Author: Anni Marjoram

Beatrice and Axl are two elderly Britons who want to see their son before they are too old. Their search for him causes to discover much about themselves, their country and to meet other people, whose lives and purposes entwine with their own.

They meet the aged Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur. He is a wonderfully polite, yet pugilistic character, swapping between the two from one sentence to the next. I found some of the conversations between him, Axl and Beatrice where they are all talking at cross purposes and none of them pay attention to the others, especially funny. I loved the supportive relationship between Axl and Beatrice.

This book certainly made me think. There is more than one Buried Giant, but you need to look out for them and work out what they mean! It is written in a style that could almost be an oral storyteller recounting a tale, which fits in well with the period. There are occasions where the narrator addresses the audience, but it doesn’t occur too often, otherwise it would break the flow of the story. I think this was Ishiguro handled this element extremely well.

I found it hard to put this book down! It tells the story of Yasmin and her profoundly deaf ten year-old daughter Ruby who go on a perilous search for Ruby’s father in Northern Alaska during the winter. It’s a thriller that draws you into its icy web and I found myself holding my breath at points. It’s not just about their search, it has an environment message and it’s also about Yasmin and Ruby becoming closer as they deal with challenges and learn to rely in each other. Ruby’s parts are in first person and Yasmin’s are in third person. The tension builds up well thoughout the book as the stakes get higher and Yasmin and Ruby are fighting for their lives. The twists at the end are surprising and there are some touching bonding moments between mother and daughter.

I loved the variety of ways that Ruby communicates: by signing, tweeting and using her computer. I learnt a lot about what it takes to survive in the Arctic night and the way people survived there in the past.

My main dislike of the book was that Ruby is not a ten year-old, as her thoughts are far too complex for someone of that age. I think that Lupton should have made her a twelve year-old at least or made her language more simple. She tells us that Ruby is gifted and shows it by having her use the word onomatopoeic, but this is taught to all six-year olds at school! If it wasn’t mentioned so often that she was ten, it would have passed by, but for me it kept interrupting the flow of the narrative.

I also found Yasmin’s negative attitude to her daughter using technology to communicate unrealistic, as parents of children with disabilities will use anything that helps their child make their way in life.

Legion

Stephen Leeds, a man with multiple personalities which he can harness to help him with various aspects of his life, has to locate a missing scientist who holds the key to seeing back into the past. Even though he knows his additional personalities aren’t real, he is able to see and speak with them. My favourite personality was definitely J.C., a Rambo-type character who is convinced he is a real person. Others range from a psychiatrist and a philosopher to a quickly generated Hebrew interpreter. The snappy dialogue made this come alive for me, the personalities don’t always get along, and some get along too well!

The Emperor’s Soul

Shai is a Forger, an artisan who has the ability to change the very nature of objects into other versions of themselves. She is caught stealing a painting and in return for her freedom, she has to create a new soul for the Emperor Ashravan who has been deprived of consciousness by an assassin. She has to work out the motives of those who hold her captive, while creating the perfect replacement soul and devising an escape plan – and all in less than 100 days…

I love Shai’s integrity and her refusal to be compromised. I also enjoyed getting a deep look into the Emperor and finding out what made him who he was.

There is a wealth of ideas in this novella, ranging from a truly awful Bloodsealer to the way that the essence of things can be changed. This novella is set in Sel, which is where Elantris is set. I shall definitely track a copy down!

This is one of the Hogarth Shakespeare project’s books, a series of fiction books based on the works of Shakespeare. Others include Macbeth by Jo Nesbo, The Winter’s Tale by Jeanette Winterson and Hamlet by Gillian Flynn.

Felix Phillips is a middle-aged theatre director and actor, who was staging a cutting edge version of ‘The Tempest’ after the deaths of his wife and daughter, when he was ousted by one of his underlings. Felix retreats to lick his wounds and spends years planning his revenge. While living in seclusion, he starts to imagine the ghost of his dead daughter. In this way he himself is unknowingly acting out the role of Prospero.

He eventually starts work as the director of a prisoner rehabilitation drama group, The Fletcher Correctional Players. He decides to put on a performance of ‘The Tempest’

I loved the way that parts of the play were woven in as modern day alternatives, such as people being drugged instead of being sent into an enchanted sleep as in the original. Some of the speeches were rewritten as rap and were very funny.

One thing that gave a new viewpoint onto the characters was the way that each of the teams of convicts are asked to tell what happened to their characters next. Some truly surprising outcomes came out of this exercise.

While the concept of rewriting Shakespeare as modern fiction might sound rather worthy, Atwood’s book is as entertaining as it is clever. It makes cunning use of the play with a play scenario that is so often used in Shakespeare’s plays.

Devoted Father or Merciless Killer?

His secrets are buried with him.

Thirty years ago three missing teenagers were found dead after being buried alive. Larry Glassbrook was the creepy, Elvis-lookalike, coffin-maker convicted of the crime by young WPC Florence Lovelace. After Larry’s death, the disappearances begin again. Was Larry the real killer after all? Florence, now a high-ranking officer has to investigate.

This is a wonderful mystery/horror thriller with elements of the supernatural. It’s the first of Sharon Bolton’s books that I’ve read and I’m going to make sure I read more by her. It layers twist upon twist and holds you until the very last page.

I loved the evocative details of the landscape that surrounds Florence. I felt I was there with her, looking at the Hill with her.

The Hill is unchanged, of course. I doubt it will ever change. In the sunshine, in August, it has a wild beauty that might almost make you forget its terrible history, the merciless persecution of helpless women that happened here. The grasses have turned golden, and the heather is blooming all the way up the south face. The bare rocks gleam like jewels in the bright light. It is a huge plateau-topped mass of limestone and clay that has given rise to a thousand legends, all of the dark. It soars above this small town, throwing its shadow over the lives of the people who live at its foot.

This is Pendle. Witch country.

This is one of the best YA books I’ve read in recent years. Not only does it have an exciting story, but it also poses lots of moral and philosophical questions in an understandable way. I’m convinced that this is going to become a standard text in schools over the next few years.

That all sounds very worthy and probably not very interesting. Now let me give you a brief insight into the plot and you’ll see why you should read it straight away.

In around a thousand years or so, the world has become a much different place. Governments have been replaced by a benevolent, all-powerful computer system which runs the world for the benefit of humanity whilst taking care of the environment. Disease and death have been abolished. This leads to the threat of over-population, so an order of ‘scythes’ is created to maintain the human population at a sensible level by randomly killing or ‘gleaning’ them. Teenagers Citra and Rowan are chosen to become a scythe’s apprentices. A twist of fate means that only one can become a scythe with their first task being to kill the other.

I loved this book for its twisty plot (much more complicated than I’ve described above) and the insight into he characters, which is partly shown through diary entries. Not only was I entertained, but ‘Scythe’ also made me think about things differently. Perfect!

Scythe on Amazon