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!

The Thief of Always, book review. (Clive Barker)

As a lot of people are at home at the moment with their children, I thought, why not do a post for the kids.
It's been twenty-plus years since I last read this little gem of a book and I wish I hadn't left it so long.

Being a little bored and annoyed with all the chores his mother has given him, Harvey Swick is in a foul mood, so when Rictus appears in his bedroom, offering to take him to Mr. Hood's holiday house, a house that has stood for a thousand years and is only just the other side of town, where he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, where he'll never go hungry, do chores or be bored again, Harvey decides to take him up on the offer.
Of course, this being Clive Barker, all is not quite as it seems. His first day is full of fun and frivolity and passes without incident, and whilst waking to spring the next morning, having summer in the afternoon, Autumn and a Halloween feast for dinner and going to sleep with Christmas, the next day is like a dream. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, there's the pool for a start, the deep dark foreboding pool, where one of Harvey's new friend is spending more and more of her time, looking ever more melancholy with each passing day.

Then, there's Rictus's siblings, his huge fat ugly sister, who wants to transform Harvey with makeup and clothes, so he can play tricks on his friends, nasty horrible, callous tricks, tricks that will truly scare them, and there's nothing fun about that, is there? And Rictus's brother - Mr. Hood's deputy if you will - who lives for nothing more than to see the children's fear and pain as they become more detached from reality and ever more ensconced in the house, the pool, the . . .

Time passes, but with each day being the same, no chores, whatever food you want, whenever you want it, Christmas every evening, Harvey is getting bored and decides to leave, only he can't, because Rictus and his siblings have other ideas, and they have their orders. Orders from Mr Hood, strict orders . . . No-one ever leaves.

What a great novel this is; starting as child's fantasy and ending in such (child friendly) horror, and what a clever book too, for children and adults alike, reminding us that we should all be careful about what we wish for and that maybe we should look closer at what we already have before giving in to temptation.

Written in Barker's usual fantastical style but somewhat toned for a younger audience, this book could be enjoyed by anyone, so if you've never read Clive Barker but don't want to invest the time it would take to read one of his more ambitious creations (although I recommend that you do that too as I have liked everything of his that I have read so far) then you won't go far wrong with, The Thief of Always.

Four stars then and I certainly won't be leaving it this long to re-visit some of this author's other books. Enjoy.

We Were Liars, book review. (E. Lockhart)

Once upon a time, there was a little book about an old man who had an amazing family, the Sinclairs, who lived on an island together and made merry all summer long, only one year one of the grandchildren . . .

The Sinclairs are indeed fabulous. Beautiful, rich, intelligent - mostly - and their three daughters, along with the grandchildren, spend their summers on their island and all is good with the world, until Harris' wife dies, leaves him alone and understandably sad.
It is then that the daughters - who grew up wanting for nothing - suddenly feel that their mission in life is to procure their dead mother's jewellery, clothes, shoes, art, and even her island house before their fellow siblings do, which of course creates divisions between the sisters and starts to drive the grandchildren - particularly Cadence (the main character who narrates the story) into riskier and riskier ventures.

It is Cadence's fifteenth summer on the island when things start to go wrong, and like normal she is joined by her cousins and friend Gat, who she has a bit of a crush on, and with the three sisters bickering over the spoils the grandchildren are sort of left to it, which ends in disaster.

The writing style here is a bit odd but nothing too distracting, but for the one exception, one that I will keep banging on about until someone listens, all the stupid names. Time and again authors do this and I just don't understand why. Every time an unusual name comes up it prevents flow and gets in the way of the story, which is okay if you have just one or two, or if you're reading fantasy where you might expect something out of the ordinary, but why do we have to have it in modern-day America/England? Urg.
That aside, the story mostly takes place the following year, where Cadence and her mother return to the island to find that Harris has built a new house and all the kids are somewhat standoffish compared to previous years.
With Cadence having no real memory of what happened the previous summer - she's been suffering from amnesia since the incident - the reader is taken on a voyage of discovery and as she gradually starts to remember the previous year's events the reader begins to learn exactly what happened and I have to say I really quite liked it.
The pace was good the setting suitably mysterious and the kids believable, so a solid three stars for this one then, an enjoyable read.

Where do you edit? Confessions of a serial editor!!

Editing.

Oh editing!

I could write a lot about editing: how it sometimes makes sense, where other times it doesn't, how it gives and takes, highlighting your mistakes one minute, underlining the quality of your work the next, but where would we be without it?

When I reread some of the things I've written in the past, they make me laugh, some even have me squirming; some make me wonder what illegal substance I must have consumed when writing them, because from a literary point of view, they make such little sense, but, getting your work down, scribbling those notes whilst on the train in the morning, during your lunch hour, adding a memo on your phone, or taking a photograph that will jog your memory later, are all so, so important, because a novel, a poem, the short story or novella that you are nursing, isn't going to write itself.

So, where should you edit?
For me, it's in the backroom, the lounge, kitchen or bedroom, the car, the common, or in a field. It's at work, on holiday or in the dead of night and because we all lead such busy lives, (some more so than others), I find those little moments wherever I can, so when people ask me how I find the time to write, (after all, ninety thousand words don't just fall onto the page), I can tell them.
I confess that I don't watch the television much, that I'm able to spend most of my lunchtimes undisturbed, and if you add in a few hours here and there, on a Sunday or a day off, it all adds up.
It's not as much as I would like, (will it ever?) but I take what I can get, and I'd encourage you all to do the same, 'cause once it's on the page, set down for you to see, you can start the real writing . . . the editing.
Good Luck.

The Vanishing, book review. (Tim Krabbe)

This book is a tiny thin sliver of excellence.

Told in the third person but from just two perspectives - the victim's boyfriend’s and the perpetrator’s - it is simple, short, but shocking in equal measure.

I haven't seen the film or films - apparently there are two - so I didn't have any spoilers to deal with, and whizzed through it in just a few hours; yes, it is that short.

I've read quite a few books by European authors recently, and have liked them all, Tim Krabbe's being no exception, but ultimately, this book is too short; a novella really.

The story starts with Rex and Saskia driving through France, they are going on holiday, but before they reach their destination, they decide to stop for fuel and sustenance.

Before continuing their journey, Saskia returns to the shop for drinks and vanishes.

Cut to Frenchman, Raymond Lemorne, a married high school teacher, who dives into a canal and saves a young girl from drowning, and then, after his act of valour, he wonders: is he's capable of doing something equally vicious?

He'd saved the life of a random stranger, but can he now take one, and in the cruellest possible way?

Skip forward eight years: Rex has sort of moved on, but he still thinks about Saskia everyday, and then, out of nowhere, a stranger leaves him a message.
Raymond has found him and admit that it was he, that took Saskia, but before he will tell Rex what happened, he must agree to go through what Saskia went through; he must drink from the cup he is offered, and only then will Raymond reveal all.

Will Rex take the bait? Is it a trick? What became of Saskia? 

I won't spoil it for anyone here, you'll have to read the book, it is after all, only a hundred pages or so, so no excuses, but what I will tell you, is that it's definitely worth finding out.
Could have been a five star book this one, but it's just too short, so four stars.