A Crown of Lights by Phil Rickman

Merrily Watkins is the diocesan exorcist for Hereford and is the one they call in when things seem a little out of the ordinary. That is, she gets called in any time anything seems spooky or inexplicable. In the beginning, Merrily was unsure if she had found the right place for her within the hierarchy of the church. In the meantime, she still has her doubts, but has become much surer of herself and is less inclined to doubt her instincts. In a Crown of Lights, after Merrily answers a call to look in on an older gentleman who is taking the care of his dead wife’s body to extremes she becomes embroiled in the feud between the growing pagan movement, the church and an odd Christian sect which seems to have sprung out of nowhere. As events unfold and Merrily, with the help of her teenage daughter Jane, finds out more and more about the background of those involved, the pieces start to come together to form a rather unsavoury picture on all sides and she begins to wonder if she’ll be able to extract herself from the situation with life, limb and reputation intact.

This is the third book in the Merrily Watkins series and I quite liked it. Rickman manages to give the books and his characters a touch of the supernatural without going overboard. He’s left the series realistic by creating situations that are just a little bit off, thereby not requiring the reader to decide if he actually believes in the supernatural or not. You could choose to see the events in that light if you wanted to, but you can just right it all off as one of those things men create to spook themselves. Even if you choose not to put too much faith in the otherworldly, the books remain entertaining. Merrily is a down to earth, realistic woman who brooks no nonsense and only half believes in the whole business herself. She certainly believes in evil and the power of evil, but she’s not the type to go in for an all out supernatural frenzy. She’s belief without fanaticism, which is probably much more appealing to the average reader than if she were to go to one extreme or the other.

Jane’s daughter also adds a good layer to the book as Jane is more inclined to believe in all things mystical than her mother is. As a teenager with alternative beliefs, Jane often goads her mother into thinking about things more than she might do otherwise. She also incites her to act where Merrily wouldn’t. So while much of their relationship is pretty much the same as between any teenage daughter and her mother, Jane keeps the story moving along. She provides normalcy with a kick.

All in all, the books are entertaining without actually entering into the “Twilight” Zone (pun intended because I just couldn’t help myself). A Crown of Lights still holds as much interest as the first two novels while developing the characters at the same time. 4.5/5.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Hannah Baker committed suicide. She opted out of life and now she wants people to know why. Shortly after her death, Clay receives a package of audio tapes made by Hannah before her death detailing the 13 reasons why she no longer wants to live. These 13 reasons translate into 13 people and Hannah makes it clear that if any one of them doesn’t pass the package along after her death, a second set of the tapes will surface publicly exposing them to their peers, and in some cases, the law.

Clay has no idea why he should be one of the reasons, but curiosity and a certain respect for Hannah drive him to listen to the tapes. As he does, the cruelty of his fellow students is revealed to him and a picture of what Hannah’s life was like began to form. It all began with a simple lie that only teenagers could take seriously. But they did and it changed Hannah’s life. That lie caused more and more little events to happen which snowballed into one great burden which Hannah could no longer carry and when even her teacher failed to understand and help, Hannah ended her life, but left the tapes as a way of getting back at the life and people that so disappointed her.

I’ve seen some reviews which paint Hannah as a whiny, weak person who should have had more courage, and in a sense, this is true. A stronger person would have been able to deal with the situation and would probably have never allowed things to go as far as they did. However, the book is about more than just her failings. It’s about social interaction and the failure of society as a whole. Humans are supposed to differentiate themselves from animals by their compassion, sympathy and capacity to support those who need help. In Hannah’s case, not only did they not help her, they didn’t even bother to get to know her before they started wearing her down. They didn’t know what kind of a person she was, whether she was good or bad, whether she was kind or unkind, whether she could take the kind of punishment they were handing out. In the end, you find yourself asking what kind of people we are raising today and if society will continue to develop or if we’re reverting back into a bunch of compassionless Neanderthals. Granted, her peers will probably have learned something about themselves after having listened to the tapes and may become better people for it.

The second question you’re left with is how often you yourself have unknowingly, unwittingly participated in such a campaign yourself. We often forget that we are not the only force in the universe and the things we do can be like drops of water on stone. One drop alone does no damage, but every drop contributes to the destruction of stone over time. Humans are, in general and always to some extent, egocentric. Everything we do or experience is always viewed in relation to ourselves, which often gets in the way of seeing the full picture. Seen in this light, some of what Hannah experienced is understandable, if not excusable. Might we have unknowingly acted the same? How does that leave us in the end? Are we really better than animals that kill their own in an attempt to survive themselves? It’s all really quite complex. The 13 reasons throw up a lot of questions about ourselves and the human race, which is what makes the book so powerful. It’s not just that Hannah committed suicide or that she could have gotten help, it’s that we all could have been as guilty as the 13 without intending it.

Frankly, I think this is a book everyone should read. It’s compelling and thought provoking without being soppy and over dramatic. It’s Hannah saying, I did this and this is why without asking for pity or tears. Yes, she is getting her own back in a way as it will surely wound those who listen (unless they are psychopaths), but it’s not a vicious attack and may even have a positive effect in the end.

5/5

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

After having read The Lightning Thief, I had to see where Riordan was going to take his series, thus The Sea of Monsters.

Percy Jackson is half human, half god (his dad’s Poseidon) and as such, leads a very non-ordinary life. This year, he’s in a new school waiting for the end of the year so he can take off for Camp Half Blood where he’ll learn the things he really needs to know to survive in the world like sword fighting, archery, Mythodic History, Monster Identification…you get the gist. Being normal during the rest of the year is difficult for Percy and this year, although better than most, has been no exception. Still, he manages to make it to the last day with nothing worse than poor grades, until PE. Suddenly he is attacked my monsters on the dodge ball court with his only help being the large, but not particularly bright, Tyson. They manage to fend them off and with Annabeth’s help, run off to Camp Half Blood, where Percy finds there is yet more trouble which he must help fend off. His new adventure leads him to the Sea of Monsters where he meets up with, and fights, many creatures straight from the Odyssey.

Although Percy is sometimes as dense as granite, he’s still a pretty likeable guy with good friends and an interesting life. Riordan really knows how to cobble together all the elements to make a good story which will appeal to younger generations. What he really should be applauded for though was actually making me want to go back and read the Iliad and the Odyssey, neither of which I really cared for much the first time around. Then it was just a long, boring story about a guy running around sticking his nose in a lot of business that wasn’t his. Riodan’s version takes on new life with his younger and not quite so arrogant character. He makes it all sound so much more adventurous.

Again this is a YA book, so it’s geared towards a younger crowd. Nonetheless, it’s a good tale and worthy of a read. 4/5

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

The Southern Vampire Mysteries

1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone
10. Dead in the Family
11. A Touch of Dead

I came a little bit late to the Sookie Satckhouse party. I was never quite sure that I really wanted to read these books, especially after Twilight. I think I’ve mentioned that I find the whole idea of Twilight stupid (teenage vampire romance, UGH!), the writing is poor, the teenage angst and romance bits are annoying and generally I should hate everything about those books. That’s why I’ve read them all. Twice. I don’t know what it is, but once you get started, they kind of grab you. Since Twilight, I’ve read a lot of similar books, like the House of Night series (I have yet to make myself finish, huge ugh!), and Shiver, which I hated, so going down the Sookie Stackhouse road didn’t appeal that much. Then Audible offered one on sale. And I was hooked.

Sookie Stackhouse lives in the little backwoods town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, works at the bar as a waitress and is a telepath. Most of the residents of Bon Temps know there is something wrong with Sookie, but they just assume she’s stupid or strange and leave it at that. Because of her abilities, she finds it hard to make and keep friends and dating is next to impossible (how do you date a guy when you really know he’s only got one thing on his mind?). Sookie tries to fit in, but it’s difficult.

Ever since Vampires had come out of their coffins, she, like just about everyone else, had been eager to meet one, and lo, one fine night in walks Bill the Vampire. Bill changes Sookie’s life in a whole lot of ways. Not only can she not hear his thoughts, which she finds terribly relaxing, but he introduces her to the super natural world. Her life suddenly becomes a whole lot more interesting as she tries to navigate and survive both the natural and the supernatural worlds by both hiding and using her telepathic abilities without falling under control of either side.

I’m not going to say a whole lot more about these books and I’m not going to review them all individually. I might have had I not read them all in one lump go, but it seems silly to review all ten in a row. So, I’m just going to say that no, they will never win any nobel prizes and no they aren’t going to become great literature, but they are highly entertaining. They’re also charming. The characters are likeable and real, in that you could see that this is just the way real people in Louisiana would react if Vampires and things that go bump in the night did come to town. Some think it’s cool, some are enamored, some want them all destroyed and a few are completely indifferent. It’s like a slice of life that you (the reader) don’t have to take seriously. The whole series reminds me of a phrase we used to use for an internet site I visited when discussions got a little heated – pretendy fun-time games. It’s not real, it’s just fun, don’t get your knickers in a twist over it. The Southern Vampire Mysteries are pretendy fun-time games for when you want to block out the world as it is and have a little fun.

If you’re looking for a good, light, fun read with a little supernatural and a little romance thrown in, you’ll like these books. On the basis of being fun and entertaining, they merit 4.25 out of 5.

The Spook’s Curse by Joseph Delany

This is the second in the Spook series by Joseph Delany. The Spook and his apprentice Tom roam the country seeking out and containing all things that go bump in the night so that the residents of their county can sleep safely. Many of the elements they battle are fairly harmless; indeed, the Spook’s home help is a temperamental boggart who’s behaviour is largely dependant on the Spook’s manners (he could teach many neglecting husbands a lot about manners and showing appreciation for their wives!).

Mr. Gregory is poorly and Tom now has to shoulder much of his responsibilities. Meanwhile, a darkness is growing and taking over those who live above the catacombs below Priestown. Those who were once good people are being infiltrated and controlled by The Bane, a dark creature who seeks to become master and destroyer of all. When he realizes that the Spook himself is concerned about his own ability to stop The Bane from taking over, Tom becomes worried and no longer knows who he can trust. His only allies are the Spook himself, the Spook’s brother and Alice, a witch of questionable moral character. Tom must learn and grow up very quickly if he wants to prevent the worst from happening as the Bane grows stronger and tries to escape his prison.

I read the first of these over a year ago, and have wanted to read more. However, they are children’s books and thus not really high on my list of books to purchase. Still, Delany tells a good story and it made a great weekend read. There’s just enough darkness and action to keep it interesting without becoming too scary. The series lacks the wit of Derek Landy’s Skullduggery Pleasant, but it’s still quite good, especially if you’re in a more serious mood. Perfect for a relaxing weekend when you can let your inner child out to play.

As a children’s book, I rate it 4 out of 5.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbary

I picked up The Elegance of the Hedgehog after having read so many rave reviews on it in different blogs and sites. I’m normally a bit wary of books that tend to capture the masses because what makes it onto the best seller list isn’t always to my taste. However, it sounded intriguing so I went ahead and got it. Unfortunately, I’m afraid this book did not live up to its reputation, at least not for me.

Renée Michel is a concierge in a posh apartment building in Paris where the young girl Paloma Josse lives. Neither person is what they seem to be. Renée is an autodidact who has taught herself much which a normal concierge wouldn’t normally even be interested in. Paloma is a highly intelligent child who is too old for her age. Both of them hide their intelligence so they can melt into the crowd and remain anonymous spectators who watch the world around them going by as if the rest of the people were ants in a farm who have no idea what their purpose in life is. Paloma decides that there is no point in living such a life, so she plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. Before she does this, she takes it upon herself to write down as many meaningful things as possible, through which the reader realizes that Paloma suspects Renée’s deception. Renée also begins to realize that Paloma is more than a vapid child and becomes interested in her.

The whole premise is interesting and the characters are well drawn, thus I hoped for more out of the book. However, two things got in the way of making this a really great work. The first was the attitude of the child. She was arrogant and annoying and I spent much of the time wanting to slap her. Yes, she was just a child and it was a phase, but I could have lived without this being the centre of attention for so long. The second is that it read a bit like a philosophy primer. It was as if I were back at uni in a philosophy 101 course going through the basics instead of reading about the relationship between and old woman and a girl. The two things did not mesh well together and it disrupted the rhythm of the story; it was a bit like talking as you bump down stone steps while on a cart. Had the story been smoother, the book would have been fantastic. As it was, I spent the first two-thirds wanting to slap the child and the last third regretting that the author hadn’t arrived at that point sooner.

All in all, I give the first half 2/5 and the last half 4/5, so a decisive 3/5.

Unplanned Hiatus

I should have realized that I woulnd't be blogging last week and mentioned it, however, it never occured to me that between a visit from my cousin and a company outing that I wouldn't have time to blog at all. Add a few sick days to that and voilà, you have a blogging outage! So, just to get me started again, I'll post the meme I did a while back and forgot to post before going on vaccy.

1. Why did you start blogging? I frankly just don’t remember.
2. If you could travel anywhere in the world with no restriction of costs, where would it be and why? Canada and Alaska including a kayaking trip somewhere cool.
3. Did you have a teacher in school that had a great influence on your life? If so, what? I don’t remember many of my teachers and I don’t think any one particular teacher had any great influence.
4. If you could spend the day with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do? I don’t think I’d want to spend the day with a famous person. It would be too odd. I also think their lives weren’t/aren’t as great as we think they are and finding out that were true would just be depressing. Just imagine visiting Victorian London. That would just kill the romance of the age methinks.
5. Toilet paper – over or under? Is under an option? I wasn’t aware that it was.
6. Name one thing in your life that you would do over if possible. My whole education and choice of occupation.
7. Tell about your pets – if any. I’m down to one dog, Biscuit the Great Dane and Sydney the really annoying cat. Biscuit is 6 and is a lovely dog who is so well behaved she’s very nearly boring (but not quite and I would take boring over misbehaved any time!). Sydney is a 10 year old second hand cat who was abused at her former home. I’m the only person she’ll let near her and she would turn herself into Velcro and attach herself to me if she could. It’s terribly irritating.
8. Do you live in a small town or a large town. A small village.

Now back to our normal programming.

The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Fey are a race of conquerors with fighting and battle in their blood. Thus far, they have conquered all the lands within their reach and to extend their empire even further, they will have to take Blue Isle. As the people of Blue Isle are peace loving traders, the Fey assume that it won’t take more than a morning’s work to overrun the isle and claim it for their own. When this proves impossible for them, they must come to terms with their shock and create new battle plans, for the Fey never lose and to do so now against such a weak opponent would be more than an extreme embarrassment. The Islanders, however, are far from willing to relinquish what is theirs and set out to do the impossible and defeat the Fey.

From the beginning, I struggled with this book. The idea was good but the story never really gripped me. There were two things that really bothered me about the story. The first was that both parties were introduced on an equal basis with the introduction to the Fey being the first. Then, just as the affinity for the main character, Jewel, starts to set in, you realize that her race is actually entirely reprehensible and you really don’t want to know her. I got the feeling that Rusch was trying to convey that the same situation can look very different from different perspectives, but the effect was off-putting. Jewel and her father were evil by modern standards, so it was hard for me to care about what happened to them. Nicholas and his father were much more sympathetic characters, but earned relatively little page time. The second thing that irritated me was the repetition and lack of much action. It felt like she kept covering the same ground time and time again and after having spent a lot of time listening, not much actually happened. Finally, after having many times considered whether or not to finish the book, the ending wasn’t actually an ending but a lead in to the next book, which left me with no satisfaction at knowing the outcome and little desire to read the next book.

There are many good things about this book, the setting is good, the idea is good, there are several intriguing ideas about religion and magic which I’d never run into before and some of the characters have real potential. I could also see the next book being better than this first one. However, I’m going to have to give this one a 3/5 because, as I mentioned, it just never grabbed me like I had hoped it would.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

This is another one of those books we’ve all heard of but few people have actually read. As a result, people often have the impression they know what the book is about, but don’t actually because much of the story has been dramatized and Hollywoodized over the years. I don’t actually mean that as a criticism even if it does sound like one. It’s brilliant that people can take an idea and expound on it to create other stories and I wouldn’t want to give up our Mr. Hyde of today, or our green Frankenstein, or our Coca-Cola Santa Claus. It’s just that often the successors wind up overshadowing the original to the point where it almost disappears except to the few who choose to look at the origins. Granted, there still are a lot of people out there who have read the originals, but the average person hasn’t.

Dr. Henry Jekyll has gone a bit soft in the head. He shuns visitors, changes his will in an odd manner leaving all to Mr. Hyde should he die or disappear, and his friends are becoming increasingly worried. Most of all they are concerned about his connections with the man Mr. Hyde who is seen running down a small girl in the street. Mr. Hyde gives a check signed in Jekyll’s name to the father in the way of compensation, but doesn’t show much remorse. Jekyll swears afterward that he is finished with Hyde, but when Jekyll’s friends find his cane at Hyde’s house, they know he’s still under Hyde’s influence and soon they find out that the truth is even more horrible than they had imagined.

It won’t be giving anything away to mention that Jekyll and Hyde are one in the same. Hyde is the creator of a potion which changes him into a being free from moral subjugation and Jekyll revels in the freedom this gives him at first. However, like most addictive substances, it soon takes over his life and his free choice is removed so that he is subjugated to the beast he has created. Here’s where “fact” and fiction separate though. Hyde is often portrayed as a larger than life figure with great strength and power. However, in the book, Jekyll is the larger of the two men and Hyde much the smaller, more crude looking figure with no particular powers except his lack of morals which allows him to do things forbidden to most humans. Stevenson also doesn’t present the case from Jekyll/Hyde’s point of view, instead choosing to tell the tale through the rather clinical and Victorian observation of his friends. This lends the book a bit of a dry air as opposed to making it a thriller. Thus, Stevenson wasn’t actually trying to create a monster for our Halloween pleasure, he was presenting us with the dichotomy of man vs. the monster within himself, or what we would be without voluntary moral or ethical subjugation.

I think he also, perhaps unknowingly addresses the subject of addiction and its ends. As mentioned, the potion becomes the master of the man until the effect is no longer the one desired, and instead reflects the essence of the potion which is evil. Many drugs have the same effect of being pleasurable in the beginning, but soon grow to control the user instead of the user controlling the drug. Finally, he also, rather obviously, addresses split personalities and mental illness. Jekyll and Hyde being one and the same makes that pretty much a given. Although, to his credit, Stevenson doesn’t make the split black and white, as Jekyll tells his friends, while Hyde was wholly amoral, this did not make Jekyll his diametric opposite and render him wholly good. Jekyll remained much as he was while Hyde only embodied the evil in him. Thus, it was less of a split than a personality graft, like cutting off one pit of a plant so that it grows into its own plant, only this particular bit only contained certain parts of the makeup of its parent plant. In essence, this is a more accurate reflection of mental illness as it is seldom comprised of a simple black and white split.

I could babble on about this forever because it is a terribly interesting book which opens up a lot of room for discussion. Yes, it is a bit on the dry side as a read, especially if you’re expecting fast paced action, but the subject matter makes up for that in leaps and bounds. It’s one I can recommend to anyone, so it’s another 5/5 book.

Requiem Mass by Elizabeth Corley

Five girls went out onto the cliffs during a school outing, only four returned. One of the girls fell off the cliff in a horrible accident which went unwitnessed by her friends. Her loss was tragic but life went on and the girls’ lives continued as planned. Twenty years later and one of the girls, now a wife and a mother, disappears after leaving for a day trip. Her husband is shocked and upset but knows his wife would never leave the children. Unfortunately, the police don’t believe him and her disappearance is only a blip in their records, and only then because the husband lodged a complaint. Had it not been for DCI Fenwick, no one would have ever looked at the case again, but Fenwick feels there are just too many warning bells about the case and can’t leave it alone. Then another crime is committed which may be connected and Fenwick sets off down the path which will lead him to investigating the girl’s death 20 years ago while trying to prevent even more murder.

I can’t even remember where I came across this book, but I’m glad I did. Corley creates some interesting characters from remarkable perspectives and presents her detective with several moral dilemmas which make the reader stop and think about justice in its entirety. What is justice and can it be wrong to pursue it in every case and at all costs? She also created a rather incongruous detective. Many of the protagonists in modern crime novels are young and single with no children or have a drink problem etc. etc. Fenwick is a family man who cares deeply about his children and his own effect on their lives. As such, Corley adds an element of reality by introducing a man who, like the rest of us, has to juggle his career and desire to rise in the ranks with his life without dropping the ball on either. I suppose the potential for the dysfunctionalism which is so prevalent in today’s society and modern literature, but it’s refreshing to find a character who is fighting it and hasn’t just given in and accepted that he must sacrifice his family to his career. Not that Fenwick doesn’t have his problems, but they don’t take pride of place in his life as they so often seem to nowadays.

Interesting plot, engaging characters, enough tension to keep it interesting and a depth which is often lacking in crime novels. 5/5