Let the Right Book In

Apparently I love reading books set in the circus, who knew? The Night Circus was one of my favourite books from early last year and now Water for Elephants has joined it on my LOVE list! “Life is the most spectacular show on earth.” I’m a sucker for stories that weave back and forth between the past and present day, it might just be one of my favourite literary techniques. Jacob Jankowski, who is in his 90s and currently residing in a nursing home, recounts the memories of his youth when he joined the circus following a tragic event in his life. Elderly Jacob is hilarious, there’s still some fight left in him as he loses his temper when a new resident claims to have carried water for elephants in the circus many years ago. Which if you had actually worked as part of a circus, you would know to be practically impossible! There’s just so many great characters I don’t know where to begin. But a special shoutout must go to the character with the biggest personality - Rosie t...

I promised I would write a blog post on my road trip around New England so that others could avail of my excellent organisation and planning skills..… I promise I’ll be less smug from here on out ;)  Planning New England was originally quite stressful, because there’s SO much in that area of America and I felt like I wanted to do it all incase I never got the chance to go back (spoiler alert: I FULLY intend on going back). We had a restricted window of 2 weeks and there’s only so much driving you can do before you feel like you spent your entire holiday in a car. My top tip is to make a shortlist of what you feel like you MUST see. Plan the holiday around that and then you’ll find you can easily slot things in along the way. I thought the best way to format these blog posts would be to cover the holiday in chronological order, noting where we stayed/what we did in each place. As I began writing I realised how much I wanted to cover, so I'll split this journey over a few ...

The story of how Matt Haig came through crisis, triumphed over a mental illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. “There is this idea that you either read to escape or you read to find yourself. I don’t really see the difference. We find ourselves through the process of escaping.” I wouldn’t say this book was revolutionary in any way, nor did it teach me anything I didn’t already know about depression and anxiety. However, Matt Haig writes in such an inspiring and hopeful way that I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. These “self-help” or memoir books can begin to become boring or feel tedious if they are written in a certain way - if there’s walls and walls of texts for example. But Haig has laid his book out in a really easy to read format, he flits back and forth between his past and present and there’s sections that simply consist of lists of things like “ways to live” or “things that make me feel worse” to tweets from different people describing...

Sixteen year old Holden Caulfield leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and finds himself going underground in New York City for three days. “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.” The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that I probably would have benefited from studying in school. I’m sure there were plenty of themes and hidden meanings that were just going SWOOSH over my head, however the unignorable themes of teenage angst and rebellion are present from the very first page. Holden himself is... complex. I felt quite sorry for him at points throughout the book, yet every time he said that something “killed him” how I wish I COULD kill him!! Repetitive phrases quickly become very irritating for me and that occurs in abundance in this book. The plot itself is also very meandering... if I had to describe what happened, I would struggle. It actually reminded me a lot of American Psycho. Th...

Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is after the Man in Black. Along the way he meets a young boy named Jake, who appears to be from a world that is different to Roland’s. “I don’t like people. They fuck me up.” Ah, Roland. I had forgotten how difficult it was to like you in The Gunslinger. Some of your decisions are questionable, but that is the price of obsession. The Gunslinger is so unlike King’s usual style of writing; the prose is beautifully poetic as we are introduced to a world that is starkly different to ours, yet some similarities remain. The differences in language and terms used, as well as the general workings of this world, are a bit jarring on the first read, but a reread is really so satisfying and rewarding! The Gunslinger works perfectly as a prologue to the series itself. It’s an introduction to this other world, and Roland himself - we get glimpses into his past, his present, and even a few subtle hints into what his future may hold....

A much-loathed man is found murdered with multiple stab wounds on the luxurious Orient Express with 13 potential suspects. Who did it? “If you will forgive me for being personal - I do not like your face.” If you will forgive me for being personal... but I do not like YOUR face, Poirot. I’m sorry, Christie... it’s not you, it’s me. I can fully appreciate that Agatha Christie is the Queen of Crime - the level of detail and planning that obviously goes into constructing such complex crime scenes and investigation work is impressive, but it’s really not to my personal taste. The premise is exciting enough - all these strangers stuck on a train that has been sidelined by heavy snow and one of them is found murdered in his compartment - but that’s really where the intrigue ends for me. It felt very formulaic, which if all Christies are like this, I don’t think I could face another. The middle section in particular where Poirot interviews each of the passengers had me bored out...

Talk about an emotional rollercoaster! Deathly Hallows is certainly the most dark book in the series, but Rowling injects enough humour and warmth to bring us some fuzzy feels, whilst dealing with all the emotional turmoil! "You'll stay with me?"  " Until the very end," said James. And here upon shall commence my random fangirling over all the things I love about this one... Neville Longbottom and his unabashed braver... Molly Weasley screaming the iconic “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” (Everyone needs a mother like Molly!)... Snape’s backstory... Hagrid carrying Harry at that crucial moment... A special mention must go to the following part, which CRACKED me up: “Our Headmaster is taking a short break,” said Professor McGonagall, pointing at the Snape-shaped hole in the window. Complaints... I have a few. Don’t get me wrong, the crazy amounts of twists and turns surrounding the horcruxes and hallows are enthralling but at times I do find mys...

Aspiring musician Jesse is caught up in the war between Krampus the Yule Lord and Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. “Then let us go and be terrible.” Well, colour me impressed. I’m not entirely sure what I had expected from this book, but I certainly didn’t think Krampus would be such a complex, well-developed and, at times, sympathetic character! Brom effortlessly blends his storytelling capabilities with a lot of the mythology that surrounds the origins and history of Yuletide and Father Christmas. I learnt a lot about Norse mythology and Brom even includes a little section towards the end where he details some of the research he came upon whilst writing Krampus. It’s a fun read! And for the most part, it moves along at a consistent pace. Some parts did feel like they dragged on a tad, but I wonder if this is because I read it over quite a busy time and so I just felt like I was reading it forever? Brom is not only a talented writer, but also a fantastic illustrator and each...

Vic McQueen has a special gift for finding lost things. All she has to do is jump on her bike and the Shorter Way Bridge will guide her to whatever she is looking for. Until one day she finds trouble in the form of Charlie Manx - a vampiric old man who feeds on the souls of children. “Gold don’t come off. What’s good stays good no matter how much of a beating it takes.” I have this terrible habit where if I don’t read Joe Hill for a prolonged period of time I forget how amazing Joe Hill is and then when I read some of his work I’m thinking to myself “omg Joe Hill, you are literally ranked just under your father in my faves list, I love you” well... this is a habit I need to BREAK. My initial review for NOS4A2 when I first read it back in July 2016 just HEAPS praise on Hill and how original and inventive and unlike anything else this book was. I was worried a reread would change my opinion. But no... if anything I love this book even more! This book is 700+ pages but ...

If you love Of Mice and Men, then this would be a great King to pick up! Both feature a couple of guys just trying to make ends meet, one of which is the “brains” of the two and the other is this 6 foot 7 gentle giant that isn’t too bright due to the beatings he took as a kid (poor Blaze!) "It was a dirty world, and the longer you lived, the dirtier you got." The story unfolds with two separate timelines: we have current day where Blaze is trying to kidnap a baby in order to make some money, and then we have the past which details Blaze’s childhood and friendship/partnership with George. Blaze has been dealt a bad hand in life, you can’t help but wonder what kind of life he might have had if things had been different. King does a terrific job of making you sympathise with this tragic character - I may have shed a few tears! I much preferred the flashbacks to Blaze’s past than the present events though. King is well known for his sprawling epic books that can reall...