Showing posts with label Paul Magrs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Magrs. Show all posts

Friday, October 20, 2006

What I've just read...

The other day I finished Paul Magrs - 'Never the Bride', which I mentioned on the blog a couple of weeks ago and I ordered myself a copy. It's more horror than crime as our heroines deal with aliens and demons and a reformed vampire (but he doesn't have a soul unlike Angel), but in a gentle way. I enjoyed it, but it felt like several episodes linked together rather than a seamless story. The ending does leave it open for a follow up and if there was one I'd like to revisit Brenda & Effy, a B & B owner and a junk shop owner respectively as they save the world or at least Whitby. As you can maybe guess there's more than a nod to the Buffy-verse in this book.

Joolz Denby reviewed it in the Guardian last weekend and I agree with most of her summing up:
"Never the Bride should be extensively stocked in Whitby; it's a fun holiday book. There are some poetic descriptions ("the shot silk of the perplexing sea", "a fine clinging mist ... inching its way in thick scarves"), and the damp charms of an English seaside town are nicely evoked. But though the characters are amusing, they're not well constructed enough to be as truly engaging or as darkly terrifying as they should be. The dialogue and storyline are often clunky and the book suffers very badly from repetition, giving the impression of an over-extended, unedited short story; though presumably pitched at adults, it would better suit a younger audience. None the less, Magrs should do an event at the next Whitby goth fest; without doubt, Never the Bride will be a gothic smash."

Thursday, September 21, 2006

If only my library card hadn't been full

I really quite fancy this one but my card was full when I spotted it on the 'quick choice' shelf today:
"Brenda has had a long and eventful life and she has come to Whitby to run a B&B in search of some peace and quiet. She and her best friend Effie like nothing better than going out for tea at the Walrus and the Carpenter or dinner at Cod Almighty and keeping their eyes open for any of the mysterious goings on in town. And what with satanic beauty salons, more than illegal aliens, roving psychic investigators and the frankly terrifying owner of the Christmas Hotel there are no shortage of nefarious shenanigans to keep them interested. But the oddest thing in Whitby may well be Brenda herself. With her terrible scars, her strange lack of a surname or the fact that she takes two different shoe sizes, Brenda should have known that people as, well, unique as she is, just aren't destined for a quiet life." (from amazon.co.uk)