Noll's 2016 Books and Cross-Stitch

[Anna Begins]

See why I thought you'd like horror movies?    ^^

[Nollaig]

See why I thought you'd like horror movies?    ^^

 

Touché! I read horror books because I don't find them scary. I can't watch a lot of scary films (by myself, anyway). Anything to do with woods, possession, demons etc including witches scares the bejaysus out of me.

[Nollaig]

#18 Beside Myself - Ann Morgan
 
Genre: Dark/Psychological Fiction
Synopsis: Beside Myself is a literary thriller about identical twins, Ellie and Helen, who swap places aged six. At first it is just a game, but then Ellie refuses to swap back. Forced into her new identity, Helen develops a host of behavioural problems, delinquency and chronic instability. With their lives diverging sharply, one twin headed for stardom and the other locked in a spiral of addiction and mental illness, how will the deception ever be uncovered? Exploring questions of identity, selfhood, and how other people's expectations affect human behaviour, this novel is as gripping as it is psychologically complex.
 
*** 

Review: Firstly, I have to point out that while this book is being touted as a psychological thriller, it is not. It's heavily psychological, but it is not a thriller. Having misconceptions about that going into this book seems to have heavily influenced quite a few reviews I've seen, written by people expecting the next The Girl On The Train. Secondly, I absolutely loved it.  Morgan does a fantastic job of shaping likeable, relateable and also abhorrent characters, as well as evoking mental images of places, people and things. The varying narrative style is clever and the story itself is compelling.On pretty much every front, I have something good to say about this book.

The novel is told entirely from the perspective of the real Helen in two timeframes - from the initial swap at the age of six, where Helen becomes Ellie, and during Helen's adult life, where she is referred to as Smudge. The story gradually brings the two timelines together, filling in the bleak tragedy that is Helen's life over the course of almost thirty years. There is a really interesting narrative device employed to both keep these two timelines distinct, and also to reflect Helen's frame of mind in each one. I won't say what it is, because I found it really added depth to the portrayal of Helen's mental deterioration. Additionally, the initial swap, and the way in which Helen's panic and desperate attempts to prove her true identity unintentionally reinforces her 'Ellie-ness', is brilliant.

I'm pretty sure some people would consider the sheer volume of unpleasant and downright traumatising things that happen to Helen to be gratuitious, and while I'm a teensy bit inclined to agree, this is fiction after all and I found it perfectly credible, if unlikely. The same could be said about the ending - I had no idea how this novel could resolve itself, but ultimately it did a pretty good job. I should probably only give this book 4 stars as there were a couple of small niggles throughout it, but I think I can overlook those in favour of its distinctive creativity and uniqueness. Bear in mind it is as bleak as it sounds!

Rating: ★★★★★(It was amazing)

[bobblybear]

Ooooh, this sounds like an interesting premise. It's going straight on my wishlist. My local library has a copy as well, though it's currently out on loan.

[Nollaig]

I really hope you like it Bobbly!

[chaliepud]

Beside Myself sounds great, excellent review Noll, will add to my wish list. I'm currently reading (slowly) Only Ever Yours which I seem to remember you enjoying too.. It's a bit horrifying!

[Michelle]

I've looked at Beside Myself a few times, so I'm glad to hear you liked it so much. I think I'd need to be in the right sort of mood for it, but I have a feeling I'll read it sooner or later.

 

Hayley, if you find Only Ever Yours horrifying, I don't think you'd deal well with Asking For It.. although that's shocking in a different way.

[chaliepud]

I've looked at Beside Myself a few times, so I'm glad to hear you liked it so much. I think I'd need to be in the right sort of mood for it, but I have a feeling I'll read it sooner or later.

 

Hayley, if you find Only Ever Yours horrifying, I don't think you'd deal well with Asking For It.. although that's shocking in a different way.

I think it is having a daughter, did you feel the same? Not horrifying in that it is hard to read, more in that It is almost like a magnification of their lives in this society we have now. So much pressure to look good and say the right thing. I'm lucky Maddie is fairly aid back but she still doesn't feel able to leave the house without making an effort to look her best.

[Michelle]

I do know what you mean.. the way she looks is very important to Amy in particular, and yes, it's magnification of that. As I said above, you'd find Asking For It shocking as well, in a different way. She's certainly a powerful writer. 

[Nollaig]

Hope you ladies like Beside Myself if/when ye get to it. Only Ever Yours was a good read, very bleak, which is O'Neill's trademark. Asking For It is scary in a different way, although I don't have kids (still feel like I am one, so I kind of see it more from the perspective of the teens than a parent). 

[Nollaig]

#20 The Treatment - Mo Hayder


Genre: Mystery/Crime/Thriller
Synopsis: Midsummer, and in an unassuming house on a quiet residential street on the edge of Brockwell Park in south London, a husband and wife are discovered. Badly dehydrated, they've been bound and beaten, the husband is close to death. But worse is to come: their young son is missing. When DI Jack Caffery of the Met's AMIT squad is called in to investigate, the similarities to events in his own past make it impossible for him to view this new crime with the necessary detachment. And as Jack digs deeper, as he attempts to hold his own life together in the face of ever more disturbing revelations about both the past and the present, the real nightmare begins...

***

Review: Christ on a bike. The book is tearing me in two. On the one hand, it is so utterly depraved, so creative in its sadism that I feel revulsion towards it. I went to check that other people have actually given it five stars before even acknowledging that, on the other hand, I absolutely loved it. Well... 'loved' might not be the right word. I was enthralled, in that 'this is horrendous but I can't look away' kind of way. Not the sort of book you'd call 'satisfying' but certainly one that will make an impact.

The second in the Jack Caffery series, Hayder has followed up a grisly gorefest in Birdman with this much more psychologically disturbing offering. Necessary spoiler alert - it revolves around paedophilia. This becomes apparent within the first chapter or two, so it's not a huge spoiler and I definitely think it's something people should be aware of before going into the story. Based on the harrowing yet compelling sub-plot running through Birdman, this feels like a natural direction for Caffery's journey to take, but I'm pretty horrified by just how... well, horrific, the events of this book are, both in the main plot and in the subplot which furthers Caffery's personal story.

A lot of the issues I had with Birdman - gratuitously frequent descriptions of womens' clothing, Caffery magically coming to all the right conclusions, and unlikeable characters - have been rectified in The Treatment. I loved the secondary characters, Jack became less annoyingly omniscient and I have emerged from my reading with a mercifully limited knowledge of the characters' wardrobes. All in all, Hayder righted some wrongs while proving that she suffered some childhood trauma is not afraid to push boundaries and push them hard. I'm not entirely sure I found the big reveal all that credible, but Hayder's writing isn't really about the whodunnit, it's about the masochistic guilty pleasure of reading brilliantly-written nightmare fuel.

Rating: ★★★★★ (It was amazing)

[Nollaig]

#21 - Ancestor - Scott Sigler

Genre: Science Fiction/Horror
Synopsis: On a remote island in Lake Superior, scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation -- using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago — an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

*** 

Review: I've been so torn about the rating for this one. Part of me, seeing other books I've given 4s or 5s to, makes me feel this is on par with other 5s. At the same time, I didn't come away from it *quite* as satisfied as I did with those, even though all have the odd flaw or shortcoming. Basing it purely on enjoyment, I have to give this a 4. I loved it, but there was a definite drop-off in excitement towards the end that meant it just barely failed to haul itself over the 5 line.

Anyway, I'm getting slightly ahead of myself. Having read a YA dystopia/sci-fi novel by Sigler, and having loved it for the most part, I decided to give one of his adult horror-ish books a go, and chose this one on the basis of its amazing premise. And I really did love it. There is a solid two thirds of perfect book, here. It did take me quite a while to realise that the majority of this book is about journey of bringing the experiment to fruition, as opposed to the fallout of playing God, so I'd be inclined to point that out to potential readers. Fortunately, the journey was super well written, fascinating, disturbing, and very entertaining. Based in (relatively) plausible science from what I can tell, this story doesn't employ any spacey concepts or overly futuristic technology in a story featuring the first ever entirely human-created animal. Naturally, it goes horrendously wrong.

I liked all of the characters - I loved Jian, liked the others. A few caricatures thrown in but everybody played their parts well. There's a great running gag related to the aspirational author Gunther, and there's also a spunky little dog so perfectly written you just know she comes from the mind of a dog-owner. I suspect, based on an author's note, she actually lived, once. All of this is definitely secondary to the science fiction aspects of the story, which later turn to horror. At that point, the pace of the novel and quite broadly the feel of the novel, change. And I didn't feel any momentum. Relying now on the alright characters facing underwhelming monsters, there wasn't a huge amount left to be fascinated by. In fairness, the monsters were so built up for so long, it was always going to be hard to follow through with anything truly horrifying. I also thought, based on the synopsis, that they were going to be a creature that actually existed millions of years ago - nature didn't eradicate this evil, it's a random mish-mash of features created by a bonkers scientist.

All in all, I loved the first two thirds enough to say I loved the book, even if I wasn't blown away by the last bit.

Rating: ★★★★✰ (I loved it)

[Nollaig]

#22 Viral - Helen Fitzgerald

 

Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: "So far, twenty-three thousand and ninety six people have seen me online" When Leah Oliphant-Brotheridge and her adopted sister Su go on holiday together to Magaluf, only Leah returns home. Her successful, swotty sister remains abroad, humiliated and afraid: there is an online video of her, drunkenly performing a sex act in a nightclub. And everyone has seen it. Ruth Oliphant-Brotheridge, mother of the girls, successful court judge, is furious. How could this have happened? How can she bring justice to these men who took advantage of her dutiful, virginal daughter? What role has Leah played in all this? And can Ruth find Su and bring her back home when Su doesn't want to be found?

*** 

Review: I so rarely give 1 star reviews to books, but using my rating system 1 star means 'I didn't like it', and I definitely didn't like this. I can't really even give it 2 stars to say 'it was okay', because I actually don't think it was okay.

I'm not going to labor the point with a long review - I'm used to reading thrillers from Helen Fitzgerald which, while they often don't blow me away, have (until now) always provided some satisfying thrills and some interesting plots. Even based on the synopsis, I wasn't sure how this was going to become a thriller - and it never did. I then thought maybe she was taking a different direction with this one - well, she did, but that direction was backward.

The premise is great, the premise is the stuff of modern nightmares - I've seen this exact thing happen to (I think) a British girl, and it also happened to an Irish girl at a festival a couple of years back, resulting in the trending hashtag SlaneGirl and some hospital visits for the girl. The potential here to write something either really insightful or utterly terrifying was immense - but it ends up just being a weird attempt to illustrate a search for personality identity for the main character against a backdrop of utterly insane characters reacting in unpredictable and unbelieve ways to this viral video. It was just extremely inconsistent and therefore impossible to get into.

Helen Fitzgerald is a good author, just please don't bother with this one.

 

Rating: ★✰✰✰✰ (I didn't like it)

[Nollaig]

#23 The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave

 

Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: Set adrift by his wife's sudden death and struggling to keep a grip on reality, Bunny Munro does the only thing he can think of - with his young son in tow, he hits the road. An epic chronicle of one man's judgement and death, "The Death of Bunny Munro" is an achingly tender portrait of the relationship between father and son.

*** 

Review: I'm forcing myself to write this review because I want to review every book I finish, but.... I have very little to say about it. It was weird, I knew to expect that going in, I had been reliably informed about the strangeness of its content and its existence in general. And I kind of enjoyed it - honestly I'm not really sure how I felt about it. This is literally the worst review I've ever written, isn't it?

I definitely didn't not like it, it amused me in parts, it fascinated me in parts, but ultimately I came away feeling like there was some bigger picture that went completely over my head, because I saw no purpose to the story and no heart in its telling. You generally need at least one of those for a solid read. I did read somewhere though that this book was written in a matter of weeks, so maybe the whimsy is all there is to it. The words 'or something' were tacked onto a lot of similes, and that got real annoying real fast. Not sure if it was an attempt to make Bunny seem less poetic or simply laziness, but it was the one genuinely irritating feature of this book. I also felt the kid didn't really act much like a kid of his age, and didn't in any way find this to be a 'tender portrait' of any relationship, let alone that between father and son.

I haven't been put off reading Cave's other novel, which has better reviews, but this one evokes little more than indifference in me.

Rating: ★★✰✰✰ (It was okay)

[Nollaig]

#24 Coldbrook - Tim Lebbon

 

Genre: Zombie/Horror/Science Fiction/Thriller
Synopsis: Coldbrook is a secret laboratory located deep in Appalachian Mountains. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were about to unleash. With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. But will they find her in time?

*** 

Review: This was a pretty great read. I say 'pretty' because I did have a couple of issues with it, but for the most part it was a fairly original, very enjoyable sci-fi take on the usual zombie horror/thriller story.

I wanted to be blown away by Coldbrook. Initially, I thought I would be. I've read one other novel by Lebbon, The Silence, which was a very good read let down somewhat by a couple of underdeveloped and hard to swallow plot threads. Coldbrook is leagues ahead, in my opinion. The same excellent standard of writing is present, and the plot is more complex and better fleshed out. I suppose my biggest problem with it is that I found the sci-fi aspects to be, although potentially the unique selling point of this book, in actuality a bit lacking in attention. I can't even say underdeveloped because the concepts that Lebbon wanted to protray were complete, I just felt they could have been a much more central focus. As it was, there was a bit too much of characters I wasn't overly invested in running around having close calls with zombies and by the end I was skimming pages.

It also seemed to be perpetually dawn and Lebbon seems unable to conceive of colour being anything but smeared or smudged across a sky. That got irritiating.

I sound like I'm being pretty hard on it, considering I'm giving it four stars, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable read; I just wish the parts I felt were its characterizing feature has also been its focus.

Rating: ★★★★✰ (I loved it)

[Hayley]

Great reviews  I like the sound of Ancestor, I've never heard of Sigler but I'll definitely have a look now 

[bobblybear]

Viral made me immediately think of Asking For It by Louise O'Neill, but I guess it's a bit different aside from the pervasiveness of social media. I remember the Slane girl incident, but had no idea that she ended up in hospital.

 

Coldbrook sounds like a good read, and my local library has it. I've put it onto my 'library list' for next time I go there. I liked The Silence a lot.....there were a few things that I didn't think were believable, but for the most part it was a very decent read.

 

My Nick Cave book (And The Ass Saw The Angel) recently went to the charity shop as I've struggled to read it before and I know it's not my kind of thing. The Death of Bunny Munro doesn't sound like my kind of book either. He's a great musician, so I think I'll just stick to his music. :-D

[Nollaig]

Great reviews  I like the sound of Ancestor, I've never heard of Sigler but I'll definitely have a look now 

 

It was a good fun read. He's a good writer, he has a few other zombie/alien/creature thriller series or stand-a-lones which I'll also give a go.

 

Viral made me immediately think of Asking For It by Louise O'Neill, but I guess it's a bit different aside from the pervasiveness of social media. I remember the Slane girl incident, but had no idea that she ended up in hospital.

 

Coldbrook sounds like a good read, and my local library has it. I've put it onto my 'library list' for next time I go there. I liked The Silence a lot.....there were a few things that I didn't think were believable, but for the most part it was a very decent read.

 

My Nick Cave book (And The Ass Saw The Angel) recently went to the charity shop as I've struggled to read it before and I know it's not my kind of thing. The Death of Bunny Munro doesn't sound like my kind of book either. He's a great musician, so I think I'll just stick to his music. :-D

 

Yep, Viral was probably made even worse in my head given my awareness of such a good handling of a similar topic in Asking for It. Slane Girl was so distraught by the backlash from the event that she had to be hospitalized and sedated. She spent a while in there I think recovering from it. Poor girl.

 

I think we had fairly similar feelings about The Silence. I definitely think Ancestor holds together much better even I wasn't fond of the genre swap towards the end. 

 

Awwww shame it went to the charity shop, I would have happily paid postage to take it off your hands. I have a friend who may have a copy of it I can borrow. I think maybe you might be better off sticking to his music hehe. I need to check out more of his music, I only really know the song from Harry Potter, "O Children". Care to recommend me any tracks or albums?

[bobblybear]

I didn't know he had a song from Harry Potter.   I shall have to look it up. I prefer his earlier stuff....I'd suggest a "Best Of...." which has a good mix of songs, or The Boatman's Call or No More Shall We Part.

[Nollaig]

Awesome, thank you!

[Nollaig]

#25 Because You'll Never Meet Me - Leah Thomas

 

Genre: Young Adult/Coming of Age/Science Fiction
Synopsis: Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him. A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.

***

Review: This is another book into which I have gone with preconceptions that have spoiled my enjoyment of it. Had I taken a bit of time to look at the genre categorizations on Goodreads, I would have noticed 'Sci-fi' among them. This is definitely a YA story of a blossoming friendship between two differently-abled social outcasts, but it is set to a quirky sci-fi background with a surprisingly dark core. I didn't know, going in, that this is such an usual mishmash of genres, but once I realised and began suspending disbelief appropriately, I rapidly went from thinking it was 'pretty good' to 'superb'.

The whole book is written in the form of letters, exchanged between a wildly enthusiastic brightsider named Ollie and a condescending pessimist named Moritz. Possibly my favourite thing about this book - and a testament to how well written it is, is how distinctive and well crafted these two personalities are. For each letter sent, espousing a viewpoint or opinion on a set of events, the other boy has a completely different perspective as per his personality, which is just as biased in its own way. But by calling each other on their flaws and offering alternatives to what each believes innately must be so, they challenge each other to diversify their entire attitudes to life - and to themselves.

The actual story, naturally, follows two threads - what happens in each boy's life, and both stories are unusual in their details but universal in their heart - love, rejection, mortality and growing up. Everyone knows what it feels like to feel different, to feel lost and unsure, to want to hide, to be afraid to face scary truths and growing up. Throughout the story, both boys very much grow up and overcome their self-imposed limitations, as well as learning to cope with those outside their control.

Most of the complaints I've seen about this relate to the sudden dose of sci-fi exposition about 2/3 of the way through - but keep an open mind and you might love it.

Rating: ★★★★★ (it was amazing)

[Nollaig]

#26 Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

 

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Synopsis: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs. A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

*** 

Review: Wow. This was not at all what I expected, on pretty much any level. It's written with more maturity (and swear words) than I expected, as well as alternating between beautiful writing and sounding precisely like a 16 year old boy is talking. Without wanting to spoil anything for those, like me, in residence under rocks, I had no idea of the geographical locations in the book, nor the context of the beautiful photos used to illustrate the story - I didn't even know there were photos. I'm fascinated by the photos - they are truly beautiful, and unsettling, and while I adore the story Riggs has built from them, I long to know their original contexts. I may have to do some research!

Though this is a fantasy story for children/young adults, it's a little bit dark and it's a big bit different. The fantasy elements are never overwhelming, they are a subtle enhancement to a story that is fascinating and enthralling for a dozen other reasons. And I love that about it. Possibly the only critcism I might have is that I want to know the characters even better - I know what they can do, and I have a one-sentence summary of where some of them came from, but I really want to know their stories. Maybe I'll learn them in the next installment.

I've seen a lot of criticism about this book too. It's not as dark and creepy as the cover suggests - don't judge a book by its cover. I wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it was, in parts! It's a kid's story but written in language for more mature readers - maybe it's just for mature young adults? They do exist! The plot was poorly formed around a bunch of random photos - excuse me, what? What?? The plot is great - my only criticism personally is that yes, sometimes it was blatently obvious what was happening long before the characters figured it out - but that happens a lot in books and films. It didn't detract from my enjoyment. But the plot overall is really original, creative, and personally I think it would have worked great without the photos, they were just a nice bonus.

Riveting, stunning book. I doubt you need me to recommend it - you've probably already read it - but if not - go go go!

Rating: ★★★★★ (it was amazing)

[Athena]

Because You'll Never Meet Me sounds interesting. I have Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children on my TBR (but I don't own the other two in the series). Great reviews . It's nice you enjoyed both books so much!

[Hayley]

I've been debating whether to read Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children for a while, it does seem to be one of those books that some people think is amazing and others hate. Based on your review though I think I should give it a try! 

[bobblybear]

Great reviews! I must read Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children!!! I've heard so many things about it, I just need to get on with it.