down jump-scare stuff you get today, but it's also a love story (aren't they all?) between Boone and Lori, and the lengths that they will go too to find and save each other.
This book is quite short and has so much pace that it's almost impossible to put down - which is good of course - has characters that come across plausible and likeable, events that stretch the imagination and horrors that are both explained and implied so that your mind is constantly flexing, conjuring both the author's and your own images, which I like - some books just info dump too much and leave little to the imagination.

I love the police chief Eigerman, who's deputies hate him as much as he hates them, how the town's people of Midian are so easily convinced that there's foul play at the Cemetery. I love the interaction between Boone and Decker, how the Nightbreed are both frightened and frightening in equal measure, and I will admit, despite it having been a while since I last read a true horror book, I love the no-holds-barred attitude to death this book portrays.
So, Cabal. Not one of Clive Barker's best books from my recollection but a great one to cut your teeth on. Three and a half stars then, but go in with your eyes open. There will be blood, lots of blood.

Stephen King (Author focus)

Well, it was only a matter of time I suppose, before I got around to doing an author focus on Stephen King, one of my favourite and one of the more frustrating authors that I read.

To list all of the Stephen King books I have read and reread over the years and to rate them individually would be very long-winded so I won't do that here (you can search this blog for Stephen King and they'll pop up) instead I will just share my thoughts with you on this prolific writer in hope of enticing you to read some of his books.

So where do you start with an author who has written over sixty novels and hundreds of short stories, of which you have read about half?

Well, at the beginning I suppose, which for this old boy was the best part of thirty-five years ago, when I picked up a copy of The Shining (it may have been Carrie, Christine or Cujo because I remember reading them all in quick succession) and I was taken on a journey like no other.

I was cutting my teeth on English horror at the time (James Herbert being my favourite with Clive Barker snapping at his heels) when suddenly I was reading horror without the horror! Horror books which seemed more about real life than the blood-drenched cellars of the Rats trilogy and those found in The Books of Blood and The Hellbound Heart, and I was blown away.

Some of King's novels are a bit lacking, and some are bloodthirsty, I won't lie, but many are no more horrific than what is for some people, normal life (a rabid bog in Cujo, a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship in Rose Madder, a man being driven mad by cabin fever in The Shining, an amputee's recovery in Duma Key, a school shooting in Rage) and with many having a hint of the supernatural thrown in for good measure I was on a roll.

They're clever too, fictional towns like Derry and Castle Rock make repeat appearances, characters hop from book to book, sometimes popping up in the most unlikely of places, and it all adds to the reality of the fiction! There's Dolores Claiborne, which is written as one continuous monologue (yes, the entire three hundred plus pages has no chapter breaks and no speech other than Dolores). The Green Mile, which was released as six mini books over the course of a few months, adding to the anticipation of what was to came next. The Dark Tower series - which I'm still yet to finish - which splices 1970's 80's & 90's New York, with Mid World - a totally fictional place that seems to be Earth but not Earth at the same time - and is simply superb on so many levels.

I eluded to 'frustrating' in my opening sentence, and as brilliant as most of King's books are, he does like to waffle, gets a bit wordy sometimes, which can be frustrating - there's a six hundred page flashback in Wizard & Glass for example - but (isn't there always a but?) when reading IT or all 1400 + pages of The Stand, I wouldn't have it any other way.
So, if you like your books fast-paced and short, fantastical but realistic, futuristic or set in the past, like tomes with dozens of characters that spread over decades, horror, the supernatural, the assassination of JFK and much much more, there's a Stephen King book out there for you, waiting to be found.
Enjoy.

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!

Carrie, book review. (Stephen King)

So, the return to my roots continues with this, Stephen King's first novel, Carrie.

Carrie White is a loner, she has no friends - and I'd ask you to pause there for a moment and think about that, SHE HAS NO FRIENDS - and ask yourself how life would be for you, if you were in that same situation, with no-one to call when you needed a chat, no one to laugh or cry with. Pretty shitty would be my guess.

Okay, so on top of the lack of friendship, she has a matriarchal mother who is deeply religious and (as most of you may already know) hasn't told her teenage daughter anything about the natural monthly cycle of women, and so, when Carrie starts to bleed, have her first period (she is seventeen) in the communal showers at school, she thinks the worst; she thinks something's wrong, very wrong. Her classmates, however, think it's the ideal time to taunt her and throw sanitary products at her.

The basic premise of the book is that one of her tormentors gains a conscious whilst another does not, in fact, the other goes out of her way to be cruel and nasty, getting herself banned from the up and coming prom, and thinking she did nothing wrong in the first place, seeks revenge.

In a slightly odd way, this book is like a coming of age novel: you have the bully, the loner/geek, the popular beauty and her boyfriend - who are in no doubt who will be crowned prom king and queen - the nasty spiteful girl with the criminal boyfriend, the deeply religious mother and of course, telekinesis, adding yet more layers to our scene.

What I like about this book is threefold. It is written in a way where extracts of books and case studies are inter-spliced with the narrative, giving the reader a sense of reality as if the event depicted actually happened. It builds brilliantly from the very beginning and due to the aforementioned extracts, you get a sense of what's happened before it's revealed in the narrative, which pulls you through the book quickly, and thirdly, the tension between Carrie and her mother.

In spite of her mother's draconian rules, Carrie loves her deeply, but the cracks start to show the minute she gets home from school after the shower incident, with the true extent to which she will go to, to 'protect' her daughter, not felt until Carrie confesses her wish to go to prom later in the book.

There is no doubt that the highlight of the book is the last third, where Carrie literally ripped the town apart. With her peers burning alive in the school - punishment for the years of torment they have rained down on her - she then goes on a rampage, and it is superb. Exploding petrol (gas) stations, pulling down power cables to electrocute the masses, tearing down buildings, all before seeking out her main tormentor, and as a reader, you will her on, you want her to get justice, get her revenge, and it really doesn't stop until the very last few pages.

Four stars for this one then, and an excellent first King novel if you've never read him before.

The Rats, book review. (James Herbert)

Back to my childhood again for this one; James Herbert's The Rats.

Classic British horror with all the gore and lack of plotline you would expect and love from the 1970s and boy does it deliver.

Such is the pace of this novel, the whole thing is over in a flash (I am not a fast reader but read it in about five hours) and it's rather formulaic too, introducing a new character per chapter at the start, before killing most of them off rather gruesomely soon after, and then the school teacher hero (the author was a school teacher himself when he wrote the book) turns up in the right place at the wrong time to save the day - the attack on the school is actually one of the highlights of the book, along with a doomed underground train where most of the people aboard become a meal - but what I couldn't believe (this book was first published in 1974, which isn't an excuse by the way) is how sexist and archaic it felt. I've recently re-read Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, which was also published in '74' and that didn't feel anywhere near as old, but there you are, just a word of warning.
The book is set in London but it's a London I don't recognise. There are derelict areas by the river Thames where we now have luxury apartments and bomb-damaged rubble-strewn swathes of rat-infested land that probably have an Ikea or Costa drive-through today, which again, for me at least, because I know London reasonably well, dates the book even more.

So, the writing is okay - I should point out that when I first cut my teeth on James Herbert's back catalogue (or before I knew any better), all of his books got five stars because, as a teenager, the gorier the book, the more blood that was spilled and the more ingenious the ways in which it was spilled was all that really mattered - and its pace, as I've said, means you'll tear through in no time. The characters do lack depth though, and their backstories mean very little because the character to whom they refer to are in most cases, quickly devoured.

So, the Rats, one of my first love affairs of the literary world, written by one of the first authors that really got me reading for pleasure, is now a mixed bag. I will always have it and its author to thank for leading me down the path I am still on, for helping me fall in love with the world of books, but, and it pains me to write this, overall, now, thirty-odd years later, I can see it for what it is, average.

Brilliant in parts - the scene in the school really is that good - but showing its age in regards to how it portrays women and in the basic way it is written.

Three stars then for James Herbert's The Rats, but I'll never forget where it all started.

The Long Walk, book review. (Stephen King)

Another first time read for me of an old Stephen King/Richard Bachman book, and like The Running Man and Rage - which I reviewed last year - I really quite liked it.

It's a simple affair really, a hundred boys/young men have signed up for, The Long Walk, in the knowledge that they will die if they are not the last one standing. There is little premise here, but the assumption I made was that something bad had happened to the world, not Hunger Games bad, but something bad all the same; bad enough that hundreds of young men would essentially sign their own death warrant for a prize – that prize being: all and everything you could ever want or wish for.

I wasn't sure how a long walk could fill nearly three hundred pages but as is usual with King, you're halfway in before you know it and by the time you're close to finishing, you're so desperate to know who will win, that you just can't stop turning the page.

The walk begins at 9 am one unassuming morning and Garraty - our main character - and those that flank him, soon fall into an uneasy rhythm - drop below four miles per hour and you get a warning, get three warnings and the forth is a bullet in your skull, and yes, they really do kill you, so when your number's up or 'you get your ticket' as they say in the book, there's one less competitor to worry about.

There's not a lot of chit chat to start with but after a few hours, after fifty miles, after a kiss by the roadside that earns Garraty a warning, the strengths and weaknesses of Garraty and those around him start to show through, and it is here, in the characters, that the book really shines. You've got the boy with the limp who's going to be the first out but last longer than most, the loudmouth that goes surprisingly quiet as the days and miles tick by, the silent creepy boy who secretly scares them all, and due to their inadequacies, their jibes and mocking of each other, and in some cases their plain loathing, the book ebbs along like real life.

They talk about home, school, the ones they love, be it a girlfriend or a parent, and as they get ever fewer, as the miles trip past, the crowds grow and the sound of gunshots ricochet off the surrounding hills, they increasingly talk of the prize: Any and everything that they could hope or wish for, but will any of them be alive to claim it?

This is a three and a half star book for me. I thought I would like it but it ended up being better than I had anticipated.
So, one more King book down, several dozen still to go.

Herts & Minds anthology is launching on Wednesday 11th December 2019

If you like ghosts, ghouls, and Werewolves, the beauty of the English/Hertfordshire countryside, a wandering cat cast in bronze, that comes alive by night, historical fiction, death by dangerous driving, poetry, or a good old fashioned crime drama, then you're going to love the Hertford Writers' Circle 2019 anthology, Herts & Minds.

From our home town of Hertford to New York, from the slave trade to murder, from Welwyn to the remotest corner of Ireland, this book will take you there and further.

Packed with dramatic stories about snakes, flowers, aliens, bullying, a dystopian Hertford, and finding a corpse in the boot of your car, we've got it all, and you could too if you are in Hertford on the night of the 11th December (Wednesday) and would like to join us at the books official launch (7:30 pm, Courtyard Arts, Port Vale, Hertford, SG14 3AA) but if you are not, if you hail from further afield but would like to purchase a copy - for yourself, a friend or for Christmas - just message me in the comments or via my Amazon author account and I'll make sure a copy wings its way over to you as soon as possible.
For an exclusive extract from this anthology, visit my blog again on Christmas Eve, for I will be posting, The Sprout that Ruined Christmas, which I may also read at the launch if I feel brave enough.
Enjoy.

In celebration of my two hundredth blog post and All Hallows' Eve, a dark tale of woe.

He was fifty minutes in, hot, sweaty, but he was fit. He could run for hours but not today – today he had other things on his mind. Her!

The root was a trip hazard, looping from the ground like an old Victorian boot-scraper. I’ll get you one day, it said. I’ll get you when you’re daydreaming.

He’d run the path a hundred times, maybe more, but the caw of a crow distracted him.

He flew for a second, landing gently, free from injury, but sliding, the wet leaves giving little purchase and the barrier (some old wooden posts) did nothing to arrest him.

The impact was brief, the posts giving way, and his cry rang out shrill like the birds. He was flying, free-falling, branches slapping his face, snapping beneath his weight.

The ground was soft but it broke him all the same. He tasted blood. It hurt to breathe. He couldn’t feel his legs. Something other than the branches had snapped on the way down.

He blinked and his vision blurred.

He wept and there was pain.

Darkness came. In and out of consciousness he fell, dreaming, thinking of her. What she’d said, what he’d done! Would he ever see her again? Hold her, comfort her? Would she ever forgive him?

He called, he shouted, screamed until he was hoarse but no one came: no dog walkers, no search parties, just animals. Nervous at first they crawled, hopped and slithered: a crow with a taste for eyes, a badger, sniffing but bolder over time, and then, as the moon rose and his breath clouded, they feasted.

He felt the tug on his arm, shooed a bird from his face, blew bugs from his lips, but it was no use; it was over. The creatures would gorge, they would have their meal, and as steam rose from exposed flesh, as they buried into him, the pain would take him beyond this life until he was nothing but a memory.

As dawn broke and cast mottled shadow across broken bough, a bird – the crow – the one with a taste for eyes, perched on a root that looped from the ground like an old Victorian boot-scrapper, and having supped, it listened and waited patiently.

Bird Box, book review. (Josh Malerman)

Although there is no big reveal at the end of this book, which might disappoint some, I felt it conveyed the helplessness of a post-apocalyptic world with a subtlety that other novels in this genre sometimes lack, and like it for that.

The bulk of the book is in flashback, told whilst Malorie and two children make their way down a river, blindfolded, to where they hope to find lasting sanctuary.

Losing her sister at the beginning of the story, to whatever is killing off the human race, and finding the courage to make her way across town in answer to an advert proposing a safe haven, Malorie found herself in a house full of strangers for four years.

The characters in the house are a mixed bunch with varying views: from what the enemy is, to how much longer their food stocks will last, from the merits of letting any more newcomers in due to the real possibility of starvation, to whose turn it is to cook and clean. So, as Malorie continues her journey downriver, we gradually find out more about the ex-housemates and why she had to leave.

When her baby is born - along with another housemate's, Jessica - there's a sense of mild panic in the house, as there is in the boat whenever they hit an obstacle or hear birds and animals on the banks, for the real threat has always been outside. Blocked from view when she lived in the house, by painted and boarded-up window, blindfolds and helmets when they did venture outside to empty the slop buckets, retrieve freshwater or go in search of something better, she’d felt a certain sort of safety, but exposed on the river in the boat, Malorie is always on high alert, which eventually takes its toll.

I particularly liked the sense of abandonment in this book, especially when Malorie's favourite housemate, Tom, leaves to find supplies and is gone for a week rather than a day. The sense of loss and solitude created here reminded me of Matheson's, I am Legend and Wyndham's, The Day of the Triffids, which is praise indeed but well deserved. I also liked that Malorie simply calls the children, girl and boy, as if giving them names would make her more attached to them. I thought this added depth to her as a person and gave the reader a greater sense of what trauma she may have endured in the past, who she may have lost during those four long years, and added to the feeling of hopelessness. Why get attached to a child if all it was going to do is die?

So to sum up, Bird Box makes you feel cold and alone, it is sad and upsetting, horrific even, so why am I recommending it? Because it is all of those things, and like the above-mentioned classics that have that same edge of despair, Bird Box really is very good.

Four stars for this one then and a chill down the spine.

Rage, book review. (Richard Bachman aka Stephen King)

A lesser-known book from the master storyteller Stephen King is the focus of today's post but it's a good story all the same.

Rage is a book about a young man – Charlie – who has issues, but the issues he has are as much a mystery to him as they are to others. Sometimes he feels sad, sometimes angry, sometimes he just feels terribly confused and does stuff for reasons he cannot explain.
The majority of this book takes place in a classroom at Charlie’s high school, where he has shot dead a teacher locked the door and holds his fellow classmates hostage. Whilst we sit with him and his fellow pupils, we go back to when he was younger, when he smashed all the windows around his house, and we hear from some of the other kids too, about what it was like for them when shit happened, and in spite of the fact that this book was written in the seventies, it reminded me a bit, in its tone and subject matter (teen angst, mental health issues, etc) of a John Green novel. (Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska).
Charlie isn’t the only one with issues either. A popular girl who’s been going steady with a boy for a while admits that she's still a virgin, prompting Charlie to recants the story of when he nearly lost his virginity on a beach the year before but, in the end, wasn't up to the task. This in turn opens the door to other confessions, and before you know it, what you thought was a book about murder and insanity, becomes a book about life and how our perception of people, our prejudices, because of how a person looks, their gender, sexuality, colour or creed, is founded on the false persona that we show the world, when in reality we're completely different and screaming inside, and I liked it for that.
Rage is a short book, and combined with the excellent writing it won’t take you long to read, so grab a copy if you can (you may have to look under Richard Bachman, King’s pseudonym in the seventies and eighties to find it) but it seems that as time goes by, more and more of these older books are being re-released as King novels and based on this novella, the quicker that happens the better.
Three stars for this little gem then and on to The Running Man.

Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2018

Welcome friends, bookbloggers, avid readers alike, to my annual book of the year post. This isn't about books written or published this year, this is about the 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 2018, 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 is, No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. Blog post 29/04/18
With its no nonsense approach to mass murder, a psychopathic hitman and the author's beautiful use of the Texan dialect, this action packed book is both fast and furious whilst quiet and threatening at the same time, and in spite of the sheriffs best efforts, you never stop believing that the hitman will win through in the end.

My number four is, The Twelve, by Justin Cronin. Blog post 25/06/18

Following on from The Passage was never going to be easy, but here, Justin Cronin takes things down a peg or two, goes back to where a dozen death row prisoners became the virals that go on to decimate the world. The world after the virus has moved on too, and the resulting climax, the build up to the gathering of The Twelve, where Amy makes her move, is soooooo good, the book just had to be in my top five.

In bronze position then: Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. Blog post 24/11/18
In this futuristic look back at the past, Cline takes us to a dystopian world on the brink of destruction. The oil has gone, the crops have failed and the world is hungry and poor, so people choose to live as avatars in the alternate reality of, Oasis, a computer generated world that some never leave. With its heavy nod to the 80's, murder, global corporate corruption and a clear, 'root for the underdog' thread running throughout, Ready Player One is one of the most unique books I have ready this year.

So, this year’s runner up: All Hell let Loose, by Max Hastings. Blog post 20/08/18

To humanise the death of so many under such depraved circumstances and make it actually readable, is a testament to the true genius of this author, and his mix of first hand civilian accounts along with the well documented military events of the Second World War, gives the reader a true sense of the horrors that befell the world during those six long years. A classic must-read five star book.

And my winner, my favourite book of 2018: IT, by Stephen King.
'A coming of age, thriller, horror, murder mystery, sci-fi, history book, all rolled into one,' was what I said at the time, and I stick by that statement. There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to truly express my feelings for this absolute classic and to put that into context, I have read all 1166 pages of IT three times now and dare say I will read it again someday, for it is without compare. As I said in my 15/10/18 blog post: Put simply, one of the greatest books I have ever read.