Review: The Collector – John Fowles

The Collector – John Fowles

Withdrawn, uneducated, and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, the art student Miranda. When he wins the pools he buys a remote Sussex house and calmly abducts Miranda, believing she will grow to love him in time. Alone and desperate, Miranda must struggle to overcome her own prejudices and contempt if she is to understand her captor, and so gain her freedom. 

This brilliant tale of obsessive love was John Fowles's debut novel, and it immediately established him as a major contemporary novelist.

Review: I loved half of this book and disliked the other half.

The Collector is a classic horror story that has influenced many modern-day horror novels. In this book, a shy butterfly collector wins a bunch of money. He uses it to buy a house in the English countryside. He then turns the house’s cellar into a dungeon and kidnaps a beautiful young art student. The first half of the book is told from the kidnapper’s point-of-view, and the second half is told from the point-of-view of the kidnap victim, Miranda.

The first half of the book is fast-paced and unpredictable. The narrator—Frederick—is interesting in a psychopathic sort of way. He badly wants to be loved, but he’s so uncomfortable around women that he can’t interact with them. He resorts to kidnapping to get what he wants, but Miranda isn’t what he expected. Frederick can’t make her love him, even though he gives her everything she wants (except freedom).

I like the way that the first part of the book is written. The reader can see Fredrick’s lack of education and his low self-esteem. Frederick doesn’t completely understand that kidnapping Miranda is wrong. He sees her as a “guest” in his house. It’s creepy.

The first half of the book is great, but the second half was a slog for me. The second half is a retelling of the first half from Miranda’s point-of-view. Since I already knew everything that was going to happen, there was no suspense or unpredictability. Miranda also isn’t a very interesting character. She’s pretentious. Most of her section is about her pre-kidnapped life, which I found a little tedious. She talks a lot about art and a much-older artist who she had an obsessive relationship with. I understand how this ties into the themes of the book, but it just didn’t interest me at all.

I highly recommend reading Frederick’s sections if you like classic horror. You can probably skim Miranda’s section without missing much. Make sure you read the very end of the book, though. It gets disturbing in the last few pages.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Grown-Up Books Of 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is top ten books I read in 2015. I want to do a “Top 15 of 2015” post at the beginning of next year, so I’m only going to be listing my favorite adult books here. I’m not going to be putting rereads on either list. These are all books I read for the first time in 2015.

Top Ten Grown-Up Books Of 2015

10. Vicious – V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archenemies have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

9. A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1) – V.E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit. 

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London—but no one speaks of that now. 

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her 'proper adventure.' 

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive.

8. A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.

7. The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan's story of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife, journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road To The Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.

6. The Wind through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower #4.5) – Stephen King

In a storytelling tour de force, Stephen King explores an uncharted corner of the Dark Tower universe—and the early days of the gunslinger Roland—with the twice-told tale of a murderous shape-shifter, a “skin-man,” who inspires fear and wonder, fantasies and bedtime stories, and one boy’s savagely real nightmares.

5. The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7) – Stephen King

After a journey through seven books and over 20 years, King's Constant Readers finally have the conclusion they've been both eagerly awaiting and silently dreading. The tension in the Dark Tower series has built steadily from the beginning and, like in the best of King's novels, explodes into a violent, heart-tugging climax as Roland and his ka-tet finally near their goal. The body count in The Dark Tower is high. The gunslingers come out shooting and face a host of enemies, including low men, mutants, vampires, Roland's hideous quasi-offspring Mordred, and the fearsome Crimson King himself.

4. The Enchanted – Rene Denfeld

The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death-row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries magical visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs, with the devastating violence of prison life. 

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest, and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honor and corruption—ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.

3. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales – Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace. A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

2. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the characters’ voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

1. Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower #4) – Stephen King

Roland and his band of followers have narrowly escaped one world and slipped into the next. There Roland tells them a tale of long-ago love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado. And there they will be drawn into an ancient mystery of spellbinding magic and supreme menace . . .

Review: Carry On – Rainbow Rowell

Carry On – Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen. 

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. 

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up. 

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery, and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

Review: This book was my most-anticipated release of 2015, but I was still nervous about it because the Simon Snow parts of Fangirl seemed so over-the-top ridiculous.

It turns out that Carry On is ridiculous, but it’s ridiculous in the most epic way possible. Seriously, this book is over 500 pages, and I blew through it in two days because I loved it so much. I want to talk about everything in this review, but I can’t because of spoilers. (And the review would be ten pages long.)

So, Carry On is the final book in the “fictional” Simon Snow series from Fangirl. Simon is a wizard in his last year of magic school, and he has a lot of problems. He’s struggling in his classes, being ignored by his mentor, arguing with his girlfriend, and being harassed by his evil vampire roommate, Baz. To make things worse, Simon is the Chosen One who is supposed to save the magical world.

This book is a standalone, so you can read it without reading Fangirl. However, if you haven’t read Harry Potter, you might miss a lot of the humor.  This book feels like a Harry Potter parody. That’s why I love it so much. I’m a fan of anything related to Harry Potter, even parodies.

Rainbow Rowell does amazing things with fantasy tropes. This book really lets you see how ridiculous and overused some of them are. Rainbow Rowell flips the tropes on their heads. Simon is an incompetent Chosen One. Baz is a loveable villain. The magic system is silly. The witches and wizards drive cars, own laptops, accidently forget their wands at home, rely on Google to solve their problems, and talk like modern teenagers. This book is full of literal laugh-out-loud moments. Like all of Rainbow Rowell’s books, the dialogue and characters are on-point.

Other than Simon and Baz, my favorite character is Agatha. I like that she doesn’t want to be Simon’s sidekick or his happily ever after. She knows herself, and she knows what she wants in life. I also really like Baz. This story is told from multiple points-of-view, and his was my favorite. He’s hilariously sarcastic. 

There is a love story in this novel. I’m not the biggest fan of romance in books, but this one didn’t bother me. The book has enough politics and mystery to keep the love story from being the only focus of the plot. I also care about the characters enough that I didn’t mind seeing them fall in love.

I can’t find too much to criticize. If this book doesn’t mesh with your sense of humor, you might have a hard time “getting” it. I wish the ending had been a little clearer. I wanted more explanation about a few things. Also, some of the first-person POV voices sounded very similar, so I sometimes had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remember whose POV I was in. None of those issues are big problems for me. I enjoyed this book.

If you’re a fan of Rainbow Rowell, fantasy fiction, or Harry Potter, you need to read Carry On.  

The Sunday Post #28

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news.

On the blog last week

• On Monday I reviewed The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
• On Tuesday I listed the top ten authors I discovered in 2015.
• On Wednesday I reviewed Project X by Jim Shepard.
• On Saturday I showed you my new books.

On the blog this week

• On Monday I review Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.
• On Tuesday I list my favorite grown-up books of 2015.
• On Wednesday I review The Collector by John Fowles.
• On Thursday I discuss the hype train.
• On Saturday I show you more new books.

In my reading life

My giant essay is still controlling my reading life. Last week, I finished The Collector by John Fowels, and I read most of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I’m also slowly and painfully working my way through Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction by Charles Baxter.

In my blogging life

I’m happy to announce that I will be participating in the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. I hope it motivates me to do more discussion posts. Discussions take me forever to write, and I have a hard time coming up with subjects that haven’t already been discussed to death. I’m open to suggestions for discussion posts if anybody has any.

In the rest of my life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. The Christmas tree is up.
2. Christmas cookies!
3. More new books.
4. The first draft of the giant essay is done. (It's 28 pages.)
5. Dancing to this song while writing the giant essay.

I hope you had a great week. See you around the blogosphere!