Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough
My Five Word TL:DR Review : I liked it a lot
I’m always indescribably happy when I see that SP has a new book. I’ve followed her work for a while now and really enjoy her writing. To put the cat among the pigeons I would say that not only did I like Insomnia but I liked it more than Behind Her Eyes. It’s a perfect jumble of crazy mixed up, spiralling out of control, sleepless insanity. Every time I thought I had a handle on what was going on it turned out I was wrong and I just love the way that the ending is totally out there – let’s just say #wtfthatending – in fact maybe that hashtag will apply for all SP’s books.
To be fair, if you’ve read Pinborough you’ll be aware that her books often wander into strange territory, tales of the unexpected if you like. There are usually elements of magical realism that surface as the book progresses but this is usually coupled with such a straightforward and contemporary style that it’s always a surprise.
Insomnia starts with Emma Averell approaching her 40th birthday. Lots of people approach the big 4-oh with a little bit of trepidation but in Emma’s case this is exacerbated by events from her past.
Emma has an almost picture postcard existence. A successful career, a loving-stay-at-home husband, two lovely children, a gorgeous house and an impending partnership. Things are looking peachy until a few days before her birthday she wakes in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. I’m not going to discuss the plot any further because this is a book that is probably best explored with no knowledge beforehand.
Why did I like this book.
Well, firstly it’s deceptive. When I first picked this up I thought I knew what was going on, but I really didn’t. You need a level of patience here because as Emma’s sleepless nights continue her grip on reality begins to crumble. She reflects on things from the past, particularly when people she hasn’t seen for years show up. And then the cracks start to appear. Maybe Emma’s life isn’t as perfect as it first appeared.
Secondly, it’s frustrating, repetitive and mind bending in the best ways possible. Here is a woman who thinks she’s going crazy. Hell, I thought she was going crazy at many points during the story. It’s an acknowledgement to the power of sleep and that period of restoration that your brain needs to function in a productive way. I veered between perplexed, annoyed and flummoxed. Why has Emma’ s life suddenly gone so haywire, why weren’t her family more supportive and what was going on at night when she completely lost periods of time – scary.
On top of this there are a few characters who dip in and out and Pinborough manages to paint them all in differing shades of suspicion. The husband, does he resent his wife’s success? The neighbours and the possibility of affairs. Emma’s sister appearing out of the blue? The client’s ex. Even (especially) Emma.
For me, the best part of this novel is that I felt immersed in Emma’s world. I was going slightly crazy myself and i don’t mean simply because I was staying up too late to function, I wanted to shake Emma, come on woman, snap out of it, pull yourself together. Stop doing things that make you look insane. But then, maybe she is insane! She’s a hot mess of fear to put it bluntly. She doesn’t know if she’s following in her mother’s footsteps, she doesn’t know if she’s a danger to her family, she doesn’t know if she’s committed terrible acts, she doesn’t know if somebody else has committed these terrible acts and, like Emma, I didn’t know either and it was driving me a little crazy too.
In terms of criticisms. Well, I’m not sure that the eventual reveal will wow everyone. It takes something of a leap but it was a leap that was easy for me to take so not a criticism so much as a ‘be aware’.
I found Insomnia an easy book to read. It took me through plenty of emotions along the way not least of all my extreme happiness that I can fall asleep at night. A twisty thriller with plenty of tension, well written and easy to conjure in the mind’s eye.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4.5 of 5 stars
#SPFBO Review : Legacy of the Brightwash (Tainted Dominion #1) by Krystle Matar
30 March 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO Review, Krystle Matar, Legacy of the Brightwash, Tainted Dominion #1
Stage 2 of the SPFBO competition is now well underway and the Critiquing Chemist and I have been reading the finalists. Today we post our review for the second finalist we read: Legacy of the Brightwash (Tainted Dominion #1) by Krystle Matar. Don’t forget to stop over to the Critiquing Chemist to check out their review.
Legacy of the Brightwash is a story that definitely left me conflicted. On the one hand, as I started to read I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the writing and the sharp contrast between that and the world being described. I mean, literally, I adore the way Matar turns a phrase. It’s as though she’s writing just for me and I love that feeling. On the other hand, and whilst I can’t fault the author for the love of this world and the characters, I felt that there was too much padding. I have no problem reading weighty tomes and at not much shy of 700 pages this is certainly something of a door stopper, but I do have a problem when they feel weighty and for me this one dragged its feet a little.
Brightwash is the name of the river that runs through the City of Yaelsmuir that belongs to a grouping of various states known as Dominion. As the story begins we make the acquaintance of a Regulation Officer known as Tashue. Regulation Officers work for the Authority responsible for keeping the population within the letter of the law and Tashue is almost regimental in the way he maintains his duty without deviation. The early chapters set us on the course of a murder mystery. The body of a mutilated young child washes up on the river banks, the only mark a tattoo on the back of the neck and Tashue is determined to discover the identity of the person responsible for this atrocity. One thing that seems strangely coincidental is that the body seems to be down river of the facility used to imprison those who have fallen foul of the law.
By way of background some of the people within the Dominion have what is known as ‘talent’ or quite often the more disparaging term ‘tainted’ is used. This is a form of ability that gives the users certain specialities and there are also differing strengths of ‘talent’. For many years the authorities have oppressed those with such ability. All talent users are required to register with the Authority, they are assigned case officers and regularly monitored. Talent can be used for operating machinery, lighting street lights or helping to cure diseases or other injuries. Non compliance leads to incarceration in the Rift, a prison not renowned for it’s gentle approach. Unfortunately for Tashue his son Jason has been imprisoned in the Rift for three years for failure to comply and he fears that something terrible will eventually befall him.
The world building is really good. I love the idea of the Dominion and the magic of the talented. Without doubt this is a grim and seedy world with plenty of morally grey characters. For the most part the majority of the people feel subdued or beaten down by life apart from the small percentage who live at the other end of the extreme.
Matar has given her story a political stance with the character Tashue being roped into campaigning being paraded around events and the like as a war hero. This is not something that Tashue is fond of but he’s manipulated into taking part with all sorts of talk of improvements, more authority officers to help with heavy workloads and perhaps better conditions for his son.
On top of this there is a romantic element to the story with the introduction of Stella Whiterock and her young daughter. Stella is a woman with Talent who has captured the attention and heart of Tashue, a feeling that she returns. This is part of the storyline that feeds into the overall disillusionment that Tashue begins to experience as his eyes are finally open to the prejudice and harsh treatment of those judged to be different.
Clearly there is a lot to explore here with background stories, political sidelines, the whole setting out of the world and the abilities of those with Talent and I think the author does a great job in bringing all these things together so well. Why the mixed feelings then?
As I mentioned above, I think this is quite simply too long and whilst it clearly demonstrates the love that Matar has for this world and the characters it feels almost like too much book for the story being told. As I already mentioned, I loved the writing and was also really intrigued by the mystery but every time I thought things were going to take off they went off on a tangent and this constant roller coaster of tacking along slowly followed by a rush of speed followed by another tack in progress, well, it pulled me out of the read in fact I found myself losing interest. Also, to be fair to the author, the romance here plays quite a central role, particularly in swaying the beliefs of Tashue and helping to nudge along his disillusionment, and romance is something that I can take or leave. I don’t mind a romance as part of a story but I prefer it to take a backseat as opposed to being fairly central and I can see that the author was going for a slow burn romance with the gradual build of tension but, again, in keeping with my other feelings this just felt too drawn out.
Overall, the writing is lovely, the world is intriguing and this is without doubt a character led drama which is something I enjoy. I think it could be tightened to make the story have a little more punch and I wasn’t enamoured by the romance but this is a personal preference. I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading this. This is a talented author and definitely one to keep a close eye on.
I received a copy courtesy of the author for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 6 out of 10 or 3 out of 5 for Goodreads.
The Critiquing Chemist rating is 6 out of 10
Our average rating is 6
Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Fervor by Alma Katsu
30 March 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Alma Katsu, Can't wait Wednesday, The Fervor, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: The Fervor by Alma Katsu. I really like this author. Here’s the description and the stunning cover:
From the acclaimed and award-winning author of The Hunger and The Deep comes a new psychological and supernatural twist on the horrors of the Japanese American internment camps in World War II.
1944: As World War II rages on, the threat has come to the home front. In a remote corner of Idaho, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, are desperate to return home. Following Meiko’s husband’s enlistment as an air force pilot in the Pacific months prior, Meiko and Aiko were taken from their home in Seattle and sent to one of the internment camps in the Midwest. It didn’t matter that Aiko was American-born: They were Japanese, and therefore considered a threat by the American government.
Mother and daughter attempt to hold on to elements of their old life in the camp when a mysterious disease begins to spread among those interned. What starts as a minor cold quickly becomes spontaneous fits of violence and aggression, even death. And when a disconcerting team of doctors arrive, nearly more threatening than the illness itself, Meiko and her daughter team up with a newspaper reporter and widowed missionary to investigate, and it becomes clear to them that something more sinister is afoot, a demon from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, hell-bent on infiltrating their already strange world.
Inspired by the Japanese yokai and the jorogumo spider demon, The Fervor explores a supernatural threat beyond what anyone saw coming; the danger of demonization, a mysterious contagion, and the search to stop its spread before it’s too late.
Expected publication : April 2022
Top Ten Tuesday : 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics
29 March 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic is:
21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics
I really like this topic. It makes you sit and think. I had a much longer longlist (hence the name eh!) and had to narrow this down. I started off with books that I was thinking are already pretty huge in terms of massive ratings on Goodreads and elsewhere – such as Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander or GRRM’s Game of Thrones. Then I thought about choosing some of my more recent reads. Ultimately I’ve gone for a mix of newish and slightly older reads. In no particular order, here they are:
The Red Queen’s War series by Mark Lawrence
The Bone Ships (The Tide Child) by RJ Barker
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium series) by Stieg Larsson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods #1) by Tara Sim
28 March 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Tara Sim, The City of Dusk, The Dark Gods #1
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Slow pacing and overly long
City of Dusk is a book that I wanted to love, a dark adult fantasy with fascinating worldbuilding and noble houses whose heirs are descendents of the Gods. Unfortunately, I think my expectations going into this one may have muddied the water a little, I was so excited to pick it up and as with most of my reads these days I went into this one with very little knowledge beforehand so the fall from ‘up on a pedestal’ to ‘considering not finishing the book at all’ felt like a long way down In fact I left off writing this review for a few days to give my mind time to absorb what I’ve read but in actual fact the delayed period in between completion and now has probably only served to heighten my confusion and mixed feelings.
This is a story of four heirs, all potentially in line to become the next ruler and therefore in competition with each other. At the same time, the world on which they live is starting to suffer all sorts of shortages. 500 years ago the ‘Sealing’ took place, closing off the city from the other godly realms leaving them unable to trade, etc. On top of the political vying between the four noble houses there are a number of strange occurences that are causing huge problems. A group of Conjurors are undertaking practices that have been banned for many years and as a result the world is suffering from the repercussions. The four heirs tentatively team up to try and figure out how to open up the realms again.
So, we have four realms, life, death, light and dark. Each realm has a God and each God is represented by a noble house (the nobles actually descend from the Gods), each house has an heir with their own particular brand of magic. There is Risha, a necromancer descended from the God of death, Angelica, an elementalist who really struggles with her ability to wield magic, Taesia, not actually the heir to her noble house but who has strong magic and can wield shadow magic with skill and Nik, from the house of light who also struggles to fulfil his role having had to step into the shoes of his older brother who died in a tragic accident.
There are a number of povs represented during the story. For me, I felt it was a little too much and although I understand the desire to give readers a bird’s eye view of what’s going on it also sometimes results in rather shallow characters and a certain level of repetition. Taesia is focused on more than the other characters and as a result her arc is a little stronger although at the same time it feels rushed in certain respects.
My main issues are a bit complicated. I liked the style of writing and yet I felt the story dragged its feet and for the actual length of the book I felt everything was a little vague, to such an extent that I find myself with more questions than answers about the world, the Sealing, the noble houses and the Conjurors. The characters themselves felt really young and this gave the story a YA feel to me rather than a dark adult fantasy but having said that I can’t recall is this was marketed as YA or adult. The world itself lacks the complexity that you would expect from adult fantasy and yet at the same time it’s frustratingly confused. The realms, for example, all now sealed with the Gods prevented from any interaction and yet all the noble houses are shut in this one realm? Why? Perhaps I missed something with that particular question but it is puzzling me. There’s mention of the City suffering from shortages but the timeframe doesn’t add up – I think the shortages would have been a lot more obvious a lot sooner. I was puzzled why the King and the noble houses rely so heavily on the heirs – I mean are there no advisors in this world, why aren’t the people with experience actually helping to solve some of the problems, why is a young, untested man put in charger of a major investigation (unless to see him fail)? It all feels a little bit skimmed over. I’m not going to go any further, basically, I think I’ve gone into over-critical mode.
To be fair to the author, as mentioned above, I like the style of writing however this felt like it was more aimed at a YA audience and whilst I do read the occasional YA they tend to be few and far between and I often find myself slightly irritated by the surface level of information.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating is 2.5 of 5 stars
Books and travelling with Lynn 