The Christmasaurus is a children’s book that combines two of my favourite things: dinosaurs and Christmas.
In this review, I am reviewing The Musical Edition which includes the fully illustrated (illustrations by Shane Devries) hardback book and The Soundtrack that Fletcher wrote and recorded to accompany the story.
Singers on the soundtrack include: Fletcher, his wife, his sister and even Santa! What’s great about the CD is that the book prompts you when to play each track.
The unique combination of written story and music, really does add to the experience.
You’ll also enjoy playing the CD on its own. Here’s the track list:
It Must Be Christmas Time
2. Dig, Diggedy Dig (The Digging Song)
3. The Christmasaurus
4. Thin Ice
5. Someone More Than Me
6. The Nice List
7. I’ve Been a Good Girl
8. I Believe It Could
9. I Ho, Ho, Hope It’s Santa
10. I Love Creatures
11. Christmas Makes Me Sick
12. Afraid of Heights (my absolute favourite song on the soundtrack!)
13. Don’t Know What It Is
14. If You Believe
Now, back to the book. The characters include: William Trundle (the main character who is wheelchair enabled), Bob Trundle (William’s dad), Santa, Lots of Elves (who speak always in rhyme), Brenda Payne (I nicknamed her Brenda The Bully at the beginning of the book), Brenda’s mum, Hunter and his dog Growler, Stuffy (a toy made by Santa) and of course the one of a kind Christmasaurus.
The plot is imaginative, brilliantly described and magical. It’s a bit predictable for an adult, but young children will be captivated and plead/beg/demand another chapter is read after the last. The illustrations are superb, detailed and provide support to children’s imaginations.
The Christmasaurus is the ideal bedtime story for young children in the run up to Christmas. It is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.
In Monster it has been four years since the events at Perdido Beach.
Four years ago, a meteorite hit a Nuclear Power Plant, an invisible dome was created and all the adults disappeared. The children and teenagers that remained trapped inside the dome had a lot to deal with including an alien virus that gave some of them powers. Some used their powers for good and others for selfish or cruel purposes.
Now more pieces from the same meteorite are starting to fall to earth from space.
This time the alien virus make even more dramatic changes to people whom come into contact with it. They are much more powerful than those in the Perdido Beach dome ever were. They will be able to morph into monsters with astonishing powers and then be able to de-morph back into human form. But for each of those infected with the alien virus, one question trumps all others: Will you be a Hero, Villain or Monster?
Most of our main characters are new. Shade Darby saw her mother murdered by Gaia when the Perdido Beach dome came down and barely survived herself. Her father works for the Government studying pieces of the meteorite in space and he has calculated the exact position of the pieces landing.
Shade was powerless when her mother was murdered and is determined never to be so again. In fact, quite the opposite, she wants to gain power to become a hero. Malik Tenerife is in love with Shade, but their relationship ended due to Shade’s obsession with gaining power.
Shade meets Cruz Martinez Rojas at a bus stop. Cruz is a trans character, although physically male, he dresses feminine and feels neither male nor female. Grant explained and dealt with this gender issue expertly. This didn’t come as a surprise, after all The Gone Series had gay, lesbian and bisexual characters.
Justin DeVeere is a promising art student with delusions of grandeur. He is going out with Erin O’Day. Justin comes in contact with one of the pieces of the meteorite and develops powers. In panic, but with some pleasure he makes some mistakes that harm people.
But Justin makes a choice to murder. He decides to name himself Knightmare and tries to make it a persona. He is aiming for people to think of him like The Hulk. Justin is Bruce Banner and Knightmare is the Hulk, something he has no control over. Only he does.
Armo (his nickname, actual name: Aristotle Adamo) is an Adonis, who happens to have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). He has his whole life a head of him, being just 17 years old. That is until the accident and his nonconsensual exposure to one of the pieces of the meteorite.
Vincent Vu hears voices in his head. He possibly has bipolar or schizophrenia. He is exposed to the largest piece and amount of the meteorite an undergoes the most dramatic change. But does this make him unstoppable?
Dekka Talent makes a welcome return and offers fans of The Gone Series the opportunity to find out what happened to other characters from the series. Tom Peaks from the US Government recruits Dekka to help, but all is not what it seems as Dekka quickly discovers.
Whenever any of the characters use their powers, they are aware of being watched by Dark Watchers. These Dark Watchers appear to be using them as a form of entertainment and love death, destruction and devastation.
The description was superb and brilliant. The plot was action packed and compelled the reader to read on. The pacing was ultra fast-paced.
I would highly recommend Monster to anyone and everyone. It’s a crucial and necessary read for any fan of The Gone Series. Those who haven’t read any of The Gone Series could still pick it up, know what’s happened, understand what’s going on and get full enjoyment from the book.
I’ve read a few of Greg Herren’s short stories and enjoyed them, so when the opportunity to review Timothy I jumped at the chance. But ultimately I was to be very disappointed.
In Timothy the meek, uninteresting and Unnamed main character – whom I might add has had a tragic life so far – meets Carlo Romaniello. Carlo is a mega rich widower who instantly falls in love with the main character. After a week of bliss they get married.
Carlo has a huge mansion called Spindrift and takes his new husband to this home. The Unnamed main character is to take over the running of the household and its staff. Carlo is often away on business trips.
But Spindrift is filled with Timothy. Timothy was Carlo’s husband prior to his death. Timothy was a gorgeous-looking model, a talented photographer and had his own successful underwear range. Basically everything the unnamed main character isn’t.
As the main character adapts to his new life in Spindrift, he learns bits about Carlo & Timothy’s relationship. He fills in the blanks often wrongly. But the truth does eventually come out about Timothy and his death.
There were two fundamental problems with this novel for me. Firstly that every aspect of the novel felt like a cliché. The helpless and poor younger gay man meets a wealthy older good looking gay man. They get married after a week – I mean come on, who does that? and they move to a castle…whoops a mansion…and live happily ever after. Timothy read like a cliché fairytale with a gay slant.
Second was the main character. The unnamed main character lacked any realism and was essentially boring. He responded more emotionally to his perceived relationship problems than to the death of his father, whom was his only living relative.
The plot was predictable and not enough actually happened. Important plot points – like the first week where the two characters fell in love and their marriage were mentioned but not actually shown/told in the story. This inevitably effected the pacing negatively. Often the story gave little intrigue or hooks to encourage the reader to read on.
The description was reasonable. But because of the recurrent clichés it was hard to suspend reality and become absorbed within the story. Timothy is available to buy on Amazon if you’d like to. But I can’t honestly recommend it.
Spun is told in the first person perspective of former ‘It’ Girl Amber Sheppard.
Amber has been two years sober but nobody believes her and she has plenty of problems. They include her ex-boyfriend movie star Connor Parks, the secret her publicist Olivia is keeping, the gossip spread by the media, her attention seeking parents and dealing with the odd craving for the booze.
One night Connor demands Amber’s attention. He summons her to his private jet, it’s about to take off and Amber makes a decision that will change her life forever.
How does Amber deal with the consequences of her choice?
And can Amber resolve the problems in her life in a way that suits all?
Although not much actually happens in Spun, fans of Spin will find the book a satisfactory ending to Amber’s story. The description is good, the characters completely plausible and writers voice is engaging.
Any reader who enjoyed Spin will enjoy Spun. However if you haven’t read Spin, it is highly recommended that you do first.
Spun is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.
Review soon,
Antony
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Sunday 29 October 2017
About
Antony Simpson - Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.
Author of eight books.
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