Sometimes, you can’t do everything.

Image © Drew Coffman
Filed under 2017 Posts
This week, we’re taking a break from Stephen King to dive into one of my favourite genres of book: the gory serial killer story. If it’s advertised with the words “The worst fictional killer since Hannibal Lector”, you’d better believe it piques my interest.
This time, though, I screwed up a little. I received this book from my mother and neither of us realised until after I’d read it that it’s actually the fourth book in a series. So how does Richard Montanari’s “Play Dead” (or “Badlands” as it’s known in the USA) hold up as an introduction to the series?
Image © cover artist/publisher.
Not badly. But not spectacular either.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
Another week, another Stephen King book under my belt! And this time, it’s “Misery”.
Image © cover artist/publisher.
Did I like it? Well, if I tell you that I went to bed at ten planning to read one or two chapters and ended up reading until nearly one in the morning and finishing the whole book, does that answer your question?
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
Trigger Warning for Mentions of Sexual Abuse
Things have gotten on top of me a touch this week. I had my last two formal MA lectures and as such, opportunities to read and write have been thin on the ground. Despite this, though, I managed to once again dive into my stash of unread Stephen King and picked out “Dolores Claiborne”.
Image © cover artist/publisher.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews, Uncategorized
Here we are. It’s March 2017 and I’m about to review the last novel I have to read for my MA. Was it an amazing experience about which I’ll write positively? Or a terrible reading experience that I will lambast?
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Neither. I just don’t get it.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
I’m loath to do two posts in a row not reviewing a first-time read, but as today is World Book Day, I want to do something for that instead.
Image © World Book Day.
As such, here’s a short list of some books from my childhood and adolescence and how they affected me.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
This week, I’m doing something a little different. All my reviews up until now have been books I’ve never read before. Today, though? In honour of a presentation I have to do at university on a book I chose, I’m going to be jumping into the way-back machine and talking about a book I first read several years ago: “Storm Front” by Jim Butcher.
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Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
Last week, it got to Saturday and I realised with a sudden burst of horror that I hadn’t read a book this week. So naturally, I grabbed something from my bookshelf that had been hanging around unread for an age because it was fairly short, and read it within a day (accidentally staying up until three in the morning!).
And that’s how I came to read “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” by Stephen King.
Image © cover artist/publisher.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
Warning: Triggers for extreme violence.
My uni classmates and I have what I shall call “differing opinions” on literature, and this week’s review – or rather, first impressions – is no exception. Why a first impressions? Because “Blood Meridian” is the first book for the course that I’ve failed to finish reading.
Image © cover artist/publisher.
That doesn’t bode well.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews
A few weeks ago, I was on my way home from uni and realised I didn’t have a book. When I nipped into a second-hand book shop, I saw a book by Sarah Waters, and I remembered that the Amazon page for “Leda Grey” says that book is suitable for fans of Waters. So why not go the other way around, I thought?
Wow. That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, because it ended with me reading “Tipping the Velvet”.
Image © cover artist/publisher.
Filed under 2017 Posts, book reviews