Review: The Children of Men by P.D. James

The Children of Men by P.D. James wasn’t exactly what I was expecting when I picked the book up. Sure, it had the movie tie-in cover, and I’d seen parts of the film, but the book was completely unlike any of the parts of the movie that I could recall. Maybe that’s a good thing, however. It certainly reaffirmed my stance on reading a book before seeing the movie based on it.

As I was reading, I really didn’t get into The Children of Men. It had an interesting premise: all the men on Earth had become infertile so the human race had less than a century left in existence. A little sci-fi for my taste, but it was something I thought I could deal with. As the novel unfolded, though, I really found myself disliking the main character, Theo Faron. To me, he came off as arrogant, even when he finally agreed to aid a gang of dissidents known as the Five Fishes who were looking to change the way England was governed. I really couldn’t get past Theo being ostentatious, and this definitely affected my reading of the book.

There were so many ways this plot could go, but it ended up being lackluster and unfulfilling. I was bored by this novel, and I don’t often feel that way after reading a book. To me, it was anticlimactic and slow, and Theo falling in love with Julian, a woman who miraculously got pregnant, seemed forced and almost an afterthought. I’m not discrediting P.D. James as an author because I enjoyed her prose, and maybe The Children of Men wasn’t a good foray into her writing, but I think it’s going to be a while before I try something else by her, if I ever do.

Review: Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Can I keep a secret? Hopefully better than Emma Corrigan, heroine of Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. You see, Emma has a little problem with keeping her mouth shut. Throughout the course of the novel, she keeps getting stung by the things she let slide to the man sitting next to her (who turns out to be the head honcho where Emma works) on a particularly turbulent flight from Glasgow to London.

I’m not usually one for Chick Lit, but I’ll pick one up every once in a while just as a fun, light read after I’ve read something with a bit more weight. And what Chick Lit should be is exactly what Can You Keep a Secret? is: fun and light. While fun and light, Can You Keep a Secret? was engaging, too. I was really taken in by the story and I cringed and winced more than once at the situations Emma was thrust into. As a twenty-something looking to move up in the world, I could definitely relate to the heroine, and I’ve found myself in her shoes on quite a few occasions, though none as bad as having all my dirty laundry aired on national television.

After I got over the initial shock of Emma’s loose lips at the beginning of the novel, she was an incredibly likeable character, though a bit dim sometimes. The supporting cast was just as enjoyable, even Emma’s conniving roommate Jemima. The only thing I find fault with in Can You Keep a Secret? is the quick way the novel wraps up. It was a little wham, bam, thank you ma’am for me, too cut and dry. But it was a pleasant ending, nonetheless. The hero and the heroine wind up together, can you ask for anything more from Chick Lit?

When I’m back in the mood for Chick Lit, I’ll definitely be picking up some more by Sophie Kinsella. She’s got a witty, playful style to her writing and I quite enjoyed it. Probably because she’s British. The British always seem to do the whole writing thing a bit better, in my eyes.

Review: World War Z by Max Brooks

There probably isn’t much I can say about Max Brooks’ World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War that hasn’t been said a thousand times before. After all, WWZ is easily the most popular zombie novel released in the past few years. But I still want to have my say and who knows? Maybe I’ll end up saying something about the book no one else has.

I’m not normally attracted to zombie stuff. Movies about the living dead? No, thanks. Zombie pub crawls? Nah, I’ll pass. But I’d be lying if I said World War Z hadn’t caught my eye more than a few times when I was browsing the shelves at bookstores. So I finally checked it out from my local library and it turned out to be a rather pleasurable read.

Not many authors can put together a cohesive story through a series of vignettes from different characters’ perspectives, but I think Max Brooks does this effectively. The characters have unique enough voices in their interviews conducted by the narrator, but sometimes they begin to feel like just more of the same. Some of the interviews were especially chilling, like the narrator’s interview with Sharon, a “feral child,” and Jesika Hendricks’ retelling of how her family and others resorted to cannibalism to survive the winter at a refugee settlement in Canada. When reading, I often found myself grimacing, laughing or staring at the pages in awe of some of the interviewee accounts of what happened during the Zombie War. I probably said “Ugh, gross!” or “Retreat! Retreat!” aloud too many times to count.

One touch that I thought was really cool was how Brooks injected tidbits of pop culture into the narrative. In T. Sean Collins’ interview this was the most prominent, with obvious references to two popular political commentators from opposite sides of the spectrum getting it on while hell breaks loose around them and, let’s just say, Tinkerbell. I thought this brought a realistic touch to World War Z as it made it well known that not even super-wealthy socialites could escape from the affects of the world being overrun by the living dead.

Overall, World War Z was a good, enjoyable read. Quick, too. Only took me about three days to finish, but that may be because it sucked me in from the first page. I’m now listening to the audio book, which is just as good as the novel and the voice actors are spot on. This definitely won’t be the last book by Brooks I pick up. I’ve already requested The Zombie Survival Guide from the library.