I love a vampire story. This is like a thrilling murder mystery novel (including all the turmoil a good Harry Hole requires at its best) that also highlights an historical anthology of vampires in popular culture between the lines.

Harry and Rakel have found one another again for a time and are making things work and everyone is happy. For once peace reins. And it’s beautiful even though it’s a little bit broken, like a mosaic of shattered painted glass. Even Oleg has grown up and makes us proud. Of course we know that can’t last.

The case is as gruesome as any Harry has met, and the surrounding life details and confusion add to probably one of the more complicated plots of the series. I don’t want to give anything away, but I had to ‘rewind’ quite a few times with this one to put pieces together. So AMAZINGLY complex!!! I loved that!

And in the midst of these intertwining mysteries going on, Rakel and Harry’s relationship is one again in danger—and for the first time it’s not Harry’s fault. Nesbø has us on edge with this part, though. It adds a nail biting element of suspense to an already hair raising thriller.

Add the psychologically damaged though highly functioning intellect of the sexy detective Katrine to the plot—and well, I was cursing them and excusing them in the same breath I was holding out hope for Rakel. It got very edgy and complicated by 3am. (Oh yes, I started this at night like a fool, thinking I’d read a couple chapters, and needless to say, it’s a Harry Hole, so I was up all night).

By the end, a murderer is apprehended (or is he?) and everyone’s relationships are safely intact (or are they?) and we await the next instalment. Yes. Cos this can’t be over, not by a mile.

I’m still thirsting for more…

A short novel exploring the world and characters of Fable.

Bryn must overcome the corruption of people manipulating their own fates around her to free herself from their system—but it seems impossible to break the chains. Her character grows as the story unfolds, and she learns both to trust and be wary with appropriate wisdom.

The best part of these stories is the world built to display them and their characters—it’s a simple fantasy setting glittering with old-world charms and tainted with knavery. But for the most part, the characters are only one shade beyond two-dimensional, and familiarly predictable. We’ve seen them before, wrapped in other names and cloaks, but they fulfil a role in an uncomplicated plot and pique enough interest to keep you reading. The dialogue is readable and the narrative is fast paced, making this a fun little adventure to consume in the span of a few hours.

A quick adventure with predictable outcomes, but enjoyable nonetheless.

This novel was an explosively satisfying end to a dense adventure with rich diverse characters in a hidden world of ancient charms. I was gripped from beginning to end and cried when it was over.

Dara is probably my favourite of all these characters; he is such a naive child in the soul of a millennia-old genie, captive by the humans and djinn who would manipulate and abuse him—until Nahri. Alizayd steals your heart, and Muntadhir too with all his twists and turns—and we don’t get enough of Zayneb! and all the while, you never stop hoping that Nahri will succeed in her fight for justice, equality, and democracy.

This is a layered and complicated socio-political tale, chock full of unexpected romance and mythological twists, an unpredictable plot that drives wildly out of control until careening to its unforeseeable end. And the novel has such good characterisation. Such stellar characterisation. I mean, even the fifth-level little foil characters were jumping off the page and crawling under your skin. Fantastic characterisation…

Once I started reading I couldn’t put it down, and after it was done, the characters still linger in the fog of my brain, pulling at my engaged emotions, whisking me in a memory back to Daevabad… and my heart begs for more.

Matt is a decent fourteen year old protagonist who has just the right mix of cowardice and bravado, ignorance and goodness to keep him making blunders that lead to adventures and choices that lead to cool alliances.

The idea of the gate and the old ones is intriguing, and the setting in Peru with the Incas and condors and a load of odd characters keeps you engaged but...

This one is not as dark as the first, and not quite as interesting all round, even if it has moments and ends on a high note.

The mystery and ancient myths tied in were my favourite parts, but anything to do with ancient cultures and religions with an anthropologist focus always saddles my hobby horse.

Lastly, I have to mention that any novel written for teenage boys that includes a geographical exploration of Lake Titikaka has to be a hit in some way.

This is a satirical work of sheer genius. No wonder this man is the Father of 20th Century American Satire. Written back then—still sadly relevant in the America of today.

A thought-provoking mess of clashing ignorance, racism, capitalism and analysis of the so-called American dream and so forth. Characters tied to circumstance and poverty, driven by survival or greed into an inevitable pileup on the interstate finish of this short masterpiece. 

I listened to the audiobook read by Stanley Tucci, who is the perfect tone and voice for this work.

Ce livre est vraiment une œuvre d'art plus qu'une histoire exacte, qu'un roman… que dire qui n'ait déjà été écrit ?

Intense. Captivant. Beaucoup de suspens. J'ai aimé ce livre plus que ses autres... sur le fil jusqu'à la fin.

This is a sad memoir of community, love, family, and underlying hope in the midst of struggle and loss and the exhausting hardships of immigrant life. The writing is sparse, in places shocking, heartbreaking, and poetic, full of familiar places and tastes, cast in the light and time of a newer, younger, conflicted generation. Tertiary characters come and go in a blur of brief stereotype-forming encounters and bouts of sickening racism, marring and tainting a diversely beautiful demographic landscape. And in the mess and mingle, a boy, his brother, and their battered mother struggle to live, be heard, and live—just live in peace with good food and music and people.

…a symphony for Scarborough, Chariandy should adapt this for the stage.

Listened to the audiobook—a smooth and subtle reading by Joseph Pierre.

Holding off on full review until after the Book Club mtg… I’ve got a LOT of thoughts ... 

In summary: This was a well-constructed pulp fiction noir novel set in a period in Mexican history that still resonates discord among the divided masses and propels humanitarian justice seekers…

This is short. Fast. A quick little thriller. Less like a novel and more like the sparse script for an episode of a Scandinavian police procedural. Would love to see this on screen with all that vast dark, desolate, and snowy landscape. 

For anyone (like me) who’s been planing a trip to Iceland (for over ten years and it hasn’t happened yet), this is a nice appetiser of setting and atmosphere. 

It’s good as a thriller too, and although sold as a single novel, it’s more of an introduction to a larger plot. In Jónasson’s writing style, everything happens in info dumps packed in fierce tiny bullets and fired rapidly in several directions.

Hulda’s perceptions are tainted by stereotypes and an environment rife with chauvinism, but you can’t blame her. She’s had a rough life and her glimpses of happiness have been short lived.  

The novel starts at the end—the very butt end—of Hulda’s career, and yet turns out to be the beginning of something more complex; the unfurling of a tightly clenched fist. By the end of this introductory novel, the palm of the hand is spread wide and the fingers are splayed out—and we realise there’s FAR more to this plot still to come…

Listened to the audiobook: a mere 5h22 short and ends on the precipice of an icy cliff… have #2 handy if you can…