All posts tagged: Fiction

‘Full Dark, No Stars’ by Stephen King ~ A Review

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Back when I was in my teens I used to love Stephen Kind and would practically devour everything he published – especially his earlier “full-time horror” novels like ‘The Shining’ & ‘IT’. Somewhere along the line, my dwindling attention span combined with King’s tendency to increasingly verge towards the metaphysical made me give up on him and his high page-count books altogether. Having recently picked up and largely enjoyed some of Joe King’s work (check out my earlier reviews of ‘Heart Shaped Box’ and ‘Horns’), Amazon deemed it appropriate to suggest I buy one of Stephen King’s short story collections, ‘Full Dark, No Stars’. I thought it was about time I gave the ol’ boy another chance and I am delighted that I did. Shorter stories seem to be this guy’s major strength and the ‘Full Dark, No Stars’ collection features what’s possibly some of his best writing to date. Focusing on the inherent darkness of human nature, instead of on the supernatural, his stories are relatable, creepy and stay with you long after you’ve …

‘The Silkworm’ by Robert Galbraith ~ A Review

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Having greatly enjoyed Galbraith’s/ Rowling’s 1st installment of the Cormoran Strike series (a well written and fast paced mystery) I had actually pre-ordered this immediately, and so received it on the day it was published. No sooner had it appeared on my Kindle than I had downloaded it and sunk my teeth in. In that sense, I guess you could say my expectations were (just the tiniest tad) high… ‘The Silkworm’ got my favorite duo involved in a case much grittier than the first one (squirmish readers please be warned: this is quite graphic). Novelist Owen Quine has gone missing and his distressed wife calls on Cormoran Strike to investigate. Pretty soon the writer turns up, brutally murdered – and Strike must figure out who (& why) did it. Once again the setting was atmospheric, the characters were quirky & engaging and the plot was pretty decent (if not what I’d call groundbreaking). The pace, which was quite slow at first, picked up throughout the book – with most of the action/ suspense featured in …

‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ by Robert Galbraith ~ A Review

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Let me begin by saying that when I picked this up I had absolutely no idea it was written by J.K. Rowling. Of course I am neither prejudiced against nor in favor of her work (like many people seem to be), so realizing would hardly have made much difference. To be honest I would probably just have felt intrigued, with regards to how well she could handle such a different (compared to her Harry Potter Series) genre. Moving on to the actual review, I found this 1st installment of the Cormoran Strike Series to be a competently written, intricately plotted story – which, despite not being amazingly original, managed to keep me hooked until the end. Both the male and female leads were well- rounded & relatable – really getting you to care what happens to them next (so much so, in fact, that I have already pre- ordered the next book in the series). The cast of supporting characters was greatly varied and equally well- developed, while the myriad of clues scattered along the …

‘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, …