Review: Here Lies Arthur

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a well written take on the legend of King Arthur and his knights. A very quick read but written from an interesting point of view - that of a girl called Gwyna who becomes Merlin's (spelled Myrddin) servant as he spins the legend of Arthur. A nice retrospective picture of Arthur is created which is VERY different to what we might think of him today. According to Philip Reeve it's not a historical novel, but it certainly feels like the story of Arthur has been rationalised and presented from what might be a more realistic perspective.

Very different concept for a YA book and I will certainly be recommending this to certain students who are currently indulging themselves with the legend of King Arthur! That'll teach 'em to have romantic ideals...



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Review: The Glass Demon

The Glass Demon by Helen Grant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Slightly predictable, but still nicely written and attention grabbing enough to satisfy any YA with a taste for supernatural thrillers. I actually really enjoyed the book, particularly the German setting although the characters were a little under-developed. But, it was a quick read and the short chapters made it perfect for reading on the train to work!



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Review: The Escape

The Escape by Robert Muchamore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is a very popular book in the school library, and I can see why because it's exciting and actually written quite well. I'd definitely recommend it to any 12+ year olds wanting to get into a good adventure series which both boys and girls will find absorbing.



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The Wasteland, ebooks and a cool blog...

They say 'share and share alike' is one of the golden rules of the blogosphere, so when I came across this great blog by ex-paramedic Tom Reynolds I had to share it. It's brilliant. And since starting his blog, Tom has written 2 books and created the idea for Channel 4's new programme Sirens.

I came upon the blog in a roundabout way at work today whilst reading an article my boss had found in The Times about a new iPad app devoted to T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. Basically it's a beautiful piece of technological innovation that is being heralded as 'the future of the book'. It's certainly one of a kind and very very clever. Which I like.

At the end of the article was a bunch of links sharing new advances in eBooks and that is how I came across Tom Reynolds through The Friday Project which is run by Harper Collins exploring new avenues for digital publishing.

I realise this is a kind of convoluted expression of my train of thought but I don't care! I found lots of interesting things online today!

Review: Skippy Dies

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I don't think I've ever read a book like this before, especially in terms of style. I kind of liked the way that the story flowed; chapters ran into each other and joined up, the teen-aged monologues were appropriately lacking in punctuation and capital letters. The characters were all very interesting/psychopathic/broken and it was fun being drip-fed information about them until the full picture was revealed.

This book made me quite uneasy at the same time. I felt really affected by the character of Carl and for some reason absolutely repulsed during his encounter with 'The Druid'. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a teenager and (I get this feeling when I watch SKINS also)I can't ever remember my life being so filled with sex and drugs! Hmm, maybe I was a boring teenager!

Anyway. I only gave this 2 stars (2 and a half would have been perfect) because while I enjoyed the unique style and the weaving together of all the characters and stories, I also found the parts on string theory a little boring (science is not for me) and sometimes the descriptive 'dreamscape' type scenes were heavy going and a bit too caught up in their own sense of 'dreamscape' and/or drug induced surrealism. I suspect this makes no sense really, but neither did those scenes.

It's true what it says on the blurb; this book is very dark (obviously considering the themes being played out) sometimes very funny and touching and overall an ode to life not being fair and the process of growing up and realising this. Bittersweet.



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