The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult

The Tenth Circle is the second novel of Picoult’s that I have read, the other being Keeping Faith which I read back in March. I remember thinking how engaging a book that had been and how Picoult had managed to draw you deep into the characters so that you somehow managed to see a part of yourself in each of them.
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The Tenth Circle is nothing short of brilliantly captivating. It took me four days to read it – no mean feat since I work full time and did two 12-hour days this week. I just couldn’t put it down. Picoult’s writing is just so (and I don’t mean to sound snobbish here) intelligent and fantastically constructed and the way she gives her characters so much depth you can’t help but feel their pain or happiness as deeply as they do.
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The story follows the Stone family whose lives are torn apart one night when 14-year old Trixie is raped at a party by her ex-boyfriend and the subsequent effect on those around her. Her father Daniel has always been her main caretaker as he has been the ‘stay at home dad’, fitting his work of writing comics around her schedule. Picoult has cleverly managed to paint her father as some kind of superhero who will do anything it takes to protect his daughter from the world. This is further demonstrated by Picoult’s descriptions of Daniel’s ‘wild’ past which, cleverly juxtapositioned between his current ‘normal’ persona, serve to highlight the two sides that probably every person who loves someone else has – the side to love and nurture and the other to protect, no matter what price that amounts to. To this end, at the conclusion of each chapter is a short comic strip which illustrates Daniel’s quest to save his daughter, written along the lines of travelling through the nine levels of Hell as described in Dante’s Inferno – a epic poem on which his wife Laura is something of an authority.
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Jodi Picoult throws up so many questions during this book that on occasion it reads like Carrie Bradshaw’s narrative in Sex in the City. However, her questions and points are so relevant and thought-provoking that before you know it your mind is whirring away trying figure out the answer – sometimes to which, there isn’t one. Questions such as why you have to physically say “no” to sex for it to be considered rape when we never actually say “yes” either. Why isn’t the body language of saying no just as important as when the body language says yes? How dressing someone can be much more intimate than unravelling them. How you can be married to someone for so long and both know and not know them. How, when two people are changing so rapidly whilst they each fight off their demons, the two of them remain the only constant and can still recognise each other afterwards.
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There is no doubt that Picoult has done her research. The use of the Alaskan environment and its people serves to highlight that sometimes words are not needed and that volumes can be spoken within a silence, especially in a landscape where breath is instantly frozen on the air. I liked the way this was highlighted through the character of Willie near the end of the story and his relationship with Trixie. Sometimes you have to listen to silence before you can find it within yourself to speak the truth and how sometimes you don’t need to speak at all to say what needs to be said.
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I could go on forever about how good this book is but I don’t think I could ever do it justice. It is clever and sharp and brilliantly written. Picoult has the most amazing way of bringing you deep into the characters so that they become a part of you. The way she shows how difficult it is to be a parent, or a family, or someone who loves someone else, or anyone who has something to lose by turning a blind eye. How even superheroes have the flaws of humans, but at the same time this is what makes them superheroes in the first place. It's a lucky girl who ever had a dad like Daniel.

Crisis Four - Andy McNab

Crisis Four is the second book in the Nick Stone series and just like Remote Control it’s full of action and intrigue.
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Personally, one of my favourite parts of these books is Nick’s relationship with Kelly. This focuses his attention on something else in his life other than him and it’s interesting to see how this affects his choices – even past SAS operatives are human too (shock horror!). She doesn’t appear too much in this story but we find out that Nick is now Kelly’s joint guardian and with that has come a responsibility unlike any other he’s ever had.
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The story opens on an operation in Syria where we are introduced to Nick’s old flame, Sarah Greenwood. When I read Recoil last month I mentioned I was glad that McNab had tackled a more lovey dovey side to Nick that I hadn’t seen before. However, I’d forgotten and Nick pretty much falls in love with Sarah in Crisis Four so it’s actually here that we first see how Stone reacts towards the ladies. McNab does a good job telling it from the side of a bloke unable to cope with these type of emotions.
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As usual for Nick though things do not go according to plan. He’s already ticked off with Sarah for using him in the past and in the opening chapter she screws him over again causing one of his team to get killed. The book then skips forward a few years to where Stone is sent on a mission to locate her as she’s gone AWOL in the States and the firm are concerned about where her loyalties lie. It’s here in the first half of the book that McNab’s operational experience really shows through as the detail he goes to in setting up the situations for us are second to none – but as always, narrated in the squaddie language style we love so much!
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After finding Sarah and listening to her side of events he decides to ignore the “T104” order and help her out, believing that to stop a greater wrong is more beneficial on a global scale than ignoring an trifling order from the Firm. Plus, more to the point, he still fancies his chances with her. Here the action gets intense as Sarah and Nick dodge bullets, dogs and hypothermia as they are pursued across North Carolina by the police. They eventually make it out alive and as their next step is to try and enter the White House, Nick must call on an old friend who he knows he will have to screw over in order to help Sarah.
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Like Remote Control, the book leaves you guessing right up until the end and you’re never quite sure who the bad guys are. Invariably Stone takes the brunt of the blame as things do not go to plan in Washington and at the end of the story Stone is left wondering if there is anyone out there who he can trust – or even if there is anyone left who can trust him…

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

I think that when you are reading a book there are two questions you need to ask: a) Was it good; and b) did you enjoy it.
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The Lovely Bones is a very good book. It has a sympathetic approach to it's subject and is intelligent in its construct and I had heard people rave about how brilliant it was. However, throughout the majority of the book I couldn't stop myself from thinking that actually, I'm not really enjoying reading this however much I wanted to enjoy it. Only in the last chapter did I begin to fully understand and like where the story took me.
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But maybe this is what Sebold had intended all along due to the subject of the book? The story is told by 14 year-old Susie who one night on her way home is raped and murdered by a man in her neighbourhood. The rest of the book details how she sees her family's attempt to come to terms with her senseless death as she looks down on them from Heaven; as they try and make sense of it, and most notably at the end, how their lives have been irrevocably changed and linked to one another by it. Thinking back, maybe the reason I didn't enjoy the majority of the book was because of the emotional changes that happen to the characters as they try to make sense of Susie's death - this in itself would be a hard time for anyone unlucky enough to have to experience it which maybe Sebold, in her cleverness has managed to convey to her readers perfectly.
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As Susie's family and friends try to get on with their lives you sense there is a heavy veil of longing over the them - a sense that they will each of them have to find closure in their own way especially since Susie's body or her killer are never found. This is where the book for me at least, starts to come together at the end when the family realise that their longing and hanging on can not continue and that they need to get on with their lives whilst remembering Susie in their own way. Only in this way can Susie herself let go and move into the next part of her Heaven. Sebold explains to us the comforting thought of how the dead never actually leave us even once their loss has been accepted by those they love. They are always with us and their legacies however small will remain forever which she explains in a very sympathetic manner.
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There is no doubt that this in an elegant book which taps into the heart of love, loss and grief and reluctant acceptance. It is honest in its conclusion highlighted by the fact that Susie's killer is never found and eventually dies an unremarkable and unnoticed death himself. Sebold is a very clever writer who does expect you to read between the lines on occasion. All in all a very good book but as to whether it was enjoyable to read, you'll have to make up your own mind on that one.
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I've released this book into the wild via http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and its BCID is 196-5133324 - enjoy!

Father Unknown - Lesley Pearse

Lesley Pearse is, beyond any doubt, a gifted writer. I have only read one other of her books before which was Trust Me - a harrowing story based on true events about two children who were sent to Australia on the pretext of starting a new life, which turned out to be little more than a life of slavery, abused by those in a position of trust.
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Father Unknown therefore, had a fairly tall order to live up to based on how engaging Trust Me was. And indeed it doesn't fail to deliver. It opens with the story of dizzy Daisy who, after her adoptive mother's death, goes in search of her real mother in the hope of understanding her past. Much of the book is taken up with the story of Daisy's real mother Ellen and Ellen's half sister Josie and how their lives move in two totally different directions, shaping their lives and personalities to a tragic end for both. Pearse tells the tale of parental cruelty, abandonment and lost innocence in such a way that you can't help but feel sorry for those involved. The story is also set in Cornwall, an area which although vibrant and full of life in the summer, becomes drab and isolated in the winter - an area discarded by the tourists after their fun in much the same way as Josie's character is discarded by men. A lot of time is spent on Josie in the book as her character surprisingly is the pivot on which much of the story falls. Pearse does a great job on capturing the hardship of both girls' situations and how the personality of each goes a long way in turning their lives into what they are - an idea highlighted in it's extreme once again by Josie's character.
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This book, just like Trust Me is not for the faint-hearted. Pearse is not a woman who shies away from detail in the most extreme situations or makes pretty scenes purely to appease. Some paragraphs describing Josie's life are so harrowing I had to read them twice to make sure I'd read them right. Pearse should be commended for this. She doesn't put these scenes in purely for shock value - they are there because afterwards we understand more about the character and their actions and why they are the way they are. She writes life like it is and is not afraid to put in the nitty-gritty either which I personally feel is one of her most admirable qualities. On the other hand she also expresses love and happiness with equal vehemence which makes a wholly balanced and entertaining story for the reader with brilliant plot development, character assassination and an engaging twist to the story at it's climax. Ellen and Josie may have been let down by society, but you won't be let down by Pearse.
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I've released this book into the wild via http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and its BCID is 881-5133217 - enjoy!