What Kat Read Next 2010

[Lilywhite]

The Heretics Daughter

Kathleen Kent

 

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.

Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendant of Martha Carrier. She is also a natural-born storyteller, and in her first novel, she paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution

 

Started: 11/04/10

Finished: 27/04/10

Rated: 5/5

Comments: What a fantastic read. I highly recommend this book to everyone. So well written and emotive. I'm not afraid to say I shed a tear or two over the wonderfully written characters brought to life (and death) by this very talented author.

[anisia]

Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories Presented by the Horror Writers Association

Various

 

Sounds awesome

[Lilywhite]

It is Anisia! I really enjoyed this book and as they are short stories, it was easier to pick up and put down in between my studying.

[anisia]

That's definitely a plus. I enjoy reading during my study breaks but it's annoying to stop after 20 pages, in the middle of the action.

[Lilywhite]

Skin

Mo Hayder

 

When the decomposed body of a young woman is found by near railway tracks just outside Bristol one hot May morning, all indications are that she's committed suicide. That's how the police want it too; all neatly squared and tidied away. But DI Jack Caffery is not so sure. He is on the trail of someone predatory, someone who hides in the shadows and can slip into houses unseen. And for the first time in a very long time, he feels scared. Police Diver Flea Marley is working alongside Caffery. Having come to terms with the loss of her parents, and with the traumas of her past safely behind her, she's beginning to wonder whether their relationship could go beyond the professional. And then she finds something that changes everything. Not only is it far too close to home for comfort - but it's so horrifying that she knows that nothing will ever be the same again. And that this time, no one - not even Caffery - can help her ...

 

Started: 30/04/10

Finished: 06/05/10

Rated: 4/5

Comments: After Hayders last book in this series I was a little apprehensive about continuing as it was terrible. However, she has more than redeemed herself with this book. She's no longer quite as shocking as her earlier books and she has developed a character that we can easily follow through the series. Skin was just shocking enough to keep me reading comfortably and had less maudlin by the main characters. Overall, I've rated it quite highly and if you like the gritty crimes, I recommend her.

[Lilywhite]

Grotesque

Natsuo Kirino

 

Two prostitutes have been murdered in Tokyo. Yuriko had been working as a prostitute all her adult life, starting while still at school, where her stunning beauty compensated for what she lacked in intellect and commanded attention from older men. Kazue worked for a blue-chip company and had good career prospects, but was unpopular with colleagues and felt isolated. She chose to walk the streets at night where she hoped to get noticed. Twenty years previously both women were educated at an elite school for young ladies, and both exhibited exceptional promise prior to their brutal, unnecessary deaths. How and why did this tragedy occur? With narration from Yuriko's embittered, unattractive sister and through the girls' journals and diaries Kirino allows their shocking story to unfurl. As with "Out", "Grotesque" gets under the skin, and Kirino's analysis of the female psyche grips the reader. The extreme need to succeed, and the vicious desire to be accepted in the bewildering environment of modern life is explored here with acute and chilling insight. "Grotesque" is a masterful and haunting achievement.

 

Started: 07/05/10

Finished: 31/05/10

Rated:3/5

Comments: 3/5 is a bit generous for this book but I thought a 2 was under selling it. I enjoyed the story but I think it may have lost some of it's effect in the translation. It got a bit slow and boring in places which is annoying because it's a long book and a couple of times I almost gave up. I liked the main character and I love how she was the ugly one in more ways than just the physical. It's also amazing how her attitude rubs off on the reader after a while and you start thinking of other people in the same way she did.

Don't attempt this one unless you have some serious reading time set aside. It's a difficult story to pick up and put down but gets easier to read in longer stints.

[Lilywhite]

Newes from the Dead

Mary Hooper

 

It is 1650 and a baby lies raw and cold, dead before it even drew breath. A young servant girl, terrified and alone, is accused of its murder and sent to the gallows. Protesting her innocence in the chill air of a December morning, Anne Green is hanged. Moments later her lifeless body is lifted down from the scaffold and carried to the College of Physicians for brutal dissection.

 

But as Anne's corpse lies on the table and the doctors assemble, a strange rattle is heard in her throat. Against all the odds, could she still be alive?

 

Started:01/06/10

Finished: 04/06/10

Rated: 4/5

Comments: A fantastic book. Very similar to The Heretics Daughter I thought and just as enjoyable. I like the way the story is split between now and then and then comes together at the end. It was also interesting to read how much of the book was actual fact.

[Lilywhite]

I Can See You

Karen Rose

 

In Karen Rose's brilliant new thriller a killer is targeting the participants of an online role playing game called Shadowland.

 

Each of the victims is be-friended by the killer online. He then stalks them in real life, murdering them in the way that they worst fear. Eve Wilson, who we previously met in NOTHING TO FEAR, is researching the game as part of her thesis on how self-esteem is affected by violence. Now she must work with Detective Noah Webster to find the murderer before the killings escalate out of all control and Eve herself becomes a target.

 

Started:05/06/10

Finished: 14/06/10

Rated: 3/5

Comments: Not too bad for a tall tale. I can't really elaborate too much on this as Karen Rose tends to stick to the same pattern for each book and for me, it's a winner.

[Janet]

Newes from the Dead

Mary Hooper

 

It is 1650 and a baby lies raw and cold, dead before it even drew breath. A young servant girl, terrified and alone, is accused of its murder and sent to the gallows. Protesting her innocence in the chill air of a December morning, Anne Green is hanged. Moments later her lifeless body is lifted down from the scaffold and carried to the College of Physicians for brutal dissection.

 

But as Anne's corpse lies on the table and the doctors assemble, a strange rattle is heard in her throat. Against all the odds, could she still be alive?

 

Started:01/06/10

Finished: 04/06/10

Rated: 4/5

Comments: A fantastic book. Very similar to The Heretics Daughter I thought and just as enjoyable. I like the way the story is split between now and then and then comes together at the end. It was also interesting to read how much of the book was actual fact.

Ooh, I love the sound of this one!

[Lilywhite]

It's a great read Janet although it's not very long. I suppose that's the only downside of it, that it didn't last long enough.

 

I might see if there is any interest as a bookring for this one as I'm sure quite a few people would like it.

[Lilywhite]

Have You Seen Her?

Karen Rose

 

One by one, the girls disappear from their beds at night. Each one is pretty, with long dark hair. And each one is found brutally murdered.

Special Agent Steven Thatcher has sworn to find the serial killer preying on this small town. As the investigation pulls him one way, his family pulls him in another. A widower haunted by loss, he now worries about his son Brad slipping away. But there's a bright light in his life: his son's teacher, Jenna Marshall, has reached out to help. She's beautiful, kind and considerate - and slowly, tentatively, she and Steven are starting to fall in love. But both have been hurt before - badly. And as the two try to find the courage to bare their souls, a murderer who has slain many looks for the real treasure he craves. He sets his traps. And waits. For Jenna...

 

Started:14/06/10

Finished: 21/06/10

Rated: 3/5

Comments: Another good Karen Rose book. As usual it follows her normal pattern but her stories are good enough to overlook this fact. I liked the introduction of newer characters as I was getting quite bored with the usual ones. I actually wanted the main characters to develop their relationship and for the good guy to get the girl. I usually find this side of the books unnecessary but I felt it really played a part this time.

[Lilywhite]

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray

 

It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?

 

Started: 21/06/10

Finished: 04/07/10

Rated: 4/5

Comments: I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be looking out for the following two books from this trilogy. It wasn't entirely what I expected it to be. I think I was expecting a bit more of the period life 'drudgery' but it's actually a light and adventurous story of a 16 year old girl discovering magic and myth. Not too heavy, it's quite an easy read.

[madcow]

Sounds an interesting read, look forward to hearing what you think of it.

[nursenblack]

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray

 

It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?

 

Started: 21/06/10

Finished:

Rated:

Comments:

I finished the last of the trilogy in May. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this first one.

[Lilywhite]

Oooh I didn't know it was part of a trilogy. I'll have to look out for the others. Thanks for that

[Fi.]

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray

 

 

This, Rebel Angels & The Sweet Far Thing are all superb - hope you enjoy it and looking forward to hearing what you think

[Lilywhite]

Picture Perfect

Jodi Picoult

 

A woman wakes to find herself in a graveyard, hurt and bleeding, her memory wiped clean. She doesn't know what she's doing there - or even who she is.

She is rescued by a police officer, himself a newcomer to Los Angeles. After days of waiting, she is taken by complete surprise when she is finally identified by Alex Rivers, Hollywood's biggest movie star - and her husband.

Cassie is dazzled and bewildered by the fairytale in which she suddenly finds herself. But everything is not quite right, and there is something dark and disturbing behind this glamorous facade. It is only as her memory gradually returns that her picture perfect life comes crumbling down, and Cassie is faced with choices she never dreamed she would have to make.

 

Started: 07/07/10

Finished: 18/07/10

Rated: 4/5

Comments: This was quite a slow book but I didn't lose interest. It's a very emotional story and in true Picoult style, it's very difficult to pick sides. I was very glad with the ending of the book and I don't think it would have worked any other way. Definitely one for any Picoult fan.

[Lilywhite]

Deriks Bane

MaryJanice Davidson

 

Derik's a werewolf with alpha issues - and a body to die for. Sara is the personification of unspeakable evil - and smells like roses. Now if they could just stop lusting after each other long enough to save the world. It's always good to have a psychic around - except when she tells you the world will soon end unless you do something about it. For werewolf Derik Gardner that means heading to sunny California and destroying the reincarnation of possibly the most powerful sorceress in history: Morgan Le Fay. But the beautiful - and slightly ditsy - Dr Sara Gunn has no idea that she is Morgan Le Fay. Her masses of wild red curls and crystal blue eyes make killing her an unpleasant prospect for Derik ...and his half-hearted attempts don't meet with much success. So if he can't kill Sara, he'll join her, on a cross-country odyssey to change her fate, confront a medieval evil - and hopefully get lucky...

 

Started: 20/07/10

Finished: 25/07/10

Rated: 3/5

Comments: Along the same vein as the Betsy Vampire Queen series we now have Derik the Werewolf and Sara the sorceress. I love they style of these books and the ridiculous stories that go along with them. Some light reading for me.

[Lilywhite]

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

Kate Summerscale

 

It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, reaches Road Hill House a fortnight later. He faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects. The murder provokes national hysteria. The thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes - scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing - arouses fear and a kind of excitement. But when Whicher reaches his shocking conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment. A true story that inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery - a body; a detective; a country house steeped in secrets. In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid, extraordinary life.

 

Started: 27/07/10

Finished: 09/08/10

Rated: 2/5

Comments: Unfortunately I feel quite let down by this book. It's almost like two books in one, one book I've enjoyed and the other book is just boring. I've really enjoyed the story, the mystery behind the crime and the investigation into all aspects of the family involved but the book seems to bog itself down in facts and historical text. I understand that this story spawned a generation of detective books but I find it unnecessary to continually quote similar passages from these books. I also found it quite difficult to read at times when long passages were being quoted from newspapers. I found that I was reading the same passages several times to understand what they were getting at. It's really quite a shame as I had such high expectations for this story.

[Roland Butter]

I'm sure you'll enjoy Mr Whicher, Kat. I thought it was an excellent read.

[Lilywhite]

That's good to hear. I've been looking forward to this one for a while

[Nollaig]

God, that's a title I'd forgotten all about. I meant to get it ages ago.

 

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it

[pickle]

I read this just after it came out as a fan of both Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins it was interesting to see how they were inspired but mostly to see how different classes were subject to different rules and how that changed.

Edited July 28, 2010 by pickle

[Lilywhite]

All The Things We Didn't Say

Sara Shepard

 

Emotional, issue-led fiction perfect for all fans of The Memory Keeper's Daughter and Jodi Picoult Tragedy came as if so often does: a teenage party, emotions running high, followed by a horrific car crash. A girl is left dead and a boy is forced to leave his home town, with a secret that he will carry with him forever! Years later, when Summer's mother disappears one summer, she is left with her father. Obsessed with an accident from years ago, he slowly descends into mental illness. And as he becomes more disorientated, he reveals small fragments of a secret that has been hidden since his youth, a secret that changes everything. Summer supports her father as much as she can but eventually realises that she has to escape. She finds refuge with her great-aunt, Stella. Feisty, fun-loving, and dying of cancer, Stella holds parts of the family secret. Slowly, things fall into place for Summer - or at least so she thinks! This is a story of the importance of family, of the damage a lie can do, and of how nothing is ever what it seems.

 

Started: 10/08/10

Finished: 23/08/10

Rated: 2/5

Comments: This hasn't been the best book I've read all Summer but there was enough there to keep me picking it up. It's quite a slow book and overall not a lot is said and done but by the end you get the authors point. I can't say that the characters grew on me but I had an inkling of the underlying story and I wanted to see if I was right. Not too taxing a read, good for Summer.

[Lilywhite]

The Rapture

Liz Jensen

 

In a merciless summer of biblical heat and destructive winds, Gabrielle Fox's main concern is a personal one: to rebuild her career as a psychologist after a shattering car accident. But when she is assigned Bethany Krall, one of the most dangerous teenagers in the country, she begins to fear she has made a terrible mistake. Raised on a diet of evangelistic hellfire, Bethany is violent, delusional, cruelly intuitive and insistent that she can foresee natural disasters - a claim which Gabrielle interprets as a symptom of doomsday delusion. But when catastrophes begin to occur on the very dates Bethany has predicted, and a brilliant, gentle physicist enters the equation, the apocalyptic puzzle intensifies and the stakes multiply. Is the self-proclaimed Nostradamus of the psych ward the ultimate manipulator, or could she be the harbinger of imminent global cataclysm on a scale never seen before? And what can love mean in 'interesting times'? A haunting story of human passion and burning faith set against an adventure of tectonic proportions, "The Rapture" is an electrifying psychological thriller that explores the dark extremes of mankind's self-destruction in a world on the brink.

 

Started: 18/08/10

Finished: Unfinished

Rated: 0/5

Comments: Unfortunately I don't think I can finish this one. I'm having so much trouble just trying to follow what the author is trying to say. The chapters and paragraphs are far too long meaning I get to the end and forget what the point was. She also has the really annoying habit of using the most complicated words possible, when the simple language would have done fine. Shame, as it sounded so good on the back of the book.