Book Review: A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

This book had been on my wishlist for a long time. It was ideal for a challenge I was doing, so I got it from the library recently.

What I somehow didn’t realise is that this is a YA book. Nothing wrong with that, but I expected quite a different book.

A Great And Terrible Beauty: What it is about

Sixteen-year old Gemma Doyle sees her mother die in a vision while she is walking the streets of a town in India. When she arrives at the scene, she realises it really happened as she saw it.

Two months later, Gemma is in England where she is sent to boarding school. At first she is one of the most unpopular girls in her year, but after a while she becomes more accepted. With her new friends she forms a secret club and when she gets a vision again, they join her getting to an alternate world where the dead are alive and anything they want is possible.

But it’s not safe, creatures from the dream world could enter the real world and cause severe harm.

Gemma has to decide whether to risk this while having a good time in the dream world, or to give up this world and live in reality only.

A Great And Terrible Beauty: What I thought

A good story, although I didn’t find the alternate world idea very interesting.

What I did like was Gemma at boarding school and how she dealt with her bullies. In other words, I liked the real-life part of the story, but the dream world wasn’t at all attractive to me.

I didn’t really care about the creatures that could enter the real life either. Maybe they weren’t fierce enough, or the threat wasn’t strong enough, I’m not sure, but I wasn’t particularly worried about them.

In all, this was a quick and fun read. The book is the first in the Gemma Doyle trilogy but I think just one was enough for me.

Or are the others better? Have you read them?

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I got this book: from the library

I read this in: Dutch (Een verschrikkelijke schoonheid), the original language is English

Number of pages: 384

First published: 2005

Genre: fantasy, Young Adult

Book Review: Duma Key by Stephen King

If you’d ask me, I’d say Stephen King is way too scary for me. Misery? I shiver. Carrie? I shudder. But those are the movies. The books tend to be bearable or even very much enjoyable (like The Stand).

For a while when reading this book I was worried I’d get very spooked. But that never happened. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing in this case.

Duma Key: What it is about

Edgar Freemantle was in an accident that left him with only one arm and a hip that he needed to learn to walk with again. His wife couldn’t handle living with Edgar as a disabled man and divorced him.

With money no object (his previous job paid well, and he also had an inheritance), Edgar rents a house on the beach of the island of Duma Key. Here, he works on an almost-forgotten hobby of his: drawing and painting.

His only neighbours are an old lady and her caretaker. The lady, suffering from Alzheimer, sometimes warns Edgar against the island and repeats sentences that don’t make sense to him.

He finds that his painting is going well. Very well indeed. It’s almost like he is not doing it himself. And all his pictures have something to do with the sea and a ship.

After a while, Edgar discovers there is some pattern in his paintings and this is related to the old lady and her past.

Don’t be surprised if a sea ghost or two enter the stage.

Duma Key: What I thought

Hmm, this is not the first time I’ve written this recently: I loved the beginning but…

The setting up of the story was well done. I was happy to follow Edgar around, limping through his house and on the beach. He made some great paintings and people congratulated him with his progress. Great. Some unknown force helping him produce the pictures… I could handle it.

But a convoluted story about sea ghosts and an old ship? No, I didn’t enjoy that. I could not tell you the plot because I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand it because I didn’t try hard enough. It was too odd and uninteresting.

So, what started off great ended in a disappointment. Next!

Rating: 3/5 stars

I got this book: from my mother, who loved it

I read this in: Dutch (Duma), the original language is English

Number of pages: 624

First published: 2008

Genre: fantasy

Extra: Also check out my review of The Running Man by Stephen King.

Book Review: Hash by Torgny Lindgren

I read Light by the Swedish writer Torgny Lindgren last year, which I enjoyed a lot. So, when I saw this book in a book swap last year, I was keen to pick it up and try it.

Hash: What it is about

The story is a story inside another story. The outer story is a contemporary story of an 107 year old man who writes about events that happened over 50 years ago. Unless… he’s making it all up. He’s living in an old people’s home and has to accept whatever whim the management comes up with to save money. Only in his story writing he can be in control.

He writes about a village in North Sweden in the 1950s which gets two new inhabitants within a few weeks. One is a teacher, who is there to replace the previous teacher who died of tuberculosis. Many people in the village are infected too, but the new teacher, Högström, is immune because he had the illness years ago.

Also new is a man who might be German, Maser, who the 107 year writer hints could well be the missing nazi and war criminal Martin Bormann. Maser travels around with his van full of textiles and also settles in the village for a while.

Both newcomers soon find out they share two passions. One is for singing, which they do together many a night. The other is hash. Hash (in my Dutch copy: balkenbrij) is a meat dish made by cooking the head of a pig, or lamb, or even reindeer, and add intestines and all kinds of other things that I, as a vegetarian, try not to think of too hard. It’s a bit like haggis, according to wikipedia.

The men enjoy the hash that their landlady makes, but eventually go around the villages to find the best hash ever. Meanwhile, another character, Bertil, the homeless village idiot (although not stupid) keeps a good eye on what is going on and reports back to the landlady.

Hash: What I thought

I liked the background of why the 107 year old man started to write the story at his age (which I won’t reveal). There was a bit of magic realism in the book, as the man considered himself to have “survived old age” and he actually was getting younger again: more healthy, more and thicker hair, fewer aches and pains, etc. I thought it was a very interesting notion.

Also, his carer in the old people’s home wants to find back the place (a mountain) that he describes in his story. She comes back several times saying she must have been close, but somehow missed it. This made the story a little magical, which was interesting too.

The story was fun to read and quite original. I could not imagine anyone wanting to eat hash, and it seems that on some occasions, the men were actually quite repulsed by the meal they were getting (but wouldn’t show it to each other or their host, of course).

If you liked Light by the same author, then this will be for you, too. And if this author is new to you, give him a try. The writing is not overly difficult and the story is original and uplifting.

Confession: as a girl in the Netherlands, I did eat hash (balkenbrij) on several occasions. I remember it as a greyish slab that we’d eat on our bread. Moderately edible – but I wasn’t told what was in it!

Rating: 4/5

I got this book: from a book swap

I read this in: Dutch (Het ultieme recept), the original language is Swedish (Pölsan)

Number of pages: 223

First published: 2002

Genre: contemporary fiction, magic realism

Book Review: The White Devil by Justin Evans

The description of this book appealed to me so I requested an ARC from Harper. And I was right: this is a great book!

It’s a ghost story with a kind of murder mystery interwoven: further killings by the ghost have to be stopped. How can this be done?

The White Devil: What it is about

Andrew Taylor has blown it at school in America. After a drugs scandal and expulsion from school his chances of finding a good university are zero. His parents sent him to England to retake his last year at high school at Harrow, one of the country’s leading private schools.

Andrew is housed in The Lot, an old house that is used as a residential place for 80 boys. Piers Hawkes is the house master in charge. He’s a poet and is working on a play about Byron, who was at Harrow school 200 years ago. When it is discovered that Andrew looks a lot like Byron, he’s given the lead role.

But  while Andrew is still settling in he finds one of his house mates being killed in an alleyway. The killer is a strange looking person who disappears without Andrew seeing him go. That was only his first encounter with the ghost of The Lot.

Andrew, Hawkes, and the lovely Persephone, the only girl at the school, investigate the murder and the identity of the ghost and figure out the reason he is trying to kill people. They need to stop it before other people die.

The White Devil: What I thought

I loved this book. I didn’t expect it when I started, somehow, but after a few pages, I was already gripped.

Of course, a story that takes place at one of England’s most expensive and oldest private boy schools is going to be interesting. Add an American boy who looks at it with the eyes of an outsider. Add a centuries-old ghost. And you’ve got a great story.

It wasn’t very scary but it sometimes threatened to become very scary. The encounters with the ghost could be read without hiding under the blankets but the story was creepy enough to keep me reading (so I could get past the scary part).

It was a bit unlikely that a girl would be studying at this school for boys, and yes, of course she and Andrew soon fall in love. A bit unlikely and too obvious, respectively.

I loved Hawkes, the dissident house master, who believed in Andrew’s visions of the ghost and helped him solve the case. Hawkes was a very real person (and a real underdog at that), who should have been fired long ago. I loved it how Hawkes tried to better his life.

Andrew was a believable protagonist. He was behaving himself (against his character) as much as he could, but ignored the rules when he found that there was no other way to do what was needed.

Rating: 5/5

I got this book: free from Harper in return for a review (ARC)

I read this in: English, the original language

Number of pages: 384

First published: 2011, mid-May

Genre: fantasy, mystery

I loved this book. If you love it too, consider nominating this book for the Independent Literary Awards under Speculative Fiction. Any book blogger can nominate titles! (nominations open September – December)

Book Review: The Radleys by Matt Haig

When I heard about this book on Knitting and Sundries I was immediately interested. Julie held a giveaway, I entered, and I won! When I received the book, a beautiful hardback, I knew this was going to be good.

The Radleys: What it is about

The Radleys are a normal family, a GP father (family doctor), a mother, and two teenage kids. Rowan is being bullied at school while Clara has just one friend, new girl Eve. They are all pale, prefer the shade, and have problems sleeping at night (though not during the day!).

Clara has recently turned vegan but doesn’t feel well, and so after a party, she goes home alone. When a boy tries to force himself onto her, she commits a terrible act. Terribly… satisfying, actually.

Then Rowan and Clara are told by their parents that they are a family of abstaining vampires. Their uncle Will (whom they’d never heard of) comes to help out the family.But he’s a practising vampire and not welcome.

Rowan and Clara have to deal with knowing that they are vampires. In a way, this helps Rowan in his (romantic!) pursuit of Eve, Clara’s friend. Clara has to get her blood-thirst under control and the parents need to find a way to keep Clara out of prison. Uncle Will comes to their rescue, but not in the way he was expecting!

The Radleys: What I thought

This book was great! The writing is funny and the story is so real! I mean, it could really happen like that, a very believable story if you can say that about a story with vampires.

The Radleys could be my neighbours. They seem normal people, if a bit pale. I liked it that they lived near York, as I used to live there for several years. I even vaguely remember Bishopthorpe, the village they live in. The only odd thing was, if you live a few miles from York, why go to Thirsk (much, much further away) to go to the cinema (which Rowan and Eve do)?

I loved uncle Will. Well, he was overpowering and scary, as well as a smooth talker. But totally without a conscience – he killed many people during the years. He was a kind of hippy in his camper van.

The mother’s secret from the past was interesting, if a little old hat. The solution to keeping Clara out of prison was a little weak, I thought. I had expected a twist in the plot to solve this.

It was fun to see how relaxed and happy the family was at the end of the story. It shows that your children can live with the fact that they are vampires, as long as you handle it right.

Absolutely delightful book, I read it in just over a day. If you like a book about a normal English family: read it!

Rating: 5/5

I got this book: from a giveaway by Julie at Knitting and Sundries

I read this in: English, the original language

Number of pages: 384

First published: 2010

Genre: paranormal, fantasy, adult fiction

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

I got this book on Friday, read it on Saturday and Sunday! It’s a really nice YA & Adult Fiction book. It’s obviously written by a 16-year old, but the story is interesting for adult readers too. There is only some low-key boy interest, a bit of the supernatural, and, I promise, no vampires.

This book will be released in the US on January 25th. To celebrate, the publisher has reduced the price of one of Ahern’s previous books, Thanks for the Memories for a short time (in e-book version). See below my review for details.

The Book of Tomorrow: What it is about

At the start of The Book of Tomorrow,  16-year old Tamara Goodwin and her mother are moving in with her aunt and uncle in their cottage in the countryside. Tamara is used to luxury all over, as her father was a successful property developer. She lived in a six-bedroom house with a swimming pool in the garden. But her father killed himself, leaving large debts and now Tamara and her mother are broke.

While her mother is in an almost catatonic state staying in her room all the time, Tamara goes to explore. The cottage is the gatehouse to a castle that burned down in the last century and now is a ruin.  As she is too young to drive and there are no bus services to the village, Tamara is more or less forced to stay in the vicinity of the cottage and to explore the ruins and the castle grounds.

She is determined to find out who lives in the bungalow behind the cottage and why she isn’t allowed in the garage. Her aunt Rosaleen does not want to explain. Rosaleen is also trying to stop Tamara from seeing her mother too much, and isn’t at all worried about her mother’s unresponsiveness. Tamara, meanwhile, is getting really worried about her.

She finds a notebook that has a pre-written entry in her own handwriting, dated the next day. With this information, she is able to foresee and sometimes change the future, as there is a new entry every day. When aunt Rosaleen’s behaviour becomes stranger and more dangerous, she uses the book to solve the mysteries.

The Book of Tomorrow: What I thought

I  loved reading this story! I was almost glued to the book and finished it in two (weekend) days. Tamara is a believable 16-year old rich girl and her story has the form and style of what you would expect from someone that age. But the writing is good. I’m tempted to call it literary fiction but I’m not sure.

I liked it how Tamara grew in the book. At first, she was a grumpy teenager that did not want to be part of her new life and fled the cottage as much as she could. Later on, she took an interest in her surroundings and the people she lived with or met and became a more pleasant, more mature person.

Tamara had to deal with the grief of losing her father, with her worries about her mother who wasn’t getting better, with not being in the company of her friends (brand name clothes and her friends used to make up a large part of her identity). She also struggled with finding a way to talk and behave with the few boys she met and how to undermine her aunt’s authority in order to achieve her goals.

I didn’t like one of the last chapters in the book, where everything Tamara (and the reader) have discovered is explained in more detail by a different protagonist. I found this unnecessary and felt a little patronised. I think maybe I could have done with a little bit more detail, but I didn’t need that whole story. This darkens my memory of the book, which is a pity, as the rest was very engaging.

I think most people that enjoy a good story involving a teenage girl will like this book. The magic isn’t overwhelming or focussed on very much. It’s just there and Tamara makes use of it. The story’s themes are grief, isolation, family relationships and family secrets.

Rating: 5/5

I got this book: from the publishers for review

I read this in: English, the original language

Number of pages: 312

First published: 2009

Genre: YA, contemporary fiction

P.S. My 13-year old son liked the cover!

Extra: I since have also read The Time of My Life.

Downloading Thanks for the Memories

You can downbload the e-book of Cecelia Ahern’s earlier book Thanks for the Memories for $1.99 until January 25th. After that, the price goes back up to $9.99. If you’re interested, you can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, the Apple iBookstore (just search for Thanks for the Memories and it comes right up), and other e-book retail sites.

Now you’re thinking: Leeswammes reads so much, has she read this book by any chance? And yes! I read it 2 years ago and gave it 3 stars (OK, but not brilliant). Here is my review (not on my blog, but from Shelfari, where I move about as JudithAnn):

Joyce has an accident and receives a blood transfusion. Justin, for the first time ever, donated some blood not long before.

Soon, Joyce starts to have memories that are not hers, knows languages that she did not know before, and is an expert in architecture and art, although she’s never studied it.

She realises something odd is going on. Justin, meanwhile, keeps meeting this woman (Joyce), that seems familiar, but he can’t place her.

The book is all about releationships, with friends, husbands, family and unknown people.

It’s a good read, but I wasn’t terribly drawn to keep reading.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

This book was a re-read for me. I must have read it about ten years ago, and it was my first Murakami. For some reason, I then didn’t read any others for several years, until I came (back) to the Netherlands, 5 years ago, where Murakami is pretty big.

I’ve read most of his available books since, although I have a few more to go. My favorites are Hard-Boiled Wonderland and  A Wild Sheep Chase.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: What it’s about

Ha, what it’s about, I ask? Would you like the short version or the long one (600 pages of small print)? Let’s try the short version:

Toru Okada lives with his wife in a rented house. He is unemployed while his wife is making long hours at her job at a publisher’s. When their cat goes missing, he enters the alley behind their house and a lot of events begin to unfold.

He meets a 16-year old girl that shows him an abandoned house nearby with a dried-up well. He meets two sisters that offer to help him find back his cat, and later also his wife, who also disappears. He also encounters a Lieutenant from the second World War and a woman and her son who make their money in a very odd way. Then there is the awful brother in law who plays a more important role as the story progresses.

All these people have their own story which do in various ways have their effect or relation with Toru.

In the end, some of the strands of the story come together, but a lot is left to the reader.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: What I thought

This book reinforces to me what a great storyteller Murakami is. There were many stories within the larger story and I found each and all of them interesting. I think this is not so much the story, well, not just the story, but especially the way it is written.

It’s like candy to me. Every sentence is somehow just right. And I want to read more, and more. It’s like arriving in a place where you feel safe and happy. What can I say? Murakami writes in a way that is perfect for me!

I recognised some themes from other books by Murakami: so is there a dark hotel with many corridors where Toru has to find his way. A hotel without any lights was also present in Dance, Dance, Dance. In Kafka on the Shore, I’m pretty sure the protagonist, Kafka, goes to Malta or a country nearby, while in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, one of the people Toru meets is Malta Kano, who lived on the island of Malta for a while. Then, of course, there is Toru’s cat who goes missing, while in Kafka on the Shore cats play a large role, too. And there are probably more themes that I missed.

While I found The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles a satifactory read, I’m 100% sure I missed lots of references and lots of links between parts of the story. Rather than trying to figure it out for myself, I hope someone else has the answers for me, if there are any answers, that is.

Rating: 5/5 and a favorite

I got this book: from The Book Depository as I wanted to own it. I read it for the Japanese Literature Challenge

I read this in: English, the original language is Japanese.

Extra: Also check out my review of Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami

Other reviews:

Lucybird’s Book Blog

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