Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Dr. Sleep - Stephen King

4/5

If you liked The Shining, you'll like this one too.  A true sequel even after so many years in between (both in book and out of it). There's plenty familiar but not so much so that it takes anything away at all from the scare factor.  This book delves deeper into the mystery of shining somehow without explaining a thing about it.  Instead of being frustrating this just adds to the wonder.  Also we see an interesting mix of old horrors and new ones that are just as creepy if not more so.  The feel is still very much the same as The Shining but perhaps a bit older which makes perfect sense once you pick this one up.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Grimus - Salman Rushdie

5/5

I tend not to give 5's unless a book is really special.  This one is really special.  The sense of magic is both natural and unreal.  You don't bat an eye as reality morphs into something on the edge of comprehension.  Like most of Rushdie's work there is also an interwoven commentary about society as a whole, life, death, the comprehension and refusal thereof.  It feels like stepping into a fairy tale, but a grown up fairy tale with the light escaping the world feel of good fantasy and simultaneously the real weight of life and it's unanswerable questions mixed in.