Aihearkisto: Book Review

The Seven Dials Mystery

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The Seven Dials Mystery

Agatha Christie wrote the novel called The Seven Dials Mystery in 1929. This novel was first published in Great Britain by Collins. Lady Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan is best known from her thrillers which she had written by name Agatha Christie.

The Seven Dials Mystery is one of these thrillers. The story is based on a mysterious secret society called the Seven Dials. Along the story two characters gets killed and their nearby friends starts to investigate what on earth is happening. Different kind of clues comes to them; letters from the victims of this cruel chain of events, words from a dying man trying to tell them about the Seven Dials and so on.. When these young, curious people realise that all of these clues are related to each other and the mysterious words “Seven Dials” shows up in many contexts, they muster their courage and begin to find out what is going on.

This novel has many characters which makes the story complete. The main ones are Superintendent Battle, Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent, Bill Eversleigh, Jimmy Thesiger, Loraine Wade and of course the two victims Gerald Wade and Ronny Devereux.

The sructure of the book is very well built together. In the beginning happens something that defines the whole idea of the story and when you get to the end of the book, it turns out why eveything went that way. The excitement stays all the way to the last pages of the novel which keeps the story captivating. The ending is nothing like you could have thought it would be, the heros aren’t that much heros anymore. Of course, love is added to a murder thriller.

The language of the book is old-fashioned and very much conformable to etiquette.
“Perhaps, Caterham, you begin to have some inkling of my purpose in visiting you this morning. – – I have given this matter my deep and earnest consideration. I can assure you, my dear Caterham, that I will cherish her exquisite youth..”.

At first, it was a bit difficult to stay in track among all these characters and their nicknames which are used a lot. But the further I read the more structured it all started to feel. I admire the character of Bundle; very self-confidence young lady with a huge amount of courage. I also can’t stop wondering how skilled writer Agatha Christie is when creating this kind of thrillers!

Written by Anniina

The Fault In Our Stars

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As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

The Fault In Our Stars is a book written by John Green and published in 2012. It tells the story of Hazel Lancaster, a seventeen-year-old girl with a terminal case of cancer, and how the rest of her life changes once she meets a boy named Augustus Waters.

The Fault In Our Stars is the kind of book you know is gonna end in tears, but love it for exactly that. As a friend of mine put it: ” This book ruined my life, and i have never read anything better.” However, it’s far from being depressing or rolling in the pain and sadness brought by cancer as such a major topic. It actually feels wrong to introduce this book with the mention of cancer because people often have a strong picture in their minds what ”cancer books” are like. And in my opinion, The Fault In Our Stars doesn’t fit that picture, it’s so much more than that. I think the best way to read it would be to just start in the beginning, with no clues on what the book is about, making yourself able to fall into the story with no expectations for it whatsoever.

Now, it has probably already become apparent how much I enjoyed reading The Fault In Our Stars. That’s actually one of the book’s biggest strengths: it’s incredibly enjoyable to read. Green’s writing is original in the best way. He has the gift of writing text where every word seems to be carefully picked out and thought about, and yet the sentences flow effortlessly, capturing you and making it impossible to put the book down. Over and over again he takes you by surprise with sudden bursts of happiness and sadness thrown where you’d least expect it. He also toys with language and storytelling by, for example, intentionally having a character use as complicated words as possible.

Another extraordinary thing about The Fault In Our Stars is the characters. They’re impossible to not fall in love with, they feel real in a way that makes you really care about their lives and what happens to them. As much as The Fault In Our Stars is a love story of two teenagers, star-crossed lovers at that, it gives these teenagers the depth that makes the book not just about their love but also their friendship and their bond, the things they like and the things they hate. Each character has some little quirk about them so that you can’t help but get fond of them. Especially the main character Hazel is something completely different from usual love-sick teenage girls portrayed in books and media. She’s smart and witty and overall so very lovable. She’s the kind of female character that I can and want to identify with.

All in all, The Fault In Our Stars is a beautiful and breath-taking book. It’s a whole experience with bot laughter and tears, it’s a book that demands to be read again many times to make sure it’s understood through and through. It’s the kind of book that you don’t want to go around shoving at everybody’s faces, but rather pick out people that you know will be able to appreciate it in a way it deserves, and then try your best to get them read it.

Aldous Huxley- Brave new world

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Due to the teacher’s recommendation I decided to read the novel Brave new world by Aldous Huxley. It was originally published in 1932 and it takes place in the future London, where technology controls virtually everything. The story is based on futurology and it has been voted as the fifth most successful novel written in English in the 20th century. Mr. Huxley himself was interested in, let’s say, unconventional things, such as parapsychology and mysticism. I wish I’d studied him a bit closer before I started reading, because this novel was clearly not intended for my kind of reader/ person.

I’m really unable to explain the plot, at least in a way that someone, who has not read the book, could understand a single word of it. So instead, I shall give you glimpses of the ‘’Brave new world’’, so you can decide on whether you want to proceed to the point when you have the book in your very own hand. Anyhow, the world is a very peaceful place to live and there is an endless supply of all necessities, because the population is permanently limited to 2 billion. People are divided into 5 castes (Alfa, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon) and each and every one of them has a predestined place in the society. To this point it all seems quite understandable, but then we have the Bokanovsky process, which has something to do with the reproduction.  The whole novel is littered with these kind of words, that, at least to me, mean absolutely nothing.

This brings us to a critical point in my review: You CAN’T under any circumstances understand the novel without checking these terms from the internet, which can make the reading process rather tedious. The only term that I could understand all by myself was Fordism. It is a kind of a religion, where they worship Henry Ford. They have even replaced the cross with a T, which refers to the legendary Model T Ford from 1909.

The language is actually rather modern and understandable, when you consider that it was written in the early ‘30’s.  Here’s an example: ’’ We don’t permit their magnesium-calcium ratio to fall below what it was at thirty. We give them transfusion of young blood. We keep their metabolism permanently stimulated. So, of course, they don’t look like that. Partly,” he added, ”because most of them die long before they reach this old creature’s age. Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end.”.

On the other hand: ‘’ Two, four, eight, the buds in their turn budded; and having budded were dosed almost to death with alcohol; consequently burgeoned again and having budded–bud out of bud out of bud–were thereafter–further arrest being generally fatal–left to develop in peace. By which time the original egg was in a fair way to becoming anything from eight to ninety-six embryos– a prodigious improvement, you will agree, on nature. Identical twins–but not in piddling twos and threes as in the old viviparous days, when an egg would sometimes accidentally divide; actually by dozens, by scores at a time.’’ I mean, I had to read this about a billion times to work out the meaning. (And I’m still not sure I got it right)

I got quite mixed feelings after reading this book. I knew it was a dystopia, so it was going to be a bit weird. But the oddest thing above all has to be this: I understood the text, but I haven’t got a slightest clue what I read. So go ahead, give the book a shot and tell what you think of it.

 

 

 

Inheritance

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Inheritance is fourth and final book in Christopher Paolini’s fiction series witch the most of you might recognize as Eragorn. The book were published in autumn of 2011 when first part were published in 2003. The story tells about medieval country isolated from world whit smaller trade country. First country is huge and divided by rivers, ancient forests guarded by elves, mountains inhabited by dwarfs and deserts, whole place is still rounded whit mountains and undiscovered sea. The country is enslaved by mad tyrant who is the last dragon rider, who betrayed and killed them all expect some who allied whit him. Magic is the ultimate weapon in this world where one wizard can eliminate dozens regular soldiers whiting a eye flick. King uses it to keep people obey. However rebellion rises it’s head as new dragon rider Eragorn born’s. Previous books tells about Eragorn’s journey whit the rebellion movement and inheritance tells mostly about war between rebellion and old king.

Paolini has been criticized by the naive and cliche but I don’t find it any disturbing though at the two last books the power that’s being used in any battles starts to grow a bit       ridiculous if you compere it to first books where Eragorn uses all his might to escape the kings men and in Inheritance he takes out whit help of ten elite elf wizard whole castle. That doesn’t bother to much because enemy’s strength increases as well. After all battles are not this book’s strength, the story telling is. Book describes well characters from teen to madness. and makes it so that it’s gripping. I try to avoid to spoil the story for those who want to read the book but I can tell that if you read lot of fiction it’s quite predictable, but very satisfying. Eragorn is quite yang trough book but grows into quite ass in the end when the king is defeated and I think its because writer wanted a happy ending. It’s not spoiling the story and fits the contest well so I leave it to you to judge it.

Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights is a novel written by Emily Brontë which was first published in 1847. The Story is set in Yorkshire on the moors. Wuthering Heights is a story about doomed love and passion. The narration of the book is divided by several people including a traveler called Lockwood and a servant, Ellen who raises the Earnshaw children and is like a second mother to them.

The two main characters of the novel Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff create a very obsessive and unhealthy love for one another. They are brought together in the beginning of the novel by Catherine’s father who finds a young gypsy boy named Heathcliff in the streets all alone. Mr. Earnshaw decides to raise Heathcliff as his own son, so that Catherine and her brother Hindley would become the boy’s siblings. Neither of them, Catherine nor Hindley develop a normal sibship between Heathcliff. Hindley dislikes Heathcliff immensely and he hates living in the same household as a dirty, filthy little gybsy. Together Catherine and Heathcliff behave very badly and test the limits of Joseph, a servant at Wuthering Heights. Growing up Catherine and Heathcliff are like two peas in a pod, they spend every waking moment together. All this changes, when they spy on their neighbours, the Linton’s and a dog comes after them. The dog bites Cathy and she is taken inside by the Linton’s who want to care for her as long as she is ill. This is one of the main reasons why Catherine and Heathcliff fall out with one another. After these happenings their lives change irrevocably.

Wuthering Heights is a novel which contains a lot of dark and gothic tones. It is set on the Yorkshire moors which is a gloomy and daunting place in itself. The Wuthering Heights mansion is also filled with paranormal and unexplainable happenings. It is said in the beginning of the novel that this very building is haunted by Catherine Earnshaw. Emily Brontë has written a novel which captures the essence of a brilliant horror story. Even though Wuthering Heights is best known for its amazing tragic love story, it isn’t the only definition of this boundary breaking novel of its time. It is a story about an imperfect family and how they help a little orphan boy but also destroy the little goodness that is still left in him.

Catherine and Hindley seem to be spoilt brats even before Heathcliff comes into the picture. It seems that the only person that Mr. Earnshaw really loves is Heathcliff. He has tries to compensate, for the lack of love that he has forgotten to express towards his children, by buying presents and spoiling them. Probably one of the main reasons why Hindley treats Heathcliff the way he does is because he has been jealous of him, ever since that day when his father brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is a certain kind of replacement of a son, or that’s at least how Hindley feels about the whole situation. Catherine cares for Heathcliff much more than she cares for Hindley although in this case Catherine’s relationship with Heathcliff is a romantic one, and a platonic one between her and Hindley.

Although the novel contained a lot of violence which isn’t normally my cup of tea, I really enjoyed it. I also disliked both of the main characters vastly I really enjoyed the story. It was like, together Catherine and Heathcliff seemed nearly human. Together they were like one complete human being but separately two individual monsters. It felt like that the only real goodness in both of them was their love for each other. There are a few parts in this novel that explain the situation quite well for example Catherine says: “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. “Also later in the novel Heathcliff says: “I cannot live without my life. I cannot live without my soul.” Even though it contained a lot of kinks, altogether it was an enjoyable read which didn’t disappoint.

Sweet little lies

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Sweet little lies is a novel written by American author Lauren Conrad and it was first released as a hardcover on february 2010. It is the second of the three-book L.A. Candy series. The trilogy deals with the theme of reality television and what kind of consequences it has. Lauren Conrad has subjective knowledge of this topic, because she has herself been part of the main cast of the reality television series The Hills and Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. So you can rely on that she knows what she is writing about. Reality television is certainly current topic these days. Almost all of us watch it, but only few of us can really perceive that there is hole another reality behind the scenes.

The main character of the book is Jane, average girl next door. Jane and her life-long best friend Scarlett move together in Los Angeles and land their new reality show, “L.A. Candy”, just weeks after moving into the city. They seems to have all what they ever dreamed about or at least they believe so. When Jane makes one mistake things start falling in part and people get hurt. Jane finds herself at the centre of a huge tabloid scandal and starts spending time with her new ”frenemy” co-star Madison. Madison wants to get as much fame as possible and that is her one and only life goal.  But you should not forget that fame comes with a price. Jane realizes that she doesn’t just have fans, she has enemies as well. But, they always say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

In this book there is used a lot of young adults spoken language, slang words and abbreviations. At first it could be a little disturbing, but you get used to it pretty soon. Otherwise the vocabulary of the book is not too challenging, it is pretty much similar than the language in today’s youth television series. Sweet little lies has been translated into Finnish also but what I have heard it is not worth reading. So if you are considering to read this book choose definitely the original one.

Sweet little lies is not mind blowing masterpiece. It is fun entertainment full of luscious drama, like soap opera inside book covers. Because of the great deal of drama I can claim that this book is anything but tiresome. The end of the book draw the starting line for the next book and persuade to read it. Even if Sweet little lies is a part of the trilogy you don’t have  to read the previous book before in oder to keep up with the story. This book is obviously written for teenage girls so I would recommend it to all the girls who enjoy a little drama.

The Little Prince

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The Little Prince was released in 1943 and the author of the novel was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The Little Prince is a fairy tale to children and adults. Main character is the little Prince.

An young boy, the little prince, lives on the asteroid (or planet) called B-612. There are three volcanos and a beutiful rose on the asteroid. The little prince falls in love with the rose but the rose behaves badly. So the little prince decides to leave the asteroid and visit on the other asteroids. The little prince meets six different inhabitants (for example the king, the business man and the drunkard) who try to reach for happiness in different way.

I liked the book very much and ,y favourite character was of course the little prince. I think that people can identity to the little prince because he made a lot of questions and he always wanted to know answers. The little prince never stop asking.

In my opinion there were many good parts in the book but my favourite part was the part when the little prince said:” But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart” because it was a good point though. The purpose of the book was that everybody would understand that they can found happiness in different way and it is the reason why I recommend the book to everybody.

I chose this book at first because it was short but still it was strange and hard to read the book in English first because I didn’t understand every single word but I think that I understood the main things. The Little Prince was a nice story about the little prince’s adventure. If you want to know what happened to the little prince and how clever things he says I really recommend the book to you all.

Remember me?

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Remember me? (2008) is a novel written by Sophia Kinsella. It tells about Lexi Smart who wakes up after a car accident and can’t remember anything about last three years. All she remembers is that she’s 25 years old, she has crooked teeth and not so fabulous love life. But when she wakes up she has everything she ever wanted. She is the boss of her department, has a perfect row of teeth, designer bag and clothes and a husband that everybody dreams of. It all seems great but is it really what it looks like?

The main character Lexi Smart is a person that you can really relate on. In the beginning of the book she is just an unlucky girl that has some family and work issues. And when she wakes up she feels just the same but everybody keeps telling her how she had changed her way of acting during these three years. She has some problems changing her old habits such as eating fast food and being such a couch potato . She now has an amazing apartment, closet full of designer pieces and she hears that she’s now as cold as ice according to colleagues that used to be friends. But she realizes that she’s not that person that everybody thinks she is. It’s really funny how Kinsella describes all the funny mishaps Lexi is going trough. It shows that life is not that enjoyable when you have to watch everything you do, eat and say.

The family relationships between Lexi and her mother and sister are complicated and quite funny to read. Her mother is a bit silly woman. She has many dogs that she cares more than her own children. She doesn’t understand why Lexi suddenly are acting differently and asks her help. Sometimes I felt frustrated when she didn’t understand her daughter. Lexis’s sister doesn’t help Lexi even the amount that their mother. She causes many trouble to Lexi who remembers her as a sweet and innocent girl that she was three years ago. But I thought that their relationship are quite normal for two sisters who are going trough different life situation. And in spite of all the problems she causes to her sister she is the only one who understand Lexi’s situation.

I don’t know if you can use the word genre when you are describing a book but I think that this books genres are drama and at the same time comedy. All the incidences that happens are quite dramatic but all scenes are sprinkled with comedy. I think that’s why it’s so interesting. You want to get to the end so you know what really happens to her eventually.

I really like the way Kinsella is writing. I think her focus group are mainly girls but of course boys can read it also. This book is easy to read and it’s just a perfect book to read when you want to relax and not think about anything. I also like Kinsella’s other work and I recommend them also for everyone to read.

The Red Badge of Courage

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The Red Badge of Courage is a novel written by Stephen Crane (1871-1900). Short parts of the novel were published in newspapers in 1894, but the full version was published in 1895.

The novel’s main theme is theme is courage and heroism of the soldiers in the American Civil War. In the novel the feelings and actions of the soldiers are explained thoroughly. Even though Crane was born after the Civil War, he was able to explain many small details accurately. It’s believed that the battle taking place in the book is based on the Battle of Chancellorsville. The type of language Crane used in his novel is hard to read for people living in the 21st century. For example he uses words that aren’t really used anymore and the accent of the soldiers vary, since the people fighting for the South spoke in a different way than people who lived in the North.

The main character of the story is Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier who against his mother’s will joined to fight in the war. Throughout the book Henry is trying to convince himself that he is a hero and he has the courage to fight. Wilson, together with Henry they both gain the reputation as the best fighters of their regiment. Jim Conklin, Henry’s friend who dies in the early part of the novel, this affects Henry until the end of the novel. The lieutenant, he is a young commander, who swears a lot during the battles. He and Henry try to motivate the men during rough times.

The novel starts with Henry wanting to join the Union army, his mother is against it but Henry doesn’t obey his mother. Henry has ideals about the war and how the battles go, but when it finally comes to the moment of battle he is shocked. It’s nothing what he thought it would be like. Henry struggles with the idea that maybe he is not a hero after all. But as the story goes on Henry matures a lot and is able to be satisfied with himself.

Reaper Man

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Reaper Man is a fantasy novel written by Terry Pratchett who is an English author. He writes mostly comical fantasy novels. He is best known of the Discworld series (about 40 book) and the novel Reaper Man is the eleventh book in the Discworld series. It was published in 1991.

Book begins when Death has retired. Or, rather, has been retired. Reason WHY is that he has become too much of a character. He has gotten his own hourglass, his own time and at the end of it he will die. But Death seems to be happy, he finally has his own time and now he is going to waste it.

Death starts working at the old ladys farm. Same time all over the discworld, everyone and everything suddently stops dying. Book follows charecter named Windle Poons, an old wizard who was meant to die but that seems to be a bit hard when the Death isn’t around. He tries to find out the way to die as the same time the whole town of Ankh-Morpork is in chaos.

Book is rather less satisfying than other Pratchetts works, but is largely rescued by Windle Poons. I never much cared for him before he died, but the zombie Windle Poons is hilarious and can carry the entire book while rest of the charecter, except the Death, are easy to forget and impersonal. Death has very philosophical part in the book. Novel has the great Pratchett property that, even if the plot doesn’t always work, there will be some great lines or discovered references that will put a smile on your face.

Language of the book was quite hard to me read. I needed dictionary many time. Propably hardest was to understand the words that Pratchett had made by himself by twisting english and the sentences were also very long: “Studies have shown that an ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.” It was very nice that Pratchett had highlighted Deaths speech: “Picture a tall, dark figure, surrounded by cornfields…
NO, YOU CAN’T RIDE A CAT. WHO EVER HEARD OF THE DEATH OF RATS RIDING A CAT? THE DEATH OF RATS WOULD RIDE SOME KIND OF DOG.
Picture more fields, a great horizon-spanning network of fields, rolling in gentle waves…
DON’T ASK ME I DON’T KNOW. SOME KIND OF TERRIER, MAYBE.
…fields of corn, alive, whispering in the breeze…
RIGHT, AND THE DEATH OF FLEAS CAN RIDE IT TOO. THAT WAY YOU KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.
…awaiting the clockwork of the seasons.
METAPHORICALLY.” Thanks to that it was a bit easier to stay focused on the text and not to wonder WHO said WHAT.

I would recommend this book to all who likes crazy humor, funny charecters and discworld series. Yet this isn’t maybe the book to start if you have not ever before read Trerry Pratchets Discworld production.