Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Title: Shantaram
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Genre: Cultural
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 944
Date read: December, 2011

Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.

Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

Wow... took me almost two months to read this book! It wasn't a bad or boring book, but it just wasn't a page-turner either, and for a book of 900+ pages, that's really to its own detriment.

I can't really figure out whether it's a novel or a memoir. From what I've been able to gather through online articles, it seems to be a fictionalized memoir... or a novel based on the author's own experiences. At least, all the larger details of Lin's life were things that happened to the author as well.

It was really, really interesting. I know next to nothing about India of the 1980s and was fascinated (and occasionally horrified) by the descriptions given. But holy foreshadowing, Batman! It's a literary technique that has always bothered me, and even more so when as in this book it occurs in almost every chapter.

I'm glad to have read it, and ended up loving some of the characters like Prabaker and (strangely enough) Karla, but I really, really doubt it's a book I'm ever going to read again.

The Dead of Night - John Marsden

Title: The Dead of Night
Author: John Marsden
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 272
Date read: December, 2011

A few months after the first fighter jets landed in their own backyard, Ellie and her five terrified but defiant friends struggle to survive amid a baffling conflict. Their families are unreachable; the mountains are now their home. When two of them fall behind enemy lines, Ellie knows what must happen next: a rescue mission. Homer, the strongest and most unpredictable among them, is the one to take charge. While others have their doubts about his abilities, Homer has no choice but to prove them wrong - or risk losing everything to the enemy.

This series suffers one weakness similar to that of the "Gone" series by Michael Grant - since I know this book isn't the last in the series, I also know that there will be no real resolution to the war.

But at least I know that going into the novel, so it doesn't bother me as much as it would have otherwise. And I'm still fascinated by the picture John Marsden paints.

I was annoyed with Ellie for giving in to Lee. It could have been handled so much better, because as it was it seemed like she only agreed because he kept pressuring her.

Haley's army infuriated me, and I'm almost glad we haven't heard the last from him, as I'd love to see some kind of retribution.

I thought the end was glossed over too quickly, but can sort of see the reason for this, since the books are supposed to be Ellie's account of the happenings and therefore only focuses on what she can bear to focus on.