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Bobblybear's Book List - 2015


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Asking For It - Louise O'Neill

 

I loved Louise O'Neill's debut novel – Only Ever Yours - so had high expectations for this one. It covers a very different subject matter but it's a controversial topic which unfortunately divides a lot of people.

 

At the start of the book we are introduced to the main character – Emma – and her group of friends. They belong to the popular crowd in high school and are not particularly likeable, Emma especially. I struggled a bit with this section, as these characters were so dull, but I also understand that they were meant to be that way. Especially in Emma's case, she is shown to be not a very nice person, which of course is the author's intention to make her as unlikeable as possible. She comes across as spiteful, nasty, superficial and judgemental, even to her friends.

 

About a third of the way through the key event occurs, and that is when the story picks up. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to reveal what the event is. At a party, Emma drinks far too much, passes out and is sexually assaulted by several people. Photos and videos are taken and shared across social media, and she is left unconscious and covered in vomit outside her front door.

 

The aftermath was covered very well, with the author pulling no punches at all, and showing both the brutality of the act and also the brutality of the opinions from various people. It becomes a national case, widely publicised on television and radio, and at the centre of it is Emma, somewhat in denial, and trying to somehow pull her life back together for herself and her family. This was very well written if not a bit stomach-churning to read, as all views and reactions are given equal book time, and the author herself doesn't give her opinion or try to promote her opinion in any way. She just reports the events and repercussions as brutally and honestly as possible.
 

It's not a book you could claim to 'enjoy', but it is very compelling and disturbing reading that will stay on your mind for a long time afterwards.

 

Highly recommended.

 

5/6

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I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh

 

I heard so much about this book and after so many great reviews, had to buy it and read it immediately.

 

This is a very difficult book to review without giving anything away! I tried to find a synopsis from Amazon to copy and paste but can't find one. :doh: It's pretty hard to write one without giving things away. :D

 

Jenna has suffered a recent tragedy and decides to abandon her old life in Bristol and start over somewhere new. She rents a run-down cottage in an isolated village on the Welsh coast, with no belongings and no contacts, in order to rebuild her life and find herself again.

 

It's very hard to say much more than this, plot-wise. There are numerous twists, and the first one is just brilliant, probably one of the best twists ever. It took me by surprise ( :thud:) and I had to re-read the start of the book again because I just couldn't believe it.

 

Unfortunately, I think that the author got somewhat carried away with putting twists in the story and the final one was just one step too far for me, and put a bit of a dampener on what would have otherwise been a superb psychological-ish thriller.

 

4/6 (if not for the final twist, it would be 5/6)

 

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I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh

 

I heard so much about this book and after so many great reviews, had to buy it and read it immediately.

 

This is a very difficult book to review without giving anything away! I tried to find a synopsis from Amazon to copy and paste but can't find one. :doh: It's pretty hard to write one without giving things away. :D

 

Jenna has suffered a recent tragedy and decides to abandon her old life in Bristol and start over somewhere new. She rents a run-down cottage in an isolated village on the Welsh coast, with no belongings and no contacts, in order to rebuild her life and find herself again.

 

It's very hard to say much more than this, plot-wise. There are numerous twists, and the first one is just brilliant, probably one of the best twists ever. It took me by surprise ( :thud:) and I had to re-read the start of the book again because I just couldn't believe it.

 

Unfortunately, I think that the author got somewhat carried away with putting twists in the story and the final one was just one step too far for me, and put a bit of a dampener on what would have otherwise been a superb psychological-ish thriller.

 

4/6 (if not for the final twist, it would be 5/6)

Good to hear as this is a new one on my TBR shelves.. Is it scary at all, just wondering whether I should read it while Steve is home?!  :hide:

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I've just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and am reading some online reviews. The Guardian is of the opinion that "the last 30 pages of her novel are among the worst ever committed to paper by a serious writer." I thought the last chunk was some of the most impressive writing I've come across and was the perfect way to end the book! I'm very surprised that they've written this! :o I suppose it's just one person's opinion, but still.....! :o

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I've just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and am reading some online reviews. The Guardian is of the opinion that "the last 30 pages of her novel are among the worst ever committed to paper by a serious writer." I thought the last chunk was some of the most impressive writing I've come across and was the perfect way to end the book! I'm very surprised that they've written this! :o I suppose it's just one person's opinion, but still.....! :o

Oh, what do they know? :D 

Glad you ended up enjoying it bobbs :) I did too but it made me so anxious :blush2: Theo just didn't seem capable of making the right decisions. I was yelling at him on and off .. mostly on :D

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Yeah, Theo didn't make very good choices, did he? I think he was easily led, but also liked to live in denial. I loved the character of Hobie. I thought he was such a sweet and decent man.

Yes .. me too. I loved Hobie. Everyone should have a Hobie in their lives :)

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The thing is, I loved Ella Minnow Pea which is in the same format, but I think with Guernsey, because I wasn't expecting it, it kind of made it start off on the wrong foot with me. 

 

Ah, that makes sense! Very sorry that a great read was possibly spoiled for you only because you didn't know in advance that it's an epistolary :(

 

Aw, shame about Guernsey. We shouldn't have hyped it up so much for you.   I think the type of novel is called epistolary (yes, that's it—I had to look it up to make sure I got the spelling right!)

 

Oh yes we should have hyped it up for her and everyone: our only failing was that we didn't tell her it's all in letters :blush: Must try and remember in the future... :giggle:

 

The Hidden Girl - Louise Millar

 

Hannah and Will have recently purchased a run-down house – Tornley Hall - in a remote village in Suffolk, near to where Will grew up. They are both desperate to adopt a baby, and have a deadline of 10 days to tidy the house up before the social worker visits.

 

Will still works in London while Hannah is renovating the house, and when the snow traps him at work, she is stuck on her own at Tornley Hall. She soon begins to notice that her new village isn't perhaps as idyllic as she hoped, with the local people being distinctly unfriendly towards her.  Also, in the night noises throughout the house wake her, and she finds various belongings moved around.

 

There were a few things I had a problem with in this book. I couldn't warm to the characters or the situations they were in. Their reactions towards other people (when they were treated rudely) didn't seem realistic at all.

 

I found the payoff to be very weak and unbelievable. We were led down one path in the story, and if there was going to be a twist at the end then it should be something better, not worse! I also found it very insulting to rural people, as though people who live in villages are gormless narrow-minded idiots with nothing but violence on their minds. There wasn't a single decent characters among those who lived in the village, and that just grated on my nerves.

 

And the ending was just over-the-top saccharine sweet and silly, and could be seen a mile off. 

 

Having said all that, it was still an easy read. I know it doesn't sound like I enjoyed it at all, but at the same time it wasn't a struggle to read. But I won't be reading anything else by the author. 

 

2/6

 

Sorry that you didn't connect with this one and that it irked you. But I have to confess, I love reading negative reviews on here for some reason :blush: I almost feel like adding this to my wishlist to see just how bad it was :giggle: I wonder if the author is a big city dweller. Or if she grew up in a small village where the local water was spoiled by some sort of fallout waste of some kind and that affected the people and they were all beyond human scope! 

 

Asking For It - Louise O'Neill

 

Great review, this is going on my wishlist! Makes me think of Hate List by Jennifer Brown, which I read last year and thought was so well written. 

 

I've just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and am reading some online reviews. The Guardian is of the opinion that "the last 30 pages of her novel are among the worst ever committed to paper by a serious writer." I thought the last chunk was some of the most impressive writing I've come across and was the perfect way to end the book! I'm very surprised that they've written this! :o I suppose it's just one person's opinion, but still.....! :o

 

Wow :D This is definitely a case of 'to each their own', if there ever is one!! Makes one question whether to ever pay attention to professional book critics.... I'm glad you enjoyed it, anyway. I know I'm going to read it at some point, but it's so massive that so far I've been too intimidated. You've made it slightly more approachable, thanks! :)

 

Edit: Only said 'slightly' because I'm mega intimidated. So you couldn't have done any better :D Didn't mean to make it sound like you only managed slightly! :D 

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Wow :D This is definitely a case of 'to each their own', if there ever is one!! Makes one question whether to ever pay attention to professional book critics.... I'm glad you enjoyed it, anyway. I know I'm going to read it at some point, but it's so massive that so far I've been too intimidated. You've made it slightly more approachable, thanks! :)

 

Edit: Only said 'slightly' because I'm mega intimidated. So you couldn't have done any better :D Didn't mean to make it sound like you only managed slightly! :D

 

You don't have to be intimidated, Frankie!  It's 784 pages of AWESOMENESS !!  :b7ydance: Plus this beautiful piece of art is at its core and it's a Pulitzer Prize winner!  Seriously, you can't go wrong ;)

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You don't have to be intimidated, Frankie!  It's 784 pages of AWESOMENESS !!  :b7ydance: Plus this beautiful piece of art is at its core and it's a Pulitzer Prize winner!  Seriously, you can't go wrong ;)

 

:lol: Okay I'll try not to be intimidated :blush:will try it at some point :yes: 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great review!   :readingtwo: Another for the wish list, although I still haven't read Only Ever Yours, maybe it'll pop out of the Book Box..it has a 1 in 118 chance! :D

Those aren't good odds, but fate may step in! :lol:

 

 

You don't have to be intimidated, Frankie!  It's 784 pages of AWESOMENESS !!  :b7ydance: Plus this beautiful piece of art is at its core and it's a Pulitzer Prize winner!  Seriously, you can't go wrong ;)

I have to second this. I was intimidated before starting it, but it's so easy to follow and hooks you right from the start. I was a bit worried it would be a high-brow, difficult-to-grasp novel, but it was easy to read and a great story. :boogie:

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The Stand - Stephen King

 

I've re-read this book so many times, but has been a while since my last re-read, and I felt the urge to pick it up again. It's one of my favourite books, and the most read book of mine, and I find it's like a comfort blanket (odd to say that about a post-apocalyptic story) when my mojo is withering, or when I just feel like returning to something familar.

 

The premise of the story is quite basic. The US government has created a superflu virus. A security breach at an army base releases the virus and the end result is that it wipes out 99.99% of the population over the space of a few weeks. The remaining survivors start to have vivid dreams – either about an old woman in Nebraska or an shadowy figure called 'the darkman'. Compelled by their dreams they start to make their journey either to Nebraska, or to Las Vegas to begin to rebuild some sort of civilisation.

 

The is the extended cut – I've never read the shorter version – and it runs to just over 1,300 pages so it's full of detail and depth and I love every bit of it. None of it drags, you get a good background of the people, and story moves on at a pretty decent pace. Even though I have read it many, many times and know the story – and a lot of the writing - inside out, I just don't get sick of it.

 

Most definitely Stephen King's best work and I'm forever trying to find the next book that will blow me a way in a similar fashion.

 

6/6

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Necessary Lies - Diane Chamberlain

 

I don't think Diane Chamberlain can write a bad novel. This one is set in North Carolina in the 1960's and is shared through two female characters.

 

Jane has recently married, but rather than stay at home and churn out babies, she wants to work - much to her new husbands disapproval. She is a very idealistic person, and wishes to better the world so she applies and gets a job as a social worker. She is assigned to a group of very deprived families who work and live on local tobacco farms. Among the families she has to monitor are two children, Ivy and Mary Ella. Ivy is the other voice of the book, and is 15 years old and considered by the social workers to be a bit slow. Her sister Mary Ella is about 18 years old and already has a young toddler boy, of whom the father is unknown. Mary Ella has also been classed as slow. However, Jane believes there is a bit more to both girls and attempts to get to know more about them and their background.

 

I can't really say much more than that without giving the whole plot away, as the official synopsis is very vague. But as with all the authors books, the story is very compelling and the characters are well-explored and interesting to read about. There is a moral dilemma in all of Chamberlain's books, as well as some kind of controversy, and this is no different. But what is very shocking is that the events in the book actually happened as part of a government run program, and the author expands a bit on that at the end of the book.

 

Highly recommended.

 

5/6

 

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