EENY MEENY by M J Arlidge

OH MY DAYS!!!!! Read it! Read it! Read it! Read it!

And to think that I very, very nearly returned this book to the library without even starting it!!! I would be kicking myself now if I had done.

This is the story of DI Helen Grace as she tries to capture the serial killer who is taking pairs of people and locking them away with only one instruction. One person must shoot the other. One dies, the other goes free...

This book is so, incredibly gripping and twisting in so many brilliant ways. It keeps you hanging on right until the very last page, the very last word even. You think your just getting the hang of the story when it takes another brilliant turn in a completely unthinkable direction! I've read crime novels with a similar final target to this before, but never have I read one so unique and different!

Each and every single one of these characters is so deep and well written that they become almost real to the reader. My personal favourite (Other than Helen) being Charlie. But even the other, more minor characters such as Bridges and Sanderson, had enough material written into them that they had real emotion and story, that you can't help but remember them in the way that you remember an old friend from school. Not always at the front of your memory and mind, but still always, definitely there somewhere.

Mark was an incredible piece of work in my opinion. So very often, the cops are always the people who have over come everything and become what they are today, but I think Arlidge's take was very interesting. It's really rare to read about a cop who is still going through his life changing events while at what appears to be the top of his game.

Wow this is an easy book to write about!

This does does contain adult, mature and graphic content and is very likely to leave you thinking what you would do in that situation, who you would be with etc... This is a very gripping book, that moves at such a pace it is unbelievable.

I would definitely recommend this book at all maturer readers, but make sure you keep arms and legs inside the car at all times as you're in for a bumpy ride!

TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES By Thomas Hardy - PHASE THE FIRST

Before I begin, I would like to explain why I have chosen to review this book in the different, individual phases that Hardy set the book out in. After all, I have reviewed other books with parts and  phases but I've usually done these as a single review. The reason I have made this decision is because that is how the book was initially intended to be read. During the time period that the book was first published, the common people would not have been able to afford to buy a copy of the whole book, so to make sure that people could still read it, and to make the book more accessible to the poorer people, the book was serialised. This meant that each 'Phase' of the book would be published in a magazine which people could buy at an affordable price. As a result, I want to look at the book in the same way as the audience at the time would have done.

Anyway, now that I've clear that up. I'll begin.

I find it really interesting how we are not introduced to the title character until the second chapter of the book. We are only introduced to on of her relations. This could be to help us create a false first impression of Tess, which is challenged and contrasted when we do actually meet her. To be really honest with you, I found the first chapter rather funny and I couldn't help myself chuckling at Sir John/ Mr Durbeyfeild, take your pick. Though I feel obliged to humour him by calling him Sir John.

As I'm sure many people will agree, although Hardy is fine and fantastic author, I feel that in occasion,  he has gone a little over the top with his description making it easy to lose track of the narrative occasionally. However the narrative that you can follow is very well written and very easy to read. Throughout this phase, I've found my self planning to read a single chapter and then accidentally reading three or four without realising it.

In terms of my initial impressions of characters, Angel Clare seems too good to be true, although we haven't seen much of him yet and so far he seems quite the charmer, his impulsion to follow his head rather than his heart makes me dislike and have very little trust for him at all, and don't get me started on Alec D'Urberville, because in my books he's nothing more than self indulgent, egotist whom I have very little time for. Tess I feel very sorry for. She is stuck living with this evil man and his blind mother who has a love of chickens, yet she feels as if she has no choice in the matter. Despite the fact that her father has already said that he would be happier if she stayed home, she feels like it his her duty and she is bound by her own sense of morals and responsibility.

Tess is a really believable character and unfortunately, so is D'Urberville. I am really interested in the relationships I am beginning to form with these characters and I am looking forward to reading the next chapter.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood (chapters 11 - 16)

I think that chapter eleven is a really interesting chapter in the book, because it really opens up a whole new side to Gilead that the reader hasn't yet been able to see, because of Offred's restricted view of the world. Looking back in previous chapters, we have seen that there have been rebels who have been executed for going against the system, and naturally you would think that this would deter people from committing these 'crimes' however in chapter eleven, it is more than apparent that this is not the case. There are definitely those who still attempt to rebel against Them and their new society.

Even the medical professionals who are responsible for making sure the handmaids are in full health as to be able to carry out their job; are not allowed to look at the handmaid's faces. This goes to show the restricted nature of Gilead; many medical professionals from our own time have admitted that they can only present a very restricted medical diagnosis is they cannot see the face of the patient. However, we later learn that for anything more than a sexual health check-up, the Handmaids are taken to a hospital which we hear incredibly little about. We are told nothing about what goes on in the hospitals, this is because Offred has so far never been to one of these hospitals and has possibly never been in contact with anyone who has and/or wishes to share their experience.

It is also in chapter eleven when Atwood really hammers it home how important getting pregnant to these women is. Offred genuinely considers accepting the help of this doctor, who is offering himself and his services to her so that she might conceive and not receive the fate of an Unwoman. Despite it being illegal and extremely dangerous, she still considers risking it to make sure that she fulfills her duty as a handmaid.
However, Atwood lures you into thinking that Offred is going to accept so when she turns his offer down, it comes as a slight surprise, not enough to throw you but just enough to make to have to step back and review the situation. This shows us that Offred is afraid that by accepting the doctors offer she will be giving in to the new world she is being forced to live in, doing anything to please her commander and fulfill her job; but by rejecting it, she is holding onto the little bit of her self control and herself. For Offred it can't all be about getting pregnant in anyway possible because then she does what she has tried not to do for so long; give in.

I think it is really effective that chapter twelve starts in the bathroom, as if the events at the doctors have left her feeling dirty and unclean. That she has had a bath immediately afterwards to wash away the unclean and illegal actions of the doctor. To remove every last speck of their conversation from her conscious.

The way she describes 'my nakedness is strange to me already' allows the reader to understand that not only has Gilead managed to alter society's view of women, but it has managed to to change women's view of themselves. In what appears to be a fairly short period of time; one, maybe two generations, women have stopped being comfortable in revealing clothing and makeup and now they are uncomfortable even in the bath with only themselves there. This is a really good example of what Aunt Lydia meant when she said 'This may not seem ordinary to you know, but after a time it will. it will become ordinary'. For so long, all the women have been forced to cover themselves from head to foot that now they cannot stand to be uncovered, even in front of themselves.

This bath time event acts as a trigger for Offred, causing her to think about her own daughter from the time before. However these are not happy memories. Initially she remembers her daughter being stolen from her in a supermarket, which allows us to sympathize with Offred because we know that her daughter has not been the only thing that was taken from her, but also her freedom and the rest of her family. She recalls thinking at the time that it was an 'isolated incident' which we know wasn't the case. This backs up the idea of the unreliable narrator, admitting that she got it wrong, so how do we know now, that elements of her life now are not being recalled incorrectly or that she wrongly informing us of things that are happening.

About half way through this interesting chapter, we learn that Offred has a small tattoo branding her with her new life and role, at the time when I read this I thought little of it, however in chapter twenty-four, Offred talks about the Nazi concentration camps and this allowed me to make the link. Prisoners in the concentration camps were branded with a tattoo of a number just as Offred has been in her world, signifying that Offred is in fact a prisoner, with orders to carry out and strict rules to stick to, or suffer the consequences.

Chapter thirteen is a nap section, which I believe in itself is unusual, throughout the rest of the book, it has always been Night sections that have been slotted in between the rest of the story, allowing us to alternate between the two, however this time rather than night, it is a nap which we are welcomed into by our narrator. Letting us see that they have some 'freedom' during the day. The same sort of freedom that Offred always seems to take full advantage from and her we are informed about the arrival of Moira; and the arrival of Moira also reveals even more information to us about the strict culture that has been forced upon them. She talks about how friendship are frowned upon and suspicious and her secret meeting with Moira reveal how strict the Aunts are even about small things like going to the toilet.

I find it interesting how, during her nap time, Offred is thinking about a nap time along time ago from when she initially started as a handmaid. Through out the rest of this Nap, Offred recalls (or dreams) about a number of different memories, she remembers being in her old apartment with everything packed into boxes apart from her clothes which are hung up in her wardrobe. I feel this is a really important part in showing Offred's current emotional and mental positioning. The fact that she doesn't recognize her own clothes in the wardrobe, isn't because she couldn't recognize them at the time, but because now, in Gilead, Offred has been conditioned to the ways of the world to such an extent that she can no longer remember or imagine herself wearing such clothing. Also the way she calls out to Luke and then as a side, say that it 'Occurs to me that he may not even be alive.' You would only think something like that looking back on it, not at the time the memory took place.
This in turn, triggers another memory, of her running through a forest with her daughter trying to escape, however she had drugged her daughter to keep her quiet, but that made it difficult to travel with her, it showed her that doing WHATEVER it takes doesn't always payoff, this could have been one of the reasons that she turned down the doctor on his offer, but this isn't the only time she admits to drugging her daughter as we see later on in the book.

Offred also reveals; whether on purpose or not, that she has been having the same dreams over and over again: Of all the dream, this is the worst.

Now then, I feel that chapter fourteen, fifteen and sixteen should be tackled as one element,especially as it is all part of the same Ceremony.

Before the Commander arrives, we see for the first time the smallest glimmer of compassion from the Commander's Wife; Serena Joy. Despite the fact that they are not aloud to read or watch any form of television, Serena Joy allows them to watch the news before the ceremony begins properly, however the way that she switches it off before the Commander arrives suggest that he himself is unaware of this that his wife is doing causes us to think that maybe, he also is hiding things from his wife, however at this point it is just an assumption. While all this is happening, the seemingly unimportant Nick (the car man) suddenly makes a move on Offred, Touching his toes to her and stirring a reaction in her which takes her by surprise, not only because what he is doing is forbidden, but also because she didn't realize that she could still respond to men in this way.

After the commander enters, the atmosphere seems to change quite dramatically, it goes from silent excitement and gratefulness to being extremely formal and serious. The commander has arrived and therefore, the proceedings can begin.

I'll admit that I'm struggling as with what to write in terms of chapters fourteen and fifteen, a lot of it is just seems to be Offred trying to postpone telling us about what happens in chapter sixteen. Its almost as if Offred is trying to get out of telling us what she has to go through by explaining the first part of the ceremony in such detail that it takes up two chapters.

I think this is very clever of Atwood because she has drawn out the wait for this moment for so long that when we do finally find out what Offred's purpose in this life is for, it hits us like a bomb shell.

When I initially read chapter sixteen it made me feel incredibly awkward and almost embarrassed at what I was reading. Sex is something that traditionally is kept between the two people involved, so the fact that three people are there is uncomfortable in itself, but as a reader I felt like I had walked in on something that I shouldn't have done. I think we can all agree that in this case, Atwood has definitely succeeded in creating some rather Avant Garde emotions in her reader.

The thing that made this the most uncomfortable for me was Atwood use of the word f**k. However, even though it is a word that I myself am uncomfortable with, I believe that it was the right word for Atwood to use and she explains it beautifully in the chapter itself.

I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating would also be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.

I think that sums this point up to be honest with you.

Another point of interest for me was when Offred talks about the Commander not being as bad as the last one, which suggests that there is more than one man that she has been made to have sex with, which seems to contradict the so called christian nature of this society. So if this society is so religious, how can they permit it that woman can be forced to have sex with multiple men whoever they are assigned to? But then she talks about how this is the life she chose, it's almost like she's hedging it a bit, because in fact, it was either this life, of being sent to the colonies which was almost certainly resulting in a slow and painful death from radiation poisoning.

I think I will be glad to move away from this section of the book and move on, in a hope that something more positive is to come for Offred.... one can always hope.