Cristina Sanders' blog

Lioness – book review

Lioness, by Emily Perkins

Bypass the weird cover. The book beyond is bright and clever – a story of Wellingtonians not usually open for scrutiny, people with big money and flash houses but still, for all their entitlement, real people with relatable problems: complex families, children, ageing, white-lies that go bad, temptation.

Therese Thorne married money. Trevor was twenty years older, his wife had left him and he swooped in on pretty Theresa, changed her name, got her tooth fixed and folded her into his life with his business empire, his houses, his four children and their accoutrements. He set her up with a homeware business and she built up a chain of Therese Thorne shops selling lovely, darling things to lovely darlings. At their holiday house in the Sounds, a young guest suggests to Therese (as they’re peeling potatoes) they’re like the ‘help’. She’s insulted but it seems a fair comment. “Bunting, strings of lights, fat outdoor candles in glass jars, tick, tick, tick. Booze cabinet housing ancient gin and sweet holiday liqueurs, tick. Beer fridge, crated wine delivery, tick. Kayaks, rowboat, paddleboards, fishing gear, boardgames, tick.” Trevor is in his seventies now and they’re still having good sex. Tick. So far, so PA with benefits.

Pet – book review

Pet, by Catherine Chidgey

Very creepy, very noir, if domestic New Zealand, circa 1970, can be called noir. The story certainly starts off sweetly enough. Our girl, Justine, is in class, trying to please the new teacher, Mrs Price. Everyone is. Mrs Price is young, new in town, and glamourous. Hot, she’d be called today. She also has a tragic past: a husband and daughter, dead in a car crash. Justine watches as she selects her pets and desperately wants to be the one asked to stay behind to wipe the board, or empty the bins, but these jobs go to the popular kids. Justine, and best friend Amy, are not part of the cool crowd. They go home to each other’s houses, rate the prettiest girls in the class in order: Melissa first, others depending on haircuts and body parts, and then they select each other as fourth. Pretty enough, but not up there. They are kind to each other. They talk about boys, and buying a first bra. There’s nothing creepy here, yet. Just a whiff of foreboding. Chidgey is a clever writer. It’s all good until it isn’t.

Empire City

Empire City by John E Martin

It would be silly to call this a ‘review’ of Empire City, as it will take me a few years to get through this tome properly, but I am so happy to have it, to drool over it and to put it on my desk as a kind of dual use research/paperweight. I bought it last week from Unity in Wellington on a recommendation from an historian without a second thought and then realised it weighed nearly 1.7kg and I was on a trip around the motu with only carry-on luggage. Worth every lug.

Polaroid Nights–book review

Polaroid Nights, by Lizzie Harwood

I can rant a day away about the plethora of novels that get their emotional punch by entertaining readers with rape and murder. What sort of twisted society are we that this is offered everywhere we turn? And we justify our enjoyment of it: watched it for the psychological drama, read it for the great writing. You have to say that. You can’t say I loved the excitement of thinking about vulnerable people being tortured.

I read Polaroid Nights over the weekend. Great characters, sparkling writing. But it’s the story of a serial rapist and murderer and the woman he stalks. I asked my publisher (from whose shelves I’d pinched the book) why such a good writer would make up a plot so clichéd. She told me it’s not made up. It’s real.

Pearl in a Whirl – book review

Pearl in a Whirl, written by Catherine Robertson, illustrated by Fifi Colston

I finally made it to Wardini’s today to pick up a couple of copies of Pearl in a Whirl, the fundraiser for those affected by cyclone Gabrielle. The recent book launch was cancelled because of the threat of new flooding. How very apt.

The Witching Tide – book review

The Witching Tide, by Margaret Meyer

I thought I’d jump in to the controversy about this book. I read it, not because I like books about witches, but because it got so badly trashed on Nine-to Noon (as reported here) in “the meanest book review of all times,” by Sonja de Friez. Wow. Elsewhere, Sue Reidy says: “The Witching Tide combines meticulous research with a dramatic and memorable story. A dazzling debut.”
So, who is right?

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow–book review

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Usually, it’s the story setting that draws me to pick up a book. Time and place. A Glasgow slum in the 1980s; the brutal 1700s with Māori tipuna; frozen Norway circa 1880; a present day high country farm. Then, to commit to reading I want characters I could care about, who do things I care about. So I was a slightly reluctant recipient when my friend thrust Tommorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow into my hands. It’s a book set in the States about the gaming industry, and a couple of kids and their friends who spend all their time developing and playing computer games. I’m not particularly interested in geeky American culture and think gaming is an addictive waste of life. So my knee-jerk interest was near zero. But friend Tess saw Zevin live at the AWF and raved, and a recommendation from a good reader is worth gold. So here we go.

Atlas, the story of Pa Salt–book review

Atlas, the Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

“Everything will be revealed” is promised on the cover and the book absolutely delivers ad nauseam, but no worries, if you’re a fan of ‘less is more’ fiction you won’t have made it this far anyway. The Seven Sisters is a voluminous commitment. A terrific series, I would suggest, for when you’re in isolation for six months or have just moved to a new town and don’t have any friends. It’s a marvellously plot-driven story of beautiful, rich, interesting yet uncomplicated people, who jet around the world, find a birthright and fall in love. I’ve reviewed a few of the others here. Yes, I confess I have read all but one and enjoyed them, although still cringing at the ongoing shivers (there are ten shivers in Atlas and five of them run down spines). I finished the story today as I waited with a torn hamstring for hours to see a doctor. I can honestly say, hand on heart, in a hospital waiting room (and on kindle because the paperback is too heavy), this is the perfect book. You can’t start with Atlas, though, because you’ll have no idea what is going on.

By the Green of the Spring – book review

By the Green of the Spring, by Paddy Richardson

A much anticipated sequel to Through the Lonesome Dark, By the Green of the Spring takes our three young people: Otto, Clem and Pansy on with the lives that hung in a troubling denouement at the end of the first book. There is also Lena, Pansy’s daughter, who takes up the story of her parents’ lives through a child’s eyes.

Landed – book review

Landed, by Sue McCauley

I went to the launch of Landed. I took a couple of friends to the Dannevirke Library at 6pm last Friday and the place was heaving. Sue McCauley has a strong local fan base and she can count me in. It felt like the whole town was there and they were all buying her book. Made my heart sing. And then Sue took the chair (kind of perched, she’s little), and entertained us. The microphone was unnecessary, she has a good story-telling voice and she told us some anecdotes, gave out thanks, made some self-deprecating jokes and read from her book. She sort of tried to put us off buying the book, saying there’s no real story, it doesn’t follow proper book rules in terms of structure. Nothing happens. Course she didn’t put anyone off.

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