Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (544)

Content

The Dog of the North

Elizabeth McKenzie

9.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Penny Rush has problems. Freshly divorced from her mobile knife-sharpener husband, she has returned...

Sam (74 KP) rated The Possession of Mr Cave in Books

Mar 27, 2019

The Possession of Mr Cave is the story of a father’s mental breakdown after the tragic loss of many people close to him. Terrence is mentally unwell through the whole novel and is fighting his dead son’s influence on his mind. It’s completely disturbing, surprising and scary.

I’ll start this off by saying that I know that this book wasn’t for me. As I said, the blurb didn’t sound like anything I would usually enjoy reading and I only bought the book because it was by Matt Haig. But just because the book wasn’t for me didn’t stop me from still giving it 3/5.

The Possession of Mr Cave is very Shakespearean which isn’t a surprise coming from Matt Haig, as he has written a few novels inspired by Shakespeare’s plays. This is written as if it is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, so if you do enjoy that sort of thing, the book will be perfect. To begin with, it reminded me a lot of Romeo and Juliet because the novel begins at the end with Terrence Cave explaining that he has killed his daughter, and the novel is a letter to her, retelling exactly how the events led to her death. I did quite like this format, because it meant the suspense rose throughout the whole novel and left me guessing as to why he would kill his own daughter right up until the end.

I’m not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, which is why I feel that this was just not the book for me. Like I said, this reads exactly like a Shakespearean Tragedy, which I think in a way is also why I struggled to get into it. The language seemed clunky and drawn out in places and made it a bit hard to read, as well as Terrence’s conversations with his own mind.

It’s disturbing, and that is exactly what pulled me in. Terrence takes his protectiveness over Bryony too far to the point where I was wondering where his relationship with her was going to lead. I found it upsetting that nobody around Terrence spoke to him about how he was too protective of his daughter, and also how despite everything, nobody took the time to see if Terrence was okay.

Kudos

David McK (3600 KP) rated Hounded in Books

Jan 28, 2019

Hounded

Kevin Hearne | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry

7.1

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

It's hard now-a-days to read urban fantasy without drawing comparisons with Jim Butchers superlative 'Dresden Files' series.

It's even harder when the story is told in the first person, and features a powerful magic-user who deals with all sorts of magical creatures.

That is most definitely the case with Kevin Hearne's 'Hounded' novel, the first in his Iron Druid series (and, I believe, also his first novel). However, unlike Harry Dresden, Atticus O'Sulivan is a centuries old Irish Druid and is already pretty powerful. Also, unlike Dresden, he does not deliberately draw attention to himself ('Wizard for hire'), nor does he have a relationship with the local PD.

Instead, Atticus is doing his best to live the quiet life, trying to stay away from the attention of a Celtic god who has hounded him for centuries and believes that Atticus has stolen a powerful magical sword from him (the sword is in Atticus possession, yes, but not stolen).

All in all, I found this to be a pleasant diversion while waiting for the next Dresden book, and will possibly read a few more to see if I 'grow into' the series any more.