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I have never had the compulsion to read a book after I have seen the movie adaptation but this is exactly what happened here.  My days of reading Anne Rice novels have long passed so I am not a fan of the vampire genre anymore however this is not your typical horror/vampire story and DEFINITELY not for Twilight fans.

The story is set in 1981 Stockholm Blackberg, a working class neighbourhood where a young boy is mercilessly bullied at school.  The only interesting thing, besides Oskar’s scrapbook of murders is the arrival of a new neighbour and his daughter. But not all is as it seems. The little girl is something different, and the old man is certainly not her father.

Its eerie, creepy and at times very sad rather than scary perhaps because a major part deals with non-paranormal horrors such as alcoholism, bullying, prostitution and paedophilia, all touched on in such a way as to deliberately make you very VERY uncomfortable.

The adults are all distant and/or alcoholic, leaving the children to fend for themselves which makes the clumsy connection between Eli and Oskar all the more striking.  The book gets a 5 star rating me up until the end, then it became too weird even for me.  The fact that Eli was all of a sudden defined as something else (which made me lose my connection with her), and Harken’s transformation into the living dead tainted the story for me. 

It’s still a great read and I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the kind of fiction that unsettles you, that makes you look and keep on looking even when part of you very much wants to look away, but I was disappointed in the conclusion.

4 ½ stars

This story gripped me like no other psychological thriller! This 3rd book by the author is very different to Zoo City but no less powerful in its writing.

It follows the demented journey of a serial killer who gets drawn to a House which serves as a portal into other times. He has a seemingly uncontrollable compulsion to follow where the House leads him and you almost feel as if he doesn’t have a choice in what he is doing…. However don’t let this fool you; he was mentally cracked in the head long before the temptation of the House came on the scene. Harper would compulsively seek out “shining girls” those that are bright with potential, and make first contact when they are still young girls. He then catches up with them when they are grown up…..Some of the scenes are exceptionally graphic so be warned.

Kirby is the only Shining Girl that eludes Harper and the dynamics between her and Dan reminded me of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Kirby starts working as an intern and is assigned to work for Dan the Sports writer at a Chicago newspaper but she is more interested in investigating murders similar to the profile of the man that attacked her.

I really loved that the author has the ability to make you feel fully invested in a character within the span of a page or two – I was rooting for each and every Shining Girl! I cannot I cannot praise this author enough and recommend this to all my GR friends even if, like me, you are not into psychological thrillers – this felt like something completely different.

Oh and the bonus short story at the end was just as brilliant (and this one had a Zoo City feel)!

4 ½ stars

This story gripped me like no other psychological thriller! This 3rd book by the author is very different to Zoo City but no less powerful in its writing.

It follows the demented journey of a serial killer who gets drawn to a House which serves as a portal into other times. He has a seemingly uncontrollable compulsion to follow where the House leads him and you almost feel as if he doesn’t have a choice in what he is doing…. However don’t let this fool you; he was mentally cracked in the head long before the temptation of the House came on the scene. Harper would compulsively seek out “shining girls” those that are bright with potential, and make first contact when they are still young girls. He then catches up with them when they are grown up…..Some of the scenes are exceptionally graphic so be warned.

Kirby is the only Shining Girl that eludes Harper and the dynamics between her and Dan reminded me of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Kirby starts working as an intern and is assigned to work for Dan the Sports writer at a Chicago newspaper but she is more interested in investigating murders similar to the profile of the man that attacked her.

I really loved that the author has the ability to make you feel fully invested in a character within the span of a page or two – I was rooting for each and every Shining Girl! I cannot I cannot praise this author enough and recommend this to all my GR friends even if, like me, you are not into psychological thrillers – this felt like something completely different.

Oh and the bonus short story at the end was just as brilliant (and this one had a Zoo City feel)!

3 ½ stars – Recommended!!

The story unfolds in the form of correspondence letters between Juliette, a fledgling author, and the members of the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society. This “society” is made up of pig farmers, school teachers and other eccentric characters.

This is essentially a heart-warming feel good book about WW2. Feel good and WW2 does not really fit in next to each other however it worked in this setting. And as light-hearted as the stories seemed the underlying destructiveness of this war was still crystal clear.

Throughout most of the book I found each and every one of these character captivating even the disagreeable ones however towards the end of the book all of them were becoming just a tad too sweet and perfect for my taste.

As the author passed away before the publication of this novel and her niece had to step in to apparently do some major rewriting I wonder who’s doing the initial magic I felt in the first half of the book was.

I have always found books on personal finance exceptionally boring and have avoided reading them because of this.

This book however takes the form of stories from Babylonian citizens each touching on an aspect of personal finance (save 10% of your earnings, don’t rent but rather own property and invest your money wisely so it may grow etc etc)

None of this is new to me however sometimes you need a reminder to jolt you out of bad financial habits.
I can highly recommend this and will be buying it as a Christmas present for a few people this year.

This novel was set in the Igbo homeland of Nigeria in the 1890’s describing a highly patriarchal village and its surrounding neighbours having to deal with the arrival of European missionaries.

The narrative is full of words and names tricky to grasp at times and the writing style made me feel strangely detached during most of this book.

The main character, Okwonko, is a fearless narcissistic man who defines himself by his own wealth and position within the clan. He is quite unlikable even if early on I could see cracks in his demeanour and sympathise with his upbringing.

What I liked:
The tales of African folklore interspersed throughout the book and all the superstitious beliefs typical of an African rural village, especially because I know next to nothing about Nigerian folklore.

What I didn’t like:
The watershed moment leading to Okwonko’s 7 year banishment from his village was only described in 3 short sentences. Okwonko’s actions at the end also didn’t correlate with his overall character and made me feel as if I missed some vital explanation/insight along the way.

I absolutely love this author’s inquisitive mind, writing style, humour and the subject matters she chooses.  My favourite is still Stiff but this one is a close second.  It had me bursting out laughing even with the high yuk factor of the content.

In typical Mary Roach style:

“No engineer could design something as multifunctional and fine-tuned as an anus. To call someone an asshole is really bragging him up.”

She dives into the subject at hand discussing topics ranging from what makes pet food irresistible to Fido to "taboo" topics as intestinal gas and our bowel habits. We read about the dangers of prisoners secreting contraband in their stomachs or up their bottoms.   It also looks at the digestive systems of competitive eaters and we even learn why Elvis died, and yep it was on the toilet.  

And these are not even the odd sections of the book.  That’s reserved for discussing where the myth of fire breathing dragons come from (they are basically gassy snakes), what morning breath really is, why rabbits and rats eat their own droppings and things I never wanted to know, ie the anal violin.  Take it from me, don’t eat while reading this :-)

The only criticism I have is that with an Kindle the footnotes at the end of each chapter becomes a bit confusing as you cannot easily just flip back pages to see what she is referring to.

This book will not be to everyone’s taste (excuse the slight pun) but I loved it!

The story is set in the 80’s  where saying the word AIDS is more disgusting than Santa Clause telling a 4 year old to F off.  ……  

It tells the tale of 14 year old June and the way she and her family are all dealing with the loss of June’s uncle Finn in their own slightly dysfunctional way.    June uncovers many secrets about Greta and their mother in her search for answers about Finn and Toby, the mystery man in Finn's life.

The way Toby tried so hard to reach out to June while she tried even harder to not care was almost painful to read.  All the characters were beautifully developed each with their own flaws, jealousy, insecurities and fear.  This is a fantastic debut novel and I will definitely read more from this author.

I liked this book even more than The Karma Suture and have to give 5 out of 5 for the quirky book titles.

As a South African it gave me fascinating insights into the challenges facing doctors working within the COMPLETELY chaotic government hospitals. The characters are well developed and realistic and the story had the perfect balance between humour and real life problems.

Not going to give a long review – too busy hunting down the latest book by this author.

So glad she never stuck to just being a Doctor as she is a great writer.