A Dead Good Read

I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It was picked up in poundland one day and it proved to be a very entertaining read.

It centres on the friendship of Krissie and Sarah and shows the fractures of their fragile lives through their connection. Sarah wants a baby but can't, Krissie has one after a one night stand.

The author has written an interesting and entertaining book, with sparks of dark humour in the even the darkest moments. The characters are interesting, layered and flawed; their imperfections are what make them tick here and you are left curious as to how these two women have remained friends for so long despite their differing approaches to life; yet through that they need each other.

What is interesting is the psychological aspect of their personalities seeping through the pages; through their desires and their paranoia and fears. The book from one character's pov to another very well, usually connecting one's story with the other's; even highlighting someone's fragile state through the differing povs.

A surprisingly entertaining book, a perfect summer read that does keep you guessing and invest in the characters. Definitely worth a read.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

I finished this book disappointed to an extent. I have been a huge fan of Louise Brooks and upon hearing of the book I was excited.

To be fair, the book is good. There are some good characterizations and some (shocking) revelations. However, I was left unconvinced of the main protagonist; she just wasn't interesting enough for me.

From the moment Louise Brooks enters, however, the page the story takes on a whole new dimension. Here is someone who is determined, ambitious, challenging, engaging - alive!

The setting is 1922 and Moriarty sets the scene spectacularly, introducing the various characters and the places and situations well. There are some tense scenes that make gripping reading.

The scenes involving Brooks are quite amazing and its through her interactions with Brooks that the main character Cora, comes to life.Cora's background and reasons for acting as chaperone are slowly revealed and you do get a sense of someone who could be interesting but remains passive throughout the majority of the novel.

I felt that once both parties went their separate ways then the story could have wrapped up - but it didn't.

Once Louise is out of the picture we are left with Cora to see us through til the end. Cora herself is not unlikable, she's just too dull.

The story itself is basically a journey of self discovery, whereby Cora finds out more about herself through her time with Louise and returns home to Kansas a different woman. A good, solid plot that worked well but went on a little too long and took away the magic for me.

But if you are a fan of Louise Brooks then I would recommend this as it captures much of Brooks' strong personality through good writing.

Kif: An Unvarnished War

This is the story of Kif. It's a story about his journey through the first World War and the effect it has on his life after it.

I read this due to my appreciation of Josephine Tey, writer of books such as The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, to name but two of her classic mysteries.

This is an altogether different book. This isn't a mystery, it's a tragedy that looks at the war through the eyes of a young boy who went from having a career and fighting for his country to being left out in the cold when they had no more need of him.

In many ways it is a great story, but in others it disappoints.

What disappoints most is the lack of sympathy I had with the main character through most of the book as he was a very unemotional individual with very few connections, but eventually that is how you do come to sympathize with him - an outsider trying to fit in.

The war itself is mentioned very little, it is told through incidents taking place around the war, while Kif is on leave or in confrontations with fellow soldiers. The first two acts drag on a little.

The third act is where things do get interesting.

Kif is left to fend for himself, manages to find work but it sadly comes undone in the end and he is forced into a life of crime as a means to survive. It is through this transition from naive boy to competent thief that we see the most change. It is through his treatment after the war, as a result of being turned down for employment due to a criminal record, of being stripped of hope for the future that Kif finally sets out on a criminal job that leads to his downfall.

It is the tragedy of Kif's story that is left with you at the end. A boy who fought for his country was left to fend for himself afterwards with no support from the Government in who's name he went to war for.Tey looks to get across to the reader that war was not glorious. It was harrowing and despairing; and for those who came home it was only part of the battle for survival.

Oz: The Dull & Lackluster

As a fan of the original 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz I admit I was intrigued to see the origin tale of Oz and all the characters we've come to know and love. Unfortunately, I was not left blown away by the movie. Essentially, the scenery appears to be the real star of the movie, with the characters added in to give a sense of nostalgia for the viewer.

In saying that, it isn't entirely a disaster; the film boasts a great amount of CGI that is stunning, but beyond the spectacle of Oz itself, it has nothing new to offer. My main issue is really with the characters within the story; I just didn't care about them. I know that Oz is supposed to be smug and narcissistic and then develop into the hero, but his journey was just predictable and therefore not particularly interesting. His sidekicks actually interested me more because they were funny and endearing in their own ways, even though we don't really get to see much of them at all.

Then there's Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Unfortunately she fits in as the stereotypical romantic interest who helps the hero discover the greatness within himself, but she is really bland; there's nothing interesting about her in regards to personality or character development. And her connection with looking like Dorothy's Aunty Em is really the only part of her story I found interesting. 

The villainess Evanora, played by the fantastic Rachel Weisz, also disappoints; we don't know why she's evil except that she made herself that way. There's no backstory for Endora to show why she is evil, yet Glinda's story about her father is all that they seem to talk about. Evanora starts off as potentially the villain before taking a back seat for the majority of the second half. 

The focus shift is the part that I was really looking forward to: How does the Wicked Witch of the West come to be? Through a broken heart. That's it. She falls for Oz after knowing him for five minutes and becomes insanely attached; rather than being cute it kinda makes her look a bit crazy and desperate; and a possible bunny boiler. Through her sister's manipulation Theodora witnesses Oz and Glinda together and is heartbroken, believing the Don Juan has betrayed her. This is sad for any girl, but there's hardly any development into the relationship between Oz and Theodora to make it heartbreaking. We know that Oz is a player, so we're not really surprised when Theodora learns that he had no plans of spending his life with her. 

The evolution of the iconic wicked witch being a result of a broken heart could've been so much better; the tragedy is that the story isn't well developed enough to make us hope for her redemption. We want her to be evil because that's why we loved her in The Wizard of Oz. The transformation of Theodora is very impressive, and a lot of work has gone into making this the most anticipated transformation in the film, way more than Oz's, but the young girl she was before just didn't really have any interesting characteristics about her to make us feel sorry for her; she was similar to Glinda, except even more naive. 

The finale was quite good. Oz comes up with a good plan and saves the day, sending the wicked witches on their way, but it's still predictable. There's nothing new for an audience to really learn about the characters because they aren't very well developed. The real star of the film is OZ itself. The CGI is great, to the point of overshadowing the narrative. 

I think Oz: The Great and Powerful is a good popcorn film, but nothing else. What really made the film suffer was the lack of characterization. Oz was a jerk and then had an epiphany, not really a surprise without much just cause; Glinda is the angelic witch without any flaws whatsoever thus making her really dull; Evanora had the potential to be a good villain but she was sidelined in favour of her sister. Theodora as a good witch wasn't interesting at all, and way too naive; her transformation is the best part of the film, with the green hand and black nails scratching the surface of a table, then the excitement dissipated with no real development beyond Theodora's evolution as the Wicked Witch. The characters don't really change at all, only carry on doing the same thing as before. 

The film fails where the original succeeded - interesting characters that feel love, pain, fear, anger etc. Here they don't go through any significant change the way the cowardly lion or scarecrow did, they just exist for the sake of nostalgia.