So there I am, lying in bed, all snug and pleased with myself for stepping away from ’The Mockingjay’ - (not as good as the first two) and ready to delve into ‘The Light Between Oceans’ by ML Stedman. Oh, what a book. It dragged me in and didn’t let me go until I was a burbling, washed up wreck.
For a début author Stedman can certainly tell a good yarn. The dilemma facing the characters of Tom and Izzy is completely compelling. We understand Tom’s steadfast rule keeping, his commitment to doing what is right but his love for Izzy and his pain at witnessing her grief, clouds his judgement, and this sets the scene for a tragic decision which ultimately destroys the idyllic life they have living on the island of Janus.
This book will keep you reading well into the night. Dinners will be burnt, children will be ignored and your husband will think you’re suffering from a bad bout of PMT. Be prepared for a good weep.
- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (26 April 2012)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0857521004
- ISBN-13: 978-0857521002
Young adult literature has grown up. The wizards and vampires have been banished and replaced with an alternate reality of life and death situations created in the name of entertainment for the population of the Capitol. Taking inspiration from Greek mythology and Roman gladiators, who fought to the death in amphitheatres for the enjoyment of the masses, The Hunger Games, presents a world of two extremes: the Capitol with its excess of wealth, people with cosmetic enhancements, crazed fashions and the twelve Districts, where food is scarce and oppression is rife.
Suzanne Collins’ dystopia takes a satirical swipe at our modern world: our obsession with reality television, appearance versus actuality and gorging and purging on rich foods while others starve.
While dystopia fiction is not new, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was published in 1932 and John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids in 1951, Orwell’s 1984 was published in 1949, Collins offers a dystopia were the female protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is battling the oppressor while also providing emotionally poignancy.
The Hunger Games succeeds in being a well paced, page turner of a read and is the holy grail of modern publishing – cross over literature- that appeals to both young and older readers.
Other great dystopian reads:
Margaret Attwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Oryx and Crake’
Meg Rosoff’s ‘How I Live Now’
Lauren Oliver ‘Delirium’
Kazuo Ishiguro ‘Never Let Me Go’
"You’re beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence."
— Augustus Waters — The Fault in Our Stars — John Green (via littlemiss—layinginthesun)
(Source: sal-ahd)
"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."
— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars (via carpediemeverafter)
"Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone."
—
Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (via bookmania)
So true.
