Booksies reviewed

A blog where I review the books I read :)

[filmso2]

Keeper

2025

[booksiesreviewed]

Hi guys! I hope you guys had a nice time on New Year’s Eve, I certainly did! With the start of the new year, it is time for me to think about my reading goals for 2015. I’ve come up with the following list:

·         Try to read 33 books. I think this must be possible. I’d like to try a higher number, but this year is a) the year in which I’ll take my exams, b) the year in which I’ll go to college. Because it is such a busy year, I don’t want to stress myself out by setting very high goals. For now, I think 33 is a reasonable number. I use Goodreads to keep track of the amount of books I’ve read.

·         Finish some of the series I’ve started (but only if I liked the first book(s)) or at least continue them. For me, this means I’ll continue with Cinder by Marissa Meyer, as well as Unwind by Neal Shusterman. My grandparents have given me a discovery of witches. I’ve yet to read it, but if I like it, I’ll continue with it as well. For my birthday, I’ll get the complete trilogy of daughter of smoke and bone by Liani Taylor and the gunslinger by Stephen King, which is the first of eight books in the Dark Tower-trilogy. All in all I’ll try and continue with these series.

·         Try and randomise my reading habits a bit. I’ve made a TBR-jar filled with about a hundred little cards with a title of a book that’s on my TBR list (here’s a link to the list on my Goodreads-account: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/15222952?shelf=to-read ). Though most of them are YA and Fantasy novels (which happen to be my favourite genres) I’ve also added children’s books, classics, dystopian, short story collections and some graphic novels.  My plan is to draw a card on the first of each month, buy the book and try and finish it the same month.

·         Of course, one book a month is a) probably not enough to keep me occupied, b) not enough if I want to reach my goal. Therefore, I’ll try and read some of the classics my mother owns, such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

What are your reading goals this year? Have they changed a lot from the goals you had the previous years?

[booksiesreviewed]

december wrap-up

Ok guys, here are the books that I’ve read during December in chronological order (Yes I know there are still a couple of days to go, but I don’t think I’ll finish the book I’m currently reading on time ;) (which is ‘the casual vacancy’ by J.K. Rowling, for everyone out there who wants to know)). I’ll give my rating, a very short synopsis and my likes and dislikes.

Boule de Suif- Guy Maupassant

3 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: Set during the French-German war of the 19th century, ‘Boule de Suif’ follows a group of travellers who flee from Rouen after it has been captured by the Prussians. These ten people, who now share a coach and a final destination, come from different layers of society. Boule de Suif, (which means dumpling and is a nickname), a common prostitute, manages to unite them when sharing her food with them. However, when they encounter a group of Prussians who do not allow them to continue their journey, it becomes clear just how much these travellers don’t have in common and what their characters are really like.

I had to read this book in French for school, though you can easily find an English translation on the internet if you’d like to read it.

What I liked: I enjoyed the story enough to give it three stars, but not enough to give it a higher rating. It kept me reading.

What I disliked: the ending was predictable and the characters are almost all stereotypes for the social class they represent.

If I should die before I wake- Han Nolan

4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: This novel follows Hillary, who is in a coma since a motorcycle accident. A Jewish hospital has taken her in, despite her armband that clearly shows that she is a Neo-Nazi. Hillary drifts in and out of consciousness and is at times sucked into the world of a Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Poland, where she learns just what racism and anti-Semitism can do.

What I liked: expect character development, a lot of cruelty and enduring love. Especially love, which is all the more impressive when you think about all the horrible things these characters have to endure.

What I disliked: this book was supposed to have some twists which I saw them coming before they happened, but this did not diminish my enjoyment. What did, was that all Germans were big bad meanies. For a book that tries to teach us about love and the dangers of over generalising, I felt this could have been a bit more nuanced. The ending could have shown us a bit more of the changed Hillary, as well.

Wired for story-Lisa Cron

4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: Lisa Cron gives a few valuable lessons when it comes down to writing and plotting stories whilst busting some myths surrounding it.

What I liked: Lisa backs up her lessons by some of the latest scientific evidence about the way our brains process information and hunger for certain story elements. This scientific approach luckily doesn’t take away any of the speed and clarity in which this book is written. It’s both entertaining and interesting.

What I disliked: There was nothing I particularly disliked.

All our yesterdays-Cristin Terrill

4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: In the future, the world sucks. Big time. Em and her friend Fynn might be the only ones who can change the future by travelling back into the past. The problem is: a lot of different versions of them have already done this and failed. The only option seems to kill the one who has started it all, but can you really hold someone responsible for the person they will become?

What I liked: This novel is fast-paced and keeps you at the end of your feet. I really liked that it deals with questions about paradoxes and such right at the start so that such questions don’t bother you whilst reading.

What I disliked: Unfortunately, I already knew the ending (I encountered it whilst reading a review L) and some of the twists weren’t twists to me at all.

There was supposed to be a sequel, but Terrill has confirmed that it didn’t work out. Instead, she will be giving us some short background stories that I really look forward to.

The virgin suicides-Jeffrey Eugenides

3 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: A group of men recount the events of their childhood regarding the Lisbon-family. The five Lisbon girls, ranging from 13 to 17 years, all killed themselves. The men try to discover why these girls were driven to commit suicide.

What I liked: The language and imagery is lush, the girls are all interesting and seemed real to me.

What I disliked: I still don’t understand a) why these men (then boys of course) were so obsessed with the girls. I mean, I get that you wonder why they all kill themselves, but their interest predates the suicides. Why? B) I still don’t fully understand why they killed themselves. It might be that I just don’t understand something that everyone else manages to get, but ‘the virgin suicides’ left me quite unfulfilled.

The Scorpio races-Meggie Stiefvater

4-4.5 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: Water horses are predators. They kill humans as easily as any other living creature. Each year in November, they change the sea for an island. The people there race them in the Scorpio races, were remaining alive could be harder than winning. Meet Puck and Sean. Puck’s parents were killed by these water horses. One of her brothers decides to go to the mainland to support them. Puck wants to keep her family together and decides to race. Sean has won the race the past four years, but still doesn’t have what he really wants: his freedom.

What I liked: The horses and magic surrounding them. Lovely, lovely, lovely. The imagery was amazing. Though it wasn’t described why certain things influence the water horses (iron, three’s and sevens etc.) it still seemed logical to me (fairies, I guess)?

What I disliked: The race could have been longer. Of a nearly 500 page book, only 50 pages or so were about the actual race whilst a fair chunk was everything preceding it. I also thought Puck could do with a little attitude adjustment in the beginning. The line between sassy and bitchy is quite thin, after all.

The graveyard book-Neil Gaiman

4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis: A toddler walks into a graveyard when a stranger murders his parents and his sisters. The ghosts there decide to take him in and, because they do not know his name, decide to call him Nobody Owens, Bod for short. Bod grows up in the graveyard and learns skills that no other human possesses, but also longs for the truth: who is he and why was his family murdered?

What I liked: The entire premise was fantastic to begin with. The ghosts were loving and funny. Neil Gaiman really captured the time they were from by their mannerisms, speech and ideas. I also really liked Bod. My edition had gorgeous illustrations as well.

What I disliked: I’m still not too sure about Scarlett’s part in the novel (she is a living girl that Bod meets when he is still very young). I also ship Bod and Lisa (she is a deceased witch), though I understand that the living and the dead probably shouldn’t get a relationship ;)

Unwind-Neal Shusterman

4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: The second Civil War has been fought over the right of reproduction and life. The outcome: the life of children is sacred until they turn thirteen. From that time until their eighteenth birthday, they can be unwound: pulled apart and reused by other people. We follow three different teens who are all to be unwound: Connor always gets into trouble. When he discovers that his parents want him unwound, he decides to fight back. Risa is a ward of the state and simply not talented enough. With funds short, the government decides that unwinding her is the best option. Lev is a tithe: someone conceived for unwinding because of religious reasons. He is happy to be unwound, because that is what his purpose is, right?

What I liked: this novel is fast-paced and keeps you guessing. You never know what’s next and you really start to care for Connor, Risa, Lev and all the others. It addresses complicated issues without lecturing. Also, BIT OF A SPOILER: the scene with the unwinding was really well done and absolutely heart-breaking.

What I disliked: The reason why Connor is to be unwound felt a bit weird to me. He gets into fights occasionally, but we see very early on that he is a decent kid. Why would his parents unwind him? They aren’t portrayed as horrible people. And to book a vacation on the day it is going to happen? That borders on psychopathic.

All in all I think December has been quite a productive month for me, filled with books I thoroughly enjoyed.

[booksiesreviewed]

‘Lips touch’ by Laini Taylor

There is always a certain danger in having high expectations of a novel. More often than not, these books do not live up to the expectations I had of them. This can be a really bad thing, because those books might be very enjoyable, though not the most perfect ones out there to read. Luckily, ‘Lips touch’ was not one of these books!

  ‘Lips touch’ contains three short stories and because if this, the novel is also known as ‘lips touch three times’. The stories are of varying lengths, starting with the shortest and ending with the longest. The first story, ‘goblin fruit’, is about a young girl who desperately wants to fit in and a goblin who preys on weaker girls and plans on stealing this girl’s soul away. The next story, ‘spicy little things like this’, again contains supernatural creatures. When the demon Yama and the Ambassador of Hell (who happens to be a human woman) strike a deal to let some children live, a girl is cursed: her voice will be beautiful, but whoever hears her make so much as a sound with it will drop down dead. The girl grows up completely silent, but how can you refrain from speaking when a sweet soldier comes your way and all you want to do is tell him how much you love him? The third and final story, ‘Hatchling’, is about Esmé. She lives together with her mother, Mab, who believes that one-eyed creatures are evil, brews her own tea and speaks languages unknown by others. When one of Esmé’s eyes turns blue, she is about to unravel secrets of her mother’s past as well as a secret she has been carrying with her all her life.

  First of all, it must be said that the writer really knows her way around with language. Her prose was lyrical and full of surprising metaphors and similes. It really added to the overall feel of magic and sensuality. About the stories: I enjoyed reading all three of them, but I think I liked the second and third one best. ‘Goblin fruit’ was interesting, but I found the ending unsatisfying. The other stories were, in my humble opinion, perfect. ‘Spicy little things like this’ had interesting characters, most of all Estelle, the Ambassador of Hell, who walked there to reclaim her husband but got a job instead. The story was a little predictable, but that did not decrease my enjoyment in any way. ‘Hatchling’ was very interesting. The world of demons and their magic have piqued my interest. I have not read the ‘daughter of smoke and bone’-trilogy for which Laini Taylor is probably more known, but I have a feeling that the characters from ‘hatchling’ can be found walking the pages of these books, too. I plan on reading those next to see if I can find more about the demons. It might add more depth to this story, though it can be read and understood quite well without any knowledge of the ‘daughter of smoke and bones’-series.

The three stories come to life with the gorgeous illustrations of Jim di Bartolo. They are absolutely stunning, I could look at them for hours. The only thing that did not make sense to me was that they were at the beginning of each story. I felt they gave away key information and should have been placed at the end of each story, not in the least because the reader can appreciate them better with the context of the stories. What should also be noted is that it is worth the extra expense to buy the hardcover-edition of ‘lips touch’. I bought the paperback edition, liking that cover more, but my illustrations are black-and-white instead of in colour. If I had known in advance, I would have bought a hardcover-copy (and I might do so, anyway).

  To conclude: I really enjoyed this little book. The stories were original and fun, the language and illustrations very pretty. Just buy a hardcover-edition so you can enjoy them best. Kudo’s to both Laini Taylor and Jim di Bartolo for delivering such a pretty little book!

Title: Lips touch/Lips touch three times

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Scholastic

Pages: 265

ISBN: 0545055857

[booksiesreviewed]

Tinder

You know you are reading an adult or young adult book when there are no pictures involved any more. Sally Gardner, who also writes books for children with illustrations, decided to do things a little different when she wrote her adult novel ‘Tinder’. This fairy tale retelling of ‘the tinderbox’ by Hans Christian Andersen is accompanied by beautiful illustrations made by David Roberts. Did this combination leave me with a hunger for more illustrated novels? Let’s find out!

‘Tinder’ tells the story of a soldier named Otto Hundebiss (literally dog-bite in German). During a brutal battle, Otto sees Death walking among the men and decides he has finally had enough: he flees into the forest. There, he meets a half-beast half-man who collects shoes from the dead. He gives Otto a new pair of boots and some magic dice that will tell him where he has to go. During his journey into the forest, Otto meets the daughter of the Duke who rules the neighbouring lands. Safire is accused of being a she-wolf and is hunted upon by the men of the Duke because she has to marry a prince. Otto decides that he will safe her, but how exactly does a deserted soldier go about saving the daughter of a Duke, especially when he has his own demons to battle? This synopsis sounds more light-hearted than the story really is: it contains rape, murder, betrayal and trauma. It is dark and gritty and probably more gruesome than the original fairy tale. Otto is the narrator and through his dreams, we slowly learn more about the events that haunt him and made him into the man he has become.

First and foremost, I must say I really liked the idea of combining an adult novel with illustrations. David Roberts has captured the atmosphere well with his drawings in different shades of black, grey and white. The people he draws are often angular and fit their descriptions. ‘Tinder’ contains illustrations that cover an entire page as well as drawings that only cover up part of the page they are on. This, together with the fond that is quite large, makes ‘Tinder’ a book you can finish quite fast even though the themes it deals with are not easy. Otto is also an interesting character: he has a lot of traumas he needs to deal with and seems bitter at times, yet he remains loyal and determined as well.

Unfortunately, this book also had some weaker aspects. First of all, I feel like Otto and Safire should have been given more time to fall in love. I understand that both were lonely and hurt and quite eager to find someone they could love, but I would have at least liked to read a bit more about their blossoming love. Gardner has only devoted a few words to them falling in love, yet we have to roll with it for the rest of the novel. The story would have been stronger if she had taken her time there a bit more. Second of all, I found that the ending was quite a downer. I think it was unnecessary and I felt a little cheated.

All in all, I quite enjoyed ‘Tinder’. It is a book you can read in a few hours; though devoting a few minutes more to see the gorgeous illustrations is really worth your time. It deals aptly with difficult themes, yet the timing felt a bit off at times and I disliked the ending. I would advise everyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings, is a fan of Sally Gardner or enjoys somewhat creepier stories in general to read this. Stay away if one of your major pet-peeves is insta-love.

Title: Tinder

Author: Sally Gardner

Publisher: Indigo

Pages: 256

ISBN:  1780621493

[booksiesreviewed]

My interest for the paranormal should be no surprise by now. When I saw this book, which promises to tell the tale of a haunted house and a cursed family, I decided it was the perfect read for these somewhat dreary autumn nights. My expectations were high, but the Fall doesn’t quite deliver.

The Fall by Bethany Griffin is based on the fall of the house of Usher, a short story by one of the older masters of horror Edgar Allan Poe. The original story is told from the perspective of a young man who goes to visit an old friend and his sister who slowly succumb to madness and an undescribed family illness, which leads to the brother putting his sister in the family tomb despite her not being dead. The Fall is told by the sister Madeline. Short memories from her early childhood to her adolescence should enlighten us slowly to what is going on. You see, Madeline is cursed, and as if being cursed isn’t bad enough, the house in which she lives is part of it. It is an almost omniscient presence, an evil presence. It speaks to Madeline, tries to keep her on the estate, but doing so will slowly drive her mad, just like all her ancestors. When she wakes up in a coffin she is not sure whether she will survive at all, let alone break the ancient curse that threatens to claim the life of her dearly beloved twin brother as well as her own.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be ‘melancholia’. The atmosphere is at times claustrophobic and suffocating, at other times dreary and heavyhearted. The house is truly a main character, you can almost feel it breathing through the pages of the book. The scenery Griffin manages to paint is astonishing in its woefulness and lives up to Poe’s gothic tale.

Unfortunately, there were also quite some things that I didn’t like about this novel. The Fall had so much potential. We have a cruel estate, a family illness, a girl slowly going mad: all the ingredients to make for an interesting story. Sorry to disappoint, but it isn’t nearly as interesting as it promises to be. The short chapters could make for such an exciting read, yet they are too repetitive. Yes, we know Madeline is cursed, we know she is physically weak and we know that the house is evil. I think show, don’t tell comes in handy here. I want to see that the house is maleficent way earlier in the text instead of being told so. There isn’t enough happening to justify the length of this novel. Another thing is that the story should be a mystery to us. Through the short pieces of memory, the reader should be able to slowly piece together what is happening. However, I think almost everyone will be able to almost immediately tell what is going on, and this takes away from the little suspense this novel already had. Also, Madeline bugged me at times. She felt utterly useless, though that could be me. She is supposed to be frail and sickly, after all. What I also disliked, was that though the presence of the house felt very real, I couldn’t get a clear picture of it. I don’t think the main characters did, either. Apparently you can live your entire life in the house of Usher without ever seeing more than, say, a third of it.

The Fall is really an atmospheric book. It could be improved in some ways, yet I did not find it bothersome to read. It really depends on what you expect and what you like. If you want to read a novel without a chronological timeline that allows you to slowly realise what has happened, I would advise the double shadow by Sally Gardner rather than the fall. You won’t find a horror story full of suspense, either. Do read if you enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe’s the fall of the house of Usher or if you are a big fan of slow-paced, mainly atmospheric psychological horror.  

Title: The fall –Bethany Griffin

Publisher: Greenwillow books

Pages: 400

ISBN: 0062107852

[booksiesreviewed]

Ever since I was a child, the paranormal fascinated me. When my parents, sisters and I visited a place I had never been before, I always wanted to visit the graveyard there first (or so they tell me). It therefore isn’t surprising to know that I was thrilled to bits when I realised that there was a novel about an ancient Asian ritual that allowed the living to marry the dad. The ghost bride was right up my alley and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Did this novel by Yangsze Choo live up to my expectations?

One night, Li Lan’s father asks her whether she wants to become a ghost bride. They live in Malacca, a sleepy town in Malaya, which at the time this story takes place is a British colony. Her mother has died when she was still young and her father has squandered away the family’s fortune with his opium addiction. Li Lan has little prospects, but if she decides to marry the recently deceased heir of the wealthy Lim family, she will be provided for the rest of her life. Ghost marriages are sometimes completed to prevent the dead from haunting their families. Li Lan has to think about this offer, because she isn’t sure about not being able to remarry, especially after meeting the hot new heir to the Lim family, Tian Bai. Not long after this proposal, her soon-to-be suitor starts haunting her dreams, dragging Li Lan bit by bit into the Chinese afterlife. But just like the living world is no place for the dead, the afterlife is no place for a living girl to be...

This novel has a gorgeous setting. Yangsze Choo really paints a vibrant picture of Malaya, which at times felt real enough to emerge from the pages. The mix-match of cultures that collide in Malacca were extremely interesting, especially to a person who knows little about countries east of Europe. Not only the surroundings, but also the clothing, food and, of course, the burial rites are described in vivid detail. For a debuting author, Choo really knows how to write.

The writing might have been beautiful, the story itself at times wasn’t. The plot was alright, though somewhat predictable. I disliked the insta-love that Li Lan and Tian Bai had, which seemed to be more about lust and good looks than about love. Luckily, this is partly taken care of at the end of the novel. Li Lan seemed really naïve at times. I cannot blame her for all the things she did that turned out to be dumb moves and things she didn’t know, but it got a bit annoying.

  All in all I did enjoy this novel, though I felt a bit disappointed, too. While the writing was gorgeous, the plot was at times predictable and the characters got on my nerves every now and then. If you want to learn more about Asian cultures: do read. If you absolutely despite insta-love and hate somewhat one-dimensional characters: stay away from this novel and hope you won’t even see it in the afterlife.  

[booksiesreviewed]

The girl from the well

I expected great things from ‘the girl from the well’ for a number of reasons, the first being that the narrator is a ghost herself, which struck me as an unusual concept with a lot of potential. The second of reason was that I read the first chapter on Amazon and really...

[booksiesreviewed]

Sometimes, you pick up a book expecting it to be a fun, easy read. Sometimes, you couldn’t be more wrong. When I picked up Maggot Moon, I knew little about it except that Sally Gardner was its author. Because I absolutely adore her books, I didn’t feel the need to know more. Maggot Moon was everything but a fun, easy read, but that doesn’t make it any less great.

  The story is set in 1956 in a dystopian world reminiscent of Nazi-Germany and Russia under Stalin’s reign. The Motherland is obsessed with space travel and wants to place missiles on the moon so that it can wipe out its enemies. Maggot Moon tells the story of a boy called Standish. He and his grandfather, whom he calls Gramps, live in Zone Seven, where you either learn how to adapt or die. Because Standish has two different coloured eyes, he is considered impure, and the fact that he can’t read or write despite being fifteen doesn’t help. He is bullied by students and teachers alike, until he makes a new friend, Hector. Hector is brave, strong and smart. Hector dares to do what no-one dares. He even dares to collect their soccer ball from the wasteland behind the wall, which is strictly forbidden. What he sees there will change their lives forever.

  Maggot Moon has a different writing style than the ones I’m used to, which took me a little while to get into. It has exactly one hundred chapters, none of them longer than three or four pages. The sentences are short, reflecting the bleakness of the world Standish lives in. As soon as you get used to this, you can really get into the story, which is grim, heart-breaking and inspiring at the same time. Standish really grew on me and I wanted him to succeed with all my heart: I wanted him to go to the land of Croca-Cola’s (not a typing error) and Cadillacs, I wanted him to go to space. He is such a great character with such a unique voice, you cannot help loving him.

  I found Maggot Moon to be an interesting read. It had an original, at times brutal plot chockfull with well-rounded characters and a loveable narrator. It is not a long novel and you can easily finish it in a day, but the story will stay with you for quite a while longer. This is a novel that I think almost everyone will enjoy, especially if you like dystopian-future novels but want something different than Divergent and the Hunger Games. Do read!

[booksiesreviewed]

The first time I read a Sally Gardner-novel, I was left feeling absolutely breathless and with one thought: ‘I want to be able to string words together with such grace, too!’ I, Coriander was one of the most influential novels of my youth. So, naturally, when I heard that she had written a novel for a more mature audience, I bought it and devoured it. The double shadow managed, as expected, to leave me spell-bound.

The double shadow has two time-lines. The first time-line takes place in an ever-changing wasteland, where a young girl is trapped with a soldier who can only talk about the Great War and making tea. She longs to remember, to understand how she came to be in this strange place and how she can escape, but her memory fails her. What do a green light, a white tiger and a picture palace have to do with her? The second one tells the tale of Amaryllis Ruben, a spoilt girl with no mother. When she was eight a brain fever took all of her memories away, leaving her father devastated and the bond they once shared broken beyond repair.  He invests all his time in the making of a memory machine, where memories can be relived over and over again. When Amaryllis is kicked off yet another boarding school, her father decides that she will be home-schooled. He hires a governess and also decides that Ezra, the son of one of his employees, is to be taught together with his daughter, so that she might learn to understand how privileged she really is. Slowly, a bond starts to form between the two. On Amaryllis’ seventeenth birthday, her father gives her the memory machine he has been working on, after which the entire house is consumed by a raging fire. People from Ezra’s village claim to see the picture palace Arnold Ruben built for his little girl appearing and disappearing in the woods. When German planes bring destruction to England, Ezra is contacted by the government to help them find out what happened on that mysterious summer evening.

Sally Gardner knows her way around with words, which is even more impressive when you know that she could not read until she was fourteen because of her dyslexia. Expect lyrical prose such as unknown to him, his future became mixed with Amaryllis's, so that by the time the oven door was opened, the spell had been well and truly baked, his destiny altered by the making of a cake. Gardner knows how to tell what she wants to tell without saying too much or too little. Her descriptions are like little paintings dying to be seen.

I also really liked the characters. Amaryllis behaves irresponsible and mean at times, yet it becomes painstakingly obvious to the reader that this is a desperate cry for attention. She is in need of love, yet no-one around her apart from Ezra’s mother and later Ezra himself seem to notice this. Ezra is a brave boy with a big heart who truly knows what the value of family is and who stops at nothing to make sure that he people he loves are safe. The plot might be somewhat confusing for some readers, switching between different viewpoints, settings and time periods. Personally, I found that this only added to the mystery of the novel.

All in all this novel has so many appealing aspects that propelled it to my top-10 favourite books list and everything we have come to expect from a Sally Gardner-novel. Stay away if you want to read something light, because this story as a lot of elements that make it more complex than its length might suggest, such as rape, identity and human failure. Do read if you enjoy gorgeous prose, complicated characters and an original structure.

[booksiesreviewed]

The girl from the well

The girl from the well

  I expected great things from ‘the girl from the well’ for a number of reasons, the first being that the narrator is a ghost herself, which struck me as an unusual concept with a lot of potential.  The second of reason was that I read the first chapter on Amazon and really liked the language Rin Chupeco used. I thought this novel would be filled with lyrical prose and a lot of the bizarre and horrible. However, after finishing it, I’m having mixed feelings about this novel.

  ‘The girl from the well’ is told by Okiku, a Japanese girl who died three hundred years ago by being thrown head-first into a well when she was sixteen. Ever since, she has walked the earth as a ghost terrible to behold. She has made it her task to chase after children’s murderers and kill them. This serves two purposes: 1) it rids the Earth of a horrible person who she doesn’t believe has the right to live, and 2) the spirits of the children this guy (always seems to be a guy) has murdered, can now pass on into the afterlife. Of course, being a Japanese vengeful ghost, she does not just suffocate them and be done with it. Instead, she haunts them before finishing them off. Crawling out of TV’s, mirrors and bathtubs seems to be a preferred method of transportation, just like walking on the ceiling. This is, however, not what the story is about. Instead, it tells the tale of Tarquin and his cousin Callie. Tarquin has a Japanese mother locked into an asylum because she has tried to murder him on multiple occasions. His American dad is a lot saner and tries to do his best to give Tark a somewhat normal childhood. Tarquin can’t fit in, though. He has weird tattoos all over his body, presumably given to him by his deranged mother, and strange things happen when people get close to him. Okiku is inexplicably drawn to him and starts to follow him around. Meanwhile, Callie tries to keep Tark out of harm’s way, which should have been easier than it is.

  What I liked about this novel was its pretty prose and characters. Chupeco uses lyrical sentences while describing settings and feelings, but also the gorier scenes in which Okiku has her revenge: ‘I am writhing. My body stiffens and contracts, tangled hair obscuring enough features that you would not know what I am, only what I am not.’ Okiku doesn’t use contractions of words, probably because she is three hundred years old. Chupeco gave Okiku a distinct voice, just as Tarquin with his biting sarcasm. In the end, you have little choice but to like Tarquin and Callie and their love for each other. There’s also no choice but to feel a tinge of sadness over Okiku’s fate. She has chosen it herself and tries to be content, but there are things she can never have yet still yearns for. So, good characters and a proper use of language must make this novel a very enjoyable experience, right?

  Wrong. Unfortunately, ‘the girl from the well’ suffers from some major setbacks, including horror clichés. Masses of black killer hair, things crawling up from wells, creepy dolls, it’s all there. I don’t know whether I should have expected this, considering the fact that our narrator is a cliché herself ( a scary Japanese girl with long, black hair that hides a ruined face), but I did feel a bit disappointed, not in the least because some plot points could be seen from miles away. I also wasn’t really sure what Rin Chupeco was aiming for with revealing bits of Okiku’s past. Was it supposed to be a twist or shock or revelation? Okiku’s story is one of the most famous Japanese ghost stories. If you’re familiar with the legend, her sombre past and motivations are already known to you and are no longer a surprise. What I felt a tad disappointed about, too, was that I did not find this novel scary while I think it should have been.

  All in all, the concept of ‘the girl from the well’ was epic and the story does have some ingredients that could make it great, yet fails to get there. It cleverly uses spacing and prose to convey its imagery and has loveable characters, but is filled with bad clichés that just aren’t scary. Does all of this mean that I didn’t enjoy it? No, I quite liked it, I just think that it’s sad that a book with so much potential can’t live up to it. Do read if you enjoy stories for its characters, stay away from it if you hate horror clichés or can’t stand scary Japanese hair.

[booksiesreviewed]

The lovely bones

The lovely bones: lovely indeed!

  The lovely bones, written by Alice Sebold, has been out for quite a while, yet I never bought it until a few weeks ago. I do not know why: every time I thought about buying and reading it, something else popped up and I forgot about the lovely bones. What finally brought me to buy it, was a stern look at my to-read list and the realisation that I really REALLY needed to go ahead and get into it. I’m so happy I did! I expected this novel to be right up my alley, but boy, I didn’t know it would be this good.

  The lovely bones is the story of Susie Salmon, aged fourteen. On a grey December day, a neighbour brutally rapes and murders her. What we often think of as an ending, is actually the beginning of this novel. Susie passes on to a kind of in-between world, a world between Earth and Heaven. It contains everything she liked and from it, she can keep an eye on her friends and family. Until Susie can accept that she has died and that life will continue without her, she cannot pass on to Heaven. What unfolds is a story of love and grief, of mourning and anger. We see how her unsolved murder slowly rips her family apart, yet also forms bonds strong enough to last a life-time and how love can be stronger than death itself.

  There were multiple things I really liked about this novel. First of all, it has an unusual concept: a story told by a murdered girl. I expected this novel to be somewhat of a thriller, a detective-novel in which Susie has to leave clues to her family about the murderer and the place where he deposited of the body. Though it does start off with a gruesome murder like most detective stories, Alice Sebold decided to focus more on the different ways people deal with grief. The second thing I really liked were the characters. Susie’s parents, her sister Lindsey, her classmate Ruth: all of them felt like real people who love, hate, make mistakes, get hurt and battle on. Even though three of the main characters are girls with roughly the same age, they each had a distinct personality and their own little quirks. The third thing I liked was the language. The lovely bones is full of lyrical sentences, dreamy descriptions and metaphors. Some people hate this with a passion and will have trouble getting into the story, but I’m not one of them.

  In conclusion, I really liked the lovely bones. It is a wonderful tale of loss and love, one that manages to catch the ordinary and the extraordinary, the beautiful and the horrible. The writing style might tick some people off and the story isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I would certainly give it a try if you enjoy coming-of-age-stories, the paranormal and/or lyrical writing.