Tag Archives: Paranormal

November 19, 2012 · 5:34 pm

My Week In Books. [6]

Each Monday I review the books I’ve read in the previous week in mini reviews.

Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby. Bloomsbury Childrens.
I liked the way this book throws you right into the action from the very beginning, the reader is introduced to the main character – teen paparazzo Jo – as she tries to get photographs of teen heartthrob Ned. I found that I liked Jo straight away, and then as the book progressed there was more and more to like. When she’s sent undercover to try and get highly private pictures of Ned at a rehab retreat her dilemma over whether she can bring herself to invade his privacy for the amount of money being offered feels genuine and draws the reader in.

I often find books where one character is hiding a pretty big secret from the other really stressful to read. There was a small part of this book that had me feeling a bit stressed but the way the plot is handled and evolves meant that I found myself really enjoying it. There’s a lovely blend of humorous moments and more thoughtful moments, the latter in particular may well leave readers thinking about our current celebrity culture and its cost.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. Sourcebooks Fire.
I absolutely loved this book. I expected it would be one that I would really enjoy, I’m a huge sports fan so the idea of a book about a female quarterback trying to lead her high school team to the championship final sounded like something I’d really enjoy. I was hooked within the first chapter and I didn’t put it down until I’d read the final page. The plot is wonderful, yes it’s a story about high school football but it’s also a story about friendship, about love, and about family.

I loved Jordan and found that I could really identify with her, despite the fact I’d never been remotely sporty let alone so entirely sport driven. The various team mates who played significant parts in the book all made me smile, they really came across well as a group of friends who all cared for and supported each other. I found myself wishing I was part of their social circle! I have a feeling that when I’m deciding on my top ten reads of the year this book may well make the cut.

Love at Second Sight by Cathy Hopkins. Simon & Schuster UK.
I hadn’t read anything by Cathy Hopkins before but I knew lovely Liz from My Favourite Books is a big fan so when she offered me a copy of this to read I snapped it up. I have to admit that before I started reading I wasn’t 100% sure about it, the plot surrounds a teen girl being told by a clairvoyant that her true love from a former life is someone she knows in this life so she has a second chance of love with him. I needn’t have been concerned though, the plot is well constructed and really works.

Jo, the main character, is a lovely character. She’s a little bit different to a lot of the girls who get to take centre stage in YA fiction and I found this refreshing. Her friendship with Effy and Tash is lovely, I particularly liked the way that they complemented one another without having to agree on everything. I also liked the focus on genealogy within the plot, it was good to see it described well.

I enjoyed this read so much that I already have my next Cathy Hopkins on reserve at my local library.

Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird by Eleanor Hawken. Quercus.
This book is a lovely, quick, funny read that I’m sure middle grade readers will love. Written in diary form this is a really entertaining read about a boy whose family are all turned into werewolves at the zoo they run. After discovering his family’s misfortune Sammy is desperate to find a cure and to get them all back to normal. He’s helped along in his quest by the mysterious Donny and Red, a team of cryptozoologists who arrive at just the right time.

There are plenty of laughs in this book along with some moments that I’m sure the target audience will be appropriately scared by. I think this book has a lot of potential as a read aloud book, I can imagine a group listening very attentively to it. There are plans for a second book in this series, I’m looking forward to it already.

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October 8, 2012 · 3:48 pm

My Week In Books. [1]

Each Monday I review the books I’ve read in the previous week in drabble form – exactly 100 words excluding title and publishing details.

Operation Bunny by Sally Gardner, illustrated by David Roberts. Orion Children’s Books.
Emily Vole makes headline news in the first weeks of her life, when she is found in an abandoned hatbox in Stansted Airport. Then, only a few years later, her neighbour Mrs String dies leaving Emily a mysterious inheritance: an old shop, a small bunch of golden keys and a cat called Fidget. It’s the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime as the old Fairy Detective Agency comes back to life.

This is the first book in a new series, Wings & Co, aimed at young readers. I thought it was a great read, it introduces the characters and the magical version of the world that the book’s set in really well. There’s enough adventure and excitement to balance out the scene setting, I think it’ll capture the imagination of most young readers. I love the illustrations included in the book, they really add to the experience. Emily is a wonderful lead character, I’ll be looking forward to reading about her adventures in the next book. A definite thumbs up from me.

Undone by Cat Clarke. Quercus.
A video appears online. And a boy jumps off a bridge. Jem is determined to avenge the death of Kai – her beloved best friend who was driven to desperation after being ‘outed’ by the popular crew at school. Transforming herself from introverted emo to in-crowd acceptable, Jem becomes part of the clique. She’s going to take down those responsible, one by one. But what if Kai was keeping secrets from Jem? Could her quest for revenge be directed at the wrong people? And can Jem find out what really happened before someone else gets hurt?

I was the lucky winner of Cat Clarke’s ARC giveaway, as soon as it arrived I knew I had to read it next. I read it cover to cover in an afternoon, it’s absolutely gripping and I had to know how it ended. Undone is a story of grief and loss, and of trying to find a way through it – in Jem’s case that’s exacting vengeance. The characters are so real, they’re insecure and self-focused and flawed making them seem to leap off the page. It’s a bold, wonderful book that packs a real emotional punch, a fantastic read.

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond. Strange Chemistry.
And finally a little bit of a cheat for the first week, I won’t make a habit of it – I reviewed this book for Book Angel Booktopia. You can read it here.

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January 24, 2012 · 10:00 am

Book Review : Hollow Pike by James Dawson.

Something wicked this way comes…

She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her.

Lis thinks she’s being paranoid – after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you?

Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark – and a twig snaps…

Hollow Pike – where witchcraft never sleeps

I was very excited when a copy of this dropped through my letter box, I’ve been aware of it for a while from reading other book blogs and it sounded like my kind of book. Witchcraft and legends and countryside woods are all things that together suggest a good, scary read. It’s been a while since I was properly scared by a book, I wondered if Hollow Pike would be the one to manage it.

I was gripped by this book within the first few pages, I started reading it at work and it was so hard to stop reading when it was time for me to go home. Lis has moved from Bangor to Hollow Pike to live with her sister after bullies at school made her life hell. I found that I straight away felt a connection to Lis, my own high school experience was absolutely horrendous and so I felt like I completely understood where she was coming from. The book follows Lis as she starts a new life at a new school, and the difficulties that come from joining a new well established social structure complete with its own awful bullies. At the same time that she’s working out where she fits into her new school there are strange things going on too, and she keeps having the same scary dream that feels so real.

I really liked Lis, as I’ve already mentioned I found I could identify strongly with her, and I loved her strength and determination. Whilst Laura, the ringleader of the bullies, was an entirely dislikeable character I think she was really well created and at times worryingly believable. Danny was one of my favourite characters in the book, as soon as he appeared as a potential romantic interest for Lis I started to fall for him, I was really pleased with the way we got to know him throughout the book.

This book most definitely managed to scare me. I read the majority of it through the day and was really glad I did, I think if I’d read it at bedtime I wouldn’t have got much sleep – as it was I found myself thinking about it as I went to bed and could hear the wind whipping through the trees that surround my house. I found that the last few chapters in particular made for tense reading.

I’m pretty sure that over the next couple of weeks book blogs across the UK are going to be featuring lots of glowing reviews for this book, and it absolutely deserves them. It’s a gripping read that scares and thrills in equal measures. The fact that this is a debut novel makes the book an even more exciting prospect, James Dawson is definitely going to be an author to watch in the years to come.

Hollow Pike is published in trade paperback and hardback by Orion in the UK from 2nd February 2012. Whilst I was provided with a review copy of the book all of the opinions expressed are my own.

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July 15, 2011 · 9:30 am

Author Interview : Ransom Riggs.

Today I’m thrilled to be able to share with you the interview I did with Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I reviewed the book yesterday, you can see what I thought about it here.

Hi Ransome, first let me welcome you to my blog!

I loved the photographs that were used throughout the book, and I was really interested to read at the end that they were real photos. Which came first? Did you form the plot around the photos or did you find photos to match the story?
The photos came first. I’d been collecting them for about a year, at flea markets and second-hand stores, and I kept finding these creepy pictures of kids from a long time ago — when they started haunting my dreams, I knew I needed to do something with them! It was my editor at Quirk Books who suggested weaving a story through them. The title came to me in a flash, and the rest followed pretty naturally from there. So in answer to your question, a little a both — some photos I was determined to work into the story from an early stage, and in some cases I knew I needed the plot to take a certain turn and had to search for photos to fit that.

The book is certainly very creepy, what or who influenced this?
Thanks! I’m just drawn to those kinds of stories, I suppose — I prefer my fiction with just a touch of the supernatural, the fantastical, the horrific.

You created some brilliant characters in the book, who was your favourite to write?
Miss Peregrine, because she has such a distinctive way of speaking. I think in another life I was a Victorian-era matron!

I know that 20th Century Fox have snapped up the film rights for the book, have you got a dream cast in mind?
There are a few actors that leap to mind for certain roles — Helena Bonham-Carter or Tilda Swinton for Miss Peregrine. I love Saoirse Ronin and I think she’d make a great Emma. And Kodi Smit-McPhee is an amazing young actor — too young for Jacob, probably, but there are several other young male roles in the book.

The book ends in a pretty open way that seems to suggest a sequel, do you have plans for more books?
I can’t talk about it just yet! Suffice to say, I’m working on … something.

This is your debut novel, what was the path to getting published like for you?
It was somewhat peculiar! I’d been writing for blogs and magazines for a few years when Quirk Books asked me if I wanted to write The Sherlock Holmes Handbook for them. I jumped at the opportunity, had a great time doing it, and when we’d finished with that, my editor and I were looking for another project to do together. And along came Miss Peregrine!

Finally have you got any advice for aspiring authors?
Write a lot, and take every opportunity that comes along, no matter how small. Blogging opened up a whole world of opportunities for me. Say yes to things — and even if you’re not being paid a whole lot (or anything) to do them, do them as well as you can! Take pride in every word you write.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!
Thank you!

Ransom blogs here, is on Twitter as @ransomriggs, and is on Facebook here.

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July 14, 2011 · 1:05 pm

Book Review : Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here – one of whom was his own grandfather – were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow – impossible though it seems – they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

I loved the synopsis for this book as soon as I read it, the combination of curious photographs, an orphanage and Wales made it seem like my kind of book. When my copy arrived and I flicked through I was thrilled to see creepy looking photographs dotted throughout the book. I wasn’t sure how conducive the book would be to a good night’s sleep, so I waited until I had a day I could spend reading and settled down to get lost in it.

The book starts by focussing on Jacob and his grandfather, since he was a boy Jacob has been hearing his grandad’s stories about peculiar children but the older he’s got the less he’s believed them. The presence of photographs didn’t help him to believe them, instead he wondered how the photos had been doctored. Jacob’s story takes him to the remote Welsh island that his grandad claims these adventures took place on, for me it was at this point that the plot really picks up. I got really involved in the story, it’s very atmospheric and at times I felt like I was right in the thick of it.

I thought that Jacob was a really interesting character. I didn’t always agree with him or what he did, but he kept me wanting to read on. It’s difficult to talk much about the other characters in the book without spoilers, though I must say that I liked Miss Peregrine but would have liked to see a bit more of her.

I loved the way that the photographs that are described in the story are all included in the book. I loved being able to pore over the photographs – they’re wonderful and for me they added an extra layer of intrigue to the book.

I found that as I was getting closer to the end of the book I was worried that there weren’t enough pages left to tie up all of the plot. The ending of the book does feel like it comes quite abruptly, I can see that it could go one of two ways, either there will be a sequel which will continue the story on or it’s been left for the reader to decide what happens to all of the characters. I’m certainly hoping there will be a sequel, I want to spend more time in this world with the wonderful and unusual characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and will certainly be recommending it. I know that 20th Century Fox won a bidding war for the film rights to Miss Peregrine, I hope that we’ll get to see it on the big screen – I think it would work very well.

Make sure you come back tomorrow as I have an interview with Ransom Rigg.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is published in hardback by Quirk Books in the UK priced £11.99. Whilst I was provided with a review copy of the book all of the opinions expressed are my own.

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