Burial Rites (review by Arianna)

Burial Rites Hannah Kent 4.5 / 5	Published 2013 First Sentences "They said I must die.  They said that I stole the breath from men, and now they must steal mine."
Publisher's Description: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?
Dear Reader, I LOVED this book, and I can't stop thinking about it.  I waver between giving it a full 5-star rating, but I can't make up my mind. I can't even really put my finger on why I loved it so much.  Okay, I do know one reason: I read the audiobook, and the narrator was phenomenal - perhaps one of the best I've ever heard.  I loved the emotion she could put into her voice; she was just like a stage actor, playing the role wholly and entirely.  I've just looked her up - Morven Christie is her name, if you are interested in checking out any of her work (although it appears from Goodreads that she's only recorded two books so far!). Outside of the narration though, what tied me so strongly to this book?  It's funny, actually - at first I had a really difficult time getting past the first few pages of the physical book, which usually is not an issue for me.  But the legalese seemed very dry to me, and I couldn't understand how both AmberBug and my father could recommend the book so highly!  But once I got past that point (I restarted in audio form), it sucked me right in and I couldn't stop listening.  I think part of the reason is that you spend almost the entire book uncertain as to whether Agnes actually is a murderer or not.  It's a mystery you desperately want to resolve, because you (along with her host family) come to really care for her, and you don't want to see her executed - innocent or not.  Agnes really endears herself to the reader (as well as several characters in the book), and you start to believe that she is incapable of murder - but is she?  There are so many conflicting accounts to consider.  The resolution of the book is pretty staggering, and I can't recommend it strongly enough.  Watching the relationships develop between Agnes, her captors, and her confessor is just so real and so poignant.  And what makes it even better is the Author's Note at the end, which indicates that the book was based upon a true life story which has become something of a legend in Iceland.  I think that added level of a reality-based story (Kent did a lot of research, and her account could very well be close to Agnes' true story) is what really made the book so great.  I think the author did an excellent job of establishing a possible and feasible background for a real-life mystery. Yours, Arianna

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All the Birds, Singing

All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld 4/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Another sheep, mangled and bled out, her innards not yet crusting and the vapours rising from her like a steamed pudding."
Publisher's Description: From one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, a stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness. Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wanted it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sets off a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. But there is also Jake's past—hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present. With exceptional artistry and empathy, All the Birds, Singing reveals an isolated life in all its struggles and stubborn hopes, unexpected beauty, and hard-won redemption.
Dear Reader, I decided to audiobook this one, which turned out to be pretty good. The narrator isn't that great with the male voices, but overall she fit pretty perfectly for the main character Jake Whyte (Jake is a female). This was another book that came across my lap because of the Tournament of Books, I highly suggest you check out this really cool event. This year I've decided to read as many TOB selections as possible. I'm glad this one landed into my hands because I really enjoyed it. Jake Whyte is a tortured sheep farmer with a tragic past, the story is told in two parts - following her present life and rewinding a tape into her past. Presently, she is taking care of her own sheep on a remote farm while she tries to figure out why her sheep keep dying. Each chapter is followed by one reflecting on her journey up until that point but played backward, the style is really interesting but takes a little time getting used to. The beauty of All the Birds, Singing is how the story unfolds. At first I was very taken aback by the story because we only see glimpses of the whole picture but as things rewind, we start to get the bigger picture and you can sit back and fully enjoy the ride. I was intrigued as to why Jake wanted to be isolated on this farm, what she had against men, and how she came to be the hardened woman we are first introduced to. Our first trip back into her past starts directly before her escape to the farm, and we already know she is running away from something. Little by little we see who and what she is running from and why her past is more complicated than you'd think. This story has many twists and turns, but the best part is you get scrambled because we have to ride backward to understand how things go forward. The writing is beautiful, the setting is new and interesting and you can't help but love Jake's unwelcomed companion Lloyd. Surprisingly, All the Birds, Singing has a large amount of comedic relief to the dark and meaty topics that come up. One minute you feel yourself pulling the covers up because Jake is facing something dark and menacing, and then Lloyd comes galloping in and changes the entire feel of the situation. I might not have loved this book as much as I did without Lloyd and ESPECIALLY not without Dog (yes, the dog's name is Dog). My favorite bits had everything to do with Lloyd interacting with Dog by trying to teach him tricks. There was something so charming about Lloyd and his nonchalant way of "sticking" around the farm, like a flea you couldn't get rid of. I'm really glad I was forced to pick up this book because I know I wouldn't have done otherwise, it's not a topic that screams out to me, "READ ME!", but maybe this review will help you decide to pick it up too. I think it deserves attention and more readers because this Author is one to watch, not many can switch tones at the drop of a pin, and she does it so darn well. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a unique style but can also take or leave the mystery for good prose, if so... you won't be disappointed. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Ocean at the End of the Lane (review by Arianna)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman 3 / 5	Published 2013 First Sentences "It was only a duck pond, out at the back of the farm. It wasn't very big."
Publisher's Description: Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.
Dear Reader, I dunno. I think Neil Gaiman is brilliant and I always enjoy his work, but there is something about his magical realism that just isn't for ME, exactly. He writes these great fairy tales of stories, and they charm me and enthrall me, but I come away from them a bit uncertain of what it was I was supposed to "get" from them, outside of a brief respite from the real world. Perhaps that's all I'm SUPPOSED to get, and if that's the case, then Gaiman certainly does what he set out to accomplish! I really enjoyed the narrative of this book (despite some disgusting parts that had me cringing!), and the story itself was quaint, original, and perfectly magical. But even the narrator himself agrees that he didn't really grow or change at all during the course of this part of his life, despite all that happens to him. And having been told that explicitly, I came away from the story unsure of what I was supposed to have gotten from it, myself. Even fairy tales tend to have messages. This, rather, was a fantastical little book about a childhood encounter with the supernatural. I enjoyed the characters - especially the narrator as a young boy - and the descriptions were incredible, even those that were very surreal. However, of all the Neil Gaiman I've read thus far, this probably won't be recommended to anyone who isn't already a serious Gaiman fan. Cute, enjoyable, but...just not enough there for me, I guess. Yours, Arianna

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