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Title: Jealousy

Author: Marcel Proust

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 92

Rating: 4/5

This has been my first brush with Proust, and I can certainly see what the fuss is about. This is one of those books where the prose itself is more important than the stories it tells, and where every other paragraph contains some deep insight with the potential to change the way you look at the world. It wasn’t even particularly heavy going, despite the length of some of the paragraphs. Would recommend.

Here, the main themes are rock ‘n’ roll and religious leadership, as epitomised by the two main characters. What’s weird about that is that it ended up reminding me of Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, King’s son, because the main character in that had similarities to this one, at least at times.

Click here to buy Jealousy.

Ben Sanders – Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees | Review

Title: Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees

Author: Ben Sanders

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 280

Rating: 3.5*/5

Ben Sanders – Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees

I have mixed feelings about this book because there’s stuff to both like and dislike about it. Which I suppose is pretty standard for an indie book.

We have some of the common problems here like spelling/grammar mistakes dotted throughout and a non-standard layout (it’s not justified and there are blank spaces between every paragraph). But really, that’s about it. The only other thing that I’d flag is that for what’s essentially a sort of police procedural novel, there was only one real suspect and they turned out to be the culprit. And they could have stopped him way earlier by just putting a tail on him instead of waiting to get warrants and stuff. When the big reveal came, it was kind of an anticlimax. It was too easy.

But other than that, there’s a lot to enjoy. I liked the way that Sanders tapped into mythology and also how the ending of the book sets him up to write many more of them. And actually, for a debut novel, it’s pretty impressive. There are ways it could be improved, of course, but that’s true of almost everything. And what I will say is that the actual police procedural part of the story felt well-researched and authentic, even when it was mixed with the mythical elements.

And of course, I quite liked the bit with the jerky strips. I mean, sure, it was kind of gross, but I like that from time to time. Like The Silence of the Lambs.