Review of Horns by Joe Hill

BOOK DESCRIPTION  FROM GOODREADS

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Best known for his terrifying (really) debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and his famous dad, Joe Hill continues to make a name for himself with Horns, a dark, funny exploration of love, grief, and the nature of good and evil. Ignatius William Perrish wakes up bleary and confused after a night of drinking and "doing terrible things" to find he has grown horns. In addition to being horribly unsightly, these inflamed protuberances give Ig an equally ugly power--if he thinks hard enough, he can make people admit things (intimate, embarrassing, I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that details). This bizarre affliction is of particular use to Ig, who is still grieving over the murder of his childhood sweetheart (a grisly act the entire town, including his family, believes he committed). Horns is a wickedly fun read, and reveals Hill's uncanny knack for creating alluring characters and a riveting plot. Ig's attempts to track down the killer result in hilariously inappropriate admissions from the community, heartbreaking confessions from his own family, and of course, one hell of a showdown. --Daphne Durham

Wow! Joe Hill has knocked this one out of the park and then some. This novel, appropriately named Horns got its grip on me early on and did not let go till the very end. Ignatius Perrish and the rest of the cast were really fleshed out characters all with intense psyche that keeps you flipping the pages of each point of view just to see what they are going to do next. I am seriously awestruck with the places in my head that this book took me. The series of events that took place to show you that...moreWow! Joe Hill has knocked this one out of the park and then some. This novel, appropriately named Horns got its grip on me early on and did not let go till the very end. Ignatius Perrish and the rest of the cast were really fleshed out characters all with intense psyche that keeps you flipping the pages of each point of view just to see what they are going to do next. I am seriously awestruck with the places in my head that this book took me. The series of events that took place to show you that there is a devil inside all of us. Ig, an average guy and Merrin, his soul-mate travel a destiny fraught with chaos and disaster and of course, a love that is as deep as an ocean. Lee Tourneau, man, I hated this guy and was ready to take him out really early on. All the pop-culture references in this book make it really fun too and when I would read over one it would kind of put a smirk on my face and randomly blurt things out like, "heh! Nice!". The majority of this story for me was just as simple as the continuous struggle in all of us with good and evil and that paved a road for a great, great novel. But, what took it to the next level for me was that despite what Ig became in the end, he held onto the good inside him. The unfaltering love he felt for Merrin truly made me feel sympathy for the devil.

As a side note... I read Heart Shaped Box a few years ago although I do not have an actual review of it up on goodreads (yet). It was a really good novel as well and leads me to this: Anyone who knows who Joe Hill is, knows that stepping into any kind of writing would be a huge shoe with and even bigger shadow to fill. In fact, it makes me cringe to even bring it up because if I was Joe Hill, I would probably get very tired, very quickly whenever it was mentioned at all. But after just two novels he has shown me atleast that he writes really really well and I will continue to read his stuff with no other pretenses than that. Keep up the amazingly wonderful writing Mr. Hill. I like your shoes just fine.

Review of The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.

This is some of the best blood and battle type fantasy out there. But yet under the surface of the grusome stuff Abercrombie really brings out the heart of the characters. Makes them believable in their mannerisms and thought patterns. This is my second time through this series and that in itself should say something for the Trilogy. I rarely pick up series twice.

Review of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS

 From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.

Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

I decided that I would read this book after seeing the movie trailer on the tele a few months back. The title was put in my "to read" list and on my Amazon wish list and I actually had forgotten about it till a few days after Christmas this title was put up on Amazon as a $5.00 Kindle mark-down so I thought I would pick it up. Well, the DVD will soon be coming out so I thought it might be a good time to knock it out. As with most books in this genre / age group / I don't even know how ...moreI decided that I would read this book after seeing the movie trailer on the tele a few months back. The title was put in my "to read" list and on my Amazon wish list and I actually had forgotten about it till a few days after Christmas this title was put up on Amazon as a $5.00 Kindle mark-down so I thought I would pick it up. Well, the DVD will soon be coming out so I thought it might be a good time to knock it out. As with most books in this genre / age group / I don't even know how to categorize something like this after I have read it type reads, I went into it not knowing what to expect. I have got to be honest in the fact that I really struggled getting acquainted and settled in to this book. In the beginning, I would read a little, put it down, pick it up, read a little, put it down, so on and so forth, till finally I was like, "where possibly can the author go with this storyline?" It was at that point I put everything else aside and told myself that I was either going to sit down and finish it or I was going to forget it. Generally speaking, I really have a hard time giving up and not finishing something. So, sitting down and finishing it is what happened and I must say that I am really glad that I did. Because an all in one finish like that is probably what made me see this book for the great read that it is. I doubt that I would have the same opinion if I had continued with the start/stop method I was doing. All that being said, I feel as though I was in total check of my feelings on this read clear up to the end and I had put it down. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It felt to me that it was all leading up to this great thing in the end but, then in the end, there was nothing... I really can't even pin point exactly what it was that made me feel all this but, there it was. I had a deep down longing feeling for something... more. I was angry, I was sad, I was confused, torn, depressed, I honestly felt... Hollow. I desperately wanted all Carers/donors to rebel against the establishment. I kept hoping for Tommy, Kathy or even Ruth (despite not liking one thing about her the entire length of the novel) would just get this notion to, I don't know... walk away, start anew. Would this even been possible for everything they have been taught or put through. How can this even be considered as a possible existence? As someone who has lived as average as a life (a pretty good life actually) thus far, I keep thinking in the back of my mind that, "this... couldn't reeeeeaalllly happen... Could it?" In the end, I don't know if I have an answer or more distinctly, I don't want to know an answer. Hopefully, that won't be construed as condoning this from being stood for. I just couldn't turn my head as the world has in this book. I would probably be hiding deserters in my basement or something. I guess that pretty much covers my written thoughts for the time being about this novel. I am sure it will be thought of often and any book that is going to stir these types of feelings in me is always going to be thought of a something pretty special. I may not have needed the negative tones this put in my head but it definitely aroused some pretty strong emotions. Thank-you Mr. Ishiguro for a wonderful novel.

Review of Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS

"Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.

Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?"

I have to admit that I was skeptical about actually reading this book. The premise, centuries old vampire becomes human and is thrown headlong into ordinary human (high-school nonetheless) life. I could not have been more wrong in all my preconcieved notions about how this book would turn out. And for that I am very happy with the outcome of this first installation of a proposed trilogy. Quite honestly, the end of the book came all too quickly for me. Although, a very climatic ending it did not seem rushed which makes me nod to the author for her ability to tell her story so well. The story of Lenah Beaudonte is told so well in fact that I could not help wanting to actually meet her while I was reading it. A want for something like this to happen to myself. Sadly, I was never the Justin Enos of my school, but I could relate to Tony very well. Even more sad I guess, thinking how Tony ends up... But Lenah, beautiful Lenah. This story is hers and what a wonderful one it is so far. I very much look forward to the continuation of the Vampire Queen Trilogy. A lot of questions come to mind for the remainder of the series. Answers about Suleen (what a mysterious character he is) and Rhode, the long ago knight who I don't really think ever forgot what real love was throughout his vampire existence. That is what lies at the heart of this story and if I may use the authors very own words, "It is the intent that matters the most." Thank-you for another great story.

Review of Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS
"Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine."

This book is a secret, a secret that I am both ashamed and proud to reveal. From a readers standpoint it is so rare when the pages of a book will come along and wrap you up in them. Warm you with their heaviness, care for you like a child, leave you with want and worry when you are not with them. This book took me on a journey within myself that I did not know that I was ready or willing for that matter, to take. But take it I did and with it came the strongest of currents.

Admittedly I am a slow reader. But as I read the first couple pages of Palimpsest, I found myself repeating paragraphs over and over and over again. Letting my mouth taste them, savor them till I felt as if I had a five course meal. I feel as though I should be hiding this book now that its words are inside of me. As if the book itself has become its own city lost to the world and should only be graced by the eyes of few. Bury this book so that it may become an archaeologist’s find a hundred thousand years from now, so that the people of that time can share something of true beauty came when everything else seemed so peril less and without hope.

Beware; this book has a mask, a mask with horns and teeth. With this mask the unbelievers of imagination and the fantastical will surely be cast out of its realms forever never to be allowed admittance again. I write these words to pay tribute to the author, for she opened herself up and bled her dreams into these pages, bled an artwork onto a canvas that will be gazed at often on my shelves of so many places. It is one of the great pleasures of life to be able to hold a book in your hands after reading it, run your hands down its spine and feel its magic seeping into you.

The Characters in this book are well fleshed out. Their hearts and minds are sewn plainly onto their sleeves and this was also why the story was so enticing to me. I felt a little of myself in each one of the four that the book revolves around. Each one of them suffering inside, all desperate in their afflictions and destined to know one another. These are people that by the end of the book you could say that you knew well. The feeling comes to my mind, like when you are walking down the street and you pass someone, to some just a random stranger, but then your eyes meet and lock and in that very brief moment it is like you know that person, know their likes and dislikes, feel everything that pains them and what makes them smile. It’s the connection that nobody talks about but we yearn for like the feeling you get when you have been away for what seems a lifetime and finally walk through your own front door. Peace, a sighing relief, a built up tension that is finally released.

Like the tattoos of the people immigrating to Palimpsest, I will be forever marked by reading this wonderful work. I will seek deeper meaning in all because of it. I will see it on my shelf and smile to know that there are some and maybe only a select few that really feel things, read and write words that have meaning, deep meaning. Words that dispel any thought that magic in this world is lost. Thank –you.

Review of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS
"After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own."

Neil Gaiman sits very high up on the list of my very favorite authors. Like a modern day Beethoven, he writes complex but surprisingly simple lyrical masterpieces that flow from the pages through to your mind like a speeding locomotive. This wonderful little treat is the same and was exactly what I was looking for when I finished it. Bod will definitely go down in the history of my written friends as one of the greats. I don't know how someone can make life growing up in a graveyard sound even r...moreNeil Gaiman sits very high up on the list of my very favorite authors. Like a modern day Beethoven, he writes complex but surprisingly simple lyrical masterpieces that flow from the pages through to your mind like a speeding locomotive. This wonderful little treat is the same and was exactly what I was looking for when I finished it. Bod will definitely go down in the history of my written friends as one of the greats. I don't know how someone can make life growing up in a graveyard sound even remotely appealing, but I find myself envying Nobody Owens without any reproach. I don't want to give any other details away because the story is perfect in every way and I fear anything else other than, "It's freakin' great. Go buy a copy and revel in it!" will only diminish the book for someone else. Besides form your own opinion that is why you have a brain, right? The only other thing that I would like to say about this is that I truly hope that it makes it's way to the picture studios. I loved, loved, loved Coraline and this (If N. Gaiman has any say in it) will be, no doubt... awesome.

Review of Storm Front by Jim Butcher

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS
"HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever.

There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed."

Harry Dresden is one of my favorite characters plain and simple. Harry is just a character that I can relate to on a life experience level. I think that his attitude is what keeps me hooked throughout the series. He knows the talent that he posseses but he does not seem to get a big head about it. Despite all the things that are trying to bring him down he stays pretty positive and most of the time really hilarious! The whole magic and wizard P.I. give the story a little more than just your everyday murder mystery a twist that I need in books to keep me interested. Storm Front lays the ground work for the series in many ways but does not drag you out with a whole lot of back story. The one thing that I like about Butcher's writing is that he gets to the point with his characters and lets you get a real good opinion of them with just Harry's thoughts of them and some really fantastic dialogue.

I don't follow Jim Butchers web page or blog too often but I heard somewhere around the hinternet that the series will be 20 books long which is just fine by me as I have yet to be disappointed. I think that I will wait till it is finished though to see the t.v. series. I have not watched it yet and have thought about buying it, but all too often I am really disappointed in the whole book to t.v. series adaptation. It's amazing how someone else's view of how you perceive these fictional characters can just totally ruin a good story for you! Don't ya think?