Overtaken

This is a cruel book. It celebrates unpleasant behaviour in the name of retribution: even the last few pages which show that our "hero's" actions do not have the desired effect, does not change that, for me.
The book is well written, and I did make it to the end, but it is not an experience that I would repeat. Perhaps, this is a child of its time: I cannot think of a cultural format, in this country, which is not being given a large dollop of violence to increase its titillation appeal and I, for one, am getting more and more tired of this.
Not a book that I could recommend.

I've read several novels by British comedians in my time and would classify none of them as really funny. (I'm looking at you, Stephen Fry and Ardal O'Hanlan!) Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just mildly surprising and makes me wonder whether there's a bit of a fashion for comedians to write gruelling, hard-hitting prose, a bit like the trend of every British detective having a tortured personality and shady past to overcome.

This one somewhat breaks the mould, with just enough glimpses of comic genius to keep me happy, and otherwise being well-written with an interesting (and somewhat mysterious) plot. Good stuff.

I thought this was a fantastic book - the kind that really has you glued until the end. It was not at all what I imagined it to be; in fact, the plot was quite different to what I had thought, which made it really quite refreshing to read!!

Two points - the firstly not necessarily bad, but it's hard to read it without Alexi's own voice in your head. Secondly, well, I felt a little disappointed by the ending, like drinking a bottle of soft drink and finding the last two mouthfuls had gone flat. The actual final page ending ending left one with a feeling of unease, discontentment that really suited the feel of the book however the last few happenings just seemed a little, well, odd or slightly out of place to me.

But these are relatively show more minor things. Otherwise, I thought it was a great book, and captured tragedy, comedy, and whatever it means to be human these days really quite well in a manner that made me laugh, yet quite disturbed at the same time. show less