Let the Right Book In

Harvey Swick is a 10-year-old boy who is bored with his life - he's tired of school, homework and the winter months. That is, until a creature tells him all about a place called the Holiday House, where you can have anything you wish for and it is Christmas every evening. "The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive." It's not very often that I read a book that completely changes my outlook on life. It happens once in a blue moon, but when I do find these books they are extra special. Recently I've found myself to be one of those people who  are always waiting for and looking towards something in the future, whether that is the weekend or the Easter holidays or my next vacation away somewhere exotic. I'm waiting for "better" days and "better" times. However, once I closed this book I was left with an overwhelming realisation that THESE are those days. Life is now, time is finite. Something exciting and enjoyable c

17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain lives in a ruined Suffolk castle with her poor, yet eccentric family. She keeps a journal, filled with hilarious yet poignant entries about her life. But one major life event occurs between the beginning and the end of these entries - Cassandra has fallen hopelessly in love. "Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can." This is a quintessentially English coming-of-age story that is the literary equivalent of rolling yourself up in a big, warm, cosy blanket. It's incredibly humorous yet heartfelt as our narrator very honestly depicts family life in their crumbling castle. When they first moved into the castle, it was meant to be maintained by the royalties made by Cassandra's novelist father. However, the reality is somewhat different. His creativity and willingness to write have dried up, and so too has the money. There's a whole range of characters to get enchanted by

Ollie and Caro Harcourt move into a huge, dilapidated Georgian mansion with their daughter Jade. The move will place a substantial financial strain on the family, but Ollie thinks it is the perfect place to settle down out in the country. Very quickly after moving in, Jade’s friend spots a presence in the background while on FaceTime – but there are other residents in this house, and as the history of the house is unravelled, the forces start to become more malevolent. I had so many issues with this book. So I’ll try and present them as best as I can. Firstly, from the very beginning we are bombarded with these brand names – the Range Rover, the Golf, Nespresso pods, Mac, Instagram, FaceTime, the Dyson… it goes on…and on and on. This was very distracting to me, it felt like James was trying to show he was hip and down with the kids. It’s basically the equivalent of that Steve Buscemi meme where he was in 30 Rock and is wearing a baseball cap backwards with a skateboard slung o

Twenty years ago, a young boy named Jack Sawyer travelled to a parallel universe called The Territories to save his mother’s life. Now a retired homicide detective, Jack has no memory of these adventures. There is a sick serial killer on the loose, murdering and eating children, and the local chief of police begs Jack to help his force catch him. “What you love, you must love all the harder because someday it will be gone.” I love Stephen King. I love serial killers. Combine the two and you have a book that is right up jobis89’s street. The Talisman is an epic fantasy tale, spanning across our world and The Territories, as Jack Sawyer embarks on a mission to travel across the country to try and save his mother (and her Twinner) from death. Black House, however, is darker, much more of a horror novel, I feel, and it focuses on one small town – Coulee Country. The Talisman is a great, great book, but Black House is just more to my slightly darker, slight

Ann Rule covers one of the most profilic serial killers in American history – a case involving more than forty-nine female victims and spanning over two decades of intense investigative work. “Prostitution is a profession born of desperation, poverty, alienation and loneliness.”   Well, this one was a mixed bag. It’s very clear from the beginning that Rule tries to use this novel as a way of humanising all of the Green River Killer’s victims. With the introduction of each victim, there is a small picture included as well as some back story on their life prior to it being cut short by Gary Ridgway. Some victims are covered in great detail, others are covered in a couple of lines, it really depends on what Rule was able to find out through interviews with family members and husbands/boyfriends etc. And I appreciated this, I really did. It’s very easy to think of these girls as just a name on Ridgway’s victim list, when they were actual human beings with hopes and dreams and f