Category: Book Reviews

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

After listening to a Writing Excuses episode about protagonists who aren’t sympathetic, I reread this book for the first time in years.

Donaldson has created a world in which fans of Tolkien will feel at home: there are elf and orc-like creatures, the protagonist and his companions wander over the map given at the front of the book and there is an object which they need to retrieve.

I had forgotten just how unlikeable Thomas Covenant is, although, to be fair to him, he does have some excuses for acting in this manner which I won’t give away. The things that got me through being in the company of this miserable, self-centred character are the way that other (much more sympathetic) characters behave and the events that unfold during the story. I also discovered a bunch of new words such as: blazonry, anile and threnody. I love learning new words and having access to an online thesaurus while reading.  By the end of the book I didn’t feel a lot of sympathy for Thomas Covenant. I wonder whether there will be a redemption for him at the end, but I’m not sure that I could manage to read my way through the ten whole book series to find out.

I do feel that Donaldson did an amazing job of creating such a complex character and a compelling world for Thomas to occupy that he was able to write ten books about him. You do feel that you want to grab hold of Thomas, give him a good shake and tell him to get on with life, though!

Yeah, yeah. Maybe I’m a little behind the times, but I’ve just read ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ by M.R. Carey after listening to this episode of the Best Seller Experiment.

You should definitely read this if you would like to know what it might be like to be a zombie (or hungry as they are called in the book).

The humanity that comes through in the book is what makes it for me. Mike, his wife, Linda, and his daughter, Louise, each take the voice of a different character and the book is told through the three viewpoints.

I have just one word to say about this: awesome.

I will definitely be getting the follow up which is ‘The Boy on the Bridge’.

I love Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy and ‘Sally Lockhart’ quartet and I’m sure I’m going to pick up some brilliant tips from this series of essays on storytelling. I’ll add more posts as I make my way through the book.

The first essay ‘Magic Carpets’ is about a writer’s responsibilities. These take many forms: responsibility to the story to make it the best it can be; responsibility to yourself so that you have time to write the story; financial responsibility to your family so that they get fed and responsibility to your fans by making sure that you satisfy their desire for a good story and that you don’t cheat them by going back on the promise you made to them when they started the story, e.g. that you won’t include a deus ex machina.

Lots of points there to keep in mind as I write!

Anni X