Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro review

It is both moving and sinister from the start. The acceptance from the characters of their fate, is heart-breaking they know what their lives are for and that makes it heart-breaking. It is definitely something that will stay with you long after you finish reading.

It is written in the first person by a female narrative, who slowly reveals in reminisces the predicament her and her friends are in. By receiving the information this way, we the reader are left wanting to know more. It's as if we learn it the same way Kathy and her friends would have during their school years, just being told a little bit at a time.

One thing I really loved about this book was how Ishiguro covered relationships and memories. In life our relationships with those we love change and eventually like Kathy we have to accept this and learn to grow. Key moments in life always come back to us, they never seem to be that important when they happen but maybe later in life we can look back at them with fresh eyes just like Kathy.

Some may say these characters are 'two dimensional' but I just don't see that, these are emotionally damaged young people, who've been bought up in constant confinement. They never learn how to grow and even though I've said it before it chilled me how they just accept their fate, that one day they will 'complete'.

I won't say much else, just that you must read this book!

Perks of being Wallflower review

So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

We can all find a little bit of ourselves in the protagonist Charlie, at first I didn’t know if I’d be able to relate to Charlie, he is a fifteen year old boy who has had to deal with a lot of tragedy in his life but throughout this book he would say something about how he was feeling and I’d find myself remembering a time when I’ve felt that way too. Sometimes I’d find myself shocked at the topics Charlie would discuss as I thought them very mature for a fifteen year old boy, such as rape, sex and drugs but overall I didn’t find that they were the themes I took away from it. Charlie is a ‘wallflower’ trying to find his way in the world with the help of the people he meets, he is a social outcast who has always observed the world from the outside, which I found I could relate to. It isn’t until the end that we find out the real reasons behind Charlie’s behaviour and it’s a twist I found rather disturbing. This book will transcend time and it’s something that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.

Wicked Review

'Elphaba is not evil, but a compelling and honest character.' 

This is a very challenging read, if you are expecting the musical think again. It’s a re-working of Baum’s original tale of Oz, telling the story of the life of the Wicked Witch of the West. It’s an incredibly complex tale and deals with many different themes, humanity, religion, politics, family, friendship, good vs evil etc. The beauty of this story is that it teaches us that not everything is as it first appears.

One problem with this book that has been pointed out many times is the jumpiness from theme to theme. As I said before it’s a hard read with a lot of complicated plot lines it’s not the fairy tale Oz we read as a child. Not everything is explained in the book and I know some people need the answers to everything in life and want their books to package everything up in a neat little bow but that’s not how life works. There are times in her life that Elphaba doesn’t remember so we don’t either. We see the world how she sees it. Corrupt, confusing and unfair.

Wicked is an adult read, it’s funny, smart and a little bit dirty.

Stolen review

Stolen is the second book in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. 

Stolen follows the story of Elena Michaels who we first met in Bitten. Elena is a werewolf sent to investigate someone selling information on ‘werewolves’, however she finds her contacts to instead be witches who want to warn her about an organisation capturing supernatural species, such as witches, vampires, half-demons, shamans and werewolves to experiment on them.

The story was intense, dark and packed with a lot of gruesome scenes, death, torture, sadism. Elena goes through a lot in this book and what makes the darkness easier to read is Elena’s calm attitude throughout that somehow she will survive this. During her captivity we get to see a glimpse into her past and a little understanding as to why she is so scared to give herself fully to Clay.

I felt like there were some gaps in the story, certain things could have been explained better and at some points I think it lacks emotion that would have been expected and even though we do see a vulnerable side to Elena during her captivity I would have liked to see her reaction to when she gets out but it’s a little glossed over. Also it’s a little bit slow to start whilst you are getting introduced to everyone. Saying this I can understand that as it’s only the second book in a long series and a lot of the characters you meet here have their own stories to tell.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes paranormal/supernatural stories.