Fangland

ISBN-13: 9780099502777
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 2007
385 pgs

The story begins with the protagonist, Evangeline Harker happily engaged to her boyfriend and is looking forward to their wedding and honeymoon. But there is other thing in her mind besides the wedding preparations, for she is requested to travel to Transylvania to cover a story on a notorious Eastern European crime boss named Ion Torgu given her job as an associate producer on a television news magazine The Hour.

Despite her wedding plans and all, she went ahead for the interview thinking this is a chance of a great story she would not missed. She met a fellow young American lady by the name of Clementine "Clemmie" Spence when she stopped over in Bucharest. Along the way, Clemmie told her she is affiliated with an organization called World Ministries Central and their work included a few exorcisms; she also told her terrifying tales about her work in Africa as they shared a rental car to Transylvania. Evangeline does not really trust Clemmie and thinks she has something to hide. Before leaving, Clemmie left a necklace with a tiny metal cross in an envelope to Evangeline but the latter thinks nothing about it and move on. She finally gets to meet the infamous Torgu and he drives her to his spooky hotel where they would negotiate about the interview and his appearance on screen.

Evangeline then realizes there is something strange about the hotel and soon, she found out the horror fact that Torgu is actually a vampire. She managed to make an escape but she became a different person with a dark, new self.

Things back in the New York offices is not going on well and Evangeline's disappearance is making everyone antsy. They have bad feelings after receiving some tapes from Romania but nothing appears on the tapes except an empty wooden chair. By now, all these unexplainable events have put on a strain on everyone in the office and some of the staff seem to be affected by a strange virus. The nightmare has just begun.

Unlike other vampire novels, Fangland is a dark, literary vampire story with a modern take. It is suspenseful and gruesome and although the characters are engaging, I did not feel connected or sympathetic towards them. Towards the middle of the novel, the story is told through various viewpoints in the forms of e-mails, diary entries and journals which I think did not really match up with the fast pace as told from Evangeline's perspective in the beginning. At some times, I was also frustrated with Evangeline and thought she should have avoided some unfortunate scenarios but yet I also admired her wits and courage during the escape. Although I was disappointed with this novel, I have to applaud the author for this intriguing and imaginative horror tale with a new twist as so often compared to Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Other blog review:
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
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Lolita

ISBN-13: 9780679723165
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 1997
317 pgs

From the back cover:

Awe and exhilaration - along with heartbreak and mordant wit - abound in Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Most of all, it is a meditation on love - love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

Narrated by Humbert Humbert, this is a memoir of his obsession and his 'relationship' with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze (Lolita).

Frankly speaking, I was not sure if I wanted to read this book from the beginning, but I read a few reviews from other bookbloggers and thought this would make a good literary read despite the shocking subject. Thus, I picked up this book. So how did I feel after reading it? I was truly taken aback and yet amazed that the author was able to write this sensitive and controversial issue and turned it into a beautiful literary masterpiece.

No matter how disturbing the story is, yet I was taken in by the prose and the language and got sucked into this story. Humbert Humbert is indeed a sick man. I have no other word to describe of him. His motive for marrying Dolores' mother to get closer to the girl further tells how perverted and obsessed he is. But the worse thing is, he does not even feel remorse about everything.

On the other hand, is Dolores as innocent as what the readers think she is? Is she the seducer instead of the seducee? Someone may argue that this could be a true love story if the readers could view it from another angle. Maybe. But still I cannot imagine or accept this 'relationship' because the girl is young enough to be his daughter! I could see no purpose of this storytelling except to admit it is a great literary fiction. Lolita is an unforgettable reading experience for me but this will not stop me from reading the rest of Vladimir Nabokov's books in future.

Other blogs reviews:

Adventures in Reading

Book-a-rama

Rhinoa's Ramblings

Things Mean A Lot

(Let me know if I have missed your review.)

Christmas Jars

ISBN: 1590384814
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: 2005
122 pgs

From the back cover:

Hope Jensen is a young, single woman and an aspiring newspaper writer, and when she receives a much-needed but anonymous Christmas gift, she's determined to find her benefactor. That search leads her to an unusual family with a longstanding Christmas tradition. Sensing a front-page feature article, Hope desperately wants to publish their story, but doing so would be a breach of trust. What she decides to do will change her life forever.

Destined to become a classic Christmas tale, Christmas Jars is a heartwarming story that will restore your faith in mankind and make you want to start your own Christmas Jar tradition.

Louise Jensen is expecting a quiet and peaceful Christmas Eve, just like it had been for her for the previous years. However, something, or someone unusual expecting for her when she dines alone at Chuck's Chicken 'n' Biscuits, the usual place where she always spent her Christmas Eve dinner. Seeing the abandoned baby behind her booth and knowing this was no random moment, Louise reaches out to her and decides to bring her home, naming her Hope.

Hope Jensen turns out to be a cheerful and bright little girl; she has big dreams of being a newspaper writer and aimed to be the next great American journalist besides Bernstein, Woodward and Graham. Through patience and hard work, she works her way up slowly. Just when things seem bright and hopeful for her, Louise told her she has cancer. But this news does not discourage them any further as they continue to be positive and supportive of each other. Unfortunately, Louise lose the battle in the end.

Feeling loss and sad, Hope turns to her work and work even harder than before. Then it happened one night someone broke into her apartment and stole away her things. After making a report and the police collected all the evidence, she finds a brown sack sitting inside the open apartment door. It is large glass jar filled with money.

Curious and eager to find out who and why someone left the money jar with her, she decided to do a little investigation and write a story on it, and hoping that one day it will make it to the front page. It then leads her to the Maxwell family, and soon Hope gets closer to the family as they share with her stories about their Christmas Jars and how they started this tradition. But writing this story will be a breach of trust and in the end, what she did and the moral behind this little story will touch your heart and makes you think of the Christmas spirit and the power of giving.

Though the story a little short in my opinion, the message behind this story is both heartwarming and a powerful one. The Christmas Jar tradition really interests me and I might want to start one myself one day. This is a true Christmas classic which I will find myself reading again and again during the festive seasons.

Other blog review:
Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic

The Society of S

ISBN-13: 9781416534587
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: April 2008
304pgs

"Love is a form of biological cooperation in which the emotions of each are necessary to the fulfillment of the other's instinctive purposes." ~ Bertrand Russell (Quoted from The Society of S - pg 104)

Ariella Montero's life is very different from the other girls her age (she is thirteen). Homeschooled by her father, she is taught in most subjects but yet when it comes to the real world, she knows not much of it and its complexities as she has been living a sheltered life since the day she was born. She has no friends except her father's assistant, Dennis and the housekeeper, Mrs McGarritts, and then there is her passion for Edgar Allan Poe's and Jack Kerouac's works which she shared with her father.

She often wonders about her mother and though she has lots of questions in her mind, her father either gives vague replies or only indulge little information whenever she asked him about her mother. She only knows her mother has gone missing after giving birth to her. Aside from this, she also has questions about her father's project in his laboratory and then, about her identity since she knew her father is a vampire.

Sensing her loneliness and feeling she is in need of friends, Mrs McG finally convinced Ariella's father to let Ariella come home with her to meet her family. This acquaintance opens a whole new world to Ariella as Kathleen introduced her to things she has not experienced. They soon became fast friends.

Alas, these happy moments do not last for long when murder took her friend away. Feeling loss and with a dozen questions in her mind, Ariella decides to leave home to search for her mother. And so this begins her journey she will not forget as she will soon learn about the secret of her family history and the answer on her real identity.

While reading The Society of S, I was most fascinated by the gothic premise and how it breaks away from the stereotypes. Susan Hubbard has a unique voice and I really enjoyed that anticipation feeling as the story slowly unfolds and the mystery about her mother finally reveals in the last part of the story.

I was most intrigued by Ariella's parents due to their secret past; and Ariella is a likeable character whom I find her intelligent and very independent for her age. She impressed me with her vast knowledge of Edgar Allan Poe's poetries and I enjoyed reading those scenes where she recited them with her father during the lessons.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequel, The Year of Disappearances, where this intriguing tale shall continue.

Other blog review:
Bookgirl's Nightstand
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Two Caravans

ISBN-13: 9780670916382
Publisher: Fig Tree (Penguin Books)
Published: 2007
310 pgs


There is a field - a broad south-sloping field sitting astride a long hill that curves away into a secret leafy valley. It is sheltered by dense hedges of hawthorn and hazel threaded through with wild roses and evening-scented honeysuckle. In the mornings, a light breeze carries up over the Downs, just enough to kiss the air with the fresh salty tang of the English Channel. In fact so delightful is the air that, sitting up here, you might think you were in paradise. And in the field are two caravans, a men's caravan and a women's caravan. ~ An excerpt from Two Caravans


This is a story about a little group of migrant workers and their journey across England in pursuing for a better future. It does not matter that they came from various countries - Ukraine, Poland, China and Malaysia as all of them share the same dream though for different reasons.

Irina, a young Ukrainian girl wants to learn English and find her true love with an Englishman because she finds them romantic. Andriy, another Ukrainian and a miner's son does not want to follow his late father's footstep of being a coalminer. And then, there is Tomasz and Yola from Poland, and Marta who is Yola's niece. Emanuel, an eighteen-year-old boy from Malawi who come to England to look for his sister, and two Chinese girls from China and Malaysia. And then, there is Vitaly from Moldova.

They live in tiny and cramped caravans and feed very little for their meals and worst of all, they are underpaid. Mr Leapish, the field owner is a calculative man and he does not care about their welfare as long as he pays his bills and makes profits. Life goes on as usual until the farmer's wife found out that the husband has an affair with one of the workers and runs him down in her red sports car. Sensing their bleak future and to escape from this disastrous episode, the workers left the field to find other ways to support themselves.

Two of them are lured into the sex industry, while the others find their employment in another strawberry field, a poultry farm and kitchen helpers in a restaurant. They find themselves in woe as the jobs they end up with are either too horrific or unbearable. There are also some descriptive scenes of how chickens are being breed and are badly mauled into the cages before meeting their ends under the butchers' knives that made me shudder.

But not everything is bleak in this story as the two workers from Ukraine find their way out and ends up falling in love with each other. Two Caravans (aka Strawberry Fields) is not entirely a depressing story about the migrant workers' life in other country, but also a gritty and thought-provoking one that brims with comedy. Marina Lewycka has written this novel in a hilarious way that will make you chuckle but yet it tells the true factual life of some migrant workers that they are still facing today. I would also say this is more of a character-driven story than a plot-driven story. I really enjoyed this novel and I am looking forward to reading her other novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in the near future.

Interview with Marina Lewycka (Loaded Questions with Kelly Hewitt)

The Becoming

ISBN-10: 0441014569
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: December 2006
293 pgs


My name is Anna Strong. I was thirty on my last birthday, and I will be thirty when you read this. In fact, physically I will never be older than thirty no matter how many mortal years I have on this earth. I am vampire. How I became, and what is the nature of my existence, is the reason for this story. I tell it the way it happened so you will learn the truth as I did. It may not be what you expect. ~ Foreword from The Becoming


Anna Strong is a bounty hunter; in other words she is known as a bail enforcement agent. Together with her work partner, David, they are to look for a man who called himself John Donaldson who had skipped out on his bail bond. Unfortunately, the race turned out badly when David is hurt during the search and Anna ends up being attacked by Donaldson unexpectedly when she went out to look for David and Donaldson as she is getting too impatient waiting for David to bring Donaldson while waiting in the car.

The next thing she knew she is lying in the hospital bed with an attractive doctor by her side. Dr Grant Avery is concerned of her overall well being, but that is because he knew she had been turned into a vampire, and in fact he is one of them actually. When Anna came to know about it, she is shocked but she overcame this and took it quite well under the guidance of Dr Avery. With her newly telepathic skills and night vision, Anna vows to find Donaldson for revenge not only for personal reason but he is a threat to others as well.

During this time, Anna is also attracted by Dr Avery despite she is into a relationship with Max, who is mortal and a DEA agent. Their relationship is rather discreet due to his deep undercover operation, and most of the times there is no telling when she will hear from him until he gets in touch with her.

And when her house is burnt to ashes and David has gone missing, naturally her first thought goes to Donaldson but it turns out there is someone behind who is out to get her. To add on to this intrigue, there is also someone whom she dubs 'Casper' who has been helping her in several dangerous situations through telepathic ways, and she will do anything to find out everything by all means.

The Becoming is Jeanne C. Stein's first installment of the Anna Strong series, featuring this heroine from a first person POV. Having read several vampire novels in the past, I find the plot to this story original but most of all it breaks away from the traditional belief of vampires (for example, they have telepathic ability and they are not really afraid of sunlight due to long-term immunity et cetera.) There are more surprises and intrigue as compared to the action scenes in this story; and I quite enjoyed reading Anna Strong being a strong and fearless heroine. I have the rest of the installments in my pile and I definitely look forward to reading them in the near future.

Me and Mr Darcy

ISBN-13: 9780340923740
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Published: 2007
340 pgs

To you I shall say, as I have often said before,
'Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.'
~ Jane Austen

(Extracted from Me and Mr Darcy)

I am sure fans of Jane Austen will know of this literary well-known couple, Elizabeth Benneth and Mr Darcy, in one of her novels Pride and Prejudice. In this book, author Alexandra Potter featured the famous Mr Darcy into her story and cleverly weaves a humorous yet romantic story of Emily Albright and her other self.

Emily is in her late twenties and works as a bookstore manager in New York. Being a true romantic and a big fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, she yearns for a relationship with a gentleman like Mr Darcy but alas, most of the men she met are either losers or are too self-centered.

Her subordinate, Stella, could not stand her losing faith in men and herself, thus she asked her along to a trip in Mexico so both of them could let their hair down and perhaps meet someone along the way. No doubt both women are good friends, she however does not share her younger subordinate's enthusiasm in fashion and views when it comes to men and relationship so she told her she had booked a Austen's literary tour to England as an escape. But the tour turns out to be a disappointment for her as the participants who signed up for the tour are mostly older ladies except a young, arrogant journalist who never fails to infuriate her throughout the whole trip.

Spike Hargreaves, on the other hand is perplexed over why Mr Darcy is being viewed as every woman's fantasy, thus he joined this literary tour as a chance to interview these participants for an article he writes for The Daily Times. Although the tour group fascinates him in a way, he is finding a hard time getting along well with Emily as it seems both of them are at loggerheads over some opinions they had for each other the moment their tour begins. Like a scene taken straight out from Pride and Prejudice, Spike thinks Emily is dull and average-looking, while Emily thinks Spike is nothing but an arrogant man who thinks he knows it all; and to complicate matters, it seems to Emily that Spike is also incorrigible and an unreasonable man based on an incident that involved one of their tour mates and the coach driver.

But as the tour continues and when Emily gets to meet the real Mr Darcy in a subconsciously manner, she could not help but compare him with Spike and towards the end, she will come to a conclusion that pride and prejudice are the factors that ruined her judgement on Spike and what she would do to overcome their differences.

Being a reader and fan of Pride of Prejudice, I find Me and Mr Darcy original and what's more, the bookstore setting and the tour the author described in this story made it a real pleasurable read (especially the museum visit). The subplot story of Stella and her so-called husband is another fun and delightful read. However, one of the things I find most enjoyable about this story is that the author had taken a different scenario and meaning of pride and prejudice and recreated it into a modern day love story. The author has also written another book, Be Careful What You Wish For and I will be looking forward to reading this in the near future.

Other blog review:
Hello, My Name Is Alice
Stephanie's Written Word
(Let me know if I have missed your review.)