strange and random happenstance

Slayer by Kiersten White
Published by: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a brand-new series set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that introduces a new Slayer as she grapples with the responsibility of managing her incredible powers that she’s just beginning to understand.

Into every generation a Slayer is born...

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers - girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One - she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams...

But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.

One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard."

While I'm very hesitant about new entries in the Buffyverse, I still can't help being excited!

The Wicked King by Holly Black
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince.

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world."

Holly Black writing more about faeries? Yes please!

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A taut, gripping tale of a young woman and an Iron Age reenactment trip that unearths frightening behavior.

The light blinds you; there’s a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside.

In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age.

For two weeks, the length of her father’s vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie’s father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs - particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind.

The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?

A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the “primitive minds” of our ancestors."

You've got shivers too right? I also think I need to build a ghost wall...

White Stage by Kara Barbieri
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"White Stag, the first book in a brutally stunning series by Kara Barbieri, involves a young girl who finds herself becoming more monster than human and must uncover dangerous truths about who she is and the place that has become her home.

A Wattpad break out star with over a million reads! Now expanded, revised and available in print and eBook.

As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke - as the only survivor - was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.

Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad―especially when it comes to those you care about.

Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling."

Brutality and a Goblin King means I'm raring to read this!

The Au Pair by Emma Rous
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"If V. C. Andrews and Kate Morton had a literary love child, Emma Rous' The Au Pair would be it.

Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother, Danny, were born in the middle of summer at their family's estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle.

Now an adult, Seraphine mourns the recent death of her father. While going through his belongings, she uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born, and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is smiling serenely and holding just one baby.

Who is the child, and what really happened that day?"

Usually if a book is compared to another author I love I'm leery... but the combination of Kate Morton with V.C. Andews has fascinated me in this case!

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The new and exciting historical thriller by Lyndsay Faye, author of Edgar-nominated Jane Steele and Gods of Gotham, which follows Alice "Nobody" from Prohibition-era Harlem to Portland's the Paragon Hotel.

The year is 1921, and "Nobody" Alice James is on a cross-country train, carrying a bullet wound and fleeing for her life following an illicit drug and liquor deal gone horribly wrong. Desperate to get as far away as possible from New York City and those who want her dead, she has her sights set on Oregon: a distant frontier that seems the end of the line.

She befriends Max, a black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of Harlem, who leads Alice to the Paragon Hotel upon arrival in Portland. Her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be the only all-black hotel in the city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a white woman on the premises. But as she meets the churlish Dr. Pendleton, the stately Mavereen, and the unforgettable club chanteuse Blossom Fontaine, she begins to understand the reason for their dread. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland in fearful numbers--burning crosses, inciting violence, electing officials, and brutalizing blacks. And only Alice, along with her new "family" of Paragon residents, are willing to search for a missing mulatto child who has mysteriously vanished into the Oregon woods.

Why was "Nobody" Alice James forced to escape Harlem? Why do the Paragon's denizens live in fear - and what other sins are they hiding? Where did the orphaned child who went missing from the hotel, Davy Lee, come from in the first place? And, perhaps most important, why does Blossom Fontaine seem to be at the very center of this tangled web?"

If you gobbled up Jane Steele you'll be sure to want to check out Lyndsay Faye's newest book! 

Queen Victoria by Lucy Worsley
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: January 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The story of the queen who defied convention and defined an era.

A passionate princess, an astute and clever queen, and a cunning widow, Victoria played many roles throughout her life. In Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow, Lucy Worsley introduces her as a woman leading a truly extraordinary life in a unique time period. Queen Victoria simultaneously managed to define a socially conservative vision of Victorian womanhood, while also defying its conventions. Beneath her exterior image of traditional daughter, wife, and widow, she was a strong-willed and masterful politician.

Drawing from the vast collection of Victoria’s correspondence and the rich documentation of her life, Worsley recreates twenty-four of the most important days in Victoria's life. Each day gives a glimpse into the identity of this powerful, difficult queen and the contradictions that defined her. Queen Victoria is an intimate introduction to one of Britain’s most iconic rulers as a wife and widow, mother and matriarch, and above all, a woman of her time."

Lucy Worsley has become the go to historian for all things British and her newest book isn't an exception so be sure to check it out, especially if you're suffering from Victoria withdrawals... 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Emma Rous, Ghost Wall, Holly Black, Kara Barbieri, Kiersten White, Lucy Worsley, Lyndsay Faye, Queen Victoria, Sarah Moss, The Au Pair, The Paragon Hotel, The Wicked King, White Stage

Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur
Publication Date: October 16th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

As a child there is always that one person whom you are thrust into a relationship with because of your parents. The greatest joy of growing up is that there comes a time when you no longer have to associate with them and can relegate them to your past. Which is exactly what Emily did with Emma Callum. Emma ran off with an Italian Duke and Emily never thought of her again. Until Emma reached out for help. She had heard of Emily's success in solving crimes and is in desperate need of her assistance. Stranded in Venice Emma doesn't even speak Italian and her father-in-law Conte Barozzi has gone and gotten himself murdered and her husband Paolo is missing. If there was ever a time for Emily's help it is now. But even murder can't fully change someone and as Emma flirts with Emily's husband Colin instead of answering their questions Emily wonders if it was wise to help her old nemesis. Though Emily and her husband are professionals and they will do the job asked of them despite the hindrance of Emma. Their first clue is a ring that was found on the Conte's body and a historian is needed.

Luckily when they arrived in Venice a note was waiting at their hotel from a local scholar turned bookseller inquiring after the ring. Emily is hoping Signore Caravello can help answer a few questions as to the ring's provenance. With his magnifying glass he finds two initials next to the maker's mark, BB and NV. Because the ring was found in the possession of a Barozzi, it's assumed that this belonged to some relative. Emily, now with the help of Singnore Caravello's daughter Donata, searches for this relative and finds Besina, who lived in the 15th century. Yet their one hope of confirming her as the ring's owner is dashed when the painting that just might have shown her wearing it is vandalized. What's more the Barozzis sworn enemies, the Vendelinos, swear that the ring is theirs and has been missing for centuries. Soon Emily and Colin are juggling not just a murder, but valuable missing books, a possibly forgotten legacy, a medium whose reputation was destroyed, the Conte's probable mistress and her jealous husband, and most disturbing of all, a person dressed as a plague doctor following Emily through the canals of Venice. Yet the crucial question is, can they solve the crime in the present by finding out what happen to Besina all those years ago?

There is a plethora of books set in Venice, and the truth is the setting doesn't make the book but a well written book can make the setting, forever linking the two in your mind. Death in the Floating City perfectly fits into the pantheon of books set in Venice that were instant classics for me, from Daphne Du Maurier's Don't Look Now to Mary Robinette Kowal's Valour and Vanity to Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. These are all books that show Venice as imperfect yet lead you to fall in love with the city despite it's issues. I'm not talking about the fact that it's sinking into the seas, but the Italian way of life as it was back in the day. As I think of it in my mind as women's rights, marriages, and whores oh my. Courtesans, mistresses, and illegitimate children were all par for the course in Venice. What's so fascinating though is the way Tasha writes so that there's our modern POV then there's Emily's POV, which is Victorian but constantly working to break the shackles and think more modern, and then the Venetian POV which is far more fluid and modern, but that fluidity and the resultant issues drives the plot forward. It's literally a culture clash at it's most dramatic and I couldn't put it down.

What really drove the narrative in this installment was that the secondary story instead of being journals or letters that are concurrent with our story was instead the story of Besina and her ill fated love to Nicolo Vendelino way back in 1489. At first I was prejudiced against this story because being set in Italy and the couple in question being from warring houses I was sure this would be Tasha's take on Romeo and Juliet and personally, that isn't a favorite play of mine. Yes, it's a classic, I mean, it's Shakespeare after all, but not all Shakespeare floats my boat. Oh how wrong I was to compare it to that play of the Bard's. This secondary storyline soon became my favorite part of Death in the Floating City and I had to restrain myself from jumping ahead to see how it played out. The best way I can describe the story of Besina and Nicolo is that it's like Sarah Dunant decided to write her version of Drake Carne and Morwenna Chynoweth's star-crossed romance from Poldark. Much as with the two young lovers on Poldark, my heart was continually breaking, hoping for Besina to break free and be with Nicolo. Their story is tragic and heartbreaking and achingly perfect. Because, if I'm being honest, much like how Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, sometimes perfection isn't a happily ever after.

Even though my attachment to Besina and Nicolo is the reason I lost my heart to this book I can not discount all the other awesomeness contained within the pages of Death in the Floating City. The menacing plague doctor like the "child" in the raincoat in Don't Look Now is haunting, but that's just the tip of the iceberg! There's Caterina Brexiano, the maligned medium! There's Brother Giovanni with his knowledge of books and his hunt for the truth. As for the books? Oh dear me, I swoon at the valuable books and illuminated manuscripts contained within these pages. But the vapors don't stop there. The gorgeous illuminated manuscripts contain secrets not just in their detailed artwork but on the very pages they were written. Secrets hidden in art? This is Lady Emily's version of The Da Vinci Code, but next level, because instead of being bogged down with religiosity we are on the hunt for the story of Besina and Nicolo! A love lost to history recovered! This book didn't just make me want to go to Venice, it made me want to delve back into my art history studies. Oh, I do love a good illuminated manuscript. If only they all held such secrets as the ones Tasha has dreamed up!

It should be a truth universally acknowledged that we all have in our past some frenemy. Imagine the theme song to Veronica Mars playing here... While Emily never considered Emma her friend, she was in one of those situations where friendship was forced on her and it turned sour, or shattered like her doll's face when Emma destroyed it. Whether it's similar to Emily's case or just a friend from childhood that proved themselves a complete and utter two-faced bitch, there's someone in everyone's past whom we'd rather avoid but some lingering sentimentality, AKA the sign that you are the better person, makes you willing to help if they reach out a hand. That is the situation Emily faces. While there is that deep temptation to just laugh from afar, something that social media makes so easy in this day and age, there's the other, more juicy feeling that you can prove to them that you are the better person. You hope that your help will finally awaken some kind of gratitude in them, but as is often the case, as Emily sees, they are just the same person but older. You can see them more clearly for who they are and you pity instead of hate them. But still, reaching out that hand and being the better person? Priceless.

Now here's a question I have for the floor. Hopefully you have been encouraged by Alexander Autumn to pick up one or all of Tasha's wonderful Lady Emily series and I want your expert opinion. Is this the first time that Emily's writing is shown to be definitely written from a future date for an audience? Because Emily has a throw away line about how her identification of NV would prove to be entirely inaccurate, proving this was written at a later date. Also at the same time she says "as you will see" where the you is us, meaning, definite knowledge of an audience. Now I don't have any problem with this, seeing as an author that Tasha greatly admires, Elizabeth Peters, used such devices in her Amelia Peabody series which is another series I love. In fact, there's a part of me, a part that will reference but will not spoil the ending of this book, that noticed a certain resolution that mirrors an event that takes place at the end of the sixth installment in that series, The Last Camel Died at Noon, that makes me think, Tasha did this on purpose. If she did this for that very reason, that's cunning. But also if you think about it, this is the first case that Emily and Colin take that doesn't literally land on their doorstep, so that could have been why there's a change as well... either way, I'll be waiting to see if this writing quirk happens again. Onwards to the next book!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexander Autumn, Amelia Peabody, Death in the Floating City, Don't Look Now, Elizabeth Peters, Poldark, Romeo and Juliet, Tasha Alexander, The Da Vinci Code, Venice, Veronica Mars

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur
Publication Date: October 25th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

As Emily dances a man burns. How could she have thought the ballroom she was in was stuffy once she learns of the fate of Mr. Dillman? The heat as he was burned alive chained to his office window is horrible to contemplate, yet Emily and Colin must, as Colin has been sent in by the crown to investigate. But it's information they glean from Mr. Dillman's fiance, Cordelia Dalton, that shines a light on the investigation and shows a disturbing pattern. The day of Mr. Dillman's death the Sanders household was defiled with red paint and it was revealed at the ball that their daughter, Polly, was the illegitimate offspring of Mr. Sanders and a maid. Polly's betrothal to Thomas Lacey was ended and any chance she had of a good marriage went up in smoke. Cordelia informs Emily and Colin that Mr. Dillman's house was similarly vandalized the week before. What could Mr. Dillman's secret have been? If the revelation of Polly's parentage is anything to go by whomever is leaving these threatening and very public warnings seeks to out the deepest and darkest of secrets of the ton and Mr. Dillman's secret might just have followed him to the grave.

Soon more homes are vandalized and what seemed at first mildly titillating and a field day for gossips has the ton gripped in terror. How each family approaches their secret shame depends on how bad their crime. Some wait with baited breath, some flee England, some openly expose their own secrets, and some choose to take their secrets to the grave. Emily and Colin can see no connection between the victims aside from the fact that they had something to hide, which could apply to anyone they know, from the highest ranking individuals to their dearest friends. Soon their investigation narrows on a few individuals; Mr. Foster, a politician being groomed for Prime Minister, his best friend and policy shaper Mr. Barnes, who could never rise to power on his own being half West Indian, Mrs. Winifred Harris, an inveterate busybody, and the outlandish Lady Glover, whom the vandal appears to be in contact with when she's not taking her zebras for a stroll in the park. But if this individual wants to cause as much damage to as many individuals as possible why are they targeting Cordelia Dalton, someone peripheral to the first victim? When she goes missing it becomes clear Mr. Dillman is more important than the other victims. He might just be the key to catching this odious criminal and stopping their stranglehold on the city.

A Crimson Warning takes place about a year after Emily and Colin's last adventure in France and we get to see them settled into their new life in London. While I initially thought I was being mildly cheated by not getting to see Emily and Colin merge their households and their staff with all the ensuing chaos, I realized that I should never question Tasha because she knows what's right for her characters. The relative calm of the Hargreaves household is needed to serve as a counterpoint to the mania that is gripping the town. If they had a household in disarray while the town was balancing on a knife's edge the book would have ended up too frenetic. You need moments of calm, especially in a murder mystery, where you can gather your thoughts and let your heart stop racing with a nice cup of tea or glass of port. I think this is why I don't like action films, they don't understand the need for proper pacing. But then again, in an action film they rarely have a plot and if you were given a moments respite you might notice this. Whereas Tasha's writing is perfectly plotted, with just the right hints, red herrings, and reveals that you are enthralled until the very last page.

But what made me breathe the biggest sigh of relief? Because a year has passed since Colin was a total controlling dick in France, justifiable in his mind not mine, Emily and him have worked out their respective rolls in their marriage and in their investigations, smoothing over the bumps from his being reactionary and overprotective. Colin isn't shutting Emily out and Emily in turn isn't sneaking around behind his back trying to help while still trying to be a dutiful wife. They know where their strengths lie and know that they will ask for the others help when it is needed. When Colin flits away into the night to follow a new lead he has faith that Emily knows he doesn't need him at the moment, but the second he does he will call her into action. While Emily knows he won't interfere with her own line of inquiry and will even be there to help should she need it. They are in balance and oh how this made me happy. But not nearly as happy as when Emily stopped by Mr. Dillman's and the butler let her in to search the victim's possessions. Emily thought he let her in because she was so convincing in her justifications to him, but really it's because the butler had heard of the successful partnership of her and her husband. They have a reputation! A good one! This made Emily understandably flattered and made my heart sing that her reputation now proceeds her!

While Emily is shocked to discover that she is now known for something more than being a little eccentric, A Crimson Warning is fascinating in that it's all about discovery. What do the people you know everyday have to conceal. Because it's made quite clear that when the scarlet mark appears on their door they know exactly to what secret it pertains. And most of the secrets are quite scandalous. Therefore it is quite surprising that of all Emily's friends the one most worried about finding their doorstep covered in paint is Ivy! Ivy has a secret! This really proves that you never really know someone. Because from the outset Ivy has always been depicted as the perfect Victorian bride. A perfect wife supporting her husband and a perfect mother now that she was blessed with a daughter. Of course Emily is always trying to corrupt her with sensational literature and port, but to all outward appearances Ivy is just perfectly normal. Though in a London filled with secrets normal apparently means she must have a secret as well. The way Tasha draws out the reveal with Ivy's journal entries is deliciously suspenseful. Will we learn Ivy's secrets from her own lips or from a red slash on her door? I'm obviously not going to spoil it, other than to say it's perfect.

Now though I need to address a serious question I have to raise. Is it possible to marry a fictional character who isn't just fictional but also dead? I'm talking about my complete adoration of Mr. Dillman. That fiance of his, Cordelia Dalton, sure lucked out in locking that one down, that is until he was murdered of course. Why my love of Mr. Dillman? Well, beyond the fact he is a good, kind man who takes care of his workers and has a social conscience, he is also bookish and encourages Cordelia to read literature that even Emily thinks is a little scandalous and therefore wants to read immediately! But more than that, he creates these amazing scavenger hunts for Cordelia that has her searching all over museums to find the right object that then ties into another stage of the hunt that ends in going through Mr. Dalton's library where Mr. Dillman has secreted a surprise for his fiance. I mean, my heart literally melted. I love scavenger hunts and literature, if someone cared about me this much to stage this amazing game, not once but often? That is the man for me ladies and gentlemen! The fact that this game ties into the overall plot just shows how much I love and adore Tasha's series. She creates memorable characters we love and care for but who also serve a purpose dramatically.

One aspect of Tasha's writing that is mentioned again and again in the pull quotes used for the back of her books is that Lady Emily has a sparkling wit and that humor imbues all her adventures. I'm not going to disagree with this statement. In fact I think all books need humor in order to work. Not just because I love me a little snark, but because you get a better sense of someone's personality by laughing with them. A Crimson Warning seems to me to notch up the humor a bit than previous installments. Again I think this is a balancing act that Tasha has carefully staged. Emily's life is calm while Rome burns, and the jokes become more prevalent the bleaker the situation Emily finds herself in. This installment we see even more of the horror of the lower classes in London and the humor is a nice way to combat the stark reality of the situations that Emily finds herself in. The humor never diminishes the suffering she sees, but it's a nice counterpoint to the suffering and helps to further form her social conscience with her wanting to do more and fight for women's suffrage with the Women's Liberal Federation. But all that analysis aside, nothing has made me laugh heartier recently than Emily's observations on Lady Glover and her zebras to Ivy: "Zebras, Ivy. Zebras," I said. "Why are we not better acquainted with this woman?"

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Crimson Warning, Alexander Autumn, Colin Hargreaves, Dangerous to Know, Fictional Romance, Humor, Lady Emily, Literature, London, Mr. Dillman, Murder, Secrets, Social Conscience, Suffrage, Tasha Alexander, Zebras

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 1973
Format: Hardcover, 399 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Buttercup grew up on a farm in Florin. She was a reputed beauty, the great Count Rugen and his wife one day visited the farm to see for themselves. They saw a girl with potential, if she'd bathe, and the Countess saw a very attractive Farm Boy. Though Westley never took notice of the Countess, his heart belonged to Buttercup. The day Buttercup realized she loved him in return he set out into the world to make their fortune. The day he died was the worst of her life, but she emerged from her suffering the most beautiful woman in the world. A woman who could never love again. When Prince Humperdinck offered her his hand in marriage, she was straightforward with him, as he was with her, she will never love him yet she will marry him because otherwise he will kill her. When she is unveiled to the people of Florin they instantly idolize her and the Prince, a warmongering bloodthirsty man, realizes that his plan to have his bride kidnapped and killed framing the county of Guilder is going to go off perfectly. He didn't count on the man in black. The Prince's three assassins, Inigo, a wizard with a sword, Fezzik, a giant that can't be beaten, and Vizzini, a Sicilian with the most cunning mind in the world, kidnap Buttercup with little problem. But when they are crossing Florin channel to Guilder they realize they are being followed. Their pursuer is the man in black. First he bests Inigo, then he bests Fezzik, once he bests Vizzini, Buttercup and her ransom are his. Though that isn't his plan. Buttercup boasts to this masked man that her Prince will come, the masked man says that she is heartless and he should just kill her. That is when the game changes. With fire swamps and out-sized rodents, miracle men and six-fingered swords, can true love find a way back from being mostly dead? Or will evil triumph? After all, life isn't fair.

Ask anyone of my generation what their favorite film is and I bet they answer The Princess Bride. Sure, there are other films of note, from Star Wars to Willow to Empire Records, but The Princess Bride IS the film of my generation. We watch it when we're sad, we watch it when we're happy, when we used to gather in each others apartments in college and had time to waste we'd put it in the VCR. It's the biggest, snuggest, comfort blanket there is. Yeah, suck it gravity blanket you have nothing on The Princess Bride. I can still remember when I first watched it. The summer of 1988 was the hottest on record in Wisconsin. We didn't have central air but the way the upstairs rooms were designed in my house my parents room, my brother's, and mine all had connecting doors. We pulled the shades down, we placed one air conditioning unit in my room and another in my parents, opened all the doors and lived in those three rooms for the summer, leaving occasionally to go to the pool or the movie theater and one memorable outing to Perkins when the air raid sirens went off. I was lucky in that my room became the TV room. We had a tiny TV/VCR combo unit my Dad had gotten for his art gallery and we placed it on an old table we had and rented all the tapes we could. One of these was The Princess Bride. I was instantly in love with it. I watched it again and again, my face inches from the TV as Inigo and Westley fought along the Cliffs of Insanity. I checked out that tape so much that summer that the video store let me buy it off them eventually, and I still have that old copy, though many different DVD releases have been purchased since. In college I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen, but it's an odd experience seeing it with a bunch of drunks who recite every single line of dialogue. But then again, it is the film of my generation.

I don't know when I realized there was a book written by William Goldman. For years I believed there was an S. Morgenstern and William Goldman was a hack, but what can I say? I was an impressionable ten year old and I wanted to believe that a book this wonderful, this magical was real. Of course it IS real, but in it's own special way. But the truth is when I first picked up this book I couldn't see it for what it was. I loved the book because of the movie, and the book seemed to fill in all these little gaps for me. Therefore I felt like this book was the film's bible, an annotated version of the film where I was just waiting for my favorite lines to appear. I finally knew why Fezzik was so scared to be left alone in Greenland! I FINALLY understood the fencing banter between Westley and Inigo on the tops of the Cliffs of Insanity. I knew where Fezzik found the four white horses as well as why he rhymed. All these pieces fell into place and I developed an even greater love of the movie. But as that was happening I was also falling in love with the book. There are rare occasions when I love a book and it's adaptation. There are even rarer occasions when I love them but admit that they are two totally different things. Yet here this is true. The movie adaptation of the book is funny and wonderful, but also a lovely fairy tale with oodles of romance. The book, the book is snarky and barbed and self-aware and almost an anti-fairy tale and yet it stands on it's own and is a classic in it's own right. The Princess Bride as originally written by William Goldman is a mine of the meta (meta was already a thing but just) and takes what is expected and subverts it. Pirates and thieves are good while Princes are bad and it's all just perfect, in a way all its own.

Yet there is an irony built into the book. This book is "abridged" wherein Goldman omits all that he thought boring and insinuates his own voice over the voice of "Morgenstern's" with the liberal use of italicized text. These interruptions, along with the introduction, are the framing device that, tweaked here and there, became Peter Falk reading to Fred Savage in the film. While the interruptions are entertaining, being an author fictionalizing his own life and then commenting on another author who doesn't exist, the introduction is a little self-indulgent. There's a bit too much "Hollywood" and not enough grounding in reality. The pool scene which seems to be a Dudley Moore fantasy from any of his various seventies and eighties films is just a bridge too far. Therefore I would seriously like any of you who've read this book to answer truthfully, how many of you have actually read the introduction after the first time you've read the book? Just as I thought. None of you! I can not count how many times I've read The Princess Bride, but I'm pretty darn sure I've read the introduction exactly two times: the first time I read the book and then this time. The irony in all this is that the readers are abridging an "abridged" book as they read it. I've often wondered why there's never been a version released without the introduction, or in this anniversary edition's case, the two introductions. Perhaps it's to show the readers that are under the same delusion I was that Morgenstern is nothing more than the creation of Goldman, and that while the introduction is uneven and pretty unnecessary, it shows the complete breadth of Goldman's talents. Who knows? Perhaps we may get answers in five years when the inevitable fiftieth anniversary edition is released...

Those people who have only ever watched the movie and never read the book are missing out because they never get to see the depths of the friendship between Fezzik and Inigo. Yes, they were wonderfully brought to life by André the Giant and Mandy Patinkin and you could see the friendship between them, but in the book their friendship is the backbone that holds the story together. This is especially seen when they enter the Zoo of Death! At this point if you haven't read the book you're wondering WTF is the Zoo of Death!?! Well, the Zoo of Death was obviously not included in the film for budgetary reasons. Why have Count Rugen's little torture chamber for Westley buried underground beneath four levels of animals that the Prince loves to hunt and kill when a smaller chamber accessed via a tree would serve just as well? But the movie's loss is our gain! Because here we can see that their codependency is based on actually caring for each other. They followed Vizzini because they both were searching for a purpose in life and Vizzini made that purpose easy, just do as he said. Yet while entering into that partnership the two outcasts found each other. Inigo will gladly trade rhymes forever when Fezzik is down, and each knows how to push the others buttons, not out of malice, but in order to have the other be the best person they can be. The reward of all this is in the end when Fezzik saves the day. He learns to think on his own and starts to become more than just a frightened little boy but a man. In fact I would say that, at least in the book, these two are the stars. We never learn much about Buttercup or Westley's backstory, but Inigo and Fezzik have these fleshed out pasts that lead to this adventure and you can see their futures stretching out in front of them, and you just want to be on that adventure as well.

Which makes you wonder, is there ever going to be another adventure? Ten years after The Princess Bride Goldman did write another short story under the pseudonym of Morgenstern, The Silent Gondoliers, which was reissued in 2001, which was right when people were wondering if Buttercup's Baby was going to be out soon. The thing is I don't really know what's up with Buttercup's Baby. For those who don't know when the twenty-fifth anniversary edition was released twenty years ago now there was almost a hundred new pages added to The Princess Bride. No, it wasn't Buttercup going to her training, or anything omitted from the original text as a joke, it started out with a new introduction by Goldman in the vein of his original introduction, some young woman hitting on him for no reason, followed by some references to a son he never had, you get the idea. What was fun was he expanded on the missing "Reunion Scene" which I'm sure if you're a hardcore fan you wrote in for. And no, I'm not going to spoil that for you. After much toing and froing, including references to Stephen King, whose books Goldman has adapted for the screen many times, you get to the meat, a new chapter! We see all our favorites, Fezzik, Inigo, Westley, Buttercup, and their daughter Waverly. Yes, that's right, they have a daughter who is soon to endure a kidnapping, much as her mother did years before. It's a very solid beginning to a new story that ends on a literal cliffhanger. So I can't help but wonder why did Goldman write it? He could never hope to eclipse the success of The Princess Bride and making Buttercup's Baby into a movie would be verboten, so why? My best guess is that this was a little gift to the fans, a thank you for all the support over the years. Will we get more? I don't know, and honestly, I don't think that was ever the plan, and Goldman's getting up there in age. But ask me again in five years...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abridged, Buttercup, Buttercup's Baby, Count Rugen, Fezzik, Inigo Montoya, S. Morgenstern, Stephen King, Sweet Reads, The Princess Bride, The Silent Gondoliers, Vizzini, Westley, William Goldman, Zoo of Death

Another dumpster fire of a year done and dusted. Well, not everything was horrible, but looking back on the year? Yeah, it kind of was. I am more grateful than you can imagine for friends, family, and books. If it wasn't for the escape and the love, what would we have? We'd have insanity. I'd be way more crazy than I actually am. As for landmarks of the year? I turned forty and celebrated by re-reading all of Harry Potter. Now that was a good thing. Trying to be proactive and get all my medical checkups done prior to turning forty was perhaps overly ambitious. Why is it when you try to accomplish one thing it snowballs and has all these horrid aftershocks? But I now have beautiful new fillings in my teeth and no cavities and a knowledge to NEVER take the gas offered at the dentist's office. Want to know what an instant panic attack feels like, take gas! But enough about that, let's get to the books I read this year! There were a lot of good ones and oddly a lot of bad ones that for some reason I was reading for book club... it was not a good year to let fate choose anything for you I guess. Onward to books!

1) Lovers' Lane: the Hall-Mills Mystery by Rick Geary: Still the best book in Rick Geary's true crime graphic novel series. I mean, so good, it was one of my best reads of 2017!

2) Giant Days #28 by John Allison: There is NO WAY I'm going to remember anything that happened in any of these individual comic issues I read at the beginning on 2018. Seriously, I can't. I'm even looking at the cover as I type and there's nothing...

3) Giant Days #29 by John Allison: Ditto.

4) Giant Days #30 by John Allison: Oh, I hated Daisy's girlfriend. I can tell that from the cover!

5) Giant Days #31 by John Allison: Nope, nothing.

6) Giant Days #32 by John Allison: Ditto.

7) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach: My main problem with this book wasn't that it was macabre, it's that I already knew all the information. Between a love of CSI, true crime, and taking tons of art classes, this was all old hat and therefore boring.

8) Afterlife with Archie, Vol. 1: Escape from Riverdale by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: I like that the zombie apocalyspse started because Jug tried to save his dog. But other than that it was forgettable and I've been on the hold list at my library for so long for volume two I have a feeling I will have forgotten everything from volume one by the time I get it.

9) Giant Days #33 by John Allison: See above, no idea.

10) Giant Days #34 by John Allison: Ditto.

11) Giant Days 2016 Holiday Special #1 by John Allison: I think this was the "if they had never met" scenario, which is, in my mind, so played out. Though better than the Love Actually parody. God I hate Love Actually.

12) Deadly Class, Vol. 1: Reagan Youth by Rick Remender: Mishmash of a series about an elite high school for assassins which I read in anticipation of the new show based on it. Personally, I think it looks great as a show from the previews because they can infuse the eighties into it more. As a comic it failed to deliver.

13) The Professor's Daughter by John Sfar: I hated this so much after years of looking forward to it that I have fully blocked everything about it from my mind.

14) Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna: Meh graphic novel modern retelling of Jane Eyre. Just read Jane Eyre. 

15) Turning Japanese by MariNaomi: Graphic novel/travel diary of visiting family in Japan. The actual travel, family, and history was fascinating, the whole personal relationship problems was a slog.

16) The Magicians by Lev Grossman: After falling in love with the TV series I thought it was only fair to give the book another shot. I enjoyed it more than the first time, but I enjoy the series so much more and am counting down the days until season four begins. I am such a dork for that show, I even met Q at a comic convention this year.

17) Giant Days 2017 Holiday Special #1 by John Allison: THIS was the Love Actually parody. Seriously, why do people like that movie? I hate it.

18) The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill: Adorable book wherein you have dragons as your companions and they record you memories and experiences together and then if you brew tea from the leaves they grow you can re-experience your time together. Delightful and beautifully drawn. I also now want a tea dragon.

19) Riverdale Vol. 1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: I'm a huge fan of Riverdale but this comic was pointless because it was all the stories leading up to season one, but we had learned them all in flashbacks on the series, so what was the point?

20) Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory: This book is not what the description says it is. It's not about a family that has psychic powers, though they do, it's more about a family of con artists who have fallen on bad times and a lot of weird sex stuff. As one of my members of book club said, when the most interesting character is dead that's a bad sign. Avoid it if you can.

21) Monstress #13 by Marjorie Liu: There's a reason this series is so well regarded. Go check it out now!

22) Giant Days #35 by John Allison: No idea what happened in this issue.

23) Snotgirl #9 by Byran Lee O'Malley: No clue what happened in this issue, though I am now interested to read it again because I gave it four stars and overall this series has been very lackluster so what happened in this issue to make me like it?

24) Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Wow. If you've only scene a film or play version of this film perhaps you should just leave it there. Because this is just an epistolary novel of rape.

25) The Double Life of Miranda Turner Vol. 1 by Jamie S. Rich: If You Have Ghosts by Jamie S. Rich: The lead's dead sister was a superhero, I think... very unmemorable.

26) The Princess Bride by William Goldman: A classic. Easily one of my favorite books of all time. True love, pirates, six-fingered men, I'm here for all of it. Bittersweet typing this though with the passing of William Goldman this year.

27) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #1 by Joss Whedon: I never thought that there'd be something in the Buffyverse I hated more than some of the comic arcs in season eight or say the season two episode about the eggs... I was wrong. This was godawful.

28) Dubliners by James Joyce: I can see why this is a classic of Irish literature, but at the same time I felt that the book relied to heavily on stereotypes. Yes, on the one hand it shows the universality of the Irish experience, on the other it played into the stereotypes and put them down for all time so that the Irish people are now expected to behave a certain way.

29) The End of Temperance Dare by Wendy Webb: Wow, this was so not what I expected. I expected something actual Gothic, but instead this reads as a writer's seminar living out Somewhere in Time and concentrating on the romance. Ugh.

30) Roots by Tara O'Connor: Yes I know this was something Irish something... but I've blocked all memory of it...

31) Lumberjanes, Vol. 7: A Bird's-Eye View by Shannon Watters: Was this the one with giant sky birds? I'm guessing from the title it is... but this series just gets more out there and less appealing as the quality has taken a steep nosedive, the drawing suffering the worst. 

32) Road to Riverdale Vol. 1 by Mark Waid: Hmm... maybe this was the Riverdale volume with the prequels we already knew about... I was just very underwhelmed by this series overall and have thus stopped reading.

33) Giant Days #36 by John Allison: I hope this is where Daisy and the evil German broke up... that was a long time coming. 

34) Home Time: Under the River by Campbell Whyte: Children lost in a magical land full of secrets and adventure after falling into a river? Could they be in an upside down world? How will they get home? This has all the wonder and magic of a eighties kids movie that you still cherish. I can not wait until the next volume is done.

35) Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones: Oh, to find a new Regency Magic book is magic indeed! This book by Kelly Jones is wonderful, full of magical clothes, dual identities, and an ending that relies on brains and know-how, not on finding a mate.

36) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: This was a re-read from I believe last year... can't be sure. The first time I was way into this story, but the second time you realize there's not much going on, just a lot of setting up the world building of three magical and non-magical Londons.

37) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #1 by Simon Spurrier: Oh, this turned out to be WAY better than I expected. Though my expectations were very low, classic movies and TV shows done as comics have always seemed to let me down. But Simon Spurrier is onto something, keeping the spirit of the original but telling an entirely new story, how Jareth became the Goblin King!

38) Monstress #14 by Marhorie Liu: Again, always awesome, but it all merges together in my brain, getting the shield up and fixed, Kippa needing more story time, you get the idea.

39) Harrow County #29 by Cullen Bunn: I NEVER wanted this series to end. But I feel like having Hester come back from the grave for a final showdown was a great "big bad" fight that led to a satisfying conclusion.

40) Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess by Janet Hill: This book about a dog governess was weird. The drawings were cute, but the typesetting a font choice seemed out of date. What's more the story wasn't very good. A picture book needs balance, good art AND good narrative, suffer in one and it just doesn't work.

41) Monstress #15 by Marjorie Liu: More Monstress goodness! And it's Kippa time!

42) A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss: SO adorable. I love that we have people like Stephen Colbert and John Oliver out there taking the piss out of hate-mongers by turning their words and their lives against them to make them inadvertently do good with books about inclusivity and caring. Here's to Marlon Bundo! 

43) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #2 by Joss Whedon: WHY!?! Just why would you write this shit about Giles!?!

44) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #2 by Simon Spurrier: Thankfully after reading about Giles, ugh, I got to spend some time in a slightly older and mysterious Labyrinth.

45) A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab: What a difference time does to the reading of books. I originally disliked this middle volume of Schwab's series because nothing happens, but this time around I liked spending time just getting to know the characters better. Even if it's just a different take on The Hunger Games..

46) Snotgirl #10 by Bryan Lee O'Malley: Back to B.S. This series really has no forward momentum or actual arc. Does Bryan Lee O'Malley actually have an endgame? My guess is no.

47) Giant Days #37 by John Allison: Daisy's bitch of an ex destroys Daisy's relationship with Dasiy's grandmother. Ugh, die bitch, die!

48) A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab: I really didn't like this ending, because it wasn't really an ending. They vanquished the evil "for now" and then resolved nothing and sailed off into the sunset? Um, no. That's not fair to the readers. Conclusions and then little openings for the future, not gaping openings for the future and no resolution!

49) Mother of Souls by Heather Rose Jones: This third volume in Jones's Alpennia series surprised me. I really liked it! She finally is including a wider range of characters while still keeping the old cast around. It's going full on Game of Thrones (ensemble-wise) and I'm loving that.

50) Harrow County #30 by Cullen Bunn: Please don't go!

51) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #3 by Simon Spurrier: More awesomeness in the Labyrinth.

52) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #3 by Joss Whedon: Grumble, rumble, Giles sucks. Also it really doesn't make sense...

53) Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: I would say this is the most over rated book of the year... but there's actually another that holds that honor. Sloppy worldbuilding and an ending that left many people wondering if a main character was dead, not to mention the desert hunger games that wastes water and this book will have you complimenting the cover and not much else.

54) Giant Days #38 by John Alliso: No idea what happened in this issue. 

55) Stack the Cats by Susie Ghahremani: Did you know that adorable illustrations of cats being stacked on each other is a sure fire way to get a five star review out of me? Because it is!

56) Lumberjanes, Vol. 8: Stone Cold by Shannon Watters: My most hated volume to date! Can't remember exactly why I hated it, but I did.

57) I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara: Firstly, how cool is it that they actually caught The Golden State Killer!?! But what makes this book about him work is Michelle McNamara's more personal insights into what drew her to the case. The book was obviously incomplete at the time of her death with structure and timeline issues that a good editor would have fixed and the ending was slapped together by her friends when I think a good ghostwriter would have done a better job. But still, a must read for the true crime aficionados.

58) Chi's Sweet Adventures, Vol. 1 by Konami Kanata: This was odd because it basically backtracked the original series ending with the family moving to Paris and instead repeated some older tales as well as showing newer tales in the older timeline... I would have preferred new stories in Paris rather than something obviously written to sell the Amazon show.

59) Monstress #16 by Marjorie Liu: More Monstress awesomeness.

60) A Castle in England by Jamie Rhodes: No memory of this at all. And yes, I do find it odd that I blocked it so completely...

61) Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings: I read this because it's the basis for the wonderful TV show Killing Eve. The book is odd in that they give you everything about Villanelle up front instead of it being a mystery, which threw me a bit, because the mystery is what keeps it going. If you're expecting the TV show, it's not at all like that. It's female James Bond, if Bond were a villain. Still entertaining, but in a different way than the stellar show.

62) The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary: It's weird when I can't remember what happened in a Rick Geary book, but so it is here... though I believe this was about blatant profiling and discrimination by the cops...

63) And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander: The first in Tasha's Lady Emily series. Oh, how I adore this series and this entry about Emily's young widowhood, then learning her husband might have been murdered, and then that he might still be alive!?! Edge of you seat Victorian thrills!

64) Hello, Mr. Hulot by David Merveille: Shitty book, watch the movies instead.

65) Hildafolk by Luke Pearson: I have a new favorite blue haired girl, sorry Coraline, but Hilda is awesome and Scandi and has cool sidekicks and friends made of wood!

66) Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson: I love that this volume isn't just about Hilda's adventures but shows a valuable lesson about interdependency and ecosystems relying on each other.

67) Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson: Why did Hilda have to move to the city? WHY!?!

68) Hilda and the Black Hound by Luke Pearson: I love black ominous hounds. They are awesome. Love live the Grim!

69) Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson: This was an evil trick! I binged all the Hilda books and the last one ended on a cliffhanger with Hilda turned into a troll!

70) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #4 by Joss Whedon: Make it stop! Oh it's stopped? This is it. Whew.

71) The Woods, Vol. 1: The Arrow by James Tynion IV: Seeing as I'm writing this with hindsight, what I thought was a series with potential, about a high school transplanted to another planet, is really starting to live up to said potential. Also, Wisconsin represent!

72) Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill: OMG! Locke and Key where have you been all my life!?! Big old spooky house, keys with magical properties, a family being torn apart? YAS! Thanks go to my friend Jess for making me read this finally.

73) Southern Bastards, Vol. 1: Here Was a Man by Jason Aaron: This series actually makes football compelling, in that it shows how it's the lifeblood of this town and how it corrupts all it touches.

74) A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily book two, which is, in my mind, the weakest in the series, but what's interesting is that the character of gentleman thief, Sebastian Capet, who we are first introduced to here, has become one of my favorite characters.

75) Head Games by Joe Hill: A key to unlock your head and take out bad memories or impulses or whatever you want? Now that is a dangerous and fasincating concept. More Locke and Key stat! It was seriously painful waiting for these volumes to arrive from the library. Thankfully I now own them.

76) Harrow County #31 by Cullen Bunn: The penultimate issue!

77) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #4 by Simon Spurrier: More awesomeness in the Labyrinth. Yeah, that's also me covering for not remembering much...

78) Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill: Not exactly sure what happens in this collection, I remember the series now more as a whole then the individual arcs. How could people stand waiting for these all and not have the luxury to binge?

79) Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill: The weakest in the Locke and Key series only because we get short vignettes of what all these other keys do without having the full adventures. I want the full adventures.

80) The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates: What was interesting about this biography is that Ta-Nehisi is about the same age as me so we have similar overall cultural touchstones, but vary so drastically in where and how we were raised. Still a slog to get through in the end and his writing style and concept of a timeline are all over the place.

81) Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero: How did this book get such good reviews? It's just Scooby-Doo slash with major transphobia issues.

82) Clockworks by Joe Hill: Again, can't remember exactly what happened here, but all the pieces of past and present started to fall into place for the final showdown...

83) Giant Days #39 by John Allison: I think this is where Daisy finds her calling as an RA. I would like Daisy as my RA.

84) Monstress #17 by Marjorie Liu: Have you started Monstress yet? If you've read this far you've had time to read an issue of the comic. 

85) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #1 by Joss Whedon: Oh, looks like Joss is putting all the pieces into place for a big BIG bad showdown as well as tying up the Fray/Buffy loose ends.

86) The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley: I always love a Flavia De Luce story, and this one didn't disappoint as the clan go on holiday down the river, where of course Flavia finds a body and they get sucked into the weird town where the body is from. The only gripe I have is that a few of the odd characters, such as the new priest, have plot points left dangling, leaving it not the neatest of Flavia's stories.

87) Alpha and Omega Joe Hill: I was literally crying at some of these characters deaths. LITERALLY! Why couldn't everyone survive? I know that's not realistic, but I love all these characters way too much. MORE!

88) Harrow County #32 by Cullen Bunn: And a satisfying ending. What to do now? Go back to the beginning and read them all again!

89) Locke and Key: Heaven and Earth by Joe Hill: This was a Locke and Key prequel that I felt lacked the feel of the original series. More trying to pull on heartstrings with the history of one of the keys. Too sappy.

90) The Lost Path by Amélie Fléchais: Stupid pointless story about kids getting lost.

91) Locke and Key: Small World Deluxe Edition by Joe Hill: Whereas this Locke and Key prequel was awesome. CATS SAVE THE DAY! I also found out that you can actually get real copies of the keys!

92) Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks by Holly Black: Huh, so getting a whole bunch of different artists and authors made me realize that this series still has life in it if the reigns are handed over...

93) Southern Bastards, Vol. 2: Gridiron by Jason Aaron: An interesting volume in that we get the background of our villainous football coach and kind of sympathize with him but at the same time know what an evil man he is...

94) Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell: OMG this was horrible. Not only do you have to really know your Runaways, but the story is totally unoriginal. I expected far more from Rainbow Rowell. I will not be picking up any more of this series.

95) The Woods, Vol. 2: The Swarm by James Tynion IV: I like that this series is willing to spend a lot of time on the backgrounds of the characters so we can see why they make the choices they make now that they are trapped on an alien planet and don't know what to do.

96) Giant Days #40 by John Allison: Not sure... was this when Ed broke his leg?

97) Far Arden by Kevin Cannon: So weird. Very Canadian, like overly Canadian, which made me wonder if it was a parody. Doesn't really come across as such though and it's weird in what it's goal is...

98) The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg: A fascinating historical fiction book told from the POV of Jack London's wife who happened to be Houdini's lover. Really gives insight into the two men and how this one woman was important to them both.

99) A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander: All Lady Emily's third book made me want to do was go to Vienna. Immediately. But Lady Emily's Vienna. I think I need a time machine.

100) The Bridal Strain: Emily and Colin’s Wedding by Tasha Alexander: A little reverie showing Emily and Colin's wedding.

101) Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson: While I hated Craig Thompson's famous Blankets, I have to say this book of his travels won me over more because of the cats and the diarrhea jokes.

102) Monstress #18 by Marjorie Liu: Have you started reading Monstress since I last mentioned you should?

103) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #2 by Joss Whedon: Ah, it's said looking at this with hindsight, because this is when I still thought that Joss could end Buffy's journey well... oh how wrong I was...

104) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle: There's NEVER a bad time to re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles for all it's Gothic goodness. It is easily the best tale of Sherlock Holmes hands down. I should know, I just keep reading it again and again!

105) Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith: I read this book to be ready for the forth book coming out in the fall and instead decided that this will forevermore be the best Cormoran Strike book ever. more intimate and personal with bigger stakes. I was hooked.

106) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #5 by Simon Spurrier: I'm currently behind on reading this, which means I have to get at it! It's such a great companion to the original film, unlike that manga series.

107) Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis: Mishmashed worldbuilding of werewolves and coffeshops that failed to deliver on every level.

108) Giant Days #41 by John Allison: No idea what happened, but it was awesome.

109) The Infinite Loop by Pierrick Colinet: HATED THIS! A bizarre futuristic world of punishing homosexuals and trying to omit them from history. It made no sense!

110) Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander: Book four of Lady Emily's adventures take her on a working honeymoon to Constantinople and inside the hidden world of women and their power.

111) Kill or be Killed, Vol. 3 by Ed Brubaker: Could our vigilante be clinically insane? And could it be hereditary?

112) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling: The reason I love the Fantastic Beasts film franchise more than the Harry Potter one is that this is exactly J.K.'s vision. There is no distortion, no omissions, just her words as she wanted it.

113) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: OK, how did I never catch that Erised was desire spelled backwards? I feel like a dolt.

114) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: Oh, finding all these hidden gems, the vanishing cabinet! 

115) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: I have never really liked Sirius Black, I know, gasp in horror here, but now that I've cast him as Aiden Turner in my head I'm liking him far more.

116) The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi: Wow, this graphic novel for middle grade readers shows clearly how not to do worldbuilding. It's all over the place and not in an interesting way. I'm never reading more in this series...

117) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: Still my favorite Harry Potter book.

118) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #3 by Joss Whedon: And then it went to hell. Why bring back the Mayor? Seriously. No.

119) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: I love Neville so freaking much. And Luna just breaks my heart.

120) The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin: Hey look, it's the most over-rated book of the year! Bullshit storytelling that's too fast and loose and you don't care about any of the characters. I really disliked it and the bad spell of books chosen for book club continued...

121) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: For some reason this read I connected more with the book and it's now way higher in my ranking, which changes every read if I'm honest...

122) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #4 by Joss Whedon: Well that was a lame and lackluster finish. Perhaps not cookie dough lame... also I swear there are some words missing at the end because Buffy makes no sense...

123) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: No more Harry Potter to read! What will I do. Small voice in my head... read them all again...

124) Giant Days #42 by John Allison: No idea. At all.

125) Snotgirl #11 by Bryan Lee O'Malley: I should really stop reading this series, but it's like a train wreck, I can't look away.

126) The Hogwarts Library by J.K. Rowling: This includes all the "textbooks" and tales, and I got to say, when J.K. said she was making a  movie out of one of the texbooks I said it couldn't be done. I was wrong.

127) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts I and II by John Tiffany: So many inaccuracies and so wrong on so many levels, but it pulls at the heartstrings and you can't help but love it.

128) The Woods, Vol. 3: New London by James Tynion IV: There are other people on the planet!?! A whole civilization? Aren't they worried about germs? I would be. Could wipe out everyone.

129) Southern Bastards, Vol. 3: Homecoming by Jason Aaron: I love that things are falling apart for the football coach. Can't wait until justice is served.

130) X-Men Noir by Fred Van Lente: OMG, this was just shit. I just can't even. SHIT!

131) Giant Days #43 by John Allison: An evil Christmas playland? Um, yeah, I'm kind of reading about that right now too, though written by Joe Hill... So far far darker than this.

132) Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley: Nope. I picked this up on the recommendation of Patrick Rothfuss and the fact it takes place in Wisconsin, but it's just a gibbering mess of a new zombie mythology. No thank you.

133) Black Magick, Vol. 1: Awakening, Part One by Greg Rucka: Pick up this book for the amazing art, but stay for the story of witches working for the greater good, but an organization that thinks they might be evil and is trying to stop them.

134) Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's fifth adventure pits her against what those around her are calling the French Ripper! Lady Emily at her Gothic best!

135) A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's sixth adventure sees her dealing with secrets and politics in the heart of the London season during a heatwave!

136) Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau by Jewell Parker Rhodes: All the no in the world to this book where there is some of the creepiest child molestation I've ever read.

137) Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander: Venice is the setting for Lady Emily's seventh adventure which sees her actually called in to help an old "friend." At the end Emily gets something she never expected...

138) Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander: For Lady Emily's eighth outing she's ensconced out on her country estate and living the Upstairs, Downstairs life.

139) Black Magick, Vol. 2: Awakening II by Greg Rucka: The problem with finding great series that aren't complete, like Locke and Key, is that now I'm all caught up and need more!

140) The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander: If anyone can make cemeteries fascinating it's Lady Emily!

141) Star of the East by Tasha Alexander: A wonderful little Christmas tale from Lady Emily that is very reminiscent of The Moonstone.

142) The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell: A Gothic tale about flat painted wooden people haunting a house that could have been a bit scarier... though the house itself was well described.

143) The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's dear friend Jeremy takes center stage in this tale about his engagement party in the south of France.

144) That Silent Night by Tasha Alexander: A chilling tale of ghosts and lost family which is perfect for a cold winter night.

145) A Terrible Beauty by Tasha Alexander: This installment of Lady Emily's adventures, besides giving me all the feels for when I studied Art History in school, also had so much Greek goodness I think it's now my most favorite of Tasha's books!

146) Whose Boat Is This Boat?: Comments That Don't Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane by Donald Trump: Ugh. This is painful to read because you realize that the president can't even speak words in a way that makes sense.

147) Amid the Winter's Snow by Tasha Alexander: Another winter tale from Tasha about Lady Emily helping her tenants deal with a beast who isn't what he seems. Think more the Beast from Beauty and the...

148) Death in St. Petersburg by Tasha Alexander: Winter, Russia, dead ballerinas, Bolsheviks, yes, Lady Emily is on the case!

149) Uneasy Lies the Crown by Tasha Alexander: Murders made to look like the deaths of kings? I wish I had such fascinating cases to solve. I really am jealous of Lady Emily sometimes. And yes, I know she's fictional.

150) The "Rebecca" Notebook: And Other Memories by Daphne Du Maurier: I should just not read Du Maurier's nonfiction. It's too heavy on the incest and other really horrid topics.

151) The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi: After all the historical fiction, AKA, my Tasha Alexander binge, a goofy space opera is just what I needed. It's heavy on witty one-liners and light on descriptions, but it's a fun, fast read.

152) Giant Days #44 by John Allison: Reading about Valentine's Day in December? I think this issue should have been pushed back a few months...

153) Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder #1 by John Allison: Ugh, I had hopes for Ed's Australian Adventure, but it was blah. Just goes to show you that the women are the stars here with the men being very necessary secondary characters.

154) Kill or be Killed, Vol. 4 by Ed Brubaker: And he was dead all along? I find that kind of ironic given how our narrator was trying to be so "honest" and hid the truth in plain sight. The fake out ending was a bit of a cheap shot and seemed to be filler, but thankfully wasn't the ending.

155) The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi: The second volume in Scalzi's new series, because once I read the first I HAD to read the second. This one is far more Douglas Adams, and I love that this isolated interdependentcy are the loser humans and their are far smarter humans out there. 

156) Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman: Ah, to hear Rebecca de Winter's tale... I really wish I hadn't if I'm honest. Sally Beauman has balls to think she could continue the famous author's tale. She of course failed miserably.

157) Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill: And more Rebecca sequels... this one isn't as bad, but both seem determined for Max to pay for his crime against Rebecca. Guess what? Neither were nice human beings let them both suffer as they will.

158) Berlin, Vol. 1: City of Stones by Jason Lutes: Wow. Not what I expected. I wanted kind of Isherwood and got politics and people who all looked the same. If you're doing a graphic novel the least thing you need to do is be able to draw people who look like different people, not ALL the same. It's confusing otherwise. 

159) Giant Days #45 by John Allison: And Ed's girlfriend has a drinking problem. Oddly real and dark for this series, but also something that everyone faces at some point in college.

160) The Decemberist by George Mann: A wonderful advent calendar of a book with a little one hundred word Newbury and Hobbes story for each day in December. A perfect little book to end out a year of very uneven reading.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm by Christopher Paolini
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The internationally bestselling fantasy sensation is back, with brand-new stories set in the world of Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle!

A wanderer and a cursed child. Spells and magic. And dragons, of course. Welcome back to the world of Alagaësia.

It's been a year since Eragon departed Alagaësia in search of the perfect home to train a new generation of Dragon Riders. Now he is struggling with an endless sea of tasks: constructing a vast dragonhold, wrangling with suppliers, guarding dragon eggs, and dealing with belligerent Urgals and haughty elves. Then a vision from the Eldunarí, unexpected visitors, and an exciting Urgal legend offer a much-needed distraction and a new perspective.

This volume features three original stories set in Alagaësia, interspersed with scenes from Eragon's own unfolding adventure. Included is an excerpt from the memoir of the unforgettable witch and fortune-teller Angela the herbalist...penned by Angela Paolini, the inspiration for the character, herself!

Relish the incomparable imagination of Christopher Paolini in this thrilling new collection of stories based in the world of the Inheritance Cycle. Includes four new pieces of original art by the author."

I've been wanting to re-read the Inheritance Cycle, perhaps this new book will be just the push I need!

The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bookish puzzles, phantom mysteries, and evil curses await as Elizabeth returns to Winterhouse in Book 2 of this magical series.

Back at the Winterhouse hotel for another holiday season, Elizabeth and Freddy dig deeper into the mystery surrounding Riley S. Granger, a hotel guest who left behind odd artifacts―one being a magical book that the evil Gracella Winters once attempted to use to gain destructive power over the entire Falls lineage. The two friends follow a trail of clues, inadvertently attracting the attention of a suspicious new hotel guest: Elana Vesper. The clock is ticking as Elizabeth and Freddy struggle to figure out whether Elana is merely a pawn or a player in the plot to revive the spirit of Gracella. If that wasn’t enough, Elizabeth suspects she is coming into her own special powers―and she’s fearful it might lead her right into Gracella’s vicious web. Mystery, adventure, and a winning friendship combine in this much anticipated sequel."

For my friend Marie who saw the first book at Barnes and noble the other day and was delighted by the cover. 

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant
Published by: Subterranean
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"We live in an age of wonders. Modern medicine has conquered or contained many of the diseases that used to carry children away before their time, reducing mortality and improving health. Vaccination and treatment are widely available, not held in reserve for the chosen few. There are still monsters left to fight, but the old ones, the simple ones, trouble us no more. Or so we thought. For with the reduction in danger comes the erosion of memory, as pandemics fade from memory into story into fairy tale. Those old diseases can't have been so bad, people say, or we wouldn't be here to talk about them. They don't matter. They're never coming back. How wrong we could be. It begins with a fever. By the time the spots appear, it's too late: Morris's disease is loose on the world, and the bodies of the dead begin to pile high in the streets. When its terrible side consequences for the survivors become clear, something must be done, or the dying will never stop. For Dr. Isabella Gauley, whose niece was the first confirmed victim, the route forward is neither clear nor strictly ethical, but it may be the only way to save a world already in crisis. It may be the only way to atone for her part in everything that s happened. She will never be forgiven, not by herself, and not by anyone else. But she can, perhaps, do the right thing. We live in an age of monsters."

It's hard enough keeping up with reading all of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's work, imagine being her?

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rebus' retirement is disrupted once again when skeletal remains are identified as a private investigator who went missing over a decade earlier. The remains, found in a rusted car in the East Lothian woods, not far from Edinburgh, quickly turn into a cold case murder investigation. Rebus' old friend, Siobhan Clarke is assigned to the case, but neither of them could have predicted what buried secrets the investigation will uncover.

Rebus remembers the original case - a shady land deal--all too well. After the investigation stalled, the family of the missing man complained that there was a police cover-up. As Clarke and her team investigate the cold case murder, she soon learns a different side of her mentor, a side he would prefer to keep in the past.

A gripping story of corruption and consequences, this new novel demonstrates that Rankin and Rebus are still at the top of their game."

Rebus! I love a good cop whose retirement just can't stick. 

Book Love by Debbie Tung
Published by: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. And paperbacks! And ebooks! And bookstores! And libraries!

Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognizable—making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated."

Books!!! Yes, that might be my doppelganger on the cover... 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alagaseia, Ben Guterson, Book Love, Christopher Paolini, Debbie Tung, Ian Rankin, Kingdom of Needle and Bone, Mira Grant, Rebus, Seanan McGuire, The Fork the Witch and the Worm, The Secrets of Winterhouse

Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman
Published by: HarperCollins e-books
Publication Date: 2000
Format: Kindle, 466 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Colonel Julyan has always wondered if he did wrong by Rebecca. He was her only real friend when she was the mistress of Manderley and he never looked too closely at the verdict of suicide once it was revealed she was dying of cancer. Could her husband, Maxim, have killed her in a jealous rage without ever realizing she was using him to end her life? Ever since that day in London, before Manderley burnt to the ground, the Colonel has had questions and has never searched for the answers. Almost twenty years have passed, Maxim is now dead, but the sensational tales of Rebecca de Winter and Manderley are still dredged up by the press every few years. There are even a few books circulating about. But the Colonel thinks that he has put the past behind him. That is until Terence Gray appears asking questions and giving the Colonel nightmares. The Colonel has always kept his suspicions close to his chest. Never even telling his daughter about his misgivings. But his health is failing and perhaps the last thing he needs to do before he dies is settle his score with Rebecca and that might just begin with letting Terence Gray in. Because Terence knows that the Colonel holds all the cards, the village gossips have given him tons of hearsay, but he needs the truth. He needs the truth about Rebecca, because it might just be his truth as well.

For years I have staunchly refused to read Rebecca's Tale. Having had a bad experience reading Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter I swore off all books that were prequels, sequels, or retellings of Rebecca vowing to cling only to the words of the great Daphne Du Maurier. And then I waivered. Why did I waiver? Why couldn't I have been steadfast? Why couldn't I have found some other something, anything, to fill this last day of Du Maurier December instead of forcing myself to slog through this book? Because Rebecca's Tale is way longer than you'd think, the almost 500 pages are set in eight point font if you buy the book and then return it to Amazon realizing your eyes can't take eight point font and instead read it on your Kindle. But my main problem is the hubris to think that you can write a sequel to Rebecca and even use Daphne Du Maurier's famous opening line slightly tweaked as if you had the genius to come up with it on your own? Oh Sally Beauman, shame, shame, shame. There's a reason there are so few reimaginings of Rebecca versus the work of Jane Austen. Everyone else knew better! Everyone knows not to randomly take plot points from other characters and make then apply to Rebecca. Everyone knows not to purposefully defecate on a classic with reinterpreting every little thing and hating on that which Du Maurier held dear. Everyone but you that is.

Yet if this book is any indication of Sally Beauman's ability as a writer she's just not that good. She doesn't go in for subtly or nuance, instead using a blunt instrument to hammer home every point a thousand times over. While Du Maurier might have lacked nuance in her earlier writing or some of her dramatic reveals, she was unparalleled in using the nuance of language to covey her story. So Beauman couldn't have been a worse choice to carry on Du Maurier's legacy, a writer like her isn't humble enough to understand there are some things you just can't improve on. Instead she used heavy-handed narration. Repeating ad nauseum that a narrator has a bias, thus casting aspersions on Du Maurier's own writing! As for her own? She shows bias by making Colonel Julyan a misogynist who doesn't get the irony of his repeatedly telling Terence to beware bias. Remember bias, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and here's a bat over your head if you haven't grasped the concept of unreliable narrators. But with all the heavy-handed foreshadowing you might just have missed the neon warning sign of bias. Between all the "no inkling then of the revelations that were to come today" and "I...wasn’t to understand its significance for several days" or "and it was then that she gave me information that would prove crucial, though I didn’t realize that immediately" you might have started a drinking game to pass the time and passed out in the process.

As for what drives Rebecca's Tale? There really aren't unanswered questions or loose ends to tie up from Du Maurier's story so the majority of this book is laboriously rehashing the details of Rebecca over and over and over. Big reveals being things we already knew but these characters didn't, like Rebecca's inability to have children. Did we need two hundred pages leading up to this reveal that shocked Terence to his core? NO! Because Du Maurier had done and dusted it before. What loose ends Du Maurier did leave are not answered here at all. Because the only wise move Sally Beauman makes is to know that she is ill equipped to answer those things which are better left unanswered. So we have a book with hundreds of pages devoted to revealing that what we knew and then when she does start to diverge, when she does start to create her own story she decides to purposefully leave everything open-ended. Excuse me? So this book is basically the characters from Rebecca analyzing their own story and then coming to no solid conclusions? But not in a fun Jasper Ffordian way, in a horrible, stodgy, dissertation sort of way? Why would anyone want to write this book let alone read it? Sally Beauman purposefully not filling in the blanks from Maxim's father's will to what really happened with Rebecca and her father filled me with such rage that I almost threw my Kindle across the room until I remembered it wasn't the Kindle's fault. It was Sally Beauman's.

Though by far the most frustrating section of this book is when we finally read "Rebecca's Tale." Here's the first person narration of Rebecca we've been waiting for all along and boy does it disappoint. Because ironically, the characters searching for answers we already knew at least had a bit of mystery, a bit of a forward momentum. Here Rebecca elliptically lays everything out. And while she omits a lot it's too straightforward. There's no way to connect to the story. There's no element of the hunt anymore so these revelations don't feel earned by the writer or the reader. Plus the misogynistic tone of Colonel Julyan starts to spill into Rebecca's own story. If I didn't know for a fact that Sally Beauman is a women I'd say she was a man who really hates women. Maybe she's just a woman who hates other women? Because how else can I account for the victim blaming which oozes off these pages? Rebecca was raped as a seven year old child in France by a fourteen year old boy. She isn't just blamed by her mother and all the locals, Max blames her and even starts to identify with her rapist. What. The. Fuck? If this was a gimmick to tar Maxim, it doesn't work, instead it tars the author. She comes across as someone who wouldn't support the #MeToo movement and in fact might go on television and claim he sexual assault was all her fault. Yes, Du Maurier did write a story about the destruction of a strong willed woman. But she would not have written her ever as a victim.

The biggest problem though with Rebecca's Tale is that while Sally Beauman obviously knows her Du Maurier she doesn't understand it. She can throw out as many hints to her life and work from J.M. Barrie to The Birds, but she doesn't understand the true underpinnings of Rebecca. Instead she tries to force a statement about women and marriage and subservience that doesn't connect to her source material at all. Rebecca had it's roots in Jane Eyre, and both stories deal with the roles women have in society and what that means. Yet both the second Mrs. de Winter and Jane in the end are the ones with power. They love and care for their husbands but they are in complete and total control. By entering a state of wedded bliss they didn't give up their power they eventually found it. Therefore to have Colonel Julyan's daughter throw away her past as a caretaker and deny herself marriage for freedom shows just how ignorant Sally Beauman is, she doesn't understand the power shifts. The whole point of Du Maurier's book is that women can have power in traditional roles that you wouldn't think would give them power. As much as I have mixed feelings over Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea at least she understood her source material. She GOT Jane Eyre and therefore made a classic in her own right. She understood women and power and wasn't about distorting the original but about giving it an even deeper meaning instead of victim blaming and sweeping the ashes under the carpet.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, J.M. Barrie, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Jean Rhys, Kindle, Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, Rebecca's Tale, Sally Beauman, Sequels, Susan Hill, The Birds, Wide Sargasso Sea