Sheltered Volume 1 TP by Ed Brisson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A very average run of the mill pre-apocalypse story that does nothing to encourage you to seek out further issues. This is especially so when it already starts going all 'Lord of the Flies' by the third chapter.
This may be the fault of Image Comics by just releasing just five chapters for the first book as opposed to the writer Brisson, but unfortunately the damage is done and nothing I've read so far would make me read on.

This book was received as a digital ebook for review courtesy of NetGalley.

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This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A beautifully drawn and realised coming of age story from cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki.
Teenager Rose is embarking on her yearly trip to the family holiday cottage with her family. Once there, she meets with the "sister she never had" the younger, immature and sugar addicted Windy.
What follows is a charming (if predictable) tale of mischief, growth, judgement and misunderstanding. Rose's relationship with her distant and cold mother is at the heart of this story, with the secondary tale of her fixation on the lives of local teens acting as the eventual catalyst between the two.

There are some wonderfully illustrated frames and one-pages in This One Summer and the use of just blue ink really emphasis that 'summer beach' feel. Unfortunately some of the impact is lost when viewing on a tablet, so I would encourage anyone interested in this graphic novel to try and get a physical copy.

This copy was received as a digital ebook via NetGalley and is in no way indicative of the final published edition.

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Shovel Ready: A Novel by Adam Sternbergh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Things have gone bad in the New York of Adam Sternbergh's novel, really bad and at the bottom of it all is one man, and his devotion to his job.

Set decades (we're never given an actual timeline) after 9/11, NYC falls victim to another spate of attacks, culminating in a dirty bomb in the middle of Time Square. Combine this almost apocalyptic event with the advent of a new virtual reality system that lets you 'escape' to the World of your choosing, with the rich having the best and the poor getting the scraps, and you have the dystopian nightmare that is Shovel Ready.

Sternbergh has created in 'Spademan' a hitman with a central moral core: only kills adults-never kids, asks no questions-doesn't need a reason and until he gets a job to 'hit' the daughter of a wealthy pastor he's stuck to this code. His ensuing investigations show that this is not going to be an easy job and he's initially wavering away from his rules until a revelation makes his mind up for him. From that point, 'Shovel Ready' becomes a fast, involving, humorous and very bloody race to save the girl and wipe out the bad guy.

With nods to Philip K. Dick, James Ellroy and even a little bit of Elmore, Sternberg puts together a tight little thriller that manages to dip it's toes into several genres, yet never feels messy. By not utilising speech-marks (which admittedly takes some getting used to) the prose flows quickly and sharply, in the beginning having an almost stream of conciousness/personal recount feel to it.

The only reason I haven't given it the full five stars is for it's length. There are a couple of places where I felt a little more depth to a situation or character wouldn't have gone amiss, but I'm hoping this isn't the last we see of Spademan and his gang of survivors.

Review is of an advance ebook copy received via NetGalley and is no way indicative of the final copy.

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Monsters! & Other Stories by Gustavo Duarte
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received this book as a free advanced review copy via Netgalley.

You know how sometimes it's better to let the pictures speak for themselves? It worked for Chaplin and Keaton and a lot of the time, when it comes to the graphic novel genre, the most effective panels are the one's that let the images do the talking.

This is the case with Brazilian artist Gustavo Duarte's new collection 'Monsters and Other Stories'.

In all honesty, it is only three stories (and the overall review does lose a star due to length) but they are all funny, evocative and very dark with death and destruction as the main theme throughout.

The collection starts with CÓ! a darkly comic tale of a lonely pig farmer who after chasing aliens away from his pigs finds things taking a bizarre turn.

Next up is 'Birds' following two humanised, office-working birds as they try to escape their fate. While funnier than the opener, it's not as graphically impressive, feeling more like a strip from the funnies.

Lastly, comes the best of the three, the extremely enjoyable 'Monsters'. Taking it's cue from the Japanese monster movies it portrays what happens when a groups of seemingly pissed off super sea monsters invade a Brazilian sea town. To say what occurs next would spoil some of the gags, but suffice to say, Duarte gives credit to his influences.

As I said above, the only reason this gets a 4 star review is down to the length. I would recommend loaning from the library upon release as opposed to buying it, unless the final retail price reflects the size of the novel.

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Review: NOS4R2

NOS4R2 by Joe Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's been a while since a book has conflicted me a much as this one. I wanted to adore it, my expectation was high (especially after Hill's 'Horns' one of my favourite reads of 2012) and I'm sure that's why I was cross with the middle section of Hill's latest, the scary 'never think of Christmas the same way' NOS4R2.

We start at breakneck speed with the creepy ramped up to 11 with main protagonist Vic speeding from place to place on her bike; a special bike that enables her to travel across a long-ruined bridge which always manages to take her where she needs to be. Think the TARDIS but rickety and smelling of bat pee. It transpires that Vic isn't the only one with this ability, and he's not using it to find lost things either; he's taking them instead.
For Charles Manx (think a cross between Max Shreck's famous vampire and Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons) his conduit is a road, and an extremely evil car: Christine after listening to too many Marilyn Manson albums...

As far as Manx is concerned there are some very unhappy children out there who need rescuing, and where better to take them than to land where Christmas is everlasting? Unfortunately, they'll be disfigured, soulless and their 'useless' parents will be dead, but Hey! Candy canes!!

Without delving too deeply into the plot, while going through a somewhat predictable teen-age phase, Vic gets on the wrong side of Manx, but unlike the others she escapes and lives to fight another cliché....I mean day. And this is where the novel falls down a deep hole for me personally. Hill creates a distinctly unlikeable character in the grown up Vic; petulant, arrogant, selfish and self-destructive. Yes, she's had a traumatic time, but there are times she comes across a bit 'movie of the week' and her 'trials' just dragged on and on. So much so that I longed for her sections to come to an end and the novel to return to Manx and his wonderfully creepy sidekick Bing, one of the better written side characters along with the brilliant Maggie and long-suffering Lou.

These smaller characters are where I feel the book is at it's strongest and I found myself wanting to spend more time with them rather than whiny Vic. Thankfully, this is the strength of the last third of the book as the action is ramped up and resolutions are reached.

One other bugbear I had regarding NOS4R2 is the references to Worlds and works other than his own. As an avid reader of King I'm used to crossovers between an author's other novels, but what Hill does is reference his father's books (most notably the Dark Tower series) as well as other recent novels such as Cloud Atlas. When King self-references it's because he's written it as an inter-weaving World, and regular King readers expect it. But Hill referencing Mitchell was irritating beyond belief. I spent the next few chapters wondering if there was a link, a hint of things to come. But unless I've missed it totally, it was just a nod, I presume to an author he admires.

If goodreads gave reviewers the ability to use half stars NOS4R2 would definitely be a 3.5: too good to be just 3, but not quite 'there' enough for 4.



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Review: Drama: An Actor's Education

Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Superb. Would highly recommend this as an audio book:as you can imagine, Lithgow's tone and delivery is exemplary and his unflinching honesty about his life is a joy to behold in a modern autobiography.
The only thing I would have like more of is his time in Hollywood over the last 20 years as this is skimmed over in the last chapter. But if that meant editing out some of his earlier years and any of the wonderful anecdotes about his early years and his wonderful father, then it's a worthy sacrifice.



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Review: Joyland

Joyland by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



We all know King. We all know that King can write epic, sprawling, huge and fantastical stories. But there are times when King is at his best when he scales down the chapters of set-ups and scene-setting, when the characterising speeches are minimized, and the locations are sparse and few. It's a long established opinion that the best film adaptations of his works come from the shortest stories (Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption being the obvious candidates), and Joyland, is another one of his 'short but sweet' wonders.

It's 1973 and 21 yr old Devin Jones is disillusioned-with his love-life, his education and himself. On a whim he applies to work at old fashioned carnival come theme park Joyland, and finally his life begins.

To call Joyland a 'horror' or 'thriller' story would be doing it a disservice and I notice a lot of reviews claiming it's "nothing like King". I can only presume that these people haven't really 'read' King properly, as it's EXACTLY like King as it's what he does best. It's 100% a character study with the 'crime/horror' element firmly in the background. Every single character is believable: full of heart, full of sorrow and pain, all with the common bond of living for the now, the future being something they don't want to consider.

Don't pick this up expecting another 'IT' or 'Salem's Lot', Joyland is a novella full of heart with a side-order of menace and the perfect beach/flight/curl up in your book-nook and not come out 'till you're finished novel.

Go and get it.



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