Mark Kirkbride's Blog, page 12
July 28, 2014
May 27, 2014
Morrissey’s Autobiography
When I was listening to The Smiths in the ‘80s, it never crossed my mind that I’d one day be reading Morrissey’s autobiography. Yet here it is, his life story. While it’s quite candid, it does rather gallop through the years somewhat and he’s perhaps most revealing when writing about others – particularly A. E. Housman. The latter years are documented more fully, with a diary feel, probably because he was already writing the book by this point. But this is what gives the book its triumphal arch – from the mean streets of Manchester to sell-out shows across the globe; not always loved by one, but always loved by many.
April 26, 2014
My best friend, the Antichrist: a review of Saleh M. Radaideh’s God Forsaken, Part 1: Hadi
Two old friends, Saleh and Hadi, take very different paths in life. Hadi’s philosophy is that “destruction is the ultimate way to live wild and elated” but an initial foray into spray-painting blasphemous slogans takes a much more violent turn. Razor-sharp lines worthy of Chuck Palahniuk such as “Silence is the most covert form of screaming” and “in a world like this, the only way innocence can show is through evil” jump out at one. The structure and style of the book reminded me a lot of Palahniuk and of Fight Club in particular. But in addition to the surface pyrotechnics, this is a thought-provoking read. Perhaps a faith that isn’t tested is no faith at all. The way the ending dovetailed with the opening, or didn’t, depending on your point of view, was extremely clever, and the tricky balancing act of finding an unexpected yet satisfying conclusion was achieved while still leaving things open for Part 2.
April 11, 2014
Amazon review of Satan’s Fan Club
“The story opens with the temptation of Satan’s Fan Club being dangled in front of clean living James. He quickly succumbs, only to learn that, as usual, things are rarely that easy and he is required to commit a certain crime as a form of initiation. And a pretty heavy crime at that.
Now this book illustrates psychological drama at it’s best. Nothing is as it seems, nothing makes immediate sense. The superficial isn’t really superficial at all. It’s stacked that way to fool you. Who? James? His twin sister? The reader?…
James’ parents are members of a charismatic Christian sect and his father is ‘the man in the pulpit’.
If you picture a normal adolescent’s struggle for independence against his parent’s restrictive control, you can probably multiply it tenfold in James’ case. He is constantly drip-fed dramatic quotes such as, “ …all liars will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” He takes a stance that is literally poles apart from his father’s. He doesn’t believe God exists. Of course it’s a secret stance. One to keep him warm until he can escape his hell and enter university. Certainly not one he is brave enough to broach with his father yet.
It’s against this backdrop that this startling psychological drama is played out.
Mark Kirkbride is a brilliant writer who has the ability to terrify the reader or lift him to a higher plane at will.
This is not a book you will forget easily and manages to fill up your senses.
Even though Satan’s Fan Club is not my favoured genre, I truly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
Charles Bray
April 7, 2014
March 28, 2014
First review for Satan’s Fan Club…
Ok, before you jump to any wrong conclusions, I read a lot of different genres. It depends on my mood a lot of times. And sometimes I’m coming off a particularly bad read and I need something to remind me why I read. This book reminded me why I read. Not only was the writing SOLID, it was a great plot. It kept me interested. I couldn’t wait for lunch break, or to get home and read. I prayed for a snow day, even though it’s Spring. I didn’t get a snow, so I was lucky!
Imagine growing up in a Christian Doomsday Cult. Your father is the leader and dictates every faction of your life. You’d get tired of that after awhile and want to be like everyone else. Right? Yes, RIGHT! Louise and James are twins, they are tired of living under their dad’s thumb. One fateful night, they go to Hell to party with the Devil. It’s there that they realize, things need to change and the Devil tasks them with something only they can do. But can they do it? Is the Devil real?
All the while there are murders going on all over London, is the Devil responsible? Is what he offered the twins true? Or is he luring them into a trap?
I really enjoyed this book, I liked the writing style and once I got into the book I was yanked in. Louise and James are like Jamie and Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones, I was freaked out a little bit. But I love when a book knocks me off my feet and say “WHOA”.
The writing was brilliant and kept teasing me as the story went, drawing me deeper and deeper in. Until I was questioning things like the twins, wondering, is this true? Would they? Could they?
Amy Garnet, 6 Feet Under Books:
http://6feetunderbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/satans-fan-club-book-review/
March 5, 2014
Poirot on Steroids: China Miéville’s The City & The City
Imagine a city in which one group of residents routinely “unsees” the other. The fact that it isn’t so hard to imagine is what gives China Miéville’s The City & The City its intellectual heft and symbolic power. Though in this world unseeing is two-way and strictly enforced. Any infringement constitutes “breach”, whose shadowy forces emerge to swoop on culprits to restore order and maintain the hair’s-breadth separation between two cities. Throw in a mysterious death and a determined policeman and you have all the makings of an existential detective story.
July 24, 2013
“Priests and guns”: a review of Malediction by Sally Spedding
With its one-word title and extremely striking cover, Sally Spedding’s novel Malediction promises a lot, and delivers. The sense of time and place, France 1997, is evoked seemingly effortlessly in this story of racial hatred, Neo-Nazis, “so-called men of god” and a mother seeking her lost son. As well as a page-turner, the novel works as a terrifying parable of how faith can tip over into intolerance and, at its most extreme, acts of cruelty and violence.
July 14, 2013
Edge-Lit 2
Up in Derby yesterday for Edge-Lit 2 at QUAD. Lots of interesting panel sessions on genre fiction but the highlight for me personally was probably Tom Fletcher, Suzanne McLeod, Sarah Pinborough, Niki Valentine and Conrad Williams talking about ‘Fear Today: What Scares Us in 2013?’ The discussion ranged widely and freely, taking in how – given that we’re well on our way to such a world in terms of global warming and the population explosion – some of the scariest post-apocalyptic writing around is non-fiction. One interesting question raised was whether crime writers have wrestled the subject of serial killers from horror. The panel also addressed the vexed question of writing about violence against women and the various justifications such as writers exploring the fear of loss or attempting to hold the mirror up to a sexist society. They explored the differences between horror in film and novels – briefly, while film can rely on shock tactics, novels have to go deeper. And they agreed that the audience for horror novels and horror films don’t overlap much. One member of the group even contended that horror film aficionados aren’t really given to reading anything much at all. The panel also explored the difficulty of taking on old horror tropes such as vampires or werewolves and the weight of tradition and expectation to negotiate. And they pointed out that one of the most interesting developments in horror at the moment is the cross-over into other genres.
