The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas

This is my review, taken off of my Goodreads page (http://www.goodreads.com/BookNerd94) on The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas by David Almond, enjoy :)

SO as part of my Fiction For Children Module for Creative Writing at Uni, I read this book 'The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas. I did not know what to expect, except a boy swimming with piranhas. This book is mostly aimed at young children, I would say from the age range of 8-12. I have to admit though I quite enjoyed this book despite being aimed at younger readers. I give it just under 4 stars, because I believe this book is really good at being what it is but because it's not ordinarily the type of book I would go for or enjoy as much. 

So the book, the plot centers around a young boy called Stan Potts, his parents died when he was younger and he lives with his Aunt Annie and Uncle Ernie. Uncle Ernie, I would say is a bit 'potty', excuse the pun there. He was made redundant from his fishing career and the harbor was shut down. Many of the employees were left in a bit of a stump. But Uncle Ernie tried to turn his life around, whilst turning his house pretty much upside down. He created a fish canning factory inside his house creating fish such as Pott's Pilchards. There was only the 3 of them working there, so in the end, Stan dropped out of school and they all spend everyday and hour working at the machinery. 

Now everything starts to change on Stan's birthday, Aunt Annie makes some rules so that Stan can go enjoy his birthday. He gets given ten pounds and goes to a fair that is on. There he has candyfloss and enjoys the carnival. However it is important to remember he has lived a very sheltered life so everything is new to him, it has been very long since he has even left his Aunt and Uncle's house. He gets his fortune read by Gypsy Rose who says she will be seeing him again and finds a Hook-A-Duck stall, where he feels sorry for the goldfish in bags so tries to get them all. He manages to and takes them home. Something occurs however which leaves Stan running away from home and joining the circus. 
We see Stan go on a journey, meeting different people and changing throughout the story. 

I thought this book was very well written, David Almond creates a loveable easy to read book that is very endearing. What compliments this book so well is the beautiful illustrations by Oliver Jeffers. Both Almond and Jeffers are well known more in terms of picture books so having these two create a more older book is very beautiful. 

I loved the childish humour within and the relationships between the character. Now I would not say they were entirely 3D and you may see this review as to praising towards this book, but considering the target age and the aim of it, I have considered it is not necessarily aimed for people like me to read. This I have taken into account when raiting and reviewing.

Now to a few extracts I really enjoyed so warning may be SPOILERS...

But, reader, lets leave this trio for a moment in their caravan. Let's have something like our own dream. Lets rise through the caravan roof and over this strange field filled with sideshows and rides and peculiar practices and magical moments and fires and chops and spuds and scorpions and fish and tents...Lets travel through the night and move closer to that place. How can we do this? You may well ask. But it's easy, isn't it? All it takes is a few words put into sentences, and a bit of imagination. We could go anywhere with words and our imaginations. We could leave this story altogether, in fact, and find some other story in some other part of the world, and start telling that one. But no. Maybe later. It's best not to leave our story scattered into fragments...

Now I don't really know what happens, the tone of the book starts to change a little now. However, I loved some of the things David Almond wrote! All it takes is a few words put into sentences, and a bit of imagination. We could go anywhere with words and our imaginations I just loved the way the readers are addressed, reminding me here a little of Jane Eyre ~('Reader, I married him')~
Also considering the reader is likely to be a 8-12 year old (not saying it has to be)the book in a way is teaching children how to write their own stories whilst they are following one themselves and I found that a really nice way to portray writing as well. This style crops up more nearer the end as well, one part I thought was intriguing was :

(view spoiler)

Now a lot of people think this is a cop out, and maybe it is. But I thought this was a very intriguing device in the book. Allowing the readers to make up their own mind and allowing them to understand story making but also reality versus fiction. Then again breaking apart a child's fantasy quite young can be seen as abominable but there is many depending factors on whether doing this was a good choice. I mean it allows the children to be able to make decisions themselves, they are not talked down to, they are allowed to decide whether punishment is really suitable for this really pathetic more humourous villain.

I am not sure about it in the book, but I am not going to lie and say I hated it when I found the different style enjoyable. The last chapter follows at first a similar pattern and I found it really nice different way to writing.

One other thing I would like to comment on is something I noticed in someone else's review, they commented upon how the bad grammar of the DAFT team was not suitable for children who were trying to learn to write and read. I understand where that reviewer was coming from but I would also like to throw a point in about characterisation. Bad Grammar a characteristic of bad people perhaps? I don't know. I will leave you to think upon that like the author leaves us to think upon the ending of Clarence :)

I hope you enjoyed my review, I would recommend this book to the age range its suited to or for anyone who wants to look into writing children fiction or anyone who wants to feel enchanted by being a bit of a kid again :)

Brave New World

This is my review, taken off of my Goodreads page (http://www.goodreads.com/BookNerd94) on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, enjoy :)

Okay, so I have been wanting to read this book for around 2 and a half years, after delving into more modern classic dystopias.

(I don't know if that is right to say but I wanted to say not YA dystopia, as to me dystopia has been around so much longer and is slightly becoming tainted by the YA obsession - However saying that it won't stop me reading them and enjoying them) 

So when I finally picked up this book to read for uni, I was excited but also a bit apprehensive. Apprehensive you ask? Well when I had to slog through introductions and forewords about the book that I had yet to read, I become a bit nervous. Now don't get me wrong the introductions by Margaret Atwood and David Bradshaw were very good, BUT could they have not been put at the back of the book. I know I could of read the story first then the intros but I have a thing about chronological order. So skimming through these without knowing anything about the book put me on a rocky road of uneasiness. I will probably go back and read the intros now and be fine, It just felt s alien from me because I knew NOTHING and they were talking about things that did not make any sense AT THE TIME. 

Anyways, away from that slight drama...the book itself. As I said I was really looking forward to this but after a few pages I was very much 'huh?!?'.

So about 3 pages in, the disjointed listing overload of information had me doubting Huxley, the writing felt very fractured and I felt a barrier was brought up. I couldn't get into this world, yes it a very different alien one to our own society but I did not feel like I could take the book and plunge myself straight into it like I wanted to. The listing at first would of been okay if it did not go on for pages with no sign of a full stop anywhere and as a said a very disjointed narrative at first. However the details of the hatching centre were very intricate, yet I felt like Bam! Info Overload. 

(Now Please Before you think I am hating on a esteemed piece of work, check my rating and let me continue, because I will get into what was good :) )

Now chapter 3, I have something to say on...

I know Huxley was probably going for a choppy and quick narrative to create a certain atmosphere, but this chapter to me was HELL. There are four different scenes or voices occurring talking about different things. I became so confused and lost on who was talking that I felt the effectiveness of this narrative technique was diminished. I don't mind chopping and changing between say two scenes, but with clear distinction of the changes. I think Huxley was a bit overambitious with this part, there needed to be a bit more clear changes or scenes cut up a bit differently. Now the passage was interesting but very frustrating, I do however very much understand what Huxley was trying to present, to me it just did not work as well as it could of.

So now.... on to the good stuff!!!!

THIS WORLD! I love the way Huxley has created this Utopia world so different yet so close to our own! It's so imaginative and complex and intriguing. 

The social conditioning and the way the people in this world act are so peculiar but almost all seem happy. The control of the governing body is so astoundingly obvious to the reader but there is no doubt in the eyes of the people, except of course Bernard Marx. 

Now to me when Bernard and (I think) Lenina head over to the Savage reservation the book picked up. I really enjoyed the 'savage' aka John and when he came into the world that is so conditioned from birth. The idea of the outsider looking in and unable to participate in this world he has been told so much about by a mother who used to live there. I felt sorry for him in the end, the other guys were quite happy but his self destruction was painful to witness. 

I am trying here to really put everything I want to say in, but I finished this book a few days ago and have already read another so I hope this review can do this book justice. 

Two more things I really want to touch on is the sexual and motherhood aspect as well as the Directors words near the end. 

Now for our world the sexualness throughout this book is in some ways a stone throw away from our world. BUT its not, the weird conditioning that they undergo through birth creating the touchy feely and Orgy-Porgy, is very disturbing at the same time. Especially in the case of young children, which would in our society be very very taboo! Huxley explores taboo very well for the time he is writing for, as well as being relevant for today. He creates this almost god like character of the Ford that people worship like they would do a god in todays society, but it becomes so perverse and peculiar. Not to say that is a bad thing, I think Huxley's imagination and creativity in this world is outstanding. I like the way Huxley, made everything either quite subtle or the sexual tones where not very explicit unless read into. I know some parts this is not the case but I feel Huxley dealt with it rather well. 

Motherhood, is a foreign term for the people in this world, and I found it so hard to understand that, a bit like the savage John, being from the society we are from, the idea that these people are actually so incredibly alone yet together is so sad as well. As the book goes on, this perfect world becomes so un-perfect. People have no emotional ties to anyone, are constantly being drugged by Soma to stay completely happy and bliss (as not to cause any instability ) or to knock them out as to make them in a permanent state of blissful sleep for several days.

This society was founded as to stop wars and pain by eliminating anything that could cause instability. So although the idea of the society was right, they take out some aspects, such as emotional ties with relationships and motherhood, that make up humanity. The conservation between the Controller and the three men was very enlightening into the true nature of the world and you begin to not just despise this world but understand the creation of it. 

Overall this book made me tear my hair out at first but once I was in it I felt the wonder and beauty that is this world of Huxley's. I am giving it four stars purely based not just on the book, but the world created and the endings. And the ending is a shocker in some ways. 

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopias, who likes to see the ins and out of different world and politics.