Book review competition

Jane Wallace - July 2012

"It's rare for me to feel strongly enough about a book to write a review of it on the internet, and it's even rarer that this would be the kind of book that I'd feel inspired to write about. But Fifty Shades of Grey has become such a cultural phenomenon that I feel like I have to provide a bit of balance and set the record straight ..." Read more

Matt Brew - June 2012

"The novel is not afraid to showcase the ugly truths of life, going in depth with topics of murder, betrayal and sex often in every relatively short chapter. Weeks writes with an abrupt, detached manner and accepts these events ..." Read more

Dave Wallace - May 2012

"At first glance, the book appears to be a reasonably straightforward affair, telling the tale of a reader who is enjoying a book that he unfortunately finds impossible to finish for a variety of reasons ..." Read more

Sam Osborne - April 2012

"'The Hunger Games has recently launched itself into the public eye with it's high profile movie release which gained five star reviews from several critics. The film however was in fact based upon a book by Suzanne Collins......" Read more

George Orton - March 2012

"'Room on the Broom' is a fun little tale,
from the writer of 'Gruffalo', 'Snail and the Whale',
and 'The Gruffalo's Child' - and that should be enough
to convince you that your child will lap up this stuff.

All of Julia Donaldson's books (yeah, you know 'em)
take the form of an intricate narrative poem
(And it's reading this one every night of this week
that's inspired me to lay out this rhyming critique)..." Read more

Dave Wallace - February 2012

"Frank Miller's most celebrated work - 1986's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - is widely regarded as a turning point for superhero comics. However, it's also such a significant milestone in the history of Batman that it has cast a long shadow over all subsequent interpretations of the character, in both the comics and the hit Hollywood movies. As a result, it's perhaps difficult for modern audiences to appreciate just how revolutionary it would have seemed at the time for Miller to adopt such a grim and gritty approach to the Dark Knight, compared to the lighter and more colourful visions of..." Read more

Jane Weathers - January 2012

"This Human Season is a tragedy unlike any I've come across. Set in a prison in Northern Ireland known as The Maze, or Long Kesh, Louise Dean's novel tells the stories of two families in and outside the prison leading up to the hunger strike that took place in the prison, in real life, at the end of 1980 and the start of 1981. Because of the true-to-life nature of the events Dean describes, the stories of the two families is that much more harrowing. The novel revolves largely around a mother, Kathleen, whose son is one of the prisoners about to go on strike, and a British prison guard, John..." Read more

Chris Harley - December 2011

"Joshua Ferris' novel, Then We Came To The End, is by far one of the most interesting, riveting, and innovative novels that I've read in a very, very long time. It was one of a number of books I opened on Christmas morning, and I have already read my way through it two days later; it is almost impossible to put it down. From the very start of the novel, it is utterly captivating.What is immediately striking is Ferris' narration. Rather than the usual third-person or first-person-singular narrator - 'He' or 'I' - we are instead presented with the first-person-plural for the vast majority of the novel - 'we'..." Read more

Jamie Hogarth - November 2011

"Charlie Bone and the Red Knight is the eighth and final book in Jenny Nimmo's brilliant Charlie Bone series! As the battle against the Bloors and all of the rest of the evil people and creatures that live in the city draws to a close there are many shocks and surprises in store for Charlie Bone and his friends. Although the previous books in the series have featured lots of mini battles, in Charlie Bone and the red Knight there is the final epic battle of good v evil. Fortunately as well as all of Charlie's regular friends and helpers, there is a mysterious Red Knight who seems to be pursuing evildoers across the city..." Read more

Jan Kirkpatrick - October 2011

"I've never been a big fan of Westerns so I'm not sure I would have picked up Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers had it not been my book club's selection for August. It's lucky for me then that someone else saw the potential in this book because it has actually turned out to be an excellent read. The Sisters Brothers is a very character driven story with the unique and often diabolical personalities of the people involved being the key element that draws the reader in and keeps them hooked until the very end..." Read more

Christopher - September 2011

"British novelist Richard Hughes writes, in his introduction to William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, of the story told of a celebrated Russian dancer who, when asked by someone what she meant by a certain dance, answered, 'If I could say it in so many words, do you think I should take the very great trouble of dancing it?' Hughes repeats the story as an explanation for the validity of obscurity in literary fiction. He writes: 'A method involving apparent obscurity is surely justified when it is the clearest, the simplest, the only method possible of saying what the writer has to say. This is the case with The Sound and the Fury.'..." Read more

Kenji Lloyd - August 2011

"Originally published as three separate novels, Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy has since been published as a single volume that collects together three masterful stories that wonderfully, impressively, and entirely unexpectedly relate to each other. Auster's ability to connect the three seemingly stand-alone stories is absolutely astounding, and will leave you wondering how on earth such a talented writer has escaped larger recognition in mainstream literature. Auster himself has been described as many things; a postmodern writer, a metafictional writer, an experimental writer, a realist writer, a detective fiction writer. His work is by far one of the most elusive to describe I have come across, that I personally would rank as some of the best literature that has come out of America in the second half of the 20th Century..." Read more

Jo Leddington - July 2011

"The Act of Roger Murgatroyd is the first volume in Gilbert Adairs trilogy of whodunits featuring the redoubtable sleuth and author Evadne Mount. A locked room mystery with all the ingredients of a classic 1930s cosy detective story..." Read more

Danielle Hampson - June 2011

"The Hunger Games is part of a trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins and the books have become some of the most popular young adult books of the last few years. Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives..." Read more

Erin Britton - May 2011

"How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Well, that is the question that Edwin A. Abbott sets out to answer in Flatland, his delightful 'romance of many dimensions'..." Read more

Mike Kenny - April 2011

"A Game of Thrones is the first book in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin actually began the series back in 1996 and has published five novels in the saga so far, but A Song of Ice and Fire is experiencing a surge in popularity ..." Read more

Kelly Marsh - March 2011

"It is a romance book but has an exciting, thriller story with lots of twists and turns which make it more exciting than the average book. ..." Read more

John C - February 2011

"John Steinbeck's novella 'Of Mice and Men', published in 1937, derives its title from a couplet in Robert Burns' poem 'To a Mouse' - 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Go aft awry" Read more

Chuck Cauchon - January 2011

"The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain is a short but intense thriller with a sharp punch to the nose dose of American crime, entwined with romance. I say a sharp punch to the nose because that really sums up how I felt after I had turned the last page" Read more

Billie Johnstone - December 2010

"It might well seem that there is no escape from A Christmas Carol during the festive season, just about every popular television series has featured an episode adapted from this classic story and there are numerous film versions regularly being screened too, but none of these equal the brilliance of Charles Dickens' original story and that is why I make sure to read it every year." Read more

Mary Baskerville - November 2010

"Sense and Sensibility, the first of Jane Austen's major novels, revolves around Elinor and Marianne, two daughters of Mr Dashwood by his second wife. They have a younger sister, Margaret, and an older half-brother named John." Read more

Dave Majors - October 2010

"Alan Moore is one of the giants of the comic book industry. His work on Watchmen and V For Vendetta revolutionised the comics medium and opened the genre up to 'serious' readers who had previously maintained that comics were for kids. While the majority of popular comics featured fantastical stories and superhuman exploits, in Moore's books the settings were recognisable and real if often skewed and his characters were all too human and flawed. The two previously mentioned titles may well be Moore's most famous work, but my personal favourite from among the many quality titles he has written is From Hell, a meditation on the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper." Read more

Joanne Leddington - September 2010

"Set two years after the events of Revelation, Heartstone begins in the summer of 1545 as England is preparing for war. Henry VIII's insatiable desire for power and glory led him to invade France but his army was defeated and now a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel and take advantage of England's weakened position. The English fleet is being mustered at Portsmouth and desperate steps are being taken throughout the country to raise the largest militia army ever called upon. Times are especially tough as Henry VIII had debased the currency in order to pay for his invasion folly and the people of England are struggling as inflation spirals out of control." Read more

Mike Kenny - August 2010

"The first novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983 so it's no surprise that I feel like I've been following the series for my whole life. Pratchett is one of the best-selling authors in the UK and is a prolific writer - Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel set in Discworld - but his standards never slip. " Read more

Vega B. - July 2010

"Vampire literature - Love it or hate it, in recent years the prevalence of contemporary vampire literature has been established the world over. This follows the genre's phenomenal ascension and sustained dominance at the zenith of many countries best sellers lists. This is in no small part due to a certain saga, the name of which can currently be found on the lips of readers and cinema goers alike. Yes, of course I refer to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. The Twilight saga has sent shock waves through the literary world, grabbing publishers by the scruff of their necks, shaking them violently and screaming in their ears "VAMPIRES EQUALS MONEY!?!?!?!". " Read more

Chris M. - June2010

"With the South African World Cup in full swing I thought it would be fitting to review a book by arguably the host nation's greatest writer and one of my favourite authors. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (pronounced I am informed as "cut-zee-uh") is a complex novel, intricately weaving a soul questioning story line with intuitive undertones of socio-political and racial reflection on post-apartheid South Africa. These factors are coupled with an exploration of sexuality and a moralistic appraisal of middle-age masculinity." Read more