Publisher: Atria Books Page Count: 406 Fiction Genre: Mystery, Gothic, Historical, Fantasy, Book Club Dates Read: April 1-15, 2015 Summary: Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn't know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels. Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer. As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. Both women will have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets... and the ghosts that haunt them still. Review: Let me warn you, THIS IS NOT A GHOST STORY! That is one theme in this book that they kept stressing. If you're talking about ghosts as family secrets, then by all means, yes this is a ghost story. but if you're talking about ghosts in the traditional sense of the word, then don't even bother opening this book, because it's all lies. I wanted to like this book. I really did. I kept telling myself that if I told myself I liked it that I would start to believe it. Even I couldn't buy that crap. This book was very slow going, and told through many different time periods, but you're not exactly 100% sure which time periods as there is no exact dates or time frames given. There were a few points in this book in which things really picked up and it was difficult to put the book down, until the book slowed to the pace of a turtle fart. In these moments I had to force myself to muddle through this mess of a story. My biggest criticism of this book is that Setterfield tried to cram so many plot lines in here that she wasn't able to focus much time on them, but spent a majority of her writing bridging her concepts. This book was kind of like Inception. There was a plot, within a plot, within a plot, withing a plot, within another plot. The list of plots and characters was becoming so long that at times it was becoming difficult to keep the secondary characters straight. Please, if you love your mind and sanity, and enjoy avoiding reading frustrations, please do not read this book. I give this a 2 out of 5.
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Publisher: Vertigo Page Count: 616 Fiction Category: Graphic Novel, Horror, Comic, Fantasy, Super-hero Dates Read: April 7, 2015 Summary: One of the most popular and critically acclaimed comic book titles of all time, New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's masterpiece THE SANDMAN set new standards for mature, lyrical fantasy and graphic narrative. Now, Vertigo and DC Comics are proud to present the third of four definitive Absolute Editions collecting this groundbreaking series in its entirety. The Absolute Sandman Volume Three reprints issues 40-56 of THE SANDMAN and THE SANDMAN SPECIAL #1 and features remastered coloring prepared especially for this edition on issues 40-49 and the SPECIAL. This volume also includes an introduction by Jill Thompson (artist for the "Brief Lives" story arc), a never-before-reprinted story by Gaiman and artist Michawl Zulli, a complete reproduction of the one-shot THE ENDLESS GALLERY as well s two additional 8-pages galleries, and the original script and thumbnail pencils by Gaiman and artist P. Craig Russell for the acclaimed story "Ramadan" from THE SANDMAN #50. Review: It took me a bit to get around to reading this one, but I think it was because I started to loose interest with volume 2, due to my lack of engagement with it. This was one of the best collections of The Sandman, so far. The illustrations are beautifully done, and the stories were engaging and entertaining, which is something I just did not feel with volume 2. It's very reminiscent of the first collection. My favorite in this book were the stories that revolved around Dream and his little sister Delusion. Volume 3 has restored the love I found for The Sandman in volume 1, and I'm looking forward to finishing out the volumes 4 and 5. I give this a 5 out of 5. Publisher: Penguin Books Page Count: 192 Fiction Category: Horror, Asian Lit., Thriller Dates Read: March 31-April 2, 2015 Summary: Murakami, in his own unique style, explores themes of child abuse and what happens to the voiceless among us, weaving a disturbing, spare tale of two people who find each other and then are forced into hurting each other deeply because of the haunting specter of their own abuse as children. Piercing is about Kawashima Masayuki who wakes in the middle of the night, and finds himself looking into the crib of his newborn daughter, suddenly struck with the overwhelming urge to pierce the daughters skin with an ice pick. Deciding that he cannot harm his daughter, Kawashima sets up a plan to hire a prostitute and pierce her with an ice pick and cut her Achilles tendon. What he finds is a woman who is emotionally hurting and finds pleasure in pain. Review: The above summary is not what I thought I was getting in to when I selected this book, and for many reason I was left disappointed with it. The idea of him wanting to stab his newborn with an ice pick is in and of itself terrifying, but the way Murakami resolved Kawashima's urges was a trip. Picture Jane Austen writing a bastard book that combines Fifty Shades of Grey and Darkly Dreaming Dexter, but with a lack-luster ending that seems like the author just didn't care about finishing. That is what Piercing is like. The synopsis of the book leads you to believe this story will have a lot of going on, and that there will be a lot of gore. That is not the case. I've read scarier stories in Sunday School. The characters are flat and underdeveloped. The story leads nowhere. The most terrifying thing about reading this book was how long it took me to get through the 190 pages that contained the story. In short, I do not recommend this book to anyone. I give this a 2 out of 5. |
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