Move to Wordpress

After realising that having two blogs, one for reviews, another for writing, for many years, I came to realise that it would be better to have just one on which I could post both reviews and articles/writing and so I've moved over to Wordpress.

I'm going to keep everything on here that I've done in the past, but as it's much less professional-looking than my recent work it's better, in my opinion to start things fresh again. Plus, WP is much more organised.

From now on, to view my updates please go to petekentofficial.wordpress.com

Thanks, y'all.

Purity by Shaun Hutson

Shaun Hutson – Purity Review

So I finally got round to reading another Shaun Hutson book. I bought a handful of his books around a month or two ago, but due to studying and moving (and reading or not reading other books) I didn't pick this up and open it until a few days ago. 

As most people are aware, London's streets are well-known for its drug pushers, addicts and prostitutes, many of whom are suffering from various related diseases, and somebody doesn't like this. They believe that death is better than living with a body-destroying disease and so they begin a "classic" killing spree, except it's to make people better rather than worse.

I was a bit surprised with this book as, rather than Shaun Hutson's blood and guts gore like in Victims or The Skull, it's more of a mystery crime novel in the style of Simon Kernick or Peter James. The reader is constantly left guessing whodunnit or who this character really is and what they do, with some very surprising answers.

However, there are certain chapters which make one cringe as well as some dark humour, which is good if that’s your thing, bad if it’s not. It’s my thing though so I’ll consider that little addition quite good and fitting.

Without meaning to ruin the good too much, the ending is a genuine surprise, although it’s also somewhat guessable to such a novel, despite my previous claims. I’ll leave it to you to decide though.

Overall, I think Shaun has lightened his tone a bit in Purity but by doing so he’s knocked out a decent crime novel worth reading. Final rating: 3/5

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This was a book I had to read for the 'Imagining the Novel' module at UEL in order to get an idea of different ways novels are written and such-like. Rather than write another review of it, I'm instead going to just copy and paste the synopsis I had to write as well as my final thoughts. Spoilers follow.

The Road is a dystopian novel by Cormac McCarthy in which a father and son spend a number of months walking along a derelict and almost destroyed road or area of land in America. This novel, with its post-apocalyptic setting could be compared to Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I am Legend albeit without the zombie concept to accompany the characters.

The novel focuses on the father and son travelling along the road and trying to survive this post-apocalyptic world. As they continue to travel they are forced to snack on old and tasteless food (with the father frequently not eating in order for the son to do so and the son sometimes telling the father to eat), bathe in dirty and cold streams and encounter fellow travellers, some of who have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. 

As the story continues, the two males, referred to as “the man” and “the boy”, encounter many problems including near-starvation, threatening characters and illness which begins with the man coughing up blood before slowly dying and leaving the boy to travel alone before encountering another man and his family who wish to help him. However, before the death of the father, they find a bunker filled with fresh food and drink which has not yet been looted by other travellers.

The death of the father, although a sad moment, especially for the boy, happens on a beach which could possibly be considered the nicest area encountered within the book. Whilst the road itself is covered in ashes and dirt, a beach is a place of romance and calmness, making the death of the father an ironic moment.

Themes within ‘The Road’ include the clear post-apocalyptic/dystopian world throughout, love and protection between family members, survival, distress and death. The book could also be considered educational in that it teaches the reader how people would or may react if the only other person they have is someone close to them, in either a dystopian or utopian world or atmosphere. 

As the book is written without chapters which are often used to separate events or subjects within a book, The Road could be considered just one event (despite the fact that many different things happen throughout the book): that of the father and son travelling in hope of surviving this post-apocalyptic world. 

The narrative arc within The Road is one which some readers may say does not have a middle section due to the book beginning and ending in the same way with little to no change throughout. The characters do, however, experience some conflict as they travel. The first, and clearest, is that of the apocalypse and the characters’ survival. The second is having to decide who is good and who is bad out of the people the father and son encounter during their travels. If they were to make the wrong decision upon who to trust they may feel regretful afterwards. And the third conflict could be mostly encountered by the father in his decision not to eat. By making this decision he soon becomes ill which results in his death, leaving the boy alone and wondering what will happen to him until he is found by the aforementioned family.

I found The Road to be very similar to I Am Legend with its dystopian imagery and the concept of a journey in order to find life and survive. The only major difference is that Legend had zombie-like creatures whereas The Road featured humans only. If dystopia is your sort of thing and you enjoyed I Am Legend and 1984 then I'd recommend this book to you.

Overall rating: 8/10

Fiendish Killers by... (read on)

Anne Williams, Vivian Head, Sebastian C. Prooth and Amy Williams

So summer has arrived, I've passed all of my modules and I'm free to read what I like. This summer I've decided that I'm going to be reading in a pattern of fiction/non-fiction/fiction to make sure I don't just read fiction or non-fiction and one of my first choices was this joyful block of text which tells us readers the story of some of the world's most vile killers from Countess Bathory through to the Virginia Tech and Columbine Massacres.

Although I was already aware of the existence of most of these killers and even remember some of the events (notably the V-Tech Massacre during which I spent the whole day glued to my tele in order to remain updated) as they happened or were broadcast on the news.

Like most of the true trime, murderer books I've read, each killer's section gives a basic outline of their backgrounds rather than a full picture of who they were/are and focusses instead on the crimes they committed. This, however, is what I was expecting and hoping for so I was happy.

It's extremely rare for words on a page to make me cringe or my toes curl (only other book I can recall doing this is Shaun Hutson's 'Slugs', but some of the stuff this book pointed out, such as Elizabeth Bathory's habit of pushing sewing pins under her victims' nails, really did make my toes curl. When it comes to these descriptions the book misses out nothing and provides descriptions of the crimes that make you want to simply sit back and let out a long breath of air.

Split into 8 parts (Cannibals, serial killers, wicked teams, fiendish women, fiendish doctors, vampires, child fields and school shootings) this book provides the stories of probably any killer or killers you can think of from Jack the Ripper to the killers of Jamie Bulger. However, despite the book being an interesting read, I think it's safe to say that it's an introduction to true crime reading almost. This is due to the fairly short chapters and the book not going fully into the backgrounds of the killers which can sometimes leave readers wondering what may have caused them to turn into these "fiendish killers". Was it some strange urge or did they always have underlying psychological issues?

There's not really much more I can say about this book now. I've read some many book on true murders and such that I'm no longer shocked by them although I do remain interested. Plus the various killings give me inspiration for my deranged stories so the books have their uses still. This is definitely a good book, but if you've spent some time reading true crime previously it may be a little disappointing as it focuses on the crimes rather than the full case. A good beginner's book is the only way to put my thoughts on it really.

Overall rating: 6/10

Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland

Venus as a Boy is a rather strangely written story in that although it’s fictional, it could easily pass as an autobiography due to how in-depth it appears to be written and how realistic certain events are.

Venus... begins with a writer being approached by a very drunk gig-goer in London claiming to be a friend of someone called Desiree who wants their story told as they believe it will have a large effect on the reader. A week after being approached to tell this story the writer receives a package in the post containing letters, photos and an audio recording which tells the full life-story of Desiree.

What follows is the moving story of the life of one man who grew up in the Scottish lands of Orkney and moved to Soho, London in order to work as a “lady of the night”. Although I wouldn’t say it was an awkward read, it did have its moments which made me feel a little “curious” (I would list one, but I read this book well over a month ago so the memories have somewhat passed). These moments, however, added to the deepness of the book.

Due to the themes of the book such as alcoholism, self-discovery and death, humour was scarce yet the story of Desiree was extremely gripping and the sort of reading material a reader will find hard to put down, especially is psychological fiction/drama is your thing.

At times the story was tricky to follow due to the lack of punctuation marking the beginning and end of a piece of dialogue meaning I had to go back a few lines to pick up who was saying what, but other than that I have no complaints to make at this time. Maybe after the next reading I’ll find something.

Being a course book I originally didn’t expect much of it or didn’t want to read it as I prefer to read by choice not obligation (yeah, I know, not the best thing for a Creative Writing student to say), but once I’d got past the first page I genuinely found it hard to put down. A moving and heavy book, Venus as a Boy was a worthy read.

Overall rating: 7/10

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is a writer I’m not overly familiar with. I’ve seen About a Boy endless times as well as currently reading the book for the second time and the organisers of a recent university module seemed to be big fans of Fever Pitch due to its creative non-fiction elements (I didn’t read it due to my huge lack of interest in football). Juliet, Naked is a book I just happened to come across during my search for interesting and fun-to-read books in a charity shop recently.

Fun-to-read isn’t a phrase I’d really associate with this novel, but it was a good read, nonetheless. Juliet, Naked is the story of a woman whose 15 year relationship is on the rails due to a lack of passion and her partner’s obsession with blues/rock singer Tucker Crowe who has recently put together a selection of rough recordings which Duncan, the partner, has managed to get hold of.

After Annie writes a sneaky review of this collection of songs, she is contacted by Crowe and a friendship is built between them. Being a rock star, however, Tucker Crowe has quite a history which has left him as not the best boyfriend material in the world.

Having read About a Boy and a lot of good reviews for his other novels I trusted Nick Hornby to have released something worth reading and possibly keeping (I usually get rid of books after one or two reads in order to control my hoarding) as I build a collection of Hornby writings and I was right to do so.

Deadlines had all passed so I had plenty of free time to read this and I found myself sitting and reading it at any available time. The story was different to other things I had recently read yet it was (from what I remembered) very similar to About a Boy in style and humour. The story isn’t exactly gripping, yet it’s not something that makes the reader want to put it down after 20 pages. The fact that it had a rock star as the protagonist was very likely a helper in this also.

Hornby’s humour is strong, for use of a better word, but has a somewhat darkness element to it in that characters are very often feeling down yet he manages to take that feeling and add some well-placed comments and/or jokes to lighten the mood and keep the reader interested. Juliet, Naked is no different with this. I’d also say his humour is very “English” in that it uses jokes and imagery which is very stereotypical to the English lifestyle, the most obvious being that we all drink loads of tea with biscuits and get roaring drunk in pubs with jukeboxes which play the Spice Girls on repeat. This, however, is far from a complaint as it is a style of writing I thoroughly enjoy, likely due to understanding and connection with the characters, something I found this novel had.

Characters are simple yet believable and the reader is able to form opinions and feelings towards each character, some positive, some not. All in all Juliet, Naked is a well-written and constructed novel which could almost pass as a biographical piece and made me a fan of Nick Hornby.

Overall rating: 8/10

The Rats by James Herbert

James Herbert is a writer I've only recently come across after attempting to read '48 during the latter half of last year but finding it to be rather slow and boring. However, someone then mentioned The Rats to me which I soon found in a charity shop and bought. I then read it.

I had no idea what to expect when reading The Rats, but I imagine it was something similar to what I felt when I read Shaun Hutson's The Slugs. I was, however, wrong. The Rats, due to its being set in the East End and therefore mentioning a number of familiar places, was certainly chilling. As I read through a story of London becoming infested with giant rats, I found that it made me feel slightly uncomfortable and on edge.

Although good, I found that JH's writing was slightly repetitive with its phrases and certain words. Descriptions were also sometimes lacking. Those are my only criticisms of this novel. It was otherwise a read that could be compared to Shaun Hutson's stuff. Although short at 200 pages, I found that it took me longer to read than expected. Possibly due to various outings and hospital visits or just my own laziness.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would, but more so if you happen to live in the East End of London.

Overall rating: 3/5