Colin Marks's Blog, page 3
March 6, 2023
End of Story by Louise Swanson
End of Story is an interesting read, and hugely impressive for a first novel. The writing is phenomenal, very good prose, and I suspect Louise has a solid literary future ahead of her! The novel itself was interesting, though somewhat predictable, and for me it oddly became less believable towards the end. It goes to show, ‘if you tell a story well enough, it’s true’!
February 4, 2023
Review: The Purgatory Poisoning by Rebecca Rogers
Purgatory Poisoning is a good premise – guy stuck in purgatory given the task of identifying his murderer – and it’s pretty well executed in a Good Omens-lite kind of way. It’s whimsical rather than funny, interesting rather than clever, but it ticked enough of the boxes to keep me going. The ending seriously dragged, a huge case of over-explaining and tying of loose ends, but otherwise it was an enjoyable read.
January 18, 2023
Review: Call Time by Stephen Jones
Steve Jones is a British TV presenter. I’ve never seen him, but apparently he’s good natured. Call Time starts slow then charges towards several genre cliches, so I was looking for reasons to to file it under DNF. Unfortunately, that good nature comes across in his writing, giving it just enough momentum to keep you interested. This isn’t complex literary fiction, but as a silly but fun poolside read, you could do a lot worse.
January 6, 2023
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
This is about as unique as you can get! Cara lost her factory job and her benefits have expired – the whole novel is a one-sided series of interviews with a welfare department employee who is assisting her with getting another job and assessing whether she’s eligible for further benefits.
Sounds pretty dull, eh? Well, it’s anything but. Cara is a natural story teller and a rare voice in fiction. She’s from a poor background, her landlord is trying to break her tenancy agreement as the area ha...
November 1, 2022
Review: The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
As debuts go, this is impressive and I’m sure Jon Ransom has a healthy writing career ahead of him. The problem, I felt, was that he tried to cram all his creative ideas into a single book – dysfunctional family, (non-)romantic trysts, and a bit of the supernatural (or mental health, it’s never made clear). The writing was also too abrupt and harsh, a theme I’m seeing a lot in recent publications – it’s good for tension, but if the tension if taut throughout then there is no roller-coaster of em...
Review: The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
The Whispering Muse is a good summer read – well, late autumn read I guess now. It’s well paced, describes the theatre and the productions well, and is easy to read. The ending felt rushed (was the deadline looming or was the mortgage payment due!), and I’m sure it’ll be forgettable in weeks, but it’ll keep you hooked from the start to finish – I read it quickly, in just a couple of days, and that’s not usual for me!
October 31, 2022
Review: Awareness by Anthony de Mello
Tim Ferriss has recommended this book several times, so I was keen to give it a try, but wow, this was a slog. I believe it was transcribed from de Mello’s classes and presentations, and may be in the flesh it works better, but in the written word it comes across as smug and arrogant. There are some interesting sections, but with even those you have to fight through his language to get to the meaning. To be fair, this was written in 1990 and mindfulness and stoicism have come along way since the...
October 10, 2022
Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
I read George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardot a few years ago and was blown away by his creativity and narrative style. He takes well-used concepts, strips them bare, then reassembles them into unique and quirky stories. This collection of shorts certainly won’t be for everyone – his inventive use of language and punctuation takes some effort – but if you’re struggling, persevere and you’ll be rewarded! The stories are varied, several from near future sci-fi where humans are owned and manipulat...
September 18, 2022
Review: Lessons by Ian McEwan
Lessons is more biography than novel. It follows the span or Roland Baines’s life, from his youth in the Middle East to his twilight days in London, and because of the length and slow pacing I felt at times that I was living this in real-time! Every description is huge, passing characters are given full paragraphs describing their lives, long-winded digressions can span many many pages, and that bloat and preachiness often made this a chore to read. The redeeming feature is Ian McEwan’s prose – ...
August 14, 2022
Review: Upgrade by Blake Crouch
Could you alter genome sequences to give yourself superhuman advantages? Could you run for miles without fatigue, use two computers at once, absorb multiple media sources simultaneously? That’s the premise of Upgrade. This amazingly researched, fast paced thriller often feels like it’s a movie script, and I suspect it won’t be long before someone snaps it up. Interesting, very well written, the plotting was good but could’ve done with a few more twists and turns, and the ending was a bit too Hol...
