Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing

Elizabeth is Missing, début novel from Emma Healey left me with a heavy feeling in my heart, but it deserves all the hype

The Plot: Maud is suffering from dementia, she writes notes to herself to remember not to cook, not to leave the house and not to buy more tinned peaches. Her memory is splintered, and time is non-liner. She often relives the disappearance of her beloved sister, Sukey. Now her friend, Elizabeth, is also missing. Maud is desperate to piece together the fragments, find Elizabeth and solve the historic disappearance of her sister.  

Rating: 5/5

full review

Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

I've been expanding my reading horizons recently, first with a Western  now with fantasy. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is all about an alternative London, LondonBelow a subterranean world full of monsters, personified tube stations and people who have fallen through the cracks.

Although this is the first of his book that I've read, Neil Gaiman is a publishing phenomenon who has won numerous awards. Neverwhere started life as a 90s tv show, but frustrated by the contrasts of this medium and the quality of the programme, Gaiman wrote the novel to expand the universe and retell the story.

 
The Plot: When Richard Mayhew comes to the aid of a young woman huddled and bleeding on a London street, he is thrust into a perilous situation. Through his charitable act of kindness Richard aligns his fate with Door, who is running for her own life as well as trying to avenge to deaths of her family. Together, Richard, Door, Hunter and the foppish Marquis de Carabas navigate through the fantastical LondonBelow. They seek help from an angel called Islington, by first they must evade the sinister Mr Coup and Mr Vandemar and the other threats of the underground cit
Rating: 3/5
full review under the cut:-

Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall

Kindly lent to me by my older sister, The Shock of the Fall won the Costa Book of the year prize in 2013. Written by Nathan Filer, a former mental health nurse, the novel tackles some big issues, including grief, mental illness and guilt.

 

The Plot: Matthew's brother, Simon, dies whilst on a family holiday to Dorset. This tragic event has tragic and long reaching ramifications, as Matthew and his parents struggle to come to terms with their loss. Currently undergoing treatment for a metal disorder, Matthew reflects in a series of journal entries on his upbringing, his mental illness, Simon's death and his resulting guilt.

Rating: «««¶¶ (3/5)

Full review under the cut:

beware

"Beware; for I am fearless and therefore powerful."

- Mary Shelly, Frankenstein 

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse is short, odd book by Alison Moore. It was included on the Man Booker Prize in 2012, but lost out to the unstoppable Hilary Mantel and Bring up the Bodies. 

source 

The Plot: Futh, a recently separated middle-aged man reminisces about his childhood and his failed marriage whilst on a walking holiday to Germany. Meanwhile Ester, conducts affairs in revenge for her husband's neglect. When Futh and Ester's lives collide, the consequences are violent and life-altering.

The Lighthouse reminded me slightly of Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending, as both novels are about memory and retrospection. Though I think Barnes novel has the edge.

Futh is a bland, forgettable man, so it is to Alison Moore's credit that she manges to produce a readable book about a boring person. Although sometimes Moore is in danger of been boring herself, particularly when she repeats the same story over again. I know she does this as it mirrors how memory works, we often relive important moments, and our recollections from early childhood are few, but I don't really want to read about the same event 3 or 4 times in the space of 192 pages.

Ester is more interesting character than Futh, and I wish more time had been devoted to her. I didn't really feel her motivation for her self-destructive behaviour was explored in enough depth.

There also seemed to be too many coincidences in the novel, which is often the case I feel when novels include characters that have interconnecting lives. Both Futh and Ester have unsuccessful marriages that are marred by infidelities and both have a weird obsession with a bottle of perfume shaped like a lighthouse.

Like I said, its a very short novel, so wouldn't take up much of your time. It might be worth a read if you are interested in the literary devices authors uses to try and convey concepts of memory and remembering.      

Ben Aaronovitch, Moon over Soho

I picked up Moon over Soho in a recent library haul. Its the second in a series of books called Rivers of London, the first of which I read ages ago, so I've been meaning to read this for a while. I was initially attracted to the series thanks to the intriguing quote on the front cover, "what would happen is Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz". 

The Plot: Peter Grant, met officer and trainee wizard, investigates the suspicious deaths of Jazz musicians in Soho. 

My thoughts and views are under the cut (warning may contain spoilers):-