[REVIEW] The Possessions of Doctor Forrest

Title: The Possessions of Doctor Forrest
Author: Richard T. Kelly
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN-10: 9780571275878
ISBN-13: 9780571275878
ASIN: 0571275877
Number of Pages: 464
Release Date: November 3, 2011

Blurb: Three respected Scottish doctors - psychiatrist Steve Hartford, pediatric surgeon Grey Lochran and cosmetic surgeon Robert Forrest - have been close friends since their Edinburgh boyhoods, and now live handsomely in suburban London. But for each, midlife has brought certain discontents, especially for Forrest, a reformed womanizer who broods over his fading looks and the departure of his beautiful younger girlfriend. When Dr Forrest goes missing one summer evening and fails to return, Lochran and Hartford are alarmed by the thought of what might have befallen their friend. The police can find no evidence of foul play, but the two doctors resolve to conduct their own investigation. Soon, however, Lochran and Hartford find themselves bedeviled by bizarre, unnerving events, and the attentions of menacing strangers. Robert Forrest, they come to realize, has remained closer than they could ever have imagined...

Review: Reading the blurb and seeing the cover, I just had to borrow and read this book. I mean, the word "possessions" in the title and "Robert Forrest [...] has remained closer than they could ever have imagined..." in the blurb - what's not to like?

Well, the language, for starters. I get it, the whole Gothic novel thing "needs" spooky language. But last I checked, "spooky" wasn't a synonym for "dull". The writing is just so...boring. I couldn't even make myself finish this book - my life's too short to read long, boring books.

Another thing, which connects to the language in a way, is that I found it incredibly difficult to tell the different characters apart. They spoke and were described so similarly that I had to keep going back to read some scenes, even with dialogue, from the beginning in an attempt to tell them apart.

I can't help hoping someone else will write a similar book, because the premise is so interesting.

Unfortunately this book wasn't.

[REVIEW] The Age of Miracles

Title: The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Publisher: Random House
ISBN-10: 0812992970
ISBN-13: 9780812992977
Number of Pages: 373
Release Date: June 26, 2012

Blurb: On an ordinary Saturday, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer, gravity is affected, the birds, the tides, human behavior and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world of danger and loss, Julia faces surprising developments in herself, and her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by Hannah and other friends, the vulnerability of first love, a sense of isolation, and a rebellious new strength. 

Review: Much like adolescence can feel, I'm having mixed feelings about this book.

I've always liked to read about people who...develop, I guess you could say, throughout a story. And an "end of the world" story combined with a main character who goes through adolescence does give room for a lot of development.

I didn't get as much character development as I would like, leaving me feeling a bit underwhelmed. What made me go on, though was the language. It's beautiful and very visual. The consequences of the "slowing," the change in the earth's rotation, seemed quite probable to me. Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed and just plain*blah*. There were parts of the story line that just felt abandoned at the end of the book, that I would have liked to see more of a conclusion to.

Rating: 3 bookshelves out of 5.

[REVIEW] My Happy Life

Title: My Happy Life
Original Title: Mitt lyckliga liv
Author: Rose Lagercrantz
Illustrator: Eva Eriksson
Publisher: Gecko Press
ISBN-10: 1877579351
ISBN-13: 9781877579356
Age Range: 6-12
Number of Pages: 134
Release Date: January 2013

Blurb: Dani is probably the happiest person she knows.
She’s happy because she’s going to start school. She's been waiting to go to school her whole life.

Then things get even better—she meets Ella. Dani and Ella stick together through wet and dry, sun and rain, thick and thin. They do everything together.

But then things start to happen that Dani isn’t prepared for…

Review: Being Swedish, I have grown up reading books Eva Eriksson has illustrated. I have always liked her work, and was happy to see an English translation of a book she had worked on. Rose Lagercrantz is a new acquaintance, and I need to check out her work in the original Swedish.

That said, I really liked this chapter book. It tackles subjects such as loss, making friends and growing up in a very good way. The main character Dani (named Dunne in the original, so I can understand why it was changed) is very likable, and you can't help wondering what will happen next. The minor characters are very likable as well. Eva Eriksson's illustrations do not disappoint - they are nicely done and fits the style of the book.

Julia Marshall's translation works really well. Even though I still need to read the Swedish original, I'm sure she has done a good job with it.

All in all, this is a good book. I just wanted it to be longer.... For the intended age group, though, I think it is just the right length.

Rating: 4 bookshelves out of 5.

Disclaimer: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Gecko Press for the purpose of a review.

[REVIEW] Zone One

Publisher: Doubleday
Author: Colson Whitehead

• ISBN-10: 0385528078
• ISBN-13: 978-0385528078

Number of Pages: 259
Release Date: Oct 18, 2011

Book Blurb: A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces stationed in Chinatown’s Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units tasked with clearing lower Manhattan of the remaining feral zombies. Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong…

Review: This book comes with quotes from reviews made on renowned review sites such as Kirkus Review and Booklist, as well as from Publishers Weekly. Where they are very positive and call the book "his most readable book to date" (Kirkus Review), I found it to be just the opposite.

Sure, the pop culture references and the language in itself are very clever, but as I read I couldn't stop thinking about how inaccessible the book felt to me. For me, the combo "literary novel meets zombies" just didn't work.

One could perhaps attribute this to the fact that I'm Swedish, but I've used English for over 30 years now, studied it at university and mostly read books written in English. The language in itself is very poetic, and while the literary novel-zombie novel combo feels really off to me, that's not my main issue. 

For me, I think the key element was the main character. He's just so...blah. And, like the book in general, I found him, too, inaccessible. I couldn't care less what happened to him. I actually rooted for the zombies, like in Warm Bodies. But then, perhaps that was the point? That would definitely have been clever.