The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

“And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.” ― Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger

"The subliminal mind has many dark, unhappy corners, after all. Imagine something loosening itself from one of those dark corners. Let's call it a--a germ. And let's say conditions prove right for that germ to develop--to grow, like a child in the womb. What would this little stranger grow into? A sort of shadow-self, perhaps: a Caliban, a Mr Hyde. A creature motivated by all the nasty impulses and hungers the conscious mind had hoped to keep hidden away: things like envy, and malice, and frustration..." ― Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger


Those of you who are partial to a little Downton Abbey may quite like this spooky piece of fiction. This book is set shortly after the first world war. We're introduced to an England that is licking its wounds, an England that has been victorious but found themselves in a worse state than during the war. The festivities have passed and the sons of Britain have made their slow way back.

Waters introduces us to an old aristocratic family. A family that is falling apart. Their estate is crumbling around them, they have no money left and the Master of the house is the only man and has come back from the war with nervous problems and probably post-traumatic stress disorder. 


The Audiobook
I was pleasantly surprised by the narrator in this novel. It was narrated by Simon Vance, and I honestly felt that I wouldn't be able to enjoy his narration. He is a well paced, even quite slow but he does the voices pretty well and I found his voice to be perfectly suited to the voice of Dr Faraday. I'm not sure that he will be everybody's cup of tea, but I was whisked away to post-war England!


The Story
This is a story written, at least in my opinion, in the 19th Century Gothic vein. I've seen much discussion with people disputing this, but although the setting is a modern one, I feel that Waters uses conventions that are so recurrent in the genre. Conventions such as pathetic fallacy and personifcation (the attribution of human feelings upon inanimate objects or animals), weather features greatly within this novel as does the personification of the crumbling house. We are introduced to Dr Faraday who is the narrator of the novel and so the once removed narrator we often find in Gothic novels eg. Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Woman in Black etc. Dreams also feature within the novel (which may also be a clue to the ending... but shhhhh... I can't give anything away!) as they do in pretty much every Gothic novel I've read. Ambiguity, a feeling of dread, the supernatural and damsel in distress are all found within this novel, and so I'll contest that this is a Gothic novel and that it does mimic literature from the 19thC. 

Anywho... now that my false little essay is done, I'll move on! Haha!

So, we have the narrator Dr. Faraday from a working class background. His parents worked hard to make sure he could go to a fantastic university and become a doctor. Although Dr Faraday is a successful doctor he is aware that he has been unable to break in to treating the gentry. 

His chance comes though, when an emergency at Hundreds Hall calls him out. The house had once been an important part of the community but the war had left both the family and the estate in tatters, not to mention the class system and society in general. Dr Faraday's mother had previously been employed at the house and so he has memories of visiting it as a child. Now though, as an adult, he returns to the hall and becomes close to the family.

Things start to happen at the hall, strange things, and Dr Faraday plays the ultra cynical and logical narrator. How reliable he is... I'm not quite sure, but that's for you to come up with your own conclusions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it was great to return to the Goth genre and seeing it done so well. The first couple of hours of the book were hard to get in to, but I recommend it none-the-less. If you can get past those it is pedal to the metal and if you're lucky you'll get as many bouts of goosebumps that I did!


P.s. I'm currently laptopless, so I'm afraid my access to the blog has been hindered! Please bare with me during this technical hitch!

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Wool - Hugh Howey

Hello everyone!
I'm back! Please forgive my extended holiday. It was the end of the school year and well, it gets super busy in schools as we try to prepare for the new academic year!
But yes, I'm back - with a long overdue review!
________________________________

“We are not the people who made this world, Lukas, but it's up to us to survive it. You need to understand that.""We can't control where we are right now," he mumbled, "just what we do going forward.” Hugh Howey, Wool Omnibus 

Maybe you read this a few years back? Maybe. I only recently came across it and I am absolutely glad I did!

This is a post-apocalyptic thriller that takes place in a silo buried deep in to the earth. Stairs run through the silo connecting the hundred or so levels. 

The only contact the people of the silo have with the toxic outside world is through a camera. A camera peers outside at the bland scenery and the population are able to see out. Any questions regarding life in the silo can see the perpetrators sentenced to 'Cleaning'. Cleaning is a death sentence... the prisoner is strapped in to a suit and is sent out to the outside world to clean the camera lens. The strangest part of the cleaning process though, is how always, without fail, perpetrators always, ALWAYS go and clean the camera.

Inside the silo they have farms, livestock, mines, hospitals etc etc. It's a very organised machine where people know their place and rarely venture out of them.

The Audiobook
Susannah Harker was the narrator for this particular version of the audiobook. There's another one narrated by Minnie Goode too, she did the omnibus version. 

Harker was ace though, I was strangely surprised as I usually like a more passionate performance and she was very slow and steady. There have been times where I've not been able to listen to an audiobook because of that type of pacing but Harker owned her voice and I thought she was magnificent. Of course she was also aided by excellent writing, and a great production too!

The Story
Okay, I admit it, I have a soft-spot for post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels. I just do, and this was right up my street!

The pacing is brilliant, the writing is awesome and although it is an exploration of a very popular genre - I found it re-imagined, unique and wholly entertaining.

I usually try and discuss the story in a bit more detail here but I don't want to spoil it. You see, this story is a spider's web and I'm sure that if I give any little parts away and you decide to read it... well, it'll all click too quickly and you'll curse me for it.

All I can say is this, keep in your mind the very strange phenomena of the prisoners being sentenced to go outside but then always choosing to clean the camera lens (CREEPY), and also keep in mind that the silo has everything that anybody needs; Farms, livestock, water, air, coal etc etc.

I really, really enjoyed this book but I will not give away any more than that... I promise!

If you go on to read it, please please come back here and let me know what you think. Maybe you'll agree with me, or maybe you won't at all! Anywho, enjoy and let me know!

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Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell [Book Review]

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” 
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“Spent the fortnight gone in the music room reworking my year's fragments into a 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor; in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late.” 
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

If you're looking for a complex read... read this. 

This novel is split up in to six narratives about novella length. The novellas are then neatly sat within the next narrative. It's kind of like you took six books, you take the first book and slot a second book in to the first, you then take a third book and slot it in to the centre of the second, you then take a fourth etc etc (remember when you used to do that when you were supposed to be reading something and you hid a comic book inside and read that instead? Yeah, it's just like that) and so because that is the make-up of the narrative each story is interrupted by the next. 

Yes. Even my description is complex!

So, the first half of the first novella takes place in the 18th Century. We are introduced to a hypochondriac lawyer, Adam Ewing, who is befriended by a doctor who collects and sells teeth. 

The second novella sees us introduced to a young aspiring composer named Frobisher. Frobisher sends a series of letters to his lover in Cambridge, both mentioning the diary he is reading, but also how he is working for one of the greatest living composers in Europe. 

In the future, Luisa Ray comes across those letters and hunts down a rare piece of music by Frobisher and they inspire her to make sacrifices to become an amazing journalist. We are interrupted by Timothy Cavendish and eccentric publisher, and realise that Luisa Ray's narrative is a book he's been sent for perusal. 

Cavendish is victim to a series of very, very unfortunate events and his life is being watched as a movie by a clone, in the distant future called Sonmi-451 who is the unknowing leader of a revolution. 

The next narrative is from a post-apocalyptic future, Zachary a goat-herder and his tribe worship Sonmi as a goddess. A woman from the Prescients has come to study the way his tribe live. 

What do all these characters have in common? The key character in all of the narratives have a shooting-star shaped birthmark somewhere on their body.

The Audiobook
I bought this book from Audible (as usual) and I was very happy to see that they had recruited six different narrators for this awesome job. I think it was necessary so that the book felt as broken up as it should have. Sonmi-451's voice was simply brilliant. She had that robotic quality that we would imagine! Also, Timothy Cavendish's narrator sounded... I kid you not... just like Jim Broadbent (who played Cavendish in the movie); It was genius. The production was excellent! 

The Story
Although the book is complex, it is so very elegant. The book won't be for everybody, I admit, but it is so beautifully crafted I really did feel in awe. Mitchell knew exactly what he wanted to achieve with this book. He did not become lost. Although all the stories are connected and lay over and interrupt each other, he is master of all the characters and does not allow them to run away with him. 

Timothy Cavendish's story is a hilarious one, which I enjoyed so very much. Nearly all the novels are super heavy and so Mitchell offered comic relief to allow the reader to giggle. It was one of my favourites, but my real favourite was Sonmi-451's narrative. It was beautiful. Slightly disconnected but also feeling. 

The most amazing part, I found, about the whole book was how Mitchell managed to forge the English language to suit each time. Of course, the 18th Century Ewing would write in a way that we would expect from the 18th Century. Timothy Cavendish is in present day London and so his language reflects this. Luisa Ray's story takes place in the 70s and so the colloquialism is reflective. But then Mitchell does something extraordinary, he fashions whole new dialects for the narrators in the future. It is incredible. Sonmi-451's language is brilliant. Instead of using words such as 'TV/Television' she calls them 'Sony's'... because it is a super commercialised world she lives in, things are known by their brand names rather than their actual names (kinda like in the UK where a vacuum cleaner is called a 'Hoover'). When we fast forward even further in the future to Zachary's narrative, it takes a little time to get used to the dialect, well, it's just amazing. I'm sure you can tell that I was just so, so impressed.

The only issue I have with this book is that it was difficult to stay interested! For instance, I loathed Adam Ewing, I found his narrative painfully boring! But because it is pretty impossible to even skip a few minutes/pages of this book for fear of missing something crucial I had to painfully listen through it. 

I tried not to extract meaning from the books as much as others have. There is much discussion of the idea that the stories are just repetitions of each other from different time periods including the same soul, but y'know what... I didn't get that. I felt that they were connected because their lives effected both the future and the past, but I left it at that. When I re-read it I will try and decipher it all!

Is the book a good one? Well, it's an amazingly crafted book. The language is amazing, the writing sensitive and in command. The characters are varied and brilliant. But as a story does it work well? I'm not sure... it would all depend on the person I believe. I've seen this book get rated 5/5 but also receive a mere 1/5. This book has the potential to frustrate some, whilst mesmerising others.

If you have a short attention span, or no real love for language or literary craftsmanship I would avoid the book. It'll make you angry! If though, you can be patient, enjoy beautiful writing, and can admire the time, love and dedication an author has put in to his work then I promise this book will definitely enlighten and awe you. 

The movie was released in 2012. I will be offering up a review of it too, BUT I must watch it again before I can! 

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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In a Nutshell:
In a continuation of the previous instalment Harry Potter and his friends set off on a quest to locate and destroy Lord Voldemorte's Horcruxes. At the same time they are all intrigued by the Deathly Hallows, a super-brilliant wand, a resurrection stone and a fabulous invisibility cloak. At the same time as trying to maybe find those three things they also need to try not to be caught by Voldemorte's posse... as they've taken over the ministry and Harry is first on Lord Voldemorte's hit list. What ensues is a lot of popping in and around dramatic landscapes, arguments, a humungous battle as Harry Potter and friends must defend Hogwarts from the oncoming war.

The Audiobook:
Oh Jim Dale... you served me well. You were really brilliant, and if I ever meet you I will applaud right in front of you... on my own, like a cheesy 80s movie. He was awesome. Very good. As good as man with a deep voice can be. I absolutely loved his narration pretty much all the way through. I made a few comments regarding his lady voices - but well, that can't be helped can it?

The Story:
Wow, what an epic piece of fiction. It was great. I enjoyed it immensely. 
The writing was fabulous although at times it did feel a little drawn out, but I totally forgave Rowling just because it was so awesome.
I am glad it ended as it did. It couldn't have ended any other way (I'm not talking about the epilogue by the way). The story was a true coming of age story with the final battle being that fateful moment where they all had to become adults. 
I was quite surprised about how the final battle compared with the movie... and even the death of Lord Voldemorte. It seemed like a total anti-climax compared to the epic movie fight scenes. 
The thing I found hardest and found it a little too much... was the fact that pretty much everybody kinda died. I know there are thoughts a plenty as to why Rowling did this, but I just thought it was just too much. It's like nearly everybody who came from his father's generation i.e. his father's friends all just died. Maybe I'm just a big wimp... but it was overwhelming.

My final thoughts on Harry Potter will be coming up soon! Don't hold your breath though, as it won't be coming up in three minutes, you may have to wait a little longer than that!

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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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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In a Nutshell:
A retired potions professor has been asked back to Hogwarts. A professor who knows the horrifying truth about Lord Voldemorte and his powers - and Dumbledore is desperate to find out what that truth is. Harry Potter begins to excel in potions as he's found an old potions book written by the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. A few scenes of bickering, kissing, love, despair, frustration and devastation, surprises and shocks and well, that pretty sums up this instalment of the Harry Potter series and I would definitely not want to ruin it for those of you who have not read the book!

The Audiobook:
Jim Dale is the brilliant narrator of the whole series. I will most definitely make time to listen to Stephen Fry's narration too - but I'm not sure it'll be as awesome as Jim Dale's performance (sorry Stephen Fry, I love you!).

The Story:
Not too much happens in this one to be honest. It can be summed up quite quickly. It was beautifully written, but we basically see the introduction of the horcruxes, how Lord Voldemorte managed to survive the backfired spell and come back from the dead, we see professor Snape finally the teacher of defence against the dark arts. This book is significantly darker than the rest of the previous novels - and some of the characters are a little annoying. But generally speaking it is a good one, it's just a little longer than I feel it needed to be.

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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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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

“But the plans were on display …”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The first time I had ever heard of this book, I believe I was about thirteen years old. I was at my then best-friend's house and she'd made a comment in the effect of 
    'My dad is reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'
    'Oh?' I had replied,
    'He said it is really funny'
    'Oh, so it's fictional?' Said I. She peered at me over her magazine with a quizzical look upon her face and that's all I really recall.

So, after I finished Macbeth: A Novel recently - I honestly felt emotionally drained and slightly uncomfortable, and couldn't bear the thought of going straight on to something that could be as intense, or serious as Macbeth had been. Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy popped in to my head, and I downloaded it from Audible and got to listening. 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was written by Douglas Adams and originally had been a comedic radio show on one of the BBC stations. It begins with poor, old, average Arthur Dent when he wakes up one morning forgetting that his house is supposed to be knocked down that day to make room for a bypass. What transpires is something much bigger - his best friend, Ford Prefect, suddenly turns up, spouting that the world is about to end, and that he is saving Arthur Dent. Poor old earth is being vaporised to make room for an intergalactic bypass. Well, that's pretty much it really. He and Ford just kind of spend the rest of the book hitch-hiking around until Arthur finds out the very odd truth about our humble blue planet. 

The Audiobook
One of my favourite narrators is the reader of this short book; the one, the only Stephen Fry of course. I'd previously listened to Fry reading his book The Fry Chronicles, which was simply brilliant. I've been, and still am a mahoosive Fry fan, I can't help it, I love the guy - and after listening to this book, there really could have been no other narrator who would have been able to do it justice as Fry did. He was brilliant, well paced, with great articulation (am I fawning too much?), haha, too bad I'm not a big fan of the book itself - but truly, if it wasn't for Stephen Fry's narration I wouldn't have persevered with the book.

The Story
As I mentioned earlier I read this for ... well... comic relief! I'd left Macbeth feeling a little disturbed, and well, needed a palate cleanser, and well, a long came this one.

So, what did I think? I wasn't impressed if I am honest. There were parts that were brilliantly ironic, that were funny and that were just odd. And to be honest it all smelt and tasted quintessentially British - which I could appreciate (add to the fact that Stephen Fry was narrating it) greatly. But - there just seemed to be a lot missing. For instance... I just didn't really feel for the characters, I understand that it is a comedy, but still, I still want to care what happens to the characters. It was just all very random - which I am sure it is supposed to be, but I just couldn't suspend belief and just enjoy it... I was too busy thinking 'hold on.. what's going on now?'

I would also pause the book thinking 'am I just not posh enough for this?', 'is this just for upper-middle class people', 'am I not the right generation for this?', 'is my humour too low-brow for this nonsense?' - I kid you not, I really did ask myself every single one of those questions, and none of them were answered, and, in all honestly... I was relieved when I finished it. 

I believe, in my stunted way, that Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series must have some sort of Marmite effect around the world... some people love it, and I am sure that some people are repelled by it. 

Sorry Mr. Adams. Forgive me. I'm sure you were awesome. And your work is still bringing joy and giggles to many people. But. Well. I just didn't get it. And you're a British treasure - I know. I just... couldn't connect. Sorry. 
P.s. I tried to watch the film and stopped about twenty minutes in. Sorry. I didn't get that either.

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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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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

In a Nutshell:
Harry Potter begins the story by almost having his wand taken away by the Ministry of Magic for using magic in front of a muggle. With the Ministry of Magic trying to take control of Hogwarts, and the psychotic Professor Dolores Umbridge being hired as the new defence against the dark arts teacher - Harry Potter has to contend with the ever stronger Voldemorte and the hardest part... puberty!

The Audiobook:
As you guys very well know that Jim Dale is the narrator of the Harry Potter series I'm listening to; and you know what? His Professor Umbridge is eerie. Oh my goodness me, at times I was just finding it all so chilling, especially when listening to it when trying to sleep!

The Story:
This was most certainly the hardest Harry Potter to get in to so far. In fact, I almost gave up because I found it so slow. Harry Potter spends the first 300 pages being whiny, self-indulgent, hormonal and annoying. I would have expected just a tiny bit more maturity (as he's experienced so much of the magical world) towards the changes that come with teenagehood. Maybe I'm not being very understanding, but really? 300 pages of whining!

Anyway, it gets better in the last 300 pages - and Harry Potter snaps out of it and just gets on! 
Of course, Harry faces a major loss in this book - but he manages to try to work through it without winging about it chapter upon chapter!

I really enjoyed the movie adaptation of this book and think they did an excellent job of putting it in to film.

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Speed Review - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In a Nutshell:
Harry Potter is mysteriously entered in to a Tri-Wizard Tournament by an unknown person. He's under-age  terrified and has the whole school suspicious. He is required to pass three tasks competing with students from other wizarding schools to try to win the cup. The only problem is this... there is a traitor at Hogwarts who is determined to deliver Harry Potter to the ever stronger Lord Voldemorte. 

The Audiobook:
Jim Dale is brilliant at commanding all the different voices in this novel. I'm always amazed that he doesn't get mixed up or forget who is supposed to have what voice. What more, this book features new voices such as Madame Maxine, Igor Karkaroff and Viktor Krum, who have international voices! As usual it is the female characters that suffer the most, as Dale just isn't that good at them... but he's a man, with a deep voice... I'll excuse him just this once!

The Story:
I have to say that this one is quite easily my favourite so far. Rowling is completely in her stride and her writing is exemplary in this instalment (of course I've not finished the others yet, but I'll update you later!). I had a sense in this book that Rowling, from the beginning, had a very succinct plan, and that she knew exactly what was going to happen and when (which I haven't always got a sense of in her other books. Although she did seem in control in The Chamber of Secrets).
I was so very impressed with The Goblet of Fire, and funnily enough it was my least favourite movie of the whole series!  

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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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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

“All right, then, I thought: here I am in the bottom of a well.” 

― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Now this quite literally is the strangest book I have ever read. Although it was strange, and although it went against every literary convention I am used to, and confused me, and puzzled me, and frustrated me, and infuriated me - it filled me with such intrigue and such hunger that I almost feel like I need to fill the hole (with another Murakami book) that it left once I completed it.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is made up of three books: The Thieving Magpie, Bird as Prophet, and The Birdcatcher. All three books are narrated by the main character Toru Okada. He is a man-child, he has no job, no accomplishments, no aspirations and a failing marriage (though he does not seem to be aware of this).

The story opens with Okada being deeply concerned that his wife's cat has disappeared. This perplexes him so much that he becomes obsessed with finding it. One morning though, he wakes up to find that his wife - who had not come back from work the night before - was also missing and so he then searches for her. All the while, through all these searches, he bumps in to and makes friends with characters that veer from the odd to the outright weird. 

I am realising that this sounds like the most bizarre description of a book ever... it's because the book is so fragmented and so strange. At some moments within the book you do not know if Okada is dreaming, telling the truth, is crazy, or imagining the personalities he meets or their stories. One thing you do know though, is that the characters that he meets (a psychic, a prostitute, a mute, a sixteen year-old girl, a war-veteran) bring a little colour to his otherwise grey world.

The Audiobook
The book is fabulously narrated by Rupert Degas. He does, quite simply, an excellent job in narrating and emoting a story that is quite chaotic. 

His pronunciations of Japanese and Manchurian names and places seem to be so well executed that to my untrained ears it sounds as if he is a native speaker (of course I do not speak Japanese and this is just my uneducated assumption). 

Degas does his best with the female character voices, which can sometimes be quite funny to listen to, but you do get used to it - and they do start to sound quite convincing! 

The Story
I have to say that this book just blew me away, and maybe not for all the right reasons. 

Whilst listening to it, I felt like I was pacing on a treadmill that I was unable to stop - that I was watching the brilliant imagery and scenes pass by me, not really able  to absorb the scene before being moved on by the author to the next part.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on stage

Surreal images, scenes and situations are experienced or described to Okada and he seems to show the same confusion, or apathy that the reader does. The sub-plots, which are all so painfully curious, are threaded beautifully throughout the novel, but as one reaches the end it is easy to become panicked as you'll come to realise that not everything will be explained. 

Destiny and fortune is a recurring theme personified, which is ironic, as Okada's lack of direction is reflected in the book's lack of direction. For those who love a tidy ending, and tight structure, this book will bug you to no end. 

Everything about this book should have had me hating it.
But I really quite loved it actually. The book was so refreshing and so tantalisingly curious that I could do nothing but need to listen on. I found the story monotonous at times, the characters so bizarre that they were bordering on annoying, and the hardest part of the novel was that nothing really happens. All the while, Murakami is winding you up, making you hold you breath so patiently, sure that there is going to be a climax that will make your eyes pop out of your head - but there is nothing.... and at the same time, in true style, there is everything.

I recommend this to anybody who wants to try something new. Anybody who enjoys surrealist literature, and anybody patient enough to read 600 plus pages and run the risk of blinking at the end, confused as to what you've read.

---

P.S. Okado spends a good bunch of pages sitting down the bottom of the well, walking through well walls in to hotels and curing people with a spot on his cheek that he got from said well.

P.P.S. Don't let the above 'P.S' put you off.

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The Help - Kathryn Stockett

“We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.” 
― Kathryn Stockett, The Help

The Help is a contemporary novel discussing the strained relationships between white privileged housewives and their black house maids. The story is set in 1962, Mississipi - and with just that information, you can practically guess the tone, pace, and mood of the novel (and if you'd like a little bit more information - the novel rocked the book club world). 

Three narrators guide us through the novel; a black maid named Aibileen, who is raising her seventeenth white child and is mourning the death of her son. A white lady named Skeeter, who is so desperate to become a famous journalist, that she decides to collect interviews of black maids and their experiences, and there is Minny, a smart-mouthed black maid who basically brings some much needed flavour and humour to the narratives. 

All three unite to fight the prejudice, misinformation and oppression that they witness, are affected by and fall victim to. We're given an insight in to desperate housewives - who take their frustrations out on the help.

The Audiobook
I had downloaded this book through sheer desperation. I was leaving on holiday, had already packed paperbacks, and needed some audiobooks to get me through the lazy days. An hour before we left to go to the airport I was scouring through Audible's recommendations and came across The Help. I downloaded it, pretty much after reading the blurb and did not begin it until a week in to my holiday.

The producers of this audiobook did an amazing job. They brought together four different narrators to take on the different voices. All narrators used a southern accent which just added to the mood and tone of the novel. Stockett's writing, although good, was accentuated by these beautiful voices. 

The Story

So, what did I think of the story? Well, it's a hard one. Whilst other people have found The Help to have a Marmite effect. I find myself, at times, balancing on a fence and occasionally falling off one side, only to clamber back up to the middle again. 

I loved it. I hated it. At the same time.
I loved the writing. I loved the distinct voices of the characters. But I hated the clichéd voices, and the clichéd writing. I hated the obvious dichotomies of 'goodie' and 'baddie' but I also found that the lack of complexity made the book an easy read - perfect for holidays. 

I did, though, find the story uncomfortable. It was the recurring 'mammi' figures. The recurring 'white saviour' theme and the author's inability to represent the side of the privileged white housewives. It's not that I particularly want to hear what Hilly has to say, but, if we had heard a little more of what she had had to say we could hate her for what she is, rather than the stereotype she represents.

There were some massive changes happening throughout the United States during the 60s that I feel were not even alluded to. Although, some may argue that the very fact the maids plucked up the courage to be interviewed by Skeeter - that in essence they're contributing to the tension brewing during the civil rights movement. But I feel, just a slight acknowledgement that there were black people at the time not waiting for whites to 'tell their story' but were actively putting their lives at risk, and demanding and taking their rights. As the author has seemed to try to keep things a little light it did not ask the ultimate and most uncomfortable question of all.... if we had been white, privileged little housewives in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, would we be joining them in their prejudice?

Stockett was very successful in both mixing real funny moments, and moments that were quite devastating to read. Although the book had quite a morose tone to it, she still exhibited moments of hope. 

If I applaud Stockett for anything it is her ability to control her characters - I did believe them (except one), I even believed Hilly Holbrooke - I just wanted to know a little more about her and her psychology. It was Constantine - Skeeter relationship that I had a hard time believing, I just didn't really 'get it'. I was also quite impressed how she touched upon the pressures and oppression that all characters are victim to, whites and blacks. 

So overall, I loved and hated it. I know - not the best place to stand when reviewing a book, but it's where I stand; balancing, holding an umbrella on a fence.

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