Book Review: Lisey's Story

An absolute thrill to explore. I was hooked and couldn't turn the pages quick enough. I was always wishing for more time to sit down and devour this book. My immediate opinion is that it is awesome but I think that is almost a given considering that it is Stephen King. This is one of King's newer books; it's actually the newest book that I've read by him. I could tell straight away that his writing style was a little different to the older books I've read, but I will get to this in a moment. First a brief synopsis. 

Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood that there was a place Scott went -- a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons, Lisey's turn to go to Boo'ya Moon. What begins as a widow's effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Perhaps King's most personal and powerful novel, "Lisey's Story" is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love.

From Goodreads 

This story took me surprise in a really good way. I only went into it with this tiny description that is was about Lisey, who is a widow of a famous writer and while she is sorting through his stuff, she is taken on a life-changing adventure. Obviously that synopsis was a little broad but that's the general gist of the story. Except it was so much more. 

Lisey is sorting through her husband's stuff, very slowly, and is approached by an obsessive fan and professor to hurry up and distribute some unpublished worked. This fan sort of hires a psycho to threaten Lisey into giving him the works when the psycho becomes a force of his own and Lisey has to face this one-of-a-kind villain.

Before any of this confrontation even happens, Lisey has to deal with her older sister who has a history of mental illness and is going through an episode. Whilst dealing with this, she is remembering memories of her and her husband which will ultimately lead her to some kind of a conclusion of her grief. 

This story takes an interesting concept to mental illness and where peoples minds go when they are 'gone'. The actual setting of Boo'ya Moon was so intriguing. Its a dangerous place whilst also being a place of healing and nostalgia for Scott and eventually Lisey as she returns. I liked how King took the concept of mental illness and gave a paranormal perspective which was both hopeful and terrifying. 

The writing style, which I mentioned before, identifed quite easily with King's older works but was more restrained in it's craziness; not that it wasn't crazy and wonderful to read. I get into a kind of rhythm when I read Stephen King and it didn't take me long before I go into the groove. I definitely enjoyed all the new words and concepts that he invented to compliment Scott's insanity. My favourites being 'bool hunt' 'smuck/smucking' and 'SOWISA: Strap On When It Seems Appropriate'. It's these kind of quirks that I admire and love about Stephen King and novels in general.

I only really had one slight tiff with book and that was that I didn't really connect with Lisey as I wish I could've. I don't think this is the book's problem. It's most likely mine because it took me so long to finish the book and therefore kind of lost my rhythm with the characters and their lives. Lisey was an interesting character as well as her odd sisters.

Overall, I loved this book and I'm so glad I decided to pick it up. Even though it wasn't a thriller, it was still a thrilling read and I was completely enthralled in Lisey's Story. 

Rating -  4 out of 5 stars

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Book Review - The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Oh, the anguish. This may be the saddest book I've ever read (trumping Les Miserables and The Book Thief). I had some control at the beginning of the novel and held back my tears by in the last chapter or so I was a complete mess. It was emotionally traumatic.

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. 
Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them. 
M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss. 

From Goodreads 

I was utterly enthralled by Stedman's writing style and I was captured by the character's stories. I literally couldn't put this book down. I was swept away into their anxieties and I wasn't let go till the very end.

This book has a whole heap of downs. Like things can't go right for these characters and you immediately feel for them. You begin to sympathise with every one of the characters and after awhile, sympathising with every character creates unwanted anxieities because it every character can't possibly be satisfied. Oh the anguish! I felt so deeply for all the characters and I didn't know how they would make it through all of this. I was completely consumed with anxiety throughout this novel and then brought to an emotional mess at the conclusion.

I love sad books, books that make me feel something, and boy did this book make me feel. 

What a masterpiece of dramatic writing!

Rating - 5 out of 5 stars

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Book Review - House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House of Leaves is the kind of story that loves to mess with your head a "little" bit. It doesn't have one storyline and one of the stories can be unreliable at times due to his increasing lack of sanity. I found myself spiralling downwards in a maze of subtle confusion as I continued through this novel. All of this may sound like a discredit to the novel but I absolutely loved it. Thought it was innovative as a book and a story.

A brief synopsis about what's going on:

• Johnny Truant finds a suitcase with a manuscript in it, written by a friend's neighbour who is recently deceased.
• The manuscript is a "non-fiction" analysis of a documentary that follows a family as they move into their new house and discover that it is bigger on the inside.
• The Navidson Family become increasingly affected by the house and there are several explorations made to try and discover how big it really is and what is making that roaring noise.
• Johnny Truant adds footnotes to the manuscript that depict a sort of life story as he makes his discovery of the manuscript.
• The book has extensive footnotes and appendices and at some points takes an innovative approach at page space (as in a sentence might be backwards, upside down or spread across several pages)

I honestly don't know what I enjoyed the most about this book because there is just so much to love and appreciate. 

The story may seem like a haunted house novel or a man's decline into insanity, either or, they were composed with such skill that made them seem believable and in a scary way, relatable. Even though Zampano was a silent character, his present is very much felt, especially in the poems and the bits he decided to try and cut out of the manuscript. Navidson was described and experienced in a very different way as well as his wife, Karen. I got to know them in a way I've never a character before due to the non-fiction approach to their story. Johnny Truant's parts were the scariest and definitely kept me thinking, especially his ending (which to be completely honest, I didn't quite understand it).

Because of the general non-fiction layout of this novel, I felt it lacked a necessary climax but that didn't really bother me because there was enough excitement to satisfy my preferences. 

Absolutely amazing and I just loved the innovation in this book. It was a terrific treat to read.

Rating - 5 out of 5 stars 

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Book Review: A Little Princes by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Oh, this book. What an absolutely wonderful christmas present it is!

This book was the first book I ever read and for Christmas, my mum bought me the B&N leatherbound edition which is absolutely beautiful and illustrated. I hadn't read it since I was a child so re-reading for the first time ever was just so much fun. I spent practically all day Christmas reading this book and just breathing in it's amazingness.

The story is about Sara Crewe who is left in Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Little Girls, which is a boarding school in London. She was raised in India and has "peculiar" views on enjoyment, such as she loves to pretend/imagine things and make up stories. Her father is ridiculously wealthy so she can practically have whatever she pleases. She is treated like a princess at the school but she doesn't really act like a spoilt children. One day she is given some bad news and our little princess gets put into a tough situation and the book follows from there.

I absolutely love the story. It is magical and I fall in love with every word. I literally finished it then wanted to go back to the start and read it again. It is so perfect. 

The writing style is quite simple since it is targeted to a younger audience though it is thoroughly enjoyable as an adult. 

The characters are a treat and you love and hate them accordingly. 

Sara is just such a wonderful character and an image of virtue.

Overall, I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone. It is that good.

Rating - 5 out of 5 stars (ONE OF MY FAVOURITES OF ALL TIME)

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Book Review - Inferno by Dan Brown

A Robert Langdon novel is like the craziest roller coaster you can imagine. I couldn't put this book down because every moment was exciting.

Inferno, follows the story of Robert Langdon after he wakes up in a Florentine hospital with no memories of the last two days. He is then thrown into a world of assassin followed chases and a threat of a worldwide plague that could be as catastrophic as the Black Plague. He has to use his knowledge of Dante's greatest work, The Divine Comedy to unravel the puzzle and try and save the world from sudden outbreak.

Like I said, this book was fast pace and really easy to jump into. Something was always happening and I just wanted to know what would happen next. 

In terms of overall plot, I just loved the characters (Zobrist and Sienna Brooks being my favourites) and the content the novel produced. The mixture of history and science information that is presented in this novel makes for an incredibly interesting and immerse read.

These books are super fun to read and anyone could just pick it up and be thrown onto the roller coaster of Langdon's adventure. Would recommend to everyone.

Rating - 5 out of 5 stars

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Book Review - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I've had this book on my TBR for about 4 or 5 years now and I'm so glad I was finally able to pick it up. It was absolutely everything I thought it was going to be. I was so engrossed and literally couldn't put it down. Mindblowingly fantastic (in my opinion anyways).

Brave New World is about a society that is completely controlled from before birth and all the way through their lives with conditioning and scientific influence. All babies are born from test tubes and are "conditioned" (raised) in centres that assure that they will be perfect adults that fit into society absolutely. This is achieved through pre-determining their rank and how they will be conditioned such as are they going to be scientists or factory workers. They are then subjected to conditioning that moulds everyone to believe that they are living the perfect life. In my opinion this entire concept is what makes the book mind blowing because it is totalitarian to the point of dsytopian.

The portrayal of sex in the novel is another key point throughout this novel and I thought it was executed brilliantly. Sex is viewed differently from our perceptions; practically everyone just has sex and it is a form of entertainment. They start from an early age and no one marries or falls in love. They just have sex with someone a couple times then move onto the next one. This was so interesting to watch to play through. 

Also the use of Soma (a drug that induces euphoria and in heavier doses, deep sleep periods called soma holidays) was incredibly well done. The citizens of this controlled world rely on the drug to get on with day to day life. It's controlled addiction.

The characters themselves didn't seem to be used as main plot points, except for John, the Savage, who is the contrast in the book, who attempts to prove that liberty and the happiness/pain that goes with it is superior to this controlled and conditioned civilisation. John serves as the reader's opinion on the aspects of the controlled environment because it is in our nature to view this sort of culture as disturbing and horrifying. 

This book really brings about some important philosophical and ethical questions about whether it is right or wrong to condition (passively control) everyone to adapt to a set of ideals that brings about general happiness for everyone. It takes away our born right of freedom and liberality and forces us to be happy. What is the difference between forcing someone to be happy or sad when in the end you're still forcing someone to do something or think a certain way, when they have no actual choice? This book definitely induces these types of philosophical ponders.

Absolutely amazing premise and execution. Would recommend to pretty much everyone who doesn't mind a small amount of mind-fuckery.

Rating - 5 out 5 stars

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Book Review - Don Quixote by Cervantes

This is a monster of a book. It is just shy of 1000 pages and it definitely felt that long. 

Long classics are incredibly intimidating which is probably why I had such troubles actually sitting down and picking this book up because it intimidated me so much. Although the length is scary, the content isn't. 

I found this novel to be fully entertaining and almost always hilarious. Honestly, I caught myself laughing out loud in some bits, it was that ridiculous. 

Don Quixote is a guy, who after reading a heap of novels about knights, decides to become one himself and practically deludes himself into this strange scenario where he is a gallant knight. Everyone in the book thinks he is a madman, but the fact that they acknowledge this and then continue to go along with his nonsense is what makes this book so hilarious. 

(Also the fact that 'Don Quixote' was supposed to ridicule the novels that Don Quixote reads [and what was popular during Cervantes time] but in fact, made them more popular and became one itself. I swear in the second half it was the story of a true knight, if not a very strange one.)

The relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is funny in itself and definitely matures throughout the novel. The intelligence of Sancho, even though he is portrayed as simple-minded, is superb and matures with the novel. Sancho really becomes a part of Don Quixote's madness in the second part and it's also quite funny to see him react in all the crazy situations.

The plot wasn't that of a regular novel; it was simply the string of events that happened to Don Quixote after he decided that he was a knight and as a knight, he should do knightly things.

The only thing I didn't quite like about this book was the length. I caught myself wishing it was shorter countless times throughout reading this book. In my opinion, it really didn't need to be this long.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book as a first (big) classic to anyone who is interested because I feel that the writing and story are quite easy to follow.

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars

Below the Break - Collection of Quotes

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