THE RAVE by Nicky Black @AuthorBlackNE

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I read this review on Bloomin' Brilliant Books book blog.

Genre: Crime, 1980s, Rave Culture, North East England 

A fast moving crime drama sent around a grimy council estate in Newcastle, The Rave is very much of its place and time, in the decade before the internet and mobile phones when the world was a different place.  Or maybe not so much; kids still lied to their parents about what they were doing, did drugs, and girls still broke their mothers' hearts by falling in love with layabouts.  I smiled at Denise Morris's attitude towards her son-in-law Tommy Collins, just after she'd bought her granddaughter some new clothes: 'Denise knew it would rile Tommy, make him feel inadequate.  But he was inadequate, and someone needed to make that clear.'

The novel is written in alternating POVs.  The first is that of twenty-one-year-old husband and father Tommy, who fancies himself as having the vision that can get him out of dreary Valley Park estate way of life; not for him a life on the dole or a depressing, minimum wage job.  He's not unlikeable, and I found myself hoping that he would 'make it'.  The second is DI Peach, who has many crosses to bear (no spoilers here), and is gunning for Tommy and his gang.  Lurking in the shadows is Paul Smart, local crime kingpin and the brother of Tommy's mam-in-law Denise.  The story takes place over eight days, as Tommy looks for a way of making his dreams of hosting the ultimate rave a reality.

This book drew me in quickly, and very soon I couldn't put it down, even taking it with me when I was cooking dinner.  All the characters, even the minor ones, are beautifully drawn, and the dialogue and attitudes of the rougher side of Geordieland are totally convincing.  I also enjoyed the visiting Mancunian cop, Murphy, who was revoltingly sure of himself and quick with the witticisms.  I did find Valley Park and its inhabitants depressing in the extreme, but there is joy to be found, and this is an absolute must-read for anyone who was involved in this scene in the late 80s - particularly if you're from the Toon!

LUCKY STAR by Holly Curtis

3 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

Genre: 1980s nostalgia, coming of age

Set in 1984, this story opens with a group of schoolboys who go on a shoplifting trip to Guernsey, keen to get their hands on designer sports gear they crave.  Protagonist Ben is particularly desperate for a certain pair of trainers.  This is intermingled with him seeing the gorgeous Susie and falling instantly in love with her, all set to a backdrop of Madonna's Lucky Star.

What I liked:
1. It's nicely written, and flows well; it's an easy read.  The characterisation is very good, I thought, and the dialogue is, for the most part, realistic; natural.  I liked the usage of regional slang words like 'dinlo' and 'clump' (and the fact that the author didn't feel the need to explain them!).
2. There are elements that are very typical of kids of that age, and it's good to read about a time when young people didn't have their eyes permanently fixed on smartphone screens.  It certainly ticked a few nostalgia boxes.

What I was less sure about:
1. The basic premise.  I realise the kids who flogged the designer gear would have had money, but where did Ben and his friends get the cash to travel to Guernsey, get taxis, eat in cafés, buy beer, etc?  There was no indication of him asking his aunt for it.  I also don't buy that a group of daft 16 year olds suddenly became proficient at shoplifting from upmarket shops, where assistants know all the tricks.  I think it's a fun idea that needed a bit more thinking through.
2. I found the whole Susie-love-at-first-sight thing a little hackneyed, more like something you would see in a 1980s film, but the 'coming of age' genre has grown more sophisticated since then; also I felt the whole novel needed chopping down a bit.

So not really for me, but the fact that it's nicely written and the characterisation is good, and it has the nostalgia thing going on means it may appeal to those who like a light read about a time they remember, and enjoyed films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. 

BRAND NEW FRIEND by Kate Vane @K8Vane

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

The basic plot: Paolo is a BBC journalist, who gets a call from Mark, an old friend from university days, when they were fellow animal rights activists. Then a newspaper report exposes Mark as an undercover police officer, and his former 'handler' is murdered.  Paolo is wrenched away from his affluent life, with the house in Suffolk, successful wife and two children, back to his days at Leeds University, and the friends he knew at the time.  Who exposed Mark?  Who was really responsible for an on-campus fire back in the 1980s, in which a security officer died?  Paolo soon discovers that there is more going on than originally met his journalistic eye...

This book was a slow starter for me, but by about 20% I started to get more into it, and by half way through I was enjoying it a lot, and looking forward to getting back to it.  The story dots back and forth in equal measure between the murder case and Paolo's life back in what I assume to be around 1984; gradually, the two stories merge.  I found the murder/conspiracy plot and present day half of the book only moderately interesting, but loved the sections set in the old days ~ the desperate-to-be-hip-and-relevant characters and the atmosphere of the time were so real.  The wannabe cool guy Paolo, terminally bored Isabel, spiky, chip-on-her-shoulder Claire and determinedly zany 'Ratman' are so well drawn, as was their dismissal of football-and-a-pint boy Graham, the odd man out.  I loved how aspirational they all were, though over the years their aspirations changed ~ from the 'making a difference' cliché and being seen as authentic and academically inspired despite having been drunk/stoned/speeding/in bed with a stranger until 4 am the night before, to succeeding in the capitalist society they once claimed to despise.

What kept me reading was the astute observations, and the slow unfolding of the changing dynamic between the friends - I actually would have been happy with just this as a novel, with maybe just the security officer murder aspect; Ms Vane's understanding of her characters is good enough to carry a less sensational plot.  Only two aspects grated a tiny bit ~ in the 1980s Claire is meant to be a working class girl from Durham, but she talks like a middle class girl from the south; there is no trace of the North East in any of her dialogue.  Also, they all refer to 'uni' instead of 'university' ~ aside from the fact that it's ghastly, I am not sure people had started doing so in the early-mid 1980s.  I believe it originated from Aussie soap operas; the first time I heard it was around 1989.

To sum up, I'd give 3* to the 'main' story which, for me, had too many long conversations with people explaining to each other why things happened and how they found them out, but 4.5* with some 5* moments to the whole 1980s element ~ thus, I shall round up at 4*.   I didn't love it all but I liked it (some parts very much), and it's definitely worth a read.  Especially if you were a student in the 1980s, I should think.

AFRICAN WAYS AGAIN by Valerie Poore @vallypee

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I've read all or nearly all Val Poore's travel memoir books, and was looking forward to this one coming out, having adored its prequel, African Ways.

Genre: Travel Memoir: South Africa

Val Poore, the woman who can write a whole chapter about the weather, and make it interesting....

I adored the first African Ways book, about the three years in the early 1980s when Val and her family lived on a farm up a mountain in South Africa; in this she describes the time as possibly the happiest in her life, and the book reflects its magic.  Now, the family have moved down the mountain to the small town of Byrne, where they can enjoy such luxuries as electricity.  And snakes.  Don't forget the snakes.  There was me thinking how much I wanted to live there, until I read about them.

When Val's children go to school, she is faced, for the first time, with apartheid; segregation is still in place.  Aside from this, there are daily reminders about how hard life can be for the natives of South Africa at this time.  She doesn't write about it by way of 'raising awareness', or anything so ghastly, though; it's all very matter of fact, just her observations.  This book does not pretend to be a political or sociological comment, but maybe because it doesn't, it kind of is, in the best possible way.  I definitely got the feeling, though, of, as Val says, the calm before the storm of the early-mid 1980s.

Aside from this, I loved the reminders of the pre-internet life that has disappeared; her amazement at the wonder of fax machines, and the discovery of cheap LPs in her favourite shop (under 25s: ask your mum).  When I read about the mountain dwellers being cleared from the land, I felt so sad.  I feel nostalgic for that time on Val's behalf, and I've hardly even seen pictures of it.  One of the reasons I love her books is that it is so clear that she cares more about people, experiences, living in the moment and simple joys than materialism and conforming to society's 'norms'; there aren't many of us about, at our age!

I'd definitely recommend this book if you're a dog person; I am massively not, but there is much animal stuff that will make the lovers of our four-legged friends smile.

Val deals with upheavals in her personal life in that far away country with two small children to care for, but by 1987, what with the 'gathering storm' of racial and political unrest, she decides it is time to go back to the UK.  Can she return to 'normal' English life?  You'll have to read this, and all her other books, to find out!

BREAKING BONES by Robert White @robwhite247

3 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: It was submitted to Rosie Amber's Book Review Team , of which I am a member.

Genre: Crime Thriller/Gangster.


Blurb extract: 
Inseparable since childhood and feared by their community, Tony, Eddie and Frankie are beyond the reach of justice.  The brutal gang, The Three Dogs, are a law unto themselves. 

Detective Jim Hacker has watched The Dogs grow from thuggish youths to psychotic criminals. He seems to be the only one who wants to see their empire fall.  

Meanwhile Jamie Strange, a young Royal Marine, finds himself embroiled in the lives of The Three Dogs when his girlfriend, Laurie Holland, cuts off their engagement… to be with the most dangerous of The Dogs: Frankie Verdi. 

Jamie vows to save Laurie, before Frankie damns them both.

Robert White is a talented writer, and what I liked most about this book is its authenticity.  It is always clear when a writer truly knows the world and characters he has created; this is no chronicle of inner city crime attempted by a middle class scribe from the suburbs relying on research to produce a lucrative piece of gangster-lit.  The plot is interesting and the novel well structured; White understands the building of suspense and how to keep the reader turning the pages; the pace is perfect, the dialogue realistic, and the characters are all three-dimensional.  I was impressed that he can write convincing women, too.

So why only three stars?  Sadly, Mr White has been let down by his publisher.  The book does not appear to have been either edited or proofread with any kind of professionalism, experience, knowledge or care.  There are numerous punctuation errors on every single page (missing vocative commas is the most common error) as well as typos, spelling mistakes ('hand-full' instead of 'handful', for instance), and missed words.  Sometimes, the lack of punctuation actually changes the meaning of a sentence: 

"He was just asking Eddie," chipped in Tony.  

...which reads as though a third person was just asking Eddie something; in fact, Tony is telling Eddie that the person was 'just asking'.  Thus, the correct version:

"He was just asking, Eddie," chipped in Tony.  

As far as the editing is concerned, there are many instances of exposition, newspaper style reporting in the middle of a third person point of view, and unnecessary or perhaps slightly amateur sentences.  For instance: 'Frankie was the epitome of the Italian gangster caricature.  He hunched his narrow shoulders, tucked in his elbows, palms up.  "Like, y'know...Blondie...Boomtown.".  

Many editors may have removed the first sentence; it smacks of 'telling not showing' and is superfluous, as Robert White has depicted Frankie's gesture perfectly, without it.  Never mind the lack of spaces before and after the ellipses; they probably should have been commas or full stops, anyway.

In short, the lack of work on this novel turned the reading of it into something of a chore, rather than the enjoyable experience it should (and would) have been, otherwise.  A shame, indeed.

LEAVING THE BEACH by Mary Rowen

5 GOLD stars

Contemporary drama ~ psychological ~ music

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

I read Mary Rowen's other novel, Living By Ear, about a year ago and liked it very much indeed, but hadn't got round to reading this as I knew it centred round a woman's struggle with bulimia, not a subject in which I have much interest.  Then I decided to give it a go - and I'm so glad I did.  It's nothing like the serious, emotional drama I expected.  Yes, of course it centres around this eating disorder, but the story's about so much more; Erin Reardon's bulimia is only one element of her bizarre, chaotic life.  Whether it is a symptom or the cause of the all the problems, it may be up to the reader to decide (or maybe Mary Rowen knows best of all).

'A novel of obsession and music' ~ lots of music.  Great to read about the rock stars and songs of my younger days (and yes, I agree, Erin, Station to Station was totally Bowie's best album, and the title track one of his best five ever).  It's about college, loneliness, growing up and feeling fat, ugly, isolated and wanting to impress, sex, delusion and obsession.  Lots of obsession, too.  The younger Erin lives in a cloud of serious erotomania with an ever changing cast of targets: her friend Colin (who's engaged to her friend Suzanne), rock star Lenny Weir, Jim Morrisson, David Bowie ~ and don't forget Elvis Costello...  She tries to blot out her loneliness with music, alcohol, and the endless cycle of junk food bingeing and purging.

The books alternates between the past, starting in Erin's mid teens in 1978 then moving onto her college days, and later chapters that take place when she's aged 28-30.  Although the subject of the novel is no laughing matter, it's often funny, in a dark sort of way, and there are some brilliant side characters: her boss and casual sex partner Salon Don, ghastly college friend Toni, and her mixed up, lonely mother.  I loathe the word 'quirky', but it's the best one I can think of to describe it.  It reminds me a bit of Catcher in the Rye, a bit of Alex Garland's The Beach ... I haven't read anything quite like it before, it's very unusual, different, and fabulously well written ~ Mary Rowen has talent oozing from her fingers!

Life changes for Erin after Elvis Costello, and again when she hitches a lift with a man called Luke ... there's a brilliant twist near the end that I didn't guess at all, very skillfully done indeed.

Loved it :) 

ps: Mary, I've had 'TVC15' playing in my head ever since I read it....

Living By Ear by Mary Rowen reviewed HERE 

PUBLIC BATTLES, PRIVATE WARS by Laura Wilkinson

4.5 out of 5 stars

1980s Miners Strike Drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

Well, what a nice surprise this was!  It was in the reviewing list for Rosie Amber's Review Team, of which I am a part, and I failed to pick up on it, but then I read THIS review of it by another team member (sorry, can't find it on the blog so have taken it from Amazon!), and decided to buy it anyway.  Guess what?  Book blogs work!!  Read them!!  :)

This is so good, I read it in one day (yep, couldn't put it down!).  It's written in the first person narrative of Mandy Walker, a miner's wife during the strike of 1983-5, in a Yorkshire village.  Running through the real life/public events are the private wars of the title; the strain on family life that these events caused, coupled with love wrangles, painful memories and marital disharmony.

What I liked about this book: it's very well written, flows beautifully (probably goes without saying, as I read it in a day!).  The story is so realistic; I am the same age as the fictional Mandy (I was 24 in 1983, too), but my life was so different ~ middle class, in the south, with a husband and a small business rather than four kids.  The conflict was something we saw on television, something for which we put money in buckets, then went on with our lives.  This brought it all home to me ~ BUT (and it's a big 'but') it wasn't done so in a painfully laboured fashion.  It's written in such a way that I was aware of the north~south divide, the fact that they were a Yorkshire community, without everyone giving it 'ee-by-gum, he's worked down t'pit all his life, I'll take home a bottle of stout for the Mrs' every five minutes, like you see in some books that wish to be representative of a place and time, and neither did it cash in on the 1980s aspect with loads of references to the music and everyone wearing white high heels and padded shoulders (not that they would have done in a mining community anyway, perhaps).  The characters were great; Mandy was very believable and likeable, and others I thought particularly good were the dragon-like matriarch of the community, Ethel Braithwaite, and Dan, the soldier who'd returned from the Falklands, something of an enigma.  

I also liked the way the changing attitudes of the time were illustrated, especially when Mandy went down to London as part of her work with the wives' action group, and met people from areas of life she would not normally have done, had it not been for the strike.

I was a little disappointed that there was less drama than I'd have liked in the last twenty per cent, but that's only personal taste; the way in which it turned out was certainly realistic.  I'd have liked to see the 'main baddie' get more of a comeuppance (I hated this character from the start, but won't even give away the sex as I don't want to reveal the plot), but this isn't 'Dallas' and the person was so well drawn, too; it's good to have someone to hate in an emotional drama such as this!  Aside from the fact that I felt let down by one particular revelation and its outcome ~ oh, okay, and that it didn't end up quite as I wanted it to! ~ I'd have given it 5*, but it's a definite 4.5.

I'd totally recommend this book, it's a cracker.  I look forward to reading more by this author ~ and I mean that, it's not just a nice way of rounding off the review!

L A PUNK ROCKER by Brenda Perlin and others

4 out of 5 stars

Teenage memoir

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

The main part of this book is Brenda Perlin's memoir from her teenage years, when she was a rebellious middle class schoolgirl flirting with the punk scene of Hollywood.  It's no Sid and Nancy type story, which was what I was expecting; it's actually rather sweet, a memory of Brenda and her friends having a great time together seeing bands, meeting people like Billy Idol and Iggy Pop, and having arguments with her mum.   Brenda's punk experience seemed fairly innocent as she wisely stayed on the periphery, just dipping her toe into sex, drugs and rock and roll.  The affection she has for that time comes across very clearly.

I wasn't into punk; it started in 1976 in England, which was the year I left school (and I was a long hair and heavy rock type!), but in my very early 20s I hung around with a few people who were into that scene, so it was interesting to read about it from the golden hills of Hollywood as opposed to a grey English town.  If you have similar memories to Brenda you will enjoy reading about the bands she saw, the places she went - it's highly enviable!  I would have liked to hear more about Skid Row and the darker side of life at the time, but I imagine that the decision was made to keep the book fairly upbeat.  At the back there are some of her own photos of the bands she saw.

Also in the book are some other peoples' memories, plus an introduction and story about Billy Idol by the fabulous Mark Barry - which, I hear, Billy Idol has actually read!  This is certainly worth a read if you're on a punk nostalgia trip, and I imagine it's something Brenda will always treasure.

AFRICAN WAYS by Valerie Poore

5 GOLD STARS

Non Fiction, memoir, South Africa


On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

... I almost turned to the front and started reading it all over again once I'd finished it!

About Val Poore's three years of living on a remote moutain in Natal in the early 1980s, this book made me laugh out loud several times (the tennis club!) and provoked tears nearer the end. I've said in reviews of Ms Poore's books about her life on the waterways that she can make buying a bit of bathroom equipment interesting; here, she writes a brief chapter about the lighting of oil lamps and and it was so touching it made my eyes water.

The message this book gave to me is that, cliche though it is, it is the simple things in life that make you happy, the people and relationships that matter, and that sometimes by trying to make an almost perfect life even better you can actually spoil what you have (been there, done that). It's obvious to me that this was one of the most treasured periods of the author's life (if not THE most), and the emotion and love that pours into the book made me nostalgic for a place and time I've never experienced, too.

Included are fascinating insights into an unknown world ~ the ever present danger of 'veld' fires and how to cope with them, a world without electricity, a relaxed and self-sufficient way of life, weather casting via a mountain, a mixture of cultures and races so natural that it didn't need any self-consciously PC multi-cultural initiatives. Loved it - now I just want to see all the pictures, particularly of the little guide at Port St John called Sobriety!

Provided later by the author

If you have any interest at all in travel, Africa or a more simple way of life, please read this - worth every penny!


WATERY WAYS by Val Poore reviewed HERE

HARBOUR WAYS by Val Poore reviewed HERE