Review of 'A Question of Power' by Bessie Head

I'm officially into 2018 in my reviews now. I'm only a *couple* behind, so here we have it: the first book I completed this year. A Question of Power is a book that's now on a course I took at uni, and I really wanted to see why they chose it, how it was integrated, and how I felt about it in relation to other books on the course. Because, y'know, I miss studying. 

I found this book pretty heavy going. It's been a couple of months since I've read something that I would class as literary fiction, and it was honestly tough to get back into. A Question of Power is a story told in two parts. One part of the book is told by a narrator who knows what's going on. Elizabeth is a mixed race woman from South Africa who has recently moved to Botswana. In the day time she works first as a teacher and then in a communal garden growing food. But, ever so gradually, at night she begins to lose her mind. Elizabeth loses her grip on reality, and is plagued by three different presences: Sello, a monk, Medusa, an angry spirit, and Dan, a symbol of all that is bad. As we move through the book, the sane Elizabeth starts to lose hold of the narrative, and more and more of it becomes confused.

I found it so hard at times to keep track of where things where in the novel. It was hard to tell what was 'real' and what was a hallucination. But, I'm pretty sure that was part of the point: as Elizabeth became more confused, so did I. When she couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't, neither could I. 

I was absolutely fascinated by this tale of mental illness that was manifested as a real problem, not some kind of female hysteria. For a book published in 1973 it came across as genuinely progressive, and I definitely think it's a valuable read.

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Review of 'A Brief History of Seven Killings'

This was probably the most politically-charged novel I've read since leaving university, and I totally didn't know what I was in for when I first picked the book up. Set in Jamaica, this multi-narrative text allows readers an insight into life in the slums, and is extremely graphic at times - so if you don't want to hear about a character offering to "be buttfucked raw by Satan and his ten big-dicked demons" and the suchlike this probably isn't one for you.

As part of my English Lit course I've read books from authors all over the world, however this is the first novel that I've read by a Jamaican author talking about issues central to Jamaica itself. This intrigued me - I love learning new things about different cultures and being given somewhat of an expose, even if it is woven in with fiction. Part written in dialect, and part written in normative English, A Brief History of Seven Killings had me hooked as it showed the lives of younger gangsters, older ones, white Americans living in Jamaica and women. My one peeve? The fact that it's another multi-narrative text. This seems to have become a bit of a prerequisite for award winning novelists at the moment, and I just want to read one that doesn't have this layer of narrative, argh!

Have you read it? What did you think? 

Steph x

Review of "A Man Called Ove"

When I think about bildunsgromans as a genre, I imagine the likes of Jane Eyre or The Catcher in the Rye, a story progressing from childhood to adulthood. But here I think we have something a bit different and yet all too similar. Ove is a man who has lost everything with the loss of his wife, and now his worldview doesn't quite fit the world he lives in. He needs to grow up, but doesn't know how. All he knows is that the choices he wants to keep making aren't the ones Sonja would necessarily be proud of, so he reminds himself of what she would have encouraged him to do. In this way, Sandra's spirit allows Ove to adjust to the world he lives in. Finally, what would a person be without the people around them? Utterly isolated since Sonja's death, Ove has people seemingly thrust upon him. At first this seems hateful, but as we witness them putting off his suicide attempts in heartbreaking fashion, we begin to realise that perhaps they are exactly what he needs.

All Ove wants is to die in peace. He's reached a time in his life where he's alone, and no longer happy. Plus, he'll either be reunited with his late wife Sonja, or be spared from the pain of living every day without her. Very set in his ways is an under-exaggeration of Ove's character, and when his neighbours begin to break the strict rules he's set up in their estate. When they realise that he's a lot more than an angry old man, they begin to call on him more and more frequently for advice and help regarding practical issues. 

With the current day interspersed with memories of his and Sonja's past, we begin to learn why this man is the grumpy old bastard that he appears, and fall in love with him just as Parvaneh and the rest of his community do. The real question is: can they save Ove from himself, just as he saves them from making mistakes?

Have you read it?

Steph x

Review of "Am I Normal Yet?" by Holly Bourne

All Evie wants is a normal life. But how can she hope to have one when she's trying to adapt to life with a serious mental illness? In this paradigm-changing novel, Bourne imagines what it's like to be a teenage girl who genuinely suffers from OCD to a potentially life-threatening extent. We follow Evie in her journey to college and what she sees as normality: friend , boys and parties. Evie cannot even fathom life in which this is a normality for her, but what if it is possible?! Through this harrowing tale of relapse and recovery, Bourne makes no attempts to glamourise mental illness, instead exposing it in all of its life-ruining glory. 

A fresh start. That's what Evie wants from college: a place where no one knows her as "that girl who went mental and ended up in hospital". Plus, she's still got her best friend Jane who stuck with her through everything to keep her on the straight and narrow. But when Jane gets a new boyfriend and is suddenly inseparable from him (even their personalities are now joined at the hip, eurgh!), Evie feels more isolated than ever. That is until Lottie and Amber come along, making a trio called The Spinster Club with Evie, changing the definition of the word for good. Gone are the days when the girls depend on boys for happiness; now, they celebrate their singledom. However, Evie starts to fall for a boy, and what happens when she feels like she can't stay true to her feminist roots? Finally, when old habits start creeping back in, will she be consumed by her mental illness or triumph?

Have you read it?

Steph x

Review of "The Bitch Goddess Notebook"

It's taken me a long time to decide exactly what to say about this book due to the deep connection I felt to it that almost made me feel utterly reviled (note: I included the above quotation to show you guys how disturbing and saddening the text could be at times, rather than feeling any specific connection to that). If there's anything I'm going to say that is definite about it, it's that it should come with a big fat trigger warning regarding it's content surrounding self-harm. As someone who's seriously suffered with this in the past, I can understand how influential any type of media can be regarding the subject, and the intense description of cutting oneself which the book narrates, as well as praises from the perspectives of the characters narrating the text is a little, well, disturbing. So, although I loved the writing and the plot was very eye-opening, I feel like that needed to be said, as a reader in a more fragile state of recovery may have suffered as a result of this writing.

Meet Rennie, Amy and Cherry: an unlikely trio of best friends at high school. Despite their differences, they couldn't image not being in each others' lives - after all, they have no secrets, right? Girls who stick together, stay together, but words aren't enough to prove a bond, and one night, high on a concoction of goodies, the three form a blood bond, leading to rumours about satanic worship. 

But how long to high-scool friendships last anyway? Interspersed with a narrative from all three girls about their time at school are sections from later on in life, where actions have consequences, and you don't always have your bitch posse to back you up.

Track the tales of troubled teens into their adult lives, and discover what it feels like to be an addict - to drugs, to self-harm, to sex, to drink: how do you recover when it's all you've ever known?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Miniaturist"

I find that great books are all about questioning your perspective, Whether it's developing ideas on race, culture, sex, relationships, or merely altering what you focus on in a novel, I love learning new ways to think about things and interpret our world. The Miniaturist questions what it is to be part of an arranged European marriage, and to lose faith in the idea of love within marriage when such a thing is forced upon you. Moreover, it tackles difficult issues facing puritanical society whilst keeping a realistic stance - i.e. whether or not one lives in a purtianical society, people always have and always will "sin", bucking against the norm.

Petronella is excited to finally become a wife to a wealthy merchant, and discover what it is to love and be loved by a man. Nervous about what a connubial bed might hold, at first Nella is relieved by the fact that Johannes, her husband, allows her to sleep alone. But soon she gets anxious: why is he so disinterested that he makes no attempt to seduce her? Does he not like her? Or is there a darker issue somewhere at the heart of their marriage?

In order to appease his new wife, Johannes buys her a dollhouse that is an exact replica of the house they live in. When Nella approaches a merchant in the city in order to gain furniture for the house as Johannes has asked her to do, she realises that the person behind the creation of the miniatures for the house knows a lot more than she should do. How else would she be able to make exact replicas of all the members of the household, and even predict the future? In the end, does it matter more than what is going on in the house itself. Perhaps Nella's insistence on looking into what the miniaturist is doing is simply deviating her attention away from the issues that are about to destroy her house entirely ....

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "I Let You Go"

(Image taken from Amazon)

After falling a little in lvoe with Gillian Flynn's writing, I decided that perhaps thrillers are the way forward in terms of my reading bucket list for this summer. I'm usually all about the chick flicks: whilst doing my degree I wanted something easy to flick through whilst studying the likes of Stein, Shakespeare and other tricky reads. This book was really intriguing, and led me through the process of realising that you never know someone as well as you think you do. So, if you want your beliefs challenged and judgement parameters widened, pick up this beauty.

What do you do when your world falls apart? A hit and run on a dark rainy night leaves a mother of a five year old boy childless. Despite DI Stevens' and Kate's best efforts, the killer remains at large, Upset with the lack of progress in the case, the child's mother leaves town in an attempt to move on from the past.

Arriving in Penfach, Wales, Jennifer seeks to move away from her traumatic old life. Packing up her sculptor ways, she begins a love affair with photography. But what happens when your past catches up with you? And what if the new life you have created cannot merge with the old?

Ever forcing your opinions awry, this mystery keeps you guessing, forcing you to realise that things are never as they seem on the surface.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Dark Places"

If you've read my review of Gone Girl (here), you will know tat I've fallen a little bit in love with Gillian Flynn's writing, As soon as I finished Gone Girl I immediately downloaded this to my kindle. Although in the end I didn't like it quite as much as Gone Girl, I found the entire plot utterly alluring. I needed to know what happened that night, and why Libby survived the massacre which saw the end of the rest of her family. This was a book that I managed to whip through in a couple of days, and ended up making my boyfriend a tad irate with me on our holiday because I was simply so engrossed in it that I didn't want to do anything else! Finally, after I read it, I discovered that the film is currently in the process of being made, and so I cannot wait for that to come out!

Libby Day needs money, and fast, Having lived off of her survivor's fund since that night when she was seven, 30-something year-old Libby needs a new income. And when she's contacted by a member of a "Kill Club" who's offering her money in return for information about her family and mementos from them that she's kept, she sees a way out of her troubles.

On the night in question, Libby's mother and two sisters were brutally murdered, and her brother Ben has been in jail ever since for the crime. Libby's declaration of his guilt put him there. But when she meets the Day fanatics at the Kill Club, she realises that not everybody thinks that Ben is guilty, and the very people she's relying upon to secure her income want er to question everything she's ever believed in ...

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Too Charming"*

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by this read. I'm not sure if it's simply because I've read so many amazing novels recently (check out my recent posts for more details!), or whether this book was not that great; likely a mixture of the two. I really enjoy actually liking - or occasionally hating - the protagonists in a book, but this time I found both Megan and Scott utterly tedious. Whether it was her insistence on not dating him because of something that happened in the past, and her incessant need to be a bit of a bitch to him as a result, or his misunderstanding of everything she wanted, this book really missed the mark with me. Perhaps fewer descriptions of what the pair think about each other's bodies, and more of a plot, would have made this a great read, as it was well written and captivating at times.

Megan and her three-year-old daughter, Sally, have learnt not to trust all men after what Sally's father did to them. When a lawyer starts flirting with Megan she can't help but hate him: despite hoe gorgeous he is, his arrogance still reminds her of her past flame. As a Detective Sergeant, moreover, why would Megan want to hang out with a defense lawyer who tries his best to set free the criminals she racks up evidence against. But, can he charm his way into her good books, and more importantly her pants, despite his profession?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Gone Girl"

Let's face it, I'm a big fan of any book that keeps me guessing, forcing me to question my initial value judgements of characters. To say that this book did is a massive understatement. I've heard so much hype about it from other book bloggers, and it definitely lived up to the rumours about just how good it is! Just one hint: don't let anyone spoiler this for you because you really don't want to miss out on this thriller. Speaking of which, sorry for the minor spoiler above, but hey I've gotta give something away about it, right?!

Amy and Nick are supposed to be celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary, but when he returns home to spend time with her he finds her gone, and the house in a state of disrepair. Immediately calling the police, he is terrified about what could have happened to her, despite the rocky state of their marriage. 

Every year on their wedding anniversary, Amy leaves a series of clues for a treasure hunt based on inside jokes between her and Nick, Every year however, Nick's inability to listen to her means that he can't complete all of the clues, and never reaches the end of the hunt of his own accord. 

But what if this year's clues hold the answer to Amy's mysterious disappearance? Has she been taken? Or is there something far more sinister going on ...

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Us"

It took me about four years after "One Day" was published to actually get around to reading it despite the hype ... and that might have been because I wanted to watch the film (pretty much a crime, I know!). I've been similarly slow with this book by David Nicholls, but not quite to the same extent! Despite the raving reviews that I've seen scattered over the interwebs, I was actually a little disappointed. Reading is a chance to escape things, and this book pretty much felt like I was being endlessly slapped around the face with a chipping away of hope over and over again. Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but I usually want to like my protagonists, but let's face it, Douglas is a bit of a dick. I have to say though, this kind of worked in the book's favour - I think we need to be reminded sometimes that we all have a bit of an asshole inside of us that always seems to come out at the worst of times. We all make mistakes, and unlike what the majority of novels suggest, a multitude of "sorrys" and a romantic gesture can't always fix something that's broken.

Douglas Petersen is woken in the middle of the night by his wife of almost twenty years, Connie, stating that she wants a divorce. Not only is Douglas unaware of anything being wrong with their relationship (whoops), the timing is unfortunate as they're about to take their 17-year-old son Albie on a Grand Tour of Europe - something which Connie doesn't want to put off despite their marital dilemma. Douglas is left to consider exactly what he's done wrong, or rather not done right, in the twenty years they've been together, and as they move across Europe he realises that he's perhaps not been the most perfect husband and father. Despite this slow epiphany (oxymoron much, sorry!), he aggressively publicly denounces Albie as an embarrasment, causing Albie to run away across Europe alone. Now Douglas is left with a slightly larger conundrum: how does he get both his wife and son back?!

Author: David Nicholls

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: 2014

Rating:

Review of "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves"

A story about story-telling if done right is always going to be an interesting read, and this was done right. Karen Joy Fowler's novel, shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker prize has been the subject of many book blogger reviews over the past few months. This had its benefits and drawbacks for me: on the one hand, it caused me to pick the book up, on the other a massive plot twist was alluded to in so many reviews that I missed the twist whilst looking for one (whoops). SO, from now on I am going to make sure I use reviews to guide my picks, but not alter my expectations. 

Rosemary is a pretty normal college student - apart from the fact that she hardly ever speaks. And never about her family (something which she finds is difficult to do when she moves to college). However, Rosemary hasn't always been like this: as a child no one could get her to stop talking. So what happened? Her twin sister Fern disappeared at the age of five, and Rosemary has never understood why. When her older brother leaves home to find Fern, you realise that this family may have even darker secrets than you had ever considered ...

*Don't read if you're trying to avoid any spoilers*

I'm pretty much a fan of every Planet of the Apes movie ever, so when I found out quite early on that Fern was actually a chimpanzee my interest was spiked. Plus, as someone who is really interested in animal rights, the effort that Fowler put into researching the subject matter she is writing about made it quite an educational read!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Candra's Freedom"*

(photo from harperimpulse)

This is the second in a series of romance-fantasy books by A J Nuest - as I loved the first one (Rowena's Key - check out my review here), I was lucky enough to be sent an e-copy of the sequel. Believe me, after the cliff-hanger at the end of Rowena's Key, I REALLY needed to get my hands on this. Candra's Freedom felt a bit more like a novella to me than a full-blown novel, but with my time restrictions at the moment (imagine me surrounded by mounds of books and reams of paper in a slightly dingy and untidy student room), this was just what I needed for a bit of light reading. 

Rowena finds herself trapped in a castle with no memory or her life before the room she is in. After a number of unsavory advances from her captor, Prince Braedric, combined with the unwavering belief that the people of this mystical place have in her being a sorceress, she begins to strengthen herself for escape. However, this also starts to go downhill with Caedmon returns and states that they're ... betrothed?! And she's expected to love him?! - Fuck that!

This really spoke out to me about female empowerment. Rowena is a strong-headed female protagonist who recognises that she has sexual desires, yet does not allow them to alter her convictions or plans. If you want to read a really realistic (read believable, frustrating, tear-your-hair-out 'why are people like this' moments!) romance that happens to be set in a mystical world, this is your bag. This series is shaping up to be something really spectacular, and I cannot wait to see what comes next!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph

Review of "Out of Work"

You've probably noticed by now that a lot of the books I post about are, to put it lightly, a bit 'obscure'. However, I don't think this makes them any less valuable. As part of my course at university I get the opportunity to read a great number of texts that I otherwise would simply never come across, and although yes, I find some of them terribly dreary, a lot of them are incredibly eye opening. Take this book for example - written by John Law (Margaret Harkness) and published in 1888, it reads like a more easily understandable and shorter Dickens. As a lover of Dickens, I found this fabulous, especially as Law, unlike Dickens, manages to paint semi-realistic female characters! Also, it's full of thought-provoking quotations like the one above, which are alarming in that stereotypes along these lines are things that many girls and women of our generation have heard said to them in some way or another.

Polly Elwin lives alone with her mother and is engaged to be married to Jos, a young carpenter who has moved from the country to secure work. However, this proves harder than he had originally realised, and soon his decreasing funds loses him the respect of Polly's mother and he is no longer allowed to live in the house. Becoming more and more penniless, Jos comes across many issues in 19th C London, amongst them the possibility of a richer suitor seeking out his Polly ...

This book examines the poverty in London in the late 19th Century, alongside the riots it induced. Told from the perspective of an innocent man who is simply unlucky, the reader really gets to feel how inescapably consuming the problem of unemployment in England during this time was, and how helpless so many men felt. There was a great emphasis on the idea that a man had to earn a certain amount to be "worthy" of marriage, and this is one of the few texts one could regard as feminist from this time which i read that examines how destructive the ideals surrounding marriage at this time could be to men as well as women. Indeed, even the riots and the poverty of London is not only shown through Jos, but the women forced to sell their newborns for a matter of pence to keep the rest of the family alive, and so on.

Have you read it? What do you think of 19th century books about marriage?

Steph

Review of McTeague

I have a whole host of reviews lined up for you guys, and seen as I've actually done all my seminar reading for this week (for about the first time in, well, ever! Only took until final year ...) I'll be hopefully able to post a bit more often. Anyway, this book wasn't something I would necessarily have picked up off of the shelf myself. Written by Frank Norris and published in 1899, it holds an alarming number of ugly truths for our modern world. If you're looking for something that really investigates how human relationships are now interceded by money, gold and the trappings of wealth, this is your go-to. Plus, despite being written over a century ago, it's remarkably easy to read.

McTeague, a brute of a man, is a dentist who lives in his own dentist parlours. His large size and simple nature means that he rarely gets desirable clientele, that is, until his best friend Marcus brings his cousin Trina to the dentist's chair. Soon he comes to admire her, where before he could only admire his small collection of trinkets. However, is it even possible for this bear of a man to really "love" another being?

In the world of this book, everything relates to money and gold. you come to realise that all characters are in fact bound by the world of commodification and exchange - to the extent that other people almost become money in terms of their relationship to a person. Aside from this, which arguably questions our modern emphasis on owning things and valuing them in their commodified state, gender and sex are key issues in the text. Trina simultaneously fears McTeague, yet her desire for him increases as her fear of his power over her does. This engages with a sadist/masochist dialogue which permeates the entire text, albeit discreetly.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph

Review of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

This is probably the most boring-looking quotation I've ever headed one of my reviews with - I hope! BUT, in terms of this short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1892, it is darkly sinister. If you're a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, or gothic texts that deal with horror in subtle ways (think less Frankenstein and more 'The Raven'), then this one is a great quick read that will play on your mind for days.

The narrator, who is never truly named in the text, and her husband John move to a new house after their wedding. Despite her protestations to sleep in another room, he insists that they sleep in the upstairs room with the yellow wallpaper. The narrator is ill and thus spends a great deal of time in the room. She notices that the legs of the bed seem to have been gnawed at, and it looks as though frantic attempts have been made to rip the yellow wallpaper off. Soon she notices that within the pattern of the wallpaper is a woman, but why is she there?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was deeply engaged in social and political questions concerning the place of women at the time of writing this novel. The narrator exposes some deeply troubling social tensions and issues for an American woman of the late 1800s. Her illness is typically feminine, and keeps her in a room behind barred windows. *SPOILER ALERT* Just as the woman in the wall-paper is trapped by bars in the pattern, so is the narrator - as the narrator begins to become more and more obsessed with unravelling (so to speak) the wallpaper, so her and the woman in the wallpaper became more and more enmeshed. Eventually the reader is left asking who is who, and ultimately does it matter? These women have both been imprisoned by the societal constructs surrounding them, and neither can truly escape. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph