Always Buy The Book

Valentine Grey Sandi Toksvig Rating: 4/5 The short version: If you stick around to the end, this book makes every second worth it. This review will contain spoilers. I picked up Valentine Grey because of its author. Historical fiction isn’t something I read much of, and I especially didn’t have much of an opinion about the Boer War before I read it. But I know and admire Sandi Toksvig for her honesty, humour and openness, and the book deals with the issues of gender and sexuality- not something I’ve seen a lot of fiction dealing with. I wanted to see what Toksvig’s style was like. It was good- not perfect, because there were issues with pacing at times, but with enough power and skill to make up for its little flaws. The critique of society is built up slowly throughout the book, and no side in the war is presented as morally superior- not even the heroine. As a queer British woman, I recognised so much of our society today in the flawed society of the book, ...

Favourite author feature: #1 Shannon Hale I have been reading books for a very long time. Longer than I can remember. But what I've found is that some authors have stuck in my memory much more vividly than others, and so I wanted to start this series to focus on some of those authors who have made my life to date so much more fun. I'm hoping to post a new part to the feature every six weeks or so. I haven't seen nearly enough people who've read Shannon Hale's books. She specialises in fantasy and fairytale retellings, and her books mostly revolve around women who don't rely on men and support each other as much as possible. These are the types of women young girls can aspire to be. And that's without mentioning the time and commitment she has dedicated to creating multiple fantasy worlds- it's exhausting enough to create a world with its own history, culture, political system etc once, let alone multiple times. Yet each new land feels fresh ...

A Wizard of Earthsea Ursula LeGuin Rating: 4.5/5 The short version: This isn’t a story for someone looking for escapist fiction, but it is perfect for people who like fantasy which acts as a metaphor. This review will contain spoilers. A Wizard of Earthsea is very different from the fantasy I’m used to reading. There are wizards and dragons and it’s about the journey the protagonist takes, but the way the story is told wasn’t what I was expecting. LeGuin doesn’t go into detail about all the events of Ged’s life, but only focusses on the most important parts. That simplicity puts the focus on Ged’s character and how he develops, and that makes the themes the book explores more compelling. As a young boy, Duny uses simple magic taught to him by his aunt to repel invaders from his home town. This impressive feat draws the attention of Ogion, a magician, who takes him in as his apprentice- and gives him his true name, Ged. He becomes impatient with Ogion’s teachin...

My Favourite Fantasy Locations Photo by  Artem Beliaikin  on  Unsplash One of my favourite things about reading fantasy fiction is that it revolves around creating entirely new worlds. I'm sure I'm not alone in having wanted to escape to a lot of fantasy worlds while I was a child, and I haven't entirely grown out of that. I have so much admiration for the authors who put time and effort into creating worlds with incredibly detailed landscapes and histories for their worlds, so I thought I'd highlight some of tha fantasy locations I'd most like to visit. 1. Cair Paravel- Narnia Honestly, I'd happily live anywhere in Narnia. I'd live in a cave in Narnia if I could. But the location that's stuck in my mind the most clearly is Cair Paravel. That's partially thanks to the films, but I'm also enchanted by the idea of a castle overlooking the sea and backed up by a forest. It's probably the most romantic location I can imagine, and the ...

Cold Magic Kate Elliott Rating: 3.5/5 The short version: The depth of the characters makes up for a very complicated setting. This review will contain spoilers. Before I read Cold Magic, I’d dragged my way through another fantasy book which didn’t really make sense to me. So I picked this up hoping for something I would enjoy a bit more. It took a while for me to get into it, but by the end I wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t a masterpiece of fantasy, but it was a good way to spend a few hours. Cold Magic is set in Victorian Europe, on the edge of an industrial revolution, but with the addition of magic and all the complications this brings. Catherine Hassi Barahal, known as Cat, thinks her biggest problems are keeping her and her cousin Bee out of trouble. Then a member of a powerful political family comes and claims an old deal, and Cat is forced to leave her home for a dramatic adventure. The book starts off seeming to go in one direction, Cat trying to fi...

Favourite Character Feature March 2018 DEATH. I realise that that's an ominous way to start a blog article, but anyone who's ever read Terry Pratchett will know what I mean instantly. Terry died three years ago this week, so the character I'm highlighting this month is one of his most recognisable and most original.  Okay, so it's not like Death is a new concept. But it is, the way it's portrayed in the Discworld series. Probably the most memorable aspect of the Discworld Death is HIS VOICE . Pratchett points out that i t would be quite unrealistic for a skeleton to be able to speak like a normal person, i.e. using vocal cords, so instead the use of small caps shows that his voice is only heard inside a person's head. That perfectly captures Pratchett's skill at skewering stereotypical depictions of death and separating Death from the rules of the world around him. As a character, Death is no less intriguing. Death doesn't show up f...

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs Rating: 3.5/5 The short version: The use of pictures to supplement the text is inventive, and the mythology created around them is very imaginative. However, certain parts of the plot are neglected or superfluous. This review will contain spoilers. I wasn’t spooked by Miss Peregrine. The consensus amongst reviewers seems to be that this book gives off a moderate horror vibe, partially thanks to the eerie photo on the front cover and others scattered throughout the book. That wasn’t a let-down for me, though. I don’t enjoy scary books, and this worked well as YA fantasy. Miss Peregrine is about a boy named Jacob, who sets out to explore the island where his grandfather grew up after he brutally killed in mysterious circumstances. He begins to realise that contrary to what he’s been taught, the wild stories his grandfather told might have been true. He follows a girl to a strange, old-fashioned house and me...

My Favourite Fictional Mums Today is Mother's Day in the UK. It's one of my favourite days of the year, because I get to show my mum how much she means to me. But it's not only my mum who's awesome. Female characters in books still aren't celebrated as much as they should be, particularly not older ones. So this post is my tribute to all my favourite fictional mothers, all of whom nearly match up to my own mum, and all of whom are badass in their own ways. (Be aware of spoilers!) 1. Molly Weasley- The Harry Potter s eries by J.K. Rowling.  Molly has stuck in my mind for a long time because she proves that women have the capacity to both love and be ferociously protective. She manages to bring up seven children and still have the energy to adopt an eighth and love him as fiercely as her own children. And all of those children know that their mother would do anything for them, as she proves in the Battle of Hogwarts.  2. Sally Jackson- The  Percy Jackson ...

The Adamantine Palace- review Stephen Deas Rating: 3/5 The short version: Not a bad read, but not one to go back to either. This review will contain spoilers. There’s nothing wrong with The Adamantine Palace, but unfortunately there was very little that struck me as particularly good, either. Some of the characters and premises were intriguing, but they were let down by a plot which went backwards a little too often and characters who didn’t leave an impact on me. More than anything else, there was little to distinguish this book from other fantasies. The book begins with the assassination of a queen, setting up the tangle of political intrigue which is the spine of the plot. From here, there are two halves to the plot. Several different monarchs are aiming for power, whilst away from the palaces the dragons they have enslaved are beginning to wreak their revenge. There are a lot of different POV characters in this book, which means that the reader has to k...

Book of the Month February 2018 My dad spent ages trying to get me to read Terry Pratchett, and I'm really glad he finally managed it. Guards! Guards!  has become one of my particular favourites so far, and it was absolutely hilarious. There's a lot to love- the inept City Watch, the rather unique dragons, and the hopeless villains. Here are my highlights! Obviously, watch out for spoilers. Favourite character : Carrot Ironfoundersson. I can only think of a few characters I like, in anything, who insist on sticking to the rules, but part of Carrot's charm is that he is unaware of how much of an irritant he is. That makes him funny, and true, he's a huge part of the comedy of the book. But he's my favourite character of this book because his cluelessness makes him utterly endearing, at least to me. And his enthusiasm is never dented no matter what happens to him. The world needs more people like Carrot. Best quote : "Killed by a metaphor....

Characters who deserved better On Friday a character in The Archers (for anyone who doesn't know, that's a British radio show) was killed off out of the blue. I've spent the whole weekend coming to terms with it and I'm still not over it. So to keep myself distracted I thought I'd come up with a list of other characters I think have been treated  unfairly by their books! These are characters who either died before they should have or just had harder lives than they deserved. Obviously, there will be spoilers for several books- I'll list the books' names with the characters, so avoid them if you haven't read them! 1. Remus Lupin- The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling When I was coming up with this list, Harry Potter was one of the first series I thought about. I could have chosen quite a few characters from the series- actually, it could merit a list by itself. But the death that was the most heartbreaking for me was Remus Lupin. Not only d...

The Book Thief- review Markus Zusak Rating: 4/5 The short version: A book which completely deserves its reputation. This review will contain spoilers. I appreciate that if you haven’t read this book already, you’ll probably have heard a lot about it anyway. I also know that there are a lot of books about WWII, and it is easy to get fed up of them. So I am going to   try and explain why you should read this book anyway. If you have somehow never heard of The Book Thief, it’s about Liesel, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, and the humanity she experiences along the way. Her books take on an emotional significance to her life, and she also becomes friends with a fugitive Jew. It’s also narrated by Death. That should tell you quite a lot about the book; it’s creative, but in no way cheerful. For me, one of the most refreshing things about this book was its focus on the ordinary people of Germany who suffered because of the war. Liesel is blonde-hair...

Favourite Character Feature February 2018 Hi, everyone! This is the first of a monthly feature, where I'm going to talk about my favourite fictional characters. I want to focus on characters who are from lesser-known books, or have smaller parts in their novels. So on Wednesday, I reviewed The Next Together by Lauren James ( here !). The character I'm talking about this month is from that book's sequel, The Last Beginning. Her name is Ella, and she is very mysterious and a lot of fun to read about.  There are spoilers ahead, so don't read if you don't want the book ruined for you! Okay. Here, I have to admit that I am a tiny bit biased. I loved Ella before I even read the book, because she shares my name and she's gay. Those are both, unfortunately, pretty rare things in most books. But there were plenty of reasons for me to fall in love with her throughout the book.  She is a huge fangirl. Throughout the book, we get little glimpses of Ell...

The Next Together- review Lauren James Rating: 4/5 The short version: This book juggled a lot of plot and characters, but it broke my heart anyway. This review will contain spoilers. Most authors I read try to stick to one genre per novel. Sci-fi, or romance, or mystery, or historical. It’s easy to see why- it could be very difficult to make the different conventions of each genre fit together into one cohesive story. Of course, the best books defy all the conventions and make their stories work anyway. That is what The Next Together does . There are several different storylines in The Next Together. The main one is the story of Matt and Kate, who discover that several identical versions of themselves have played major roles in different parts of history, and then have to stop a government conspiracy themselves. Three of their other lifetimes are also explored, and each lifetime ends with acts of heroic sacrifice. What really made me admire this book was ...