Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

“Young man," he said, "understand this: there are two Londons. There's London Above―that's where you lived―and then there's London Below―the Underside―inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good night.” Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“Somehow, this was one oddity too many. He could accept "Mind the Gap" and the Earl's Court, and even the strange library. But damn it, like all Londoners, he knew his Tube map, and this was going too far. "There isn't a British Museum Station," said Richard, firmly.” Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere


Richard Mayhew is an ordinary Scot living and working in London. He is so ordinary in fact, that he's boring. He works, he goes home, he goes out with his tempestuous fiancée and then starts that all again, day in, day out. He is also a very simple man. He is not particularly assertive, brave, brash or short-tempered. 

One night, walking with his fiancée to have dinner with her boss, he happens to catch out of the corner of his eye an injured girl. Richard cannot leave the bleeding girl and picks her up and takes her home although his fiancée is outraged. 

Nursing the girl back to health he suddenly realises that things are no longer as they were. Two strange looking men march in to his apartment looking for a girl named 'Door', suddenly his friends and family have no idea who he is... and to top it all off his landlord walks in to his flat with new tenants. 

Unable to live in the real London he is pulled kicking and screaming in to 'London Below' the fantastical London that thrives through the underground. Richard is pulled in to a quest, and whilst trying to go back to his old life, finds himself instead.

The Audiobook
This audiobook is narrated by Neil Gaiman himself. I'll be honest, when I downloaded the book from Audible I was cynical. I thought that this was going to be an author with a big ego convinced that he'd do the voices better than anybody else. I kinda feel embarrassed. I obviously had not done enough research as I had no idea that Gaiman has narrated lots and lots of books. I'd also like to add that he was pretty spectacular! He was well paced, the differentiation between the voices were awesome and even his Scottish accent was excellent!

The Story
This is my first Gaiman novel, and I imagine it'll probably be my last. That sounds like such a negative way to start, but I don't mean it in a negative way in the least.


The novel falls under the 'Urban-Fantasy' genre. Gaiman understands fantasy. He does not feel obliged to go the high-fantasy route, what with giants and fairies, instead he turns something as mundane as the London underground in to something animated and literal. 

It seems silly to say 'literal' when talking about fantasy - but here, let me explain. Each underground station has a different name. He takes those names and forged characters out of them i.e. Earls Court in to the 'Earl's Court', and has a subway train home to the Earl and his court. There's a district in London called 'The Angel, Islington' and lo and behold one of Gaiman's main characters is 'Angel Islington'. I really enjoyed this play on words, I found it witty and comical, and a homage to London.

It's worth noting that you can
also read this as a Graphic Novel!

Although the book is quite witty the protagonist is soooooo annoying, and soooo boring. He's the most unlikeable character in history. He was unsympathetic and just generally wimpy and whiny. In fact, he reminded me a lot of Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and not in a good way considering that I didn't particularly enjoy that book.

The storyline is pretty slow as well. I had to drag myself through it kicking and screaming, and luckily, because it was in audiobook form I could do that, if it had been paper and ink though, I don't think I would have been able to finish it. It finally picked up speed in the last two hours of the audiobook and that is when I found myself finally enjoying the writing and the storyline.

Although both Gaiman or his books will never be favourites of mine, I am pretty certain that for some, his books are on par with Terry Pratchett's fantasy works. If you're a fan of Alice in Wonderland and want a new spin on it, this may just be the book for you! Also, if you liked The Hitchhiker's books I think you'll love this! It exhibits the same wit, comedy and joy. It's worth a try! You may discover a new found love!


Have you read this book? What did you think? Have I missed something? Let me know what you thought/think right here or over on Twitter @OrisiB



P.s. I do plan on watching the dramatisation... OH, OH, OH and if you're a James McAvoy fan I do believe they've put together an all-star cast to narrate the book on BBC 4, so check it out!

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The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

“My greatest enemies are Women and the Sea. These things I hate. Women because they are weak and stupid and live in the shadow of men and are nothing compared to them, and the Sea because it has always frustrated me, destroying what I have built, washing away what I have left, wiping clean the marks I have made.” Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory

This book is just so gross. By gross, I mean recurring graphic descriptions of animal torture and deaths of children. Avoid this book if you have a weak disposition, do not have a thing for gore or if you love fluffy bunnies, because I kid you not, some of the stuff in this book is just awful.

Frank, who's sixteen, lives with his father, some old brilliant ex-university professor. His brother Eric is in a psychiatric hospital and we begin the book hearing of Eric's escape. The story is written in first person and to be honest not much really happens. We know that Frank's's father has an office that he always keeps locked. Also, Frank receives crazed phone calls from Eric every day or two, frequently becoming hysterical and overly sensitive. All the while there are a good too many scenes of animals being killed and tortured, we have to listen to endless, monotonous internal dialogue by the incredibly boring Frank, which all culminates to what you think will be an epic struggle and battle but instead a huge freaky secret is exposed.


The Audiobook
The book is narrated by Peter Kenny. He is a master of many voices and to be honest listening to him reading in Eric's voice is eerie - he encapsulates the fury, hysteria and lunacy in Eric's voice, I'm not exaggerating, you can practically hear the spit shooting from his mouth as he rages! It's scary! Unfortunately though, the voice he chose for Frank was just so boring, coupled with Frank being quite boring it was like pulling teeth listening sometimes. 


The Story
I'm sure you can tell just from my rating that I wasn't a big fan of this story. There were parts in the tale that were interesting. For instance, Frank is evidently crazy himself. He divulges the three murders he planned and perpetrated as a child with a quiet detachment, and consistently shares with the reader his obsessive compulsive behaviours and his inability to control his habits.

Frank's OCDish behaviour manifests in his creating a sort of religion. Everything he does has, in his eyes, greater meaning. The animals he tortures and kills are always done in a ritual manner, he believes himself to be able to see in to the future with these killings. We hear references of his alter, the animals being called sacrifices, and his premonitions... there is even one point where he thinks that he can reach his brother telepathically and is pretty sure he did. 

I found the story repetitive and so frustrating. It was just a constant reminder of how nuts Frank is and how much he loves torturing things. Frank does not grow. He is stagnant, and bizarre, and I'm sure Banks thought that it would all be worth it in the end with the twist, but it wasn't. I walked away flabbergasted and annoyed.

The story's twist, which I shall not give away can easily pass even the most focussed reader, but the clues are there, all along, so let me know if you catch them. I unfortunately already knew the twist at the end and I am sure that it removed some of the intrigue from the book that others would experience. All in all though, I'm not a fan of excessive gore, or animal torture or child murders, so it was a difficult read for me, and the only reason I finished reading it was because I'd started. I also like to read writers that are clever about being pretentious... I don't like it shoved in my face.

It's a coming-of-age type of story set on a tiny Island in Scotland. It has pacing that is very, very typical of the Gothic. No goblins, ghosts or ghouls though I'm afraid! You may like it, I won't be unreasonable, I mean on GoodReads The Wasp Factory has done very well indeed and so it really just depends on your tastes. For me - no, I didn't enjoy it at all, it was like pulling teeth.

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Horror Stories we Used to Tell Each Other as Kids

Laura Kasischke wrote an excellent piece for Huff Post the other day entitled Playground Tales: Fifteen Horror Stories My Classmates Told Me. She is the author of If a Stranger Approaches, a collection of short stories chronicling the way in which playground tales can change. In the Huff Post article she writes a list about the horrifying tales that she'd heard as a child. So I loved this idea and promptly contacted my friends and family for their own memories!

1. My best friend told me a story about her older cousins. One of her cousins brought home a wee-gee board. They started to talk to what they believed to be a spirit. Sat around the wee-gee board they asked for proof that they were really talking to a spirit and so the spirit answered that they should go check 'the mirror' (there was a mirror at the top of the stairs, a huge one) they walked around the house checking all the mirrors and when they reached the bottom of the stairs the mirror slipped off the wall and smashed down the stairs. 
2. The Three Fingered Doll: One day the father of a family buys his little girls an old antique doll. The doll's left hand has only three fingers. Each night a family member dies from scratches all over their faces... three scratches. Eventually they figure out that it is the doll killing them all, but it's pretty much too late.
3. Bloody Mary: I was told that a particular bathroom in our school was haunted by the ghost of Queen 'Bloody' Mary. If we went to the bathroom, closed our eyes and stared in to the mirror and say 'Bloody Mary' three times... she would come and slit our throat. Needless to say we never managed to say her name a third time.
4. Our friend told us that his big brother said that one day he was home alone and his parents left the hoover (vacuum) out. He swears that when he went to turn off the hoover he found that it was not plugged in... 
5. We had a super skinny neighbour. My best friend at the time, Rebecca, told me that her mum had told her that she had seen our neighbour eating mice out of bins.
6. Our friend mentioned today that he was told a story when he was a child that he's never forgotten. He was told that a man who lived in a village 'back home' wanted to build an outhouse. He chopped down a tree, and built the outhouse where it had been. One night he went to use the toilet and never came back. The family searched and searched for him. They went to the outhouse and found him there, dead, with his hands and feet turned backwards; killed by a spirit who had lived in the tree.
7. One day my best friend's brother was looking out of the window during a lightning storm. All of a sudden lightning struck the window, hitting her brother, and that is why he wears glasses (yes, she actually did convince me of this story at the ripe old age of 10).
8. A friend of mine was absolutely convinced that her house was haunted by three witches. One witch had just a pair of legs, one witch was a torso, and the third witch was a floating head, and she said that they would stand in her fire place. 
9. When I was a tween the band Incubus was starting to get noticed. One of their songs references 'spontaneous combustion'... there were plenty of stories of family members of teachers and ex-pupils spontaneously-combusting all over the place.
10. I had been told... many, many times, that when I pour boiling water down a sink I should pray, because if I hurt a spirit who is sitting there he may attack me.

I'm intrigued... what stories did you hear from your friends as children? Please leave your comments below, I can't wait to read them!

Props to Huff Post for being awesome and inspiring this post

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Company of Liars - Karen Maitland

“You've heard tales of beauty and the beast. How a fair maid falls in love with a monster and sees the beauty of his soul beneath the hideous visage. But you've never heard the tale of the handsome man falling for the monstrous woman and finding joy in her love, because it doesn't happen, not even in a story-teller's tale.” Karen Maitland, Company of Liars

This book had been on my to-read pile for... I believe, around twelve months. I started it, stopped it, started it again, stopped again. But this time round, I knew that I would have to start it, and to finish it. It couldn't just sit around on my pile forever. 

Company of Liars is a straight up plague-time, mystery/thriller that is so epically Chaucerian I could barely contain myself. It's very Canterbury Tales(ish) in that it features a party of travellers who have been brought together by fate, each member has a devastating secret and each one is willing to lie to keep their secrets hidden (apart from one). The group is made up of an accused paedophile, a healer, a magician, two court players, a freaky child and a newly wed Scandinavian looking couple, and the leader and narrator of the company, Camelot, who sells relics. Together they attempt to outrun the pestilence (the black plague) that is ravishing Europe, and at the same time keep their secrets close to the chest.

The Audiobook
David Thorpe is the narrator for this book and he actually does a fantastic job; I was really impressed. His regional accents are wonderful as are his international accents. They're caricature accents, but they're what is needed to distinguish nicely between all the characters. The book is a long one, but he doesn't lose his way in his narration and his pace is good. The production is exceptional if course, and even listening through my phone's speaker the quality of the recording is very good indeed. 

The Story
I found the book a little difficult to get in to at first, and felt a little like I just had to persevere for the first few chapters. After the first couple of chapters though I was totally immersed and would find it so very hard not to put it on during my break times at work. Karen Maitland is an expert prose writer and I was greatly impressed the way in which she commanded both the story and its characters. 

Maitland has a scarily Stephen King-like understanding of the psychology of her characters, and obviously researched the 14th Century to bits. Superstitions, paranoia and outright nastiness is a recurring theme as the pestilence spreads and the group travel up through England. This travelling gives a brilliant insight in to the many different villages, their views, customs and their own particular brand of superstition and religious practices. Maitland does an excellent job of this. It was a SERIOUS change from the majority of historical novels I come across that always have a bunch of aristocrats, rich people or monarchs at the helm. It was a story about the outcasts of 14 century England and not only how they made money, travelled and lived but also how they tried to survive during the spread of the Black Death.

What I found exceptional in her writing was the way she explored the Black Death. It was as much a part of the story as the characters were, without it being cliched or boring. The book read almost like an apocalyptic tale;the group banded together by necessity, driven on by hope, only to be repetitively let down as more and more villages fall to the plague. 

There is a tiny-lickle bit of magic scattered throughout the novel but it is not such a major feature in the book to call it a straight fantasy, and as the magic is never really one-hundred percent confirmed (I'm not sure whether the narrator could be wholly trusted, as they are part of the company of liars after all) I guess I can say that it has moments of the supernatural?

There were parts of the book that were chilling. Maitland's ability to creep me out was quite shocking. I'm not one to check around corners after a book, or to turn on the lights, or get chills, but I did, and she did this without me even realising until I was freaked out! 

So you may be wondering why I've not rated the book five stars, and I promise, the explanation will be following very shortly. 
The secrets that all the characters possess are secrets that, in the 14 century, would have you killed... and not in a nice way either, and so as a reader I greatly enjoyed trying to guess or unearth from the clues what their secret was. There was one twist, right at the end, one secret, that I just did not see coming. In fact, I spent most of the morning getting ready for work completely concentrated on what I had missed and if there had been any clues at all? The book finishes on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the conclusion all kind of seemed out of the blue for me. 

The only way I can truly explain how I felt about the ending is by using a gif. Yes, a visual representation is the only absolute way I can highlight just how I looked this morning when I reached the end...

So I totally loved the book, I was not impressed with the ending. I can appreciate that Maitland had done so brilliantly to get us to the edge of our seats but it just didn't deliver after that. Books can do that sometimes, but I definitely recommend the novel because truly, the ride is worth the read!

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The Heresy of Dr Dee - Phil Rickman

'At what point this night I became afraid, I'm not quite sure. To a scholar, fear arrives with a certain shame, akin to the same a soldier feels, holding himself back from the heat of the fray as his comrades are cut down before him.
  Not that I'd know. Unlike Dudley, I've never been a soldier, the kind of knowledge I hold having preserved me from bodily conflict. A bargain with the Crown which decrees I must stride out, wearing knowledge like armour, the questing mind thrust forward like to a sharpened blade.' Phil Rickman, The Heresy of Dr Dee

I totally suck. It wasn't until I finished this novel that I realised that it was part of a series, haha! But to be honest, whilst reading it, there were not moments that I felt I was lost because it was necessary that I read previous books to follow the plot. That was a pleasant surprise.

So, pedal to the metal. This is about the very intriguing historical character Dr John Dee. It's right around the time that the death/murder/assassination/accident/suicide of Robert Dudley's (Queen Bess' favourite) wife Amy transpires (check out Wikipedia if you don't know anything about tiny bit of history). Dr Dee is looking desperately for a scrying stone, because, he kinda told the queen that he had one. Although he is a natural philosopher, mathematician and other very smart things, he's suddenly taken a very firm interest in the occult and wants to study such things from a scientific view point. So, Roberty Dudley (who just cannot be seen in court because everybody thinks he killed his wife) and Dr Dee, decide to go on an adventure to Wales to see if they can get hold of one of those fanciful stones. They become entangled in a high-profile court case, Dr Dee meets a strange boy who can sniff out human bones from the ground, and all the while there's a very odd, very violent, potentially possessed criminal cursing everybody. This is a murder mystery played out in a maze, almost. It's all very... obscure. 

There was some beautiful pieces of prose in this book, and some parts were quite haunting. But to be honest I found myself drifting at times, and not really able to focus on it for long periods. It's not that it was boring. It's just that it sometimes got a little distracted... and there are SO many characters that you may meet once... and then not again till so far in that you kind of forget who they are.

I think that having background knowledge of the period and of Elizabethan life was imperative to enjoying this book, and bringing colour to the novel. Without knowledge of the time period, or even characters in the court during that time, I think the narrative would have been a little flat. It was my previous knowledge that filled out details that Rickman left out. 

Part of what I really enjoyed about this book was that the majority of it was set in Wales. This was excellent as Wales is really quite easily forgotten when looking at British history, and so to have a book based in the Elizabethan period and not only acknowledging that Wales exists... but sets it during that time is awesome. I thought that was so refreshing and had a feeling of novelty. 

Phil Rickman did a great job of characterising the main personalities, and I did enjoy them greatly. I very much loved the enigmatic Robert Dudley, and even took a shine to Dr Dee himself (although he can be a little... whiny). Unfortunately it was the author's tendency to go off topic regularly that just put me off and at times made me lose my way. 
Overall - yes, it's a good read if you enjoy historical fiction and if you've previously read any other Dr Dee books. If you're a fan of Elizabethan Britain then I'd recommend it too. It's a mystery, semi-supernatural, historical kind-of novel, but worth reading. 

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We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

“It's always the mother's fault, ain't it?" she said softly, collecting her coat. "That boy turn out bad cause his mama a drunk, or she a junkie. She let him run wild, she don't teach him right from wrong. She never home when he back from school. Nobody ever say his daddy a drunk, or his daddy not home after school. And nobody ever say they some kids just damned mean. ...”  Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

This book was intense. 
Very intense indeed.

It tells the tale of the very successful Eva Khatchadourian. The book is written in first person through an epistolary structure. One of my favourite types of first person narrative.
Eva Khatchadourian is writing letters to her estranged husband, recounting certain moments throughout their lives together that told her that Kevin (their first child) was not right. The blurb sets the scene nicely, and you read the book knowing that Kevin was the perpetrator of a school shooting. She is writing two years after the fact, and throughout her letters she speaks with scary honesty about her feelings towards pregnancy, motherhood, her dislike of her own child and her inability to believe that being maternal is innate. 

The Audiobook
We Need to Talk About Kevin is performed by Lorelei King. She's a very well paced, very professional sounding lady, and does an excellent job of exuding a coolness that we would expect from Eva Khatchadourian. Even her male voices and the voice of a young Kevin are very good and believable. I bought this audiobook from Audible and it is only six and a half hours long (thereabouts) and so I found myself listening to this every chance I got; in a taxi, whilst cooking, during work breaks. The production is excellent and of high quality. 

The Story
So the story. This excellent piece of contemporary literature - that I hope, and expect, that in one hundred years time university literature students will be reading for a feminist literature seminar. 
I really thought this was brilliantly written. Some pieces of prose were just... so... mind blowing. So beautiful in their simplicity that sometimes I would rewind the book so I could listen to it again. 

This book is written like a psychological thriller, as well as truly exploring the pressure upon women to be excellent at everything... the pressure of being successful, educated, rich, but also be expected to work, have children, and raise perfect children. Eva is a modern woman's nightmare. She is the embodiment of the anxieties and pressures on western women living now. The fear that after having fulfilled all other expectations in life, a woman must then fulfil what her biology expects of her, she must procreate - and be happy about it, and must have a natural maternal instinct otherwise she is odd, a failure. The arguments, and points to discuss are mind blowing, and I think Shriver takes this all in her stride. There is no rush to the narrative. 

Eva, throughout her narrative, discusses her relationship in depth with Kevin; but at the same time, I read this feeling that I could not trust her whole-heartedly. I then listened to an interview by Shriver who perfectly reflected my feelings towards Eva. Shriver says 

'She’s not a liar, except in the sense that we’re all liars. We all choose to remember some events more often than others, because they play to our version of the world, and of ourselves, whereas the memories that challenge who we are to ourselves have a funny tendency to seep away. So naturally Eva remembers all the scenes in which her son did (or seemed to do) something nasty...' 

and I found that this was the most important thing to remember throughout the novel... that, truly, I wasn't sure if Kevin was born with a sociopathic personality disorder - or whether he was reacting to his mother's dislike of him and desperate for attention. Does she carry the blame solely for Kevin's oddness as a child, or was he born to commit those murders. It's the recurring argument of Nature Vs Nurture.

The interesting part in the book is that Kevin's father, Franklin, absolutely adores his son, and cannot see in Kevin what Eva does... and Kevin resents it. The morning before he commits the murders Kevin has an outburst towards his father that gives the impression that his father never really saw him for who he was - and that he hated him for that. It's very interesting.

Suffice to say, in my opinion, Kevin wins at the end. That is the saddest part about the novel. He wins, and yet, Eva seems to mend a little because Kevin has won. 

I won't give away the ending, but read it - let me know what you think. Did Kevin win in the end? Or did Eva rise above it all?

A review of the movie will be on its way very soon.

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World War Z - Max Brooks

“The only rule that ever made sense to me I learned from a history, not an economics, professor at Wharton. "Fear," he used to say, "fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe." That blew me away. "Turn on the TV," he'd say. "What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products." Fuckin' A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.” Max Brooks, World War Z

I had been quite excited to read this book. I started it before I left on holiday and is quite a quick read. 

The book is quite literally what it sells itself to be 'An Oral History of the Zombie War'. 

The text begins after the war, and what you're reading is a bunch of interviews by Max Brooks - interviewing ex-military, doctors, crazy dictators, scientists etc etc. This is the type of book, I imagine, that in 2000 years it'll be found, and our descendants will believe that we lived through a Zombie apocalypse and survived. The interviews are chronological, the first interview given by a doctor in China who was one of the first people to diagnose the problem. 

So was this book any good? Well, it was interesting, very interesting in fact. It seems that the author certainly did his homework. He looked at the world as it is now, politically, economically spiritually and I believe pretty much described what we could realistically expect if a plague such as the one described really did spread. So, if anything, it is a fictional commentary of countries and how they responded, as well as the people involved.

Unfortunately, as it is a bunch of interviews and I knew that mankind survived, there was no real drama. There wasn't a particular group of characters that I couldn't bare to see die. I didn't feel suspense, or anxiety over their well being. I knew they survived because they were being interviewed after the fact - if you catch my drift. The writing and many voices were excellently executed and to ignore that would be unfair. Although I read for the drama of it, I also read to meet characters that I care about. Unfortunately this was an impossibility with this book. 

The book read like non-fiction, so much so that when I finished reading I really did think - hmmm... well, I've definitely learnt something new; and then I had to remind myself that this is just a prediction of how the world and its peoples would respond to a calamity such as this one. And yes, it's a prediction, but as far as I am aware, I really do think that Mr. Brooks got it SPOT ON. Maybe I seem that I do not have much faith in the human condition - but that's not it. I'm a realist, and I think, looking at the world around us now - most of us would really be able to predict how things would unravel.

Anywho - I recommend you read it if you want to read something interesting. Don't read it for a plot line, or to love characters, or for drama, or horror, or for thrills... or well, anything like that! Read it because you like history and you're interested in psychology - and only slightly interested in zombies - as they don't really feature much!

Oh - and apparently the movie will be coming out in June 2013!

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Macbeth: A Novel - A. J. Hartley and David Hewson

“And still you'll hesitate to tell him, won't you? Why? Because you're a woman? Is your destiny such a small thing then? To keep your legs open and your mouth shut?” Macbeth: A Novel - A.J Hartley and David Hewson

Well good morning! I guess you may have thought that I'd forgotten all about you, but I hadn't. I actually just got back from holiday. And lucky for me, I took a few books and audiobooks to pass some of my spare time. 

So, Macbeth: A Novel has been on my to-read pile for a very long time. And I did it, I finally got around to reading it. 
This is pretty much the same story as Shakespeare's Macbeth, and it pays homage to his genius, whilst also using historical facts and records to cushion out the story. The writers (one of which is a professor of Shakespeare) unashamedly twist and change things - using their own creativity to make the story eerie and uncomfortable; and uncomfortable it most certainly is. 

It follows the same story - pretty much. Macbeth is a warrior, fighting for Duncan, the King. He and Skener Macbeth (Lady Macbeth has a name!) then decide that Macbeth is pretty much deserving of his crown, and so when King Duncan is invited to his castle for a feast... they both murder him, this in turn destroys both their relationship and their consciences. Macbeth falls to to paranoia, becoming dependent on predictions made by three witches... one an old crone, another a giant woman, and the third, a woman in a young girl's body.

This all culminates to the same ends as they do in Shakespeare's Macbeth, except we have detailed prose rather than actors doing all the work!

The Audiobook

Alan Cumming is the narrator of this novel and a fine one he is. He manages to differentiate between all the different characters flawlessly, and his female voices aren't too odd either - which is a nice change when it comes to male narrators. I think the nicest touch was that they actually had a Scot narrate the story, giving a touch of believability that is needed in the narration of a story such as this one. 

The production was nicely done as well, and we even get to hear the voices of the authors both at the beginning and at the end of the story giving details in to the creative process that went in to writing Macbeth: A Novel.

The Story
The prose is full of Scotland. That may sound silly but it's true. Sprawling, vicious and beautiful landscapes that directly impose themselves upon the characters. There is also a lot of pathetic fallacy, personification and an abundance of gothic conventions that just make this story - quite simply - beautifully written.

Hartley and Hewson do a pretty brilliant job of characterising Skener and Macbeth in such a way that as a reader you do really like them, and empathise the silly mistakes they make. Macbeth's paranoia becomes uncomfortable, not because we think him mad, but because his madness is a result from his fall from grace. Hartley and Hewson seduce us in the first few scenes, Macbeth and Skener having lovely characters and morals - and then we see the temptation, the action, the fall, and the decline. It is the love that Macbeth and Skener have for one another that when it self-destructs it is pitiful. 

There is all sorts in this book. There's murder, misogyny, feminism, sex, violence, paedophilia, rape, infanticide, crime, conspiracy, war, regicide, magic, mystery and romance - and all are developed and explored in a way that can really make the reader uncomfortable - but also, at times, was able to give respite to audiences.

The narrative is intense, as are the characters, and so for me, I really had to take short breaks as I could feel myself becoming a little overwhelmed. 

There were times that I could feel myself rolling my eyes and saying to myself 'this is a book for men' - haha, sexist... I know. I just found that a lot of the fight scenes were just needlessly long, and more for an audience who enjoyed the movie 300, rather than Shakespeare enthusiasts. 

So... as a Shakespeare enthusiast am I enraged at the bastardisation of his Scottish play? No, not at all in fact. I think this is an excellent resource for those who just cannot connect with the English of the play but want to be able to enjoy the story. It's also great for those who do not go to theatre, and enjoy prose instead. 

So why do I only give it three stars? Well, it's just because it felt... so... long, and at times I felt like I was reading it because I had to, not because I wanted to. And maybe, in a more sexist vein, I found it... very... masculine, and I couldn't connect with the female characters. But, I will say this, I will happily read any future novelisations of Shakespeare's plays. I'd love to read what they do with them.

But anywho - that's just me. If you liked it, or are planning on listening to it any time soon - then please, hit me a line and tell me off if I just didn't get it! 

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Flash Gold - Lindsay Buroker

'A fur-clad figure loomed, head an inch shy of the top of the frame. With those broad shoulders and that height, she assumed it was a man, though a cap buried his eyebrows and a scarf swaddled his face. He gripped a rifle in one gloved hand, and the hilt of something - a sword? - poked over his shoulder. Who in tarnation brought a sword to the Klondike?' Flash Gold, Lindsay Buroker

This was another free download from Kindle and I really quite enjoyed it! 

It's steampunked Canada set in the 1890's. Kali, a tough talking and super intelligent inventor is building a steam powered sled for the upcoming dog sled races. Unfortunately, she's also the daughter of a dead alchemist who found out how to make the mythical flash gold. With a huge bounty on her head and all sorts desperate to get hold of the flash gold, a mysterious stranger tries to help her, and Kali has to overcome challenges to try to win the races.

This will be another mixed review I think. I was pleasantly surprised with the novel. The writing was pretty good, the sentence structure tight and the story line propelled at a good pace by the author. As there was not the same type of finish that one expects from mainstream authors, I assume that this book is by an 'indie author'. 

Although I enjoyed the novella, and was definitely surprised, I found the characters quite cliched. I know, that may sound harsh, but it the was the same story just in a different setting... tough talking, I don't trust anybody, super intelligent main female character, being aided by a talk, dark stranger, with a troubled past... until eventually she drops her defences and well, I can just guess what will happen in the sequel. Granted, many people enjoy reading those types of  characters - and I do too! But I would have loved to see more be done with these enigmatic characters. 

The storyline is pretty tight and I have to say Buroker has definitely done a great job in making me want to get a hold of the sequel 'Hunted'. I'll definitely be visiting the world that she's created again to see what happens to Kali and Cedar. 

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Let The Right One In - A Review

I was fortunate enough to watch this last night. A couple of awesome friends came over, we ordered a pizza and settled down for this Scandinavian treat from 2008.
I didn't really know what to expect. I knew the general premise of the film but generally went in quite blind... and I loved it.
It was great.

The story pretty much goes like this. 
Oskar, a bullied, friendless boy, meets and becomes friends with the new girl next door, Eli. A mysterious, dark haired girl who doesn't get cold in the snow and vomits if she tries to eat sweets. The audience finds out before Oskar that Eli is a vampire and has been twelve years old for a long time. They fall in love, a sweet, childlike romance that gives each other what they're lacking.

So, all in all, it's what Twilight should have been, haha! It's how a romance may go between a vampire (a real vampire mind you, a vampire that can only go out at night, cannot enter a house without being invited, can climb things with scary speed, is always cold, cannot reproduce like humans do... and most certainly do not sparkle) and a human. Although I'm a big fan of Anne Rice's vampires, what I appreciated most about this film was the return to the mythological vampire that we grew up with. 

The film is slow but I enjoyed that there was no rush to divulge all the secrets at once. The camera work is beautiful and truly, I would watch it again just so I could watch the work again. Snow covered Sweden looks fragile and beautiful, and the story telling is as cold as the weather filmed. And though it is cold, it is the frigidity of the story telling that makes the film so stark and difficult to watch.

The boy who plays Oskar is pretty freaky though, if I'm honest. In fact, I found him more scary than Eli. Oskar is not a happy child, and the bullying has made him withdrawn and cold. He spends a few scenes in the movie pretending to face his bullies with a dagger. Lets just say, I watched this film imagining that Oskar was going to become A) a serial killer B) one of those high-school shooting people. Oskar finally gets the strength from Eli to finally stand up to the bullies who have been harassing him, this leads to a penultimate scene (the pool scene) that is beautiful and haunting at the same time.

Let The Right One In is a movie for those who don't mind reading subtitles, who like purposefully slow storylines, romance, those who love awesome camera-work, haunting landscapes and a REAL vampire. 

Once I watch the American version Let me In [2010] I'll let you all know what I think.

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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In a Nutshell
A criminal has escaped from the notorious wizard prison Azkaban and has set his sights on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 
Under the watchful eyes of Professor Lupin, McGonagall and Dumbledore, Harry potter must negotiate his way through threats such as Dementors, bullies, exams and of course the criminal Sirius Black who cannot wait to have his revenge. Harry Potter knows that his past and future are linked with Sirius Black - he just doesn't know how. 

Audiobook
As you know, Jim Dale is narrating the series and he does a stunning job! His Sirius and Lupin are great.... especially Lupin.

The Story
I think that so far, this book in the series has to be one of my favourites (although, having completed The Goblet of Fire that is my favourite at present). Quite honestly, it is only now that I feel that I have fallen in love with J K Rowling's imagination, and really appreciate the world that she's created. 

I quite simply loved the idea of the Dementors, the inclusion of werewolves and of course the magical creature the Hippogriff. Everything just seemed as it should be. There wasn't a part of this book that I felt that Rowling just threw in for good measure. 

The idea of Azkaban was what I enjoyed the most about the story as it highlighted that even in the world of magic, there was still room for responsibility and punishment for offenders. 
I also quite enjoyed the film too!

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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In a Nutshell:

Harry Potter and his friends unite again in the second year of school to fight against an unseen monster who is Petrifying students at Hogwarts. With a magical soul-possessed diary as their initial guide, they do their best to uncover the what the Chamber of Secrets is, and how to prevent students coming to harm. 

The Audiobook:

Jim Dale is narrating the whole of my Harry Potter audiobook set. He's awesome as I've said in  previous reviews. He reads at a pretty reasonable pace and so if you're wanting a quick read I recommend actually reading the books. I'm sure that I will end up rereading these novels in paperback, just to get a feel of them without (the pretty epic) Dale's voice.

The Story:

Funnily enough, The Chamber of Secrets and The Goblet of Fire were my least favourite Harry Potter movies. I just found the stories a little half-baked and rushed, but, in all honesty the books were great, and totally redeemed the novels. 

I loved the pace of Rowling's narrative of The Chamber of Secrets, and the suspense and mystery she unfolds was not unlike reading a crime novel. Unlike in later books it was very nice to see her writing at her best in this book... she wrote like she knew all the details, rather than creating details as she goes along. I've noticed that there are many people who did not enjoy this book because of the plot, but I enjoyed the plot too, not just her writing.

Hermione is a lot less annoying in this novel... so, ten points for Rowling.

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Books and Eclecticism

When I peruse some of the many thousands of book and movie blogs out there I'm always struck by something in particular. 

Most bloggers (that I've come across) will read and write about one genre of book. This makes good blogging sense. A website, dedicated to one particular genre makes it a go-to place for other readers of that particular genre, it can create blogging-fandom and infamy! 

Romance, supernatural fiction, fantasy, YA fiction, contemporary fiction are the more common ones, but the problem is, is that as I read through these excellent blogs, it highlights to me just how lacking in a favourite genre I am. My reading taste is so painfully eclectic it used to take me so long to select my next read (GoodReads, ended up being a blessing because when I found a book that I was interested in, I could put it on my 'to-read' list and now I can just move on to the next speedily).

The great part of eclecticism is that I frequently get to read a whole host of different books, from different genres, and writers from opposite ends of the spectrum. The bad part is that because I have a larger net I cannot become 'expert' in any one genre, also, I have to filter through more than double the rubbish to find the good books from each genre. I believe that with a more centralised selection, I'd have a smaller net of books and it'd be easier to separate the chaff from the wheat. 

I remember (before I finally admitted to myself that I just have eclectic tastes) finishing a book, let's say it was a fantasy novel, and say 'well, I obviously love fantasy, so let me get the next one' I would go to the library, and search and search and search, finally pick a book, take it home and hate it, or just find the whole premise of the book too fantastical.  I've done the same with crime fiction, horror, sci-fi and contemporary fiction.

I came to the conclusion that I am not a fan of a certain genre, but I am quite simply a fan of good-writing, regardless of which genre it comes from.

So, although my eclecticism is both a blessing and a curse, I feel fortunate that I have the capacity to enjoy works from all genres and scopes (but I do kinda wish that I had a favourite, I'd still read widely, but would have a go-to genre for creature-comforts).

Do you have a favourite genre, or are you suffering from the same eclecticism as me?

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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

As mentioned in a previous post, this is my first time through the legendary Harry Potter series. I'll be writing up mini, speed-reviews until I complete the whole bunch - and then I'll offer up a mega-review of them all. 

In a nutshell:
Rowling spends this book introducing us to her boy wonder, Harry Potter (a.k.a 'The Boy who Lived') and his quirky chums Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely as they battle trolls and the semi-resurrected Lord Voldemort. 

The Audiobook:
The audiobook set I have is read by the very awesome Jim Dale. Dale is a master of many voices and his Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore and Hagrid are brilliant. Unfortunately though, his other female voices have much to be desired.

The Story:
I really enjoyed the story although I did find it quite painful to start off with. I just found the vocabulary, similes and metaphors to all be pretty standard and repetitive, which became quite difficult to listen to. But, regardless of all that, I was surprised that I enjoyed the plot and characters as much as I did, as I really did not enjoy the movie as much. Ah well, never judge a book by its movie.


So that's it for now. 'Stay tuned' for more Harry Potter speed reviews!

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Rules for Writing Fiction

I came across an article in The Guardian called 10 Rules for Writing Fiction. In the article they have interviewed a variety of authors, asking them to share their ten rules for writing.

I have really enjoyed reading these and so I thought that I would share my favourites with you!


Elmore Leonard
3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.


Geoff Dyer
1 Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. That stuff is for agents and editors to fret over – or not. Conversation with my American publisher. Me: "I'm writing a book so boring, of such limited commercial appeal, that if you publish it, it will probably cost you your job." Publisher: "That's exactly what makes me want to stay in my job." 


AL Kennedy
7 Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes. 
Margaret Atwood

8 You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.

So there you have it! A tiny, ickle collection of awesome things some awesome writers have said. If you'd like to read more, please fly off to The Guardian and enjoy the wisdom!

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