Well, this was nice, wasn't it? A kind of sci-fi/horror thing, or maybe a bit of a rant against the meat industry? I'm not sure really, but it wasn't particularly pleasant. I can't say too much about the plot - it wouldn't be fair as it's fun the way in unravels. Let's just say it isn't a Crimson Petal of a book, but well worth reading. ( )

Not the full book but the taster booklet - it would have got you £2 off the price of the real thing

According to the back cover "this remarkable book defies categorisation". I'm not sure about that, I would have put it with the more thought provoking of Ursula leGuin's science fiction. But then again, I was expecting a tale of Victorian passion or something. (Not that I've even read The Crimson Petal and the White, but I assume that's what that's about, so I assumed that's what Faber always wrote.)

According to the blurb, it's also Animal Farm for our times. I haven't read Animal Farm, so can't comment on that. But I think I know where they're coming from with that. (Hm, maybe I should read Animal Farm).

I found the beginning incredibly frustrating, trying to work out what was going on. I took a deep breath, applied Nancy Pearl's wisdom (if you're not enjoying a book by page 50, give up) and plowed on until page 50. By which time I had worked out enough that I wanted to know more, to prove or disprove my theories. By page 100 I think I had it sussed. By page 150 I knew I was right. And by then, I was over half way through, so I may as well finish it.

The ending was a bit "eh". Inevitable, but I feel he'd written himself into a corner a bit, and I really wanted to know what the vodsels were going to do...

An intriguing, good novel, and I'm quite sure it'll be completely different to The Crimson Petal and the White! ( )

A part of me wants to give this book five stars for pure originality. It really is unlike anything I have ever read and I doubt I will come across anything like it again. It turns the tables on the issues of meat-eating versus vegetarianism, raising really important questions on morality and ethics. However, past this, it falls flat. A moral story only works within the confines of a tightly written plot, which unfortunately has a lot of holes in. The story has nowhere to go, and who the characters are is never really answered. This book could have been a genius, but just doesn't quite make it. Maybe I expected too much being the writer of the most amazing Crimson Petal and the White, but it just didn't deliver to its full potential. ( )

Isserley spends her days picking up lone male hitch-hikers in the Scottish Highlands. Her reasons for doing so are slowly and tantalisingly revealled as the story moves on and it is impossible to say more without spoiling the story.

But the book was great and I loved every word in it. It kept me guessing, I'd come up with one theory, then another, then swap back to the first, trying to work out just what Isserley was up to.

Michel Faber has been recommended to me by an LT member whose reading suggestions have never disappointed me before and still haven't. Apart from the fact that I was surprised about the amount of well built hitch-hikers loose in the Scottish hills everything about this book felt real and I didn't want to put it down until I got to the bottom of Isserley and her story and was surprised to find myself sympathising with her and hoping her story ended well. ( )