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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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YEAR ONE
This is my first Nora Roberts novel and it won't be my last. Okay I realise she appears to mostly write romantic fiction and while it has it's place it wouldn't be something in which I'd want to invest enough time for a whole novel, but that aspect received a light touch in this book and was used only to make the characters real and move the story along.
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A BOOK OF BONES
The new Charlie Parker novel is always a highly anticipated event for me. It's like getting together with a group of old friends that studiously avoid social media and the way that medium devalues the joy and sometimes sadness of "catching up". A Book of Bones was more like being invited to a wedding to which those old friends had also been invited and getting the highlights of what we'd all been up to despite the distractions of the other guests and the too loud music. In this case the too loud music was without a doubt the intrusion of the historical "short stories' injected into the almost 700 page novel.
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FEVRE DREAM
FEVRE DREAM by George R.R. Martin Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true – he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality. THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW I know this will sound like sacrilege to fans of Mr Martin, but in my opinion this novel has way more potential…
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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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THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS
Every now and then a book comes along that you very badly want to talk about but you also very badly want not to spoil for others. This is one of those books. Let's just say it puts a new spin on a very current horror genre by telling the story from not only the point of view of the characters that usually would be the antagonists but from the perspective of a group of children.
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OMENS
Let's get this out of the way, we have a young woman with a problem who goes to live in a strange town and meets up with a socially stunted young professional with a past. She also hooks up with a 'bad boy' who isn't really a bad boy and part of her troubles include an ex-fiancee with a definite personality flaw. No, I haven't begun to review City of The Lost again, but you'd be forgiven for getting confused.
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FRANKENSTEIN – THE SERIES
I've been reading Dean Koontz novels on and off for decades, so when I saw he was rebooting the Frankenstein story I was intrigued, to say the least. The concept of updating old stories to a modern setting isn't a new one and it certainly is in vogue as far as TV is concerned - Grimm,
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THE FIREMAN
I like Joe Hill's work and reviewed his debut novel too and this book is no exception to that emerging rule, but I'd have to question when the blurb compares the "epic scope" of The Fireman with The Passage. Thankfully though it also got it wrong when it drew a line between Hill's novel and The Road - The Fireman is much more accessible and a lot less pretentious.
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STALLO
Secret societies, conspiracies, kidnapping and trolls, yes trolls, sure what else would you need to create a seriously literate supernatural thriller? Throw into the mix the varied and mythical landscape of Sweden and characters that are both immediately everyday and extraordinary, and you get a novel that makes you want to read at double speed just to see what happens next.
