Slash Update!

Artist's impression of me writing reviews seperatly! 

As I stressed myself half silly with a job application and spent most of Easter being on my hols, I have got a little behind on my reviews especially as I have binge read Alessandra Hazard to the point of four books not reviewed. As I am trying to write more reviews, and for the sake of my sanity, I am going to do a multi review to split on Goodreads.  

Yes, I am aware that these books are a little problematic at times, by their very nature, but I don't consider them reality or a blueprint for relationships, so I can't really see the harm. Anyway, on to the reviews.

Just a Bit Unhealthy
Number 3 in the series, this moves to the UK for the tale of Gabe, a straight football star obsessed with Jared, his gay physiotherapist. Although Gabe had a girlfriend, he can't be separated from Jared and treats him like an extension of himself, which inevitably messes with Jared's head. Gabe is a bit of a spoilt brat who must have his own way, to the point that he strings Jared along promising a physical relationship without the sex, just kissing and cuddling. I thought this was a slightly weaker story in terms of the erotic content because Gabe spends a long time convincing himself of a physical relationship. And whilst the intense co-dependency is explored, Gabe ultimately doesn't seem to grow as a person, just admits he's gay. I suppose I wanted him to become a little more independent.

Just a Bit Wrong
Number 4 in the series. Gabe's brother, Tristan is also a top football player at the same club, but he's gay (although hiding it because of his career). Jared's friend Zach is the straight physio assigned to help him, but Tristan is having none of it. He's the enfant terrible of the football club who treats Gabe and his poor assistant like dirt. Zach on the other hand has an open relationship with his fiancé and no intention of putting up with Tristan's nonsense. In the course of the physio they discover that Tristan enjoys being spanked and Zach enjoys spanking him, which was very hot. I probably would have liked more spanking! Zach develops a kind of obsession which he is advised to 'get out of system' by actually having sex with Tristan which is a rather bad idea. Unethical physio and poor advice aside, I enjoyed it, particularly the introduction of Zach's family. And Tristan does grow as a person.

Just a Bit Confusing
Number 5 is another slow burner. Gay, closed James has been friends with Zach's brother Ryan forever. Born into a privileged family, he fears to tell his parents about his sexuality and has to watch his best friend and obsession Ryan kissing his girlfriend in front of him. They have a weird relationship where Ryan has a thing about cuddling James like a Teddy bear, but thinks of James as his brother. Poor old James spends much of the book moping, and Ryan's poor girlfriend gets dumped so that James won't stop being Ryan's friend. I have to say, Ryan was right be freaked out by some of James's antics, although at the same time he probably should have let James go or at least stop with the physical stuff if they were going to have a platonic friendship. All that anger and freaking out about the sexual stuff didn't do either of them any good.

Just a Bit Ruthless
Book 6. James's friend Like, who is gay, gets kidnapped after trying to impress his father in Russia. James is so busy mopping about Ryan he doesn't actually notice Like going missing. The kidnapper is a straight Russian mafioso with a grudge against Luke's father, a wealthy scumbag. At first, Like is subjected to beatings and starvation, but Roman realises that he can use Luke to get to his father so moves him to his room. This is not a book I'd put in the angst category, not after reading Sloane's stuff. Roman is surpringly open minded for a homophobic Russian mafioso and encourages Luke to stop thinking about who he should be to please his father. I loved the way Roman and Luke blossom in this book, Roman allows Luke to express his flamboyant side and Luke makes Roman care. However, if dub con is not your thing, or you object to Like looking like a teenager (although he's 23) then this won't be for you.

The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh

A new trilogy set in the mysterious Marquess House in Pembrokeshire, this is part narrated from the point of view of Perdita Rivers, a jewelry expert who inherits the house from her estranged grandmother, and partly from the point of view of Catherine Howard. Whilst I didn't always agree with the portrayal of the historical figures, for example Henry portrayed as a brutal wife beater, I appreciated that whenever the author could she used historical fact, which she explains in the footnote, and she has obviously done her research.   Walsh believes that Catherine was misrepresented by history and was not the airheaded flirt that she has been portrayed as, and I could see her reasoning and wanted to learn more. Of particular note was the idea that she had a cordial relationship with Anne of Cleaves whom she taught to dance. Some of the conspiracy elements seemed a little far-fetched at times, but it did add to the excitement of the novel and I both enjoyed reading it and wanted to read the next in the series. Perdita is an interesting character and I'm looking forward to finding out what is happening with Kit. The Catherine Howard parts were well written from a historical perspective and from the character perspective. You really feel for her as she is forced to marry the repugnant Henry to assist her power grabbing family and it's evident that whether or not he was a wife beater, he did suffer from memory issues. This is available on Kindle Unlimited and I would recommend it for readers who enjoy conspiracy theories, alternative history and historical fiction/contemporary fiction.

Best Man by Chris Delyani

More LGTBQ+ than the slash fic I often read. This is a serious, often bittersweet romantic novel from the point of view of Frank, a man who has never got over a romantic attachment for a friend and Julio, who is Frank's housemate since he divorced. Poor Frank is in a rather woeful state, locking himself up in his house avoiding Julio, so he is thrown into confusion when Jonathan turns up in his life again planning a wedding to his evil boyfriend Marcus who utterly hates Frank. Julio on the other hand is busy crushing on Marcus at his yoga classes unaware that Marcus is engaged. As a favour for Frank, Julio pretends to be his boyfriend to Jonathan and Marcus. 

I liked the characters in this book and the way that the plot kept me guessing, I thought that the first person narrative worked well in the way that the characters were not necessarily what Frank and Julio thought they were. They are all very human and every one of them does things that they are ashamed of (or should be ashamed of!). I loved the way that Frank and Julio grew as people. This is not an explicit book, but I didn't feel like it needed it, this is a beautifully told story. 

Romanov by Nadine Brandes

A book that I would have probably liked better when I was younger. Brandes takes the story of the last few months of the Romanov's lives and adds magic and a romance between Anastasia and a guard called Zash. She had obviously researched the period thoroughly, but I wasn't entirely convinced by the magical elements. To me it felt like an unfortunate hybrid between real history and fantasy. The magic and the secret magical history of Russia wasn't really explained, and it was as if you were diving into a second book in a series. I wanted a bit more world building and description. Why did the Bolsheviks ban magic? However, this may have been a deliberate choice to normalise the magic elements.

The first part takes place in the quarters where the family is held and can be quite dry at times, contrasting with the fast pace of the second part. First part Nastya is actually quite annoying, but I think she's probably quite true to life!

Anyway, I just want to say that whilst this wasn't my cup of tea, it does have some charming elements particularly in the second half and would probably appeal much more to fans of ya fantasy/magic novels with a romantic twist. This is not a genre I tend to read much of though (I am so old and decrepit ya didn't really exist when I was a young adult!).

The Murder of The Romanovs by Andrew Cook

A history book that uses recently released sources to lay conspiracy theories about the survival of the Romanov family to rest. This is obviously well researched with a full bibliography of sources at the back, and is filled with a surprising number of illustrations for a short book. Cook goes into a great deal of detail about the last few months of the family.

However, I did have reservations about the book. Whilst there is a bibliography of sources divided into themes, I found it strange that there were no proper footnotes or endnotes. Whilst I don't always read all the footnotes, I suppose I find it reassuring to know exactly where the historian has found their information and to tell what angle they are taking with it. Also, I thought this lacked analysis. Most of the book was taken up with the description of what had happened, a small chapter at the end described what was in the newly released documents, then the rest was taken up with the original sources. I felt like I might as well just read the sources direct. The lack of analysis made the history somewhat dry and overall I found this quite an odd book.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

I listened to the audiobook of this, which I thought was extremely well done with some really good narrators.

The story centres around a family of three sisters, Althea, Violet and Lilian, and their extended family and how they cope when Althea and her husband are sent to jail for fraud, leaving their two daughters in limbo. Even worse, Althea and Proctor are hated by the community where they live.

The story is narrated first person by the sisters, and in letters from Proctor to Althea. The sisters, along with their brother who is not as prevalent in the story, have all been affected by their unhappy childhood after their mother died leaving them to be looked after by their stern father. Althea has married her childhood sweetheart Procter, and is kind of a pillar of the community until she gets caught, although she has a difficult relationship with her daughter Kim. Lilian lives in the house where she grew up, widowed and caring for her late husband's grandmother. Violet is separated from her wife and struggling with anorexia and bulimia. The brother Joe is the only person who seems to have got off without becoming miserable and he and his wife are pillars of the church. Kim is mixed up and feels like Althea hates her due to her mother's strict attitude to her, and Baby Vi shows signs that she is becoming anorexic as well. Althea refuses to see the girls and Kim feel like it is because she hates her.

Food and hunger is a major theme of the book, as is the imagery of a river that Althea keeps going back to in her mind. The sisters are all forced by circumstances to take responsibility for themselves and their own happiness. The characters are beautifully crafted and you really feel as if you know them and will miss them after the book is finished. Aside from the sisters, I thought the characters in the prison where Althea is incarcerated were great, and Ni Ni the Korea grandmother living in the family home was so fantastically narrated by the voice of Lilian, she really brought her to life. Althea's daughters Kim and Baby Vi also provide pivotal roles to the story.

This was a brilliant book that I really enjoyed listening to, full of beautiful little touches. It explores the history of the characters in detail and why they are the way that they are.

Region 6 by Ian James Krender

Reading alternative history books, a genre I enjoy, the most important thing is to create a believable set up. I think Krender's set up is believable and he creates a vivid dystopian alternative timeline where the Nazis have won the war and have turned 1980s Britain into Region 6, an entirely Nazi controlled outpost where the populace are controlled with water additives to affect behaviour and the people who are not affiliated with the occupiers live and work in dreadful conditions. The story follows Thomas, who is one of the people who lives in a slum and works in a TV factory, and Stephen who has wealthy parents who gift him Nazi party membership for his birthday. Stephen has a good education, living parents and a good life but both men are struggling with forbidden homosexuality. When Thomas becomes involved in a resistance organisation, Stephen is sent to investigate him and the two men form a relationship.

This is not a particularly detailed depiction of their relationship and there are no sex scenes as such. I thought the characters well drawn and their motives well thought out. Thomas in particular is a character who is a bit rough around the edges and seems believable. I liked the way that the resistance fighters were depicted, and it made me think about how we consider terrorists. The plot is good too, although I think the end seemed a little rushed. Overall though I thought this was a very promising novel and I would read more by the author.

#guiltyreadingpleasures

Only kidding, I don't think we should feel ashamed of what we read (except tentacle porn 😉). I'm just talking about the go to books when you can't face anything else. Sometimes it's re-reads for me, but most often it’s m/m fiction from Kindle Unlimited, oozing with angst and sexy times! My favourite author is Sloane Kennedy, but I will read anything that takes my fancy. I don’t take it too seriously though, as with all romantic fiction it has it’s cliches (I constantly roll my eyes at how easy it is to find the prostate). My ratings are based on what I enjoy the best of the genre. IMHO don’t bother rating it if you are just going to sneer at it!

This Saturday was a slash fiction kind of day so I took the opportunity to try a new author, in this case Alessandra Hazard’s Straight Guys series. Short novels linked to one another on the theme of straight men realising they are attracted to men.

Just a Bit Twisted is the tale of Shawn, a college boy who has been left to look after his two four year old twin sister’s since his parents died. He somehow ends up pimping himself to his professor, the chilly Derek Rutledge. Okay, so the beginnings of their relationship does require some suspension of disbelief as Derek puts himself in an incredibly dangerous position but hell I liked both the characters and what she did with them, and I thought the sex was hot! Shawn struggles with his attraction but continually tries to act in a dignified way, especially about the money. The story is from his point of view but we do get to explore why Derek is so cold and against relationships. It left me wanting more. The only criticism I really had was the absence of proper lube in the sex!

Just a Bit Obsessed is the tale of Alexander who is pretty much forced into a threesome with his girlfriend and Christian (friends with Shawn from book 1 of Straight Guys). His girlfriend is bizarre and completely self-obsessed, Alexander REALLY DOESN’T WANT to do a threesome, he has some major issues with his father staying with his mother whilst still dicking around with men. He’s a bit of a control freak too. Yet she still forces him into it as she has a crush on Christian. She’s majorly turned on when he finally loosens up enough to kiss Christian then is surprised when it all goes sour and he only has eyes for the other man! Good characters, some hot sex and it left me wanting more.

The Dollmaker by Nina Allan

A wonderful novel of a dollmaker travelling to meet a woman whom he has fallen in love with who lives in a kind of home for people who are suffering from mental illnesses. The novel combines the story from Andrew Garvie’s perspective, the letters Bramber writes to him telling her about her day to day life and her past, and the beguiling short stories Andrew is reading by the fictional author and dollmaker Ewa Chaplin.

The short stories are original in the way that they leap straight into the stories as if they are almost novels in their own right, and they are full of magic realist wonders, transgressive love stories and populated by little people and people with disabilities and disfigurements. Andrew himself is exceptionally short and I think the way that the characters are portrayed is really well executed. Andrew comes to wonder if the stories are actually influencing his own plot as he sees the similarities in the stories he is reading with what he is currently doing.

Whilst Bramber is afflicted by a sense of guilt Andrew has his own demons to contend with - I liked the parts where he has discussions in his head with the doll ‘the Artist’ who orders him around. This is a magical book I devoured. 

The Trouble with Goodreads and a Review of the Passing Tribute

I recently completed an ARC of this on #Pigeonhole 
It was rather a departure for them and not as well received as many of the books on there which I thought was rather disappointing. A few of the readers complained it was “too wordy” and not for them, so gave it up quickly, which is fair enough. However, what I thought was highly unfair was the subsequent one star reviews on Goodreads, particularly by people who didn't even finish it.

The book currently has an average review of two stars. One of the reviewers has complained that the author should basically be resigned to any level of criticism after he reported her review for spoilers. This must be the ultimate punch in the gut after she's had the opportunity to read his book for free. I can't say that I would feel comfortable doing that even if I disliked the book. I'll write an honest review wherever I can but I have to acknowledge the effort someone has put into it. Maybe if it was poorly edited or factually incorrect or problematic maybe you would be justified, but not on the basis that it was too hard for you to read!

Sorry guys, that's the way it is.

Anyway, on to the review. Yes, this is not a casual read. The author has experimented with the postmodern idea of avoiding 'the tyranny of plot’, comparing this to the work of Virginia Woolf. There are overarching themes and things that happened, but they are not linked together, this is to give a more naturalistic feel to the story. A series of impressions to give a feeling of what is happening. It particularly suits the settings of post war England and Vienna with the themes of desolation and rebuilding. It's an incredibly lyrical, poetic story which does use some words considered archaic or obscure, but I think it's justified. This is a story about two brothers, one living in England, the other in Vienna.

I thought the parts of the story set in Vienna worked better, particularly due to the character of Millie, who works as some light relief in what could have become rather a heavy story. In contrast, I found Richard's parts a bit more difficult due to his relationship with Helene who is enigmatic to the point that I didn't feel like I could get to grips with either her character or their relationship. I feel like I may have read it a bit too quickly and that maybe Pigeonhole didn't really work as a platform for it. This is the kind of book to savour the language, to re-read and to go back to previous parts to link it all together in your mind. It's not really a page turner, but can anybody really say that postmodern novels are? However, the fear of people giving poor reviews should never put an author off experimenting, else we would all still be reading the proto novels of people like Richardson and Defoe or confining ourselves to the same type of books time and time again.I hope that the poor reviews don't put people off reading it.

The Passengers by John Marrs

A very clever set up leads to a fantastic thriller full of twists and turns and unexpected moments.

Set in a future not unlike the present where society has come to rely on autonomous cars to the extent that the government is outlawing the use of non autonomous cars; Libby is participating in a jury considering if an autonomous car is responsible for killing some pedestrians or if it was their own fault when someone hacks into the cars and takes control. What follows is a rollercoaster ride where the jury are forced to decide who lives and who dies. This is all made worse by the inevitable online publicity, and a great feature of this book is online snippets that add to the realistic feel of the novel.

The characters are well drawn and there are some great funny moments particularly with the aging actress trapped in a car who has no idea what's going on. I think the author has made great use of his former experiences of writing articles about celebrities!

Whilst this is a really entertaining read, it does also make you think about reliance on technology and how it can encourage snap judgments based on little more than how a person appears and a mob mentality. The inquest where the jury are deciding is attended by an expert who is more excited by the online stats generated by what's happening than by the thought that someone is about to die.

This month the book is 99p on Kindle and would make a great holiday read.

Nelly Dean by Alison Case

Billed as a return to Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean is the story of WH from the point of view of the servant who partially narrated the story. In it, Nelly has written her story down addressed to Mr Lockwood without sending it.

I think the most important thing about this is whether it adds to the story of WH, and out of the #backstairs books I’ve read, I think this one adds the most to the story. Nelly is a fully imagined character who sheds a great deal of light on Mr Earnshaw and particularly on Hareton who she has a really close, motherly relationship with. She also has a relationship with Hindley and sheds light on the way that he degenerates due to alcohol. The book doesn't go into a great detail about Heathcliffe and Cathy's relationship, but I don't think it needs to. However, it brings in all the themes of the moors, doomed love and the supernatural in anyway.

Aside from the WH characters, the author also brings Bodkin, the son of the family doctor who is a friend and advisor to Nelly. He brings in a welcome outside perspective to a story that can seem insular with its settings of the home and the Moor. The story can be heartbreaking at times, especially when Nelly is seperated from Hareton but her relationship with Bodkin often lightens the book without taking away the tragedy of the situation

A selection of books on a similar theme

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Reclaiming the Victims of Jack The Ripper

The Grave of the final victim

https://castbox.fm/vb/133741532 The Guardian podcast on Why we have forgotten Jack the Ripper’s Victims.

This book is a very timely exploration of the way that we view victims of these terrible crimes. In it, Hallie uses a quotation from 2008 for the trial of the Suffolk Strangler where the judge told the jury to disregard the lifestyles of the women he murdered as he felt that the jury may be influenced by their jobs as sex workers. This is a great point as we are still in a society where victims of crime such a rape are judged for their appearances.

She explores the lives of these women in a very accessible way, showing that although  it is widely believed (and indeed almost romanticised as such) that they were not all prostitutes and that we are doing them a disservice to believe the myths and focus on the murderer. Victorian society made it impossible for a woman to survive without men and any perceived transgression led to a woman being branded as ‘fallen’. All of these women had in one way or another suffered ill luck through their circumstances and suffered complete degradation as a result. This is a story of workhouses, doss houses, tramping the street, being cast out by your family and just trying desperately to survive. Alcohol was a major factor in two of the stories, the women were addicted to it as it was cheaper than food, numbed the pain and made them feel warm.

Rubenhold is a brilliant storyteller who brings the women to life so that you almost feel like you know them. She has also obviously done a great deal of difficult research, having to disregard biased and incomplete evidence.

I have been fascinated by the debate on twitter that she has begun about the way that Jack the Ripper is taught in schools as a way to draw teenagers into the history of Victorian slums and the business of the museums and tours where people seem to revel in the murders. It’s shocking some of the brutal and gory teaching materials she has found (work out the price of a prostitute, draw the dead victim etc.). She does not include anything about the murderer and not much about the murders, just where they took place and what the victims were carrying at the time. If you are looking for a book where the author provides any speculation about who the Ripper was or what happened when he murdered the victims this is not it, what it is is a meticulously researched biography of women who are traditionally overlooked.

The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby

A Victorian gothic novel which investigates ideas that a person can be born 'bad’ and can be identified as a criminal by their features. The story centres around Cora Burns, a young woman who has grown up in a workhouse, an asylum and has spent time in gaol for a crime. She finds a position in a mysterious house where the owner is doing research mainly on Violet, a mysterious little girl.

The storyline is very well plotted, using different timelines and journal entries from another researcher who is hypnotising a woman in an attempt to find more about her. There is a strong sense of mystery about the story, and the reader has to prize out the puzzle of what is going on, what happened in the past and how the characters are related. I thought this was brilliantly done and kept me guessing until the end.

Cora is an incredibly interesting character, at turns meek and submissive, then resisting violent emotions and desires to hurt people who cross or annoy her. I love what the author did with her friend Alice, I thought that was really clever. Cora develops throughout the story from someone who has no control over what happens to her and is institutionalised to a woman who is fully in control and making her way in a society which stands against her. The story perfectly illustrates the position of lower class women and in particular the lives of the outcasts in society and how they were treated in the period. I thought that the author presented a historically accurate view - this was a tragic childhood but it was not all beatings and starvation, she was treated reasonably by some of the staff, who just didn't know what to do with her. I loved what the author did with the idea of photographic images in the book, whether or not the appearance gave an indication of the person's character.

Overall, I thought this was a good story and particularly liked the inclusion of the journal entries. The gothic elements were well handled and didn’t become too over the top. It was also a book that made me think but without becoming too obvious about it.

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

I think this is probably going to be one of my favourite books of the year. A beautifully written magic realist historical novel set in Malay during the 1930s. The story centres around Ren, a young boy who is given a mission by his British master (who has died) to return his missing finger to his grave, preventing the master from walking the earth in search of it, and Ji Lin, a young woman who works as a dance partner but wishes to become a nurse. Along with Ji Lin's stepbrother Shin, they are mysteriously connected by the Confucian virtues.

A great part of the story is taken up with Chinese traditions and mythology, which is fascinating. The main motif of the story is that there is a were-tiger killing and mauling people, this is part of the magic realist aspect as well as imagery the author uses to describe the reoccurring dreams where Ren and Ji Lin communicate.

The time period and the place are perfectly chosen as you get the amazing imagery of the tiger and the sense that things are changing as the expats live and work in Malay, mostly as doctors and missionaries. Another important character is William, who works as a doctor and is Ren's new master. There is a sense of the western world colliding with the eastern world, as well as old versus new and Ji Lin's role as a woman is changing. She longs for the freedom of escaping from her family by becoming a nurse, but at the same time she feels tied to her mother and to her stepbrother, whom she is in love with. The characters are also very well written and it's the kind of book that you could easily re-read to pick up more of the hints in the story. The characters are never quite what they seem, no-one is perfectly good or evil although Ren has such innocence and is masterfully written, something I image was difficult as he is so young. The unexpectedness of the characters make them even more human and is a big part of why I think this is such a magical book.

As readers have found on Quercus's brilliant #NightTigerTogether Twitter book club, it makes for some brilliant discussions and would make a perfect book club read. Yangsze Choo has participated in some of the discussions and has provided a brilliant insight into the writing process, she is currently in talks with Netflix about making her novel The Ghost Bride into a TV series. Can't wait to read it or see it as she provided some hints about it in the novel. She is also doing a Q&A on Twitter next week, so I will be looking forward to participating in this too.

Mona Lisas and Little White Lies

This is a gentle romance with a well written although ultimately rather passive female lead. Although Lily has unknowingly been placed on a pedestal by Ryder, she defies expectations by being a motor mechanic who is treated as 'one of the boys’ by the men she works mkwith. She seems to feel rather awkward in expressing her femininity, she doesn't wear makeup, finds it difficult to flirt and is obsessed with cars. Her date with Evan is an example of how awkward she feels, he takes her to an expensive restaurant where she is unsure of what she's wearing and how to behave. The author has a very delicate way of showing how Lily feels and who she is, she's a very nuanced character.

She's very passive during dates with Evan and she constantly worries about ‘keeping her slim figure’. Her relationships are unequal conversations are one sided. When she meets Ryder he doesn't ask her anything about herself except what she does which she lies about. When he asks her about her childhood dreams she describes wanting to be a beautiful doll.

Ryder had told her he knew everything he needed to know because he knew her deep down. He’d promised. Lily had tried to tell him more, but he didn’t seem interested in knowing more.

I think that the portrayal of the relationship could possibly be the weakest part of the book, probably due to Lily's self esteem issues. She just seems to spend her time asking her boyfriends about themselves and mentally not believing herself worthy. This is problematic as potentially she is looking for self worth by finding a boyfriend. There is part of me that wishes we could have had more of Lily discovering her fabulousness with Aaron and Brooke, but the novel was too short and focussed on the relationship with Ryder. It's a sweet, romantic novel but by no means that steamy. It gets a wouldn't make Grandma blush rating.

The Burning House by Neil Spring

Delighted to find this Neil Spring novel on Netgalley, having enjoyed The Watchers and Ghost Hunters. Spring writes a good variety of fiction related to the unexplained and even better, he's from South Wales 😉.

I didn't realise until the end that he had taken the story of the real Boleskin House and weaved the story around it. Boleskin sounds an absolutely fascinating place, owned by Alestair Crowley and Jimmy Page and reputedly incredibly haunted and the site of some odd rituals and occurrences. Spring explains in a footnote that a mysterious fire did really happen, do unfortunately you can't exactly visit the real place.

Boleskin house after the fire. 

The story is a fantastic mix of the paranormal and a psychological thriller. Clara is working as an estate agent trying to escape her tragic past by living in a small Scottish village on the edge of Loch Ness. In the course of her job she accidentally kills a man which is witnessed by a stranger, a man who had an unusual interest in the creepy dilapidated Boleskin house and is extremely into mind control and the rituals Crowley performed at the site.

The plot is skillfully woven around three main characters, and is gripping enough that I didn't want to put it down. Clara is a great character, and I thought that Spring did a good job with the mysterious stranger and Karl, Clara's abusive ex. The descriptions of Boleskin house are also very good. I would be interested to find out more about Crowley's philosophy, the philosophy of Thelema. The fantastically named Oswald Catternach believes that this philosophy entitles him to do whatever he wants, no matter how unethical. This is a shocking, sometimes gruesome but very well researched book and I highly recommend it.

Back Into Trollope & Reading Wuthering Heights (without prejudice)

I've finally finished Can You Forgive Her? It took a bit of time to get into, which I think was more the fault of my state of mind rather than the book itself. It strikes me that some of it would make a rather nice updated novel, particularly the parts about Glencora's love triangle. I've read two of the Austen project novels last month - I loved the way that Curtis Sittenfield updated Pride and Prejudice, her adaptation retained all the wit and sparkle of the original and I loved the wacky Bennet family. I didn't find Joanna Trollope's version of Sense and Sensibility as successful. Austen portrays the Dashwoods and in particular Colonel Brandon with such a delicate subtlety, somehow Joanna's version just made Eleanor seem insipid and spineless and Marianne just unhinged and irritating. Trying to make Margaret speak current slang and references to social networking didn't really work either in my opinion. Anyway, I prefer Anthony and his minor Victorian scandals and politics. I've already started the next Palliser and so far it's going okay.

Other than that I have started Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to actually finish it this time and not get so confused with the Cathys and men whose names begin with a 'H'. I think I do appreciate it a little better this time around. What I find off-putting is the Stephanie Mayer's of the world misreading it as some sort of passionate immortal love story, which I don't think was quite what was intended. I definitely admire Emily Bronte for writing it and getting it published, but I can't read it as a love story. To me, it's about two reprehensible people who can't escape their dreadful upbringing and in particular the mistakes of their father, and I would rather use lit theory to analyse it than swoon over Heathcliffe. I know I can't very well argue that that was what was intended, but I think that you wouldn't really depict a romantic hero or heroine in the way that Heathcliffe and Cathy are depicted.

I think the main reading that was pursued in University was postcolonial, that Heathcliffe was some sort of Caliban avenging himself on his oppressors. I think at the moment I am pursuing an alternative reading that the lack of a mother figure affected the family dynamics and the way that Heathcliffe and Cathy behave. They are pretty much left to run wild when they are children and to grow up as having none of the graces or accomplishments needed to get on in society, and it is only when Cathy encounters the Linton family that she starts exhibiting any behaviour that could be considered feminine. Heathcliffe is left in the really awkward position of having no position, he is Mr Earnshaw's favourite over his own son but that just seems to leave both Hinton and Heathcliffe with gigantic chips on their shoulders locked in a permanent struggle for precedence which begins even before Mr Earnshaw is dead. I suppose a modern reading might assume that Heathcliffe is Mr Earnshaw's bastard son and this is why he brings him into the family in such a weird way. Anyway, the chaos seems to start pretty much as soon as he dies and the Earnshaw family encounter the Linton's. 

That's pretty much where I've got to in the novel. I'm trying to read it without prejudice anyway,

 

Results of one month of Reading Harder

I'm currently drowning in books again, but I think it's been a successful month. The greatest thing being that I finished Mr Whicher, started The Moonstone and Orhan Pamuk. I don't think I've ever read a Turkish novel, but I've finished The Black Book and I'm in the middle of The New Life. Very different. very deep with an almost dream-like quality. I'm not sure if it's to do with cultural aspects or the way that Turkish is translated. I think I would like to go back to The Black Book as I think it's the kind of novel you could read multiple times and interpret differently.

Whicher was good, but I didn't find it brilliant. It has encouraged me to read a bit more history, however, and I am still in a bit of a French phase, particularly reading a history of the infamous diamond necklace and I've foolishly started reading the Dumas novel. No idea how I'm going to get through that and The Moonstone, I'm already suffering from the racist overtones and irritating comedy servant in Wilkie's novel. Not that you read Wilkie Collins for subtlety.

By Jebulon - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11383484

 

 A pretty hideous necklace. 

Otherwise, I am reading The Sunne in Splendour but not getting very far yet, still trying to read War and Peace and hankering after A Suitable Boy. There's something about the summer months that makes me want to read massive tomes about India but I can't do this particular novel without some sort of way to record the characters or else I get a bit lost. I'm in a bit of spate of starting lots of books then not really getting into them and I have a couple of series on the go that I know I've been neglecting (in particular the Matthew Shardlake series and I've got a bit demotivated with the old Poldark around book 5. There's 12 of them. I'm hoping I'll go back to them in time but I haven't really started Heartstone or The Four Swans so I'm giving myself a bit of a break. Sometimes I inevitable feel like I read a few too many serious books. It's great, I love it, but I could probably do with getting into something a bit more frivolous right now.

Read Harder Challenge

Checking my reading list lately it occurs to me how many books I read that are by European white men, especially of the dead variety. Although I own lots of books by women and people of different races, I think I've got a bit stuck in a rut of reading books from the same perspective and in particular nineteenth century classics and books set in that time period.

So this month I have decided to try and challenge myself to try and broaden my horizons. I am not going to ban myself from reading books I've already started, but I'm hoping that all the books I start will be by alternative authors.

So far I have continued the French theme I have been pursuing by reading The Lost King of France, a history book describing the downfall of the French royal family and attempts to trace Louis XVII through DNA testing. Although I enjoy reading history books I don't often read books with forensic analysis. This was very interesting and obviously well researched. Deborah Cadbury's description of the treatment of the Dauphin was heartbreaking but avoided becoming too melodramatic. 

Tigers in Red Weather, on the other hand, was wonderfully melodramatic. Full of lurid family secrets and deeply flawed characters. I liked how the story is teased out through the shift in narrative viewpoints so that the reader is not actually sure about the heart of the mystery until the end.

Finally, I finished A Little Life, something that had been on my reading list for a while. Not an easy book to get into due to the subject matter and it seemed like most readers either loved it or hated it. I was in the minority of appreciating it. I thought that the writing was really good, I could appreciate the uplifting moments (I cannot understand people giving books low ratings for being depressing, especially books that are about child abuse) and I was moved and horrified by the story but I also recognised the criticisms, that perhaps Yanagihara missed out on portraying homosexuals and homosexual relationships in a positive way and that the abuse depicted is so very extensive and revealed throughout the book in such a way that it starts to read a little like a hurt/comfort fan fic where the poor protagonist is heaped with such a litany of horrifying things happening to them that it kind of numbs the reader. Once I got into it, I raced through it but the second half got a little frustrating with Jude continually apologising and refusing to see a psychiatrist or do much else to help himself. Anyway, it got 4 stars and I didn't write a review on Goodreads. 

As a follow up I have started The Goldfinch. I haven't had a great history with Donna Tartt, I hated The Secret History to the point of blocking it from my mind and I can't even remember if I actually finished it. But so far I have been impressed with the writing and the plot. 

I am also considering continuing with the French theme by reading a book that's been on the old 'to read' list for a long time, A Place of Greater Safety. I've started it a few times but somehow never got into it. 

Otherwise, I am not sure where the read harder challenge will take me, although I think I'd like to read a little bit more history and also Villa America.