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Book Review: Light by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
light-michael-grant-book-cover Light is the sixth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here. The fourth book was Plague, which I have reviewed here. The fifth book was Fear, which I have reviewed here.

In Light the barrier has become transparent and the outside world peer into the strange world of the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). A world without adults and where some kids have powers. The darkness has taken a body, the child of Caine & Diana, calling herself Gaia.

Gaia is bent on bringing death and destruction; for no other reason than the fact that she’s evil. It’s the EndGame and what an awesome one it is. Some characters will live and others will die. The characters are prey being hunted by Gaia, an enemy who aims to hunt them to extinction.

Light is anything but predictable and so much happens. The plot is as we’ve come to expect from Grant, fast-paced.

Light is thrilling, captivating and a book that was so good I didn’t want it to end. A brilliant finale in the Gone Series.

The ending includes the aftermath, what happens once the barrier comes down. I’m not ashamed to say that some of the final scenes brought a tear to my eye including: Sam & Quinn getting their friendship back to how it was, the ending for the two gay characters – Edilio & Roger, what happened to Brianna (Breeze) & Dahra and Orc’s redemption.

Overall Light is the best in the Gone Series, closely followed by Lies. The Gone Series is worth reading from start to finish. Here are the books in order: Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear and Light.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 10 August 2014

Book Review: Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
follow-me-down-tanya-byrne-cover Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne is a story about two wealthy teenage girls: Adamma and Scarlett who become best friends. That is until Adamma chooses love over their friendship and Scarlett goes missing…

Adamma moves from New York to England after her father becomes the Nigerian Commissioner based in London. Crofton College is her new private boarding school, for the elite of society and is set in the leafy suburbs of the village Ostley.

On Adamma’s first day at Crofton she meets Scarlett and they instantly become best friends. Scarlett is aloof and it’s clear from early on that she has secrets. She lives over the hill with her ‘hippy’ parents and the fable she tells about how her parents met in Paris is beautiful.

Next Adamma meets Dominic, Scarlett’s childhood sweetheart. Something starts to develop between Adamma and Dominic; Scarlett finds out and tells her to choose.

Adamma chooses love and then Scarlett goes missing. Scarlett’s gone missing before, but this time it’s different. Follow Me Down becomes a mystery novel: what happened to Scarlett and whose responsible? At this midway point, the book it is an addictive read that is unputdownable. It keeps the reader captivated and constantly questioning those that might have had something to do with Scarlett’s disappearance, which are:

Dominic – He loves Scarlett on some level, yet why is he having a relationship with Adamma? Can he be in love two women?

Sam – Dominic’s cousin, who Scarlett was having a secret relationship with before her disappearance. Coincidentally he has a broken wrist just after Scarlett’s disappearance. How did he break his wrist? Why were they keeping their relationship low key?

Mr. Lucas – The 23 year old Teacher that all the girls seem to love and who once stayed in one of Scarlett’s parents houses. Is this young teacher hiding something? Why does he go above and beyond the call of duty for his female students?

The story is written from Adamma’s perspective and has good description of places, people and events. Each of the characters are loveable, with each having their own flaws that are shown really well to the reader. Byrne is an author that shows great promise; but the structure and storyline could have used more work.

Follow Me Down is structured by flicking between before Scarlett’s disappearance and after. This was a great idea but the flicks back and forth seemed sporadic. This made the storyline feel disjointed; particularly in the most important parts of the book: at the beginning and at the end.

The storyline it’s self started out really strong, the middle was brilliant, but the ending left a lot to be desired. The ending was predictable, fundamentally unbelievable, rushed and left the reader unsatisfied. Despite these criticisms, if Byrne had made Follow Me Down longer the reader would have read on; enjoying Byrne’s engaging writing style and unique writers voice.

Overall Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne is a reasonable story, with fascinating characters that the reader will enjoy getting to know. Thanks to Headline Publishing for kindly sending out a preview version.

Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne is available to pre-order/order on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Monday 6 May 2013

Book Review: I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Reviews2 Comments
ive-got-your-number-sophie-kinsella-book-cover Sophie Kinsella is quickly becoming the Queen of chick-lit. In her latest book I’ve Got Your Number, we meet Physiotherapist Poppy whose just got engaged to Magnus Tavish. Magnus has given her a priceless family heirloom, an emerald engagement ring. But while at her hen party – a Marie Curie Champagne Tea in a Hotel she looses the ring when the fire alarm goes off.

Poor Poppy searches high and low for the ring, but cannot find it. So she leaves her number with the hotel receptionist and goes outside to ring a friend to see if she’s got the engagement ring. A hoodie on a bike rides past and snaps her phone out of her hand and makes a quick get-away. Poppy worried that the hotel won’t be able to get hold of her, goes back to the hotel to tell them that her phones been stolen. But then she sees a phone in a bin in the hotel foyer and thinks finders, keepers.

The phone belongs to Sam Roxton’s PA and it rings. Sam tells Poppy she must stop a group Japanese business men led my Mr. Yamasaki from leaving, as jobs are at risk if she doesn’t. Poppy gets Sam to agree to let her borrow the phone if she stops the business men from leaving. What follows is the most hilarious scene in the book where Poppy announces she’s a singing telegram. She sings “Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. Yamasaki” in the style of ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyonce. The business men like it and then Sam arrives. Poppy takes her leave quickly, before Sam can change his mind about borrowing her the phone.

A relationship starts to develop between Poppy and Sam, as Poppy continues to look for her engagement ring and forward Sam’s calls, text and email messages.

We learn more about Poppy’s life and about her fiancé Magnus. Poppy feels inferior to Magnus’ super-intellectual family, Antony & Wanda Tavish have both had articles published in journals and spend most of their time reading academic literature or debating it. Poppy seems to be a “people pleaser” and doesn’t like the conflict involved with saying “No.” Sometimes it feels like Poppy sees what she wants too and ignores the rest. Although the reader comes to understand the reasons why, early on in the book I felt myself getting frustrated with her because of it. As for Poppy’s men…

Magnus plays an arguably small role within the story. At the beginning of the book his role is bigger and as the story continues it wains. Poppy and he met through her Physiotherapy work. At first he seems OK – a little boring perhaps, but as the book goes on and revelations are made that change what you think about him. Magnus is a serial proposer, who has offered the emerald engagement ring to many women – including the Wedding Planner.

Sam is a executive of White Globe Consulting Group. But there’s ongoing office politics with potentially massive consequences – which is a usual plot line for Kinsella. Poppy can’t help read some of the messages on the phone intended for Sam’s PA. Poppy makes some assumptions based on the texts and emails for Sam about him, most of which turn out to be wrong. Poppy also finds it increasingly frustrating that Sam doesn’t respond to messages she feels important. So she decides to reply to some on his behalf with some funny consequences.

The book brings Poppy and Sam together in the end as you’d expect. The use of text messages to bring them together is interesting and I suppose it fits in to the “modern use of technology.” I would have preferred them to talk, but that’s just me. The book made me laugh, get teary eyed and feel good at the end. Everything that you’d want from a chick-lit book. You can buy I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella on Amazon.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Monday 21 May 2012

Film Nights

By Reviews, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments

Monies been tight, so what better way to enjoy a cheap night in than a Film Night?

I’ve had a few film nights recently, picking up a DVD or two for a fiver and then settling down with some popcorn. So what have I watched and what have I thought? Well…here goes…

Paul
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have created some brilliant films such as Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. Paul is their latest film about two sci-fi geeks who travel to America for a road trip of UFO hot spots. Then by chance they meet Paul.

Paul is an alien who’s been hanging out in a military base but has decided to catch the first ride home. In pursuit of Graeme (Pegg), Clive (Frost) and Paul are federal agents. Along the way they meet Ruth a Christian Fundamentalist who comes along for the ride and Graeme finds he likes. What follows is an hilarious sci-fi comedy which ends with Paul getting home, Graeme and Clive writing a book that everyone at Comic Con assumes is fiction.
Monsters
The film starts 6 years after NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was sent to collect samples and on it’s return it crashed over Central America. It created an Infected Zone taking up half of Mexico.

The film starts in Mexico were the two central characters are introduced. Kaulder is a US Journalist trying to get photos of the aliens for a paper he works for and Sam the daughter of the owner of the paper. Her father instructs Kaulder to get her home safely. They are forced to go through the Infected Zone to get back to the US.

What follows is a story about the development of a relationship between the two main characters. The acting is weak at best and although there are the occasional action scenes, the film is somewhat forgettable. If I’d seen the film on the TV, I certainly wouldn’t have bought it.
The Last Airbender
Aang is the last Airbender and appears in the Southern Water nation. The Fire nation soon discover him and chase after him. The Fire nation want dominance over all and they’ve already killed off the Air nation, mostly dominate the earth nation and are starting to dominate the Water nation. Each nation has the ability to manipulate their element.

Traditionally one member of the Air Nation becomes the Avatar: the one that keeps balance and peace between all nations. Aang was the chosen one but ran away as he didn’t want to be the Avatar. The Avatar has mastery over all the elements which is how they must keep balance. Aang sees the suffering of the people and decides to become the Avatar. But he needs to learn how to manipulate Water, Earth and Fire.

In this film he learns to manipulate Water and Earth but the Fire nation are closing in on him. As the film comes to an end I realise that the story is to continue in another film. I tried to Google the next film but it turns out that Nickelodeon haven’t decided if they are making the next film or not yet.

The Mist
This film is based on the book by Stephen King. It’s a horror-type-film based in a small town in New England. After a storm, a mist develops and envelops town while a father and his young son are in a supermarket. People try to leave the supermarket but there are things in the mist, creatures from another dimension. It turns out that an Army Base close by had been working on a way to make a window to other dimensions but accidentally created a door – allowing the mist and the creatures through too their world.

What follows is a brilliant film with suspense, action and characters that all deal with the stress of life threatening situation in different ways. Eventually the father and son and a few other characters escape to a car and drive. They drive and drive until they run out of petrol. The father has a gun with four bullets but there are five people in the car.

They all feel hopeless, so he shoots the others and then in emotional state gets out of the car shouting the creatures in the mist to come for him. But at that point the army turns up to clear up their mess and eradicate the creatures. That’s how the film ends and I couldn’t help being disappointed that they’d given up hope.

Season Of The Witch
This film is set in the time of the crusades with two particular crusaders. After slaughtering women and children in the name of god they decide to leave the crusades. Known as deserters a Cardinal catches them. He agrees to let them go home if they first transport a girl suspected of being a dangerous witch to a remote monastery so that Monks can perform a ritual to rid the land of her curse. But is she an innocent girl or a witch?

There’s a lot of suspense in this film but the end of it is good. At the end the witch becomes a powerful demon trying to distory all copies of a book full of rituals to banish him and other demons. Needless to say the crusaders are successful but die in the process and the girl is free of the demon. The end of the film is good, but it does drag through the middle.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Monday 26 March 2012
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