Review: Grandpa's Great Escape, David Walliams

Jack loves his Grandpa more than anyone in the world, and doesn't care that he seems to be losing his memory and becoming more and more stuck in the year 1940. What Jack cares about is his Grandpa's stories and his love, and is genuinely excited about all the things Grandpa tells him. 

Unfortunately, not everyone in the family feels that way.

It all comes to a head when Grandpa is found in the middle of the night atop of the town church's spire, convinced he's back in his spitfire plane, battling against the Luftwaffe. After negotiating with his parents, Jack convinces them to let Grandpa live with them, so they can keep a better eye on him.

This all sounds like a great plan until Grandpa goes missing for a week and they find him asleep in a Spitfire in the Imperial War museum.

Grandpa is taken to (and dumped off at) Twilight Towers, an old people's home. But there is something suspicious about the place and Jack can't let it go...

Grandpa's Great Escape is a brilliant story that, though written for children, adults will surely love as well. It's heartwarming and funny with a genuinely good story that pulls you in and has you shouting 'No, no, no!', when you think all is lost (it's not). I'd say it's most targeted for children between 8-12 but I was laughing as much as this age group would be. David Walliams is on to another winner with this one. 

Review: Monsters of Men, Patrick Ness

The final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. It's a long read - one that will necessitate pauses due to vicarious battle fatigue - but a great ending to the series.

The Spackle are coming, in their tens of thousands. The Return (the Spackle who escaped in book 2) has reported the monstrous crime and the Land (the actual name for the Spackle) have come to fight for their very existence.

The new settlers we met in book 2 (Bradley and Simone) are hesitant to get involved. They came to this world for peace, not to fight in new wars. But Viola (much to Mistress Coyle's delight) ends that discussion decisively when she sees Todd in danger. She fires one of the ship's missiles into the Spackle. The Spackle's near certain victory is snatched away from them.

Most of the book is a series of battles, skirmishes, and guerilla warfare. It's interesting to see how Mayor Prentiss' character develops in this one. Todd's mantra is that the Mayor is not redeemable, but we start to think he is. He chooses to do some things that are good - the reason being, according to him, that Todd is making him a better man, but his conduct over the series makes the reader think their is something underhanded going on.

Once the Spackle and the humans realise that they will come either to a stalemate or equal slaughter on both sides, peace talks begin. The Return (whose voice we also read in this volume) is dead against this and wants to ruin it. His conversations with the Sky (the leader of the Land) reveal deep bitterness, hurt, and betrayal built up over many years. He wants nothing more than to kill the Knife (Todd) yet when face to face with another human connected with Todd, he can't do it. Things have become less black and white than he thought.

Just by nature of the plot and the end game of this book, I found it the most intense and tiring of the three, but this is by no means a negative thing. Trilogies sometimes suffer their third book being the weakest and slapped together, but this is certainly not one of those. Beneath the action of the book, there are deep, necessary questions asked like, how do we live together despite our differences? How can differences in politics and ideologies be resolved without going to war? Is anyone ever irredeemable?

It's no wonder this trilogy got so much critical acclaim. From detailed world building and complex characters, to well-developed plot and uncomfortable questions posed, it's a story that will enrich you and open your mind.

Review: The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness

After a long and traumatic journey, Todd and Viola have made it to Haven, the very first settlement on New World. But they have not received the welcome they wanted.

Mayor Prentiss, the clear villain so far, has cleared the town so he can talk to Todd especially. He tries to break Todd early on with a clever mixture of cruelty and kindness, even more piercing with the surprise of the kindness. Mayor Prentiss is on a mission to know everything, it seems. Knowledge is power.

Viola, meanwhile, is elsewhere, healing up in one of the Healing Houses run solely by women. Mistress Coyle, the head of one of the houses, quickly gets a measure of both Viola and the mayor and plans accordingly. Her plan, as it turns out, is to resurrect 'The Answer', a insurgent group (or terrorist, depending on your lens) that helped to defeat the Spackle years ago, in order to defeat the Mayor and rid Haven (now New Prentisstown) of him.

What I enjoyed most about this second installment was all the questions of right and wrong it posed. For example, the Answer's methods are violent, but are they the right means to the end? Is Mistress Coyle the saviour she is purported to be, or just Mayor Prentiss with a different leaning? Is Todd's joining in with the enslavement of the Spackle cowardly or practical, a way of biding his time until he can help them? Carrying on despite finding out that the Mayor killed all the Spackle (but one, who he knows Todd will help escape) and blaming it on the Answer?

Todd and Viola are separate for most of this book so the reader's perimeters get wider. We see both more of New World, and more new characters, including people who have just landed in a scout ship ahead of a new settlement ship.

There is more focussed action in this book, the goal being for Mayor Prentiss to rid the town of the Answer, and for Mistress Coyle to get rid of the Mayor.

But at the end, this all comes to a halt. And what happens now signals the start of a bloody and savage battle for the right to claim New World.  

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go...

...contains probably the most fabulous first line of a book I've ever read. "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say."

Todd is a boy in a town of only men, mere weeks away from his thirteenth birthday - the day he becomes a man, according to the tradition of Prentisstown. We find him exploring a remote part of the land in order to get away from the Noise of the town - the population are on a different planet, and when they arrived, the men caught the Noise 'germ', the consequence of which is that their thoughts are as clearly audible as the words they speak.

Out in the wilderness, though, Todd discovers something strange. A hole in the noise.

When he returns home to his guardians, Ben and Cillian, they give each other one of those looks, and send Todd on his way, instructing him to run as fast and as quickly as possible. They don't tell him why, and they don't tell him why they can't tell him (this all becomes clear later).

On the other side of the swamp, Todd meets someone who he thought didn't exist any more - a girl. It's a while before we find out her name (Viola) or why she's there, but when we do the journey becomes more necessary.

Their destination is Haven, but the distance is not their only obstacle. Hot on their heels is the mayor and the men of Prentisstown, but Todd and Viola are helped by many along the way.

It's a brilliant, explosive (sometimes quite literally) start to the series, and probably my favourite of the three. Of all the characters we meet in this book, Wilf is probably my favourite, so open and guileless and deep. It's a fast-paced read but doesn't sacrifice character or world building (helped a lot by the page count). We slowly find out answers to some of the many questions posed - what happened to the women, the noise, the indigenous species (the Spackle)... but it also opens up a lot more.

A really good read for fans of dystopian fiction and good worldbuilding.

Review: Ruby Red, Linzi Glass

Johannesburg and Soweto might not be far away geographically but are worlds apart socially and politically. Ruby, from an extremely privileged area in Johannesburg, is caught between two worlds. With a politically active father and mother, who both do their utmost to help the oppressed black population, she knows the necessity of keeping secrets and acting as if her family is no different to anyone else.

After her mother discovers a young black artist called Julian at a local underground art show, the need for secrets becomes even more apparent - especially when people from his own neighbourhood want to bring him down. After a brutal attack, Ruby's parents bring Julian to live with them permanently so he can paint in safety.

Meanwhile, while watching her school's rugby team play fiercely against a local Afrikaans school, Ruby inadvertently gets caught up in another world that's as fiercely off-limits as mixing with black people. She makes friends with an Afrikaans girl - Loretta - and starts dating Loretta's brother, Johann.

But mixing different worlds in a country where a different skin colour or speaking a different language can erupt quickly into anger and chaos, Ruby finds it increasingly difficult to be her true self.

It's a brilliant YA book that delves into the themes of identity; being true to yourself and the cost that can require; first love; and dealing with villains at high school. All of this is set cleverly against a country that is at the height of oppression but it's slowly becoming clear that the oppressed are not going to take it for much longer. Ruby is a very impressive heroine, and it's great to see a book in which a character's relationship with her parents - both of whom are still living - is so thoroughly explored. Each of the characters, however minor, has their own arc drawn out in detail, and while the ending is not necessarily a happy one, it feels right for the plot.

It's definitely a story I would recommend, for YA and adults alike.

Review: The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Hector Bowen - most famous for his stage name, Prospero the Enchanter - receives an unexpected surprise in the form of his young daughter, Celia. Her mother has committed suicide, so Celia is now solely in her father's charge. Upon finding out about his daughter's powers, however, the prospect does not seem so bleak to Hector, and he instead looks to see how he can use her. He calls his old friend, Mr A-H-- and proposes a contest between his daughter and someone of Mr A-H-'s choosing. The rules of the contest are unspecified to the reader, but known completely to the two competitors.

About a decade later, a man called Chandresh Christopher Lefevre, at one of his famously mysterious midnight dinners, brings together an illustrious group of artists, renowned in their respective fields. He proposes a new form of circus but unlike any other the world has seen. It was be solely at night; it will arrive in its locations without warning; it will be an ever-growing circus of many tents; and only the best and most magical performers will be on show.

Marco - Chandresh's assistant and Mr A-H-'s chosen competitor - and Celia Bowen meet as Celia auditions for the circus. Marco soon realises that Celia is to be his opponent, whereas Celia does not realise this for some years.

The story is told in a series of episodes, flitting back and forth between years, sometimes the previous century, which can get confusing but also could be representative of the unpredictable nature of the circus itself. The episodes are either from a specific character's viewpoint, or written in second person as the reader is guided through the circus itself. The characterisation is deep and complex - a great feat considering the size of cast - and the circus itself is rich and magical. You can find yourself envious of the reveurs, (dreamers) - the biggest fans of the circus who make it their life's mission to follow the circus as much as they can.

You could stay absorbed in the world of the circus forever, but as time goes on, the cracks begin to show. Celia is holding the circus together. Several features of the circus itself, like the ever-burning bonfire, are key elements without which the circus would break down but themselves getting harder to hold. Celia and Marco, after discovering their unintentional rivalry, find themselves slowly falling in love, and weary of this contest between them. All of this points to the finale ending in tragedy - but I won't spoil it. Suffice to say, it's a suitably enigmatic and satisfying ending for a story that contains as many moving and surreal parts as it does.

It's really a triumph of imagery and atmosphere, with many endearing and sympathetic characters that you hold in admiration and wonder. Pity is there as well, knowing their lives are not completely their own because of the ego and ambition of Hector and Mr A-H. It's an incredible feat of writing.

Review: Thin Air, Michelle Paver

Five Englishmen set out on a quest to conquer the third highest peak in the world - Kanchenjunga. The night before they set off on their journey,  Stephen - our narrator - stumbles into the presence of Charles Tennant, a mountaineer who joined the team of Edmund Lyell in 1907.  Charles Lyell, however, warns him not to go ahead with the expedition, but will not explain why. All Stephen knows is that, for some reason, Charles is still terrified by what happened.

The closer the team get to the mountain, the more Stephen feels a malevolent presence around them. The higher they get, the more they have to contend with - not just mentally, but physically. Mountain sickness, freezing temperatures, frostbite... and, in Stephen's case, the presence of what he is sure is a ghost.

He finds this to be the case - Arthur Ward, one of the members of the Lyell expedition, was reported dead but his body never found. As Stephen finds out the shocking truth, the closer he is to tragedy.

The plot itself is fairly simplistic but it's the slow-build suspense of it that makes it a really enjoyable read. There is gorgeous and atmospheric description of the journey towards the mountain itself, and a frank representation of British imperialistic attitudes and treatment of the "coolies" and sherpas that makes post-colonial Brits feel embarrassed. Without them, after all, not a single Westerner would have ever climbed up to the summits of the highest peaks in the world.


I found this more of a suspenseful thriller rather than a ghost story. It was a very absorbing read, with complex relationships between the mountaineers adding depth to the big picture of the expedition that is the main plot. I would definitely recommend it.