Numbers 33 & 34 - Something is killing the Children vol 4 & Monstress vol 4

 

Two quick reads and once more, all the comments I've made in write ups of the previous volumes apply to these.

Something Is Killing the Children - This volume goes back to the beginning of Erica's story and we find out how she came to join the House of Slaughter.

The story is fast paced and action packed.  It adds extra layers to the story we read in the first three volumes.

The art continues to be functional at best, but it suits the story.

Monstress - The story is getting more convoluted with sides playing off against each other whilst the Old Ones lurk in the background preparing to resurface. 

The storytelling is as ambitious as in any prose novel, with the added benefit of some of the most beautiful artwork you'll see in a graphic novel.

The contrasting takes on how to deal with monsters are worthy of a separate discussion by itself. 

  Both feature very strong female characters up front and centre.  These are badass women you don't want to mess with. I've always said that, rather than change existing characters from male to female, create strong and compelling woman characters in their own right instead. It seems less patronising somehow.

Hopefully these will be optioned for the screen at some point. And hopefully, they'll do a good job.

Number 32 - State of Terror - Hillary Clinton & Louise Penny

 

This review will contain some spoilers.

I'll start with the positives.  It was a fast read. The story has the potential to be interesting. I also found a really interesting bookmark in it left by the previous owner.

That's that bit over and done with.

The back cover proclaims this to be the most authentic political thriller I'll ever read. I'm sorry but if Dr Seuss wrote one it would feel more genuine than this. The last Carl Hiaasen felt a lot more realistic than this - and it was well written - which gives it a huge advantage over this farrago of a novel.

This is by far the worst written book I've read in years.  The prose can charitably be described as clunky. if I wasn't feeling charitable, I'd go for frenetic, irritating and just plain bad.

The writers seem to think that action sequences are best done with ever shorter sequences featuring different characters finishing by cutting away from what the final character sees without telling the reader what that was.  

At some point in the next chapter, one of the other characters will talk about what happened. 

The lead character Ellen is the newly appointed secretary of State for the USA, appointed despite being a huge political rival to the newly incumbent president. We might as well call her Mary Sue as she is the most obvious self insert by Mrs Clinton. She's almost impossibly astute, fluent in a dozen languages, and utterly flawless in personality.  Despite her perfection and intelligence though, she fails to recognise the villain of the piece when he's stood right next to her and talking to her, even though she once spent two years making a documentary about him...

That's just one plot hole out of many in this badly edited, badly written attempt at literature. When I say badly edited, you can't give a better example than when we get this direct quote from the book  (Pages 360 &361 in my copy)

"The second wave took off, the helicopters filled with precious cargo. The sons and daughters of parents who would be terrified to know what their country was asking of their children. The young men and women clutched M-14 rifles and stared across the aisle at each other.

The young men and women clutched M-14 rifles and stared across the aisle at each other."

Apart from the repetition of an entire sentence, this section shows just one of the thousands of sentence fragments to be found in the book.

Constant use of incomplete sentences for no reason.

Sentences without verbs. Scattered all through the book.  At least 5 to a page. In action sequences, probably twenty per page. And no payout at the end of it. Because of cutaways. 

It becomes very wearing, very quickly. There are several deaths in the book. But all off screen with a cutaway immediately before it happens.

If it was better written I could forgive some of the flaws. If it hadn't promised "the most authentic - and gripping - political thriller I've ever read" on the back cover, I might be willing to accept the scene where she blackmails the Russian leader by photoshopping him into child porn and threatening to release it to the world unless he tells her where the bad guy is hiding, or where she follows the US version of the SAS on a raid into the villain's house, or where she seems to be able to travel halfway around the world in a couple of hours, or any of the other places where it's slightly less realistic than the Tiger who Came to Tea.

But it isn't. 

This is a dreadful book on nearly every level. It's the closest I've come in a long time to not finishing.  The only reason I did was because it's this month's book group read. I forced myself to finish it, and I'm sorry that I did.

The last two pages are the most cliched pile of nonsense in the book.  It's all over, the threats gone... Or is it? Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Don't waste your time with this book. My copy will be going to mulch down somewhere for compost.  I don't see any justification for inflicting this on anyone else. I have no one I hate that much.

Number 31 - Locke and Key the Golden Age - Hill & Rodriguez

 

Since the original series came to a natural end, Hill and Rodriguez have been filling in some of the blanks from the history of Key House in a number of smaller stories.

In this collection, all those smaller stories are brought together, culminating in the crossover story with Neil Gaiman's Sandman - Hell and Gone.

I already have the Small World and the Heaven and Earth volumes (I believe I may have reviewed both of them on here a few years back, but I don't have the energy at the moment to check). 

I'd forgotten how moving heaven and Earth was.  Once again it brought a small tear to my eye. That was nothing compared to the impact that the previously unread stories had. 

Face the music is an amusing and gruesome little short short story.

To Pale Battalions Go is one of the best storylines in the L&K history. Young John Locke decides he wants to join the army and use the keys to fight the Germans. He tricks his way into the army and wreaks havoc for a while on the enemy forces.  Of course, things don't go his way for too long and tragedy strikes. 

If I was wiping a small tear at the end of Open the Moon, I had a little cry at the end of this one.  It was heart rending, and led beautifully into Hell and Gone. As previously mentioned, this is a crossover with Neil Gaiman's Sandman.  It's a long time since I read any Sandman (I think I may need to collect that set of graphic novels next) but it didn't matter.  The characters are just as engaging or terrifying as they were under Neil's auspicious penmanship and no prior knowledge is necessary to follow the story.

The artwork is spot on throughout without even one subpar panel. You can spend ages looking at the detail in the full page spreads. This may well be the best of the L&K titles so far and that is high praise indeed.

Number 30 - The Tomb - F Paul Wilson

 

This is listed on Wilson's website as part two of the series begun in his novel The Keep that I  read last year. However, I see no links whatsoever with that novel.

Unless my memory is completely wrong, that book was vampires attacking Nazis in an ancient keep in Transylvania.  This one is a man investigating the disappearance of an old woman and finding ancient Indian demons in 80's New York.

It also doesn't feature a Tomb.  

However, despite not being an obvious follow on to The Keep, and despite not having any relevance to its own title, its a brilliant piece of 80s horror history that I'm only disappointed I didn't read decades ago.  

Wilson would have been right up there in my list of top horror reads along with King,  Campbell and Somtow years ago and I wouldn't have the game of catch up on his works that I now find myself with.

 This book follows Repairman jack (who has his own series of books separate to the series started by the Keep) in his first battle against the supernatural. Jack lives outside of the legal system. He "fixes things" for people to earn a living. Sometimes those things involve violence, which jack enjoys.

He's asked to help in two separate incidents here.  First is when his ex girlfriend phones and asks him to find her missing Aunty who vanished from her locked third storey room in the middle of the night.  The other is when an Indian diplomat asks him to track down a necklace stolen from his grandmother in a mugging the night before. There's extreme urgency and a lot of money in it for Jack.

The two cases intersect in the most horrific ways. Jack needs all his wits about him to survive and to save the life of his ex-girlfriend's family members.

This book starts quickly and never lets up.  The fast pace stops you thinking too closely and looking for plot holes. I'm sure there are some, but I didn't spot them because I was enjoying the rollickingly good adventure story going on far too much.  Part detective, part human drama, part supernatural thriller.  This book has it all. Some of the shock reveals were a bit obvious, but at least one I only spotted two pages before when one of the final jigsaw pieces was hinted at.  It's good going to hide a secret as openly for nearly 300 pages. All Credit due to Mr Wilson.

The Rakoshi are brilliant demons and superbly drawn.  They're genuinely creepy.  (and the subject of one of the biggest shocks in the book). They're easily as nasty as the vampires from The Keep (and they were the best type of scary vamps).

Repairman Jack is a great creation and I'm going to have to track down all his books too, on top of the Keep series. I just hope I can get as many as possible in these gorgeous N.E.L. covers from the 80s and early 90s. 

Is it a carefully considered, thoughtful masterpiece written in delicious prose that sings off the page and resonates in my soul? No.  Is it a damned good fun riot of a book that kept me enthralled for 380 pages and gave me a few surprises and scares along the way?  Hell yes! This is a cracking good read and you all should track down a copy for yourselves.

Number 29 - A Spider on My Tongue - TM Wright

 If you were to ask me for a list of the best horror novels ever written, A Manhattan Ghost Story by TM Wright would be close to the top every time. It was followed a couple of years later by a sequel, The Waiting Room.  And many years later by this slim volume.

Abner Cray, lead character in the first book, and object of the search by his best friend Sam Feary in the second, is now living, or maybe not, in a house in the woods with a legion of unwanted guests.

His reality has fragmented almost completely.  This book takes the form of a journal detailing his current existence and flashbacks to what led him here, with musings on life and death and the differences between the two states.

It's a weirdly compulsive, totally fractured and not 100% sane narrative. It bounces from subject to subject, flashback to present to nightmare fuel at the drop of a hat.

It has a very similar feel to the TM Wright I reviewed a couple of months back.  It seems like his later books became quite samey, with a lot of repetition of the same verbal tics and narrative trickery, and legible story coming in in second place behind the style. 

The style is very readable and very creepy when it works.  It insinuates itself into your brain without you noticing. The horror comes in quietly at an existential level rather than being immediately frightening.  I still prefer his books that had more conventional narratives along with the existential terror.

This is one for Wright completists like me I think. It's difficult to find online for a reasonable price.  For the casual fan, read Strange Seed, Manhattan Ghost Story, The Woman next Door, The School, the Playground or any of his books from that sort of era. They're more satisfying reads than this one as good as this one is.

Number 28 - Monstress Vol 3 Haven - Liu & Takeda

 This series continues to impress. The artwork continues to amaze.

The worldbuilding continues apace. It's a fascinating and, in my experience, unique mix of feudal Japan, human/animal hybrids, magical necromantic cats, cyberpunk, and eldritch ancient gods.  What's not to enjoy?

We learn more about the ancient ones and the creature living inside Maika Halfwolf. Can Maika trust it? Does she have a choice? Or even a say?

The political scene becomes more and more fraught and war is on the horizon. 

Our heroes have reached a safe haven, but is it? With the forces chasing Maika, trouble is not on the horizon, it's right there.

I have part 4 all lined up and ready to read. Looking forward to it.  

The problem with writing up these continuing series is that, if the quality stays consistent, i'm going to end up repeating myself.  It's not easy to give any plot details without spoilers for the earlier volumes.

I will say though, that this series is as satisfying as a prose novel and I truly recommend you all seek it out.

Number 27 - Nothing But Blackened Teeth - Cassandra Khaw

 

I picked this up because of that gorgeous cover, and word of mouth on social media.  That plus quotes on the back from several of the brightest stars in modern horror which claim it to be the absolute cat's whiskers and best new thing since Hill House...

I went in therefore with expectations set at very high...

That might have been a mistake. Although I can see the quality of the writing and it did move me in the final chapters, I was a little underwhelmed.  I don't think it completely lives up to hype. 

It tells the story of a group of friends who pitch up at a haunted mansion in the depths of rural China for the marriage of a pair of them.  The bride has always wanted to get married in a haunted house (as you do) and this place certainly fits the bill.

A lot of time is spent detailing the past love lives and interactions between the friends. The bride is so opposed to the narrator, it's hard to believe that she would have agreed to allow her to come along since there are so few in the group.  A wedding party of 20 or 30, maybe, but only 6? It's not like she's a plus one to a fully welcome guest. In fact, for a close knit bunch of friends willing to travel to a remote (500 miles from the nearest hospital we're told at one point) part of China for a wedding, there seem to be a lot of underlying resentments. That might be the ghosts dragging their worst feelings out though. 

The atmosphere is built nicely. the legend of the house is suitably nasty and the style of writing is mostly very good. Despite the short length of the book (a shade over 100 pages) this is a slow burn until the terror kicks in.

There's some meta style commentary going on too.  "This is the part of the story where this happens" sort of dialogue.  That was a weak point in the writing for me I will admit. If it was meant as comic relief, it wasn't.  It it was meant to heighten tension, it lessened it.  IMHO.

I think I probably need to set aside a couple of hours uninterrupted reading to properly appreciate this.  Over the last few days I've only managed to catch a few pages here and there, which isn't ideal for this style of horror.

Overall, it's mostly fairly well written and atmospheric, but I wasn't 100% won over, and I'm not sure why. There are some stylistic tricks she overuses which become very noticeable and dragged me out of the story. That's one reason. But it wasn't so much that it's unforgivable. 

One for a reread... This is the sort of book I usually love.  I'm disappointed I didn't like it more.

Number 26 - Simon Says - Frattino & Lee

 

I hope Blogger.com doesn't have automated algorithms that will object to that picture.

This is apparently based on Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi hunter after the second World War. Here he's depicted as a "Nazi-hunting 007" to quote the Forbes review on the back cover.

It's a graphic novel drawn almost entirely in black and white.  The only colour used is red. the artwork is very good throughout but not exceptional. The use of colour is the only standout in the art department here.

The story follows Simon as he initially works with the Americans to hunt down assorted officers of the 3rd Reich still at large in Germany.  When the unit is closed down he becomes a vigilante and discovers a group of high ranking officers assuming more power again. It's up to him and his partner Bruno to stop the rise of the 4th Reich.

The story is exciting, filled with tension and action set pieces.  I'm not sure how much of a liberty they've taken with the "inspired by" heading. Some of it seems as unlikely as the action sequences you find in an actual 007 flick. If you're going to say that it's based on reality, maybe it should feel more realistic.

There are no notes from the author at the end to answer any of my questions about the veracity of any of the events or characters in the book, which is slightly annoying.

It finishes on a bit of a cliffhanger and as far as I can see there's not a volume 2 out yet. That's slightly more annoying. 

A good way to kill an hour or so.  If vol 2 pops up anywhere, I will be certain to buy it.

Numbers 24 & 25 - Soldier from the wars returning - David Campton - At Midnight I steal Your Soul - John Probert

 

I don't want to waste an entire entry on the David Campton book.

In this one, a barman and barmaid reduce a returning soldier to a quivering ruin of who he was. 

Despite the fact that he's one of my favourite playwrights, this just didn't work for me. It's very short - only 16 pages.  It's described as a grotesque comedy, which I thought was a great sign. His comedies of menace like Little Brother Little Sister are amazingly good.  

I didn't get this one though.  I just couldn't tune into it at all which is unusual for me with Campton. I actually read it twice and still didn't get it. Normally with his plays, i can see it happening as i read it, hear the characters talking.  Not this time, and I don't know why.

A rare misstep.

Next up was another cheat read. John Probert's gloriously titled "At Midnight I steal your Soul". It actually says on the front cover a quick read - so it was ideal.  I read it at lunchtime today. Its a short story in large print and double spaced to make it dyslexic friendly.

A young woman attends a choir rehearsal at an unusual location - a local mental hospital. However, something is stalking the corridors that's more frightening and more vicious than any human.

It's a good fun read. It's atmospheric, weird and, occasionally laugh out loud funny.  I loved the cameo appearance of two of Mr Probert's fellow horror writers on the British scene, the two Gary's, Fry and McMahon, both of whom sounded very like the real thing.

If you're looking for a quick easy read with a gleeful nastiness behind it, this will suit you admirably.

Number 23 - Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

 

Another book with an incredibly bland cover.  I ordered the psychadelic cover from World Of Books but this is the one they sent me.  More than a little irritating.

However, the contents are the important part. This is a semi contemporary novel so I had high hopes for it (I find Mitchell's forays into distant history to be very tedious, but his writing set in times of living memory tend to be great)

And I wasn't disappointed.  Mitchell well and truly hit it out of the park with this book.  At nearly 600 pages it's a bit of a doorstop but it reads so easily it felt half that length.

I might be a few books behind on my total from last year, but my word count must be a lot higher. This is the 4th book so far that exceeds 500 pages by a distance.

It tells the story of a brief flash in the psychadelic music scene in the late 60s. We start with Dean, a down on his luck bassist who, on the worst day of his young life to date - lost his job, his money and his home - he runs into Levon, a music producer/manager, who takes him to watch a band playing at a venue nearby. Here he first meets Jasper de Zoet and Peter Griff Griffin a guitarist/singer and a jazz drummer respectively. They form a band together under Levon's guidance and are soon joined by Elf Holloway, a folk singer/guitarist/keyboard player.  thus the new band on the block - Utopia Avenue is formed.

The book follows them through the ups and downs of musical life - from a first gig that couldn't possibly go worse to breaking into the American music scene.  They run into many prominent figures of the late 60's scene.

The time period is drawn fantastically. It feels completely real. The characters are drawn equally well.  When their personal lives turn bad, we feel for them.  

On top of all this there are many nods to his other books, some more subtle than others.  Spotting the Easter eggs adds a whole new layer of fun into the book. 

I wasn't 100% certain that Jasper's storyline fitted the overall tone of the novel - especially when it became unapologetically supernatural in nature.  As brilliant and as tense as it was in the final segments, it sat oddly with the realism of the rest of the book.

That was a minor quibble though. I raced through this in just under a week. It's compelling, it's funny, it's sad, it's a fabulous portrait of 50's England seen through the eyes of a very different set of characters, a psychadellic head trip through the late 60s music scene.. What more do you want? 

Number 22 - Killer's Choice - Ed McBain

 

An accidental reread for me.  half way through i suddenly realised I'd read it a few years ago.  On checking my Facebook "books read in" albums i read it in 2017 and at the time was my first Ed McBain novel.

It's very much a product of its time. If someone tried to publish this today there would be a storm about the casual sexism displayed by pretty much everyone including the women.

However, that aside, this is a damned good police procedural. It's the 4th in the 87th precinct series, but they all work as standalone novels so no prior knowledge is necessary.

I would love to see an ongoing tv series made of these books, set in the same time as the books. They could do three or four of the books per series and they'd take years to get to the end of the source material.

This one follows the investigation into the death of a young woman, Annie Booth, shot to death at her job in a liquor store. It wasn't a robbery since the cash was all still in the register.

Every person who knew Annie seems to describe a different person.  But which of them had the motive means and opportunity to gun her down?

There's also a subplot with another killer being chased down. McBain managed to squeeze a lot of story, and description, into the scant 150 pages of this book.  It's not perfect, but it's solid and good enough that I now pick up the 87th Precinct novels any time I see them going cheap.

In summary, some dated attitudes but a good read.

Number 21 - The Dragon's Child - Janeen Webb

 

A nice little cheat read. Janeen Webb was a complete unknown quantity to me before reading this book that I received as part of a mystery bundle from PS2 Publishing.

It was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

The plot involves shapeshifting dragons who disguise themselves as human and run significant portions of the world economy. After accidentally eating a baby (these things happen), a particularly powerful dragon switches one of her eggs for the deceased infant.

The child learns human feelings, something no dragon has done before.  This can only mean trouble.

Janeen Webb keeps everything in a morally grey area and I was never quite sure which side I should be cheering on. I don't think that's a bad thing though. 

The writing is beautifully done.  I breezed through this in a couple of hours. The characters are sketched as well as they can be in a narrative this short. The world-building is amazing considering the fact it's less than 100 pages.

If I was to make any criticism it would be that this feels like the opening section of a much longer work and not a one off. I was left wanting more, but mainly because it felt like she was abandoning us in mid-story. The fact that I want to know what happens next tells you that I really enjoyed it. I will be looking out for future installments.

Number 20 - Maus ii - And Here My Troubles Began - Art Spiegelman

 Maus I finished where Vladek Spiegelman, after evading the Nazis for years, was captured and sent to Auschwitz.

This volume completes his story, with a detailed rundown of the atrocities he witnessed and his almost miraculous survival.  The first version of that sentence said miraculous escape. but that's the wrong word.

In my write up on volume 1, I said it was powerful and disturbing. Compared to this, volume 1 is mild. 

If this was pure fiction I would say that it was impossible. Humans aren't that vile to each other.  This is unbelievable.  But this is a true story, even it it has been anthropomorphised into animals. It's an eyewitness testimony of the most disgusting crimes against humanity in living memory.

The meta part of the story, where Art himself interviews his father, is deeply moving and scarily honest. Art shows us all his own and his father's faults as people. How much of his father's personality can be excused by what he went through? Art clearly shows his exasperation at his father, and his guilt for not wanting his father living with him despite the amount of help he clearly needs. 

This being a true story, don't expect pat answers to any questions raised. Do expect to be shaken to the centre of your existence. The descriptions of the atrocities at the Auschwitz and Dachau camps are worse than any horror story. I was thankful that the characters are all drawn as different animals.  It makes the horror of what happened a bit easier to process. Until of course, the moment that it did process and then... 

This is one of the most important books about the holocaust. The artwork makes it so much easier to digest without diluting the power of the story or the horrors humanity is capable of inflicting on each other.

It's a genuinely traumatic read.  But we have to learn the lessons from history. This is one bit of history that cannot ever be allowed to repeat itself. 

 I bought book one when it first came out and struggled to find an affordable copy of book 2 recently. However its easily available as an omnibus version of both books. There's no excuse to not go out and buy it.

Number 19 - Outcast Vol 8 - Kirkman et al

 

After the marathon that was GNTC, a quick sprint through the long awaited final volume of this series. 

Compared to a few graphic novels I've been reading, the artwork is really quite basic, as is the storytelling.

It's still an enjoyable little morsel to read. It''s a good ending to a pretty good series, no matter how basic it might be.

Sometimes a light snack is what you need instead of a banquet, and this is a tasty snack.

Number 18 - Ghoul N the Cape - Josh Malerman

 

This is possibly the single most expensive book I've ever bought.  It's certainly the heaviest. It's also the only book that came with it's own themed shot glass.

This limited edition from Earthling Press is a thing of beauty and arrived in the best packaging I've ever received a book in.

There are 7 full page full colour illustrations inside the book as well. With a word count equaling that of the original version of the Stand, you get an awful lot of book for the money.

I'm used to Josh Malerman writing in a spare, pared back and atmospheric prose. This is almost a direct opposite. It almost doesn't read like a Malerman book. Characters monologue regularly (can you use monologued  as a verb?) for a couple of pages at a time.

We're treated to a continent wide story of a road trip from a dive bar in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty to the westernmost point of Alaska, via Hawaii.

It all starts when a guy walks into a bar. The bar is Logan's (as immortalised on the shot glass)  The guy is the Cape.  He enlists Ghoul, a regular customer in the bar, drinking his life away, to join him on his journey across the States, trying to outrun the Ghost Star aka the Naught as it descends and starts eating the country from east coast to west. They're chased across country by agents of the naught, including a man whose face drips shadows and who carries a long sharp blade that reflects the stars even in daytime, and a man made of blood.

A quest is a trip to accomplish a task.  An adventure is a trip without a destination.  A journey is when the trip is more important than the destination.  This book manages to be all three. They run into an assortment of weird and wonderful characters on their trip. I don't want to say too much about them as it would spoil some great surprises.

This is probably the least scary book Josh has written so far.  Other than the guy with the knife, the threats to life are more metaphysical in nature and I was reminded of themes he explored in Carpenters farm back in 2020.  As a Brit sat watching news from the good ol' USA, I have to say that this book provides as good an explanation as any for the history of the USA in the last 5 years or so.

The writing is as brilliant as it is expansive.  The monologuing I mentioned earlier is no bad thing.  The philosophising that happens is quite fascinating in its own right. There are many laugh out loud moments, and despite me saying it's the least scary book he's written, it still has its moments.

There were a few times reading this where I totally lost track of time.  I'd pick the book up, and what I thought was 5 minutes later I was 50 pages further through and an hour had vanished. It takes good writing to do that. This isn't a book that kills time.  it dissolves it and eats it as surely as the Naught chomped its way through the Midwest and spews you out the other side a changed person.  

The only issue I have with this book is that I've now got to completely rearrange my shelves to find a space for it.

It might still be available from Earthling Press, but it's a limited edition of 1000 copies so you may have to try the second hand markets to see if anyone is fool enough to get rid of their copy. My copy is number 861, so it was selling fast.

Number 17 - Monstress Vol 2 - Lui & Takeda

 And another cheat read before embarking on an epic road trip with Josh Malerman.

Volume 2 of Monstress proves conclusively that the quality of volume 1 was no fluke.

This is one of the most satisfying series I've read in the graphic novel form.  Whilst I really enjoy most of the graphic novels I've been reading, they're the literary equivalent of a light snack. a sneaky bag of crisps before the main course.

This series so far is the whole meal from aperitif through to a rich and tasty dessert.

The artwork is stunning throughout.  It's gorgeously detailed from the backdrops to the lead characters.  There's never any sense of wondering which character is which as they're so clearly drawn. Next to this, the artwork in  Something is Killing The Children looks functional at absolute best, and like a child's scribbles at worst.

The storyline is as rich and detailed as the artwork.  The worldbuilding here is every bit as good as I've read in any prose novels. I completely lost track of time yesterday because I was so absorbed in reading this.  That level of absorption is rare with me when it comes to this format.  There's a reason I refer to them as cheat reads. It's not just that they only take an hour to get through, they serve as palette cleansers before the next book.

This, however, is just brilliant in every way. Maika Halfwolf is a great central character.  We even got some characterisation on the creature that lives inside her in this volume. The forces hunting her down are gathering. New antagonists are entering the fray, and that thing inside her that she has trouble containing is not making her life easy.

I will certainly be picking up volume 3 at the weekend. This is an intriguing and beguiling tale of cute hybrid human/foxes, warrior princesses, two tailed necroscopic cats and hideous levels of ultra-violence. What more could I possibly want?

Number 16 - Something is Killing the Children - Vol 3

 

After the cliffhanger ending to volume 2, this was very high on my shopping list, unfortunately, the amazon seller was slow in sending it to me or I would have read this at least 3 books back.

Erica Slaughter has grown from just a random badass in town to kill a monster or two, into a more rounded character with a hidden (for now) past and a hate/hate relationship with the secret order of monster slayers she works for.

There are definite similarities to the Buffy/Watchers guild relationship although this is a lot more violent.

This volume is the last in the first story arc of the series, and the ending is suitably dark and gruesome. It could be argued that it's not 100% unpredictable but it plays its cards well enough that the familiar tropes feel fresh.

The storytelling is top notch. The characters are drawn as well as they need to be to and can be in the fast pacing of this series. sadly the artwork isn't always up to scratch.

I've got the hang of spotting which pages need to be read across the double page, and which are read normally (left page then right page) so there were no issues with that this time around.

I have volume 4 sitting waiting for my perusal in the very near future. That is the start of a new story arc and I'm really looking forward to it.

Number 15 - Moonglow - Michael Chabon

 

Michael Chabon writes gorgeous prose.  I read The Yiddish policeman's Union a few years back, and while I'm sketchy on plot details, I remember really loving it.  So much so that I now have 4 more of his books in my TBR.  So I was quite happy when this was chosen for this month's book group (even though it wasn't one of the ones I already had, so it cost me money to go out and buy it)

The meeting was held a week ago last Wednesday and I've only just finished the book today.

I wasn't the only one in the group who hadn't finished.  This book is unique in the history of my book group in that not one person had finished it.

It's a memoir of Michael Chabon's maternal grandfather - or it purports to be. The first person narrator is one Mike Chabon and he's telling us about the stories his grandfather told him from his deathbed.

The old guy apparently had an interesting life.  A decorated veteran of WWII, an ex convict married to a woman with severe mental health issues, a rocket scientist in his spare time, and as he got older, a hunter of killer snakes in his retirement village, trying to avenge the many pets which have gone missing.

I say apparently, because the book is apparently fiction. It's hard to tell what it is. It is filled with Chabon's trademark luscious prose, layered narrative and deeper hidden meanings and metaphor.

On the strength of the quality of writing, I should love this book unreservedly...

The problem is that I don't. And one of the annoying things about this book, is that it makes me feel that it's a ME problem and not the fault of the book that I've actually found it a struggle to get through.

The structure of the book doesn't help.  In a well done attempt to recreate the randomness of memory and recall, the book is very choppy and bitty.  It takes till about page 180 before two consecutive chapters are set in the same timeframe. Every chapter up until that point requires a mental reset and effort to work out where in the timeline we are.  This does help to get across a whole lot of background information and the piecing together of the jigsaw pieces is sometimes quite enjoyable. 

It has made me laugh out loud frequently. It has made me feel sorry for the family. A chapter close to the end dealing with his mother's miscarriage was particularly moving. But this isn't a book I think I would read again, despite the fact that knowledge of the whole story will almost certainly grant more insight to events described earlier on, and to see the myriad of patterns  in the storytelling.

It's frustrating.  I can't fault the book, but it was a real struggle to get through. Your mileage may vary but this is a 6/10 or 7/10 at most for me.

Number 14 - Doctor Rat - William Kotzwinkle

 

First things first - that is an,,, erm... eye-catching cover and one of two reasons that I picked this book up.

The other reason is William Kotzwinkle as the writer.  I've read at least two of his other books many years ago. Considering the cover on this, you would have a hard time guessing what those might be.  ET the Extra Terrestrial and ET, the Book of the Green Planet.

I don't particularly remember anything about those books - a timeframe of 3 and a half decades will do that, but I do remember that I enjoyed them.

This book is quite a different beast to the E.T. novels.  That cover is quite a clear warning that this book is probably not going to be a pleasant read. I was still surprised at how visceral this book is though.  The contents are easily more disturbing than that picture.

This is the single angriest book I think I've ever read.  We're introduced in the first chapter to Dr Rat, an insane lab rat who provides the narration for nearly half the book as he faces down insurrection in the laboratory where he assists in the important research.

That research is described in vivid and gruesome detail. No paw nailed to a board to stop the animal moving is left undescribed. We're assured of the importance of knowing how a cat will react to its tail being shaved and moistened and ever increasing electrical currents fed through it, or clamps attached at increased pressures. The information gathered is invaluable.  That's actually one of the nicer experiments described in the book.   

Outside of the lab, we are treated to many more anthropomorphized creatures as the whole of animalkind starts to gather in enormous packs for reasons which become clear towards the end of the book. It is the call of the wild on a frequency all creatures can hear which is causing the uprising in the lab where Dr Rat must protect the research.

I have to assume that the experiments that Doctor Rat so gleefully describes are genuine research projects. That makes this book so much more disturbing. I can only hope that since this was written, that there is a more ethical approach to animal research.

I have never read a book quite like this. The searing sarcastic satire of the main narrative, the sheer vitriol towards mankind... the style of writing is varied, depending on what animal is talking at the time but always underpinned by a barely constrained anger. The denouement is rather devastating to say the least.

This is a book that requires a strong stomach.  There is an awful lot of animal cruelty in this book. But it has its purpose.  It's trying to shock people into action. It's not there just to be vile.  It's a call to arms to end licensed animal torture. It's a hugely depressing analysis of man's relationship with nature.

I loved it.  It's shocking, visceral and important.  

Number 13 - Maus - Art Spiegelman

 

Arguably one of the most important graphic novels ever written, this is Art Spiegelman's retelling of his father's experiences in Poland in the run up to and during World War II at the hands of the Nazis.

With the recent controversy when a Tennessee school board decided to ban the book, I decided it was time to dust down my copy and have a reread.

There are two stories running through this book, the tale of Vladek Spiegelman's early life, and how he survived till 1944 without landing in a concentration camp, and the More personal tale of Art's fractious relationship with his father.

The story of Vladek's time in Auschwitz is covered in volume 2 - which I've had to order. I'm not sure why I don't have a copy, but it wasn't the easiest thing to source at a reasonable price.  

The artwork is quite basic, and the mice are purposefully not easy to tell apart. After all, the dehumanisation of the Jews in nazi Germany is a central theme of the book. That, and the comparison with vermin, makes the  portrayal of the Jews as mice both horrific and ironic. The Poles are shown as pigs and Nazis as cats.

The juxta positioning of the two stories both serves to make the book feel more personal, and to accentuate the horror of the holocaust. It becomes easier to read without becoming a misery memoir even though the flashbacks to the 40's become more and more distressing with every loss that Vladek experiences.

I picked this book up when Art Spiegelman was giving a talk and signing copies at a local branch of Waterstones. It remains one of the  most interesting author events I've attended.

This story is a lesson from history that should never be ignored. Any time a group of people is demonised as something less than human, we should ask why, and what is it leading to. 

This book makes it clear that the holocaust didn't start with the gas chambers. They built up to that. They kept that part secret from the populous at large for as long as they could. 

There is only one type of person who would want to ban this book.  This book is a clear warning about that type of person.  It should be required reading for everyone.