Tag Archives: Amanda Coe

Bookish Thoughts as the Year Ends

December 31, 2011 By in Looking Backwards and Forwards Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Try as I might I can’t distill a year of wonderful reading into lists.

But I can answer a few questions from The Perpetual Page Turner …

Best Book of 2011

I have read some wonderful books this year, but if I have to single out just one, the book closest to my heart is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Worst Book of 2011

Oh dear. It has to be What They do in the Dark by Amanda Coe. It started beautifully, it had so much potential, but good ideas were ruined as things were taken much, much too far.

Most Disappointing Book of 2011

I have loved Susan Hill‘s crime novels in the past but I was disappointed in her most recent, The Betrayal of Trust. The plot and the characters came a very poor second to themes that the author clearly had strong feelings about but pushed much too hard for me.

Most Surprising (in a good way) Book of 2011

The idea of a novel in verse scared me, but Lettice Delmer by Susan Miles was a Persephone Book, it had appeared in a library sale, and so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. And I found a troubling story quite brilliantly told.

Book Recommended Most in 2011

I found Ten Days of Christmas by Gladys Bronwyn Stern in a bargain bin. It had no dust jacket, no synopsis, and so I did a few searches to try to find out more, but I couldn’t find anyone who had written about it. So I read, I wrote , and I’ve noticed a good few people have ordered copies and a couple more reviews have appeared. I really am thrilled.

Best Series You Discovered in 2011

I read and loved The Return of Captain John Emmett last year, and so I was eager to read Elizabeth Speller‘s second novel, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton. I was surprised, and delighted to meet Lawrence Bartram again, to see his story progress, and to notice some very interesting hints about where his story might go next.

Favourite New Author in 2011

I’ve found a few new authors I want to keep tabs on, but if I’m going to pick out one I think it must be Rachel Hore. I read The Gathering Storm, I fell in love with her writing, and now I have an intriguing backlist to explore.

Most Hilarious Read in 2011

I am not a great lover of comic writing, but there’s something about Molly Keane, Time After Time was dark, sad, grotesque, and yet very, very funny.

Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book of 2011

I was intrigued and confounded by True Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies. I just couldn’t work out who this woman was, why she did the things she did.

Book Most Anticipated in 2011

Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple was surely the most eagerly waited reissue of 2011. And it more than lived up to some very high expectations.

Favourite Cover of a Book in 2011

Most Memorable Character in 2011

Oh, Miss Ranskill! I shall never forget you, and I shall never forget The Carpenter. Barbara Euphan Todd told your story so well in Miss Ranskill Comes Home.

Most Beautifully Written Book in 2011

That would be a book I’m still reading. Vanessa Gebbie’s novel, The Coward’s Tale, uses words – their meanings, their sounds, their rhythms – quite brilliantly. I even find myself reading with a Welsh accent …

Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2011

I was intrigued from the first moment I saw No Surrender by Constance Maud. A suffragette novel! I realised how little I really knew, and this book has inspired me to find out more – The Virago Book of Suffragettes is now sitting on the bedside table.

Book You Can’t Believe You Waited until 2011 to Read

I can remember seeing Mary Stewart‘s books on the library shelves years ago, when I moved up from the junior to the adult library, but it wasn’t until this year that I read one. It was Thunder on the Right, and I loved it …

… a wonderful year of reading … and now it’s time to start another …

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As The Evenings Darken, R.I.P. VI Draws to a Close …

October 31, 2011 By in Challenges Tags: , , , , , , , 5 Comments

“Regardless of what my thermometer tells me, my heart tells me that autumn is here and that it is once again time to revel in things ghostly and ghastly, in stories of things that go bump in the night. It is time to trail our favorite detectives as they relentlessly chase down their prey, to go down that dark path into the woods, to follow flights of fantasy and fairy tale that have a darker heart than their spring time brethren. To confront gothic, creepy, horror stories in all their chilling delight.”

It was an invitation I couldn’t possibly refuse.

I have read wonderful books:

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
Ghastly Business by Louise Levene
The Baskerville Legacy by John O’Connell
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
What They Do in the Dark by Amanda Coe.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Two Emilys by Sophia Lee
Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoft

I have read about many more.

And I’m still reading:

Tales of Terror from The Tunnel’s Mouth by Chris Priestley

Wonderful seasonal reading!

What have you been reading as the evenings darken?

What They Do in the Dark by Amanda Coe

September 19, 2011 By in Book Reports Tags: 4 Comments

I had high hopes for this book:

  • An intriguing title
  • A striking cover
  • Publication by Virago

I had to pick it up, and thought the back cover gave away nothing of the plot it did give a few enticing details, and it did promise to evoke an emotional reaction.

I did react emotionally – though not in a good way – and I found the title and the details a little misleading.

The book opens with a wonderful piece of writing: a press story about Lallie, a rising child story, that cleverly echoes stories of child stars of the past without resembling any one too closely.

There is no doubt that Amanda Coe can write, and write very well.

The story then moves to two schoolgirls. Gemma, who has been spoiled but whose life has been unsettled by the breakdown of her parent’s marriage, and Pauline, who has been neglected and raised in squalor.

An unlikely friendship develops between them, in fits and starts.

Meanwhile Lallie is appearing in a film, and her story is told through those around her.

The characters and the situations convinced at first, but as the story advanced things broke down. The story was going to go in a certain direction, and everything else was secondary.

Then a horrible ending came out of nowhere. The cover suggested that I might be haunted, or heartbroken, or angry.

Actually, I was repulsed, and my first inclination was to toss the book away and write nothing about it.

But now, thinking a little more objectively, I can see what the author was trying to do. She made some telling  points, she picked up on some interesting details, but her book failed for me because she pushed things too far.

A promising writer, but a disappointing book.

Such a pity.

 

A Bad Case of Startitis

September 15, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , , , , , , 18 Comments

In the last couple of weeks I have picked up and started far too many books, and so this is a name and shame post.

I have rounded them up from different corners of the house, and I will finish at least two books for every one I start until the number in progress is more sensible.

Usually I aim for three: an upstairs book, a downstairs book and a travelling book.

The String of Pearls by Thomas Pesket Prest

I hadn’t meant to start this one yet, but I pulled it out of the bookcase for this year’s RIP Challenge and when I opened it to take a look I was hooked.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This wasn’t on my RIP list, but when it appeared in the library I had to bring it home and I had to start reading right away. My problem is that it isn’t a daytime book, it’s too unsettling to read late at night, and so I have a very narrow reading window each evening.

Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart

Now this one I have actually finished since I took the picture, and I am pleased to report that it was a wonderful entertainment.

A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

This caught my eye in the library and when I came home I just had to pull my copy out.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

I’ve been reading this one on and off for months. Well it is a big book!

Far North by Marcel Theroux

I picked this up from my Clearing The Decks stacks a while back, and I read a good bit sitting in the park while Briar was on squirrel watch. I was distracted by another book, but I must get back to this one and see how it all ends.

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond

I was just getting to grips with the naive speech and phonetic spelling when this one disappeared under last Sunday’s papers. By the time it reemerged I was engrossed in something else.

What They do in the Dark by Amanda Coe

Now this is a strange one. Wonderful characterisation and wonderful writing, but it isn’t quite coming together. I must push on, because there is so much potential there.

*****

Eight books in progress is just silly. So please tell me:

How many books do you have on the go at any one time?

And do you have a cure for startitis?!

As Summer Draws to a Close, RIP VI Begins …

September 1, 2011 By in Challenges Tags: , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Summer is fading, the temperature is dropping, and the evenings are drawing in. Autumn is approaching, bring with it the sixth annual RIP challenge.

A wonderful opportunity to read mystery,suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, supernatural…

“Regardless of what my thermometer tells me, my heart tells me that autumn is here and that it is once again time to revel in things ghostly and ghastly, in stories of things that go bump in the night. It is time to trail our favorite detectives as they relentlessly chase down their prey, to go down that dark path into the woods, to follow flights of fantasy and fairy tale that have a darker heart than their spring time brethren. To confront gothic, creepy, horror stories in all their chilling delight.”

Now doesn’t that sound perfect?

So many wonderful possibilities, and I have pulled together a pool of eight books.

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth by Chris Priestly has been waiting for quite a while. The final part of a trilogy, I so want to read it but I really don’t want the series to be over.

I have already begun What They Do in the Dark by Amanda Coe. It is very strange and very dark.

The story of Sweeny Todd has been retold many times, and I want to read the book that told the story first: The String of Pearls by Thomas Peskett Prest.

Ghastly Business by Louise Levene caught my eye quite recently – a bluestocking is caught up in a murder mystery in twenties London.

The Baskerville Legacy by John O’Connell tells the story of Arthur Conan-Doyle as he travels to Dartmoor and writes – or maybe co-writes – that famous story.

Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoff is a Scandinavian murder mystery, with a woman investigator who looks very, very interesting.

The Unseen by Katherine Webb is a story of spiritualism in Edwardian England that has been sitting on my bedside table for a while, waiting for this season.

And I am intrigued by the The Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

So many intriguing possibilities.

And there are group reads, short stories, films to ponder too.

Autumn will be wonderful.

What do you plan to read as the days shorten?