The Shelter ~ James Everington

The Shelter is a novella by the independent writer James Everington in the style of Stephen King's The Body which resonated with me in the fact that it is about a group of children (in this case four boys) getting up to no good during a school summer holiday.  Set in England, it brought back memories of those long six week holidays, with not much to do except going exploring with friends.  It is something we probably don't let our children do today but, without Foxtel, Apple, X-box or PC's, our options for entertainment back when I was a teenager in the late 70's and early 80's lay in the outdoors.

The story of The Shelter is related by a thirteen year old Alan Dean who, with his best friend Duncan and two older boys that he knows from school, goes in search of an old air raid shelter that supposedly lies outside of their village.  When they get there it's location seems a bit bizarre with the shelter being located in the far corner of a field, the atmosphere changes too with the incessant buzzing of wasps and a feeling of rising anger that threatens to overwhelm the boys themselves.

Driven by excitement and fear, and wondering if this is the resting place of Martin, a local schoolboy whose disappearance has dominated the news reports lately, they open the metal lid that covers the entrance to the shelter.  Everything appears normal until a simple prank leaves Alan in a terrifying situation and open to a supernatural event.  But did it really happen?  

As children we are ready to accept the unknown, and in a state of heightened terror we can imagine any amount of horrors.  Yet for all those nights of being too afraid to look under the bed, or in the closet or at that bundle of clothes thrown on the chair that looks like something unimaginable.......... did any harm ever come to us?  This then brings doubt and cynicism into the mind of the adult, and the realisation that there never was anything there at all. This is the thought that the older Alan will ponder as he reviews the events of that summer.

The writing style does need some polishing, and the idea itself of using a group of bored children to propel the story along isn't all that original - just read Stephen King and Dan Simmons - but I found that I really liked it because of the memories that it stirred up for me and I almost (almost mind you) felt a pang for a genuine English Summer.

Maxine

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

When I first picked up this book I was a bit wary of reading it.  I was worried that it would read a little like Bram Stoker’s The Lair of the White Worm, an awful piece of work that I am definitely not a fan of.  Stuck for something to read the other day I decided to give The House on the Borderland a go – and I couldn't put it down!

Published in 1908 it has obviously served as inspiration to H P Lovecraft and the like and if I had read this horror/sci-fi at the time of its publication I would have been terrified; as it was I was excited by it although the long sci-fi passages midway did serve to bore me a little.

The story is told by way of a manuscript which is found by two young men who are out camping and exploring in the English countryside.  They come upon a strange garden and ruins of an isolated house, and are unnerved by the unusual sounds in the area.  When they return to their camp they begin to read through the manuscript …… and as I was reading it, two images came to mind – the ending to the Italian horror movie The Beyond:

and scenes from the original movie The Time Machine:

It turns out that the original house was inextricably linked to another house beyond known space and time, located on an unending plain, and watched over by ancient evil beings.  The attacks on this house by swine like humanoids are also experienced on the earthbound house, which would have been a very original idea at the time.  During a respite from the attacks the despairing writer of the manuscript, along with his trusty dog Pepper, investigates a large pit in the garden and a cavernous cellar under the house, from which strange chuckling noises are heard......

Many of H P Lovecraft’s stories are written in the same vein as this one, with the story being told by the protagonist who is, in the last pages of the novel, frantically scratching away pen to paper telling us the story whilst the monster is at the door trying to break in!  But despite this device it really is quite a gripping tale - if just a little dated now.

Maxine

Harbour ~ John Ajvide Lindqvist

I don’t even know how to begin to review this novel because, for me, it was a complete mess of a story.

Set in Sweden, the basic premise is that the protagonist Anders and his wife take their daughter Maja out across the ice to visit a lighthouse where she inexplicably disappears.  After a period of mourning Anders returns to the family home on the island of Domarö to find some answers, and a series of bizarre and deadly events occur. 

One of the sub stories relates to Ander’s Grandmother Anna-Greta and her long term partner Simon.  I quite liked the character of Simon, an elderly magician, and his bizarre pact with an insect known as ‘Spiritus’ that enables him to manipulate water.  Anna-Greta and a few other islanders hide a centuries old secret which relates to the disappearance of Maja and over time all is revealed.  However, Lindqvist spends too much time on the story of Anna-Greta’s relationship with Simon to the point that it just draws the novel out to be much longer than it needs to be.

The theme of the evil sea, and the ancient steps leading down into the ocean brought to mind Lovecraft’s ‘Old Ones’, but really in the end I couldn’t make sense of the ‘why’ of what was happening to the islanders.  The novel just jumped all over the place and half the time I didn’t know if I was reading about Anders or about Simon, or if it was the past or the present, because there were too many back stories. 

There were some horror elements that did work, Björn and Henrik were two creepy characters and the writing was ok (although it is a translated novel) and whilst I understood that Anders was mourning the loss of his child, I found his voice to be too whining, and I wanted him to pull himself together rather than hitting the bottle all the time; I couldn’t find the sympathy for him that I found for some of the characters in Handling the Undead.

This is my second Lindqvist novel and I think Handling the Undead is much better although I was disappointed with that one too.  I obviously need to read Let the Right One In for which the author is really well known.

Maxine

Chernobyl Diaries ~ A Movie Review

You couldn't get a better setting for the promise of a horror movie than the ghost town of Prypiat, located near the doomed Chernobyl reactor.  

I have a connection with Chernobyl myself as I was living in the UK when the reactor exploded.  Almost ten years later to the day I was diagnosed with a rare aggressive form of Thyroid Cancer which I blame on the radiation cloud that blanketed Southern England.  Whether Chernobyl is to blame for my cancer will never be proven, but I did however survive (so far).  Many of those living in Chernobyl's shadow did not, and those that did have been subjected to the effects of prolonged exposure to the radiation, with the added horror of children born with rare mutations.

Enter one 'Extreme Tour' guide, a Russian by the name of Yuri (of course!), and six young victims (for we know that that is what they are going to be).  For a fee Yuri can get you into Prypiat by legal means, or by his own methods, whichever is required. The tourists may take as many photos as they like but no souvenirs due to the radioactive contamination.  Our tourists are assured that their health is not at risk as they won't be staying that long (famous last words!)

After a morning looking around abandoned homes and buildings, a close encounter with a mutant fish and other local wildlife, it is time to call it a day once the sun begins to go down. It seems the tour has gone fairly smoothly until they arrive back at their van where it becomes apparent that it has been tampered with.  Now the group are faced with spending a cold night, with continued exposure to the radiation, in the van.  Even worse, there is something prowling in the twilight, and it's not very friendly............

I did actually enjoy the first half of this movie.  The set looked very authentic (filmed in Hungary and Serbia I believe) and as my suspicions grew about Yuri (played by Dimitri Diatchenko) I felt my anxiety levels rising as to what he had in store for these youngsters. I was wrong about him however.

What I wanted from this movie were grotesque mutant beings but I didn't get them.  At one point the tourists come across what appears to be a young girl standing in the deserted road.  When they tried to entice her to turn around my heart skipped a few beats, I wanted a 'Don't Look Now' moment:

or a 'Walking Dead' moment:

But nothing happened at all! I felt let down by the whole experience and then I felt guilty about even watching this movie because it just reeked of insensitivity to those who have lived through that terrible disaster.

(The Mutant Fish)

The direction was ok, the acting was ok (Yuri was the stand out), but there were not enough scares or shocks for this horror buff so overall I found this to be an average horror experience.

Maxine

Cheated!

That is how I feel after reading Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

The first half of this novel was so promising that I could not not put it down, it was creepy and disturbing.  I felt excited that I had finally found an unnerving book.  But then it dwindled to something boring, and finally ended up feeling like a bit of feel good fluff.

The premise was initially interesting - a strange weather event in Sweden results in the re-animation of the recently deceased.  The powers that be try to handle the situation as best they can by rounding up the dead (which they later term as the 're-living') and taking them to local hospitals, and digging up the more recently buried.

The novel follows three families - Flora & Elvy, David & Magnus and Gustav & Anna.  They have each lost someone they love, Flora her grandfather (Elvy's husband), David his wife (Magnus' mother) and Gustav his grandson (Anna's son).  Basically the novel then explores the feelings each experiences coming to terms with the 're-living'.

By far the best storyline was that of Gustav (Mahler), Anna and Elias. Gustav is grossly overweight and constantly locks horns with his grieving daughter Anna.  Anna's young son Elias tragically died in a balcony fall, but when the strange event occurs Mahler races to the cemetery and digs Elias up (a bit 'Pet Semetary' you might think, I thought so too but it was not the case as it turned out). The weather has been very hot and dry so Elias has not begun to decompose, he is however mummified and full of decomposing gas.  The description of this mummified child being taken care of with lotions for his skin, and saline which he will swallow from a baby's bottle whilst not moving nor being able see through his dead eyes, is truly nightmare material.  It is tremendously creepy.

I 'got' that Lindqvist wanted to explore the emotional side of a 'zombie' event but it got too airy fairy towards the end especially the Flora & Elvy storyline.  The supposed proof of a soul and life on the other side didn't really work for me.  (After reading The God Delusion can you blame me?) I really think that it would have worked best as an out and out horror.  I didn't need flesh eating zombies, the 're-living' that he presents are creepy enough, but I would have liked to have seen more exploration of the other types of re-living such as those that had been recently drowned.  Anna encounters one and it is quite frightening at first but then that falls flat too.

However, with this said, I think I will read more of Lindqvist's work as he is very readable and the ideas are definitely there.  

Until next time.

Happy Reading!

Maxine

Niedermayer & Hart ~ M J Johnson

There’s something rotten in the basement of Niedermayer & Hart Fine Porcelain, which photographer Jim Latimer discovers to his peril.  Jim has been commissioned by the company to photograph their collection for an upcoming catalogue, but he soon realises that there is something very wrong with his employers, and it isn’t long before he finds himself fighting to save his very soul.

Hugh Apsley, once a Knight Templar, has a very strange tale to relate to Brother Anselm of the Abbey of Valle Crucis in a letter dated 1202. It is a disturbing story which shakes the very foundation of their religion and transcends the boundaries of death.

The lives of Jim and Hugh are inextricably linked together and via their individual narratives the story begins to unfold and converge.  

This independent novel was very enjoyable to read.  The quality of the writing is very good, and the structure of the story intriguing.  On one hand we read about the young Hugh Apsley and the horrors he tries to make sense of in a superstitious world, and on the other hand we are transported to the 20^th Century involved in a detective story that tries to make sense of what the modern world cannot explain away.

If you like a touch of horror with some solid foundation then you won’t go far wrong with this novel. 

Interested?  Then for more information on the novel, and its author M J Johnson, click here: 

Niedermayer & Hart.

Happy Reading!

Maxine

Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler

You might think I’m a Scott Sigler addict, having read two of his novels recently and now reading Ancestor in tandem with his latest novel Nocturnal.

The Ancestor is a biological embryo,  implanted into cows, and grown to provide human ready organs for transplantation.  However, of course, things don't quite go to plan.  There is lots of blood and lots of violence, and if you love cows then don't read this novel!!

The writing isn’t first class, but it’s addictive and reflective of Sigler’s personality from what I can glean from the u-tube videos he’s posted. The characters are unbelievable but mostly fun, and there is plenty of real biology and science to make the plot plausible.

However,  I felt quite confused at the beginning of this novel, not really knowing what was going on, and I found the swearing a bit overboard this time.  The last third of the novel did border on silly in my opinion, even though I had suspended my disbelief, I kept thinking back to the movie Starship Troopers and how much the Ancestors reminded me of the bugs even though they were based on cows!

Nice try but this one didn't really work for me.

Maxine

Well Dean, You Have Lost Me

Stephen King is hanging by a thread, but he may redeem himself with 11/22/63 which I do happen to be enjoying (200 pages in), but Dean Koontz has done his dash with me.

I have just read his biggest load of drivel yet - What The Night Knows.  I wasn't expecting much when I picked it up, but it didn't even rise to that expectation.  I don't understand publishers, is it really all about a quick buck?  If a newbie writer had submitted this rubbish it would most definitely have been rejected.

So what was wrong with this piece of junk?  Well, pretty much everything!

Plot

It's all been done before.  The premise was just like the Denzel Washington movie Fallen - you know, the one where an evil entity jumps from person to person to achieve its end.  I'll give a little on that one, it's probably hard to come up with new ideas, especially when you pump out as many 'novels' as Koontz, and they do say 'don't write what has never been written before, but write what only could have been written by you'. However, in this case it was a poor job indeed.

Charactisation

I think that Koontz needs to spend more time in the real world, with real people/families.  When you read horror you need to suspend your disbelief, this is the nature of the genre, but you do need decent characters that the reader can relate to.  If you can't relate to them, you don't care what happens to them, and you don't care where the story is headed.  The characters in What The Night Knows are totally unbelievable, the protagonist's family are too perfect, his descriptions too corny and sickly sweet.  The protagonist is a cop yet he lives is this huge house with staff to cook and clean for the family whilst the wife paints.  The kids are home schooled, with no set bedtime hours, and intelligent beyond their years.  It just doesn't ring true.  This is an area where Stephen King stands head and shoulders over Koontz - you connect with his characters, you care about them, and he can write from a child's point of view brilliantly.

Horror

Where was it?  Readers today are more sophisticated, we need that feeling of dread and building tension, throwing in a few murders and an evil spirit just doesn't cut the mustard I'm afraid.  What happened to the writer who penned Phantoms, Watchers and my favourite Odd Thomas (discounting those dreadful sequels)?  

In short What The Night Knows is an example of how not to write a horror novel and is just an outright insult to his fans.

Bitterly disappointed,

Maxine

The Phantom of the Opera

I'm a bit behind the times sometimes and it's taken me all these years to be blown away by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

I've enjoyed his other musicals and I saw Cats live when it toured a few years back, but for some reason I'd never seen the stage version of Phantom (I saw the Gerard Butler movie, but it didn't really impress me much).

For Christmas my mum bought me the 25th Anniversary edition filmed at The Royal Albert Hall, starring Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. Sierra has an amazing voice and plays the part of Christine Daaé very well; but, it's Karimloo's performance that I have found incredible.  He shows so much emotion and his voice is fantastic.  I youtubed a couple of clips of Michael Crawford as The Phantom as I'd read that he played it quite creepily, but I don't like his voice.  I like the 'rock edge' of Karimloo's voice, and he also makes for a very sexy phantom too, though I know The Phantom himself should not be so attractive (but I didn't cast him!).

So, of course I needed to see how close the musical is to the Gaston Leroux novel which was published in 1911.  I'm 3/4 of the way through it and I can see that the major elements are there in the musical.  The novel is written under the premise that it is based on investigations by Leroux into the strange happenings at the Opera and the disappearance of Christine.  Leroux claimed that Erik (The Phantom) was real, but in fact non of this was true.  The book did not sell well, although the Lon Chaney movie was quite successful.  It was out of print when Webber started writing the musical so he certainly gave it a new lease of life.

I'm watching it again as I write this post and I'm getting the CD from my daughter for my birthday next month, and then I can listen to it in the car, and at work, and ................. I'm totally addicted!

I'm off to the GCAC now to satisfy another addiction - Spanish horror movies.  I"m going to see The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almaldovar.

Happy Australia Day.

Maxine

Pan's Labyrinth

I must be getting softer as I get older!  I watched Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday night, a movie that has always been amongst my favourites, but I found that this time it was very hard to watch.  I had forgotten just how brutal some of the scenes were, I had only really remembered the fantasy sequences.

Pan's Labyrinth is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and it is beautifully shot, superbly acted and the special effects are excellent.  The Spanish certainly know how to make good movies - Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) being another of my favourites.  Though, I believe Del Toro himself is Mexican.

Pan's Labyrinth is a fairy tale for adults, with both dark fantasy and the brutality of war to contend with.  The story centres around Ofelia, a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to a mill where her fascist step father is stationed during the war in 1944.  A day dreamer, Ofelia believes that a stick insect she finds is in fact a fairy, and it leads her to a nearby Labyrinth where she meets Pan. Pan informs her that she is a princess whose real father is awaiting her return, but she must pass several tests in order to return 'home'.   The test where she must walk past a table laden with food and not be tempted whilst a diabolical monster sits at the head of the table motionless is quite horrible!  But, it was the sequences that were set in reality that, for me, were the hardest to deal with.  

I have always been a fan of the sad ending in a movie (I loved the ending to The Mist) and Pan's Labyrinth's bitter sweet ending is perfect even though this time around it had me in tears!

Guillermo Del Toro has also co-authored a vampire trilogy, The Strain being the first of the these.  I quite enjoyed this book, as far as vampire novels go, though I think the genre has been done to death; but I have bought The Fall (the second one) to read at some stage.

It's been a bit difficult getting back into the 'groove' as far as reading is concerned as I'm still in holiday mode (even though I've been back to work for a week).  I've just finished an audio recording of The Day of The Triffids, which I enjoyed and I'm halfway through The Phantom of the Opera.  I've been reading Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman on and off, it's a collection of short unsettling stories and so far they've been reaching the spot.

So, until next time, all the best and happy reading!

Maxine

What Frightens You?

What makes a horror movie scare one person but comes across as ‘ho hum’ to another?  How many times have you been recommended a 'must see' horror movie only to be disappointed?

I did that very thing the other day.  I recommended Insidious to my son.  This movie scared the hell out of me (well the first hour did anyway), but my son thought it was ‘okay’.  What was it about that movie that made me leap out of my chair and cuddle up to my partner for reassurance?

Thinking about the movies that have rattled me there does seem to be some common themes –

The Unnatural Child

ü     Don’t Look Now (my all time favourite movie) has the father of a deceased child chasing what seems to be her spirit around the canals and alleyways of Venice.  It is only at the end of the movie that we find out what this ‘child’ really is.  I don’t think I slept for weeks after that revelation.

Sinister Gage

ü    Pet Semetary.  We all know the premise of this one, the idea that Gage has been brought back from the dead is bad enough but we know that his soul did not come back, something else did. He makes me shudder every time I think of him.

ü   Insidious.  Dalton, a young boy, is in a coma and being nursed at home. One night his younger brother says he wants to change bedrooms because he doesn’t like it when Dalton walks around. That gave me goosebumps, but the thing that really got me was the sulking boy doll from the laundry that ran and giggled around the house!!

Unnatural Movement

Samara

 ü      The Ring.  I laugh now when I see this movie, but after I saw it for the first time I took the portable TV out of my bedroom and it’s never returned.  The way that Samara moves towards the screen really bothers me.  I can’t stand it!

 ü      The Gift.  Remember the fiddler?  I hate that part, he plays too fast, it’s completely unnatural.  In the words of the immortal Owen Meany – it gives me ‘the shivers’.

Jagged Teeth

Pennywise

ü      Pennywise The Clown from It……… enough said there.

ü   Have you ever seen The Two Faces of Evil?  It was a Hammer House of Horror episode that absolutely terrified me when I about 13 or 14.  The evil doppelganger with his jagged teeth and one long dirty fingernail really played on my mind at night.

The Music

ü    Salem’s Lot (the TV movie with David Soul).  I cannot stand the music that plays when the young boy taps on the window for his friend, it makes my heart race and I just want to cover my ears and bury my face in a cushion to block it all out!

ü      Psycho.  The shower scene music is so well known that it doesn’t have much effect now, but what a great piece it is.  We’re hard to scare these days, but I would have loved to have been in the audience on it’s first showing.

So, it's not blood and guts that I find scary, it's just the little, unnatural things with some good music thrown in.

So now you know what frightens me, what frightens you?

Maxine

I Wish I Could Write Like Tolstoy

Tolstoy

Stories are really only a string of words, most of which we all know, that are put together to describe and explain.  But, it is the way that you string them together that makes the difference between an okay writer and an incredible one.

W. Somerset Maugham has always rated very highly with me for the way that he is so comfortable to settle down with.  He draws you into the story, like you are a familiar friend; and he makes it look so easy.  Yet another writer strings his words together and it’s just a bunch of characters and a setting which feels like ‘just a story’.  There’s nothing familiar about it or believable.  You are not ‘drawn in’.

Now, after reading many chapters of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, he’s rating way up there with Maugham in the way that he is making me feel.  The settings and dialogue are so natural, it all flows magnificently.  He isn’t overly descriptive yet I can picture the scenes and the characters effortlessly.  So much so that I’m going to ditch the audio version (which by the way is excellent) because I want to curl up with the ‘real deal’ and immerse myself within actual pages.  That is the joy of reading, and I haven’t felt like this for some time.

I used to love curling up with Stephen King many moons ago, okay so it’s horror which is not believable in the least, but it was King’s characterisations that I used to love so much.  However, I have been reading his ‘kindle single’ Mile 81 and I’m getting the feeling that he’s committed a ‘Meat Loaf at the AFL’ offence by not calling it quits.  It’s quite badly written, and appears to be a re-hash of old themes, though I haven’t finished it yet so I could be wrong (but I don’t think I am).  I’ve pre-committed to his new novel 11.22.63 (a date which is horribly close to my ex-husband’s birthday of 11.22.61!) on Amazon but feel it’s just going to be an addition to my King collection rather than a ‘must read’ once I get it.

On my other reading front I’ve nearly finished the audio version of Mill on the Floss, narrated by Nadia May, and I have really enjoyed spending time with Maggie Tulliver, although it hasn’t been an uplifting novel.  But, it’s another classic to put under my belt as I slowly plough through them.

Scare me Please!

I’m still looking for that ultimate horror.  I have been asking for recommendations but nothing seems to be forthcoming from you guys out there.  Please let me know what book or even short story has frightened you by way of a comment.  I’ve just ordered some Robert Aickman collections – one of them is Cold Hand in Mine which I’m really looking forward to reading and I’ve just enjoyed Pollock and the Porroh Man by H G Wells which was a nice and creepy short story and would have really scared readers back in Victorian England I’m sure.

So, I’m about to curl up with Tolstoy now, with my nightly latte, and marvel at how he can string together these words so wonderfully, and I can’t!

Happy reading and don’t forget those recommendations.

Maxine

A Reading Restrospective

Whilst browsing at the library this week I came across a copy of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and remembered that I really enjoyed it as a teenager.  Actually, it did have a bit of an effect on me due to its content.  You see, I didn’t (and still don’t) have flat toenails!  Did that make me a mutant in the eyes of the characters in The Chrysalids?  Apparently so, and it certainly made me feel like one for a very long time J  I was young and impressionable, but now I don’t obsess over it so much, plus I keep my toenails nice and short so it’s no longer an issue!  However, picking this novel up to read again got me thinking about what my favourite novels had been as a youngster.

Absolutely top of the list, though it is not a novel, has to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses illustrated by Hilda Boswell.  I adored this book.  The poems could be read over and over, and still I discovered more meaning within them.  My younger self often wondered ‘why did Auntie's skirts rustle so?’ and ‘what was a counterpane?’  I often thought about that boy and his shadow and also the bucket full of stars.  The poem that I loved the most was The Land of Nod, not so much for the poem itself but for the illustrations that somehow thrilled me but frightened me with equal measure.

Second on the list would have to be Five Go to Smuggler’s Top by Enid Blyton.  I took this book on holiday to Scotland with me and have a distinct memory of sitting on a large rock near a Loch in a pair of shorts and a jumper (I was obviously prepared for all weather events) lost in reading about the Famous Five.  I had a secret crush on Julian and I read this book over and over again during the course of our holiday.

Another novel I borrowed from the library many times was Down Bound Train by Bill Garnet (though now I’m older I think it was more of a novella), and it was probably my first foray into horror, albeit of the ‘pulp’ kind.  I loved how the characters caught this train only to find each one had a nasty secret and at the end of the journey they find their final stop is actually in Hell.  All, that is, except for one innocent passenger who sleeps through the entire journey.  It was real Twilight Zone stuff.  I think I read the 1973 edition, which had a green and black cover from memory.  I haven’t been able to find a copy with this cover but would love to read it again just for fun.

As a youngster I must have read all the Famous Five and Secret Seven novels, I enjoyed Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and even Hitchcock’s The Three Detectives, but the three books above have always remained fondly in my memory and were my absolute favourites.  So, what were yours?  

Just for the Record, The Weather Today is Frazzled

I have just finished listening to probably one of the wierdest books I've 'read' yet (not including that horrible Naked Lunch).  It was called Diary and was written by Chuck Palahniuk.  I read Choke a little while ago and really enjoyed it, but it certainly didn't prepare me for this dark little satire.

At first, I wasn't sure where it was going, and I went back to the beginning a couple of times.  This was an audio and I wasn't keen on the narrator (Martha Plimpton) so it didn't quite grab my attention until half way through the novel.  It's rather twisted and disturbing with plenty of clues throughout to give you an idea where the plot is heading, but I didn't really pick up on many of them until nearly the end!

Basically it's about an island legend that is re-enacted every third generation.  It's a story about re-incarnation, torture and ritual sacrifice, and should really be my cup of tea but I didn't like the way it was written.  Misty, the protagonist, writes the novel as a diary.  It's a 'coma diary'. Misty's husband is in the hospital in a coma after what appears to be a failed suicide attempt. Misty's mother-in-law encourages her to keep a diary so that when he awakes he can catch up on the time that he has missed.  But it doesn't really read like a diary, and Misty calls herself Misty and her husband Peter 'Peter' with the occasional  reference of being 'your wife' or 'you' which kind of brings you back to the fact that it is a diary.  There is another diary is the story which is owned by Misty's mother-inlaw who claims to know what Misty is thinking or how she is feeling because it is in the diary.  The reason for this becomes apparent towards the end of the novel. 

As in Choke, there was a repeated phrase throughout.  This one being 'Just for the record' or 'Just for the record the weather today is.......' with the weather being Misty's current mood.  It was quite a claustrophobic novel, and the vibe was very much The Stepford Wives.  I think that if I had read the actual book instead of listening to it I may have enjoyed it more than I did.

My next read?  Something light and turn of the century is beckoning - Howard's End by E M Forster :)

A Gripe

Well, I finished The Last Block in Harlem and I really didn't like the ending.  In fact from about halfway in it got a bit bizarre actually and I don't like that when I'm reading.  Keep it real from start to end, or if you want to throw in the magic realism or surrealism you have to do it from the start.  I'm not a fan of changing the rules halfway through.

I stuck with it though as the way it was written was okay, and I did want to keep going to see where it's was going to end up; but (for me) the ending was way off the mark.  In fact as I was reading it I was thinking, hang on, this is Odd Thomas, what's going on?  I gave it a three star review mainly because there was more to this book than just reading it, and it was fun being part of it.  However, I'm really pleased I didn't do it as a book club read, as I think my members would not have liked it at all. 

There were a few editing errors in it, though not as many as in Opposing Energies, and I wonder why, when you go to the trouble to get something published and it is proof read and edited and all the rest of it, how does the finished product still contain so many errors?  I paid for both OE and LBH and as such I want to be receiving the polished product; Opposing Energies has so many errors that I can only bear to read a few pages at a sitting.  I think now, after giving independent authors a go, that I will stick to my reading lists and the tried and true.  OK, even they may contain the odd error, but they're definitely worth reading too.  I'm not rubbishing the two novels above at all, Opposing Energies just isn't to my taste and personally I think that it would work better as a graphic novel and I do feel that there is some value to reading The Last Block in Harlem just in the way that it has got me thinking about myself and about how and where I live.

My next read will be Plague by Albert Camus and my next audio will be Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.  Both should satisfy my horror or blood lust. Talking of horrors, I can't believe the junk I've been renting on DVD this week in the name of horror.  What is going on?  The cover to The Last Exorcism didn't even relate to anything in the movie, and again this is an example of something losing its way halfway through.  It was dumb, but the thing is most of the viewers aren't.  Give us something decent, if you call it horror - then horrify us.  Is it that hard?  Actually the most frightening thing I've seen all week was an armpit on Embarrassing Bodies that had me screaming, gagging and covering my eyes.  So it can be done!  I also rented Monsters and whilst it wasn't terribly scary, the acting wasn't bad, and the sets were really good.  The monsters were even cute in their own way, so I guess I kind of liked it.  Devil wasn't bad, I was wanting a nasty little ending, but it had a very moralistic ending but still, it worked.  Tonight I'm going to try Let Me In.  They reckon it's the best American Horror Movie in 20 Years - you'll be hearing from me if I disagree!!  In fact the most horrifying thing about my DVD rentals this week was the little surprise I found behind one of the cases:

The Ultimate Horror Novel

Actually, I haven't read it yet but I'm ever hopeful I will find it.  It seems the more I try to read horror the more disappointed I become with this genre.

I feel even more despondent after picking up Spiral by Koji Suzuki, NOTHING has happened yet to even give me a shiver and I'm halfway through it.  Supposedly he is Japan's Stephen King.......... but based on this novel I'm not so sure.  I've just read a few chapters of Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami and the story that a hotel receptionist tells the narrator about what happened to her on the 16th floor gave me more shivers than Spiral! 

Horror of course is subjective, and I guess you need to find a novel that plays on your fears, but mainly I find that the covers give me the creeps more than the contents lately.  I want to read a book that can really cause a prickling of the hair on my arms and the back of my neck, and the last one to do that was The Exorcist where Regan licks her mother's heels - now that was pretty nasty.  I got chills in Dracula, and Prey by Graham Masterton did make me feel nervous, probably because I had a possum or some sort of creature in my roof at the time and could relate to the story somewhat there! 

Some of the older novels are really worth reading and HP Lovecraft probably was the master (not forgetting also Robert Aickman) but surely there must be a really good modern horror novel out there.  PLEASE someone tell me what it is,  I want to feel the need to sleep with the lights on! 

Just an aside, I've been following http://twitter.com/#!/1000Novels.  I've enjoyed going through the list selected by The Guardians review team.  It's so different from the 1001 list that I'm following that I'm worried that I'm missing out some really great reads.........., 

PS This article brought out a few goosebumps for me check it out:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2065321_2065320_2065317,00.html

Jane Austen Rules!

 I starting listening to Austen’s Northanger Abbey on my iPod, but for some reason entire parts of it cannot be accessed, so now I’m relegated to reading it on my Kindle.  I love Austen's dialogue, it is so natural you know exactly who is speaking as the banter flows so perfectly. 

I can see Catherine Morland as a kindred spirit, her love of the gothic novel suits  me right down to the ground.  The novel of the day is Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Uldopho (which I really must put on my to-read list.  I once tried an appalling Libravox recording of it but gave up).

The characterisation of Isabella Thorpe is brilliant.  Just via her dialogue we can ascertain what a wishy washy selfish and indulged girl she is.  She makes out that she is concerned only with Catherine's wellbeing and has all the time in the world for her when in fact she only cares about herself.  She is very expertly realised by Austen and I'm sure we all know of, or work with, someone just like her!  Even Isabella's brother John Thorpe is a very selfish character who comes across initially as a lot of fun, but is ultimately too contradictory, loud and with only a limited amount of topics to discourse, becomes very quickly boring.  Once Catherine has spent more time with these new friends of her elder brother James' in Bath, she begins to see their failings and is very disappointed in them.

Romance looms on the horizon early on in the novel in the form of the amiable Henry Tilney, and his young sister Eleanor appears to be a more genuine friend for Catherine, although this friendship has a very rocky beginning due to the selfish interference from the Thorpe's.

As you can see, I am enthralled so far and reveling in Austen's writing.

I've also gone back to my love of horror and started listening to Robert Bloch's Psycho.  It is interesting to note that the character of Marion Crane from the movie is actually Mary Crane in the novel and that the self loathing Norman Bates is fat and wears glasses! Though he is still very creepy.  

I am however, very disappointed with the 'shower scene'.  Basically Mary was in the shower, noticed a shadow outside of the shower curtain, saw the butcher's knife which......"was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream. And her head."  Not a great deal of drama and horror there really - oh well!

Halloway and Nightshade

What great character names!  Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade - the protagonists from Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.  Will and Jim are more like brothers than best friends, born just one day apart they live next door to each other in a small American town.  The novels opens with the promise of fun that only a child can see as Autumn begins, but a dark cloud is about to hover over them as an ancient carnival pulls into town.  The boys realise that something is very wrong with the carnival when they see one of its operators Mr Cooger ride the carousel backwards and so watch him grow younger and younger until he is a small boy.

Mr Dark, the illustrated man, seduces adults with promises of youth and his body is covered with the images of those he has lured.  What the adults don't realise is that to be young again will mean giving up all their friends, and finding themselves alone so frightens them when they have become a child that they beg to go back on the carousel.  They are promised that they will be given back their lives but first they must travel as freaks within the carnival.

Jillian Petrie as The Dustwitch

One such freak is the blind Dustwitch - one night Mr Dark sends her out in a monstrous balloon to find the boys.  The sound of the balloon billowing in the wind and the blind freak holding out her hands to sense the boys is very creepy. They know the secret of the carnival and Mr Dark needs to silence them.......................  make no mistake, this is not a childrens book.  It is brilliantly told from a child's perspective, and I love how Will's opinion of his father grows.  He initially sees him as an old janitor at the library, but as the novel progresses Will realises that he seems taller and stronger - dependable and more importantly, he believes.  

I'm lining up a few books on my iPod now, and as I write this I'm transferring Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami which I'm really looking forward to 'reading' as I loved the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.  When I was shopping at Harbourtown on the weekend I came across a book sale, and all books were $5.  Heaven!  Trouble was it was cash only and I only had $20 on  me.  Just as well as I would have spent a fortune.  Wind-Up Bird in hardback was there but I had to put it back in favour of something I hadn't read.  So, in the end after much debating and shuffling of books I bought Disgrace by J M Coetzee, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (both on the 1001 list), The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro &  Chuck Hogan (sequel to The Strain) and The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt which is set in Venice.  Berendt wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which was brilliant so I have high hopes for this one!  Really it was a shame that these books were going so cheap as it was probably a fire sale for a book store that has closed down - one of many to close it doors in recent times I fear.

Still struggling with Melmoth but 60% of the way through it according to my Kindle.  Also struggling big time with Opposing Energies.  The best thing about it so far is the title unfortunately.  Whilst there isn't much wrong with the writing for a first novel, and apart from the bad proofing and editing prior to publishing, I'm half way through the book and not much has happened and I don't like any of the characters.  I do read sci fi and fantasy but I think this one is probably aimed at the teen market.  I'll pick it up now and again and I guess I'll finish it eventually, but it's not a priority.

Well that's me up to date, I'm off to bed now to read a bit of Disgrace.  

Portentous Sci-Fi?

The Day the Earth Stood Still

From floods to cyclones in Queensland and massive storms in America, the news has been like watching a disaster movie.  You know the ones, where they have the screens in the streets and the local inhabitants crowd around in horror as they watch major calamities unfold such as earthquakes, snow storms, asteroids etc  I think back to some of those early sci fi movies and some were very portentous.  Look at A Clockwork Orange – aren’t we living is such violent times?  Look at The Running Man by Stephen King – now that story showed enormous foresight (as well as The Long Walk) as there weren’t too many reality shows back then when that was written. 

One of my favourite Sci Fi’s is actually Starship Troopers!  The Robert Heinlein novel doesn’t bare much resemblance and I really struggled with it but the movie is a delight.  It does ‘corny’ so well, and the ‘bugs’ are brilliant.  Another Sci Fi I really love is Silent Running but I usually end up in tears over that one because of the ‘droids – I’m too sensitive. Alien and Aliens are a must on any DVD shelf, along with Predator and more recently Avatar.  But, it’s those movies that are set on Earth that are probably worth seeing again to see how we are living today – and maybe take in some of the warnings – The Day The Earth Stood Still would be a good place to start and maybe Soylent Green?!

However, all of the above has absolutely nothing to do with my current reading!  I’ve just started Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell as she will be talking to my book club this month.  I have not read anything by her before, and generally I don’t read much in the crime genre so I wasn’t sure what I would think of this.  I’m about 70 pages in and can honestly say it has hooked me.  I like the short snappy sentences; the descriptions are to the point with no messing around, and it feels like real life. We get the hook right away, and now the intrigue is to slowly unravel.

My audio read is now Middlemarch by George Eliot.  I had started reading this as a physical book last year, read about 200 pages and then couldn’t renew it at the library.  I bought a copy but I keep slipping it under the next book on the pile next to my bed.  The only way to do it justice and read it was to download.  At the moment we are getting to know the inhabitants of Middlemarch.  Dorothea and Celia Brooke are two young ladies who live with their amiable uncle.  Dorothea has been proposed to by the much older dried up Mr Casaubon who may one day become a bishop.  Dorothea is old fashioned in her ways, rather condescending to her sister and those she dislikes, but she does want to do good for those less fortunate than herself. She feels that she can be a good wife for Casaubon, not wanting a man of her own age.  The Vincy’s are a manufacturing family and their son Fred is a likeable young man but idle and prone to build up debts with promises to pay based on his hoped for inheritance from his Uncle Featherstone.  He is in love with his childhood friend the plain Mary Garth but she does not respect him because of his ways and has refused his offer of marriage.  Lydgate, the medical man, is new to Middlemarch and will obviously provide a love interest, maybe to Fred’s sister the beautiful Rosamond.  Virginia Woolfe called this novel ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people’. I love these long novels, where the characters unfold and you get involved in their lives. 

I’m still ploughing through Melmoth the Wanderer.  The Spaniard’s story is a little convoluted and I guess it will come to the point but it has been interesting. However, I won’t bore you with it here J

I’m taking a rest from Jules Verne, but only briefly.  I enjoyed Around The World in 80 Days and Journey to the Centre of the Earth so much I absolutely must read some more soon.