Scottish-Fiction

Book Review: From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne

Categories Classics, Jules Verne, Scottish-Fiction1 Comment on Book Review: From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne

32827Author: Jules Verne 
Release Date: 1865
Series: 
Genre: Classic Science Fiction
Edition: Paperback (part of The Collector’s Book Of Science Fiction)
Pages: 136
Publisher: Aegypan

Rating: ★★

Blurb:

Verne’s 1865 tale of a trip to the moon is (as you’d expect from Verne) great fun, even if bits of it now seem, in retrospect, a little strange. Our rocket ship gets shot out of a cannon? To the moon? Goodness! But in other ways it’s full of eerie bits of business that turned out to be very near reality: he had the cost, when you adjust for inflation, almost exactly right. There are other similarities, too. Verne’s cannon was named the Columbiad; the Apollo 11 command module was named Columbia. Apollo 11 had a three-person crew, just as Verne’s did; and both blasted off from the American state of Florida. Even the return to earth happened in more-or-less the same place. Coincidence — or fact!? We say you’ll have to read this story yourself to judge.

Review

I’m not a fan of Jules Verne’s writing, hence it was a bit difficult for me to complete this book. I’m just glad that somehow I did. Though there was a fair bit of skimming involved (like pages at times.)

There are a lot of good things I can say about this book like the entire concept of the Gun Club and the mission to send a projectile to Moon, some really sharp sarcastic observations that made me giggle every time I recalled them later on, a decent story overall and the feel-good factor. But there was the inescapable Verne writing that I have now come to dread that literally haunted me through the entire book, the excruciatingly slow pace of the story progression and the crazy level of Science involved for such a short read. Though the Science bit was actually quite impressive, I did not enjoy it at all.

I was hoping to finish this book in a few hours, but it took me more than 3 days to finish it. So you can guess why I gave this book a 2-star rating.

I’d recommend this book only to the hardcore fans of author Jules Verne and to no one else.

Goodreads

Book Review: The Child Garden

Categories Catriona McPherson, Scottish-Fiction18 Comments on Book Review: The Child Garden

24586135

Author: Catriona McPherson
Release Date: September 8, 2015 
Series: None
Genre: Mystery|Thriller|Suspense|Scottish-Fiction
Edition: E-Book (mobi) 
Pages: 336
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Source: NetGalley
Buy it here: Amazon

Blurb

Eden was its name. “An alternative school for happy children.” But it closed in disgrace after a student’s suicide. Now it’s a care home, its grounds neglected and overgrown. Gloria Harkness is its only neighbor, staying close to her son who lives there in the home, lighting up her life and breaking her heart each day.

When a childhood friend turns up at her door, Gloria doesn’t hesitate before asking him in. He claims a girl from Eden is stalking him and has goaded him into meeting her at the site of the suicide. Only then, the dead begin to speak—it was murder, they say.

Gloria is in over her head before she can help it. Her loneliness, her loyalty, and her all-consuming love for her son lead her into the heart of a dark secret that threatens everything she lives for.

Rating

4-stars

Review

Plot/Story:

The Child Garden has an amazing plot story full of well-timed twists and turns. I enjoyed reading it t and tremendously and felt compelled to read it in one go. I was sucked right into the book from starting to end. The main suspense of the book is also mindblowing and there is no way in hell one could have guessed that the things will turn out the way they did.

The pace of the story is great and the writing proceed smoothly without interfering the flow of the story. I really liked the deliberate slow progress of the investigation as it kept me intrigued throughout the book. One more thing that I’d like to add is that the small part of the book where the author used a little demon reference was the stroke of a genius. Why? Because it really made me put down the book at the night. it was a really small part (maybe a few pages,) but it really gave me a good scare.

Characters:

In spite of liking the story, I wasn’t able to feel entirely connected to the main character, Gloria. The story is written in first-person but still I felt a little detached from her. In fact, at one point I felt that she herself was the murderer. I’m not sure what went wrong, but it just felt that the narration was responsible for the detachment I felt.

The other main character is that of Stig and I really liked him, though I felt a little irritated at times to find out that in spite of whatever Gloria did for him, he  continuously held back the truth from her. Still, I liked him a lot and enjoyed the amazing foods he dished out.

Romance/Killings:

There was no romance, but there were a number of killings. Though at times the murders were a little confusing (maybe because of Scottish names and surnames or the fact that a few names were similar,) I still enjoyed the book thoroughly. All the killings really intensified the pace of the story and left me wanting for more.

Writing:

As I mentioned earlier, the writing is good and flowed beautifully without interfering the reader’s imagination. Though I felt the characterization was a little (just teeny-weeny) weak. I would have enjoyed more if the MC would have been a tad more relatable but nonetheless I still enjoyed the story.

The attention to detail is remarkable!

Beginning:

This book hooked me right from the beginning. It started with a beautiful prologue and carried on with the same effect.

Ending:

The ending is mind blowing and I was completely spell-bound by suspense that was revealed at the end. Though I felt that the story was a little rushed right before the suspense was revealed.

Book Cover:

I love this book cover because it really gives me the willies! I picked up this book because of the cover and the blurb.

Blurb:

Okay now, this is where it gets a little ugly. The blurb is quite misleading. I thought that the book is a supernatural one (as the blurb says) but it is NOT. It’s a suspense-thriller book.

You can also read this review at:
 Goodreads, Amazon and NetGalley

Other Stuff

Opening Line: It was far from silent in the dark wood.

Highlights: Amazing storyline and suspense.

Lowlights: Characterization and misleading blurb.

Final Thoughts: A really good suspense read.