Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from August and September!

1) Jonah Buck-Carrion Shadows (#2)
After years of working as a big game hunter, Denise DeMarco wants to retire to the quiet life of a park ranger. However, a doomed expedition into the caves beneath the game reserve accidentally sends something terrifying bubbling to the veldt’s surface. Something prehistoric. Something hungry. Soon, the dark ecosystem is colonizing the surface world, consuming everything and everyone in its path. Armed with an elephant gun and years of experience, it’s up to Denise to save the blighted park. Swarms of the oozing undead, relentless poachers, and one very angry dinosaur stand in her way. And even if she survives all that, there’s still something trapped underground that wants out. Primeval horrors and ravenous ghouls lurk around every corner as night falls over the park. Denise must use all her skills if she wants to live through the experience. She must become the ultimate monster hunter.  

I loved book one in this series-Carrion Safari so I was really looking forward to book two but I was pretty disappointed with it. Denise and Cordelia are working at a game reserve tracking spider migration when two rangers assisting on a scientific exploration of a cave system go missing. Basically, this ends up as a conspiracy with the company from the first book finding out about a tar like lake in the cavern that is alive and can infect those it touches, creating human and animal zombie like creatures out of the hosts. They send their man in to kill a scientist and takes his place to go and get samples for the company lab but it all goes wrong and the ooze is on the loose. As people and animals throughout the park spread the infection, a deadly zombie dinosaur is also unleashed. Denise and her friends have to stop the 'zombies', avoid contact with the ooze and stop the people who unleashed the nightmare.

OK the actual living ooze and zombie animal stuff was interesting enough. I liked the man rising under control of the ooze during the autopsy scene. The problem with the book was the padding around that main plot which was not as interesting. The book spends a lot of time on the angst Denise feels about not getting promoted in a job she isn't too sure she wants anyway and concerns over her future. Even more time is spent on the operations to catch the poachers who are chasing animals in the game reserve, including the planning and executing of a full raid and the aftermath, plus a second raid where Denise goes after a few poachers, and finally the poachers being involved working with the evil company. It also delves into the apartheid side of South African life at that stage which really isn't needed and the inner workings of the game reserve and the people. There is a lot of scientific chat as well which wasn't my favourite part. Overall I felt it was way too slow to get to any relevant action and I was disappointed with the book. I hope the third book is better.

Read August 2019
2/2.5 stars?

2) Paul Tremblay-The Cabin at the End of the World
Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction. As Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, "None of what's going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, "Your dads won't want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world." So begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are intertwined.

Wen has been adopted from China by her two dads Eric and Andrew, and are having a family holiday at a remote cabin when things turn strange. A group of people show up with strange weapons, insisting to be let in to talk to the men. Not surprisingly, they are not allowed inside and they then break in. Their story is that the apocalypse is coming and they have been chosen to explain how the family can save the world-by willingly sacrificing one of themselves. Eric and Andrew don't believe a word of it and won't see harm come to their family, starting a battle of wills between them and the prophets of doom. It was nice to see the family of two dads and adopted Chinese daughter as a change. I liked the character development of the three of them with one chilled out parent and one nervous strict parent who worries constantly. I liked the idea of the plot but it fell apart on execution. 

The writing style was very strange. We get a line of conversation in the middle of the drama ie Andrew saying he has a gun-then we get a two page history of the gun, why it was brought and where it is. As the characters rush to the front door to confront the visitors, we get a description of every part of the cabin and the decoration. It totally breaks up the tension in the plot every time. As well as over descriptive, it is so repetitive. From the moment Leonard introduces himself to the dads, we get about 200 pages of 'you must do this to save the world, then 'no we won't do it, you're crazy' and that just goes on and on. Leonard tries to persuade, Eric and Andrew don't believe. It is just so dull and boring! It takes ages to even discover what Leonard wants but then there seems to be more questions than answers. Why did Leonard's people believe in their mission? Where is the proof to convince Wen's family? Why turn up with threatening weapons? Who were the weapons to be used against? Why Wen's family? Why is it happening? I also thought the dialogue was dreadful as was how Wen who is seven, sounds like a college professor when she thinks and talks.

I really didn't like this book at all and I won't try anything else by the author. Not for me!

Read September 2019
1 star. 

3) Madeleine Roux-Sadie Walker Is Stranded
Sadie Walker fights for survival as the dead close in...In the months since The Outbreak, Seattle has become a walled fortress - the Infected are kept at bay, and the survivors are trying to scrape back a life. But the city is rife with crime, religious cults and black-market dealings. And things are about to get much, much worse. When a group of frustrated fanatics, the 'Repopulationists', destroy part of the wall, zombies start swarming the city. Sadie, devastated by the brutal kidnapping of her young nephew, must find him and get them both out before it's too late. But the only escape is by sea, and she's seen for herself the horrible fate of those who tried that route before...  

Months ago, Seattle fell to a zombie apocalypse but the city was cleared out and a protective barrier constructed around it. A grim life of handouts, hard work and black market operations are the new normal for survivors. Now religious cult members have breached that barrier to let the zombies back in and everyone has to flee. Sadie and her nephew Shane are lucky to get two places on a friend's uncle's boat and they get out of the city. But danger is all around them and they decide to try and settle on nearby islands to build a safer future.

I liked Allison's story because I liked her and her friends but I really didn't like Sadie. She is a pretty cold character who seems to have no relationship at all with Shane until she almost loses him and then she becomes obsessive about him. She isn't very pleasant to the other survivors on the boat, and because Carl stuffed her, she seems happy at the prospect of running over anyone who gets in the way of her plans if it comes to it, even her friend Andrea who saved her life by getting her and Shane out of the city. Sadie just isn't a nice person yet of course every man she meets after the apocalypse seems to fall for her. It made me roll my eyes frequently. It is also a pretty dull story as it just seems to meander on with Sadie obsessing over Shane's safety, Allison's story and her own drawings. The constant conversations about art and Allison's exploits with Moritz just left me realising that Sadie has no personality of her own and she is just boring to read about. With the exception of Arturo, the other characters are just dull and of little value. Having checked out a few reviews since, I can cheerfully say that Sadie becomes a grade A bitch so I'm glad I quit this book pretty early! This feels like the kind of book where the author was asked to do a sequel but had no real idea of what story she wanted to do, hence Allison gets a starring role even though she isn't there and Sadie is a non entity. I didn't enjoy this at all.

Read September 2019
1 star.

4) Chris Bonington-I Chose To Climb
I CHOSE TO CLIMB, first published in 1966, was Chris Bonington's first book. He was recognised then, as now, as one of the outstanding members of a brilliant generation of mountaineers, which included such personalities as Hamish MacInnes, Don Whillans and Ian Clough. Here he describes his climbing beginnings as a teenager as well as successful ascents all over the world: the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney, the first British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1962, Annapurna II in 1960 and in an unhappy expedition in 1961, Nuptse, the third peak of Everest. The first volume of Chris Bonington's autobiography is written with a warmth and enthusiasm that he has made his own. It tells of his climbing tastes and practice, and of family, friends and partnerships cemented over many years.

This first biography of British climber Chris Bonington looks at his time doing National Service with the RAF before switching to the Sandhurst Military Academy and taking command of a tank regiment. He talks about his early climbing career in Britain and his first hair raising climbs in the Alps and it was kind of horrific to see all the dangerous things Hamish had them doing when Chris had little experience in that environment and I'm amazed they didn't get killed. Chris regards it as an opportunity to learn but taking such risks just seems like mass stupidity to me! Trying to do these climbs without the correct supplies and equipment and in dangerous weather is insane but they do it anyway. He also tries to find a way to hold down a job while spending as much time on climbing as possible. I did find this an entertaining read and went straight on to his second memoirs.

Read September 2019
3 stars.

5) Chris Bonington-The Next Horizon
The first volume of Chris Bonington's memoirs, I Chose to Climb, was published in 1966 and told of his initiation into mountaineering, from schoolboy beginnings, culminating in the British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger and his decision to turn professional. The Next Horizon picks up where that volume left off and relates his subsequent adventures as a mountaineer, photographer, journalist and expedition leader. The book opens with a journey to Chile to climb the Central Tower of Paine in 1962 and it ends in the summer of 1972 with preparations for the autumn Everest expedition which in the event only just failed to put a British climber on top of the world's highest mountain for the first time. Here we learn more of the charismatic generation of climbing personalities with whom he travelled as well as the development of Chris Bonington into the devoted family man and celebrity he is today.

One thing I have to hand to Chris is that this book is warts and all. It shows him being somewhat unreasonable about competition on the climbs. For example, his group have been in Chile for weeks and got nowhere with the climb yet when another team arrive they virtually try to force the guys to climb something else in what amounts to bully boy behaviour! Chris gets mad about when someone else gets the chance to maybe lead the climb or summit first out of envy. It seems extreme and dumb but he is honest enough to admit to it. I enjoyed reading about the expeditions including the days where nothing happens as it gives you a feel for what really happens. Again there is a lot of drinking and stupidy and safety fails but it is all in there. 

The one thing that gets me about climbers is the level of selfishness they can display though this is a matter for their family to deal with rather than for me to judge. However in this case while he is climbing a volcano his child tragically dies and he of course rushes home. I totally get why they want to move away from the memories but Chris starts dictating where they should live to better suit his career the rare times he is home. He wants to take his wife away from her friends and the area she loves to suit him, when he is away climbing most of the year! I just found it staggering that he could do that and I would have said no to him especially under those circumstances. But if she agrees, well what can you say? The moral for me is don't marry a climber! This was another entertaining book with some good climbing adventures so I look forward to reading the books he wrote about some of the bigger expeditions he was on.

Read September 2019
3 stars.