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1783783656
| 9781783783656
| 1783783656
| 3.86
| 312
| Jan 25, 2018
| Jan 25, 2018
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it was amazing
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Cosmic cracks of thunder tore holes all round the darkness, and great howls loitered, gone and returned, gone and returned. The storm was building int
Cosmic cracks of thunder tore holes all round the darkness, and great howls loitered, gone and returned, gone and returned. The storm was building into jaws again. It's raining in Ireland. It's been raining for as long as anyone can remember. Half the country is underwater and Dublin, criss-crossed by canals and buzzing with drones, is the province of violent gangs, drug-runners and human traffickers. Chief among them: the Earlie Boys, commanded by the man known as the Earlie King. The kid in yellow – yellow skins, the ubiquitous waterproofs worn by everyone in the city – was once a runner for the Boys, but has been cast out in disgrace after getting the King's daughter pregnant. Now she's dead and all the kid in yellow wants is their baby, the babba, held captive by the King. The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow depicts a society suspended between dystopian future and collapsed world. People still scroll through their devices, play videogames, and watch TV (though the terminology has become a little warped – 'TeleVisio', for instance). Yet the slide backwards into earlier beliefs and practices is already evident. A wandering preacher leads a group who believe a particular statue of the Virgin Mary can heal the sick and predict the future. There's a séance scene that could've come straight out of a Victorian novel. (Saint) Vincent Depaul is future-Dublin's pyromaniac Robin Hood, a champion of the poor who may be one man or a vigilante group. The tale of what happens between the King and the kid is told in several ways. We start off following a reporter who spies on the Earlie Boys. There's the first-person account of a former cop, told a while after the fact. There are extraordinarily vivid extracts from a play, which provide glimpses into the machinations of the King's cadre at the same time as they undermine the reliability of the whole construct. The fragmented approach encourages the sense that this story is a folk ballad, a patchwork of imagination, hearsay and myth. All the main figures are known by invented titles or have truncated or blank names that obscure their real identities, turn them into symbols. Meanwhile, in interludes, the spectre of Mister Violence – the postmodern bogeyman, the gleefully evil embodiment of all that's bad – stalks the city, peering over troublemakers' shoulders with a grin. Danny Denton has crafted such a richly imagined world here that I could spend hours listing every little detail I loved, from the clothes to the tech to the subtly altered language. (I was halfway through the book before the thought occurred to me that 'clap hands', a phrase commonly used to indicate agreement, might be a linguistic evolution of an emoticon – a spoken emoji.) The language is cracked and beautiful; the rain-soaked city could not be more evocatively depicted. Somehow, it's a sweet love story, a gangland thriller, and a dark dystopia all in one, and it works. It dazzles. I can hardly believe this is a debut novel, it's so accomplished and intense, so completely bewitching. Highest possible recommendation. Read it as soon as you can. I received an advance review copy of The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 06, 2017
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Nov 09, 2017
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Nov 03, 2017
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Paperback
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1472241886
| 9781472241887
| B06XRL6HDG
| 3.30
| 2,269
| Jan 25, 2018
| Jan 25, 2018
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really liked it
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The prologue of The Feed is a snapshot of future society just as it begins to crumble. As they spend the evening in a restaurant, Tom is trying to per
The prologue of The Feed is a snapshot of future society just as it begins to crumble. As they spend the evening in a restaurant, Tom is trying to persuade his wife Kate to switch off her Feed, if only for a few minutes. The Feed is an invention that's transformed human life, making it possible for everyone to be permanently plugged in to a neverending stream of information and communication, augmenting everything about what one experiences in reality. (Advertisements, for example, no longer exist in the physical world. There are just 'quickcodes' which cause relevant ads to display to anyone who looks at them – as long as they're connected to the Feed, but then everyone is except extremist Resisters.) The characters' conversation is interrupted by a shockwave spreading around them as the same scene is beamed into everyone's Feed. The President has been assassinated; it's the beginning of the end. Six years later, we find Tom, Kate and their daughter Bea living alongside a handful of other survivors. Thousands died when the Feed collapsed, and those who remain are damaged, often confused, and lacking in many of the skills needed to create a self-sufficient community. There's also the threat of being 'taken', when a hacker hijacks one's mind using the old biological hardware required to make the Feed work. These characters have been left in relative peace so far – but then two of the group are taken in quick succession, and Bea disappears, prompting Tom and Kate to set out across the ravaged country in the hope of finding her. Inevitably, when I read stories like this, I find their settings and contexts and technology – their worlds – far more interesting than whatever the characters are doing. And Nick Clark Windo has put a lot of worldbuilding into The Feed; I could have quite happily read about life both pre- and post-collapse all day. There are tons of details to get your teeth into as Tom and Kate traverse a landscape made strange by loss and decay, shaped by desperation and the art of making do with what's left. Scenes like those with the spiked van, the Pharmacist and the 'human animal' will haunt me for a while. Where the book stumbles is in the construction of its characters. I disliked both Tom and Kate, and I couldn't get a sense of their bond with Bea, or care about their quest to find her. When you find yourself thinking 'I wouldn't be bothered if any or all of these people died', it's... usually a bad sign. BUT! Halfway through, there's a monumental, genius twist that changes everything. I can't say any more than that without spoiling it. The Feed lacks the humanity of Station Eleven, which the blurb (naturally) compares it to. It reminded me more of a cross between Louise Welsh's No Dominion and Liam Brown's Broadcast. If carefully constructed future worlds matter more to you than likeable characters, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of this. And at least the ending is almost on a par with Gone Girl as far as 'awful outcomes for awful people' go. I received an advance review copy of The Feed from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
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1
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Nov 14, 2017
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Nov 16, 2017
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Sep 25, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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0907179614
| 9780907179610
| 0907179614
| 3.95
| 4,281
| Apr 01, 1991
| Jan 01, 1992
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it was amazing
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My first encounter with Gilda was by way of the 2015 anthology Ghost: 100 Stories to Read with the Lights On, edited by Louise Welsh. It includes a st
My first encounter with Gilda was by way of the 2015 anthology Ghost: 100 Stories to Read with the Lights On, edited by Louise Welsh. It includes a story from this book, ‘Off-Broadway, 1971’. I was instantly spellbound, and bought The Gilda Stories as soon as I’d finished it. (Literally. I read the story standing up in my kitchen, and ordered the book online before I’d even sat down; that's how rapt I was.) The Gilda Stories introduces the title character as a slave girl in Louisiana, 1850. Some years later, she is made into a vampire, and each story relates a segment of her long and fascinating life. Yerba Buena (later known as San Francisco) in 1890; Missouri in 1921; Boston in 1955; New York in 1971 and 1981; plus two visions of the future, 2020 and 2050. (As the book was published in 1991, the way Gomez imagines 2020 is especially interesting! Once you get past the clunky technical details, the idea of people communicating with each other via private video channels is pretty prescient, as is the backdrop of increasing environmental decline.) As my initial reading of ‘Off-Broadway, 1971’ proves, the stories can be enjoyed individually. But to read them in context is something else altogether. Despite the title, as I read I became more and more convinced that this is a novel – a more coherent work than any novel-in-stories I think I have ever read. The stories don’t just show us scenes from Gilda’s life, they build a bigger picture. What’s wonderful about that is that it has a genuine sense of scope; I believed in Gilda as someone who had lived for one hundred, two hundred years. Her character is developed slowly, meticulously. Her relationships deepen, grow in significance, and change in shape over the course of the years. There’s a rare thoughtfulness to Gilda’s progression. The Gilda Stories is so rich with narrative and visual possibilities, I really can’t believe it hasn’t been made into a film. It’s basically Interview with the Vampire if the main character was a black lesbian. Plus there’s so much potential for sumptuous period settings and costumes. The time is now for someone to option it! This book truly transported me. Just wonderful. TinyLetter ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 26, 2019
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Nov 28, 2019
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Sep 20, 2017
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Paperback
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B0DWVHGQ5H
| 3.79
| 460,994
| Feb 08, 2018
| Feb 08, 2018
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liked it
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This mind-bending body-hopping mystery is like the result of some unholy union between The Bone Clocks, The River of No Return and a Golden Age crime
This mind-bending body-hopping mystery is like the result of some unholy union between The Bone Clocks, The River of No Return and a Golden Age crime classic. It begins with a man finding himself running through a forest in evening dress, with no idea who or where he is. He remembers nothing but a name – Anna – and when he sees a girl being attacked in the woods, he assumes this is Anna and he must save her. He gives chase, but is intercepted by a stranger who gives him a compass and an instruction to head east. This leads him to a gathering at a grand, albeit faded, country pile: Blackheath, home to the Hardcastle family. Piece by piece, our hero (if that's what he is) starts to put together what's going on, aided by the guidance of a mysterious costumed figure known as 'the Plague Doctor'. This particular day ends in tragedy, and it is doomed to repeat until the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle can be solved. Every time the narrator sleeps, he wakes up in the body of a different 'host' – but he is restricted to eight of these before time runs out and the whole thing resets, with his memory wiped again. I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been to plan out the plot of something like this, orchestrating the interactions between a huge cast of characters when their actions are supposed to be repeating... and some of them are the same man in different bodies. It's mind-bogglingly intricate. However, it's also quite bloated and, despite there being a lot going on, the narrative frequently drags. At many points I found myself growing impatient, daydreaming about a heavily edited version of the book; it could've been slimmed down to half its length. And then there's the ending. When you actually think about it – how Aiden's connection to Anna is explained and resolved, and what that would mean outside Blackheath – it is insane and ludicrous and it falls apart within seconds. But the genius of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is that it really makes you want to know what happens. Even when I was pretty bored, I could not give up without finding out whether the theory I developed circa page 29 was correct. (I think it was, but I'm still not entirely sure? Or maybe I just guessed something that was obvious anyway?) And the more I read, the more theories I came up with. There's always just enough to keep you hooked until the end of the next chapter, and the next, and so on. All in all: a fabulous concept, ponderously executed. The story has some great moments, but I'm not sure I can truly recommend wading through 500 pages of it. I received an advance review copy of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 03, 2018
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Jan 04, 2018
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Sep 10, 2017
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ebook
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B00CPR6HNU
| 3.72
| 1,388
| Jul 08, 2013
| Jul 08, 2013
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liked it
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Having loved the proof-of-concept short film that was made for Apocalypse Now Now earlier this year, I was keen to check out the original, though it's
Having loved the proof-of-concept short film that was made for Apocalypse Now Now earlier this year, I was keen to check out the original, though it's not the sort of thing that would usually pique my interest (South African setting aside). It started really well, and I loved Baxter Zevcenko immediately, even if he did feel a lot more like an adult's idea of a teenage boy than an actual 16-year-old. The early chapters about life in Cape Town and high school gang wars were by far the most engaging. After that, it descended into YA fantasy silliness (prophecies and monsters and zombie porn, oh my) and I got a bit bored. I'd still happily watch a full-length film version, though. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
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1
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Oct 07, 2017
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Oct 08, 2017
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Aug 29, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1787199924
| 9781787199927
| B01N8P0J7F
| 3.54
| 1,357
| Sep 15, 2017
| Sep 15, 2017
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really liked it
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David Callow is an airheaded prick of a vlogger who's amassed millions of fans by filming his every (banal) move. With his popularity waning (even poi
David Callow is an airheaded prick of a vlogger who's amassed millions of fans by filming his every (banal) move. With his popularity waning (even pointedly sticking his head out of a taxi window doesn't get him much attention from teenage girls anymore), his manager pushes him to accept a lucrative opportunity offered by tech mogul Xan Brinkley. The proposal is so extreme that even attention-addicted David has trouble accepting it: a microchip implanted in his brain will essentially broadcast his thoughts and feelings to the world 24/7. One drink-and-drug-fuelled night later, however, David wakes up to find he's uploaded an intoxicated video telling the world about, and agreeing to, the offer. With that, he becomes the first ever star of MindCast, 'the biggest show on Earth'. It's not difficult to guess where this is going, but Broadcast is fast-paced and exciting, an incredibly quick and fun read. It worked on me like a literary earworm: once I'd started it, the story wriggled under my skin and I couldn't stop thinking about it until I'd finished. More than anything, it reminded me of a particular type of old-fashioned ghost/horror story – the type that delights in delivering a sticky end to an unpleasant protagonist. Loved the gutsy ending. Thoroughly enjoyable. I received an advance review copy of Broadcast from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 18, 2017
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Aug 18, 2017
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Aug 15, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1473672929
| 9781473672925
| B0746MNW1L
| 3.21
| 4,716
| Jul 10, 2018
| Jul 10, 2018
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liked it
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Imagine a future in which death is close to being eradicated. At birth, everyone is allocated a number which determines whether or not they will be a
Imagine a future in which death is close to being eradicated. At birth, everyone is allocated a number which determines whether or not they will be a ‘lifer’, a person who will live for hundreds of years with the aid of surgical enhancements and advanced biological technology. Those with a natural lifespan – ‘sub-100s’ – are effectively an underclass, relegated to the outer boroughs of this world’s cities. There are whispers that new developments will soon make immortality possible, with the most diligent lifers certain to be first in line. As for the existence the lifers actually have – it’s like wellness culture taken to the absolute extreme. Life has been stripped of everything pleasurable, from fatty food (artery-clogging) to exercise (too much of a strain on the body). Little wonder, then, that some rebel, forming a rule-flouting group they call the Suicide Club. At the centre of this story is Lea, who’s just turned 100. She's a model lifer for whom immortality is the ultimate dream. But she’s hiding a turbulent past and painful secrets. When she sees her father Kaito – missing for decades – in the street, she runs after him and is hit by a car. This is interpreted as a suicide attempt, and Lea finds herself under observation and forced to attend ‘WeCovery’ group counselling sessions. Also in WeCovery is Anja, whose life is devoted to caring for a mother who's all but dead due to faulty tech. Between Anja and Kaito, Lea is drawn into the murky world of the Suicide Club: part activist group, part ironic celebration. This is an intriguing premise, and raises a lot of fascinating ethical questions. I was particularly interested in the way Lea’s fanatical ‘life-loving’ mindset drew clear parallels with the views of extreme anti-abortionists. The execution is, unfortunately, a bit clunky, and I struggled to suspend disbelief enough to accept that Lea was really a hundred years old. She’s just so shallow – none of the accrued wisdom or knowledge I would expect of someone of such an age, regardless of her outward appearance. (Also, honestly, one wonders why ‘unhealthy’ behaviour would matter quite so much once bio-technology had evolved to the point that people could be essentially made unkillable. And once you start thinking about things like this, the entire setup begins to crumble.) I loved the concept, but there was something missing from Suicide Club for me. It feels very much like an imperfect debut from a writer who will go on to greater things: some of the plot’s potential is not quite realised, and the whole story lacks tension. Nevertheless, I love the originality of Rachel Heng’s ideas and will be keeping an eye out for her future work. I received an advance review copy of Suicide Club from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 11, 2018
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Jun 12, 2018
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Jul 24, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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B01M3PEQVO
| 3.23
| 917
| Jul 20, 2017
| Jul 20, 2017
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really liked it
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In a dystopian future – it's impossible to say how distant – optimised citizens known as The Young live their lives in a state of extreme neutrality.
In a dystopian future – it's impossible to say how distant – optimised citizens known as The Young live their lives in a state of extreme neutrality. The Young must always be In Balance. EOE (Excess of Emotion) is frowned upon; words used to describe strong feelings are flagged (indicated within this narrative by the use of colours). Thoughts and activities are monitored via The Information Stream, and displayed on The Graph for everyone to see. Mira A, named after a fluctuating star, is causing worrying irregularities, creating concern in the community. I know all the capitalised Things and thought-policing might make this sound like a tedious rehash of common themes, but Nicola Barker's playful approach to language and form elevates it. H(A)PPY is partly a story about music: Mira A plays guitar, and her problems begin when she develops a fixation with a composition by the Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios. The Stream bombards Mira A with information, a montage of historical accounts of Barrios and Paraguay, a flood that cannot be silenced. In the novel's more experimental segments, Barker twists and spins chunks of text as if conducting a musical performance. As Mira A/Barker tells us, 'word' and 'soul' are synonymous in the Guaraní language. Mira A is subject to a system which demands perfection by obliterating the soul, in part by forbidding the words used to express emotion. In 1870, following the Paraguyan war, allied forces attempted to ban Guaraní, prohibiting it from being spoken or written in schools. The Young have forgotten the lessons of the past (or, as they'd have it, The Past), but these voices demand to be heard. As it turns out, H(A)PPY is not just an effective sci-fi novel but a stealth historical novel, commemorating those stories in danger of being erased from official accounts of history. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 22, 2019
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Jan 25, 2019
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Jul 14, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1509852220
| B01N36XINK
| 3.80
| 41,329
| Apr 04, 2017
| Apr 06, 2017
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really liked it
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American War is narrated sometime in the early 22nd century by Benjamin Chestnut; it's about his aunt, Sarat. (How Benjamin knows so much detail of Sa
American War is narrated sometime in the early 22nd century by Benjamin Chestnut; it's about his aunt, Sarat. (How Benjamin knows so much detail of Sarat's life becomes clear at the end; his biographer's perspective allows for the inclusion of articles and documents that flesh out the story's context.) From her family's cabin to a refugee camp, from the tomboyish games of childhood to her teenage years as a rebel fighter and what she suffers as a consequence, the narrative follows Sarat for over twenty years. We first encounter Sarat as a six-year-old girl in Louisiana circa 2075, as the Second American Civil War is beginning. Its cause is the South's refusal to accept the Sustainable Future Act, which bans the use of fossil fuels. The nation splits between the United States in the North and the secessionist Southern states. Further divisions exist in the South: 'the Mag' (Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia) forms the heart of the 'rebel Red'; the surrounding states are viewed with suspicion; South Carolina is quarantined after the outbreak of a plague nicknamed 'the slow'; Texas is subsumed by the Mexican Protectorate. While I was reading American War, the phrase good old-fashioned storytelling continually popped into my head, without me really understanding what I (or some rogue part of my brain) meant by it. There was something about it that reminded me of certain books I read as a child, like Watership Down by Richard Adams – books that seem content to take their time weaving a make-believe world, books that trust you to have the patience to memorise invented terms, understand the tensions between myriad rival groups, and keep referring back to a detailed fantasy map. This dystopian America is richly realised, full of the sort of detail that might make a less interesting and/or well-written novel drag. Whether you find the wider picture believable or not, the details make it so. After I finished reading the book, I kept thinking of another phrase. I felt as though I'd emerged from it. Emerged. A bit weatherbeaten, a bit changed, unlikely to forget these characters, with the same slight sense of disorientation you get when you come out of a cinema into a bright sunny day. It is completely absorbing and emotionally wrenching. I was surprised by how fiercely I ended up rooting for Sarat and how desperate I was to know more about the history of this version of society. (I just couldn't get enough of the 'factual' inserts, which include extracts from textbooks, history books and memoirs, news articles from the early days of the war, legal documents, letters and interviews.) Having read this, I'm really surprised more people aren't talking about it – it seems to have been published in the UK with little fanfare and next to no social media buzz. For those interested in reading more diversely, it seems a perfect fit: it's by a non-white author, has a queer black female protagonist, and deals with topical themes of a) how class cleavages and the North/South divide impact US politics and b) how climate change might affect Western society and the international balance of power. Lest that sound too much like it's just ticking boxes or preaching about ~issues~, it is also in-cre-di-bly well-written, immaculately constructed, and moving. One of my books of the year, for sure. (Rating would be 4.5 stars if that were possible. This didn't quite have the intangible quality that would tip it into personal favourite territory; nevertheless, it is a novel I feel I will be thinking about for a long time.) I received a review copy of American War from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 09, 2017
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Jul 12, 2017
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Jul 05, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1473544513
| 9781473544512
| B01N0X5BEJ
| 3.25
| 2,688
| Aug 08, 2016
| Aug 01, 2017
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really liked it
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First, a bit of scene-setting – this might look and sound like a thriller, but context is important (and may be crucial to enjoyment where this novel
First, a bit of scene-setting – this might look and sound like a thriller, but context is important (and may be crucial to enjoyment where this novel is concerned). In the world of The Dying Game, it's 2037. There was a Second Cold War in 'the early 2000s', leading to the creation of the Union of Friendship, of which the Protectorate of Sweden – where this novel is set – is a part. The political situation is less clear, but we know there is an all-seeing, all-knowing 'Party' whose influence extends far beyond government. The protagonist, Anna Francis, works for a foreign aid organisation and has recently returned from a major aid mission to Kyzyl Kum. By all accounts, it was a success, and has even made Anna a little bit famous. But an early scene shows the Party has information they can use against her, and her interior monologue suggests she's experiencing (undiagnosed and untreated) PTSD. Anna's narrative also reveals her infatuation with an inscrutable colleague, Henry Fall. With all that in the background, the plot is as follows: Anna is 'asked' (i.e. instructed) to go to Isola, a tiny, largely inaccessible island, where she will help with the recruitment process for an elite Party unit, the shady 'RAN group'. Her task: to pose as a murder victim. Only she and a doctor, who'll examine Anna and confirm her 'death', will be in on the fact that it's a setup: the rest are candidates. Once she's 'dead', Anna will be concealed in a hidden observation area from which she'll watch the others and report on how they cope with this high-stress scenario. Things begin to go awry when Anna sees a familiar face among the candidates, and from there the situation spirals wildly out of control. There's a bit of a And Then There Were None vibe to it – people getting picked off, nobody knowing who to trust, and, of course, the remote island. Perhaps the soft-dystopia angle serves to make the main thrust of the plot believable, but let's face it, there have been far more improbable thrillers with far more mundane settings. The details of this backdrop are what made the story work for me, but may be offputting for those who would prefer a straightforward thriller. I loved some of the smaller details – one of Stockholm's 'most buzzed-about restaurants' is popular partly because of its reputation for 'almost never having power failures' – and I felt Anna's coldness worked perfectly for her character arc. Intriguing and surprising. This is Avdic's fiction debut; I'll keep an eye out for more from her. I received an advance review copy of The Dying Game from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 21, 2017
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Jul 25, 2017
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Jul 02, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1473652227
| 9781473652224
| B01M1R6LM9
| 3.21
| 2,279
| Aug 01, 2017
| Aug 03, 2017
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liked it
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Reading this book was like riding a somewhat shoddy rollercoaster. You get on, and at first it's exciting, but after a while you realise it's similar
Reading this book was like riding a somewhat shoddy rollercoaster. You get on, and at first it's exciting, but after a while you realise it's similar to one you rode a while ago, and that one wasn't very good. Then you decide that, since you can't get off the thing, you may as well try to enjoy it anyway. And in the end, although it's not a great experience, you have to admit that you had a certain amount of fun. The Dark Net reminded me why I usually avoid this type of lurid fantasy-horror: to me it feels like the trashiest of trash, more intellectually bankrupt than a whole pile of identikit thrillers and chick lit. Books like this inevitably hook me at the start, when they're all about atmosphere and creepiness and establishing character, but when they begin their slide into the ludicrous, my interest wanes. That said, there's something inescapably compelling about such over-the-top tales, and as you might doggedly watch a daft horror film through to the end (while rolling your eyes at every new, ridiculous development) I did want to finish it. In this particular case, gigantic hellhounds, possessed serial killers and a Portland secretly riven by turf wars between keepers of the 'Light' and 'Dark' are all thrown into the mix well before the dark net demons of the title make an appearance. (In fact, the blurb is kind of misleading – the dark net element becomes crucial in the last act, but prior to that, most of what happens has nothing much to do with the internet. The protagonist is a woman whose defining characteristic is that she's a technophobe who can barely send an email.) In a style that seems to be typical of the genre, actions are very kinetic in this book. Nobody ever presses or opens anything, they 'punch', 'snap' and 'thumb'; nobody ever writes, they 'scratch down notes' – a persistent detail that makes it sound like all the characters are using cheap fountain pens. I hoped this novel would fulfil my cravings for clever, subtle digital horror, something like Alexander Weinstein's Children of the New World or Luke Kennard's The Transition with a little more of a horror edge. I've read some good short stories on this theme: 'Feature Development for Social Networking' by Benjamin Rosenbaum, 'The Game' by Joanne Harris, 'Friends' by Richard Crompton and (as mentioned in my newsletter) an episode of the podcast The Magnus Archives titled 'Binary'. But this has more in common with the likes of Joe Hill's NOS4R2, David Wong's John Dies at the End, and Grady Hendrix's Horrorstör – which is to say that it's entertaining, but too far-fetched and blood-spattered for my taste. This would have been a two-star book, but a couple of things bumped it up for me towards the end: 1) there wasn't any romance in it, despite a fairly obvious pairing – kudos for that – and 2) I loved the epilogue. I received an advance review copy of The Dark Net from the publisher through Edelweiss. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 26, 2017
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Jul 28, 2017
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Jul 02, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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0374716412
| 9780374716417
| B01N74PQZA
| 3.32
| 1,259
| Jun 06, 2017
| Jun 25, 2025
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really liked it
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A completely mind-warping novel in which people patiently take turns to speak in improbably fully-formed stories about their bizarre pasts; seemingly
A completely mind-warping novel in which people patiently take turns to speak in improbably fully-formed stories about their bizarre pasts; seemingly ordinary characters suddenly turn out to be crime-fighting superheroes, some of them aliens; people melt and disperse into the air. Dear Cyborgs interweaves two plotlines: the initially down-to-earth tale of a boy losing touch with his childhood best friend; and a convoluted tale of good and evil narrated by one of the aforementioned part-time superheroes. The chapters are punctuated with indecipherable riddles, all addressed 'Dear Cyborgs'. There are always stories within stories in this book – a detail that turns out to be key to understanding it. We have the characters' monologues, recalled memories, dream sequences, imagined conversations, many 'origin stories', and even an extract from a novel one of the characters (who may be a fictional construct in the first place) is reading. Political protest and civil disobedience serve as motifs throughout all of them. There are odd yet endearing moments of modern realism, when the more fantastical scenes are grounded by a mention of a couple meeting on OkCupid, or someone's friend-of-a-friend being a blogger. I kept having to flick backwards and reread several pages to remind myself whether what I was reading was supposed to be real, imagined, a dream, or fiction-within-fiction. If I had to sum it up in a sentence: Communion Town meets I Hate the Internet in an alternate universe. I don't know that I understood all of it, but I did like it, very much. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 14, 2017
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Jun 15, 2017
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Jun 13, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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0698142764
| 9780698142763
| 0698142764
| 3.92
| 25,969
| Feb 06, 2018
| Feb 06, 2018
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really liked it
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I wanted to read this because of the story that Neill Blomkamp is adapting it into a film, as well as the fact that Sweterlitsch has served as co-writ
I wanted to read this because of the story that Neill Blomkamp is adapting it into a film, as well as the fact that Sweterlitsch has served as co-writer on a number of Blomkamp’s Oats Studios projects. I mention this first because The Gone World, being pretty high-concept sci-fi, is not the kind of novel that would have appeared on my radar otherwise. Thankfully, Sweterlitsch is a first-rate storyteller, and though the plot is complex I found the narrative fascinating. Explaining the premise is going to make me feel ridiculous, but I’ll have a go. NCIS agent Shannon Moss is part of Deep Waters, a top-secret project involving travel in space and time. One can only jump forward in time from their present day or 'terra firma', in Shannon's case 1997 – but not beyond the Terminus, 'the moment humanity ceases to be relevant'. Every timeline ends in the Terminus sooner or later, and, ominously, it's getting closer. The futures Shannon and other agents visit are only possibilities and may never happen in reality, but an agent might live for years in an 'IFT' (inadmissible future trajectory). Back in 1997, a family is massacred, and the prime suspect is the patriarch, a Navy SEAL who was also part of Deep Waters. Shannon is tasked with solving the case, and is perturbed when she finds the crime took place in a house that used to belong to her childhood best friend. The story has been described as 'Inception meets True Detective'; there's more than a little X-Files in there as well (not least because Shannon watches the show and is a Scully fan). Boiled down to a sentence, it's a time-travel whodunnit (so, Crime Traveller, basically.) The 'gone world' the title speaks of is not, as you might think, one of these IFTs, but Shannon's past, in particular the life she shared with her best friend Courtney Gimm before the latter's death at age sixteen. Touching the wall, she felt like she could tear the present world away and see her friend again, be with her friend as if no time had passed, as if she could step into the old bedroom, the gone world. The device of grounding Shannon's motivation in Courtney's death works really well, both because it humanises the character and because it keeps bringing the story back to a recognisable context. No matter how outlandish the rest of it becomes, there's always this element of ordinary humanity. It's safe to say The Gone World is outside my reading comfort zone, but this was a gamble that paid off. It's very well paced, and while everything was explained, I never felt like I was getting bogged down in the intricacies of how it all worked. Turns out, murder mystery and time travel go surprisingly well together. (There's one thing I hated about it, though – the epilogue. I hated that epilogue so much I don't even know how to begin talking about it. Let's pretend it never happened.) I received an advance review copy of The Gone World from the publisher through Edelweiss. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 03, 2017
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Oct 04, 2017
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Jun 05, 2017
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ebook
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B0DWVDVL4R
| 3.40
| 15,283
| Nov 14, 2017
| May 18, 2017
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it was ok
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Ostensibly a dystopian novel, but actually almost entirely about motherhood. Written in a spare style that has poetic qualities, thus very short; a qu
Ostensibly a dystopian novel, but actually almost entirely about motherhood. Written in a spare style that has poetic qualities, thus very short; a quick read. I can't imagine a less interesting approach to dystopia, and the story left me cold, but that is a very personal judgement. Just not for me. I received an advance review copy of The End We Start From from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 21, 2017
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Apr 21, 2017
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Feb 12, 2017
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ebook
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1925307964
| 9781925307962
| B01N9JOXTA
| 3.18
| 4,834
| Feb 07, 2017
| Feb 08, 2017
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really liked it
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The Possessions might conceivably be set in a parallel universe, separated from ours by a mere hair's breadth. In this world, everything's the same –
The Possessions might conceivably be set in a parallel universe, separated from ours by a mere hair's breadth. In this world, everything's the same – people eat, drive, use the internet and mobile phones, go out to bars, live in shabby apartments – except for one thing. At organisations such as the Elysian Society, the dead can be brought back to speak with the bereaved. Clients pay for sessions with 'bodies' like our narrator, Eurydice (Edie for short); they must bring something that belonged to their lost loved one. After taking a drug referred to as a lotus, the body 'goes under', surrendering to the spirit of the deceased, who can then talk with their partner, relative or friend as though they've never been away. Afterwards, the body remembers nothing. At least, that's how it should work. Edie has been a body for five years, an unusually long career in this industry. She's the closest thing the Elysian Society has to a teacher's pet: renowned for her reliability, she's the boss's favourite, but has no life beyond her job and is mocked by colleagues for her strict adherence to rules. She succeeds because she has made herself empty and unobtrusive, nothing but a blank slate for spirits to animate. So it's no coincidence the appointment that will change her life begins with the application of uncharacteristically bold lipstick. Patrick Braddock is a handsome young widower whose wife, Sylvia, drowned two years ago; the lipstick is hers. Or, rather, was hers. Edie is instantly drawn to Patrick, and attraction quickly turns to obsession. Soon she's hanging around outside his office and creating a shrine to the Braddocks on her bedside table. And then she begins to feel flickers of Sylvia's presence outside the safety of her appointment room... There are multiple mysteries here. First, Sylvia's death, an obvious question mark. Second, the riddle of an anonymous murder victim, mawkishly dubbed 'Hopeful Doe', whose violent death and lack of identity make headlines in Edie's town. Third, Edie's own past, which she's scrubbed clean from her memories as well as her records – she's obviously running from something. The fast-moving and very addictive story is replete with symbolism (references to Greek mythology are everywhere) and powerful description (the author evokes heat so well you can almost feel the humidity dampening the pages). The work of the bodies is written in a way that's clearly designed to draw parallels with sex work. The title might refer to the box of Sylvia's belongings that Patrick gifts to Edie, or to the dark rumour, passed around like an urban legend, about the worst thing that can happen to a body: permanent possession. The Possessions is so entrancing that it definitely skirts five-star territory, but a few flaws kept me from falling head over heels. Edie's relationship with Patrick is a bit too heavy on the soft-focus romance; I could never bring myself to root for them, no matter what Patrick was hiding. And when the awful-secrets-of-Edie's-past reveal finally comes, it's been built up so much that the details seem both anticlimactic and contrived (it didn't make much sense to me that anyone would think she was a terrible person because of this, rather than just feeling terrible for her). Those reservations aside, this is a really good book, completely absorbing and eminently readable; a very modern sort of ghost story, as pacy as the best thriller and as glossy as a blockbuster movie (it's crying out to be made into a film). Recommended. I received an advance review copy of The Possessions from the publisher through Edelweiss. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 17, 2017
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Jan 18, 2017
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Jan 11, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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1250075580
| 9781250075581
| 1250075580
| 3.96
| 11,832
| Oct 18, 2016
| Oct 18, 2016
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really liked it
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I got off to a rocky start with this – I am of the opinion that 'handwritten' letters should be banned from publication in books unless they are accom
I got off to a rocky start with this – I am of the opinion that 'handwritten' letters should be banned from publication in books unless they are accompanied by full typed transcripts. But I soon found myself getting into the rhythm of the narrative and, having done so, it proved surprisingly easy to lose myself in it for hours at a time. (I'd owned it for a year, and avoided it partly because I wanted to read it right before watching The Return (I didn't manage this in the end), and partly because I thought it might be hard work. If I'd known how light and readable it would be, I'd probably have picked it up a lot sooner.) It's beautifully designed, too, with illustrations and photographs and various documents breaking up the text. The idea is that a dossier, encased in a custom-built steel box, has been discovered, and is in the hands of the FBI. The job of cataloguing its contents falls to an agent known only as TP, whose identity isn't revealed until the end. Composed of letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings, top-secret reports and other documents, it is narrated via the notes of the unknown 'Archivist' and, on top of those, TP's annotations in the margins. It purports to trace the history of the Twin Peaks area from before the foundation of the town to the events of the original series. I should probably mention that while I'm fond of Twin Peaks, I'm not a dedicated fan. It influenced a lot of things I enjoy that I like better than I like Peaks itself, and watching it was more satisfying for that reason – allowing a lot of references to click into place – than for the actual content of the show, which I always found tonally uneven. I also preferred The Return to any of the previous incarnations. I'm bringing this up because I wonder if it all made me the perfect candidate for getting prime enjoyment out of this book. I found the backstory entertaining and absorbing, and it made me like Tammy more (who'd have thought), but I'm not committed enough to the show's lore to be capable of spotting anything but the most obvious of omissions. Indeed, it actually made sense of certain things that I'm not altogether sure I interpreted correctly first time round, or maybe didn't recognise the significance of because I wasn't watching with a laser focus. Now, onwards to The Final Dossier... TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 15, 2018
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Jan 20, 2018
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Jan 03, 2017
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Hardcover
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0008131988
| 9780008131982
| B01D4ORFG0
| 3.79
| 198,249
| Jan 26, 2017
| Jan 26, 2017
|
really liked it
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This book has had one of the most effective marketing campaigns I've seen in a while. I've been keen to read it and looking forward to its publication
This book has had one of the most effective marketing campaigns I've seen in a while. I've been keen to read it and looking forward to its publication for quite some time, despite my well-documented reservations about the domestic thriller genre. The hashtag #WTFThatEnding has been used to promote it on social media, and many ecstatic early reviews have been characterised by an enormous amount of enthusiasm about the plot side-by-side with a refusal to give up its secrets. This buzz has done a great job of making the book alluring to me despite virtually no knowledge about the nature of its promised shock twist – aside from suspicions based on a working knowledge of Sarah Pinborough's back catalogue... Since the runaway success of Gone Girl and the explosion of emulators like The Girl on the Train, similar thrillers have often felt like they've been put together with a checklist close at hand. You could say that Behind Her Eyes is no exception. It's all here: the likeable average-single-mum protagonist; the deeply unhappy couple who appear perfect to everyone else; the new friendship that isn't what it seems. The multiple narrative voices, the flashbacks, the inevitable infidelity, and more mentions of wine than I could count. The difference is that it's done with impeccable skill and a sense of humour, tongue firmly in cheek. It's tremendous fun to read because it feels like it was tremendous fun to write. Pinborough tackles those cliches with infectious glee, single-handedly revitalising the genre with the addition of – well, it would be a spoiler to say. If you hate this type of thriller, Behind Her Eyes is not going to change your mind just because there's a bit of something else chucked into the mix. It's too much of an accurate pastiche for that. On the other hand, if you're picky about them, this is a good one. It's a swift, entertaining read, and it shows how successfully a little bit of rule-bending can invigorate a tired template. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 26, 2017
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Jan 28, 2017
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Dec 07, 2016
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Kindle Edition
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1681443260
| 9781681443263
| 1681443260
| 3.84
| 486
| Jul 13, 2017
| Aug 15, 2017
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really liked it
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I loved the first book of Louise Welsh's Plague Times trilogy (A Lovely Way to Burn, 2014) but felt rather more lukewarm about the second (Death is a
I loved the first book of Louise Welsh's Plague Times trilogy (A Lovely Way to Burn, 2014) but felt rather more lukewarm about the second (Death is a Welcome Guest, 2015). So I approached No Dominion with a stronger sense of duty than excitement, only to be met with a brilliant third instalment that wraps the series up perfectly. It seems to combine the strongest elements of its predecessors – the thrilling high-energy plot and imaginative power of Burn, the maturity and character development of Guest – into an enthralling road-trip narrative that ranks as the best literary dystopia I've lost myself in since Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. No Dominion is set seven years after the events of the first two books, with both Stevie and Magnus now settled on the mainland of Orkney. Stevie is president of the island; Magnus has returned to his roots as a crofter. Meanwhile, Shuggie, Magnus's adopted son, is fifteen years old and starting to show signs of rebelliousness. It doesn't help that he's infatuated with Willow, a pretty, defiant girl whose adoptive parents are the abrasive Bjarne and jealous Candice. As the portentous prologue warns, The adults did not foresee that there would be a price to pay for keeping the children ignorant. To cut a long story short, a trio of newcomers go missing along with a gaggle of the island's children, and Stevie and Magnus set off on an odyssey to track the kids down and, hopefully, bring them back. Sometimes it's like Mad Max: Fury Road relocated to Scotland circa 2025; at other points, especially the early scenes on Orkney, it's more like a historical novel set in a small, self-sufficient community. There are hymns to lost technology, scenes of nature reclaiming urban environments, high-octane action sequences, surreal touches and quiet, disturbing moments (I won't forget that scene in the kitchen at the Petrol Brothers' castle anytime soon). Welsh's writing is so smooth and assured, the narrative such an unstoppable powerhouse, that you never think to stop and question anything. When you've read the other books in a series, it's really difficult to separate yourself from memories of them enough to assess them individually, but I feel pretty sure No Dominion could be read on its own. There are some little things it might be helpful to have existing knowledge of: Magnus's past as a stand-up comedian now seems so incongruous it's a shock to see it mentioned even when you are familiar with his backstory. (In fact, I'm now wondering whether the implausibility of gruff, taciturn Magnus as a comedian was a factor in my indifference towards Death is a Welcome Guest.) On the whole, however, No Dominion is strong enough to stand alone as a self-contained story. A novel I didn't rate at all has been doing the 'for fans of Station Eleven' rounds this summer, but No Dominion is much more deserving of that comparison. It's a vision of a disastrous and destroyed future, it's an exciting yarn, but it is also deeply human: the relationships between the characters feel like they really matter. I might easily have given up on this trilogy, but I'm so glad I read this book. I received an advance review copy of No Dominion from the publisher through NetGalley. TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 21, 2017
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Jun 23, 2017
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Sep 27, 2016
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Hardcover
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B01BMK1NBQ
| 3.47
| 1,115,534
| Jul 31, 2016
| Jul 31, 2016
|
liked it
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I'm too old to associate the Harry Potter books with my childhood, and I always find it faintly bemusing when anyone I think of as 'my age' (a bracket
I'm too old to associate the Harry Potter books with my childhood, and I always find it faintly bemusing when anyone I think of as 'my age' (a bracket that includes people from their mid-twenties to mid-thirties) does so. I didn't read the first Potter until after I'd seen the first film, when I was at university, but nevertheless I've come to associate both the books and the films with comfort. Along with certain cosy mystery series – Marple, Rosemary & Thyme, Death in Paradise – and kids' TV shows from my student years, I've often watched and/or read them when I was ill or depressed (or both), and they have stronger-than-usual connotations of a particular form of escapism: escape to the enclosed and 'safe' feelings typically associated with childhood, without recourse to things from my actual childhood, which might provoke more specific and complicated memories. I think all of this helped Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to work better for me than it might for a true Potter devotee. I enjoyed – more than I expected – being back in this world; it's familiar and comfortable, even with the 'nineteen years later' angle, and that's what I wanted from it. The Albus/Scorpius dynamic is perfect (a big thumbs up for Slytherin heroes, too) and it's exciting and fun. And yes, it is a script and not a book, and it suffers for that, but I actually think the dialogue does a pretty good job of replicating Rowling's typical style. It has its much-discussed problems, notably that Harry's other two kids might as well not exist, and more problematically that the time travel stuff throws a lot of things from the previous books into question; these would undoubtedly be less noticeable in a stage or film version, where you'd be caught up in the visual magic of it all. (It's difficult to imagine how some of the effects described in the stage directions would actually be achieved in a theatre, and that can be quite distracting when you're reading it.) If you ignore the offputting title, this is really interesting on the oddness of the 'it reads like fanfiction' critique so often levelled at the play/script/book. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 12, 2016
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Aug 14, 2016
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Aug 01, 2016
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Kindle Edition
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1509808280
| 9781509808281
| 1509808280
| 3.37
| 4,195
| May 03, 2016
| May 05, 2016
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really liked it
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As I'm only an occasional, and very picky, reader of YA and children's books, I feel they have to work extra hard to impress me. Unlike so many others
As I'm only an occasional, and very picky, reader of YA and children's books, I feel they have to work extra hard to impress me. Unlike so many others, The Square Root of Summer not only impressed me, but surpassed any and all expectations I could have had: it's not just a decent YA novel, it's a fantastic concept and a warm, heartfelt story that works well for any audience. I also liked the way it sidestepped so many of the paths I'd expect a book like this to go down: main character Gottie is science-obsessed rather than bookish; she's average in many respects instead of being your typical special-snowflake YA heroine who's amazing in every way; she's a brilliant student but knows nothing about, for example, music, and she's happy in her small and unremarkable home town. She is, happily, a believable teenager, a thing that's much rarer than it should be in novels for both adults and kids. Gottie is relatable, but her life comes with just enough touches of everyday magic to hit that aspirational sweet spot. The loveably eccentric family, bacchanalian parties, beach hangouts and cosy country bookshop all made me long for the endless summers of adolescence. Her relationship woes are nicely done (when I was the exact same age as her I had a relationship with a boy who wouldn't acknowledge me in public, so the Jason storyline traced over old, old wounds) but it's her grief for beloved grandfather Grey that really hits home, really makes Gottie's characterisation sing. And that's without even mentioning the fantasy bits - they're great, and they make The Square Root of Summer read like a junior version of Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y. I felt bereft when I parted from Gottie and co, and the ending made me cry on a train. A lovely, heart-melting book. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 16, 2016
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May 17, 2016
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May 16, 2016
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Paperback
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3.86
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it was amazing
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Nov 09, 2017
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Nov 03, 2017
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||||
3.30
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really liked it
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Nov 16, 2017
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Sep 25, 2017
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3.95
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it was amazing
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Nov 28, 2019
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Sep 20, 2017
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||||
3.79
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liked it
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Jan 04, 2018
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Sep 10, 2017
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||||
3.72
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liked it
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Oct 08, 2017
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Aug 29, 2017
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||||
3.54
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really liked it
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Aug 18, 2017
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Aug 15, 2017
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||||
3.21
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liked it
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Jun 12, 2018
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Jul 24, 2017
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||||
3.23
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really liked it
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Jan 25, 2019
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Jul 14, 2017
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||||
3.80
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really liked it
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Jul 12, 2017
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Jul 05, 2017
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||||
3.25
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really liked it
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Jul 25, 2017
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Jul 02, 2017
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||||
3.21
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liked it
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Jul 28, 2017
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Jul 02, 2017
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||||
3.32
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really liked it
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Jun 15, 2017
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Jun 13, 2017
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||||
3.92
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really liked it
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Oct 04, 2017
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Jun 05, 2017
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||||
3.40
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it was ok
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Apr 21, 2017
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Feb 12, 2017
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||||
3.18
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really liked it
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Jan 18, 2017
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Jan 11, 2017
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||||
3.96
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really liked it
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Jan 20, 2018
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Jan 03, 2017
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||||
3.79
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really liked it
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Jan 28, 2017
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Dec 07, 2016
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||||
3.84
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really liked it
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Jun 23, 2017
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Sep 27, 2016
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||||
3.47
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liked it
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Aug 14, 2016
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Aug 01, 2016
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||||
3.37
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really liked it
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May 17, 2016
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May 16, 2016
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