Review: We Have Always Lived In The Castle, Shirley Jackson

This was one of the books suggested to me by the librarian of the school I work at as a History teacher. I'd never read any of Jackson's work before, although I had heard of "The Haunting of Hill House", thanks to the Netflix adaptation.

For those whom have not read this book either, We Have Always Lived In The Castle centres around the remaining three members of Blackwood family. I say remaining, because the rest were murdered six years before the beginning of this book. The beginning of it perhaps inspired the start of another book, I Capture The Castle, as the two seemed very similar in tone, although the protagonists artre very different.

Mary Katherine, called 'Merricat' by her sister, Constance, is the only one of the Blackwood family to leave the house since the murder. She meticulously documents the family's weekly routine. Tuesdays and Fridays are the worst days, she explains, as she has to go to the village for groceries and books. Most of the villagers believe that Constance, accused but acquitted of the murders, is responsible, and as such they treat Merricat with the same contempt. She treats her walks to the village like a game, and she wins if she makes the round trip without anyone tormenting her. If they do, she imagines the harm she would do to them with alarming detail.

Uncle Julian is the last of the three of the surviving Blackwoods. He seems to be senile, whether that's from old age or the lingering effects of the arsenic (the murder was committed through someone putting arsenic in the sugar bowl) but is determined to document the whole event and write it in a book.

Their comfortable existence is soon disrupted by an apparent cousin called Charles. Merricat dislikes him straight away, calling him a ghost and a demon. He has more luck charming Constance, but is no match for Merricat and Uncle Julian, although he does slyly threaten to turn Merricat out of the house. It seems his only motive to be there is not to reacquaint with the family but to try and get his hands on the Blackwood fortune.

For a short book, (only 146 pages), it packs a hell of a punch. The small world consisting, (apart from the walk through the village at the start), solely of the house is built up room by room and the grounds around. There is even a jaunt to the ruined summerhouse in which Merricat enacts in her mind a dinner, of sorts, with her deceased ancestors, in which they treat her as she imagines they should have done.

The twist at the end is not altogether shocking - the book builds it up piece by piece throughout - but the rest of the story, particularly Merricat's inner mind, makes more sense once that piece of knowledge is secure.

It's a commanding, strange, and (at times) whimsical piece of fiction, with enduring and endearing (in Uncle Julian) characters. It's hard to guess at an ending for this kind of story but it is done remarkably well - I'll leave it for you to find out.

New Review: The Thunder Girls, Melanie Blake

Melanie Blake is an author, playwright, TV critic, and former music manager - one of the best in the industry. Hers is a true rags to riches story, and she uses the richness of material from her career to write a thoroughy enjoyable, nostalgia-inducing, and shocking story about a girl band called The Thunder Girls. She writes in her book that none of the characters are based on real life people, but everything that happens in the book - good, bad, and ugly - has happened in the music industry, and then some.

It starts with betrayal. Chrissie, Roxanne, Carly and Anita are at the top of their game, until Chrissie sells out the rest of the girls. She signs a contract as a solo artist and the Thunder Girls are no more. 

Thirty years later. Chrissie arrives home from her honeymoon to find out that her new husband has taken her for a ride - persuading her to open joint accounts, he has quite literally drained all of her wealth and done a runner. Chrissie is at risk of destitution, until her manager, Jack, offers her a way out. 

The idea is to reunite the Thunder Girls for a huge eighties gig at Wembley. It comes with the promise of renewed fame and fortune, but at a cost. Chrissie will have to get down on her knees and grovel - hard. Meanwhile, Jack's sudden interest in their renewal isn't at wholesome as it seems. 

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. There was never a dull moment. Melanie Blake's experience of the industry pours out from every page and, even though this is technically a work of fiction, the fact that she said the music industry is all of this and more makes you think about how much more rough of a business it is than what we see. All we get, as consumers, is the end product. We don't see the behind the scenes battles between artists, producers, managers, and execs. We don't see the power plays, unless it comes out on social media. The recent exposure by Taylor Swift of how hard it is for writers and artists to own their work, even if they have the money to pay for it, is just one small example.

Melanie writes with flair, aplomb, and compassion as well. As a manager, she will no doubt had to support people in the valleys as well as on the mountains, and it shows. Despite the flaws of these characters, you can't help but feel sympathy for them - even Chrissie, begrudgingly at times - and you root for them, knowing that as teenagers they were pawns in a much bigger game but, with the benefit of experience, they have learned to fight for themselves.

And that's what Chrissie, Anita, Carly, and Roxanne do. They come out fighting. I really loved this book, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it, particularly as it's coming up to the summer holidays. It's a perfect summer read. 

New Review: Concerto, Hannah Fielding

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. 

"Concerto follows Catriona, a young music therapist, who must honour an opera diva’s dying request to help her son, Umberto Rolando Monteverdi, recover his musical gift after a car accident robbed him of his sight. Ten years previously, Catriona shared a night of passion with the handsome musician that led to unexpected circumstances. Arriving at Umberto’s mansion in Lake Como, she finds him resistant to her every effort. Catriona discovers her feelings toward the blind musician are as strong as ever while battling her own secrets and the dark forces that threaten Umberto’s life – for the second time."

This gorgeous romance novel is a sumptuous read - there's really not another word for it. It's set against the backdrops of Nice and Italy, with classical music serving as the main vehicle for the plot.

 Catriona, aged eighteen, has the world at her feet. She's on course to win a competition that will give her a place at the most prestigious of music conservatoires, when she meets a composer and pianist whose fame is quickly rising. She meets him and they spend a single, passionate night together before he unexpectedly leaves for a tour in America. He leaves her with something else unexpected, too - a pregnancy with which she follows through. Ten years later, Umberto's mother begs Catriona to help her son after he loses his sight. 

It takes some persuasion, but Catriona finally agrees. When she reaches Umberto in Lake Como, however, she has to decide whether or not she will reveal the truth about herself and her son - Umberto's son. He is not the only factor at play, though. Umberto's cousin and a childhood friend/ex-lover, makes things even more tense and awkward. 

Umberto finally figures out who Catriona is, though, and they pick up exactly where they left off ten years previously. Catriona, however, still cannot figure out a way to reveal the truth about the son. Meanwhile, the stakes are only getting higher and higher. 

This book was a passionate, sweeping love story from start to finish, full of hedonism, romance, and gorgeous descriptions of some of the world's most luxurious and beautiful places. If you enjoy romance novels, then this book will appeal and then some. It's a long read, but it doesn't feel that way. Every chapter, the author introduces some new intrigue or plot twist that makes the larger story even more of a mystery with satisfying payoffs.   

An exceptionally beautiful and heart-touching read which will stay with you long after you finish.  

New review: Kingsbane, Claire Legrand

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. 

Kingsbane is the sequel to Legrand's New York Times bestseller, Furyborn. Although I hadn't read Furyborn before starting Kingsbane, a quick read through of some other reviews gave me a general gist - but I do recommend reading the books in order and I intend to go back and read Furyborn so questions I have about its sequel make more sense. I wasn't sure what to expect as reviews of Furyborn were very polarising, but I'm happy to say that I've been thrilled as a reader with this novel.

Anyway. Kingsbane starts with one of its two protagonists, Rielle, having been proclaimed the Sun Queen. She is an elemental - meaning she can manipulate the elements. Only she is unusual - and special - because she can manipulate all four as opposed to one, which is most common among elementals. She is making a tour of the kingdoms, but not all is well. Controversies seemed to have reigned through her journey to becoming the Sun Queen (reading Furyborn will make more sense of that, it seems) and she is battling with her seemingly would-be lover and arch enemy, an angel called Corien. Rielle becomes aware that the Gate that separates the human world from the world of the Deep, a void to which the angels got banished during a war between angels and humans, is fracturing. It can only be repaired if she finds the original castings with which the Gate was made, although the effort and power involved could kill her.

The second protagonist, Eliana, is Rielle's daughter - except that they are separated by a thousand years. She was brought up in an adopted family and is a trained assassin. She finds it hard to accept any of her new powers and what is expected of her - namely, that she will save the world. She struggles with her mother's legacy - her mother became known as the Blood Queen (lots of murder implied with that title, though I'm not sure if that context has been provided in Furyborn or will be in Kingsbane). 

This is pure high fantasy, and I am devouring it. Rielle and Eliana are incredibly complex and richly drawn characters, although Eliana falls into the YA female lead tropes at times. There is also some LGBT+ representation in the book, which - while refreshing - is also not forced in as points for diversity and inclusion. 

There is a huge supporting cast of characters and plots as well. I would very much be interested to see the spreadsheets or mind maps Legrand used to keep track of them all! She holds all the threads of the story together, so even though the plot may seem sprawling at times - on several occasions I had to flick back to previous chapters to pick up the thread of a plot point I'd missed - as a writer she seems in control of it all.   

Kingsbane has all the markings of a great fantasy - magic, monsters, implicit history, excellent worldbuilding - while also making it all seem new. It has reinvented the wheel, as most fantasies do, in a compelling and page-turning way. Already I'm impatient to read the conclusion to this rich tapestry of a story. 

Upcoming review - Kingsbane Blog Tour

I'm excited to be a part of the upcoming Kingsbane Blog Tour!

Kinsgbane follows two fiercely independent queens, Rielle Dardenne and Eliana Ferracora, who, although separated by a thousand years, are connected by secrets and lies. Both Rielle and Eliana must continue their fight amid deadly plots and unthinkable betrayals, which will test their strength, their hearts, and their power, as they are faced with the choice of saving the world…or dooming it.

Although Claire Legrand, the author, was inspired by the world building in the classic fantasy novels of Philip Pullman and J.R Tolkein, she recognised their books often followed heteronormative and Eurocentric narratives. Claire wanted to create a landscape in which the characters reflected the world she saw, leading to the birth of fiercely feminist epic Empiruim series, where complex bi-sexual heroines, female sexuality and minority and LGBTQ characters are celebrated through their inmate and intricate depictions, within an epic new fantasy world.

Look out for my review on the 23rd May!

Review: Ink, Alice Broadway

INK is a YA fantasy story set in the town of Saintstone. It is a town in which everyone is marked with tattoos that display the stories and events of their life. Their belief is if tattoos tell your stories and secrets, your soul will not be burdened and when you die, you can enter the afterlife.

The story's protagonist is a young woman called Leora, on the verge of finishing her schooling career, when she loses her father. After a person in Saintstone dies, their skin is removed and made into a life story book, which then gets judged. If one passes, your stories will be remember forever. If not, your story gets thrown into the fire and you will be 'forgotten' - the worst sentence that can be bestowed.

Leora's ambition is to become an Inker (a tattooist). During her training, however, she begins to find out that things are going wrong in Saintstone. Her father's last words to her were, "Don't forget the blanks", meaning the unmarked, who have been banished. However, the new Mayor wants to be stricter than ever, to root out Blank sympathisers and mark them as forgotten, with a crow.

The writing and plot itself follows the standard YA model, but the setting is different and original enough to keep it interesting. I wasn't a particular fan of Leora - she seemed to be the same unassuming, quiet, self-deprecating, emo type that one sees in a lot of YA fiction - but enough of her surrounding characters were interesting and had enough depth to make me care about what happened to them.

I think there was a lot of potential to this book that didn't get realised. For me, it simply seemed to be following the standard beats and plot points of a story without fleshing them out as fully as it could have been. I didn't get enough of the sense of the history of the place, or why I should care about this war between the Marked and the Blanks. I'm sure that the writer has a lot of this going on in her mind, and maybe that's just the nature of YA writing.

It's a very promising story and I probably will read the sequels, but overall I was left hoping for more than what it was.

Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris

This book is based on the extraordinary and gut-wrenching story of Lali Sokolov, (formerly Eisenberg), and his survival through three years of being at Auschwitz, and his torturous journey home to Slovakia in order to find his family and reunite with the love of his life, (Gita), whom he met in the camp.

The book has been disparaged by some who claim it is not an authentic or factually accurate enough  story of the Holocaust, despite being based on the true story of Lali. Despite the author working with historians, other experts of the Holocaust claim there is too much dramatic license used.

Despite this, the story is powerful and moving - anyone with a layman's understanding of the Holocaust will be able to recognise symbols and landmarks used, from the slave labour to the gas chambers. Lali (spelled Lale in the book) is a clever man with a survival for instinct. He never makes friends with any of the guards - that would be impossible - but he knows what to do in order to collect favours and keep himself and his friends alive.

The love story between Lali and Gita is desperate, slow-moving, and high stakes. There is no way of telling in the novel whether they end up together or not, which adds to the already compelling nature of the story.

As a whole, I found the writing a bit rushed at times - this may be due to the nature of it having been written as a screenplay first - but the characters and relationships between them were absorbing enough to gloss over that at times.

This story isn't - and was never intended to be - a truly deep insight into the Holocaust itself. No single book could ever do that. But it is a powerful story of love, survival, and humanity against all odds.