EVER BOUGHT A BOOK ON THE STRENGTH OF THE REVIEWS ON THE BACK???

If you are like us (and probably one of the many thousands of book lovers across the globe) and have had the misfortune of spending your hard-earned cash on an apparent "best-seller"; you will probably also have experienced the dull thud as you bang your head against the wall, thinking "Why did I listen to the reviews on the back?!" The truth is: reviews found on books are usually self-promoting, PR stunt-type hype and not necessarily a true reflection of the books' quality at all.

It is our aim to tell the truth about books, but don't for one second assume that that is synonymous with us creating a blog to 'diss' authors' work - to the contrary - our intention is to provide an honest appraisal of each and every book we read. If the book is any good - it'll get a good review. If it's awful and a tragedy to the literary world - then it won't. It's that simple.

Wednesday 2 January 2008

Flanimals: The Day of the Bletchling by Ricky Gervais (ISBN 978-0-571-23851-4)

Not being funny – I don’t really get Flanimals. I wish I had that sense of humour, but then, that would make me Ricky Gervais – which I’m not. I’m a little worm, but that still doesn’t make me Ricky Gervais.

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The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (ISBN 978-0-14-131741-0)

I can appreciate that this is not a latest release, being first published back in 2004, but still, with all the furore surrounding the series Artemis Fowl, I was keen to establish whether or not the author had considerable talent in writing creative pieces or was merely the conduit of unearthly inspiration when it came to Artemis... so I stumbled across The Supernaturalist, and with my curiosity piqued, I reasoned that now was as good a time as any to review an alternative works by Colfer. Why this title – well, simply put – because a review stated bolded that it was “like The Matrix crossed with Oliver Twist” [1].

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Chronicles of Darkness: Outcast by Michelle Paver (ISBN 978-1-84255-173-8)

A quick, but not the easiest of reads. Let me explain myself (although the author and huge fans may not like it much) – the beginning starts well and I was gratefully carried along (I was having a bad wriggle day)... until around page 45, at that point it got a little cumbersome and heavy – like wading through treacle, which, I’m ready to admit is probably quite an appealing pastime to some...

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