This Brutal House
6.0
Rate It
Book
On the steps of New York City Hall, five ageing Mothers sit in silent protest. They are the...
Literary fiction Historical fiction
How Beautiful We Were
10.0
Rate It
Book
Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, How Beautiful We Were tells the story of a people...
Africa Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Cameroon
Shrines of Gaiety
10.0
Rate It
Book
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a...
Historical fiction Literary fiction London
River Sing Me Home
9.0
Rate It
Book
We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Family Colonialism Slavery Caribbean
I Know Her Name: a poetry book from the pages of You Won't Know Her Name
10.0
Rate It
Book
In the sixth grade, a girl’s life was turned upside down by a series of horrific bullying events. ...
poems poetry poetry collection bullying teen teens
Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Witchfinder's Sister in Books
Mar 15, 2018
<i>The Witchfinder’s Sister</i> is based on true life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins that grew to fame during the English Civil War around East Anglia, hunting and killing “witches”. This book isn’t non-fiction, it’s fiction based around non-fiction! I love these sorts of books that create their own stories from something that was very much real. Not only does it make for good reading, they also bring in some true history facts, so you’re being educated on the subject as you read.
High praise goes to Underdown for this novel. I feel like historical fiction can be hard genre to get right, and considering this is a <i>debut</i> novel, I’m amazed at how well put together and beautiful this has turned out to be! I love reading historical fiction, every once in awhile, and this is the sort of book that keeps my love for the genre burning.
The writing in this novel was haunting and beautiful. Nine times out of ten, it was exactly as you would have imagined the 17th Century to be, but I felt there were a few slips that made the book feel modern. For example, would a lady in 1645 say the phrase <i><b>“shitting herself”</b></i>? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that feels like a reasonably modern phrase to me.
I loved our main character, Alice. Me and my mum were talking about historical fiction novels and how we find it hard to understand why women make the decisions they make in these books, because we’re so used to having some equality and independence. But I noted that in this book, even though Alice is inferior to her brother and his counterparts, she is still a risk taker; going against her brother's wishes & sneaking around. I liked that she was strong and a little rebellious, it was so much easier to connect with her because of this.
On the other hand. I <i>hated</i> Matthew. He was a despicable character. I can rarely hate a character in a book, even if I’m supposed to. I tend to find the good in them at some point, or have some sort of sympathy for them, but I absolutely despised Matthew. Well done to Underdown for creating such a hate-inducing character. It’s quite a hard feat, but she managed it perfectly. The same goes for Mary Phillips.
The tension was built so well in this novel, you could feel the mystery growing and growing with every page and I loved it! Though the story moved reasonably slowly, the book was still absolutely riveting and I found it extremely hard to put down when I knew it was time to get some rest.
I am so, so excited to read more from Underdown. This was an amazingly well put together and researched.
<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>
Jenn (4 KP) rated American Gods in Books
Jul 9, 2017
Chris Hooker (419 KP) rated Survivors in Books
May 20, 2018
Andy K (10827 KP) rated Forbidden Planet (1956) in Movies
Feb 19, 2019
The art direction, look, feel and musical score of the film are amazing even by today's standards. Ok some of the special effects have not aged well, but it doesn't take away from the foreboding and interesting adventure.
Watch a brown-haired Leslie Nielsen do battle with the Krell alongside Robby the Robot.
