Number 71- Bone White- Ronald Malfi

 

Continuing my horror themed reads for spooky month...

I think this is my third Malfi book and he continues to impress me. This one might have been better left till the cold of December or January rather than the middle of the unusually warm October weather we had last week.

Paul Gallo's twin vanished a year ago. His last known whereabouts were the remote mining town of Dread Hand in deepest, coldest Alaska. When he hears on the news that a serial killer has just handed himself in to the police in Dread's Hand, and there are many dead bodies buried in the icy ground on the outskirts, Paul makes the trip to Alaska to try to retrace his brother's last known steps.

The town is as strange as you would expect with a name like that, and Paul is soon buried deeper in the mystery than he ever wanted.

This is superbly atmospheric and the gradual unravelling of the evil at the heart of the town is very well executed.

The supporting cast are nicely drawn and the use of the police investigation running parallel to Paul's quest is a good way to feed us information that Paul doesn't have in order to ramp up the suspense that bit more.

Once again with Malfi, I find that this book feels like a good Stephen King.  I hate to compare to King, as it's such an obvious comparison point in horror fiction, but Malfi, while his writing style is very distinct to King, has the exact vibe I get from the King of horror.

There is one unforgivable thing about this book

Everyone knows that Christopher Lee was the Lord of Summerisle and he had Edward Woodward burned alive.  Shame on you Ronald Malfi.

Other than that, I recommend this book to anyone who like good horror.

Number 70- The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires- Grady Hendrix

This was my pick for one of my book groups. It suited my sense of humour to make a book club read about a book club killing vampires.

My 4th Grady Hendrix book, and the 4th great read from the man. 

Patricia Campbell is a stressed and harried housewife. When the book opens, she's due to talk about a book at a very strictly run book club despite the fact she's not read it.  It's a  brilliant and hysterically funny introduction to Pat and the 4 friends she forms a new book club with to read trash instead of the highbrow books that feel like torture in the club from the opening chapter.

The embarrassment turns out to be the least traumatic thing that's going to happen to her for the rest of the book. She's attacked by a neighbour and initially befriends the  neighbour's nephew - one James Harris.

Harris has his secrets which Patricia soon stumbles across. Why does he struggle to leave the house in daylight? Where is his housekeeper? What is happening to the children in the poor neighbourhood down the road? What is Harris's connection?

The title of the book is a pretty big clue tbh.

This is one of the most "realistic" vampire novels I think I've ever read. The characters don't believe what's happening.  They rationalise all the strange happenings and this allows for events to spiral.

The characters are all beautifully drawn and believable. The one I hated most was actually Patricia's husband. James Harris at least is at least partly acting according to his nature.  He's not choosing to be a massive ass. Carter is just a horrible person by choice. Again, he's entirely believable.

Grady Hendrix writes in an easily accessible style and can make the reader (me and 95% of my book group at any rate) laugh, cry, or scare them. This book has some great set pieces and a nice helping of gore amidst the laughs and relationships.  the friendship between the group feels real and is the source of some genuine emotional moments and betrayals.

It's an excellent book and I recommend it unreservedly.

Number 69- 69- Ryu Murakami

 

I almost didn't go with this for the numbers theme until I realised that this is the OTHER Murakami, and not the one who has left me so frustrated after two previous reads.

This follows the last year of the 60s through the eyes of a 17 year old asshole in rural Japan.

I say asshole but I mean it entirely in a nice way.  The narrator is the epitome of the lovable rogue. He's totally self absorbed and an objectively horrible person, but somehow, his narration made me take his side.

He's witty, and charming  and a complete prick. The book is also, apparently, more than semi-autobiographical.

There's barely any plot except for desperate teen trying to score with his dream girl through a series of outrageous stunts. But it's so thoroughly entertaining that I didn't care.

It's relatively short at just under 200 pages.  The translation by Ralph F McCarthy surely deserves praise for making a culture as different to ours as late 60s Japan feel so accessible. 

This is a great fun look at an entirely alien age and culture. At the same time, it's a reminder that certain character types are universal.

Number 68- Judderman- D.A.Northwood

 

Another of the Eden Book Society books, and in this case I have no real idea which of the 6 authors named in the afterword actually wrote this.

Except for Andre Michael Hurley- it can't be him, because his offering in this series was a starve Acre before he expanded it to novel size and published it under his own name- so I have a choice of 5.

This is from the 1972 series of books. and is a "Magical London" story following a man (Gary) looking for his brother (Daniel) who was apparently taken by the Judderman- a creation of the depravity and degradation inherent in London life in the early 70s.

It's nice and short, but could probably have been shorter if I'm honest.  It seemed to cover a lot of the same ground a few times, and Gary doesn't seem to do much actual questing for his brother.

It's a nice little book, and at 92 pages doesn't outstay its welcome.

It might not stay in your memory all that long either. But there are some nice ideas floating about in here, and you could feel the grime on the streets, the descriptive work is so good.  So, overall- not a classic, but worth reading.  it'll kill an afternoon quite nicely.

Number 67- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox- Maggie O'Farrell

And this was a book for another book group.  I would have struggled to pick up a book with such an anodyne cover, regardless of how much I liked Hamnet by the same writer, without the choice being made on my behalf.

However, this book totally defies any negative expectations given by that cover.

Esme Lennox  has been locked in a mental institution since the 1940s when she was 17.  Now, 61 and a bit years later, the old institutions are closing and she is released into the care of her grand niece. Much against the wishes of that niece.

This novel explores her life, and the life of her family in intricate detail. Her niece, Iris, is busy trying to juggle running a shop and some strained romantic entanglements. Caring for an elderly woman she's never heard of before yesterday was not in her plans.

Kitty, Esme's sister and Iris's gran, is the only person living who knows the truth about Esme, why she was locked up, and why she's never been mentioned at all in the last six decades.

The details of what happened are drip fed to us exquisitely. It's almost a psychological  thriller about family dynamics. The revelations near the end of the book shocked me to my core.

It took me a few chapters wo tune into this and work out who was who and how they linked, but once all that was straight, this was unputdownable.  I raced through this in two days. 

I loved Hamnet, and now I can unreservedly say I loved this one too.  It packs a real gut punch. I must get more O'Farrell on the TBR.

Number 66- Pan- Michael Clune

 

Playing a bit of catch up here- I'm 4 books behind on the write ups.

This was a book group choice, and I thought it sounded quite interesting- a teenager starts having panic attacks and becomes convinced that he's possessed by the God Pan.

Sounds interesting, and IS interesting is all in the execution of the idea though. I thought from the blurb that this was going to be packed with supernatural overtones etc.

Sadly, after a promising start, including some great depictions of anxiety and panic attacks, it devolves into a story of a bunch teens hanging around in a barn getting stoned and occasionally shagging or getting up to illegal shit.

From that point of view, it's probably a good book, if that's what you're into.  It is well written, Clune has a good style to his writing.  Unfortunately, I personally found this a bit repetitive and I kind of lost interest after a while.

There's a scene where he pretends to be a wheelchair user to try to steal some booze, but can't figure out how to steer the wheelchair and hold the bottles.  This kid is supposed to be intelligent but he can't figure out to just put the bottles in his lap like every wheelchair user in existence does. That was probably the scene where I stopped caring and finished the book out of duty to the book group. 

So overall, nice writing, shame about the lack of an interesting story or believable characters.