Book reviews: Translations | Semiosis | Persuasion

Title: Translations

Author: Brian Friel

Original title: Translations
First published: 1981
Genre: Play, Historical
Series: --
Publisher: Faber Faber
Format: Paperback
Pages: 91
Finished: 20/10/2021
Summary: The time and place is late August 1833 at a hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag - an Irish speaking community in County Donegal. The 'scholars' are a cross-section of the local community, from a semi-literate young farmer to and elderly polygot autodidact who reads and quotes Homer in the orginal.In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the Royal Engineers, engaged on behalf of the Britsh Army and Government in making the first Ordnance Survey. For the purposes of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be recorded and transliterated - or translated - into English, in examining the effects of this operation on the lives of a small group of people, Irish and English, Brian Friel skillfully reveals the unexperctedly far-reaching personal and cultural effects of an action which is at first sight purely administrative and harmless. 

My thoughts: This was a short play that I was asked to read for a university course about sociolinguistics this semester. It was indeed a very fitting play for the course, as it portrays domains and varieties well, and also gives some good examples of codeswitching (bet I won't know for sure what these terms mean in a year, or even six months from now.... I barely know what they mean right now lol). Anyway, disregarding the connections this had to my studies, I did find it to be a decent play and I did get fairly emotionally invested. I cared for Manus and felt that his relationship to both his father and brother were realistic and engaging. It was interesting to see the colonization of Ireland by Britain from this perspective and presented in this way. I wish I could see the play someday. In the end, though, reading play scripts is not my preferred cup of tea, and Translations did not really change that. I enjoyed it a fair bit, but I can see myself forgetting all about it pretty soon.

Rating: 3/5

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Title: Semiosis

Author: Sue Burke

Original title: Semiosis
First published: 2018
Genre: Sci-fi, Adult
Series: Semiosis #1
Publisher: HarperVoyager
Format: Paperback
Pages: 325
Finished: 13/08/2012
Summary: Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that mammals are more than tools. Forced to land on a planet they aren't prepared for, human colonists rely on their limited resources to survive. The planet provides a lush but inexplicable landscape--trees offer edible, addictive fruit one day and poison the next, while the ruins of an alien race are found entwined in the roots of a strange plant. Conflicts between generations arise as they struggle to understand one another and grapple with an unknowable alien intellect. 

My thoughts: Semiosis was a great novel to end the sci-fi summer course with, as it turned out to be one of my favourites from the reading list. I think it's up there with Solaris and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. In fact, I think I liked this most of all. If I had to pitch this novel to someone, I'd describe it as Spore fanfiction written really well. For real. Following the humans on Pax as they evolve and expand their civilization over the course of many generations was fascinating and I would love to read more about their story. Splitting the novel into several perspectives was a choice well made, as I would probably have been bored following only one character from one generation. With a timeline that encompasses 107 years of history, getting bored was never a problem. Furthermore, Burke's depictions of non-human sentient beings was clever and creative, more so because she describes several such beings which are severely different from each other. An intelligent rainbow bamboo? Giant insect-like creatures, descendants of an ancient advanced civilization? More of this, please! It has been especially engaging to write my final essay for the course about this book and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, in which I explore the causes of human conflict upon encounters with foreign environments and non-human beings. I recommend this novel to anyone who wishes to ease themselves into the sci-fi genre without being bombarded with scientific terms, confusing descriptions posing as world building, or too gloomy characters. This novel will entertain you, fascinate you, and have your imagination running wild.

Rating: 4,25/5

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Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen

Original title: Persuasion
First published: 1817
Genre: Classic
Series: --
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 279
Finished: 06/08/2021
Summary: Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate.

My thoughts: Slowly but surely, I work my way through all of Jane Austen's delightful novels. This is the fourth book of hers that I have the pleasure of reading, and it did not disappoint. Persuasion is written in the same elegant prose which Austen never fails to deliver. Her every word is carefully selected, her dialogues thoughtful, and her characters captivating. Anne develops so much in this novel, going from repressed and shy in her character to blossoming and revealing her true traits. It was a joy to follow her unravelling, and no less a pleasure to read of her love for Wentworth.

I am learning of the typical traits of Austen's novels, and it saddens me a bit that they all seem to follow the same patterns. Unlikely romances, class differences, men of deceptive appearance, and love triangles to create drama and suspense. However, as I like to say, why change a successful concept? Austen obviously masters her tropes well and can execute them like no other. Though this, to me, did not live up to the level of Pride and Prejudice, I still liked it a lot and will recommend it with warmth.

Rating: 4/5

Book reviews: Oryx and Crake | All Systems Red | Annihilation

Title: Oryx and Crake

Author: Margaret Atwood

Original title: Oryx and Crake
First published: 2003
Genre: Sci-fi, Adult
Series: MaddAddam
Publisher: Virago
Format: Paperback
Pages: 433
Finished: 20/07/2021
Summary: Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter are wolves and raccoons. A man, once named Jimmy, now calls himself Snowman and lives in a tree, wrapped in old bed-sheets. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.

My thoughts: I read this for my summer studies but also for my own Reading Rush (since there was no official one this year). I used it for the challenge to read a book by an author who's first initial is the same as my own. My name is Maja and this author's first name is Margaret. As for my opinions of the novel, I did like it a fair bit. Watching the development of society and humankind lead to destruction and mass death was interesting and I think Atwood managed to present it in a way that really seemed plausible, which made it all the more horrifying. She creates bizarre creatures and odd social structures that felt alien but might not be far ahead of us on the timeline.

Some details set back my enjoyment of the novel. What really interested me here was the apocalypse and man's decent into chaos and destruction (a destruction based on playing God rather than wars). However, a good chunk of this novel revolved around the protagonist's family drama, love interest, and childhood memories. Not to say this was pointless, as these parts helped build his character. Through these flashbacks to the past, we also catch glimpses of what society was like and can compare it to how Atwood describes the post apocalyptic world that Snowman inhabits. But it became too much for me. This is a rather long book, and it becomes especially evident when one reads it over the course of two days that a lot of pages are dedicated to things that I just didn't care about. Snowman/Jimmy was not a character I cared for, and I don't think that's even the point. I think his role is just to be a vessel from which we can observe Atwood's intricate imaginations. That is why I got tired of learning more about our protagonist, because he wasn't much of a person.

All in all, I enjoyed the novel and would like to continue reading the series at some point in the distant future, preferably within the upcoming five decades or so.

Rating: 3,25/5

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Title: All Systems Red

Author: Martha Wells

Original title: All Systems Red
First published: 2017
Genre: Sci-fi
Series: The Murderbot Diaries #1
Publisher: 
Format: Paperback
Pages: 148
Finished: 23/07/2021
Summary: On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

My thoughts: I read this for my summer studies and for my own Reading Rush of 2021, which I insisted on participating in though no official readathon was held. I decided to read this for the challenge to read an entire book outside, and so I did. It was an excellent opportunity to acquaint myself better with the parks around my apartment, and I could not complain about the weather either. Under these perfect conditions, I was happy to enjoy the story of Murderbot. It is a short book and my review will likewise be so, for as is the case with some stories, I liked it well enough but have little to say about it. The story, especially Murderbot's perspective, is charming and entertaining. Compared to earlier sci-fi (this is very modern sci-fi), it contains adrenaline-inducing scenes of action while still posing questions like "what is it to be human?" and "can I feel love/empathy for an alien/robot?" as is common in older works like Solaris and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It was a fun and quick read which I would recommend for long train rides, flights, or long peaceful days of rain or sunshine.

Rating: 3,75/5

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Title: Annihilation

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Original title: Annihilation
First published: 2014
Genre: Sci-fi
Series: Southern Reach #1
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Finished: 25/07/2021
Summary: For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border - an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic. Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown.

My thoughts: Like the other two books in this review, I read this for university and the Reading Rush (for the challenge to read a single word title). In hindsight, I should have reviewed this sooner, for I can not recall very few opinions that I had about this novel. I will try to list and many as I can remember, though I apologize in advance for not offering more. I liked that the cast was all female. This was a pleasant break off from most of the sci-fi novels I've read this summer. In fact, this has been the only sci-fi novel so far that has featured a female protagonist. The escalating tension and distrust between the individuals of the expedition could surely put some readers at the edge of their seats. Like I said about All Systems Red, this modern piece of sci-fi literature mixes action with philosophy, though perhaps not as well as in Martha Wells' novel. I was fond of the main character, though not so much that I would have grieved her death. However, she was intriguing enough. Did I love this novel? Did I hate it? No is the answer for both questions. Will I soon forget it? Here, the answers is yes. Though VanderMeer's story and ideas have potential, they seem to be presented to me in a way that doesn't rouse curiosity. And the way the novel ended (spoiler, highlight to view white text: with the almost religious experience the protagonist had with the creature in the tunnel) was just not the way I wanted the story to progress, which makes me hesitant to continue the series.

Rating: 3,25/5

Book reviews: Letters to Alice | Solaris | Sanning och skvaller

Title: Letters to Alice
Author: Fay Weldon

Original title: Letters to Alice
First published: 1984
Genre: Non-fiction
Series: --
Publisher: Spectre
Format: Paperback
Pages: 149
Finished: 02/07/2021
Summary: Inspired by a series of instructive letters written by Austen to a novel-writing niece, 'Letters to Alice' is an epistolary novel in which an important modern writer responds to her niece's complaint that Jane Austen is boring and irrelevant. By turns passionate and ironic, "Aunt Fay" makes Alice think--not only about books and literature, but also life and culture.

My thoughts: Ask me to define the word 'pointless' and I will refer to this novel. At least in the context of the literary course about Jane Austen to which this book was assigned. First of all, less than half of this book is even about Austen. Mostly it's the ramblings and whining of the author herself, which might have been slightly of value if put in another context. Nevertheless, as a book about Jane Austen and to be used in writing an essay about said author's works, it is very close to useless. I gained no inspiration, can collect no facts, and felt no enjoyment reading it. I can only be thankful that it was so short.

Rating: 1/5

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Title: Solaris
Author: Stanisław Lem

Original title: Solaris
First published: 1961
Genre: Sci-fi
Series: --
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback
Pages: 214
Finished: 15/07/2021
Summary: When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .

My thoughts: This is the best book (according to me at least) that I've read for the summer sci-fi course so far. It's very typical of that 1950/60's writing style that I love but find difficult to pinpoint the exact characteristics of. I recognize it from Stoner by John Williams (1965), Our Man in Havana by Grahame Green (1958), Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958), and most recently Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (1968). Perhaps because the sentences are often direct, not too metaphorical or eccentric, while still managing to convey so much emotion. Whether that's actually the trick or not, I did really like this book.

Did I like anything else, besides the style of the writing. Yes! Lem manages, from the start, to create such an eerie atmosphere that I found myself sitting at the edge of my seat from the first one or two chapters. The uncanny feeling continues throughout the novel as the protagonist, Kelvin, begins to fall in love with the alien (which has taken the shape of his dead wife). I admit I became frustrated with Kelvin at times, thinking he was selfish and unreasonable for wanting to protect and keep the illusion of his wife rather than communicating with the other scientists and solving the problem. But then I thought of what I would feel in the same situation, given the opportunity to bring back a loved one and being unable to then let them go, and I could no longer find it in myself to judge Kelvin to harshly. Though I didn't feel any particularly strong emotions for his character or his wife, I was still able to sympathise with him for the situation he was put in (which I think is no small feat).

What lowers the grade some is that I became a bit disinterested in the story towards the final third or fourth of the book. I was no longer interested in reading about previous research about Solaris or the alien there, and Kelvin's possessiveness for his wife also turned repetitive. I don't think the novel was too long (it's hard for a novel of barely 200 pages to feel too long), but I wish the final part of the book had been plotted or executed differently.

Rating: 3,75/5

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Title: Sanning och skvaller
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld

Original title: Eligible
First published: 2016
Genre: Contemporary
Series: --
Publisher: Månpocket
Format: Paperback
Pages: 460
Finished: 24/07/2021
Summary: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.

My thoughts: This modern retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is yet another book from the reading lists of my summer courses. I also decided to include it in my own little Reading Rush, since there is no official one this year. The challenge I used it for was to read a book with a face on the cover.

I want to start of by saying that the sheer amount of pages this book consists of (460 pages) is completely unwarranted. So many pages... so much torture to my poor mind. This novel was purely a waste of time. It brought nothing very new or interesting to the original story, and really only served to provoke and upset me. The author uses black and trans persons with flat personalities/no depth to make the Bennet sisters seem contemporary and progressive in their dating lives, which just comes across as cheap and disrespectful. The fact that one of the characters supposed to represent Wickham from the original story is not scandalous because he is a manipulative, irresponsible liar (a valid scandal), but is a trans person and THAT is the big betrayal/scandal is unreasonable and immature. The character "Ham", who is trans, is obviously connected to Wickham in P&P, and this connection suggests Ham is a bad person for being trans??? I've seen several people on Goodreads also reacted to this and have written way better reviews than this one, so if you feel like reading more critique you can have a look there.

Moreover, Liz and Darcy had NO chemistry, even less than in the original. In P&P, their love grows from how compatible their minds are, but that was replaced by physical attraction in this book, which just felt weird. Nope, this was not for me and I will recommend it only to my enemies.

Rating: 1,5/5

Improvised Reading Rush 2021 + TBR

One of my favourite yearly occurrences is the Reading Rush, which I've been participating in from time to time and always find to be an engaging reading challenge. However, there will be no official Reading Rush this year, for reasons I don't know yet. My solution, as someone who wants the challenge anyways, is to create my own list of seven challenges mostly based on the prompts of previous years so that I can still experience this week. Below you will find my seven challenges, not including the voluntary extra challenge of reading a total of seven books (I will personally not try to achieve that this year) and which books I plan to read :)

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1/ Read a book by an author who has the same first initial as your name

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter are wolves and raccoons. A man, once named Jimmy, now calls himself Snowman and lives in a tree, wrapped in old bed-sheets. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.

Pages: 433
Thoughts: I've never read a book by Atwood before, but many of her works have good ratings on Goodreads and she's overall a renowned author. This is a sci-fi story that I'm reading for one of my summer university courses. It's rather long, which is why I will dedicate two full days to reading it.

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2/ Read a book completely outside

"All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Pages: 152

Thoughts: Another book for the sci-fi course! This is the shortest novel I'll read during the Reading Rush this year, which is why it's best suited for this challenge. I'm really looking forward to reading it, as I've heard only great things about this book and the rest of the series.

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3/ Read a book that is set in another part of the world than you live in

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter are wolves and raccoons. A man, once named Jimmy, now calls himself Snowman and lives in a tree, wrapped in old bed-sheets. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.

Pages: 433

Thoughts: Yes, I will use this book for two challenges. I am pretty sure the novel is set in North America, and I live in Europe, so that works out just fine. Like I wrote before, I look forward to reading Atwood and I hope I will like this enough to eventually read more by her.

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4/ Read a book that has been adapted to a movie

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding

As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of chardonnay.

Time: 8h 19min

Thoughts: A book I honestly never thought I'd pick up in my lifetime, but here we are. This is required reading for the Jane Austen university summer course I'm taking this year. I can't say I'm not a little bit curious about it and I look forward to listening to this as an audio book rather than physically reading it.

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5/ Read a book with a face on the cover

"Sanning och skvaller" by Curtis Sittenfeld
Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.
Pages: 460

Thoughts: This is the second book that I will dedicate two days to read. I think the premise sounds interesting enough, but it's not a book I'd willingly pick up and read in my spare time. I don't have great expectations for it, I just need to get it over and done with for my summer studies.

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6/ Read a book with a one word title

"Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer
For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border - an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic. Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown.
Pages: 208

Thoughts: Another sci-fi novel. I hadn't heard of this one before, but the description sounds intriguing and I've really been enjoying the other required reading for this sci-fi course so far. I expect this to hold up to the same standard.

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7/ Read a book that was published before you were born

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding

As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of chardonnay.

Time: 8h 19min

Thoughts: Using this for another prompt as well. This was first published in 1996 (I think) and is the only book in my reading pile for this week that was published before the year of my birth (2000). 

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If you want to use these challenges yourself and have your own Reading Rush, just feel free to do so. Most of them have appeared before and were ones that I remember liking then. I look very much forward to getting through all of these books, and I wish you the best of luck if you will attempt this challenge as well.
Happy reading!

Book reviews: Emma | Macbeth | Frankenstein

Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen

Original title: Emma
First published: 1815
Genre: Classic
Series: --
Publisher: Repris
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 578
Finished: 02/02/2021
Summary: Emma Woodhouse is the lovely, lively, willful, and fallible heroine of Jane Austen's fourth published novel. Confident that she knows best, Emma schemes to find a suitable husband for her pliant friend Harriet, only to discover that she understands the feelings of others as little as she does her own heart. Emma puzzles and blunders her way through the mysteries of her social world in a small town undergoing historical transition.

My thoughts: After thoroughly enjoying Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" last summer, I was eager to discover more of her works. I picked up "Emma" next, both because I already had it at home and because I soon wish to see the new movie adaptation. While I did enjoy "Emma", it did not charm me in the same way that Elizabeth Bennett's story managed to. This book seemed to drag out quite a bit and did not need to be over 500 pages long, in my humble opinion. Much focus was put on more or less annoying side characters, which I could have gone without, and the romance that I had to wait so long for was sort of sweet, but not as satisfying as I'd hoped. Some heart-warming relationships were explored, such as between Emma, her father, and her once governess. I will continue to seek out Austen's works, and the flaws I found in "Emma" will only be remembered as trivial as I'm sure I'll enjoy her next book very much.

Rating: 3,5/5

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Title: Macbeth
Author: William Shakespeare

Original title: Macbeth
First published: 1606
Genre: Classic
Series: --
Publisher: Longman
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Finished: 13/04/2021
Summary: One night on the heath, the brave and respected general Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell that he will become king of Scotland. At first sceptical, he’s urged on by the ruthless, single-minded ambitions of Lady Macbeth, who suffers none of her husband’s doubt. But seeing the prophecy through to the bloody end leads them both spiralling into paranoia, tyranny, madness, and murder.

My thoughts: This play evoked very few and lukewarm emotions in me. Indeed it is a classic tale and one of Shakespeare's most well known tragedies, and the story truly holds historical and cultural value. However, it was not quite to my tastes and I will not remember it as a particularly pleasant or exciting read. The edition I read was helpful, with its added definitions of difficult words and explanations of what happens on each page.

Rating: 2,5/5

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Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley

Original title: Frankenstein
First published: 1818
Genre: Classic, Sci-fi
Series: --
Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 116
Finished: 18/06/2021
Summary: Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear.

My thoughts: Seeing "Frankenstein" on the reading list as the first book to tackle in the sci-fi literature course I'm taking this summer, I was a bit surprised. I had never perceived this classic horror novel to also be a work of science fiction. With this perspective in mind, it was a very interesting reading experience and I was able to connect elements of this story to modern books in the same genre. However, while I definitely found myself intrigued by these elements, I was underwhelmed by other sides of the story. The narrative had a tendency to drag on and the eerie atmosphere that I had hoped to encounter was nowhere to be found. I understand this story was terrifying and uncanny when it was first published, but to someone who has seen or read modern horror stories, the tale of Frankenstein and his monster just can't compare. While the writing style was somewhat elegant and enticing, it couldn't make up for the boring whining of both Frankenstein and the creature. All in all, I'm glad to have read this novel and it really is interesting to see it as a work of science fiction, though it is not a book I think I'll ever feel the desire to re-read.

PS: I don't recommend this specific edition. The pages are rather large and the text is, regrettably, very small. What's usually nearly 300 pages has been compressed to a meagre 116 pages :(

Rating: 3/5

Book reviews: The Crucible | The Fifth Child | The Woman in Black

Title: The Crucible
Author: Arthur Miller

Original title: The Crucible
First published: 1953
Genre: Historical, Classic
Series: --
Publisher: Penguin
Format: Paperback
Pages: 143
Finished: 01/12/2020
Summary: The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft-and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.

My thoughts: I have very little to say about this play. I didn't care for any of the characters, I was mildly interested in the storytelling, and I was overall not particularly entertained. Sure, it was interesting to learn more about what happened to cause the witch trials in Salem, but this format did not entice me. I wish the author had gone deeper into his comparison of the Salem witch trials and the hunt for communists in America in the 1950's, but alas, only a page or two were dedicated to the topic. Perhaps if he had revisited the comparison more throughout the novel, I would have found it more interesting.  Instead, it was rather tedious to me and I got the characters slightly confused with each other. Despite the low number of pages, this book just went on and on forever. I'm happy to leave it behind.

Rating: 2,75/5

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Title: The Fifth Child

Author: Doris Lessing

Original title: The Fifth Child
First published: 1988
Genre: Contemporary, Horror
Series: --
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Format: Paperback
Pages: 159
Finished: 31/12/2020
Summary: Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends, Harriet and David Lovatt’s life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, ‘full of cold dislike’, tears at Harriet’s breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world…

My thoughts: I'm almost surprised to see this labelled as a horror novel on Goodreads, but when I think about it perhaps I shouldn't be. "The Fifth Child" is certainly an uncanny work of fiction, where we follow a mother and a family deteriorating and gradually dissolving. Harriet and David are greedy in their pursuit of creating a large family together and when they produce a fifth child despite the warnings given by their relatives, things start to go wrong. The child is like an alien to them, and one cannot help but feel slightly unsettled by the character. Most of all, Harriet was a frustrating character to follow, since she has so many opportunities throughout the novel to really change what is going on and repair the bonds broken in the family. Instead, she pours all her energy into this fifth child and neglects her four other children. All the time, I was hoping for Ben to exit their lives, but at the same time I understood why Harriet held on to him. She did what she thought was right, which was to keep Ben and try to raise him to be a functioning member of society. However, she failed and simultaneously let down the rest of her family as well. This story truly is a tragedy and Lessing wrote it well. It was a little bit too depressing for what I wanted to read at the time, and it put me in a bit of a sour mood. Overall, it's a good novel.

Rating: 3,25/5

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Title: The Woman in Black

Author: Susan Hill

Original title: The Woman in Black
First published: 1983
Genre: Horror, Gothic
Series: --
Publisher: Vintage
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Finished: 25/01/2021
Summary: Proud and solitary, Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house's sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a pale young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

My thoughts: I read this for a course in literary analysis in university. Despite not being a big fan of horror novels or movies, for the pure reason that they have little effect on me, I did quite enjoy this book. The writing was atmospheric and brilliantly descriptive and the mystery was suitably eerie. I became very interested in finding out how the story would evolve and end. The resolution was both satisfactory and the opposite. Spoiler alert (mark the following white text to read it): once Kipps was struck by the revenge of the woman in black, I had thought he'd try to finally return to Eel Marsh House and banish the ghosts for good so that the same could not happen to others. So, did I find it spooky? Was I creeped out? I cannot say I was frightened by this story. It was, as I said, fairly eerie, but it did not have me at the edge of my seat. I would have wished for more dangerous encounters, more supernatural instances, and perhaps even a little gore. Though in fairness, I do not know if such elements, either, could have stirred horror in me. Overall, I appreciated the writing style and the landscapes that Hill created in this novel. I wouldn't mind reading it again for an essay.

Rating: 3,5/5