Broken Monsters

By Lauren Beukes

[She's never hunted a killer as deadly.

Something strange is happening in Detroit. Hybrid bodies

are turning up, half-animal, half-human. For Detective

Gabi Versado, they are the work of a twisted monster

who surpasses even 'Murder City's' most brutal criminals.

And he's only just begun...

For failed artist Clayton Broom, they are his greatest

work. Life destroyed his dreams, so now he's found

new ones. The question is, can Gabi find him before the

person she loves most is drawn into his nightmare?]

I didn't actually expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Right from the start it was darkly intriguing. 

At first I didn't enjoy the chapters jumping from character to character but, by the end, I saw how effective this was. It really enabled the story to be built up from all angles and for us as an audience to slowly put the pieces together of what was happening. 

This wasn't a book where you have to figure out who the killer was because it's stated in the blurb for God's sake; it's what he does to his victims and the way the other character's stories are interwoven. It was beautiful.

Even though some of the characters had flaws, and major ones at that, I quite liked them all which is unusual. There's normally at least one person I detest, but not with this book.

Detective Versado was a great character, a struggling single mum who is a very good cop but is struggling to balance it all.

Jonno Haim and Clayton Broom were other interesting characters along with the Detective's daughter and her best friend. 

I see now that they all had something "broken" about them, whether it be to do with something in their past or a part of their mental health. It was a very unique story.

One thing that slightly - and I mean slightly here - let it down was the ending. 

I'm not going to divulge any details (although this explanation could get very confusing without them) but it all suddenly went very surreal and almost supernatural. 

It was quite a confusing read in those last chapters but it also worked well for the stability for two of the characters deteriorating mental health. I'm sure that's what it was linked to, but other characters were affected as well towards the end which made me think the whole book had something supernatural to it.

It's not that supernatural is a problem, more that I didn't quite get what was fully going on. The whole art scene interwoven throughout touches on the surreal aspect and I think it's explained as to why the other characters were affected but even they didn't seem too sure in their closing statements.

A great read though and one I'd be sure to pick up again.

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After Anna

By Alex Lake

[A girl is missing. Five years old,

taken from outside her school.

She has vanished, traceless.

The police are at a loss; her parents are

beyond grief. Their daughter is lost

forever - perhaps dead,

perhaps enslaved.

But the biggest mystery is yet to

come: one week after she was abducted,

Anna is returned.

She has no memory of where she

has been. And this, for her mother,

is just the beginning of

the nightmare...]

I really wasn't impressed with this at all.

The plot was hella predictable the entire way through. Not to mention it kept contradicting itself along the way. 

At one moment Julia states her mother is in a nursing home, the next minute she states she's dead and then in a further chapter she goes and visits said dead mother in the nursing home, whaaaat?! It needed a bit more consistency if I'm being honest.

And further to that, I literally hated all of the main characters. They were so unlikeable it was annoying. The funny thing is they were relatable. Maybe that's what made them such annoying characters, I don't know. 

I can't pinpoint an exact reason why I didn't like Julia, she did the best she could in the circumstances thrown her way, I just didn't click with her. 

Brian and Edna though, I loathed. Brian because he was a spineless pushover letting his mother get exactly what she wanted and Edna because she was a manipulative old hag stuck in her old fashioned ways.

The only thing I did like was the perspective of the kidnapper's chapters. Using second person is always an interesting technique so it was a nice way to freshen up the book. The chapters for the main part were also set out pretty weirdly, in separate sections within each other. I don't know, I found it quite odd.

Maybe I just don't get on with these types of books. I'm never truly satisfied with whoever has supposedly committed the crime because, to me, it's always obvious who it is pretty early on.

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Moving

So this is an unusual post for me.

Having recently moved I've got a tonne of ideas buzzing around about how best to organise all of my stuff.

I'm determined not to have a cluttered space again like last time.

And, although I still only have the single room in a houseshare, I want to make it work.

Pinterest is one of those glorious websites that has also helped with the creative process.

I need to buy a bedside table in which I'm sort of going to use as a make-up/product stand instead, another DVD storage unit and a rug.

Once I have those few bits I feel like I will be more settled and everything will have its right place in here.

I have so many books and ornaments and lotions that I just need it all to be organised appropriately and not all clustered together.

AH!

Anyway, here are a few ingenious ideas from the wonderful Pinterest below. I may do an update once everything is all in order too.

x

Maybe I should do some reshuffling on the blog too, feeling a new layout...

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Fevre Dream

By George R R Martin

[Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream,
the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat
some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition.
Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have
started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours.
As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales,
until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality.]

This was meant to go up last night but we seemed to be having wifi issues and you know me, still not scheduling my posts yet. 

Whoops. But here it is, the review for a George R R Martin book that isn't Game of Thrones!

Hm. I thought George R R Martin and vampires would be a good mix considering his other fantasy works. 

Alas, I was mistaken.

I really wanted to like Fevre Dream but I just wasn't taken with it.

I loved the characters. Abner was great, stubborn, set in his old ways, but loyal and courageous. 

Joshua was a true gentleman (apart from the one minor fact that he's a vampire), he sticks to his cause through and through no matter how tough it gets. 

And then there's Julian. Pure evil and a power-hungry bully. They were all written so well, that is definitely one thing Martin does extremely well - character development!

The plot though, I wasn't sure about. I can't put my finger on it, but something was just off. 

There were some great tense moments in amongst all of the river-boating stuff. 

Maybe it was the period it was set in? Or maybe it just wasn't like any other vampire novels I've ever read before. 

But the quiet moments didn't make me want to keep reading, I found myself getting a little bored if I'm honest.

The setting on the river and the slave plantations were pretty interesting though. The imagery was fantastic incorporating all of the corruption and power battles.

Bit of a weird one overall.



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