...the Soul of Wit

Enjoy the latest short reviews! 

The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides 

Famous painter Alicia Berenson and her husband Gabriel are seemingly the perfect couple and live a dream life in a beautiful house - until one night she shoots him five times in the face and never ever spoke again. Now Theo Faber, a new therapist at the Grove, the psychiatric unit she resides in ever since the incident, is determined to try his luck and make the legendary "silent patient" open up.

What I learned from Michaelides' gripping psycho-thriller is above all that if a person looks as beautiful as a Greek god, beware of them. Seriously, all problems in this book issue from people described as such and maybe it is one of the points of the book that if things look too good to be true, there must be something fishy involved.

Unfortunately, I was really expecting a mind-blowingly original story on the basis of all the rave reviews The Silent Patient received but ended up reading a relationship drama. The good thing about this book is that it loses no time at all and is a real page turner, so you can finish fast.

The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett
My first Terry Pratchett ever! I know many will shake their heads thinking how it is possible for someone to have worked in THE go-to bookshop for fantasy in Berlin and not have read any Terry Pratchett. I agree and it was a shame I carried with me for many years... Not anymore, though!

I sometimes get tired and need a break from all the doom and gloom. In one of these downer times a dear friend of mine recommended Pratchett, and I'm glad to say she was right and it worked. The adventures of the failed magician Rincewind guiding Discworld's first tourist, the naive but lucky economist Twoflower, are so witty and entertaining that it really made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions. Some word and plot plays are actually quite genius and I could get used to reading a Pratchett every now and then to brighten up my mood. There surely are enough of his books for several lifetimes.

Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger 

Yet more thrilling relationship drama... I don't know why I do this to myself, you can easily lose hope and faith in honest relationships if you're a constant reader of these books. Although Confessions on the 7:45 starts off like a regular thriller on the consequences of the cowardly cheating of a husband and family father, it goes much further later in the story, making it a somewhat more worthwhile read than others of its kind.

Two women meet in a commuter train and engage in a conversation; Martha ends up confessing that she has an affair with her boss and Selena, in turn, tells her that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. Then they part ways and go on with their lives. Only they don't!

There are so many twists and turns, back stories, webs of lies and complicities that Confessions on the 7:45 always keeps you interested, surprised and even captivated. Perfect if you feel like a quick and uncomplicated read...

 

The Ritual by Adam Nevill 

Four university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness, realize they can't stand each other anymore, take the wrong turn while fighting and bickering, get lost and finally end up in some part of the ancient forest where old Scandinavian mythology comes to life... Not in a good way!

This book... I am a little ashamed to admit that it took me MONTHS to read this book because I never made more than one chapter at one sitting. When I was done, I was so happy not to have to read it anymore. This book tormented me!

I'm sure Neville is a great author, but in my opinion The Ritual is just plain overwritten. Already the first part was quite literally a slog through the wilderness: the long hike and getting lost in the woods, the constant bitching around for nothing, the hunger, the injuries... By the end of the first part I was wishing they all died so we can all be relieved but then came the second part which didn't only drag out the misery of the main character, it didn't make any sense either! The whole reason why there was a second part and how it ended - did.not.make.sense.

On a more positive note some parts are really nicely written, especially the descriptions of the people he finds in the house in the woods. I'm afraid that's the only nice thing I can say about the book, though. The movie, on the other hand, was WONDERFUL! I can't believe I am telling people to watch the movie instead of reading the book. Usually it is the other way around. The filmmakers cut out everything that needs to be cut out, changed the conflict in the first part into something more concrete and understandable, et voilà! One of the best horror movies made in the last decade. Wish the book could keep up.

 

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison 

In this book there are basically two stories intersecting; the story of Shaw, who goes through a sort of life crisis and whose life consists of not much but the visits to his mother who has dementia and lives in a care home. One day he meets Tim who gives him a job in which he needs to sit in front of a computer in a boat house and do stuff for Tim's blog, travel to seemingly random destinations and visit a medium on a regular basis.

The second story is the story of Victoria, with whom Tim has a loose affair. She decides to buy a car and go to the country to get away from London, moving into the house of her late mother. There, she finds a truly bizarre community and her life among them is almost like a nightmarish David Lynch movie. And finally, there are many many water-related and aquatic elements everywhere, both in Shaw's and in Victoria's life. 

I'm not really sure about this book, I definitely have to ponder on the story more. I read this for the Otherland Book Club and was made aware of things I never would have thought while reading it. So, it has a very subtle quality and is a weird metaphor for a fairly recent and big event in the history of England. I can't shake the feeling there's more to this book, though. What I surely found impressive, is how even normal landscape descriptions become uncanny and even scary written from Harrison's pen, it is akin to an atmospheric horror movie in book form. I loved the writing and will surely do a re-read at some point.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey 

When I was very young and blue eyed I had a boyfriend who in fights used to say "I wish I could make a clone of you who looked exactly like you but is nicer to me". Now, I think and hope that I'm not a non-nice person. I guess it's just that sometimes people feel like having a Stepford Wife is a great thing. There's a reason why exes are exes.

Back to present time and here I am reading The Echo Wife which tells precisely that story; a guy who clones his wife to make her more docile, more homely, more how he thinks she ideally would behave! And I love it!

Evelyn Caldwell is a brilliant geneticist specialized in cloning; she is celebrated in academic circles and admired by her team. But privately life has dealt her a bad hand; her husband Nathan has not only done exactly what my ex wished he could do, secretly cloned a "better" version of her. He also did this by stealing her own research material.

While still trying to digest this betrayal, circumstances require her to team up with her own clone Martine, and Evelyn will need to seriously reconsider everything she thought she knew on clones and humans.

First of all: I can't stress enough how much I loved the character Evelyn! Any attempt from my part at a description couldn't possibly live up to my actual sympathy. Maybe a little stuck up, but super strong, determined, edgy and subtly very funny... When Nathan gave her the rather hurtful nickname "the hornet", she accepts and integrates it into her life as a symbol for herself; "[...] all I wanted to do was sting, sting, sting until he fell down swollen and dead."

For its small size, The Echo Wife covers an astonishing range of seriously grave subjects, the central ones being first legal and ethical issues surrounding cloning and secondly, the consequences of domestic abuse. I especially liked the fact that Gailey does not shake the moral finger at readers and just sort of raises issues, especially those concerning cloning, not pretending to answer questions who are basically unanswerable.
The Echo Wife sags just a tiny little bit in the middle part but is, in the end, a super enjoyable, entertaining read with a good message.
Favorite quote: "But I wasn't made of stone, I was just bones and fingernails and undrinkable water."

Thank you tor/pan macmillan for the beautiful hardcover copy.