The State of Play
I’ve claimed seven Read & Called squares so far, including the Raven squares. I’ve now read books for half of the squares on my card.. I have one potential Bingo (I’m waiting for the Gothic square to be called).
I’m part way through three books, two of which have already been called. I’ve reached that stage in the game where I’ll mostly be reading to claim called square. I’m adding two more of those this week.
My Halloween Bingo reads in the last week
For me, one of the challenges of Halloween Bingo is that I’m a mood reader. Any plan I make tends to last only until the next mood change. So I didn’t read according to plan last week. I found a remarkable book ‘The Undiscovered Deaths Of Grace McGill‘ and pushed ‘The Trials Of Marjorie Crowe‘, by the same author, aside as my book for the Genre Mystery square. I stumbled across’Killing Jericho‘, a perfect fit for the Creepy Carnivals square and dived into it. I swapped ‘The Watchers‘, my book for The Barrens square for ‘Track Of The Cat’, a book I read decades ago, because I made the mistake or re-reading the opening paragraphs and felt I had to read the rest of the book.
Still, the outcome of following my mood rather than my plan was that I had a great reading week with two five-star reads.
‘The Haunting Of HIll House‘ was a deliciously disturbing read. I’d never read it before. I’d seen the 1969 movie version, ‘The Haunting’ but that was heavy-handed and melodramatic by comparison to the novel. The prose is wonderful. The story is disturbing. Eleanor, the main character, is a a masteful creation. The ending was perfect. It doesn’t get better than this.
This is one of my best reads of the year so far. It’s hard to describe without giving the plot away but I found it utterly compelling. Grace McGill is a skillfully drawn character of a kind I haven’t met before. The plot is multilayered and full of changes in perspectives that are more like siemsic shifts than plot twists. Best of all, the book never becomes about the plot. It remains centred on Grace and carries with it a deep understand of grief, loss, abandonment and the sadness that comes from irreparable damage.
‘Viscious’ felt like a text version of a powerful Graphic Novel. It was dramatic, suspenseful and filled with stark, memorable images. It was also thoughtful and retained a sense of humour that prevented it from becoming unbearably bleak. My review is HERE
I’m making slow progress with ‘A Dram Of Poison’ not because it’s a difficult read but because I find the content quite disturbing. Gender politics have change a lot since this was published in 1956. I’m finding it hard to take in that the main character, who is seen as a kind man, marries a woman decades younger than him more or less to adopt her and then treats her like a rescue dog that he has to nurse to health. I haven’t even got to the jealousy part yet. This is supposed to be just the set-up and I’m already going “What is wrong with these people?”
My next Halloween Bingo Reads
All of my next reads are for squares that have already been called.
This year, I discovered Kim Watt’s cosy urban fantasy novels (with dragons),, starting with ‘Baking Bad’ and moving on to ‘What Happened In London.” I’m using my Black Cat square to sample her series about a cat detective who works with a human partner but is the brains of the partnereship. I’m reading ‘Scourge Of Pleasantries‘.
I’m reading ‘Killing Jericho‘ for the Creepy Carnivals square. It’s an energetic tale about a disgraced ex-policeman from a Showman family, trying to track down a serial killer before they strike again I’m 60% through the novel and I’m impressed by how well drawn Jericho is.
I’m reading ‘Road To Ruin‘ for the Dystopian Hellscape square. This is a roll of the dice for me but I’m hoping it lives up to its description as “An electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.“
I’m reading ‘Track Of The Cat‘ for my The Barrens square. This is a re-read with a 25+ yeqr gap between reads. This was the first book that I ever read starring a Park Ranger. I picked it up again, loved the opening ad thought “Why not?” If I like it, it will open up a new series for me
Additions to my Halloween Bingo Wishlist.
Reading other players’ reviews has added yet more books to my wishlist:
‘Death At The Sign Of The Rook‘ is the latest Jackson Brodie novel from Kate Atkinson. I fell in love with this series when I rea was suprised when I read ‘Started Early Took My Dog‘ back in 2011. I’m glad to see Kate Atkinson return to this series after some quite challenging novels and a slighlty strange collection of short stories.
‘Grave Expectations‘ is described as “A fast-paced and hilarious debut crime novel, in which a burnt-out Millennial medium must utilize her ability to see ghosts and team-up with a band of oddball investigators to figure out which member(s) of a posh English family are guilty of murder“. I know it will be a light read with not much substance but sometimes that’s exactly what I’m looking for. If it makes me smile from time to time, I’ll be content.
‘Here LIes A Vengeful Bitch‘ is described as “Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge . . . she just has to figure out who killed her”. It could be that the behttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201632616-here-lies-a-vengeful-bitch?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_20st thing about it is the title and it may turn out to be too YA for my tastes but, if it works, it could be a perfect Halloween read.
Mike Finn's Fiction 