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Three books I read when I should have been reading other books
My bookish side-quests continue in the form of some of the books I read over the past month or so. I am still working my way through two ‘picks of the month’ whose reviews will appear soon, but the in the meantime, I was a little bit distracted by the palate-cleansers below (including two sequels of novels mentioned in my previous blogpost which you can read here).
An Education in Malice is a retelling of the 1872 Gothic novella Carmilla and is set in 1960s Massachusetts.
In the secluded and ancient hills of Massachusetts, Saint Perpetua’s College stands as a place for the brave and ambitious. Secrets are valuable, and ambition drives the students.
On her first day, Laura Sheridan finds herself in a fierce academic rivalry with the captivating and mysterious Carmilla. Both are drawn into the world of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who harbors a dark obsession with Carmilla.
As the rivalry between Laura and Carmilla deepens into something more intense, Laura is forced to confront her own unsettling desires. Caught in a dangerous web of a power-hungry professor and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how far they are willing to go in their relentless pursuit of knowledge.
This novel is a bit of a departure from what I normally read, and I enjoyed escaping into the world of dark academia and vampires for a little while. It’s dark and it’s gothic. It’s also a wildly melodramatic and perhaps takes itself a little too seriously, when essentially it’s low stakes stuff wrapped up in some pretty words.
Well, here we are again with another cosy crime escapade by Alice Bell. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to read this sequel, but then I found it on my Kindle for a reasonable price, so I gave it a go.
In this instalment, Claire (who is still a complete mess of a human being) and Sophie go off on a little holiday to a small island in Ireland with their friends Basher and Alex. There are more murders (plural!) and more witty / naughty/ pirate ghosts.
The plot is a bit thin and I missed the characters of Basher and Alex as they didn’t feature as much, and so didn’t dilute the painfully useless Claire as much as before. Despite her ineptitude as an adult, her amateur sleuthing skills have improved and there was some development in her friendship with Sophie (I still long for more of Sophie’s history).
Despite all my inane criticism, I found this book to be a fun read. It was quick, vaguely entertaining and familiar.
Eilis Lacey, an Irish immigrant in her forties, lives with her husband Tony Fiorello, a plumber, in Long Island. Surrounded by Tony’s large Italian American family, who all live nearby, Eilis still feels isolated in this new country, with her ties to Ireland stronger than those to her adopted home. Despite this, she hasn’t returned to Ireland in decades.
One spring day in 1976, while Tony is at work and Eilis is in her home office, an Irishman arrives at her door, asking for her by name. He reveals something that will make Eilis question the life she has created in America. What follows is a gripping story of how Eilis responds to this shocking revelation, and the choices she makes that drive the tension in Tóibín’s novel which is a follow-up to Brooklyn.
This novel had me gripped from the moment I bought it. It made my heart ache with the simplicity and poignancy of the writing. It left me wanting more. It made me furious and sad and hopeful. The ending was frustrating – I think that was the plan. Give it a try – but read Brooklyn first.
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Welcome to our cosy, nerdy online bookshelf! Join our happy book community and discover a world of books with us.
