Review - Oliver Twisted

The Eulogy (From the Publisher):
“FLESH, the woe-begotten moaned at Oliver, baring teeth which were ragged and black.
“FLESH,” came another moan, and he turned to see two more woe-begottens behind. They began to shuffle towards him, barefoot – toes blue from cold, arms outstretched.
The world according to Oliver Twisted is simple. Vampyres feed on the defenceless. Orphans are sacrificed to hungry gods. And if a woe-begotten catches your scent it will hunt you for ever. When a talking corpse reveals that Oliver will find his destiny in London, he sets out to seek the truth. Even if it means losing his soul.

The Epitaph (In a Nutshell): A wonderfully gruesome and original adaptation of the Oliver Twist tale.

Dearly Departed,
We are gathered here today to discuss Oliver Twisted by JD Sharpe. I count myself really lucky to have received a copy of this from the UK since I can't yet see it on the Australian publishing horizon, though I hope it does appear on our shelves soon, because this is a fantastic take on Oliver Twist that I think will make a lot of readers very happy.

Let me say right now that you don't have to be an Oliver Twist fan in order to enjoy this book. I had a rather bad introduction to Mr Dickens with Hard Times, which I've since heard is not one of his best, but it also hasn't compelled me to read more. When I started reading Oliver Twist, I was a little worried since I didn't know the original story, save what I've absorbed from pop culture references, but the strength of the story is such that it really doesn't matter if you don't know the original text.

I'm a big fan of multi-creature worlds, i.e. books whose mythologies take different familiar monsters like vampires and swamp things and put them together. This is brilliantly achieved in Oliver Twisted, with the sinister werewolves living alongside malevolent wisps and soul stealers. I also loved the history which was hinted at throughout - the opening of a Hell Mouth which explained why the world was rotten to the core.

The other thing that really struck me about this book was how well the language was written. Normally this isn't something that I mind one way or another, but the mixture of Dickensian phrases and 'normal' English achieved the perfect balance between a modern book for teens and what you might expect to find in a book from the 1800s.

I'm interested to see if there will be others in this series, since the concept of it would seem to suggest not, though the broad world in which it is set almost screams for another tale.

Review - CRYPT

The Eulogy (From the Publisher): 
Meet Jud Lester: Paranormal Investigator.

When a crime is committed and the police are at a loss, the Covert Response Youth Paranormal Team (or CRYPT for short) is called in to figure out whether something paranormal is at work. Jud is their star agent. Jud, unwillingly paired with new recruit Bex, has just landed his biggest case yet...people have been disappearing in mysterious circumstances while others are viciously attacked - yet there are no suspects and a complete lack of hard evidence. The only thing that links each attack is the fact that survivors all claim that the culprits were 17th century highwaymen. Can Jud and Bex work out what has caused the spirits of these dangerous men to return to the streets of London before they wreak more death and destruction?

The Epitaph (In a Nutshell): A great start to what will prove to be an excellent paranormal investigation series. Also, the gore is spot on!

Dearly Departed,

We are gathered here today to discuss CRYPT: The Gallows Curse by Andrew Hammond. It took me a little bit to get into this - the prologue felt a little too info-heavy for me, and I would've liked it woven into the story more naturally. But once I got to the first ghostly highwayman attack, I was back on track and loving it. I've made no attempts to hide my love of gore in the past, and this book has some wonderfully gory scenes - the shorter chapters containing ghost attacks are like little jewels in the crown of the story. My standout favourite scene has to be when one of the ghosts pulls a woman into a wall. The description of it is brilliant, and has to be read to be believed.

Jud did get on my nerves a little, but then, I think he was supposed to - the cocky, angry son of a billionaire who gets everywhere on a speeding motorbike and tends to rate fellow female CRYPT operatives on how attractive they are is probably not going to be anyone's best friend. But he did grow on me as the story progressed, and I enjoyed the partnership between him and Bex.

In all, this is a solid start to what should prove to be a very interesting series. The premise of the book and the mythology of its secret society is one that will immediately appeal to fans of action horror, myself included, and I eagerly await more adventures from Jud, Bex, and the rest of the Covert Response Youth Paranormal Team.

Review - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The Eulogy (From the Publishers):

A mysterious island.
An abandoned orphanage.
A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

The Epitaph (In a Nutshell): A YA/Adult crossover novel that starts out strong but gets less so, though is still one of the more original reads I've encountered in a while.

Dearly Departed, 

We are gathered here today to discuss Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. My opinion of this strange book changed quite a few times over the course of reading it. For the first few chapters one question kept coming back to me – is this really Young Adult? At sixteen, the protagonist is the right age, but I didn’t really feel like he was a YA character – perhaps belonging more one of that new breed of book that is YA written for twenty-somethings which I’ve heard called ‘New Adult’.

But as the story progressed, I wasn’t as troubled by this and relaxed into Jacob’s story as he tried to find out more about his grandfather’s childhood and the supposed monsters that hunted him. This was the part that I enjoyed most, where there’s still a certain amount of disbelief at whether or not these monsters are real. I found myself completely unsure of what was true and what wasn’t, which was a very exciting space to inhabit. Towards the end the story lost a bit of its unpredictability and took on a more familiar guise, but was still an excellent read nonetheless. The only thing that disappointed me a bit was finding out that it will be part of a series – don’t get me wrong, I love series fiction, but I felt that this beautifully presented book which was a little beyond the norm would have done well to buck the series trend and exist purely as a standalone.

The photographs in this book could have a review all of their own, and I thought these creepy, staged shots really added to my overall enjoyment of the book. One thing that really bugs me is when an author is describing a specific object but I can’t quite visualise it, so I found the inclusion of the actual photographs that obviously inspired the story to be a brilliant move. Only towards the end did it start to get a little clumsy, sometimes feeling a little bit like, ‘Hey, we haven’t had a photo for a while. Time to stick one in.’

Miss Peregrine’s is a strange little experience which I found genuinely eerie in places, managing to take me completely by surprise. I think the packaging of the book itself is beautiful enough to make most people pick it up, and I think those who do won’t be disappointed. 

Review - The Crowfield Curse

The Eulogy (From the Publishers):
It's 1347 and fifteen-year-old Will, an orphan boy, lives at Crowfield Abbey. Sent into the forest to gather wood, he rescues instead, a creature from a trap - a hob, who shares with Will a terrible secret. Somewhere in the forest behind the abbey where he lives, is a grave. And buried deep in the snow is an angel. But how can an angel die? What has it to do with the monks of the Abbey? When two hooded strangers arrive at Crowfield asking questions about the angel's grave. Will is drawn into a world of dangerous Old Magic. "The Crowfield Feather" was short-listed for the "Times" Chidren's Fiction Competition in 2008. This is a stunning debut novel and the first of a two part series.

The Epitaph (In a Nutshell): Less about flashy action scenes than chilling atmosphere, this is a wonderfully contemplative book with some truly fascinating concepts.

Dearly Departed,
We are gathered here today to discuss The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh. What a wonderfully atmospheric book this is! I know it seems like a strange point to latch onto first, but the weather in The Crowfield Curse is almost a character in itself - the constant cold that seeps through everything is the perfect recurring theme for this chilling and at times slightly claustrophobic book. The pace is slow and contemplative, which fits the narrative perfectly: the journey does not begin with explosions and a hurried race away from the forces of darkness, but instead starts with the discovery of an otherworldly creature who has little to do with the main conflict other than to provide his charming companionship. I really loved the organic way the plot unfolded which felt perfectly in tune with the life of a boy growing up in an abbey in the middle of nowhere, and I particularly enjoyed the little flourishes of Will's life in the abbey - the less than appetising pottages prepared by the cook, his trips into the forest to feed the pigs, the respite from the cold in the warming room.

That's not to say this book is without some hair-raising scenes, and indeed, I feel like the horror elements in it are heightened by the quieter scenes, because this has some of the most genuinely creepy concepts I've ever encountered. Without giving too much away, I really enjoyed the distinctive take on a very familiar mythical creature. It reminded me a lot of the beautifully grotesque spirits in the Miyazaki film Princess Mononoke. The menacing fae creatures were wonderfully threatening without ever being overtly so. All in all, The Crowfield Curse is one of the best examples of quiet horror I've ever seen of where less is definitely more.

Review - The Demon Collector

This might be a monster of a book page-wise, but I flew through it because I just couldn't put it down! All of the characters are so well written, from plucky, nervous Edgy Taylor and his brave little dog Henry, to all of the members of the Royal Society of Daemonologie, including the demons... especially the demons! I loved the various classes of demons that align themselves with one of the seven deadly sins, and I liked that not every demon is a bad demon. Of course, there are still the bad on...moreThe Eulogy (From the Publishers): Edgy Taylor sees demons when nobody else can. Edgy thinks he is insane and expects to be carried off any minute. He is a prime collector, wandering the streets of London collecting dog muck for the tannery. The only thing Edgy is good at is setting and solving riddles, and evading his brutal and abusive master. One night, when his master seems genuinely intent on killing Edgy, Professor Envry Janus intervenes. Envry takes him to the Royal Society of Daemonologie where Edgy will now live. It is here, though, that Edgy discovers chance had nothing to do with their meeting, and that instead he holds the key to a deadly demon prophecy.

The Epitaph (In a Nutshell): An eerie, Victorian horror novel with a cast of loveable (and not-so-loveable characters) and a chilling mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.
 
Dearly Departed
We are gathered here today to discuss The Demon Collector, by Jon Mayhew. This might be a monster of a book page-wise, but I flew through it because I just couldn't put it down! All of the characters are so well written, from plucky, nervous Edgy Taylor and his brave little dog Henry, to all of the members of the Royal Society of Daemonologie, including the demons... especially the demons!

I loved the various classes of demons that align themselves with one of the seven deadly sins, and I liked that not every demon is a bad demon. Of course, there are still the bad ones, and some of the creatures featured in this story are absolutely terrifying! A thoroughly enjoyable read in world I hope the author revisits some day.

Meeting Joseph Delaney

The Wardstone Chronicles are some of my all-time favourite books, and they're also one of the first series I read when I got back into reading kidlit and YA. From the first pages of Spook's Apprentice, I was hooked. 'Are all books for kids really this good?' I wondered. 'What have I been missing out on?'

I've since devoured every one of the Wardstone Chronicles, including Spook's Witches, the book of short stories, and Spook's Bestiary, a guide to all the weird and wonderful creatures of the county.

So imagine my delight when I heard Joseph Delaney was coming to Melbourne for a signing session. My very lovely boyfriend agreed to drive me and my piles of books on the hour long trip to Dymocks Southland, and once there I met a fellow bookseller friend who I ranted and raved at to read the books, and once she read one, she was also hooked.

Joseph was kind enough to sign all the books I brought, which I thought was just lovely since it really was quite a pile, and even pose for a picture.

Me, Joseph Delany and The Pile

While he was signing I chatted away about my love for Grimmalkin and begged him to assure me the Chippenden Boggart was okay. He said the boggart might make a reappearance (please, please, please) and that I'd really enjoy the book after Spook's Destiny (which apparently is out as soon as July in Australia, wow!) because it would be a Grimmalkin book. Eee!

It was such a pleasure talking to the man whose stories have captivated me, and many, many others so much, and I really hope Joseph enjoys the rest of his stay in Australia.