Gav Reads

A Web Log of Reading

  • Audiobook Review: Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater (2023)

    Title: Death of a Bookseller 
    Author: Alice Slater
    Narrators: Emma Noakes, Victoria Blunt
    Pages/Length: 384/12hrs 58 mins
    Genre: Crime/Thriller
    Stand-alone/Series: Stand-alone.
    Year of Release: 2023
    Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
    Review Copy via NetGalley

    Roach – bookseller, loner and true crime fanatic is not interested in making friends. She has all the company she needs in her serial killer books, murder podcasts and her pet snail, Bleep.

    That is, until Laura joins the bookshop.

    This tale of obsession is told from the dual perspectives of the person who carries the flame and the person who is their focus.

    It quickly becomes apparent that True-Crime-Podcast-loving Roach feels she has a connection to Laura that’s not reciprocated. But Roach isn’t deterred; she sets out to become friends.

    I find thrillers hard to review. Their strength is in the tension that builds as the story unfolds page by page. I don’t want to spoil things by revealing too much.

    Slater’s skill is keeping pages turning. I listened to the audiobook, and each chapter is short, sharp and alternates between each character’s point of view. I kept listening

    And due to the medium, I couldn’t flip forwards or backwards; I was trapped in each uncomfortable moment, and half-closing my eyes made no difference. I had to relive them from both sides over and over again.

    I think Slater likes both Roach and Laura. You may disagree with me, but Slater has created characters who have sympathetic traits. Or at least they garner compassion, to begin with at least; whether you remain endeared to them by the end, that’s on you.

    The entire bookshop’s staff rota is memorable, and how Roach and Laura see them gives a truer reflection of their individuality.

    She also gives an insight into what really happens in a bookshop. It’s not just happily handing over books to the next customer. There seems to be more than one day working with a hangover.

    I need to mention the performances of Emma Noakes & Victoria Blunt. They are perfect for the roles. The creepiness of Roach and the coldness of Laura come across strongly. There is a small point where Roach’s voice slipped; it was less than a chapter, but then the persona came back strong and clear. The editing was clever when Roach was taking off Laura’s voice, and vice versa, when the narrators swapped to say their own lines, which felt natural and creepy.

    I spent time in their heads that I have the compulsion to change the locks and have vowed never to pick up a true crime book.

    If you’re a lover of creeping dread, bookshops or are just curious about what’s in the mind of a True Crime lover, then Death of a Bookseller ticks all the boxes.

    Rating: 4.25 Date: 26 April 23

  • Review: Siblings by Brigitte Reimann[trans. Lucy Jones] (1963/2023)

    I finished Siblings by Brigitte Reimann (trans. Lucy Jones) is rightly described as a ground-breaking classic of post-war East German literature. 

    This, I believe, is its first translation from German to English. 

    Set in 1960 (and published in 1963) when the border between East and West Germany was closed. It examines the relationship between a brother and a sister as they each examine their place within the Deutsche Demokratische Republik/German Democratic Republic (GDR). 

    The tension underlying Reimann’s style had me reaching to add tabs to moments I found notable. The pressure is mirrored in our main character Elisabeth’s relationship with her ideals, family, and co-workers. 

    There is probably a literary essay to be written on reading this contemporary novel as historical commentary, as I have done. 

    It is 129 pages, plus notes added at the back. I’m very grateful for the notes adding extra context.

    It feels more profound and denser than its slight paperback form promises. 

    I don’t want to give any spoilers but trust Reimann to lead you through the story, and you’ll get the answers you need, but perhaps not the answers you want.

    Book of the Year, so far.

    Rating: 4.75 Date: 26 Feb 23

  • Review: A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe, #1) by P. Djèlí Clark (2021)

    Title: A Master of Djinn
    Author: P. Djèlí Clark
    Pages: 416 (print)
    Genre: Fantasy
    Stand-alone/Series: Series but easily read as a stand-alone.
    Year of Release: 2021
    Publisher: Orbit

    Summary

    Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities.

    When someone murders the members of a secret society, Agent Fatma’s job is to find the killer.

    Set in Cairo in 1912, where djinn walk the streets and steampunk eunuchs serve coffee.

    Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend, Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind their deaths and restore peace to the city.

    Comment/Thoughts/Analysis

    P. Djèlí Clark is a master of world-building. The alternative Cairo he has created is tangible. I could quite quickly be drinking Sarsaparilla with Fatma. I can imagine seeing djinn doing their daily business and buying books from them.

    He can also create a story that builds as you (the reader) and Fatma discover what’s happening. Clark shifts gears and moves things up a scale constantly. Just when you think it’s going to plateau, it jolts forward.

    It is, at its heart, a historical urban fantasy detective story. The facts are there for Fatma to follow. But it’s also a Fantasy tale with a big F. The murders lead Fatma to find beings with inhuman motivations.

    It’s also a romance. Siti always has Fatma’s back and leaps into danger. Fatma and Siti’s relationship is explored internally through Fatma’s feelings and externally through how other’s perceive them.

    And this brings me to my problem with A Master of Djinn; it’s almost too perfect.

    Clark has a cast of characters that too often pop up at the right time and place. Some readers, like me, get distracted from the momentum when they see some of the illusions’ mechanisms.

    It’s his first novel, and I found it immensely enjoyable. I got frustrated by what I thought was the big scene at almost the novel’s end, but Clark had another trick to pull out of his bag, and I enjoyed being tricked.

    He’s also used his setting to challenge colonialism and the Euro-centric worldviews. This, I think, he does with humour and panache. And is one of the other strengths of A Master of Djinn.

    I wasn’t sure there could be the potential for a sequel as the story seems so entwined into the environment. After finishing it, I’m confident that if Clark wanted to revisit this world that he’d find another angle to look at his world.

    Conclusion

    Clark has created an anti-colonial fantastical environment to tell his police procedural using an outsider’s point of view that addresses war, power and manipulation.

    As well as exploring the people’s need for a champion when they are considered the underdog, he puts a sapphic romance into the centre of this steampunk.

    Did I say it’s also a detective story? It is, and the clues are there!

    4.25/5

  • End of March 23 Round-Up

    My Book of the Year So Far

    I am starting this update on a positive note; I finished Siblings by Brigitte Reimann (trans. Lucy Jones) on the last day of February. And it’s my book of the year so far.

    There is a mini-review here:

    https://gavreads.co.uk/review/review-siblings-by-brigitte-reimanntrans-lucy-jones-1963-2023/

    Missing Mojo

    In the middle of March, I finally DNF’d (Did Not Finish) a novel that was recommended to me.

    I have to be in the mood to read, but I also need the mental capacity to process my reading. I can’t skim-read or skip sections. If that happens, it’s a sign that I should put the book down and, ideally, move on to the next one.

    Sometimes I force myself to keep going, as it might just be that book section or my mood that day. As a tactic, this can work, but often it just zaps my momentum even more if I push it too far. This can infect my motivation to read other things.

    In this case, the recommendation meant I tried past the point when I should have given up. And my mood for reading other things did dimmish.

    I put this down in the middle of March.

    I did try reading another book, which I should have loved, but it didn’t hook me, so I took some time out.

    Though I can’t entirely blame my mood as…

    I Got Distracted

    You might not have been aware, but Nintendo closed the e-shop for games connected to their Wii U and DS/3DS consoles (which they stopped manufacturing in 2017/2020. and this caused a surge of panic buying.

    I bought a Nintendo 3Ds off eBay to load it up with Pokemon games I’ve never played. The cost of physical copies of the various Gameboy games could buy a good few books, and the e-shop versions were around £8.99. So I chose the e-shop versions.

    I’ve been playing Pokemon Scarlet as my first real Pokemon Game (Let’s Go Eevee was my first attempt, but I didn’t know what I was doing, and my Team was underpowered). I wanted to have the option of going back, hence the stocking up.

    And that got me looking at retro RPGs…

    All of this is to say that much of my reading time got sacrificed for video games in one way or another.

    Collecting Books is Still a Separate Hobby

    Despite not reading, I added 23 books to the TBR in March. They were a mix of the last arrival of my now cancelled book subscriptions, a physical copy of Rachel Pollack’s run on the Doom Patrol, and a combination of recommendations from other commentators and 99p ebooks.

    Plans for April

    I’m writing most of this on Easter Monday and have yet to finish reading anything of substance, so I’d better get a wiggle on if want the April update to have content mentioning books I’ve read.

    I am, however, reading thanks to a visit to Eastercon again. It was the tonic and motivation I needed. And should mean I have at least one book to mention next time.

  • End of Feb 23 Round-Up

    NOTE: I wrote most of this at the end of February 2023.

    Welcome to my monthly round-up. I am planning on publishing them on the last Sunday of the month. They are primarily for me to look back on at the end of the year, but you’re welcome to come along for the ride.

    The Good

    I should be gentler with myself. I thought I had a terrible reading month. But I haven’t. I read Far From the Stars of Heaven by Tade Thompson and The Fifth Season (Broken Earth Bk1) by N. K. Jemisin (no review yet).

    I didn’t manage to finish anything else.

    I did try. I DNF’d my first book of the year. I am sure the book is fine, but I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough. What should have been a romp was an anxiety-producing misadventure. I haven’t mentioned the title, as I may try it again.

    I am currently reading Siblings by Brigitte Reimann. Fifty years after it was first published in German, Penguin Classics has translated it into English for the first time. It’s only 129 pages long, but I have to pause to add tabs to the pages and write notes in my reading-focused notebook. It is a powerful meditation on East Germany at the time.

    Both of these caused my reading to slow down, and I didn’t have the mental space to read any short fiction.

    I’m reading A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files as my ebook. It’s 275 pages long and could technically be described as short fiction. But it’s not what I meant when I said I wanted to read more short fiction.

    The Bad

    Just because I wasn’t reading didn’t slow my acquisition of new books.

    I picked up some £0.99 ebook bargains, including The Kaiju Preservation Society, This This, Juniper & Thorn, and Now She is Witch.

    I grabbed some anthologies: Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology and Unthinkable: A Queer Gothic Anthology from proud-geek.co.uk. I also purchased The Devil and the Deep, Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy and Isolation: The Horror Anthology.

    I bought the entire series (so far?) of Wayfarers by Becky Chambers. I picked up the first book of The Founders Trilogy (Foundaryside) by Robert Jackson Bennett & The Outside Series (The Outside) by Ada Hoffmann.

    I also picked up a few standalone titles: Masks by Fumiko Enchi trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter, Lanny by Max Porter, Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner 

    That is not all of them. I’ve logged all the books I’ve bought this year and know exactly how much I’ve spent. I need to calm down!

    I am going to cancel my book box subscriptions. I have never been a hardback reader, and I know these are stunning, but they are expensive shelf-space-reducing objects.

    This was ‘The Bad’? What is the ugly?

    The Ugly

    Chasing new shiny isn’t good for me. New shiny is where most of the book talk is aiming towards. I thought about ramping up my reading and reviewing again. I imagined chasing the waves alongside other book influencers. Realistically, it’s not going to happen. I either can’t or don’t want to devote time to keeping up with the field and reading the required work.

    I must remember that I have moved on as much as the book-o-sphere has.

    I will sit back and enjoy the content of those with energy and joy.

    What’s the plan for March?

    I’m writing this on the 12th of March. I have finished Siblings. I am still reading A Book of Tongues. I have eighteen days left of the month. The plan is to read an additional novel. That’s the plan.