Novel Kicks Book Club: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Happy October.
October is one of my favourite parts of the year.
Not only is it my birthday month, it’s also Halloween so, for the book club, I wanted to pick something gothic and this one has been on my list for a while.
This month’s book is called, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by Chris Riddell.
Although it’s marketed at 9 -10 year olds on Amazon, for me, it has an interesting premise and is totally suited to the countdown to 31st October. The fact that there is a black cat on the cover had nothing to do with my decision. Cough. Haha.
Here’s a little about the book.
There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. It’s not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves.
It’s the other house – the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there.
And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.
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Book Review: I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson
It is lovely to welcome back to Laura Pearson and the blog tour for her latest novel, I Wanted You to Know.
Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew. But it wasn’t to be.
Jess never imagined she’d be navigating single motherhood, let alone while facing breast cancer. A life that should be just beginning is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations, and the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her.
Propelled by a ticking clock, Jess knows what she has to do: tell her daughter everything. How to love, how to lose, how to forgive, and, most importantly, how to live when you never know how long you have.
From best-selling author Laura Pearson comes her most devastating book yet. Honest, heart-wrenching, and emotionally raw, I Wanted You To Know is a love letter to life: to all its heartache and beauty, to the people we have and lose, to the memories and moments that define us.
I Wanted You To Know is Laura Pearson’s third novel.
*****
Jess isn’t like other girls her age. Instead of being at university, spending time with her friends and enjoying her youth, she’s facing the fact that her baby daughter will probably grow up without her.
Jess has terminal breast cancer. As she tries to come to terms with her fate, she writes a series of letters to her daughter – to try and be there even when she can’t be. She wants to tell Edie everything and she doesn’t have long to do so.
Oh Laura, you did it to me again. You made me cry. I knew this would happen the moment I started reading and that was just the authors note. I like the fact that it’s a mixture of letters and prose; the style makes it easy to know what’s going on in Jess’s head. I got so invested in this story and have a massive book hangover.
I couldn’t help but feel such empathy and love toward Jess as a character. She felt so real to me.
To be honest, I don’t think there was a completely unlikable character in the whole novel. Everyone has their layers, complexities and flaws. It’s all explored so well.
Aside from what I’ve said already and as normal, I am not saying anything else about what happens to Jess and her loved ones. That is something I suggest you find out for yourself.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Step Back in Time
It’s Friday which means it’s time to start writing some fiction.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt.
The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can.
Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: Step Back in Time.
Your character is disillusioned with life.
He or she is going through a marriage break up, the children don’t want to know them and to add insult to injury, they have lost their job.
They are sat drinking and then make a wish to be able to have a do-over.
When they wake up, they are eighteen again. Carry on the story…
by Book Review: Four Christmases and a Secret by Zara Stoneley
Happy publication day to Zara Stoneley. I am happy to be hosting as part of her blog tour for Four Christmases and a Secret.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Except for Daisy Christmas means another of Uncle T’s dreaded Christmas parties, complete with Christmas jumper and flashing antlers. And Oliver Cartwright. Gorgeous Oliver Cartwright. Who she hates.
Every year Daisy has to face insufferable Ollie and hear all about how BRILLIANT he is. Whereas Daisy has no job, no man and no idea how to fix things.
This Christmas however Daisy is determined things will be different. There will be no snogging Ollie under the mistletoe like when they were teenagers. No, this year she’ll show Ollie that she’s a Responsible Adult too.
But as the champagne corks pop, and the tinsel sparkles, Uncle T has news of his own to share…and it could change Daisy’s life forever…
At eighteen, Daisy has a plan. She is going to be a vet, have a family and a life that she could be proud of. All would be good.
Even when her best friend, Ollie kisses her at his Uncle’s Christmas Eve party, it doesn’t knock her off her stride.
In the present day, Daisy is over thirty, renting a room in her friend’s house and she is back at Uncle T’s bookshop attending another Christmas Eve party, this time alone with no boyfriend, no home of her own and a dead-end job writing small ads for the local paper. She is certainly not living the life she thought she would be.
This is made worse when her perfect ‘old friend,’ Ollie, appears. In the years since she’s seen him, he’s turned from dorky teenager into a very handsome Doctor. He’s changed a lot. She can’t like him?… Can she? Not the boy she played and fought with as a kid?
I am so honoured to be part of the blog tour for Zara’s latest book especially as today is publication day for Four Christmases and a Secret.
Daisy is a lovely character. She’s endearing, makes mistakes and the fact that she doesn’t have her life completely together is one of the things I loved most about her. She has a contemporary Bridget Jones feel about her actually.
Ollie is the right amount of confidence and shy. This made him a very believable character. I championed him and Daisy. I am not saying anymore on the ‘will they, won’t they’ situation. I don’t want to give away the plot if I can help it.
by Book/Film Adaptations 2019
2019 has had its fair share of books being adapted into film.
There are varying opinions, of which I have a few, when it comes to moving a beloved novel to the big screen and which one is better. Personally for me, the novel usually wins.
Saying that, I wanted to share a list of film adaptations I am anticipating or have been wanting to watch this year.
Some have already been released, others are due out soon. Let me know in the comments what you think about the list as well as others you’ve enjoyed or are looking forward to.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette. (released August 2019.)
Released in August and staring Cate Blanchett and Steve Zahn, this has been adapted from the novel by Maria Semple.
I have to be honest, I have not read the novel. It’s been on my list for a long time so it won’t be long until I read it as I want to see the movie. For me, it has to be that way around.
I heard so many good things about the novel and the premise sounds so interesting.
Just in case you’ve not heard of this novel before, it’s about a mother who is compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years bringing up her family. This takes her on an epic journey.
Little Women (release date: 26th December.)
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with adaptations of this novel.
The only one I ever vaguely liked is the one starring Winona Ryder. For the record, my best friend hates that version. It’s one of the few things we disagree on.
Nothing could really live up to the magic of the original novel by Louisa May Alcott but I will give this one a go, if anything because Meryl Streep is playing Aunt March and that should be good.
It’s also staring Timothée Chalament (Homeland and Ladybird) as Laurie, Emma Watson (Harry Potter,) as Meg, Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) as Marmee and Saoirse Ronan as Jo.
The Goldfinch (released September 2019.)
by Book Club
