I didn’t choose to review Day of the Accident based on its description. In fact, having read the description I nearly dismissed the book. I mistrust too entangled stories. There’s always a risk that the author created a head-spinning start that will not be graciously untangled in the end. That is not the case with Day of the Accident. Every bit of this story about a family tragedy, a woman after coma and a missing person gets explained.

What I liked in the book

The writing

What drew me to the book was the provided excerpt. From the first lines I trusted the author and I knew she will tell the story well regardless of the story itself. The writing flows. There’s no silly suspense that interrupts an action, there are no simplistic dialogues, no unnecessary details.

The voice of the main character

It is real. Her emotions are genuine and raw. In thrillers it’s usually the story that grips you but in Day of the Accident it is also the main character’s voice and your wish for her to be fine.

What I liked less

Implausible choices

I had problems with the choices some characters made. Even with all the background information it was hard to imagine a person who would behave this way in provided situations.

Melodramatic moments

I predicted all twists long before the book was over. That’s why I found some of the dialogues dragging and melodramatic. In literature characters tend to sound dumb when a story is obvious to everybody but them.

Final thoughts

Day of the Accident is way better than many other thrillers I recently read. It will be enjoyed by anybody who’s looking for a gripping fast-paced story, and of course by those who value high quality narrative. I’m giving the book solid four stars.

Day of the Accident will be available for purchase on February 21st, 2019. I’m thanking the publishers for my copy that I received in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

What are the similarities?

Both of the books show birds playing a major part in alternating the history of humanity. Frank Baker wrote a story in which birds are attacking people (although his birds have a slightly metaphysical, metaphorical quality). Sixteen years later Daphne du Maurier wrote the story in which birds are attacking people in a very literal way. In Baker’s story the events are taking place shortly after the First World War. In Du Maurier’s story the events happen shortly after the Second World War. In both stories at some point a character says that the birds might be just hungry, and also that the government should do something about them.

What is the main difference between the books?

Everything else is.

Frank Baker’s story is a novel. Daphne du Maurier’s story is a novelette. The size is not the main difference, but the length of Baker’s story makes the book even less readable than it could have been, had it been shorter. While du Maurier’s novelette grips you from the first page and creates such suspense that you wish you could stop blinking and didn’t waste seconds on turning the pages.

Review of The Birds by Frank Baker

Genre: boring horror. Stars from Goodreads: 3.5. Stars from me: 2.

General information

The story is about people in London who live their lives lost in sins and misery, stuck in the absurdities of dogmas. Everything is wrong with the humanity, and then the birds come.

What’s good about Baker’s story

It has many deep thoughts. He talks about everything from war, to religion, sexuality and love. I was surprised how well his thoughts reflected modern days, and how much I agreed with him.

Here are some quotes.

• About ordinary people on the street: “…if a natural smile broke upon the mouth of any one of us, we were in danger of being labelled eccentric.”
• About war: “…great armies of fighting men were reared at the expense of poor and ill-nourished people who, in taxes, were forced to support these entirely unnecessary bodies of soldiers.”
• About newspapers: “…all giving different accounts of the same event as it best suited their purpose…”
• And an unexpected one: “English people are very nice, but they always think that Russian people live like animals.”

What’s bad about Baker’s book

The writing

The writing is tooth-achingly horrible. I’m not sure I’ve ever come upon anything that abominable. At first I was inclined to blame it on the style of the century but then I remembered many authors before, after and during those times who wrote well.

The story is told by an old man to his daughter who has no idea of what the life had been like before the birds came. She’s eager to know it. She’s thinking about it all her life. Then, finally, she gets to listen to the story from her father. The story that the father is telling her is the book that we are reading.

The thing is, we, the readers, are not that daughter. She was interested in the story, we still need to GET interested in it. But Baker doesn’t think so. He pours his undoubtably very wise thoughts into a dry, tedious monologue of a person who’s used to attention and doesn’t feel the need to make any effort to keep his audience entertained. The whole writing thus becomes pompous, unexciting and full of unnecessary clumsy words.

Judge for yourself:

• “She was dressed in quiet simple clothes with no adornment anywhere upon her person.”
• This one is supposed to create suspense: “Then it suddenly came into my mind — why am I doing this? Thus taking stock of my few possessions as though I stood on the event of a great change in my life?”
• Here’s a description of a dramatic moment: “To speak of the dreadful chaos which ensued within the next few minutes is a task that I confess I shrink from. No words of mine can describe that cataclysm to one who did not know that great City and its Cathedral.”
• And one more: “Once that deadly thing called panic seizes a large gathering of people no power on earth, no reasoning of any sort, can quell the pandemonium that breaks loose.”

Editing

It’s a curious fact that the current version of the book was, apparently, extra edited before being republished in order to remove the parts unrelated to the plot.

↑ That’s me imagining the previous edition of the book. The new edition contains pages upon pages of musings completely unrelated to the plot.

Final thoughts on the book

I understand that some people will get interested in the book’s philosophy and will try to read it. Only the marathoners of reading (or masochists) will succeed.

Review of The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

Genre: horror. Stars from Goodreads: 3.9. Stars from me: 5.

General information about the book

The book is a story of one family that acts differently to all others when the birds come and thus ends up in a very different situation.

What’s good about the book

The suspense

I read an article once that called Daphne du Maurier a queen of suspense and now I understand why. Did breathing not come automatically to people, they would suffocate while reading this book because they would be so immersed in it.

The writing

Daphne du Maurier doesn’t write, she crafts. Her book is an intricate crochet of words whose rhythm sends your heart beating faster or slower, according to which one du Maurier sees fit for the moment.

The characters

They are all real people whose behaviour you understand and whose mannerisms you recognise.

What’s not so good about the book

Plot

The plot is not bad. It’s good enough. While Baker’s story was overloaded with events and storylines, du Maurier’s story is of the opposite extreme. It focuses on one line of events only. That is what the author intended and she created it perfectly.

The ending

It’s very atmospheric but it lacks the completion that I prefer in stories.

Final thoughts on this book

I definitely recommend it to anybody who’s looking for something dark and gothic. The book is quite heavy but there are no graphic details scrutinised under a microscope.

Did Daphne du Maurier plagiarise Baker’s work or not?

My personal opinion is that Daphne did read Baker’s story. I think she did memorise it, accidentally or intentionally. From that one single thread which she took from Baker’s story, she created a masterpiece, and I’m grateful she did that.

What about Hitchcock?

According to the official story, Hitchcock hired a screenwriter and asked him to use the main idea of du Maurier’s story and to write a whole different eventful screenplay based on it. Whether the screenwriter did or did not peek into Baker’s book too is unknown. By the time the script was written, Baker’s book was 26 year old and had sold only 350 copies. The movie does have a scene that appears in Baker’s story too. Baker even considered taking legal action against Hitchcock but was advised against it.

Conclusion

All three creations, the two books and the movie, have identical basic idea from which each work developed differently. Baker’s novel was created first. Then du Maurier wrote her novelette. Then Hitchcock made his movie. Out of all the three works I am in love with Daphne du Maurier’s story only.

It seems that the situation with The Birds was not the only one when du Maurier was accused of plagiarism. I will tell more about it in future posts (so do not forget to subscribe). Having read some of her works, though, I can say that I personally do not care if she took the ideas from other books or not, if she used her influential position to get acknowledged or not. If she did act this way, I’m happy she chose to. She created unbelievably great works, and I am grateful that now I have so many good books to read.

1. Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

Bitter Orange is supposed to be really good. I heard only praise for it. Strangely enough, every time I try to read it I can’t follow the narration. I probably overdosed on sophisticated stories, and now I need to read something light first. In order not to spoil this book for myself I haven’t read any descriptions. I can only share its photos with you.

(An update: you can now read my review of Bitter Orange.)

2. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver is a big step for me. It’s meant to be my return to reading fantasy! The writing is so nice and intriguing, I’m finding it hard to stick to my original plan, which is to read this book somewhere where there’s snow and a fireplace.

The story is about a young woman who helps her family out of debt. That attracts the attention of various people and causes her some problems. I refrained from reading more of the blurb in order to escape spoilers. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to either google or wait till I read it.

3. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone Gap wasn’t in my original order of the books with beautiful covers. I was attracted to the cover first, obviously. When I saw “magical realism” in the description, I knew I had to get this book.

Here’s a summary of the description:

Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. Finn knows Roza was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember.

Intrigued yet? I am!

(An update: I read the book. Here’s my review of Bone Gap.)

I’ll be telling you more about all these books soon. I first need to finish the awesome short stories by Daphne du Maurier.

Here’s a spoiler about my review – I will be raving about the book!

(An update: here are my reviews of The Birds, and the short stories.)

Subscribe to my blog, leave the links to your blogs, let’s keep in touch!

1. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar.
I ordered it because Umut said it’s good. More than that she said Ova thinks it’s good. If they both think it’s good, it’s going to be fantastic!

2. Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller.

First of all, look at the cover !

Again, Ova said it’s good so the book is travelling my way.

3. A 50th-anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

I saw this edition in the video blog of Helene Jeppesen (which Umut recommended. That’s how much valuable info you can get from good bloggers!)

Isn’t it gorgeous?!

That’s the right cover for the amazing book, the book about magic born in a place where mere thinking of such manner could cause you big troubles. The friends were telling him to stop writing it, they were scared for him. But he went on. As a result he wrote a book about the devil paying a visit to Soviet Moscow, and a misunderstood philosopher we all heard about but call a different name. Is it already obvious that The Master and Margarita is my book of books? I’ve never read it in English though. That will be my first time.

4. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.

This book marks an important step for me. The cover, the description and the writing  are so beautiful that I decided to purchase my first fantasy book in decades. I’m planning to rent a cabin in winter mountains and to read it near a fireplace while watching snow behind the window and breathing in crispy air from the outside. It sounds so idyllic it’s almost a cliche but it is actually quite organisable and I hope I’ll be able to do it.

5. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.

Again, the cover is what first attracted me but the reviews are also great so hopefully it will be another beautiful book in my collection.

6.My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.

I haven’t ordered this one yet because I first need to consult NS Ford, Daphne du Maurier expert, to find out if the book is worth reading. Is it?

And look what I’ve found (and instantly ordered) while googling the previous book:
7.  The Birds And Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier.
Oh my god!  Do you see what I see on the cover?!  Isn’t it awesome?!

The waiting for Santa a.k.a. postman has started. When I finally have all the books, I lay them around in a circle, sit in the middle, admire them and take tons of photos!

Just a few weeks ago I didn’t even know such practice existed. Although I always wondered how come that unreleased books already have ratings. Now I know how it works.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement.

It is, indeed, a full-blown real time travel! The books are not yet out there! They don’t even have covers when I receive them! And yet I am already able to read them along with just a few other lucky ones from around the globe.

Isn’t it mind-blowing?

These copies are free which is particularly convenient taking into account that this time travelling seems to be giving me time-controlling super powers. It takes me just a few hours to devour an ARC. It would have been quite pricey otherwise at such a speed of consumption.

I’ve been even more picky than ever choosing books from available copies. It means a cosmic scale of pickiness because I’m already a very picky reader even with usual books. It’s a whole different challenge to criticise something when your feedback is one of very few, it is being awaited and watched, and you do it about something you got for free. It is like coming to someone’s home, eating a dinner they cooked for you and then having to tell them you didn’t enjoy it.

I’ve managed to escape this situation so far. I’ve been extremely lucky with books and read only good ones. The review of the first one is already on my blog.

Off to treasure hunt for more! Stay tuned for more reviews of new releases!

I saw the GIF, I judged the book by its cover and I fell in love with it. The book’s fate seems to be posing and being beautiful in pictures because its arrival to my place coincided with my day trip to the neighbouring “Moon”. Today I took it for a photo shoot in Rozafa castle, Albania.

The book is non-fiction. It’s called Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. It was written by Leonard Mlodinow. Its title basically says what the book is about. And that’s what the book’s cover does:

That’s how the book was exploring the castle.

The book has a high rating of 4.05 on Goodreads. Its cover is not that cool as the GIF suggested but it’s still nice.
The first few pages are slightly too boring for a book on such an exciting topic. Of course, I’m not going to give up that soon.

Stay tuned for the review. Subscribe to the blog!

I’m not a professional critic, but I’m a natural one. If you scratch the surface of any professional critic, there must be a natural one. For, what kind of job is that? What is its purpose? The job grew from a desire to ruin with words a creation constructed by others. Then it becomes a question of ambition, your either earn from it or you blog about it.

I give in to my nature, which my idol would have never approved of. “Eunuchs of literature”. Perfect choice of words, as always.

There’s more: “Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.” But another metaphor brings it more home to me. It’s about big mindless fishes that come to the boat and devour a fisherman’s treasured and hard-earned catch.

I’m the fish, although a very self-aware one. I pick my books very carefully, and I stay away from anything predisposed to devouring.