book review

Reviews of ‘All the Colours of the Dark’ by Chris Whitaker and ‘Breakdown’ by Cathy Sweeney

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All the Colours of the Dark is the third book I have read by Chris Whitaker, and I was particularly looking forward to this one. It had a huge amount of buzz surrounding it when it came out, and the reviews are stellar.

The story focuses on two main characters, Saint and Patch. They meet and develop a strong friendship when they are thirteen. Patch is missing an eye and wears an eye patch, and Saint sees him as a pirate figure due to his adventurous nature and fearlessness. They bond over their uniqueness – he the pirate, she the beekeeper.

As a teenager, Patch’s life changes forever one day when he hears a girl screaming and instinctively runs to help her. The rest of the novel is about how this event impacts his and Saint’s lives over the next twenty-odd years. Two other characters become woven into the picture, Misty Meyer, the girl Patch saves, and Grace, but I won’t tell you anymore for fear of spoilers.

This is not light reading. It is an extremely dark tale. However, there are brilliant moments of humour dotted throughout the book, and it is the characterization of not just Patch and Saint, but the other characters in the novel – Norma, Misty Meyer, Chief Nix, and others, who I became completely invested in.

The writing is brilliant, and Saint and Patch are such adorable characters, flaws and all, that I was rooting for them from the start.

This is a novel about the choices we make, the things we do for love, and coming to terms with the consequences of our decisions.

I felt it could have done with being 50 pages shorter, but overall, I loved it. A great read 8/10.

Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney

Where the novel above was incredibly long, this is a short novel.

A middle-aged woman (we are never told her name) wakes up one morning and, without any apparent forethought or planning, leaves her life never to return. She drives to the ferry in Ireland and goes to Wales.

She is a teacher and she contacts the school and her husband to let them know that she is safe and well, but that she has gone away. The book follows her inner thoughts, fears, and perceptions of what her life has become. She is adamant she is not having a breakdown, but the title of the book begs to differ!

What I loved about this book was the voice. Pared back, simple, and oh so effective!

I could feel her pain. I could identify with her thought of not being able to put on one more wash, or clean one more dirty dish, or pick up one more pair of socks.

What she gains is a sense of aliveness, a new sense of living. While there are definitely moments of despair, she drinks and sleeps a lot – she is finding out for the first time who she really is and what she actually wants for herself.

It’s freedom, it’s liberating, and it’s complicated.

I can imagine many women thinking she’s just a selfish, irresponsible woman. Not me! I applaud her every step. For we cannot spend our lives being what others want us to be. At some point, we have to find our own meaning and purpose beyond being a caretaker.

This is a book I will read again, and I highly recommend it. 9/10.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

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I have been contemplating what it is about Kate Atkinson’s novels that I enjoy so much and have concluded that it is not just her style of writing, which is so effortlessly brilliant, but the way she writes humour.  She writes these witty asides of what her characters are really thinking, and they are just so endearing and true to life.

I have been a huge fan of Kate Atkinson since I read ‘Life after Life’ and ‘A God in Ruins.’

This novel was much more of a slow burner for me.  It took me a while to get going.  It’s not what I would call a page turner, but it’s still fabulous, nonetheless.

The story centers around Juliet Armstrong who in 1950 is working for the BBC.  The story then takes us back to 1940 where we discover she worked as a secret agent. The novel runs along these two parallel strands of the 1940s and the 1950s.

During the Second World War Juliet is employed by M.I.5 and taken to a flat in London, where she is told she will be transcribing what goes on in the next-door flat which is bugged.   An agent called Godfrey Toby is sent undercover to listen to the secrets of a group of British Nazi sympathizers in the flat next door to Juliet, while she is taking down every word.    The conversations are mundane, but Juliet’s life takes an unexpected turn when both her and Godfrey’s boss, a man named Perry gives her a job in the inner circle, where she goes undercover as Iris-Carter Jenkins and befriends a British Nazi Sympathizer called Mrs Scaife.   This is where the book really came to life for me (about a quarter of the way in) and from then on, the intrigue develops, and the plot really does thicken (sorry!)

However, Juliet takes it all in her stride and seems totally underwhelmed by the drama unfolding around her.  She is even bored at times – “There was a better life somewhere, Juliet supposed, if only she could be bothered to find it.”

Although I found this novel a slow starter, the prose is beautiful, full of humour and wry observations, and if you can stick with it, it’s a rewarding read in my view.

I have included a link below to some quotes from the novel on Good Reads. For if you need convincing of what a glorious writer Kate Atkinson is, read them and weep!

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/64175388-transcription

 

 

 

The Dressmaker of Dachau by Mary Chamberlain

~ scarlett1000 ~ 4 Comments

dressmaker-of-dachau-image

Link to the book on Amazon

This book came highly recommended by a friend.  Thank you Michelle!

I love nothing more than when a book transports me to another world and I can’t wait to get back to it. It doesn’t happen to me that often, but this book had me absorbed from start to finish.

Ada Vaughan lives in Threed Street in 1930s London.  She gets a job working for Mrs B as a dressmaker, where she learns her trade.  But Ada is no ordinary worker.  She has a real talent for couture and a flair for fashion.  One evening she attracts the attention of a man named Stanislaus at a hotel, and the two begin courting.  When he asks Ada to go to Paris with him, she is thrilled.  Despite warning of the outbreak of War, Ada sneaks off to Paris with him.  What happens next is more than your worst nightmare.  Ada finds herself alone and abandoned in a city at war.

What I loved about this novel were the rich descriptions of both time and place.  I felt like I was there, and I got a real sense of Ada’s fear and panic.   The writing is lyrical and full of ambiance.    I defy you to not get caught up in this wonderful story of one woman’s perilous struggle to survive through World War II.

Also I will say that the ending surprised me, which always adds to a great read!

Read it, you won’t be disappointed.  4*.

My next book is The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley.  Review coming soon!