Darren Shan – Procession of the Dead

As a long time fan of Darren Shan I have made it my life’s work to read all that he writes; my latest conquest was his novel for adults – Procession of the Dead. Being so used to his style of writing meant for teenagers I was in utter shock after reading the first few pages, needless to say they were very rude! But it wasn’t long before I had settled into this new style and devoured the entire book. Darren Shan has such a great way of expressing his ideas and stories that you can’t help but be sucked right into the pages and fall directly into the arms of the characters. From there they carry you through the story, in this case the brutal tale of a gangster named Capac. Check out the blurb:

Quick-witted and cocksure, young upstart Capac Raimi arrives in the City determined to make his mark. As he learns the tricks of his new trade from his Uncle Theo – extortion, racketeering, threatening behaviour – he’s soon well on his way to becoming a promising new gangster. Then he crosses paths with The Cardinal, and his life changes forever.

The Cardinal is the City and the City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. Nothing moves on the streets, or below them, without the Cardinal’s knowledge. His rule is absolute.

As Capac begins to discover more about the extent of the Cardinal’s influence on his own life he is faced with hard choices. And as his ambition soars ever higher he will learn all there is to know about loss, and the true cost of ultimate power…

I wasn’t sure that I was going to get into this story as I have never really delved into the world of gangsters and crime in literature, I’m pretty sure the only ‘gangster’ themed work I enjoyed was the wonderful musical ‘Bugsy Malone’ – the one they show around Christmas with all the children. But this book had me hooked, the action, the drama, the mystery, I just wanted to understand what was going on the whole time and of course, the master of horror that he is, scared me a few times.

This certainly isn’t my favourite Darren Shan novel (The Darren Shan Saga will always own my heart), but I have already ordered the whole ‘The City Trilogy’ and can’t wait to get stuck into them.

Crime – Chris Carter

I’ve never been the biggest fan of crime in fiction but from time to time an author will catch my eye – Chris Carter is one of them.

I first read Chris Carter’s ‘The Executioner’ while on holiday in Mallorca under the recommendation of my mum and sisters. I’m very glad that I did! His way of writing is so detailed that you feel as if you are there alongside the officers (or victims) feeling all the same things they do.

I have found that a lot of crime novel authors tend to distance the reader from the characters, I find this disconcerting – I thought they were meant to have a strong, unbreakable connection to their characters that they want to share with the world? All I see is the authors dislike for their own creations. Pushing away their individuality, not letting a connection be formed.

When I asked a friend about this she suggested that the author may be attempting to protect the reader from all the nasty situations that inevitably show up in crime novel. Although she has a good point, I believe that this is wrong way to go about ‘protecting’ a reader and is probably the reason I don’t read more crime. By distancing the character and reader you are sacrificing the very reason many people pick up a book in the first place – the fantasy, the escape from the real world.

The best part of reading a work of fiction is the ability to immerse yourself in the world that has been created for you to enjoy…or fear in the case of crime/horror. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is a wonderful example of a novel which allows the reader to, not only visualise and enter his world, but gives us the space to use our own imaginations to expand on it.

But I digress, I read another of Chris Carter’s work on another holiday (apparently the only time I read crime is in another country…) “The Crucifix Killer” is the first in the Robert Hunter series. Check out the blurb:

In a derelict cottage in Los Angeles National Forest, a young woman is found savagely murdered. Naked, strung from two wooden posts, the skin has been ripped from her face – while she was alive. On the nape of her neck is carved a strange double-cross: the signature of a psychopath known as the Crucifix Killer.

But that’s not possible. Because, two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed.

Could this be the work of a copycat killer? Someone who has somehow accessed intricate details of the earlier murders – details that were never made public? Or is Homicide Detective Robert Hunter forced to face the unthinkable? Is the real Crucifix Killer still out there, ready to embark once again on a vicious killing spree, selecting his victims seemingly at random, taunting Hunter with his inability to catch him?

Robert Hunter and his rookie partner are about to enter a nightmare beyond imagining, where there’s no such thing as a quick death.

Another reason I like Carter’s work is that he has written them as a series, but reading them out of order (like I did) does not spoil the story for you. The story was fast-paced, interesting, exciting and easy to read (always a plus on holiday, who wants to read something difficult while lounging at the poolside?)

I found a few scenes a little gory for my tastes, I had to put the book aside sometimes to catch my breath, but I just couldn’t stop reading. Over and over I attempted to work out who the killer was, what was going on but I just couldn’t do it. Every time I thought that I was close to an answer Carter would kill off the guy. I think that he has a personal vendetta against me. So, if you enjoy being surprised at the end of a novel and relish in infuriatingly clever characters then I suggest you pick up some of his work.

Riley Jenson Guardian Series – Keri Arthur

There is one particular series I have read this year that has got me all kinds of emotional – the Riley Jenson Guardian series! For those of you who just googled this, yes it is paranormal romance and yes there is a LOT of sex in it. But unlike the over-sexed craze of 50 Shades this series has a story as well. I started reading this back in November 2012, since I have been borrowing it from the library the next book always takes forever to get to me. I am, at this moment in time, checking the library database to see if the final book has FINALLY arrived for me to collect……nope, still nothing *crawls into corner to cry*.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about this book mainly because of the ’50 Shades’ fiasco. I read all three of E.L. James’ sex-mad books and all I can say is…meh. I can understand why so many people read and enjoyed them, it’s an unspoken rule that books with that much sex in are never talked about. This is the first erotic novel to be so media-ridden that it was drowned in it. For me, these books had nothing but sex, no real story behind it all. This drove me mad, so I had a look for some of those books that weren’t known about, you know the ones –hidden right at the back of the library in the romance section. I already loved the paranormal so when I found this series I got all excited and got the first two books out. I devoured them! I read the first one in a day and the second one in half a day, and that was it, hooked.

The main character; Riley Jenson, is a dhampire (a half-breed) half-vampire, half-werewolf. She works for a supernatural protection agency called the Directorate. Check out the blurb for the first novel in the series Full Moon Rising:

A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races-and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker-until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.

Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother….Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful-and delectably naked-vamp who raises her temperature like never before.

In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior-by tapping into the genome of nonhumans like Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind-and just how much it needs her.

I loved Riley’s character, Keri Arthur has created a wonderful character with all the normal fears and hopes as any of us readers…but with some awesome supernatural powers coming into it. On the subject of powers – there is huge variety of paranormal creatures throughout the series – werewolves, vampires (of course), shifters of all kinds, invisible lizard creatures and gods…there are many more but I will let you get the books and find out for yourselves.

As the series went on I was able to connect with Riley on a certain level, to watch her make decisions that could change her life and in some cases end her life. That’s what makes this book so nice to read; the romance, we get to see the lustful figures of the wolves and other beings but we also get to see the romance that comes from one character finding their soul-mate or just plain falling in love. The romance is so raw, so real that you can’t help but fall in love at the same time. This is what makes this series so different to books like 50 Shade of Grey.

You can get this book in paperback or kindle edition from Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Full-Moon-Rising-Guardian-ebook/dp/B005VO6YWS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376906407&sr=8-1&keywords=keri+arthur+full+moon+rising

so check it out!

Growing up… (Patrick Ness – The Knife of Never Letting Go)

One of the first books I read this year was the second book of the ‘Chaos Walking’ series – The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness. So I thought that I would talk about the first one – The Knife of Never Letting Go. Just to warn you all I will try not to spoil the story too much but SPOILER ALERT.

If you haven’t already picked this book up somewhere along the line then I suggest you either buy it or borrow it from your local library ASAP! I was a little dubious when I was first given this book by a friend, take a look at the blurb and you will see what I mean:

“Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown.

But Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets. Or are there?

Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence. Which is impossible.

Prentisstown has been lying to him. And now he’s going to have to run…”

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was supposed to think – Is this a coming of age story? Well, I suppose it is of a sort. The big twist, this isn’t earth. For some reason it took me most of the book to figure this little tid-bit out, but once I did I couldn’t put it down. This new world is almost exactly the same as earth except everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. Annnnd I was hooked, I loved that Ness had completely opened up the good and the bad of all the humans inhabiting this new world in a totally uncontrollable way. There were no secrets in Prentisstown, just information, a whole mess of information. Throughout the book, Ness creatively inserted this information by covering a page or two with words in different fonts and sizes in a way that I can only describe as being thrown on the page randomly. It was really fun to try and decipher these pages, to see the way we think shown on a page. I wish there were more of these pages in the later books just because it was really interesting to see all the Noise grouped together.

Like a lot of books, I was able to see myself reflected in Todd’s character (my teenage self anyway!), all of us have been there right? Having to grow up and make choices that will change everything we know. Choices are very difficult no matter what age you are but we always remember the ones we made in the past more vividly, we are constantly looking back on our lives and saying; “Wow I really screwed up there didn’t I?” I think this is what Ness was trying to show us here, the choices we make as we are growing up will always be important. They are the ones we will always remember. I really liked the emphasis that Ness put on the importance of the choices Todd had to make throughout the series. As one critic states this is, ‘an unflinching novel about the dangerous choices of growing up.’ [quote taken from the back of the book itself].

Seriously, pick this book up and let me know what you thought!

Marked (A House of Night Novel) – P.C. and Kristen Cast

Vampires. Vampires. And more vampires. This fad is almost as bad as the zombie one…perhaps even worse. However, Vampires are a popular theme in this day and age and not just the Twilight twinkly vampires. Just like zombies there are many different interpretations given by lots of different authors and film writers. A supernatural being that drinks human blood is not the nicest thought and is possibly one of the worst nightmares for many people but; I am Legend, Twilight, Marked, Dracula are all about vampires in some way or another, vampires who have different needs in some cases. I really enjoy reading all these different novels and comparing them. Here I am going to share one of my favourites with you.

When sixteen-year-old Zoey is marked by a Tracker, she knows her old life is over. – The first line of the blurb got me thinking ‘oooh what’s this here then?’ a new kind of vampire…this time spelt ‘Vampyres’ and they don’t seem to focus on drinking blood! So I read the first one, then the second, then the third all in quick succession. I was sucked into their world as easily as one slices into butter. The storyline kept me interested with all the plot twists and romance issues. Zoey is a magnet for trouble and every book leaves us with a new problem for her to face, whether it be a new lover or a new plot to exterminate humanity. What I really liked about this series is that there was a cult feel to the Vampyres with all their special rituals and spiritual-ness. It was all very interesting to me as I love learning about cults and spiritual things because they are all so foreign…I was brought up in a world ruled by technology where these kind of things were brushed aside as silly games played by silly people. But there is a lot more to cults and spiritualists than you think, whilst at uni it was important for us to understand that in our seminars because a lot of the authors we studied dabbled in “magic” and cults.

However, as much as I loved this series I would not recommend it to those looking for something to read with substance. This series is what I call an ‘inbetween books book’, sounds silly I know, but whenever I have read several hard-hitting, hidden meaning novels I need to give my poor over-worked brain a break and this is how I do it. Have you got an inbetween books book? If you have I would love to know what they are, please leave a comment!

 

The Chronicles of the Dragon Sisters – Peter Quatrine

Peter was born and still lives in London, diagnosed with dyslexia and mild aspergers as a child made reading and writing difficult…but that didn’t stop him – his debut novel The Chronicles of the Dragon Sisters is the first in a trilogy and here’s what I thought about it…

Eva and Jane, though twins, couldn’t be more different. Eva sticks to her video games while Jane keeps her head emerged in books and her ‘project’. The story starts off as a seemingly normal prose about a normal family with all the normal details, but this rapidly changes. We start to see deeper into the background of this unfortunate family – mother disappears mysteriously, the father drinks himself into a stupor and the twins are torn apart. Things start to get weird for the twins when the house starts to leave messages for them. An epic quest begins for them that won’t end until they understand each other again.

Honestly, reading the beginning I thought “uh-oh what’s happening here? Where’s the fantasy world.” I’ve gotten so used to picking up a fantasy novel and being thrown into a world full of magical creatures, different landscapes, cults, strange gods. I’ve never read a fantasy set in the modern world before however, I was not disappointed. Quatrine has perfectly connected the two worlds in interesting and clever ways. I have to admit, I giggled when the cullis gate was introduced, I loved the Fable games and they were the primary source of transport for your characters. Mystical gates of all sorts are rather famous in the fantasy genre so I was glad to see something so familiar.

As I am sure I have mentioned in a previous blog post I love trying to work out the ending of a novel, I love trying to figure out what’s going on before it happens. I know that’s something that you’re not supposed to do with a book – you’re supposed to let the author take you to another place, into another’s life. But no, I like to work things out. It’s fun! Well this book was perfect for that, just like the hobbit there were many riddles just waiting for me to figure out. I am happy to tell you, I figured them all out before the character!!

It’s not just the fantasy element that engrossed me in this novel but the complicated relationship between the sisters made me think about my own sisters (also twins) who, although they love each other, have their moments. Peter has created a story that not only entertains in a fantasy sense but shows the reader an amazing family that has to deal with very real problems.

Although I am relatively new to fantasy, I loved the way that Quatrine managed to stitch the magical world into the modern world, how he connected them through the sisters, the riddles, the house. It’s something I haven’t seen in the other fantasies I have read. As well as all this he has highlighted some very real issues for families in the real world. It’s a brilliantly crafted novel that I enjoyed throughout. I can’t wait for the next one Peter!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Steig Larsson

This is a book/film review I did a year ago, since I deleted my old blog I thought that I should share it on here. I really enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to work through my ‘to read’ pile and get to the second one. Enjoy!

The book:

Ideally I prefer to read the series before watching the films, but in this case I had only heard of the books in passing, I had never had the chance to read them as they weren’t recommended to me. Also, crime has never been my favourite genre so I didn’t even think to give them a read. This book is by far my favourite book filed under the genre crime.

The book itself was flowing and easy to read with only a few certain complicated words that would throw me (thank god for the integrated dictionary on the Kindle) there were several passages in the book which just listed information important to the case, I would find myself trying to remember certain dates and events that I knew would be clarified later in the novel. I was lost in the thoughts of Blomkvist and Salander trying to work on the case at the same time as them. My favourite thing about a good novel; being able to fall into the scene and live it with the characters, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did just that, it allowed me to visualize myself there in Blomkvist’s kitchen mulling over all the documents just as he did.

As the literal title (Men who Hate Women) suggests the book not only deals with a crime from the past and the lives of Salander and Blomkvist it also deals with the serious subject of crimes committed on those women who are unable to protect themselves and the consequences of those crimes and how in cases where crimes against women with certain circumstances are never noticed. I think that this book tackles the subject of abuse on women very well; it shows it as it is which I admire in books. I think that the rawness of this story is what draws me to it, there is nothing hidden, everything is out there for the world to see it may be a fictional story but within it hides someone’s life. It’s frightening really, to think that out there in the world nasty, sadist things happen to many women and some men. We hear about the rapes, brutal beatings, murders and more on the news and in most cases we cannot relate or even want to, books like this open our eyes to the brutal reality – these things happen, it could be happening anywhere. Someone is murdered somewhere every day, that is the reality. I wonder if that statistic will change…will there be a day in the future where we can say ‘No-one has been murdered today!’

The 2011 film:

Apparently there is another film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I haven’t heard of it, the film that was released in 2011 was the first I had heard of the series. As I have said, I went to see the film on Boxing Day so we were all in high spirits with the Christmas period; it’s fair to say that we were brought back to earth with this emotional, clever and shocking story.

There are many books out there that have been made into films – Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes and so many more that I wouldn’t even try to list as it would take me all day. I have seen many film adaptations of the books I have read and there are a certain few that have made me very angry as the film completely ruined the story, however this has only happened a few times and I shall probably talk about it in another blog post. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an example of one of those films that stay as true to the book as possible. After reading the book I have only identified a few missing parts from the book and in all fairness they are miniscule details which don’t make much of a difference to the story when you have to squeeze the book into two and half hours of screen time. I thoroughly recommend that you watch the film, even if you haven’t read the book it is a very good watch; I enjoyed it immensely and I know that my sisters did also. However, you should probably have a strong stomach to watch some of the scenes…

Zom-B – Darren Shan

In accordance with my last post, I thought that I would talk some more about Zombies, this time from the imagination of the master of horror himself: Darren Shan. I have been a big fan of Darren Shan ever since I read his ‘Darren Shan Saga’…which I may have to re-read again soon. I actually have a signed copy of Zom-B that my cousin got me from Ireland, it is my most treasured book. I can’t wait for Darren to come to Gloucestershire, maybe I’ll get to meet him. I recommend this to all who enjoy a good bit of gore and all ages…well maybe not younger than 10…but still, most ages should read his books!

‘Zom-B is a radical new series’ are the words beginning most of the reviews out there…which is completely correct but I would say that instead of ‘radical’ it is eye-opening and relevant to today’s world. We see the world fall to pieces through the eyes of one of the victims, B Smith, a teenager living in modern day London with a horrible, racist, bully of a father. Even though he is a wife-beater, a bully, a ‘nasty sod’ B still respects and loves him. He proves that he is no coward when London is attacked but still never changes. And what of the tall, thin man we encounter?

Normally his books are free from politics and filled to the brim with gore but here he has written on a very serious subject that continues to haunt our world; racism. Racism is a huge problem that we have to deal with from day to day and is something I think will take a long time to fix. Prejudice is something that has always been around and will continue to be around until humans sort themselves out and learn to accept differences. I think that Darren has touched on the subject of racism very tactfully in this novel as it is mainly aimed at teenagers but still keeping up his gruesome persona by throwing in the disgusting, but brilliant, zombies. I feel that Shan has stepped into a new world with this book – he has opened up into the serious problems of today and thrown them into his ghastly cauldron. The characters are put into a position where, if they make the wrong choices, they suffer for them.

Like all his books I found myself feeling rather queasy during some scenes, perhaps not as much as I did while reading the Demonata series but still pretty sick. It is this that makes Darren Shan so awesome; he is able to floor a twenty-one year old with his amazing imagination. Keep writing Darren Shan, I look forward to reading the rest of the Zom-B books.

Out Of Time: The Secret of the Swan – Gill Jepson

So, this review is why I started this blog and made my new years resolution to write and review. I first got in contact with Gill on Twitter (@gilljep) when she asked if there was anyone out there who wanted to read and review her books. I jumped at the chance and she very kindly sent me copies of both her books (Out Of Time: The Secret of the Swan and Out Of Time: Raven’s Hoard). This is the first.

This novel follows several individual’s stories who are left with the task of deciphering many clues left for them throughout time. Chronologically this story starts in the 15th century and takes place mainly in the present day. This is where the novel gets its name; the whole story, its content and characters, are literally out of time.

Rebecca, the first character we meet, is dealing with the loss of her grandfather. She, in my opinion, is a strong character, especially for someone so young. I like the background Jepson has given her. Her situation is one that many of us readers have faced and can relate to. I have recently lost a grandparent, it was hard of course, but when something is hard I find myself hiding within the world of literature. Rebecca hides in the world she and her grandfather lived; Furness Abbey and the secrets it held. The mystery of the swan and the other seemingly supernatural occurrences around Furness Abbey; I found myself trying to figure out all the clues as they revealed themselves. Of course, I never did figure it out fast enough.

I am a great lover of history and this novel has sparked a new interest in it, Gill has mixed a great deal of adventure with mystery and history into her novel.  “There’s treasure…and there’s treasure.” I love this line. It talks of the different types of treasure. One man’s treasure is another man’s trash and all that jazz. This ambiguousness is good in a children’s book, it means that the kids can take their own opinions and mix it into the story. They have plenty of time to imagine their own stories before they find out the true one. I remember doing this when I was a kid, it was fun to try and figure out the ending because if you were right there was a satisfaction gained that couldn’t be topped. Out of time is an example of this, you are able to create your own story through the characters until you finally reach the end of the book and get your answers.

The only difficulty I faced was the amount of time, and re-reading, it took me to fully understand where and when some of the characters were in history. But once I grasped the situation I couldn’t get enough of the jumps through time. Gill has very cleverly sewn different times together, dropped a Narnia-esque travelling system in and made sure that the readers keep guessing.

It’s really good to curl up with a good book on a cold, snowed in day…I am glad that I picked this one up. Out of Time is great as a new read for younger people and a short, interesting read for adults.

Gone – Michael Grant

The aptly named novel ‘Gone’ is all about the disappearance of all humans over the age of fifteen and the confinement of all those younger in a town. We get to see the main character, Sam Temple, and his friends face many difficult situations including the looking after of the town’s children, supernatural powers and the deaths of some unfortunate souls.

The atmosphere of the town, Perdido Beach, is not unlike Patrick Ness’s Prentisstown in ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ except this town is made up of only children, not just men. I literally read this book within three days; the way in which Grant has written it allowed me to melt into the story. I could see myself as a 15 year old again, with the whole weight of the world on my shoulder…terrifying and brilliant all at once.

I really enjoyed reading this book, as I mentioned in the Hunger Games review I found this novel along the same lines. Apparently the suffering of children is interesting to me…wow that’s morbid. But really, this new genre of children having to fight for themselves is really eye-opening. There are plenty of kids out there in the real world having to deal with the loss of their parents, the violence of the wars and poverty. These books for teens are shedding light on those situations, but in a fictional manner. I like this. This book is definitely for anyone who enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy. Go! Buy it, and enjoy!

This book twists and turns after every page with new understandings, new people, new powers. I can’t wait to get my teeth into the rest of the series!