Number 98- Orbital- Samantha Harvey

 Another Booker winner.  This was the book group read for this month. 

It's very short.  It follows one day in the life of a group of 6 astronauts in a space station, watching the Earth below as they orbit it several times in a day.

It doesn't really have any plot or story.  It's literally just a day in the life of these astronauts.  Nothing they do is different to any other day. 

They're asked to take pictures of a developing weather system on the planet below them.  that's about as much plot as this book contains.

The prose is gorgeous, verging on the poetic. The monotony of living in a space station is captured brilliantly without ever feeling monotonous.  You could possibly argue that there is some repetitive content in this book, but only in the same way that Beethoven's 5th could be considered repetitive.  It's variations on the theme, which sound similar but just different enough to keep the interest. In the case of  any direct repetition, it doesn't sound wrong, it's because its the right thing to do at that point and it all sounds beautiful anyway. 

I actually thought of that particular comparison a couple of pages before that tune was specifically referenced as one of the pieces of music included on Voyager for alien species to potentially enjoy at some point. The direct reference makes it quite an appropriate analogy IMHO.

It's meandering and plotless and filled with philosophical musings.  But thanks to the prose, it's never actually boring. Don't expect action packed sci-fi where the brave astronauts solve all our problems and relax into the mood of the writing and this book becomes a relaxing spa bath of a read. 

There are warnings about the way we're treating the planet, and the super-tornado they witness is explained as a result of global warming, but it never feels like the writer is preaching to the reader. 

Harvey has a remarkable ear for language and a similar skill at transcribing it to the page.  Whether she can write a story or not, I'm not sure. But this is a book you experience rather than read. If you'd told me before I read this that I would like a meditation on infinity, man's place inside it and the impact we're having on our environment as much as I enjoyed this, I'd have laughed at you. A true triumph, in the best possible sense of the word, of style over content (although that said, she does make the content rather thought provoking and interesting in any case).

As per my previous comments about Booker winners, this is not necessarily an easy read. You have to let the mood of the writing take you, then it will take you to orbit if you let it.

Number 97- Kala- Colin Walsh

 

I was a bit nervous about this book.  The plot did not sound overly promising.  Small town, teen friend group, one of them disappears, friend group blown apart. Years later, all of them back in the town and things start happening again, yada yada yada.

So far so tropey, verging into cliche.

Once I started reading it, all my worries were wiped away.  This is one of the top three books I've read this year. 

The plot is not as simple as summarised above. Obviously, most stories do rise above the tropes if they're competently written.  this isn't just competently written though.  there were times reading this that I had to stop and read a paragraph again, not because I didn't understand it, but because it was so well phrased i needed to read it again.

This is just gorgeously written.

A group of 6 childhood friends are blown apart when the eponymous Kala disappears without trace. Life in the town of Kinlough continues as always. Fifteen years pass.

Joe has returned to Kinlough to open a nightclub.  He's a successful music artist and famous in his own right but still has issues with confidence.

Helen has been living in Canada and returns to the town for her sister's wedding. She's had moderate success as a journalist and has exposed a few major controversies in the last decade.  She might not be doing as well as she lets on. but she knows how to investigate when things are wrong. So she thinks.

Mush has never left the town. he still runs the local café with his mother. His face is horrifically scarred for reasons we don't find out till very late on.

Soon after Joe arrives back in town. human remains are found in a building site in the woods on the outskirts of town. Events start to build which draw the three of them together again.  The town's ugly secrets will soon be laid bare.

What makes this book stand out is the prose, the characterisation and the unexpected twists and turns of the narrative. Colin Walsh is an absolute genius when it comes to foreshadowing. the hints dropped through the narrative are so enticing it's almost impossible to put this book down. What caused Mush's scars?  What happened to Kala? Has there been another unexplained disappearance?

This is a crime novel without a policeman at the heart of it.  These are beautifully drawn characters. each chapter is told from the perspective of either Joe, Helen or Mush. Their voices are so distinct you can tell in a couple of lines which character is the focus of any randomly chosen page. Joe's narration is a great example of second person writing.  two books in a row that nailed it....

The tension Walsh builds is remarkable. The treatment of the new disappearance is absolutely perfectly handled. the savvy reader knows something has happened a long time before the  characters catch on and the delay in taking action feels so real and adds to the atmosphere.

I always worry when the build up is so good, is the writer going to blow it all in the final act, but he doesn't.  He lands this ending absolutely perfectly. It's one of the most perfect endings.  None of the characters suddenly develop miraculous fighting prowess to deal with any violence that occurs and it all feels totally real.  The secrets the town is hiding are suitable nasty and there's a reveal that I'm still kicking myself that I missed.

I can not find any issues with this book. The rhythm of the prose (especially for Mush) reset my inner narrator to the cast of Father Ted. That's a good thing by they way. And this is a debut novel! How does someone come straight out of the posts with something this good?

I've no idea what the answer to that is. But you all need to buy this book, or borrow it from a legal source, and read it.  You won't be disappointed.

Number 96- Damnatio- SP Somtow

 

And the story of Sporus and Nero continues. 

This epic trilogy now has something in common with Hitch-Hiker's guide to the Galaxy in that there will be at least 4 parts to it.

Somtow has been unable to complete the series this year as promised for reasons explained in the foreword, but he has given us this volume which covers Nero's time in Greece with Sporus as his Empress at his side to be going along with until the conclusion next year. 

It's an eye opening trip around the Hellenic isles and the signs are growing that Nero's days are numbered. 

This is a fascinating insight into one of the most famous of the insane Caesars of Rome. In this volume he orders the Olympic games to be held in his honour while he's in Greece, just so that he can compete. 

The phrase "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" has never been truer.

The research that has gone into this series is evident but never weighs the story down. It just makes it more compelling.

By this point it's impossible to feel anything but sympathy for poor Sporus. He might be free and an Empress, and therefore a Goddess since Nero proclaimed himself a god, but he's more trapped and enslaved than he was a a slave boy.

From the overarching narrative technique- he is telling his story to the make up girl as he waits to be executed publicly in the Coliseum- we know he is almost certainly doomed, but I'm hoping so much that something might save him. I can only wait for the next volume to find out. 

Number 95 - The seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka

 

This was the Booker Prize wimer in 22.  Winning that particular prize is not necessarily a guarantee of a good read, and is never a guarantee of an easy read (in my experience).

This book is no exception to part two of that statement. This is written in second person (you did this, you did that) in a freewheeling, almost stream of consciousness style that did not always make it easy to realise what was going on.  Add to that a complex plot involving lots of characters and groups, and lots of Sri Lankan politics from the 80s and 90s, and the potential is there for something totally unreadable.

However this was actually a very good read and well worth the effort. I kind of remembered something about the politics of the book from news reports when I was growing up which made some of the book easier to follow.

Maali Alneida is a photographer.  He's just been murdered prior to the story beginning. Bu who, or what organisation is not going to be revealed quickly. Neither is the why. The list of people with reason to kill him seems to grow with every page.

Despite being dead, Maali has his own problems still.  In the afterlife he has seven moons to sort himself out and try to communicate with those he left behind on the mortal plane. Can he guide his friends and loved ones to the photos he left behind which could change the face of the country? If he doesn't go through the light inside of the seven moons, he could find himself stranded "in between" and prey to demons and worse creatures that roam the afterlife.

This was a challenge to read but well worth it. The second person narration grew on me despite the weirdness of a whole novel in this narrative voice.  It's quite possibly the best complete story I've read in this voice.

The story winds personal struggles and loves with the politics and factions in a horribly violent section of human history. This is gruesome enough to satisfy the horror fan in me. Maali is not a likable character, but he's certainly compelling. there is a reason that so many people have so many good reasons to want him dead. This book also has one of the finest pieces of misdirection I've seen in the final chapters. The solutions to the questions are convincing and totally satisfying.

I'm very glad I read this. It was a worthy winner of the award. It weaved actual events and attacks into the storyline seamlessly enough that the fantastical events become so much more viable. It's a nightmare vision of what might come after, but there is a glimmer of hope present.

If you like a challenging but worthwhile read, this is a very good option.

Numbers 92, 93 & 94- Snow Angels, Black Beth, The Breast

 

Snow Angels- Jeff Lemire & Jock

Yet another post apoc from Jeff Lemire. This time we’re in a frozen wasteland with an apparently never ending trench built into the snow. A village full of people live there with three rules to obey-

1- The Trench Provides

2- You must never Leave the Trench

3- The Trench is endless

When they return from a hunting trip to celebrate Milliken’s 12th birthday, a violent tragedy has struck the village and the perpetrator- the allegedly mythical Snowman is still there. Milliken, her dad, and younger sister, Mae Mae have to run for their lives.

This is up to Lemire’s usual standards, tense, exciting and an intriguing set up. The artwork from Jock is pretty good too with some gorgeous double page spreads and nice character work, especially since, given the setting, our characters are all dressed like they live at the North Pole. To keep them looking recognisable is a talent by itself.

Highly recommended.

Black Beth- From the pages of Scream

Not so recommended. The most interesting part of this is the introduction explaining how the original story found its way into a Scream annual a couple of years after the comic died a death.

The original story itself is beyond cliched nonsense and the artwork is not great. It’s really not surprising that it was discovered in a random drawer in the publisher’s and no one would claim responsibility for writing it.

The continuations written by Alex Worley who wrote the introduction are actually worse on all counts. Lucky this was cheap.

The Breast- Philip Roth

Well the interwebzes well and truly lied to me about this one. In more ways than one. When I was looking to see if there was any context for it, a google search advised that this story was the source of the “Breasted boobily down the stairs” quote. It isn’t. That quote is just a misandrist straw man pisstake- written by a woman. That’s all the context that quote actually needs.

The interwebzes also suggested that this was a book that might be worth reading. It isn’t. It makes Black Beth read like a masterpiece.

The story is a rip from Kafka. Professor David Kepesh wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant breast rather than a monstrous insect. Whereas the Kafka story has something to say that’s worth saying, this doesn’t. Whereas the Kafka is well written and makes the reader feel for sorry for poor Gregor Samsa’s plight, this is pretentiously overwritten and just makes the reader (this one at least) irritated with the central character and a bit grossed out (not in a good way). The fact that he fantasises about naked preteen girls in the last few pages was a particularly unwanted image. 

The only good point is that the transformation is described as being particularly painful. Kepesh deserved it.  I can think of very few literary characters I have despised more. I don't think he's supposed to be hated though. I think Roth wants us to sympathise with his plight.

There is a potential in the idea. It could have been a surreal comic look at existence. Instead, it was 70 pages of a guy wondering how to masturbate without hands. It was tedious in the extreme and if it had been any longer than 70 pages, I would probably not have bothered finishing it.

If you want a really good variation on the Kafka, try The Cockroach by Ian McEwan- which reverses the roles and a cockroach wakes up to find it's an MP... That's a brilliant take on it.

My first, and certainly last, book by Philip Roth.

Number 91- The Feast of All Souls- Simon Bestwick

 

Regular readers of this blog will know I hold Mr Bestwick in high esteem. His books normally guarantee a good creepy read, and this is no exception.

After the tragic loss of her daughter in an accident leads to the end of her marriage, Alice moves back up North to her hometown of Salford to start over again. She buys an old hose in the borough of Crawbeck (a thinly disguised version of an area close to where I live).

Unfortunately, the site her new home inhabits was once home to Arodius Thorne, an industrialist and occultist who was not the most pleasant chap you could hope to meet. Thanks to his activities, there are ghostly children and other presences which all seek to hurt Alice for their own reasons.

Along with John, an ex-boyfriend who reluctantly comes to her aid, she faces a fight for her life and her sanity.

Meanwhile, in a parallel timeline, we hear the story of a woman who fell under the spell of Arodius and learned to regret it.

This is mostly written in Bestwick’s usual gritty and compulsive style. The 19th century sections are convincing enough in the language and provide extra texture and shade to the prose.

Alice’s reaction to the escalating events seems reasonable. She doubts her own sanity rather than abandoning her entire belief in the rational overnight. All the characters are nicely drawn . Thorne is a remarkably nasty villain, and our good guys are sufficiently complex and 3d characters that we can relate appropriately. I felt truly sorry for Alice when we finally learned the reason for the break up of her marriage.

The location is described well enough that I recognised the location despite the name change. When the explanations started coming in, I found myself looking to see if there were any actual urban myths of this type around the area. It felt so convincing. Sadly, it seems that the entire thing is Simon’s invention.

As usual with Simon's work there is a lot of substance behind the story. There are some flashes of black humour present too.  The scene with the local vicar was a particularly dark comic highlight. He juggles several timelines with consummate ease.

Simon Bestwick is one of the unsung talents on the British horror scene and more people need to be reading his books. You really can’t go wrong folks.

Number 90- House of Slaughter Vol 1- James Tynion IV et al

 

Volume 1 of the spin off from Something Is Killing the Children delves deeper into the history and politics of the eponymous agency.

We follow Aaron, one of Erica's friends from the flashback issues of the original series. He's sent on a mission to kill The Butcher, another rogue ex member of the House of Slaughter. As we find out, this time there is a very good reason they want this particular ex-agent dead.

The artwork is much better in this volume than it is in the original series.

The story is interestingly told, swapping between timelines from panel to panel, reflecting how history repeats itself. 

It's a very good introduction to the new series and Aaron makes for an interesting new hero. The House of Slaughter is as morally skewed as ever and it's going to be great fun seeing if he can maintain this level of intensity. 

These are bad people trying to do good things in bad ways.  It certainly makes for a different dynamic in the storytelling. 

Number 89- Winterset Hollow - Jonathan Edward Durham

 

I love that cover.  Weird, minimalist and effective.

This is my first experience of JE Durham, and probably not my last.

Eamonn and his friends Mark and Caroline go on a pilgrimage to the island where his favourite author lived, and where the landscapes apparently inspired his only book - Winterset Hollow.

However, the idyll of Addington Isle turns out to be a false paradise.  The book was based on a horrible truth and someone is going to pay. It's Barley day and the hunt is on.  

Eamonn and his friends find themselves in a fight for their lives.

I loved the slow build up in the early chapters. When the book to a sharp left turn into fantasy I was completely sold and could barely put the book down.

This is an action horror.  For the last 200 plus pages the action is almost non stop.  It comes with all the storytelling issues that action films and books are prone to.  The lead characters are virtually immortal and can take immense amounts of damage and still get up and fight back.  The villains similarly seem almost impossible to kill. One villain in particular probably comes back from 7 certain death situations (a couple less than Eamonn).

There is a good balance of humour to leaven the violence of the hunt.  The interplay between the cook and the host at the banquet they find themselves invited to early on is hysterically funny in places.

I thought this was an incredibly entertaining book.  The story is excellent.  the action well paced and the humour is genuinely funny.  However the author has some verbal tics that were well annoying.  One of those was the repeated use of well in the place of very.  It's well bad writing imho. If he'd used very in all those places it would have been an overuse of the word.  For it to be a well irritating phrase like "well", was well worse.

There were a couple of other repeated phrases that caused minor annoyance, but "well" was by far the most egregious.

Having said that, it wasn't enough to spoil the fun I was having with the story. It's an easy and undemanding read with some nice (if a touch predictable) twists and turns in the narrative. There are a couple of glaring plot holes too... but again, not enough to spoil it for me.

Well recommended.  Not perfect but great fun.

Numbers 87 and 88- Something is Killing the Children Vols 6&7- Tynion et al

And a couple of cheat reads- my return to this continuing series.

Erica Slaughter continues her one woman mission to fight monsters whilst her old agency chases her down.

The story is what carries this through, even if it does feel a bit like Buffy with an evil watcher's council.  Erica is a really good kick-ass character and I felt genuinely sorry for her by the end of this story arc.

The artwork fluctuates between really sloppy looking and really very good indeed.  there are some panels with the monsters that are truly disturbing, but then in other panels it looks like the artist was running out of time so anything would do.

There's one full page panel in particular where there's a great detailed drawing of one of the characters, full musculature, nice detail, but the blood on her hands is just the same uniform red and really doesn't match the rest of the image.

So a mixed bag. Read for the story.  If you like the art better than me, you'll enjoy more than I did.

Number 86- Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

 

This one certainly needs no introduction. Unbelievably, this is the first time I've read it.  It was a shameful gap in my reading experience.

The vampire Louis spills his guts about the blood he's spilled since he was converted by Lestat in the 18th century.

This book certainly has an awful lot to answer for.  This marks the beginning of the end of the vampire as a terrifying creature of the night and paved the way for Twilight and its countless imitators.

I remember the days when we laughed at clowns and were scared of vampires.  That seems to have reversed itself, and this book was the start of that switch.

At the time it was written, the theme of the horror of immortality was pretty revolutionary I suppose. It's unfair to judge this on what I feel to be its negative impact so I will try not to do that.

The book is told as the titular interview.  It's a long conversation between the unnamed boy with his cassette recorder, and Louis. 

Louis tells of his first meeting with Lestat back in the days when he (Louis) ran a plantation in New Orleans. After Lestat turned him, they moved in together and while Louis ate mostly animals, Lestat was happier using the slaves as his own personal livestock. 

We are then told of their escape from New Orleans once the slaves cottoned on (it was a sugar plantation so no pun happening there as much as I wish for it to be) and their subsequent travels and further conversions- including the creation of Claudia the child vampire. I did not realise how much the film version had aged up the character of Claudia until I read this.

Louis' whining begins to grate after a while.  I do think that there's a fair bit of repetition in his list of woes and the book could have been more effective if it was a bit shorter- or if the French sequence had been longer.  I liked the larger crowd of vampires and thought there should have been more interaction there. 

There are a lot of unanswered questions going on in this book- something I quite like since they didn't feel like the links into potential sequels that they probably were.

I thought it was occasionally very overwritten.  there were places where Louis would pontificate on the moral implications of his next decision for so long that by the time he'd made his mind up I'd forgotten what he was trying to decide...

It was never less than readable and occasionally very good indeed.  But there are definitely bits where I thought it dragged.  This book has been added to that very small list of books where I prefer the film.

There I said it.

Number 85- We have Always Lived in the Castle- Shirley Jackson

 

This probably doesn't need much introduction to fans of horror fiction. Shirley Jackson's final novel in a rather handsome edition.

Merricat lives in a big house on the edge of an unnamed town with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian.

They're not well liked by the townsfolk since Constance was cleared of poisoning the rest of the family several years before the events of this book. Uncle Julian spends his time writing the events of that fateful night. Constance finds solace in cooking while Merricat performs her strange little rituals to keep the family safe and contained.

When Uncle Charles arrives at the house, the balance Merricat needs is disturbed.

This book features probably Jackson's greatest opening paragraph, even beating Hill House in my opinion.

Merricat is a wonderfully deranged and distinctly unreliable narrator.  How much of the villager's hate is real and how much is her paranoia?  Later events may well show that she wasn't paranoid (that and the rhymes the village children sing at her as she passes...

It's written in Jackson's typically dense style, so fans of more visceral horror will probably not get much from this book.  Personally though I love the slow psychological build up and the sense of wondering what exactly is going on.

It's low on incident in the first half of the book, but it build the characters so beautifully that I was never bored. 

I think this is up there with Hill House as Jackson's finest work. 

Number 84- The Dead Take the A Train- Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

 

Cassandra Khaw writes like no one else about eldritch horrors. They're at their best when writing inhuman central characters. Their prose has an unworldly quality that suits the bizarre and extreme.

Richard Kadrey (in the one book of his I'd read previously) writes a hard boiled fantasy noir crime stories with a tough edge that would make Sam Spade quiver in fear.

Together they've written this and it plays up to both of their strengths.

From the opening page we're thrown into the life of the rather blandly named Julie,  a demon hunting freelancer in New York who uses magic based in pain to earn a crust, taking on the dirty jobs other demon hunters shy away from.  

I knew I was in for something very different when, with zero explanation, on the very first page,  a bride was mentioned with blood spurting from the stump of her missing hand, whilst her mother complains to Julie about the mess.

Meanwhile Julie's ex-boyfriend is making a power grab in a supernatural agency. His actions are going to cost Julie dearly, and possibly bring about Armageddon.

This book is a near perfect blend of Khaw's wildness and Kadrey's noir plotting. It does flag slightly in the second act, and Julie's romantic subplot taking centre stage maybe softens up the character a touch too much. But that's a minor quibble and never made me want to stop reading.

This is the first part in a duology, but still manages to give a satisfying ending. there are enough plot threads still open to make part two a definite "read and buy immediately" title when it emerges from the pits of this pair's imaginations.

The book is gory, wild, mind-blowing and exciting. The prose isn't as extreme as Khaw normally writes and may well convert some of those who read and hated Blackened Teeth. The demons are pretty damned scary, and the human villains easily give them a run for their money.

If you want a real wtf piece of writing with demons, angels, evil corporations in living buildings, and world threatening danger, this is an easy choice.

Number 83- Ghostwritten- Ronald Malfi

 

My second Ronald Malfi book is this collection of 4 vaguely linked novellas, each on the theme of dangerous books, and set in the same universe, with cameos from recurring supporting characters.

Each one is a standalone story though 

The Skin of Her Teeth

The opening tale is a cursed novel that drives people insane if they try to adapt it in any way. 

There's a pretty major plot hole in the centre of this story that I can't mention because of spoilers.

It didn't detract from the story though which is a good fun variation on the old haunted object theme.

The characters are all relatable and the world we're in is set up nicely. 

The Dark Brothers' Last Ride

I can't choose between this one or the next as my favourite in the collection.

A pair of small time criminals, Danny and his volatile brother Tommy. are hired to transport a book to a mysterious customer.  There are very strict rules about this including "Don't open the briefcase" and certainly "Don't touch the book".

Of course, Tommy touches it. He quickly regrets it. They're traveling along a route specified by the customer which takes them into a strange liminal world. And all the time, things are getting worse for Tommy. This is actually genuinely emotional at the end of the story.

This Book Belongs to Olo

This is my other favourite in the collection.  Olo is a ten year old boy (nearly 11) who has made the most amazing pop up book of his house. When he moves parts of the pop up house, it changes the real one.  For his birthday he invites all the children from the local park to his birthday party. he needs new friends to join the old friends trapped in the fictional parts of his house.

There's a tonal shift in the writing for this story that makes it seriously off kilter and weird long before any supernatural elements are revealed. Olo is one of the most sympathetic villains you're likely to read about.

The Story

We close the collection with an online "find your own adventure" book that seems to have more impact on the real world than it should. Our unlucky hero stumbles into it and... well... he's not in for a good time afterwards.

This one takes its time to get running with the story, but ties everything together in quite a genius final act.

This is an excellent set of stories and has persuaded me the Black Mouth wasn't a fluke.  Malfi needs to be better known on this side of the pond. He really is the natural successor to King.  I get the same vibes from the two books I've read so far as I do with the best of King. I normally don't compare horror books with King because it feels too lazy a comparison, but in this case, I can't not compare. 

I have two more of his books in my TBR and am looking forward to them even more now.

Number 82- Baal Robert R McCammon

 

I was warned before I started this one that I probably wouldn't like it. It's McCammon's first novel after all and he wasn't up to his later standards.

I'm happy to report that, despite some reservations, I had a good time with this book.  It was definitely a step up from my last book, since I actually finished it.

It's very much a product of its time and some aspects of the book probably wouldn't get through if it was written today.

A woman is assaulted on her way home from work late one night.  he body is covered in strange hand shaped burn marks where her assailant held her down.  The child born from the assault is not fully human and casts a dark shadow over everyone in his life.

When he eventually lands in an orphanage, he orders everyone to call him Baal and leads a revolt, burning it down. As he leaves, he takes a group of devoted followers with him.

It's only in section 3 of the book, nearly 100 pages in when we finally meet a character on the side of humanity who seems destined to live to the end of the book.  Baal himself now takes more of a background role in the story. Our first hero of sorts is a professor who goes looking for a fellow academic who has gone missing in the far east trying to investigate the cult led by our eponymous antichrist type character.

He meets a mysterious stranger named Michael who is also seeking Baal, and together they go on a quest to stop his reign of terror from starting.

It's not as well written as his other books that I've read, but the unusual story structure makes the story slightly less predictable. Some of the attitudes and casual racism on display hit a wrong note that it probably didn't back in the day.  And I'm pretty certain that Inuit is a more appropriate name for the Eskimo people.  

I wonder after reading this if They Thirst and Swan Song are types of sequel to this book, as the ending is vague enough on whether the evil is gone or just transmuted and spread. 

Overall this is no masterpiece, but I never found it less than readable and he did build a good atmosphere in places. His depiction of the shanty towns in the Middle East was grimy enough I almost needed to take a bath after reading it. I found myself wishing that he'd included the cult in California which is referenced at one point (and on the back cover) as another segment of the book.  

Number 81- Not Quite White- Simon Thirsk

 

This is my first DNF since I started this blog. I struggled through 300 pages so I don't feel guilty  about classing this as a full book in my count for the year.  God knows it felt like 10.

In the village of Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn, Welsh is the number one language spoke. The village is hidden deep in the valleys and mountains of North Wales and has no electricity or running water. The locals won't allow electricity to come to the village because it apparently means the English will overrun the place and they won't be allowed to use their own language any more.

Jon Bull is a young black civil servant sent to the village to negotiate the supply of piped water and electric. There he meets the young Gwalia and they fall madly and predictably in love with each other. 

This is supposed to be a biting and "endlessly funny" satire. To describe something as endlessly funny when one of the biggest revelations in the first half of the book is about a brutal gang rape oon one of the characters is a bit of a stretch.  I think it made me smile slightly two or three times in what I managed to read.  it's truly laugh a decade material.

As for the satirical elements, I grew up in North Wales after moving there from England in the 70s. I remember hearing about holiday homes being burnt down in the 80s, but by the time this is set, all that was well and truly over. It's hardly biting satire when it's decades out of date. There was a scene with a racist taxi driver who oh so funnily used the phrase nig-nog somewhere in the region of 30 times in three pages. Not even the most committed racist has used that phrase since the 70s. Again, decades out of date with his social commentary.

It gains a point from me in that the two alternating chapters, narrated by each of the two main characters, actually do sound like they're written by different characters. They have their own voices and they're distinct. 

it's a shame the story is so poor.  the characters are all stereotypes lifted from the wrong decade. The whole set up is totally unbelievable.  As someone who grew up in North Wales, I would expect to be able to recognise the targets of the alleged humour, but none of it rings true enough in any way shape or form. the characters are too over the top to be believable, but not grotesque enough to be witty send ups.

There's also a massive plot hole at the centre of the story- more of a gaping chasm or a Marianas Trench than a regular hole- in that they're stalling the electricity by refusing to allow pylons or poles to be constructed, saying the wires have to be fed underground. This would apparently make it impossibly expensive to do.  However, they have telephones in the village as Jon phones his office on a regular basis. Therefore, either underground cables or poles are already in place and the whole game of small town politics falls over into even more total stupidity. 

The rest of my book group seemed to like it, so you dear readers may appreciate it. For me, it's the very definition of a book that when you put it down, you can't pick it up again.

Number 80- The Great Troll War- Jasper Fforde

 

The conclusion of the Last Dragonslayer tetralogy. I brought this many spots up the TBR after the cliffhanger at the end of book 3. 

Jennifer Strange is back and facing her greatest challenge yet. At the end of the last book, we found out that in her forced excursion to wales, trolls had invaded the rest of the UnUK. Now only Jenny and her ragtag bunch of friends are all that stands between the troll's complete takeover of the land, and also the Wizard Shandar's fiendish plans for world domination at the very least.

As usual this is brilliantly inventive stuff.  despite being YA, the plot has become extremely convoluted and elements from all three previous books are essential to following the story.

It's hysterically funny- also as usual.  But the drama in this volume sometimes overwhelms the comedy.  There are a couple of character deaths that felt unnecessarily cruel on this particular reader at least.  I liked those guys! Damn you Fforde! 

I know he's writing about a war and people will have to die... but not those guys 😢😢

That's probably a good criticism that he's made me feel so much for the death of fictional characters but I'm reading a comedy. I didn't expect those feels.

The solutions to the problems are ingenious (once again as usual) and the clues are layered through the narrative flawlessly so none of it came so far out of left field as to feel dumb (the author of the previous book I reviewed could take notes here). 

Page 215 is the most glorious piece of meta-fiction I've read in many years. 

This probably wouldn't work as a standalone novel, but as the closing part of a genius series, it works amazingly well. lots of laughs, and some sad farewells.

Recommended reading - as long as you've read the other three.

Number 79- Where Sleeping Girls Lie- Faridah Abike-Iyimide

 

Another book with pretty red spredges.

This YA novel was the choice at a new book group I joined recently and would probably have slipped past my consciousness entirely otherwise. 

Sade Hussein (luckily she corrects someone on how to pronounce her name about three pages in so I knew Shar-day rather than say-d) is the new girl at an exclusive boarding school. Her room mate disappears on her first night and a few weeks later, a student is found dead at one of Newton House's famous parties.

Sade is suspected to be involved in both of these incidents. Can she prove her innocence?  What are her own deep hidden secrets?

This was all going fine for the first 400 pages or so despite some reservations on the nature of the school itself. Then the explanations started to kick in and IMHO the story pretty much fell to pieces.

On the subject of the nature of the school.  This is supposed to be a boarding school somewhere near London, England. However, Sade has apparently joined the third year.  She's 16- which would make her a 5th former (or maybe year 10 these days). The school has it's autumn half term two weeks after Halloween- which is far too  late unless the term only started in October (a month late for UK schools). There's no mention of GCSE's- which 16 year-olds would be studying for, or A' levels which the 17 year old forth years would have been starting to study for. The whole set up of the school is very alien to the UK. This has been written for the US market with no thought to make the school feel like an English school would.  I suspect the UK setting is merely for the upper/lower class divide. I don't know where the author lives but she has either done zero research into the UK school system or she did and ignored it all for her market of choice- even reading Harry potter would have given her clues how to make it more convincing to UK readers. It shares strong similarities to Netflix's Sex Education in that regard.

I was willing to give it a pass on the school being so US-centric because it was a decent enough read. But then the plot revelations started piling in in all their unconvincing lack of glory. I'm always willing to forgive some narrative flaws in YA books, predictability, oversimplification of themes, some unrealistic adult behaviour, etc.  These books aren't written with savvy adult readers in mind. But this just started taking things too far. The allegations coming forward would have pretty much closed down the school instantly they were made public.

The fact that every straight male character in the book was a villain was quite noticeable. Every single diversity tick box was ticked except for nice straight male. Yes, the book is trying to warn against a certain type of predatory behaviour, but... 

I would expand on the exact plot points but that would be quite spoilerific and I didn't hate the book enough to do that. Overall this starts well and descends into silliness. I will say that considering the revelations about Sade's family, the central villain of the piece would certainly have recognised her more than just a passing "have I met you before?" line when they met, and he certainly wouldn't have acted the way he did towards her. 

Good to kill a few days.  A quick easy read but unconvincing even by YA standards, and a bit irritating. But it has nice spredges.

Number 78- Sweet Tooth- Jeff Lemire

It's a shame this is the TV Tie in cover, but it was cheap. This is a collected edition of the first 12 issues of the original comic and covers much of the same ground as the first season of the tv series. 

This is the most definitive apocalypse I've read yet from Jeff Lemire, who also takes on the artistic duties this time around. Most of humanity has been wiped out by a disease, just known as The Illness. meanwhile, the potential future of the species, the newborn babies, have not been quite normal. 

Since the Outbreak 7 years previously, every baby born has been a hybrid, part human, part animal.  Sweet tooth (aka Gus, our central character) himself is part deer. With no humans born and the Illness coming round and killing more and more 

The TV series follows several plot strands simultaneously, only winding them together very late on.  That's very typical in Jeff Lemire's comics, but doesn't actually happen here. 

For the first two thirds of this, there is only the one storyline, Gus being found in the woods by Big Man and led to safety. When Singh appears in this volume, he is far from the sympathetic character we know in the TV show.

There are other marked differences between the stories, whether the extra characters in the TV show will be introduced in Book 2 remains to be seen.

I wasn't a fan of the artwork initially but it definitely grew on me, especially when it started incorporating the weird tricks with layout that characterize Lemire's comics. The style looks rough and quite ugly but it's consistent and the emotions are clear on character faces, even the animals.  The panels where Sweet Tooth is hypnotized are particularly effective. the story is deeply personal and emotional at the same time as wildly apocalyptic. Lemire does seem to pull this trick off nicely, and here it's particularly well done. I felt genuinely sorry for all the central cast by the end of this compendium.

Book 2 is on my shopping list for when i pop into town tomorrow.

Number 78- Scattered all over the Earth- Yoko Tawada

 

URGH!

I could almost leave this review there. But I do try to give detailed write ups.

I don't know if it's a poor translation, but I really did not get on with this book in the slightest.  It took me nearly a week to read it and its only 217 pages.

I spent the whole book wondering if it's supposed to be a comedy.  If it is supposed to be a comedy it fails entirely.  If it's supposed to be serious, it hits all the wrong notes. 

Each chapter is narrated by a different character but you'd never guess by the narrative voices. Considering that there are 6 narrators over the 10 chapters, they all sound exactly the same. If you're doing multiple narrators, make them sound different. You should be able to identify a character from their voice- especially if they're all supposed to be from such disparate backgrounds as this bunch. The fact that this is supposed to be all about language and how it shapes people, that makes this sin of bad writing all the more egregious. This might be down to the translator, but since I don't speak Japanese. I have to rely on her skills in expressing the book accurately in English.

I read one of Tawada's books a few years ago and was quite meh about that one. this one is a step below meh. I actively disliked it and the whole experience of reading it. Despite the occasional nice image, it sometimes feels like it was translated by Bing translate and not a human.

The characters are uniformly unconvincing. The worldbuilding is poor at best. The forced coincidences are farcical without ever reaching the level of actual humour. The plot is almost non-existent.  A bunch of people who sound the same, despite being from Greenland, Norway, Denmark, India and Japan, wander around a few countries in a "near future" that does not feel even slightly authentic, talking about language and looking for a sushi chef so he can talk Japanese to one of the identikit characters.

Maybe I'm missing some cultural references.  Maybe it's a bad translation.  Maybe it's just a badly conceived and executed idea for a book. Whichever it is, I will not be reading any further Yoko Tawada novels.

Number 76- Reprisal- F Paul Wilson

 

The second from last book in the Adversary cycle until relatively recently. Also the last one published with this style of cover by NEL.  That's a great shame because I love these covers.

Will Ryerson Is a groundskeeper on a college campus. He has a secret past and keeps most people at a distance except for faculty member Lisl. His friendship with her verges on the romantic, but he refuses to get too involved. However his past is catching up to him. Why do phones ring with a mysterious message from beyond the grave whenever he is near one?

When Lisl becomes romantically involved with a mysterious new student, events start taking a turn for the worse.

Considering how close to the original finale this book is, there's a relative lack of overt horror in this book. Perhaps this is the calm before the storm.

The relationship between Lisl and the satanic young man is the key to the story and her corruption is nicely portrayed.  The middle section, where we flash back to Will's history and his link to the cycle, is the most overtly supernatural part of the story. There is a sense of tension that ratchets up gradually through the book, right up to the finale which blows things wide open for the last book of the series. 

Wilson is as good as King at drawing out the characters. They all seem to have their own personal backstories and feel like they've been in several books previously even if this is their first appearance.

This is how you do a cliffhanger ending in a horror novel. the central plot elements of this story are complete, but the overarching story of the series has reached crisis point. Nightworld has moved several steps up my TBR pile.