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Jaroslavas Melnikas – The Last Day | Review

Title: The Last Day

Author: Jaroslavas Melnikas

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 186

Rating 4/5

I don’t really know how to explain this one. I guess if I had to pigeonhole it, I’d call it literary fiction, but it’s also kind of like a set of short stories mixed together into one psychedelic whole. We start with a book that accurately predicts the day of people’s deaths, move on to disappearing rooms inside a family house and then eventually end up at a strange cinema that seems to have no staff.

It’s tough going and definitely not an easy read, but it’s also one of those books that compels you to keep on reading because you can’t wait to find out what happens next. And yet despite that, it’s not a plot heavy book. I don’t normally like this kind of stuff, but Melnikas nailed it. And of course, by reading this book, you’re also supporting Lithuanian literature and picking up a BBC Book of the Year award-winner, if you care about such things. Go and read it.

Click here to buy The Last Day.

Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Angel | Review

Title: Clockwork Angel

Author: Cassandra Clare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 496

Rating: 2.75*/5

Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Angel

I find it hard to pinpoint exactly what I didn’t like about this book. Perhaps it’s the fact that I disliked the majority of the characters (and that I also agreed with criticism I’ve heard before that Cassandra Clare just reuses her characters). Perhaps it’s because it’s supposed to be set in Victorian London but it still felt very American, with only the lightest description. I felt like I was being told that it was set in Victorian London, rather than being shown it. I think Clare was trying to tap into the steampunk trend with this one, but I don’t think she did it very well.

Perhaps it’s the fact that very little happens other than a big scene in the middle where there’s suddenly loads of action and then nothing again. Perhaps it’s the fact that as the reader, you’re supposed to give a damn about the “love story” between boring Tessa and dickhead Will. I just kind of hoped that one of them would die as I thought that might make it more interesting, but that didn’t happen.

I also got annoyed with the number of people smashing into rooms through windows. In the last Cassandra Clare book I read, it happened four or five times. It happened two or three times here, and it just irritated me. She had a few lines of dialogue attacking French people as well, which I’ve noticed in previous books. Nothing too serious I guess, just throwaway lines that imply that French people are all arrogant and that they’re all waiters, but it’s just not necessary.

Cassandra Clare

Ultimately, the previous Cassandra Clare books I’ve read have been like eating McDonald’s. They’re not fantastic, but they’ll do the job. This one was like eating cold McDonald’s after it’s been left on the side overnight. It made me wish that I’d just had a salad instead, it’s not worth the calories. In each of the books that I’ve read so far, I’ve felt as though it’s 100 pages longer than it needed to be. This one could have been cut down to a novella if all of the fluff was removed and we just got on with the story.

So as you can probably guess, I wasn’t too impressed with this one. In fact, the only reason I’ve got this far with Cassandra Clare’s books is that I’m buddy reading them with some YouTube friends. The problem is that the best of them so far have just been okay. With three okay books and one bad one, I’m just not sure if I want to keep going. I was hoping at least one of them would have been “good” by now. I’m going to have to have a think about it to decide whether I even want to keep going. It’s a big time commitment and I have other stuff to read.