Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling

Just recently, I’ve been re-reading my way through the Harry Potter series, and I’ve really enjoyed picking up the books again and reminding myself of how much I enjoyed them when I first read them.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the final book in the Harry Potter series, and in this book Harry has made the decision not to return to Hogwarts school for his seventh year, but to continue a mission that Dumbledore gave him before his death: seeking out and destroying Lord Voldemort’s horcruxes. Horcruxes are magical items containing parts of a dark wizard’s soul, and Voldemort cannot be defeated until all six of his horcruxes have been destroyed. Accompanied by his best friends Ron and Hermione, Harry searches not only for these magical objects but also for a way to destroy them. This magical quest ultimately leads them full circle, and they return to Hogwarts, for a final epic battle with Voldemort and his followers.

There is plenty in this final Harry Potter book to enjoy: I really like the times when Harry and his friends have to sneak into both the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts bank, facing danger from all sides. The battle at the end of the story is definitely a fitting end to the whole series, and Harry’s final journey is both dramatic and also heart-wrenching.

There are definite moments where the story slows down too much though. Harry, Ron and Hermione spend a lot of time in the middle of the book wandering around forests (almost aimlessly) and making little progress. You could argue that this is essential to build the tension for later, but it certainly drops the pace of the story and makes this a less interesting section of the book.

Overall, though, this is a fitting end to the series; all of the loose ends are tied up, and there are plenty of magical adventures along the way.

Review: Storyland by Amy Jeffs

Despite being well-read, my knowledge of myths and legends of Britain isn’t very secure. Other than King Arthur and Merlin, I knew very few British myths before picking up this book. However, having seen it shared on Twitter, I was interested and so decided to give it a go.

The book shares a variety of myths from Britain, retold by Amy Jeffs, and in each case illustrated with artwork and a commentary on which sources she used to piece the tales together. Jeffs begins with stories from the beginning of Britain (involving tales of giants) before moving onto prehistory, antiquity and the middle ages. Each story contains elements from Christianity, as well as inspiration from Greek mythology and Trojans, and it was fascinating to see how so many of the stories contained references to so many other myths and legends from around the world.

I found the first section to be my least favourite, and it was a little slow going at times. However, once I moved on, especially to the sections on Antiquity and The Middle Ages I really enjoyed each of the myths. My personal favourites were those about King Arthur and Merlin (maybe because they were so familiar), but I certainly enjoyed learning more about the mythology surrounding early Britain. This is well worth a read for anyone interested in the history of storytelling.

Review: The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

The Room in the Attic was a book that was chosen by my book club to be our next story to read and discuss. We all liked the sound of the mysterious story that moved between two timelines and sounded a little ghostly.

In 1903, Nurse Emma Everdeen is asked to look after a little girl, Harriet, who has been rescued after being found adrift on a boat with her mother. Harriet’s mother (Mrs March) is unconscious and requires a lot of medical intervention, and while this happens, Harriet lives in the attic room at All Hallows asylum under the care of Nurse Everdeen. Emma Everdeen is determined to find out how Harriet and her mother got into this situation, but soon begins to become uneasy about Mrs March; in fact, she begins to question whether she is who she claims to be. These suspicions put Nurse Everdeen in a perilous situation.

Interspersed with this story is that of Lewis, who is at All Hallows boarding school in 1993. He finds the old asylum building an unsettling location to be living in, and even more so when he begins to hear noises from the room above him, including the sound of the rocking chair moving backwards and forwards. Lewis becomes interested in the building’s past when he discovers a skeleton in a shallow grave outside the school grounds, and he begins to piece together what happened with Harriet and Nurse Everdeen all those years before.

If I’m honest, this was a story that took me a little while to get into. After an initially scary and gripping opening the first 10% (I read this on my kindle) I found to be tough going; the story seemed a bit slow to start. However, once I’d got to this point, it began to become more gripping and I found myself intrigued by the spooky time-jumping story. I wanted to uncover the mystery of what had happened, and I raced through to the end of the book to find out what happened.

There is a thrilling and dramatic climax to the story, which perhaps defies believability a little (although the same could be said for much of the story) but certainly left me turning the pages, eager to reach the end. If you enjoy mysteries set in multiple time periods and with a ghostly side to them, then this is definitely one to read.

Review: Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

I really enjoy re-reading books every now and again, and I’ve recently been re-reading the Harry Potter series. The sixth book (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) has been one of my favourites for a long time (although interestingly it’s not my favourite of the film series) so I was looking forward to reading it again.

Lord Voldemort has returned and is striking fear into the wizarding world. Harry Potter prepares to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his sixth year, knowing that he is likely to face more challenges than ever before. When Dumbledore requests that Harry takes extra lessons with him, Harry realises that he’s about to learn more about the unique link between himself and Voldemort. However, this is the beginning of Harry’s most dangerous adventure yet, as he begins his journey to defeat Voldemort.

I really enjoyed re-reading this book as it was a great bit of escapist fiction. The magical world is described in detail and you can really picture every moment. The story builds to an exciting and dramatic climax, and leads perfectly into the final book of the series.

Review: Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

I read 10 Agatha Christie novels in 2021, prompted by the #ReadChristie 2021 challenge. It’s definitely left me wanting to read so more and so I was very excited about the launch of #ReadChristie2022 . January’s challenge was a book inspired by Agatha’s travels and I decided to read a Hercule Poirot story that I’d recently bought for my kindle: Appointment with Death.

‘You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?’

This is the dramatic opening sentence of Appointment with Death and it is overheard by super sleuth Hercule Poirot, setting the tone of the story to come. The story follows the Boynton family, who are ruled over by their stepmother, who enacts a cruel level of control over the whole family group. When she is discovered dead during a trip to Petra it is initially thought to be death from natural causes. However, a doctor on the expedition becomes suspicious and asks Poirot to investigate.

Poirot investigates the murder with his usual meticulous methods, unpicking each suspect’s alibi and motivation, and soon realises that Mrs Boynton was a woman with many enemies: any one of them could have been responsible for her murder. Poirot creates a seemingly unhelpful list of key findings, which at first seem to lead nowhere. However, as usual, he is able to deduce from this who the real murderer was, as well as their motive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Poirot story; it gripped me right from the very beginning, with the focus on the family relationships. Even before the murder had happened, I was trying to uncover the culprit and this is one of the elements that works really well in this story. The location adds an extra level of interest to the story, as Christie describes the expedition to Petra as well as the murder mystery that occurs there.

This was a gripping and engaging murder mystery and a Poirot novel that I would highly recommend.

Review: The Killing Kind by Jane Casey

Anyone who’s been following my blog will probably be aware that over the past couple of years I’ve read an increasing amount of crime fiction, and have really enjoyed exploring a range of authors within the genre. I’ve read two of Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan books, and when I saw this standalone novel, I knew I wanted to read it.

Ingrid Lewis is a barrister, who is confident with the legal system and has had several successes in her career; including defending some unpleasant characters. One of the men she defended, John Webster, became obsessed with her, stalking her and making her life a misery. When a colleague of Ingrid’s dies in mysterious circumstances, Ingrid becomes convinced that it must be Webster making his presence known again, having recently been released from prison.

However Webster has his own version of events, and he is convinced that Ingrid is in danger from someone else. He explains that he only wants to keep her safe. When more unexplained deaths occur in close proximity to Ingrid, she loses all sense of who she can trust, and doesn’t know where to turn to make sense of the danger she is in.

This was a fast paced and dramatic story. Once I picked it up, I didn’t want to put it down! Every time that I thought I’d got a grasp on what was happening to Ingrid, Casey threw another dramatic twist in and turned everything on its head. This is a story in which nobody is quite what they seem; and as a reader you’re kept guessing right up until the very end of the story.

This is a story for anyone who likes their crime stories with plenty of dramatic events, perilous situations and sinister twists. Well worth a read; this was a great start to my 2022 reading journey.