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Gamers, Vampires, Volcanoes, Demons and A Superhero Kid
My reading for July 2024 was eclectic as always but with the usual break from reality and accompanied by a cast of memorable characters. These are just post-it notes style remarks on the books I’ve read this month. TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin When Sam catches sight of Sadie at a crowded train station one morning he is catapulted straight back to childhood, and the hours they spent immersed in playing games. Their spark is instantly reignited and sets off a creative collaboration that will make them superstars. It is the 90s, and anything is possible. What comes next is a decades-long tale of friendship and rivalry, fame and art, betrayal and tragedy, perfect worlds and imperfect ones. And, above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. My daughter, A,…
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Review: The HalfHero series by Ian W. Sainsbury
What if a super human turned out not to be so super…or even human? Britain’s superhero, The Deterrent, was unveiled to the world in 1979, and disappeared two years later. The truth about his origins has never been revealed. The rumours about his children—those that survived—and their mysterious abilities have never been confirmed. Until now. Armed with a diary that reveals everything about The Deterrent’s early years, Daniel Harbin—discovering powers of his own—finds himself dragged into the same secretive government department his famous father worked for. Can a halfhero be a better superhero than his father, or is Daniel making a terrible mistake? When the wrong people know what you’re capable of, no matter how powerful you are, you’re still in danger…. A…
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Review: Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in “Little Jamaica,” Toronto’s Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. I…
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MORIARTY
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz Sherlock Holmes is dead. Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind who has risen to take his place. Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction, Frederick Chase must forge a path through the darkest corners of the capital to shine light on this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW A sequel to House of Silk the first Sherlock Holmes novel approved…
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NECROPOLIS
Necropolis by Anthony Horowitz Evil has been unleashed on the world and only five children – with special powers – can save it. Matt and the other three desperately need to find Scar, the final gatekeeper, who has been trapped in Hong Kong, where puddles of water turn into puddles of blood, where ghosts, demons and hideous creatures stalk the streets. Matt has no choice but to follow her. Now, both imprisoned, their only hope of survival is to reach a secret door in the Man Ho temple. But even if Scar can find her psychic power, it may already be too late. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW If you’re what Stephen King refers to as a ‘constant reader’ then you’ll know when I find an author or series of books I tend to binge until…
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GONE
Gone is the first in a series of YA of six novels which pitches a group of young people against forces they can't begin to understand and ultimately each other. Once again we have Lord of the Flies meets Stephen King's under the dome with a touch of Marvel's Xmen thrown in for good measure.
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THE REDBREAST
This is the 3rd Harry Hole novel and in this instalment in the very successful series of bestsellers, the level of complexity we have grown to expect from Jo Nesbo begins to show itself. The story combines elements of both a whodunnit and a who-will-do-it by delivering a very well integrated combination of stories from the second world war and Norway during the visit of US President Clinton (although he's never actually named in the novel).
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LADY MIDNIGHT
It's summertime so my head turns to YA fiction to get away from the pressure of "grown up" books - that's an insult to some of the YA fiction that outstrips the so-called mainstream novels by a country mile and especially when it comes to addressing social issues and generating a useful conversation, but in my case it simply means I'm too old to emotionally empathise with the romantic dilemmas and so I get to focus on the story.
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AUTHORITY
To be fair to Authority, book two in the Area X trilogy, I haven't read book one Annihilation. I saw the Netflix movie and despite some very mixed reviews I really enjoyed the disjointed nature of the story and the amazing special effect images. Given the fact there's unlikely to be a sequel to the movie I decided to check out the novels.
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SLEEPING BEAUTIES
Apart from the fact that a Stephen King novel is almost always an entertaining read, what attracted me to this novel was the notion of a father/son collaboration. I hadn't read any of Owen King's other work, comedy not being one of my areas of interest, and it appealed to me to see what his influence on the story might be. I also thought the focus on absent women and the possibility of looking at what men might do if this ever came to pass (okay I know it's not likely, but maybe it would be a scaled up version of what it would be like if all the women in one's family left for some or various reasons).
