Dark Readers

A Baby's Bones by Rebecca Alexander Blog Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 15 May 2018 06:30:00 +0000

Today you're getting two for one...if not THREE for one. Crime, Historical Fiction and an author talking about her inspirations...of glorious days growing up spend in a library ( we were all that child!)...Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome to the floor: Rebecca Alexander:

How my fascination with crime and fantasy began.

As a teenager, I was a regular at the local library, working my way through the shelves of anything that looked like it had an exciting story. I took out the whole crime and supernatural collection over my teen years, some books many times, and where there was a crossover I enjoyed them even more.

The stories about Elizabeth Báthory, for example, were covered in both genres. A noblewoman living in sixteenth century Hungary and Transylvania, Báthory killed at least 36 young girls, some from minor noble families, between 1585 and 1610. While the subject matter is gruesome, I think the mind-set of someone who can do that sort of crime is fascinating. Along with Vlad Dracula, (Vlad the Impaler) of Wallachia, who was the starting point for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the line between real mass murderer and supernatural evil is a thin one. I
think I’ve always written the two together to some extent, but A Baby’s Bones lent itself to leaning more towards the crime element.

Most of my favourite books have a crime in them and many have a supernatural element. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, for example, was a wonderful read. People have gone missing, a few end up dead, and always in the shadows is the unseen but brooding presence of a creature for history. Deliciously scary at bedtime and for me, evocative of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in its tone as well as subject.

I was a fan of true crime as a teenager too. I read the accounts of forensic pathologists like Bernard Spilsbury, Keith Simpson and Sidney Smith. They attended famous murders in an era when the pathologist was the main forensic scientist. I have always been more interested in how clues developed into a story rather than the tragedy at the middle of a murder, but as I got older that became fascinating too. I loved Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House, at its heart a real crime but written as a great historical crime novel. It took real events with minimal facts at the heart of the actual crime and told a convincing narrative.

A Baby's Bone is out OUT NOW (Published May 1st) from Titan Books. Don't forget to check out all the other stops on the blog tour which you can find below!

Spare and Found Parts Blog Tour and Review

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 09:41:00 +0000

Today it is my pleasure to welcome debut author Sarah Maria Griffin to the blog, on the FIRST stop on the #SpareandFoundParts Blog Tour to talk about her writing process, story development and how a weird idea becomes an even weirder book. Sarah's first book Spare and Found Parts is out tomorrow, and you can check out my review below. Over to Sarah:

Possibly because I get my inspiration from texts of all different shapes and forms, I am a fairly non-traditional novelist. Not that I’m sure there is any traditional way to be a novelist: rather, I don’t ever start anything at the beginning. Perhaps nobody does, and that’s just some myth baby writers are fed, some mad unrealistic idea of what it takes to build an 80,000 word functioning story-machine. I most definitely don’t start at the end: I hate endings, of television shows and novels and video games and even often of movies, because I prefer the preserved state of a fictional world in my head than any sort of satisfaction that comes with finality [Preach!]. I tend to start developing a story from a single image - something that catches in my thoughts and insists itself into the world [Snap]. In Spare and Found Parts’ case - it was a mannequin hand floating in the water, a backdrop of a ruined Dublin city. Certainly, I had spoken with friends about wanting to write some sort of warped, futuristic Frankenstein novel before - taken on a dare from Deirdre Sullivan, who is a very accomplished and brilliant artist - to make a monster of my own. But the flint that sparked the whole of the book was that single image, a piece of a broken mannequin in the water.

So, that lands me in the slightly inconvenient position of writing my way out of that singular image and into a world, inhabited by people, and problems, and tension, and solution. But when I am just starting out, I move from picture to picture. What is the emotional texture of this image - how would I like a reader to feel when they read over it - who are the people in the picture, why are they there, what do they want most, what frightens them, who do they love? Pictures and questions feels like a deeply disorganized way to write a novel, and certainly, it is, but I’m not sure I could go straight beginning-middle-to-end without cracking up a little bit. Though, if I’m honest, the whole process of writing a novel is like cracking up a little bit - but in the best way, in a way I never thought possible, certainly not possible two and a half times over, which is where I’m at in my book-journey now.

I write everything by hand, because to me, computers feel like work. Microsoft Word is a terrifying place, most especially when it is empty. A foolscap page and a fine point Sharpie, however, isn’t terrifying. It’s a playground. No matter where I’ve been in my life, bored and frustrated in school, anxious and stressed in college, the blank page has always been there for me. There’s nothing like the feeling of growing pages under your hand, or ink filling a page - or the freedom of scribbling something out, or a promise to yourself in the margins [I used to write on till roll I feel you!]. It feels more human to me than typing - which, unfortunately, is the next stage in things. I’m a swift enough transcriber, thankfully, and I find it is more focused work than the act of making-something-up straight into the white blank of the screen. By then, the book might be something that looks and feels like a novel - or an almost-novel. After that, my wonderful and patient editor takes me note by note until we’ve carved out all my mistakes, bad habits and accidental insistences on everyone smoking all the time - and importantly, make sure the plot looks like a plot, not just a series of pictures with questions hanging around them.

I know this route is different for every writer, and I’m sure for me it will change with every book, but the feeling comes first with the building of the thing. That, I hope, is something I’ll be able to hold onto. The images just won’t quit.

Check out the rest of the stops on the blog tour, pick up your copy and get involved!

Review:
Title: Spare and Found Parts
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 06th Feb 2018
Synopsis: Nell Crane has always been an outsider. In a city devastated by an epidemic, where survivors are all missing parts—an arm, a leg, an eye—her father is the famed scientist who created the biomechanical limbs everyone now uses. But Nell is the only one whose mechanical piece is on the inside: her heart. Since the childhood operation, she has ticked. Like a clock, like a bomb. As her community rebuilds, everyone is expected to contribute to the society’s good . . . but how can Nell live up to her father’s revolutionary idea when she has none of her own?

Then she finds a mannequin hand while salvaging on the beach—the first boy’s hand she’s ever held—and inspiration strikes. Can Nell build her own companion in a world that fears advanced technology? The deeper she sinks into this plan, the more she learns about her city—and her father, who is hiding secret experiments of his own.

Review:

A lot of the time when we think of dystopian novels, they are dytopian dystopias ( i promise to stop using that word now), in the sense that they are full form exaggerated versions of themselves, built in world hundreds of years after the disaster. And I very rarely see them set in Dublin. Spare and Found Parts flipped the genre on its head. It felt like the origins of a dystopian world, the aftermath where everyone is finding their place and trying to build their world again.

I loved the connection to the past, it was inextricable linked to the present in as much as it was feared and revered. People understood it even used it in its various ways to help them rebuild a life whether it was their own and their added part or the way in which they tried to develop the community around them. What I will never understand is why the future is sooo afraid of paper and the power it holds. The pen is mightier than the sword eh. But as with anything we don't understand there is an underlying fear of the things we don't know, and the advancement it presents. They're stuck in a cycle that creates these great moments of conflict, especially when the technology starts talking.

Having never been to the future and seen any negative effect of the rise of the robots I always side with the AI, or in this case IO. IO had this soft warm character that didn't seem restricted by his technology. He understood and that which he didn't he wanted to. He was a raw construction built out of spare parts, but more than that out of want and need and that was a really lovely journey for IO and Nell. This is where the comparisons of Frankenstein come in, i'm just not so sure Nell was a mad scientist in the way that lore has us see Victor. There was a beautiful scene with Nell, it was like a classic film moment, and when you get to it you'll feel the emotions too!

Nell was a great character. As much as she was part of the world around her she was different in so many way and she ( and through her, I) felt these loud and clear. It's hard to exist in a place where it feels like the weight of the world is pushing down on you and this was very much the case for Nell who had to find her own path, which as we all know will never be smooth. It pits you against yourself and those around you and makes you human. It was at this point that the book shooook me, taking me to a point where I didn't expect it to go, amping up the drama and had be gripping the book. I was here for ever page of it. This is something that seems to happen a lot with me, I never see these twists and turns coming and I think that's the sign of a good story teller.

The book had great pace flowing along beautifully unveiling its mystery's piece by piece. It gave you enough so that you built the world around you, you vibed with, and moved with the characters. I loved the setting, but I'm not sure I can see Dublin in the same way, so might have to avoid trips there for now.

This was a fresh take on a genre. I'm excited to read more from Sarah and see what weird and wonderful journeys she can take me on.

Book Review: Artemis by Andy Weir

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 08:00:00 +0000

Title: Artemis
Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Del Ray
Release Date: 14th November 2017
Synopsis: Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of Jazz's problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself - and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even more unlikely than the first.

Review: We all talk about the moon a lot and what life would be like to live there, especially the more realistic it becomes that Will.I.Am and Richard Branson will probably be there in the next few years (at a push). But think no more Andy Weir has done it for you and with a kick ass character.

From the off set you want to be friends with Jazz. She has this open conversational tone that doesn't hold back. As a lone wolf on a small planet, and an independent one at that she's carved her own path and made her life harder. It was honest so you saw her flaws as much as anything else and this was important to the readers connection to the book as she drove the book forward.

The moon was more structured than we all imagined. So many rules and regulations, and whilst this is obvious, there was a lot of the science within this that for me just got a bit lost in the narrative and distracted me. But it was great to have technology play this crucial role. It was a bit of a mind trip to have to remember the lack of gravity and the way this affected movement, but in that respect was quite cinematic. The book was very visual in all its aspects, it was like watching a movie where the lead character broke the 4th wall and talked at you.

There was good pace and I enjoyed the plot. Within the overarching story line there was family drama, internal politics, friendship, love and a lot of comedy. All these little things that built to become the heart of the book that gave it that extra meaning and to show that although they live on the moon we're all still human.

This was a good accessible fun read. Its one of those books that'll keep you going for nice Sunday afternoon or a long train ride and that i'll remember the laughs I had from it.

The Blackbird Season Blog tour

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 10:01:00 +0000

Today we welcome to the Blog Kate Moretti the author of The Blackbird season to discuss her Favourite Characters in Crime Novels, which has got me thinking about who my favourite characters are! The Black Bird Season is out NOW and you can check out our review below. Over to Kate

Favorite Characters in Crime Novels

Some of the best characters in fiction come from the crime genre. They are lawless. They are evil, or worse, well-intentioned but misguided. Whether they are chasing criminals through darkened streets or they are the criminals being chased, crime novels have given us some of the most well-loved, and loathed, characters.

1. The Detective: I know I should say Sherlock Holmes here, but I will go against the grain and say my favorite fictional PI is probably Philip Marlowe. This is a double insult, I’m writing this for a British blog! I could at least say Hercule Poirot! I’m sorry. I fell in love with Sam Spade in college and graduated to Philip Marlowe in my late 20s. I love the sharp narration, the quick, witty dialogue, some dames and some gams and I’m all in. I shouldn’t love it as much as I do, it’s ridiculously sexist to say things like “her face fell apart like a bride’s pie crust” and “I could see that thinking was always going to be a bother for her”. The best of the bard-boiled, whiskey-slugging, Camel-and-pipe smoking best.

2. The Serial Killer: Obviously the bar is set at Hannibal Lecter. However, he’s not my personal favorite. I have to go with Tom Ripley on this one. He’s innocuous looking. A bit nerdy. Enigmatic. Affable, almost. In fact, it’s impossible not to like him and as a reader, root for him. He’s almost always a tiny bit sorry after he kills someone. Not, mind you, because it’s morally wrong but because he really doesn’t enjoy murder and despises his own lack of control. He’s chilling and somehow, lovable. Even Lecter couldn’t do that.

3. The Ultra-feminist: Lisbeth Salandar. She’s confusing. She’s loves Bloomkvist and hates him. She’s bisexual. She despises superficiality but gets breast implants. She’s incredibly smart, but a giant pain in the ass. She listens to no one and defies stereotype and cliche. Every time you think you know her she does something diabolical like drugs and tattoos her rapist and steals several billion dollars from an international criminal. Two words: Bad. Ass.

4. The Unreliable Narrator: Amy Dunne. Ok, I know. How obvious! But she’s the girl that started the craze. The terrifyingly smart wife to Nick Dunne who (spoiler alert, to the one person who hasn’t read Gone Girl yet) stages her own kidnapping as a revenge plot and secretly sends her husband on a wild goose chase all in the name of anniversary love? Wow. How can you not love/hate/admire her?

5. The Cop: Who else? Harry Bosch. The vietnam vet who has been fired and rehired from the LAPD more times than you can count. He’s a rebel who says that Everybody counts, or nobody counts. He arguably revived the traditional police procedural. He’s been in love, had a daughter, made mistakes. He’s frustratingly stubborn and stoic. You sympathize with both his boss, his enemies, and all his exes. But he always, always, gets his guy even if he has to bend the law to do it.

Check out the other stops on the blog tour:

The Blackbird Season Review:

Years ago I read the slap, which looked at how a singular act affected the lives of people in the aftermath. IN a similar way the strength of this book was looking through the perspective of multiple characters and how they see the world and the actions of people around them. This creates an intimate web, and one of confusion because you don't know what to believe and your ideas slowly slip and change as you flit between the characters and more information and opinion is relieved.

People are generally fascinating and we're seeing it all round us at the moment and how one moment can change the way people see, and look at something and this was so raw here.Small town big effect. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone was friends with Nate and in one quick moment the tide turned and that breakdown is great drama to watch.

Then there was this fantastic element of the blackbirds falling from the sky. Its this strange and beautiful imagery and you don;t know how it all connect for so long, because for a while it is two very jarring story lines but a great parallel for what it represents.

Book Review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Title: Behind Her EyesAuthor: Sarah PinboroughPublisher: HarperCollinsRelease Date: 26th January 2017Synopsis: Only two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
It’s said that the only people who really know what goes on in a marriage are the couple themselves. But what if even they don’t know the truth?
David and Adele seem like the ideal pair. He’s a successful psychiatrist, she is his picture-perfect wife who adores him. But why is he so controlling? And why is she keeping things hidden?
Louise, David’s new secretary, is intrigued. But as Louise gets closer to each of them, instead of finding answers she uncovers more puzzling questions. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise could never have guessed how wrong things really are and just how far someone might go to hide it.

Review: On its basis this isn't a book I would normally read. But the proof I found had sprayed edges and the #WTFthatending tagline made me think twice. I was also a fan of Sarah and all these things together mixed into a winning combination. And overall it was different. It felt different.

I felt a lot of emotions when reading this book and was actively being affected as I read venting on the bus, then taking to twitter, then going back and repeating my verbal outbursts all the way through right up to the end. I regularly judge my mother for talking to the TV and then i go and do something like this. There were fresh twists and turns, you just wanted to grab the popcorn sit back and watch it evolve.

Normally in a book you root for one side and there's a juxtaposition between the characters, but here you got wrapped up in all three of them. It was this weird triangle that you couldn't help get stuck in. First you're team Louise, then team Adele, then team David!

This book exists across multi facets and the within that multi perspectives that lead up to this dramatic ending. Then you ok its done...THEN you get smacked across the face on he last page and there is all this adrenaline that i had to sit and take a moment at the end.

As I said you get very drawn into these peoples lives, but what I loved was the extent to which they got involved in each other lives and the weird dependant friendship, nay obsession, that developed between Adele and Louise. Because we saw from both their perspectives and we got the whole story and having all the information gives you the thrill of knowledge when seeing a certain situation. But in true Sarah style this information isn't always what you think it is so you;re constantly playing a game of tennis trying to keep up and piece everything together. I felt this strange affinity to Louise, I was the Louise in this book and I don't know how I feel about that. Though maybe rather be Louise than Adele.

This book was addictive, I flew through it, i'm not going to say it was my cup of tea but it was definitely my whisky and coke. Who says there have to be barriers beyond genres. No me. Gimme more Sarah...Gimmie More

And if you ever get a chance to go and hear Sarah talk do it because she's great!

Book Review: Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 06:30:00 +0000

Title: Good Me Bad Me
Author: Ali Land
Publisher: Penguin books
Release Date: 12th January 2017
Synopsis: Milly's mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.

But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother's trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all. nf

When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother's daughter.

Review: This was a book I was bribed to read. They gave me chocolate and it was shiny and quite frankly who could say no to that! I should point out that I openly and willingly choose to read this book, in fact I was in some what of a reading slump (i must sound like a broken record saying this) and I bumped this up the list because I hadn't read this type of genre for a while and I felt that it would give me the kick i needed. I liked it so much I organised an event between Ali and Sarah Pinborough just so I could talk about their books.

We're given premise and situation from the beginning, and so this allows for a beautiful unravelling of the effects but in true style you don't know all you think you know. Keeping me on my toes! It's a dark tale, one that sends shivers down your spine from the get go.

Annie was faced with the enigmatic problem. Is she good or is the evil hereditary. This is a self inflicted problem that society doesn't help but in many ways makes worse. Its a beautiful problem to have to struggle with ( that sounds weird) because it drove the narrative forward and allowed you to get into the struggle of Annie. It is a grim gritty situation that is very real in its actualisation, born of Ali's experience. You want to be on team Milly you want to hug her but you are also weary of her. She was a tough nut to crack.

There are a number of books that have have those creepy characters that stick with you. The ones you see when you close you eyes (OK that's a slight exaggeration but you get where I'm going with it), that are just nasty. Enter Annie's mother. They had this deep connection and the level of possession and control that existed made me uncomfortable. You wanted to be a shield between them. It was this dynamic that had me gripped.

And in any book here has to be a voice of good, a voice of reason and you had hope that would be Mike. Why couldn't it be Mike. I wanted to like him but in the end, he drove himself into a hole he couldn't get out of! His beginning was his undoing, and I think that was the point. You weren't supposed to like him.

Mission accomplished...I'm looking forward to reading more from Ali.

Book Review: The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Title: The Bloodprint Author: Ausma Zehanat KhanPublisher: Harper VoyagerRelease Date: October 19th 2017Synopsis: In the lands of Candour, the Talisman threaten the authority of the Council with their growing indoctrination of the masses based on their rigid, oppressive interpretation of the Claim; a text orally transmitted from generation to generation, which they have appropriated in order to gain power. Tasked by the Council to fight this is Arian, aided by companion Sinnia and young boy Wafa, who must find the Bloodprint, legendary manuscript the Claim is based on, in order to stop the Talisman and re-establish the truth.

Review: I hate reading slumps. I get into one every now and then where I find myself wanting to sleep on the bus rather than read and that affects my connection with a book. So I came into this with a slow burn, but as my last tweet indicates, a spark that grew and grew.

This book laid the foundations for a developing growing world story well, covering politics, religion, friendship, loyalty and love and more importantly how all are interweaved.

Magic is always interesting to look at in a book, and this was quite an intriguing system, because it was less spell-craft and more about the power of religion as a force to be reckoned with. The Claim was poetic, beautiful and all encompassing and more importantly something that was known and interpreted differently by everyone. This made it felt very topical whilst reading it and it is something I feel will be explored deeper over the books. What we saw here was how such a strong belief can be chipped away at, questioned and used in a way that you didn't understand. Religion as a power was also a great way to open the conversation without having to blatantly lay it out on the table.

What shone for me here was the pride in the characters. Sometimes this can be a negative but here I feel it really worked. Oralist's I feel would be proud, I felt an independence and a dignity to both Arian and Sinnia, though they used this independence in very different ways. Their friendship was strong but an interesting balance where throughout the novel they are pitted against each other. I was looking at other peoples views on this and someone saw this as a negative, but for me his was a realistic dynamic and something I feel we have all experienced. I know for sure the way I view myself is definately pitted against other people i know and I try to play up to certain situations so I feel I am noticed the way Sinnia did. I wanted to hug her at these points. But she'd more than likely shake me off. The Silver Mage, and he can only be called this because it gives him the level of grandeur that I feel he deserves, has this regality and dignity but in a completely different dynamic to how I saw Arian and Sinnia. You felt the fire of their relationship and though at times it became a little repetitive, it reestablished the connection that they had and were fighting against. it brought it back to the hart of the story which was about the power of relationships and what we sacrifice for them. And Waffa dear Wafa, from a character I didn't think I'd love to one the book you couldn't do without. Every book needs a Wafa and I hope he develops into this amazing leader of a man in the coming books.

As with a series the book left on a cliffhanger which is soooo infuriating because this tension builds and build and hit this climatic point and you don't know what to do with all that energy. But I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, you can't just leave a book like that. Until we meet again.

Book Review: A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Title: A Skinful of Shadows Author: Frances Hardinge Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books Release Date: 21st September 2017 Synopsis: This is the story of a bear-hearted girl . . .Sometimes, when a person dies, their spirit goes looking for somewhere to hide. Some people have space within them, perfect for hiding.Twelve-year-old Makepeace has learned to defend herself from the ghosts which try to possess her in the night, desperate for refuge, but one day a dreadful event causes her to drop her guard.And now there's a spirit inside her.The spirit is wild, brutish and strong, and it may be her only defence when she is sent to live with her father's rich and powerful ancestors. There is talk of civil war, and they need people like her to protect their dark and terrible family secret.But as she plans her escape and heads out into a country torn apart by war, Makepeace must decide which is worse: possession – or death.

Review: This was one of those books where you read the blub and go, I need to read this book, I need to know what happens! Then you see that BEAUTiful cover and you know there is something special there.

I initialy read the sampler on Netgalley, which is blooming cheeky let me just say, because I was then left with this crippling WHAT NEXT feeling. How could you do that guys! But at the time of writing this review have now just finished the book in its entirety and have that warm tingling feeling! There was so much to love about this book and it played up to a lot of my interests. It covered History, Ghosts, witchcraft with such a strong female character!

I do remember first reading the sample and being like what the f kinda name is Makepeace, but it made such perfect sense as the book evolved, and is perfectly historically situationally appropriate. I apologise for that sentence. I loved how this book in may ways was strong historical fiction, without actually being so, nor forcing it upon you. You got the history and the tensions that the country was facing through Makepeace's journey and the real people that this was affecting. One of the most fascinating things I love about this period is the superstitions that people help. Things like putting two dead pigeons under a dying mans feet. Who does that! But I love reading about them. It opens up the ideologies of that era in such a fantastic way makes your really think about the way the world has changed and in many ways that time was such a made up story for me, whilst actually existing...but i'm digressing.

You very much root for Makepeace from the get go! Katherine Webber hit this on the head perfectly. Makepeace gives us these Lyra vibes. The whole thing was quite Pullman-esq, and that is a very good thing. She is a very endearing character. Strong willed, feisty. She is a survivor. She has a god moral compass and willing to stand up for what she believes in. James was this cheeky chappy, he was the perfect partner in crime, and I very much wanted to hug him rather than berate him. You understood why he did what he did, you could feel his wanting and its a feeling i think we can all relate to! The Fellmottes were a rotten lot, the perfect antithesis the story needed. Down with the Fellmottes indeed!

Now this might be crossing into spoiler territory so if you don't want to know i'd skip this paragraph, or better yet pick up a copy finish the book and then read on. The idea of the possession of the spirits was fantastic. I also LOVVEEED the bear. They had this beautiful relationship, he gave her more bite when she needed it and I felt myself cheering at these moments. I know a bear is obviously large, but it's crazy how I actually felt the size of his presence! You really felt their connection, like they had fused into one being, and just like Makepeace only felt him when he was awake, I felt a bit like I was a spirit in her head and only sensed him when he was awake. That is some next level reading writing experience there. I didn't know where the book would go from here, but I didn't expect Makepeace to pick up a whole hoard of spirits. This took things to that next level, fleshed out the plot, gave it an extra level of depth and allows Hardinge to have some fun with her characters. They all had such strong, realised personalities, there was humour there was drama and that all added to the story, adding these layers of depth to the action.

I think the only problem that I have is that I've now finished the book. I don't want to have finished the book, I want more from Makepeace, and I think that is the mark of a strong book.

Guest Post: Crossing the Genre Lines with George Mann

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Today I am very please to welcome author George Mann to the blog to talk about crossing genres. George is author of the Newbury and Hobbes and The Ghost series of novels, as well as numerous short stories, novellas and audiobooks. He has written fiction and audio scripts for the BBC s Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. His latest book Wychwood is out nooooow! Over to George

I suppose, looking back, my writing has never been easy to pigeonhole. I’ve always had a habit of bending things out of shape. My Newbury & Hobbes novels are essentially mystery stories, focused on a duo of investigators, but they take place in a skewed version of history, in which Queen Victoria lived on to rule over an extended Empire filled with monstrous creations, weird technologies and occult goings-on. My Tales of the Ghost take place in a fantastical version of 1920s New York City, and even my first Sherlock Holmes novel features iron golems loose on the streets of London.

Now, with Wychwood, I’ve written what’s essentially a contemporary crime novel with a supernatural twist.

It seems I’m forever destined to blur genre boundaries. Or perhaps I’m just wilful!

This ‘genre-blending’ doesn’t stem from any particular, innate desire to write a ‘mash-up’, but more a need to write what I’m interested in, and to allow my varied influences and passions to bleed through onto the page.

With Wychwood, I’d always intended to write a crime novel with extra ‘spooky stuff’. To me, it felt like the perfect blend. I’m a huge fan of Sunday night crime drama on British TV – Midsomer Murders, Endeavour, Vera and more recently Strike, and I think my initial impulse came from wanting to work in that wheelhouse, but to give it my own spin, and bring some ‘low fantasy’, or supernatural elements, to proceedings. It wasn’t until I started work on the first draft that the whole Carrion King myth started to come to life, however, and soon I found myself concocting a whole fictional mythology with a rather dark, folklorish bent. Nevertheless, I was adamant that I wanted the setting to remain in the present day, and to maintain the mode of a traditional crime novel.

I think the challenge with this kind of blending of genres is in sustaining a sense of realism, or at least ensuring that the reader is able to suspend their disbelief. You want them to be carried along by the characters and the story, and not pulled out of the narrative by things that seem jarring or too out of place. That’s a lesson I’ve learned before, with previous books. Get it wrong, and the reader feels as though you’ve pulled the rug from beneath them. It’s a harsh and valuable lesson.

So, for me, the big thing is aiming for the right balance. Go too far in either direction, and the book becomes neither beast nor fowl. With Wychwood I learned early on that it needed to follow the structure of a traditional crime novel in order for it to work – keying in to that familiar language and form – but that I also had to be explicit about the supernatural elements, too. In my first draft they were far too subtle, and therefore ultimately unsatisfying. During rewrites, I strengthened those elements considerably, and for me, that feels like the breakthrough moment, the point at which it all began to work.

I’ve had a similar breakthrough recently in the plotting of book two. It wasn’t until I realised how I wanted to approach the more fantastical elements that the story properly unlocked. Nothing is more rewarding than when it all clicks into place, though, and you’re able to navigate your way through the story. It’s at that point you start to see the shape of the whole thing, and realise that it’s all going to work. For me, that’s what writing is all about – finding those moments of joy amongst all the hard work!

Theatre Review: Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Disco Pigs, Trafalgar Studios, LondonWritten by: Edna WalshDirected by: John HaidarStaring: Evanna Lynch and Colin Campbell

Review: Something that I've been feeling with a lot of plays I've seen in the last month is how relevant they feel. We're living in a strange precarious time, and it's telling to be able to see the thoughts and feelings of the past reflected in today's society. One theme that will never age is friendship.

Disco Pigs follows Runt and Pig, friends from birth, a friendship like no other that exists in a bubble. The older they get the more they want from the world, until the burdens and responsibilities of real life have a lasting impact on their friendship.

The play evolves fast, and you quickly got wrapped up in their story, and its was quite endearing to watch. Confusing but endearing. You became fully engaged and invested in their story. Pig (Colin Campbell) was the more verbose of the two and his performance was fantastic. He had this beautiful protective nature for Runt (Evanna Lynch), he was a leader and a guide, but he was also a lad and this started to turn against him. That which had built the foundations of their friendship started to break it apart and it was sad to watch.

They were also talking at a million miles an hour with strong Irish accents. I'm a sucker for accents and it added this extra layer of grit to the play. It affected the way they spoke and communicated and within that they were talking with their own lexicon, the way deep friendships can form their own language. The writing was fantastic in this. It was funny, engaging, but explored the darker elements of growing up and the consequences of your actions. That which was made light was turned on its head and exposed for its gritty realism.

This was a play I had small expectations for. I'd gone into it almost blank, having briefly read the blurb, but more curious with the draw of Evanna, as I'm sure a number of people did. What I experienced blew me out of the water. To be able to keep this up, at the pace they were going with the energy and movement they put in was a feat of achievement.

Theatre Review: Filth at Etcetera Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:30:00 +0000

Filth, Etcetera Theatre London Adapted by: Harry Gibson Produced by: Skin & Bone Staring: Jake Francis

Review: I think the poster for this says it all. Based on the book of the same name by Irvine Welsh (and film adaptation staring James McAvoy), Filth follows bent copper Bruce Robertson as he investigate a murder.

There was a disclaimer going into the theatre, this plays contains racism, sexism, violence...basically every ism you can think of and crosses most if not all the lines! But hey this is an Irvine Welsh book, you know what you expect going into it and the play should be no different.

Last year I ranted and raved about the adaptation of Trainspotting I had seen ( and hope comes back to London again so I can relive it), which set the bar for this very high. They had a full cast and this was a one man show. THIS LIVED UP TO EVERY EXPECTATION and more. It embodied its name and then some to the fullest potential, cramming every nook and cranny ( cranny rhymes with) into an hour and forty five mins straight. Its a lot to take in but you're there lapping it up!

Filth was the first Welsh book I read. I picked it from a list given to me by my school, who then when I'd got the book voted in at our sixth-form book club, vetoed the decision based on it's contents. Umm I'd already read it!?! It's a book that's stuck with me. Its rough and gritty, its dark and revels in its dark bawdy humour and this all came through in this production. From the very first brown sauce piling moment, I knew there was something in this. You could feel it in the air.

I just want to stand up (metaphorically) and give Jake another round of applause. He took this one man show by the horns and made it a spectacle! Bruce is not supposed to be a likeable character, but he has this cocky charm, and he is your protagonist. Jake had it. The book and the play is a constant break of the 4th wall. He's talking at you, recounting and revelling in it. The pace is quick and he moves swiftly through it all, in that beautiful Scottish accent. But why stop at one accent or one persona. No Jake embodies every character, with smooth transitions. You're fully aware that he mimicking a person, and that makes it even more fun. The diversity in character and voices was fantastic, they all stood individually, you knew who was who,especially as he was often switching between multiple people at any given point. And the tape worm! I didn't think they'd do it but he did and it was fantastic. The life actors lead having to impersonate tapeworm! This is not an easy feat, I can only imagine how crazy he must have looked trying to memorise and rehearse these lines. It created the story, it made the drama and it was addictive to watch.

The play isn't all booze sex and drugs sadly, there's a much darker undertone, and as much as we see Bruce in this light we also can't avoid his personal life. He's clearly an alcoholic, and his personal life has fallen apart around him. He's built up these walls to not confront these issues, but these walls violently break as the story unfold, and Bruce becomes more unwound and broken as a character. The Carol story line is i think my favourite. I love her narrative and the element of femininity it brings right up to that pivotal twist! It was a compelling show and I want more. I hope it comes back again, because i want enjoy it again. I'm now bumping Crime ( the sequel) up my TBR pile so I can go back to this world.

Just take all my stars! This is the kind of Fringe theatre I want to be seeing!

My not so subtle love for Masterchef Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

On Sunday afternoon I finished watching MasterChef Australia season 8. It was something I stumbled upon a couple of months ago as I was flicking through late night TV, and I was instantly hooked and set the box to record ( much to the annoyance of my mother because i refuse to delete the episodes). I may have mentioned it a couple of times to my friends and on Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. OK so I talk about it a lot the more I became addicted. Because that was what it was, an addiction! We all talk about the shows that we've been watching and that we're hooked on and this became my show....and there was a lot to love about it!

You might at this point be thinking, isn't this a book blog, and you would be right. yes it is. But the show has shown me that it was so much more than just a cooking show, and for a long time as I keep mentioning, I've wanted to open this blog up talk about all the things that affect my bookish life, and that now apparently involved cooking. I went out and bought a blender, mixer and slate cheeseboard as a result of watching the show and I barely even cook!

The first thing that got me was the extent of the series. In the UK we're done after like 12 episodes, maybe a couple more if we're lucky, but MasterChef Australia had 63 episodes! Multiple weekly episodes! It was every addicts dream! From Mystery boxes to; pressure tests, immunity challenges, group challenges, guest judges and eliminations there was such a variety! Such drama! From Nigella Week (LOVE NIGELLA) to Anna Polyviou's pressure test, plus my favourite episode where the contestants and judges swapped roles, they packed so much into the episodes. There was such a variety of ideas and techniques, such interesting ingredients and it just goes to show the potential of creativity, just look at Anna's mess. WHO COMES UP with something like that. This beautiful intricate piece of desert ART. I wanted to be throwing it down as much as anyone else! And Heston was always going to come up with something off the wall, but what he actually did was just sow the seed and allow the contestants creativity to blossom themselves.

This is where my point comes into play. Each of the contestants on the show weren't professional chefs. They've come from their own jobs and walks of life, with a passion and a dream, like so many of us have, and they're fighting for it. You got to know them over the episodes, you became connected to them, they were almost your friends, crushes (cough Harry)...but that's a completely different conversation! As with any show it was emotional to watch them grow and develop, to watch them be eliminated one by one (there was a lot of shouting at the TV grabbing the pillow and eating ice cream).

I always wonder how I would do on a reality TV show for the pressures that it would put on you. I like to dream about being on MasterChef and then I remember that I can't cook, but it made me want to try (hence the impulse culinary purchases). That was the crux. At the heart of this show is the want and the passion to do something and to fight to achieve your dream. Matt said it perfectly in the finale, the potential to win in there in your hands the only thing that's going to stop you is your mind. You will sic yourself out and that will stop you. You're not always going to be perfect you will make mistakes (I'm still sad for Matt in that Egg challenge, its stuck with me), but that's OK, because you have to be able to do this to move on. To grow. To develop, and to reach your potential. Its a journey, and it won;t be easy but on the way you will learn, and develop and make so many new and lasting connections not only with people but with the passions that you have.

This show encouraged me to used #FoodPorn at every given opportunity. I love watching cookery shows, I love eating good food, and now I want to do all of these things even more. I want to start making food more (so it'd be great is Matt and Harry can bring out cook books please) and more than anything I want to take some of the fire that was lit under their arses and light my own fire to keep pushing myself for the things I want to achieve. I've started this year, but I know there's a lot of work to do! Let MasterChef by your guide!

Who's for a trip to Australia!?!?!

Also season 9 has just started recording so I can relieve this adventure all over again! But I think I've just accidentally seen who has won in looking for pictures for this post and that's a little crushing! I'm sure I'll still enjoy it anyway!

Lawless and the House of Electricity Blog Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Lawless is BACK!! And here we are the day before publication umping on the Blog tour, it's day six and we're looking at one of my favourite topics books that inspire books! So over to Mr William Sutton....

SEVEN BOOKS THAT ELECTRIFIED THE HOUSE OF ELECTRICITY

Bruce Robinson, celebrated screenwriter of Withnail & I and The Killing Fields, was asked at the Edinburgh Book Festival how long he spent researching subjects: the Cambodian conflict, for example.

“How long?!” he burst out, indignant. “I never stop researching.”

He explained that he, years after finishing scripts, still bought books, watching documentaries, still researching. You can’t escape the tug, once hooked: that’s what Robinson means.

So you often find yourself researching the wrong novel, or your previous novels, or the filmscript you never wrote, or the school project on Provence you did, aged 12.

RESEARCH - THE R-WORD

How much should historical writers read around their subject? In Iain Banks’ house, research was referred to as “the R-word” - too rude for polite conversation. Love it or loathe it, in writing historical fiction you can’t escape research.

The Steampunk feel of my novels lends a certain licence, but does not excuse me from justifying events as realistic. In fact, historical novelists often agonise about such details, such as London’s extensive hydraulic power network in Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square: you can distinguish the real from the fantastical with the help of these notes. But researching Lawless and the House of Electricity was more simply reading for pleasure. I’ve stolen from fiction and non-fiction (sources on my blog). With the help of Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist, I am getting better at stealing quickly and effectively.

Here’s seven of the science books, country house books, and biographies I mined to construct my own House of Electricity.

ILLUMINATING ILLNESS

1. Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris

Asti Hustvedt’s brilliant dissertation on Charcot and his hysteric performers at the Saltpêtrière Hospital in Paris taught me more about Victorian illness,

madness and diagnosis than I could have hoped for.

I’d spent a week fighting my editor over the diagnosis of Lady Elodie’s illness in this book. “What would the illness now be diagnosed as?” she demanded. “That’s not relevant,” I replied, “and why do we assume we’d be right, and they were wrong?”

2. The Psychopath Test

Jon Ronson’s hilarious exposé questions the psychological language that has crept inexorably from US psychologist into UK diagnosis and common parlance: sociopathy, attention deficit, borderline personality... Though useful, these diagnoses (he points out) have been accepted not on objective grounds but more statistical. To diagnose using these quantitative criteria (ie how many questions on a list of symptoms get ticked) rather than qualitative pleases Health Services and insurance companies, but it pleases big pharmaceuticals even more. Further convinced of our diagnostic ignorance by Ronson, I have written a song about Victorian Diagnoses for the Writing Edward King project.

HOT HOUSES

3. The Pursuit of Love

The interloper amongst aristocrats is the reader’s way into JB Priestley’s Bright Day and Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, but it is Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love that I recognised the irrepressible yearnings of childhood that I wanted to give to the children in Roxbury House, reported by our interloper Molly.

4. Wuthering Heights

Re-reading Emily Brontë’s novel now, I can’t see that, at 15, I understood the love and the loss. The things that break my heart are:
- Heathcliff persuading the gravedigger to dig up Cathy’s grave, to lay her ghost to rest.
- Nellie Dean, who tells most of the story, trying to convince herself and us, that she wasn’t responsible for Cathy’s death.
My wife had to ban me from listening to the audiobook, I came home weeping so often.

TECHNOLOGICAL & BIOGRAPHICAL

5. The Music Room

William Fiennes' book, amidst its moving celebration of his brother’s life, tells the origins of therapeutic electrical stimulation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest convinced our generation that ECT was an evil, but it has an august history (and perhaps future: BBC Radio 4 Frontiers episode “Vagus Nerve”, 26 November 2014)

6. William Armstrong: Magician of the North

Henrietta Heald’s biography does not just bring the titan of Victorian technology to life, it makes us imagine the world from before steam power all the way to coal running out: and all of this was encompassed in the mind of the great inventor and industrialist (inspiration for the Earl of Roxbury) who profited from coal, steam, weapons and ship-building, but dreamt of a world powered by water and electricity.

7. Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer

Lear is just a minor character, but it was Vivien Noakes' description of the young painter’s welcome at Knowle House, elevating him from struggling nobody to tutor to the aristocracy (he taught Queen Victoria) that first inspired the employment of Molly, the street urchin of my first two books, by the Roxbury family.

Lawless and the House of Electricity, the third instalment in the Lawless series is out tomorrow (22nd August) so grab a copy let us know what you think and check out the other stops on the blog tour! You can check out more from William SUtton at: www.william-sutton.co.uk f/williamgeorgeq t @WilliamGeorgeQ

Theatre review: Pussy Liberty at The Bread and Roses Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 15:15:00 +0000

Pussy Liberty at The Bread and Roses Theatre, London

Written by: Valerie Isaiah Sadoh

Directed by: Diana Mumb

'My power is not in my ability or inability to open or close my legs at any given time. My liberty is beyond that'

Pussy Liberty follows the story of Blaire, a staunch feminist, on a journey of rehabilitation from being raped as a teenager. It is a journey of acceptance as much as it is understanding and one that causes friction with the people around her.

I feel I have seen a lot of different plays, and read a lot of different books that look at the issue of rape and how the victim deals with it. IN many ways this play is no different and follows a formula, but what sets this apart is the characterisation of Blaire. Both in personality and backstory you are immediately drawn to Blaire and Marie Myrie held her attention for the whole time. She was strong, boastful and had a lot of opinions she was willing to share. She used the world around her, from her own relationships to that of her best friend and flat mate Halle (Annabelle Broa), and Britney Spears songs which was a great touch, to justify and enforce her beliefs, but we slowly learn where these beliefs come from and its saddening. She would stand her corner, almost pushing to hard. There was a wall there that she wasn't willing to break down but that George (Kyran Mitchell-Nanto), Blaire's best friends boyfriend, was continually trying to break down. More for his own gain I feel than Blaire's.

George was a deplorable character, but a great tool (and tool he was) to explore relationships roles and the ideas of feminism. For every point Blaire made he had an answer, and the times he actually said something real, something relate-able, I almost didn't care because he wasn't a character you wanted to like.

One of the interesting focal points of the play was the situations that had lead to the rape, to the ideas that we needed to be more, and wanted to be more as teenagers. We can all remember what it was like to be a year 7, to see this new jungle set out before us and wanted to be the coolest thing there, to feel more mature than we actually were, and the way we idolised those older than us that were doing it. the repetition of the the description of the boy, a description than tonally changed ever time beautifully showed Blair's change, we acceptable and then road to not setting in being a victim, not letting this own her, but moving on and taking her life into her own hands.

Mixed into this there was almost this spectral narration from Julia Xavier Stier, who was just as compelling as Blaire and together they made the script come alive.

Whilst this play was not perfect, I liked the route it took, the way it placed talking points throughout and gave you these strong developing female characters.

Theatre Review: The Great Gatsby: An Immersive Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

The Great Gatsby, Secret Location, LondonWritten: Alexander WrightDirected by: Alexander Wright
"The honour would be entirely mine if you would attend my little party." It’s the roaring twenties – an era of bootleg liquor, red hot jazz and hedonistic pleasures. Jay Gatsby has invited you to one of his infamous parties and that's not an invite you want to turn down."

Review: I've ranted before about how much I love immersive theatre, and so I think I went into this making two mistakes. The first was having expectations, you should never presume with a show like this ( because when you presume you press you to me and that's just weird -#Sorrynotsorry) and the second mistake was that I went home (but I don't think I could have known that to be an issue before going).

This immersive experience plays out the story of Jay Gatsby, immortalised in the F. Scott Fitzergerald novel The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is a chancer, a gambler and a man of mystery. An enigma to crack, by one with heart, a heart that has been taken and consumed by Daisy, and when life brings them together again sparks fly, and not just because someone has set off some fireworks.

If you do go and see this, my advise would be to dress up, not only does it get you in the mood, you also don;t then feel like a lemon when everyone around you is dressed up. There was a great vibe, drink was flowing, it felt like a party. This is what Gatsby would have wanted I felt. Then out of no where the action kicks off and you're taken into their story and moved through the sets.

In any immersive piece of theatre sets are vitally important, and when you;re trying to do what they were then it becomes more difficult because you have to have a multi functional set. It was nice, but that was kind of it for me. It worked for it's purpose but me wondering around by myself i was paying more attention and i wanted more from it.

The show really tries to get you in the mood of the twenties, teaching you to swing, having a fully operating band that played you in and out and provided some great moments for the theatre. There set itself isn't massive so there isn't a lot of diversity in where the actors can take you, but they did well with that they had.

This then leads on to the main problem I have with immersive theatre.You never get the full picture you get pieces and you have to piece them together depending on how you you travel round and who you choose to follow. It was also a fault of the set that depending on where action was happening you got a lot of feedback from the crowd talking, so bits got mixed in and you could only appreciate it if you were there next to the actors.

But you got the story. I felt it helped that i'd seen the film (yes i know..i know) so I had an idea of the plot, but as an experience, you get the key elements, you get the moments.

The actors to their credit got full force into, emotions were on point, you felt part of their moment and accents were on point (for the most part). For all the faults that am almost looking to find (i can't help it) this is a fun show, full of life and energy and if you want a good 20's night outgo and check this out.

Book Review: Editing Emma by Chloe Seager

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 21:54:00 +0000

Title:Editing Emma
Author: Chloe Seager
Publisher: HQ, HarperCollins
Release Date: 10th August 2017
Synopsis: According to Netflix, this is NOT how my teenage life is supposed to look.' When Emma Nash is ghosted by love of her life Leon Naylor, she does what any girl would do - spends the summer avoiding all human contact, surrounded by the Chewit wrappers he left behind. Seeing Leon suddenly `in a relationship' on Facebook, however, spurs Emma into action. She vows to use the internet for good (instead of stalking Leon's social media),chronicling her adventures on her new Editing Emma blog. But life online doesn't always run smoothly. From finding her mum's Tinder profile, to getting catfished and accidentally telling the entire world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl's virginity... Surely nothing else could go wrong?!

Review: Let me start by saying I AM AN EMMA. You are also, or have at some point in your lives been Emma. It's all a part of growing up. We need to stand and fall so that we grow, and so that we have lots of embarrassing stories we can tell people. That is what this book did. There was also a Britney reference so I was sold.

But I need to digress a little to in part explain why I loved this book so much. This is a fault I mention a lot (and something that will crop up in a couple of upcoming reviews). Judging books by their covers. No we shouldn't do it, but when there's so many books out there sometimes it happens. This is not a book I would have normally picked up. I have a tendency to think that this type of book isn't my jam. However I had the pleasure of interviewing Chloe as part of the #CringeFest and have now read a lot more contemporary YA fiction than intended this year. In doing so I have found once again that I have to open up and admit that I was wrong, this book is right and now lets go back into it....

The book is written in a diary 'blog post' style format, so that we go with Emma on her journey, getting our information in as much real time as is possible. But a blog post is always with a slight delay so there is some level of though. This makes for a really interesting protagonist. You get an open and raw narrative that also allows you to get a lot of history to. With Emma it was like a conversation. She was taking at you, and you got hooked on what she was writing. That private nature as the blogs weren't published made it more of a treat. She also wasn't perfect, but you couldn't help but be on #TeamEmma

Situationally Emma goes through a lot, and with this, like with a lot of teen drama's, I feel there is an element of hype to a characters life. Adding extra levels of embarrassment, but it adds to the drama, encourages the comedy and it keeps you hooked. I was laughing along which is what you want to be doing, but I was also cringing, and that's just as important. I could see myself in so many elements of Emma, you don't want to, but the more I read through, the more I actually embraced it! Own the Emma inside you! We've all had a Facebook stalk now and again and we've all kept something given to us....Don't even lie.

On that note relationships are an important part of anyone's teenage years, whether you had ten boyfriends or two (or none...because being a bystander is also ok I'll have you know) and that formed a core part of Emma's story. This book was very open in terms of sex and relationships, and the perils (and to some extent danger) or internet dating. This is the reality of the world we live in, it's something more and more teens are having greater experience with and that we need to be talking about. I loved how her story bore out of heartbreak, and the depth that she felt for it. In the book she is almost mocked, or led to believe that she's crazy for having such strong feelings. BUT WE DID. You felt like it was the be all end all, you did stupid things, you over analysed ever single action, and you wanted to believe that it was all one big mistake that will fix itself and everyone will seeing rainbows. But that's also not reality and I loved the openness with which Emma experienced this, and the way that it didn't just resolve itself, she went through cycles and pitfalls and had to learn from them. I could empathise with her. You think you're fixing a problem yourself because you know best, but ohhh the benefit of perspective.

It was here as in life, that we evaluate ourselves through the way we see and experience others around us and Emma had a great group of friends to be able to help, hinder and be the shoulder to cry on. There was ever different type of friend you've known or still had and at the heart of this group was their relationships and the roller-coasters you go on with your friends in as much as you do with everything else in life. It makes you appreciate your friends more, it almost makes me want to go back and try and fix bridges that have been set fire to. But i think that's almost a fruitless task, it's more about how you take what you've experiences and go forward with it. Make the edits, learn and move on.

I'm not sure in this I've really expressed what i wanted to with this review, it all feels a bit like a ramble. What I want it to say is how much I enjoyed the book. It was fun, pacy, full of laughs, but also full of heart. It had depth, it had moments of sadness where you just want to reach out and hug a character or shake them, or wipe a smug smile off their face. It's a book that says, you know what its ok to go through these things, you just have to learn from them and in that reflection you find the version of you you want to be, not the version you're putting out for the world to be. We could all do from having a look and making small edits from time to time.

Theatre Review: The Magic Flute at The Kings Head

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

The Magic Flute, Kings Head Theatre, LondonDirector/Co-translator: John SavourninConductor/Co-translator: David EatonDesigner: Simon BejerLighting Designer: Nicholas Holdridge

Review: This is a reviewthat has been a long time coming for which I apologise, as the run of this Opera at the Kings Head is now over, but it is touring! And I still wanted to express my thoughts. This was something I had been looking forward to having originally seen a production of The Magic Flue a year before, and I enjoyed this fresh new take on it.

Opera is a difficult format to get into, especially for the younger generations. It was something I'd put off for a long while.Theatres are making it more accessible in terms of cost, but it is a very specific art form to commit to, appreciate and enjoy. But it is one with such a unique skill. It is something I want to like, and have seen a couple of Operas in an attempt to achieve this, including The Magic Flute at the ENO. That was a grand spectacle, massive beautiful sets, and impressive vocals. But without the visuals it was almost hard to understand. Enter the Charles Court Opera's interpretation and you have a winning formula. I could finally understand the beautiful words, the characterisations, the emotion and the fun that are at the core of this production.

Mozart's Opera tells the story of Tamino tasked by the Queen of the Night to rescue Pamina. On his travels he meets Papageno on a quest to find his one true Papagena love. This story has a bit of everything, good versus bad, a quest, magic, deathly trials and here set in this beautiful jungle setting. You walk in feeling like you're part of the jungle and the action unfolds around you, putting you up close and personal.

One of the strengths of this company is their combination of theatre and puppetry. I looovvveeee a good puppet, and here it worked beautifully from the three spirits in bird form to Papgena. She filed the space, literally growing into it, it felt imposing and I was engrossed. This was the fun plot line, where the humour could really play up, very much amped up by Matthew Kellett's performance, which was full of ham and substance in equal measure, and having seen him in a number of productions is a very skilled actor.

The cast moved through the story beautifully, the pace was kept, there were moments of light and dark, the plot was allowed to floor within the comedy, but then moments of tenderness and sadness, and more importantly i really could listen to the words and what they meant. Opera doesn't have to be incomprehensible.

Do watch out for Charles Court, they do some great things for which this will stand up among them!

Theatre Review: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Apollo Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Apollo Theatre, LondonDirected by: Benedict AndrewsStaring: Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell

Review: This was another play that I know of, that I see on some level as a classic and that at the same time I don;t know enough about, so I was excited to go in 'blind' and experience it for the first time. I enjoyed the experience but it ended up being a play of two halves, with the first act dominating the second.

The first thing that struck me here was Magda Willi's set. It was stripped back and minimalist with this beautiful gold facade that opened out into this almost dream like area that allowed moments to unfold, exaggerated in their own bubble, outside of the bubble that was created within the room itself. This minimalism gave it a timeless feel, and really drew the focus in on the characters and their movement.

So you sit down, ready to jump into to what you think is going to be a gritty play, the lights come up and there is Jack O'Connell in the shower...in the buff. Not Kit Harrington I'm going to flash your my arse quickly. IN the Buff. I think about five people around me definitely gasped and many more leaned forward a bit. Savages! Disclaimer i'm pretty sure I changed posture at that point to make sure I was paying the play the proper attention it deserved. The thing for me when you have British accents playing American characters is the accent has to be right ( prime example of this is Mel B's Roxy Heart and Imelda Staunton's Martha..one was spot on and consistent the other not so much, i'll leave it up to you to decide which you think was which) and so I place a greater emphasis. I had a moment when I thought Sienna's accent was what we might describe as a Parody accent, likewise when Jack started talking, but I quickly feel into these characterisations and they became the people so that that was their accent and I believed in them.

Cat on A Hot Tin Roof follows couple Maggie and Brick over the course of one evening, back at their family home for Big Daddy's Birthday. The simplicity of this lets the play explore a lot of different topic of every day life from cracks in their relationship, to alcoholism, the role of family and patriarchy, the role of a woman in a family, even touching on bonds of friendship and homosexuality.

It is very clear that Maggie and Bricks relationship has and is falling apart, being held together by the love that Maggie has for Brick. Sienna has presence and this works well for Maggie's character. It allows her to show a strong side of Maggie, this leading guiding force, a woman that has the sex appeal and the commitment to her man.She is playful with the role, and owns it well, slowing breaking down into the anger, but always consummate in her loyalty to Brick and their relationship. O'Connell's Brick does what it says on the tin. His character is more reserved, more blunt, with more angst addled by his addiction to alcohol. His tones are gruff and you feel the despondence reeking off him. In the first half you get just them, the highs and lows of their relationship played out in its raw form and this was beautiful. You were this fly on their wall and I could feel myself pushing with team Maggie. It was something that was relate-able. Here she was dominant, filling the silence with sound,pushing for a response, glossing over the cracks. She described herself as a Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, a phrase that seemed to be thrown around far too much in the text but one that fit aptly to her. She worked well in all the aspects of her emotions and whilst their interaction dominated the first half, her performance dominated the play.

The second half brings in the family and explodes in more of a rag tag fragmented narrative, because more stories are now playing out and this creates a fragmentation that didn't click with me. First you get the family tropes, Big Daddy says it all in the name and Colm Meaney embodied this characterisation as with his wife Big Mama played by Lisa Palfrey. Mae is the traditional good southern wife with a plethora of children and Hayley Squires was a perfect fit for the role. You really feel the ideals of the man being the head of the house, the man having a responsibility to perform and to be strong. There is a level of protection around this, a glorification that gets broken down through the act. Big Mama was the perfect homely wife, and she was a character that stuck out with you, and that you responded most too. The problem I had here was the length, it was and felt longer than it needed to be, it dragged on and on, adding new layers, new situations becoming convoluted. Yes there was dramatics, but I stopped caring as such. I was here for sienna though, I wanted her to keep going, her presence brought me back and kept my interest going.

It was a great visual spectacle that like a balloon fizzled out slowly with one last bang.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is on at The Apollo Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue until October 7th

Theatre Review: Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's Globe, London
Directed by: Emma Rice
Composer: Ian Ross
Run Time: 2 hrs 45 mins

Review: I was looking forward to this. This was a Shakespeare I hadn't seen, didn't really know much about, except that it was a comedy and that I was seeing the poster for it everywhere and wanted to see it. Plus it was at the Globe, a building I love, both visually and historically. I also knew it was an Emma Rice production, someone who has had a lot of contention about her time as Artistic Director. So I was all set for a spectacle and a spectacle I got.

I love going to the Globe, and their standing Yard tickets make it an accessible experience. Then i remember I then have to stand for three hours and I wish I'd bought a seated ticket. I brought this up on Twitter and someone mentioned that it won't matter as long as the show is good and this is very true. The time went by nicely, you get enveloped up in the story and taken into their world.

Twelfth Night centres around identical twins Viola and Sebastian who get separated during a shipwreck.Viola disguised as a man ends up in the service of Duke Orsino, who is trying to win the love of the Countess Olivia. In Olivia's household the twelfth night celebrations are in full swing with Olivia's cousin Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Augecheek her helpless suitor, Feste her fool, and Maria her gentlewoman. They are being whipped into shape by the steward Malvolio.

Where to begin with this. I loved the story, the fun and the dramatics in it, but also the heart and the hope in there. The play exists on so many levels, and with all the frivolity in there there is actually a lot of sadness that is mixed in. Yet it's played out with humour, allowed to develop whilst still keeping pace.

One of the strongest elements in the play was the fluidity of gender. Yes everything was amped up and they were all playing parts to an extent but it allowed you to explore the looseness of assigning gender and roles to life, putting the onus on the emotion and the connection,the feeling and the vibes rather than it being you're a man and I'm a woman. There was a sexual free-ness to the play which though was not a dominating trait, stood firmly at the forefront and waved its....freedom in front of us.

I loved Anita-Joy Uwajeh's performance as Viola/Cesario, she stood out as the strongest for me. She was bold, but reactive, her comedy was accurate, not to forced or overplayed and the delivery was spot on. Likewise when Annette McLaughlin walked on stage, introducing us to Olivia, I had this feeling that I'm not going to like her, and then she started and magic happened. She reminded me of Hyacinth Bucket, and this is in no way a criticism. It was a fantastic characterisation. She played both side, the authoritarian and the comic is great measure, and like Anita it was just right without being too much. This was the problem I had however with Katy Owen's Malvolio. Let me first start by saying that Katy is a fantastic actress, and she played that part, getting everything out of it that she could. Malvolio is a brilliant character and there's so much in there be explored. It was just too much for me, and it was meant to be and I know that but it was so much that it was almost overbearing.At times it worked but at times, just take it back a notch.

Maria, was this cocky gentlewoman, she has this hard edged grit and I loved Carly Bowden, you wanted to be on her team, even when it hit the fan for her. She was very much one of the 'lads' of the play. Likewise Tony Jayawardena was bold and verbose, large and in charge and he reveled in his celebrations with his comic partner Marc Antolin as Sir Andrew. They had a Laurel and Hardy pairing quality to them, bounced so well between each other and added that next level that the play needs.

The thing I didn't get was Feste. Le Gateau Chocolat glides on to the stage in full drag, which visually is fun, but for me that's almost where it ends. I only realised the character and the role after the play and reading through the program. I was thinking about it all along as I went through and I was thinking is he a spirit...what...I didn't get fool, I also didn't get a lot of what was being conveyed through his songs. This was a jar for me that I couldn't get over. I'd heard about this point so much, I'd bigged it up mentally, so maybe the fault in this is mine?

This was a fun production, full of humour and I'm now on board and want to me more Twelfth night.

Theatre Review: Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 12:14:00 +0000

Hamlet, Harold Pinter Theatre, London
Directed by: Robert Icke
Staring: Andrew Scott

Review: I used to feel like I'd seen a lot of Shakespeare, and then I realised I was seeing a lot of the same things, and namely Hamlet ( I must have seen at least three version over the last few years) and whilst Hamlet has some of my favourite moments in it, I've almost become a bit desensitised to it, so I set the standard high.

Anyone who may have met me, may not that at times I have a short attention span at times so when I saw this production was going on three and a half hours I shivered inside. I always forget how long Hamlet can be, so it needed to be good.

We all know the story of Hamlet, tragic hero, who is charged by the ghost of his dead father to avenge his death. His plight slowly descends him into suspected madness and the affects are felt by those around him.

There is a greater tendency to have Shakespeare in modern, convoluted settings, to add a dynamic, especially as verbatim, Shakespeare can be times hard to understand if you're not au fait with it. Here we have a modern Hamlet, set in a castle with CCTV allowing us to explore the plot, but whilst this was a modern take, it wasn't over the top or in your face, it worked, it felt natural.

Andrew Scott made a great Hamlet. We all know the famous Hamlet speeches, and we all know how to overact them. TO BE OR NOT TO BE that I will shout out at you. But Scott did it differently. His whole vibe, wasn't sad and broody, it was this subtle anger and angst, and it was like he was talking to you, venting his troubles, the way we all want to talk about our problems. It had a whit and he played off the characters well, allowing the reality of the situations stand out in their awkwardness, because the play if full of them.

The play for me focuses around the five strong characters, Hamlet, Gertrude, Polonius, Claudius and Ophelia. Hamlet stood above them, and does within the play, so their characterisations needs to be just as strong. I liked Juliet Stevenson's Gertrude performance, she had a strength and authority, that allowed a vulnerability. Counter balanced to both their performances was Claudius. He is not meant to be a loud character, and I never liked him ( nor do I think you're meant to) but Angus Wright (to his detriment) played him so dull, flat and monotone. He was an is a drip. Polonius was always a bit of the comic in this for me and his is played up here, and Peter Wright does the job well. I think one of the main problems for me was Ophelia. I really like Ophelia as a character, I just didn't like the way of her decent into madness from Jessica Brown Findlay. There was something about it a bit off kilter so she wasn't what I wanted her to be. But that's theatre for you.

The ending was also a little modern for me, and with perspective it makes sense for the style of the play, I liked the visual imagery of it, but at the time it felt weird. I mention it only because it sticks with me, but it should not detract from what was a great production and will stand up there with the great Hamlets I've seen.

Hamlet is on at The Harold Pinter Theatre until Sept 2nd

Theatre Review: The Plains of Delight at Theatre Utopia Croydon

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 23:28:00 +0000

The Plains of Delight by Colm MolloyDirected by Colm MolloyTheatre Utopia, CroydonMerde! Theatre

Mona (Laura Perry) and Mac (Gary Cain) sit on a bench, day in day out going through the same routines, the same motions until one day Alfie (Bex Sain-ane Evans) and Jarry (Rish Shah) come along and disrupt their lives. And when I say they're a strange pair...you'd remember meeting them and probably wish you hadn't

This is the first production for Merde! Theatre, and one of the pitfalls I feel with putting on a first production is staging something the you want to be simple, but out there. You want to create a statement and make people remember you, but unfortunately I'll remember this for the wrong reasons.

One of the main problems I had was the writing didn't have enough time to grow and develop. It's billed as a one act play and a lot unfolds within that 45 minute act. You are slowly fed information for you to imply their situation and you get to learn character very easily. You understand them and fall into their lives, become part of their routine almost but it doesn't go anywhere for either of you. You feel for both Mac and Mona in different ways, but I never really clicked with Mona as a character and a lot of what happened with her me didn't make sense. But you still felt for her plight, because of the way it affects Mac. This was where the heart was within the play, it was almost the Mac show.

If they were the light, Alfie and Jarry were definitely the dark... the corruption of the play. The spanner in the work to interrupt the equilibrium. This is the point of the play i normally enjoy, the twist that brings a new vibe into action. Like all good travellers they had a story that with great grandeur and pomp they told. But it landed somewhat flat. It didn't go anywhere, as pointed out by Mac. The characters was verbose, and that worked, but it trumped everyone else in doing so.

And what was Jarry...why was Jarry, I actually wanted to know, but never got to find out. Then something happens, which I won't describe as it's a big plot point but he then as a result gives this speech, that was beautiful in its tone and delivery (the highlight of the play), but then even that was flawed because the cleverness of its delivery tripped itself up by stretching it to out too long.

I didn't know what to expect from The Plains of Delight, but I left feeling a little what have I just seen. There is definitely something here, I just want it to be developed more.

The Plains of Delight is on at Theatre Utopia until Saturday, tickets cost £8/6

Blackwing: The Blog Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Hello hello, today we hop on the Blackwing Blog Tour! This is a book I have been looking forward to since I first heard about it way back in January, and now here we are in July and I have this thing of beauty in my hands! Then we gave Ed a microphone at work during the fantasy Panel we hosted...do I regret giving it to him, yes, (ABSOLUTELY NOT), and from that I am even more excited to present you with today's post...Ladies and Gentlemen over to Ed

Blackwing: A feminist novel

When I write, I have a target audience in my mind. She’s my sister. My sister is in her thirties, very intelligent, a playwright, has a moderate interest in fantasy only, and tends to enjoy fast paced, heart pounding mysteries like The Da Vinci Code. I choose her as my target audience because (a) she’s more mainstream than diehard fantasy readers and I want to appeal to a broad audience, not just genre fans, (b) I respect her opinions, and (c) we’ve been writing together since we were kids.

Oh, and she’s a fervent feminist.

But then, so am I. And as Camilla said on Love Island very recently – “Shouldn’t everyone be?”

(Note: Yes, I adore Love Island. I watched 5 hours on Catchup last weekend)

Blackwing is a feminist book. It’s not a book about feminism, not in the slightest. There are no themes of equality, no lessons taught by moralising mouth-piece characters. And yet, it’s a book that will be enjoyed by feminists like me, and also by those who don’t yet realise that they’re feminists.

Feminism is a term that really confuses people, so let’s just define the other term that people get confused about:

An Equalitarian is someone who believes that all people should be treated equally.

A Feminist is an equalitarian who understands that the world does not currently allow this in terms of its legislative, social, cultural and sexual expectations, norms and behaviours, and that in order to achieve equality, positive action is needed to alter perceptions and redress balance.

Blackwing’s female cast are diverse. We have Nenn, the hard bitten, foul mouthed swordswoman, but I like to think that she’s also human in her vulnerability and her loyalties. Then there’s Ezabeth: determined, possibly mad, and far more powerful than most of the major cast. Lastly there’s Prince Herono. ‘Princess’ has all the wrong connotations, so in Blackwing, women are princes. Elizabeth I of England was referred to as a prince, so it’s not without real-world historical precedent.

What all of these women have in common, and what makes them feminist characters, is not that they stroll around shouting “Women are equal to men!” It’s that their gender is not limiting, and they are not treated in a limiting way by the other characters. This was a very conscious decision that I made when I started to write Blackwing. It’s a fantasy world; if I’m writing about magical doomsday weapons, I don’t have to adhere to Victorian attitudes towards sex and gender. My experience as a historical fencer adds to this. If anyone ever tells you that women can’t fight with swords, go tell them to fight with Kristine Konsmo, who beat all comers in the 2012 Swordfish competition (regarded as the toughest swordsmanship competition in the world) with sword and buckler. I had the pleasure to attend a seminar that she taught recently and man, that woman can fight. My experiences in swordsmanship are that gender has no impact on a person’s ability, as physical strength is at best a minor factor. Our earliest historical fencing treatise (dating around 1290-1320) features a female fighter. We don’t need to apply our misplaced cultural prejudices to older societies.

(Top: Kristine Konsmo. Bottom: A folio from the I.33 fighting treatise)

On the other hand, I don’t think that gender neutral societies should mean that we pretend that men and women are identical. It would be wrong if I’d had Ezabeth – 5’0 tall and built like a twig – arm wrestle and beat Galharrow, who’s 6’6 and weighs over 20 stone. Biologies are different. It’s fine to accept that, provided that we don’t then type cast every character into a gender/biologically defined role, as individual character traits are more defining than the base building blocks of our DNA. Not all women want children, but lots do, and the early mother/child bond tends to be – not always, but often – different to the early father/child bond.

Nenn plays to a traditionally more masculine roll – she’s all leathers and blades – whilst Ezabeth is far more feminine, veiled and wears dresses. But then, whilst Galharrow is a man’s man, Ezabeth’s brother Dantry could be seen as effeminate. But masculine or feminine, all of the characters bring it when it’s called on, because that’s who they are. They aren’t just a set of genitals and cultural expectations. Some characters switched gender during the writing, and all it took was a change of pronouns. It didn’t change the story at all, because unless you’re specifically tackling gender issues, why would it?

Whilst I was writing Blackwing, an interesting thing then occurred. The characters began to talk in ways that I’d not intended. My imagined society took on different values. Sexuality became a non-issue. The way that characters talk about sex changed, their expectation of what people should aspire to changed. It has, for me, become an exploration of a gender neutral society.

I know that publicly declaring this has the possibility of upsetting some people (the kind that got upset about Jodie Whittaker becoming Dr. Who). The rest of this blog is devoted to how much I care about those people’s opinions:

And there you have it! Check out the rest of the stops on the Blog tour, which you can see below, and you can get your hands on Blackwing because it is OUT NOW!

Book Review: Wintersong

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 06:30:00 +0000

Title: WintersongAuthor: S Jae-JonesPublisher: Titan BooksRelease Date: 7th February 2017
Synopsis: Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.
All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.
But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.
Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

Review: I know it says it about but I just need to reiterate:

Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King

ALL THE FEELS! This was all I needed to sell me this book. This is a classic example of never judge a book by its cover. I more than likely probably wouldn't have picked this up if I saw it in passing unless curiosity got the better of me. But mention the Goblin King and I'm sold. I LOVE Labrynth as a film and in case you live under a rock and don't know what i'm talking about let me refresh your memory:

This book draws all the feels from the film, and every time I read the worlds Goblin King i got a little shiver. The book and film also share a lot of similarities. A weird and wonder twisted world. The ideas of isolation and solidarity. Of bravery and fight and the lengths you're prepared to go to.

The Goblin King was this enigmatic character, full of layers. He has light and dark moments where his cunning and mischievous side comes out. He has a deep rich history and is such a reserved character. You see him in different forms and faces but within all of these he still had (or at least i projected onto him) this air of authority that he carried with him. He felt like a trapped soul and so there was a lot of feeling for him wrapped up in the situation.

I feel there is a little of Liesl in all of you, she is a vulnerable character that looks for adventure, that questions but that wants to love. She like the Goblin king had a guard and had a purpose and she has to be broken to grow and there were times when you wanted to sake her, to reach into the pages and say it's going to be ok, or to spur her on.

The world below was in my mind this beautiful twisted creature, very earthy and of the ground,a whole underground world that broke all the rules, coated this this magic rose tinted gloss that hid its true nature. It was like a del toro scene unfolding the truth shattered and the world came to true focus.

Some of the most beautiful moments here were the music. these rich scenes of them playing both individually and together and you just imagined the music playing and growing getting enveloped in its sound and being carried to another place altogether. Music holds magic and you could really feel this in the pages. Not only for the reader but for the characters and you could feel how it gripped them both.

I thought this was a standalone but have just seen that Shadowsong is coming and I am here for that. I'm ready to go back into this world, to see how much further the characters are pushed and really get under the skin of the Goblin King.

Book review: If We Were Villains

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Title: If We Were VillainsAuthor: M. L. RioPublisher: Titan BooksRelease date: June 13th 2017Synopsis: Oliver Marks has just served ten years for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day of his release, he is greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, and he wants to know what really happened a decade before.As a young actor at an elite conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same characters onstage and off – villain, hero, temptress – though he was always a supporting role. But when the teachers change the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into real life.When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless

Review: I came in to this book on the wrong mind set. I don;t mind admitting that. I was sold on Shakespeare and Thriller and that took me back to a book i'd read years ago called The Shakespeare Secret and so i felt that's what I wanted and didn't get. But that's not what this book was or should be.

If I was giving you my bookseller pitch I would say to you "This book does for Shakespeare what Black swan did for Ballet". It was an intense mind bender that just shows what happen's when you go too far down the rabbit hole.

What this book screams is Shakespeare, you can tell Mel studied Shakespeare and hard and this bled into the characters. They live and breath it ( as you hope you would if it's your in depth field of study), possibly for me a little too much. Only in that I at times felt overwhelmed, I like Shakespeare but its so rich and there is so much in his works, a lot of which I haven't seen, so that references and quotes were lost on me. Shakespeare for me is very much about the interpretation and inference of what is said and how its said and if you have to keep doing that when you;re trying to keep up with the pace of the book that I lost it's meaning. But that's more me than the book.

With anything Dramatic character is important and as in Shakespeare there was a range here and they all played their parts. This is where my love for this book comes into play. You can play a part and you can be given a part and often a book has to describe your part for you, to compliment how we read you as a reader. This book blended the character and their Shakespeare personas sooo well. right down to the flaws and the cracks. Then wrapped the whole thing up in a murder mystery. But this was just like in Shakespeare...lets go with Hamlet, a plot devise to unravel the characters and push them to the limit. This book was all about the character and personality, how it grew and got uglier, you picked sides, whilst wanting to know every perspective. Emotions got very raw and then that was projected onto the stage to play out in apt dramatic fashion.
I really gravitated to Oliver as a character he was a great pivotal point for me and i enjoyed his perspective throughout. Each character held their own and for better want of an analogy played their part well.

I saw this book on a crime table last week, and I don't agree with that because it sits in a lot of places and at it's core I don;t think its crime. I only mention this because I feel that this book has a wide appeal that a lot of different interests can enjoy. and because i like a bad cliche/joke i'll go out on one:

To read or not to read that is the question. I did and now you have to decide. Let me know what you thought!

Theatre Review: Chicago Ambassador's Theatre New York City

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen's Bookish Life) — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Chicago, Ambassador's Theatre, New York City,
Directed By: Walter Bobbie
Choreography: Ann Reinking
Staring: Mel B as Roxy Heart and Amra-Feye Wright as Velma Kelly

Chicago is a show that i'm quite conflicted about. For me it is a very stripped back show, there is not a lot of set, or costume and so as a result everything has to be slick, every hand flick precise, and the performances to sell the music ON POINT. There are so many memorable songs in this musical and they need to be done justice. So I sat in my seat ( way back in February at the bequest of my friend) with some reserve and wanting to be blown away.

The show, set in the Jazz age of America, centres around two women; Roxy Heart accused of shooting her lover and Velma Kelly, murderer, both women using their new found fame to build themselves into stardom by the way of Billy Flyn, criminal lawyer to the stars.

The show is very much about the ideals of celebrity status and plays up to this. The crimes are made trivial and boastful, playing on the strings of the media and their influence on the way the crimes are presented. It's an idea and a situation that is almost timeless with the amount of spotlight criminal cases get still and get dragged in and corrupted by the media.

With this you almost become fond of both characters, though I was always more of a Velma kinda Guy, Roxy is nice and all but Velma has this grit to her that I love and isn't too airy fairy the way Roxy can be played and indeed how Mel B played her. She was an interesting choice...she wouldn't be the first person I woudl have thought of for the role, but I will admit that I was intrigued to see what she did. She gave it good welly I will give her that an that's almost where it ends. The singing was...ok she can carry the songs. The accent was passable most of the time but there were so many slips and cracks that takes you out of the moment.

One of my favourite musical Theatre songs is the Cell Block Tango and as such I have a higher expectation from it. This time it was nice, but it just didn't completely do it for me. The song is fiery, a little sexy, and overall very stylish. Its a song that opens itself up somewhat to how you interpret it and this time it went most of the way there, without fully hitting my spot. We both reached for The Gun is again another standout song and is a fun part if the musical that gives the whole cast an opportunity to shine and its really where you see the slick and comic nature that is so expertly done. Mr Cellophane has to be mentioned her, because its a tone change and one of the more raw intimate moments in the show that completely turns around your opinion of Amos Raymond Bokhour did an amazing job and was a standout on the night and needs the credit for it.

I've seen Chicago twice now, and I think I'm done for a while..I can still listen to the music but I most definitely do not need to see it again for a while. Its a nice show, but not a standout for me. People go at this point because they know what to expect. The music is fun and the dancing is different and you can have a good night out, but when I go out I generally want a bit more!