Genre: Horror, Classics, Vampires Narrative Style: First person. Introduced as if part of a doctor’s case-notes Rating 3/5
Published: 1871 Format: Kindle Reading challenges: Eclectic reader challenge 2015 – genre: A story written before I was born. Synopsis: Laura and her father live in a solitary castle in Austria. One night, they witness a terrible coach crash and are persuaded to look after the victims daughter as she is considered too ill to carry on. Strange night time occurrences and appearances begin to bother Laura although she doesn’t immediately associate them with their new guest. This early vampire story – which pre-dates Dracula by some 26 years – seems quite old-fashioned now. It is a story that has seeped into popular culture. Unfortunately when you then read the original version, it is hard not to feel it is a little predictable. This only shows the extent of the influence of Le Fanu’s story. I particularly enjoyed the opening with its creepy descriptions of the surrounding area and the hints of empty villages and deserted castles. The scene was very effectively set for what was to come. When a friend of the family’s daughter dies in mysterious circumstances just as she was about to visit Laura and the equally mysterious Carmilla appears just days later, the reader knows that something is not quite right. Equally, I found the build up of tension between Laura and Carmilla convincing and interesting. Laura is both attracted and repulsed by her guest and cannot put her finger on why. Carmilla is prone to strange romantic longings with Laura as their focus. These episodes are unsettling to Laura and probably would have been to readers at the time. However, momentum does not quite hold up and the revealing of Carmilla’s vampire status is a bit of an anticlimax. The General – the friend whose daughter died – recounts his own experience with Carmilla in a nearby ruined village. When Carmilla appears, he attempts to attack her but she is too strong for him, thus proving that she is indeed a vampire. At just the right moment, a vampire expert and hunter appears who just happened to know where the hidden tomb of Carmilla is. This ending seems a little rushed and underdeveloped. It’s a shame because I had enjoyed it up until that point.
Category: Eclectic Reader Challenge 2015
Books Read in 2015 – 9. How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern
Genre: Romance, Chick-lit
Narrative Style: First person, chronological
Rating 3/5
Published: 2013
Format: Kindle
Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reading Challenge – Contemporary Romance
Synopsis: Christine Rose fails to stop a suicidal man from shooting himself which sends her into a tailspin of self-doubt and causes her to end her own marriage. When she sees Adam about to jump off the Ha’Penny Bridge then she knows she has to stop him.
I thought I’d get this genre out of the way early. As I have said before, I am not a fan of romantic literature. I keep hoping I will find a romance writer I will actually love but it seems it is not to be. I picked Cecelia Ahern because she has a lot of five-star reviews and I wanted to at least know what I was reading was a good example of the genre.
I have no doubt that this is the case, that Ahern is one of the better romance writers around but I still found it a chore to read. There were a number of reasons for this but the main one was there was never any doubt that Christine and Adam would end up together. Not for a moment did it seem that any of the “obstacles” in their way would actually derail the romance. There was no tension at all.
Secondly, I found the characters were all a bit like characters in a romantic movie rather than having any sort of reality. Christine was either ridiculously upbeat or a mess of tears. (This is the second novel I’ve read lately where the lead woman spends most of the time crying. Whatever happened to a strong female lead?) The other characters were just there for her to react to and had no life of their own. Adam’s turn around at the end was not convincing. It was very clearly a work of fiction. That might seem like a stupid thing to say but I felt I could never completely lose myself in Christine”s world because I didn’t believe it could exist.
However, for all my problems with the genre, this wasn’t badly written and I did want to see exactly how it would end so Ahern is clearly doing something right. I won’t be returning to read anymore though.
Books Read in 2015 – 3. Farewell, My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
Genre: Private Eye, Hard-boiled Detective
Narrative Style: First person, chronological
Rating: 4/5
Published: 1940
Format: Kindle
Synopsis: Moose Malloy is looking for his old love Velma and Marlowe starts to investigate when he is contacted for what seems like a routine case. There would seem to be no link between the two cases but quickly Marlowe finds hostility on all sides and things become a lot more complicated then they seemed.
Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge – Genre: PI Crime
I had intentions of reading more Chandler. I read The Big Sleep and really enjoyed it and was thinking it was about time I read the next one so when I saw that one of the genres for this year’s Eclectic Reader Challenge was PI crime, I didn’t hesitate.
There is no easing into the story here. You are dropped straight into Marlowe’s seedy little world. Every detail counts as the story quickly gets quite convoluted and no one is quite who they seem. The pace is lively and it was difficult to put down.
Marlowe really suffers in this story. He is bashed on the head a large number of times as well as being pumped full of all sorts of horrible drugs. He spends a lot of his time with his head spinning and stomach churning. Not that this stops him, you understand. Marlowe is not the sort of man to be laid low by anything. He just has another whisky and carries on. I like the toughness of the characters – not just Marlowe but all the other men and some of the women too. There is no sentimentality here – this is a hard world and it takes hard people to survive. There is no time for feeling sorry for yourself.
What really makes Chandler’s novel sing is the prose. Marlowe is all bruised one liners and smart retorts. I kept imagining Humphrey Bogart growling out some of the lines. Some of the descriptions are just fabulous – ‘The voice of the hot dog merchant split the dusk like an axe’ for example or ‘She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket’. It’s all so sharp and the prose never wavers for one second. There is very little breathing space for the reader who is always fully immersed in the horror of Marlowe’s world.
I didn’t see the ending coming at all. Maybe a sharper reader could have put it together but to be honest, I’m always quite pleased if I haven’t managed to work it out. It was a good ending, one that tied everything together successfully and was completely satisfying. I will certainly be reading the next one.
Eclectic Reader Challenge 2015
I’ve been excited for the last few days about what books to pick for next year’s challenge but I felt I couldn’t post about it until I had finished this years challenge. I finished Travels in the Congo this morning so here is the new list.
For those of you who don’t know, what you need to do is select a book from each of the following categories and when you have read it, post a review. It is hosted by Book’d Out.
I haven’t decided on all categories yet. These are the ones that I already have on my shelves. As for the others, I haven’t a clue at the minute. I’m more than happy to take recommendations especially for contemporary romance, definitely not a genre I normally read.
1. Retellings (of fairytale, legends or myth) The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood
2. A book set in a country starting with the letter S (eg. Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Slovakia) July’s People – Nadine Gordimer (Set in South Africa)
3. PI Crime (fiction featuring a private investigator) Farewell, my lovely – Raymond Chandler
4. A novel published before you were born Carmilla – Joseph Sheridan La Fanu
5. Contemporary romance How to fall in Love – Cecelia Ahern
6. Fiction for foodies (fiction featuring food/food related business) Babette’s Feast – Karen Blixen
7. Microhistory (Non Fiction) Just my Type – Simon Garfield
8. Science Fiction set in space Consider Phlebas – Iain M. Banks
9. Sports (Fiction or Non fiction) The Fight – Norman Mailer
10. Featuring diversity I am J – Cris Beam
11. Epistolary Fiction (fiction written in the format of letters/emails/diary entries) Before I Go To Sleep – S. J. Watson
12. Middle Grade/YA Adventure – The Giver – Lois Lowry
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