The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Review)

Title: The Girl with All the Gifts
Author: M.R. Carey
First published: 2014
Add it: Goodreads, Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★★

The only important thing you should know about The Girl with All the Gifts is that you must read it. Really, you will not be disappointed! The problem is, I don't want to tell you anything about the plot to convince you, so you'll just have to believe me :) You see, knowing anything about what's happening will spoil your experience of the first couple of chapters, in which it is masterfully and gradually revealed. So don't read the blurbs either!

But I'll say that the book surprised me greatly, in a good way. The ideas, the ending, the characters - all awesome! The POV is constantly changing, and this makes for a very dynamic writing. The Girl with All the Gifts makes you question some of basic human assumptions, and the finale will blow out your mind.

One of the inevitable drawbacks is that the book is very graphic, and sometimes it's just too much. Maybe it's my active imagination, but a couple of scenes were so disgusting I wanted to puke. But in this case it's a necessary evil, resulting from the matter of substance.

In my book:
Oh so good! Read it!

P.S. I am very pleased with the new course Coursera Fantasy and Sci Fi book club has taken (where everybody interested is welcome, BTW!). Before, we voted for the book to read each month, and it resulted in good, but somewhat predictable choices. We read books everybody had heard about, and there was no discovery of new titles. Now, however, a member is appointed (with his consent, of course :) ) each month to choose a book and lead a discussion. The Girl with All the Gifts was the first book chosen this way, and I'm so glad I was encouraged to read it! This month we are reading a wonderful comic book, and next month I'm leading the discussion, and I also plan something great which I hope everybody'll like :)

Seduction by M.J. Rose (A Rant)

Title: Seduction
Author: M.J. Rose
First published: 2013
Add it: Goodreads, Book Depository
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I haven't participated in Plagues, Witches and War Historical Fiction Book Club for quite some time now, and this was definitely NOT the book to encourage my further participation. It's so full of bullshit from the beginning! There are Celts, spiritualism, reincarnation, Jungian therapy, suicides, Satan with his deals, myths, personality disorders, drugs and what not. It's as if the author tried to just put everything she knew in the book, and it's even not much, at least concerning myths. The worst thing however is that the author is SERIOUS about all this stuff. I like a bit of mysticism, but I like it to be more subtle. There should be some reasonable explanation for everything happening, even if the atmosphere suggests that there's not. But the book demands the reader to actually believe in reincarnation. Seriously?

Why two stars still? Well, the writing is good. I think the author has made a descent attempt to mimic Hugo's writing, or at least 19th century writing. So when the heroine was not in a fit or in the middle of a discussion or action that didn't make any sense, I could even enjoy the flow of words.

In my book:
Bullshit, full stop.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (Review)

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
First published: 2007
Add it: Goodreads, Book Depository
Rating: ★★★☆☆

This short novel tells a story of a boy growing up on a cemetery after the murder of his parents. He is brought up by ghosts and has adopted some of their ways, but he still craves for a company of the living kids. However, it is not safe for him to leave the cemetery, as the murderer is still out there.

Gaiman's supernatural stuff is still not my cup of tea. Although the ghosts were cute and Silas mysterious and impressive, the Jacks were weird and vague. I also didn't dig ghouls and the gate and everything inside. But Gaiman CAN write kids, there's no doubt of that. Bod's thoughts and feelings are so real! This feeling of not being told anything, however capable of understanding you think yourself... It's familiar to everybody who remembers being a kid, I guess. Learning responsibility is also a major aspect of Bod's growing up, which is indeed very important.

Plot-wise the book seems to be for children, but there are certain graphic scenes of bloodshed that hint that the target audience is grown-ups. It's a bit confusing, but not new for me, as it's the same with Stardust.

In my book:
More suitable for kids which are not afraid of a bit of killing :)

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IX

Art used for banners is the property of Abigail Larson

It's this gloomy and depressing time of the year again (although in my part of the world the weather has already been autumnal for the whole August), and Carl is hosting his annual event for reading all things scary, including mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, Gothic, horror and supernatural genres. If you are interested, HERE is a sign-up post.

I'm in a bi-i-i-ig reading slump right now, so I'll aim low and take up only Peril the Second level, which involves reading only two books. And here's what I'll (hopefully) read for the challenge:

I bought them half a year ago at a used books sale and it's high time to finally read them! I think I'll start with Gaiman, 'cause it's thinner and because I've recently regained my faith in him after several issues of Sandman.

R.I.P. VIII Wrap-Up

This year's R.I.P. event is at an end, and although I was not as successful in it as I hoped back in August, I've done the minimum program. I was planning to read the following books:

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
2. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
3. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe
4. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

As you see, I have read four of them, and really enjoyed three (you guess yourself which one is left out :) ). As for The Mysteries of Udolpho, it has turned out to be a very long and tedious book, so I'm not even half-way through yet... If the right mood strikes me, I may finish it by the end of the year, but that's already two months past the event finish line :)

There was also one book I didn't really expect to turn out creepy, as I didn't know what to expect of it at all, but as it's Gaiman, surely enough it turned out to be the creepiest of all :)

    6.  The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

So I've done Peril the First level, as it requires only 4 books, and I've read five. It was my first time participating, and I really enjoyed it, as it made me pick up books I've put aside for too long, and some of them I really loved!

Looking forward to the next year! :)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Review)

Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Author: Washington Irving
First published: 1820
Add it: Goodreads, The Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★★

All of you native English speakers probably don't need any plot summary of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, because, as I've heard, it's included in nearly every school program. Even for me the story felt very familiar, although I don't remember actually reading it. I guess it's already in the domain of collective unconscious. What I consciously knew about it, however, is just that it had a headless specter in it. So, naturally, I expected it to be this normal creepy ghost story. What I didn't expect at all is that it would be so funny!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is not in the least about something paranormal, it instead deals with people's beliefs and superstitions and how they influence their everyday lives. Nothing assuredly unnatural actually happens, but in a small village like Sleepy Hollow, superstitions flower in uneducated minds of people to such extent that they explain many things with ghosts, and it's not surprising that they tend to start seeing them :)

The main character, Ichabod, is a school teacher, but he can't be called particularly enlightened. He enjoys sitting in front of a hearth with older ladies and share ghost stories, and when he is alone he imagines supernatural things all around him. But that doesn't prevent him from having a practical mind, and so he enters an open competition for the hand of a rich farmer's daughter with the village's most reckless youth Brom Bones. It would be stupid of Bones not to use Ichabod's inclination to superstitions to his own benefit, and Bones is not stupid :)

I find characters in the story to be very lively and Irving's kind mockery of them really endearing. I was smiling a lot and sometimes even laughed at the descriptions of Ichabod's courting and then of his misfortunes. There is only one problem with this story: I intended it to count for RIPVIII event, but now that I know it's not scary, I'm not so sure :) But I'm very glad I read it anyway :) 

In my book:
A very well written, funny and entertaining story. Definitely recommended to anybody who hasn't yet had the pleasure of discovering it for himself :)

The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Review)

Title: The Ocean At The End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
First published: 2013
Add it: Goodreads, The Book Depository
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Everybody seems to be crazy about The Ocean At The End of the Lane, so I feel a little uncomfortable writing a 3-star review for this new Neil Gaiman novel. I hope nobody will hate me for this :)

Let's start with the positive, anyway. Gaiman's language is awesome, there is no doubt to it. So the writing is what I really enjoyed. I also liked the beginning: a middle-aged man comes to the village where he grew up and remembers the time when he was 7. The child's perspective is very believable, which is a rare virtue in books, and some of the fears and anxieties the young protagonist is experiencing are very familiar and easily recognizable. I think I'm one of many readers who can really identify with the boy.

So the beginning, dealing with life of a normal 7-year-old boy, is wonderful, but then... Then the weird stuff starts to happen. Don't get me wrong: I like weird stuff, especially if it's Gaiman-written, but in this novel it just didn't work for me. I guess the main problem was that it was not subtle enough. Spooky flying ragged things? Meh. Scary black birds tearing reality apart? Again, not very impressive. So in the end I wished this book to be less obviously paranormal and the events to be less cumbersome. Evil housemaid, for example, was good, really good. Her wickedness could be a child's imagination, or she could really be some evil creature. What is real and what is an imagination of a child who is too fond of books? More of this kind of suspense could have worked much better than the ragged things.

In my book:
It is an good book, but most of the fantastic things didn't work for me. The writing is awesome, though, and makes it worth reading anyway.


P.S. We'll have a discussion of The Ocean At The End of the Lane at Coursera Fantasy and Sci Fi book club this weekend. It's gonna be fun!

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (Review)

Title: Titus Groan
Author: Mervyn Peake
First published: 1946
Add it: Goodreads, The Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★★

I was hesitant to write this review, because the book is so magnificent that I just don't feel equal to reviewing it as it deserves. Reading it was a unique experience: for a week I could think of nothing else than the world of Gormenghast. I dreamed of it at night, and kept the book nearby during the day when I couldn't read. And when I could, everything else just stopped existing.

There is only one rule to reading Titus Groan: you don't rush it. You observe and remember every stone of the gloomy and monstrous castle, you inhale its dusty air, you respect its sacred ancient traditions and you behave properly. You do not look for action or change. It is so inappropriate! And if things do happen, it takes them all the time they need to unfold in all their minuteness. If you rush, you just miss everything worth reading it for. I made this mistake in the beginning, as I always read fast, and when I understood I was doing it wrong, I re-read the first 20 pages or so, devouring every word. I was rewarded by the most vivid images black characters on white paper can create. Just listen to it:

"Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls. They sprawled over the sloping arch, each one half way over its neighbour until, held back by the castle ramparts, the innermost of these hovels laid hold on the great walls, clamping themselves thereto like limpets to a rock. These dwellings, by ancient law, were granted this chill intimacy with the stronghold that loomed above them. Over their irregular roofs would fall throughout the seasons, the shadows of time-eaten buttresses, of broken and lofty turrets, and, most enormous of all, the shadow of the Tower of Flints. This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. At night the owls made of it an echoing throat; by day it stood voiceless and cast its long shadow."

Now that you've had a glimpse of the magnificent writing, I'll give you an idea of the plot. The novel revolves around the birth of an heir to the castle: an event influencing everybody from the Earl to the last Scrubber in the kitchen. But more happens on this day, something not noticed by anybody, but which will result in the most dramatic events in the future: Steerpike, a boy from the kitchens, starts his long and unscrupulous way to the power by escaping his confinement through the window to the roofs of the castle. His Machiavellian notions and wonderful ability to influence people and make the best of every situation will change the life in the castle drastically and for ever.

In my book:
Titus Groan is dark, disturbing and magical. This is fantasy that becomes really real in the mind of the reader thanks to its spellbinding writing. How could I put it off for such a long time? I don't know.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Review)

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
First published: 2011
Add it: Goodreads, The Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★☆

I wasn't expecting much of this book, because it's not what I usually read. It's YA, paranormal, and pictures creepy children. Not really my cup of tea. But I have learned to trust the taste of guys in Coursera Fantasy and Sci Fi book club, and it was chosen for reading this March. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with this novel, and quite enjoyed reading it, at least in the beginning.

The main innovative idea of the book is to use vintage photography as a part of the narrative. I think everybody have seen at least some of those strange pre-photoshop photos showing headless people and other creepy stuff. Well, the author is exploring what would the models look like, is the photos were not modified. In the beginning the photos even fit smoothly in the narrative, and the first third of the book is rather amazing. Then it suddenly turns into some weird mix of Harry Potter and X-Men, the photos become less beautiful and fitting, and the novel drags a bit. It finishes well, however, with the promise of some time loop jumping in the next book, which I'm not sure I'll read though.

In my book:
A surprisingly well-written work of its type, but I would cut short some of the middle part and make some of the last part less YA. But the beginning and the idea is great!

It's R.I.P. VIII Time!

This will be my first R.I.P. event, and I have been looking forward to it and collecting books I want to read :) So from September 1st to October 31st I'm planning to read some of the following:

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
2. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
3. The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
4. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe
5. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
6. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

I am thus going for Peril the First level, which means I'm pledging to read at least four creepy books. Quite doable, I think! :)