Reviews and Comments

Another brilliant book by the great Hunter Shea, this is the sort of book that makes a person fall in love with the horror genre, I got the same feeling as when I first started reading Stephen King all those years ago. There is that perfectly balanced blend of shock, violence, gore, tension and fear that makes reading a horror book so much fun. When you pick up a book by Shea you are guaranteed one of two things, full on B movie monster fun or a tear jerker of a plot that will leave you an emotional wreck…Faithless is right in the latter box.

The story starts with a priest stuck in a storm and hearing his family being murdered over the phone whilst he sits there helplessly listening, you’ve never met this family but already Shea is pulling at your heart-strings and making you feel the priest’s pain. The book then heads to a secluded farm house and a good old fashioned haunting. There are a lot of elements to this story, the investigation into who committed the deed, so many plot twists there, and then there are the events at the house, the tension gradually builds as events get more and more violent, you have Felix’s past and him coming to terms with having to do the right thing…and then you have the big reveal at the end, the sort of thing you stand no chance of guessing. One of the reasons why I loved this book so much was how I would hazard a guess at what was going on and Shea would laugh in my face and say I was way off before showing me just how wrong I was…My theory about bruiser was a good’un but I wasn’t even close.

There are only a few characters in the book but what we get are fantastic, Father Raul and his battles with his faith over what he has lost were really well written and Felix brought such a strong presence to scenes where the main character was falling apart and then there is Bruiser, Man! Bruiser rocked!

This is one fine horror novel by a writer who should be a household name, if you haven’t read anything by this guy then get off your butt and check out this book now.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/10/25/faithless-by-hunter-shea/

Full disclosure, whilst I do have a toilet fetish I did not actually buy this book, it was a gift from the wife, I assuming it is either her announcing she knows about said fetish or she is planning on redoing the toilet…which is fine with me as long as it is one of the ones with a mountain view.

Things I have learnt from this book:

1: As with most things New Zealand do it right, the best looking bogs are there.
2: London has a hidden toilet, no it’s not the whole place!
3: Norway have great views but it isn’t stated whether their seats are heated or not.
4: In China there is a building with a fair few toilets in it.
5: This book is about toilets, but you don’t often see the toilet.
6: The best toilet in the book? UK wins, there is a TARDIS in Warmley, where ya can do ya business…whilst Dr Who looks on I expect.

And that’s about it, some inventive toilets out there and some with nice views, overall the book was pretty dull, I was expecting a few jokes but alas I seemed to have missed them.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/a-spotters-guide-to-toilets-by-lonely-planet/

This is one of those books where it is hard to do a review that does justice, there is no way I can put together enough coherent words to show you just how powerful this book is….but I’m gonna do it anyways. As a person who has led a safe and sheltered life it really does blow my mind how some people are able to take so many hits in life, be witness to so much trauma and still be standing on their own two feet at the end of it. Kerri was born to a Protestant parent and the other parent was a Catholic, in the time and place she was born this was not a safe combination. Humanity’s ability to be so cruel always amazes me, neighbours can so easily turn on each other with (to me) no logical reason. Growing up in and around Derry, Kerri was witness to a huge amount of violence and hatred and once there was peace in Ireland, the world managed to find new ways to traumatise her.

I think Kerri has been very brave in writing this book, being at a stable time of her life this must have brought up so much darkness and pain and to then put it out there in the world where any Tom, Dick and Harry (all 3 are well known trolls) can read it and then potentially deal with abuse over it’s content shows you just how strong this Lady is. I can’t say I’ve “enjoyed” this book, I was mesmerised by it, the honesty almost sweeps you away and you forget this is someone’s memoirs. The writing is poetic, at times it even feels like a chant, I know that sounds weird but when Kerri stops for a moment and directly addresses the reader, a chant is exactly how it felt to me. My favourite part was the bits about nature, when Kerri is at her darkest moment, when her grip on life is at it’s weakest nature steps in and pulls her back from the edge, it is only fleeting but enough for Kerri to know she has been seen, it’s only at these times you realise you’ve been holding your breath for the last 5 pages. It was great to see that she still has so much for the island even though she has faced so much there.

This is a book everybody needs to have a read of, maybe it will give you some hope, Kerri has faced so much and is still here. I loved the little dedication to M in the acknowledgments, some fine words there.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/10/05/thin-places-by-kerri-ni-dochartaigh/

Wow! What a debut this is, in my mind this story is an instant sci-fi classic, fantastic characters with compelling stories made me fall for this one in a very short number of pages. Sylv.ie is a robot, built to carry out any pleasure her husband (the person who first switches her on) demands…she is anatomically correct so it is pretty obvious what her main roll is gonna be. She lives in a room on the top floor and her world is what she can see out of the window and the time she spends with her Husband. She has a lot of time on her own with her thoughts and one day her Husband gives her a diary to write in, not a smart move as she starts to recognise patterns and that her trips to the hospital are not all that they seem…Sylv.ie starts to question her programming.

This is a sort of coming of age adventure for a robot in a future where the human woman has lost their place in the world, a world where robots have sentience but aren’t classed as alive and possibly it could be a world where even a sex robot could find love. The detail on the technology was brilliant, Sylv.ie being able to count the blades of grass or even seeing the gaps in a plane of glass was well written, you don’t get swamped down with technical details, you get just enough to say “coooooool”. The exploration of how men treat women and sex reveals some quite shocking facts, mostly about how much I could identify as being just like real life, emotionally we are not that far removed from this future, it does make things feel bleak and that we truly can be an awful species. Sylv.ie’s battles with her programming are heart wrenching, I was urging her on all the time and getting right angry at those who did her wrong…I possibly got a little too much involved with this book.

This reminded me of the Bicentennial Man and also The Handmaid’s tale, so if you are a fan of those then you’ll love this. The book really needs to be made into a series, just so all those out there who haven’t read it can see what they’re missing. I am looking forward to what Anderson produces next…this reader is hoping for a sequel.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/10/03/the-hierarchies-by-ros-anderson/

Oh dear this was a "did not finish" book for me, I have tried 3 times to read it, this time I made it half way before getting bored and giving up. It's a very bleak book, which I have no problem with, I think my problem is I was unable to connect with the characters and one thing kept bugging me, the detail, if you had gone through what McCourt did as a kid would you be able to remember every single little conversation? Even the times he chats with his mates you get the whole conversation, (a conversation that quit often leads nowhere and doesn't add to the flow of the book), surely that can't all be recalled? Too much embellishment for me.

I haven't seen the film, a lot of reviews on here have done the film before the book, maybe that might help you feel more towards the characters.

This might not be a 1 star book but this reader gets 1 star for his attempt.

The idea of 72 micro seasons really appeals to me, who doesn’t take a moment to notice when a season changes, there is always spotting the first blossom on a tree or noticing when that tree turns red, seemingly over night, imagine having 72 seasons…that is 72 times a year you can stop what you are doing and have a look to see what nature is up to (of course it does mean you get distracted from those YouTube videos 72 times in a year).

Like all of us in 2020 Lev was faced with a lockdown, not able to travel and see nature in all it’s glory he decides to explore the area around his house and taking inspiration from Japanese idea of 72 seasons he constructs his own versions. The seasons are 5 to 6 days each and Lev restricts each chapter/season to 5 or 6 pages…each, once he had that all sorted it was time for nature to step up and do it’s part. One of the things I love about Lev’s writing is his ability to make the reader see or hear things in a different way, after reading Into the Tangled Bank I was straight outside looking for bugs in the hedges, this time he tells us to sit down and listen so that’s what I did. 6pm in my back garden, Basingstoke, this is what I heard over 1minute:

Cars on the ring road

A drill echoing off the houses

My dog chewing his foot

A magpie shouting at me that the bird table was out of meal worms

A really cool guy on his motorbike on the ring road going very fast and loud

A mum shouting to her kid “Shut the F up or I’ll F*** give you a slap”

Aaaah the joys of living in a housing estate.

I could have walked further afield and heard some much better sounds but this is what I hear most of the time when out reading in my garden so I thought I’d share. I would love to be able to identify birds from sight or sound as well as Lev does, he puts himself down a lot but he is still very quick to identify, I can identify the bird by sight if it stays still long enough, my failing is identifying their song, blooming useless.

Lev’s writing is impeccable as always, he has a wicked sense of humour and this book is full of it, yes it is a nature book but it is so easy to read, instead of poetically describing a bird’s mating call that could bore many he tells us that the bird is gagging for it and that works for me, you can instantly picture the little bird singing for all its worth. Now you should be warned there are a few swear words in these pages and I think that is perfectly acceptable, you ever seen a blue tit sitting on a branch and singing whilst looking right at you? I have and I’m fairly certain it was being rather abusive towards me. There are loads of interesting info here too, I never knew about the dark side of woodpeckers and there are some crazy facts about butterflies.

This has been a joy to read, I’ve laughed loads and have been inspired yet again, if you’ve never read anything by this chap then you are missing out so get yourself a copy of all his books.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/light-rains-sometimes-fall-a-british-year-in-japans-72-ancient-seasons-by-lev-parikian/

Well this was stunning, I think some of the most talented writers are those that can produce a short story and take you on what feels like an epic journey and make you forget that it is only 20 or so pages long. Gatward manages to do this again and again. The stories in this collection all feel very different, she seems to be able to capture so many different voices and every story takes the reader in a new direction. She gives nothing away, you can tell something sinister is going on but have no idea until she is ready to share, the opening story “The Clinic” really shocked me, I thought I was getting a story about the fears of parenthood…not at all, it was far scarier than that.

Gatward toys with the readers emotions revealing your paranoia and fears, this is done so well in “Beltane” a normal celebration which leaves you constantly on edge trying to figure out what the sinister plot is and in “Oh Whistle And” (my favourite) she ramps up the pressure by replacing the characters names with letters so that you are never sure who is who and whom to trust. Another fantastic story was “My Brother Is Back” a man released by the US after being held in captivity for a number of years, it’s about him trying to find his family again but his time in prison and sudden release leaves him unsure of his place or even what day of the week it is. Finally another good ‘un was “Lammas” to me this felt like a story told in echoes, an old man remembering events from his past in small muddled glimpses, every now and then you get hit hard by a gentle line.

This is such a good debut collection, you can see why Galley Beggar Press produce so many award winners, it is their dedication to finding that perfect book.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/09/07/english-magic-by-uschi-gatward/

I got this as a father’s day present, a book of Dad Jokes, well I did the only sane thing a Dad could do….I made sure the family suffered as much as possible by reading out the worst, most cheesy jokes in the book. Things I’ve learnt from this book:

Dad’s seem to love a joke if somebody has something on their head, like a spade or a truck. The most numerous jokes feature this subject matter.
Half the jokes in this book would get you cancelled on twitter if you were to share them on there, maybe this is why I was given the book…I spend too much time on there?
I am a successful Dad because I knew a huge amount of these jokes.
You can confuse the hell out of anybody by telling them the following joke: Q: What’s The Difference between a duck? A: One of it’s legs is both the same.
I’m going to give this to my Dad next Father’s Day and create a sort of reverse inheritance.
Some of these jokes were pure stupidity and some were new to me and still make me chuckle when I think of them. Here is the worst one and the best one:

WORST: Doctor: You appear to have a steering wheel attached to your groin. Patient: I know, and it’s driving me nuts.

BEST: Q: What’s acoustic? A: It’s what a Scottish farmer uses to control his cattle.

The book may have been awful and made me cringe so much but I did have fun reading it and remembering jokes I’ve not heard since I was a kid. So thanks to my kids for getting me this.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/the-very-embarrassing-book-of-dad-jokes-because-your-dad-thinks-hes-hilarious-by-ian-allen/

Wow! What a stunning book this is, I had to have a little break before writing this review because I was totally blown away by this novel. Angstman likes to go beyond what a lot of authors will do, some will create characters that will break your heart….with Angstman it feels like she has reached into your chest to remove your heart and breaks it in front of you. I can’t remember the last time I got so stressed by what was happening to my favourite characters and also by what WASN’T happening to the one character I truly hated.

I am a huge fan of maps in books, I love using the map to follow the route taken in the story, another instance of Angstman going that extra mile is the map of the ship featured in the book, it was brilliant to be able to follow the characters around the ship. The characters were well developed and were easy to fall for too, Ruth, our main character, is a women way ahead of her time, likes to read, believes in science and always has an opinion (obvious witch hehe). Owen balances that line between sailor and pirate, he has a real swagger that makes you smile at times and he almost has the feel of being a bit of a Heathcliff….Then we have Samuel, has there ever been a bigger arse in literature? I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to punch a character so much.

The book is based in 1689 the war between the French and English is mostly in the background but is constantly influencing the characters and their lives. Angstman has captured the brutality of the time perfectly, it doesn’t matter who you are or what your beliefs are, there are a million ways to die and one of them is gonna get you eventually, it’s all down to how much punishment you can handle on the way. I have to admit the most violent scenes were the best, a storm on the ship left me breathless, it went on for so long and was incredible. There is a large battle that Ruth gets caught in the middle of and the chaos even has the reader spinning in circles with action going on on all sides. It all felt very life like.

I’m sure I’ve said this about other books this year but this one is definitely in the running for my book of the year, such an enjoyable read and Angstman is a very talented story teller. The research seems spot on too, I had to google a few things to get more information and it all was correct in the book. 100% this is a book you’ve gotta read…now all I’ve gotta do is wait for it to be made into a film.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/out-front-the-following-sea-by-leah-angstman/

A wonderful insight into how much commitment you need to be a wildlife cameraman, all day sat in a hot hide at the top of a slowly swaying tree, up at 3am to get into the hide by causing the least stress to the animal or sitting in a ditch with water in your boots whilst being butchered by midges. Glad I got the book instead…although the challenge of have a wee in a bottle at the top of a tree does hold a certain appeal, I just couldn’t stay still for that long. James was lucky enough to be able to continue working during the first lockdown of 2020 by filming a Goshawk Nest in the New Forest. This gave him a unique view of the effects of the lockdown on nature….and also on people.

The book is written in diary format, we start off with the start of lockdown and the fears that James has were shared by many of us. Right from the start of the book James notices that things are different, there is a new silence in the woods that the animals are quick to take advantage of. James gets help from this chap called Andy, he has worked in the forest for many years and has a huge amount of knowledge, the sort of guy I wish I knew, soon the ideal spot for the hide is picked and luckily that is where a pair of Goshawks decide to nest. As James is filming he shares a lot of info with the reader, a remarkable bird, almost the ultimate killer with a very high successful kill rate. In-between days filming the nest James also spends time filming a family of foxes, his descriptions really capture your imagination and you can almost see the fox cubs rolling around in the bracken having a scrap. His knowledge of wildlife doesn’t stop there, any creature he spots there was something new for this reader to learn, most interesting was the Cuckoo’s colouring.

The pandemic is always in the background of the book and James witnesses the utter chaos of the lockdown ending and the 1000’s of people heading out to dump on nature, I saw the photos on social media but it is really hard to see it written down as James sees the peace shattered and any good done to nature is quickly undone. He doesn’t let it get to him though, luckily the Goshawk nest isn’t upset and he continues to film the chicks as they develop their own little personalities.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, the wonderful writing makes it easy to read and so much knowledge has been shared, my daughter is going to read this next….the selling point was the peeing in a tree haha.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/goshawk-summer-a-new-forest-season-unlike-any-other-by-james-aldred/

As soon as I saw this book I knew I had to have a copy…I mean get a copy for my daughter and then impatiently wait for her to so very slowly read it. Eventually I got to have a read and it is a beautiful book, so much care has been taken to make this book look good, the layout of the photographs, the quality of the paper and even the font are all pleasing to the eye. As for the photographs themselves, I was left feeling jealous that Howard has this skill/luck for capturing so many stunning images whilst I have never seen an otter in the wild. The time he dedicates to capturing that one moment in an image is crazy, so many hours lying in wait in “Scottish summer conditions” is not something my body could handle. Howard shares these experiences with us via introductions to each chapter and you can sense the emotion in those words as he reminisces over getting that one photograph he has always wanted to get.

My favourite images in the collection were of the otters eating, happily munching into another creature as big as them, the moment of eating seems to be where they let their guard down a bit and Howard is able to get many great shots of them. He also shares the knowledge of this animal he has gained as he spent so much time tracking them down, he shares with us what signs to look out for and the best way to act around them so that you can get close enough to get that awesome photograph of your own. He also shares the importance of it not just being about the otter, where they live is usually in an area of incredible beauty so make sure you include that in your photograph…and to also look away from the lens for a moment to enjoy your surroundings.

This is one of those must have books, something that you can keep opening up and guarantee to have a smile on your face as you see what the otters are up to, it is also a book that your kids will love.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/07/27/the-secret-life-of-the-otter-by-andy-howard/

This was a fascinating insight into life in Egypt in the 1860’s just as things were becoming tense with the British Empire showing an interest in Egypt, there was one lady doing us proud. Lucie Duff Gordon was a remarkable woman suffering from tuberculosis for a number of years she has to move to a warmer climate for her health so she chooses Egypt. Instead of being like the usual English tourist and making huge demands of the locals and causing all sort of strife, she manages to become a member of the community. She surrounds herself with some wonderful people, the best being Omar who stayed loyal for the rest of her life, she starts to learn the language and whilst she wasn’t particularly wealthy she was still generous to those who needed her aid. Using her knowledge of medicine she was able to help many people and word soon spread and she was known about wherever she went.

I found her letters easy to read, finding out about local traditions and the various religions active around her was very interesting. I loved her sense of humour and her lack of fear when it came to describing what the government was doing to it’s people…far different to what was reported to the rest of the world. Again and again she shows her disdain for colonial England and high ranking officials who show no respect for those she cares about. She was living in a time with slavery and when a slave would come to her begging to be purchased from their owner she didn’t shy away and gave them a good life, clothing, wages and an education…it seems that everybody she met fell in love with her.

You know there is only one outcome and that is the tuberculosis winning the battle, it was so sad seeing her health deteriorating through her letters, they become shorter and less frequent and still she remained upbeat wanting to come home or organise visits. Her last letter though, that is the one to break your heart.

There is one thing this book has shown me and that is that letter writing is a dying art that has been destroyed by social media, who writes letters these days when you can get all you need to say down in 280 characters on Twitter.

Another book by the mighty Eland which was a pleasure to read and again I love that they are keeping books like this alive.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/07/23/letters-from-egypt-an-englishwoman-on-the-nile-1862-69-by-lucie-duff-gordon/

This book is like watching a car crash where you are in control of events, with each page you turn the more involved you become and the closer events are to reaching that ultimate impact. The book is disgusting, Michael is evil even though he is always trying to convince the reader he is the one being controlled, Michael shows the reader the utter contempt he has for the world and the people in it…all whilst trying to convince you to understand what he has gone through. Heather is a twisted young girl, whether she was like that before Michael or she was broken by Michael is hard to tell at first, but as events start to play out you get an idea of which one it is.

You can’t possibly read this book without comparing it to Lolita, personally I found that book dull and after reading this book I think I understand why. Lolita was written about an era before I was born and it was difficult to understand those characters, it all felt a bit meh! Heather is written during modern times about characters I understand and see all the time, having 2 daughters helps me understand the threat of somebody like Michael and that makes this book all the more horrifying.

McKay has written a story that is gross, the topic is plain nasty and yet it still pulls you in, there is just the right amount of intrigue at the beginning to have you wondering how this is going to play out, there is almost a glimmer of hope that maybe it will all be ok in the end. Fantastic characters and really well written with plenty of plot twists. I have hated and loved this book that I just couldn’t put down, would I recommend it to anybody? Hell no! Should you ignore that and give the book a go anyway? Hell yes!

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/07/10/heather-by-g-c-mckay/

When you think of the world today you always assume that we have discovered everything, each piece of land is owned and there aren’t any unknowns left for us to discover. What this book shows us is that those thoughts are wrong, whether it is a strip of land between buildings, floating pumice islands, no-mans land or an abandoned gun platform out in the sea, there are still many remarkable places for us to discover and explore.

I found the psychology of what a place means to us the most interesting part of this book, Bonnett would start talking about a type of place, strips of unused land between building in cities for example, I would instantly think you can’t include that in the list but each time he convinced me that it deserved to be included. Once you start using you imagination these sorts of places really come alive with potential, imagine what you could witness happening around you whilst the world moves on….hmmm starting to sound like a peeping tom now. My favourite weird place in the book was a sandy island that had always been included on maps but when somebody went looking for it there was nothing there, google maps did the only logical thing and did an awful photoshop jobbie of removing the island from existence, look it up, hilarious.

There was only one location included that I had heard of before, Sealand, an incredible story of a breakaway English nation living on an abandoned platform at see, the self proclaimed king stood his ground against English law and foreign invaders. Each time I read of Sealand in a book I always end going off on a google adventure reading up on the tiny nation.

I have to admit that I found this book rather frustrating, it is jammed packed with so many interesting and strange places but Bonnett seems to get bored quickly and rushes onto the next location, I would have loved some photos, or interviews of the locals, or just more info about the place to answer all the many questions I had, for a while I did spend time on google but gave up as I was spending more time looking at the screen and not at the book.

I did enjoy the book but it would have been far better with less places included and more time spent on those that did make the cut.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/07/03/off-the-map-by-alastair-bonnett/