The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing #3

The final package in my three month The Willoughby Book Club subscription arrived yesterday. And let me just say, this last book definitely didn’t disappoint. The people behind The Willoughby Book Club have made great choices the last two months (you can find the posts here and here) and I’ve been really pleased.

So, what did I get this month? It was A Lovely Way To Burn by Louise Welsh.

It’s an apocalyptic/dystopian novel with a murder mystery to boot. Set in a London ravaged by a deadly virus, one woman believes that it wasn’t the virus that killed her husband, but that someone murdered him instead. I think it sounds like a great idea, weaving my favourite genre with crime, and I’m excited to read it.

If you want to check out The Willoughby Book Club, you can find them here. I really do recommend them. They have so many different subscriptions and are great at tailoring books to your preferences. That way, you know you’re going to get a book you’ll like. Also, if they happen to send you a book you already have (which only happens to 1% of customers), they’ll send you a replacement completely free and let you keep the duplicate book so you can give it to a friend.

They’re UK based with free shipping, but do ship elsewhere for a fee. I also think they’re great value for money and really know their stuff when it comes to books! It’s an excellent way of finding new books and authors that you may have overlooked or never heard of.

Do you subscribe to The Willoughby Book Club or any other book subscription boxes? Have you read A Lovely Way To Burn? Want to read it? Let me know in the comments below!

Film Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

I read the novel The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey about two years ago now and it’s definitely a book that has stuck with me. Excellent writing, lots of tension, great characters, and a unique twist on the zombie genre. If you’ve followed my blog for a while now, you know I love all things zombie, so to find such a well-written addition to the genre was great.

Understandably, I had high expectations for the film adaptation, especially after seeing some glowing reviews from the likes of Empire.  Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed!

I dragged my boyfriend along to see the film and, strangely, we had an entire screen to ourselves. This was good in the sense that no one would be talking or texting, but bad in the sense that when Mark left to go to the loo, I was sat in a big screen watching a zombie movie all by myself with surround sound. Needless to say, it was creepy.

Anyway, onto the film itself:

The film itself is very, very true to the book. A couple of scenes were dropped, along with the concept of the “Junkers”, but the vast majority of the major plot points are pretty much identical, which was amazing.

For those of you who don’t know, The Girl With All the Gifts tells the story of Melanie (Sennia Nanua), a young girl kept in an army base along with other children. Each day, she is strapped into a wheelchair by guards who treat her like she’s dangerous and taken to a classroom for lessons from the kind Miss Justineau (Gemma Arteton). That’s when we discover that, outside the army base, the world has been ravaged by a zombie virus, specifically a fungal virus that turns people into “Hungries”. Melanie and her fellow kids in the classroom are Hungries, but they’re different. They aren’t mindless and feral, but instead act like any other average human child. I won’t say why, but be prepared for a very unique zombie story.

And then, one day, it all goes wrong and the army base must be evacuated. Only a handful escape, including Melanie, Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine), Dr Caldwell (Glenn Close) and a couple of soldiers. Will they make it to safety? Can the calculating Dr Caldwell develop a cure? You’ll have to wait and see.

The heart of the story is Melanie. A kind and courageous girl, you can’t help but become deeply attached to her whilst almost slightly fearing her, and I thought Sennia Nanua did an excellent job of portraying the complexities of Melanie on the big screen. Interestingly, in the novel Melanie is white and Miss Justineau is black, but it’s been reversed in the film. I think it’s great that a young black girl has been given such a big part as the main protagonist here, and she was definitely the best actress to play Melanie.

Aside from that one change, I thought all the characters were very true to the book in terms of personality. Helen Justineau’s kindness and protectiveness, Sergeant Parks’ bravado hiding a softer interior, Dr Caldwell’s determination, Private Gallagher’s innocence. It really is a very true adaptation, keeping the core values of the book and much of the plot.

However, whilst this is a film about zombies, it is truly a film about humanity. Some of the best zombie films and books are the ones that look at humanity, not just the blood and gore. I can’t explain too much without revealing the ending, but there are some huge moral dilemmas in The Girl With All the Gifts. Me and Mark had a long conversation about it all afterwards, with differing opinions on morality. It’s definitely a bittersweet story.

The film has also clearly taken inspiration from Danny Boyle’s amazing 28 Days Later so, if you enjoyed that, you should enjoy this. I don’t think it’s as scary as 28 Days Later (Cillian Murphy in the church? The infected at the window? Terrifying), or even as scary as the novel, but it’s not trying to terrify you with jump scares; it’s about so much more than that. It’s about terrifying you with the prospect of the end of humanity.

In addition, I have to give a special shout out to the score for this film. It’s amazing. So creepy and tense and eerie, it was one of the best scores I’ve heard in a long while for a horror film. EDIT: (See link at the bottom to listen to the main theme).

However, there were a few slight negatives to the adaptation. One was that I think the ending was a little rushed. It needed more explanation. This was where me and Mark argued a little as the climax missed out some key aspects from the book and I had to explain it fully to him to make him understand the reasoning behind some of the actions in the finale. There were also a few scenes from the novel I would have liked to have seen included, but there was probably issues with running time. Lastly, whilst most of the big scenes did make it to the screen, some had been changed, and I would have liked them to be the same as the book because I think it would have had more of an impact. But hey, that’s just me being a picky reader.

Overall though, this was an excellent adaptation of the book and I was thoroughly impressed. Excellent acting, very true to the novel and a great score, I couldn’t have asked for much more. I definitely recommend both the book and the film.

Have you read The Girl With All the Gifts? Or seen the film? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!

EDIT: I just managed to find the main theme from the composer on Soundcloud, so check it out here.

Review: The City of Mirrors (Passage #3) by Justin Cronin

The City of Mirrors (Passage #3) by Justin Cronin

Genre: Science Fantasy / Post-Apocalyptic / Horror

Publisher: Orion, 2016

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: The plague that almost ended humanity is finally over. For a new generation, the once-feared virals have begun to seem almost like imaginary monsters, creatures from a fairy tale they no longer believe in.

For Alicia, however, the bad dreams can never be forgotten. And the voice in those dreams is leading her towards one of the great cities of The Time Before. The ruined city of New York.

Ruined but not empty. For this is the final refuge of Zero, the first and most terrible product of the viral experiment. And Alicia knows that the nightmare can never truly be over until he is destroyed.

But what she finds is not what she’s expecting.

An opponent at once deadlier and more human than she could ever have imagined, who takes her on a terrifying journey into the past to learn how it all began.

And to find out how it must end.

My Review

WARNING: This review will contain minor spoilers for the first two books in the series. No major plot points will be revealed, nor information on who lives and who dies. Read on at your own risk. However, this review is spoiler-free in terms of the plot of The City of Mirrors.

I’m so sad to have finished this series. I started reading it back in 2010 when The Passage was first released. I was hooked from the start. At the time I was only 15. Now I’m 21 and this trilogy has remained with me, as well as remaining one of my favourite series of all time.

So, after the events of The Twelve, peace seems to have finally returned to North America. Or so it seems.

Make no mistake, this final book isn’t just a long, drawn-out conclusion tying up a bunch of pointless loose ends. No way. It’s just as poignant, hopeful and exciting as the first two installments, with an abundance of drama and tension.

The Passage was a rip-roaring read, most probably my favourite book in the series. The Twelve was excellent, however I felt it dragged a little in some places. Not enough for me to lose interest, of course, but still slightly slower in comparison. Thankfully though, it was by no means that dreaded filler book that the second novel in a trilogy quite often is; like The Passage, it had its own clear arc and revelations. As such, I like to think of this series as a vampiric The Lord of the Rings. Like The Fellowship of the Ring, The Passage gets the action started. We learn who the main players are and the identity of the main antagonist (Zero here, Sauron in LOTR), but we’re nowhere near close to defeating him yet. Instead, the antagonist of this first book is a lesser player, Babcock in The Passage and the Balrog of Morgoth in Fellowship. Subsequently, the group splits and moves on to the next antagonist, the main villain’s second-in-command. In The Twelve, it’s, well, The Twelve (or rather, the Eleven); the main virals, Zero’s henchmen. In The Two Towers, it’s Saruman, Sauron’s right-hand man. Now that they’ve been defeated, we’re onto the big one, the main villain, the final adversary who has been pulling the strings behind the scenes all along. Zero here is our Sauron, and The City of Mirrors is our The Return of the King.

Now, that’s where the similarities end, of course. No orcs or hobbits, but the The Passage series is no less epic in its own way. Thankfully, the final installment didn’t disappoint. I finished this book with tears in my eyes, barely able to see the last page. It’s a bittersweet book, a culmination of blood, sweat and tears from the characters (and from the author, I suspect). For years, the characters have struggled against the wasteland they inhabit – where the virals roam and Zero watches on – desperate to finally live in peace. The characters’ arcs reached their conclusion in this book, all in a satisfying way. There is an air of destiny in this trilogy and all the characters fulfilled theirs, whether it be good or bad, but I couldn’t argue that it all felt right. Everything about this book seems deliberate. Nothing is rushed or a coincidence. Everything is clearly mapped from the start, all the fates intertwined, and that’s what makes it a joy to read.

However, this series is all about a girl who saves the world, Amy Harper Bellafonte. Does Amy save it? I won’t say, but Cronin has written a remarkable set of characters, with Amy at the centre. This is a series with a huge cast and here we continue with the lives of Peter, Alicia, Sara, Hollis, Michael and Carter, among many other new characters. And we also finally get to know who Zero, aka Dr Timothy Fanning, really is. Somehow, Cronin has managed to create a villain you feel sorry for. Fanning has done terrible things, but in this book you’ll learn why. I could see the logic behind his actions and I pitied him, yet it didn’t excuse what he’d done; it was time for Fanning to give up his hold on the land.

What I’ve always loved about this story is its mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Like I said, there’s a real sense of destiny in these books, a mysticism in its words, coupled with a raw humanity that I loved, and of course the origin of the vampiric, zombie-like virus isn’t wholly within the realm of science. This is a series of death and destruction, love and hate, joy and sorrow, with no punches pulled, but at its core is hope.

The plot of this book is faster-paced than The Twelve, I would say, and still as exciting as both its predecessors. All loose ends are tied up neatly, including the ending. I thought the ending was really well done. There’s nothing worse than getting attached to a series, only for the finale to be anti-climactic and just plain wrong. Thankfully, this trilogy doesn’t fall into that hole. As I said, I finished this with tears blurring my vision, and that was the case for much of the book.

I don’t really know what else to say. This series is brilliant. Complex, tense, exciting, heart-breaking and hopeful, it’s everything you could ask for. These characters are ones that will stay with me for a long time, as will the story itself. However, it’s not truly over. Before even The Passage was published, the film rights for the series were bought. Ridley Scott is the director so I am extremely excited; I don’t think anyone could do a better job at making these books into films than him. So that’s something to look forward to in the future. For now, I’m going to feel sad probably for a whole week, but also happy. It’s bittersweet to finish a series you loved, especially one as good as this, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Have you read this series? Or do you want to start it? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Review: The Fireman by Joe Hill

The Fireman by Joe Hill

Genre: Apocalyptic

Publisher: Gollancz, 2016

My Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis: The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. But everyone knows it as Dragonscale, an incurable spore that kills its host through spontaneous combustion. A million people have it. There’s a fire on every street corner; hospitals have become funeral pyres. Civilization is disappearing fast into the smoke.

Sunny, unflappable Harper Grayson is newly pregnant when she comes up marked and sure to burn. But her baby might be born uninfected… if she can live long enough to deliver.

Abandoned by her increasingly unhinged husband, hunted by the Cremation Squads, Harper hears a fantastic rumour: the story of The Fireman. He strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who may have learned to control the flames.

In the desperate season to come, Harper will take any risk to find him and learn his secrets – before what’s left of the world goes up in smoke.

My Review

I’d heard a lot of good things about this book and, being a fan of apocalyptic fiction, I was over the moon to find a signed copy in Waterstones. And I have to say, this novel didn’t disappoint.

However, it wasn’t what I expected. The blurb makes it sound like Harper is going to have to travel a dangerous, burning America in search of the mysterious Fireman, when in fact that’s not it at all. This novel goes in a completely different direction to the usual apocalyptic fiction, whereby the hero must travel the country in search of a cure or a lost loved one. The blurb really doesn’t even hint at the depth of this novel and the myriad of sub-plots. There are an abundance of characters as well and this makes for a satisfyingly complicated read. So, when I say it wasn’t what I expected, that certainly doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.

I say ‘satisfyingly complicated’ because I was never confused. The writing style is excellent and reminded me a little of Justin Cronin’s The Passage series (which is brilliant, by the way, and if you haven’t read it go start now!). Just like that series, The Fireman is a pretty hefty book. I think it could have been a little shorter. Some scenes were quite long when they could have been cut down, and others were too short, with one scene especially springing to mind for being too short and maybe a little anticlimactic, almost a slight cop-out. To give you a hint (no spoilers), we spend much of the time in a particular setting and so may of the sub-plots and characters are weaved about this place, and then something happens that means all the loose threads abruptly come to an end but never seem to be finished. However, some continue on afterwards and come to a completion, but I still felt this particular scene could have been done differently, or extended, for a more satisfying conclusion.

But like I said, I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. It was witty, full of action, lots of detail (but without being boring) and hopeful, and so were the characters. Harper, our protagonist, is very well-crafted. You really get a sense that she’s an actual person, out in the world somewhere, rather than just lying flat on the page. She’s caring, compassionate and great under pressure. She grows throughout the book from a loving, but easily walked over, young woman, to a loving, but won’t take no shit from anyone, young woman. I admired her resilience and her obsession with a certain Disney musical was endearing.

My other favourite character was actually a middle-aged woman named Renée. She was funny and determined like Harper, with a real sense of justice. She’s the kind of woman you’d definitely want as your aunt.

The other characters were all well-rounded too, but those were the standout ones for me. Allie, Nick, Don Lewiston, Father Storey and The Fireman himself were all great. I especially liked how the author got an Englishman right! For once, he was referred to as ‘English’ with an ‘English accent’ (even though there isn’t a true English accent as there are so many in this country, but I hate when people say ‘British accent’ because that doesn’t exist! Your typical Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish accents are extremely different in comparison to your quintessential English accent!). So Joe Hill definitely won brownie points from me.

In addition, some of the ‘science’ was a little fantastical and most probably could not happen in real life, but that’s why we read books, to see the boundaries being pushed, and these ‘fantastical’ elements never felt silly or ridiculous. Instead, they fitted in well with the story and made for a bit of a change from your usual viral outbreak book. The virus is very unique, not just your typical coughing up blood kinda virus you get in the apocalyptic genre, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into setting this book apart as an original addition to the genre.

As for the ending, I thought it was going to be unsatisfactory but thankfully it wasn’t, at least not for me. A little extra scene included as a Coda at the end provided some hope and possibility for something that occurred in the climax, so I was happy.

Overall, my only qualms were that sometimes the scenes were either too long or too short, and one scene in particular was a bit anticlimactic, but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it. It is pretty long, but it never really feels like it’s dragging, which can sometimes happen with big books. However, there was some of the best characterisation I’ve seen in quite a while so, if you want a really good character-driven book with an excellent story-line to boot, then look no further than The Fireman.

Have you read The Fireman? Or any other of Hill’s books? Do you like apocalyptic fiction? Let me know in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday: ‘The City of Mirrors’

‘Waiting on Wednesday’ is a weekly meme that began at Breaking the Spine, where you blog about a book release you’re eagerly awaiting. There are A LOT of sequels I’m waiting for, as well as a few new releases.

But currently, The City of Mirrors, the third novel in the Passage series by Justin Cronin, is what I’m most excited about. It’s been years since I read the first novel and I absolutely loved its horror and its humanity. It was released back in 2011, in my last year of high school, and it feels quite odd to think that I’m now awaiting the third book whilst in my last year of university.

The Passage and The Twelve are big hefty hardbacks and at times you do have to force yourself to go on, but Cronin’s world is as immense as it is horrific. I love how Cronin’s vampire/zombie monsters are not just mindless beings. All virals stem from an original twelve who have a kind of sentience the average viral doesn’t possess. This is not your standard disease apocalypse story and I really love it for that, especially due to the fact you often find yourself feeling sympathy towards the virals and the humanity that is still dormant within them. But don’t let that statement lull you into a false sense of security; the virals really are terrifying when they need to be.

This is achieved mostly through the protagonist of Amy, ‘The Girl from Nowhere’. The mysticism and power surrounding her is captivating and I really envy Cronin for creating such a strong character.

As for the others, I’m looking forward to learning the fates of Alicia and Peter, as well as the viral Anthony Carter and the original Patient Zero, Dr Fanning. This is one of those series I wish I’d written myself and, if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend you do! Be ready to laugh, cry and get entirely freaked out.