Five words from the blurb: endurance, cry, succeed, struggles, sacrifice

I loved The Other Hand (Little Bee in the US) and so was keen to try Chris Cleave’s new book, Gold. I think Gold is the better book, but as there were so many similarities between the two I was slightly less impressed than I was with The Other Hand.

Gold follows Kate and Zoe, a pair of British cyclists, as they battle to take the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics. The two girls have very different personalities – Zoe is ruthless and selfish, not caring what she has to do in order to achieve her goal; whilst Kate is calmer and tries to balance cycling with her family life. This is difficult for Kate as her eight-year-old daughter has leukaemia. With the London Olympics fast approaching this book is very topical and will make you think about what those athletes are sacrificing to be top of their game.

I hate reading about sport so was worried this book might not be to my taste, but luckily the technical details were not really mentioned – it is all about the emotion created:

Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in ’68, to miss out on Olympic bronze by one tenth of a second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made.

The book was fast paced and engaging throughout – it is almost impossible to put it down as the action increases relentlessly until its heartbreaking conclusion. The touching scenes with the ill child were some of the best in the book, but as a mother I found them difficult to read. Yes, this book is emotionally manipulative, but I loved it for that.

I know that many people were annoyed by the “we’re not going to tell you anything” blurb of The Other Hand. If you were one of those people then I suggest you stay well away from Gold – the blurb is equally vague and there is a similar “you’re going to love this book” letter from the editor. This Amazon review takes an amusing look at the negative aspects of this book and although I enjoyed the book I agree with most of the points made.

This is a quick, gripping and emotional read. If you enjoyed The Other Hand, this book will not disappoint.

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Five words from the blurb: twins, cemetery, tragedy, disturbing, childhood

I hadn’t heard of this book until an unsolicited review copy popped through my letter box, but the fact it had won the inaugural Terry Pratchett Prize grabbed my attention. I’m pleased that I gave it a try as it was an entertaining read.

Half-Sick of Shadows is set in a remote house which has a cemetery as a back garden. Edward, the central character, lives here with his family, but nothing is quite as it seems. It quickly becomes obvious that things don’t always occur as they do in our world and certain physical laws can be broken. Having completed the book I’m still not entirely sure what could happen in this strange, but familiar world, but I enjoyed being taken along for the ride.

The book begins with the death of the children’s grandmother. The death changes the balance of things in the house and nothing is the same as it was before.

When we lost interest in bouncing rubber balls off the wall, and in reading books that didn’t tell stories, we played hide-and-seek in the cemetery – when the rain stayed away – and built very small snowmen in the cemetery when too little snow fell to build tall ones.
‘I think Franny Hazel has it in for us,’ whispered Sophia as we lay in our beds, the cemetery through the window in the Dark and the curtains drawn open. ‘I dreamed she burned us down.’

The first part of the book reminded me of The Wasp Factory. The books share a creepy atmosphere that results from the isolation of the characters and their bizarre, cruel actions.

When Edward starts school the atmosphere changed to mimic that of Never Let Me Go. Almost everything was normal, but there was that underlying sense that things weren’t quite right. It was impossible to put your finger on exactly what was going on, but I loved the strange sense of foreboding that it created.

As the book progressed the reader discovers more about the world these characters live in and the pace of the plot increases until it reaches a dramatic conclusion.

This is quite a subtle book. The joy is in trying to work out what is going on in this dark, creepy world. Many aspects of the plot could be perceived as disturbing (murder, incest, rape) but the author somehow manages to inject a light humor that prevents anything from becoming too traumatic.

My only complaint is that the book lacked the thought-provoking aspects of the other two books I mentioned. Half-Sick of Shadows is purely for entertainment and although there is nothing wrong with that it means that it doesn’t stand out in the same way.

Recommended to anyone who enjoyed The Wasp Factory.

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