Ashes by Ilsa J Bick

Just When You Thought There Was Nothing Left To Lose.....
review by Maryom

Seventeen year old Alex heads off into the wilderness for some peace and quiet to reflect on the things that have shattered her life. While she is there, an electro-magnetic pulse destroys anything that's left! Of the few survivors, some turn into savage creatures hunting down humans for food but some discover that they now have enhanced senses. Alex's sense of smell might give her the edge over those hunting her... With fellow survivors - 8 year old Ellie and young soldier Tom - Alex needs to find a safe haven where she can start to re-build her shattered life. The question is what sort of world will the survivors build on the ashes of the old?


I found this a hard book to get into - mainly because the back of the book blurb had given away too much of the plot. Whilst Alex and the people she encounters are trying to understand and explain away what has occurred, the reader already knows.
Quarter of the way in, I moved into uncharted territory plot-wise and the book really got going. After this point I found it difficult to put Ashes down. Some of the characters come across as stereotypes rather than real people but Alex and Tom come across as believable people with real issues and troubles. Ilsa J Bick has added an interesting twist on the usual zombie story by having a main character who had little to live for before the world changed, but now sees, among the destruction of everything, the possibility of a future.

After the opening hiccough, Ashes is a fast-paced, dystopian adventure and I can't wait to read the follow-on book, unfortunately not out till next year.
A slight warning to anyone at all squeamish - this is at times violent, gory and stomach churning!

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Quercus Books
Genre - teen,YA, fiction


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Top Place Percy by Peter Bently and Daniel Howarth

We are all special
Review by The Mole

Percy is going to the fair and sees some of his friends on the way. He sees that is each one is special in their own way, fast, brightly coloured or fun shapes. Gradually he gets sad because he has no such special gift. At the talent show all his friends wins prizes and Percy feels very left out. After the talent show Percy finds out how everyone is special somehow.

Written as an educational book Top Place Percy sets out to show that everyone has value and is special and it does this with a very accessible story that is combined with easily readable, but fun, fonts and glorious colourful cartoon style pictures. This book is bound to be fun for pre-readers or early readers and is supported by teacher's and parent's notes in the back to help get the most from the story.

But, putting educational aspects to one side, any child will enjoy this book and take on it's message by osmosis.

Publisher: QED Publishing
Genre: Pre-School/Early Reader Educational

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Everything I Found On The Beach by Cynan Jones

Life On The Edge
review by Maryom

The lives of three men are drawn together by the 'thing' that one of them finds on the beach.
Three men, each in his own way living on the edges of society, find their paths drawn irresistibly together - Grzegorz is a Polish immigrant, financially tied to, almost owned by, his employer, slaving away for little pay with no chance to improve his lot. When an offer of big money comes his way, he jumps at it.
Hold ekes out a living as a small time fisherman and gamekeeper, close to the Earth, trying to never take more than he needs and treating the fish and animals he kills with respect and near reverence.
The Big Man is a professional criminal, brought up on father's tales of the good old days of 'respectable' crime and wishing he'd lived back then.


On the surface Everything I Found On The Beach is a thriller - a man finds something valuable, obviously illicit, on the beach, tries to cash in on it and outwit the criminal gangs. But it's also a moving, haunting novel about love, loss and guilt, and about exploitation, greed and being trapped between the two. With his deceptively simple writing style, Jones takes the reader into the lives of Hold and Grzegorz - both trying to deal simply and honestly with the world and finding it isn't enough. Both believe that somewhere out-there is a lucky chance waiting for them - and when they think it's arrived are only too happy to snatch at it.
Running through the minds of all the characters in the novel, is a feeling that at some undefined point in the past things were better. I was particularly struck by the contrast between the Poles' fondly remembered life at home as subsistence farmers where nothing goes to waste and the mechanised conveyor-belt production of meat leading to the destruction of perfectly good food, that they discover in Britain. Even Grzegorz, though, is forced to admit that, however idyllic that life seems in comparison to the one he's now trapped in, against the force of worldwide markets, it is doomed.

A disturbing, melancholy book at times but one I'd heartily recommend.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Parthian
Genre - adult, thriller, literary

Hot Dogs Under The Dakota by Johannes Gouws

Love and Hate...

Review by The Mole

The story opens with the knowledge that Petie's grandfather has just been shot in the family home and the police are about to arrive. The story switches to a retrospective of Petie's life from the time his mother abandons him at his grandparents to the time of the murder.

The story explores everything in Petie's life that makes him love his grandfather, and he does really love the man - a man who is always hard and very often brutal. Petie is also violent, always fighting at school and being beaten for it and always resenting the way his mother has abandoned him. We are never told why his family hate his Grandfather so much but gradually, through the telling, we too grow to hate the man and start to realise that it is possible for a child to both love and hate the same thing.

Set against the background of emerging apartheid it is a most fascinating and well told story.

Although this story is written from Petie's perspective as a child it is written for adults and not children.

If you want a feel good story then this is not for you, but if you want a story that is well told and will involve you in it emotionally then this book should certainly be given a go.

Publisher  - Print On Demand and ebook from all the usual sources
Genre - Adult Fiction

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There's A Lion In My Bathroom by Giles Paley-Phillips

Nonsense
Review by The Mole

Poetry is, for me, a funny thing, I know what I like and it has to be entertaining. This book is a collection of Giles's nonsense poems and although they seem to talk to the younger reader there are also plenty in there to appeal to adults too. To describe them as 'nonsense' is not absolutely correct. For example apart from 'why would a lion be using the shower?' the poem makes a of joke of the dilemma this creates in a humorous way. As for other examples... best to read the book perhaps?

There are regular black and white pictures throughout that are well drawn by Matt Dawson and they enjoy a quality of cuteness making the collection of poems that much more enjoyable.

I really did enjoy this collection - those suited to the younger reader as well as those for the more mature reader.

It is also worth noting that a donation from the profits on this book will go to Leukaemia research.

Publisher - Rebel Books Publishing
Genre - Nonsense Poetry - all ages

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Sanctus by Simon Toyne

NOT another religious intrigue.
Review by The Mole

In the fictional Citadel, in the city of Ruin, in Turkey there is a secret.. It is a secret that must be protected by the monks who live there - at any cost! When one of the monks cannot accept the gravity of the secret he must be executed but he escapes instead and commits suicide but manages to leave a message. The message is for Liv Adamson but she cannot understand the message. The monks set out to remove anyone the monk came into contact with in any way using any means possible in a thrilling story.

Short sharp chapters are a feature of this book, with each chapter carrying a shift from one character and scene to a new one. The characters are well drawn and leave the reader in no doubt as to which side each character is on. Violence and action is pretty graphic but not overdone and there is a lot of it in this book. This is not a book that sets out to crack a mystery surrounding a real life religious issue but is a thriller setting out to thrill the reader with a fictional secret in a fictional setting. And it does it in style!


I am not a thriller devotee but I really enjoyed this book and it held my attention throughout. It is bound to please thriller readers everywhere.

Publisher - Harper Collins
Genre - Adult Thriller


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The Water Room by Christopher Fowler

A Gentle Read?
Review by The Mole

Bryant and May are detectives in the Peculiar Crime Unit that is being passed around between official departments like a hot potato. This is in part because of the eccentricity of Arthur Bryant and his tendency to do his own thing in a manner sure to irritate any head of department.

An old lady is found dead in her cellar while dressed to go out. She is sitting up, fully clothed, dry - but she drowned. Who wouldn't want to get to the bottom of this crime? Before we do though there will be more deaths...

"Bryant and May"... My immediate reaction was this could not be serious! "Peculiar Crime Unit"?? And it wasn't very serious. You get those books where you have a passage you have to share aloud but this book was packed with them. It was amusing and entertaining throughout and I struggled to see a logical continuity in the detection. I do not believe there is one and would like to suggest that this book is only slightly more serious than "Dirk Gently".

It is a very good book for entertainment but if you want serious detection then I don't believe this book is for you. But why not try a lighter moment in detection?

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Publisher - Bantam Books
Genre - Adult Fiction

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