THE 100 By Kass Morgan

I first came across this book after watching the first few episodes of the new series on TV. While browsing in the local book shop, I noticed that the original book was on offer and decided to give it ago and I am more than pleased to say that I have not been disappointed in any way at all. In fact I've read the entire thing in less than 24 hours. I think I've only ever managed that with one other book before (The Fault In our Stars by John Green). The 100 is totally gripping and makes it impossible for the reader to put it down. The only regret I have is that the book finished. I just want to pick it up and start reading it again.

Now I don't want to make this a comparison between the TV series and the book, however if you have seen the TV version and are debating whether or not to read the book, go for it! Do it! The TV adaptation is so far different to the book. So many characters have been added and taken out to make it more appealing to a television audience. In fact the only characters which are consistent between the two are Clarke, Bellamy and his sister, and Wells and his father.

I like the book more because it gives insight into the everyday live of the people on the ship, parallel to the people who have been sent to earth. You also get to see the same event from two different perspectives, such as the passing of the comet.

This isn't the first time that I've been drawn to a book about younger people being left to fend for themselves in an effort to survive. Similar themes can be seen in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and also in Gone by Michael Grant. We seem to be living in a world at the moment, where we are obsessed with the possibilities of what would happen if there were suddenly a lock of law and order, who would take charge, who would survive. It seems to be quite a grim obsession we have currently, but definitely one that seems to be selling books. (which is always a good thing)

There doesn't seem to be anything mega special that jumps out at me when I think about this book. No important message forced at me by the author, no life changing epiphany which means I'll never look at life the same again. But maybe that's what make this book so awesome. It's just a darn good book without all the paraphernalia that makes reading books nowadays such hard work. Sometimes less is more.

Read it! You know you want to.

THE HIT By Melvin Burgess

I must say, this has been a really enjoyable and interesting book to read. There are so many different themes and ideas packed into this book and yet it doesn't seem complicated or over crowded in anyway shape or form. I love it! Then again, I'm all for any book that has some sort of moral, especially one that makes you think about, and appreciate it more than you do already. There were a number of times while reading this book when I genuinely found myself thinking about what would be on my bucket list if I found myself under the influence of Death, or equally I might have found myself wondering whether or not I would have chosen to take it.

I think it was quite brave of the author to take on a topic like drugs and gang violence, because these are covered a lot in novels now-a-days and it can be difficult to write about it in a way that makes your story stand out from the others. But I'm am pleased to say that I think Burgess has done an incredible job and has definitely written a novel which tackles common but important themes while making it stand apart from everything else at the same time.

A brilliant book and one that I would definitely recommend, I'm looking forward to reading some of Burgess's other work.

THE RAW SHARK TEXTS By Steven Hall

First things first, I think that the idea and the potential behind this book is amazing. I am all for people writing about mental health and the extreme effects it can have on people. Although when I  initially read the blurb I didn't get that it was about someone suffering extreme memory loss, I was expecting it to have more of a Left-4-Dead kind of feel to it. I was really excited to read it and out of the three I borrowed from the library, this one was at the top of the list to read, however I am a little sad to say that I sincerely doubt I will finish it.

Although the story, ideas and characters are all really, really good, I found it a little difficult and heavy to read, slightly tough to push through, and the when I put the book down, I didn't quite feel drawn back to read it again and I have found myself going more than a week without even thinking about picking it back up again.

Though the biggest sign for me is the fact I have gotten to chapter five and I'm still not entirely sure why I'm continuing to read it.

Now as I always say, just because I didn't finish the book this time, doesn't mean I wont come back to it and try reading it again. Circumstances in life change and what is easy to read at one point in our life may be difficult to read three, four years down the line. Never write a book off first time, try it at least twice before you decide you don't like it. Times and opinions change and there are a lot of really fantastic ideas going on in this book.

I know plenty of people that would enjoy this book, however, at the moment, I just don't think this is the book for me.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST By Ken Kesey

I've been wanting to read Cuckoo's Nest ever since I saw the stage production at our local theatre. I must say that if I was blown away by the incredibleness of the stage adaptation then I simple cannot put into words how much I have been effected but the novel itself. As someone who is greatly affected by mental health myself, I was interested to see what society had allowed to be broadcast.

I was a little worried when I started out reading the book and it doesn't have chapters as such, only breaks in the text and it's split into four lengthy segments, however in my excitement to read the book I push forward and I am so glad that I did! I badly notice the fact that there were no chapters and i found that once I picked it up, I could hardly bring myself to put it back down again. The pages seemed to turn themselves.

One of the biggest themes I picked up on throughout the novel was social standing and hierarchy. Although it s not a society in the way that we would normally talk about it, there is still a sense of community on the hospital ward and you can see the ranks which have been put in place. The vegetables and the bottom, followed by the chronics, then the acutes, after that its the aides and the the doctor and finally the Big Nurse. This is define clearly throughout and as in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and a lot of Percy Shelley's work (I choose these two as they are the other two texts i am working with for my course), The top tier of the society holds complete control and no matter how hard the lower levels of society try to change things, it never happens.

Although he isn't mentioned too often throughout the book, I think that Pete is my favourite character.  His quietness and the way he is put aside by everyone else really reached out to me. He clearly has a need that needs to be addressed and yet he is just swept under the carpet in a hope that eventually the issue will go away. I like Chief Bromden as well, and I think the way that his narration shows his growth as a person is very clever. His thoughts and opinions become longer and braver as the novel progresses whereas he started very quiet and scared and only narrating the bare minimum.

I am really glad to have read this book and I have really enjoyed reading it. But that isn't to say that there weren't parts of the book that made me stop and think twice about the way I think and the way society thinks as a whole. I think this is a brilliant commentary on Mental health and society, as well a social politics.

This is definitely one for a slightly older / young adult audience but one that I would most definitely recommend to every one. Its such a great book, with a brilliant message and to top it all, it's so easy to read!

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.

RED DRAGON By Thomas Harris

I've been dying to read the Hannibal Lecter books for a while and I am more than pleased to say that I was not disappointed! Not exactly what I was expecting, but nevertheless... if we always got what we expected then the world would be a very disappointing and boring place indeed.

If I'm truly honest with you, I was expecting it to be a lot more graphic than it was, unless I've just read too many crime/thriller books and I've become used to the grime and the gore?? Maybe.... it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

I like the idea of the main protagonist being a retired agent rather than a working one. This want you get a sense that Graeme really wanted to catch the killer, he didn't have to come out of retirement, but he felt a need and an urge to do something that big and important. I thought that this helped you understand Will's character more because he wasn't bound by FBI rules and regulations and he wasn't having to follow professional police conduct, you could see a lot deeper into his character and begin to really understand him. A lot of other crime writers fail to do this because their protagonist is forced to behave and speak in a professional manner, so yes we know that they wanted the killer dead and/or arrested, and that they hate them to pieces, but beyond that, you don't really ever get to understand the relationship between captor and criminal.

I think my favourite character in the book was Dolarhyde, even though he's the killer and the murderer, his back story was so well written and so well put together that I felt closest to him out of all the other characters. I usually get a bit wary of authors who decide to develop a characters back story by deviating completely from the story and spending a whole chunk of chapters telling a completely different story to the main narrative, however when Harris did this, it flowed so well that you didn't mind and personally, I barley notice as he moved between the two.

Despite his infrequent appearances, Lecter's character intrigues me and is defiantly one of the driving forces, pushing me towards the next book in the series; The Silence of the Lambs. This I have also heard little negative comment about and I can't wait to get my hands on it and start it.

Harris's writing is so fluid that the hardest part about reading this is putting it down at the end.

This is most defiantly a book for more mature readers but that really goes without saying. What with the graphic violence, murder and nudity and all. However if you're alright with all that then I would defiantly recommend picking Red Dragon up and starting reading!

Red Dragon is a must read for all crime and thriller fans.

A PASSAGE TO INDIA By E M Forster

I know it has been a while since I last posted anything, however A Passage To India has been a tough book to read, and even now I still haven't finished it. However, just because I say it is difficult to read, don't jump to the conclusion that it is a bad book and one that shouldn't be read. I really have enjoyed reading this novel as far as I have done.

The reason that I think I found it so difficult to read, is that is is written in a speech pattern that we are not used to, so naturally we have to think a little bit more about what I was reading. I LOVED the first chapter even though it was indeed very short. The detail and the description was incredible and is possibly the best opening of a book I have ever read! I cannot tell you amazing it was, it was like the author was painting a picture right there in front of my very eyes.

The beginning of chapter two I found a little difficult to understand, but then again I think that worked really well, as trying to decipher a conversation between a group of Indian men made me feel a stranger to that environment and made me feel like I was intruding on their conversation.

Forster has indeed been a very successful author because I have had definite emotions towards each of the different characters: Ronny I hate, Aziz is adorable and I love him, and Mr Fielding is the one who saved the day for me. I felt like he was the only one who was standing up successfully for what was right and he was by far my favourite character of the lot.

I have really really enjoyed the part of the book I have read, however between exams and family affairs, I just haven't had the time or the energy to sit down and think about what I'm reading.

I would recommend this book a lot of people, mainly a slightly older audience because of the themes and the politics that has been written about. It may take a while to read but it's a great book never the less.