Bogormen

Title: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Author: Rachel Joyce
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 357
Date read: October, 2016

Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die.

So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband.


I'd expected to love this, so this low rating was both surprising and disappointing.

My opinion of this book changed hugely while reading it. It went from being slightly slow-moving, but very charming and British, to being really frustrating and kinda depressing... although it did have a hopeful ending, I guess.

I'd heard it compared to "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared", which is a misrepresentation if I ever saw one! The two are nothing alike! (I'd be more inclined to say it has shades of "Forest Gump" - but it's been so many years since I read that one, so I might be wrong). I got fonder of both Harold and Maureen as the book went along, but thought the 'twist' completely unnecessary (not the contents of the twist, but the fact that it was kept a secret to be revealed, rather than just being open about it from the beginning).

Apparently there is a companion novel, told from Queenie's POV. I don't think I'll be reading that one.

Title: Wool (Wool #1)
Author: Hugh Howey
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 58
Date read: October, 2016

Thousands of them have lived underground. They've lived there so long, there are only legends about people living anywhere else. Such a life requires rules. Strict rules. There are things that must not be discussed. Like going outside. Never mention you might like going outside.

Or you'll get what you wish for.


I honestly don't know what I think of this book. I liked it well enough, but found it exceedingly weird! Even more so, because it's the first in a series. I think I'd have thought it less weird as a stand-alone short-story, but I really can't figure out where Hugh Howey will take it from here.

Guess there's only one way to find out ;)

Title: Afterworlds
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: YA
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 599
Date read: October, 2016

Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she's taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love.

Woven into Darcy's personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the "Afterworld" to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love... until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most.


"Afterworlds" is really two stories mixed together. Every odd chapter tells the story of Darcy Patel, her life in NYC and her experiences as a debutante author, and every even chapter is the book Darcy wrote.

I'm finding it extremely difficult to figure out what I think of this book and how to rate it. I enjoyed the chapters about Darcy - appreciating this look into the book publishing business and the life of an aspiring author, not to mention that I really liked Darcy, despite her tendency to turn into an emo teen. She's 18 - she's allowed to. Those chapters flew by and were a breeze to read. That part of the book probably deserved 4 stars.

However, the chapters about Lizzie were such a slog to get through! I LOVED the first one (and as that was the chapter I read as part of the sample, which made me buy the book, I feel kinda cheated), but once she went back to the flipside after that first time, I was done. That entire storyline just didn't work for me. I don't know if it's just that I'm really not into ghosts, or if I'd have disliked it regardless, but those chapters were a real chore to read. That part of the book would probably have been a dnf if it had stood on its own.

In the end the good outweighed the bad, and I finished the book - but it was a huge disappointment, and I'm disinclined to recommend it to anybody else.