I?m not going to review the Val McDermid books I?ve been reading recently, because I presume everyone?s read them. But they are very good. However, I have read a lot of other books recently.
The More You Ignore Me by Jo Brand ? Not a crime novel! I picked this up on a whim, and it was lovely. It had been a while since I?d read a normal book, but the characters were interesting and funny, and it had a sweet ending.
The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta ? A murder mystery set in 1930s Berlin, except not. I don?t really know how to describe this book ? it?s quite low-key, and the plot develops at a slower pace than most murder mysteries I?ve read (I don?t consider this a bad thing, but I know that some people hate ?slow? stories). Everyone in it seems sad (not really a surprise), and the atmosphere is more implicit than explicit. I did enjoy it, though.
A Short History of the British Industrial Revolution by Dr Emma Griffin ? Title was misleading. Non-fiction. Should really have been titled something like A Short Book Considering Academic Arguments About The British Industrial Revolution, and I don?t really know anything more about the Industrial Revolution than I did before I read it. Odh dear.
Little Face by Sophie Hannah ? Oh God. Okay. Sophie Hannah. She?s a really good writer, but this is one of those times when I have to make the distinction between ?good? and ?something I liked?.
One of the things Sophie Hannah can do really well is embarrassment. Before I started on this (the first in the series of Zailer and Waterhouse novels), I was reading a book of her short stories and I was finding it pretty hard going. I have a pretty solid second-hand embarrassment squick, and she is guaranteed to hit it every. Damn. Time. So her books are a bit of a problem for me, it?s turning out.
But! Not only that. EVERYONE in this book needed a slap. Except the baby. And possibly the police boss dude. EVERYONE, at some point or another, needed to be smacked and told to get the fuck over themselves. I can deal with people saying the wrong thing and being embarrassed about it, but not every fucking hour of every fucking day.
Basically, the problems are thus:
Waterhouse ? is more sympathetic on TV, probably because we can?t see inside his head. Inside his head, he is always moaning on about how other people are so slow and why can?t they just think etc etc etc. And, you know, sometimes I get like that when my parents call me up and want me to tell them how to fix their TV over the phone, but it?s not my sodding running commentary.
(my running commentary is fanfic, and it?s pretty awesome)
Also, you know, in another novel the man who kept moaning on to himself about how much smarter he was than everyone and people at his many previous jobs just didn?t understand his genius would be the killer. Which was maybe intentional.
Zailer ? I like Charlie, I really do. Her background ? academic goes into the police ? is intriguing. I sympathise with her, and I understand the thing where you stop talking just a sentence too late, but aargh. Just, aaargh, lady. Calm down.
The characters involved in the crime ? none of them are sympathetic. They are, briefly, a little, but then the novel goes on and you kind of end up wondering if the message was supposed to be wow, people are shit. And I didn?t buy them, either. Why did the husband suddenly become a horrible abusive bastard out of nowhere? I get that he and his mother were control freaks, but it seemed a bit of a leap. Why did people let the mother get away with such crap? Why was the main character?s plan/motivations so utterly fucking complex? Why were all of them so horrible?
I enjoyed the first half or thereabouts a lot, and couldn?t wait to finish it, and then?oh dear. The ending fucked me right off, too, but it?s a massive spoiler so I?ll keep quiet.
Anyway, I?m moving on to The Point of Rescue next, which I am more prepared for as it was the one that got adapted into Case Sensitive.
(also, disclaimer: this is Sophie Hannah?s first crime book, and I am always wary of judging firsts too harshly, so it?s entirely possible that with character development and experience, I will yell at the later books a lot less)
Autumn by David Moody ? apparently this is massively popular? I have no idea why. There?s an interesting idea there ? 99.9% of people die, and then the dead rise but just wander about, and then after a few days that?s when they become zombies ? but not enough is done with it.
The characters are barely there. The only way I could tell the two main men apart was that one of them had lost his wife and kid. I didn?t find any of the mains engaging enough, even though they tried to think about what they were going to do/how they were going to survive, and that?s normally what I?m looking for in an end of the world thing. They were ordinary people, but purely ordinary. I can?t think of any details that differentiated any of them.
Oh, wait. The one with a wife and kid could ride a motorbike.
I found the setting lacking. Normally if I don?t like a book/show/film, I can see where it could have been better, but with this, it was all very lacklustre. I just didn?t care about any of it ? The Walking Dead was EPICALLY frustrating, but I had a strong reaction to it (admittedly the reaction was ?I would totally kill myself or get bitten instead of hanging about with these morons?), but I couldn?t even dredge that reaction up for this. Apparently it?s the first in the series, but I?m not going to bother with the rest.
? This entry was originally posted at http://hestia8.dreamwidth.org/6048.html.
Source: http://hestia8.livejournal.com/607091.html
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