The Party Crasher (by Sophie Kinsella)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over 15 years since I put aside my irrational bias against ‘chick-lit’ novels, and tried one by Sophie Kinsella. I liked it so much that, over the years, I have acquired many more of her books. She’s best known for the ‘Shopaholic’ series, and also writes rather raunchier novels under a pseudonym. But the ‘Kinsella’ books are, in my view, well-written, amusing, and with likeable (if slightly caricatured) people.

So when I saw ‘The Party Crasher’ on special offer for the Kindle last summer, it was an easy decision to download it. I don’t use my Kindle much when I’m at home, but I was recently on a four-hour flight, preceded by about three hours at an airport. So, as the previous book I read had been rather heavy I decided to try ‘The Party Crasher’, hoping for something light and distracting.

I was not disappointed. 

The main, viewpoint character is a women in her early twenties called Effie. She has two older siblings: Bean and Guy. They’re actually quite a bit older, and can remember their mother who died when Effie was just three. Their father remarried a woman called Mimi who was fun and creative, and who was the only mother Effie knew. So they’re quite close. 

As the youngest in the family, despite having reached adulthood and left home, Effie has been very much protected by her older siblings. So when an announcement is made just before Christmas, she is totally unprepared.  

That’s all covered in the first chapter. 

The action then moves forward a couple of years. A lot has changed, and the family home - which is huge, and full of quirks - is to be sold. There’s going to be a ‘cooling down’ party, and Effie learns that she hasn’t been invited. She’s hurt and angry, but the relationship with her father has become very strained, and she decides that she won’t go anywhere near the house. Then she remembers her set of Russian stacking dolls which went everywhere with her as a child. She recalls hiding them, and is desperate to retrieve them…

Most of the story then involves Effie’s efforts to sneak into the party when everyone else is busy, grab her dolls, and get out. Unsurprisingly, given the book’s title, nothing goes to plan. The subsequent actions and confusions are almost reminiscent of a Shakespearean comedy of errors. It’s very cleverly done; I could imagine the scenes, and had no idea what was going to happen next. I almost laughed aloud a couple of times.

There’s a low-key love story alongside Effie’s ‘mission’, involving her best friend from childhood, Joe. We learn early in the book that they broke up, and that her heart was broken; it’s not until towards that end that the truth is uncovered. 

I was perhaps a tad unconvinced by some of the revelations and changes towards the end: there are plenty of twists, some more believable than others. I suppose it’s a mark of a well-drawn three-dimensional character when a reader thinks, ‘No… surely she wouldn’t do that?’ and when more than one person turned out to have an unexpected site to their character, I couldn’t quite reconcile it.  

I also cringed at the fate of a couple of violins. 

But other than those fairly minor quibbles, I thought this an excellent read, perfect for a dull flight. And it’s not all fluffy. There are some important issues that are covered sensitively. For instance: the need for honesty; the importance of communication; the inevitable breakdown of some relationships; the dangers of jumping to conclusions. 

I would recommend ‘The Party Crasher’ to anyone who likes light-hearted stories with believable people (on the whole) and a plot with many twists and turns that concludes in a mostly positive way. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Pachinko (by Min Jin Lee)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not heard of the author Min Jin Lee. I most likely would not have found her epic novel ‘Pachinko’, had it not been the book chosen for April for our local reading group. I downloaded it for my Kindle, inexpensively, and started reading it at the end of March. 

I wasn’t in the country for April’s group, but like to keep up with what they are reading even if I can’t join the discussion. However this meant that I wasn’t motivated to complete it in time for the group; that was just as well, as I was very busy elsewhere. And it was quite heavy-going in places.

I finally managed to finish the book, after nearly three weeks. At times I was tempted to give up, but I only abandon books I really dislike, and this one was in many respects an excellent, thought-provoking read. 

‘Pachinko’ features several generations of a family from Korea. The storyline begins over 100 years ago and ends in the late 1980s. It goes rather rapidly through time, and that was part of what I found hard-going: I felt as if I were just getting to know a character when the chapter ended and the focus moved on to the next generation. 

Gradually a main protagonist emerges. Sunja is the sole surviving baby of a young couple introduced in the first section. We first meet her properly when she’s about fourteen, working hard in her mother’s hostel. Her father died when she was young, so she hasn’t been able to have much schooling. But she loves her mother, and gets along well with the paid assistants in the kitchens. 

Then one day, walking back from the market, she is harassed and nearly assaulted by some young men. She’s rescued by an older man called Hansu. He appears charming and polite, and as he’s old enough to be her father she is happy to go for walks with him and chat. However the book’s narration is omniscient in style, so we already know that Hansu has been observing Sunja for a while, and has designs on her virtue.

Sure enough, he grooms her gently and persuades her to do things which she has never done before. She had never thought men would be interested in her, as she’s not conventionally attractive. As she’s so innocent, she’s sure that Hansu will eventually ask to marry her…

Sunja remains an important character in the rest of the novel; we see her rescued again, bearing two sons, and eventually becoming a grandmother. It’s hard to say much more without giving spoilers - suffice it to say she’s a good mother, on the whole, but inevitably makes mistakes. And there are problems with lack of money, with extreme racism and classism, and also of Christians refusing to renounce their faith in Japan. 

I couldn’t keep track of all the characters, some of whom seemed to have quite similar names, but the main ones mostly stand out. The writer makes the context clear so it didn’t always matter if I confused two fairly minor characters. And the writing is compelling in places, even though I couldn’t relate well to anyone due to the many different viewpoints that were included. I can see why the book was written that way, but it makes it less appealing to those of us who prefer character-based novels. 

What I disliked most was the amount of intimate detail given in quite a few sexual encounters of varying types, and the excessive amount of ‘strong’ language used. I was able to skip over the raunchy sections, on the whole, but some of them started without any real hint that they were going to be explicit. Some of them seemed irrelevant to the story, so I’m not sure why they were there.

Evidently a great deal of research went into this book. At the end there are some interesting questions for book groups, and also quite a lengthy interview with the author, which help to give some background to the book. While it’s a work of fiction, it’s based on the stories of many real people from Korea and Japan, and highlights some of the difficulties experienced while working and living in another culture.

I knew almost nothing about Korean history, and the book did inspire me to take a brief foray into Wikipedia - I may read more about the Japanese invasion when I’m back home. I knew vaguely about a war in Korea, in part due to the TV series MASH which I occasionally saw as a young adult.  But books like this help to bring history to life, and for that reason I’m glad I read it.  

If you’re interested in this period of history and like saga novels of this style, or if you’re intrigued to know more, then ‘Pachinko’ is probably worth reading once. The title refers to a kind of mechanical arcade game which is used for gambling in Japan.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

The Book of Legends (by Lenny Henry)

(Amazon UK link)

I knew of Lenny Henry as a comedian many years ago, but had no idea he had also written some children’s books. I would quite likely have continued in my ignorance, but for my grandson, aged 9, who asked me to read ‘The Book of Legends’ to him in evenings while I was visiting. 

I had no idea what to expect - I was imagining it might be a retelling of some classic legends, but I was wrong. My grandson said it was one of his favourite books, and he thought I would like it. He was correct.

The main characters in the book are the twelve-year-old twins Bran and Fran. Bran is deaf, so Fran is an expert in signing, and they’re both courageous and intelligent. We quickly learn that their father disappeared a few years earlier during a thunderstorm. He’s assumed dead, but no trace of him was ever found. They go camping with their mother, and in another thunderstorm, she, too, disappears. 

The twins are taken in by their mother’s employer, whom they know as Aunty Madge, but she finds them very difficult and feels that the only option is to send them to boarding school. They are horrified, and are also convinced that their mother is alive, if only they can find her. They are sure there must be clues in a book she wrote, with legends about ‘the Kingdom of the Nine Dimensions’. So they set out, with a few ideas from one of the stories, and eventually find themselves in this kingdom.

Most of the book, then, charts their adventures as they attempt to locate and rescue their mother. The narrative is interspersed with ‘legends’ from their mother’s book, and they meet a lot of interesting and likeable people (and magical creatures) as well as some enemies. 

Adventure stories and fantasy aren’t my favourite genre, but the writing is nicely paced with some low-key humour here and there (including some that made my grandson laugh aloud). I loved the way that signing is treated as a normal way to communicate, and I also liked the way that there are hints in the ‘legends’ of what is to come, but the children have to work through the details, and learn a lot about themselves as they do.

It’s the kind of book that can be appreciated by adults as well as children, so it made an excellent read-aloud; I can see, too, that it’s the kind of book that merits re-reading (or listening) as there are so many undercurrents - and knowing in advance who was whom would make it more interesting, although less tense.

Definitely recommended to fluent readers of nine and upwards who like magical adventure stories, but even more so as a read-aloud. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Mr Planemaker's Flying Machine (by Sheilagh Watkins)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not heard of Sheilagh Watkins, though she's apparently quite a prolific writer. However her book ‘Mr Planemaker’s Flying Machine’ was available free for the Kindle in 2011, and the title intrigued me. So I downloaded it. It sat on my Kindle for twelve years, unread, until I picked the title at random from my lengthy list of unread books, and read it on a recent flight. 

I probably shouldn’t have bothered. Or at least, I should have checked the blurb. It’s not biographical or historical although I thought perhaps it might be. And it’s really a children’s book although the first part of the story is about a man - Mr Planemaker - who is only in his forties but has retired from work as he has a heart problem. He keeps having dreams about a mansion being built for him by people with names that are puns.

Then he decides that he wants to build a large model plane, and starts doing a lot of research, noting down lots of details on his son’s computer.  But in between there’s a surreal scene involving a computer repair place that insists the computer was custom designed for Mr Planemaker. There’s a lot of discussion about how to get online and to find files and folders on a computer, all of which seems extremely dated now - but even given that it was accurate fifteen years or so ago, it’s far too detailed to be of much interest.

Mr Planemaker is a quirky, quite likeable kind of person. But I could see that something was being obviously foreshadowed - and it happens.  It would have devastated a normal family, but that isn't explored at all. There’s no mention of any emotion. And there’s my biggest problem with the book - most of the characters are so flat that I couldn’t bring myself to care in the slightest what happened to any of them. There are hints of some significant themes, and yet no resolution. 

The second part of the book is about Mr Planemaker’s children, Dell and Emmilisa, and - to some degree - their cat Cosmos, who appeared in the car when Dell’s computer was fixed. Cosmos apparently has some unusual power over the computer and can cause an ‘assistant’ - who seems to be a real person inside the screen - to appear, and even to take them inside the computer to start following a trail…

I think it could have been quite an interesting story if it had been more coherent and consistent, and if the Planemaker family had been more three-dimensional. I don’t have a problem with surreal fantasy as part of a book, but it is all quite random, and doesn’t seem to have any real purpose. Emmilisa has a problem with bullies at school, but that isn’t resolved at all, other than a vague notion that she’s going to be more confident and self-reliant. 

The puns in the names of the odd characters who appear are quite clever, though they’re explained rather too much, and it really wasn’t necessary for the reader to be told three times that however long the children spent inside the computer, it would be no time at all in the real world.

I kept reading, wondering if it would get better, and how it would end. It was light enough that it was easy to read on a flight when I was tired, but it really wasn’t a satisfying story. I wouldn’t recommend it to children; even if the technology were updated, it’s far too long-winded and could have benefited from significant editing.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Bride Leads the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

Slowly re-reading my way through the lengthy Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, I reached the one which was 27th in the original series, 31st  by the time they were published in Armada paperbacks. ‘Bride Leads the Chalet School’ returns us to the main Chalet School in the UK, after a temporary diversion to Switzerland to see the new finishing branch in ‘The Chalet School in the Oberland’. 

The last time I re-read ‘Bride…’ was in 2012, so it’s not surprising that I had no memory of the story. I assumed that Bride Bettany would be promoted to Head Girl, which is correct, after the sudden and surprising departure of Bride’s friend Loveday, the previous Head Girl. Bride isn’t too keen on the extra responsibility, but realises that she is the obvious choice.

There are a lot of new girls, far more than would be normal in the spring term. But another school has closed, and since there’s plenty of room the Chalet School has taken on about thirty or forty new girls. And we quickly learn that their former school wasn’t just lax in discipline, it didn’t believe in any kinds of rules or structures at all. Even lessons were optional, meaning that most of the girls are well below their expected academic level by age. 

In addition, the Chalet School encourages girls to do some of their own chores - bed making, and clearing tables, for instance - and frowns on any kind of snobbishness. Some of the new girls take a long time to adjust, particularly Diana, a beautiful but not very bright girl whose father is a self-made millionaire. She had a lot of influence at her former school and doesn’t find it hard to attract a few of the weaker characters in the Chalet School…

It’s not really a new plot idea. The same kind of thing happened in one of the earlier books, when another school closed (‘The New Chalet School’), and there were similar issues in ‘The Chalet School and the Oberland’, when Chalet Girls and others combined to create the finishing branch. However it’s well handled, with a huge shock for Bride along the way.  

A more poignant subplot involves Julie Lucy getting nasty stomach pains, ending up with an emergency operation. The author was perhaps trying to make the point that sharp pains should not be ignored. She also used the opportunity to talk about the importance of prayer, and we see Tom Gay making the first shaky steps in her new career.

There’s a sale at the end of term, with a new theme. It’s based on a book I knew nothing about, but explained clearly and although there’s more detail than I feel necessary, there’s enough human interest that I did read that chapter rather than skimming it rapidly.

Overall I thought this a good read; not one that stands out, but not entirely run-of-the-mill. Best read as part of the series, or at least after a few of the earlier ones as so many characters recur. I’m pleased to know that there were no cuts made in the Armada edition of ‘Bride leads the Chalet School’, so I have no reason to try to find a hardback or Girls Gone by edition.

Recommended to anyone who likes these books. Unfortunately not currently in print, and very expensive second-hand online. But the paperback Armada versions can sometimes be found in charity shops. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews