I’m posting a few more book reviews this week even though they’re horribly late. It’s been a doozy of a weekend, although I’m not 100% sure why I feel that way. I don’t always get a Thursday entry in, but I ALWAYS get a Monday one and I didn’t this week…
But I will get this Tuesday one done if it kills me (I mean, it won’t kill me…).
I’m charging along on the old 2016 reading challenge. Out of 32 books, I only have 13 left to read. And we haven’t even hit the middle of the year yet. Here are two I haven’t blogged: A book of short stories, and a book with a dark and mysterious cover.
A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley (a book of short stories):
As I’ve said on the blog before, I’m not usually a fan of short stories. I picked this one up, though, because it was Robin McKinley and it was free on Kindle Unlimited (thanks mom!). It’s comprised of five tales, and honestly I think it’s arranged from worst to best. The first 4 stories take place in this odd fairy tale world that feels like Grimm but actually contains happy endings, or at least contented ones. My favorite of the first 4 tales was Buttercups, and I think it was definitely worth the purchase price. While I didn’t exactly enjoy the other stories, I did find myself thinking about them between times, which I think is a sign of good stuff.
The story the book is named after, though… oh man. I wish it were a whole novel. It takes place in a modern setting where a high school girl moves to a new home and finds a strange box in an attic. I don’t know how McKinley captures real life so well, but she really does mundanity so that you want to live it. This is the sort of thing that makes McKinley one of my favorites.
I enjoyed the book quite a lot, and would recommend it. Especially to fans of McKinley’s other stuff.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (a book with a dark and mysterious cover):
I don’t even really know where to start with this one. It’s a re-read for me and I liked it less the second time around. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t like it. I don’t know, it’s hard to pinpoint.
Richard Mayhew, average executive in dubious relationship, stumbles on a bleeding girl while on his way to dinner. He helps her, and then finds that no one recognizes him anymore. He now belongs to an alternate city below the London he knows: London Below, and must go on a perilous journey to get back to his home. If that’s what he really wants, that is. It’s filled with creepy Rat Speakers, A Huntress, vampiresses, the Lady Door, and evil Angel, a dreadful prehistoric beast, and sadistic Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar.
It’s definitely well-written and such a cool idea. Gaiman comes up with all sorts of interesting things for the defunct names of London past. Like the Earl in Earl’s Court who has set up a medieval home on the tube. Or the Shepherds in Shepherd’s Bush that you really don’t want to meet.
It’s great. It’s cool. It’s creepy. It’s everything you could want from a Gaiman story. But is it missing a bit of emotion?
I guess I wished on the second time around that I felt more affection for Door and for Richard than I ended up feeling. But seriously, go read it. You won’t be disappointed.
Casey E. Hamilton 