Remy Sharp

Well paced, well written and engaging crime thriller. Not my typical cup of tea, but really enjoyed it.

I was a little wary of picking this book up (from recommendations) as it was book 3 in DI Adam Fawley books, but it turns out there was nothing to worry about.

Although the story does include characters whom I can only assume had their backstories explained in previous books, it only adds depth to the characters rather than feeling like I was missing something.

The story itself begins with a house fire and (effectively) an entire family being consumed in the blaze. DI Fawley and team then set about digging out leads and trying to understand what had happened.

It's what I'd expect from a crime novel (whilst I half imagine an Inspector Morse episode). The story is extreme thorough in taking me through the approach to the investigation, each following up on leads, some dead ends, some theories requiring proof. There seems to be just the right amount of supporting characters that I can follow them as each chapter changes perspective.

There's also a fairly significant plot points around infant death - something that is in my personal life and I'm wary of reading or watching in stories - but the author, Cara Hunter, doesn't include this in a grotesque way and it's handled carefully (or carefully enough for me).

Otherwise a really well paced thriller - where I found I seemed to gobble down the last 1/4 of the book in a few short sittings and couldn't put the book down right at the end. Great stuff. Definitely introduced me to a genre I've typically not been interested in.

There's a clever story in here, with some decent humour but for me, personally, the undertone of sexism and 1980s machismo was a turn off.

I almost want to put two ratings for this book. One for the story and one for how I enjoyed the story. Amazingly I've actually read everything that Pearson (the author) has published. I really enjoyed the early works and the Clement series is pretty strong - though the last Clement book had similar tones that this book had. I can't quite articulate it, but it feels like Jim Davidson...

The actual story, once it gets around 30% and we meet Mungo Thunk, is pretty entertaining. The protagonist is (unrealistically, but works for the story) transformed from a completely unreliable and irresponsible idiot - into a thoughtful, caring, responsible and somehow a successful entrepreneur.

Amazingly the core of the story makes sense and there's a decent twist.

But, for me personally, I don't enjoy books that a so riddled with that slimy Jim Davidson feeling.

Certainly a page turner and an easy read. Interesting concepts on near-future issues, but I was left feeling a bit...unchallenged.

The story, sort of, revolves around Libby who is a juror on a panel that decides who is responsible in autonomous car collisions. These inquests have always been closed-doors and utterly opaque, and nearly always lays the fault on the human, so Libby gives us an inside view of what's going on.

There's a “Hacker” who takes control of a number of cars and states that each Passenger will die in two hours time. It's then put to the jurors in the inquest to decide (along with a vote from the public - ala dystopian x-factor) as to which single individual will survive.

Jack Larsson is an MP on the panel of jurors. He's horrid. I got the impression he was a Farage type character, disgustingly sexist, racist, self centred, the works. The author does a great job of keeping Larsson on character - as much as it was hard to read this character.

What I had trouble with was how the Hacker had unprecedented control over not only every single car in the UK, but also what seemed like hundred of cameras inside the inquest. The hacker could turn off the audio from the passengers and somehow also kill their network reception on their phones (okay, maybe...) but why the passengers didn't resort to writing on a bit of paper to communicate...it seemed like (to me at least) an obvious tool to use.

The hijacking story ends around 80% in the book which left me kind of confused as to what was coming next. The last of the book is split in half between 3 months later where Libby is the voice for an activist group and the 2 years later when (another) inquest into Jack Larsson's involvement.

The end felt pretty jarring whilst also trying to clean up all the loose ends and (almost) quickly making sure all the baddies have their comeuppance (though in “reality” the real baddies get away scott free...).

I think it makes a good holiday read, but not so well suited to my desire to read a clever dystopian view on near-future technology.

Great page turner, and I loved the concept of how an individual exits whilst always forgotten in the world.This is the second book I've read of Claire North's and unwittingly had already earmarked [b:84K 35511975 84K Claire North https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508570699s/35511975.jpg 56923809] (also by North). North's writing style is pretty unique with half completed sentences and almost a stream of thought put down on the pages. It wouldn't seem to work, but it reads brilliantly.Hope Arden has a unique condition that she is forgotten. I loved that the book looked at the effect of being forgotten and the loneliness that goes hand in hand. There's also the practical impact of being forgotten such as medical treatment or anything requiring long term attention.The opening chapters explain Hope's early life and though the story is told from Hope being (I think) mid/late-30s, the times that she's forgotten by her family is truly heartbreaking - and that's just the beginning!The first half of the book is pretty evenly paced, by which point I couldn't quite see how the story would end (it sort of has a half-ending in the middle), but then the story goes up several gears and races forward, twisting around questions of sanity and reality (if you're always forgotten, do you exist? Did they exist? What don't you know?).Definitely recommend.

Beautifully illustrated and communicated. Some particular pages rang more than true for me and it's useful and helps to see the way others articulate their own depression.

With such a simple read, I'll be passing this on to my family members to read so that they have a little more insight into what goes on inside my own head.

I loved the concept behind this story, but sadly the delivered story fell fairly flat for me.

Firemen: those who burnt books. The story does go into why this profession even exists and it's even more intriguing.

But I really struggled with the book. It's a little over 100 pages and I felt like I was slogging the book after the first 1/4 of the story. I think the writing style also distracted me from the story too. I felt line nearly every sentence was laiden with a turn of phrase or clever simile - but the book is thick with this and it became very noticeable to the point of distraction.

The pace really threw me off too, it starts building up characters and before I know it, Montag is murdering his fire chief, battling murderous robot dogs, planting fake evidence against another fireman (and from what I could tell, a character we hadn't met) and then wondering off in the woods to meet the people who keep books in their heads.

It felt like there was a great story of a dystopia where happiness is swallowed up in a pill, potentially like Brave New World, but Fahrenheit 451, for me, falls way short of achieving that.

A shame. I really wanted to enjoy this story more.

Stressful, but solid, reading.

My rating is based on how much I personally enjoyed the story. It was pretty heavy reading, and perhaps more so as I knew there was an underlying bullying aspect that ran through the story - and bullying always puts me on edge.

The book itself is brilliantly written and the climax of the story is masterfully executed. Golding does an excellent job of slowly building up the tension throughout the story until it's crashing so hard at the end of the story it seems like there's no way out.

Ralph's (one of the protagonists) feeling of peril at the end of the book is visceral. Reminding me of my typical nightmares and stress dreams where I'm unable to escape the terror no matter what choice I make.

Absolutely superb stuff. This book was recommended separately by three different friends, and it lived up to expectations.

It's the first fantasy book I've read (or certainly in the last decade) so initially I wasn't quite sure. As the chapters progressed though, the story fell into really beautiful story telling.

I'm was taken away by how good the writing and prose were. There were turns of phases that were fun and a pleasure to read. The book itself is also broken into small enough chapters that I could read for 15-20 minutes at night and complete a chapter (I like to stop reading at “natural” endings).

The story, or rather the trilogy of books (this being book 1), follows Kvothe and the telling of his life story. Kvothe agrees to tell his story over three days (at which point I realised that I was reading Day 1).

I'd to write more of thorough review, but the story is brilliantly dense that I can't do it justice. The second book in the trilogy is 1,000 pages - which is daunting to me, but it's definitely on my reading list now. There's also a number of novellas that have been written for the world the Rothfuss has written which I've also earmarked. As for the conclusion of the trilogy, I've been told that not only is there no publication date set, but that Rothfuss has been at it for 8 years 😱!!!

In general, the concepts and ideas are pretty solid. A lot of common sense that revolves around using sunlight to help with sleep patterns. Somehow I personally experienced a similar sleeping pattern (sticking to a regular alarm, getting up quickly, getting sunlight) and it worked incredibly well for me for 2 years (until I broke the pattern).

The body of the book though is littered with how the author works with top sports teams, Manchester United, Man City, Arsenal, etc - top cyclists etc. I was happily convinced of his authority by chapter 1, but I didn't need repeated on every chapter. It felt like random name dropping (since most of the sports celebrities named were unknown to me).

All in all, there are some useful tips throughout the book, but probably didn't need so much of the constant reminders of who the author worked with.

Enjoyed this book. Definitely a modern look at the possibilities of the future ahead of us. I have to admin I was expecting more robots and augmentations and sci-fi, but this leant more towards a political statement in particular about free access to healthcare (which is something I care a lot about being in the UK and having the NHS).

An enjoyable story and some strong characters.

I wanted to love this book but I kinda fell short right at the end. However, the two protagonists: Patricia and Lawrence are beautifully written.

The book is split over 3 era's of our characters' lives. Firstly when they're young children where the world is huge and wonderous. Patricia in particular has her first adventure very early in the book, and in part I wondered if this was entirely in a child's imagination rather than happening to her.

The next era in the book Patricia and Lawrence are at (what I'd consider ‘middle school'), and frankly it's horrible. They're bullied and targeted across the board. I found this part of the book the hardest hitting, and probably closer to the reality I know and it made me sad for the characters. I also felt like there was no real growth from this period of the book and they were simply tortured for being different and that wasn't addressed (or I missed it).

Then the last era of the book the characters are young adults, Patricia a witch with more control over her powers (and yes, it seems that it wasn't her imagination back when she was a child), and Lawrence a full super nerd building a machine to save humanity.

The story feels like it accelerates in momentum, complexity and consequence as it progresses. It reads really well, and the sci-fi aspects are fun, complex and draw some interesting moral questions.

Except for me, the end just...kinda happened. I was following the story along, the world in the book was going to hell, level 10 dystopia stuff, and then all of a sudden the protagonists left alone, Patricia is following a pigeon to a tree, they have a weird conversation, she vaguely answers a question and then Patricia and Lawrence walk off together into the sunset (sort of) with a sense of hope and everything will be okay for them.

Yet the world is still collapsing (mother nature trying to course correct), witches (and wizards?) are blasting people into unknown realms, and intend to unleash The Unravelling (which we meet once and it's a horror show), and the scientists are pissed and building mega machines to blow away the witches. So that's all still happening and yet Patricia and Lawrence seem to be okay.

I was left feeling like I missed something crucial at the end of the book, because I felt like the characters were doom, but didn't realise it, and the world was going to die even though both Patricia and Lawrence intended to save it. So...yeah, I'm not sure.

I loved the characters, and the writing was great and really original, and quite biting at times. But the more I thought about the end of the story, the more confused I felt.

I've read and enjoyed the previous two Clement stories. This story was fun, and a very easy read (for me to get through 400 pages in a matter of days is testament to that).

The story follows a journalist, Emma in her mid-40s, living in London on her own and being handed crappy assignments, whilst she's still hungry for her big break.

She comes across Clement (our 70s angel trying to - somehow - find redemption) and he's drawn to her knowing that he must help her in some way. Enter the Clawthorn Club and the story.

Overall, the story is enjoyable, and it's nice to get a little into the feelings of Clement (having read the two previous installments). The story does have some predictable (to me) twists, but it doesn't hurt the reading experience too much.

Sadly the author decided this was the book to push his own opinions about the current climate of how women are to take daily microaggressions.

I understand that Clement's language and attitudes stem from the 60s and 70s which leads to some socially jarring language. This is what adds to Clement's charm, that when he's pulled up on the language be it “casual” racism or sexism he listens to the feedback and adjusts when appropriate.

This book is different to the previous installments, as this story is sprinkled with the protagonist, Emma, casually putting down other women's own struggles. These times throughout the book don't contribute to the characters nor did it help the story along, so I sense this is more that the author is shoehorning their own opinions in. Which served to annoy and frustrate me when I bumped into those random moments in the book.

Goodness me, this was a good book! Right from the start, Rutherford states that the book won't be littered with references to research papers throughout and the book reads very much like Rutherford is quite literally telling me a story (I should add that references are added in the appendix of the book if you want to validate and have further reading on the subject of DNA).

I always feel like when I read non-fiction I'm supposed to be a little smarter once I've finished, and somehow retain my newly acquired knowledge so I can wax lyrical later on in the pub in years to come...

The subject of this book is (as the title suggest) genes, DNA and how it all works. The book is fascinating, and although I'm certain that I'm zero percent smarter now (sadly my own failing!), Rutherford's book was littered with fascinating stories from both recent and distant history - which have so far stuck in my head.

I got wind of this book via my own genealogy research, and being able to find every step in my ancestry to William The Conqueror, I posted a tweet and eventually saw a reply from Adam Rutherford explaining “that's cool that you can demonstrate it with genealogy, but it's literally true for all British people too. Edward 3 is the direct ancestor of every British person”.

That snippet reply alone piqued my interest in reading this book, and damn glad I did - I think I highlighted nearly two pages worth of kindle notes, partly to help me remember and partly because there was some superb stuff in there, including:

> borborygmus, which is a technical word for a rumbly tummy.

Rutherford's writing and storytelling is entertaining, informative and even regularly funny.

I read this to my son, who turned 7 just after we started. We did end up doing some epic bedtime reading sessions to complete whole chapters. And as with books I've read to him, I shall let his own words dictate this review :)

—

I liked the bit where Harry goes underground and in the house, because I wish I had a scary house under the whomping willow.

When Black came into the room, I thought it was scary, and I thought it was going to happen in my bedroom!

The sad bit was when Buckbeak died (but oh yeah, they rescued him).

It's good, and a little bit scary.

—

I did enjoy this story (the 3 stars wasn't a 5 for any negative reasons) - it's pretty well paced, and discusses some particularly interesting ideas – and at the time I read this book whilst I was also reading [b:A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes 30135182 A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived The Stories in Our Genes Adam Rutherford https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462740264s/30135182.jpg 50566865] which is pertinent to the subject matter The Chrysalids covers: genetics.This particular edition was also prefaced with an introduction essay, which I feel like I'm cheating when I read, because it explains core concepts much more explicitly and throughout the story, these ideas are provided additional context for me.The story follows David and his struggle to fit in in the world (or certainly his world). The planet has been ravished by something that has scrambled DNA across all life, and humanity (as we meet it in the start of the book) is holding dearly onto “pure” existence. “Pure” being applied to crops, animals and humans, or “man”. The result of a non-pure human (an extra toe or misshapen bones or perhaps an extra chromosome?) leads to that individual being sent to the “Fringes”, perhaps even exiled to the Badlands, or just murdered. For intolerance.Except David does not fit in, and the community is ultimately fearful of change and they religiously to stem it's progress. The thing is: life is change.—One of the more poignant moments (to me) was between David and his uncle (who is sympathetic to “Deviations”), where his uncle questions the ideas and definitions of “pure” and “pure man”, and how it is horribly flawed. This entire exchange prompted me to consider what we, in our society and our communities accept as written in stone. And perhaps I'd do well to remember that just because something “is” doesn't mean it should be.—A character that I struggled a little with, was Sophie. Her character early in the story was strong and inquisitive about the world. When we meet her much later in the story and in life, she knows what she wants, but her wants are limited to the world she now exists in. Specifically she works to protect her position as the raped partner of the head of her tribe. Sophie's character is possibly the most heartbreaking, and I wish she had been able to escape her destiny.Yet, when David, his cousin Rosalind and his sister Petra escape to a new land at the end of the story, the intolerance exists in this new community, though it seems the only difference is that they know that they will be succeeded eventually (and not without putting up a fight).

Good to read aloud to the kids (took about 15-20 minutes), and a beautiful message in the story, whereby the adult reading...me...might have caught a frog in their throat!

The truth pixie lives a life of loneliness because she always tells the truth, and that truth can get her in to trouble. She decides to leave home and during her adventure meets a girl who is sad because she's going to be moving home away from friends and everything she knows.

The truth pixie tells her that it will be sad, and there will be times in life that she'll be lonely, but that life is full of wonderful moments and love and warmth. A good message to remind ourselves of during the day to day grind of life.

Also beautifully illustrated.

A sweet tale of kindness. I asked for recommendations for Christmas–feelings books, and this is one that came up, and it does indeed do a good job of getting those feel–good vibes going.

The story is a little sickly sweet, but that's okay. I particularly liked the first 1/4 of the story that follows Louise, an unexpected adopted mother to Hope. This part is particularly tender and gentle.

The book definitely left me with the desire to follow the Christmas traditions that's created in the story, which as the book ends, it's followed by real life stories of individuals who did just that.

I have the kindle version that, unbeknownst to me, included some twenty-odd true stories at the end, making up around 20% of the kindle edition. I read a few of these, but they did follow the same pattern, and eventually skipped over a few feeling it was similar to reading an appendix of a book (and yes, this makes me a little bit of a terrible person!!!).

Overall: does the job I had hoped it would do: get me in the mood for Christmas by reminding me of the “gift of giving (love)”.

I didn't quite expect the book (read on my Kindle) to be quite that short.

It's more of a scene than a book - which is fine, but exceptional short!

As the synopsis says, it's a story of a couple that want to share Christmas gifts but it comes at the cost of the possessions that are most valued to them.

In that, it's a tale of kindness and sacrifice. Except that the possessions they sell for the funds are spent on the one thing that complements the other's valuable possession, ie. Beautiful brushes for beautiful hair (that was sold to raise funds).

And in that this is a warning that possessions and gifts do not make one happy. Love does that, and it can't be bought.

The story also smacks of “older” times from New York (though I can't remember whether it was based there or not), and as such, even though both the man and woman make the same mistake, it seems that the woman is somehow left to blame and the man gets away with lounging back on the sofa.

Sure, those are words from the time, but I've really no idea how people are reading this book today and leaving reviews saying they're left with a year in their eye, etc. Left me feeling sorry for the poor sods.

I read the first installment of the Murderbot a few months back (as an Amazon single), but after reading it, I decided I was going to pony up the £8 for the following 3 books - although probably the most I've spent on a single book, let alone 3 books - absolutely totally worth it. I loved this series.

The series follows Murderbot, a rouge security unit, mostly good at killing but who would rather just watch TV and be left alone. The first book reads easily as a stand alone, and I'd say the second book does too.

The third and fourth pull together all the previous adventures into an overarching story that we see Murderbot learning about itself and struggling with the the concepts of emotions and desires.

In fact, the Murderbot ends with that huge question of: what do you want.

There's so many things I enjoyed about this series: it's a sci-fi that doesn't really require you to understand all the ins and outs of the political systems that exist in the world. I've read a few sci-fi books that really struggle to make the world believable because there's often so much to take in - the Murderbot diaries does this in a way that reads easily and lightly.

The action sequences are really well written and fairly easy to follow - another thing I've struggled with in other books.

Even though we know that the Murderbot is a construct, it exists in a time that emotions can be simulated - and therefore felt - by the Murderbot, which, just like any one of us, they don't relish having to process those emotions, and they'd much rather just shun away and hide away escaping with TV.

Finally the characters are refreshing. As a white man myself, I'm too quick to assume the gender and race of the characters I reading about, Martha Wells does a really good job of keeping me in check, reminding me that Murderbot doesn't have a gender, there's people in the universe that don't identify as one gender, and that not everyone is white. I love this, and I appreciate it in the books I read (in the hope that it shifts my mindset).

Loved it.

As usual from the MurderBot series: excellent, fresh and entertaining.

I felt like the story dug deeper into MurderBot's character, anxiety and it's attempt to understand it's feelings.

Definitely feels like this third book is pulling together an overarching story that will be concluded in book four - which I can't wait to read!

Loved it. As always. Heart wrenching too.

Uh! I love this character! This is the 2nd book in the murderbot books and the main character, who I realise now doesn't have a name (nor gender as it's a bot) is so fun to read.

The murderbot is so dry and grumpy and so different from previous characters I've read in sci-fi.

The first book definitely works as a stand alone, and although there's a self contained story in this second book, it definitely carries through a decent number of references to the earlier story that I'd not recommend reading this on it's own.

Since the books are only around 160 pages, I'm moving right on to the next installment and looking forward to it already.

The two stars are for: fairly decent writing, it wasn't a rabib page turner, but it was relatively easy going for the most part.

The second star is for such an interesting idea: a cure for death - or more specifically, a genetic cure for the aging of cells.

The story leaps right into this concept and the mental struggle the protagonist, John, faces with the prospect of living forever (or until something else kills him).

The possibilities of this concept are endless...but it felt like this book struggled to grapple with these ideas and, for me, just failed to follow through.

For instance, there's a key character (you'd be lead to think) that appears right at the start, that captures John's intrigue (and frankly I thought they were related to “thriller”, but apparently not). This character then isn't mentioned at all for the majority of the book, and then around 85% of the way through when they suddenly reappear and John suddenly declares his undying love.

> She sighed. “I told you. I'm tired of men falling in love with me.” “I don't give a shit.” I moved to her and began kissing her.

Oh for heaven's sake. She just suddenly does a 180 on her own feelings and goes for a full shag before leaping off to a nuclear winter.

The story spends a solid half of the book on John and his family and surrounding and the (local) effect of the cure. No thriller in sight, and certainly no End Specialists. I can't tell if this was more of a drama or just a lot of character building, but it really didn't feel like I got into the meat of the book until much, much further along.

This book comes with an alternative title of “Postmortals” (I read The End Specialist), which would frankly makes a lot more sense. As for being a thriller - I don't think so.

Also with this kind of massive change in humanity, the worldwide ramifications would be huge, and though John does try to portray these in his documentary-like updates (a blog?), it really feels quite local to Amuricka.

Sadly the book deals with an excellent concept, but fails to deliver.

Really quite beautiful. I found myself drawing out my reading time for this book, and almost wanting to find a tree to sit under and slowly soak up this story.

It's a story of love, loss and loneliness (or so I read), and it's was beautifully paced dropping back and forth from different points in time for the two main characters. Describing emotions and the tiniest moments in such a loving and tender way. It truly made me want to slow down and just watch the love that moves around us every day.

I want to give this a 4.5 but the stars apparently must be whole or not at all. I just found the ending a little abrupt. But that may have also been confused by the fact that the last 6% (10-ish minutes) of the book was an interview with the author (which was interesting enough), it just threw me when the tale was finished.

All the same, quite beautiful.

Really enjoyed this thriller. An easy read and natural page turner (with nice short chapters). I was also drawn to this book because I know Brighton (UK) very very well, and I love reading stories located in places that are familiar to me.

The story is a solid thriller and paced really well, and a great read for a holiday (I powered through it over 2 days).

I really loved how (somehow, I'm not sure quite how), the author, Koomson managed to take the character Macy and make me firstly dislike her and get annoyed with the character, then whilst getting frustrated with her, start to understand her and feel compassion towards her, and by the end see strength in her that was always there, just revealed perfectly at the pace the story needed. Surprising stuff 👍