Skip to main content
Tag

slow pacing

Book Review: Insomnia by Stephen King

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
insomnia-stephen-king-book-cover
View on Amazon.co.uk
Insomnia is the story of Ralph, an old man who starts suffering with insomnia after the death of his wife.

Each morning Ralph wakes up earlier and earlier. Then he starts seeing the world in more vivid colour than he ever thought was possible – as he begins to see auras. For Ralph seeing auras can be beautiful and enlightening, but it can be awful and even grotesque.

Ralph thinks he is alone in his suffering with insomnia and his sensing of auras. That is until he confides in his friend Lois. Lois discloses that she has been experiencing the same. Ralph and Lois work out that when they see the auras they are going up to a higher plane of existence.

While Ralph is on this higher plane he sees a little odd alien-looking man wearing a white coat and with a scalpel in his hand. The man is after street dog. Ralph interferes and the man calls Ralph a short-timer and threatens him. This man turns out to be working for the higher power of Random.

Ralph and Lois then meet two other little odd alien-looking men wearing white coats, one carrying a pair of scissors in his hand. These men are working for the higher power of Purpose. The men recruit Ralph and Lois to save the life of a child, as the child will be important in the future. Ralph and Lois agree to help the men, as they maybe able to save the lives of thousands of people, including that of their friend Helen and her daughter Natalie.

But Random have recruited Helen’s husband Ed, well before Ralph and Lois became involved.

Both of the higher powers of Random and Purpose are fighting for their own causes, with their own bigger pictures in mind and the stakes are high. But these reasons are unknown and perhaps incomprehensible to Ralph and Lois as short-timers.

The description in Insomnia is exquisitely and perfectly crafted. It allows the reader imagine everything that Ralph and Lois sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells (in all senses of the words).

The plot is endlessly inventive, expertly executed, riveting and dealing with life and death and everything in-between.

The pacing is much slower than any of King’s books that I have previously read. At times during the reading it felt as though the pacing slowed to a belly crawl. But the slower pace did suit main character Ralph, an Old Age Pensioner (OAP) and one that is severely deprived of sleep.

Insomnia is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

mental-health-wisdom-banner



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:

Book Review: The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
the-marble-collector-ahern-book-cover Ahern’s books are either a hit or a miss with me. The Marble Collector was most definitely a miss. If I had to choose one word to describe this novel it would be: dull. Or pointless. Or boring.

The Marble Collector is essentially two stories rolled into one.

The first story is that of Fergus Boggs who is an avid and secretive Marble Collector. It is the story of his life that starts in his childhood and proceeds over the decades through his adolescence and adulthood, right into his present old age.

The second story is is an extraordinary day in the life of Boggs’ daughter Sabrina. It stars with her throwing a cup at a wall in work, which leads to her being sent home by her boss.

Then there’s a delivery of a marble collection that she didn’t know her father even had collected, never mind kept. Sabrina discovers her father’s life long obsession with marbles.

As Sabrina looks through the marble collection, she notices that the two sets of marbles that are worth the most money are gone. So she sets off on a mission to find the missing marbles and along the way learns more about her emotionally distant father and more about herself.

Both of the main characters were uninteresting and lacked depth. The idea behind the novel was reasonable at best, but the plot was completely flat. The pacing was slow throughout. Description of scenes and characters were sparse, but mostly adequate. Pages and pages of words were wasted, with these pages adding little to the two dimensional characters or plot.

I wanted to like The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern. But I have found it difficult to find anything positive to write. The best part of the The Marble Collector was reaching the end of it.

You can buy The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern on Amazon and at all good book shops, but I wouldn’t bother. In fact The Marble Collector was bad enough to put me off from pre-ordering any of Ahern’s books in future.

Review soon,

Antony

mental-health-wisdom-banner



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:
×