Devolution by Max Brooks

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

You can buy Devolution...Here

You can find out more about the author Max Brooks...Here

• The Blurb...

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.

But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing - and too earth-shattering in its implications - to be forgotten.

Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us - and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it - and like none you've ever read before.

• Our Review...

To our readers in the UK this novel is not about the domestic politics of the Celtic countries of the UK (thank goodness!) It is about the opposite of evolution i.e. the notion that species can revert to supposedly more primitive forms over time. 

Our story is told in epistolary fashion in the form of a recovered journal and notes from interviews. This is a clever framework for this novel as it adds a touch of realism to what is in essence a myth. The method is akin to "filming the Blair Witch Project on a shaky hand held cam." It adds a ring of authenticity.

The scene is set early on. The backdrop is a small, very middle class, eco-friendly community of Greenloop in the wilds of the North-Western USA.  The dynamic within the group is very structured. The smiley, rich, engaging people at the top and the not so rich, not so smiley, not so engaging lower down the totem pole of life. 

However, double disaster strikes. A volcanic eruption cuts off our community with no hope of rescue over the winter and said eruption triggers a migration of starving Bigfoots, or should that be Bigfeet, straight into our cotton wool enclosed bunch of softees. 

This part reminded me of the first half of Jaws where power resided with mayor and his politically focused actions but when the shit hits the fan, the most powerful person in the town is the crazy mad bastard fisherman. Human hierarchies are irrelevant when faced with death on a large scale. When that happens we need warriors not wordsmiths.

 

The changing dynamics within the human group under duress were the hook for this book. At times it didn't really matter what the external threat was. As for the external threat., the author is renowned for his work in the zombie genre and has even lectured to the USA military  on unthinkable threats. Could this book have been better if a more credible threat eg wolves, bears been the looming enemy. Possibly, possibly not. So does Kate (our journal author) survive the Bigfeet feeding frenzy? I will say the outcome for Kate is unusual...

This is a fascinating cautionary tale about nature and how we have cocooned ourselves from it. We have lulled ourselves into a false sense of superiority and security. The author suggests that not being content with placing a barrier between us and nature, we have taken the ultimate step and actually forgotten that nature is dangerous and terrifying. 

• Selected Quotes...

You can’t ask people to give up personal, tangible comforts for some ethereal ideal. That’s why communism failed. That’s why all those primitive, hippie, “back to the land” communes failed. Selfless suffering feels good for short crusades, but as a way of life, it’s unsustainable.

It’s great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl.

Siri, what can I eat here?” I don’t know what made me feel worse, that I suddenly didn’t have the world’s knowledge in my pocket or that up until that moment, I’d always assumed I was entitled to it.

Injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you. That’s why most weapons of war are designed to injure instead of kill. Wounded are more of a drain than the dead.

Like a tree in the forest, America doesn’t hear foreign suffering.”

They all want to live “in harmony with nature” before some of them realize, too late, that nature is anything but harmonious.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Alien by Alan Dean Foster

Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham

• About the Author...

As a best-selling author, Max Brooks is credited with helping propel zombie-lore from niche sub-culture fascination to mainstream pop-culture obsession. While Brooks has published three massively successful zombie-themed books—The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (all of which are now considered the definitive tomes for the genre)—Brooks’ ultimate goal was to challenge old ways of thinking and encourage mental agility and flexibility for problem solvers and leaders.  Brooks’ unique, unconventional thinking depicted in his books has even inspired the U.S. military to examine how they may respond to potential crises in the future.  World War Z was read and discussed by the sitting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Brooks has been invited to speak at a variety of military engagements—from the Naval War College, to the FEMA hurricane drill at San Antonio, to the nuclear "Vibrant Response" wargame. Adapting to adversity has been the enduring theme in all of Brook’s works. From the true story “The Harlem Hellfighters” which chronicles the heroic African American unit in the trenches of World War 1, to the fiction “Minecraft: The Island” the first official novelization of the 100,000,000+ videogame franchise, Brooks continues to explore what drives us to succeed in a hostile world. His new comic book, “Germ Warfare: A Graphic History” tells the long, painful story of humanities’ battle with microbes, and how those microbes have been used to battle each other. Today, Brooks balances his work as a novelist and speaker with his dual fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Modern War Institute at West Point. As an analyst and columnist, Brooks has written about national security subjects such as automation, weapons procurement, and cyber-warfare just to name a few. Together with his colleagues from the MWI, Brooks has co-edited two books on teaching military science through science fiction: “Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict” and “Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict”.

The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

Rating 4⭐ 

206 pages

You can buy The Haunting Of Hill House...here

• The Blurb...

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a 'haunting'; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

• Our Review...

THOHH is considered to be one of the cornerstones or horror writing and you can see why. Seen through the eyes of Eleanor a young, vulnerable, innocent soul. The story shows how such a naïve, blank canvas of a person can be targeted by more powerful and dark influences. If this scenario is true with people in life, perhaps it can be true with otherwordly spirits interacting with the human world.

While reading this novel you may think to yourself that the tropes here are well worn and have become a bit of a cliché. That may be true but this is the tale that began a lot of the tropes as this was written in the 1950s, way before the Overlook hotel drove Jack Torrence bonkers in The Shining. As the novel was written in the 50s some of the interaction between the characters, especially Eleanor and Theodora, must seem a little dated to our ears.

The four guests settle in to the house and initially Eleanor and Theodora hit it ,off right away becoming firm friends. I have seen other reviews suggest there is an air of lesbian romance between the two. Personally I didn't pick that up but I'm a grumpy old man so not my area really. As the house sets its sights on Eleanor their friendship unravels under the intensity.

Despite being given the history of the house we are never quite sure whether the house is haunted by dead spirits or if the house itself is an evil entity. Eleanor herself drawn to the only place she has felt wanted. At the shocking conclusion we are left wondering whether the things that occur are the result of paranormal activity or mental illness. Or in the thin line between the two, could paranormal activity induce mental illness. Indeed which is more terrifying is a question the reader will inadvertently ask themselves subconsciously. It will certainly make you think.   

• Selected Quotes...

the gate was so clearly locked—locked and double-locked and chained and barred; who, she wondered, wants so badly to get in?—she made no attempt to get out of her car, but pressed the horn, and the trees and the gate shuddered and withdrew slightly from the sound.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

She watched them, seeing their apprehensive faces, wondering at the uneasiness which lay so close below the surface in all of them, so that each of them seemed always waiting for a cry for help from one of the others; intelligence and understanding are really no protection at all,

‘Nothing in this house moves,’ Eleanor said, ‘until you look away, and then you just catch something from the corner of your eye.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

The Shining by Steven King

• About The Author

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".

In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.

The Look by Lee Coates

 

270 pages

Rating... 3⭐

You can buy The Look...Here

You can find out more about Lee Coates...Here

• The Blurb...

Jim is a self-employed web developer living in Cardiff. Successful professionally, the future also looks rosy for his personal life, having recently proposed to his girlfriend, Ffion. However, when the couple decide to celebrate their engagement with his much-loved dad, Callum, Jim’s world is tilted on its axis.

Jim is convinced he spotted his dad staring at him – just for a split second – with a look of pure hatred. Did he imagine it? However, when a series of bizarre and catastrophic events strike Jim’s life in quick succession, he starts to wonder if the look he received from his father could mean something.

Eventually, Callum makes a confession that will lead to the total collapse of Jim’s life as he knows it…

• Our Review...

I read this novel as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. For more info click here. This weeks prompt was a novel whose blurb you hadn't read prior to reading. 

The Look is an intriguing and attention holding first novel by Lee Coates, which augers well for future projects. The story is a cross between The Wicker Man and The Omen but set in the very middle class and pretentious Cardiff Bay.  It leaves you with an itch you want to scratch.. Partly because of the ending and partly due to the structure. 

The first half of the book is Jim and Callum's back story. However the main driver for the plot isn't introduced until 70% of the way into the book.. This leaves little time then for the second and third acts. The narrative felt a little front end heavy. A few potential plot strands are laid down but not followed. e.g. the mysterious potential employers, the missing mother, even The Look of the title.  If they are false trails they should still be followed and answered in the climax of the book. As I was hungrily devouring the final chapters I distinctly recall thinking There's only a few pages left, he has got a lot of strands to pull together to get a satisfactory end. 

This is a dark horror/supernatural story that somehow doesn't feel too dark despite some really horrific scenes. I've been wracking my brains as to why it feels 99% but not quite 100%, because as I've said the scenes which are intended to be horrific are indeed very horrific (gonna cancel my opticians appointment! 😟). So not the scenes then. I sort of came gradually to the idea (and this is difficult to articulate for me.) that it feels to me (with the usual caveat, that my opinion is irrelevant) that the authors writing style is slightly out of sync with what he is trying to achieve. I wrote in my notes. " Authors style is light and bouncy, with a use of vocabulary that is varied. It is engaging and just on the right side of the entertaining/verbose border."(see first selected quote for an example.) When reading the narrative it felt sort of...perky. Unlike when I read Cormac McCarthy which makes me feel dread and despair. However I don't know if this perky/bouncy fits with theme of the book.. Like using a precision scalpel, when the job needs a lump hammer.

By the by, one thing that did make the hairs on the back of my old swede jump up. The neighbour in the book is called Steven Staite. Very unusual name. However it was also the name of my neighbour for the first 22years of my life! arrggghhh!!!

There is a lot to admire in this debut novel.

One point which I did think worked out well was that it was written in the !st person from Jim's point of view. Given the (possible) revealing ending, this was a well placed strategy. In addition the author does have a well developed turn of phrase and some of his descriptive lines are very juicy indeed, see selected quotes. With just a few well turned words he can make pictures in your mind.

All in all, I found the novel entertaining and an excellent first step on what will hopefully be a long writing career. It's a good start. He has all the ducks, in this first attempt, next one to line em all up, and knock em dead.

• Selected Quotes...

I can't imagine there was any grisly facet of the atrocities that wasn't overseen by an impromptu documentarian. Anyone with a ghoulish curiosity could easily find out what was happening at any point in the continuum and at most locations within the marquee.

The bruised and pendulous clouds above had descended further,

...the sky was a watercolour artist's paradise, pregnant with varicose-veined purples.

I struggled to comprehend how every single car on display had at least one occupant with their own life and innumerable worries. Some concerns would be major. Others less so. But each and every individual was expected to cope with the constant state of flux inflicted on them from an exponential number of outside influences. Billions of particles inexorably linked by gossamer thin threads. The world was such a complex place. Chaotic.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

The Omen by David Seltzer

Audrey Rose by Frank D Fellita

• About The Author..

After having two kids, Lee Coates had almost given up on ever fulfilling his dream of writing a novel, spare time being so precious. However, a light-bulb moment occurred during one of his sons’ extracurricular activities. These interminable minutes needn’t be dead time. Lee can be regularly found writing at the side of football pitches, swimming pools and tennis courts in his hometown of Cardiff.

Sam by Iain Rob Wright

You can buy Sam...Here

You can see Iain Rob Wright's website...Here

This review is by  Owen Powell

• The Blurb...

Accidents have been happening at Raymeady Manor.
The only suspect is an 8-year old boy.
But there's no way a child could be responsible for so much misery... Is there?
Sammie has a secret, want to hear it?

When washed-up priest Angela Murs and skittish ghost hunter Tim Golding are summoned to a vast countryside estate, they have no idea what to expect. While it's clear that the young resident Samuel Raymeady is a very disturbed child, there's surely no way he could be behind the recent spate of accidents and deaths around his home. He's just a boy...

Sammie is dirty, malnourished, and perhaps the victim of a negligent mother, but as Angela and Tim's investigations take them deeper into the mystery, they realize that there is more going on than they ever could have imagined.

• Our Review...

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I’d try my hand at reading a horror story - a genre I have barely touched due to my having the courage of a twelve year old girl. Despite being a horror-novice and a not particularly a huge fan of the genre, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed my time reading this spooky-scary book.

The first thing I noticed was how masterfully written it was. Wright writes (ha ha) with expert craftsmanship. It’s clear that the story and it’s progression are the main focus here, and no time is wasted with flowery, superfluous descriptions that could potentially prove overwhelming or, even worse, boring for the reader. No, this story remains intriguing and exciting throughout, which is in no small part due to its characters as well as the story-telling.

The characters are well-thought out and believable. Each of them has a pre-established backstory fraught with personal hardships, which has moulded them into the people that they are today. During this story they are also forced to confront those horrors of their respective pasts once more, and it’s interesting to see how each one reacts to them. Amongst all of these great characters, though, there is one clear standout, and it’s who this book is named after. Sam is an excellent character, perhaps one of my all time favourites. His appearances are ultimately sparse throughout this story, but that just makes each scene with him all the more special. 

I’ll say no more about him to avoid any spoilers, you’ll just have to read the book for yourself (if you dare) The events grow more and more sinister as you read on, and our characters try to make sense of all these strange happenings to no avail. You see each reasonable explanation being whittled down and destroyed one-by-one until just one answer remains, and it’s the answer nobody wants to believe.

Although this is certainly a horror story, you might be surprised to find that there’s also a fair amount of comedy in it - particularly from the reactions of our characters. I welcomed this at first, when they were reacting comedically to minor spooky events, much like you or I might (Probably more you than me) But the comedy persists even towards the end, where the events are now no-laughing matters. There was one scene in particular that I thought to be quite marred by the injection of comedy. Objectively it is a terrifying, harrowing situation and yet, thanks to the character’s light-hearted reactions, felt more like something out of Scooby-Doo rather than The Exorcist.

All in all, SAM is a great choice if you’re looking for something spooky to read this Halloween. Just… maybe sleep with the lights on and keep any crucifixes you have on hand. Just in case. 

• Selected Quotes...

“You from the University?” Angela asked the girl.

“Yes, I’m studying creative writing.”

“Lovely. You plan on being a writer?”

“I suppose so.”

“Nice way to make a living if you can swing it, and you’ve already started drinking so that’s a good start […]”

“Sammie? Is he okay? Frank, tell me!”

Frank run a hand over his throbbing forehead. No, that boy is definitely not okay.

“Jesus was crucified at 3PM, but 3AM is said to belong to the Devil. Between midnight and 3AM is when the veil between our world and the next is at its thinnest.”

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Strung by Per Jacobsen

The Excorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Omen by David Seltzer

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• About The Author...

One of Horror's most respected authors, Iain Rob Wright is the writer of more than twenty books, many of them bestsellers. A previous Kindle All-Star and a mainstay in the horror charts, he is a prolific producer of unique and original stories. From his apocalyptic saga The Gates to his claustrophobic revenge thriller ASBO, Iain writes across a broad spectrum of sub genres, creating both beloved series and standalone titles.

With work available in several languages and in audio, Iain Rob Wright is one of the fastest rising stars in horror, but when not writing he is a dedicated family man. Father to Jack and Molly, and husband to Sally, he is often seen sharing his family memories with his fans on Facebook. (from Amazon.co.uk)

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

 

176 Pages

You can buy I am Legend...Here

You can find out more about Richard Matheson...Here

This review is by...Owen Powell 

• The Blurb...

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

• Our Review

The world has fallen. Lost long ago to a supernatural, nightmarish scourge that has all but devastated humanity, leaving in its wake one sole survivor. Robert Neville is the last human on Earth, fighting to live in the midst of a harrowing vampiric apocalypse. Every single night outside his house, blood-sucking creatures prowl in the darkness, clawing at his door, begging, screaming for Neville to come out. Neville, however, is a very cautious individual, a trait that has no doubt aided in his prolonged survival. The doors and windows are boarded, garlic cloves hang upon his walls, a mirror displays on the front door, and an assortment of wooden stakes lie at his disposal should he need them. Having survived liked this for so long now, Neville has grown accustomed to the vampires. He knows their tricks, their needs, what affects them and what doesn’t affect them. He knows, for example, that in the day, they retreat into abandoned buildings to seek shelter from the blistering sunlight. This is when the roles switch, and Neville becomes the hunter instead. 

Having never seen the movies, but also being very intrigued by the concept, I was very eager to read this book. It starts off strongly by showing rather than telling. We see how well Neville has adjusted to his role as the sole survivor by witnessing the practices that have kept him alive for so long. We experience the internal conflicts of a man devoid of all human interaction, subjected to hiding from and slaying vampires for the rest of his life. In fact, it seems that Neville’s greatest enemy is not the vampires themselves, but his own mind instead. He argues with and berates himself constantly, almost doubting every single thought he has. He drinks often to drown out the intrusive, internal-criticisms, as well as to forget the tragedies of his past. The writing is very eloquent, at times the narrative blends fluently into Neville’s own thoughts, giving the reader a better understanding of who he is and how he thinks. The exciting scenes are nail-bitingly enticing, I found myself fully immersed in the danger more than once. Unfortunately, I found these excellent scenes of tension to be few and far between.

For a book about the last man in a vampire apocalypse, it is somewhat uneventful. In fact, in this story, I can comfortably say that Robert Neville spends considerably more time THINKING about vampires rather than killing them or running from them. There is a large section in the middle of the book where he tries to learn more about how the vampires came to be, and for me this was kind of a slog to get through. It was kind of interesting but also not really. I felt such lost potential for some exciting vampire-filled escapades during these sections, but for a lot of this book, nothing REALLY happens. This isn’t to say that nothing happens at all, like I mentioned before there are some exciting scenes and a few plot twists, but most of this book I unfortunately found somewhat droning. 

Despite all this, I believe that I Am Legend is still worth a read. If not for the terrifying aspect of a vampire apocalypse, then to experience how the last man on earth tries desperately to hold his mind together. 

• Selected Quotes...

‘A man could get used to anything if he had to.’

‘Then he stood in the dark kitchen, eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, hands clamped over his ears. Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!’

‘Why not? His mind plodded on. Why go through all this complexity when a flung-open door and a few steps would end it all?’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Cell by Stephen King

The Strain by Guillermo del Torro

• About The Author...

Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926, in Allendale, New Jersey. After his parents, Norwegian immigrants, Bertolf and Fanny divorced, his mother took him to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended school. After graduating high school at Brooklyn Technical High School, he spent time in the United States Army during World War II. When he returned home, Richard earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, in 1949. After finishing his degree, Richard settled in California. There he became a screenwriter, specializing in fantasy, horror, and science fiction.

One of the television shows he wrote for was "Twilight Zone". The iconic episode, "Nightmare at 2000 ft." was written by Richard. The opening and closing statements recited by Rod Sterling were his work, too. He also wrote Duel, which was the first movie made by Steven Spielberg.

After Richard became a novelist, many of his books were turned into movies, including "I Am Legend", which was made into a movie three times. "The Shrinking Man", "Hell House", "What Dreams May Come", and "A Stir of Echoes" were all books written by Richard that later became movies. Another of his books, "Bid Time Return", was made into the movie, "Somewhere in Turn".

In the 1950's and 1960's Richard was a member of a society of writers called the Southern California Sorcerers. Other members included Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan and Jerry Sohl. In 1973 Richard won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for a teleplay he wrote for the "Night Stalker". In 1984 was given the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, also the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writer's Association. In 2010 Richard was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

In 1952 Richard married Ruth Ann Woodson. Three of their four children, Richard Christian, and Chris and Ali followed in their father's footsteps and became writers. In 2013, Richard Matheson died quietly in his home, surrounded by friends and family. At his death, he was eighty-seven years old.

Stephen King dedicated his book, "Cell", to Richard Matheson. Listing him as his creative influence. George A. Romero said that his iconic movie, "Night of the Living Dead", was influenced by Richard's book, "I Am Legend". After reading "A Dress of White Silk" written by Richard, Anne Rice was influenced in writing her vampire and fantasy novels.

"Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for Duel. His Twilight Zones were among my favorites, and he recently worked with us on "Real Steel". For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov" Steven Spielberg.

Richard Matheson was a well loved and well respected writer. A genius of science fiction and fantasy, his work has become some of the most influential of all the writers in his genres in history.

(from bookreports.info)

Sleepless by Louise Mumford.

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy Sleepless.....Here

You can follow Louise Mumford here...Here

The Blurb...

Thea is an insomniac; she hasn’t slept more than three hours a night for years.

So when an ad for a sleep trial that promises to change her life pops up on her phone, Thea knows this is her last chance at finding any kind of normal life.

Soon Thea’s sleeping for longer than she has in a decade, and awakes feeling transformed. So much so that at first she’s willing to overlook the oddities of the trial – the lack of any phone signal; the way she can’t leave her bedroom without permission; the fact that all her personal possessions are locked away, even her shoes.

But it soon becomes clear that the trial doesn’t just want to help Thea sleep. It wants to control her sleep…

My Review...

Thea suffers from insomnia, as a result she is constantly tired, irritable and struggles to pay attention. It is much like permanent jet lag. Being a shift worker myself I can see how sleep deprivation can cause all sorts of issues. 

After being the cause of a minor road accident, Thea resolves to do something about her insomnia and signs up to a medical trial on a remote island (based on Caldey Island?) much to the chagrin of her post menopausal, activist mother (played in my head by Fiona Shaw of Baptiste 2🤷‍♂️) Thea's mother is a wonderful character who wears vagina print scarves!  

The trial starts well and Thea begins to get a little more sleep and even begin to make friends. However,  after a short trip on the island to the old monastery, Thea begins to smell a rat and with a few companions begins to investigate.

Sleepless is an enjoyable British, science gone wrong, horror thriller. It put me in mind of an up to date John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids, The Midwhich Cuckoos etc) with a touch of Soylent Green thrown in.

The author describes the curse of insomnia particularly well and it is no surprise that in the notes at the end of the book she confesses that she is a victim of the dreaded insomnia. 

I was amazed to see that this is a debut novel. The narrative is polished and slick, you would swear that the author is a veteran of long-standing. It augers well for a long career in fiction writing.

As with all the best dystopian tales there is a scary nugget of truth in the story that could possibly evolve one day into actually becoming reality. This book would make a great episode of Black Mirror or a Netflix binge watch box set. Now to try to get some kip😳🛌😴!

Selected Quotes...

"It was her small safe space where she could crawl and hide after an exhausting day spent trying to seem human."

"Her eyes felt as if they’d been put in the oven for too long."

"Harriet led her to a cathedral. This cathedral, like every cathedral before it, was built to stun the masses into greater belief."

"But that was beta- testing for you. Unpredictable. Thankfully, it was frighteningly easy for people to be wiped away– if you chose the right people in the first place. But still… messy."

"She was just one more body for a company that wanted to erase what happened here, forget it, smooth it over like a plasterer smoothing over a wall, hoping the blood wouldn’t seep through."

About the Author...

Louise was born and lives in South Wales. From a young age she loved books and dancing, but hated having to go to sleep, convinced that she might miss out on something interesting happening in the world whilst she dozed – much to her mother’s frustration! Insomnia has been a part of her life ever since.

She studied English Literature at university and graduated with first class honours. As a teacher she tried to pass on her love of reading to her students (and discovered that the secret to successful teaching is… stickers! She is aware that that is, essentially, bribery.)

In the summer of 2019 Louise experienced a once-in-a-lifetime moment: she was discovered as a new writer by her publisher at the Primadonna Festival. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

Louise lives in Cardiff with her husband and spends her time trying to get down on paper all the marvellous and frightening things that happen in her head.

Dandelion by Mark Lowes

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy Dandelion.....Here

You can follow Mark Lowes...Here

The Blurb...

He is on a journey of change, pushing himself to feel... something.

When he meets Violet, an innocent, life-affirming young woman, he's tempted into being something tame. Something he's not.

Then he discovers George, a sociopathic serial killer.

Both are now in a tug-of-war for his loyalty.

Who will he choose?

Can a criminal psychopath really change?
Dr Raveed Makesh is delving deep into the mind of one of Cardiff's most deadly killers, revolutionising therapy for criminal psychopaths.

Is Makesh successful? Or just another victim of his games?

If you love American Psycho or Hannibal, Dandelion is the book for you. A dark, literary thriller that will have you second-guessing yourself and, in the end, agreeing with a criminal psychopath.

My Review...

If you want rainbows and lollipops this is not the book for you.

It tells the tale of Cardiff's worst serial killer and his fractured mind.

It is dark. How dark is it? It's darker than a pint of Guinness in a cupboard under the stairs, in the basement, at midnight, in a power cut.

From the absolute sledgehammer of an opening line it is relentless.

This is a scary book. It is scary precisely because it does not deal in the gothic monsters of literature. No werewolves or vampires or even zombies. No, it deals the most terrifying thing known to man, the dark corners of the human mind. These monsters are real and they can lead a man to kill. It is a complex book, in that you will spend your time trying to decipher who is real and who is in the patient's head. The book is given added gravitas because it is written in epistolary form, using Doctor's notes, diary entries, screen grabs of text messages and even a DNA report.

This is a very good book. The only caveat I can find is that the author does leave a few questions unanswered. What was the patient's job and how did he get fired/resign among them. 

The author does however have a gift for making the reader uncomfortable through the book. He does this in two distinct ways. 

One is a small  twist on general language for example, instead of "day turned to night" we get "Outside, the night had crawled over the day."  Subtle yet dark. He is very clever in that they are sparingly used and if you are not looking for them you wont see them (but you will feel them.)

The second method of keeping the reader uncomfortable is used more often. This method is dropping what I have called "cynical society truth bombs." Ideas and tropes that occur in our culture, of which you have probably given little thought to, are deconstructed in a scornful and sceptical manner and you end up thinking Yes, I can see the sinister, prophetic truth in that line. e .g. "Nothing excites me anymore. Nothing. When I was young I felt some excitement in discovery and enthusiasm in the unknown. as I grew up things became more and more mundane. That's the nature of growing up, we are worn down."

So he makes us uncomfortable, but he makes us come back for more, time and time again. It is like an addiction. It is like having a guilty pleasure. 

This is the second Mark Lowes book I have read and although you can see the influence of Stephen King, Robert Louis Stephenson and others in his writing he has a style all his own. His forte is describing and manipulating the conflicting thoughts and emotions in a person's mind and soul.

 His prose is simultaneously disturbing and, when called for, mouth-wateringly rich.

This is a very gifted writer. He deserves to be more well know and he deserves to be snapped up by a publisher ASAP.

I have been lucky enough to interview Mark. The interview will be on this website within the next two weeks

Selected Quotes...

"We sat for a while without talking, the silence mulled between us, waiting, brewing ageing."

"They say we're a democracy but we're democratic to a choice. A choice that is limited. A choice that is wrong. I don't want to choose from a bad lot. It's like choosing between having cancer or being cremated alive."

"Parents were what I considered to be comforters, enablers, disciplinarians. They were a trust fund. They gave birth to you then provided. Perhaps it was a strong sense of responsibility brought about by law, misinterpreted as love."

About the Author...

Mark is a former teacher, current early childhood educator and a dad. He lives in Cardiff, Wales. while he is not working with deaf children and their families he's writing dark and twisty fiction. His books tend to be quite genre fluid but he's dedicated to scaring the shit out of you. Mark is an associate member of Crime Cymru He is also the winner of Litopia's Pop-Up Submissions  and of a pitch contest at the Cardiff Book Festival.