Ross (3284 KP) rated Priest of Lies in Books
Jun 26, 2019
Priest of Bones was one of my favourite books of last year. I loved the narrative style, the dark tone and the simple yet thrilling storyline. The returning conscripts using their newly learned military tactics to take back their streets and run their gangland empires was a clever, honest and hard-hitting story. It really was "peaky blinders with swords".
The follow-up continues in that vein, the Pious Men gang have consolidated their hold in Ellinburg and are now at full-on gang war. However, as they returned from war, so does a large number of other former gangsters, and a number of new/revived gangs compete for territory.
The fantasy tone is still used here, despite being the mystical, noble pursuit we are used to. I seriously love Mclean's narrative voice, his action scenes and his overall pace of writing.
I was thrilled to see in the Q&A at the end of the book that I was right in thinking Ellinburg was based loosely on Edinburgh.
The feel of this book is very much a grim and nasty version of Terry Pratchett's Guards series, with characterisation and scene setting to rival Pratchett at his best.
A truly immersive compelling read that I loved from start to finish.
Hand and Foot Card Game
Games
App
You can now play the challenging card game Hand and Foot on your mobile device! Hand and Foot is...
From a Distance
6.0
Rate It
Book
April, 1946. Michael, a soldier, returns to Southampton on a troop ship. Brutalised and in shock, he...
fiction raffaella barker
Ari Augustine (10 KP) rated The Deep in Books
May 4, 2020
Annie Hebley is a nurse who survived the sinking of Titanic and has since confined herself to an mental institution. However, at the start of The Deep, she is hired to work on the Britannica to help the wounded WW1 soldiers. What I love about this story is how well it blends actual history in between these moments of atmospheric supernatural events. We meet characters who were once very much alive on a ship that actually existed. There's something eerie about tethering such a story in a historical way that connects to the reader, and this element of the story certainly spoke to me. But what I loved MOST was how unreliable Annie was as a character. Her point of view jumped between 1912 and 1916, blurring the lines of reality even further. Although the pacing wasn't always consistent, I love, love, LOVED Katsu's writing.
Overall, I'd recommend The Deep to anyone with a dash of patience, a dangerous curiosity for the supernatural, and, well, anyone who lives creepy stories rooted in history.
The book crosses time periods and perspectives, as we hear from folks in South Georgia, Cambridge, and elsewhere. I guessed one big piece before one of the characters--whether this was intentional or not, I'm not sure. (I felt superior to the doctor, but who knows, ha.) I can tell you that I read this book in three frantic chunks, desperately wanting to know the deal with Felicity and Freddie. It's a little crazy, a little out-there, and a bit extreme, but it certainly keeps you flipping the pages, I will grant Bolton that. I'm not sure if it's a book you really enjoy, per se, but it's one you consume (or does it consume you?), sucking in the story and the wild characters until there is nothing left. 4 stars.
A big thanks to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and Netgalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review, as I really love Sharon Bolton and her writing! This book releases in the U.S. on 4/28/2020.
The Chalk Artist: A Novel
Book
A tender affair and the redemptive power of art are at the core of this compelling novel from...
Fiction
The Cairo Trilogy
Book
Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent epic trilogy of colonial Egypt appears here in one volume for the...
Pattern Recognition
Book
Pattern Recognition - a pulsating techno-thriller by William Gibson, bestselling author of...