Book reviews

Breaking Dawn
Reviewed by Alyssa
Breaking Dawn is, while a satisfactory conclusion to the story of Bella and Edward, not particularly necessary to the series overall. At the end of Eclipse, we were left with a hope for a promising future with Bella and Edward, and whil... More

Suicide Girls
Reviewed by tartan_skirt
Dating from back in 2004 this book features a lot of the older and some now defunct SuicideGirls from the alternative erotica website of the same name. Only having come into proper contact with the concept in the last year I cannot comment ... More

Yeah, I Made it Myself: DIY Fashion for the not ve...
Reviewed by tartan_skirt
From the title I knew this was a book for me (Iโ€™m turning into the granny from Goodness Gracious Me sketches who thinks she can make anything herself with a sensible list of ingredients and a smaaaaall aubergine. Watch the show then youโ€... More

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
Reviewed by Elfflame
After six books, I wish I could say that this book made the journey worth it. But I don't think it does. Granted, it's still better than Goblet, but only marginally. When JK Rowling began this series, we all knew it had to end with a c... More

Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game C...
Reviewed by Uber
While I've grown up around computers since before I could remember I never really got into games until around 1999 and reading Dungeons and Dreamers makes me wish I had gotten into them sooner. The book basically starts with a small stor... More

The Day of the Triffids (Penguin Modern Classics)
Reviewed by Seaworth
From an early age, my Dad would always talked about this book as if it were the Bible. His favourite book by far and always on his recommendation list whenever I'm in a bookstore or a library with him. After seeing the film and the TV se... More

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials)
Reviewed by Raven
A far faster and lighter read then the first one in the trilogy (Northern Lights), I didn't realise why until I'd finished and compared it to the first one. It was far less detailed then the first but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Rat... More

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Signet)
Reviewed by nataliegoes
It is the story of a young woman and her time in a mental institution in the early 60's. The writing is pretty simplistic, and although this has become a young adult book, the author's style is very old fashioned and unlikely to keep a you... More

Double Vision (Barker, Pat)
Reviewed by Abhi
Pat Barker is a very gifted writer. She writes about her characters like she has known them all her life and her portraits of them are intimate and complex. All her books have a smattering of damaged and/or twisted characters. She can creat... More

A Million Little Pieces
Reviewed by chuckmuck
I admit I picked this up because I was curious about all the controversy/scandal it caused in the media when it came out. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about myself. At first I was liking the book and while there were a few things t... More

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Reviewed by Seaworth
Considering the age of this book, I was quite mislead by the term 'cry/cried' throughout. A lesser educated person would have been ravaged with mind-boggling confusion. I have a knack for writing down favourite quotes from the books I re... More

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Reviewed by GemLil
This book is so good on so many levels. Not only is the novel a dark and interesting thriller, but Wilde weaves a moral code throughout which canโ€™t help to change your outlook. A portrait of a young man, 'Dorian Gray', is painted by a... More

Roots (Dell Book)
Reviewed by chuckmuck
To say this book is sad or tragic is an understatement, it deals with the history of slavery in the US and paints a horrific picture of what the experience was like for Kunta Kinte, starting with his life in a small African village and foll... More

Jacob's Ladder:
Reviewed by chuckmuck
I really wanted to like this book, the cover compared it to Gone With the Wind and Cold Mountain, both of which I liked very much. But the characters were very bland, stereotypical and unlikable, the dialog was flat, and the interactions of... More

Middlesex
Reviewed by krin5292
This beautifully written book is more than a story of a hermaphrodite. It is a rich family history interwoven with the history of Greek immigrants, as well as a history of life in the Detroit area from the early auto industry through the Ci... More

Nineteen Eighty-Four
Reviewed by Raven
I must be having a good run with books because this is another one I couldn't seem to put down. I was glued to it. It was so well written and the story still has a place in this day and age. My only problem with it was the part where the "... More

Lolita
Reviewed by Dionysian Child
Lolita is a highly amusing tongue in cheek story of Humbert Humbert an English professor, who inconveniently still idolises his first childhood sweet heart, despite his pressing adult age. It is surprisingly hard to dislike the hopeless ... More

I, Claudius
Reviewed by GemLil
I, Claudius is like a modern day soap, spent in Ancient Rome. Murder, adultery, perversion and corruption rule the day. This is a semi-ficticious book, in that it is based on many real sources (Suetonius' 12 Caesars, Plutarch and Tacitus)... More