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Secret Silver Songs
Secret Silver Songs
Jordan Elizabeth Mierek | 2020 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Once again, the versatile Jordan Elizabeth returns to the fantasy/paranormal genre with a unique novel, Secret Silver Songs. With vampire-like men and demon-like creatures, the story takes the reader on a journey from an idyllic island to ruined cities, death and destruction.

Protagonist, Jemilla, is the daughter of the city's Singer - a man who can protect the city through the power of song. Life on the island is calm and peaceful; there is no crime, there is no danger, there is no fighting; so, no one was prepared for an invasion of blood-drinking Thistly. When her father is killed along with the majority of the population, there is no one left to save the island. Only men could become Singers, or so they claimed, but Jemilla is hiding a secret - she can Sing too.

At the beginning of the novel, Jemilla comes across as an anxious teenager, having been plagued by an overactive imagination for most of her life. Yet, as the story goes on, her frightening thoughts appear to be not as imaginary as she originally believed. A silver woman that no one but Jamilla can see taunts her daily and seems to want Jemilla to fail in her quest to save the island from the Thistly. Mid-story, however, alliances appear to change and Jemilla must figure out which team the silver woman is playing for and discover the truth about her home island.

From the very first chapter, Jordan Elizabeth captures the reader's attention with fast-paced action that never stills until the Epilogue. Taking aspects of history, such as rules for women written by men, the author subliminally advocates for women's rights. Secret Silver Songs demonstrates that enemies can be beaten but also that your true enemy may not be who you expect. Above all, never underestimate the power of song.
  
Secrets of a Serial Killer
Secrets of a Serial Killer
Rosie Walker | 2020 | Crime, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the chilling, creepy and unnerving story of a serial killer, his victim, her mother and 2 young children out for a bit of an adventure amongst the ruins of an old mental hospital in the north west UK city of Lancaster.

Told from multiple points of view, this is a pretty fast moving book, once the usual introductions to the various characters has been completed, and what a great cast of characters the author has created here. The author is also clearly adept at describing the eerie setting and at creating atmosphere ... I was transported to the old hospital, the derelict caravan and the woods surrounding them. The tension and fear in each of the characters is really well told and builds and builds throughout until the gripping and nail-biting conclusion.

Although I enjoyed this book, I do have a few issues that prevent this from being a 5 star read - there was next to nothing regarding the Police input or investigation and they came across as being inept and pretty useless, particularly at the end but I won't go into it here as it would be a spoiler but you will see what I mean when you read it. Also, the blog posts inserted at various points didn't really do anything for me or add to the story that much and I wonder if they were put there as a red-herring?

Despite the niggling issues, this is a creditable and decent debut and even though there are a few unanswered questions, in addition to the cliff-hanger, they are either left to the imagination of the reader or are going to be resolved in another instalment? If so, I would definitely read it.

My thanks go to HarperCollinsUK and One More Chapter via NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an unbiased and unedited review.
  
Talking To A Dead Queen by Leif Elggren
Talking To A Dead Queen by Leif Elggren
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"He's a Swedish multi-disciplinary artist. I chose that to represent all of my friends, composers and people that I know who make extraordinary experimental work. On one hand it is a drone, and it's a really fantastic drone. It's a copper pipe on a pillar driven by it's own amplification - it's a fantastic sound. The other part is a reading of an autopsy of a Dutch queen when she dies. It's an old autopsy so it's got this great formality: it talks about the 'colouration' of the skin. The poetry is in the age of the language. It's something that's absolutely fascinating but it also has no relevance, all it is is about it. It's a composition, it's a piece of imagination. One could mention 'The Gift' by The Velvet Underground. I remember the first time hearing that and it was split in stereo and thinking: 'God that's extraordinary'. Why do I not always sing my own lyrics? It seems to fit better to me. It's the proof that sometimes it's a good idea not to think about things too carefully. The way things roll is sometimes good. It's a funny thing to Wire, it's not what we thought about, it was a practical solution to a time when we were in need of writing material. I never learned to play the guitar, and it turned out to be an incredible device, this distancing, which threw it into interesting spaces. It gives it a theatrical quality that's not drama theatrical, but theatrical in the same way as you'd have with someone like Pinter, where you'd have very normal speech but because of the context that you put things into, suddenly you have something that's quite peculiar."

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Graham Massey recommended Innervisions by Stevie Wonder in Music (curated)

 
Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
1973 | Rock
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I'd already bought the single, 'He's Misstra Know It All' and played that to death. I bought this album on the day that it came out in Woolworth's, when I was on holiday in Eastbourne. And then I had to wait a week to listen to it. I spent that time reading the back cover about Moogs, ARPs and other synth sounds and I didn't even know what those words meant! My imagination was quite engaged because he seemed to have played all of the instruments and that was unusual back then. But I've always liked records that have that much of a one-man stamp on them. The sound of Innervisions was different from what was around at that point. There wasn't anything that sounded as colourful as this album. These new synthesizers sounded sensuous and they were moving in a very animalistic way while being chest-resonators with humanistic kind of sounds. It was fascinating when I was first getting into music. It was a more sophisticated kind of pop music compared to what was going on at that point. All these complicated chords that Stevie Wonder was using were very intriguing to me. The sonics on this album really hit me and some tracks are more fruity than others. Then you had tracks like 'Visions', which are more jazzy and quite guitar-orientated. They gave me feelings that I didn't understand as a teenager, and even after over 40 years, Innervisions keeps on giving. I keep going back to it because it's got so many emotional layers: there's anger there, there's tenderness and there's a lot of commitment to the music. Stevie Wonder seemed more real and that was something you could align yourself with."

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The Last Thing To Burn
The Last Thing To Burn
Will Dean | 2021 | Crime, Thriller
9
9.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow ... that was one heck of a powerful read and one where the characters will stay with me for some time.

Jane - named so by her "husband" Lennie - was trafficked from her native Vietnam with her younger sister, she is kept captive on an isolated farm in what can only be described as squalid and run down conditions. She is watched every minute of every day, she is not allowed to speak to anyone, she is not allowed to go anywhere - her day is regimented from start to finish and for each perceived transgression, the treasured possessions she has are slowly burned in front of her eyes.

This is a harrowing story of a desperate life of servitude and abuse; the scary thing is that it is happening to thousands of men, women and children the world over which makes it even more upsetting. However, it is also a story of hope and the desperate will and strength to survive and fight back when things appear to be hopeless.

The whole book is written from "Jane's" perspective and she is an enthralling narrator. The setting is just perfect and described scarily accurately - my job takes me into isolated farmhouses that are pretty bleak and dilapidated and this made the story even more real for me.

This is not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination but despite that, I found it very hard to put down. I was drawn into the story hook, line and sinker; it grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until the very last page ... it lingers still in the back of my mind and there are very few books that do this.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an unbiased and unedited review.