The Strangler Vine is an interesting novel – part road-trip, part examination of British-Indian relations in the 1800’s and part detective story starring an opium addicted poet, a by-the-book soldier, a shady mercenary and a bloodthirsty cult. If all that sounds like a bit much to take in, it’s not as Tarantino as described! It’s a carefully plotted novel, slowly dropping plot-points like breadcrumbs along the road at regular intervals. The story follows the mismatched duo of William Avery, a self-important junior officer in the East […]
A strange novel filled with creeping visions and woozy memories – a purgatory on earth filled with nightmares.
The story is narrated in journal form by a biologist sent as part of a team to a contaminated coastal zone known as Area X, a mysterious location seemingly unbridled by the rules of the natural world. We are not introduced to the members of the party by name, each character is instead clinically referred to only by their role. Eleven previous teams were sent, all of which never returned, died shortly after or came back different. This theme of transmutation permeates through the whole […]
An uplifting and poetic ode to literature.
Set in a Japanese prison during the Second World War, The Investigation is the story of two prison guards and their separate dealings with a young prisoner – a fictionalised version of the well-respected Korean poet Yun Dong-ju. The novel is inspired by his life, works and death, placing his wistful and hopeful poems within the text for both us and the characters to discover. The novel begins with a well-educated young guard called Watanabe taking up the role of censor in the prison, as well as […]
3 down, 1 more to go in the series
This book is a more direct continuation of Gathering Blue. Matt, Kira’s friend from Gathering Blue lived in the ghetto of Kira’s Tribe. His parents were NOT nice. At the end of Gathering Blue, Matt had went with Kira’s father to live with him in The Village. The Village was founded by people who are not welcome in their own villages. Some travelled far and wide, some, like Kira’s father and Matt, came from just beyond the Forest. Now this Village, this is Utopian. Jonas, […]
Possesion or Hot Conflicted Angelic Hero Totally Overshadows Supposed Main Plot
Possession (Fallen Angels #5) by J.R. Ward – Paranormal Romance – Spoilers ahead! The conceit of the Fallen Angels series is that seven souls are at crossroads, heaven and hell are vying for each soul and whoever gets best of seven gets to take over the world. Jim Heron, the hero of the series, has just traded a win in the aforementioned divine contest to get Sissy Barton out of hell. Cait Douglass, the heroine of the book, is trying to get out there and live […]
Trains or Foster Homes?
The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1853 and 1929, relocating about 250,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children. Two charitable institutions, the Children’s Aid Society and later, the Catholic New York Foundling Hospital, endeavored to help these children. The two institutions developed a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned city children, who […]
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