Book review: What I Did ★★

What I Did by Christopher Wakling is the story of six year old Billy, who is having a grumpy day the same as his dad is having a grumpy day, while at the park he sees an opportunity for adventure and runs away from his father while he is on the phone and nearly gets run over. His father smacks him in his anger and his relief that Billy is unhurt, unfortunately for Billy and his dad a passer-by observes this event, reports his father for child abuse and the lives of the family are changed forever.

This is such a hard book to review as I had very mixed feelings while reading it, the concept was so interesting but reading it was like watching a car crash, I had very strong repulsive feelings while reading and I completely felt like I didn't want to keep reading. Being me, I have to finish anything I start, I know its stupid but I feel compelled to. It was definitely a weird feeling.

The novel is entirely told through Billy's perspective, and I really struggled with that. Having read Room and enjoyed it I didn't expect to find myself so frustrated by the child in this story, I found myself getting incredibly annoyed and angry with Billy myself basically because his childlike logic was so flawed, to the point where I felt like throwing the book across the room. That logic was basically that Billy's Dad had told him that the incident was over, in the past, and so Billy refused to tell the social workers what actually happened, but still told them enough for them to believe that he was being abused. Now I know I was a talkative child, so maybe a bit different, but even at six if I realised that things were serious and some scary grownups were asking me to talk I would have opened my mouth and talked for England.

Further frustrating is that the adults in the story didn't check all the facts, there is a moment where Billy is talking about his favourite David Attenborough documentary and the social worker thinks he is talking about being abused. I got so angry about that point in the story because a decent social worker would have profiled the child enough to realise that he was obsessed with David Attenborough documentaries and looked into wider possibilities for Billy's words. As someone who has studied child psychology (admittedly only at A Level) I know you have to think a little further outside the box when it comes to what kids say.

The ending of the novel actually turned out to be nowhere near as devastating as I had been imagining which was a huge let down for me, after persevering I wanted a strong conclusion, but the story was neither happy nor sad at the end, simply meh. The moral to the story lacked resonance because it was being taught to a six year old, if the voice of the novel had perhaps been Billy as an adult reminiscing on the impact his silence had on the situation, it may have felt more important, but as it was, the conclusion left me feeling quite empty of feeling.

Overall this book simply left me annoyed, which is disappointing because I wanted to love this book. I think if you are able to cope with being frustrated to the point of nausea while reading a book you could probably read this, but for me it was an incredibly difficult read!

★★

Book Review: The Alchemist ★★

From what I can find, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a book with a cult following. A lot of people have read it, a good chunk love it and a few hate it, and some even call it a modern classic. I am afraid that though I wouldn't like to use the H word regarding a book, I didn't love this book, and I really wanted to.

The Alchemist tell the tale of a young shepherd who decides there is more to life than remaining in his humble home. He sells his flock of sheep and embarks on an adventure to make more of himself. He travels far and meets a wide variety of different people, each with a life message to impart.

It is relatively short at just over 200 pages so in theory shouldn't take long to read but it took me eight days to plough through this. I don't think that I have ever felt so inclined to put a book down and leave it unfinished as I did half way through this, possibly only by Death Comes to Pemberley. I just did not feel inclined to keep reading the story, it is full of spiritual preaching and I loathe preaching that is trying to pass as fiction. I absolutely had to sit and force myself to finish it (which took an hour and a half, not bad) but even by the end I couldn't find much that I enjoyed to redeem it.

The story is in essence a nice tale of accomplishing your dreams and following them despite hardship. This is a great fable, and one which is lovely to conclude a story with, but the message runs throughout the whole book very strongly. The secondary characters are always teaching the Boy a lesson, and there are omens which he must take heed of or suffer the consequences. Don't get me wrong I am an eternal optimist and you will never find me giving up my ambitions no matter what life throws at me, and I believe if you keep trying you will always get there in the end, but I don't think that the reader needed to have this told to them in such an obvious way. I can understand why so many people may enjoy it, as it may provide them with the boost they need to see the better side of life, but for me this felt very forced.

I enjoyed the character of The Boy, though again, due to Coelho's method of telling the reader his message we lack insight into the main character, he was ultimately a vessel for the message and I wish he had been fleshed out so that we could enjoy him as a character as well.

Ultimately I feel like The Alchemist is a moral story, and if you are in the mood for being reminded of your life's potential you may enjoy it, but if like me you already believe in your own ability to succeed I would give this a miss.

★★

Book Review: The Shack ★★

As far as I can tell this is a real marmite book, some love it, some hate it, I'm not going to go so far as to say I hate it, but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I could have and it took some effort on my part to get through it.

The Shack tells the story of Mack, a man whose daughter Missy is abducted while the family are on holiday, and Mack's journey into dealing with Missy's abduction and apparent brutal murder.

Now, I want to start off by stating that I am not religious, and that if you will be offended by opinion of this book purely because i do not share a religious stance then please stop reading. My opinion on this is for the open minded, as I was prepared to be open minded and did not refuse to read the book because of its religious content.

That out of the way lets get down to the review. I describe it as Mack's journey with dealing with Missy's abduction because that is exactly as it is written. Unfortunately Young tried to sell the story like it was true, a friends memoirs. In my opinion he should have just treated it as fiction, without the preamble about telling someone else's story which immediately put me off.

The story though is essentially about one man's method of coping with loss through reaching out to his God and asking why. Young doesn't just have Mack speak to God through prayer however, he has Mack interact with God in his three forms at The Shack, where evidence of Missy's murder has been found.

I loved the idea for this story, and actually feel that it could have been stronger with a better, more organised writing style. I found it confusing and messy, with far too many similes and metaphors throughout that made the read a struggle. I did however like the portrayal of Mack's grief, and his loss as to how to deal with life after the abduction, it felt honest.

I found the three God characters were interesting to read, though they were clearly designed to shock the reader. They may have shocked a devout christian (an African American female God with a love for freshly made pancakes) they didn't surprise me and in fact reminded me of many twists on the idea of God in fiction today making it a cliche and a half.

I was pleased we had some resolution to the crime as for a good chunk of the book I really thought it would go unresolved in order to ram the idea of forgiveness down the readers throat, but I am happy we had some resolution. It wasn't enough for me, and wasn't enough to balance out the airy fairy bits in the middle, but I am glad that we were given that, even if I do think that the abduction of missy was merely tacked on to allow the author reason to preach a bit.

Bottom line is that this was a great idea for a story, but that it should have been presented as a balanced piece of fiction, and edited better. I actually feel that it was a bit of a waste of potential.

★★

Death of a Gossip ★★

Death of a Gossip is a crime novel by the author of the Agatha Raisin books, M. C. Beaton. The series of novels follows Hamish Macbeth, a countryside constable based in the Scottish Highlands as he bumbles through the solving of murders in his area.

The story of Death of a Gossip starts with an introduction to all of the individual characters, we meet them as they travel to Scotland to partake in fishing lessons from a fishing school local to Lochdubh, the town where the story is set. The many characters, as with most whodunnit's have different motives for being there, and they are gradually revealed throughout the story. The gossip of the title is Lady Jane Winters, a bolshy woman who on joining the fishing school begins to drop hints about knowing more than she should about the other students.

This is the first in the series, and as I love Beaton's other books I really hoped I would enjoy this one, but unfortunately I didn't. The story lacked connection between the main character and the rest of the characters as Hamish is painted as an outsider, a bit too weird to be of interest to the visitors to the town. Because of this he comes across as a secondary character, we don't really know him very well and Beaton doesn't make many efforts to make us want to get to know him.

The solution to the mystery was also a weakness for this mystery, it felt rushed and sudden and came out of nowhere, with hardly any set up. This made the proportions of the story feel terribly imbalanced, there was too much plot before the murder for the actual murder to feel intriguing, the real mystery lay with the different characters and their motives for visiting Scotland.

Although I didn't enjoy this story, I will definitely give the Hamish Macbeth stories another go just to be sure, they have potential, this one just wasn't quite there!

★★

The Book of Yesterday ★★

 

I will start this review by saying that I had never read any Cecelia Ahern before reading this book, so I am not used to her writing style and I cannot compare to her other bestsellers. She is a very successful author, she of P.S. I Love You (made into an adorable film featuring the wonderfully rugged Gerard Butler) and Thanks For The Memories, but personally this book has put me off reading any more of her work. I have several of her books sat on my shelf (all purchased for about ten pence each from the library book sale) and I really am not inspired to read them, I shall explain why.

The Book of Tomorrow follows a teenage girl, Tamara, as her and her mother are forced to abandon their high flying lives in Dublin following the death of her father and the subsequent reveal of a huge mass of debt. Tamara and her mother, who it appears has fallen into depression,  move in with family who live in the gatehouse of an old country estate. Tamara being a typical teenager hates the situation and her new surroundings and finds it difficult to adjust. While out attempting to entertain herself Tamara then finds a book which reveals the next day's diary entry to her (written by herself) and of course in typical fashion, she tries to change events. 

My main problem with this book was initially a general confusion about the target audience, in the UK this book is marketed generally as adult fiction, however the book follows a teenager and her experiences. I believe in the US this book is also categorised as teen fiction. This is hugely confusing because an adult may find it very difficult to identify with Tamara without finding her annoying, and it distracts somewhat from the story Ahern is trying to tell.

That story is my other issue with the book, primarily in that it takes so long to get anywhere and then when the real plot does suddenly appear it becomes really quite predictable. The story itself is a generally a good idea, but it shouldn't have taken a third of the book for me to really get into it. I understand Ahern is trying to create this desolate boring image of life in the country for Tamara, but instead I simply found my mind wandering and longing for other works of fiction to read. 

I wont give it away but the story concludes with what is supposed to be a shock reveal of a deep dark family secret, but I found myself guessing what it was about half way through (and getting most of it right) and so the writing which was supposed to be gripping, instead just dragged on for a couple of hundred pages more then I felt it should have.

I will give Ahern something though, I loved her characterisation of the Nuns, it really did make them sound oh so fun to be around :)

All in all, this is only getting two stars, and really it should get one. The story itself was a great idea but I feel it was weakly executed which is a shame because I had been looking forward to this book. Let's hope some of her other work is more impressive!

Rating: ★★