Elias by Chelsea O'Hara
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book to be a most compelling but upsetting read. The author has produced a story that allows the reader to be inside another person’s head with every turn of the page. But it isn’t just about what they are thinking; oh no! It’s also about their every emotion. Fear, confusion, and a profound loss of self are all central to Ada’s experience, while she is imprisoned in a cage beneath a house that seems to breathe and know through silence exactly what is happening all around her.

Much as I felt a compulsion to keep reading, I hated the book! Not because it was a poorly written narrative etc. but because I could hardly bear to think about what the victims had to daily endure through the wiles of such a pitiful monster. It was so unsettling to read on, and it leaves one with the thoughts about the novel’s plotline for days afterwards. One of the best and worse stories I have come across in fifty years of being an avid fan of all kinds of fiction. Chelsea O’Hara, the author, has a background of criminal psychology. Is that an explanation? I hate to think so somehow.

I felt grateful but fearful for the final chapter – and even a little tearful while reading it. Quote: “The quiet still hurts, but the good kind of noise hurts less. Real noises, real footsteps, real life. I breathe it in…”
Elias is not so much a good read but more, as I found it, a chilling experience!



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The Memory of Lost Dreams by Joseph Minart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I can congratulate the author for tackling such an imaginative, dystopian science fiction novel, I cannot say I really enjoyed it. There were obvious links to Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World, but the narrative style and pace of this story left a lot to be desired, when compared to those classics. In addition, I discovered later that there are two authors who are credited with writing the book: Davon Custis as well as Joseph Minart, which was confusing. Raylan Hawkes, the main character, was ineffectual but convincing throughout the story and at times seemed to be an unlikely hero. However, he was suitably curious and confused enough to drag the plot forward when it was becoming dragging and ponderous.

The world-building aspect of the tale was good if a little disjointed occasionally. Once I became aware of the evil potential and the concept of Jean-Pierre’s quantum-powered REQUIEM device I wanted to know much more. I rapidly turned pages and that was the main problem with the narrative. It was too full of verbosity, clichés and loquaciousness; contemporary clichés such as ‘I had to think outside the box’ did not fit well for events some 700 years into the future!

On top of all that there was not enough technical detail about how it might work, especially for fans of Sci-fi like me. The inventor of REQUIEM, Matthieu Fletcher and other characters like Anthony, Rachel, and Aurelen needed a lot more ‘fleshing out’ rather than the constant repetition of irrelevant information about clothing etc. Although towards the end of the book some surprising scenes between Rachel and Raylan lifted the story for me – but no spoiler here!

The dystopian world that Raylan encounters is definitely dark and threatening as expected with an evil protagonist, like Jean-Pierre, and a world subjugated by the tyrannical ‘Chief Lord’. All through the book there were strange choices of adverbs and adjectives which stopped me reading and made me feel a re-edit was needed. The poor writing and style badly let this book down for me.



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The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This well known Dickens' book was much longer than I expected and for quite a while I felt like giving up on it. It was so tedious and predictable. But then, when I looked forward to Quilp getting his come-uppance and seeing the back of the crooked lawyers there was a reason to read on! And a new heroine in the form of the 'small servant' took my attention; she had replaced Joe Gargery, from Great expectations in my list of favourite Dickens characters. There was a race to the end and the famous tragic denouement. Loved it in the end.

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