Just a book review about Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

My blog is slowly turning into a shrine for Judith McNaught and psychological thrillers so to rectify this, here is a serious review about a little-known book called Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.

To be perfectly frank, the thought of reading this book didn't fill me will joy. Don't get me wrong, I ADORED To Kill a Mockingbird but the idea of an iffy sequel randomly appearing after one million years, AND just after Harper Lee's sister/carer had died, worried me, but with a reluctant heart, I picked up Go Set a Watchman yesterday and I am so glad I did. Three words that describe this book in my opinion would be wonderful, heartbreaking and disappointing.

Go Set a Watchman follows twenty-six-year-old Scout (now known by her real name Jean Louise) on her annual visit home to Maycomb. I read To Kill a Mockingbird well over a year ago (for the first time ever. I know, shame on me) and had forgotten quite a lot until I started reading Watchman and all the memories came flooding back. I remembered how much I loved the subtle current of humour and charm that thankfully runs through Go Set a Watchman too and relished the wonderful flashbacks to Scout as an adolescent that take up practically the first half of the book.

The book does not have much of a plot, it's more of a character exploration and whether I found a person's actions right or wrong, they were all rich and beautifully crafted, coming alive on the page. I found Aunt Alexandra and her brother Jack to be the real gems of the piece. Here is one of my favourite quotes from Go Set a Watchman that shows off Harper Lee's subtle sense of humour and the character perfectly:


'When Alexandra went to finishing school, self-doubt could not be found in any textbook, so she knew not it's meaning...'

p.28 Go Set a Watchman


Now onto our protagonist. I found grown-up Scout/Jean Louise to be an absolute joy - still the same witty, boyish, headstrong girl we know and love from Mockingbird. She will never bend to anyone's will with a wonderful eloquent stubbornness that I adored. She sticks to her guns for what she believes is right. There are not enough Scouts in the world.

When we find out about Atticus, the reader feels betrayed like Scout and we can share in her anger and disillusionment at a man in her eyes (and ours) who could do no wrong, until now. The one downside for me, like most people, was Atticus. I just can't get my head around it. For everything that Atticus represented, and the powerful lines about humanity in To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman shouldn't have been published to preserve this character's legacy.

To anyone thinking of reading it but are put off by what you have heard in the media and other reviews, just read it. It's a beautifully written, powerful book and incredible that it was only a first draft (obviously tarted up a fair bit, but still). It has Harper Lee 'written' all over it and I just wish she had published more novels in her lifetime.

You can buy Go Set a Watchman on Amazon (here).

Now to restore the balance of my blog, I am off to reread a Judith McNaught ... and you think I'm joking.

Until next time.

Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction by Juliet Mushens

There is a fabulous agent with a penchant for leopard print and vintage-inspired dresses called Juliet Mushens. If that is not fabulous enough, she has just released a book on how to write YA fiction.

*Book contemplates life on a park bench*

If I could choose my own agent (this is of course as fictional as the YA novel I haven't written yet), I would want to be represented by Juliet as not only is she successful at what she does, more importantly (to me at least), she comes across as an approachable, likable woman. I have been following her for a while now on twitter and she's great - you can too by clicking here.

Her debut book Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction takes you from how to begin your novel right through to submitting it to agents and an overview of the publishing process. The book is crammed with writing exercises and ideas to help you get into gear and makes the daunting task of writing a book a little less scary. I especially loved the quotes and trivia from well-loved creatives scattered along the way.

I am about to start working again on a novel I wrote last year and even though it is not YA per se, it is close enough for this book to benefit me and it definitely answered a lot of questions I had and gave me a lot to think about when I get to editing. More than anything, what this book did was get me excited about writing and applying some of the tips and tricks Juliet has suggested to make my existing novel something maybe one day she would consider representing herself.

All writers, regardless of genre or type, would find something helpful in this book and you can buy it here.

ALSO, my book WEIGHTING TO LIVE is FREE today on Amazon (UK Link here. US Link here). A subtle plug on a Sunday for you.

Until next time.

Moving On

After months of madness, I can safely say I have FINISHED editing the four books I had prematurely self-published with Amazon KDP: WEIGHTING TO LIVE, CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION, SIXTEEN MONTHS and CIRCLE.

Finished covers for my four books

Since they were originally self-published, a couple of the books have changed rather a lot so I thought I would quickly tell you how:

WEIGHTING TO LIVE
Before - approx 52,000 words
Now - 47,457 words
*Out of all of them, WEIGHTING TO LIVE has changed the most. Not only has the structure changed (e.g. times have been replaced by three stars) but as you can tell by a deficit of over four and a half thousand words, I've cut a lot that needed to GO GO GO! Now it is done, I am SO happy with it. 

CHANGES
Before - 14,697 words
Now - 14,766 words
*Out of all my books, this has had the least 'changes' from the original version I self-published. From start to finish, I had the easiest (and best) time with this book.

SIXTEEN MONTHS
Before - 12,042 words
Now - 11,852 words
*Parts were altered and changed (the times like WEIGHTING TO LIVE were replaced by three stars) and after WEIGHTING TO LIVE, this needed the most editing.

CIRCLE 
Stayed at roughly 5,000 words
*Like CHANGES, I didn't have too much to do and edits were minimal.

***

I will be blogging again about one final thing to do with my WEIGHTING TO LIVE series then I am moving ON ... OMG!

P.S. In celebration of my books being completely finished, WEIGHTING TO LIVE IS FREE TODAY! To download your TOTALLY FREE COPY click here (UK) or here (US) *Also available at all Amazons around the world!

P.P.S. Read VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab - you won't regret it. Dark, macabre, entertaining with twisted but brilliant characters and totally unlike anything you will have ever read before.

P.P.P.S Like my new background?

P.P.P.P.S Sorry for all the P.S.'s

Until next time.

My Life In Random

Here is a mishmash of bookish things for you today in no particular order coming from one girl's heat-stricken brain.

Recently, my life has been made up of finishing off working on ALL the books I've already self-published (more on that very soon) and reading. You might or might not know if you have read my blog before that I ADORE finding great books under the 'psychological thriller' bracket but having said that, I've found it hard to find great ones (I talk about it here and recommend a rather good one too).

Between working on my own books, I have been ravenously devouring any book I can get my hands on SO, when I got a generic email from Amazon offering me a free eBook if I joined their newsletter, I JUMPED at the chance. Not only was it free, it was a psychological thriller (YAY) and even better, it was for one of Rachel Abbott's book, Sleep Tight. I have wanted to read her books for ages seeing as she is one of the most successful self-published authors out there - she has sold I think about 1.5 million copies to date.

*Images with kind permission from the author*

My first Rachel Abbott book was not a disappointment and I found Sleep Tight to be clever, tense and ever so gripping with lots of twists and turns right until the very end. After finishing it, I was eager to read more of her work and saw that she was selling her latest book, Stranger Child for only 99p on Amazon (deal just on the Kindle version). Give me a cheap book offer and I'm all over it like a rash and again, the book was a great little read - I maybe didn't enjoy it as much as the first but I still would highly recommend it. If I had one criticism of both of her books it would be that I found the detective and his sidekick (who appear in all her books) to be pretty one-dimensional but really, with these kind of stories, it doesn't matter in the slightest. Joining the self-publishing world only recently myself, it's nice to be in such talented company (and ever so inspirational too). I will definitely be reading her other two books at some point but for now, to be blunt, I can't afford it. I should also quickly mention that you must read Sleep Tight before Stranger Child as even though they are standalone books, a small part of the plot from Sleep Tight is resolved in Stranger Child. You can buy Sleep Tight here & Stranger Child here.

Cover LUST

I mean, LOOK AT IT!
I WANT TO TOUCH YOU AGAIN!
I MISS YOU!

Now onto something baffling. I am going to talk a bit about E. L. James' latest book Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian (the clue is in the title). When I found out this was going to be released, I reserved it at my local library and incredibly the day after publication, it was available to pick up (oh how I LOVE libraries). My reason for reading it was purely down to curiosity. I am not going to go into how I felt about the book itself but I will say how smitten I am with the cover. When I first saw pictures of it, I wasn't that bothered but seeing it in the flesh is something else entirely.

When I got it, I spent an unhealthy amount of time not only looking at it, but stroking it as if it was some kind of pet. It is now back at the library but I am having major cover withdrawals. I now really want to buy it. Has anyone ever bought a book SOLELY for the cover? What a ridiculously stupid dilemma to be in. The book is what it is and fans of the series will get what they want ... but I have to say that if a man repeatedly called me baby, he would be marched into that blasted red room of pain until the word was never mentioned ever, EVER again.

Until next time (baby - ew).