Nollaig

#52 The Demonologist - Andrew Pyper Genre: Religious Horror Synopsis: A stolen child. An ancient evil. A father’s descent. And the literary masterpiece that holds the key to his daughter’s salvation. Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Not that David is a believer—he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a “phenomenon,” he turns her down. That evening, David’s wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. But what happens in Venice will change everything. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever. *** Review: Ugh, this book. Why did I feel compelled to keep reading it? This isn't going to be a long review, because I've already spent enough time on this book. I love the concept - demons and biblical evil and all that stuff is right up my street. There's even something not entirely unrelated to one of my favourite shows, Supernatural, about a guy driving around America following clues about unusual occurences while on the hunt for a family member. The giant paragraph of a synopsis on Goodreads sums up the entire first section of the book, and I am glad I only skimmed it, or I'd have totally spoiled the only good part of the book! The rest... was pointless. And not as all scary or disturbing. As I said, it got off to a pretty decent start - it roped me in, it set up a Big Evil with a big evil plan, and while the writing isn't amazing, it's also not the worst I've ever read. But it just turned into the main character pointlessly meandering around the country for no real reason (read as, an incredibly flimsy reason discovered near the end), while building up to an extremely anti-climatic finish which was underwhelming and unsatisfying. Honestly cannot recommend it. Giving it two stars simply because it kept me reading to the end. And in fairness, there were a couple of tense/action-packed moments that could have been part of an enjoyable bigger picture if there.... had been one. Rating: ★★✰✰✰ (It was okay)

There was just a mention of such photos in the book I am reading - The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. It's not significant to the story, I doubt it will come up again, but it made me think of this thread.

I liked that it was a bit slow. It wasn't very memorable, but I did enjoy it. I'm so behind on reviews again, ugh. I read too fast for my review mojo.

I did! My total progress for Day 3: 47 pages of To Be Or Not To Be - A Chooseable Path Adventure - Ryan North 67 pages of The Butterfly Garden - Dot Hutchison (complete) 104 pages of The Lie Tree - Frances Hardinge Total for day 3: 218 pages whoop! I am actually going to do a day 4 today, as I'm loving The Lie Tree and hope to charge through it. Well done on your progress Gaia and Frankie

Raining, but still a good 19/20 degrees. Basically it's tropical out there.

I just finished The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison. It was okay, interesting concept but wasn't mad about how it was, er, executed. Borrowed a book off a friend called To Be Or Not To Be: A Chooseable Path Adventure. Basically Hamlet, but you choose the path the story takes, playing as Hamlet, his father, or Ophelia. Not sure how to incorporate this book into my reading, as it'll be difficult to track when I've read all the pages - so I think I'll just 'play' through it a few times and consider it broadly done.

Day 3: 47 pages of To Be Or Not To Be - A Chooseable Path Adventure - Ryan North 67 pages of The Butterfly Garden (complete) It was okay. I thought the pacing and back-and-forth spoiled any semblance of 'thrill' about it. Messed up, sure, but I'm not easily affected by that kind thing in fiction. Must decide what to spend the rest of the evening reading now!

Day 2: 136 pages of The Butterfly Garden

We do, we have Dunnes, Centra, Supervalu, Daybreak. A lot of these are all run under one parent organisation, and none are as big or cheap as Tesco, Lidl and Aldi. I shop in Centra for little bits, and Daybreak for lunch. Tesco is for the big weekly shop. We also have Spar and Eurospar, which are apparently Dutch?

I didn't spend much time reading last night so my progress for day 1 is: The Butterfly Garden - Dot Hutchison (61 pages) Not great, but hopefully I'll do better!

Where does everyone think we shop in Ireland?!

Ireland has some UK stuff. We have Marks & Spencer too, but not Asda, Sainsbury's, Waitrose etc. I think Iceland might be after opening here, though. On the flipside, the beloved cheapy clothes chain Primark/Penneys (as it's known in Ireland), is Irish. Trust the Irish to excel at cheap clothing hehehe. We also have Aldi/Lidl, but I think they originate elsewhere? Tesco is the one I use, though. I couldn't honestly tell you why I haven't switched to Lidl as its cheaper and often better, but I've used Tesco all my life so I've stuck to it! Glad to hear you don't have to worry about your benefits/finances

Hummus is lovely! It's made from chickpeas, and you can get all kinds of flavours. I really like a Tesco-brand one that's made with red onion. It's a bit fatty, but the good kind of fat and otherwise good for you. Lovely on crackers!

What I would say about the ending of Sister is I like really dark/bleak books. It set itself up to be bleaker than it was. Yeah she did. It was a good book, thoroughly enjoyable at the time - but not something I'd ever read again, if that makes sense. I haven't moved onto the second in the trilogy yet. I'm generally not a fan of trilogies these days either.

Ha! What about hummus and houmous? (And possibly homous!) I say hummus, but the packaging in Ireland usually says houmous.

I may actually join you. I have two books I want to get through pretty quickly. I might do three out of the next four nights, like I did last weekend

I need to read it now to see!

Wow. How can anyone defend that? Did she at least precede the review with 'This is going to be a spoiler filled blow by blow review'? I could understand it a little more then.

The heat is killing me. My legs are covered in what I can only assume (as I wear leggings) are heat induced itchy spots/hives/something. Absent-mindedly scratching them til they scab. I can't be in my bedroom right now - I need the relative coolness of my 21 degree kitchen. It's approx 24-25 outside, and my room is possibly more than that right now. Apparently it's meant to cool down again at the weekend and I cannot wait. Edited to add: My Indian housemate's also-Indian friend just said, 'phew, it is very hot.' When there's a guy from INDIA saying it's hot, you know it's hot.

You're being so cryptic! I must read it asap now

I've heard of Into The Wild, not sure it'd be my kinda thing. I didn't know it was by him - I want to read the one about rape and justice systems in Missoula.

That book by Jon Krakaeur is one that has been on my wishlist for a while, I must get around to actually reading it, because that entire case is beyond my comprehension. Oh no, poor baby can't eat steak or smile anymore. Ugh. Revolting.

I'm still intrigued, despite an apparent huge plot hole I read in a review. I like dark and twisted, plot holes or no!

I'm adding an extra post here because sometimes if you look at the 'most recent post' dropdown on a thread, you can see the contents of spoiler tags. I've had several books spoiled that way!