The Book of the Bothy by Pheobe Smith

Book review: "The Book of the Bothy"" is, surprise, surprise, about bothies. But what are bothies. Well a bothy is "a  mountain hut that's completely free to use as an overnight stop", thanks to the organisation called the MBA, the Mountain Bothies Association, and they are in remote locations far from roads, so this is a book for walkers and hikers of Britain, and those who love the countryside.

Firstly upon getting the book it is full colour. The beautiful picture on the front is typical of the pictures that follow inside. And the inside contains information about 26 bothies including one on the Balmoral estate, one that was set up as a remote hostel and one that was the very first bothy. Each entry has a little history about the building and sometimes a little detail about its past residents before the building was abandoned. Then there is a map, map reference, details of the route in (by foot), an alternative, more challenging route, what facilities each has (no toilets in most), what to look out for while you're there (wildlife etc.) as well as the author's bothy book entry, the bothy book being a book found at each bothy allowing visitors to write their thoughts down for the next set of visitors to find and read and add to.

The author's bothy book entries included things like imagining what the five-year-old girl who wrote an earlier entry felt whilst she stayed in this bothy in a typically beautiful location. These entries definitely helped to break up the more factual information bits that the rest of the book brings, as do the lovely full-colour pics of course, even if common themes do pop-up in them, such as talk of the mice that also live at the bothies, and the author's frustration when she realised she would have to share with others who arrived before her (but then it turned out alright anyway).

The book is suitable for beginners and also for experts I guess, although they may want to skip the early sections on what bothies are, the etiquette involved, what to take, as they probably know these parts or may disagree slightly.

There are some bothies missing from this book as it says there are over 100 in Britain, and this book covers just 26 of them. The author's reason for excluding the other 74 plus is that she "didn't want too large a spread so that there were no new ones for you to discover yourself - that is after all the joy of bothying."

As for me I've never been in a bothy before, and may never do so in the future, but at least I am aware of them now, and should I go on a walking holiday I have a new option available to me, possibly allowing me to explore parts of the country I would never otherwise have seen.

Published on 15 August 2015

Out now on AMAZON.

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

Book review: My version of “The Gracekeepers” is a lovely hardback version with dust jacket. The cover shows the girl North in the arms of her bear as they travel the seas inside their coracle. The stars are silver etched as are the ripples in the sea. The back cover shows the girl Callanish on her little island. The inside covers show maps of the fantasy world and beneath the dust jacket is another cover showing mermaids and mermen beneath the sea.
 

As for the story the first paragraph introduces the fantasy world this novel is set in perfectly. It says “In a world that is almost entirely sea, placing your feet on land was a privilege that must be earned.”
 

There are two types of people in this world, landlockers and damplings. Damplings travel the sea, landlockers stay on the land. And the two don’t really mix.
 

The book follows two young women, North and Callanish, one dampling and one landlocker, and their separate lives. Callanish is a gracekeeper. This means she lives isolated on her own small island where she performs resting ceremonies for dead damplings that are brought to her by passing ships. One day the group that visits is a travelling circus of which North is part of. She is the bear-girl. Her act is dancing with a bear. 
 

They bond but soon are leading their separate lives again, of which more and more is revealed as the story progresses to its thrilling conclusion.
 

A very good book.

 

Publication date: 23 April 2015

 

Amazon UK link: The Gracekeepers

 

 

The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman by Maman Sánchez

Book review: 

"The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman" is, unsurprisingly, about the disappearance of Atticus Craftsman, a 30-year-old Englishman in Spain.

He had traveled to Madrid, Spain, on his father's bequest to close the family business's literary magazine there, "Librarte", thus putting its five female employees, each with their own back-story, out of work. But whilst there he disappears as a plan hatched by the employees to save themselves comes to fruition.

Meanwhile the local inspector Manchego is on the case, except he doesn't appear to be doing very well as many things conspire against him.

It's only when Atticus's father, Marlow Craftsman, has had enough and goes searching for his son himself, going "into the jungle to save his son from the clutches of the natives who were about to devour him in a cauldron full of Twinnings Earl Grey", that things get resolved, with all ending happily.

Overall then a tale that is mainly farce, what with the clash between "aristocratic, antiquated  and cold Englishness" and the Spanish way of things, plus an inspector who seems incompetent, before all is revealed and love comes to the fore.

Amazon link: The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman (from £7.13 at the time of writing) 

Release date: 26 March 2015

Zebra Crossing by Meg Vandermerwe

Zebra Crossing" is about a Zimbabwean albino girl, 17, called Chipo, making her way across the border to a new life in South Africa with her older brother George (hence the title with it's black and white zebra crossing reference).

"In South Africa there are plenty of jobs. We won't have to crawl on our hands and knees to earn a pittance," says George.

But South Africa is not quite the promised land they were hoping for, even with the World Cup seven months away. "Certain nationalities, certain jobs." You need to start from the bottom.

Then the trouble starts. "Just you wait. When the World Cup is finished we will drive all you foreigners out! If you stay, you will burn!"

So there is a deadline, July 11, to make as much money as possible before fleeing.

This is when Doctor Ongani - an enterprising witchdoctor/conman - gets involved. With his "real live albino" he can give you "special extra powerful muti to improve your luck," even when it comes to gambling on the World Cup.

Money is good but the consequences are disastrous leading to the unexpected ending.

Overall a well-written story that really puts you into the lives of immigrants starting from the bottom in South Africa. If you like this book also try "Now is the Time for Running" which is about two Zimbabwean brothers, one disabled, making a similar journey to South Africa with the theme of football also running through it.

Amazon UK link: Zebra Crossing

Publication date: 6 Mar 2014

Reasons She Goes to the Woods by Deborah Kay Davies

This is no “teddy bear’s picnic.” The book is about Pearl and it paints her as a destructive, violent soul. It doesn’t matter who, whether it be her friends, her mother, her baby brother, her self, she inflicts physical pain on them all. It’s brutal and almost made me give up the book because, to me, it was so sick.

The story is told in vignettes. Each chapter is exactly one page long with one long paragraph. And between each chapter is one blank page with nothing on it apart from a chapter heading. On first impressions I thought this was clever writing to always get each chapter the same length, although my friend pointed out that it was a waste of paper.

After the brutal beginning things get a little less brutal as you follow the rest of Pearl’s childhood where things happen. Her mother is loony mad and deteriorates and Pearl gets alienated from her family and friends. The end.

At least she didn’t kill herself.

Publication date: 6 February 2014

Amazon UK link: REASONS SHE GOES TO THE WOODS

Tidal Shift by Dora Heldt

“Tidal Shift” is a German novel translated into English. This was one of the best-selling titles of 2010 in Germany. It spent 57 weeks on the hardcover best-seller list and 31 weeks on the paperback list. However the translation here seems to have diminished the impact of the English version. I feel the situations could have drawn more humour. And also the translation isn't great. For example instead of toyboy the book says boy toys, and instead of “touch wood” the book uses the translation “knock on wood”. So I think the humour that is present here in the book could have come out more with a better translation. Also this is an American English translation too, with soccer instead of football, pants instead of trousers, and I would have preferred a British English translation of course.

The book follows the family of Christine, 46, who is going for a 2-week vacation with her boyfriend Johann, 48, in the German resort of Sylt, “renowned for it’s breath-taking twenty-five-mile-long sandy beach”. They quickly meet Aunt Inge, 64 – “Aren’t you two a bit old for canoodling in public like that?” – who says she wants to change her life, but is being secretive about what exactly she means, which worries Christine. But at the same time Christine is resistant to change herself - “Don’t take the risk of doing something new. You’re far too old for that. Heaven forbid that things could actually go your way in life. So just leave it to everyone else to make changes. Like your aunt Inge – at least she’s got the guts!” So maybe this is another contributor to her anxiety. 

Meanwhile with aunt Inge being secretive it leads the whole family to conclude the wrong things, leading to comical misunderstandings. Heinz, Charlotte’s dad, Walter, aunt Inge’s husband, and Kalli, a friend of Heinz’s, are three OAPs that go on capers similar to those from “Last of the Summer Wine” as they search for answers, and the so-called toyboy.

Overall then a humourous story, but I think the translation could have been better. 

Publication date: 23 May 2013

Amazon UK link: TIDAL SHIFT

This is the Life by Alex Shearer

This book is basically an ode to a brother. It is the tale of someone dying, Louis, and their brother is the narrator recollecting the last moments of their life plus the odd anecdote of their earlier life. 

Louis is introduced as someone who "looked like a wild man, like one of those rough sleepers you feel part sorry for, part afraid of, and part repelled by." Really he is someone who has had a tumour removed from their brain and is in his dying days. His brother has traveled across from England to be him, Louis having emigrated to Australia. 

Louis was the elder brother. He achieved academic success but never stuck with a decent job, "the bohemianism was in his soul." But then at the end, he had the terminal illness and his brother had to cope with it.

Some bits are funny, but not necessarily "achingly funny" as the blurb says.

There is plenty of contemplation too. "Life just seems like a big party sometimes, at which we all gradually get edged towards the door, and then we are out in the cold."

The last section of the book, "The origins of This is the Life," explains that the book was inspired by the authors own brother as he died from a terminal illness. I think the author's brother would have been pleased and proud of this book.  

Publication date: 27 Feb 2014

Amazon UK link: This is the Life

The Last Kings of Sark by Rosa Rankin-Gee

“The Last Kings of Sark” is about love and about the long summers like you experienced when you were young and carefree. “The world was blond, the wind was warm. These were the days that were golden.”

The first part of the book is written from Jude’s point of view and sees her arrive in Sark at the beginning of summer to provide tuition to the only child, Pip, of Eddy and Esme. Things don’t start too well as they thought she would be a boy. (“My name is Jude. And because of Law, Hey and the Obscure, they thought I was a boy.”

Sark is painted as a small island with Jude being shipped in with meat supplies, and there are no cars on the island, and no roads, only golden paths which “were tree-lined, but the trees had grown up and bowed until they met at the top.” Bicycles are the mode of transport here.

Jude is 21, Pip is 16 and the hired help, Sofi, is 19 and, although at the beginning “I could tell straight away that Sofi didn’t like me,” their relationship develops into something special, what with Eddy often away on business and Esme bed-ridden. “It somehow worked, the three of us, tea after tea, tale after tale at the table.” And they also ventured outside to experience all the island.

But summer passes. “Our skin got darker and our hair got lighter, and summer passed like sand through our fingers.” And the love they develop for each other is lost forever although there is the promised reunion under the Eiffel Tower to look forward to. “I can’t wait to go. Baguettes man.”

The second half of the book is written differently with multiple points of views from the three characters from the first half as they all live in France but yet do not really see each other. And when Pip does meet Sofi “it feels forced, almost formal.” The feel is darker too with death and responsibilities rearing their heads.

Then the last chapter is a return to Sark to reminisce about that perfect summer once more “when we were young, when we were kings.”

So a coming of age novel where you can reminisce over the lost summers of youth, and also get into the lives of three characters you’ll come to love and long for them to be reunited once more.

Amazon UK Link: The Last Kings of Sark

Publication Date: 7 Nov 2013

American Spirit by Dan Kennedy

There are some vile bits in this book. If you don’t like vile bits don’t read this book or the rest of this review.

The book follows 45-year-old Matthew Harris who is “long, lanky, slightly underweight, now hung-over, semi-moneyed, tall, and medium slim, with no evident interest in shaving.”

He is going through a nervous breakdown thanks to his marriage to “unfaithful, unwieldy, retired fashion model wife” falling apart, and also because he was fired from the job he held for eleven years. The book follows him through this time where he “is in the midst of an endless and rudderless journey on rising seas of anxiety and receding tides of currency.” 

(Vile bit) The beginning sees him basically living out of his car, spitting all over it, him going over the incident that made him lose his job where “suddenly taking a leak all over your office is a crime” plus he has a kidney stone which makes blood come out instead of the normal.

The book is written through Matthew’s over-thinking, active and self-destructive mind. This makes him not a nice person. For example, in addition to the above vile things, he goes to a meditation class and thinks, “The instructor has been brought here today to teach me how to relax and not let fear govern my life. I have been brought here today to teach the instructor how to be tense and afraid again.” And his depression makes him “ponder the very real and very urgent shadow of death that seems to come to mind when there’s too much silence.”

He refuses help. “This is what Matthew’s head does every time help comes along… it looks for holes in the argument.” But eventually he comes to realise that he can’t run away from the pain forever and it is time to get his life in order, deal with his kidney stone etc. “Let’s get rid of some of the crutches; let’s ask for help when it is needed; learn to have a little faith that there’s still time, no matter how much was wasted.”

So overall not a book for me, as a happy-go-lucky person, but maybe for others.

Publication date: 28th May 2013

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.)

Are You Happy Now? by Richard Babcock

"Alleys, thinks John Lincoln. At least Chicago has alleys." These are the opening lines, immediately catching you off-guard but in so doing drawing you in from the off.

John Lincoln is comparing Chicago to New York, the place he sees as his future. "He wants to attach himself to a great publishing house, edit profound writers, maybe even write a book or two himself. Bask in the pride of his parents. Wave those credentials in front of his rivals. Be somebody."

The reality though is that he is stuck in Chicago, 33-years-old, on a marriage vacation from Mary and is just a small-time editor at a small publishing house, Pistakee Press, on the road to nowhere. That is until he meets Amy who on first impressions resembles a "little ruffled grouse", but provides John with his ticket out of here. Will he finally be happy?

Overall I was reasonably happy with the book. Maybe the first-half with all of John's woe is me stuff got a little depressing in places, "Am I going to die in exile in Chicago?" he muses whilst he has the law on his back, his wife filing for divorce, plus a nagging feeling that his boss is soon to sack him. Woe is me indeed, but a book is about escapism so I didn't need that.

The second half of the book picks up though as John has something to focus on, namely Amy and her book. But in "blindly pursuing his ambition, he's corrupted an innocent." And so his idea of what would bring him happiness gets trodden on a little along the way, although by the end he realises once and for all what it is he needs to finally be happy giving a uplifting ending after all the doom and gloom before.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.)

Black Girl, Will Travel: Wheels Up by E. N. Smith

This is a book that I won in a Goodreads First Reads contest.

The intro to this book describes it as either "a disjointed randomness from the mind of a possible cutter", or "a clever laugh-out-loud page turner that tugs at your heartstrings", then says it is neither, although there is a possibility that it is both in places. 

After that the book takes you across the author's travels to Shanghai, Thailand, Florence, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Singapore and back to New York, with all the chapters being blogposts from her blog.

But the book isn't really about travel. In the blurb it says "it is about life" and I agree with that; the setting just happens to be somewhere abroad. The author herself says at one point "I felt like I was missing what I was truly here for - travel (ok, school, but let's be real - and the blog is not Black Girl, Will Go to School)."

So basically you have musings and some are funny (diarrhea episodes, and life as a dog) and most are hits rather than misses, with the blogs being observational in nature, and showing a passion for fashion, for TV and for shopping.

There are some pictures in here including some nice ones at the beginning of the sections for each country giving you a little flavour for the country.

There was a little self-indulgence in places with lots of comments for the benefit of family members, and the author it seems is only letting you enter into her life a little bit, for example she has just one picture of herself in the book, plus you only ever know her as nothing more than E.N. Smith (maybe she wants to be the next JK Rowling?).

The book concludes with some thoughts about how the author left her comfort zone and had a story to tell because of it. A lesson for everyone.

(This book is listed on Amazon UK FOR FREE HERE.)

The Demolition of the Century by Duncan Sarkies

This book alternates between two points of view, Tom’s then Spud’s then Tom’s then Spud's and so on.

Tom, we learn early on, is an alcoholic. He ran away from Town because he got involved in a scandal involving a horse, Fire Chief, who was put down suspiciously, and which he should have reported as part of his job, but he decided not to when the socks containing bribe money came his way. Then news got out about it and he lost his job and ran away before people started asking for their socks back.

Now he has returned to face up to his past, find his son, and pay Robert Valentine his socks back.

But it appears that people are still after him. He finds out the vet involved in the scandal has died, of food poisoning, and Tom is trying to get away from the people following him whilst trying to find out who the mysterious head honcho Robert Valentine is.

Then there is Spud who has problems of his own including regular panic attacks, relationship troubles and a faulty mobile phone. He is also the guy behind the demolition of the Century, an old theatre, which is where the title of the book comes from although it isn’t the main focus of the story.

Both characters have similar voices, which was confusing at first, but there is a reason for that. And the big reveal half-way through was confusing to me too to start with too because of the way things had been portrayed before that moment.

I got the book because I thought it would be really funny given the publicity quote “The Demolition of the Century appeals to fans of kooky, quirky humour similar to Flight of the Conchords” but it wasn’t. It was more sad in places, for example Tom despairing after his lost son and his wife, and sentimental too at the end. 

(I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.)

The Lying Year by Andrei Gelasimov

The Lying Year is the tale of Mikhail over one year of his life which he spends basically lying. He loses a job, gets lucky in that he is employed by his former company boss to teach his son the ways of life, gets mixed up with his girlfriend leading to a show-down in the middle of the book, before the second half where he becomes a kidnapper. And thanks to his lying there are some really funny, but ultimately disastrous, moments where he keeps digging his own hole.

This is a Russian book that has been translated into English. At first I was struggling with the translation and thought it was quite poor, although maybe that is just me as the translator has awards. Anyway I got used to it. And to its credit the conversations worked alright.

The format of the book is funny because it starts as a straight narrative before breaking into a diary and letters to show other characters viewpoints in the centre as there is a dramatic crescendo in the story as the gun makes an appearance. Then it goes into narrative again with the diary element returning at the end for the next crescendo. This worked well.

Mikhail gets into all sorts of situations through his "lying" but also his cowardice, which makes the book very funny, and the book is very fast-paced but I did have the translation issues at the beginning so it has to be a 4 out of 5.

This book is available on Amazon UK HERE.

Jammy Dodger by Kevin Smith

A couple of shysters create a fake poet to write for the provincial poetry magazine they run because their cushy jobs are at risk – that is what this book is about, with the end being the unravelling of their great masterplan.

They are essentially jammy dodgers, dodging real work, and instead using their work time to discuss biscuits such as the jammy dodger, which is the conversation that the book opens on.

In the first part of the book there were a few quotes from various poems and I was thinking “ah, it’s going to be one of those books”, but that was just setting the scene stuff and the story soon took hold. And as you might expect from a book where poetry plays a big part, the writing in places is poetic. For example the way the geography of Belfast is explained at one point, and also a chance encounter with a kingfisher whilst out walking with a girlfriend (We both saw the flash of blue-green – stood stock still – caught his intense singularity of purpose; a microsecond drawn out. Rosie turned to me in wonder, and in her eyes... etc.).

The book is funny too with the humour never being forced. There are big funny moments in the book, like when milk is first introduced to the story, and a funny radio interview.

It is set in late-1980s Belfast with its troubles and all, but that is never really brought to the forefront of the story and is kept in the background. As it says in book the narrator was using poetry as an escape from the “bomb-lit domain of chaos and violence” on the evening news.

And if you want an escape from real life too you’d do worse than spend your time reading this book.

This book is listed on Amazon UK HERE.

Fish Camping and Other Travel Stories by Matthias Leue

This is a book that I won in a Goodreads First Reads contest.

Essentially we have a travelogue of one person's holidays over the period 1996 to 2002 split into separate stories. For example the titular story "Fish Camping" is about camping in an aquarium for the night.

The pattern of the stories is summers in France, and the rest of time the occasional trip somewhere in the States, with visits being fleeting and food being prominent.

The best bits are the bits like "The grandeur of creation lets one fall silent with awe", less so the bits like "I don't recall what we had for dinner that night, and since Tom is on the road in an 18-wheeler somewhere right now, he is unavailable to jog my memory; and so, dear reader, I must apologize for depriving you of the evening's menu."

There are occasional pictures throughout, which I assume are the author's art, but no photos even though the author mentions many times about how photos were taken. However it may be because the book is black and white that they were excluded for that reason.

There were also some interesting bits missed out I think. The author talks of living in a church because he has no home, then a loft where "the landlords were willing to accept me despite my ruined credit" but that is all the detail we get, although off topic the reasons behind this would have been interesting.

Overall then the book is ok, the author is pleasant enough, but the places visited are passed through swiftly and the book becomes a bit repetitive as you go through it.

This book is listed on Amazon UK here.

Pull Yourself Together by Thomas Glavinic

This book pretty much takes you inside lead character Charlie's head, as he meanders through his life as an overweight, newly-bespectacled, music-humming Austrian student-cum-taxi-driver, who is 87% wimp.

The humour is here. Charlie reminded me of Adrian Mole in parts with some of his wry observations about life as he muses about things. However Charlie's thoughts are more adult as he spends a lot of his time fantasising about the (normally unattainable) women around him (you can see him on the cover chasing a woman). That is until he starts inadvertently killing people which does make his thoughts change to other, more important things.

The narrative is split up a bit with little "note to self" reminders that Charlie puts there if he thinks he has discovered an important tip picked up from his latest deed or thought process or lifestyle magazine. These don't get in the way of the story though. Rather they are there to add another bit of humour.

Then at the very end he has a bit of good fortune to end the book.

Overall then, if you want a book providing an amusing, introverted look at life from a young man's point-of-view then get this.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Fool by Frederick G. Dillen

Fool is about a fool, or a fluffmeister. He is Barnaby Griswold and he has spent his life fluffing through deals, and doing alright in that it seems. Except this book sees him on worse times as he has got in trouble for his deals (short selling), is divorced, has no money, and is suspended from trading so is basically not doing anything (he has never had a proper job in 46 years of life).

So that is the plot pretty much although as Nancy Pearl (an American librarian who reads a lot) explains in her intro this novel is not about the plot as such, rather the way the book is written. Barnaby seems to be very reflective on life as he fluffs along. He reflects on tigers, his life, what would his dead father approve of etc. and his thoughts meander all over the place

Apart from that it is an American novel with an American librarian providing an introduction as well as a reader's guide at the end too for any book club people out there. But it wasn't quite an American version of Boris Johnson at all.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May

"Life! Death! Prizes!" is a reference to those magazines like Take-a-Break that have competitions in them alongside sensationalist stories of life and death, e.g. a normally quiet father killing family with rifles, or in a huge fire or something, because of some debts he'd built up. 

And these are the magazines that the lead character, 19-year-old Billy Smith, enjoys.

The book starts with death, a funeral, and almost ends in death too, which would have been an ultra sad ending to the novel - luckily though the author adds a late twist and there is a happy ending.

The book follows Billy after he has lost his mum who was killed by Aidan Jebb. It is now just him and his 6-year-old brother in a house, on their own and he doesn't cope all that well with the situation all the time. It doesn't help that Aidan Jebb, his mum's killer, seems to be following him about. 

The book also takes satirical looks at the way society is in England, and wider in the world through Billy playing the computer game Empire, but mainly I think this book is about how those "Life! Death! Prizes!" can pollute your mind a little. At least that's what I got out of it.

The novel is a bit quirky, quite interesting and may be worth a look especially if you like society issues.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki

This book was recently long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 so I thought I'd check it out.

The description of this book made me think that this was going to be like "Catch Me If You Can: The True Story Of A Real Fake". However it really isn't like that.

The story is of Maqil Karam. It follows his life through selected periods of his life. Each chapter is headed after a place in the world, like Paris, London and Lahore, and a year. The story goes from birth to, inevitably, death. Throughout he is changing identities, leaving wives behind, businesses behind..., yet to me, despite the description suggesting that all his past acquaintances were trying to "pin him down", he never seems like he is nearly being found. There was one person, Nasser, that caught up with him but he got out of that rather disappointingly easily, and it never seemed like he was in any danger through the book. Mainly it seems the only people making efforts to keep track of him are family, for reasons that they want to keep in touch rather than pin him down. So I think there could have been more suspense thrown in to make the book more exciting.

Also for me the book didn't really get going until a few chapters in, when he returned to Lahore. But after that false start I got into the book a bit more. The writing style is a contemplative one which has a lot of thought going on throughout.

Overall not the book I was expecting but decent nonetheless.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

The Tenderloin by John Butler

No, this isn't a book about steaks. The Tenderloin is a neighbourhood in San Francisco (the book didn't tell me that though, I had to research it - the effort I go to to write these Amazon reviews!) and if you knew that then you might like to read this book because it's shoehorned with San Fran references.

The story follows Evan as he settles in San Fran having come over from Ireland with his friend Milo.

Immediately as I read the book I was hit with a zany writing style where the story fritted from one bit to the next with little joining up in between. Perhaps it was written in bits before being pieced together? Or maybe the author wanted the text to be a bit wayward just like Evan was.

There were some things I didn't like about this book like the lack of attributing dialogue to characters making three-way conversations a little more difficult than they needed to be and the way several characters would said to look like some person that I had never heard of.

But on the other hand there were good things about this book like the storytelling was good, although as previously said I felt they were individual stories pieced together rather than a whole plot, and there was an unconventional ending where you think Evan will resolve his issues and it'll all be ok when actually it doesn't happen like that in real life, and a good epilogue where the story is seen through the eyes of another character.

For a debut novel I enjoyed this quirky read.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)