Y: The Last Man Vol. 1- Brian Vaughan

"Y" is none other than unemployed escape artist Yorick Brown (his father was a Shakespeare buff), and he's seemingly the only male human left alive after a mysterious plague kills all Y-chromosome carriers on earth. But why are he and his faithful companion, the often testy male monkey Ampersand, still alive? He sets out to find the answer (and his girlfriend), while running from angry female Republicans (now running the government), Amazon wannabes that include his own sister (seemingly brainwashed), and other threats. The Vertigo team of Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan Jr. have given us a great read!

Hey- I really disliked this! My husband recommended it to me when we were in the library looking at graphic novels. He handed it to me and said 'here, try this' like he was some kind of comics wizard. So I did. But I shouldn't have because it's totally stupid. 

I mean, just read that synopsis. Trust me- it is as bad as it sounds. All the men die and the women go crazy! Women are worse than men! Republicans and radical feminists! Hairy legs everywhere noooooooo. 

The other kind of women that exist are supermodels. Supermodels who wear crop tops to collect infected corpses off the street. 

Practical

This could have been so good- it is a brilliant premise. Such a shame to see it done in such a dull way. The female characters have no personalities (apart from sexy and angry), it's massively sexist from start to finish and the protagonist is a fool. 

The monkey was the best thing in it and the monkey was a total creep. 1. 

Through the Woods- Emily Carroll

'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.'

Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss.

These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll.

Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there...



There isn't much for me to say about Through the Woods except that you should go and buy it/borrow it from the library straight away. It is incredibly good. And incredibly scary. 

So, there are five stories. They are classic fairytales. The Nesting Place and Our Neighbour's House were my favourites. The stories are familiar, ambiguous (some more than others) and bone chilling. I scare very easily (I'm scared right now because I just wrote that I get scared easily and it reminded be of the times I've been scared and it's scary to remember that) but other people found it terrifying too so it definitely is. It's a really scary book. Watch out! Don't read after dark! Don't read in a haunted house at Halloween!  

The artwork is just gorgeous, reminiscent of Edward Gorey. God, I loved this collection so much I can't write about it coherently. 5 stars

We Were Liars- E. Lockhart

We are liars
We are beautiful, privileged 
We are cracked and broken
A tale of love and romance
A tale of tragedy.
Which are lies?
Which is truth?
You decide

Goes the blurb. I bought this book based on the great reviews I'd seen. Hmm. 

There's lots of good in this book but I didn't love it. It's a great set up. Old money families are fascinating and we all love a novel set on a private island. Lockhart does mystery really well and it reads like a thriller in parts. It reminded me of The Famous Five books (I was obsessed with them as a child) but The Famous Five grown up and gone wrong. 

There is a big twist at the end of the book. I won't spoil it but I have to say I felt a bit cheated by it. 
I probably would have liked this book a lot more when I was fourteen because it would have been more relevant to my interests which were:

• Boys
• Dogs
• Dying my hair black
• Fudge 

All of which feature heavily in We Were Liars. These are obviously still my major interests but I've read a lot more books now. So, while fourteen-year-old me would have given it a 5, twenty-six-year-old me is giving it a 2. 

The Goldfinch- Donna Tartt

I read Donna Tartt's first novel The Secret History when I was fourteen or fifteen. It was among the first 'grown up' books I read and I adored it. Sure, I didn't always understand exactly what was going on, especially the Ancient Greek stuff. But it was great- a cast of mysterious characters, a gripping story and such elegant prose. I didn't know books could be beautiful.

Now I'm twenty-six, reading The Goldfinch, transported back to that astonishment I felt as a teen. Tartt is a master. The first 150 pages of The Goldfinch are some of the best pages I've ever read. Funny, horrifying, tragic, relentless. I don't understand her magic, how she forms such perfect sentences.

I suppose you can't keep that up for 860 pages. Before I read The Goldfinch I'd heard that the first half was amazing and the second half wasn't. It's true. The book starts as something like a literary fairytale and shapeshifts into a crime thriller. It was a bit of a letdown for me seeing as I loved the first half so intensely.

Here's the blurb:

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and an absent father, miraculously survives a catastrophe that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Theo is tormented by longing for his mother and down the years he clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld.

Theo is a great character. The character could easily be a perfect, tragic child but we see that he is flawed right from the start- lazy and fairly badly behaved. So often child characters are idealised/one dimensional- it's all so patronising. Tartt takes Theo seriously, he's real. This makes the terrible things that happen to him so much worse. Theo's grief influences all of his actions and relationships and stains everything he touches throughout his life. It's just too sad. There are rays of light along the way but on the whole it does come close to being an all out misery fest. It avoids that with its humour though. 

As I said, the second half is just too much of a crime caper for my taste. But still, but still... I'm in awe of Donna Tartt. And she's so cool too- have you seen her? 

On the whole, The Goldfinch was a joy and I'd recommend it to everybody. 4.5

100 Books

According to my mother, book was my first word. She likes to remind me of this whenever I mention books. I suppose it’s her way of relating to my interests. 

I read an awful lot as a child. I devoured books- spending whole weekends curled up in narrow gaps between the wall and the sofa and in 'dens' I'd made, reading. And the rest of the time I was at Jesmond Library, searching for new books. I played out and went swimming and for adventures on my bike too but some of my fondest childhood memories are of books that surprised and delighted me. 

Now that I'm older I don't read in same the urgent way and I also read less. I have other priorities- I have to go to work, do the washing up, cook dinner, spend time with my husband. All this adds up to only reading a few times a week- always during the commute. It's not that I fell out of love with reading. I think that adulthood can make you take stories for granted, make you think you know enough and that you're too busy. But I don't know enough at all and I'm not that busy. 

I've decided to read 100 books in 2015 (8.3 books a month). I'm going to write a little bit about each book here, mostly for my own 'records' but also to share any lovely/terrifying/tragic treasures I find so that you can go and read them too.