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ClareR (5950 KP) rated Savage Beasts in Books
Jul 4, 2023
Savage Beasts is a re-imagining of the story of Medea. This time, Meena (not Medea) betrays her father, the Nawab of Bengal, and runs away with an adventurer called James Chilcott. But Meena’s initial feelings of adventure and excitement soon wear off when she realises that the man she took to be an adventurer, was just an opportunist who spends her money and betrays her in turn.
I thought it was really clever how the Greek myth was woven into Meena’s story, and showed the impact of colonialism. Great Britain doesn’t come out of this well. James’ uncle, Sir Peter Chilcott, is a powerful man in the East India Company. He’s cold, unforgiving, and sees Meena, Indians, Bengali’s, and anyone from anywhere foreign, as below him and little better than an animal.
It made for really uncomfortable reading, and made me so angry!
Meena comes across as being so young but desperate to be older. She’s determined to make a good life for herself and her child - despite how difficult James and his reprehensible family make it for her.
Honestly, by the end I firmly believed they deserved whatever was coming their way!
I listened to this on audiobook, kindly sent to me via NetGalley by HarperCollins UK Audio. The narrator, Shazia Nicholls, really was outstanding. It always amazes me how a good narrator can make all the characters sound so different - especially in this case, the men. Sir Peter came across as a sneering, superior, calculating monster, and in contrast, Meena was both young and wise - and it felt as though she was really there, speaking for herself. Shazia read with such emotion that it became entirely believable. This could well have been an historical memoir as much as a piece of fiction.
Yes, this is described as a Greek retelling, but it has been made into something all of its own. If you know the story of Medea, then you’ll see where in particular it is borrowing from that story - but this is a great story in its own right. It’s powerful, feminist and it’s about colonialism. It’s a story about family, trust and the devastation of betrayal.
Highly recommended!
I thought it was really clever how the Greek myth was woven into Meena’s story, and showed the impact of colonialism. Great Britain doesn’t come out of this well. James’ uncle, Sir Peter Chilcott, is a powerful man in the East India Company. He’s cold, unforgiving, and sees Meena, Indians, Bengali’s, and anyone from anywhere foreign, as below him and little better than an animal.
It made for really uncomfortable reading, and made me so angry!
Meena comes across as being so young but desperate to be older. She’s determined to make a good life for herself and her child - despite how difficult James and his reprehensible family make it for her.
Honestly, by the end I firmly believed they deserved whatever was coming their way!
I listened to this on audiobook, kindly sent to me via NetGalley by HarperCollins UK Audio. The narrator, Shazia Nicholls, really was outstanding. It always amazes me how a good narrator can make all the characters sound so different - especially in this case, the men. Sir Peter came across as a sneering, superior, calculating monster, and in contrast, Meena was both young and wise - and it felt as though she was really there, speaking for herself. Shazia read with such emotion that it became entirely believable. This could well have been an historical memoir as much as a piece of fiction.
Yes, this is described as a Greek retelling, but it has been made into something all of its own. If you know the story of Medea, then you’ll see where in particular it is borrowing from that story - but this is a great story in its own right. It’s powerful, feminist and it’s about colonialism. It’s a story about family, trust and the devastation of betrayal.
Highly recommended!
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Hadley (567 KP) rated Gods Go Begging in Books
May 8, 2021
Amazing writing (2 more)
Great storytelling
Good characters
Not many books can visit the Vietnam war so gracefully, especially fictional books that aren't political thrillers. Of course, there's a reason for that, other than drug use and the orders to kill innocent civilians, it was a war that drove soldiers to madness, but this is only the tip of the iceberg in Alfredo Vea's third novel Gods Go Begging.
Mai and Persephone are as close as sisters, one was born in America, and the other was born in Vietnam; the two met because their husbands had fought in the Vietnam war, but had never returned, sealing an unbreakable bond between the two women. While the two spent most of their time cooking together, they decided to open up a luncheonette, and share their love of food with the city - - - until one night, when two young men showed up to smash their dreams by murdering both of them in cold blood. Little did the defense attorney for one of the young men, Jesse Pasadoble, know that these women would not only leave a scar on him, but they would also cause memories from a hill in Vietnam to haunt him all over again.
While Pasadoble is working the two women's murder case, he's also working another heart-wrenching case involving a white supremacist who has possibly molested and raped his own niece. Pasadoble tries his best to distance himself from the case, especially because he has to defend the man in question, but sometimes he lets his temper get the best of him. Pasadoble comes face-to-face with his client in an angry stare-off. After putting up with racial statements from the client, Pasadoble puts him in his place. The client may be a big man who can frighten most people, but Pasadoble pacifies him with his own anger, threatening to kick his ass in front of everyone that is in the jail setting the tone of what type of person Pasadoble can be for the reader.
The readers get flashbacks of Pasadoble's time in the Vietnam war, specifically one fight that happened on a hill near the Loatian border. These flashbacks happen suddenly throughout the book, but I personally believe that they are so important to understanding the world in which Vea has created in the novel because, near the end of the book, these flashbacks make everything come full circle. One of these flashbacks introduces an important character who is the Padre in Pasadoble's platoon - - - during such flashback, the Padre has devastating things happen around him that begin to make him question his faith in God.
Although the flashbacks happen here and there, the story easily continues on with Pasadoble's double homicide case getting more complicated by the page when the second of the two suspects is suddenly found dead on a hill that the locals call 'Tourette's Hill.' One such local that lived near the hill is one of the victims' mothers, Mrs. Harp, who is a very odd character: she's an aging beauty queen whose home is covered in photographs of only her, and none of her deceased son, and even while Pasadoble questions her about her son, she seems to get lost in a reverie of what her life was like before the son existed.
Pasadoble is the key character in this story; without him, connections would not have been made and characters would not have mattered. Pasadoble, a man who has a way with words, such as speaking with an ex-girlfriend about a 'hill' : "Carolina, think about the stratifications of an open hillside, a place where earth has given way and time itself is left exposed, layer upon layer - - - silica, clay, diatoms, and ash. Down here at this level is the time of the swelling sea; here, the time of the desert when hot, rising air would have haunted our eyes; here is a jagged karst, a time when the world shook an abrasion into its own skin; and here are the fossil dead, here you will find love and war in the same shamble of strewn bone. Here and there, where the world has shifted and cracked open, one era will touch another. And once upon the rarest time, human hands and eyes from the distant past can seek out and find... search for and contact... hands and eyes of the present time... our time. " Pasadoble reveals that everyone has a 'hill' that they constantly battle, his just happens to be the one where he lost brothers on in Vietnam.
I can't go much further into the story without giving away some of the great details that made up this book, but I can say I was blown away by this story. This is by far one of the best crime fiction books I have ever read; this is one of those crazy good books that you have never heard of that will change how you view things after you read it. Vea is one of the few authors that exist today that can make a story read like poetry. I highly recommend this novel to people who like crime fiction.
Mai and Persephone are as close as sisters, one was born in America, and the other was born in Vietnam; the two met because their husbands had fought in the Vietnam war, but had never returned, sealing an unbreakable bond between the two women. While the two spent most of their time cooking together, they decided to open up a luncheonette, and share their love of food with the city - - - until one night, when two young men showed up to smash their dreams by murdering both of them in cold blood. Little did the defense attorney for one of the young men, Jesse Pasadoble, know that these women would not only leave a scar on him, but they would also cause memories from a hill in Vietnam to haunt him all over again.
While Pasadoble is working the two women's murder case, he's also working another heart-wrenching case involving a white supremacist who has possibly molested and raped his own niece. Pasadoble tries his best to distance himself from the case, especially because he has to defend the man in question, but sometimes he lets his temper get the best of him. Pasadoble comes face-to-face with his client in an angry stare-off. After putting up with racial statements from the client, Pasadoble puts him in his place. The client may be a big man who can frighten most people, but Pasadoble pacifies him with his own anger, threatening to kick his ass in front of everyone that is in the jail setting the tone of what type of person Pasadoble can be for the reader.
The readers get flashbacks of Pasadoble's time in the Vietnam war, specifically one fight that happened on a hill near the Loatian border. These flashbacks happen suddenly throughout the book, but I personally believe that they are so important to understanding the world in which Vea has created in the novel because, near the end of the book, these flashbacks make everything come full circle. One of these flashbacks introduces an important character who is the Padre in Pasadoble's platoon - - - during such flashback, the Padre has devastating things happen around him that begin to make him question his faith in God.
Although the flashbacks happen here and there, the story easily continues on with Pasadoble's double homicide case getting more complicated by the page when the second of the two suspects is suddenly found dead on a hill that the locals call 'Tourette's Hill.' One such local that lived near the hill is one of the victims' mothers, Mrs. Harp, who is a very odd character: she's an aging beauty queen whose home is covered in photographs of only her, and none of her deceased son, and even while Pasadoble questions her about her son, she seems to get lost in a reverie of what her life was like before the son existed.
Pasadoble is the key character in this story; without him, connections would not have been made and characters would not have mattered. Pasadoble, a man who has a way with words, such as speaking with an ex-girlfriend about a 'hill' : "Carolina, think about the stratifications of an open hillside, a place where earth has given way and time itself is left exposed, layer upon layer - - - silica, clay, diatoms, and ash. Down here at this level is the time of the swelling sea; here, the time of the desert when hot, rising air would have haunted our eyes; here is a jagged karst, a time when the world shook an abrasion into its own skin; and here are the fossil dead, here you will find love and war in the same shamble of strewn bone. Here and there, where the world has shifted and cracked open, one era will touch another. And once upon the rarest time, human hands and eyes from the distant past can seek out and find... search for and contact... hands and eyes of the present time... our time. " Pasadoble reveals that everyone has a 'hill' that they constantly battle, his just happens to be the one where he lost brothers on in Vietnam.
I can't go much further into the story without giving away some of the great details that made up this book, but I can say I was blown away by this story. This is by far one of the best crime fiction books I have ever read; this is one of those crazy good books that you have never heard of that will change how you view things after you read it. Vea is one of the few authors that exist today that can make a story read like poetry. I highly recommend this novel to people who like crime fiction.
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated Heartlands (Detective Jessie Blake #1) in Books
May 22, 2019
Call it mothers intuition, but I knew she was dead the moment she was late home. As I listened to her phone ring and ring, thats when I knew for sure. My little girl was gone.
Fifteen-year-old Shannon Ross is missing and her parents are distraught. With her long blonde hair, easy laugh and perfect grades, shes the girl everyone at school wants to be.
Detective Jessie Blake is called to Inverlochty, the missing girls home town in the Scottish Highlands, and finds Shannon was keeping a diary full of friends and neighbors secrets. She knows the kind, outgoing boy whos sleeping with his teacher and the quiet woman whos been having an affair with her best friends husband.
Just as Jessie and her team are beginning to understand Shannons complicated world, her lifeless body is found on an ice-cold river bank on the outskirts of town. And when Jessie tells Shannons family the heart-breaking news, she senses something isnt right. The loving family is beginning to show cracks. Did Shannon know about her fathers alcohol problems and violent past? Why does Shannons mother keep finding excuses to leave the room, when Jessie wants to ask her questions?
As Jessie begins to piece together the final days of Shannons life, her own history comes back to haunt her. Putting aside her personal demons, Jessie vows to do whatever it takes to catch Shannons killer. But what if the killer is ready to strike first?
Totally captivating and addictive read. I loved this book! There are two storylines. One routed in the past about a brutally raped and murdered school girl and her young killers as they face trial and juvenile detention. One in the present, a missing school girl, Shannon, baring all the similarities of the case from the past - or so it seems.
There are a lot of characters introduced and it ca be a bit overwhelming but persevere as the novel is one worth reading.
The plot is very well written in my opinion and it does flow well. The main characters are well written and enjoy them.
Very compelling and suspenseful read.
I look forward to more in the series as it develops and hope to get more backstory on the detective.
Highly recommend!
My thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC.
Fifteen-year-old Shannon Ross is missing and her parents are distraught. With her long blonde hair, easy laugh and perfect grades, shes the girl everyone at school wants to be.
Detective Jessie Blake is called to Inverlochty, the missing girls home town in the Scottish Highlands, and finds Shannon was keeping a diary full of friends and neighbors secrets. She knows the kind, outgoing boy whos sleeping with his teacher and the quiet woman whos been having an affair with her best friends husband.
Just as Jessie and her team are beginning to understand Shannons complicated world, her lifeless body is found on an ice-cold river bank on the outskirts of town. And when Jessie tells Shannons family the heart-breaking news, she senses something isnt right. The loving family is beginning to show cracks. Did Shannon know about her fathers alcohol problems and violent past? Why does Shannons mother keep finding excuses to leave the room, when Jessie wants to ask her questions?
As Jessie begins to piece together the final days of Shannons life, her own history comes back to haunt her. Putting aside her personal demons, Jessie vows to do whatever it takes to catch Shannons killer. But what if the killer is ready to strike first?
Totally captivating and addictive read. I loved this book! There are two storylines. One routed in the past about a brutally raped and murdered school girl and her young killers as they face trial and juvenile detention. One in the present, a missing school girl, Shannon, baring all the similarities of the case from the past - or so it seems.
There are a lot of characters introduced and it ca be a bit overwhelming but persevere as the novel is one worth reading.
The plot is very well written in my opinion and it does flow well. The main characters are well written and enjoy them.
Very compelling and suspenseful read.
I look forward to more in the series as it develops and hope to get more backstory on the detective.
Highly recommend!
My thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC.
Merissa (13194 KP) rated The Cryptic Prophecy (Etherya's Earth #6) in Books
Apr 7, 2022 (Updated Jun 26, 2023)
THE CRYPTIC PROPHECY is the sixth book in the Etherya's Earth series, but the first one that follows the children of our favourite characters! This time, it's Callie -- the daughter of Arderin and Darkrip, who is also the starring character in an Elven Prophecy that alienates her from her peers, leaving her wide open for being used by others.
Although other characters are in here, the focus is on Callie and Brecken, plus their families. No worries though, because that also includes Callie's parents (in case you were having Darkrip withdrawals!). He's a bit of a one here when he goes in 'I'm your father and I know what's best for you' mode, but Arderin and Callie soon shake that notion from him. Those scenes were so much fun to read!
Brecken is the sole male in his family, his father having died years before. He adores his mum and will do anything for his sisters, including writing the most beautiful love letters to Callie, on behalf of someone else! I don't want to talk about 'the other man' though - he doesn't deserve the page space!! Brecken is well-deserving of his nickname Shakespeare and made my heart melt with every letter!
Tatiana plays a bigger role and finally picks a side, which opens up the way the following books will go. I did wonder where we'd be going next, but now, I'm fully on board and (once again) can't wait to read more.
Callie and Brecken are steaming-hot, whilst also being caring, loving, and romantic enough to make anyone's cold, dead heart beat again. I have absolutely adored this series but I think Callie and Brecken are my new favourites.
Oh, and that prophecy? It's fulfilled but not in the way you suspect, and that's ALL I'm going to say. If you want to know more - read the book!!! Just remember to start at book one though, so you get the full experience. Trust me, you won't regret it.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Apr 5, 2022
Although other characters are in here, the focus is on Callie and Brecken, plus their families. No worries though, because that also includes Callie's parents (in case you were having Darkrip withdrawals!). He's a bit of a one here when he goes in 'I'm your father and I know what's best for you' mode, but Arderin and Callie soon shake that notion from him. Those scenes were so much fun to read!
Brecken is the sole male in his family, his father having died years before. He adores his mum and will do anything for his sisters, including writing the most beautiful love letters to Callie, on behalf of someone else! I don't want to talk about 'the other man' though - he doesn't deserve the page space!! Brecken is well-deserving of his nickname Shakespeare and made my heart melt with every letter!
Tatiana plays a bigger role and finally picks a side, which opens up the way the following books will go. I did wonder where we'd be going next, but now, I'm fully on board and (once again) can't wait to read more.
Callie and Brecken are steaming-hot, whilst also being caring, loving, and romantic enough to make anyone's cold, dead heart beat again. I have absolutely adored this series but I think Callie and Brecken are my new favourites.
Oh, and that prophecy? It's fulfilled but not in the way you suspect, and that's ALL I'm going to say. If you want to know more - read the book!!! Just remember to start at book one though, so you get the full experience. Trust me, you won't regret it.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Apr 5, 2022
Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated In The Silence in Books
Jun 5, 2019
In The Silence has a blurb so enticing, I just had to read it, and author M. R. Mackenzie did not disappoint.
Anna Scovalini has finally come home; a place she avoided for several years only to find herself involved in a murder case, up close and personal. At first she doesn’t mean to get involved, but when she feels the police aren’t taking things seriously enough curiosity gets the better of her and once she has a poke around for answers she uncovers much more than she bargained for, and inadvertently puts herself into trouble, too.
Throughout this story I found myself intrigued by some of the serious issues discussed, from femicide, rape to gang mentality, and this was all played out by some great characterisation and an exciting plot, where the more I read the quicker the pace sped up until it reached the final reveal of who the killer actually was!
I found the unravelling of the secret surrounding the reason why people were getting killed really enjoyable. Mix this with those paragraphs where there’s a hooded figure tracking people down that literally sent shivers down my spine and made my blood run cold. Is that corny? Maybe. But true!
A word on the dialect. For an East Anglian, born and bred, I thought the Scottish dialect was actually quite fun to read. When I tried the words out loud I actually could do a very good impression of a Glaswegian! On one hand I always find this a little distracting as it does take you out of the story as you’re experimenting with how the words sound on your tongue, but on the other hand it was not full-on throughout the book, and I quickly got used to it.
Returning to characterisation, I loved how Anna (now a criminology lecturer living in Rome) and her best friend Zoe, (who like me has never left her home county) seem to have lives which are worlds apart, and when they get back together they’re instantly best pals again. But under the stress of the investigation even Anna has to think twice about Zoe.
What happened back in the past, that caused so many people in one town to have so many secrets? For me, uncovering the truth made this story for me. For a debut book, I’m exited to see what this author writes next!
An intriguing, fast read that had me guessing who the killer was throughout, with a satisfying, final conclusion.
Anna Scovalini has finally come home; a place she avoided for several years only to find herself involved in a murder case, up close and personal. At first she doesn’t mean to get involved, but when she feels the police aren’t taking things seriously enough curiosity gets the better of her and once she has a poke around for answers she uncovers much more than she bargained for, and inadvertently puts herself into trouble, too.
Throughout this story I found myself intrigued by some of the serious issues discussed, from femicide, rape to gang mentality, and this was all played out by some great characterisation and an exciting plot, where the more I read the quicker the pace sped up until it reached the final reveal of who the killer actually was!
I found the unravelling of the secret surrounding the reason why people were getting killed really enjoyable. Mix this with those paragraphs where there’s a hooded figure tracking people down that literally sent shivers down my spine and made my blood run cold. Is that corny? Maybe. But true!
A word on the dialect. For an East Anglian, born and bred, I thought the Scottish dialect was actually quite fun to read. When I tried the words out loud I actually could do a very good impression of a Glaswegian! On one hand I always find this a little distracting as it does take you out of the story as you’re experimenting with how the words sound on your tongue, but on the other hand it was not full-on throughout the book, and I quickly got used to it.
Returning to characterisation, I loved how Anna (now a criminology lecturer living in Rome) and her best friend Zoe, (who like me has never left her home county) seem to have lives which are worlds apart, and when they get back together they’re instantly best pals again. But under the stress of the investigation even Anna has to think twice about Zoe.
What happened back in the past, that caused so many people in one town to have so many secrets? For me, uncovering the truth made this story for me. For a debut book, I’m exited to see what this author writes next!
An intriguing, fast read that had me guessing who the killer was throughout, with a satisfying, final conclusion.
Darren (1599 KP) rated From Russia With Love (1964) in Movies
Nov 7, 2019
Characters – James Bond is forced into his next mission which includes seducing a spy that is wanting to turn on Russia, he shows us again just how skilled he is when it comes to dealing with life and death situations and his awareness of dangers around him. Tatiana Romanova is the Russian spy that has offered to give up information for safety to England, she might not be as true as James is told about, even though we know she is being forced into this mission. Rosa Klebb is the one that is recruiting the agents with Tatiana and Grant being her picks to help SPECTRE eliminate James Bond. Grant is the newest recruit assassin, hard as nails, resourceful and everything James will find difficult to beat in a fight.
Performances – Sean Connery has grown into this role being even better than the first film, he become the superstar name after this outing. Daniela Bianchi is good for a Bond girl, she is stronger than the first one and now we know what type of women will get in this role. Robert Shaw as the villain is great, he looks cold calculated through every single scene.
Story – The story here is a lot more interesting than the first film, we learn early on about the SPECTRE plan which shows us how we have a growing villainous threat for Bond to tackle. This helps make the franchise even more enjoyable because it isn’t just Bond solving a case, it is him trying to stay ahead while we know the twists coming. The story leaves us open to learn more about SPECTRE in future film which again is a pleasure for the audience to be seeing. How everything unfolds well we know Bond can solve the problems he is facing and we get to see the start of the infamous gadgets.
Action/Adventure – The action in the film is bigger, the fights last longer and the adventure that Bond must go on is showing us just how big the terrorist battle will be.
Settings – The film takes place for the most part in Turkey, which shows us another neutral country in the middle of the battle, the train sequences could be argued to be the most enjoyable though.
Scene of the Movie – The gadgets being introduced.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – James Bond attitude toward women.
Final Thoughts – This is a wonderful second instalment in the franchise, it gives us a bigger threat for long term villains in SPECTRE and does have big action throughout.
Overall: The sequel that makes things bigger.
Performances – Sean Connery has grown into this role being even better than the first film, he become the superstar name after this outing. Daniela Bianchi is good for a Bond girl, she is stronger than the first one and now we know what type of women will get in this role. Robert Shaw as the villain is great, he looks cold calculated through every single scene.
Story – The story here is a lot more interesting than the first film, we learn early on about the SPECTRE plan which shows us how we have a growing villainous threat for Bond to tackle. This helps make the franchise even more enjoyable because it isn’t just Bond solving a case, it is him trying to stay ahead while we know the twists coming. The story leaves us open to learn more about SPECTRE in future film which again is a pleasure for the audience to be seeing. How everything unfolds well we know Bond can solve the problems he is facing and we get to see the start of the infamous gadgets.
Action/Adventure – The action in the film is bigger, the fights last longer and the adventure that Bond must go on is showing us just how big the terrorist battle will be.
Settings – The film takes place for the most part in Turkey, which shows us another neutral country in the middle of the battle, the train sequences could be argued to be the most enjoyable though.
Scene of the Movie – The gadgets being introduced.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – James Bond attitude toward women.
Final Thoughts – This is a wonderful second instalment in the franchise, it gives us a bigger threat for long term villains in SPECTRE and does have big action throughout.
Overall: The sequel that makes things bigger.