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Book review: This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

Book review: This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

3 min read

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead is getting some flack given it’s partially based on real-life murders and some readers feel Winstead is profiting from real-life tragedy. Winstead includes a preface noting [its inspiration] but assures readers it’s not non-fiction. Which is good as I don’t read non-fiction. It does however, she explains, reference actual murders and I was reminded of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll which included reference to Ted Bundy’s final murders. Here our narrator is Janeway (Jane) whose father dies of a heart attack while she’s at college. They were close so Jane tries to find a reason for his death, becoming part of The Real Crime Network, before splintering off to join a small eclectic group who garner media attention when they help break a case.

four-half-stars

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Book review: The Gift by Sebastian Fitzek

Book review: The Gift by Sebastian Fitzek

The Gift by Sebastian Fitzek is the first book I’ve read by the prolific German author (translated by Jamie Bulloch). I started a little reluctantly, as the book opens as main character, Milan is in prison getting beaten (and sodomised) by some thugs wanting information. It kinda forced me to check-myself a little about suppositions I make about characters – good or bad – in terms of those I prefer as narrators. I often read books narrated by not-good characters. Psychopaths. Lawyers… (haha, just kidding!) Having said that Milan is not at all who I thought he was going to be, and we learn why he lives the life he’s been living as a conman.

three-half-stars

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Book review: The Wedding Party by Rebecca Heath

Book review: The Wedding Party by Rebecca Heath

The Wedding Party by Rebecca Heath is the third by the Aussie author (read my review of The Summer Party). This unfolds from several points of view – the bride herself, the mother of the bride’s childhood boyfriend; and that boyfriend’s sister. The narrators make sense as the wedding is taking place at a beach town where the teenage boyfriend died twelve years earlier and where the families involved had (and still have) holiday houses.

four-stars

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Book review: Hard Copy by Fien Veldman

Book review: Hard Copy by Fien Veldman

4 min read

Hard Copy by Fien Veldman is a very hard book to describe. It’s been translated from Dutch by Hester Velmans and I find it difficult to critique translations… because you don’t know how much of the writing style (whether good or bad) can be attributed to the writer or translator. Here for example, some of the phrasing is exquisite and I wonder if the original is equally as mesmerising? Having said that, there’s something about this book that felt just out of reach. Was there a metaphor I was missing? Was I taking everything too literally? Was Veldman’s style – by not giving our lead character (and most others) – a name and obliquely hinting at backstories before getting into them, simply too esoteric for me?

four-stars

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Book review: If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
Book review: The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath

Book review: The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath

2 min read

Fun fact: I’m rethinking the way I review books and decided I’d switch to instagram predominantly. The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath was to be my first attempt. So I jotted down some thoughts. I did pretty well initially with this…

Quick take: fascinating characters – some more twisted than others, long-kept secrets, dual timelines that intersect perfectly, well-paced with a series of twists that would not make Ben Shapiro* happy because author Rebecca Heath has kept secrets from us! Egad!

four-stars

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