Oranges are not the Only Fruit, book review. (Jeanette Winterson)

This book had passed me by for too long. So long ago in fact, did I watch the BBC dramatisation, that the only thing I remember about it, was the excellent portrayal of Jeanette, by the much missed, Charlotte Coleman, (who most of you will know from her role in Four Weddings & A Funeral).

Set in the north of England, the story charts our heroine's journey through her adolescence, arguing with her mother, beavering away in the church and questioning her sexuality, only to fall in love . . . with a girl!

The shock, the anger, the ostracisation from her community, builds to a point where Jeanette’s mother and fellow members of her church - the church where Jeanette once believed she would become a missionary - perform an exorcism.

She feels alienated, has nowhere to go, no-one to turn to, and suddenly, no lover, no future, nothing.

I like this book a lot, it's short but packs a punch, and has great atmosphere. You get the sense that Jeanette's mother and friends, truly believe that evil has taken her, that her being gay can actually be cured, as if she's caught a cold, or has the flu!

I also agree with one of the author’s quotes I found on the internet, if it be true:

"I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers”

. . . because this book is a love story, pure and simple, and like hundreds of other love stories, there are hurdles to jump and hills to climb, but gay or not, this is a book for everyone. Enjoy.
Four well deserved stars.

Magician has taken flight. (I've sent it out to the agents)

So, Magician, or Magica, as it might end up being called, has flown the nest.
Being the first book of a trilogy, I've had my work cut out, making sure I have no continuity issues, (book two is in what I like to call, the pre-production stage); in other words, I've only just finished the first draft, but bear with, I do work full time and I have a family to talk to once in a while, 'and pubs to visit', who said that?
But, Magician is done. Well, done to the degree that I think it punches in all the right places, cuddles you when you need it and gives you a jolly big slap around the face towards the end.
Magician, charts Charlie and Eve’s journey from their home town of Enfield, (where they go on a magical shopping spree), to Hertford, (where Eve listens, in a swimming pool), to the famous University City of Cambridge, (where they spend a few days hiding in a camper-van), to the harbour town of Brixham, (where they find Heather). [For any international readers: Enfield and Hertford are just north of London, whilst Brixham is on the south coast of England, in Devon].
Whilst being pursued, we experience the ups and downs of their relationship, the stresses and strains, as they get evermore isolated from their friends and family. We share their most intimate fears, marvel at Charlie’s magic, and rejoice at Eve’s most wonderful gift!

So, it's with the agents, I'm in their hands now; wish me luck cyber friends, 'cause I might need it.
Thanks of course, go to my long suffering, (yes I still live here, I'm in the back room editing again), wife, (a good cup of tea keeps me in her good books), my junior editors, Nathan and Verona, for ideas aplenty, and Sam from Texas, for all her editorial and grammatical advise last year.
I've not got any proper artwork for Magician yet - here's hoping I won't need it - but if I have to go down the self publish route, the picture to your left, might have something to do with it, so, let me know what you think.

Girls on fire, book review. (Robin Wasserman)

Oh boy!

When I read the blurb on this one, I thought, okay, sound like this could get messy.

Rarely do I purchase a book, take it home and start reading it the same day; normally because I'm in the middle of reading something else, but not this time. 
Having just finished Stephen King's Revival, (see blog post 14th July) I was about to start a selection of short stories, but got sidetracked by 'Girls on Fire', diving in the moment I got home. (Well, I actually read the first few pages whilst sitting in my car, and I hadn't done that since I purchaser 'The Book Thief' by Marcus Zusak). 
So, to the characters. 
We have the loner, Dex, the beautiful prom queen, Nikki and we have the outsider, (read: bad influence) Lacey. 
This book is told mainly in the first person by Dex (real name Hannah Dexter), and Lacey. 
This is a story of teenage anger, peer pressure, drugs alcohol, Nirvana and sex, and things certainly start to burn quickly; alcohol is consumed in large quantities, drugs are smoked, sex is mostly consensual and the music is turned up to eleven. 
After the suicide of a well liked, well respected and very talented high school boy, Craig (who happened to be dating Nikki), Dex and Lacey are thrown together. 
The story runs on two timelines, the present, told by Dex, and the year before, told by Lacey, which (spoiler alert) gradually reveals how she had been having an affair with Nikki and her talented high school boyfriend. 
Lacey's voice speaks mostly from the past in almost apologetic reflection to Dex, as if she is writing a journal, and I though this worked well. 
The climax is sort of what I was expecting, but I don't think it was written with the intention of being a big secret, (Lacey gives too many clues as we journey through the book for that), but the very very end was a bit of a let down.
I suppose you can only have so much kindle for a fire, and when it's gone it's gone. Oh well!

Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant, book review (Veronica Roth)

I might as well do these three all in one hit, because you're unlikely to read books two or three if you haven't read book one. (You might not read book two or three thought, once you've read book one!)

Okay, I'm going to just get this out there at the start: for me, Divergent always felt like the poor cousin to The Hunger Games. There, I've said it. (Dystopian trilogy: similarity number one).

Riding on the crest of a dystopian wave, we find ourselves in a world (well city really) of factions, five to be precise. At the tender age of sixteen, (similarity number two) the children of the city must decide how they feel about the world, and in which faction they want to spend the rest of their lives. (Most choose the faction they were born in).

Once that decision is made, it's faction before blood, but what if you don't fit in? What if you're Divergent? 

Well, if you're Divergent you need to keep it a secret, which Tris - our main character - manages to do reasonable well, before joining the police/army faction of Dauntless, meeting the love of her life, losing her brother to Erudite (the brains behind everything) and seeing her mother get shot. (Losing a parent: similarity number three). 
There's more in here than in some books but just not as much as The Hunger Games. 

It's believable, but all along I'm thinking there should be more, that something's missing. Well maybe I'll find it in book two, Insurgent.

NO, I didn't find it there.

Tris acts even more selfless than she does in book one, her boyfriend Four (or Tobias) - also divergent - rescues her again, but not before she opens the secret message that the Erudite have been so desperate to lay there hands on, only for the city to be told that the Divergent are their saviour, not their enemy. 

So, more of the same than, which as I say, is all quite good, but I still can't quite put my finger on what's missing. 

Book three then! Allegiant.

NOooooooooo!

This book starts off by telling the reader that everything they’ve read in the first two books is a lie. That all the people who died, died for nothing, that all the power struggles were for nothing, and (Spoiler alert) that the cities entire existence is just one big genetic experiment.

Oh come on!!!

It really felt like the author was on to something with the first two books, but this lets the whole story down. Developing characters and plot lines, creating a new world that is believable yet different, and then throwing it all away, was so disappointing. 

I did like the end though. It was a nice surprise when one of the main characters met his or her demise (no more spoilers here) and on this alone, the third book gains a second star. (I wonder if the soon to be released film will be faithful to this part of the book?) 

So to sum up: Three and half stars for Divergent, three for Insurgent and just two for Allegiant. 

N.B I watched the first two films with my kids and they're not too bad, so worth checking out.