Monday 29 October 2012

Take Five by Renee Pawlish




This is a collection of five short stories by Renee Pawlish that I have had on my kindle for a good while now. I am not sure but it may have been a freebie so I am loathe to give a negative review but I have to be totally honest about how I feel about it.

On a positive note this book is well presented and well edited which you can't always say about other books on the indie market. However I found these small crime stories lacked something vitally important, maybe something extra that could get me on the edge of my seat.A hook or a clever plot twist or two? The stories are average at best and my main problem was just that.A couple of the stories had disappointing endings ( including one It was all a dream ending) that made me feel short changed. At least one of the stories had a bit of action in it which I thought was handled well and I do think the last story in the collection hints that Renee Pawlish may be be more suited to writing with a little bit of humour. I really liked the idea of a grown up man dancing in his living room with a mannequin!

An average 2/5.

Sunday 28 October 2012

46 The Road by Cormac McCarthy



I read this on my kindle while I was taking a family holiday on the East Coast of England and it was a brilliant read. When my wife asked me what I was reading I told her it was about a man and a boy who are walking around on a dead world after there has been some kind of a catastrophic event and that people are going around eating other people to stay alive! That made me smile but is the general gist of the book!

I don't know how I came to have this book on my kindle but I remember that it was recommended to me from someone or other but I don't know who. The book is beautifully devastating and gritty and terrifyingly horrific. There's nothing funny about finding a corpse in the middle of a roadside but this book is beautifully written. In fact I don't know if I have read a more beautifully or skillfully written book this year. This guy certainly knows how to write and any aspiring writer only needs to read this book to learn what he needs to aspire too. This is a true artist at work and will have to look out for more from Cormac McCarthy.

I gave it a 4 out of 5 rather than a 5 merely because although it is beautifully written I have read more exciting books and perhaps it needed more of a plot or a twist or two for me to give it a 5.

The Girl in the Glass by Zoe Brooks




In the short time that I have been doing reviews for this blog I have learned that indie books are very much hit and miss. This one was pretty much a miss as far as I am concerned. It took me a few weeks to read and I read even a few books inbetween due to the fact that I found it tedious!

The story starts off in a promising way and literally fizzes out as it goes along. The premise of the book is a girl called Anya who lives in a house with a cruel stepmother who spends most days locked in a broom cupboard. Eventually she escapes and the story kind of loses the plot in more ways than one. My main problem with the book is that it is too confusing and there are too many gaps. Never at any point are we told where this story takes place, it could be in a mythical land or on the far side of the galaxy. We also have a strange character who is Anya's shadow. What or whom a shadow is is never mentioned or stated clearly. I found this confusing and frustrating. I do like the idea that we all have a shadow but I feel this idea wasn't explained or plotted properly.

I eventually read this book because I am determined to finish all the books I started but it was a pain to be honest. A boring and frustrating 1/5.