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Category: crime

The Enigma by John Fowles

The Enigma by John Fowles

As the title itself suggests, The Enigma by John Fowles is a short story that is surrounded by mystery.
 I have never read anything by John Fowles before and was interested to see what type of short story writer he is. The Enigma is a modernist short story and revolves around a missing man who is of importance in society – he is a Member of Parliament – he’s rich, he’s got a stable family, and loves spending time in the countryside.

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Affinity by Sarah Waters

Affinity by Sarah Waters

When I was given the list of books that I had to read for my English and Media course at university, I let out a groan. Whenever I think of study texts for anything, whether it was at school, college or university, I always think that they’re going to be boring.

I was proved wrong when I studied To Kill a Mockingbird at Secondary School, I was wrong when I also studied An Inspector Calls and The Woman in Black there. I was proved wrong when I studied The Time Machine in college (even though I was proved right when we were also given Hard Times by Charles Dickens!) and now I’m at university. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Great Expectations, I didn’t really enjoy To The Lighthouse and now Affinity by Sarah Waters.

Is this book going to go against the stereotypical texts of studying or not?

An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. 

 Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. 

 Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions

 When I read the blurb of this book, I had to admit, it sounded rather different than any university book that I was expecting. A feminist, gothic, Victorian-era book. Sounds pretty good right?

 It was.

 It really was.

 Although this book was slow to start off with, I found myself becoming hooked. I have never read about women’s jails (or gaols – as they are written in Affinity) before and I found the subject intriguing. 

“Your twisting is done — you have the last thread of my heart. I wonder: when the thread grows slack, will you feel it?”
– Sarah Waters, Affinity
 
 


 The whole premise of this book was fascinating: a ‘lady’ that has tried to commit suicide, women’s jails, spirit mediums and an LGBT theme. 

 Sarah Waters writes her characters with such depth that, when I was reading the parts of Margaret, I felt like I was actually her walking through Millbank jail, I felt like I was her when she would go and talk to Selina Dawes. I was sucked right into her world and couldn’t seem to find myself getting out of it. 

 That ending though?!!! The last 50 pages were probably one of the best sections of literature that I’ve ever read. (Not THE best, ONE of the best – nothing can ever beat To Kill a Mockingbird). I have no one to talk about this book with as no one that I know has read it. I need to rant and rave about what happened at the end because it was so darn good! When I finished the book, I think I was sat on my bed in disbelief for about an hour, trying to take everything in that I had just read. 

 Just wow.

 I cannot wait to study this book in more depth at university. I can’t wait to read more work by Sarah Waters. This book is a strong five out of five and I definitely recommend this book to everyone. I think this is a must-read book.


Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

I walked into Waterstones one day and all I could see were copies of this book piled everywhere. I must have picked up the book about ten times, read the blurb and put it back down. It sounded good – it really did – but I don’t like reading about upper-class characters. They just annoy me.

 As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.



There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

 This book infuriated, moved, bored and captured me all at the same time – how that is possible, I will never know.

 The character of TifAni FaNelli – or Ani, as she is known throughout the book – is a stuck-up snob that I absolutely hated. (Oh, and her name is pronounced Ahhh-neeee) She seriously got on my every last nerve and I was seriously tempted to not even finish the book, but I decided to carry on because I wanted to know what this big secret of hers was.

 Luckiest Girl Alive is told from two different timelines. You have the present-day timeline where Ani is going through the motions of planning her lavish wedding and also filming a documentary about ‘that disaster’. Then, you have the timeline where she’s TifAni – her younger self (14 years old) and you see slowly over the course of the book Knoll building up the outrageous things that happen to TifAni whilst she’s at that younger age. 

“Moving on doesn’t mean you don’t talk about it. Or hurt about it. It’s always going to hurt.”
– Jessica Knoll, Luckiest Girl Alive
 
 


 You could argue that the things that she goes through whilst she’s younger make her this cold-hearted, world-hating woman. However, because she’s this cold character for nearly all of the book, I couldn’t bring myself to connect with her so when I found out what happened to her when she was younger, sure I felt slight sympathy, I felt angry that she had to go through that but I wasn’t deeply moved. 

 (It sounds really bad and I feel horrible for even saying that I hardly felt sympathy for her but I hated the character that much!)

 I preferred the younger timeline because it was really nice to see Ani when she was young. Knoll also showed the side of high school that everyone fears: the cliques, the popular girls, the bullies, the peer pressure, the humiliation. TifAni went through things that no child should ever have to go through at school or in life in general. The moment that moved me the most was the ‘shorts incident’. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know what I’m on about. I felt horrified, I felt mortified for her and I just wanted to give her hug.

 The things that frustrated me the most about this book was Ani’s mother (OH MY LIFE! SHE WAS A MONSTER!) and the ending: WHAT HAPPENED TO ANDREW?!

 This book did have a lot of suspense throughout, otherwise I wouldn’t have finished the book. I think having the younger timeline helped this book massively. If Luckiest Girl Alive didn’t hav14-year-old TifAni, then I would have given this book one star. 

 I do recommend this book purely for that younger narrative and even if you do hate the snobbiness of Ani, please stick it out because the secret that she has will shock you and leave your mouth hanging.


The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

 

 
I’m actually writing this review whilst on the train from Berlin to Cologne, I am the girl on the train!
When I first started this book, the chapters were pretty much identical and I was worried that this would be the layout for the whole book. How wrong was I?



Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.


And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train… 

The book starts out with our main character – Rachel – going to and from work and she tells us the different things that she notices on her journeys whilst looking out the window. She tells us of two people who she notices a lot in one of the houses that is by the tracks: Jason and Jess (who we later learn that their real names are Megan and Scott).
This book was a brilliant read. It was fast-paced and gripping. I found the character of Rachel to be very similar to the character of Claire Wilkinson from The Missing by C.L Taylor. In The Missing, Claire suffers from blackouts of long periods of time. Rachel was the same. Except her blackouts weren’t due to stress or trauma, it was due to her being an alcoholic. Rachel would drink until she couldn’t remember anything and as the book went on, this characteristic got increasingly annoying. I just wanted to yell at her to stop drinking!
 
 
“The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.”
– Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train
 
 
The Girl on the Train is told from three different points of view: from Rachel’s, Megan’s and Anna’s. Pay close attention to the dates of the POVs because there’s a certain timeline that you need to follow. It’s not confusing don’t worry! (However, I’m not quite sure how the film is going to be made because of the three POVs… That might get a bit confusing unless they the film is just from one POV – then the film just won’t work!)
Paula Hawkins is a tremendous writer. Her words captivated me so much that I genuinely couldn’t put this book down.
Even though the character of Rachel is very annoying at first, you learn why she acts the way she does and there is amazing character development throughout the book. The character of Anna is also irritating when you first read her chapters – she seems very stuck up – but again, towards the end of the book there is amazing character development for Anna.
AND THE ENDING! What an ending! I couldn’t believe what I was reading. There was a huge plot twist that left me in shock and there was dialogue that left me cold.
The Girl on the Train is an amazing book. Bear with the character of Rachel, don’t get too annoyed with her and put the book down because believe me, it gets better. Much, much better. For anyone who loves a good thriller or crime book, read this!

Have you read this yet? What did you think? Leave a comment below!