October Reading Wrap-Up

ME BEFORE YOU

Yes, I finally read this book. Everyone and their mother has already read Me Before You--actually my mum read it too, before I did even! I had this book on my shelves for ages and finally got round to it.
Jojo Moyes's Me Before You, follows the story of quirky Louisa Clark, who lives at home with her mum, dad, sister Trina (or Katrina) and her son Thomas, and her grandad who is in a wheelchair and sits quietly in front of the TV most of his time. Her relationship with beau of seven years, Patrick, is turning dry and unexciting. With the family struggling financially, Lou's salary was keeping them afloat; however, her boss decides to close the café. This is why she felt forced to take a job as a caretaker for a quadriplegic, Will Traynor, whose mother promised Lou a steady fat paycheck for six months, even though she had no idea what she was doing.
This was a fresh kind of read; it is a very unconventional love story with an unexpected ending. I have to admit though, I did sort of expect the ending. It isn't cheesy but it is predictable. Enjoyable, nonetheless.
I gave this 3 out of 5 stars!

MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

After reading Agatha Christie's A Pocket Full of Rye a few months back, I decided I wanted to read the whole Miss Marple series. I just fell in love. I seriously read the whole thing in one day! I was never so gripped from a book as I have with that one. And so, I read Murder at the Vicarage. This novel follows the story of a vicar in the small village of St Mary Mead. One of the residents of the village, called Colonel Lucius Protheroe, is probably the most hated amongst all. Even the vicar is heard muttering someone could get away with killing him. Ooh. Then what happens? He IS murdered! In the vicar's study no less! Dun dun DUN! The clues throughout the story vary to include almost all the characters as guilty; once you think you've figured out who it is, the next chapter rolls around and throws at you even more clues where another might be guilty. A couple of characters actually do confess to committing the crime and one is jailed for a short term. Clement the vicar is called upon his neighbour, Miss Marple, who tells him she might have the idea that there are seven suspects, including the vicar himself. The vicar explores the clues left behind and tries to decipher, alongside the detective, who is guilty of the crime.
I really enjoyed reading Murder at the Vicarage and I'm aiming to read one book of the series a month. I find Agatha Christie's novels quite fantastic.

HOUSE OF LEAVES

Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves is probably one the most unique books I've read to date. I've never read such a book that intimidates you as you read it. It is told by three different perspectives, where two are actually footnotes who have read the previous person's notes. So it's like B read A's notes, and then C read A's and B's.
I read House of Leaves as a part of Sophie's read along on her channel.
It begins with the character Johnny Truant being awoken in the early hours of the morning by his friend, Lude, to explore a dead man's unusual flat. Johnny is looking for a new place to live and Lude thought his newly deceased neighbour's place could be up for grabs. While exploring the place, Johnny finds a scattered book of collected notes. He learns later that the old man, Zampano, who was blind was working on a project of academically analysing a documentary called "The Navidson Record". Johnny reads the book and says he never really found any record of the film, deeming it
nonexistent. Although Johnny does come across as a non reliable narrator at times.
The documentary is about a family that moves from the busy city of New York into a quiet suburban house in Virginia. Navidson is a self-acclaimed photographer who shot a photo that put his name out there, of a starving African girl who was dying on her way to the food camp and a vulture was patiently behind her awaiting her death. Much like the infamous photo of Kevin Carter's.

As the family settles in, a strange door suddenly appears in the middle of the living room where at first it was just cupboard-sized. Navidson asks a good friend of his, Reston, who is an architect to help him measure the outside and inside of the house. Of course, the measurements don't add up.
The cupboard hollows up more and more till it is a labyrinth cave. Navidson is hit with the exploring bug. He calls up some folks who explore for a hobby and a job, Holloway, Wax and Jed. The Maze consumes the three explores and Navidson has to go in and find them.
Throughout the novel, each character is affected by the hollowness and blackness of the labyrinth in a different way. They become either more aggressive or angsty or confused... . Johnny, on the other hand, is losing his mind slowly but surely.
The format of the this book is quite unconventional. With some pages full and packed with text and others blank. Some had single sentences going lower with every turn of the page, others had sentences upside down, or paragraphs to the side... . It was a fun way to read the book as it fit sometimes the characters' placement at the time.
However, what I didn't really enjoy about House of Leaves was that it's like reading a text book for a class. It is filled with references to studies and interviews that don't exist. I felt like I was reading a uni article for a class. That wasn't fun. I even found myself skipping some of them and focusing more on what Johnny had to say. I also found the book a tad bit slow which lead to it getting a bit boring, in my opinion. When I finished, I was just like PHEW, it is finally over! I finished it just to finish it that's all.
I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars.

                                      DISGRACE

Coatzee's Disgrace won him the Man Booker prize sometime in the early 2000's. Honestly, I do not know how, it was so boring.
The story follows a bored university professor, David Lurie, who spends his Thursdays with Suraya, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with and stalks after she ends things with him. He feels like he needs to fill his Thursdays with a replacement. Scanning the campus, his eyes come across Melanie, a theatre major in the romantics course he teaches. He invites her to his place, the next day they end up sleeping with each other. Things start to fall apart from then on. He loses his job as Melanie's parents file a sexual harassment complaint to the university, who then in turn try to keep quiet about it and not include legislation. He moves in with his daughter, Lucy, in the countryside. Things yet again fall apart as after a while of staying with her and working at her farm and volunteering in the clinic. Trauma strikes and Lurie is sat helpless watching it all happen.
The idea behind this book is exquisite; however, I personally felt the execution of it is poor. The language and style are very dry.
I gave this a 1 star.

HABIBI DAESHI

I wanted to get into reading Arabian novels and my friend recommended this one among others. I had this sitting on my desktop for months before I finally came around to reading it. Yes, it is only published as an e-book. The way my friend spoke about it really sold it to me. After reading it, this has to be the most ridiculous book I have ever read.
It's from the point of view of an Egyptian woman, Laila, newly wed to the love of her life. Everything seems to go fine till one day he decides to divorce her, out of the blue. So she ends up in a rut for the next few years, when her father decides enough is enough and wants to marry her to her cousin without her consent. Apparently all the men around her are dropping at her feet and she's refusing because she's got her ex in mind! Her best friend, Suha, stopped talking to her because her husband admitted to her that he loves Laila. Then her boss expresses his feelings to her. A colleague of hers, Samira, heard about her misfortune with men and suggests to her to join Isis as a translator in Syria. She meets up with her and is handed a phone number for when she decides to agree. Of course she does, she can't handle being married to a guy she knows near nothing about. The scheduling is done, she leaves for Syria, and is sent to live with a husband and wife and their bodyguard on Isis ground. Of course she notes how the guard, Omar, is so muscular and caring. Yes, they do eventually fall in love. Yes, he does try and make her leave because he knows the grand scheme of taking her hostage because her father is a millionaire and will pay the price. They manage to escape to Yemen thanks to Omar's connections, and marry in secrecy. But later are found hiding there. So he sends her to Mecca where she stays at a hotel and tells her to wait at the gates of the hotel everyday at sunset to meet him at his arrival. Somehow her ex husband finds her there! He knew the Sheikh of the mosque in Mecca whom she was having dinner with the day of.
Omar does finally meet up with her after being held captive and tortured for two years. Good news! Laila's pregnant! After not seeing her husband for TWO YEARS! WTF!!!
This book was just ridiculous. The style of writing was that of a child's, it was so utterly stupid! Literally, every line I read i was just like "oh my goood" for how dumb it is. I actually skipped a lot of pages to reach the end. Just, no.
ZERO STARS

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

Finally, the last book I read this month was Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Our protagonist is a teenager named Jacob whose grandfather has always told him tales of children that were peculiar. Whilst of a young age Jacob's Grandfather tells him stories of a mystical place on a Welsh Island where fantastical and magical things happen. He describes the people and the amazing things they can do, even backing his stories with pictures. Obviously being at a young age Jacob believes all of these stories and even the more horrifying tales of the 'monsters' that hunted these children - beastly ghouls with sharp talons and eels protruding from their mouths. This was enough to keep Jacob awake at night. Ransom Riggs' interest in photography and writing had him collect photographs from many different sources and used them to base his novel around.
 As he got older, Jacob deemed these tales as only that, fairytales. He forgets about the mysterious island. One day, his grandfather calls him panicking at work, asking for the key to his gun cupboard. Jacob and his father just think the old man is losing his mind. Still, Jacob is worried and runs home to finds him in the woods behind his home dying from his wounds. Wounds that look like some beastly animal attacked him. That is when Jacob sees the creature--the monster his grandfather was always warning him about, with it's three tentacles looming out of its face. Before his death, his grandfather leaves him some cryptic last words which leads Jacob on a sometimes frightening but mostly action filled and heroic adventure. 
Jacob is traumatised after his discovery and has to see a psychiatrist. He becomes obsessively interested in his grandfather's past so he travels with his father to the mysterious island. He discovers a whole new world of peculiar happenings. 
I enjoyed reading this novels as it is fast-paced and equally suspenseful. The photographs added an interesting layer to the story. I am very intrigued to read the next books! 
I gave this 3 out of 5!