Always Buy The Book

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...

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...