Shadows of the Past - Book Review

Shadows of the Past
By Carmen Stefanescu

When Anne and Neil leave on a one-week holiday hoping to reconcile after a two-year separation, little do they know that destiny has other plans for them. Their discovery of human bones and a bejeweled cross in the hollow of a tree open the door to the supernatural realm and the anguished life of Genevieve, a nun from medieval England.

Can Anne save her relationship and help Genevieve find her eternal rest?

The twists and turns in this paranormal tale keep the reader guessing up to the end and weave themselves together into a quest to rekindle love. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

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Shadows of the Past tells two stories: of 15th century nun Genevieve, and 90’s business-woman Anne. The ways in which these separate stories interact and weave together, and the similarity between past lives, was intriguing. The women’s stories and their romances mirrored each other, but at the same time were different enough that the characters felt like separate people. It was interesting to see one relationship blossoming while another was tentatively trying to reform after a betrayal. The idea of the evil forest and the haunting passed down into future lives was also very promising.

However, I didn’t really get on with this book. I struggled with some of the characters; I found Anne and Neil a little dull and underdeveloped, and I didn’t really believe in their relationship. We were told a lot that they loved each other, and that Neil is perfect for Anne, but I didn’t see enough evidence of this to help me understand why she forgave him.

I also found the abbess’ character a little odd. Yes, she was greedy and selfish, and a direct threat to Genevieve, but her ‘evil’ nature was a bit confusing to me. She was using some kind of magic up in her room in the abbey, which seemed to be tied to her sexuality. According to the other nuns, this dark magic was very sinister, but we never really saw the effects of it. Most of the time she just seemed to like to eat good food and enjoy herself, and so resented and defied the strict rules of the abbey. I understand that this is reason enough for nuns to be against her in the 15th century, but some of the over-moralising against it, particularly from the modern characters, made me uncomfortable. The abbess is a horrible person for trying to seduce a priest, but the main character, a nun, falls in love with the very same priest and that's alright? Both the abbess and Genevieve have knowledge of witchcraft, but the abbess uses her powers for... well, I'm not sure what exactly, but it make snakes appear on her head (so we hear from one of the nuns, and never actually see), so obviously her powers are evil? I also really didn’t like the suggestion that two nuns’ sexual experimentation together might be seen as a mark of how much the evil abbess had corrupted them. Again, this fits with the attitude of the nuns, but were the readers supposed to agree? I hope not!

Genevieve herself was the most developed character, and in general I was interested in what would happen to her. The historical chapters were the better parts of the novel, but were unfortunately spoiled a little now and then by some quite jarring anachronisms. Some elements were obviously researched, but others clearly weren’t. For example, asps are not a danger to watch out for while hiking up mountains in England. The way characters spoke also felt a little off, for both 15th century and 1990’s England, and I found the writing in general to be a little awkward and stilted. This made the book hard-going for me at points.

Despite some intriguing aspects, this book wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the author for providing a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Warm Bodies - Book Review

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight... (Synopsis from Goodreads)

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If you’ve seen the trailers for the film version of this without really knowing much about the book, like I had before reading it, then you’re in for a surprise. The film looks like it takes a more comedic approach, and the world looks much less dystopian (though of course, it’s hard to tell from a short trailer), which could fool people into thinking this is a lighter, fluffier book than it really is. It’s deep, sometimes disturbing, weirdly romantic even in the most bizarre circumstances, clever, full of black humour, often violent, and told in an interesting style that’s somehow both poetic and very matter of fact. And, while I do think the movie looks fun, this book is really something special: a unique and moving twist on the zombie apocalypse that I can’t recommend enough.

Make no mistake; this book is dark. The zombies eat people with gusto, post-apocalyptic human civilisation is pretty bleak, and there are plenty of people – both dead and alive – who are trying to kill each other. There’s also a particularly monstrous kind of zombie that moves more quickly than the others, scuttles up buildings, and forms a kind of skeleton zombie-cult, that I found very scary. In the story, R, the main character, is a zombie who’s changing for some mysterious reason that neither he nor the others understand. He becomes obsessed with a human girl who helps him to think about life again... but this isn’t exactly a fuzzy love story. R and Julie’s fates become entwined when R eats the brain of a boy called Perry. R literally consumes Perry’s memories, including thoughts of Perry’s girlfriend, Julie. Then, while still covered in Perry’s blood, R helps Julie to escape his ravenous zombie friends.

It doesn’t sound like the best start to a romance, but R and Julie’s odd relationship is actually surprisingly sweet. That’s because this is also a book with a lot of heart; it has deep messages about human nature, and while it does not necessarily gloss over the more disturbing elements of its subject, it is a very hopeful story. The latter is a little ironic, given that the story is so strongly based on Romeo and Juliet, even referencing the names of characters and specific scenes (such as the balcony). Where Romeo and Juliet is about tragic fate, however, Warm Bodies shows that there is life and love even in the most desperate and dangerous times.

There were some elements of the book that were perhaps a little cliché, which was disappointing given the otherwise original spin on the zombie idea. In particular, the obvious ‘military leader who is too set in his ways to accept differences of opinion and just wants to shoot stuff instead’ character irritated me slightly. I also thought Julie’s extreme importance to the other zombies later in the story was a little bizarre and unconvincing. However, using zombies as a metaphor for despair and apathy, and the boneys as a symbol of rigidity and intolerance was very interesting, and I thought a lot of the messages the book carried were cleverly conveyed.

I loved the idea that zombies such as R might be intelligent and almost poetic inside their own minds, but that when they try to speak only groans emerge. R was a fantastic point-of-view character, who told the story with wit, charm, and a dry sense of humour that made it a joy to read. The book is written in a literary style with plenty of black humour and zombie pop-culture references thrown in. This really makes it stand out from typical zombie stories, being a more thoughtful read and focusing less on the horror. The character of R is what really makes this work, and holds the whole thing together. There was one small thing that niggled about R, however; there were points where he seemed to get off a little too lightly with things he had done. Julie and her friend are very quick to forgive his zombie behaviour, and though this makes logical sense, it didn’t ring true emotionally for me.

Warm Bodies is definitely a quirky book. It’s thoughtful, surprisingly romantic, funny, and takes quite a unique approach to the zombie story. It also has a sense of dark fun to it, and includes a few scares and some gore too. R is a wonderful narrator, who pulls the book together and adds a strong sense of heart and hope to the story. The author combines all these elements effortlessly into something moving, exciting, and very different from anything I’ve read before in this genre. I really loved this one!


Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bitten - Book Review

Elena Michaels seems like the typically strong and sexy modern woman. She lives with her architect boyfriend, writes for a popular newspaper, and works out at the gym. She's also a werewolf.

Elena has done all she can to assimilate to the human world, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must recon with who, and what, she is in this passionate, page-turning novel. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

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It took me a while to get into Bitten, but when I did I was completely hooked. The first few chapters of the book were quite exposition heavy, with a lot of information about the werewolves, the Pack, Elena’s extended werewolf family and her relationship with each member. This can be quite a lot to take in, and at first I was a little confused by all the new names and exactly who was related to who. It doesn’t take long for the story to get going, however, and when it does it’s very well paced, with a lot of exciting action and the moments of down-time coming right when needed. I loved this book!

At first I wasn't too sure how I felt about Clay, Elena’s love interest, and it took some time for him to grow on me. I thought his past with Elena would be very hard to forgive. In fact, I didn’t want her to forgive him, and was rooting for her each time she gave him a piece of her mind. However, I didn’t necessarily want her to stay with Philip either; it was pretty obvious that they weren’t right for each other, and that Elena could not be herself around him (and not just the werewolf bits – her human self too). These kinds of love triangle stories can often be frustrating, but this one was utterly compelling. I understood the reasons why Elena was in too deep with both men, and I also completely understood why she was pulling away from both of them.

In the end, her story wasn’t so much about choosing between two men as learning to accept herself. She tries to deny her werewolf side so much that she doesn’t see she’s denying who she is. It’s not the werewolf in her that makes her argumentative, opinionated and a little wild; that's just Elena. By trying to deny the wolf in her, she also pushes away the home that she loves. It’s only when Elena realises all this that she finally picks a guy, and even then he has a lot of proving to do before she’ll forgive him. And prove himself he does! He's completely dedicated to her, and he won me round in the end too. I do love it when a book can make me change my mind.

The action in the novel is exciting and the story is incredibly addictive. It’s quite gory and graphic at points, and very sexy at others, giving the whole book a sense of wild freedom that suited the werewolf theme. I really believed that it would be both fun and liberating to run as a wolf, and to live as part of the Pack.

Aspects of the story did bother me a little. Paranormal creatures have a tendency to be rich recluses and these ones were no exception. One successful werewolf I can believe, but a huge corporation owner and his playboy son, a man who makes enough from selling one painting to keep an entire private estate going for a year, a successful magazine journalist, and a respected academic... it just struck me as unlikely that all the werewolves would have such enviable lives. I also didn’t understand why every single mutt (non-Pack werewolf) was a sly or half-rabid human-killer, when every Pack werewolf has no interest in killing humans for pleasure. We’re supposed to believe the latter is simply wolf nature, and that it is the human in a werewolf that will make him a murderer, but because there were equal numbers of mutt werewolves to Pack werewolves, this explanation didn't seem convincing. Mutts seemed to be either wolves who did not want to be part of the pack, or ones who were never given the chance because they were not born in the right place. Why these should necessarily be evil killers was beyond me, and it seemed like a slightly convenient ploy to make sure they were not sympathetic characters (as they might have been otherwise).

Still, these were minor points in an otherwise very entertaining novel. This book is fun, sexy and exciting, with characters you’ll want to punch one minute but adore the next, who you will be completely invested in, and who you cannot stop reading about, chapter after chapter, until it’s way past bedtime. Definitely recommended!

The Iron King - Book Review

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

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I have to admit that I was put off reading this book for a long time because it says ‘the next Twilight’ on the cover. But I really have a thing for the fey, especially when faeries are sinister and just a bit sadistic like in the old stories, so, let’s be honest, I was always going to end up reading this one.

And first off, this book is nothing like Twilight. Well, I mean there’s a kind of love triangle (I imagine this will become more of a thing in later books; it was just suggested in this one), but that’s about it. Meghan can be a little damsel-in-distress in this book too, but she’s a much better character than Bella. Whereas Bella has a tendency to give in to despair, Meghan is determined to keep going. Naturally, she falls for the handsome, brooding stranger, but she also never loses sight of her goal – to save her brother. She puts family first, she’s brave and pro-active, and I found her an easily likeable character.

Yes, there’s the deer-in-the-headlights issue. Meghan seems to be completely incapable of getting out of the way of danger. Her companions will be screaming ‘RUN’ or ‘HIDE’ and diving into nearby bushes or climbing convenient trees, while Meghan just stands there gawping at whichever monster is about to eat her this time. I can understand it once or twice, but this happens constantly throughout the book. However, although she can be a bit frustrating, I did understand why she would be scared and confused, and I thought her characterisation was convincing. I didn’t need her to be a powerful hero in this book; it’s enough that she keeps facing each new danger and refuses to be pushed around. She gets the hang of faerie deals quite quickly, and apart from the odd slip-up or learning how to run away when scary beasties charge right at her, I think she handles herself pretty well. I’m interested to see how she’ll grow through the series.

Also, although it seemed like they might be at first, the love interests weren’t too obnoxious. I have problems with many teen paranormal romance options, but these were actually okay. Puck (the Puck) is mischievous and sarcastic, and though he grated slightly at points, I thought he was an interesting character. Ash is presented as your typical brooding ‘bad boy’ (inverted commas because I’m not sure what makes him a bad boy beyond the fact that he happens to be on an opposing side of a feud. It would be like calling Romeo a bad boy). Ash has managed to come off completely non-creepy so far, though I hope he gets a little more personality in later books.

I thought the world of this book was perfect. All the great elements of faerie lore were woven in, and the faeries themselves were certainly not cute (well, apart from the packrat thingies). There’s a sense of menace throughout every incident involving the fey, and some bits were actually quite scary. I started reading this book at bedtime, largely because I didn’t want to read my other book (a ghost story) right before sleeping. Big mistake. Early on The Iron King features a monster in a child’s closet (is there anything scarier?). And the changeling freaked me out too.

Each new setting and character is described so well, and I enjoyed Julie Kagawa’s writing style. She creates an atmosphere that’s perfect for faerieland – a little sinister, weird and wonderful, beautiful but dangerous, scary but also sometimes funny, romantic and magical. I found the idea of the Iron Fey fascinating and really well thought out, giving a different twist to the typical stolen-child faery story.

Overall, a great start to the series, and I’m eager to read more to find out what will happen next.

The Immortal Rules - Book Review

The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa: In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for. (Slightly edited synopsis from Goodreads)

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This book is actually built on a similar concept to another book I’ve just read – Vampire Hunter D. It is dystopia combined with vampires, a future in which the human race has been severely depleted and vampires have taken over. In Vampire Hunter D it was nuclear war; in this it’s a virus that’s wiped out most of the Earth’s population. Whereas in Vampire Hunter D, enough time has passed that humans have fought back, in this the vamps are very much in control, though there are suggestions of human resistance. The vampires pen the remaining humans into strictly policed cities where they are treated like farm animals – kept alive to donate blood at regular intervals, as we keep animals to give us milk and eggs.

2 Weeks of Movies - Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1, and a rant about Twilight in general

 I didn't get a chance to post yesterday's movie review last night, so I've made up for it with an extra long one today, containing bonus ranting about Twilight in general. Remember, all my comments are very subjective and I do know this, but if you disagree I will feed you to the vampire baby. Just saying. Think of all those little needle teeth, chomp chomping, little pudgy baby fingers curling round your thumb as it chomp chomps its way through your neck (which would probably take at least a week). Got nightmares yet? Good.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 - 4/10

(Beware: here be many, many spoilers for all the films, as well as some fairly big Buffy spoilers too. So if you haven’t watched Buffy, look away now – although, shame on you, you really should! In fact, go watch it now.)

This is part 4, part 1, of the Twilight franchise. Unfortunately movie makers seem to be obsessed with the idea of splitting books into two films at the moment, whether they really need it or not. Harry Potter ? – maybe... so they could do justice to the end of such a long-running movie phenomenon. Although when I think of the two films they do just blur together into one in my head. The Hobbit? – that remains to be seen, but I’m worried that what could have been one really amazing film will become two slightly dragged out and watered down films. Twilight: Breaking Dawn? Completely unnecessary, but hey, it does keep the cash cow’s milk a’flowing. And meanwhile, we get to enjoy Bella and Edward’s not-so-forbidden romance a little longer. Yay?

So, to get started, I’ll explain that I have somewhat different views from most about this generation’s marmite craze. People seem to either love Twilight to the point of terrifying obsession, or to hate it with a fiery passion, condemning it as the worst story in the history of stories ever. Really? It’s quite a mediocre little thing to inspire such heights of passion on either side. My view tends to rest pretty squarely along the lines of ‘meh.’ (With the exception of the first movie, which I still insist is unintentional comedy gold.)

Perhaps this is because I really like supernatural and vampire stories. To me, there’s nothing new at all about Twilight (well, ok, the glittering thing), and so nothing really new to hate or blame Stephanie Meyer for. Love affair between mortal and vampire – done so many times I can’t be bothered to reel off a list. And yes, it’s been done well and badly, and certainly worse than Twilight. Lovesick angsty vampires have always irritated me, but I’m hardly gonna blame Stephanie Meyer for that one am I? When others were swooning, I wanted Angel to die Die DIE a horrible fiery tormented death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (joy at the end of season 2! Depressed resignation in season 3). Spike, on the other hand, I liked. Well, all the other Buffy vamps are good, particularly Drusilla and Darla. Jerry from Fright Night is also a great vampire. Dracula, what can I say? Classic and terrifying. I even like most of Anne Rice’s creations.

Twilight vampires certainly rest on the prissier side of this, but there’s actually nothing inherently wrong with that. I prefer my vampires bloodthirsty and evil, but of course there is always room for different interpretations in an overly-saturated genre (Nowadays, it’s gone the other way, and a bad vampire is actually a breath of fresh air). And teen fiction is certainly the place for it. Teen stories are full of forbidden love, growing up and finding yourself, exploring moral ambiguities, and, yes, angst. Angst may be teeth-grindingly annoying for an adult, but remember how moody you were when you were a teenager? It’s actually very important for at least some teen fiction to explore this. Teens also seem to respond well to stories that explore real world issues in fantasy or science fiction terms. The most asininely stupid criticism of Twilight that I’ve heard is that it’s just a love story with vampires thrown in. Er... of course it is. Plenty of writers do this. In fact, it’s what science fiction is all about. It shows us real world issues or situations through a different lens. Avatar is just Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves with aliens. Take space out of Star Wars and you’d probably have a World War II film. Almost every episode of Buffy is a very clever comment on some aspect of a teenager’s or young adult’s life, dressed up with vampires, witches and pointy stakes. Not all stories do this, but plenty do, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.

And, to put the cherry on my playing-devil’s-advocate cake, the Twilight series is phenomenally successful with its intended audience. You can criticise all you like, but if you’re not a 13-18 year old girl then you have to remember that it’s not meant for you. By all means, rant about why you personally don’t like it (I know I intend to), but trying to paint it as the worst thing ever to be made is a little silly. 14 year old girls might think the same about a Batman movie, or Tron, or the Halo games, or Game of Thrones. Most of the world thinks the same about Warhammer books. But they sure are all popular with their audiences.

Good, now that’s out of the way I can give my personal view of the Twilight movies (the books, as always, are a separate case entirely). They’re really not great, but they’re not soul-destroyingly bad either. Come on now. In the first film, the acting was pretty poor, but this does seem to have improved as the series has gone on. The characters are all a little flat and annoying, and that doesn’t really change. It’s hard to get behind Edward and Bella when you spend the entire film wanting them to die horribly, I grant you. However, the music is spot on; it suits the mood perfectly and really complements the film. The camerawork is good, some of the shots of the scenery and locations are gorgeous, and it’s actually an inspiring example of how to use locations to really bring a story to life. The wildness of the scenery, so close to civilisation and yet like another world, the dense mystery of the forests, the mist hanging between the trees, the huge sweeping emptiness, so lonely but so heartbreakingly beautiful – could you actually ask for a better setting for this story? Of course, when all you can find to praise about a movie is the setting... yeah, not good.

Some viewers may have been disappointed by the lack of action in these films, but that would be to miss the point of what the films are actually about. In terms of actually telling the story they want to tell, the pacing is pretty much spot on. It has a very slow build, but romance stories generally do. This isn’t horror or action, people, it’s gothic romance. It needs to be slow and almost torturously moody. Of course, this is all let down by a pretty awful story. No arguing with that one. And I can’t deny that the Twilight phenomena as a whole is immensely fun to make fun of.

However, whereas the first film sits pretty comfortably in ‘so cheesy it’s hilarious’ (it’s the slow-mo that cracks me up. And the glittering of course. And the ‘you smell’ scene that is slightly unfortunately over-acted), the other films just skirt between cringeworthy and boring. I can quite happily add the first movie to my list of cheese-fests, but I would never sit through the others more than once. I’m afraid I have to say the same for Breaking Dawn Part 1. It was mildly interesting; it moved the story along; it had some more nice music and beautiful forests. It also slightly bizarrely and bemusingly jumped the vampire shark and introduced... wait for it, baby vampire! Awwww... wait, no. Ew!

Edward was his usual annoying self and Bella was her usual insipid self. Not so much a problem with the acting as with the characters. In fact, if there’s a prize for acting insipid and still managing to not be the most slap-able person in the room, Kristin Stewart should win it. (Hint - the 'most slap-able' trophy goes to Edward every time). There was also a moment of hope towards the end of the film that Bella would die, but we all know that’s never going to happen. There’s never any real danger or difficulties to deal with in the Twilight world. Fights are tame, no-one dies, Bella gets the guy, even when the guy leaves it’s because he’s just so in love with Bella that he can’t stand screwing up her life, and the aforementioned screwing up Bella’s life consists of making her super strong, super fast, immortal, and really really pretty. And now the one consequence of marrying a dead guy, that she will never be able to have kids, has also been thrown to the wind. Cos, you know, baby vampire! Why not (sigh). And this is my main problem with Twilight. It’s that there are never any real trials or consequences to deal with. It’s pure wish fulfilment, plain and simple. This is why Bella has been accused of being a Mary Sue, and I have to agree with this. Now, I do get the place for wish-fulfilment fantasy, but I just personally don’t like it. It’s not... meaty enough.  

In summary, then, was Breaking Dawn dreadful? No. Was it good? No. Final Assessment? Meh. It’s pretty simple actually. If you like Twilight, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you don’t, don’t bother.