Something a bit different...

Here we are again. Here I go again apologising for not posting quite so frequently as I first thought I would. To be fair to myself though, I have read 3 novels in the past month that have had more than 500 pages. And I am 100 pages into another long one as well. So instead of writing three individual blogs, here I am throwing three of them at you in one go. And here comes another sorry. They aren't books that I pulled from the charity box, that's right you heard, books that have been out been out recently or in the past year. Look how I am treating you! Back to normal, charitable me soon though...

Round one goes to...

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I always forget that I have a Kindle. I'm not the biggest fan of them, I really prefer the physicality of a book but I still have one. So when I was given the chance to read Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch for free (no it is not illegal don't worry), I jumped at the chance and thought why the hell not. The book has received huge attention recently, having picked up multiple awards, including the coveted Pulitzer Prize, as well as having the film rights for it purchased. So things are looking pretty good for Tartt at the moment.

Donna Tartt's impeccable third novel

I didn't really know too much about the novel when I first downloaded it. Tartt's third novel follows Theo Decker, a man who at the start we can already tell is an extremely troubled young man. The first 50 pages follow him as he is in Amsterdam scouring newspapers and the news for names he recognises. Then Tartt takes us right to the start of Theo's difficult childhood, where he loses his mother in a bomb blast in New York's Metropolitan museum, a blast he also gets caught up in and survives. Tartt injects an eerie emptiness in Theo from the outset, from the stumbling little boy lost in a wrecked museum, to walking through a room full of the dead (the living have been evacuated), there is a sense of something not being right in him from the outset. There is so much tradegy to come for young Theo including not having anyone to rely on except a school friend who he lost touch with.

Words cannot really do this book justice in my opinion, only the ones that Tartt has written so masterfully. There are so many brilliant and original characters, including my favourite Boris, whom Theo befriends when he eventually ends up living in Las Vegas' barren outskirts with his father. It is quite sad to read the lives of two boys who have been abandoned to grow up without any guidance. As they both head towards delinquency, there are flashes of things they are far to young to understand, including taking drugs, selling drugs and drinking copious amounts of vodka. These go onto affect them into there older years, where Tartt pulls them apart before throwing back together once they are older. But in typical Boris and Theo style, they manage to get themselves into more trouble.

Stunning painting, stunning novel.

The whole book also surrounds this image of The Goldfinch, an exquisite painting by Carel Fabritius, which Theo inadvertently takes from the scene of the explosion. It haunts him his whole life, and acts as a constant reminder of the tragedy of his youth and all that was taken from him. The enthralling climax to the book, taking place as it started in Amsterdam, will not disappoint. I won;t spoil it for you, but the painting, this thing that Theo doesn't let himself looks at and is constantly searched for by the art world, plays a central role to the entire ending. The last chapter was some of the best writing I have had the pleasure of reading all year. Please read this book, I couldn't put it down, well the Kindle down. 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is published by Little, Brown in the UK. 

The Secret Place by Tana French

Round two today goes to Tana French's new novel The Secret Place. There has been much hype surrounding the release of the novel, including a brilliant campaign from Hodder and Stougton, carrying the slogan of the entire novel and what kicks off the action 'I know who killed him'. Set in a boarding school where not all the girls stay and no one stays at the weekends, a message posted on 'The Secret Place', basically a glorified pin board, re- ignites an old murder case. A boy was found on the grounds of the girls school, brutally murdered with a garden hoe but no culprit was ever found. A year on, a message is posted on The Secret Place with his photo and the slogan. Doesn't it sound like every school girls dream to have an outlet to put all of your and others secrets? A place to pin up all the gossip? I mean it is a bit Mean Girls, but I'm hardly complaining about that! 

The Secret Place- basically a bitchy pinboar

The two detectives who are put onto the investigation, one from cold cases who has an attachment to the girl who brings him the evidence, and the other a tough bitch who is the new girl from the murder investigation team. They are a slightly cliched, even acting out the whole bad cop, good cop stereotype. But French makes it work, giving the teenage girls someone to stand up to and someone to feel like they have power over. I mean it bloody works in the novel... the girls can't stop dropping new information that was never revealed a year ago.

A bit too Mean Girls?

The main culprits for the murder come down to two sets of girls, all of whom are supposed best friends, and they totally hate each other. French has that bitchy girl tone down to a t, I can't help but think she probably has or has had a teenage girl at some point in her life. But the naivety of the girls actions shines through, their reliance on boys and their appearances never falters. French has written such believable characters all of whom have traits that make them all different from each other. Sometimes it is hard to see differences in girls nowadays, but French brings them all to the forefront.

I have to say, it was very difficult to put this book down. The story takes place over the course of one day and in that day we learn about the entire case, new evidence not previously known and by the 10pm, we even know who did it. I didn't care for the detectives much, but the setting is perfect, there is always a sense that the detectives are being watched, whether it be distant parents, prying teenage girls or the stern mistress. Well done Tana French, well done for making me interested in crime fiction again.

The Secret Place by Tana French is published by Hodder and  Stoughton in the UK.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K Rowling)

The third and final round today goes to The Cuckoo's Calling. Now this book hardly gained any attention until it was revealed that it was actually written by J.K Rowling. I find that quite sad really. But hey that is the world we live in. When it eventually came out, sales figures rose by a massive 500%, and it confused me as to why she bothered. I know she wants to change direction and not get pigeon holed as that woman who wrote Harry Potter, but I think that's a badge she can never lose. Stick to your name love, it clearly sells better. 

A.K.A J.K Rowling

The Cuckoo's Calling marks yet another departure for Rowling as she moves on from young adult fiction from Harry Potter, to contemporary drama with The Casual Vacancy, to crime drama in her latest offerings (she has written a second after this one called The Silkworm). Set at a failing detective agency, the novel opens with new temp Robin starting a new job, fulfilling a childhood dream. With a weeks' work with Coromon Strike, the ex- military man turned private detective, Robin goes into her new job rather looking forward to it. She hardly has her expectations met when her boss, a man who sleeps in his office and receives constant death threats, is the private detective at hand.

The case that makes up the plot for Rowling's first venture into crime surrounds that of the apparent suicide of a supermodel called Luna. Coromon is hired by her step brother John Bristow to re- investigate, as he thinks a murder has taken place. Everything points to suicide, that is until Coromon begins to dig deeper and deeper, going over everything again and interviewing everyone involved. It can become quite tiresome reading endless question and answer, and Rowling slips into this repetitive structure every now and then. She has is obssessed with racial stereotypes it seems. I said the same about The Casual Vacancy. It just feels awkward J.K.

Better luck next time for crime writing?

I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't really enjoy about this novel. But I really didn't. I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt but there is just far too many cliches in it for me. From the gay fashioner designer, to the supermodel who likes to party and has a loser boyfriend or the poor black birth mother who lives in Hackney, there is something that doesn't read write about it. I get it is her first stab at a crime novel, and of course there s plenty of dramatic and entertaining moments, but I found all of the characters annoying and much of the structure the same. If you like your crime fiction, then it is perfect for you. It has everything you need. It has murder. Lies. Red herrings. Dead endings, Christ it even has the cliched ending of the big reveal, and even the overdone meeting between murderer and detective to the end the whole thing. I get what you are trying to do Robert or J.K or whoever the hell you are, and it was a nice first try. But it just didn't do much for me. Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't a fan. I'll give The Silkworm a go at some point to see if the writing has improved, but for now, thank you J.K, thank you for making me lose interest in crime. Again. 

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith is published by Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown in the UK. 

So there you go. Three very different books, but all brilliant in their own ways. For me I would pick The Goldfinch as the stand out book, I was still thinking about it for days after. But then the two crime novels also have their own methods of entertainment. The Secret Place is pure entertainment but not stupid and over the top murder, just plain, simple girl power becoming too much. 

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Well I am just disgusted in myself and how long it has been since I have decided to sit down and write one of these things. Can I just defend myself before you hit that big red cross in the top right- hand corner? I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY. As well as being particularly busy with fascinating things including recovering from tonsilitus, spending some much needed time in the sun and getting a new phone. Riveting right? Now in the past 6 weeks, I don't want you to think that my self proclaimed title of official book worm has been lost. Oh no. Train journeys have still be filled with the written word. So brace yourself people. Reviews will be coming at you thick and fast from now on. Whilst I may try and do some catching up on ones I have finished, I may just start from now... I'm still fickle, I'll let you know.

SO in my own style of writing things late, why not give you a review for a book that has been out for quite sometime now? In it's own streak of luck however, J.K Rowling has recently been back in the spotlight, what with her new crime novel being published, as well as finding time to squeeze out a Harry Potter short story. I have not read this, sorry J.K but you must be JOKING if I am signing up to Pottermore just to read it. So this review will focus on her first, well lets say probably first published attempt at an adult novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Now if you are as ignorant as I am, you may think that this is a book about either casual sex or a empty hotel  room somewhere in the depths of England. However, you will soon learn, and I mean literally in the first ten or so pages, so this doesn't spoil it, that it for a seat on a local council that has become available after the death of Barry Fairbrother. The town of Pagford soon descends into a state of shock, and we are presented with a multitude of characters immediately, giving the book a soap opera sense of direction. And this does not relent. Rowling does exceed fantastically at chopping and changing scenes in the local town and its surrounding area. We all already knew she had a knack for telling a story, it was just the way she went about it that was sometimes troublesome and at times extremely immature. But this has greatly improved. Gone are the unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and visible is a sense of a writer who feels much more in her stride.

Do you even need a picture? 

Now this isn't perfect. There are times where, to me, it felt like she was trying a little to hard to reach her mature audience. Some mentions of words like vulva and her sometimes graphic sexual thoughts were misplaced and misjudged. There are times also I feel stereotypes are coming into play slightly, whether it be the troubled teenager Krystal Weedon who is so clichéd it is cringe-worthy, or the pushy Asian parents who bully their children for underachieving, Rowling sometimes slips into boring and unimaginative territory.

But she manages to save it with the other characters. She mixes so well the lives of the people in the small town and displays brilliantly each of the characters internal and family catastrophes. They may all seem like small problems, but if someone thinks it is a problem, then that's all that should matter. Characters including the married cougar Samantha who prays on young schoolboys and boyband members and Maureen who runs a local deli and café with the head of the council Miles, who may or may not have had part of his anatomy somewhere it shouldn't have been, all kept my unrivaled interest, even when a good looking man was standing in front of me on the train. The best character for me was the troubled father and headteacher Colin Wall, who was petrified of even brushing up against his students for fear he would enjoy it too much (if you get me). The sheer panic Rowling has instilled into him almost drips off the page.

All of these domestic issues rotate around the election for the seat, as two sides battle it out to save the Fields, a council estate area that sits on the border. Some want it out of the borderline and some want to keep it. It even starts effecting the teenagers of the local area, as parents run for the seat and they become terrified of what could happen, even meddling with the council website to stop people getting in. What Rowling does so well is to explore each issue in a way that it effects not just one person but everyone around them, truly evident in the run up to the end of the novel where I could simply not put the book down. I wont ruin it for you, but it sure does put many things in perspective for Pagford's residents and Rowling ends it on an extremely bittersweet note.

Now I was extremely cautious about this book. I mean I enjoyed the Potter books as much as the next kid in my generation, but I wasn't the biggest fan. But Rowling surpassed my expectations. Whilst it wasn't perfect and there were a few try hard moments, she writes with an authenticity that has captured modern life in rural towns where urban life is starting to infiltrate, whether it is elder people using the internet, council estates on your doorstep or a multi- cultural community, you get the feeling that things are changing and life for the residents can simply not go on as it has done in the past. A TV series has already been commissioned for the book and I can't help but feel that simply because of the author who penned it, this is why it is going into production. I just don't see it working on screen, it will be far to soap opera-esque. It may prove me wrong, at the end of the day I'm just a poor boy from a poor... Oh wait that's wrong. But you know what I mean.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling is published by Little, Brown in the UK. 

The Fields by Kevin Mahar

The Fields opens in Dublin during the 80s and we find Jim Finnegan as our protagonist. He is only 13-years-old and we are immediately thrown into his innocent world, joining him and his best mate on cycle trips. There is an instant enthusiasm from Jim as learn about his family, including 5 sisters, his distant father and typically Irish, gossipy (is that a word?) mother. They are an extremely varied bunch, all with their own traits, but slowly fade into the background as we explore Jim's character more and more.

We soon begin to learn that Jim isn't as straight forward as we first think. The innocence still remains in his voice throughout the novel, but his actions start to become more and more erratic. This all escalates in him eventually stealing someone's girlfriend, whose name is so Irish I'm not even going to attempt to type it let alone say it. There are some very uncomfortable scenes with her, as learn about them passionately kissing, bearing in mind he is only 14 by this time. Kissing very soon leads to more (I'm not going to spell this out for you), and for me the uncomfortable feeling just continued here. The way that Mahar has told it through Jim's childish voice just doesn't make it sound right, and maybe that was what he was trying to get at. But for me, the feeling of complete gross out never left me in these scenes.

Now the front cover of the novel promised a heart warming and laugh out loud story. I'm not sure these are quite the words to describe this novel, especially when Jim becomes an altar boy and a priest starts to take an unhealthy, and very illegal interest in him. These scenes of rape, again told through Jim's innocent eyes really put me on edge. I've always been funny with the power of religion, and the fact that the priest continues to blame Jim for what the rape he is committing, just adds to the tension that I felt reading it. I was so on edge, people on the train must have thought I was feeling a tad ill. But it is important to hear these stories, as well know to well the stories of abuse that come out of the church.

Jim's relationship continues during this time, and there are so many opportunities for him to tell someone, it almost starts to become annoying. But then we must remember he is only a child, but the sheer honesty and naivety of the story telling makes it the more real, and we soon realise he is powerless to tell anyone. Who would believe him over the highly regarded local priest?

The story soon moves onto London where Jim and his girlfriend have traveled in order for her to have an abortion. It made me extremely sad to see the lengths they had to go to in order to abort the foetus; Ireland has never exactly been tolerant of it. And it is when the story moves to London that the hit and miss novel really falls apart for me. It just seemed a bit ridiculous, whether it was the 15 year old Jim working in a bar with a lot of gay men (who by the way beat up the priest when he visits Jim in London- creepy- and you can't help but smile), or the spiritual classes he attends where they teach people to heal, it doesn't ever feel right for me.

So for a novel that I was expecting to laugh out loud to (I refuse to put that abbreviation here), I was highly disappointed. There are some lovely moments between Jim and his family, but these are heavily taken away from when there is too much focus on the spiritual healing, and the details that just seem too far fetched, and doesn't seem realistic enough. This is such a shame for a book that deals with hugely modern issues such as the abuse that children suffer and the poor sex education they are giving. But Mahar does achieve one thing; finding a suitable voice to innocently present these issues and make them seem to much worse because of it.

The Fields is published by Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown books in the UK. 

When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket is one of those authors who just screams childhood to me. When I was in my younger years, and everyday that is getting further and further away, Snicket was my favourite author. Forget J.K Rowling, Snicket's books were much more my thing. I think I preferred the realism and the sarcasm that he wrote with. I saved up every year to by the latest book in his A Series Of Unfortunate Events series and enjoyed every one of them. Except the last one. What a terrible book that was. It completely ruined the entire series for me, as well as feigning my interest in Snicket. But I will always be thankful for him. He made my interest in reading continue as a young adult, and was the best transition to have from young adult books to the adult world.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events...my childhood in a picture

So due to my feigning interest as I put it, I stopped following him completely. Imagine my delight then to see when I traipsing through another charity box to find a book by him. Seeing his name made me instantly think about laying in bed late (when I should have been asleep) delving into the latest in his prior series. I mean of course I realise I am an adult now, but after reading such a depressing series of books, I decided a bit of nostalgia was highly necessary this week.

Now due the nature of the charity box, I often get stuck reading the second in a series of books, waiting and waiting to get my hands on the first in the series (if I ever get the chance). This is the case here I am afraid, but if I ever get the chance, I shall review book 1 in his brand new series of novels, All The Wrong Questions. Today's blog will look at the second in the series entitled When Did You See Her Last?. A bit of research to get some context due the lacking first novel, I was delighted to discover that Snicket's new series is a prequel to A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Lemony's latest offering

Reading the first page immediately bought back memories of Snicket's style. The wit was there from the first page. The second novel in the series sees us following Snicket himself in a dying seaside town called Stain'd-by-the-Sea. His brilliance with using names was still there, already giving me a grim impression of this almost abandoned town. Snicket is an apprentice to a police detective investigating the disappearance of a local rich girl. His teacher thinks the case is easily solved, but as expected, Snicket is on the case to show there is so much more to the story. Playing someone of younger age, the characters in the new series do for me what the Baudelaire triplets did in A Series Of Unfortunate Events. They taught me to be intuitive, bright, confident and know that adults aren't always right as they grow up.

Now I don't want to give too much plot away here, but it is typical Snicket. Full of twists and turns, as well as the moments where you think everything is finally going to plan for a spanner to be thrown in the words. It is so comforting to know that there is still a lot of intelligent and witty fiction out there for children, and not just sticker books with One Direction's face on. There were a few parts I didn't quite understand, such as what age Snicket is supposed to be in the novel, but I'm sure all would become clear with the first book. as many of the characters are children in the book, as an adult it was easy to see their innocence and disillusion. But as is typical for Snicket, he gives children a chance to fight for change, even in his sometimes surreal world.

So even if you think you are too old to read him now, don't knock it until you've tried it. There are still plenty of adult themes within the novel, including murder, kidnapping and deception. I couldn't help but feel that it is all building up to an exciting conclusion. Buy this book, even if not for your child or a child you know, buy it for yourself. Snicket hasn't lost it. It may even rouse a child's interest in his previous fiction, something I think was so very important! And to keep my interest as an adult? Well my version of an adult, is something pretty special.

When Did You See Her Last? (book 2 in the All The Wrong Questions series) is published by Little, Brown in the UK.