Red Room Book Reviews

GENRE: Contemporary fiction. Japanese literature.  FIRST PUBLISHED: Shogakukan Inc, 2010. My copy - Manilla Press, 2023. READING TIME: Approximately 3 hours, 45 minutes.  THEMES: Family. Books/reading. Bookshops. Love. Loss. Healing from heartbreak. Trauma. Relationships.  PURCHASED FROM:  Waterstones PLOT: Takako is a young, heartbroken woman who unwillingly goes to live with her uncle Satoru in a secondhand bookshop, Jimbocho, Tokyo. She comes to love the bookshop and reconnects with her uncle, whilst forming friendships with the locals, all of which lead her to healing, maturity, and a fresh start. MY REFLECTIONS:  The overall atmosphere of the book is one of heartwarming cosiness. Sadly I couldn't connect with Takako or the other characters. I found them all very bland and lacking in personality. Takako is in her twenties but seems more like a teenager, and due to this the story has coming of age vibes about it. Despite some of the heavy themes it's a light ...

GENRE: Psychological thriller. Novella. FIRST PUBLISHED:  2018 by Flammarion. My copy, 2021 by Scribner. THEMES:  Suicide. Adolescence. Holidaying. Family. Making friends. Lust. Society. Fitting in. Coming of age. Morality.  READING TIME:  Approximately 2 hours and 35 minutes. PURCHASED FROM:  Waterstones PLOT:  Leonard is seventeen and an outsider. Whilst holidaying with his family during a heatwave in France, Leonard witnesses another teenager, apparently committing suicide. He then decides to bury the body. The story follows Leonard's inner thoughts about the what he has done, what he hasn't done, and about how he sees himself and the'others' in a society he clearly struggles with.  MY REFLECTIONS: If the song 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads was a book, this would be it. It is a short story about a boy who does not fit in and his awareness of this. It's fuelled with sexual tension, inner conflict and clever contrasts. The writing is intelligently d...

GENRE  Ghost story. Gothic fiction. Novella. FIRST PUBLISHED 1983, Hamish Hamilton. My copy, 1998, Vintage. THEMES Ghosts. Haunting. Graveyards. Houses. Weather. Death. Child loss. The past. Family tragedy. Fear. Food. READING TIME  Approx 4 hours 30 minutes PLOT Arthur Kipp, a young solicitor, is sent from London to the village of Crythin Gifford, to attend the funeral of the mysterious Mrs Drablow, and to attain relevant papers from her home at Eel Marsh House.There he encounters chilling supernatural experiences that will impact the rest of his life.  MY REFLECTIONS Although written in the 1980's, the style of writing echoes the classic Gothic, Victorian ghost story. I love to read some good old pathetic fallacy, and this novella is packed with it, setting and keeping up the foreboding, haunting tone and atmosphere consistently from beginning to end. It's the traditional, old fashioned ghost story that many of us know and love - haunted house, eerie location, paranorma...

GENRE: Comic. Comedy. FIRST PUBLISHED: 2022, Canongate Books THEMES: Literature. Authors. Writing. Readers. Books. Book lovers. Procrastination. Covid.  READING TIME: Approximately one hour, ten minutes. GIFTED   MY REFLECTIONS:  An illustrated book of comic sketches regarding the world of the bookish; aimed at readers, writers, publishers, editors, librarians and book lovers. If you love books then there is probably something in this one you can relate to, and smile about. This book was given to me by a librarian friend, and I used to be a librarian. We are both book lovers, and I still haven't written a novel, so, the perfect gift, to make me laugh at myself.  Being a true library nerd of the old school generation, I love the fake stamped ticket inside the cover, so much so that the mention of it stands here alone for emphasis. Tom Gauld 's illustrations make me think of the comic strips found in the newspapers of my youth, so I wasn't surprised to learn he is feat...

GENRE: Historical fiction FIRST PUBLISHED: 2019, Penguin Books THEMES: 1970's, rock and roll, rock stars, music, song writing, drugs, alcoholism, friendship, family, love, creativity, creative relationships, abortion, attraction, sex, choices, life direction. READING TIME: Approximately 7 hours PURCHASED FROM: Waterstones PLOT: The setting is the American 1970's rock and roll scene, and through an interview transcript style, follows the rising and coming together of singer and song writer, Daisy Jones, and the band, The Six. The story focuses on the personal lives of each band member and their individual accounts of what happened during their time working together, with particular focus on Daisy and Billy and the difficulties and demons they face that impacts on their working relationship and the rest of the characters.  MY REFLECTIONS: It's a good book, well written, and entertaining. It made me think of the interviews you see on TV - ageing band members reflecting on the...

GENRE - Modernist literature, tragedy, literary realism FIRST PUBLISHED - 1925 THEMES - Illusion vs reality, 1920's America, sociology of wealth, extravagance, the American dream, upper class, disillusioned love and marriage LISTENING TIME - 5 hours, 30 minutes SOURCE - BBC Sounds; read by Kyle Soller PLOT - In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York to pursue his career in the bond business. He rents a house next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, who hosts lavish, extravagant and very popular parties at his mansion every weekend, which Nick is soon invited to. When Nick meets Gatsby, he discovers that his parties and lifestyle are all aimed at impressing and attracting Nick's cousin, Daisy, who he's been in love with since meeting her several years ago. Nick invites Daisy for tea at his house, and an affair begins between Nick and Daisy (Daisy is married to Tom, who is having his own affair with Myrtle, who is also married). I'...

GENRE - Poetry. Young adult. Horror. Fantasy. Illustrated.  FIRST PUBLISHED - 1997 PUBLISHED BY - Faber and Faber THEMES - Outcasts. Deformity. Human hybrids. Estranged love. Abnormality. Warped beings. Macabre infants.  READING TIME - 15 minutes PURCHASED FROM - HMV (many years ago) MY REFLECTIONS - This is a reread. I first read this collection of dark, twisted poems as a teenager. I was a huge Tim Burton fan at the time and I loved this bizarre little book as much as his films. I would say teenaged is the perfect age for these morbidly gruesome tales and their entertainingly ghastly illustrations, although at 40, I still greatly appreciate them. Eccentrically and darkly timeless, this book would still make a great little gift for coming of age misfits and those of us with peculiar minds and a love of the unearthly. These strange mini stories and their characters are literary evidence of the wonderfully weird and warped imagination of Tim Burton.