Room by Emma Donoghue

Wow, okay so this was probably one of the best books I’ve read all year. I’m way behind on everyone else reading this because I’ve had so much on my to-read list this year that I’ve been putting it off. When I think of some of the tripe I read when I could have been reading this…

Ma and Jack are two characters that will stay with you for the rest of your life more than likely. Basically the plot centers around the two of them for the majority of the book in what is basically a  scenario with a woman having been kidnapped and locked in a room where her kidnapper has repeatedly raped and abused her which eventually resulted in the birth of Jack. We meet Jack when he is just turning five and since his whole life has been spent in the confines of Room, he doesn’t even understand the concepts of a world beyond his four walls. The innocence with which he describes his life and his daily routine in his surroundings is extremely humbling. This child has never even played Tag nevermind owned an Xbox.

Ma’s bravery and battle with coming to terms with everything she experienced is really brilliant. I love Ma but I just adored listening to Jack’s inner monologue which was at times so sad and at times so innocently funny. I adored this book from start to finish and it just went too quickly. It really makes you appreciate your life and the things you take for granted every day. A cup of tea or a trip to the cinema takes on a whole new meaning when you’ve read this book. It moved me to tears, and when a book does that I know I’ve found something amazing.

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You Belong To Me by Karen Rose

Okay so this is the first Karen Rose book I’ve ever read and I have to say that I definitely enjoyed it. There were also definitely parts that were a bit unrealistic to say the least but overall it was a good thriller.

So first ridiculously unrealistic part was the main two characters love affair. ‘They‘re eyes met across a crowded crime scene’… Come on! They immediately fall head over heels for eachother having never even spoken before and end up having sex in an alley way in between finding dead bodies. Now I’m usually all for sex in alleys but this was just a tad inappropriate considering he’s the detective on a case where she’s a suspect. And I don’t care that he KNEW she didn’t do it because he just knows her. No you don’t you met her like five minutes ago.

Second ridiculously unrealistic part was that every single character in the book had a dead wife, child, husband, brother etc. JD had a dead wife, Lucy had a dead brother and a dead fiance, Stevie’s husband and child died. And they all died in really weird ways, JD’s wife got killed in a diving accident, Lucys brother died in a motorbike accident and her fiance in a car accident and Stevie’s husband and child got killed in a robbery. Maybe they should refocus their energies on finding out why the hell people are dying to get away from them?

However I will stop my rant there as other than these two pretty major flaws, the book was quite good. The plot was interesting with the bad guy picking off the people who he thought were involved in his sisters rape and death. I actually felt a bit sorry for him and most of the characters that he killed pretty much deserved what they got anyway. That may be a bit harsh but it is true. I’m not all that sure whether I’d read a Karen Rose book again. It would have to really sound interesting, then maybe.

 

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

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Okay so it’s been awhile since I read Wicked but I found myself finding my way around Oz so much easier this time. It surprised me how easy I fell back into the author’s style of writing and the whole concept of Oz. He does have a distinct way of writing and the Oz he’s created is so much richer in detail than the Oz we all know that in the first book I struggled with separating my original idea of Oz with his new one. In Son of a Witch however, it was so much easier to fall back into his world.

Liir is a weird character. He’s not someone you fall instantly in love with and at times you may even find yourself hating him just a little bit. However his story is really gripping and I couldn’t tear myself away for the most part. In the beginning the plot floats between Liir’s past, what happened him after Elphaba died, and the mauntery where is lying in a coma. It’s quite interesting to see what happened after Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch and was sent home as we never saw this at all in the original. It was nice to see the Scarecrow turned out to be a fairly nice character as they had all been portrayed as idiots in the first book, even though we only meet him for a few moments.

Back to Liir, he is really a strange person. There’s some good in him definitely but we also see a lot of bad as he struggles to find a place for himself in the world of Oz. I really enjoyed the whole relationship with Candle that came near the end and I wished it had turned out a little better. Also enjoyed Trism but the gay reference confused me as I wasn’t really sure where the author was going with that. Liir struggled with any human relationship he had, seeming to really only be able to interact well with Animals.

Overall the whole setting of Oz and the characters and the plot were at times mesmerizing and at times lacklustre. I really am struggling to identify my feelings for this book because I loved the whole premise of the story and I definitely found myself gripped for a large portion of the book but… There were also definitely parts where I was waiting for that chapter to finish and was left wondering what the hell was that about? I think the only way to describe it is that it was an okay story with good characters in an amazing setting.

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Tempted by P.C. and Kirstin Cast

There’s no doubt about it but this series is only getting better and better. In every instalment of the House of Night Series I find myself falling more in love with every one of the characters, even the bad guys. It’s one of the best written young adult series that I’ve ever read.

Zoey, our main character, is a really normal teenager other than the fact that she is a vampyre. Also she’s a pretty amazing vampyre, as in she’s just a fledgling but has already become a High Priestess. Ok so she’s not that normal in the typical sense but I just really enjoy the way the author makes her seem so real. She has feelings she shouldn’t have for people, she makes bad choices sometimes but she’s a good person inside. She’s just not perfect but who is?

Also love Stark and Heath her Vampyre Warrior and her Human Consort. Stark is just this cheeky, loveable rogue and Heath is just plain adorable. So, so glad Zoey gave Eric the old heave-ho cos he was irritating the hell out of me. Oh and let’s just set aside a few words for Kalona. How yum does he sound? I know he’s evil and all but still, he has wings… I like that Zoey was torn over what to do about Kalona as so was I. I feel like there is some good there but barely.

As for Stevie Rae and Rephaim, I don’t know what to make of it really. I mean I’m all for a good romance, especially if someone is evil and the other person can show them the error of their ways but I’m not sure Rephaim can be saved. He’s seems so evil and he killed Anastacia in cold blood. I’m not sure just how Stevie Rae can get around that and even if she does, I don’t think all her friends will be won over quite as easy.

This series keeps getting better and it’s definitely becoming one of my favourite to date. I just hope they never stop coming.

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The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown *4 Stars*

So I read this years ago when I was going through my I-love-Dan-Brown-so-much I-could-die stage. Years have passed and I find myself so much more critical when it comes to reviewing him in particular, more so than any other author. I’m not usually the type of person who will look for faults but with him I do and I’m afraid they aren’t hard to find when you look. With his other books after re-reading them they dropped from 5 stars to maybe 2. I was so disappointed with the cliched writing, the totally unrealistic situations and the dismal characters. Plus every Brown book has the same plot. Once you’ve read one, you’ve pretty much read them all.

However, yes there is a bright side, the Da Vinci Code was nearly (so close) as good as I remembered it. Yes I can now see that even in this book the cliches and the similarities in plot to his other books do exist but the story behind this book is so gripping you tend to overlook those minor flaws that little bit more easily.

The Da Vinci Code is original, I will never argue on that point (although many have). For what is basically fiction, you get that could-this-be-true feeling an awful lot throughout this book. The setting is brilliant, beginning in the Lourve and then the Swiss bank and onto London and Scotland. I just loved all these ‘real famous places’ being used as crime scenes and clues in a Holy Grail quest. There was something very Indiana Jones about it. Also never has Brown’s style of books being told in real time worked better. It just adds to the atmosphere of the whole story.

The actual storyline involves so much fact mixed in with the fiction, it really makes it so interesting a read. Although all of Browns books do this, never does it work as well as it does in the DaVinci Code. I love the references to the Last Supper and Rosslyn chapel. I’ve actually visited Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland after reading this book for the first time and he has a lot of the details correct, so he clearly is a man who does his research and does it well. (I didn’t find any subterranean vault though!) And as for the Last Supper, I’ve never looked at that painting the same since.

I enjoyed this so much I’m gonna give it 4 stars. I’ll drop one because Brown, I am so wise to your antics now…

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