Living With Evil by Cynthia Owen

From a frighteningly young age, Irish Catholic Cynthia Owen experienced one of the most horrific cases of parental abuse I have ever heard of. Not only at the hands of her parents was she abused, but other family members, strangers and people organised to abuse her by the parents.

Her parents killed her baby. The baby she named Noleen was fathered by her own father and for years she fought, finally years later winning to have her baby recognised and laid to rest officially. Although no charges were brought against her parents, both dying free people.

How brave she is to write this book and face the horrors with dignity. Without a single apology from any of the abusers she has courageously persevered and put down in writing for all to read what these monsters did to her.

Her personal victories throughout her life that she has achieved despite the treatment she received is inspiration for any of us.

A horrific, shocking story ending with a courageous victory and justice for Cynthia to have her murdered baby recognised.

10/10 for Bravery and determination despite all else.

Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thoms Hardy

If you have been following the posts you may be able to tell now that every so often I love a good classic. I have sought to read Tess of the D'urbervilles for a long time but never seemed to get around to it. I knew little more that than the following, that is was a story of a fallen woman, a book way ahead of is time. What intrigued me was the fact that it was written by a man. How much could Hardy really understand about a woman, in a society which still repressed women in many ways?

The story begins with a girl of the name Tess Durbeyfield. Her family are struggling with poverty and her father is told they are from an ancient family known as the D'urbervilles. Sent from her home and all she knows to befriend the D'urbervilles Tess is thrust into the hospitality of Alec D'urberville, which proves to be her downfall. A child is born from this downfall and Tess is forced to return to her family shamed and lost.

After the death of the child, Tess decides to begin her life afresh and goes to work on a dairy farmer where she makes friends and is very happy, living a humble and unrecognised life. She there meets Angel Clare, educated son of a clergyman who wishes to start his own agricultural career and the pair fall in love.

However on the eve of their wedding, Angel confesses that he had premarital relations with a woman in his younger days, to which Tess readily forgives and decides to allude him, against the wishes of her family, to her own mistakes of younger days.

Angel is so disgusted that he leaves her and she is forced to go and work on a turnip farm a very undignified and hard job. Angel goes abroad to work and although he sends Tess money, she does not touch it preferring to be independent. She refuses to go by her marital name in case she should further disgrace Angel whom she loves deeply.

Through a twist of fate Alec D'urberville comes back into her life a changed man, but upon meeting Tess is drawn back in to his old lustful ways.

The story ends with Angel returning many years later ready to forgive Tess and she is then forced to kill Alec to be with Angel.

It is hard to believe this story was written when the life of a woman was so different. The relevance to today's society and opinions was at time remarkable. For a man to have many premarital partners is seen still to this day as a badge of bravado or honour, but the female equivalent is seen as loose or easy.

Well done Thomas Hardy for beginning the revolution!!

10/10

The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The third and final novel in the Millennium trilogy. Interestingly the original Swedish title literally translates "The Castle in the Air that Was Blown Up"! Personally I prefer the English translation, which to me, seems to capture Salander's risk-loving, danger-chasing personality.

Anyway enough of that, what did I actually think of the book? As a direct follow on from number two, Salander finds herself in an intensive care hospital following her injuries in book two after her father Zalachenko and half brother Niedermann tried to bury her alive. Slightly bizarrely, her father is put in the room next to her in hospital.

With the help of Blomkvist, Salander is given a lifeline in hospital, a mobile phone, which enables her to keep up to date with things and carry out her own interventions from the closeted space of her hospital bed while she regains strength.

In the mean time Niedermann is on the run, Berger editor in chief of the Magazine her and Blomkvist own is being threatened and sexually harassed by a stalker and Blomkvist is battling to save his credibility once and for all.

Many story-lines gelling wonderfully together and coming to a heart-pounding climax.

This is not a trilogy to read if you are looking for something light. I can't go into one story line without getting dragged into another and this blog would end up not only ruining the ending for you but rewriting the book!

Fast, complex and shocking!

9/10

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium Trilogy Book 2) by Stieg Larsson

In the second book of this trilogy we see the return of Blomkvist and Salander in their production and revelation of a document detailing sex trafficking behaviour in Sweden. The story takes a turn for the worst when Salander become suspect for three murders, one of whom was an abuser of Salander. She, while in hiding aids the progress Blomkvist makes in the case.

With twists and turns all along the way we are left agonising at the completion of the book to read on to the final book of the trilogy.

A slightly slower-paced book than its predecessor but never the less successfully setting the scene for a mind blowing finale.

8/10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy Book 1) by Stieg Larsson

Out of sheer curiosity of it's reputation I bought this book when I saw it on offer in a leading bookstore. I don't regret my purchase.

A crime fiction, yes many of us have read many of those, but never with such fascinating and colourful, encapsulation characters and a storyline to beat all others.

Mikael Blomkvist, a notorious journalist due to a recent conviction of libel, takes on the case of a wealthy businessman, Henrik Vagner. To all others Blomkvist is seen to be chronicling the rich and successful life Vagner has lead, but between only himself and Vagner he is delving into the disappearance of Vagners lost granddaughter. As Blomkvist begins his search for Harriet Vagner he realises that the suspects into the apparent murder could only have been close family or friends. As the investigation continues slowly help is sought from eccentric, reclusive Lisbeth Salander and from then on the story gains in pace, both of the story line and your heartbeat!

I had my theories as I was reading it but the climax of the book was brilliant if not terrifying!!

9/10

The Boy I Love by Marion Husband

I was immediately transported into a totally different account of this period than I have ever considered before. Of all the books and literature I have read about wars and post-war periods, I am ashamed to say this book opened doors I myself had never considered.

Written in the aftermath of World War 1, the story follows the story of Paul Harris, a soldier who fought in the war. Harris is forced out of obligation to the duty of his dead brother to marry his pregnant fiancee. Paul Harris however, is homosexual. In unbiased but passionate accounting, Marion Husband allows us into the mind of the young man who is bravely doing his duty as he sees it, to his lost brother, but fighting his longing for a man he can never openly love.

Torn by obligation and want, the reader follows his story vividly from start to finish.

Marion won the Andrea Badenoch award for fiction and the Blackwell Prize for this book, and I look forward to reading the sequel, Paper Moon, which sits proudly at the top of my Christmas list!!

10/10 for a thought-provoking, tear-jerking read.

Pop Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous

Imogen once again has transported us into a world of fiction where all the stories are true. This time the scene is set in the music industry. Be prepared for all the undercover gossip from the multi-billion pound industry, but who exactly is making all the money? Simon Cowell? Or are others getting a decent slice of the pie? Imogen invents a boy band as this book's way of revealing the industry secrets, as we follow a year in the life of the band we find out more and more about the industry so many want to break into. Shocking, riveting and a true guilty pleasure. My only problem with this book is that it leaves you wanting more, more, more!!!

7/10