Book Reviews (Others)
False Witness by Randy Singer
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
I’ve never read anything like this novel before; not a novel written almost entirely in patois, or a novel with such sharp and unexpected twists to the plot. It was certainly a great introduction to James for me.
A Brief History of Seven Killings starts in 1976, with the retelling of the true-life attempt on Bob Marley’s life (who is called 'The Singer' the entire novel). It ends in 1991, with retribution on the man who shot The Singer. And in between, we live vicariously through the lives of numerous characters -- the ghost of Sir Arthur Jennings, Bam-Bam, Nina Burgess, Josey Wales, Papa-Lo, Barry Diflorio etc -- as they narrate the gruesome tales of murder, death, of life in Kingston’s ghettos, of trying to get as far away from Jamaica as possible, of 'the shitstem' that is politics, or ‘Babylon’, of the extent America went in trying to curb communism in Cuba, of dangerous Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels, of merciless assassins, and much more.
The book had a lot of violent and sexually graphic content. It was also an educative read through which I learnt about Jamaica and America's 'foreign policies'.
It’s a 7 out of 10 for me.
The Sun Is Also A Star tells the tragic (yes, tragic,
because though it is the quintessential hopeless romantic’s novel, Yoon takes
her characters through such heartache that it actually hurt to read the words
on the pages in some parts) of two teenagers (Daniel and Natasha) in New York City who fall in love in one day and then are ripped apart for the next ten years
because one of them is an illegal immigrant whose family gets deported.
The Church Builder by A. L. Shields
This is the first A. L. Shields book I’ve read and Oh, boy! Picture a cross (for you series-buffs) between Scandal and Prison Break, but in book-form; that’s what The Church Builder is. I could not put it down! I felt like I was watching everything play out before my eyes as I read.
The Church Builder is the first book in a series by Shields which tells the story of good verses evil, in the form of two secret 'cults'; The Garden and The Wilderness, respectively. An innocent small-town lawyer, Bethany Barclay, gets caught in the battle as she tries to retrace the path that led to the mysterious death of her best friend, Annabelle.
Shields writing grabs you by the throat and forces your attention. His words paint compelling pictures and you feel like you are right in there with Bethany as she darts through underground tunnels. And let's not forget the twists and turns; at several points in the book my jaw literally hung open! It is a ravishing read and I am desperately searching for the sequel to the book. It was too good!
It’s a 8 out of 10 for me.
Showdown by Ted Dekker
This is the second book I’ve read by Dekker, the first being Green.
Showdown is set in a small mountain town, Paradise, in Colorado, where a terrifying character, Marsuvees Black, walks into town one afternoon and turns the place into a type of hell. It is up to a young boy from a monastery, Samuel – enlisting the help of a local, Johnny – and his father to save the people of the town; it is, essentially, the story of Jesus Christ and salvation.
Dekker’s novels are graphic and dark, and he tells the gospel story from a warped angle, which always makes for a riveting read; Dekker finds ingenious ways of painting stories that you have heard time and time again, in a new way, in a way that grips you. I was hooked from the beginning, and could scarcely put the book down, although I found that Dekker's descriptive sometimes drew out too long and would dull down the pace of the story in parts.
I rate the book 6 over 10.
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
What can I say about Junot Diaz? Diaz is a captor. This Is How You Lose Her is a collection of 9 short stories, in which he tells the tales of family, loss, love, departure. Diaz explores the issues of race and immigration; the effect that the latter has on families - the prime character in his stories, Yunior, having emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States as a child.
Diaz writes in a way I have never encountered before. He unapologetically uses Spanish words in his narration; he doesn't italicize them, doesn't prepare you for them, doesn't make them look "foreign"; he also doesn't use quotation marks when his characters speak - and still he manages to carry me along and I do not get lost in it all.
Diaz often writes in the second person (which, to me, is more intimate than writing in the first person because it puts me, the reader, in the mix). His writing makes me feel as though I am Yunior, and a piece of my heart is missing, left behind in Santa Domingo; as though I am the one left by a lover I was unfaithful to; as though I am the one whose favourite meal is pernil.
Diaz is a captor; he arrests you and leaves footprints in your heart long after the book is finished. Diaz is a gem. I rate this book 8.5 over 10.
N.B.: Some stories in the collection have heavy adult/sexual content, namely: The Sun, the Moon and the Stars; Alma; Miss Lora; The Cheater's Guide to Love.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This novel is brilliantly written. Set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, it tells the tale of black women, who worked as maids for white families and helped raise their children, through the perspectives of three female protagonists; Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter.
While Aibileen and Minny are both black maids, Skeeter is a young white woman who has just finished college and was herself raised by a black maid. What the reader witnesses is Civil Rights America and Stockett does a remarkable job telling the story of white people who stood with blacks through this era, namely in the person of Skeeter, who's heart is caught between her affection for the black community and the expectations placed on her by her family.
In parallel, we also witness the lives of the black women who raised children of the people who loathed and oppressed them, being willing to give their lives for these children, in the midst of racism and prejudice. The Help is tragic and beautiful. I was dashed between hope and anger over and over again. It's a 8 over 10 for me.
Jesus in Jeans by Bill Bidiaque
Bidiaque's first novel is set in a fictional nation, Y'Isra, based on the Israel of old, and takes a contemporary look at the life of Jesus Christ -- how he would have lived and the things he would have done had he been around in today's world.
I have previously reviewed this book in more detail here.
I rate it 7 over 10.
Bridge to Haven by Francine Rivers
This is the second book I've read written by Rivers. Rivers doesn't write a genre I would typically go out of my way to search for -- Christian, Inspirational -- but I have thoroughly enjoyed both books (the first being Redeeming Love) and found them, at times, difficult to put down.
Bridge to Haven tells the tale of Abra, a girl abandoned at birth by her mother under the Haven Bridge in the middle of winter. She struggled all her life to feel loved and accepted by her foster family (which is kind of understandable when your mum attempts to kill you upon arrival). A rebel at heart, she eventually followed her heart and ran away, ending up in Hollywood, but still feeling empty and alone. Does Abra find her way back to Haven and back to God? You'll have to read it yourself to find out!
I have always found Rivers' writing compelling because she pulls you right into the action -- in fact, from the beginning of the book, I began to feel for Abra, fearing that she would make wrong decisions and end up in trouble. Rivers has a way of making you feel emotionally attached to her characters, which honestly is the recipe for excellent writing. I rate this book 7 over 10.
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| goodreads.com |
The first book by Ryan Singer I’ve read; I quite enjoyed it.
It was heavy on technicalities where law and internet encryption are concerned, and I suppose a lawyer or coder would find riveting what I sometimes found boring.
False Witness is action-packed; a novel about good guys and bad guys who are trying to get their hands on an algorithm that could lead to the collapse of the internet as we know it. There is betrayal, violence, murder, love, friendship – all the ingredients that sometimes made me miss the book and it’s characters when I was not reading it. Some plot twists I absolutely did not see coming.
I think some of Singer’s narratives could have been better worded; sometimes the book read like it was written by an amateur creative writer. Other than those awkward moments, it was a pretty good book.
It’s a 6 out of 10 for me.
I’ve never read anything like this novel before; not a novel written almost entirely in patois, or a novel with such sharp and unexpected twists to the plot. It was certainly a great introduction to James for me.A Brief History of Seven Killings starts in 1976, with the retelling of the true-life attempt on Bob Marley’s life (who is called 'The Singer' the entire novel). It ends in 1991, with retribution on the man who shot The Singer. And in between, we live vicariously through the lives of numerous characters -- the ghost of Sir Arthur Jennings, Bam-Bam, Nina Burgess, Josey Wales, Papa-Lo, Barry Diflorio etc -- as they narrate the gruesome tales of murder, death, of life in Kingston’s ghettos, of trying to get as far away from Jamaica as possible, of 'the shitstem' that is politics, or ‘Babylon’, of the extent America went in trying to curb communism in Cuba, of dangerous Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels, of merciless assassins, and much more.
The book had a lot of violent and sexually graphic content. It was also an educative read through which I learnt about Jamaica and America's 'foreign policies'.
It’s a 7 out of 10 for me.
The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
It’s the first book I’ve read by Yoon and it will
probably be the last; I’m just really not cut out for this teen romance stuff.
But, let me be objective. Yoon is a remarkable writer; she gets you to smell
the heat rising off the tarmac in Manhattan, and gets you to see the small, clustered
space of Natasha’s family living room. Yoon is beyond skilled and is definitely one
of those people that you just know was put on this earth to write. Plus, beyond that,
the book was very educative; I learned a bit about the astronomical sciences
and molecular physics and literature and anthropology from reading it -- which was both artistic and brilliant, to be able to chip in ordinarily complicated stuff in a way that I easily understood. Yoon also addresses other human issues; the plight of the immigrant, the dynamics of interracial relationships, the balance between passion and science, between being a dreamer and a realist, between making your family proud and becoming an individual of your own making.
So, yes, I won’t ever read another Yoon book because now I
know she’s a sucker for love stories, but I definitely (okay, more like slightly, because the ending was too obvious) enjoyed the book.
It’s a 5.5 out of 10 from me.
The Church Builder by A. L. Shields
This is the first A. L. Shields book I’ve read and Oh, boy! Picture a cross (for you series-buffs) between Scandal and Prison Break, but in book-form; that’s what The Church Builder is. I could not put it down! I felt like I was watching everything play out before my eyes as I read.The Church Builder is the first book in a series by Shields which tells the story of good verses evil, in the form of two secret 'cults'; The Garden and The Wilderness, respectively. An innocent small-town lawyer, Bethany Barclay, gets caught in the battle as she tries to retrace the path that led to the mysterious death of her best friend, Annabelle.
Shields writing grabs you by the throat and forces your attention. His words paint compelling pictures and you feel like you are right in there with Bethany as she darts through underground tunnels. And let's not forget the twists and turns; at several points in the book my jaw literally hung open! It is a ravishing read and I am desperately searching for the sequel to the book. It was too good!
It’s a 8 out of 10 for me.
Showdown by Ted Dekker
This is the second book I’ve read by Dekker, the first being Green.
Showdown is set in a small mountain town, Paradise, in Colorado, where a terrifying character, Marsuvees Black, walks into town one afternoon and turns the place into a type of hell. It is up to a young boy from a monastery, Samuel – enlisting the help of a local, Johnny – and his father to save the people of the town; it is, essentially, the story of Jesus Christ and salvation.
Dekker’s novels are graphic and dark, and he tells the gospel story from a warped angle, which always makes for a riveting read; Dekker finds ingenious ways of painting stories that you have heard time and time again, in a new way, in a way that grips you. I was hooked from the beginning, and could scarcely put the book down, although I found that Dekker's descriptive sometimes drew out too long and would dull down the pace of the story in parts.
I rate the book 6 over 10.
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
What can I say about Junot Diaz? Diaz is a captor. This Is How You Lose Her is a collection of 9 short stories, in which he tells the tales of family, loss, love, departure. Diaz explores the issues of race and immigration; the effect that the latter has on families - the prime character in his stories, Yunior, having emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States as a child.Diaz writes in a way I have never encountered before. He unapologetically uses Spanish words in his narration; he doesn't italicize them, doesn't prepare you for them, doesn't make them look "foreign"; he also doesn't use quotation marks when his characters speak - and still he manages to carry me along and I do not get lost in it all.
Diaz often writes in the second person (which, to me, is more intimate than writing in the first person because it puts me, the reader, in the mix). His writing makes me feel as though I am Yunior, and a piece of my heart is missing, left behind in Santa Domingo; as though I am the one left by a lover I was unfaithful to; as though I am the one whose favourite meal is pernil.
Diaz is a captor; he arrests you and leaves footprints in your heart long after the book is finished. Diaz is a gem. I rate this book 8.5 over 10.
N.B.: Some stories in the collection have heavy adult/sexual content, namely: The Sun, the Moon and the Stars; Alma; Miss Lora; The Cheater's Guide to Love.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This novel is brilliantly written. Set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, it tells the tale of black women, who worked as maids for white families and helped raise their children, through the perspectives of three female protagonists; Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter.
While Aibileen and Minny are both black maids, Skeeter is a young white woman who has just finished college and was herself raised by a black maid. What the reader witnesses is Civil Rights America and Stockett does a remarkable job telling the story of white people who stood with blacks through this era, namely in the person of Skeeter, who's heart is caught between her affection for the black community and the expectations placed on her by her family.
In parallel, we also witness the lives of the black women who raised children of the people who loathed and oppressed them, being willing to give their lives for these children, in the midst of racism and prejudice. The Help is tragic and beautiful. I was dashed between hope and anger over and over again. It's a 8 over 10 for me.
Bidiaque's first novel is set in a fictional nation, Y'Isra, based on the Israel of old, and takes a contemporary look at the life of Jesus Christ -- how he would have lived and the things he would have done had he been around in today's world.
I have previously reviewed this book in more detail here.
I rate it 7 over 10.
Bridge to Haven by Francine Rivers
This is the second book I've read written by Rivers. Rivers doesn't write a genre I would typically go out of my way to search for -- Christian, Inspirational -- but I have thoroughly enjoyed both books (the first being Redeeming Love) and found them, at times, difficult to put down.Bridge to Haven tells the tale of Abra, a girl abandoned at birth by her mother under the Haven Bridge in the middle of winter. She struggled all her life to feel loved and accepted by her foster family (which is kind of understandable when your mum attempts to kill you upon arrival). A rebel at heart, she eventually followed her heart and ran away, ending up in Hollywood, but still feeling empty and alone. Does Abra find her way back to Haven and back to God? You'll have to read it yourself to find out!
I have always found Rivers' writing compelling because she pulls you right into the action -- in fact, from the beginning of the book, I began to feel for Abra, fearing that she would make wrong decisions and end up in trouble. Rivers has a way of making you feel emotionally attached to her characters, which honestly is the recipe for excellent writing. I rate this book 7 over 10.
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