Book review – Page 10 – Cristina Sanders' blog

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.

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.

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.

Poor People with Money–book review

Poor People with Money, by Dominic Hoey

I really wanted not to like this book. The too-cool-for-school, attention seeking badass author didn’t sound promising, with his snarly comments about moving to Detroit or LA (wooo) because he’s been left out of the NZ lit club. He has a lovely line in his poetry where he is:
…condescended to by people
who have never been punched in the face
which is a brilliant way to categorise people, but a $40k grant? Just saying. When he didn’t make the longlist for the Ockhams this year he said ‘Man there’s dogs they would give that award to over me!’ Thanks. (I’m on the shortlist). What a charmer.

The Lighthouse – book review

The Lighthouse, by Christopher Parker

A book that seems well promoted in social media at the moment, The Lighthouse offers good engagement to keep the pages turning. It did have more of a Young Adult feeling than a grown-up read for me, with spooky but gentle ghosts, a sad but not gruesome mystery, young protagonists and a (pretty chaste) doe-eyed romance.

Iris and Me – book review

Iris and Me, by Philippa Werry

This is a terrific story about a tenacious woman who, in the 1930s, leaves New Zealand with no support and very little cash and reports on a war in China. It’s intelligent young adult fiction (though I don’t qualify as either and I loved it). Despite speaking no Chinese language, having no official capacity, being slightly lame and needing a walking stick, Iris gets right to the front-line and writes on the conditions she finds there. This is Iris Wilkinson, pen name Robin Hyde, who was a New Zealand poet, journalist and novelist. I knew her from her books; I read The Godwits Fly recently, but I had no idea she was such an audacious traveller as well.

Getting Lost – book review

Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux

This is a book about a woman’s sexual passion. That’s it, really. A French woman’s love affair with a married Russian diplomat lasts for 240 pages on the theme of will he? won’t he? oh! he’s here, and he will!

This is Ernaux’s diary for 1989, when, nearing fifty, divorced with adult sons, she hooks up again with the younger ‘S’. She’s an important and famous writer and she’d met him on a trip to Leningrad and their one night stand had been perfect: sex that set the bar for everything that is to come after, when the Russian is posted to Paris.

The Anomaly–book review

The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier

Such a brilliant premise. An Air France flight from Paris to New York hits unexpected and severe turbulence on a routine flight, dramatically bumps through towering cumulonimbus, and lands with shaken passengers, but nothing seemingly untoward. This is in March. In June, the plane lands again. The same plane. Exactly. Flight 006, with Captain Markle at the controls and the passengers: writer Victor Miesel, French hitman Blake, a gay Nigerian singer called Slimboy, emotionally complex Lucie and others. All duplicates. WTF? asks the control tower.

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