Book Review: The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan

Those ten minutes must be really disruptive for Bristol.

Two generations of women, and one house that holds the terrible secrets of their pasts 1922. Grace has been sent to the stately and crumbling Fenix House to follow in her grandmother's footsteps as a governess. But when she meets the house's inhabitants, people who she had only previously heard of in stories, the cracks in her grandmother's tale begin to show. Secrets appear to live in the house's very walls and everybody is resolutely protecting their own. Why has she been sent here? Why did her grandmother leave after just one summer? And as the past collides with the present, can Grace unravel these secrets and discover who her grandmother, and who she, really is?

This book begins with a strong start, but the plot is a bit of a mess and full coincidences. It's oddly reliant on Glimmers (seeing images of the "future"and just straight up lies. Who builds a plan for a grandchild on a image they had in their head before their actual child was born?

The characters are a bit meh. They are actually decent by themselves, but their relationships really take away from them as characters. I liked Harriet, but as grandmother she is terrible and it is a shame she lives in a age before there were decent therapists.

There is a plot point at the end of the book, that I just don't get. I think it was a weird addition to the story. Where other things are set up and we never get anything from it. 

I did like the switch between the present and the past, switching between the POV of Grace and Harriet. Also that we start and end in the middle of those times. Riodan has done a good job of making both narrators compelling and I remained keen to know both of their stories. 

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for incest hints. There are lot of elements in this books that just don't merge right for me, mainly the glimmers. The rest of the novel is done well and captures the time period realistically.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and it was published by Penguin on 25 February 2016.  

(My review of this review I shouldn't use the word "bit" as much). 

Book Review: While the Others Sleep by Tom Becker

I slept like a baby after reading thing. Though, a baby with insomnia, but that's normal.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Alfie can't sleep. He's been sent to the sanatorium to "get better".

And it's a terrifying place.

Especially at night...when everyone else is asleep.

Alfie soon discovers that being awake is the most dangerous condition of all.

You'll find out why. But don't expect to sleep afterwards.

I liked this book, right till the end because I really don't get what going on there. The conclusion of this book is unsatisfying and confusing. There were questions raised I don't think were answered. The twists were dumb.

The writing seems to be too modern. I can understand this with this being YA and aimed at inexperienced readers but this story doesn't fully work in it's time setting to begin with. Asylums are talked about as if they are a thing of the distant past but this is going on right now, in the hell day of them being terrible. 

 Overall,  I give this book 2 out of 5 stars for night walking. This story was okay, but in terms of horror, it's not scary and is very cliché in a nonsensical way.  There is some interesting imagery but that's about it. ALSO WHO THE HELL SET FIRE TO THE HOUSE?

Book Review: The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian

Why dig a tunnel when a train wouldn't fit?
 
April, 1890. London wakes to the shocking news of a mass prison escape. 

Walter Day and the Scotland Yard Murder Squad now face a desperate race against time: if they don't re-capture the four convicted murderers before night settles, they'll vanish into the dark alleys of the London's criminal underworld for ever.
And in the midst of this mayhem and fear, the city's worst nightmare is realised: Jack the Ripper haunts the streets of London once more . . .

This is the third book in the Scotland Yard Murder Squad series and I don't have reviews for either of the first ones. Except I enjoyed and liked both. I think you should probably read the other two first but I'm pretty sure it explains the references to the other two.

The characters are characters and they are consisted from their last show. Though, we didn't much good interrogation between the regulars. The new ones were alright. It's not a spoiler to say Jack the Ripper is in this book as it's on every blurb I've read for this book. It was handled okay but still there was something off about the portrayal. He's blandly crazed and the devil symbology felt too much at times. I mean someone straight up calls him the devil without knowing who he is and seeing him for the first time from a safe distance.

The ending of this book wasn't very satisfying but that might have been the point. The plot was quite interesting and sets up the next book.

Overall, I give this book 4 out of five stars for nails on Mantlepiece. Parts of this book were good, but I think Jack the Ripper should have been left out of the series. The characters in this series are obviously based on real people, but Jack the Ripper is overdone and murdered people. The plot would have been good without him and it now makes me slightly anxious about the next instalment of the book but I will still be reading it.

I got this book off Netgalley for review and it's published by Penguin.

Book Review: Devil in the Corner by Patricia Elliott

The horror of being unmarried Victorian woman is real.

Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.

Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London. Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise?
Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination?

The plot has moments of lacking and it is bit cliché. I found myself bored through certain parts. The pace is quite slow. Usually just waiting for something to happen. I do like the ending and it is a very Victorian. The major plot is well done, not overly obvious. There is a good build up. 

The characters are alright. They are Victorianly unlikable. I didn't care for the main characters much but that could be blamed on the fact that they're Victorian. It works for the book though when comes to plot thing. You do want things to turn out right for them. I did spend some time shouting at a certain character.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars for drug addiction. I did enjoy this book, I liked it. It’s just that there nothing brilliant about it. I do think this is a very good portray of Victorian culture though. That it is well done: Sexism and everything.

I got this book off NetGalley for review. It's published tomorrow by Hachette Children's Books.