Julie
Avoided for too long! Elizabeth Chadwick has long been on my radar for historical fiction but when I stumbled across her website, I was put off by her somewhat unorthodox methods of research and her rather kitschy book titles. This really didn't sound like someone who took her historical accuracy all too seriously. So what made me download the preview of this book, I can't really say, but I am so glad I did. I was riveted. My only gripe is that the language used to describe some of the sex scenes sounded so old-fashioned that it could have come straight out of a D H Lawrence story. It just wasn't in keeping with the tone of the book or the times. Thankfully, such scenes were few and far between and mercifully short.. Other than that, I really enjoyed it and will be looking at some of her other books.
This was going to be a three star rating until the last page, then it became a four star because the ending wasn't happily-ever-after fuzzy-wuzzy but chilling and I like books like that. The story itself was quite gruesome and dark like other reviewers have said, this is probably the author's darkest story yet but there were no great surprises, hence the initial three star rating.
Interesting rather than entertaining (if that distinction can be made). The story contains a lot of speculation about what can be done about climate change, it's a bit like reading an idiots guide interspersed with the odd news report about a catastrophe happening somewhere in the world. I missed the urgency and the human factor of the crisis that a little first hand action would have given. In fact, I felt that the whole thing was romanticised - a scientist getting in touch with his inner caveman, candles and quality time with the family during power outages and parties on the frozen river. I didn't feel the danger to me and my loved ones at all. Maybe a reread in the future would change my mind but for now I like the book but didn't find it anything special.
Normally, for me a five star book is one that I rush through and can't put down. Not in this case, Aminata had to be savoured. She stands for the many Africans who were abducted from their homes, treated like animals, killed, raped, sold, escaped, recaptured, freed and lied to. It is a miracle that anyone could physically survive that let alone still have all their faculties intact. A dreadful period of our history which seems to be made up of horrific events.
Boats, Brutality and Bodily Functions. This book reminded me a lot of Terror by Dan Simmons albeit much shorter. It isn't however the same story by any means. Like Terror it is the story of a shipwreck in the Arctic. One man fights for his survival against starvation and freezing temperatures. He encounters polar bears and Inuit. What Terror doesn't have is the graphic description of gore and bodily emissions which this story has in spades. I'm not a squeamish reader but a few sentences really made me squirm. Not for the faint-hearted.
I've looked forward to this book since finishing “The Twelve” the first time around. It didn't disappoint, at least not until about three quarters of the way through - it had the familiar mix of horror, humanity, love and tragedy I've come to enjoy from the two previous books in the series.There was even an undertone of ecological warning at the end of the book making it more than just an entertaining romp through some post-apocalyptic nighmare landscape. But then Cronin uses one of the worst cliches to get his heroes out of a tight spot: the old I've-tried-everything-I-can-think-of-to-get-this-machine-to-go-now-I'll-just-have-a-fit-with-a-wrench-and-hit-everything-in-sight-because-I'm-so-useless-oh-it-works-now-hooray! Really? I've waited this long for the book, I would have waited another few weeks for you to come up with something less corny. I have taken away one star for your lack of ingenuity, Mr. Cronin (although really I enjoyed it enough for it to be a four star read). And once again I would say stay away from pregnancy and birth, describing it is really not your forte.
Edit 24/08/2018
Don't know what my problem was, I couldn't put it down and I didn't have the same problems this time round - except with the wrench, it made me cringe again. I would give it five stars now.
I was disappointed with this book. The only thing that made me finish it was curiosity but you know what they say about that! The author was out to shock and nothing more. I didn't feel any tension or fear whilst reading it and I certainly won't be in a hurry to read it again, or buy any more books of his. I read The Ritual a while back and enjoyed it which made this one that much more disappointing. Pity.
This wasn't what I expected it to be. I think there is a potential for a real psycho horror story here, which if I am honest, was what I was expecting. However, it turned out to be an interesting crime story with moral issues to think about even when the book is finished. So, although I had a completely different story in my head, I enjoyed this book immensely.
The Ding an Sich... The three star rating is a temporary rating because this book will definitely need some pondering and possibly a reread or two.I have to admit to getting lost in the philosophical discussions and the several threads didn't help the flow of the novel for me personally. Everything tied up neatly at the end (I think) but this wasn't an easy book by any means.
The first in the Roy Grace series of books and for me it won't be the last. Aside from the fact that everyone in this book was good looking and as soon as anyone was introduced we immediately got a list of their physical attributes, which I found irritating and interrupted the flow if several people turned up for the first time all together, I enjoyed the book a lot.
Despite not feeling much sympathy for Harriet in the end, I had to give the book 5 stars. Harriet's life covers the second half of the 18th century and the first couple of decades of the 19th century, a timespan which covers a great deal of political turmoil in Europe and America. Harriet was closely involved in politics from quite a young age through her parents and her sister Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire. She was a prolific letter writer and many of her letters still survive forming the basis for this book. This gives the reader an excellent first hand insight into social and political customs of the day, all presented in a light and easily understandable manner by the author, no mean feat considering the material.
Merrily Watkins books are rather formulaic but still good fun. There is a lot of testosterone in this one as it is centred on Herefordshire's golden boys and Britain's elite - the SAS. What happens to you when you retire from a crack troop like that? You get reckless and die it would seem, but maybe not everyone? And what happens when you live around these guys but aren't one of them? There isn't a great deal for an exorcist to do so Merrily helps the police while Jane, being Jane, gets into serious trouble again. Not my favourite but entertaining enough.
I really don't know what I think of this book. I liked it, when I was reading it, but as soon as I put it down I had to force myself to pick it up again. If the protagonists had been people instead of bees you would have an average dystopian adventure. Using bees as the characters gave it more of a flavour of a children's book but with decidedly adult content. So here we are with a children's/coming of age/ dystopian/ecological themed book. Three stars for the content and a fourth because I love bees.
I should just say once again that despite what I have written this is NOT a book for children.
This is the best in the Merrily Watkins series so far. Big on atmosphere but comes up rather short on the supernatural. It almost had the feeling of a curtain call like it could have been the last in the series. There were characters from previous books involved and references to other events in the series.
The more I read of Merrily, the more I like her. She is heroic in an everyday sort of way and has very human shortcomings. Trying to do the right thing by everyone just isn't possible but she tries anyway. Even Jane is becoming more likeable as she matures and I actually felt quite sorry for her in this one. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
This is a hard review to write because I was so emotionally involved in Mary Eleanor's plight. Like so many of her female contemporaries she spent her early years in luxury - protected, nurtured and formally educated. Unfortunately, it was exactly this kind of upbringing which would leave these girls so vulnerable and so completely unprepared for their fates.In Mary Eleanor's case this would be intellectual repression in her first marriage and abuse, poverty and at least one attempt on her life in her second. Unlike her sisters in misery, however, her case was so bad that even the courts were on her side - something virtually unheard of in Georgian society. She obtained a divorce, had her inheritance and even her children returned to her. I wish she could have known that one day her descendants would sit on the throne of England; it might have given her some comfort at least.
Despite the heavy contents, the book was well written and easy to read, with just the right amount of detail for the casual reader of biographies.
No great literature but fun. When I first started the story I was hoping for a different angle on the un-dead. I was disappointed and nearly abandoned it but I am glad I persevered. By the end I was quite invested in the fate of the occupants of the oil rig and the fate of the infected who turn out to be, not zombies but...well, you'll have to read it if you want to know. So yes, there was a new take on the zombie apocalypse.
This is the first book by Ann Cleeves that I have read - it won't be the last. Although I am not a huge fan of crime fiction I enjoyed the almost claustrophobic atmosphere created by the setting: a tiny, damp, foggy island where a tiny community of haves and have-nots try to do the best they can to make a living whilst maintaining a certain status in the eyes of their all-seeing neighbours. When something happens to upset the delicate balance of the community (in this case two deaths) the fa??ade slips and the secrets trickle out.
