“Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch” – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

When the Anti-Christ is brought to Earth to bring upon Armageddon humanity has just eleven years before the End Times. Crowley and Aziraphale (Earth-Based representatives of Hell and Heaven respectively) take it upon themselves to influence the Anti-Christ (Adam’s) upbringing in the hopes of stopping the apocalypse before it can begin. With other elements in play the book follows the events leading up to doomsday in a brilliantly constructed novel full of wit, emotion, cleverness, friendship, and loyalty.

This book is brilliant. This book is everything. Honestly. I am a bit of a sucker for angels and demons (you may recall from literally anything I have ever said. Ever.). Reading Crowley and Aziraphale work against each other together is something I could read forever. I love everything about this book. It’s one of those books I don’t even want to SAY anything because you have to experience it, dear reader, freshly and without pre-formed opinions.

I will say that this book has all of the elements that matter: friendship, love, good vs. evil (angels vs. demons), humor, witches, the Brits, humanity, The End Times.

If you haven’t yet read this book I highly suggest doing so. I suggest IMMEDIATELY watching “Good Omens” on Amazon Prime. It is EXACTLY like the book and it is what I am confident in saying is a paragon of “book to show” adaptation.

I have so much more I want to talk about so for the first time maybe ever but definitely in a long time SPOILERS AHEAD. Because I just have to keep talking about this book. Turn back, go read, and come back to me when you’ve finished.

SPOILERS:

Okay so from the SECOND that you meet Crowley and Aziraphale (hereinafter known as the Ineffable Husbands) I. Fell. In. Love. Crowley with his beautiful “wicked” ways, Aziraphale with his righteous but sneaky “heavenly” ways. THE FACT THAT CROWLEY LITERALLY SAVED A DOVE BECAUSE AZIRAPHALE FELT BADLY ABOUT IT DYING. CAN THEY NOT. Their entire 6,000 year relationship is literally everything I live for.

I love Adam, I love how he’s just a kid, and how he’s just like “I love my town, and I want a Dog named Dog that I can play with and I want my friends and I to do whatever and just be a kid and have a laugh”. Like, he’s so endearing. I love that even when he starts to realize he’s powerful he’s still just kind of like “I’m only doing this so I can run Tadfield and just have a great life.” Like there’s no real malice in him, and I love that he’s somehow inherently good even though he’s literally born of and destined to be evil.

I love Anathema, she is definitely in my top list of Witches that I love. How she just blindly (well, not so blindly I guess) follows Agnes’ predictions. I love her determination and her utzpa.

Newton kills me. He’s literally one of my favorite characters. I just think he’s tops. Him and the entire Witch Finder Army.

I think this book is actually perfect writing. I don’t know that I have ever read a book as quickly and as thoroughly and as obsessively. I highly recommend reading the book. Watching the program, and reading the script book (which I have purchased and will be reading in the very near future).

“The Haunting Of Hill House” – Shirley Jackson

So having not updated my blog since… January, I have a lot of things to add. Let’s begin first with a book I read earlier this year, “The Haunting on Hill House”. See, I had seen the movie “The Haunting” (Catherine Zeta-Jones et al circa 1999) and more recently the Netflix series and I said to myself, you have never read that book. So I read the book.

I like the way the book was written. Weirdly I felt more compelled by the show, not sure if it was because I had fallen in such love with the show or because I had had a few versions of the story running loose in my head. The book is a ghost story, for those of you who don’t know the tale. A Psychiatrist (psychologist? Paranormal investigator?) invites a few people he finds to have… connections to the paranormal in some way to the house for the summer to study the house. His goal is to see if there are any goings-on at the home, and to see if it is triggered by any of these special visitors (Eleanor, Theo, and Luke). As the story progresses there are unexplainable situations, internal revelations, and plenty to keep the reader interested.

I love ghost stories, I love the ideas of haunted houses. I think this book was good. I read it very quickly and it was enjoyable. I do however just find the Netflix show so absolutely chilling and beautiful that I can’t shake that I like it more. Perhaps had I read the original first… but alas.

A good spooky story for a chilly spooky night.

“Prom Night In Purgatory” – Amy Harmon

^ this is the photo that made me think of Dean that I mentioned in my previous post

Anyway: “Prom Night in Purgatory” is the sequel to “Slow Dance in Purgatory” which left me with that frustrating ending that I had to immediately move forward from and onto the sequel (thank Chuck for reading books years after they’re written so their sequels can also be written).

I. Loved. This. Book. I was mad at this book and how it went. I was flailing about the ending. I was frustrated with the characters. I mentioned it before I know this book is cheesy. I get that a girl who falls for a ghost-like-person-guy is weird. I get that it’s a sappy high school romance book and not Dickens (which just so happens to be Johnny’s favorite author so take that). But I don’t care. This book hit me. I loved the drama, the romance, the twists, the vaguely “Back To The Future” over tones (“Earth Angel”? Really?). In my humble opinion the sequel was good. Most of the time sequels drop the ball, and I think this one was well plotted. It wrapped everything up, despite my being mad about it. It was well executed and a page turner. The romantic sap in me was thrilled to read a book about doomed love and heartbreak.

You’ll definitely want the sequel after you read Slow Dance and this sequel was worthy of continuing the series.

Happy Reading!

“Slow Dance in Purgatory” – Amy Harmon

Okay… so, backstory, I literally read this book because the cover of the sequel (and the title) reminded me of Dean Winchester (the love of my life) in an AU. So I was like “well might as well read them”. And then SHE DESCRIBED JOHNNY (the main boy) AS SMELLING OF SUNSHINE AND LEATHER. This is not only a beautiful description but LITERALLY the EXACT WORDS of how I described the scent of Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) that time I hugged him (okay, that sounds creepy out loud…) but anyway. It was so specific and so perfect I fell in love a little bit more with this book and the characters.

So the premise of the book is that Maggie can see ghosts/spirits. She largely ignores this fact about her life. Until she sees Johnny. Johnny died in the 1950s in a tragic accident at the school, where he’s remained ever since. Maggie and Johnny form a friendship and a romance that transcends space and time but it’s destined to end in tragedy.

Honestly loved this book. Yeah, it’s cheesy I get that. Yeah I know I went in with a bias because of my love of “Supernatural” and everything not the show Supernatural. But come on! Ghosts. Tragedy. True love!? What’s not to get excited about? I love Maggie, her backstory and her traits. I love Johnny his tragedy and being. I love Gus and Irene and Shad.

Also the book ends on a cliffhanger. Like a pretty frustrating one so I was very glad the second book was already written. I’m currently reading it and dying.

I think this book is great for the sappy romantic and the occult lover. And if you’re both its a perfect combo!

I’ll let you know shortly how the second book is. . .

All The Crooked Saints – Maggie Stiefvater

“Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full 

of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.” – Taken from Stiefvater’s website. 

You may recall me saying I have a thing for Biblical themes (this includes Miracles/Saints). So I honestly didn’t even read the summary when I opted to read this book. I just saw “oh crooked saints. cool” and started reading. Plus I’m a little bit of a cover judger and the cover was awesome…  

I had no idea what this book was about for the first 150 pages. Honestly. I was like “WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING” when the book was over I’m still not 100% sure I know what happened. I mean, I am. I followed it. But what the hell. I have read Stiefvater’s work in the past and really enjoyed it but I was struggling with this one. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be fairytale in quality, metaphoric, or just some kind of AU where people had coyote heads or turned to moss…. Maybe I should have read the description. 

Once I got past the… unusual quality of the story I was still not into it. I’m sorry Stiefvater. I just didn’t care that much about the Pilgrims or the Saints or anything that happened to them. I don’t know if it was because there were too many characters or not enough characters or too much plot or not enough plot. I honestly have no idea what I was missing from this book but something just wasn’t clicking for me. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace, maybe I was reading too many books and needed a break. I’m not sure. I feel like in an another time I would have enjoyed it but even though I got through the whole book it felt more out of obligation than any real desire to finish it. I’m so sorry. 

“Carry On” – Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow, the Chosen One, destined to fulfil a prophecy long foretold. He’s also possibly the worst magician. Powerful, yes, but consistent? Not so much. His roommate, Baz, is also Simons sworn enemy- aside from The Humdrum possibly his worst enemy. The Mage, Simons mentor, is MIA, and a danger no one is prepared for is on the horizon. Amongst prophecies and enemies there’s school and dating … life is hard for a teenage magician.

I am by no means doing this summary justice. My best advice is read the damn book. Normally I wait a few days (to a month) after reading a book before I write a review. I let the book sink in. I think about it. Then I write about it. But not this time. I want to write about this while it’s fresh. When I’ve only just finished and Simon, Baz, Penny, Agatha, Lucy, The Mage, and everyone is still roaming in my thoughts and choking my heart. I really loved this story. I loved the magic. I loved the modernity. I loved the tragedy. I loved the heartache. I loved the hope. It was witty and fun and beautiful and sad. While I did predict the ending I loved the ending. I want to be sucked into this world longer. I want to disappear to Watford and fall into the story. Except…. well maybe with less Numpties.

This novel was everything I wanted, some things I needed, and a slew of things I didn’t even know I needed or wanted but now realise I couldn’t’ve lived without a moment longer.

I would love to have spoiler-y discussions. So please, let’s talk? Y/Y?

Happy reading!

The Beast Is An Animal – Peternelle van Arsdale

“Being a child is like a story someone once told me. A story I don’t believe anymore.”

Alys was just a child when the Soul Eaters came to her village, sucking the souls of the fearful adults and leaving only the children. Forced to travel to the nearby village of Defraid the orphans of Gwenith make the best of their new lives.  But the Soul Eaters aren’t all that the Defraider’s have to fear The Beast lurks in the woods as well; calling to Alys.  Burdened by what she saw the night the Soul Eaters came Alys goes through her days struggling with who she is and who she might become.

This book felt like a faerie tale. It was captivating and had that sense of submerging you in a different world – it felt like a story you’d grow up with along Red Riding Hood, or The Pied Piper, or any number of cautionary tales.

The storytelling really was what tipped this book into a favourites list for me. The characters, the concept, they were all wonderful but the way that Arsdale writes is submerges you in yesteryear and really feels like something purely mythical.

I loved the way the Soul Eaters were written and the mystery of The Beast and the Soul Eaters. The attention to historical accuracy about Witches was weaved beautifully into a fictional realm of faerie tale. It really is just a great story and beautifully written.

 

Life and Death – Stephenie Meyer

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

Do you ever wish as a writer you could go back and redo something? Change a character here or there, rewrite a line? As a reader do you ever wish an author had done something differently? Changed a scene, made a character stronger? In Life and Death Meyer did just that. She also decided to make a point to all the haters who said Bella was weak and Edward was creepy. In this reimagining of Twilight with a gender!swap we get a new story with the same familiarity as the world-wide phenomenon.

Beau, a semi-awkward independent guy moves to Forks, Washington from Arizona to live with his Dad. In this new town he meets new friends like Jeremy, McKayla, and Erica, but it’s hard to deny the allure of the mysterious Cullen clan. Jessamine, Eleanor, Archie, Royal, and of course Edythe. Beau works his way through his days trying to figure out Edythe’s mystery while getting himself into a world he doesn’t understand.

I’m going to be up front, I liked Twilight. Whatever. Did I think the fans were insane, yes. Did I think the story could have used improvement? Of course. But it was fun. Vampires, werewolves, evil plans, clumsy girls. What’s not to like honestly? It’s a formula I read a lot (substitute a vampire for a witch, a werewolf for an angel potato potaaato). The point is I’m going to be upfront and say I don’t care, I liked Twilight so you have to keep that in mind as I’m going through Life and Death.

One of the things I didn’t like about Twilight was that Edward was a massive creeper and Bella was too infatuated. I felt like Edward used his power (vampiric not masculine. That’s a whole separate issue) to control her. It wasn’t sexy to me, it was controlling. I’ve had many arguments that he was “nervous” and “worried about her fragile human state”. Okay. Fine. But he was still a dick. This is usually the point where I remind them (whoever I’m talking to) that I’m a big Jacob fan and I get angry looks about how he “manipulated her into loving him”. Okay fine so they’re all terrible how about that? Team Mike Newton? (Also terrible).

Anyway, in reading this reimagining of the story I instantly went into it with an “oh, so this is a gender!swap fanfic. Cool.” Mood and I think that really helped put me in the right headspace for this novel. I wasn’t expecting something new or groundbreaking, just a new look at a familiar story. I was really interested by the fact that within the first few chapters I immediately noticed Beau’s character as being… arrogant? In a way I didn’t see Bella being originally. He wasn’t outwardly so, but even though the lines were verbatim a lot of the time coming out of Bella’s mouth it didn’t sound as narcissistic as it did coming out of Beau’s. For example, there’s a line where Bella in the original is talking about Mike Newton and how he’s clearly interested in her because she’s like the new fresh meat and she goes “I had gained an unwelcome fan” and it just seems like she’s kind of snubby but not in a rude way? Even though the line itself is rude. More just like she’s an introvert who doesn’t like being ogled. But when Beau says the same line about McKayla it almost gives off a tone like he expected nothing less? Which does still make sense for his character because he realizes he’s the new guy “fresh meat” so to speak and he knows everyone’s going to be fascinated with him for a few weeks until it wears off. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe I guess, but there’s just something about the way the gender swap happens that makes me really dislike Beau whereas I only mildly disliked Bella.

Let’s move on briefly to Edythe. Yikes. She was insane. I mean I always knew Edward was so maybe I went in with some prejudice, but changing Edward to Edythe really gave off a succubus vibe I think. The way she played with Beau and all her “mood swings” really just made her seem crazy even more than Edward. I will say that Edward was a lot stronger than Edythe. Once Edythe and Beau connected though I felt she opened up more than Edward. By the end of the book I felt Edythe was almost too vulnerable. And even by the end of the whole Twilight series I didn’t see Edward as vulnerably as I saw Edythe. Which was really a fascinating realisation for me.

I liked that the conversations didn’t really have to change that much when it came to basic stuff; but when they did it was also very interesting. When Jeremy and Beau are discussing Edythe being potentially into Beau Jeremy teases that maybe Beau “doesn’t have game” and that Jeremy himself should “be more pathetic if that’s what Edythe is into” and it comes off as joking and fun. When Jessica and Bella have a similar conversations about Edward it comes off snarky and caddy. So there’s a really interesting element to the gender reversal there.

I have to just add that one of the biggest power shifts from the original to this is that Beau has a lot more power in Edythe and his relationship I think than Bella had in Edwards. I feel like Beau ultimately does get to decide his own fate where as Bella was always being told what was best for her. I think even though Edythe viewed Beau as fragile it didn’t quite compare on the same level as how Edward viewed Bella as fragile.

I liked that Life and Death had a different ending (no doubt owing to the fact that she didn’t want to write the whole trilogy (yes Breaking Dawn never happened) again. Overall I thought it was a really interesting exploration and I think it’s worth reading them back to back and seeing how a simple gender swap can rearrange an entire story. (Also might be an interesting experiment for aspiring writers. Prompt: Take one of your scenes/chapters and switch the characters genders. See what happens. Could help you learn more about your characters or why they do what they do).

Anyway, I’d love to hear some other thoughts. And as always, happy reading!

Falling Under – Gwen Hayes

“Falling Under” chronicles the story of Theia Alderson, a well protected albeit sheltered girl living in Serendipity Falls, California. She lives her life by her father’s rules of practicality and complacency; constantly fighting her wayward spirit. But someone comes along that unleashes her grip on herself; sending her tumbling into things she can’t understand.

Warning: This story has two books. “Falling Under” ends but you know that’s not the end. The second book is called “Dreaming Awake” and is available pretty much anywhere. I have not yet read “Dreaming Awake” as I only just finished “Falling Under” yesterday, but if it’s an indication to how I felt about “Falling Under” I will be keeping an eye out for “Dreaming Awake”.

This book was mostly character. The plot was thin and that’s okay. I love character books. Of course these characters kind of made me mad the whole time; but that good mad where you realise you must care because you keep yelling at everyone.

Also, it pains me to read books that involve anything supernatural because I just get so angry; being a self-proclaimed paranormal aficionado I just want to scream at them “DIDN’T YOU READ THE LORE!?” It’s irrational but there you have it.

Anyway, back to the book itself. I read it straight through over the span of two days (work and what not preventing me from reading it in one go). It was good. I felt compelled to continue reading (although part of me wonders if that was just because I wanted to make sure I was right and solved everything before they did). It made me feel and care which I think are good qualities to have in characters. I look forward to reading the second one. Also I was checking out Gwen’s website and this series sounds interesting, about the start of a new world. I love Post-Apocalyptic books so I’ll be checking that out also.

Anyway, happy reading!

Book Round-Up

I’ve been really busy this month. I spent a weekend with some friends from out of town, my SPN family actually from my previous post. I’ve been working extra hours (not a crazy amount but some which is nice). I’ve also read a bunch of books.

Every year I re-read Harry Potter at Christmas time, but this year Christmas was a cluster of insanity so I didn’t enjoy Harry Potter at the same time as usual. Instead I picked it up just after New Year. I powered through my favourite series by my favourite author and got lost in the magic for a countless time. If you haven’t read Harry Potter by now just go now and do it. You’re missing something critical in your life.

Then I attempted to read “The Nine Lives of Chloe King” by Liz Braswell

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a few months actually. I thought it sounded right up my alley, shifters and the paranormal. But I read about three chapters and for some reason it just wasn’t clicking for me. I wasn’t really drawn into the story or the characters. I don’t know why. I put it back on the shelf and I’m going to try again later but for now it just wasn’t for me.

So instead I picked up “Blood Magic” by Tessa Graton

This book I read in a day. Literally. I started at like 8 in the morning and before I knew it the light outside was fading and I had flipped to the last page of the book. I spent a whole day in Yalelyah with Nick, Silla, Reese, magic, secrets, lies, half-truths, and danger. This book grabbed me from the beginning (as you may have guessed).

The story follows Nick Pardee who recently moved from Chicago to Yalelyah – a small Podunk town – after his grandfather dies and leaves him the house. He’s busy trying to not think about the odd girl who lives next door while dealing with the Wicked Step-mom and his dads offhand parenting techniques while being reminded of his mom and the mysterious things she taught him.

Silla is busy coping from the death of her parents that upturned her rather perfect life. She’s trying to defend her parents and still keep some resemblance of normalcy when a mysterious leather-bound book winds up in her possession sent from a person who calls himself The Deacon – the weirdest part is the book is written in her father’s handwriting, and it’s full of magic! Struggling to figure out how to navigate the world now that everything is different Silla begins exploring the magic and secrets of her past.

In all honesty, (slight spoilers?) and with full respect to Miss Graton, at first the characters really pissed me off – and I think that’s a mark of a great story in and of itself. I didn’t like the way Nick acted when he moved, he drove me insane and it makes sense! He was a sixteen year old kid with his life uprooted. And the mask thing was creepy with Silla but it definitely fit her as a person (it was subtle and odd in a kind of perfect way).

I think this book is great. It’s graphic – the rabbit scene, enough said – the characters are perfectly teen aged without being too one dimensional. I loved the magic and the style it was written, changing perspectives and giving you just a small piece of the puzzle with each new page. Nothing was in your face really. It was quite well written and very engaging.

I look forward to reading more from Tessa.