Mockingjay Pt 2

And so another film franchise comes to its conclusion.
Having read the first half of the book a year ago, it took me a while to get back into the story. There are a lot of things that need tying up - the rebellion, the final confrontation between Snow and Katniss, the healing of Peeta and choosing between him and Gale.
I found it all too rushed.
The rebellion is happening without Katniss, as she is being used for propaganda. There are lots of Hunger Games type traps set around the streets of the Capitol, however, which heightens the peril for Katniss and her team.
As always with a civil war, it is the general innocent populace that suffers most - yes, they enjoyed wealth whilst the other Districts suffered, but are they responsible for the political actions of their leader? They die caught in the crossfire and as a result of the callous traps that take anyone regardless of faction.

Most of the pages are spent being chased or avoiding death, to the detriment of the characters.

Brooklyn

The Book

Colm Toibin's short and easy novel is a small pleasure to read. It's not trying to be clever or convey any deep messages - just a simple story told well.

Eilis Lacey is a young daughter in 1950s Ireland. Her father has died and most of the other siblings have left the family home to make their way in the world. Unbeknownst to her, her mother and older sister Rose have arranged for Eilis to travel to Brooklyn with the help of Irish American priest Father Flood.

The unpleasant, rough journey in third class does not start the new life off well, but Eilis settles in to a boarding house with nicely sketched characters - all women trying to make their way in the world - and a shop assistant post at a local superstore. At a local dance, she meets italian Tony, who gradually charms her and introduces her to his family. As future plans are made, a tragedy back in Ireland recalls Eilis to her family. Tony and Eilis secretly marry in order to seal the promise that she will return, but is it enough, when family and friends in Ireland conspire to set her up with a suitable boyfriend?

The Martian

The Book

On a NASA manned mission to Mars, a storm hits the Habitat and the crew have to evacuate the planet. Botanist and mechanical engineer Mark Watney is hit by flying debris and separated from the rest. Despite a desperate against-the-clock search, the crew have to leave without him, assuming him dead.
The rest of the book is an exploration of the inherent will to survive against all the odds, as Mark explains in his log the day to day struggle to live on a hostile planet totally alone. The thorough and technical descriptions given on the processes of setting up camp, growing potatoes etc can become a bit dull and difficult to visualise for the unscientific mind, but Mark's humour and positivity keep you engaged, as do shifts of focus to NASA control and the rest of the mission crew, who are all well written characters.
A real tension sets in once a rescue plan is instigated and the reader feels the frustration with every unexpected and sometimes forbiddingly signalled setback.

The Scorch Trials

The Book

The Scorch Trials is book 2 in the Maze Runner series and continues where the previous book left off. Thomas and the remaining bunch of Gladers are told they have been infected with the Flare (the virus that gradually turns humans into mad Cranks) and the only way to be given the cure is to make their way to the Safe Haven across the Scorch (the desert left across the equator following solar flares).

Sound convoluted? Well it gets worse.. and that's the problem.

The reader has to suspend belief and accept that all the hardships, changes in character and deaths are down to the organisation WCKD needing to subject the young people to a wide range of emotional experiences in order to record brain activity and thereby use this to save the human race.

Paper Towns

The Book

I was looking forward to reading this after so enjoying John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, but sadly this does not compare. The Fault in Our Stars appealed to all ages because although the characters were young adults, it contained philosophical and thought-provoking passages about mortality and life that everyone thinks about. Paper Towns has no interesting snippets or quirky asides but is a novel about fitting in, something that every teenager ruminates over and comes up against - the pecking order and cliques in high school, becoming an individual in your own right and conforming with society. As an adult, this has either been embraced or reluctantly accepted.

Quentin Jacobsen was best friends with Margo Roth Spiegelman before high school, but peer pressures mean that cool girl Margo can't be seen to hang out with geek Quentin as they get older. One night, however, she appears at his window and encourages him to drive her out around late night Orlando to dispense revenge on her two-timing boyfriend and her friends.

Mortdecai / Don't Point That Thing at Me

The Book

The first in a trilogy, Don't Point That Thing at Me, is told in the first person by eccentric, aristocratic art dealer Charlie Mortdecai. He has a witty, upper-class turn of phrase which is the main delight in this tale of art theft, murder and evasion from both the authorities and criminals. The comparison with P G Wodehouse is strong, with references to Bertie Wooster made by the author. Mortdecai also has a man-servant who helps him out of predicaments, but Jock Strapp (one of a few puerile puns), although loyal, is a dense heavy with no mirror to Jeeves.
There is a plot but it was difficult to keep tabs on it. As Mortdecai himself says "If I have not always made clear the rationale of these events, it is partly because you are probably better at that sort of thing than I am and partly because I confess myself quite bemused by finding that the events which I thought I was controlling were in fact controlling me."

The Last Act

 The Book

At 140 pages, Philip Roth's novel is a short and quick read, but it covers a lot of ground. It does this by skipping chunks of time, with details mentioned briefly, but with a focus on pivotal conversations and moments that have a real bearing. There is very little to no description provided to set scenes and the reader fills in the blanks.

Simon Axler is an actor in his fifties who has done film, TV and lots of theatre work. He has a crisis of self-belief in his ability and can no longer perform, bringing him close to suicide in his depression. He spends time in a psychiatric institution and befriends a woman whose reason for being there is shocking. This is the storyline you want to be explored and developed, but instead we have Pegeen Mike, a young lesbian daughter of former stage actor friends, who is wanting to lay low after splitting from a passionate affair with a female university dean.

Stonehearst Asylum

The Book

The short story that the film is based on goes by the bizarre title of The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (referring to a severe form of humiliation meted out to people who deserved punishment - being brushed in hot tar and then coated with feathers). It is the original tale from which all other versions stem whereby the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The tale is told in the first person by a gentleman who, while travelling in France, makes a visit to a private mad-house as he has heard great things about their methods of treatment. A friend introduces him to the superintendent, Monsieur Maillard, who welcomes him and invites him to dine with six other guests. The behaviour of the guests becomes increasingly eccentric, but the gentleman is uncertain whether it is the peculiarity of the Europeans (and doesn't want to make a social faux pas) or that he is dining with lunatics.
The end of their meal is interrupted when a group of freakish apes crash into the room and a fight ensues. The real guards and doctors of the asylum had been locked in the basement, tarred and feathered. One had escaped, released the others and they had now successfully recaptured the mad-house.

Men, women & children

The Book

Chad Kultgen's novel focuses on the way the internet, social media and texting has altered relationships - familial, friends and partners. None of it in a good way. Fathers and mothers start extra-marital affairs with ease via dating and sex websites; friends are developed online but with no context or meaning; partners express their love and urges to each other via text but find it difficult to talk to each other when face to face. Because of this whole new world of communication, people have lost the art of telling people how they really feel except online where no-one can see them or interact in an emotional way. This is cleverly conveyed by all the real life conversations carried out with the word "said" - there is no adjective that conveys emotion and lets you or the other characters know how they are feeling. Its easier to text about sex than talk face to face about it - there is no embarrassment and talking dirty can be less restrained or awkward.

Child 44

The Book

44 children have been brutally murdered - found naked with their stomachs removed and mouths stuffed with ground bark.

The true enemy in Tom Rob Smith's novel set in Stalinist Russia, however, is the state system and its ideological viewpoint. Having read George Orwell's 1984, the nightmarish scenario "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever" was one I was familiar with but wasn't aware how much was history.
The reason a killer has been allowed to get away with so many murders is because the state does not recognise crimes like murder - that is a capitalist weakness. As everyone is happy and content in Russia, there should be no need for crime. Each murder is treated as an isolated incident with no co-ordination and a convenient person who is not the ideal Stalinist citizen is rounded up, tortured until they confess and then executed.

 Leo Demidov is an MGB State Security Officer who has carried out these practices for years in return for advancement and security, but when a scheming, jealous partner incriminates Leo's wife as a spy, he is demoted and sent to a remote outpost for not agreeing (and thereby going against the State).
With nothing to lose, disillusioned Leo starts to investigate the true serial killer, but its difficult to get evidence when fear of the State is greater than fear of a murderer.
The final confrontation between Leo and the killer is rather a subdued affair following the thrill of the chase and a massive plot reveal, but everything is tied up nicely.
If you intend to read the book, don't read any further as I am going to reveal the twist...

Seventh Son

The Book

.. or books, as the Seventh Son is the title covering the first two separately published books in the Spook series by Joseph Delaney - Spook's Apprentice and Spook's Curse. Delaney's books are set in a fictional County in medieval England, but taking inspiration from real places in Lancashire, where he lives. There is a definite Northern feel, with characters walking over fells and saying Aye a lot, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing with me about the adaptation, looking at the cover of the book (the film poster) which has Jeff Bridges as the Spook and Julianne Moore as a pale red head (I am guessing a witch).


Tom Ward starts learning to be the Spook's Apprentice and leaves his family to be taught in the ways of imprisoning boggarts, witches and ghosts.


The first book focuses on this initial training and Tom's gradual introduction to Alice, a young girl with pointy shoes, who persuades him to help Mother Malkin, an old crone of a witch to escape her imprisonment by the Spook. Realising his error, he tries to kill the newly risen witch and she becomes wick - a shapeless form that can take over the body of another. The finale is set for a great showdown where the reader is looking for clues as to who out of Tom's friends and family might be the witch in disguise.

Insurgent

The Book

Having foiled the attempt by Jeanine Matthews and the Erudite to mind control the Dauntless to do their bidding, Tris, Tobias and a group of rebels are pursued as they move from faction to faction. The visits to Amity, Candor and the factionless give us a bigger picture and help flesh out the differences within the different groups. It also brings together characters from each faction, where familial and friendly loyalty sometimes overcomes the faction traits.
Jeanine continues to pose a threat, expanding her control to include Candor and experimenting on Tris in order to overcome the Divergent strain that is resistant to the mind control serum. 
The last 100 pages are non-stop action, whereby the factionless and Dauntless team up to storm the Erudite's fortress, which is protected by controlled Candor.
The second book in the trilogy is much more satisfying to read and provides at least some explanation for the strange divisions in the society, with a grand reveal at the end:

The Giver

Oh no, not another young adult dystopia novel! Lois Lowry's classic and popular story was written in 1993, however - way before trend. It could be seen as the young adult novel that started the ball rolling, in fact, and has so many elements that stay with you after reading.
It has all the usual requirements of the genre: strict rules and regulations, assigned roles within the community, selection ceremonies and callous leaders. It is not until Jonas on his twelfth birthday is selected to be the next Receiver of Memory that it starts to become clear just how bad things have got in this alternative society.
There are illustrations in my version by Paul Cox and they feel totally wrong for the tone of the novel. It even becomes a bit dubious, when the young Receiver has to lie shirtless on the bed and the Giver, a smiling old man, puts his hands on his back.

The Giver is a benign figure, however, who is the holder of all the current and past population's memories. He passes them on to Jonas through touch and Jonas experiences the memories for the first time - family Xmas', sledging in the snow but also war, pain and suffering. He holds these to protect the rest of the people but it is a heavy burden and The Giver's previous chosen incumbent (his daughter) committed suicide.

A Most Wanted Man

John Le Carre novels have never been something that I have enjoyed reading. I tried Tinker, Tailor but found it the same as this - plodding and wordy, dialogue heavy and with little action.
It starts promisingly, with a Muslim immigrant turning up in Hamburg and claiming an inheritance from a private British bank, that was accrued by his father through nefarious means. The plot follows lawyer for the displaced and regugees, Annabel Richter, and banker Tommy Brue as they are reluctantly used by British and German politicos as pawns in a larger chess game to catch a jihadist funder of terror operations.


If it wasn't for this blog, I don't think I would have persevered with the book, as it was dull and added very little in the way of revelations to the war on terror.

If I Stay

Another Young Adult novel following on the heels of Fault in Our Stars that also features teenage love and tragic death, but falling short.
The family breakfast idyll, where a disappointing snow storm gives the excuse for everyone to skip work or school, soon shatters when they are involved in a tragic car accident. Both parents are instantly killed and daughter Mia is rushed to hospital in a critical condition. It is frustratingly unclear what has happened to her younger brother, Teddy. Mia continues to tell the story of her treatment at the hospital and the various ways in which family and friends cope with the bereavement via an out-of-body experience. The question is does Mia have anything left to live for now or should she let go?
Interspersed with the current timeframe are Mia's reminiscences of her family and blossoming first love with Adam. Mia and Adam both share a love of music, as she develops as an accomplished cellist and he as a guitarist in a rock band.

Testament of Youth

The Book

Vera Brittain's memoir of the First World War was published in 1933, quite a while after the prolific outpouring of novels, poems and biographies in the late 1920s. She acknowledges Robert Graves' autobiography, Goodbye to All That, early on and having read his harrowing, reportage of life in the trenches, I found Testament of Youth a less powerful read. I think because she is writing of her own experiences, mainly away from the front as a volunteer nurse, and relying on letters and telegrams from her brother and her tragic first love to fill in detail, the book is more personal and concentrates on her feelings and reactions to what is going on around her and out of her control.

It was interesting to read about the way civilian life back home altered as a result of WW1 and the attitudes of the older generation to the conflict, but it did not grip me as Graves did.