October 2024
Book 60: Stephen King - The Dead Zone
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King really can tell a great story but, disappointingly following The Stand, I found the quality of writing in this one really piss-poor. His descriptive writing felt like it was straight from a high-schooler's English exercise, the dialogue was frequently cringe-worthy as if from an episode of Happy Days and any references to sex felt like they came from someone whose only prior experience involved issues of Playboy. Top notch story though, albeit one that I was already familiar with because of the movie adaptation, and it entertained from start to finish.
Book 61: Susan Hill - The Woman in Black
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Masterful use of suspense to create the horror here. Very enjoyable but, even at only ~150pp I thought this might have fared better as a bona fide short story as the build up started to feel a bit repetitive with the village locals continually showing themselves to be all knowing but, remaining reluctant to speak up to the big city stranger. Good October read nontheless.
Book 62: John Berendt - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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I’ve been adding true crime books to my October reads - nothing seems more horrifying than the things humans seem to be prepared to do to one another. I can totally see why this has remained such a popular book since publication. It’s incredibly well written and immensely entertaining throughout. I’m a bit more surprised that it consistently crops up on best true crime book lists however, given that out of the ~400pp, only maybe 30 or so relate directly to a crime and the consequent efforts at punishment. The rest is a love letter to Savannah and the wonderfully quirky people that live there. Berendt’s journalistic background shines through and he delivers more of a detailed travelogue to me than a true crime piece. So, while this may not have been what I was expecting for an October read, I thoroughly enjoyed every sentence and would gladly recommend to anyone interested in unique people and places.
Book 63: Catherine Pelonero - Kitty Genovese
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I knew the basics of the Kitty Genovese murder but this book did a fabulous job of laying out the events of that tragic night, the history of the main players and the subsequent trial. It also looked further into the developments in criminology and psychology due to the behaviour of the witnesses during the murder. Good true crime book.
Book 64: Thomas Preskett Prest - The String of Pearls
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This 'penny dreadful' was alright. The Sweeney Todd story is one I've been aware of for as long as I can remember but, only told as a person to person folk tale, almost as if he were a real person and his misdeeds were a cautionary tale about the darker side of the our capital. While I knew he was actually fiction, I didn't know until recently that this was the original source material. Like many originally serialised books of the period, (even the greats likes Dickens' which I'm no expert in but have read a few), this seemed to me to be unnecessarily prolonged and frequently repetitive as it subtly reminded the reader from the previous month what is important. It is a gruesome tale though so kudos to whoever thought it up, (I've read that Prest who Penguin credits is frequently questioned as the true anonymous author).
Book 65: Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera
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I found this a bit boring to be honest. Another one that perhaps I knew just enough of before reading for the actual material to be just a bit underwhelming. I finished my month off with 4 days in Paris so this tale set inside the Paris Opera House seemed like the perfect accompaniment but, it just failed to grasp me and any terror was sadly foiled by the moments of farce between arguing theatre managers and Clouseauesque detective! Not terrible, just nothing special.