Run, Run, Baby
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Only I can hear your screams and decide your fate... As the chatty classroom of kindergarten...
horror
Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories
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More than seventy years after his death, Babe Ruth continues to fascinate generations of fans. His...
Sports History Biography
Hazel (1853 KP) rated Saint Death in Books
Dec 17, 2018
What must life be like living in a poor neighbourhood? Every night your sleep is disturbed by gunshots, the people you know slowly disappear each time a gang raids the town, you live in fear for your own life. This is the concept international award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick explores in his latest Young Adult novel. Set in Anapra, one of the poorest communities in Mexico, Sedgwick delivers a story of poverty, gang crime and greed.
A young man – presumably still in his teens – named Arturo is living in a falling down shack, surviving on the small amount he earns at the local garage. Having kept to himself for the past year in order to remain safe, he experiences mixed emotions when his long lost friend turns up on his door stop – if you can call it that – and asks him to win $1000 by gambling at cards to appease a brutal gang leader.
What follows is an intense game against dangerous criminals with only prayers to Santa Muerte – Saint Death – to help Arturo get by. However, in the same way that the gang leaders are obsessed with wealth, Arturo begins to be overcome with greed, putting both himself and his friend in mortal danger.
<i>Saint Death</i> is not a book to be <i>liked</i>, after all, who would be fond of death, pain and violence? Instead it is a story that introduces an alternative culture to the readers – presuming that most will be from the more typical western world. Sedgwick throws us right into the slums of Mexico where religion, superstition, law and safety have an entirely different meaning. We learn that life in these areas is mostly a war between power and poverty, with the wealthy naturally championing over the rest.
Unfortunately <i>Saint Death</i> is a difficult book to read. For a start, it is a little bit boring. Whilst the events may be realistic there is no thrill or enjoyment garnered from reading about them. Understandably, Sedgwick is trying to bring a sense of culture into his work, however there is barely anything that a Young Adult reader can relate to. We are never told Arturo’s age and only assume he his in his teens, however he acts like a much older adult. It is difficult to imagine and comprehend the poverty, gangs and violence when we have not been witness to it ourselves. Whilst attempting to shock, Sedgwick lacks on description making it a challenge to picture the scene in our heads.
Prior to this book, I had only read Sedgwick’s <i>My Sword Hand is Singing</i> (2006), therefore I was unsure what to expect with his latest novel. It was my understanding that he tends to write horror or paranormal novels, whereas <i>Saint Death</i> was a complete change of genre. Of course authors experiment with their writing style all the time; some are successful, others less so. In this instance I personally think Sedgwick fell short of his goal, trying too hard to copy other writers that had influenced him to make this conversion. Whether Sedgwick decides to continue along this theme or revert back to what he has already been successful with remains to be seen, but I am hoping for the latter.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Book of Phoenix ( Who Fears Death book0) in Books
May 23, 2022
Book
The Book of Phoenix ( Who Fears Death book 0)
By Nnedi Okorafor
⭐️⭐️
A fiery spirit dances from the pages of the Great Book. She brings the aroma of scorched sand and ozone. She has a story to tell....
The Book of Phoenix is a unique work of magical futurism. A prequel to the highly acclaimed, World Fantasy Award-winning novel, Who Fears Death, it features the rise of another of Nnedi Okorafor’s powerful, memorable, superhuman women.
Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York’s Tower 7. She is an “accelerated woman”—only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix’s abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.
Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7’s refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape.
But Phoenix’s escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity’s future.
I don’t want to completely trash a book so I’ll just leave it at this! It just wasn’t for me I found it a struggle and quite boring!
Corpse Thief (Joshua Hawke #1)
Book
PART ONE of the searing new thriller featuring Joshua Hawke; Criminal, Informant, Body Snatcher,...
ALilLacey (2 KP) rated The Five People You Meet in Heaven in Books
Mar 4, 2019
"There are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more seperate one life from another than you can seperate a breeze from the wind" Page 48
"Ruby stepped toward him. "Edward," she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by name. "Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from the inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves." Page 141
Dianne Robbins (1738 KP) created a post
May 26, 2019
James Koppert (2698 KP) rated The Other Half of Augusta Hope in Books
Oct 25, 2019 (Updated Oct 25, 2019)
Through Grown-up Eyes: Living with Childhood Fame
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Bobby Henrey was eight when he was improbably chosen by film director Carol Reed and producer Sir...
Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew
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Hailed as a gay icon and pioneer of individualism, Oscar Wilde's insistence that 'there should be no...