Review of Jane Austen's First Love By Syrie James

Hey all, so I finished the novel Jane Austen's First Love about a month ago. Sadly, life got in the way of me reviewing it. Let me start off with the most important part, I liked it. I know that some would argue that my personal feelings should not come into play, perhaps my review should focus on the style of the work or how closely it resembles Austen's own. However, I think the best praise one can give a piece of literature is the nod that it was worth reading. While there are a lot of authors trying to emulate the style of Jane Austen around today and in the past, Syrie James captured the light and jovial air that you can find in the most biting parts of Austen's work. The story focuses on a fictional imagining about a summer that Austen spent with her family visiting her brother and his soon to be wife. While the correspondence between the real Jane and her family exists, this particular story is a plausible and yet not all that probable account. However, there are several points in the book where, as the reader, you (if you have read as much of Austen's work as I) feel that you can really hear Austen's voice through the text, springing unexpectedly up as if Jane's ghost had possessed James and was helping to tell a story the world of Austenites would love to know. The references to the era in which Jane lived and the manner her family kept themselves in were spot on, it is obvious that no small amount of research was put into the historical accuracy of the novel. In fact, this is one of the few "Historical Fiction" novels I have read that have met my expectations. There is everything from the fabrics used for dressmaking to the turns of phrase one might expect to hear, it is truly a beautifully written piece. I am looking forward to reading her other works focusing on that time era and those writers who captured it. 

Review of The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Hey Blog Readers,

This is a review of the novel, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore.  Sorry this review is coming so soon after the previous one about The Ghost Bride, by Yangsze  Choo, but I actually neglected to write a review for it and decided to write one curtailing the previous review because the novel was also a historical-fiction-turned-murder-mystery and so I thought it would be appropriate.

So, let's get down to it. The novel is a dual viewpoint novel and as such, is set in two different places and times giving the reader insight into the lives of the esteemed writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is living in England and also a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast named Harold White, who is a literary researcher in the United States. The novel opens with from the perspective of Doyle during the time directly after he has 'killed off' Sherlock Holmes. We see the author paint a picture of Doyle that gives the reader insight into how and why Doyle wanted to end the Holmes stories and this chapter introduces us to the man behind Holmes, and all the real life problems he has. The book continues in chapter two with our first impressions of Harold when he is inducted into a fraternity of sorts called The Baker Street Irregulars, which is a group of people dedicated to lore associated with Sherlock Holmes but who are, surprisingly, not that interested in his creator Sir Conan Doyle. The novel continues in this manner, giving each character a chapter in turn, until the climax of the novel, which is itself a debatable event, as the time in between the somewhat 'dual climaxes' could give the reader pause.

The novel is well written and is free from useless musings and fluff, which plague the novels published nowadays so horrendously. It is not a long read and though there is some archaic language to draw the reader into the times in which Doyle lived, the adjustment is mildly enjoyable and can be, at times, quite diverting. As to the secondary characters, there is few, but they are well written and memorable. In the current day portion of the story, there is a man who is a would be villain and a reporter who is more than she seems. Within the Doyle timeline, there are basically Doyle and his friends along with a few odd characters thrown in for flavor. I don't know how much of the story written is truth and frankly, it is so engrossing that I daren't say I don't care to know.

The story in both instances follows the lost diary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In Doyle's time, he is living the events that he wrote about and in the present day, the diary has been found and is going to make a debut appearance at the annual meeting of The Baker Street Irregulars. The novel opens on the eve of the beginning of both timelines, the diary and the annual meeting and from the get go, the reader is drawn shamelessly into a world of intrigue and confusion that demands their full attention and gives them all the clues to guess where and how the story will end. It is written in the fashion of a Holmes story and I would wager that any fan of the Holmes stories would be pleased by the care with which the story was undertaken. Over all, I would rate this novel very highly!

Go and borrow it, buy it, read it in the store, just don't steal it.

If you want to purchase the book the link to the amazon store is listed below. I believe you can read the first six chapters online at Barnes&Noble.com.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sherlockian-Graham-Moore/dp/0446572586

Review of The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Hey there Blog-o-sphere, 

Today I am writing a review of a novel I read recently called The Ghost Bride written by Malaysian-Chinese Author Yangsze Choo. The Novel takes place in a community composed majorly of Chinese immigrants in Malaya, which as far as I understand it is either synonymous with Malaysia or talking about archipelago, it is for all purposes irrelevant to the story as little geographic information is included beyond vivid descriptions of ports and townships and place names. They are given to allow the reader a mental foothold, but for one such as myself, who is completely unfamiliar with locations in Asia as a whole, they aid me very little.  As far as the main character goes, she is a likable and naive girl who is from a family that was once prosperous but has fallen onto hard times. Li Lan is her name and she is the title character, in deed if not by name. She gives the reader a very concise and clear picture of her life in Malaya and her place in the world in the first few chapters. While I thought the books started out rather slow, it had a special something that drew me in and made me pick it back up time and again to continue reading.

It begins as a historical novel, very business like in the clarity and the plot progression and then, all of the sudden, it changes into something quite altogether different. While I am a fantasy novel lover and prefer my settings far away and in most cases, completely fictitious, the landscape of this novel made me shiver with anticipation. I. being so unfamiliar with this foreign culture, felt that, though the places were most likely real (if not formed in a likeness to reality) they lent an air of mystery and difference to themselves. Now I am not sure if this mysterious feeling was a result of great writing, or simply my own ignorance but either way, it is worth exploring. Beyond the setting, the development of the characters is quite appealing as well, each character starts out being rather one dimensional and I anticipated most of them staying that way in such a short novel, but no, Choo somehow weaves her words as to draw deeper pictures of most of the characters within the novel and each new stroke of the brush gives the characters new facets and meaning, beyond what I as the reader believed possible.
The story of the novel, though slow to start, is fast placed enough that after picking the book up and laying it down say, ten times in the first three chapters, I finished it in one sitting, after I began the fourth.

I am now at an impasse, I don't know how much of the story I actually want to share, it being such a worthwhile read, with so many twists and turns it left me reeling. I found the heroine loveable, the villains hate-able and the story progression desirable. If you are a fan of murder mysteries, ghost stories and fantastical turns for the worst, this is your jam.  I will leave my thoughts to this; if there was a sequel, I would already have read it.

You can buy this book at Amazon under the listing below:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ghost-Bride-Novel-P-S/dp/0062227335