Tuesday Teaser

Today I'm reading The Outsiders by S E Hinton for the Flashback Challenge.

From Page 36...

"I know, Two Bit said with a good-natured grin, the chips are always down when it's our turn, but thats the way things are. Like it or lump it."

Review time....

Title: Magpie Hall

Author: Rachael King

Published:Vintage New Zealand, 2009

Opening Sentence: "There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife."

Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her beloved grandfather, and while struggling to finish her thesis on gothic Victorian novels, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy, the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.

I raced through this book. The author delivers her story in a no frills manner keeping the prose light and to the point...yet somehow this does not compromise the compelling and gutsy plot at all.

I enjoyed the curious subjects of taxidermy, tattoo and collection immensely, this combined with the melancholic atmosphere as we switch from both past and present influenced by characters who each harbour unfulfilled desires and obsessions and keep unconventional secrets, held me captivated to the enthralling conclusion.

Title: Tell Tale

Author: Sam Hayes

Published: Headline Publishing Group, 2009

Opening Sentence: "The tide is high - a dizzying swell several hundred feet below."

A woman stands on a bridge, the water rushing below. In a few seconds she will jump, plunging more than two hundred feet to her death. Who is she? And what has driven her to take her own life? Nina Kennedy, a wife and mother, is afraid. A man is following her, threatening her family, toying with her sanity. What does he want? And how long will it be before he strikes? Eight-year-old Ava is waiting for her daddy. But, just like the others in the children’s home, her father never comes. The home is a place of whispers and shadows. But no one dare tell the truth. Until now...

In this novel Sam Hayes tackles the gritty subject of whether to tell or not and what will the consequences be if you do.

The reader is lead through the story via three different female points of view, several times I found myself sitting back and searching for the connections or the direction in which the characters were taking us, asking more questions than were being answered and then forging ahead in search of them.

I struggled a little in the beginning with (what seemed to me) a complete lack of scene setting with very little descriptive prose, but of course ones imagination soon kicks in of its own accord and fills the gap.

Sam Hayes is described as writing 'emotional thrillers' and I would have to agree, I found some of the content quite disturbing and sometimes wished it was a movie so I could close my eyes through the horrible bits!

So there I was gearing up to an on the edge of my seat, nailbiting conclusion when all of a sudden the author seemed to lose courage with her edgy story and opts for the ridiculous Hollywood soap opera ending (yes another one!! I couldn't believe it!!) Aaagggghhhh......how frustrating!!! Only it being 2am I had to whisper aaaaaaggghhhh very quietly in case I woke my sleeping husband lol!! If the author thought she was writing a clever twist, well I am sorry it just didn't work for me...total suspension of belief here people...sorry.

Saying that...I would give Sam Hayes another chance and try one of her other previous titles as I really got into the story before it ended so disappointingly.