Read Women 2014 -'The Keeper' for Women In Horror Month

Well hello there lovely readers!

'Tis time for another book review, and also for me to introduce you to yet another hashtag campaign! 

So at some point in my general internet use, I stumbled upon Women in Horror month (#WIHM), which just so happens to be this current month of February. Since I am addicted to going against the grain, and since February is generally considered the month of love, I straight away decided to get involved in this, and after a little research I found and bought The Keeper by Sarah Langan. 

Now, I'm not going to lie, this has been a very difficult book to review. I can't quite even answer the question of whether I liked it or not. About half the book was interesting and believable, and the other half was a little, well, WTF. At first I thought the WTF-ness was because of me: firstly I'm a little bit of a book-snob, and I don't really get much from reading your average Good Housekeeping recommendation [not that GH recommended this. I wish they were so open minded]. I'm also not normally much of a pure horror reader, so I thought maybe that had something to do with why I just wasn't so sure about it.

However, I will say that certain elements of the book struck a chord. The Keeper tells the tale of Susan and Liz Marley, two sisters living in the declining town of Bedford, USA. The town was once busy and prosperous due to the jobs created by its paper mill, but after this is closed down the town becomes an unpopulated wreck. This resonated with me because the small town I grew up in is facing a similar prospect. When the Dounreay nuclear power plant was built in Caithness in the 1950s, the population of the area sky rocketed to around 3 times what it had been previously. In recent years Dounreay have announced the decommissioning of the site, and the county looks set to lose on of its biggest employers. Some locals have begun to take action to grow other local industries before the site is closed down completely, but if these are not successful, it is entirely possible that my wee hometown will become another Bedford. Witnessing the immediate aftermath of the closure of such a site was intriguing, and I can totally believe that mutant dead people might also torment the town of Thurso, avenging the wrongs done to them and punishing the town for its inaction in the face of environmental and economic destruction.

In this sense, The Keeper is very clever. It looks at current environmental and financial issues in a fresh and approachable way, and ties it in wonderfully with the main horrific action of the story. However, something in Langan's writing style is not so 'tied in.' At times, her direct, matter-of-fact narrative voice diminishes the atmosphere of the novel, and sucks the reader back to reality, which lessens the fun of it all. If this had happened once or even twice it could be overlooked, but unfortunately The Keeper repeatedly breaks its own illusion and leaves the reader a little, well, WTF'd.

However, that said, I made it all the way to the end of the book without too much trouble. It is also worth noting that The Keeper is Langan's debut novel, and it's follow up, The Messenger, won Langan the Bram Stoker Award, which she has won a total of 3 times. All in all, I think if you're into horror stories you could do far worse than this one, however it did not blow my socks off.

Don't forget to follow me on goodreads as I take part in Read Women 2014, and leave your comments below if you have them because I <3 comments!

Love to everyone!
Naomi

Read Women 2014 - Her Fearful Symmetry

Well hello there lovely readers!

As promised, I am back with an update on my activities for #readwomen2014, and I've reviewed Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger for your brain pleasure. I've challenged myself to keep these book reviews to 500 words, otherwise I will write whole essays, so read below for my thoughts on the novel, and please feel free to 'friend' me on Goodreads if you would like to see or discuss my reads! 

The first book I’ve chosen to review for #readwomen2014 is Audrey Niffenegger’s 2009 Her Fearful Symmetry.  It tells the story of Julia and Valentina, two young twins who are spookily alike, who insist on dressing the same, and have the disturbing habit of holding hands a lot. Though brought up in Chicago, the twins inherit an ornate London flat from their aunt, Elspeth, who dies after battling with cancer at the opening of the novel, and who is also the estranged twin of their mother, Edie. The twins begin to inhabit the life of their aunt, occupying her flat, her clothes, and her belongings, and even begin to befriend her former lover and neighbour, Robert. 

Niffenegger’s in-depth characterisation of each player is pure mastery, and the first half of the novel is intensely compelling. The book is seductive from the beginning – the sexual tension between each couple, or potential couple, is just enough to be satisfyingly erotic without being tacky, and the mystery of what drove twins Elspeth and Edie apart quickly grips the reader. 

However, the introduction of the novel’s main ‘twist,’ Elpeth’s ghostly rescue of Valentina from the oppressive relationship with her sister, is woefully unsubstantiated. The pair, the ghost of Elpeth and her neice Valentina, plot to temporarily remove the young twins’ soul, to convince the outside world she is dead and allow her to escape and start life afresh. This strange, Frankenstein-esque plan is agreed to by Robert and Elspeth, who fear that Valentina will commit suicide if they refuse, a character trait which, as one contemporary reviewer pointed out, is “an impulse that is absent from Niffenegger’s characterisation up to this point.”(1)  

The dramatis personae themselves point out the obvious, human solution to Valentina’s problems (simply moving out the house they share), and this suggestion is never satisfyingly refuted. Thus, the strong sense that this scheme is futile makes the consequent supernatural action seem all too unrealistic – the preservation of Valentina’s lifeless body, its exhumation, the re-introduction of the soul, the ghost that’s left behind - they all seem unlikely. What began as a beautifully compelling examination of love, obsession, and human behaviour, remains so - but with the unfortunate caveat that this richly accomplished characterisation comes at the expense of the most basic plot line.

Additionally, for a novel so filled with vital, powerful female presences, Her Fearful Symmetry still falls into the old trap of women who must not take up space in the world. While Elspeth’s voice, thoughts, opinions and belongings permeate the novel and haunt all those who remain behind, she herself is ethereal, insubstantial, mostly invisible. The younger twins are similarly waif-like. Short, painfully thin, virginal, and incontrovertibly associated with the colour white – they are defined by their lack rather than their presence, they are blank, and they are, to a great extent, also uninteresting. 

All in all the novel has a lot to offer, not least in its breath-taking imagery and visualisation. However, the plot line itself is problematic, and Niffenegger has missed a trick with her female characters.

(1)   The Telegraph – Lorna Bradbury, 19^th October 2009

#readwomen2014

Well hello there lovely readers!

This year I have decided to get involved in another online hashtag campaign, this time #readwomen2014

The idea is to encourage people to look beyond the pink flowery covers that are often given to books by female authors (against their wishes), to find some truly inspiring and high quality reads by lady writers. The idea is not necessarily to read only books by women, but to make the effort to discover more about women's writing. You can read these articles here and here for further explanation/argument on the topic, but for my part I will be searching my 'to-read' lists for women writers and concentrating on reading these books over the next 12 months.

If you want to connect with me on goodreads to see and/or discuss what I'm reading, you are most welcome to. I'll also be attempting to post 'short' reviews of some of the books I discover - although my posts often start of short and then magically grow longer. I don't know how it happens. Hence the 'flibbertigibbet' part of my URL.

So anyway, that is it for today. I've made some read/reading/to read lists below to give you some ideas, if you have any book suggestions leave them below!

Over and out,
Love love love
Naomi

#readwomen2014 February update

Read
Jojo Moyes - The Girl You Left Behind

Reading
Audrey Niffenegger - Her Fearful Symmetry

To Read
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Dorris Lessing - The Grass Is Singing

#100happydays

Well hello there lovely readers!

I've been doing this 100 Happy Days thing on my Facebook, where the idea is to post a picture each day of something that has made you happy. I'm on day 21 now and I've just about been managing so far, so I made a little collage of the best images up until now, to share with you all. Enjoy!