Someone Like You - Roald Dahl

Someone Like You is a compilation of short stories aimed at adults. I’m not quite sure why it’s called Someone Like You, as there’s nothing romantic about them at all – although I think I connect the title with the song by Adele, which doesn’t mean that it should necessarily have anything romantic about it.

In fact, the reverse is the case. These stories all have really horrible twists and subtexts, and they almost make you keep reading even though you really don’t want to know what happens next.

I enjoyed reading the short stories because they weren’t connected with each other (except for the general theme of awfulness) and it was therefore easy to pick up and read a story at a time. However, the one thing I would say is that there were so many stories – and some of them did seem a little repetitive – that by the time I was about 3/4 of the way through I just wanted to have finished them already. That might have had something to do with the fact that I had just got my reading list for Uni and just wanted to start reading them, so I really can’t blame Dahl for that.

Indeed, I can’t really fault his writing. Although he uses a different style to the one he employs in his children’s stories, you can still tell that it’s his voice. The names are often equally amusing as some of his children’s book characters, and the imagination put into each story is very impressive. There were so many stories – and this is only one of a series of collections – and they all had an element which made you cringe in horror or disgust, which really makes the reader admire the talent of the author.

One that sticks in my mind is when a man arrives home (he lives in India) to find his friend with a venomous snake curled up on his stomach under the bed sheets. They spend the story devising ways to remove it without awaking it and letting it bite the friend. The imagery used just made me envision this snake, and I couldn’t help cringing at the thought because it was so horrible! Another was about a man who bet another man his daughter’s hand in marriage, and this second man cheated on the bet. It ended with the first man discovering it, and ended there so we never found out what happened to the daughter!

In fact, this happened a lot in these stories: they deliberately ended just before the story ought to end so that we never found out what happened. It was a very effective ploy, and keeps the stories in your mind much longer than they normally would.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I just finished reading this a couple of days ago, and I really enjoyed it. I don’t know why, but before I bought the book, I hadn’t a clue what it was about. I thought the title meant some kind of big horse race. Don’t even ask me why. I suppose it’s like the Grand National (biggest horse race in Britain)…? But when I realised that it was about New York in the 1920s, I knew I had to read it.

The 20s is my favourite period. I love the fashion, the architecture, the literature, the art, the music, the BYTs and the party atmosphere. I love films about the 20s, because it really comes alive for me. Have you seen Midnight in Paris? I saw it the other day, and I loved it. That night I dreamt that the same thing happened to me! Seriously, one of the best dreams ever.

So The Great Gatsby was inevitably going to be something I enjoyed. And I really did. As I’ve said a lot recently, I loved the writing style. It was very light (if that makes sense) and vivid. The descriptions of Gatsby’s parties were so magical and fairy-like that they were enchanting. Then the profound passages scattered about made you think about the wider scope of things, about humanity and time and all that deep stuff. And there I have just cheapened it.

The characters were also interesting. I liked Nick as a narrator, and although I used to think it strange that the narrator (if it was written in first person) wasn’t the main character, I’ve read enough now to have got used to it. I didn’t feel the need to know about his life. Obviously it wasn’t that I didn’t care, but it was written in a way that makes us accept that we don’t need to focus on him. That said, there were some scenes in which Nick wasn’t actually there, and couldn’t have known what happened. There was a scene between Mr Wilkes after his wife’s death and his neighbour, in which Nick was nowhere near, and yet full dialogue was given with no explanation as to how Nick knows this. I suppose we’re just supposed to accept it, but it did stand out a bit.

I couldn’t tell whether we were supposed to like Daisy or not. I personally didn’t. As soon as she started going off with Gatsby, I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to last. She struck me as a coward who would bend to her husband’s will. I didn’t think she could ever leave him because she was too frightened of what society would think, or of hurting him, or of what life with Gatsby would be like. I get it. It’s a big risk: especially since she hadn’t seen Gatsby in five years, but you would have thought that she’d make up her mind quickly so as not to lead either man on.

And then, of course, there’s Gatsby. Gatsby was certainly an enigma, wasn’t he? (I realise that if you haven’t read this book, things might not be making much sense to you! Sorry!) I quite liked him. There was something naive and innocent about him – especially when it came to Daisy. He was so eager to see her again, and then so horribly embarrassed, and then absolutely head over heels in love with her that it was really quite sweet. Maybe that’s why I disliked Daisy because she wouldn’t say whether she chose him over her husband. I quite liked not knowing about his past. You didn’t feel like you needed to know. He seems so in the moment that anything he’s done before seems fairly irrelevant. So even though we do find out bits about him, I didn’t mind not knowing everything.

But then, the end. The end. THAT was not expected. Ok, I’m not going to say what happens, in case you want to read the book and hate being spoiled (I hate being spoiled too, so I feel your pain). I really think that if you’re going to read it you can’t known what happens at the end because it’ll spoil the rest of it. If you really want to know, say so in the comments and I’ll tell you there! But I will say that BLIMEY I DID NOT EXPECT THAT! Anyone else who’s read it feel the same? I wasn’t sad, though. Maybe I didn’t get so attached to that particular character as I thought.

Anyway, a film version of this is coming out on Christmas Day (Christmas Day? Why?), starring Leonardo Di Caprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy (love Carey Mulligan) and Toby Maguire as Nick. Here’s the trailer:



I'm so going to see it!

The Mitford Girls - Mary S. Lovell

I’ve been doing a lot of book reviews recently. It’s quite ironic that I’ve been doing more since I finished all my modules than I did when I was actually supposed to be reading a book a week.

The book I have just finished I actually started last summer – just before I went back to Uni. As term started and I had more and more things to do I had to stop reading it, and I just picked it up again a couple of weeks ago. It’s a biography of the Mitford Sisters: Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them – they were very famous at the time, especially between 1930 and 1950 – but quite a few of them wrote novels, so you may have read them.
In case you don’t know who they are, here’s a brief summary:

1. Nancy Mitford

Nancy was the oldest and although she had a disastrous love life, she had an immensely successful career. She wrote a large number of books including The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, as well as various biographies.

2. Pamela Mitford

Pam (nicknamed The Woman, for some reason) was perhaps the least well-known Mitford, and lived a very quiet life.

3. Diana Mitford

Diana was officially named Britain’s Most Hated Woman during the Second World War because she and her husband Oswald Mosely were friends with Adolf Hitler. They were also Fascists, like Hitler, and this made the British public scared for the safety of their democracy. She was imprisoned in horrific conditions for three years, forbidden to see her children or family.

4. Unity Mitford

Unity was as much a Fascist as Diana, and she was enamoured by Hitler. She lived in Germany for a good few years and made very good friends with him. However, she really didn’t want there to be a war between England and Germany, and when war was declared in 1939 she tried to kill herself by shooting herself in the head. She did not succeed and was permanently brain-damaged, resulting in her premature death.

5. Jessica Mitford

Jessica (more commonly known as Decca) liked to call herself the Black Sheep of the family, because she was staunchly Communist and ran away from home when she was a teenager to fight in the Spanish Civil War. She married her cousin Esmond and the two moved to America, but he died in WWII. She was very active within the American Communist party, and later the Civil Rights movement, and later in her life she wrote a series of controversial non-fiction books including The America Way of Death. She wrote an autobiography called Hons and Rebels which is also very famous.

6. Deborah Mitford

Debo was the youngest of the sisters and was the one who tried hardest to keep the peace between the sisters throughout the years. They were a very argumentative group, and she was one of the few who tried to maintain happiness. She married the Duke of Devonshire and was instrumental in resurrecting Chatsworth House, one of the most renowned houses in the country, and she still lives there now.

The Mitford Girls is a biography of them all, and is absolutely fascinating. I’d read some books by Nancy before, and I’d heard of Decca because she’s JK Rowling’s idol, and JK Rowling’s my idol, so I know way too much about her.

The biographer Mary Lovell has written it incredibly well, and manages to flow between the narratives of all the sisters impeccably. You can hardly tell where one story ends and the next one starts, it’s that deft. She has evidently thoroughly researched it, and all the extracts from letters make it really enjoyable to read. It doesn’t feel like a biography or a non-fiction book: it feels like a story. Even though there are a lot of politics discussed between the 30s and 40s which it would help a little to know about beforehand, it really doesn’t detract from the understanding.

I feel like I’ve learnt a lot from reading it, and although I don’t read biographies very often and thought this would be fairly challenging, I felt as though I breezed through it. If you have any interest in any one of these women or the period of time they inhabited, then I highly recommend reading this book!

The Daydreamer - Ian McEwan

Well, I honestly didn’t think I would have finished it this quickly! Ok, it was only 144 pages, but I read it in less than two days! Where was this speed for the entirety of this year? Evidently, my reading material has not reached the perfection that was The Daydreamer.



Seriously, I LOVED this book. It’s definitely going on my list of favourite books. McEwan wrote in the Introduction to the book that, although the target audience was really adults, he wanted to write it so that children would enjoy it too. What resulted was a piece of writing that I can only dream of writing like. It balanced the playfulness and innocence of childhood against more serious themes, like death and growing up: not patronising the children, and yet engaging them with his imaginative narrative.

I love children’s books. Which is probably why I enjoyed this so much. But McEwan asked in his introduction whether we actually like reading them now, or if we just like our memories of reading them. He said:

Do adults really like children’s literature? I’ve always thought the enthusiasm was a little overstated, even desperate. ‘Swallows and Amazons? Beatrix Potter? Marvellous books!’ Do we really mean it, do we really enjoy them, or are we speaking up for, and keeping the lines open to, our lost, nearly forgotten selves? When was the last time you curled up alone with The Swiss Family Robinson?

And he does have a point. Few of the books I loved as a child I have read recently. He goes on to say it’s what we remember about our experiences reading them that makes us think we still love them.
However, if you’ve been following this blog in any way, shape or form, you will probably have become aware that I have just a tiny little thing for Harry Potter. That is generally acknowledged as children’s literature (whether or not this is justified is for another time), and I don’t just love the memory of that. I read Philosopher’s Stone over Christmas, and I was just as enchanted as I was when I was six. Does this make me a lesser reader because I enjoy simple things? Well, I’m sure SOME idiots – those who still think that writing for children is for incompetent authors (see my furious blog post detailing a similar situation, in which I screeched like a Banshee) – do think this. But I think it just show’s we’re more in tune with our inner child: the child that never leaves us, and the child which, I think, is vital for writers of any kind.

Anyway. Back to The Daydreamer.

The book is compiled of a series of short stories all centering around one young boy, Peter, who likes to daydream. Each story is fairly unrelated, except they all have the same characters, and they’re seemingly quite simple. I think this is partly why they could appeal to children, because they’re like short bursts of energy, and you don’t need to dwell long on them. But for an adult, it’s interesting to map the subtle themes that flow through them all, noticing the character development, and revelling in the boundless imagination of the young boy.

Indeed, his imagination is truly admirable, and McEwan writes it in a way that the transition from reality into the dreamworld is so beautifully subtle, that you don’t always notice it straight away. You don’t always know what’s real and what’s not until the end of that particular story, and that’s what makes it so intriguing. Especially when he leaves the endings ambiguous, and lets you decide what happens.

I just wish I;d read this when I was writing my children’s story for my Creative Writing assignment. It dealt with dream and reality, and I worked for so long trying to capture the passage between the two. In the end, I was inspired by Alice Through the Looking-Glass, and had my main character pass through a mirror. Actually, in my Critical Commentary, I said that whilst writing this I was bearing in mind Lacan’s Mirror Stage theory, in which a baby sees themself in a mirror, and for the first time identifies itself. In this transition, they are coming in contact with their true self, an invisible part that only they can see. In reality, I only thought of that afterwards, but it made me sound clever…

I just want to write quickly about the end of this book. It was so poignant and at the same time optimistic (if that’s possible). Peter realises that he can’t always be a child, and that one day he will have to join the adults’ table, and be concerned with work and money and news. He’s standing on a beach, halfway between a group of children playing in the sea, and a group of adults talking. I’m just going to quote it, because nothing I can say could possibly do it justice. I’ll just say that I thought it was utter perfection:

He turned an faced the ocean. It was sparkling, right to the wide horizon. It stretched before him, vast and unknown. One after the other the endless waves came tumbling and tinkling against the shore, and they seemed to Peter like all the ideas and fantasies he would have in his life…

Toby and Charlie and the little ones were jostling to take turns leaping off a rock into a salt-water puddle. And behind all this human movement, the ocean bobbed and folded and slid, for nothing could keep still, not people, not water, not time.

‘Treasure!’ Kate called.

‘I’m coming!’ Peter shouted. ‘I’m coming!’ and he began to sprint towards the water’s edge. He felt nimble and weightless as he skimmed across the sand. I’m about to take off, he thought. Was he daydreaming, or was he flying?

The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side - Agatha Christie

I just finished reading The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie. That's pretty much one of the few books I've read in a week all year. And that's how quickly I'm supposed to be reading them for my degree... well that's awkward.

I'd never heard of it before, and I'm not sure how well-known it is - have you ever read it? What did you think? I quite enjoyed it, although perhaps not as much as other Agatha Christie books I've read. I thought that what really happened was very clever, but then, I always do think that about her novels!

I haven't read many Agatha Christie books - I think I've only read three - The Moving Finger, The Body in the Library, and The 4:50 From Paddington are the only ones I remember reading, anyway. I really admire the way she devises her plot, and I cam safely say that I've never guessed who dunnit. The closest I came was when I read The 4:50 From Paddington, and I vaguely wondered whether the Doctor had committed the murder, and he had, but for different motives than I had supposed, and he was in cahoots with another character. Sorry if I spoiled that for you! Forget I said anything....

But The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side didn't feel quite as good as the other ones - at least, not until the last quarter of the book, when things started to unravel a bit, and more people died. There was a lot of questioning and theorising that felt quite repetitive, and I felt that foreshadowing could have been used to much greater effect than it was.

I'm a big fan of foreshadowing. You could easily argue that it is because of my love for Harry Potter, in which foreshadowing is used flawlessly. JK Rowling, Queen of Foreshadowing! I mean, things like the golden snitch, and the way Harry caught it in his first Quidditch game being directly relevant in the final book. And the Invisibility Cloak being a Deathly Hallow. And the mention of Sirius Black in PS. It's genius. Oh, look, I've done it again: brought Harry Potter into something completely unrelated!

Back to the novel at hand, I just feel like a large part of it felt... uneventful? I'm not sure when this was written, but Miss Marple was very old in this book, and maybe it was just a reflection of how her life is becoming restricted and confined inside. Maybe Christie was trying to slow things down to deliberately contrast with the pretty fast-moving final part. But I didn't find it as gripping until the end.

The end, however, was very impressive. But, in case you haven't read it and are planning to, here is a

***SPOILER ALERT***


The increasing number of deaths made it highly intriguing, as it killed off one of my own suspects, and increased the mystery as to who was to blame. The most (deliberately) frustrating part was when Miss Marple realised what had happened, and we didn't hear what she thought for another chapter, keeping us very successfully in suspense for longer.
In addition, the death of Marina Gregg was a shock, as I didn't think she'd actually die, but of course, the main surprise was that Marina has killed Heather Badcock and the other people! At least, she and her husband had conspired on the other people, but Marina had been entirely to blame for the first one. I had not seen that coming in the slightest, especially as she made it look like she, herself was the target.

***Spoilers over***

If you haven't read this book, and don't plan to, then I'm sure this post has been pretty confusing! Here's a link to its Wikipedia page and plot summary.

Overall, I did enjoy it, but I won't call it one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels. I think my favourite was The Body in the Library, because it was such a complex plot, and I think my mind was pretty much blown when the truth came out.

The book I'm reading now is called The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan. I started it today, and I'm already on page 61, so expect a post about that soon!

Upcoming reading

I have finished my second year of Uni! This is not a good thing. I can't believe I only have one year left.

However, it does mean that I now have time to read some books for pleasure: books I actually want to read!! This is going to be so awesome!

To celebrate my first day of freedom, I went shopping, and bought three new books. So here is a rough list of books that I shall be reviewing forthwith.

The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side - Agatha Christie
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Daydreamer - Ian McEwan
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

And my cousin is urging me to read the Divergent series, and I cannot resist Young Adult Fantasy (as long as there are no vampires), so I may well be adding those to the list in due course........

Between the Acts - Virginia Woolf

This week, for my module called Writing the Thirties – about the literature produced during the 1930s, in the run-up to the second World War – I read Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf.

I am going to say now, just in case there’s an avid Woolf fan reading this, that I mean absolutely no offence to her, but I just don’t get it.

More on that later.

It’s basically about… well, not much. If you’ve ever read a Virginia Woolf novel, you’ll understand. It’s funny, because I love reading her essays – I find them a lot more comprehensive and fascinating than her novels. I’ve read Shakespeare’s Sister, A Room of One’s Own, Chloe Liked Olivia, Androgyny and The Leaning Tower, and they were all fantastic. Especially Shakespeare’s Sister, which explores the idea of Shakespeare having a sister with the same genius as him, and the awful life she would have led because of her sex. It was, quite simply, brilliant.

But I can’t honestly say I feel the same about her novels. Last year I read To The Lighthouse, and I didn’t know what to expect. That was certainly a detriment to my reading of it, because when I found out that the first hundred pages were dedicated to describing one day (in which literally nothing happened), I was quite put out.

So luckily this time I had some suspicion of what I would encounter, which did help my enjoyment slightly. Although I wouldn’t say I liked it, I appreciated it a lot more. That said, I didn’t understand it. And that annoys me. But the thing is, I’m not sure if we’re supposed to understand it. There’s a character in it who is directing a village pageant, and she realises half way through that the audience have no clue what’s going on, and are trying desperately to understand. But she doesn’t want them to understand: that’s not the point of the pageant. The point, I think, is to simply accept it as one person’s view of English history; and I think you can relate this to the novel. I think that this character, Miss La Trobe, is Woolf’s alter ego, and that Woolf is speaking to us through her: saying don’t spend ages demystifying the meaning of this, just let the impression of English village life wash over you.

But I am not by any means suggesting that I’m right: on the contrary, read my last post to see my idea about how analysis shows more about the analyser than the text. My lecturer said today that every time he reads the novel he gets a different idea about what it means, which verifies this idea that analysis is subjective.

Another thing I had to note was how miserable everyone was. We only saw a day in their lives, but I think if we had to read any more about them it would have been completely interminable. They just didn’t say what they meant, or hid things, or moped about and sighed and wished for better things. It really infuriated me. It’s the same in To The Lighthouse, and I daresay all Woolf’s other novels too. Now, I do like depressing books. Among some of my favourites are Revolutionary Road and Atonement (and don’t even get me started on the end of The Hunger Games, because I still haven’t got over it and my heart breaks a little bit every time I think of it). I also love depressing music (I’m listening to The Civil Wars right now, and I’m feeling emotionally raw – in a good way). But these people were so dreary and silly that I just couldn’t empathise with them one bit.

I don’t think they’re meant to be likeable people. It’s probably some deep and meaningful commentary on the lives of wealthy people in rural England with nothing to do but wait as the shadow of war looms towards them, but it was frustrating, and I couldn’t have endured it much longer.

Fortunately, it’s the last book I have to read this year, so soon I can start reading easy books… although by the sounds of third year, I should already have started the reading for it =S

But what do you think? Have you read this or any of Woolf’s other books/essays? Are you a Woolf fan? If so, please tell me why, because I really think I’m missing something here!!

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Yesterday, I finished reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Shockingly, it took me over a month to read it! I don’t know what’s got into me, I’m being so slow at the moment – not good for an English student who has to read two novels a week…

Here are my thoughts on it.

I actually really enjoyed it. I get the sense that it’s one of the less popular of Austen’s novels, but I think it’s up there somewhere near the top for me. I think my favourite is Northanger Abbey – I love the satirical nature to it; and when I read it the first time, I was 17 (the same age as Catherine) and studying the Gothic genre at school. It was very pertinent to me at the time, and I liked Catherine as a heroine because she was not perfect, and she made stupid mistakes.

It might perhaps seem that my attachment to Fanny Price in Mansfieldis strange, if I say that I like Catherine because she isn’t perfect: I think most readers would agree that of all Austen’s heroines, Fanny is the closest to being perfect of them all. Except perhaps Anne Elliot; but she was persuaded against her own judgement in former years, and Fanny never is.

Nevertheless, I really, really like Fanny. I think she’s quite underrated as a heroine. Because of our modern times, and our altered perceptions of women, I think she is considered particularly weak. I’m not going to argue that she’s a resolutely strong character: on the contrary, she is excessively timid and nervous, to the point where even I got annoyed sometimes. But what sticks with me is her refusal to marry Henry Crawford. For her time, that would have been an incredibly daring thing to do. She goes against her uncle – the patriarch, who is used to having his orders obeyed – her aunts, her friend Mary, and even Edmund. What also needs to be considered in this context is her timidity: being a person who only wishes to please and help others, the emotional turmoil in upsetting all these people must have been awful for her, which makes her refusal to go back on her decision all the more admirable.

From some of the critical analysis I’ve read this week - I’m doing the novel for one of my modules, and have had to read loads in preparation for writing my essay on it – I’ve seen some views saying that Fanny is very much a silent character. She is an observer and a thinker rather than an active protagonist. Whilst this is interesting in a main character – the plot often seems to move around her, and for most of the book she is the one constant in an ever-changing social scene – there are some passages which contradict this. When she thinks to herself, she can be incredibly passionate. Her soliloquies betray the emotion which her countenance does not. There’s a bit where she mentally lectures Henry Crawford for his enthusiasm about the play, which she judges to be wrong, and her voice is so clear in her head, so unrestrained, that it’s far more effective than dialogue would have been. It shows the reader that, whilst the others don’t perceive her to be at all sensitive, she is in fact more passionate than even Maria and Julia seem to be. The only difference is that she is the real lady, and is hiding her true feelings.

I like the comparisons between Fanny, Maria and Julia. Even though Fanny is the discarded cousin, the charity case, she rises to greater esteem in the eyes of the others by the end, and evens the social gap by marrying Edmund. It’s a shame that this was her only means of becoming their equal. She’s undoubtedly intelligent, as the discourses on education and literature frequently betray, but this serves nothing for women of the early 19th century. In fact, this is partly what my essay’s going to be about: the importance of women’s education in this text and one by Mary Wollstonecraft called Maria: or The Wrongs of Woman. But I won’t get into that now. I’ll just say that I think the relationship between class and education with women is surprising. To me, it almost seems like in terms of education, women are classless, as they are all taught that they must marry. That is their only goal in life, no matter what class they’re from. However, Fanny’s particular situation means that she’s been taught only to serve and think of others, and no one regards her as enough of a human being to actually think about her marrying. Maybe that’s why she’s the only female brought up in the house who actually turns out well.

But I’m rambling. I’m sorry, I think there were some generous splashing of verbal vomit in there somewhere. I’m basically trying to say that I’m a Fanny Price fangirl, and I think she deserves much more credit than a lot of people give her. If Mansfield Park had been given a modern-day setting, Fanny would be kicking ass right now.

New Blog!

I started a new blog! I wanted to expand my media outlets. I have this one, which is very focused on the literary side of things, so I wanted another one which is more free. It's about writing in general - including my own (oo-er). And it's on WordPress, because I thought I should mix things up a bit. I think that might allow me to have more control over the design and layout, and add pages to it etc, which I can't do here. It's a bit more complicated, but I think this is good for me. Hopefully....

So if you're bored, please take a look. It's a work in progress at the moment, as I'll probably change the look of things, and keep updating much more frequently than I do on here (in theory, anyway).

http://amusingly.wordpress.com/

As to Mansfield Park (next book to be reviewed), I'm about a third of the way through, so that post should be up maybe next week.

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

Yikes.

Well, it's been a while, and we've both said some things, but I hope that you'll take me back...

Well, I'm writing this anyway!

Just looked at the stats for this blog for the first time in months, and they're amazing! Thank you to anyone who's reading! So it galvanised me into coming back with a bang.

And what bigger bang than to review the heartbreaking, emotional rollercoaster that is

MOCKINGJAY

In my opinion, no better.

*Mild spoilers detailing the horrific events in this novel are included*

Onward!

Well. This book. What to say? I admire authors who have the guts to kill of their characters. It's horrible, and I hate reading it, but it's brave and more realistic to get rid of those who don't deserve to die. I'm currently pondering whether or not to mention the extensive list of deaths, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone... Feel free to comment if you haven't read, but want to know, and I'll tell you!

If you haven't read it, then you'll have picked up that a lot of people die in this book. And it is extremely heartbreaking. Especially the way it leaves Katniss. Speaking of Katniss, I LOVE what happens to her in this book. Not because I'm sadistic, but because it was so different. When we see her at the beginning, a little while after escaping from the 75th Hunger Games, she is completely broken. She can't focus, she breaks down frequently: she is physically and mentally weak. We NEVER see heroes/heroines suffer from PTSD, and I think it was a good thing that Katniss suffers so badly: look what she's been through, how much death she's seen and caused herself. It's far more realistic for her to suffer this way than to spring right back up and be ready to lead an entire rebellion. So I applaud Collins from my very comfy swivel chair that I am currently sitting on. And I also want to ask which, if any, heroes/heroines from other novels would or should have suffered from post-traumatic stress? Harry Potter? I'm as yet unsure about this one. I certainly think he'd suffer post-traumatic guilt, and would spend a long time wallowing in the memory of all the deaths he thought were his fault.

I do think that Gale is amazing with her in this book. Although in Catching Fire he seemed to pressurise her a lot and blame her almost unjustly for her relationship with Peeta, I think he was a better influence on her in this book than Peeta ever would have been. Gale may not have been through the same things as Katniss, but they have this bond that transcends language. He knows what she's feeling, and he can help her through this horrible time. I also think he's pretty awesome in the fighting side. Even the most devoted Peeta-fan couldn't argue with the fact that Gale would have been way better in the Hunger Games than Peeta, who only survived because of Katniss.

Speaking of Peeta, OH MY GOSH. Now that storyline surpassed anything I could ever have expected. It was cruel of Collins, but that just makes me admire her all the more. To completely reverse his feelings towards Katniss through TORTURE was a touch of genius, and incredibly interesting, as we see how much Katniss depended on him before. In fact, she sees this for the first time herself, too. She realises that she took him for granted, and I think that's what sets her on her (very slow) path to genuinely loving him. I think it must have been awful for him, to be so confused about his own memories - imagine not knowing what's real and what's been put there by a corrupt government - and to have no one trust him.

I really liked the parallels between the official government of Panem and the rebel forces: it shows that this is not a battle between good and evil, that these things aren't black and white. It makes it all the more difficult for Katniss to know what she's fighting for - especially after they've won and President Coin suggests they host their own, final Hunger Games. And, of course, the bomb that Gale creates that kills so many innocent children (including SPOILER) goes to show that they're almost exactly the same as the Capitol.

The underground setting for the majority of the novel was successfully claustrophobic, and you could feel the pressure of the walls and the war closing in on Katniss. No wonder she had a hard time!

Then, the end, where everything is supposed to be all happy again, was still riddled with heart-wrenching agony. I have a picture of Katniss sitting alone in her house, not moving for days, burned into my mind. Her mother not returning was just horrific, and, although I don't want to say "heartbreaking" AGAIN, there are no other words. Although I kind of get Gale not wanting to say goodbye. After what he did, nothing he said could ever have made her understand, and it was better that he didn't upset her any more. I just hope that he got over his feelings for her and was happy in the end.

I was glad about the way Katniss's life ended up (again, not going to say just in case - comment if you want to know), although it was still profoundly poignant. It's a nice, peaceful ending, but was it really what she wanted? Would she have been fully satisfied after everything she went to? I think she might have been, but there's always that flutter of doubt in the back of your mind. I think it's because the Epilogue's so short, and we don't get much insight into her future life, that we still think this, and I think that was intended.

Overall, I though this was an excellent book, addressing very mature themes and gripping the reader in an iron fist that still doesn't let you go after you've finished.


On a slightly different note... Who's going to see The Hunger Games on Friday? I am :) very excited - the reviews have been so good, and the trailers look fantastic. Still not as excited about this as I was for Harry Potter, but if I was, I think the world would be worried...

Coming soon [or as soon as it takes me to read and review these novels, which, knowing me, will probably be a while]:

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Between the Acts - Virginia Woolf
A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh

Yep, you guessed it - more Enlgish books. But IF I shock myself and read these all this month before I go back to Uni, then you could perhaps look forward to the likes of these beauties:
The Bloody Chamber and other stories - Angela Carter
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Mitford Sisters - ... can't remember... started this LAST SUMMER, and still haven't finished due to the horrific strain of reading lists for Uni. But I plan on finishing it this summer...

Hope the next gap isn't this long again - believe me, I'll try my hardest!

Btw: if you still haven't had enough of my ramblings on The Hunger Games, here is my review for my University newspaper...
http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/features/2011/11/05/hungry-for-more-a-review-of-the-hunger-games/
*shameless plug*

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Oh yeah, you can tell I'm back in Uni, now I'm doing proper books again! Don't worry - I'm still going to do Mockingjay (the final Hunger Games book), but I haven't finished it yet, so I'm doing this review first.

Sooo, anyone know what this book's about? If you've seen the film Easy A you might have a very, very vague idea about what happens, but that film really doesn't do this book any kind of justice. It's set in 17th Century America, in the town of Salem, where a young woman is being punished for having a child out of marriage. Hester Prynnehas been condemned to wear a red letter 'A' for the rest of her life, to remind her and everyone of her adulterous nature. The book follows her and her daughter as she becomes accustomed to it, and defined by it, and as she fights to save the honour of the man who fathered her child.

At first, I was a bit affronted, because Hester alone was being punished for this "crime", when we all know it takes two to actually conceive a baby. I thought that the ministers were just being sexist pigs, and were targeting Hester because she was a woman who made one mistake. However it seems that they had been asking her the identity of the father for a while, and she had resolutely refused to divulge the information.

As we find out, the father is a man called Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister of Salem, who the people seem to look to as some sort of saint or angel-in-waiting. It seems that Hester knew that if she said that it was him, the people of Salem would never believe her, as they wouldn't want to think that their perfect leader could possibly do something wrong. I also wondered a few times if they would suggest that Hester had bewitched him somehow, as I know that Salem is notorious for its witch-burnings, and I thought that maybe they would decide that she was in fact a witch who had taken a fancy to Dimmesdale and lured him to her. There is never actually a definitive answer as to why she put herself through so much suffering alone, but there are various theories abounding.

I thought the fact that Dimmesdale never told the public himself that he was the father (except for right at the end, when he was dying) showed weakness: he let Hester, who he seemed to love, be ridiculed and humiliated for seven years, without ever helping her in the slightest, just because he was afraid of the reaction of his people. Little bit douchey and weak. But then someone else pointed out that there were times when he tried to tell his congregation that he was a sinner, and was far worse than they, but the people just thought he was being modest, and that if he was a sinner, they must be much worse, and it was impossible to convince them. I still think he is a weak character (the fact that he is permanently ill and about to die throughout the whole novel doesn't help), but he is certainly redeemable.

Their daughter Pearl is a very strange child, constantly referred to as an elf-child or some strange, mystical being, but I just think that she seems strange in comparison with the strict, highly conservative, religious community she is brought up in. Being shunned her whole life doesn't help, and she has no conatct with other children, and therefore her connection with nature doesn't seem at all surprising to me.

It's certainly a slow book, and I only had a week to read it in, so I had to breeze through a large part of the descriptive bits, but I did find it interesting. Hawthorne's engagement with the psychology of the characters, and their mental disintegration/strengthening in Dimmesdale and Hester respectively was in some ways more exciting than a lot of the content of the novel. Watching Hester cope with the scarlet letter, and how the people of the town gradually begin to appreciate her humility, eventually seeing the 'A' to stand for 'able', or even 'angel' was even satisfying, as it shows us that, even in extreme conditions, people are still able to forget past wrongs and accept people if they're just strong enough.

Man, that sounds cheesy! Ok, I know this is a short review, but I have a lot of work to do!! Until next time (hopefully Mockingjay!!)

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH MY HEART IS IN PAAAAIN!!!!!!!!!

OH, SO DEVASTATED!

I DON'T EVEN FULLY UNDERSTAND WHYYYY!

Who would have guessed what would happen in this book?? Not me, certainly.

Before I get wrapped up in the utter heartbreak and darkness that goes on in this novel, I want to do some praising of Suzanne Collins, which I don't think I really did much of in my last review.

I know I had a few troubles with her writing style before, but now I've realised the huge benefit it gives to this type of fiction. Because it's in first person, present tense, ther is no way of knowing if Katniss is going to survive or not. There is no opportunity for hindsight which would give us a hint that she will make it, and at certain points of the book I wasn't sure that she would. Now I've finished this book, I am pretty sure she'll make it through the final one, but unfortunately I can't say the same for Peeta.

It kills me to write this, because he is officially my favourite character in this series. I can relate to him so well, and I sympathise with him completely. Whilst Katniss has moments of being a little dense, insensitive or moody, Peeta clearly thinks ahead, always has a plan of action, and is evidently hopelessly in love with her. Because he is so totally awesome I don't see him lasting. Partly because Collins DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO KEEP ANYTHING HAPPY, and partly because I saw on Twitter that someone had finished the book and were going off to cry. Which doesn't bode well at all :( *sadness forever*.

Back to Collins being a legend. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE books where the opressed rise against the opressors. I don't know what it is: as far as I know, I have no radical political views; and yet I really love books about rebellion (see Harry Potter and His Dark Materials). So it excites me greatly to read about all these rebellions going on, and to have Katniss as the figurehead of it all. Could she be the female Harry Potter? Interesting...

So, shall we move onward to the story?

I may as well start with the *love triangle*. I am not a fan of love triangles. Ever since I made the gravest mistake of my life and read Twilight I have become irrationally angry whenever I read about them. Don't get me wrong, I love reading romance in novels. But when another love triangle starts, I just get sooo bored. So I was a little worried when I sensed one coming on here between Katniss, Gale and Peeta, but I needn't have worried. This is why I find Katniss's character so refreshing. She is not romantic, and she is not in love with either of the boys. She admits she has feelings, though what they are she isn't sure, for both of them, but when they tell her they love her she doesn't melt into their arms and sacrifice her life for them like some "heroines" might do. Instead, she tells them both that she has no time for romance in her life right now, as she has to keep her family,and now her fellow rebels, safe. OK, she has to maintain this strange rigmarole with Peeta whenever they're in the public eye, but other than that she won't let it cloud her vision. I think this is really great of Collins because it is so different, and I'm interested to see where this is going, although I have to state now that I hope she and Peeta get together, even though I would feel so awful for Gale... maybe it would be better for him to die... :(

I was surprised how quickly the Victory Tour passed by. After their first stop in District 11 it just went by in a few pages, but of course I understand why, as there is so much worse to come. I enjoyed finding out about the other districts, as I love delving into the imagination of the author, as I said in my last post. I really love everything in the Capitol. I know the people are awful, and the juxtaposition of that and the destitute Districts shows how corrupt the government is, but I loved the lavish detail, the descriptions of food, fashion and frivolity that peppered the pages.

But then, of course, after things seem to be going just about OK, they announce the plans for next year's Hunger Games. And my heart nearly stopped beating.

I couldn't believe that Collins could be so cruel. How could she do this to her characters again?

I'll admit, I did cy when I found that Katniss, along with one other male Victor from the District would be joining 22 other previous Victors. I'm now wondering how the people of the Capitol, the people who actually enjoy the games, reacted, or will react. We heard rumours that they weren't happy with this decision, as they had got to know the Victors over the years, and now they were going to have to watch them kill each other. Could this lead to dissent even from those in the Capitol? I'm interested to see where this goes.

So, Katniss and Peeta return to the Games, and I didn't think the run-up was as suspenseful or detailed as last time, but then, of course, we know what's coming, and I suppose by throwing her in there quicker it gives us more of a shock. Before we get to that bit though, I want to say how totally awesome Cinna is. I LOVED the idea of sending her on in a Wedding Dress that disintegrated to become a Mockingjay: the symbol of resistance for Katniss's fellow rebels. I hope we see more of him, that they didn't kill him when they took him away.

As for the actual games, although I loved the idea of the island being a clock with each section holding a different horror, I actually preferred reading about the character interactions than anything else. I'm not sure what to make of Finnick yet, although I'm pretty sure he's an OK guy. With Johanna, I'm glad there's another fiesty girl around, and also I enjoyed the disparity between them. So many people love Katniss that it was refreshing to see some verbal sparring.

I also liked how determined Katniss was to have people like Mags, Beetee and Wiress on her side, rather than the tougher tributes like Brutus, and, hey, it paid off!

Before I get on to the traumatic ending, I'm going to talk briefly about ~the kiss~. So, I'm pretty sure Katniss does have feelings for Peeta, more than friendly, but I don't think she'll act on them until this is over... if he survives. I'm not saying that she doesn't have feelings for Gale, though. Those two have such a history behind them, and now she knows he loves her I think it'll be hard to ignore it. Although I'm swaying on the Peeta side, I do still think Gale is an awesome character, and I don't want him to be an empty shell if she rejects him. It's so difficult for her!!

Ok. To the endless sadness.

Once Beetee concocts his plan, Katniss and Peeta are forced to split, and I was not happy. The confusion that ensues was completely discombobulating (yes, that is a word) that I wasn't really sure what was happening. All I knew was that I was positive that Johanna's stabbing of Katniss was just a way to protect her from Brutus and Enobaria, rather than a malicious attempt to kill her.

It's hard to sum up what happened, but Katniss's shooting of the forcefield was great: a nice piece of foreshadowing from Collins there, and I love me some foreshadowing!

BUT.

BUT THEN...

I SOB FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY.


Katniss hears Peeta shouting for her, but they can't get to each other, and then she gets picked up by a hovercraft!

I thought the hovercraft was the capitol, thinking she was dead, and when Plutarch Heavensbee (coolest name ever, btw) closed her eyes, I though somehow they actually thought she was dead and she was going to be buried alive, or turned into a mutt or something awful, but THEN!!!

We find out that actually, PLUTARCH WORKS FOR THE REBELS AND....

DISTRICT 13

OMG!!

Sooooo exciting!!

I love that there's a significant rebel movement and everything, but then we learn two things that kill me:

• Peeta was not saved by the rebels, and will likely be tortured by the Capitol for information
• District 12 has been decimated, and there is nothing left.

Bring on Mockingjay.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

I am going to come right out with it.

I LOVE THE HUNGER GAMES.

But not as much as Harry Potter. Never.

STILL. It is FLIPPING AMAZING AND HEART-BREAKING AND HORRIFYING AND EXCITING AND UNIQUE.

I absolutely LOVED it.

So this was another book I'd heard loads about. It's not been as hyped up as One Day, but I've been hearing things, especially since the film's coming out (Oh my gosh, guys I actually cannot wait for that!!) and I thought that I ought to give it a try.

Best decision since sliced bread.

I don't even know where to start. I don't think I'll do one of those reviews where I just explain exactly what's going on, but I will give a brief summary just in case...

So. This series is set in the future, in the place where America used to be. The land is split into 12 Districts, with one area that controls the others, called the Capitol. Years ago, there was a rebellion against the Capitol, because of their iron-fisted hold over all the Districts, but the Capitol beat them down. As a result they imposed the Hunger Games: a televised competition, in which a boy and girl from the age of 12-18 are chosen at random from each District, and they are put in an arena and have to fight to the death, the last one remaining winning the competition.

Katniss Everdeen is our narrator, and her little sister gets chosen to compete in the Games. Katniss, aged 16, won't let this happen, and so volunteers instead. The boy chosen is Peeta Mellark. They journey to the Capitol with a support team, and have to go through many public appearances and interviews before the nation. But there comes an interesting twist. Katniss and Peeta's main mentor is Haymitch, District 12's only living survivor of the Games, and he and Peeta seem to think that if Peeta and Katniss pretend to be in love, they will win over public favour. By doing this they're more likely to get funding, which can be life-saving, as it means you might be able to get access to medicine or food when you're trapped in the arena.

They enter the Games, and although they're split up for a while, they are eventually reunited, and both know they have to act like they're in love the whole time, to keep the audience, and the Game-makers, happy. When the announcement comes that the rules have changed, and if two people from one District are left at the end, they may both win, it seems that they won't have to kill each other, and they might both be able to get home. Through various schemes and events, it turns out that they manage to survive it, and just as the final tribute dies, another announcement comes that actually, the rules can't be changed: meaning that they're going to have to kill each other.

Now Katniss has been having suspicions that Peeta isn't faking his affection towards her, and she is in confusion about her own feelings, and knows that she could never kill him. She proposes they both kill themselves, hoping that the Game-makers will not allow this, as the Games needs a winner. Her plan works, and they are taken out of the arena, to safety. Or so they think. Haymitch tells them that the Capitol isn't happy, that they feel they've been cheated, and if Katniss and Peeta don't uphold their story of being in love, they will both be killed.

It isn't until they're on the train home that Katniss tells Peeta that she was faking her attraction to him, trying to get them to survive. He is understandably angry and upset, and it ends with themheading home, her knowing that she's hurt him, but also knowing that they will have to keep up pretenses in order to stay alive...

Ok. Now for my reactions.

This book is exactly the type of story that I love. Fantasy is defintely my thing: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, The Magicians' Guild, The Hobbit. I love stories where imagination runs wild, where anything is possible becaue it's a completely different world. I love the fact that people can create these worlds with so much depth and back story, how they're so completely different to ours. That's probably part of the reason I love Harry Potter so much. So this book fits that category perfectly.

I also like a bit of romance. I just get so involved with the characters, and think about their lives far more than I think about my life. Especially with this book. I have gone to bed every night for the past couple of weeks, my head filled with the problem of Katniss and Peeta, thinking about their relationship and how on earth they're going to survive.

I actually love Peeta, (NOT in a fangirl way though!) he's just so sweet and honest, and it's such a shame Katniss doesn't quite feel the same way about him. I think I'll start with this problem, as we're here. I thought it was a great idea of Collins' to set this romance up, but remind us that is was only as a way to survive. In reality shows now, people always whisper rumours about contestants getting together, and it's a comment on how set up these things are that Collins had them pretend like this. However the great twist was that they had to do it just to save their own lives, and also that Peeta actually does love Katniss.

Throughout the novel Katniss's feelings were torn between Peeta and Gale, her best friend from home, neither of whom she knew her feelings towards. I have to admit, that for a short while I was worried that this would go down the 'Twilight road' (that's one Fantasy series that I don't like) of the whole love triangle, who's she going to choose, are the two guys going to be all stupid and macho towards each other, blah blah blah. But it doesn't quite seem to be like that. I'm not sure yet whether Gale does like her. Hopefully not, as that would make things easier, but also the fact that Katniss is determined not to get married or have children. I thought that was an interesting dynamic to her character, as so often we are fed the idea that Marriage + babies = happiness. In my opinion, if people want to do that then fine, but personally I don't want children, I want an amazing career instead. But I wouldn't miind getting married. So when she told Peeta at the end that her feelings for him weren't real, I felt like wrapping him up in bublewrap and hugging him, because he's so adorable, and just been completely crushed.

Sadness forever.

So yeah, Katniss's character is nice and refreshin: just like I said the other day about wanting a different kind of heroine, one who doesn't always end up with a guy etc. With Katniss, she loves both Gale and Peeta as friends, and I think that's really different.

Something else I love in novels, and it sounds weird to write this, is the government opressing the nation. I'm not saying I think it's a good thing!! I was just always interested in learning about the Nazis and Soviets, and I don't know what it is, but in books when there are parallels to that sort of society, I find it really interesting. Especially when people begin to rebel against it (see Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, the Inheritance series, etc). I've always loved history, and when I get to learn about the social context of novels in English, it really brings them to life for me, and I feel like I understand them that little bit more.

So although the Capitol and the Game-makers were awful, I love the fact that they're there because I'm sure there'll be some kind of rebellion in the coming books. I couldn't believe that anyone could be so sadistic as to trap 24 children in a large area and force them to kill each other. It was even worse when, after a day or so of inaction, they decided to set the forest on fire just to force the tributes out of their hiding places and into close range of each other, so they had no choice but to fight.

Collins obviously wasn't scared of having Katniss confront the other tributes, and I was surprised that she actually made her kill someone. One complaint would be that she didn't dwell long enough on the fact that Katniss had just murdered, but then maybe the only way for Katniss to survive was for her to block out everything she had done. Maybe we'll see more regret in the next books, but somehow I doubt it.

I also thought that the people who live it the Capitol were really interesting. The stark contrast between them and the people Katniss is used to, and the disgust she feels towards them was really well done. I also like the way Collins approached the idea of fashion. The story is set centuries into the future, so why wouldn't people find ways of dying their skin pea green? Why wouldn't people want golden swirls inked onto their faces, or gems embedded in their arms? I thought those details really made the city come alive, and only added to the difference between them and Katniss.

I didn't think Collins' writing was perfect. I'm not so keen on the writing style, in that it's written in the present tense, which I've never been that keen on, but I didn't think it detracted from the story at all. For me, even though I love it when people write beautifully (modern example: Markus Zusac, The Book Theif, classic example: EM Forster, A Room With a View), but it's not the most important thing. Unless, of course, they write so awfully, Stephenie Meyer and Mandy Hubbard, to name a couple, that I just can't ignore it anymore. But on the whole, I care more about the story. As long as that's good, I'll go with it, and I can confidently say that this book is a hell of a good story.

Oh gosh, my life doesn't have room for another book obsession!!

One Day by David Nicholls

I decided I'd buy into the hype about this book and see what all the fuss is about, so this review is of the hugely popular and surprisingly upsetting One Day.

This type of book isn't usually what I go for. I read so many teenage girl books when I was younger (I was going to say, when I was a teenager, but then technically I still am, at the tender age of 19), that I think I must have saturated my thirst for 'chick flick fic', as I like to call it, and I tend to go for classics and more 'high literature' fiction, in an attempt to make me sound more intelligent and widely read in my English seminars... Somehow, I still end up bringing Harry Potter into everything though... really must sort that out. Anyway, my point is that I didn't really think that I'd enjoy this book so much, but I was surprised by how well-writted and witty it was. I'm not saying that this book changed my life, that it was a revolution in modern literature, and that I will never read another book, like so many people seem to have done, but Ifound I did enjoy it.

If you have been living in a hole at the end of your garden for the past couple of months, here is a brief summary of the story. Emma and Dexter met on 15th July, 1988, on the day of their graduation from St Andrews University, Edinburgh. Emma got a first (that's the highest you can get) in English and History, and Dexter got a third (the lowest you can get) in Anthropology. Each chapter in the book details what happens on that day, every year after that until about 2005. I thought this was a very original idea, and I suppose it could be difficult to pull off well, because seeing these characters for one day, once a year might stunt the character development, or not make us that close to the characters because we see them so infrequently. However the closeness we feel, and the progress of these two characters is really admirable, and I really did feel attached by the end.

I'm going to start with Emma, I think. She was a surprising character because she was so cynical: not at all the type of successfull, perfect character you see in so many novels/films of this genre. Indeed, the last few chick flicks I've seen seem to have made a point of characters who are not the perfect, pink, cheerleading-type that we've seen for so long. At first I thought this was quite refreshing, but now I'm getting quite bored of it. They try to make them seem 'kooky' and 'cool because they're different', when really they still end up with what the film-makers deem the 'perfect life' with the 'perfect boyfriend' and everyone loving them. Seriously, can we please have a chick flick where the girl doesn't get the guy, where nothing changes, but she still comes out happy and awesome?

I digress. I did like Emma's sarcastic sense of humour, how she avoids awkward and potentially emotional scenes with her dry wit, because I could relate to that. I hate ~emotional stuff~ when it comes to my life (although I adore reading/watching it), and I hardly evertalk about my feelings because it's weird. So I liked that quality about her. What really frustrated me though, and I think it was supposed to, was how when she left University her life spiralled into nothingness. Her brief stint as a performer who tried to change the world one act at a time was awful, and then she landed that humiliating job with the mexican restaurant Loco Caliente. I just couldn't understand how someone as bright and intelligent as her could possibly be settling for jobs like that. Dexter points this out at some point in the book, that she seemed to like suffering, and I think he was right, because she did nothing to get out of it, and she didn't even seem to care.

Her *unrequited love* (I hate that phrase) was definitely something I could relate to, so in a number of ways I felt she was fairly similar to me. But I don't want to go all fangirl and say that *this book is the definition of ~MY EXISTENCE~*, because that's definitely not true. But yeah, I was pleased in a way that Nicholls kept them apart for so long. I don't think the relationship could have worked if they'd been together when they were younger, as she was so dependent on him, and he just took her for granted for years. So although it's very poignant how little time they actually had to be properly together, I don't think it would have lasted as long if they'd got together earlier on.

This seems like a good time to talk about Dexter. Oh, Dexter. He was one of those characters who you couldn't help but love, even though you absolutely hated him sometimes, and Nichols summed this up absolutely perfectly in the now legendary line, "I love you, but I just don't like you", said by Emma to Dex. I kind of understood why he was such an asswipe at the beginning because hey, he was hot, rich, fairly intelligent etc, and could get any girl he wanted. When he was "finding himself" abroad, it was obvious that he didn't get how awful a time Emma was having, but you kind of had to forgive him, because when we read his side of the story we knew how much he though about her.

It wasn't until he became a TV Presenter and became a C-list celeb that his asswipe-ishness just turned into general arrogance and unbearableness. He was evidently an alcoholic, and completely full of himself, not caring about any of his old friends, especialy not Emma. In fact, I think he really liked the idea of Emma, knowing how close they'd been, but when it got to actually seeing her again, he just wanted her to know how much he'd given up to be with her tonight, how he deigned to be in her presence. I didn't blame Emma at all when she "broke up with him", because she really didn't need him in her life.

I want to talk briefly about the interesting juxtaposition between Dex's first live show and Emma's school play's opening night. They both had these things on at the same time, and they were both so different, yet so important to each of them. It highlights how different they were at that point, and also how selfish Dexter was to beg Emma to come to his show, when he knew what she was doing was equally as important.

I know I haven't talked about every detail that happened in this book, but I don't think I need to. I'm going to go straight on to the shock of the ending.

Well. Did anyone gues that was going to happen? I know I certainly didn't! I was surprised that I didn't cry though. I have to admit that I am prone to crying when something like this happens. I can't bear it when two people are separated. Think Lyra and Will (that still makes me cry), Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner, and Cecilia and Robbie from Atonement. Yep, absolute wreck. So, very surprisingly I didn't cry, and I'm still not sure why. It was certainly upsetting that Emma died, especially the way she did, just out of nowhere, by a lorry (and that bit was really horrible in the film).

I guess what was worse was when we followed Dexter on the few years following her death, when he was an absolute wreck, and I think I found that more upsetting, because I hate to see the ones left behind. Still, I didn't cry, but that doesn't mean it wasn't sad. I thought Nicholls' writing was very emotive, and when Dexter was 'celebrating' Emma's life by getting drunk and being beaten up, I thought it was quite brave of Nicholls to do that. It would have been so easy to say, 'after Emma's death Dexter was perfect to honour her memory', but the fact that he slipped back into his old ways was probably more realistic, and I'm glad they kept it like that in the film: especially the loss of respect from his daughter.

Essentially though, it is a happy book, because we're left with the image of the two of them together in Edinburgh, young and happy, and I think the message here is that death is not what's important: as long as you've lived and loved, you've lived a full life.

Scorpia Rising, Anthony Horowitz

I have been back for a few days now and I still don't really know how to do this review. And I finished the book on the second day of my holiday.

I am in complete and utter shock.

I still can't believe Horowitz could have done something like this.

I refused to believe what I had read.

But that's not until towards the end of the book, and there's so much to cover. I think I should say now, that if you haven't read this book and are just looking for an overview, read with caution because I will be talking with nothing held back about the events that happen in this book.

Are you prepared to delve into utter, heartbreaking misery? I'm not.



So my last review was the chapter that concludes Part 1 of this book, and seriously, I look back on that time as a happier time in my life because I was blissfully unaware of the horror the next part would bring. Maybe I should stop being so melodramatic. We'll get to THAT bit later.

We join Alex in school, in a lesson, and he sees a sniper. He alerts everyone, and HIS BEST FRIEND TOM HARRIS WHOM I LOVE TO PIECES gets shot. :(( But, don't worry, it's only in the arm. Phew.Alex, naturally, runs out of the school and onto his bike, hoping to chase the sniper. Seriously. What person in their right mind would follow the person who just tried to kill him?

At the time I couldn't work out who this sniper was working for. Was it Scorpia? But they already had their plan. Unless it was because Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt had failed to take the bait and weren't using Alex. I just couldn't tell, but I guessed it to be the latter. When the truth is revealed at the end, I could have screamed in anger and hatred... but we'll get to that later.

As is typical of Alex, he follows the sniper to a helicopter, and manages to make it crash. Natch. So then he feels compelled to alert MI6, but Jack (eternal love for her) demands that Blunt and Jones come to Alex. Not him come to them. Wow, what a BAMF. She is forever awesome. I liked how humiliated Blunt felt by being summoned like this, and it just goes to show how important Alex has become to them. It wouldn't be to anyone that they took time out to come and visit them.

Alex asks for protection and, inevitably, they demand 'payment'. They want him to go to Egypt. Nothing dangerous, just keeping an eye on a school.

I HATE MI6 I HATE MI6 I HATE MI6

Why? Whywhywhywhy? Can't they just help him one last time? Alex is obliged to agree, and Jack insists on going with him. I was so pleased, because I love Jack and I thought Alex might be safer with her there too. Can someone please hold me while I cry?

Blunt and Jones do agree to send another agent though, and this time it's going to be Smithers. This reminded me of something. Ages ago I read an interview with Horowitz who teased that something huge would be revealed about Smithers. I worried for ages that he would be working for the 'bad guys', that he would end up betraying Alex, and I didn't think I could stand that. At this mention, I fleetingly thought it would be EPIC LOLZ if it turned out Smithers wore a fatsuit. Oh Helena. Your powers of furtune-telling are greater than you think. Right? We'll get to that though.

Alex and Jack go off an their adventure, and for ages there seems nothing wrong with the school. Smithers give Alex various eavesdropping gadgets, in order to help him listen in on head of security, who they suspect. Of course, this is a WHOLE BIG SCORPIA PLOT. After various mishaps, Alex has a run-in with the CIA who don't realise who he is, and torture him by the infamous 'waterboarding' technique. How someone could do that to a 15 year old boy is beyond me. Do they have no compassion? Fortunately he is saved by Joe Burn, head of CIA, and is informed that they are here to protect their Secretary of State who will be flying out to give a talk about international relations. A talk in which she will name Britain as a weakening country. They worry that she may be assassinated because of this. As a Brit, I wondered if I should feel affronted by this speech, but really I don't really care if we're a 'super-power' or not. In fact I think it would be nice not to be, maye the government wouldn't interfere with so much. But then, I'm not particularly informed about current politics, so I'm not the best judge.

Alex finds Jack again, and they agree to leave the next day, because things are definitely getting dangerour, and they were told it would be safe. He goes to see Smithers to tellhim they're leaving, and this is when THINGS GET 100% AWESOME! Not that they weren't already. Scorpia learn of Smithers' presence and decide to take him out. So we get to learn of all the gadgets he has built into the house. And they are truly awesome. My personal favourite was thesecret passage through the fridge and out into the street behind, but I did like the line about the exploding garden gnomes he has in England. Alex and Smithers are on the run from the 4 or 5 agents who are trying to kill Smithers, and when it seems like there's no escape, Smithers drops a bomb on us. Figuratively, not literally. Turns out that my random musings were 100% CORRECT!! Well what do you know? Is it enough to say that my mind was well and truly blown right then? I wonder if Horowitz always planned this...? Not only that, but his face is completely different, and he has an Irish accent. Deep cover or what? Anyhoo, he and Alex separate, and I assume that he makes it out ok, because we don't hear anything else about him.

Alex returns to the house he is staying in with Jack, only to find the house empty and a note telling him that Scorpia have her. Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. I felt like my stomach had just ridden a rollercoaster and my body had chickened out and stayed on the ground.

NOT JACK YOU ABSOLUTE FUNSPONGE. THERE I SAID IT. I HATE SCORPIA, THEY ARE FUNSPONGES, AND FUNSPONGES ARE NOT COOL.

They leave instructions for Alex, and he obeys them, terrified that he will lose the one person who has stuck with him throughout (excuse me while I curl up in my sock drawer and cry for ten years). When he reaches the appointed destination, he comes face to face with - himself. Well, Julius Grief. But still. You think that's pretty bad, but then he's flown out into the desert with Julius and the Head of Security, who does actually turn out to be a bad guy.

We arrive at a place we've been before. Razim, the guy who was testing a measurement of pain, who lives in the desert. Alex and Jack are reunited briefly, and then things go from bad to worse. Razim confirms that he will be torturing Alex tomorrow evening, and he hopes that the anticipation will make the pain worse, as this would be informative to his studies. Know what? Funsponge isn't even strong enough for you, you bastard.

The next day, Alex and Jack talk, and she reveals that she thinks she's found a way out, and will try to get help as soon as they take Alex and don't pay attention to her anymore. I expected this to be the only way out. How wrong I was.

Razim and Julius take Alex to the torture room, and Razim explains that Alex must have no marks on him, because tomorrow he is to do something else for them, so he as devised a way to hurt him without leaving any scars. I was a little confused by this, and wasn't quite sure what to think. I'd heard that Alex came out alive at the end of this one, but that what happened to him was worse than death, so I thought we'd find out here. Imagining some terrible torture that would leave him paralysed. Oh, but it's so much worse.

Narrative switches to Jack who makes her escape, and it's surprisingly easy, but as soon as she got in the car on the way to the nearest city I felt relief. So then we switch back to Alex, and we see Razim turn on a television. Was he going to make Alex watch a Saw marathon? I know that would torture me. But no.

It shows Jack.

She is escaping.

No one is worried.

She is driving away.

Julius pushes a button.

The car explodes.

My head explodes.

My heart explodes.






Why?

I just can't get over it. I sat in my room that night and sobbed, because I just couldn't bear the thought that Jack was dead. I was so sure throughout the remainder of the book that Horowitz would be like, 'FOOLED YOU! It was just a trick, here she is!' as he's done so many times in this series, and I think it was because of this that it only sunk in till later. I still can't believe it.

Razim, heartless pig as he is, finds that emotional pain is far worse on physical pain, and writes this all down, which makes me sick.

You've probably all read the rest of the book, so I'll just say that Alex manages to stop Scorpia from killing the US Secretary of State and saves the day again.

But what I want to talk about now is what happens between him and Julius Grief. Because Alex actually kills him. With a gun, in cold blood. This really got to me, because throughout the series we all know, and he does, that he wouldn't actually be able to kill someone. And now Jack has gone and nothing seems to matter to him anymore. Everyone mentions how the light has gone from his eyes, how he is empty. It's absolutely heartbreaking. Mrs Jones says later on the killing Grief was like killing a piece of himself, because they are identical, and I hadn't thought of that. Could it be that he was effectively killing the 'spy' part of him? Is it a metaphor? Or is it an example of just how wrong you can go when you've been mistreated and abused, manipulated and lied to by adults. Jack was the final straw, and I worried that there'd be no going back now.

It's funny, because in Harry Potter the point is that Harry would never kill anyone. He has too much love in him, and despite the amount of people who have died for him he still never kills. When he defeats Voldemort he uses Expelliarmus, and Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra which rebounds; therefore meaning that Harry didn't physically kill. So what's the difference then, now that Alex has killed? I'm not saying he's gone bad, not at all, or that he's weaker. I just think that it's interesting how two children's authors have tackled similar problems so differently.

We learn through the POV of Edward Pleasure that Alex is now going to live with them in San Fransisco, which is good: he'll get away from MI6 (although now Mrs Jones is head, I don't think they'd use him anyway). But again, it was heartbreaking to read how Edward noticed how broken Alex is, how he strares for long periods of time into nothingness, and doesn't volunteer conversation. The only way things are looking up is that he notices that Alex has perked up minutely since he arrived, and hopes that he will keep doing so.

We're left believing that things are going to be alright, if not for a very long time, but at some point, as Alex leaves his life behind him and tries to forget the horror that has been the past year of it.

Chaaaaanges

Hey hey :)

So, as you have probably noticed, I've been a bit lax with my posting frequency lately. I have few excuses -I'm just lazy. But I have decided to make a few changes. I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks so evidently won't be able to post at all, but when I get back I'll be doing things differently.

Whilst I did enjoy doing these past 2 books chapter by chapter, I've found it really difficult to find time to put together a good review every day. I know I'm in the holidays right now, but when term starts again I really want to focus on my studies because I'm aiming to get a First which I'll really need to work for... Yeah I can totally see that not happening, but I'll do my best. So I'm going to do less frequent posts, like before, but at the moment I'm thinking I'll just review each book as I finish. Don't worry, my course book list for next year stands at 39, so I won't be short of material! I don't want to stop doing this blog, but I've found that doing it so frequently has become a bit of a chore sometimes, so I hope that this will keep the posts fresh and interesting; maybe even with a few intelligent insights (PAH!) along the way.

So see you in September, when I shall be posting my overall review of Scorpia Rising!

xx

Quick note

Heeey! I forgot tomention that I'm away again this week and although I have access to the internet I only have time to post late at night, by which time I'm really tired. If I get a chance to post I will, but I can't say how often it will be. Hopefully write soon :]

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 6: Secrets and Lies

I always enjoy chapers that are set in MI6 Headquarters and this one was no exeption. Although we're still in 'Part 1: Scorpia' (the final chapter, in fact) this chapte took place in Alan Blunt's office and was, in my opinion, my favourite chapter in this book so far, and probably the most interesting of these types of chapters in the whole series. It's from Alan Blunt's POV and we see him weeks away from forced resignation as Head of MI6. I was actually surprised by his blase attitude towards it: I kind of expected a Devil Wears Prada-esque refusal to leave and some kind of anger-inducing manipulation, but apparently not. Alan Blunt rarely seems to feel any emotion at all, and I suppose I should have realised that this would extend to his job. He even goes so far as to hope that Mrs Jones will replace him. Maybe he too feels that he's made too many mistakes.

As he muses on his past year with ALex Rider, I can't help but detect some respect in his thoughts, and I think, especially after what hesaid in the last book, he really is coming to think very highly of Alex.

He turns his attentions to a file that details the finding of a body in the Thames. The body has been identified as Levi Kroll, a founder of Scorpia, and is therefore being treated with the utmost secrecy. This is obviously the body planted by Scorpia, and one of the effective results of writing the book in this way means that we know so much more about the situation than Blunt, which is rare this early on in the novel. There were many points when I was yelling in frustration at the pages in my hand because it was so obvious what was happening, and HOW COULD BLUNT BE FALLING FOR THE TRAP??? But, of course, he knows nothing of this trap and can't be expected to.

The coded message has been found, and although Bluntfinds it suspicious that a message of this importance would be written on Kroll's phone, he dismisses it - making me scream in irritation and admiration at Horowitz's tantalising yet brilliant story-telling. Enter Mrs Jones. I've always liked her, despite the fact that she's in MI6, there just seems to be a touch more humanity in her than in Blunt, and she does sympathise with Alex, defending him againts her superior. She comes bearing lots of new information about the body, and it really does astound me how much MI6 areable to work out from just one body. For example, they work out according to the tidal directions where the body must have been thrown in, where his clothes were bought, and therefore where he's been recently and of course how long ago he was shot. Although we know that this information is certainly wrong, because Jurst stck him in a freezer directly after the murder, just to throw MI6 off his scent. Evil genius.

Jones tells Blunt how they have managed to work out the code, and then a new woman is introduced, someone we've never met. She is described as having photographic memory and "the analytical skills of a world-class chess player". Samantha Redwing also - to Blunt's surprise has a normal life outside MI6. It's interesting that this extra information is given, and I can't help but wonder how she's going to come into play later on in the novel. She was vital in working out the coded message, and they have finally decided that it's hinting towards some kind of attack on a SCHOOL in Cairo. The school is a famous arts school, containing the children of many rich and famous parents. Blunt and Jones agree that should this come under threat, Scorpia would "have enough leverage to start a world war". Great!

Blunt's mind instantly makes a connection between this and the recent news of JULIUS GRIEF'S DEATH.

BLUNT, YOU GENIUS!

And then he decides to disregard it, as it can't possibly be related.

BLUNT, YOU FOOL!!!! YOU FRUSTRATE ME SO MUCHHHHHH

But, of course, we know that this isn't actually going to happen - at least we don't think it is. I can't tell if Scorpia are actually going to threaten the school, or if they're just threatening to threaten it... if you get what I mean...

Naturally - unfortunately - Blunt's mind skips to Alex. We've been told earlier in the chapter that the Prime Minister forbade Blunt to use Alex - or any other teenager - ever again, but now Blunt doesn't seem to care. Mrs Jones reminds me why Ilike her so much though, as she tells Blunt that she will by no means let him use Alex again. He is not to be touched and they should send an adult spy in as a teacher or cleaner, but NEVER ARE THEY TO USE ALEX RIDER AGAIN.

<3<3<3

:)

Oh Alan Blunt, you just got TOLD!

Something really interested me at the end though, Samantha Redwing voices her concerns about the whole incident: planting a seed of doubt about its authenticity in the minds of Blunt and Jones. She mentions that the medical report showed that the contents of his stomach contained food that might well be eaten in France (correct) or England, but would not likely be served in Egypt, where it seemed he had been before. She also noted the galss that was lodged in his bullet wound, pointing out that he must have been shot whilst inside and then dragged out to the river and dumped. Was it, she wonders, Scorpia hoping that the body would indeed be found? For once Blunt is sensible and agrees with her, and I am now positive that we will see more of Samantha.

Blunt finishes by saying that they will send an agent into the school, although he admits it could be pointless, and Jones knows that he's still thinking of Alex and she promises herself that she will never let Alex be involved.

The question, now that we've finished Part 1 and head on to 'Part 2: Alex', is how is Alex going to end up involved? If it seems that Jones is determined not to let him get mixed up, how is Blunt going to change her mind? Is he going to go behind her back? Are Scorpia going to notice that Alex hasn't been sent and expand their plan, forcing MI6 to send Alex into Cairo, back into the deadly cluches of his worst enemies?

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 5: Over the Edge

What up! Sorry about the short, uninteresting post yesterday, I was really tired and in a bad mood! Just in case you were wondering, I did survive work this morning! Onward!

Wow. So chapter 5. I don't even knwo where to begin.

Last chapter we were introduced to Julius Grief, and began to understand really how mad he is. The stuff he was imagining about killing was truly horrific, and in thia chapter, we get to see the insnaity in action.

Before we start on that though, I'd like to talk about something first. I was thinking about this boy's upbringing - how he was treated, told to act etc must have had a huge impact on how he is now. We find out so much about his - and all the other 15 clones of Hugo Grief - childhood. We learn that he learnt to shoot aged 9, and first killed someone aged 11. Seriously? That's just wrong. We also find how trained he is in martial arts, fighting, driving and all that, and I was reminded of Alex, the spy-in-training from the age of 5 or 6. I then wondered how much this behaviour was inevitable in Julius, or how much it was formed in his father's (can you call him father?) training of him. It's that whole environmental factor vs biological factor debate. In Julius's case he is actually a clone, so would he only inherit his 'father's' physical appearance, or would he also have inherited that mad drive for power, that awful coldness towards other human beings? It also reminded me of Voldemort. As we find out more about him in Half-Blood Prince we see how deranged he was throughout his life, but one wonders how much living in that orphange, being one of many homeless children, being a 'number' rather than an individual made him strive to be different. Was it that that made him want ultimate power, or was it something else, something that was inherent within him?

In this chapter we first join Julius immediately after his meeting with Dr Flint as he is on his way to the library to recieve his next instructions. His coldness and detachment from all the other risoners and guards really is quite creepy. He identifies a book in the children's section which he knows belongs somewhere else and so guesses it's meant for him. As he secretly opens the book he finds that the pages have been cut away to hide a gun and a note. We don't see what the note says, but it is obviously instructions for his escape. I still find it so strange that a 15 year old can take a gun so easily. It's such a jarring image. He's so different to Alex.

We next hear from Dr Flint's perspective, and we find that she knows more than Julius thinks she does. She also thinks about something I hadn't considered. The fact that Julius looks exactly like Alex, that every time he looks in a mirror, passes his reflection in a window or sees himself in a puddle, he in confronted with the face of his enemy. What must that do to his mind? It's no wonder he hates him so much, maybe even contributing to his madness. Can you imagine looking in the mirror and seeing the face of the person you dislike most in the whole world? Although in his case it's the person who ruined everything and indirectly killed his father and brothers.

Just as she's thinking about him, he rings the doorbell, holding a bunch of flowers. Although it seems obvious to us that he's up to no good, she hopes that maybe he's come to apologise for his behaviour this morning and has come to talk to her. Of course not. He pulls out the gun and tells her that she must come with him. Leading her to the gates, gun pointed to her head, he is finally stopped by the guards, all pointing their guns at him. Of course, they don't shoot or they could kill Dr Flint, and Julius makes the most of this, by ordering the govenor to open the gates for him or he'll kill her. I think everyone knew that these were not empty words.

As he walks out of the prison he hits Flint over the head and begins to run, knowing that he won't have much time before the gurads catch up. Following the instructions on the paper he finds a car which, of course, he knows how to drive. There follows a huuuge car chase which I'm not going to describe except to say that it was really cool, but Julius is being closed in on and, although I didn't think it would happen, I started to hope that he would be recaptured. He drives the car straight through a barn and for a couple of seconds his car is not seen. Then it bursts out of the other side, careering across the field they are in, surrounded by guards, and rockets straight off the top of the cliff and into the sea below.

For a second I couldn't believe it: was Horowitz really going to make it that easy? Surely not! But then I remembered that for a second or two the car was unseen. Unbeknownst to the guards, Scorpia were waiting inside the barn with an identical, remote-controlled car ready to drive off the edge. They smuggled Julius down through a hidden trapdoor and he escaped.

The last line of this chapter was the most chilling:

"Nobody was watching that night as a fishing boat with a single, smiling passenger slipped out of Gibraltar Harbour beneath a full moon and a starry sky and began its journey south."