The Plant (1)

by Stephen King

The (1) in the header spurs from my hope that there will eventually be more of Stephen King's serial novel The Plant.

The premise is - even by King standards - definitely out there. The potentially evil entity is, yes, a plant. A sort of ivy to be exact. The plant is sent by a disgruntled would be author to a publishing house that has originally accepted his book idea. However, after editor John Kenton receives the entire book and a collection of unsettling photos he contacts the police. Failing to find any prove of wrong doing, the police lets the matter go but Carlos, the man who sent the package, is understandable upset and out for revenge.

As if one potential madman, with some psychic assistance to boot, weren't enough...another wannabe author, recently escaped from an asylum also has a debt to settle with the small publishing house Zenith.

But the little plant sent by Carlos to cause mayhem actually empowers the small group of editors and - as soon as the plant takes hold - makes them better and potentially more successful at what they do. Of course, this being a King book (or part of one), there is the threat of horror just lurking around the corner.

The first taste of it comes when the two disgruntled authors break into the Zenith offices to lay low for a weekend before bringing the hammer down. When they run into each other, things comes to blow between the two and, with a little help from the thriving plant, neither makes it out alive.

And this is where we are left hanging....the bad guys dead, the publishing house on the brink of success (finally) and the plant just about to make things much more interesting.

....I really need this to continue. Soon-ish.

No One Belongs Here More Than You (Half a Review)

by Miranda July

I cannot properly judge this book as I have not finished it. The reason I didn't is that it seems overly obsessed with sex.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind reading about sex, if it fits the story. Here, not only are some stories almost exclusively about sex, even the ones that shouldn't have any need for bodily fluids include sexual encounters. One such shows up in a story about a woman looking for her missing dog. Why?

And to boot - despite all the humping and bumping - most of what I did read was boring.

Disappointing.

City of Thieves

by David Benioff

David Benioff is one of the producers (or, if you prefer, "makers") of the awesome TV version of Game of Thrones. Did you know he writes novels, too. Because I did not until I stumbled upon City of Thieves. And let me tell you, the man can write.

This is the (imagined) story of his grandfather, Lev Beniov, during the siege of Leningrad by the Nazis. After he gets separated from his group of friends he is thrown into a prison cell over night where he meets the larger-than-life Kolya. Kolya takes everything that happens in stride and basically keeps Lev's worries about what is about to happen to them in check.

Instead of - as they fear - being executed they are sent on a fool's errant by a commanding officer: find him a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake within days. In the starving Russia, this is next to impossible. But, as their lives hang in the balance, they set off on an adventure in search of the eggs, anyway.

The characters are both likable in very different ways and eventually become friends - as indeed we as readers wish they will. But along with all the giddy approach of Kolya to what is happening all around him there is grave loss and devastation and, ultimately, great sadness.

Beautifully written and gripping from start to finish.

9/10