Gerald's Game, book review. (Stephen King)

Much like Dolores Claiborne - whose twin this novel is - Gerald's Game has a small cast, and on picking up this book I had to wonder, yet again, how the author was going to keep me entertained over three hundred plus pages with just two characters. Well, he did of course and there are more than two characters, one of them is even a feral dog, and along with Jessie's dead husband and her childhood self, there is more than enough narrative to speed you through yet another Stephen King novel.

The basis of this book is no big secret - the cover gives that away - so to say that one of the main characters is a dead man and therefore isn't actually there, other than in his wife's head, could make things confusing but when you add all the other things in Jessie's head like: her childhood self, memories of her father from when she was a girl, a strange man who she sees in the shadows at sunset (who might actually be there), memories of her mother when growing up, a school friend and her sister, you end up with what feels like one character living multiple personalities, which is kind of weird but also compelling.

So Gerald's game is a sexual one, which Jessie reluctantly agreed to months before, but is no longer keen on. Gerald needs the game - handcuffing his wife to the bed - to get aroused, his wife no longer being enough, and it is here, very early on in the book that you realise this is going to be a battle of wills - Jessie's will against Jessie's will in fact - because within a few pages her husband, who isn't taking no for an answer, is dead.

That battle of wills is very much in her head, from summoning the will to get a drink - bizarrely one of the best parts of the book - through coming to terms with the abuse she received on the day of the eclipse as a child; to seeing her dead husband being eaten by the feral dog and having to flay her own hand. The gory horror is infrequent but the emotional horror is constant and certainly speeds you through what is a really rather superb book.

It never gets boring, bogged down, there is always something new to explore, with the author revealing just enough to keep you guessing. Whether it's the question of the dog eating her husband, which I thought was a given, to whether she ever escapes, which I had my doubts about, to whether the psychological damage she experiences will be her downfall. And the way this book is written really does get your heart racing and has you asking questions like: Is her husband really dead? Does she really have to go back to the day of the eclipse and remember what happened? Did her dad really do that to her? Turn her into the woman she is, the woman who lets men do as they please? Is the strange looking man in the shadows with his portmantua full of bones real or also in her head? Will the nightmare ever end? Will Jessie survive? Mentally and or physically?

Well, to answer those questions you'll have to grab yourself a copy and read it and I recommend that you do too because the writing here is right up there with some of the authors best work and, to add to that, all might not be quite what it seems!

Four stars.

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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.

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A Slow Fire Burning, book review. (Paula Hawkins)

Much like Paula Hawkins' second book, Into the Water, A Slow Fire Burning is a book full of characters. Some you like, some you don’t, some you feel sorry for and some you want to throttle but all the same, they all seemed well rounded to me, particularly Laura Kilbride – a girl who has nothing but a shit life and a limp - a limp we later find out was caused by the man who was having an affair with her mother when he knocked her off of her bike (she was thirteen), before fleeing the scene, only to become her step-father a few years later – and I particularly liked Irene, who is widowed, elderly, a good neighbour and has Laura buy her shopping for her.
Then there’s Daniel Sutherland, who has been stabbed to death on a narrowboat in the centre of London, and the setting alone, with its alleyways, bridges, toe-paths and splattering of expensive houses juxtaposed with Laura’s high-rise council flat, is like a character in its own right (there’s a map included, too, so don’t worry), and adds a lot to the story.
In addition we have the nosey neighbour, Miriam: 53, dumpy, unattractive (her words not mine), keeps herself to herself, but has a tendency to be very vigilant - which stems from the time she and a friend where kidnapped when they were fifteen and her friend was killed – who happens to see Laura one morning (the morning after the murder), leaving Daniel’s boat with blood on her cloths, as does a local author, Theo Myerson, whose house fronts the river.
Now, Theo was married to Carla but after the loss of their son, Ben, thirteen years earlier, they separated; it is Carla’s nephew who has been murdered.
Carla’s sister, Angela, who also lives by the river (next door to Irene in fact) and has spent the last thirteen years drinking to block out the tragedy of Ben falling to his death from her balcony when she was supposed to be looking after him as opposed to shagging some bloke, is also dead; but is falling down the stairs when you're an alcoholic suspicious or not?

The writing here is clever in revealing just enough about the double lives being led, the hatred and obsessions between characters and in some cases their history, that I found it hard to put down, and it has suspense, fear, sadness and kept me guessing until the big reveal at the end, which I loved.
Poor Laura (or is she?), is dragged in for questioning, twice, loses her job and has her flat searched, all whilst Miriam, who found the murder victim, is stealing evidence, tipping of the police and harassing Theo, who in turn, is in and out of his ex-wife's (Carla's) bed, in spite of their separation, and lies continuously.
Crime?
Thriller?
A ‘who done it’?
Maybe it’s all of those.
But who cares for labels when a book takes you through so much at such pace with characters you root for and those you don’t, in such a great setting in the heart of London? I don’t and I suggest neither should you because whether it's Laura, Theo, Carla, little old Irene (remember Miss Marple, who fools everyone time and again into thinking she's a frail old lady sticking her nose in where it isn’t wanted?), Angela, before she had her ‘fall’ or invisible Miriam on her nice tidy narrowboat, who is the murderer, you are going to love finding out.
Four stars for Paula Hawkins’ third novel then, with the only week link being the police officers – although Laura, when she is interviewed is brilliant, and had me totally invested.

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.

Before Her Eyes, book review. (Jack Jordan)

There's a quote on the cover of this book that reads, 'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough,' which I agree with, but not in the way you might think.

A lot of people have read this book if Goodreads is to be believed, (There were 167 reviews when I last looked, with 46% being 5 stars and 30% being 4), but I have to ask - WHAT WERE THEY READING?

The idea that a blind woman could do the things Naomi (the main character) does, being a waitress, for example, is far-fetched, (to add context, I did think her having mapped out in her head the town she's lived in all her life, believable), but believing that she could escape a killer who had just slashed another woman's throat close enough for her to feel the blood splatter across her face, wasn't.

To make matters worse the police arrest Niomi on suspicion of murder, (there have been two and one attempted), and believe that she also tried to kill her own guide dog.

Then there are the coincidences: Naomi walks down an unfamiliar alleyway where the murderer happens to be slicing up victim number two. Later in the book she walks down the same road at the same time on the same day as the funeral procession of one of her alleged victims - this happens after she's been arrested and bailed so everyone thinks she's involved - and then things get even worse.

When a book is fast-paced you whizz through it and don't always see the end coming, (I admit, I got the murderer wrong), and you let a few things slide, but I couldn't with this one, the writing was just so bad, to the point where I wondered if it had been edited - I was reading the Kindle edition which doesn't always help.

It was repetitive too: a police officer finds blood on the carpet and a few paragraphs later we're told the same again. Naomi is confronted in the street by one of the victim's fathers who asks her 'why her being alive is fair' and then asks the same thing again a few sentences later. Then, my pet hate: hearts pounding against ribs and breaths wheezing in and out of lungs as if they can pound and wheeze somewhere else. URG!!!!
At one point Naomi had, 'Tubes slithered in and out of her', whatever that’s supposed to mean and is locked in a prison cell, in a police station?

I could go on but I think I've said enough. I rarely write about books that I don't like because I prefer to be positive, but sometimes the reader needs to know what they're letting themselves in for.
Only one star for Before Her Eyes then. Sadly disappointing.

Into the Water, book review. (Paula Hawkins)

I don't suppose I can review this book without mention, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins' first novel, so I'll get that off my chest first. This book is better. There I've said it, and it's not that I didn't like, The Girl on the Train, I thought it was quite good, it's just that I liked this one more.

Another book worth mentioning is, J. K. Rowling's, The Casual Vacancy, my book of the year back in 2015, and the reason I mention it: because of the familiarity I felt for that book when reading this one. Let me explain.

Both books are set in small town/village communities in the English countryside, there's death, lies and intrigue wherever you turn, but the main difference I suppose, is that, Into the Water, deals with suicide and/or possible murder, as opposed to a heart attack. Both books though, are full of excellent, believable characters, tragedy and regret.

With, Into the Water, Hawkins has her characters narrate their perspective on things individually, which makes for a little confusion at the beginning, but you soon work out who is who and start joining the dots about how they're all connected.
I found the setting, the characters and their emotions quite believable, and as the reader learns, not only how the various men, women and children's lives are intertwined, but about their feelings towards each other, their pasts' and the history of the river at the centre of the story, one finds the pages turning that little bit quicker.
This is not a long book and there is no big reveal at the end, no, oh-my-god-it-was-them! moment, but I didn't feel let down because of it, I rather liked how the pieces started to come together and move toward a coherent and believable ending.
That's not to say this book lacks intrigue, if doesn't, there are a good few twist and turns on the way, and where somethings are explained, (the dead woman and her estranged sister's relationship), some are left to our imagination, (the whereabouts of an ex-teacher at the local school).
So, well worth a read then, and whether you liked, The Girl on the Train, or not, it really doesn't matter, because this book is totally different, and as I said at the beginning, in my opinion better.
Four Stars.

The Chemist, book review. (Stephenie Meyer)

Oh boy!

I read Twilight a few years ago, way after everyone else did, and it was really rather good, good enough to get me through the series at least, (books three and four were like wading through treacle). Then, I read, The Host, and after the first hundred pages or so, I got really bored - which is how I felt whilst reading, the Chemist.

Alex (the main character), used to work for a secret government organisation, where she was their top torturer, their 'Chemist', but when they tried to bump her off, she had to go undercover, deep, deep, deep undercover.

A few years later and her former boss offers her a job, which she believes is a trap, but when she learns that millions of people might die if a certain school teacher, Daniel, isn't intercepted, and if necessary, tortured for information, she reluctantly accepts.

So far, so good. Fast paced and believable, but then it all starts going rapidly downhill.

After Alex has brutalised Daniel with her excruciating cocktail of barbiturates, his brother (who is supposed to be dead), attempts a rescue, which fails, so Alex has them both at her mercy and the truth is revealed. There is no plot to kill millions, Daniel is innocent; he also happens to be an identical twin! So, is it the brother, Kevin, the government wants, Alex, or both?

If it wasn't for Daniel inexplicably falling in love with his torturer, about five pages after she's tried to kill him, we might have found out a little sooner, but as it stands, we have to spend the next two hundred and fifty pages, (half of the book), holed up in a remote ranch, talking about dogs, food, and how much Daniel loves the woman he's only know for a few days!!!

It's just really weird!

Their relationship is the sort of thing you'd expect in a YA/teen novel - vampires or not - but here it's just silly, and to top it all, the dialogue between them is pathetic. It never once felt like they were having a realistic conversation, it was like watching a low budget movie with a naff script.

The good bits: The action is fast paced, and when it comes, it moves the story along nicely. Val, (Kevin's high end prostitute friend), turns out to be the most believable character in this whole charade, (even though she seems to be richer that Bill Gates), but in the end, the bad outweighs the good.

I know that millions of copies of this book will have been sold already, and maybe others will like it more than me, but, after, The Host, the last two books in the Twilight series and this, I think I'll leave Stephenie Meyer's books in the bookshop from now on.

Unimpressed. Two stars.

An Officer and a Spy, book review. Robert Harris.

  

If I wanted to sum up this book in one word it would be, riveting.

Paris in the late 1800's, spying, espionage, a huge miscarriage of justice and Robert Harris. What more could one ask for?

To think that it's all true too, makes it even harder to believe, but it happened and Harris has woven it into a most excellent book. I knew nothing about this historic event until a friend told me he had pre-order a copy, so within days of its release I had mine, and what a story.

I'm sure it's all out there on the internet if you want to know what went on, but don't bother browsing the web, just read Robert Harris' excellent, masterful epic.

Harris has taken an extreme miscarriage of justice and woven a tense, action thriller, that forces you to just keep on reading. Never, have six hundred pages turned so quickly. 

I have recommended this to several members of my family and I recommend it to anyone who reads this review. If you like historical novels, from any era, I'm convinced you will like this.

Five big fat well deserved stars.

Ian McEwan redeems himself with Sweet Tooth.

Ian McEwan has been on my radar for a while now. Friends have recommended him, and films have been made from his books, so I took the plunge late last year when I found an immaculate unread copy of Solar in the charity shop. 

It was short, but then most of his books are, and his characters where intriguing, but I found the story slow and to be honest a bit boring. 

I like a bit of escapism when I read, whether that means trolls and wizards or fast moving action, I don't really mind, but there needs to be something that grabs me. I love good realistic characters but I like it when they have more to aim for than just normality, and that isn't to say I don't like gritty realism, I do, I just need something with a little more umph.

When a copy of Sweet Tooth came my way, I was sceptical, but the blurb pulled me in and what a breath of fresh air. 

I raced through the book in a week and it was full of great characters, intrigue and a nice little twist to top it all off. 

Thoroughly recommended this one. A solid four stars and Ian McEwan is back on the radar again. (I have 'Saturday' waiting in the pile).

Inspiration for the day goes to all the short novels out there. It doesn't need to be a brick to be good.