The Dark Half by Stephen King

The Dark Half
Stephen King
1989, 1990, Hodder & Stoughton, London
045052468X
468p.

A writer is forced to admit his use of a pen name to write violent and profitable novels. He takes the opportunity to publicly 'kill off' his pseudonym in order to fully pursue his own, less popular but less violent, writings. But the pseudonym does not stay dead.

This book starts off as wryly amusing, and then very quickly turns violent and horrible. A couple of passages made me feel almost physically ill, and the last section had to be read all at once as it was terrifyingly suspenseful. The other great passage is the opening scene in which an eyeball is excised from the brain of an 11 year old boy - King can paint with words.

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

The Casual Vacancy
JK Rowling
2012, Little Brown and Company, New York
9780316228589
503p.

Adult novel by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy is set around a small town in the UK and its politics. When a councilman dies while in term, many local people are very intent on seeing that their favourite candidate gets into power. This book looks at not just local small town politics, but small town gossip and social issues to do with the working and middle classes.

This was an engrossing read. There was only one character I liked throughout the book, and the cast of  characters is quite considerable. I also learned a plethora of new English words! I recommend reading this with a dictionary close at hand, unless, of course, you're an English major.

It's certainly not a happy kind of book. Time have reviewed it as "... funny, very upsetting ..." and I think that is an apt description.

Insomnia by Stephen King

Insomnia
Stephen King
1994, Signet, New York
0451184963
663p.

Sixty-something year old Ralph begins to suffer from insomnia shortly after the death of his wife. And then he starts seeing coloured auras around people, and stumbles onto a whole other world beyond normal vision.

Stephen King is always a good read, and this is no exception. It's a great premise, and quite suspenseful. I read this in my first week in Iceland, it's so nice to have time to read again. If I was at home, working, a 600-page book would take months to read.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
2003, 2013, Virago, London
9781844080281
433p.

Set in a post apocalypse world, we follow Snowman - a lone human - as he interacts with the Crackers, human-like, but not quite human, and journeys to the places of his past, the places of the pre apocalypse.

Margaret Atwood never fails to disappoint. I enjoyed the soft flow of this story, and the genetic science behind the premise.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

1Q84
Haruki Murakami
2011, Vintage, New York
9780307476463
1157p.

My review of this book is as follows: Haruki Murakami. That is all.

Missing reviews

There are some missing reviews here, not sure why they didn't post.

Strange England, a Dr. Who novel and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
2013, Amazon Kindle e-book
no isbn
unnumbered

A young boy and his mother are inside a New York art museum when a bomb goes off.  In the ensuing chaos the boys accidentally steals a painting called 'The Goldfinch'.  His fear of getting into trouble precludes him from going to the authorities, and this fear remains as he grows up.

 It is not often that I read a book I know nothing about (from a plot point of view), but this is one of them.  I really enjoy discovering everything as I'm reading.  As a fan of the author's other work (namely Secret History), I thought I'd give this novel a go.  Tartt is really good at getting 'voice' right.  There are a few voices in this book as the narrator Theodore grows up and changes, and she nailed all of them.  I felt let down by the overly-philosophical ending, I thought the author had done a good enough job of getting her point across through narrative without having to resort to holding the reader's hand at the end.