October 2020 Books

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This month I set aside the 2020 Booker longlist for a time and instead focussed on some more seasonal reading. There is a mix of books here but they all have something sufficiently ~spooky season~ about them. That is, apart from my audiobook reads; I've been focussing more on nonfiction for my audiobooks and enjoying them a lot more - finally!

I have to say, thinking back on some of these books feels like looking through murky glass so I don’t know how useful my reviews will be, but hopefully we can cobble something together.

Great

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This is a fun book, which is exactly what I needed after ploughing through the Booker longlist for the previous few weeks. It reads like a modern fairy tale with a fun but familiar setting and a charismatic and intriguing cast of characters. It's a little messy and the logic doesn't always run true, but it's a highly enjoyable read nonetheless.

It follows Richard Mayhew, a young man recently moved to London from Scotland who stumbles across a young girl named Door and finds himself suddenly involved in the happenings of 'London Below', a mysterious and magical place that exists beneath the streets of London. Magical though it may be, it is also a sinister and dangerous place and the two of them embark on a quest type narrative in order to put things right for Door and for Richard himself, who is unable to return to his normal life in London Above.

There are some things in here that probably wouldn't fly today, but it is very enjoyable and was a big improvement for me from the last Gaiman I read which was Good Omens, though admittedly that was in collaboration with Terry Pratchett.

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala [audio]

This is probably one of the best audiobooks I've listened to, and I found it to be both compelling and informative, and importantly eminently listen-able; where I often find my attention wandering with audiobooks, this one kept me interested at all times. That's partially down to the fact that Akala himself was reading it - it's not the case that all authors read their books best, but I do typically enjoy when they do - and I've always enjoyed watching clips of Akala speaking. He has a wonderful way of making complex ideas digestible, while at the same time maintaining them in all their complexity. Obviously this skill would likely translate onto paper, too, and I don't doubt that this book would also make a great actual read, but I have to say I did enjoy listening to it very much.

There is a mix of memoir and historical fact in here, although very different from the Baldwin-inspired books that include both memoir and issues of race that I've been reading recently from the US. Akala has a more direct, straightforward approach in this book, and I appreciated his own particular style of writing. He also writes about a huge number of topics across the African diaspora in a manageable page count, meaning it would be a great book to introduce you to how race and class function in the UK (and how that relates directly to the British Empire), but also might teach you something new even if you already have some familiarity with the topic. An important book that I think everyone could and should read, and I would highly recommend.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

This is probably the creepiest book I read this month, and the one that got my heart racing the most. I'm not very well versed in the horror genre in general, though it does intrigue me (after all, one of my favourite authors Jeff VanderMeer often writes from within the genre), and so I didn't know how I would handle the spooks, but my reaction to this book was what I expected my month to feel like (alas, it didn't quite work out that way).

I don't want to explain too much about it for fear of spoiling it, as I think going into it knowing very little is a key part of enjoying this book. It is narrated by a young woman who is on her way to meet her boyfriend's parents for the first time, only she is also - as the title would suggest - thinking of ending things with said boyfriend. And important to mention that the parents live in a remote farmhouse (*ding ding ding* creepy horror alert). It is written in short, fragmentary sentences that are direct but also somehow dreamy (/nightmarish) because of the small strange happenings that begin to build from the opening lines.

I toyed with this book between the Great/Good category because I didn't love the ending. However, as I said in a recent vlog I think horror/thriller endings are some of the hardest to write. You want something the reader doesn't suspect, but also that fits well with the content of the rest of the book. Plus you presumably have to decide if you're going supernatural or not. With this one I wished it had actually been more complex not less, though the ending does baffle a fair amount of readers because it is quite a shock. However, I applaud Reid for writing a book with all the tension and atmosphere that you could want from a horror novel - at least for me - so I'm willing to go along with his ending and I certainly understand where he's coming from with it.

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

This was an interesting and unique little book that played well with some familiar tropes to create something layered and thought-provoking, as well as a little unsettling. It's about a house in Dover and the family that owns it and tries to run it as a bed-and-breakfast. Unfortunately, the house seems to have a mind of its own, crucially in that it seems to have a vicious hatred of the Other (existing as it does in Dover, a seaside town with an important history as a modern and ancient borderland and also strong associations with the World Wars). It tries to perpetuate its own desires through the female line in the house, but its latest victim Miranda is putting up quite the fight. One thing to note is that this book has three narrators, one of whom is the house itself. It's useful to know that that is maintained throughout to make some sense of the story.

Sometimes I read novels written in a lyrical style and say (irritatingly) that they lacked substance or driving force (The Vanishing Half, The Shadow King, How Much of These Hills is Gold). This is not one of those novels, and is a good example - along with the likes of Toni Morrison's work - of how lyrical novels can marry the two things to really elevate a piece. This one is deeply layered; everything in the prose is there for a reason beyond just trying to create beautiful sounding sentences and imagery, from the sentence structure to diction choices. Both of these serve to enhance and amplify the themes. And there is lots going on beneath the surface. It makes it more tricky to read maybe because it's a little more obscure, but there is much to unpack in this book. Ideas about gender, ideas about eating and consumption of food (and therefore our relationship with our bodies and bodily functions, as well as how this interacts with gender), the space and place of the home and physical space in general, race, immigration, xenophobia and the concept of borders and borderlands, as well as inheritance and family. All these elements are revealed at key moments in the book even though they are its underlying driving force, and they play out across its language, meaning, imagery and plot. And it did have its creepy and unsettling moments, to boot! All in all, I'd highly recommend this one.

Good

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

This is a much-beloved novel so I had high expectations, which sadly it fell slightly short of. Indeed, it was just a very different novel to the one I had been expecting. For me, the best thing about this book and the thing that has made it endure in popularity in the thirty-five years since its publication is its premise. It follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan born with a remarkable sense of smell. Although his gift affords him some advantages in a difficult life, he is also profoundly disconnected from other people, resulting in his ultimately becoming a murderer in his pursuit of the perfect perfume. Whether his disconnection is because of the circumstances of his birth and the legacy of his mother, his upbringing in an orphanage devoid of love, or the strangeness of his gift itself, it is unclear.

This novel was much slower than I expected and less thrilling - in fact it was more often darkly humorous. I suppose I should probably have taken a cue from the fact that it is described as a 'literary historical fantasy' rather than a 'psychological thriller' that this was probably going to be less creepy and unsettling than I thought it would be. And don't get me wrong, Jean-Baptiste is certainly a bizarre and disquieting character, but the narrator's approach is light in touch. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. I liked the narration style much of the time. But coupled with the slowness of the storyline and the rushed ending, I was left somewhat disappointed. Furthermore, whilst I enjoyed how Süskind explored the way Jean-Baptiste's sense of smell alters his perception of the world, I wanted more of this, and a deeper delve into what that might mean and say about how human beings function. I wanted more explanation and justification of why particular young women exuded an irresistible scent. Why not boys? Or older women? Is it really just a simple matter of virginity and beauty? Couldn't this have been explored differently or more intelligently?

I do think Süskind does a wonderful job of bringing 18th-century France to life, and there was a lot to like about this book. Although I had my problems with it (partially I'm sure down to having such high expectations), I did enjoy reading it nonetheless.

In the Woods by Tana French

This review is a tricky one. And I'm sure anyone that has read this book will know exactly why, though I'm loathe to spoil it or put you off if you haven't. Let's just say that this book subverts one of the key elements of murder mystery novels, and I'm undecided as to whether that's a brave and exciting thing to do, or just desperately annoying.

It certainly starts off excellently, and the first couple hundred pages kept me thoroughly gripped. It does then get a little slow and meandering, though I think that's kind of the point, too. French's prose style is wonderful; engaging and personable, but also often quite beautiful, too. It follows Rob Ryan, a member of the Dublin murder squad, who is called to investigate a young girl's murder in his hometown. However, Rob has a secret of his own in that he was at the centre of his own mystery there as a child; two of his friends vanished one night whilst they had been playing in the woods together, and he alone was found shivering standing against a tree with no memory of what happened. Ultimately this book is a character study of Rob, even more so than your typical detective story. In that regard, it does a fantastic job, and there is lots to ponder when you finally close the book (and it is a long 'un!) But like I said, there are frustrating elements to this novel, too, which will confound readers that prefer neater, more satisfying mysteries. I am keen to read more of French's work, though, so I think that's a good sign.

Fine

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This is one of those books that I neither really enjoyed nor really disliked, one of those that will inevitably fade into the background of my reading year as soon as I've finished this review. Sometimes I actually prefer actively disliking a book because at least then I can have a bit of push and pull with it, whereas with this I have no strong feeling either way. I do however think there will be people who love it or loathe it depending on what they personally like.

For starters, this book really didn't scare me or thrill me in any way, which is not ideal for a gothic horror or gothic fantasy or 'electrifying chiller' (as Waterstones calls it). It's a little slow to start and it gradually builds - which is not something I'm typically opposed to - but in general I just found the conclusion a little predictable and nothing about it particularly exciting. One thing I did note and I saw others noting in some of their reviews, too, is that I think this book would work quite well as a TV series or film. I think the setting of gothic 1950s Mexico will translate better visually and it will create more of an atmosphere, which I felt Moreno-Garcia didn't really do for me through her writing. Finally, trigger warning for sexual violence in this book and general uncomfortable scenes to that effect - it's something I hadn't seen people necessarily warn about but was quite shocking to me when it did come around.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Ah, what to make of this book. After having read Mexican Gothic and then moving on to this one, I began to question whether maybe I was just not a very good horror reader. Like maybe I was not suspending my disbelief enough, or immersing myself enough in the story. Or perhaps I was just too distracted in life to fully give myself over to it. But then again I did find I'm Thinking of Ending Things quite thrilling indeed, so perhaps it's the type of horror that I'm picky about (/thrilled by).

Either way, I didn't find this book remotely scary, and without that element I found there was not much to enjoy. That could also be put down to the age of the book, too. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the story but in it a group of people are invited to Hill House to experience and explore supernatural happenings there. This novel is very much about the way in which the house interacts with the characters' psyches, particularly the primary character Eleanor Vance. For that reason I think it would make a nice study of Eleanor and women's issues in the 1950s. But as I didn't particularly connect with Eleanor nor any of the other characters (like I did with Rob Ryan for example in In the Woods), I found it difficult to enjoy this book. It's like I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, and by that point I had almost finished!

Having said that, it's worth looking at other reviews for this novel and making your own mind up as to whether it sounds like your cup of tea, as I know there have been plenty of people that have found it thrilling and/or enjoyable for its psychological exploration. I'm just not sure Shirley Jackson is for me!

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman [audio]

This book is a collection of essays and talks by Pullman over his illustrious career, and for that reason this works very well as an audiobook read by the man himself. Whilst I enjoyed parts of it, I don't think you should really bother with this unless you are an established Pullman fan, as I'm not sure he says much in here that would change your life.

It's a little repetitive, because Pullman has a few topics that he does talk a lot about, namely religion, fantasy (and not considering himself a fantasy author/considering himself different from other fantasy authors [I don't think he can have read much outside Tolkein…]/hating Tolkein), writing, William Blake, Paradise Lost, the importance of science, literary theory being mostly crap/annoying and teaching English. It's most interesting when he's talking about the process of writing His Dark Materials and some of his writing tips, but beyond that I found a lot of his opinions a little too generalised (a lot of these were short talks to be fair) or perhaps outdated. All writing advice must be taken with a pinch of salt, I feel. Nonetheless, I did enjoy listening to Pullman as I like his speaking voice, and I do think it has some gems for the Pullman fans among us.

The Not Great

The Shining by Stephen King

And here we come with another probably very unpopular opinion. I did not really get this book at all, which has me questioning whether Stephen King's style is even for me (don't worry King lovers I will try some more).

I'm sure we are all also familiar with the story of this one but in short, Jack Torrance takes a job as the winter caretaker of a large hotel in Colorado. There he and his family will be mostly isolated for months and months under the winter snows, making sure the hotel is heated and looked after. Of course, this leads to some severe cabin fever and terrible things ensue, not helped by the fact that the hotel itself seems cursed. Plus Jack's son Danny seems to have some form of special power called 'the shining', that only seems to amplify the supernatural goings-on in the hotel.

A bit of backstory. Before this October I had neither read this book nor watched the iconic Stanley Kubrick film (I know, literal shocker). A couple of weeks into October the film was on TV one evening so I watched it with the family before I read the book. I found it to be good, not scary, but nothing particularly amazing. Aesthetically its great, obviously, but I found myself agreeing with Stephen King's feelings that there wasn't much depth to the film or the characters (I can tell this is going to make me very popular…) and that if there had been it would have been more scary for me. With this criticism in mind, I was poised for King's novel to give me all the depth I felt the film was lacking. Alas, it did not.

I was expecting there to be real development with Jack Torrance from man to monster. Instead, the red flags were so glaring from page one I was not really surprised by anything that followed. I'm sure some people will vehemently disagree with me that this novel is not a good in-depth character study either, because there are a lot of pages dedicated to Jack's psychological state. But there is no bit by bit breakdown for Jack, where little things both prompt an unravelling and reveal more about his character, which is what that remote setting is primed for. Instead, I found it to be quite predictable and systematic. As I wrote in my notes, being long-winded does not a good character study make! And without the fear factor for me, a good character study was very much needed.

In general, it was just very long and - because I didn’t find it very scary - quite boring. It really dragged on. Furthermore - and this is was an issue for me with The Outsider, too - I needed more logic to my supernatural system. As a fantasy reader more than a horror reader, I like systems and reasons for the supernatural elements (beyond 'people died here'), and I've found King hasn't provided that really (in fact, the film did that a bit better I think!) This is something that White is for Witching did really well, so even though it wasn't super scary, it had lots more going for it.

So, all in all, I came out of this preferring the film, because at least it got the atmosphere and aesthetics right for me, even though the psychological depth was not there, and I found the book was a bit of a drag, and really slowed my reading right down.

So that's all, my loves! It was a bit of an up and down month for me, and I sadly didn't get as much of the enjoyment factor as I wanted out of my spooky season books, but there is always next year!