All posts filed under: Books & Lit

‘Horns’ by Joe Hill ~ A Review

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Having recently discovered Joe Hill, through his debut novel ‘Heart Shaped Box’ which I hugely enjoyed (see review here), I was eager to take up his next offering ‘Horns’ and see what it was all about. The front cover looked very generic (for a horror novel, anyway) but the back cover blurb sounded intriguing. It read: Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend Ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin’s murder, Ig spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover . . . and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it’s time for revenge . It’s time the devil had his due. . . . The first 100 pages or so were fresh, entertaining and extremely enjoyable. …

‘The Rosie Project’ by Graeme Simsion ~ A Review

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As you may know I do enjoy getting to know new authors by their debuts and Graeme Simsion’s first novel, with its catchy title and intriguing back cover blurb, had me at hello. Let me start by saying that I actually purchased the Audible audiobook version of this (narrated by the wonderful Dan O’Grady) which I most highly recommend. On to the book itself what we are dealing with here is, essentially, the journey of self- discovery of Don Tilman – a handsome (think Gregory Peck) but totally inept socially (think Sheldon from ‘Big Bang Theory’) Genetics professor (and undiagnosed Asperger’s sufferer). At 39 Don decides it’s about time he got married and, disillusioned by the inefficacy of traditional dating rituals, devises ‘The Wife Project’ – a scientific method (complete with a 16-page questionnaire) of finding the perfect partner. She will not be (amongst many others) a smoker, a drinker or a late-comer. Enter Rosie (a.k.a. ‘The World’s Most Incompatible Woman’) on a quest right up Tilman’s alley: to find her biological father. Don’s safe, …

‘Heart-Shaped Box’ by Joe Hill ~ A Review

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First of all, let me admit that I hadn’t a clue who Joe Hill was, until about a month ago. I then bumped into a review of NOS4A2 on Tanya Patrice’s blog, Girlxoxo – and thought it sounded like a great read for the holiday season. With ample time ahead of me before Christmas and, given the fact that I usually prefer getting to know new authors by reading their debut novels, I looked at Hill’s bibliography to figure out where I should start. Heart- Shaped Box is what came up and it was in the readers’ reactions to that, that the key to Hill’s true identity lay… Now, I can only imagine how tough it must be to fill dad’s (call me King, Stephen King) shoes, still Hill not only does an excellent job of that but also manages to hold his very own while at it. Heart- Shaped Box is a well thought out horror story, with characters that feel real, are well developed and arrestingly loveable (albeit a bit dark). Hill “pressure …

‘The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House’ by Kate Summerscale ~ A Review

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Let me start by saying that I had this on my TBR list for quite some time before I actually got around to it. I finally picked it up at a point when I felt like sinking my teeth into a good “who dunnit” – thinking that a real- life, locked-house, Victorian murder mystery would make for a riveting read. I guess I had higher expectations than I should have, mainly influenced by all the rave reviews on the inside cover (both front and back!!). Alas, I was bitterly disappointed! Mr. Whicher, the supposed main character, never managed to find his voice and the end result was way too over- researched and all over the place to actually be enjoyable. I do realize than one of the writer’s aims was to illustrate how the Road Hill case influenced budding detective work and gave rise to detective novels as such but I’m pretty sure this could have been achieved using much less detail, thus allowing the story (that was a gruesome child murder and the subsequent …

Press Play: Audible Weekly (18/11- 24/11/2013)

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Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding From Audible: With her hotly anticipated third instalment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Fielding introduces us to a whole new enticing phase of Bridget’s life set in contemporary London, including the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by and the nightmare of drunken texting, the skinny jean, the disastrous email CC, total lack of twitter followers, and TVs that need 90 buttons and three remotes to simply turn on. An uproariously funny novel of modern life, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is a triumphant return of our favourite Everywoman. This seems to be getting mixed reviews but, having loved both of the previous Bridget Jones’ books (& the subsequent movies), I feel like I owe it to her character to read on – if only to see where life takes her next. And, as I’ve said once before: It’s only chic-lit so… how bad can it be? The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro From Audible: One letter will turn newly married …