FIFTY SHADES DARKER

TITLE: FIFTY SHADES DARKER

AUTHOR: E.L. JAMES

Pages: 532

Date: 18/05/2012

Grade: 4+

Details: no. 2 Fifty Shades

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Warning: If you haven’t read the first Fifty Shades book but intend to do so, you probably shouldn’t read this review since it will contain references to and possible spoilers for that title.

So I wrote my review of Fifty Shades of Grey earlier this month and, even to my own ears, I sounded rather reluctant to admit that I had enjoyed the read. Not that I no longer stand over what I wrote in that review – I still don’t think these books will ever qualify for literary prizes for example – but I do think it is time to let go of the reluctance and just admit that I’m having great fun with this trilogy. It’s time to admit that I do like the stories and yes, I do get a kick out of the S.E.X.

I guess that when you find you’re bribing yourself – just one more book of the “must-read-now-pile” and then I can get to the sequel – it really is time to just pick up the book and read it. So I did.

After Ana fled away from Christian and his dark sexual needs, convinced that she couldn’t be what he needed her to be regardless of how deeply she had fallen for him, she spends a miserable few days getting used to her new job.

It isn’t long though before she and Christian meet up again to go to the opening of a photo show of Ana’s college friend Jose. Back in each others company it doesn’t take the pair long to realise that they can’t be apart from each other, and Christian has a proposition for Ana. In order to be with her he is willing to put his needs and past sexual practices aside and have a “normal” relationship. Although filled with doubts, Ana agrees, knowing that she is far more miserable without him than she could ever be with him.

And so the two set off on a path to discover if they can be happy together without the aid of the “playroom”. But, of course there are obstacles. On the personal front there is the ever present Mrs. Robinson who first introduced Christian to the BDSM scene, Ana’s fear that what she can offer Christian won’t be enough for him in the long run and Christian’s still obsessive need to control Ana’s life.

Outside forces seem to conspire against the pair too, with a blast from Christian’s past threatening both of them and Ana’s new boss turning out to be a bit of a, potentially very dangerous, creep. With the odds stacked against them, Ana and Christian have a real fight on their hands if they want to make a success of the relationship they both seem to want so desperately.

So, what can I say about this book.

To start with the obvious, there is still an awful lot of sex, mostly in rather graphic detail. This time around though, the intimacy is a lot more straightforward, if still rather adventurous.

As in the first book, the writing is nothing to write home about, but, on the other hand, not bad enough to annoy me. While there is a lot of repetition and Ana’s “inner goddess” continued to irritate me, I had great fun reading this book.

In fact, the most frustrating thing about reading the Fifty Shades books is that I can’t quite figure out why I’m enjoying them so much. However, I’ve decided that it really doesn’t matter why I like the books. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I should never have to apologize for enjoying something I read, so I won’t be analyzing that aspect of it any further.

What I did like is that James introduced some suspense-like elements into this book without actually trying to turn it into a thriller. When danger surfaces it is dealt with rather quickly, efficiently and, as far as I’m concerned, effectively.

I also liked the descriptions of Ana trying to understand Christian, his past and how that related to his compulsions as well as Christian’s attempts to get over his fears and obsessions and be what Ana needs him to be.

And I do like that she ended the book on a bit of a cliff-hanger, which of course means that it won’t be long before I will have to give in to temptation again and return for my third and final encounter with Ana and her Christian.

HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS

TITLE: HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS

AUTHOR: DAVID LOGAN

Pages: 300

Date: 16/05/2012

Grade: 3.5

Details: Received from Book Geeks

            Winner of the Terry Pratchett Prize

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This has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read even if it started straightforward enough.

Edward lives in The Manse, at the end of The Lane where a cemetery is the back garden with his twin sister Sophia, his parents and two older brothers. Edward’s home is so isolated from the rest of the world that for a long time he has a hard time imagining what that world might be like.

Edward’s father is a born-again Christian working as a farm labourer and a man who will turn to corporal punishment whenever one of the children breaks his strict rules.

On the day their grandmother dies, five-year old Edward and Sophia meet a stranger with a time-machine. A stranger who has a favour to ask of Edward; he wants to be his friend. On the same day, Edward’s father asks Sophia to promise that she will never leave the Manse or her mother. The young old girl makes the promise not realising what it means and unaware that she condemns her own future in the process.

Soon afterwards the twins, who had up until then been constant companions and each other’s world, are separated when Edward is sent to boarding school.

It is in school that Edward meets Alf. Alf is a boy who is even stranger and more isolated from the rest of the school than Edward is, but he is also a philosopher, poet, muse and, most of all, a mystery. Nobody else in the school seems to know who Alf is or where he sleeps and for long periods of time Edward doesn’t see Alf around either. At important moments in his life at school though, Alf turns up at Edward’s side.

When, years later, Edward finishes school and returns to the Manse in preparation of starting university life disintegrates for him, Sophia and the rest of his family with Alf as the rather unexpected bystander.

On the surface, and for most of the early part of the book, this is a story about two children growing up in a dysfunctional family. Because the story is told from Edward’s perspective the reader only slowly comes to the realisation that there are a lot more undercurrents in this family than are immediately apparent.

The young Edward, while being a very smart child, takes his surroundings and the things that happen there at face value and although the reader can sense things Edward isn’t aware of, the full scale of revelations don’t become clear until Edward is old enough to understand them.

There were a few things that happened in this story which left me feeling very uncomfortable, and while I can see that they made the dysfunction in this family more vivid, I can’t help feeling that there might have been other ways to paint that picture.

There were also parts of the story, especially with regard to physics and time-travel that just went straight over my head.

My final reservation about this book has to do with the way the story ended, or as I experienced it, didn’t end. While the final scene was foreshadowed early on in the book, it left too many questions unanswered for my liking.

Having made all those reservations I do have to add that I was fascinated with this story for most of the book and found it hard to stop reading. I felt a deep need to find out how it all would end, if Edward would be able to save his sister and whether or not Alf would be explained more fully.

I also feel that it is quite possible, if not likely, that I missed some of the nuances in this book. On the cover this book is described as a comical tragedy. I completely agree with it being a tragedy, however the comical part must also have gone straight over my head. So while this maybe wasn’t quite the book for me, I’ve got a feeling that it may well be the right book for other, less straight-minded, readers.

THE HOUSE OF SILK

TITLE: THE HOUSE OF SILK

AUTHOR: ANTHONY HOROWITZ

Pages: 294

Date: 14/05/2012

Grade: 4.5

Details: A Sherlock Holmes Story

Library

Dr. Watson is staying with Sherlock Holmes for a while when a visitor is admitted to their rooms. The obviously distraught gentleman tells them a tale of dramatic events in Boston that have followed him home to threaten his life in Wimbledon. Intrigued Holmes agrees to investigate only to have his apparent solving of the case lead to the disappearance and subsequent murder of a teenage boy who was a recent new recruit to Holmes' team of street-urchin assistants. The only clue the two men have is an obscure reference to The House of Silk.

Neither Holmes nor Watson is able to make sense of the reference, and inquiries with Holmes’ brother Mycroft only lead to the pair being warned of the case in the strongest terms.

Not one to be scared of, the warning achieves little other than to make Holmes more determined to discover what is being kept so secret; a decision which will see him in prison as well as in mortal danger.

Holmes and Watson find themselves up against an evil with the power to prevent any inquiries, an evil worse than anything they have come up against before and an evil that will do anything to stop those standing in its way.

This new Sherlock Holmes mystery is very much written in the style of Conan Doyle’s originals. Holmes is his infuriating and uninformative self, with Watson as his loyal but not too bright friend and assistant.

The descriptions of London in 1890, and especially those of the poorer parts of the city, are clear and fascinating and firmly put the story in its context.

The mystery is well plotted although the story is not one I could imagine the original author coming up with.

There was one part of the mystery that I had figured out fairly early on. I was definitely ahead of our Dr. Watson in that case, although it is of course impossible to know when exactly Holmes came to his conclusion.

On the other hand I had completely missed the clues relating to the second part of the mystery. I would love to say more about this, and explain exactly what I mean but I’m afraid I can’t do that without including possible spoilers. Part of the pleasure in reading this book was the fact that the final twist managed to take me more or less completely by surprise, and I wouldn’t want to deprive others of that treat.

I’d say that anyone who enjoys the original Sherlock Holmes stories will also enjoy this book, as would most other mystery lovers.

This is a well paced story that keeps you guessing even when you think you have the answers, and therefore a good read.

STAY CLOSE

TITLE: STAY CLOSE

AUTHOR: HARLAN COBEN

Pages: 387

Date: 12/05/2012

Grade: 5

Details: Stand-alone

            Received from Real Readers

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On the surface Megan is the typical suburban wife and mother. Living in a beautiful house with her loving husband and two children, her life behind the picket fence appears picture perfect. But Megan has a secret. Seventeen years ago she fled Atlantic City and her old life. A life in which she was called Cassie and worked as a dancer in a seedy place called La Crème. And although she knows she should be grateful that she had a chance to leave her old life behind and start a fresh one, part of her still misses the excitement of the those days.

Ray Levine is a photographer. He used to be very successful in that career but for the past seventeen years he’s been haunted by visions of blood, too much blood, and incapable to keep himself together enough to do more than sleazy and cheap assignments.

Broome is a police detective who has never been able to let go of a seventeen year old, unsolved case. Back than, on the eighteenth of March a man disappeared never to be seen or heard from again. And although the general consensus is that the man had run of with his stripper girlfriend, Broome never was and still isn’t convinced of that.

When, on the eighteenth of March, seventeen years later, another man disappears, Megan, Ray and Broome are all drawn back to the events that altered their lives in such substantial ways.

Three people are given the opportunity to revisit the past and maybe right old wrongs. But they are not the only ones taking an interest in the new disappearance. And those others who are trying to find answers have no scruples or qualms about their methods.

When it appears that this may be more than just a case of two missing men, when the death-toll rises and the solution appears no clearer than it was in the past, lives, sanity and happiness may fall victim to a very clever and manipulative mind.

Harlan Coben has long been one of my favourite authors. I may not have read every single one of his books, but I haven’t missed many of them because he writes damn good thrillers.

Coben has to be one of the masters of this genre. He takes seemingly normal, every day people and puts them in situations out of their control, puts them through their paces and facing near impossible dilemmas. And just when it seems impossible that they might resolve their situation he will throw them a life-line or they will exceed their own and the reader’s expectations and the story continues.

To call this book a page-turner would be an understatement. I dare anyone to start this book and linger on it. These pages are filled with twists and turns, heart-stopping scenes and cliff-hangers. Just when the reader thinks they know where the story is going and pride themselves on having it all figured out, Coben throws them on another loop and nothing is the way it seemed just a few pages before.

These days, I often pride myself on being able to figure out what exactly is going on before the moment in the story when the writer wants me to know the answers. That was not the case in this book. The resolution of this story took me by surprise as much as it did the characters in the book, which for me only added to the reading enjoyment.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller, but I guess those people have probably been reading Coben’s books for years. Therefore, I would also tell people who don’t usually read thrillers but would like to try one, to pick up Stay Close. I would be surprised if they didn’t turn around and stay with the genre. Because this is one terrific read.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

TITLE: FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

AUTHOR: E.L. JAMES

Pages: 514

Date: 09/05/2012

Grade: 4-

Details: no. 1 Fifty Shades

            Received from BookGeeks

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Anastasia Steele, a young literature student, is reluctantly drafted by her friend Katherine to interview Christian Grey, a very successful and even more attractive business man. When she literary falls through his office door and subsequently makes a mess of some of the questions she’s supposed to be asking she is convinced that the man must be disgusted with her.

Much to her surprise though, Grey shows up in the shop where she has a part-time job and asks her out. Ana finds herself very attracted to this intriguing man and agrees to meet him, only for Grey to warn her that she should be keeping her distance from him.

It seems though that Grey can’t stay away from Ana, despite what he told her, and it isn’t long before Ana finds herself getting very close to the sexy man.

But while Ana is new to love affairs and sex, Grey is a very troubled man who claims to be incapable of having normal relationships, hates being touched and demands to be in full control of both Ana and their relationship. What Grey wants is a relationship where he will be the Dominant to her role as a Submissive and he’s drawn up the contract to control how that should work.

Ana finds herself very confused. While she is extremely attracted to Grey and experiencing great pleasure every time they get together, the idea of being dominated and having to endure pain scares her and makes her want to run away. At the same time another part of her thinks that she might be able to safe this man from the demons that haunt him.

Both Ana and Christian will find themselves experiencing a lot of firsts during their time together, but is their obvious attraction to each other enough to overcome the huge differences between them?

Phew, what to say about this book?

From all the attention this author and her books have been receiving lately, I had a pretty good idea what to expect and it is safe to say I got just that.

Yes, this is one very steamy story with lots of rather graphic descriptions of far from ordinary sexual relations.

Yes, the similarities between Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” and this book are clear. Both books deal with an innocent young girl falling for a man with a very obvious dark-side who she should probably stay well away from but is incapable of ignoring.

And yes, this book is unlikely to ever win a literary prize.

However, I also found this to be an entertaining story that kept me turning the pages. If you read beyond the sex scenes this is basically a love story about two people who desperately want and need to be together but are being kept apart by differences in their backgrounds and expectations that they may or may not be able to overcome. I guess E.L. James just uses a different, and rather more graphic than usual, devise to point those differences out.

While I’m sure there would have been a lot of other ways in which Christian’s need to control Ana could have been depicted, the author has chosen one which, while graphic, also makes quite clear how deep seated his issues are.

I have to admit that there were a few things in this book that had me exasperated. The references to Ana’s “Inner Goddess” and “Sub-conscious” got old very fast after the first few mentions. Yes, the girl is having a rather lively debate going on inside herself about the sense in having a relationship with this obviously very complicated and damaged man, but do the two sides of that argument really have to have separate identities as if they are extra characters in the story?

I guess there comes a time in any book reviewer’s life when they have to reflect on the standards by which they actually judge a book. Is it literary merit? Is it the quality of words and sentences used? Is it just a question of whether or not the book delivers a good and/or captivating story? Is it a little bit of all of those or does even that depend on the book they happen to be reading? I decided that for me, with this book, judging was to take place purely on whether or not I enjoyed the reading experience. And I did.

Readers can be divided into a whole host of categories. For the purpose of this review I’d like to highlight two; those who enjoy (explicit) sex-scenes and those who don’t. Any reader falling into the later category would do well to steer clear of this book since there are at least as many descriptions of, rather unorthodox, sex as there is overall story. Anybody who enjoys reading such scenes, for whatever reason, will get more then their fill in this story.

This is probably the first time ever that I almost feel the need to apologise for enjoying a book. Objectively there is so much wrong with this book while subjectively, I found myself unable to stop turning the pages and forced to buy the two sequels.

I guess this book should be filed under the label: guilty pleasures.

ISLAND OF BONES

TITLE: ISLAND OF BONES

AUTHOR: IMOGEN ROBERTSON

Pages: 466

Date: 07/05/2012

Grade: 5

Details: no. 3 Crowther & Westerman

            Received from Real Readers

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In 1751 Charles Penhaligon watches as his brother Adair, 2^nd Baron Keswick, is hanged for murdering their father. Charles is convinced of his older brother’s guilt although he insists he is innocent. As soon as the public execution is over Charles sells his family’s estate, changes his name to Gabriel Crowther and commences a life of scientific research and seclusion.

More then 30 years later Mrs. Briggs, the present owner of the estate, opens an old tomb and discovers one body too many. Knowing about Crowther’s interest in anatomy and solving mysteries as well has his past connection to the place, an invitation is send to him to visit his old home and investigate the matter. An invention that also extends to  the recently widowed Harriet Westerman.

Crowther is reluctant to revisit his past but curious about the mysterious body. His sister, who he hasn’t seen for over 30 years either, happens to be a house guest of Mrs. Briggs together with her son, Felix which gives Crowther an extra reason to make the journey.

Travelling back to the childhood home that holds so many bad memories is difficult though. Crowther’s sister turns out to be a rather unpleasant woman and her son a spoiled brat. This is also the one place where Crowther can’t escape his heritage or the title he’s been denying for so long. And it isn’t long after he and Harriet arrive that more death and violence occur. Are these fresh eruptions of crimes, or are they somehow related to what happened in the past?

Crowther will be forced to face his past once and for all in a part of the country where modern life still lives side by side with the ancient and the magical.

This is a fascinating historical mystery. The descriptions of life and the conventions of the time are detailed and give great insight into what it must have been like to live in those times.

The contrast between Crowther’s scientific approach to life at a time when the sciences where still in their infancy, and the old ways depending on cunning men, herbs and witches in an era when the church seriously frowned upon such believes, gives the story added interest. This is enhanced by the fact that different parts of the story are told from the perspective of different characters with very diverse backgrounds.

The mystery itself was well plotted and the investigation leading to the, to me not completely surprising, solution was well executed. The fact that historical detail, such as the rebellion in 1745, gets tied in with the mystery only adds to that interest.

Both Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther are controversial characters in a time in which convention was second only to virtue, which makes them fascinating to read about as well as more accessible to modern day readers. Personally I found myself wondering on several occasions how a woman with any sense of her own worth and mind could possibly stay sane in those times without finding herself cast out of society.

This is not a quick or easy read. Because the cause of the problems in 1783 heralds back to events that took place up to 50 years earlier, there are a lot of names and events to keep separate and connections to pay attention to. While this no doubt adds depth and realism to the story it does require that the reader pays close attention.

I found this to be a great read, a book well worth taking my time with so that I could treasure every word, nuance and description.

I will certainly be on the look out for further adventures staring Crowther and Westerman.

BLEEDING HEARTS

TITLE: BLEEDING HEARS

AUTHOR: IAN RANKIN,

              Writing as JACK HARVEY

Pages: 402

Date: 04/05/2012

Grade: 3.5

Details: Received from Newbooks

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Michael Weston is a hired killer who made one, unfortunately fatal, mistake in his otherwise very “successful” career.

When the novel starts he is in London where his assignment is to shoot a TV reporter, whose clothes have been described to him in amazing detail, when she exits a hotel. His shot, straight through the heart, is spot on, but as soon as he has fired his rifle he hears police approaching, forcing him to flee and come up with a last-minute escape plan.

While Michael usually makes a habit of not lingering on his kills after he’s executed them, he finds himself struggling with a lot of questions this time around. Questions that won’t leave him alone; questions he needs to answer.

How is it possible that the police arrived on the scene so quickly? Had they been tipped off? Had the person who contracted him to kill the reporter also set him up to be caught? Who had paid him for this kill in the first place? How could his employer have known exactly what the woman would be wearing? And who would have wanted her death in the first place, and why?

Armed with only questions and very few clues, Michael sets out to find out what has been going on, assisted by Belinda, the daughter of one of his weapon suppliers.

On Michael’s tail is Leo Hoffer, a private investigator from New York who has been hired by the father of Weston’s only mistake to track down the killer and destroy him. Hoffer soon finds that his American ways don’t go down too well in London, but nevertheless discovers enough clues to stay hot on the trail of Weston, from London to Scotland and eventually to America where a big show down should mean the end to all the mysteries, but does it?

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book.

In many ways it is a fascinating story. Told from the perspective of Weston we’re dealing with a narrator who should be unsympathetic to us, but isn’t. At the same time, the investigator trying to find and stop him should be the obvious force of good here but is rather repulsive instead. I soon found myself rooting for the hired killer against those who would stop him, but never felt completely comfortable about that sentiment.

I’m also not completely convinced about this book’s merits as a thriller. While it has all the elements you’d expect in a good thriller – the hunter and the hunted, good versus bad, a chase across countries and continents and a final twist just when you think the story is over – they didn’t work to keep me turning the pages. At times the story seemed to get bogged down in too much detail; detailed descriptions of the weapons used, haemophilia and other subjects encountered along the way seemed to take the pace out of the story and made this book just a little too easy to put down.

Overall I say that this book left me mostly indifferent. Indifferent about the characters while I was reading the book, and indifferent about the story as a whole now that I’ve finished it.

It is not a bad book at all; the story idea is original and interesting and I had no problem finishing the book. It is not a great book either though. It was too easy to put this book down for me to be able to call this a page-turner.

One thing this book did succeed in though, was arousing my curiosity about the Rebus novels by Rankin and their huge popularity. I will have to read a few titles in that series soon, if only to find out how they compare to this story.