‘Dear Daughter’ by Elizabeth Little

 

WARNING! There will be spoilers in this review, so if you are going to read this book, maybe you shouldn’t read what I’m writing. But I personally think you should read this review and give ‘Dear Daughter’ a wide berth.

Basic premise of the story is this; Janie Jenkins is a LA IT girl who gets convicted of the murder of her mother. After 10 years in prison she is suddenly released due to some technicality to do with evidence tampering or something. I don’t know, it’s not really gone into, neither is the 10 years in prison that haven’t really changed her at all. Janie doesn’t quite remember the night of her mother’s murder, so despite not being sure if she IS the murderer or not she sets off to find out what really happened.
The whole world seems interested in what she’ll get up to and one hate fuelled blogger has offered up $50,000 for any information on her whereabouts. So she dyes her hair black and puts on a pair of glasses. The perfect disguise! And unsurprisingly the first person to see her recognises her immediately and she has to threaten him to keep quiet (he doesn’t!). So she heads off to a small town in South Dakota (Ardelle), because one of the three words she heard her mother say before she died was the name of the town! (Yes, really).
Luckily for Janie no one in Ardelle recognises her despite spending lots of time with a small cast of characters that all end up being somehow involved in the story somehow. Janie stumbles on clues like she draws them to her like some sort of clue magnet. I know I have a USB stick somewhere in my house, but can I find it? Can I fuck! Yet Janie finds a new clue in every photo she looks at, every book she opens and even when she takes a shit it comes out in the shape of an arrow that points her in the right direction!!! So she gets to this small town and finds out that her mother was actually someone who grew up in this very town, got pregnant ran away and changed her name. Obviously something happened in this town, they’d tracked her down and killed her. Don’t worry though, Detective Clue Magnet is on the case, joined by a ‘Mystery Inc’  (that’s a Sccoby-Doo reference) group of people including a cool, good looking cop, a couple of lesbians, a teenage rebel and a few dodgy seeming guys to keep you guessing which one of them did it (I won’t actually tell you which one though!).
The book isn’t badly written (in terms of style), but is full of clichés and coincidences. It’s complete trash, but it is quite enjoyable, Janie has a fantastic wit and the LA IT girl is a new voice to tell a crime novel through. But if you’re not the kind of person who occasionally likes to switch off your brain and watch daytime TV this isn’t the book for you.

 

'Scavenger: Zoid' by Paul Stewart

 

Paul Stewart has once again teamed up with Muddle Earth playmate Chris Riddell on this new series 'Scavenger'. The beautiful, detailed, crisp and instantly recognisable work of Mr Riddell wonderfully complements the story, so why, oh why didn't Macmillan use him for the cover? I wont name the artist they used as (s)he hasn't done a bad job. To be honest, as someone who does illustration is quite obvious what has happened. They've been given copies of Chris' work to show them what the characters look like and then were stuck having to try and make their artwork look like Chris'! The results although fine, do come across as a pale copy. It's like you coloured in Chris' work then looked at it through a murky window. Really disappointing.
But once inside Chris' glorious drawing of the Biosphere with it's minute, intricate detail that just blows your mind...What? You don't know what the Biosphere is? Oh yes, I went off on a rant about art and haven't said a thing about the book!
So the story of Zoid is set in a far away future, basically we (the Humans) have ruined the Earth beyond repair and decided that we needed a new planet. So we created the Biosphere an enormous planet shaped space ship to hold life for however long it may take to find a suitable planet to colonise. All was fine for some time until all the robots (or Zoids) that worked on the ship doing all the menial tasks for the humans revolted and took over the ship and killed everyone they could find. Many years after that, small bands of humans that are left live deep within the Biosphere trying to stay alive. The main character York (a 14 year old boy) is a scavenger (hence the title of the series) who leaves the Inpost to look for bits of anything that they can use and destroy Zoids.
Ok, here comes a spoiler (but not a big one). Right near the start the Zoids attack the Inpost and drag everyone away. York then sets off on a journey to save them encountering all sorts of creatures and other 'tribes' of hiding humans.
The book is designed for that 9-12 age range so there's nothing too gritty or offensive (obviously), is quite short and easy to read. Each chapter is only a few pages long and each ends with a cliff-hanger that makes you keep on reading no matter what you are meant to be doing! The book is a lot of fun and a really great read. Yes the main character is a boy, but there is also a strong female lead who comes into the story about halfway through (I'm not giving anything away, she's on that so-so cover!) so not necessary a boys-own type story. The story ends well, so even though the book has a series title if no more are ever written you aren't left feeling deflated. But I really hope there will be.
Yes, it's for kids, but it's great. Like that guilty pleasure of watching Doctor who.

'Wolves' by Simon Ings

You're told never to judge a book by it's cover, but if a book doesn't look good you are not going to pick it up. I read an awful lot, I work in a bookstore and yet I do judge books by their covers. And once in a blue moon along comes a book to teach me a lesson, 'Wolves' was one of them.

You see, 'Wolves' has a fantastic cover. It's dark, grainy, haunting and menacing. It has a giant wolfesque creature on it and the title 'Wolves'. The book however is NOT about wolves, there are no wolves in it, there isn't even a gang with a 'pack mentality'! The only reason this book is called Wolves is that 'Dull guy in marketing has a series of horrendous events happen to him, but just gets on with his life' was a terrible (although accurate) title.

Don't get me wrong, the book isn't badly written and there are some interesting ideas in it. Basically it's the invention of 'augmented reality' a kind of souped-up Google glass, that mixes adverts and computer games into your everyday surroundings. But the story doesn't focus on this, or on anything. The book reads like a huge series of sub-plots interwoven together, there's the augmented reality, the cheating with his best friends wife, the 'murder' of his Mother, an apocalyptic novel about a flood, changing relationships and so on. But as none of them take the main stage (as it were) you're left with a book of nothing but sub-plots, which reads like nothing is happening and yet you know lots did!

I Would not recommend this book. Lovely cover though...

'The Road to Reckoning' by Robert Lautner

I love Westerns. Not many books these days are Westerns (which is a shame- ever since the space race and Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon, Westerns have not been in vogue and have never had a comeback since) so when one comes along I tend to get myself too excited! So much so that no matter how good the book is I find myself disappointed.

I was not disappointed with this book.

Which is odd as it's not really a Western. Well, it is but it isn't. It's a coming of age novel and a road trip as if you mixed Jim Dodge's 'Not Fade Away' with J.D. Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye' then sprinkled it with Stetsons, spurs and Samuel Colt's newly invented revolver.

The story is that of Thomas Walker who sets out with his father (a travelling salesman) to sell the new Colt revolver to whoever they may meet. They leave the depression hit New York and set out West. As the towns get smaller and wilder the adventure of a lifetime soon starts to lose its lustre. Soon Thomas finds himself orphaned, alone and hunted. By chance he meets Henry Stands and old ex-ranger who is heading back East, in whom he can see his only chance of making back home alive.

A great story of a boy dragged into manhood whether he wants it or not. The relationship between Thomas and Henry is beautifully written and has lots of funny and heart warming moments too. But this is not all rainbows and roses, the America of 1837 is in the midst of a depression, law and order is hard to come by and is no place for a boy on his own. This is a great little book that you should definitely read (even if you don't like Westerns!), though if you buy the beautiful hardback, your dust jacket will get destroyed!

'Look Who's Back' by Timur Vermes

A few months ago there was a “news” story about a woman (Simoni Renee Guerreiro Dias) who had found 'proof' that Hitler had lived until he was 95, and by proof I mean the worst photo that you had EVER seen! (Just have a look here)

Well she had written a book and a few people were asking about it in the bookstore, so I set about searching the internet to find out a new book about Hitler living past the Second World War and I stumbled upon this book by Timur Vermes. Well my interest in the 'non-fiction' title was lost and this utterly bizarre idea for a novel replaced it ten-fold. In case you haven't heard anything about 'Look Who's Back' the simple premise is that it is 2011 in Berlin and Hitler wakes up in a field covered in petrol and has no idea how he got there. He immediately and incredibly conveniently meets a lovely friendly newspaper vendor who thinks Hitler a hilarious and deadly accurate comedic impersonator of the old Führer and quickly (and quite unbelievably) arranges a meet with some television executives who love him and try (and succeed) to make him a star.

Ok, so the start isn't believable. At all. But this IS a book about Hitler suddenly appearing in Berlin 66 years after his death!!! Plus you don't really care how he gets on his feet. You just want to see how one of the most recognisable and evil men that has ever lived reacts to life in the 21^st century. This was a hard book to love. The main protagonist is Adolf Hitler! You don't like him, you're not ever really going to like him, so you don't care if he becomes successful, in fact you don't want him to. But you can't stop yourself from finding out what happens next. This book is full of brilliantly executed (no pun intended) wit and satire mainly aimed at marketing and television executives (which are just the kind of people to make Hitler seem human!). Hitler being Hitler says some outrageous things and as everyone assumes him to be a comedian and performer their perception of what he means is twisted by that, leaving the reader laughing at these comedies of errors.

This is an odd, interesting, funny and poignant story that really should be read. Not the greatest story ever written but so different that it deserves to do well.

Donnybrook by Frank Bill

This book was a gift from a friend. I'd not heard of Frank Bill and did not know what a donnybrook was. But quite quickly I could see why they had got this for me, as we're both fans of the TV show 'Justified', and this book delivers that kind of gritty, real and dark story that certainly pulls no punches.
Frank Bill (like my favourite author Charles Bukowski) writes characters that have no redeeming features, real scum of the earth type people that you hope in your heart that you never get a chance to meet in real life and yet you can't stop reading about them and actually start routing for them (well not ALL of them, they are some really horrible people that have come out of the twisted mind of Mr Bill!). So, back to the book. The donnybrook is a three day fighting tournament that is happening on a thousand acre plot of private land where they are watched and betted on by a whole host of dangerous people who are drunk, high or sating their blood lust. The story follows an array of characters that are making their way to the donnybrook (whether or not they know that that will be their desination) including a cop and fighter an assassin and meth dealers!

The story is tense, gripping and a pleasure (well, I'm not sure if pleasure is really the right word) to read. Highly recommended, I'll be keeping an eye out for Frank Bill in the future, and so should you!

'Love Goes to Buildings on Fire' by Will Hermes

The subtitle of this book 'Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever' says it all really. This book is set in New York, during the mid '70's where music and drugs were the main outlet from a world of economic depression and boredom.
Wow! Practically every genre of music has it's birth, re-birth or just a fantastic kick up the bum in these five years. Hip-Hop, Disco, Punk, Rock 'n' Roll, Salsa, Jazz and classical music all get there time within Will's book.
It's written (for the most part) chronologically, and in small bit-sized chunks. It's as if Will Hermes had travelled back in time to write a weekly music column for some magazine so managed to be exactly where he needed to be to get the most amazing music articles ever written, that are now collected here with no filler!

Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Grandmaster Flash, CBGB's, Fania All-Stars, Philip Glass and so much more. This is a book that you can dip in and out of or enjoy in one huge go. No matter what music you normally listen to and how much you may already know about it (there has been huge amounts written about CBGB's and the emergence of punk-for example) you will find more you didn't know and lots, lots more besides.

The only bad thing about this book is that by the time you've finished reading it, you'll have a list of albums you need to buy about a mile long!!!