Hunger (Gone) by Michael Grant
14 December 2010
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Gone, Hunger, Michael Grant, The Fayz
This is the second book in the series picking up the story of Gone 3 months on. Gone is based on the children who live at Perdido Beach. Mysteriously all the adults, in fact anyone of the age 15 or above has disappeared and at the same time some of the remaining children are developing strange powers. The first book introduced us to Sam who, due to his level-headedness has become the Leader of the remaining children – well at least the children who are not living at the Academy. The children at the Academy are led by Caine who already understands his own special powers and wants to make the most of them to take control. And this gives an incredibly basic summary of the first novel.
Hunger, as it’s name implies, takes us three months down the line when all the food is starting to run out and the children are beginning to starve. Sam has unwittingly become the surrogate father to over 300 children (some very young) and is trying to keep things afloat whilst having to arbitrate over ‘silly’ everyday arguments such as which dvd is going to be watched that evening. Basically Sam has so many everyday duties to perform and constant worries to try and overcome that he has very little time to focus on the real problems that are swiftly heading his way. This story sees the further development of the characters and the addition of some new mutant powers. It also sees the breakdown of relationships between the children as the real hunger takes hold with the ‘normal’ children starting to feel resentful of the ones with powers who seem to run the show.
This book is an interesting concept – it reminds me of a cross between Lord of the Flies and the X-Men and demonstrates the way that circumstances can vastly alter a person’s nature, that bad can become good and that heros are sometimes least where you expect to find them. I like the way that MG writes, he makes you care about his characters and he packs in a lot of drama and action. I would think though that this book may not be suitable for a younger audience as MG certainly doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the fighting and conflict scenes.
The only criticism I would really have is that this is a long book – and I don’t particularly have a problem with long books – but in parts the story does seem to drag a little – and strangely enough not because of a lack of action because there seems to be always plenty going on. I think perhaps some of it could have been edited so that you cut to the chase a bit quicker. It almost feels sometimes that there is so much going on that you become almost bored with it – I know that sounds crazy but perhaps there should have been the odd chapter where things were less hectic. That said the ending is very gripping and I practically raced through it.
I’m looking forward to reading Lies which is already sat in wait however I’ll probably read a few other books first. So many books…
Rating B+
Hunger (Gone)
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
I’ve read a few books by AH and I really like her writing style. She manages to conjure up such wonderful images of the people and the places in which they live and her books always have an ‘other world’ type of feel to them.
This book focuses on the relationship between three sisters and the profound impact they have on each other’s lives. The story takes you through the three girls lives from being early teens through to their 30s. At the start of the story the three sisters Elv, Meg and Claire have a very close bond, they spend all their time together, don’t have any particular friends and have in fact even developed their own special language (Arnish) which they sit upstairs whispering to each other in their attic bedroom. Elv is the eldest and most beautiful although the other two are by no means unattractive. The girls live with their mother Annie who has separated from her husband.
Fairly soon into the story the girl’s relationship starts to fracture, this seems to be as a result of a number of things. Elv and Claire have formed a strong bond as a result of an incident when Elv saved Claire from abduction (and was actually abducted herself as a result). This incident is never talked about and the mother of the girls never finds anything out about this – in fact Meg is also in the dark about what happened and so she probably doesn’t really understand why they have become so close – and why she seems to be excluded. Eventually, petty jealousies between Meg and Elv turn into hatred with both of them vying for the attention of Claire. Elv, understandably given the trauma she has been through suffers huge emotional turmoil and starts to spin out of control.
This is such a sad story and yet told so beautifully that it is quite captivating. There is such a lot of darkness and despondency and yet throughout there are elements of fantasy woven in. This is what I really like about AH – the way she manages to take a story that frankly is so emotional and yet make it magical at the same time.
I suppose in writing a novel with such a wide scope it is difficult to focus equally on all the characters. I think Elv is perhaps focused on a little too much and the mother Annie barely gets a mention and is almost transparent. Also, the ending felt a little short. That aside I would recommend this book – I wouldn’t say it was a joy to read because of the subject matter involved but it was a very quick read in that I didn’t want to put it down a great deal.
Rating -A
The Story Sisters
Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
This is the fourth book in the series and focuses on Ani and Devlin. Ani is the part mortal daughter of Gabriel and Devlin is the assassin (or bloody hands) of the Faery queen.
This story picks up where Fragile Eternity left off with Seth having just returned to the real world. The Faery Queen, Sorcha, is no longer the calm and emotion free zone she previously was and is now experiencing sorrow and doubt at the absence of Seth. As she pines the stability of the faery realm is in decline. Meanwhile Devlin, who is back in the mortal world to watch over Seth (at Sorcha’s request) has been distracted by his attraction to Ani.
This book has got such a lot of elements which are really well meshed together. In fact, this is my favourite of the books so far, I think that’s probably because it focuses much more on the dark court which I prefer. I think Melissa Marr has done an amazing writing job with her fey. No longer are fairies pretty little winged things in gossamer dresses. Melissa Marr’s fey are cruel and not just the dark court. And yet, the dark court, which undoubtedly has the worst reputation, definitely came through in this book as the court with the most loyal and caring feelings to its own kind.
I really liked the story of Ani and Devlin and look forward to seeing how the whole situation is resolved. I really liked Devlin and felt sorry for him as he’d been repressed for such a long time. In a way, I’ll be sorry to see this come to an end, I could probably quite happily continue reading different stories from different courts.
I don’t really have a lot of criticisms for this book, as I say, I think it was the best so far and I particularly like the way that I didn’t second guess the ending, in fact I was puzzled as to how it would all work out! MMMmmm criticisms – well, not a lot, I suppose I don’t really like Sorcha – I know she is supposed to embody logic but she isn’t logical herself – which I understand is because of the change in her circumstances but even so she is just too inconsistent. Actually, that’s probably not a real criticism – I just don’t like her character and in actual fact that’s probably the author’s intention.
Rating -A
Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely)
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
I was reading this book as part of my book club reading – I haven’t really got on very well recently with my book club choice of books, in fact, I haven’t always completed reading the most recent selection.
Anyway, this month’s selection was The Last Dickens. I didn’t mind the look of this book, although after starting to read it did take me a little while to get into it. This books focuses on the search by Mr Osgood for the missing final chapters of Edwin Drood, Charles Dickens last novel which was left unfinished after he died whilst writing it. Mr Osgood is a publisher and one of the partners in a firm in Boston who have signed a deal with Dickens to print his novel.
I most admit that I had no idea what a cutthroat affair the publishing business used to be.
I thought this was quite an entertaining novel to a certain degree. It contained lots of tidbits of information about Dickens which were quite interesting, also I found all the information about opium use at that period intriguing. On the whole this wasn’t a bad book and certainly entertaining enough to finish. I did find that my mind was a little less engaged towards the end as I think by then I’d grown a little tired of the relentless search for the final chapters which kept evading Osgood. Stupid really – the ending is rather obvious – otherwise the story of Edwin Drood would be a complete novel!
Anyway, I found this book okay if not totally gripping.
Rating C+
The Last Dickens
The Concubine’s Secret by Kate Furnival
25 November 2010
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Kate Furnival, The Concubine’s Secret, The Russian Concubine
This story follows on from The Russian Concubine, although it could probably be read as a stand alone. We pick up with Lydia who is travelling across Russia accompanied by her brother Alexei and her friend/guardian angel Liev Popov (the Cossack). I like Liev in both these novels. Lydia and Alexei are searching for their father who was previously thought to have died when Lydia’s family were originally escaping from Russia. They now both know that their father did not die but was held as a prisoner and they are making the long journey across Russia to find him.
I like the setting of this novel and I also like the period. The Russian Concubine was similarly set during a very interesting period and place and this (with both books) was what kept my attention. I didn’t dislike this book but equally I didn’t love it. Perhaps if it was described differently I would have had different expectations but it is written about as being a love story and for me the love story element is not convincing at all. In fact I would go so far as to say that Lydia and Chang an Lo’s relationship is a bit dull. I prefer Alexei’s character and I think Liev is definitely more lovable. Lydia and Chang also seem to have their own doubts and don’t seem totally convinced of their relationship. It’s puzzling.
The other thing that really rings false is the way Lydia behaves. The whole of Russia is gripped with fear. Everybody afraid to talk to everybody else – nobody speaking their opinions for fear of reprisals and yet Lydia (who is certainly not a ‘blend in’ type of character) seems to experience no such fear and rushes around the place in a constant whirlwind of activity and loveliness (that everyone is envious of), money, secret identities, apartments and friends seem easy to come by and none of the scared, grey, nondescript people who share the same building seem to pay her any attention. She comes and goes at what ever time she pleases, is bolshy with ‘unsavoury types’ and has clandestine meetings with a member of a Chinese delegation – which would be highly frowned upon – and yet no reprisals are forthcoming. Alright, I get that she is gorgeous but is that really all it takes? I don’t know, everything else is described as so flat, and grey and Lydia is the only shining light.
Also, and this is a slight spoiler alert – but I really don’t think anybody would forgive Elena! I certainly wouldn’t – now maybe that makes me a very unforgiving sort of person but I struggle to believe that, in the day and age they were living and the conditions, Lydia would forgive Elena for what she does – frankly I think she would have been despised by most people for what she did and yet at the end of the novel she’s in a relationship with Liev – which just seems wrong. I don’t doubt that Liev deserves somebody who loves him and will care for him but I wished it had been a more likable character. What she did was wrong but there are no come backs and more to the point Liev doesn’t know who or what he is getting involved with.
This all probably sounds very critical and I don’t intend it to be so. On the whole I enjoyed both these books (although I preferred the first) and I will definitely read the third book when it comes along. I thought this was a good story and well told with action and adventure – definitely picking up at the end and setting everything up for the next novel.
Also, I didn’t guess the Concubine’s Secret!
Rating -B
The Concubine's Secret
