My Favourite Books of 2016 (How is December Here Already???)

December has arrived far too quickly. How is it this time already? It's been a pretty bad year, in more ways than one, and I seem to have been in a year-long reading slump. Luckily, out of the few books I have read, I've found some real gems.

Autumn

I talked about this book here.

Basically, the epitome of all the books I've read this year. I've said that all of this in my review, of course - but the feeling hasn't faded. It's a beautiful read - touching, lyrical and political. It goes much deeper than perhaps first appears, and discusses much more than the blurb suggests. Divided Britain. Racist undertones in society. Brexit.

It's not just my favourite book of 2016 because it's so well written. It really sums up 2016, and my feelings about the major political shifts we've seen. Sometimes you love a book so much you can't explain it in writing - this is one of them.

1Q84

This is the first book of Murakami's that I read - it introduced me to an author that I knew very little about. Now I understand the hype: Murakami's books are completely unique - unlike any other author I know. Actually, I think I started with his best book. I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed any of his other books - just none of them live up to this. So far I've read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood  - enjoyable, but not as riveting.

Based on Orwell's 1984, it's about.... everything. Parallel universes. Books. Writing. The joys of literature. Love. So much more. You can see the connections between Orwell's novel and Murakami's. Some are obvious. Some are a little more subtle. Overall, it's a bizarre, poetic read but really rewarding read.

The Evenings

Gerard Reve has been described as the Dutch Albert Camus.  I'm normally quite wary of books (and authors) described liked this - they normally raise my expectations and then fail to meet them. This was an exception.

Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - find life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit.

This is the story of ten evenings in Frtis's life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city street and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him.

At first, I wasn't sure about The Evenings. It felt like the whole thing was building up to a climax that never arrived. As it continued, however, I began to get drawn into the dark, perhaps slightly sarcastic, tone that lies beneath. (Maybe sarcastic is the wrong word.) By the time I finished, I was mesmerised. It reminded me a lot of Camus, also appearing slightly Kafka-like at times, and despite a slightly dodgy start, really surprised me. Profound and beautifully written - I don't think this is getting the attention it deserves.

What are your favourite books of the year?

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Autumn by Ali Smith

Autumn
Ali Smith
20 October 2016
Hamish Hamilton

Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. That's what it felt like for Keats in 1819.

How about Autumn 2016?

Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.

Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever.

Ali Smith's new novel is a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, on what harvest means. This first in a seasonal quartet casts an eye over our own time. Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearian jeu d'esprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s Pop art: the centuries cast their eyes over our own history-making.

This is the best book I've read this year.

That is not an understatement.

Post Brexit, post Trump - post truth - this is the perfect read. Touching, heart-warming - breath taking - it's one of those books that flies by and you want to read again and again.

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Ali Smith fan. Sadly. Her books are unique - a breath of fresh air, when done well. I find her a little hit and miss - sometimes her prose is brilliant and I just want to read on and on - and other times I find her books a battle to even finish.

This is one of her books that I love. Her style is brilliant, witty, and touching. And sad. Sad, but beautiful. It touches on themes of death, ageing, the passing of time. It's about the friendship between a young girl and an old man, but also society. Ali Smith weaves different stories and realities and turns something deceptively simple into something beautiful.

This is one of those books that is more than just a book. It's one of those books that reminds you writing is art. I came to read this book from her previous - How To Be Both - and found the difference astonishing. Compared to HTBB, which I struggled to even finish, Autumn is on a different level entirely.

The Brexit vote crops up as a theme - it's the first time I've read about it in a book. Which makes it all the more sadder - depending on what you voted for. It discusses how the vote has affected British life, what cultural divides it has suddenly brought to the surface. It contrasts ordinary life with the huge political shifts happening behind the scenes - which is something you can appreciate whichever way you voted.

That's another post entirely.

Anyway, you should read this book. It's not just a story, it's a look at time and at modern British life, the mood of a post-Brexit country and the divisions that have suddenly ripped through society - and it does it in such a subtle way that you hardly realise it. 

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Do You Ever Feel Pressured To Read a Certain Number of Books?

Do you ever feel pressured into reading a certain number of books? I mean, eight books a month? Twelve?

I do.

I feel really guilty when I don't read. I feel even guiltier if I do read, but hardly get anything read. I mean, I have a big TBR. It ain't going nowhere. It just sits there judging me. One day it will collapse. SEND HELP.

I've always been known as a bookworm. I've always seen myself as a bookworm - I sometimes wonder if that's where this comes from. When I was younger, I managed to get through hundreds of books a year, so it always feels strange when I don't. My reading habits are deeply engrained in my life - but it feels more than wrong when I don't read. It almost feels as though I'm a fake bookworm because I'm not reading enough - which in turn makes reading itself a whole load more stressful.

This is one of the reasons I don't do Goodreads challenges - or readathons at all (with the exception of #Victober). I often see people saying that they're reading books they wouldn't normally read, such as comics or novellas or whatever, just to catch up if they're behind schedule. I don't understand. I mean, I don't have a problem with comics or novellas - but why read stuff you don't necessarily want to just to hit a target? I think it's easy to get caught up in the numbers when you're reading and you actually forget about why you're doing it (i.e. to get as far away from reality as humanly possible).

I find I put enough pressure on myself to read without having a specific number to hit. I think putting that pressure on myself ends up taking the fun out of reading. Believe it or not, BOOKS ARE MEANT TO BE FUN. (Well, most of them. I'm not sure about Mein Kampf.)

I think it's important to remind yourself that books are meant to be fun - not just numbers on a graph. If I take a while over a book, or I only read one a month, it doesn't really matter that much, does it? Some books take longer to finish than others. Sometimes I want to read different genres. Sometimes I don't want to read at all. What matters is that I enjoy it - and I think sometimes it's easy to forget that.

Besides, on the bright side, a couple of books a month is more than most people read in a year. Which is sort of nice to hear, but also really sad. Ah. Sometimes I pity humanity.

What do you think?

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#Victober Update: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Published 1847
#Victober Readathon

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

I've seen people going crazy over this book. In the past I've just rolled my eyes and ignored them: now I understand why. In fact, now I feel a bit stupid for not having read it sooner.

If you're going to write a romance novel - this is how you do it.

Mr Lockwood, a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, visits his Tennant at Wuthering Heights. There in the vast, bleak Yorkshire moors he meets the mysterious Heathcliff. As the book continues, we find out the tragic backstory behind Heathcliff's life and the dark secrets of his past.

Basically - I'M COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY IN LOVE. (Also, HAVE YOU SEEN THAT COVER???)

I'm pretty sure I'd count this as one of the best books I've read this year. If I was pushed, I'd say it was the best.

On the writing - it's beautiful. It's hauntingly beautiful, and I don't think it's ever going to leave me. Every word seems to be perfect. Not only that, it's accompanied by a brilliant plot - complex, yes, but so much better because of it. It's one of those books that you can go back to again and again - and still find something that you hadn't discovered before. There's something so special about this book - maybe it's the gothic-ness, maybe it's the feeling of tragedy - that I can't quite put my finger on.

Something I was really surprised by all the negative reviews this gets. One of the main criticisms: the characters are unlikeable.

Yes, some of the characters are unlikeable. Some of them are snobby, rude, and some of them are downright pricks. But why does that make it a bad book? Ok, I see the attraction of reading about people you can relate to - root for, but I don't see why a book has to have likeable characters just to be enjoyed? In fact, I think Bronte's characters are one of her greatest triumphs here. They came alive on the page. I'm pretty sure Heathcliff is one of the best characters I've ever seen written - I don't say that lightly. The prose is poetic, beautiful - and the characters thrive in it. I think the fact that they're unlikeable is one of the thing that contributes to the brilliant reading experience.

Read it, goddammit.

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#Victober Update - The Pickwick Papers

The Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens
Published 1837
#Victober Readathon

The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel and widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic writing in English. Originally serialised in monthly instalments, it quickly became a huge popular success with sales reaching 40,000 by the final part.

From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor’s prison, characters & incidents sprang to life from Dickens’s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour & literary invention.

In the century and a half since its first appearance, the characters of Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller and the whole of the Pickwickian crew have entered the consciousness of all who love English literature in general, and the works of Dickens in particular.

It's taken me ages to write this review. I finished the book over a week ago - but it turns out reviewing Dickens is even harder than reading him.

That said, this was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. It was utterly different to what I thought I was opening up - the only thing I got right is that it's long. 900 pages, to be exact. But it's not the dull, bleak, depressing book I was waiting for - instead, it's light-hearted, funny and a joy to read.

This is Dickens' first book - definitely one of his most neglected, but certainly not bad. It follows the middle class Pickwick club travelling all over the country, getting themselves into all kinds of scrapes and situations. It never take itself seriously, and as soon as you get over the (dated) writing style the whole experience become... enjoyable.

There's some parts, even today, that I found pretty funny. Laugh out loud, snort tea through your nose, kind of funny. It's slapstick and light-hearted - but I never thought it got too carried away. Originally published in 19 separate episodes, and then compiled into a single novel, there are some chapters that are a little drier than others. However, the book always somehow manages to pick itself back up and continue to delight.

I think this is perfect if you want to get a foothold into the Dickens novels. It really could be called a collection of short stories - it almost is. The plot jumps around from place to place, and is often interspersed with stories narrated by minor characters (of which there are many). It's not the stereotypical Dickens, which I found slightly disappointing, but I found reading this useful to get used to his style before moving on to some of his chunkier works.

I didn't find the story as well-written as some of the later novels, and somehow I didn't feel an urge to want to finish the story quite like I do with some of his later books. That said, though, it's full of brilliant characters from start to finish and provides a wonderful first step into the world of Dickens.

Have you read any Dickens?

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Victober Reading List

Victober. Yes, that's right. An October full of Victorian fiction. It's no secret that I've been reading a lot of classics recently, but so far I've stayed fairly in my comfort zone i.e. anything written after Hitler. I'm not planning to read lots of books this October - Dickens takes quite a while to get through, and I enjoy taking my time with him. So, in the month before Donald Trump takes power like he almost certainly will and we're-all-really-fucking-screwed, here's what I'm hoping to read:

The Pickwick Papers

Dickens. YES. The master of English. I've been plodding through this ol' beast for the last month and am still only half way through. Admittedly I have been taking a break every 150 pages and reading something a little... easier. I think that's how Dickens should be read. We wouldn't want a Dickens overdose, now, would we?

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying it. In fact, I'm in love. I've never read any Dickens before, so this is all completely new to me.  It's funny, something I didn't think I'd be saying about Dickens, and really heart warming.  It's full of slapstick comedy that really wouldn't seem out of place in a modern sitcom, and does have some laugh out loud moment. It's pure genius - but pretty hard going. Will I finish it by November? We'll see. *insert dramatic cliff-hanger here*

The Time Machine

HG Wells is a little different from Dickens. I watched a really interesting BBC documentary on Wells' life (you can see it here), which got me excited enough to read this book. That link will probably only work if you're in the UK, by the way. And you'll also only find it interesting if you're weird and have some kind of book obsession. Like I totally haven't.

Anyway, I haven't read any of Wells' stuff before. If I like this I'll probably read War of the Worlds and some more of his lesser-known stuff too. I'm pretty excited to read this, as it's often called the father of science fiction (even though I'm not the biggest fan of the genre XD).

Wuthering Heights

Ah, where would we be without Jane Austen? I mean Jane Eyre. Or do I mean Emile Bronte? Nick Clegg? Mr Bump? OK, I don't know my Austen from my Bronte. My reading of this type of thing/genre is mainly restricted to Agnes Grey (which I love) and Pride and Prejudice (which I love more). But hopefully that will change with. Admittedly I'm really looking forward to reading this one, and also reading North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell if I get the time, who was one of the Bronte's main biographers at the time.

Are you taking part in Victober? What's on your October TBR?

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Blunt and Better Than the BBC Adaption - The Secret Agent Review

I've finally gotten around to reading this - I got it for birthday a couple of years ago off one of my mother's friends who I had previously thought had forgotten my existence. I was spurred into action when I saw it had been adapted by the BBC and recorded the series whilst it was on, content in the knowledge that I could read the book and then binge the series.

First of all I'd like to say - don't judge the book the recent adaption, if you're one of the few unlucky ones who actually bothered to watch it. Judging this book by the adaption is like judging a restaurant's quality by the taste of the dog shit outside the door. I mean, I think it's pretty brave trying to adapt it at all - when you're reading it, it doesn't exactly seem like the type of thing you'd want to spend of a Sunday evening - but I still thought it could have been better.

Secondly, bear with it. The book appears quite dense at first - I've found that with all of Conrad's books. His writing... it's not exactly the most readable stuff. It's like a wet sponge, it's heavy and at times seems thicker than a UKIP supporter. At the start it's like trying to piss treacle. There are very few natural breaks, chapters are long, and sentences are pretty long winded. There's no point trying to read this quickly; I reckon your best bet is to just go with the flow, and reread anything you don't follow before you move on. His writing is very blunt - he doesn't bother with elaborate descriptions - but as you go on and you get used to the style, it gets easier.

There's a certain quality about his writing that is brilliant. It's blunt, it's unassuming - it's not elaborately decorated. Conrad has an ability to create monsters. Mr Verloc is a monster, almost certainly - and the way Conrad manages that is magical. He really manages to create the most human monsters - not like the fake villains of today, he manages to search the soul and make someone despicable - but also like you or me. His writing - it's full of intrigue - a little confusing at time, I've had to go back and reread a couple of sections, but the full force of how epic the novel is doesn't really hit you until you've finished it.

Mr Verloc's first name is also Adolf. Yes, Adolf. That's how you can tell this book was written before the 1930s (1907, if you were wondering. You weren't? Oh fuck off.). It follows the story of Mr Verloc, a secret agent (who would've guessed?) for an unknown embassy, given the task of blowing up the Greenwich clock tower. It appears so simple, but when you get into it, the book unfolds into something so much more complicated.

I've read a couple of Joseph Conrad's recently - Lord Jim is by far my favourite. I think comparing this novel to his others - it's definitely not as good. But still worth reading. He paints a really interesting picture of intrigue and suspense throughout the novel - and it seems to flash by. It's a short read - made to seem longer by the thickness of the pages in my edition. It's not the best Conrad, but perhaps one of the better ones to start with if you're just getting going with his (17) books.

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Hello. Remember Me?

Hello, remember me? I'm Harvey and I've been in a MASSIVE blogging slump. I was going to pretend I'd been in a coma for a few weeks but then I realised I'd still been tweeting, so that wouldn't really work out.

There are a couple of excuses for not being around as much. Mainly that thing that people insist on calling school.

I haven't been reading as much.

Which is a bit of a problem considering I blog about books.  Not only that, pretty much all of the books I've been reading are in French. Yes, you read that right. Yes, I need to get a life.

So far this month I've read.

• The second and third Harry Potter books (surprisingly OK).
• La Disparition (George Perec - basically the only letter 'E' in the book is in the author's name).
• La Végétarienne (Han Kang - she's a Koran author shortlisted for the Man Booker International last year).

As it turns out, reading in French is actually pretty hard. It gets pretty annoying having to Google Translate every other word, but I have noticed my French improving. I'm writing in the definition of all the words I don't know in the margins, and then when I've finished the book going back and creating an Anki deck of them. That way I can improve my vocabulary and not just forget the words as soon as I've read them.

I started out reading some books I knew quite well like Harry Potter, but now I'm starting to explore and discover French books I haven't read in English, like Albert Camus and George Perec. I love them. I've also started reading more classical literature from around the world - not just in French. At the moment I'm reading Dubliners by James Joyce - though I'm not attempting Ulysses just yet *cough*ever*cough*. They've sort of renewed that excitement for reading that I haven't really felt since I first discovered YA books when I was about seven.  So I'll probably be talking about those a little more. Who knows? I don't.

What else?

I decided to take the plunge and just write a post a couple of days ago. I've got quite a few stored now, so I'm determined to keep up with blogging for the rest of 2016 without another month of disappearing. 

Also, I was featured in the Big Book Project this month and talked about my book blogging experience. You can check out my guest post here: https://bigbookproject.co.uk/2016/08/21/harveys-experiences-with-blogging/

Here's to a more fruitful September!

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My Thoughts On Cursed Child (With Spoilers)

This post contains spoilers. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Oh yeah THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN / READ IT RUN AWAY NOW. Just to be clear the spoilers aren't hidden either. Glad that's out of the way.

Right. Now. Well. This is awkward, isn't it? Because I'm about to get very angry with the series that was BASICALLY MY CHILDHOOD.

First of all, let's make it clear that I haven't seen the play - I've just read the script. Let's make it clear that, yes, I do know what a script is and no I wasn't expecting it to be a novel and no at no point was I expecting it to be anywhere near a novel. But I was expecting something of a coherent plot.

I have read scripts before. In fact, one of them is up there with my favourite books I've ever read. So I did understand what I was letting myself in for.

Everybody loves the play - and that's great. I hear there are some pretty cool tricks in it. But what we've got here is the script. And with the script you get the plot. And nothing but the plot. And that's maybe where the problem lies. Because, unlike some people, I just thought the whole thing was pathetic.

Voldemort + Bellatrix = I can't get that image out of my head.

HELP MEEEEEEEEEE. Voldemort having sex? Ugh. I just find it entirely unrealistic, completely implausible, and also now have an image seared into my brain that I would give anything to get rid of. To be honest, it wasn't as if it wasn't even predictable. The idea of Voldemort having a child was brought in pretty early, and so was Delphi (Voldemort's child). In fact, I spent most of my time reading wondering whether she was Voldemort's daughter and jesus christ surely Rowling has a better plot twist than that up her sleeve?

On the subject of Delphi, I thought her character development was non-existent, she herself entirely predictable, and the way she was (eventually) defeated pathetic. Enough said.

Some say that they would have preferred Voldemort to have been left out entirely, and I sort of agree. Bringing him back did seem very obvious. I was sort of  hoping for a new plot line altogether. However it was good to see the aftermath of the war e.t.c and how the ministry was handling it, even if it was only mentioned briefly.

Time travel - ugh.

It was kind of cool to see the events of the original series being meddled with. That's it: kinda cool. But still not worth putting into an actual play. Jumping backwards and forwards got a little tedious in the end, and each 'problem' got solved incredibly quickly. 

Also, if the end of Part 1 was supposed to be a shocking cliffhanger, it definitely wasn't.

Scorpius and Draco - I enjoyed their relationship.

I think is the best part of the script. Or at least the best part of a bad script. Scorpius and Draco - unlike pretty much any other character - were pretty well developed, and I enjoyed seeing their relationship evolve. I also enjoyed Scorpius and Albus' relationship and how that developed, over the course of what-wasn't-really-a-plot-but-an-excuse-to-make-money. Ahem. Scorpius stole the show, basically.

With that out the way, almost every other character felt undeveloped. Scenes seemed to go by very quickly, and speech didn't flow brilliantly. Ugh.

So yeah, it was the plot that didn't work for me. 

To me, it didn't work. It didn't make sense. So I can see why people say the play needs to be seen. With all the bells and whistles it's probably a good production. But with the script you just get the story - which I thought was ridikulus. (I'm never getting tired of that joke). It didn't fit with the series at all - where was Teddy Lupin?????? Deathly Hallows made it clear that he was a pretty big part of the story.

I wasn't expecting a novel - or anything of the kind - but I was expecting a script that took me back into the wizarding world and had a story that I could enjoy. New characters seemed really underwritten and undeveloped. Ugh. I feel so bad saying this. I just thought it was pretty terrible.

It's all very well saying that you need to go and see it - it's meant to be seen, not read - but I'm not sure how seeing it will make the plot any less pathetic.

I'm now going to go and hide in a hole and flee all those Potterheads who will now be searching for me with pitchforks.

Have you read the script / seen the play? What did you think?

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My Favourite Translated Books

The Guest Cat

OHHHHHHHH THE FEELS.

This is one of the most unlikeliest books I think I could ever read and love. IT'S ABOUT A CAT AND WE ALL KNOW DOGS RULE. But seriously, this book is brilliant, thought provoking and really really special.

It's only 130 pages long (and that's with a blank page in between each chapter). It's short. In fact I read most of it sat in the car in an Aldi car park (don't ask). And I think that's what I love about it. It's one of those books that you read and you instantly know you love - and the fact that it's been done in such a tiny amount of pages make it even more dazzlingly brilliant.

I fell in love with the characters and the writing is really quite exquisite. I mean, I might go as far as saying this is my favourite book. Full stop.

It might not seem like your type of thing and you might not even like it but please give this a go. You'll probably be surprised.

The Hen Who Dreamt She Could Fly

This book is magic. I mean, there's not a lot more to say other than READ IT. Again, it's really thin and really beautifully written and definitely worth the hour or so you'll spend reading it. It's based on a Korean folk tale and you can really tell that - that *vibe* still comes through in the translated version, so whoever did the actual translating did a brilliant job.

It's really simple, but that makes it even more brilliant. Less really is more here, and this book has a huge impact considering the fact it's only tiny.

1Q84

Murakami. WOOO. Admittedly I've been meaning to read this trilogy for AGES and I'm so glad I have done - because it's brilliant. There's ups and downs, and there's a few dry bits that made me want to give up, but in the end it's worth it.

Books play quite a big part of this, and so does writing, and it celebrates them both in the most brilliant and wonderful way. I'm not sure if that's the experience others got (maybe not, because nobody ever seems to mention it) - but personally I loved it. There's a really slow burning mystery/romance surrounding the two main characters that doesn't really become clear until the end of book 2, and I LOVE THAT.

Food + writing + weird freaky mysterious stuff + the word "cock" being used a surprising amount of times + japanese = awesome.

Which translated books do you love?

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Fellside by M.R Carey - Too Slow and Not Enough Brain Guzzling Monsters

The unmissable and highly anticipated new literary thriller from the author of the international phenomenon The Girl With All the Gifts.

Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It's not the kind of place you'd want to end up. But it's where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life.

It's a place where even the walls whisper.

And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess.

Will she listen?

From the author of The Girl With All The Gifts (possibly one of the best novels I've read this year) comes Fellside (possibly one of the most annoying books I've ever read).

Annoying, that is, because I really wanted to love it. But I didn't.

First of all, let's just say that after The Girl With All The Gifts, I had some really quite enormous expectations - which might be where the problem lies. After reading his previous book in one (maybe two) sittings, it shocked me so much that I didn't like this that much.

Let's make this clear: this isn't the Girl With All The Gifts, and I don't have a problem with that. But it just wasn't comparable to his previous work at all - it just didn't live up to my expectations. Instead of a thrill heavy, action-y plot - what we got was a slow burner, something that seemed to be leading up to something, but never got there. I don't have a problem with slower books - far from it, but I just think there's a time and place. Lots of people talk about how this slow pace gave a ghostly feel - but I never got that. At times, the whole thing just felt incredibly tedious.

That said, this was brilliantly researched, just like Girl. However, here I don't feel like it worked that well. With Girl, it fitted in seamlessly - it turned your average zombie story into something so much more. Here, though, the text either seems to be either made up of ridiculously detailed drug taking (which I didn't particularly enjoy) and a few other storylines which, as far as I can tell, did nothing for the plot. At least I think the drug taking was research. Either that or the author has a serious addiction.

Basically, this just didn't grip me as much as I wanted it to. I wanted to love and enjoy this and fall in love with a new world and that just didn't happen.

However, in other news, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS TRAILER HAS BEEN RELEASED! WHOOO! As far as I can tell, it seems to follow the basic storyline pretty closely, and all the actors seem to fit the parts just as I imagined! Feast your eyes here:

Have you read Fellside? What about Girl? What did you think?

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