July – The ’86 Fix

Another lockdown Zoom book club meeting, and this time I managed to stay online throughout the whole meeting (though I did miss some chat when the connection dropped out). I am missing the girls, but loving having Mart join us, so Zoom may well become part of every meeting! 🙂

The ’86 fix – Keith A Pearson

I love time travel, and I remember 1986 well, so this sounded like exactly my kind of book. The first thing that struck me as I was reading was that I was halfway through the book before Craig (our hero) traveled through time. Half way through a 360 page book… It took the author half a book to set the scene, and it wasn’t particularly engaging, in fact it was slow and I was kinda bored. Then, finally we do travel back to 1986 where Craig thinks that he can put right the mistakes of his past and create a new and better future. At this point the story picked up and Pearson did a good job of writing 1986 without namedropping desperately to prove he knows the era (this is a pet hate of mine). I enjoyed this part of the book very much and did not put the book down for hours because I was keen to find out how the changes he made had affected his future life.

SPOILER ALERT (sorry, not sorry) – Yes I am including a spoiler, which is something that I usually try very hard not to do whether I enjoy a book or not, but in this case I think you have a right to know.

The book ends terribly in that it does not conclude the story. This book ends by telling the reader to buy the next book to find out what happens to Craig and I was actually very angry and disappointed in the author when I read this. Honestly, while I was reading I was wondering how the hell Pearson was going to manage to wrap the story up with so little left of the book to go, but I never for a minute thought that he would just not bother! SO now I was in a situation where I had been utterly bored by the book to begin with, then really buying in to it only to end up feeling ripped off. It was with heavy heart that I logged into my computer and ordered ‘Beyond Broadhall’ to find out how the story would play out. Was it worth the extra £6.99 to follow Craig’s story to the conclusion? No! Would I recommend these books? No! Would I buy another book by this author? No! It was a cheap trick to gain sales, fortunately I was able to read the second book and give the rest of the group a rundown of the rest of the story so we did not all have to buy a copy! I gave the ’86 fix 3* because it caught me enough to make me buy the second book to find out what happened, but I would not recommend it because the 2nd book was not good (2* at best) and it is too big an investment in both time and money in my opinion. The other club members scored it between 2* – 3* and none would recommend it to friends.

Coraline – Neil Gaiman

Oh I do love a good Neil Gaiman book, and this is a very good Neil Gaiman book. Aimed at young people this story is perhaps a little too creepy for very young children, but ideal for those aged 9+, that said the book absolutely held my interest throughout, so when I say 9+, I really mean 9 – 109. Coraline is a great heroine, she is adventurous and spirited and I rather like that the hero of this book is a girl as this is not often the case. The descriptions in Gaiman’s writing bring Coraline’s world to life; it feels dark and creepy without being obvious or clichéd.

A story of a child’s courage, the book is exciting enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. I read it in one sitting, which is not difficult but I really did not want to put it down. I love the idea that there are other worlds that children can discover and that harassed parents are blissfully unaware of, and I love the idea of children being strong enough to deal with untold evil and saving lives. Coraline is the kind of book that can empower kids to believe that they can achieve great things, I gave the book 5* and the rest of the group gave it between 3* and 4,5*. Coraline is a brilliant little read, give it a go!

Happy Reading!
Mel x