C. J. SkuseRezensionen
Autor von Sweetpea
Rezensionen
Sweetpea von C. J. Skuse
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
I wanted to murder the world.
When Rhiannon was six years old, her childminder and all five of the other kids were murdered by the estranged husband, who committed suicide after. Rhiannon was hit in the head by the husband with a hammer, but survived, laying underneath the decapitated childminder for hours before they were discovered. The hit to her ventromedial prefrontal cortex was severe and caused her to have to relearn everything, talking, walking. It also gave her a little bit of celebrity, with going on tv to do interviews all over and money from people that felt bad. Also, it's caused Rhiannon to have murderous rage, that she acts on.
Half the time, I admit, I crave normality, domesticity: a family, other heartbeats around, a comfy sofa of an evening and little pots of floral happiness growing silently on the balcony. The other half of the time, I want nothing more than to kill. To watch.
Told from Rhiannon's point-of-view from what are supposed to be her inner musings laid out like diary entries, Sweetpea was a long read into a Dexter like character. Having read How to Kill Men and Get Away with It by Katy Brent recently before this, I think some of my enjoyment was dampened a little because of how similar the characters and story were. Rhiannon, with her past, had more of a rounded out explanation than the Brent lead but at four hundred and seventy-two pages, this simply went on too long. The middle definitely sagged as Rhiannon's opinions about PICSOs (People I Can't Shake Off, friends she needs to appear “normal”) and every inconvenience or grievance she had in life was repeated, easily two hundred pages of this could have been cut out.
It was all so forced, like when I had to give my mum a cuddle as a kid or when I was expected to cry but it just felt like rain trickling down a window. Someone else's window.
Each chapter started with a kill list and the beginning will have you locked in as you get to know Rhiannon and question if she is just completely honest in her diary about her feelings or if she acts on them, that question does get answered fairly quickly and strongly when it becomes apparent that she has kidnapped an old school bully. The story then had some good reveals, how she witnessed her father joining in vigilante justice and beating up a pedophile and how this probably leads to her creating a set of killing rules, men who hurt women/kids and no one innocent. As the story goes on, it's revealed when and why Rhiannon has killed and readers might even start to side with her but the latter second half shows some cracks in her rules. How her not getting a promotion at work she thought she deserved, finding out her boyfriend of four years is cheating on her with a coworker, Rhiannon sleeping with someone at work to help her own cause, and all around self-serving actions that she does to “fit-in” and not cause suspicion her way.
If only they all knew what this quiet little sweetpea could do.
Even though this was nearly five hundred pages, it ends with a cliffhanger and I found it a bit maddening. It almost felt forced to create the series but I will also admit it did follow the unraveling of Rhiannon's sanity, it just was a very slow journey to it. Something Rhiannon set-up in the beginning (there are clues to what she is doing) comes back to bite her and the happy ending she seemed on track for, gets washed away and a possible new reporter that took Rhiannon's promotion could be on to her. If you like reading crass, honest with how she hates the world and people in it, splatter murdering, getting you to think about nature versus nurture, and necrophilia, the Sweetpea series would be for you.
Really loved the concept and the humor (although a couple times it felt a bit much). This is more of a serial killer's diary and so.. I guess that's the reason it doesn't really have a plot or ending?? I'm not sure if I'm continuing on, it was a fun read but I do like more of a storyline.
'Sweetpea' caught me by surprise, partly because the publisher's summary left me with the impression that I was going to read something light. clever and playfully dark and partly because I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it before.
This is a book that's brave enough to be truly dark without being even slightly exploitative. The story, told in the first person, feels brutally, invasively honest. It's an unedited, unashamed, raw feed from a woman who is unhappy, lonely angry and who needs to sate her desire to kill on a regular basis.
The main character, Rhiannon, is not a Hannibal Lector, taking decadent delight in his own cleverness at killing or a Dexter Morgan, following a moral code to constrain his 'dark passenger'. She's broken. She knows she's broken. She knows it's not her fault and she lives with it. Which means she does her best to fake being normal and to tamp down her anger and she only kills a tiny fraction of the people that she puts on her daily kill list.
I started 'Sweetpea' expecting a black comedy and there were things in it that made me laugh. Until I started to understand that what I thought was deadpan delivery was the unvarnished truth.
In the beginning, I found myself empathising with Rhiannon's situation and some of her reactions. She's an introvert who knows that her low need for social inclusion will mark her as odd so she fills the space where friends should be with PICSOs (People I Can't Scrape Off) a group of women whose self-obsession, vulgarity, habitual hedonism and absence of any thought beyond booze, boys and babies is a social rash Rhiannon constantly wants to scratch. . She's in a job which she'd like to excel at but where her contribution is undervalued and where she sees her colleagues as a collection of faults and irritations. Her relationship with her partner is part habit, part inertia and part camouflage.
I'm an introvert myself and I initially saw Rhiannon as an introvert suffering from having to live in an extrovert's world and pretend to like it. I enjoyed some of her caustic descriptions of her frustrations and what she'd like to do to the people who cause them. Except I don't feel the need for protective camouflage and I began to wonder why Rhiannon was so keen not to draw attention to the things that made her different, that made her her.
By the time I finally understood the reality of what Rhiannon does and how it makes her feel, I felt somehow complicit with her choices. I couldn't muster any moral outrage. Nor could I really cheer in support of her actions. I knew her better than I would ever have wanted to and I couldn't hate her. I knew she was damaged. I knew how the damage had happened and when. I knew that she could never be normal and that she was at least trying to show some restraint.
As the violence escalated and the body count mounted, the author added a new element: hope that everything might work out, that Rhiannon could be, if not normal, then at least less driven by rage.
But, by then, too many things were in motion that couldn't be stopped. There was too much blood under the bridge and I couldn't see a way out.
The plot was clever and intense, just like Rhiannon. I found the ending, which was open-ended without being a cliffhanger, strangely satisfying because it allowed me to sustain my ambivalence about Rhiannon.
'Sweetpea' was an extraordinary reading experience made even more intense by Georgia Maguire's excellent narration. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
This book is the third in a series and I would advise readers to read the earlier instalments first. It describes Rhiannon' the serial killer's escape from justice having fully admitted her many crimes, and the adventures that follow. Although, in comparison to the earlier books I found the pace a bit slower at the start, and a storyline that leans more to a thriller than a comedy, I considered this book well worth the effort. The author has left the story of her main character open enough for a further book, which I will read should it appear, while still reaching a satisfying ending.
Zoe is brilliant, secretive and a little scary, but Camille can't wait to see her new boy Zoe is creating frankenstein style. However when Zoe turns up with ideal body parts and people they know suddenly become missing or dead, Camille is left wondering just how far Zoe will go for her creation.
Dead Romantic is a stupidly fun story that goes to the heart of what true friendship means, demonstrating that the formula for love is hardly straightforward and that sometimes life can surprise you. An entertaining story that is humorous, cringe-worthy, mysterious, romantic and of course full of dead bodies.
A thriller with a sprinkling of comedy and romance, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable read.
It's always difficult to review a book without giving away more than the blurb does. We know that Joanne Haynes is the Alibi Girl of the title. We know that's not her real name and that she also makes up lots of other personas: novelist, doctor, mother. What we don't know when the story begins is why. Why can't she be her real self?
This is such a rollercoaster of a read. I loved Joanne. She's full of dry wit and feistiness and yet underneath it all is a vulnerable little girl who just wants her life back. The author led me through Joanne's life now, with tantalising glimpses at her past, slowly drip-feeding me facts to make up the whole story of what Joanne has been through. I was heartbroken for her at times.
I loved the unusual storyline, the constant ups and downs and the fact that it made me laugh out loud, yet also provided a very moving narrative. I'm even more keen now to read the author's earlier books. I didn't want to put this one down. It completely enthralled me.
Absolutely loved this as an audio book
I found it to be well narrated
The plot and content were good and hilarious
SweetPea by C.J Skuse is something all in its own category, witty, black and hilarious while also being a horrifying look into a sociopathic mind.
The thing is the way sweetpea is written you can actually imagine the thoughts pinging around in her abnormal brain and they are the wisps of things that we all think off but grit our teeth and bear.
it's all so normal and every day and done with not one ounce of remorse and them KILL LISTS!!! priceless.
bet we have all wanted to murder the person having a ten-minute convo with the cashier in Lidl when we are running late for work.
The only difference with Rhee is she quite happily would and have a nice cuppa and biccy afterwards.
The PICSO'S loved this laughed my head off People I Can't Shake Off
bet we all have a few of them.
Watching Rhee's life spiral out of control was immensely fascinating, the fact that no one even noticed or suspected this angelic-faced little killer shows what little attention we pay to each other.
I was riveted to this story from the opening lines and till that final closing curtain.
An amazing piece of fiction which I loved bravo.
I received a free e-copy of sweetpea from NetGalley and this is my own honest opinion.
https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
SweetPea by C.J Skuse is something all in its own category, witty, black and hilarious while also being a horrifying look into a sociopathic mind.
The thing is the way sweetpea is written you can actually imagine the thoughts pinging around in her abnormal brain and they are the wisps of things that we all think off but grit our teeth and bear.
it's all so normal and every day and done with not one ounce of remorse and them KILL LISTS!!! priceless.
bet we have all wanted to murder the person having a ten-minute convo with the cashier in Lidl when we are running late for work.
The only difference with Rhee is she quite happily would and have a nice cuppa and biccy afterwards.
The PICSO'S loved this laughed my head off People I Can't Shake Off
bet we all have a few of them.
Watching Rhee's life spiral out of control was immensely fascinating, the fact that no one even noticed or suspected this angelic-faced little killer shows what little attention we pay to each other.
I was riveted to this story from the opening lines and till that final closing curtain.
An amazing piece of fiction which I loved bravo.
I received a free e-copy of sweetpea from NetGalley and this is my own honest opinion.
https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
I think that sums up [b:Rockaholic] well..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m going to marry Jackson Gatlin one day.”
Just take a few seconds to really reflect on that sentence. Done? Okay..
Now, I don't know about you, but I personally am not a fan of people claiming to be 'In Love' with people they've never met. I agree that people can have crushes.. I'm not a stranger to fangirling over certain musicians or actors..
Oh, hey there Ian ♥
But I draw a line at claiming you're 'In Love' with them.. Because let's face it, that's just going too far and there's nothing healthy about becoming obsessed the way the protagonist, Jody, of [b:Rockoholic|13482839|Rockoholic|C.J. Skuse|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329106913s/13482839.jpg|14525101] was about her favourite singer.
Because boy was she obsessed..
She actually went as far as to accidentally kidnap him..
I'm not kidding. She accidentally kidnapped Jackson. With a Curly Wurly none the less.
A. CURLY. WURLY.
Just saying.. That wasn't super believable, but whatever.. I could deal with that.
What I could not however deal with, was the fact that this Jody was very, very shallow. I'm not kidding. Based on the way her best friend Mac dressed, she assumed he was gay.
Sadly, I am not kidding..
Mac, the bestfriend and alleged 'gay' was the best thing that happened in this book. I utterly adored his character. He was witty, caring and just downright amazing!
But obviously, Jody being the idiot she was didn't seem to realise how frikin' amazeballs this guy was..
Sigh..
--MORE TO COME--
Over & Out, T xx
I think that sums up [b:Rockaholic] well..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m going to marry Jackson Gatlin one day.”
Just take a few seconds to really reflect on that sentence. Done? Okay..
Now, I don't know about you, but I personally am not a fan of people claiming to be 'In Love' with people they've never met. I agree that people can have crushes.. I'm not a stranger to fangirling over certain musicians or actors..
Oh, hey there Ian ♥
But I draw a line at claiming you're 'In Love' with them.. Because let's face it, that's just going too far and there's nothing healthy about becoming obsessed the way the protagonist, Jody, of [b:Rockoholic|13482839|Rockoholic|C.J. Skuse|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329106913s/13482839.jpg|14525101] was about her favourite singer.
Because boy was she obsessed..
She actually went as far as to accidentally kidnap him..
I'm not kidding. She accidentally kidnapped Jackson. With a Curly Wurly none the less.
A. CURLY. WURLY.
Just saying.. That wasn't super believable, but whatever.. I could deal with that.
What I could not however deal with, was the fact that this Jody was very, very shallow. I'm not kidding. Based on the way her best friend Mac dressed, she assumed he was gay.
Sadly, I am not kidding..
Mac, the bestfriend and alleged 'gay' was the best thing that happened in this book. I utterly adored his character. He was witty, caring and just downright amazing!
But obviously, Jody being the idiot she was didn't seem to realise how frikin' amazeballs this guy was..
Sigh..
--MORE TO COME--
Over & Out, T xx
My first thought about this book is how gripping the plot was. I really struggled to put this book down because I was enjoying it so much (honestly I only put it down when I had to do something else). It constantly gave me the feeling that there was ‘something coming’, which made me want to read on to find out what the ‘something’ was. At the end of each chapter, there was a question being asked to Ella, what made them more intriguing was the fact that you don’t know who is asking the questions, this really added to the book.
One of my favourite things about this book was the way all the characters re-bonded. It didn’t feel forced or fake, and it was good to see how they could all get on even though they’d grown up a bit, meaning they’d matured. This leads to the only bit of criticism I have for the book, was that Zane’s re-connection didn’t feel like it fit properly. There were no scenes of him having a friendly, genuine discussion before the one of him and Ella on ‘the hill’.
I loved the way the character diversity made the story more interesting., the five of them make a good friendship group despite them all being quite different. This could especially apply to one of the Characters, Fallon, who lives on a farm and therefore has a bit of a different lifestyle to the others. The story was set in a small seaside town – the perfect place to put a group of people who all have secrets, Ella’s being the biggest and most shocking to everyone.
The story starts off with a small list of the people who Rhiannon wants to kill and why she wants to kill them. Each chapter has this list in the beginning, and I found it to be quite funny. The people on this "kill list" and her reasons behind putting them on the list are actually quite normal in the sense that all of those things also annoy me very much - just not to the extent that I would kill them for it. Right off the bat, we are introduced to Rhiannon who is a sarcastic and twisted character. She's quite funny and her diary entries (which is the point of view for the entire story) is quite interesting because she literally just says everything that is on her mind. Now, I don't mind the idea of having the story told from her perspective but the diary style didn't really work for me; it made the whole novel more of a comedy, when I was looking for something a bit more scary. I also got quite tired of Rhiannon complaining constantly about the same thing. I mean, really, if you have a problem and you are a psycho killer, why not do something about it? Most of the novel was just her complaining and it really started to annoy me after a while. I just wanted to get to the good plot bits! And while the plot was interesting, I had to get through a lot of mundane things. This novel is about 470 pages .... but it could have been shortened by about 200 pages. There's a lot of bad language and explicit scenes so consider yourself warned; if you don't like reading about blood and torture and murder and gore, then stay away from this novel! Overall, I thought that the author created a very sarcastic and darkly humorous character and the story had a really interesting plot. However, it dragged on a bit too much at times and it was hard to stay interested for the entire length of the novel. For those reasons, I'm giving it a 2.5/5 stars, rounded to 3.
For more reviews, visit: www.veereading.wordpress.com
Anyone who is a bit of a prude or shrinking violet should keep well away from this book, but for everyone else be prepared for a fantastic read and I certainly couldn't put it down! Here we have Rhiannon, a mouse by day and a terror at night who only wants to be happy. What a great story, filled with people we have all come across and who hasn't felt the same as Rhiannon in the supermarket and elsewhere with so many inconsiderate people around. Lots of laugh aloud, close your eyes and ouch moments - so irreverent and un PC, a real breath of fresh air. To call this gripping would be an absolute understatement, so if you can cope with swearing, violence and lots of comedy, then read this and you won't be disappointed - I wasn't and it is definitely my favourite book of the year so far!
A mythical beast that supposedly roams the land outside of an English boarding school, the mother of all snowstorms and the claustrophobic hysteria worthy of The Shining. This is Monster by CJ Skuse.
Natasha, or Nash as she's known by her friends, is attending the highly acclaimed Bathory Boarding School. Nash is competing to be Head Girl, no easy feat when you consider the competition that surrounds her - conniving, ego-centric girls that will high five you with one hand and stab you in the back with a compass with the other.
Then there's Maggie, Nash's only real friend at Bathory. Maggie has issues, in that she appears to be desperate to leave Bathory under any means necessary. This includes violating every rule possible, resulting in the girls having all of their internet and mobile phone privileges removed by the school's Matron.
Nash has bigger fish to fry, though. Her brother, Seb, has gone missing on a trip to South America, the only contact she has with her parents is on a shoddy pay phone in the school's reception area. Added to this, she's convinced she saw something in the woods one evening after her school netball game. Something big, something with yellow eyes. Her instincts tell her it's nothing, a trick of her imagination, but there's also a part of her brain that tells her it could be the fabled "Beast of Bathory," a gigantic cat-like creature that prowls the area, feeding on unsuspecting tourists and students.
Nash's only reprieve in the mundane life of a Bathory girl is to travel into the local village to pick up supplies for the Matron. This means she gets to talk to the boy who works in one of the shops, Charlie. Nash is smitten with Charlie and his mysterious good looks, something that's not lost on Maggie and the other girls.
With Christmas approaching, most of the girls leave for home, but not Nash, she's stuck at Bathory because her parents are in South America desperately searching for Seb. Staying behind is her friend Maggie and a small handful of other girls whose parents have yet to arrive to pick them up.
Then, it happens. The snowstorm of the century. Now, I'm from Eastern Canada, and I couldn't help feeling that a lot of these girls' problems could be fixed with a Craftsman snowblower and a little elbow grease, but this England we're talking about here. I've lived in the UK for a few years and have seen bus services shut down after less snow to fill an ice cream cone. So when it snows heavily in this story, I'm sympathetic to the fact that there's literally no way anyone can get in or out of Bathory.
Things go from bad to worse when one of the girls goes missing, the Matron organizes a search party and things get even worse. Think The Shining mixed with The Hound of the Baskervilles and you'll get the idea. No internet, no cell phones, the power is going on and off, people are going missing, it's a glorious mess that will make you happy to be in the warm confines of your bed as you read it.
I'm excited for the release of this novel because I know the teens at my school are going to eat it up. Skuse creates a feeling of claustrophobia and tension that is ratcheted up a notch every chapter. You know things are going to go horribly wrong for the characters yet you can't stop reading, a sign of a great book.
This is book about a girl who is so obsessed with a rock star that she kidnaps him. It was a very funny, touching book- the friendship of Jody and her best friend Mac is amazing, and while Jackson (the rock star) really got on my nerves,the book was really good.
When I read the concept for C.J. Skuse’s latest novel, Rockoholic, I couldn’t resist reading it after I stopped laughing. What teenager hasn’t crushed on a rock star or two or twenty? Ever wondered what would happen if you had that rock star all to yourself? Well read on because you’re about to find out in this hilarious novel. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4892.
To say Jody is impulsive would be an understatement. Not everyone would have the guts to start a food fight at their grandfather’s funeral because they are bored, or have the guts to kidnap a rockstar. Jody has no real recollection as to how Jackson Gatlin, the lead singer of the U.S. rock band The Regulators ended up in her garage, but she’s pretty sure she had something to do with it. It’s like a dream come true. Jody has been obsessed with the band — namely Jackson — for months, and to have him all to herself is something she never imagined would happen. Maybe now she can make Jackson fall head over heels in love with her just like she’d always planned. But, there’s trouble in paradise. Jackson isn’t the amazing guy Jody thought he would be. To make matters worse everyone is looking for Jackson, but Jackson doesn’t want to be found. Jody will have to enlist the help of her reliable best friend, Mac, to help get Jackson back to his band before all hell breaks loose.
When I picked up this book, I expected something light and fluffy. I didn’t expect to laugh out loud as often as I did. In all honesty, Jody is a bit of a pain in the ass, and if she was my child, I would probably ship her off to a convent, but her shenanigans made for an entertaining read. I really liked her theatre-loving, showtunes obsessed, best friend Mac. He was the voice of reason and did his best to keep Jody grounded. I think if he hadn’t been present I would have gotten sick of Jody.
Then there’s Jackson. In the beginning I didn’t care much for him. He was kind of what you’d expect from an international celebrity — a bit of a jerk, and not quite the same person he appears to be from his public stints. I mean who hasn’t dreamed of spending some quality one on one time with their celebrity crush? And we all have to admit that, even though it’s not a pleasant thought, they’re probably a lot more demanding and a lot less appealing once they step out of your fantasy and into reality.
The book moved well, and I felt the author captured Jody’s voice perfectly. The plot moved at a descent pace, though I felt it was a little slow in the beginning. About a quarter of the way through it really picked up. While there isn’t a lot to the story, it is entertaining, and like I said earlier, Mac saved it all for me. His little sister, Cree is also a keeper.
If you’re looking for a light-hearted contemporary with some good laughs, I would definitely recommend this one.
I picked up Rockaholic having heard a lot about it from my fellow UK Book Bloggers about how funny it was and at the time, that was just what I wanted! I have to admit I do hardly laugh at books, even when they are funny and I find it funny I don’t actually LOL I just have a little giggle inside! Well Rockaholic did make me LOL, not as much as I hoped as half way through things turned a bit more serious but at the beginning I was giggling quite a lot.
Rockaholic has quite a few different sides to it. For example at the beginning Rockaholic is a very light hearted read with a lot of funny moments in but as the book gets further in things begin to get a bit more serious in a few ways. I really enjoyed both sides of this book and felt they fitted well together, although I will say I do wish C.J. had included a bit more of her great humour further into the book when the book seemed to slow down. At some points it felt not much was really happening and I did feel certain chapters weren’t really ‘required.’
The plot is great, yes sometimes it’s very far retched and I wouldn’t recommend picking up this book if you can’t ‘let yourself go’ and see past that but it’s very imaginative. To me it felt like C.J. had this small little idea and things quickly grew from there. I loved this and felt it really added to the humour of this book. Amongst this the serious side of the story brought everything back ‘down to earth’ and while I felt the things which this book deals with are important I wished at times there was more funny parts further in.
The characters, especially Jody, are all great! They all added to the book in a special way and contributed to how things turned out. I liked how some of the things in the plot seemed to change the characters themselves, especially the rockstar, Jackson. Jody reminded me of myself sometimes and not just because we have the same name! I loved her ‘blondness’ it was just perfect for this book and her voice throughout the book made her a very strong and real character to me.
Overall Rockaholic is a great book which is both a light heart read which will have you laughing out loud to also dealing with more serious things and showing the consequence of certain things such as fame. I definitely recommend reading this, even if you weren't sure about Pretty Bad Things as Rockaholic is very different!
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