Tainted Blood: Face Your Demons

Hey, it’s Heather! I’m reviewing this horror novel today, please be aware that the book features a lot of violence so is definitely not suitable for under eighteens. Many thanks to the author for letting me read in in exchange for an honest review.

Information

Author: Nina Hobson

Published: June 2012

Publisher: Self-published

Length: 149 pages

Genre: Horror

Brief description (from Amazon)

“Have you seen anyone around?”

“That’s me,” stated Ron with no outward expression.

“What?” Jennifer’s sure she hadn’t heard him right.

“That’s me…ummm, he’s me. I can’t explain it Jennifer but ever since last night, I’ve felt funny, like something in me is missing. I think it’s…I’m following us.”

* * *

Ron Davis’s statement was enough to scare the crap out of Jennifer Holden, his best friend, because she’d been seeing things too -- especially in the back in the back room off the kitchen. The one her parents had forbidden Jennifer and her little brother to enter…which was okay by her since she’d no intention of stepping one foot in there.

That is until her terminally ill cousin takes up residence in it setting in motion a horrific turn of events; putting her and the entire town in mortal danger.

Tainted Blood: Face Your Demons is book one in a four book series of high school to adult, paranormal horror novellas. Action packed, suspenseful, thrilling yet sensitive, this first installment brings beings from two opposing dimensions together under one roof.

Imagine the specter from your worst nightmare adopting and trying to raise two sweet, young teens; trying to keep them safe while something dark and dangerous stalks and ravages the natives of Cleveland and you’ll have all you need to read this new urban horror classic.

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tainted-Blood-Face-Your-Demons-ebook/dp/B0089PT018)

Review

The plot was fast-paced and interesting throughout. The perspective changed a lot, but it was always clear which character the reader was following. The title itself also links into the story, which I thought was quite clever. There were some grammatical errors, like ‘to’ and ‘too’ being mixed up, and sometimes more commas being needed, but these were minor so didn’t really affect the read. The more violent scenes had the best description, making it chilling and disturbing, which is what you want to achieve for a horror book, though I did feel it was over the top quite a lot (I don’t read much horror, so was cringing even at the less gross bits to be fair). It might have been better to build up to the ‘worst’ deaths, instead of retaining the graphic and gory methods of slaughter through the entire novel. I was also astonished at the lack of attention from other people given to the killings. Had a young lad been beheaded near me, I’m pretty sure my family would have banished me from leaving the house unsupervised for at least a week (bearing in mind I’m an adult and these were twelve/thirteen year-olds), then again I guess their own house was hardly safer.

Whilst I do appreciate the author trying to include LGBT+ characters in their literature, I wasn’t a massive fan of Angie’s crush on Jennifer. Angie’s infatuation with her was definitely overly creepy and worthy of a restraining order; particularly when she brushes her hand near Jennifer’s private area on her thigh, which bordered on sexual harassment given all the signs Jennifer had given her to stop flirting. I’m unsure on whether it was written like this to appear somehow romantic or if it was meant to disturb the reader. I also was perplexed at the friendship between Jennifer and Ron. If any of my friends crushed a baby bird to death, regardless of the fact nature would probably kill it eventually, I would have had very stern words with them. Even Jennifer herself was a somewhat dislikeable character, from the first chapter she presented herself as arrogant, claiming to be too smart and good for Cleveland. These aren't critiques of the writer though - I disliked all the characters in Wuthering Heights but enjoyed the novel nonetheless, sometimes having very flawed characters can make the read more relatable. Though the descriptions of each character were definitely good in providing clear images for the reader. Also, Tom was absolutely adorable, the sweetest little brother ever, his bond with his sister was lovely.

As I said earlier, the change in perspective was interesting in seeing how the plot was developing for different characters, and it was clear whose perspective one was reading as well. Aside from Mr. Mitschell, I thought the writer could have changed the writing style itself more depending on the character; even if it was simply by adding longer and more eloquent words for the older characters. It was especially impressive that the evil demon things had a language though. I was a little bit confused to come across some scenes that were sexual, given that we had been told on our submission form not to expect this at all. Although, the sexual content is not too graphic and can be skimmed through quickly if anyone else out there feels uncomfortable reading this type of stuff, most of it is implicit. Emotionally, I still felt like there could have been further development. If someone close to a character dies, particularly in a torturous way, they are going to feel upset for a long time. Honestly, I’d have liked to have seen several pages (even a chapter or two) devoted to describing the utter misery the characters were in, the children especially would have been traumatised. Again, this is my personal opinion, many people prefer to have a snappy plot than to see the emotional side of characters.

Given the violent nature of this book, I’d have to advise it for over eighteens that don’t mind a lot of blood and painful ways to die. It’s a short novella – I finished it in one afternoon without any problems, and certainly is not dull, though was perhaps a little too gory for me!

Pipeliner

Hello everyone! It's Shani and today I'm going to be reviewing Pipeliner by Shawn Hartje.

Published: November 30th 2016
Publisher: Self-published
Author: Shawn Hartje
Length: 249 pages
My rating: 3.5/5

Hartje's novel Pipeliner follows the narrative of a teenage boy called Jason Krabb, a high school student and aspiring guitarist. The novel follows Jason through his 'coming of age' period where he inevitably matures a great deal. The novel is set in the 1990's and has a range of references through out the course of the novel which make the novel really feel within the time frame that Hartje has set it in.

One of the key things which I enjoyed about Hartje's novel was the characterisation of Jason. It was interesting to read the novel from a male's perspective, as a majority of the novels I read are either written in a third person narrative or a first person female narrative. Male perspectives are sparse in the genre of YA literature and even in some of the adult genres which I have read. So, delving into Hartje's seventeen-year-old character of Jason was intriguing. Jason has a great ambitious, as many teenagers do, to become a guitarist. However, Jason doesn't quite realise the amount of effort it will take him to achieve this goal and seems to overestimate his ability to become a popular guitarist. I loved the fact that Jason's older brother attended Princeton it showed a great contrast between the two characters, and also implied that perhaps Jason felt overshadowed by his elder sibling - a trait which many readers can relate to if they have any older siblings. It was fun reading about Jason's journey but at times I felt that Jason's aspirations were somewhat dull and cliche.

One of Jason's main ambitions throughout the novel is to find himself a girlfriend and to party as much as he can. This concept that Jason 'needed' to find a girlfriend irked me slightly as it seemed to be one of the biggest things on his mind throughout the novel. I just wished he had slightly more ambition than to simply get a girlfriend and party as much as he liked, but then this was also interesting because Hartje was presenting me with a perspective which I hadn't considered before.

Hartje's pacing of the novel was at times a little slow but his language in the novel was refreshing and kept me reading despite some of my reservations about his themes. I felt that the sexual scenes in the novel were perhaps unnecessary. Whilst I understand that the novel is a 'coming of age' I felt that the sexual scenes didn't need to be in the novel and could have been implied, rather than explicitly described. The substance abuse as well - drugs are mentioned quite a lot in the novel - I think this is perhaps why I couldn't find myself being able to relate to the story because whilst it did in some ways describe the typical life of a teenager coming of age, I felt that it was at times stereotypical though this may have been the writer's aims to create a slightly cliched perspective on teenagers for humour.

Overall, I did enjoy aspects of Pipeliner and I believe that it would be an enjoyable read for those who are able to relate to the story more. Perhaps because I was born towards the end of the 1990's and therefore have no recollection of the era that I didn't enjoy it as much as other readers may!

If you are interested in reading Pipeliner than here is the link for the Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Pipeliner-Shawn-Hartje-ebook/dp/B01NBFHDTX

Didn't get Frazzled

Hello, it’s Heather with another book review!

Author: David Z Hirsch

Published: April 2016

Publisher: Self-published

Length: 284 pages (this varies depending on the copy you get I think)

Rating out of 10: ★★★★★★★★

Didn’t get frazzled is a fictional medical-comedy told through the sarcastic narrative of Seth Levine; it pans over the years he is working hard to get his degree. With exams coming up and stress blooming like steam coming out of a kettle, I felt pretty fortunate to get such a fun book to read. Seth narrates the story in such a light-hearted manner that between cringing at his misfortunes in sympathy, you have to laugh. The plot itself is easy to follow, the reader checks in at him during several parts of his life, gaining an insight as to how the American medical schooling system works but more importantly understanding how his relationships with friends and his girlfriend develop. There is some medical jargon, but it’s in no way confusing to the reader, simply adding a sense of realism.

Seth’s interactions with the other characters mimicked those on comedy shows beautifully, making nearly every conversation an excellent read. The medical twist to it provides plenty of chances for these comedic moments, several gross stories being shared with the reader and the first chapter being literally called: A beautiful slice of dead penis (he performs a transection on this area of a cadaver). And yet the humour did not squash out the morality – you can’t help but love Seth, he stands up for what he believes in, even if it may lower his popularity from other doctors. He’s also a human. Lots of comedy authors forget that their characters have other emotions aside from happy and laughing at their life; Seth goes through a troubling time, battling with a bad-relationship that he struggles to maintain but also does not want to leave, on top of all his studying and witnessing some patients in severe pain. His empathetic attitude makes him thrive in his work, as does his ability to not get ‘frazzled’. Though if the book were to improve, I think it would have been insightful to see how he dealt with more pain through his profession, since those involved in medical careers will often cross paths with death usually by no fault of their own. The other characters accompany the story brilliantly, and the author managed to juggle between his different friends without any confusion.

“I saw a mom last week who brought her daughter to the ER because she thought her kid had chicken pops.”

Jeff cracked up, and I joined in. I always called Jeff when I needed to cheer up.

“I knew she meant chicken pox, but each time she said chicken pops I thought, did Kellogg’s come out with a new chicken-flavored Pops cereal?”

I finally found the skills gained from watching Casualty – do not eat or think about eating whilst the characters are inspecting a patient. Anyone squeamish will need to skim through these parts to avoid anything too unsettling. Personally, I was fine with it, to be honest if you are troubled by surgical shenanigans then perhaps not reading a book set around a medical student is better. In fact, the only parts I was less keen on were the more sexual, intimate scenes, which is purely my personal preference in books. Like the medical parts, this was not overly explicit, and these only popped up a few times, so did not make the read bad by any means.

Targeted at an adult audience that appreciate comedy, I really enjoyed this one. Any students will find they can relate to the multitude of awkward situations and quantity of studying as well as the need for friends in such frantic time to retain ‘unfrazzled’; if you’re a medical student then this is a must-read. If you’ve read this or are considering doing so, please do leave me a comment!

Links for anyone that wants to purchase this are below:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Didnt-Get-Frazzled-David-Hirsch ebook/dp/B01DOHSK0M/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Didnt-Get-Frazzled-David-Hirsch-ebook/dp/B01DOHSK0M/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29748682-didn-t-get-frazzled

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/didnt-get-frazzled-david-z-hirsch/1123610624 ean=2940152949414

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/didn-t-get-frazzled

Apple iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/didnt-get-frazzled/id1099034309?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/18996986

The Accidental

Hello, it's Heather here! This is a review on The Accidental, which is a little more mature than the typical book I'd go for, but I felt like trying something different.

Author: Ali Smith

Published: 2005

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton

The writing style is what really makes this book stand out. Anyone that knows my book tastes can confirm that I love a good stream of consciousness, so naturally I was intrigued by The Accidental. It's not quite as heavy as Woolf's take on the stream of consciousness, so anyone tempted to delve into that sort of work - but concerned it'll be too slow paced - may want to try this out. Some of the scenes and topics covered are quite mature. There will be spoilers in this review.

The accidental is peculiar to say the least, I began reading it (technically last year I suppose) in December and was delighted at how it was set out. The book is so structurally organised, I felt rather orderly indulging in one sub-section, then eating a biscuit, then reading the next sub-section etc until I had finished a section (and too many biscuits). It flutters between five narrators; Astrid, Magnus, Michael and Eve as well as a rather ominous narrator who calls themselves Alhambra who the reader can presume to be Amber I suppose, though that’s up for debate really. There are three sections which allow each character to have their say. The story-line is hard to concisely put into words without sounding dull, but basically the family are on holiday when a girl named Amber knocks at their door and apologises for being late for an appointment. Everybody then assumes that this appointment is either to meet with Eve (who is a historical writer) or someone involved with Michael, who seems to have numerous affairs with his students. Meanwhile, Magnus is consumed with guilt from having participated in a prank that resulted in the death of a girl he barely knew, so does not question Amber’s appearance. The quote below, eloquently put in Magnus’ narrative, expresses the family dynamic quite well:

“Everybody at this table is in broken pieces which won’t go together, pieces which are nothing to do with each other, like they all come from different jigsaws, all muddled together into the one box by some assistant who couldn’t care less in a charity shop or wherever the place is that old jigsaws go to die. Except jigsaws don’t die.”

Whilst there are certainly some rather awkward moments for the reader, which I’ll write about in a bit, there are also some excellent parts. The writing style is lovely. I’ve said many times that a stream of consciousness is one of my favourite styles because there’s so much that can be done with it – Smith did one of Eve’s sections through a question and answer style thing in her mind (I’m sure we’ve all done it sometimes, you ask yourself a question then answer it like you're on TV) this is surprisingly fun to read. At times, I’d have liked a little more imagery and some more details, we hear a lot of thoughts but not so much description. The contrast in tone between each character was written beautifully: Astrid is a vibrant and young yet somewhat naïve girl fascinated with filming so she can retain the memories she worries will be spun into a dream as she ages and doubts reality, Magnus is consumed with grief then struggles to comprehend Amber and his feelings as he matures, Eve is too forgiving yet also appears bitter and insecure and Michael is pretty self-consumed. Then, there’s Amber, who we mostly hear about through the others. I honestly am in awe of their politeness towards this girl, who randomly intrudes their house, breaks Astrid’s camera and is extremely rude to Eve. The presence of this girl is perhaps so curious that they are bamboozled by her to the extent they don’t seem to mind her crudeness.

The sexual scenes between Amber and Magnus in this book were somewhat disturbing given the age gap and how vulnerable he is at this point (she literally found him trying to commit suicide in the bathroom before trying to seduce him). I was very glad that they weren’t too long or detailed… Another weird part of their relationship was that the church seemed to be a favourite place to meet and do the sex thing (you can probably tell I feel awkward writing about this) – which is fairly typical of an English Literature novel; look at books like Regeneration in which two characters get intimate on a gravestone. Smith plays with this idea of sex and religion being interlinked, perhaps looking at the bad morality of the situation, which seems to foreshadow the relationship itself. Though one can also associate a church with the circle of life since many are christened there, get married there and then have their funeral there. I’ll probably write more detailed waffle about how death and sex are common themes in my Birdsong review. Anyway, the other aspect of this relationship that really deflated the romance was that Magnus’ stepdad Michael was first wrongly presented by Eve to be one of his many flings, then Michael even spends a little time wishing Amber was involved with him in that manner. So, it’s weird to go from thinking that she could be a potential love interest with Michael to then realising she’s more attracted to his stepson.

Alright, that's the end of this review then. If you have read this book too then let me know what you think in the comments section below! Anyone considering reading it, I'd only recommend this to those over the age of 16 and would advise to look out for symbolism (note how Astrid talks a lot about red when the books reaching its climax) if you like symbolism hunting. 

The Go-Between

Hello, it’s Heather here, hope you all are looking forward to a great new year! The girls and I have all studied this book in our A-Level English Literature class, so I thought I’d write a short review on the prologue – partially for close analysis revision purposes and so they can also review it if they wish to do so without repeating similar things.

Author: L.P. Hartley

Published: 1953

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton

This book is in a framed narrative; thus, the prologue and epilogue is narrated by older Leo (technically his name is Lionel but he thought that sounded fancy so calls himself Leo after the zodiac symbol). In the prologue, Leo finds a box of his older possessions and, after rummaging through it and listing some very symbolic items, he finds his diary. When composed, he decides to read a little bit of it. This is never a good idea, I read my diary a few years ago, and still feel scarred at how whiny eight-year-old me was. Anyway, I could sympathise with Leo when he read about how he was traumatised at having used the word ‘vanquished’, earning himself a bad reputation for having used such a peculiar bit of language. Young Leo is very amusing, he has this odd infatuation with the Zodiac, particularly the Virgin; this belief in fate and his dallying with magic makes the prologue engaging – who doesn’t like a good bit of magic?

His reactions are a bit immature, he spends little time engrossing in self-remorse: for instance, when two boys are hurt and Leo claims it was his spell that caused their accident, he labels himself as a hero and has very little pity for them. I reckon most children would at least feel a tad dejected at someone else being hurt – but it’s vital to grasp that Leo is not what most children are like. In many ways, he’s stereotypical, having just reached that age where he starts to ponder about girls (especially in the main narrative) and being cautious about fitting in at his school. But he’s also completely oblivious to sex at the same time, though given the time era, they were a bit more prude about these matters, yet in a boarding school you’d have thought he’d know the basics. He also seems to read very deeply into things, again this is seen more later in the book, like when he is disgusted at being given something green (because it must be symbolic, right?). I quite liked this, it gives away that vulnerable, self-conscious side, those natural feelings that most children display through not wanting to do certain things anymore, but Leo showed through his analytical mind.

The first line is pretty spectacular; “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” It’s amazingly tempting to use this line after confessing scandalous deviances (for instance, “HEATHER, DID YOU STEAL MY CHOCOLATE ORANGE” … well, you see dear brother… the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.) The meaning is also quite interesting to consider; look at how much we change as we grow, when you were younger you’d be deemed normal to go to a ball pit and hang out in the park and read picture books but the older you get, the stranger these little things become, imagine a forty-year-old in a ball pit. These changes aren’t the only ones that occur though, most people change their moral coding as they mature, so their customs and norms are like different countries. I could write an entire essay on whether or not Leo has actually changed though, because to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if he ever did. It’s obvious that his loneliness and craving to fit in is something constant. He queries where the Virgin, his representation of a female companion, is. And on the first page, there is so much symbolism from various items in the box to imply isolation and a loss of meaning: magnets that have lost their magnetism, a couple of empty sea urchins. It’s perfect for the exam, if ever you have a block in ideas, you can simply turn to the prologue and pull some metaphorical meaning out of something.

I remember doing our first essay in English Literature on how Hartley had presented the narrator in this book and being very excited to write it because there’s so much to say! I found the prologue the best part of the novel; literally every other line can be closely analysed, and the charm of older Leo reminiscing about how younger Leo was intrigued with magic and destiny made it a great start to the story. Apparently, this is now a musical, my friends and I were rather befuddled as to how they’ve added musical numbers to this book, but if anyone has had the chance to see it or has read the book then let us know what you thought.