The Midnight Folk by John Masefield (Review)

The Midnight Folk by John Masefield

Blurb

Talking paintings and animals help Kay in his attempt to outwit the witches and locate his great-grandfather’s buried treasure.

Review

I have read the Kay Harker books in completely the wrong order but I am kind of glad I did. I absolutely love The Box of Delights and think it is a wonderful book filled with magic and fantastic characters. However, if I had read The Midnight Folk first I doubt I would have bothered to read The Box of Delights afterwards.

I really struggled with this book as it was just such a jumble of characters and plot lines. I understand that Masefield was going along the lines of a dreamlike structure but it just lacked the refinement of The Box of Delights. The Box of Delights had structure but this book had no structure that I could tell. This book also has no chapters so it is one long story with divides. The Box of Delights had chapters with relevant chapter headings and it really helped give structure to the story.

Kay is an orphan but we aren’t told why but it is clear that he hasn’t had an easy childhood so far. Yes he has a big house and a fab garden to run around in but his governess is not a nice woman and the maid Ellen who looks after him tells him terrifying tales which would give any child nightmares. What Kay needs is someone to love him and make him feel safe.

I will be honest I didn’t like Kay very much in this book. I found him rather annoying and not very loyal to his friends. He knew his friends were in danger but his attitude was very much ‘oh I can’t help otherwise I will be late for breakfast or tea, if you are still in trouble I will help you later’.

I really struggled with this book and almost gave up several times with it. I certainly wouldn’t inflict this book on a child or read it again which is a shame as The Box of Delights is so good. Overall, I give this book 2 Dragons out of 5.

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Purchase Links

Bookshop.org | Harper Collins | Waterstones | WH Smith

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About the author

John Masefield (1878-1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967.

Etsy

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Goodreads Monday: 4/2/2024

Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I only had a little bit of teaching today as school has been moved to Thursday for this week so we went to Hanbury Hall for a day out.

My chosen book to feature off my Goodreads TBR this week is a book I bought last year and I am quite excited about. I think this book will be a fascinating read and a different take on the history we know so well.

Here’s how the history of the Roman Empire usually goes…

We start with Romulus, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. From there, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally mentioning a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, until Constantine invents Christianity and then Attila the Hun comes and ruins everything. But the history of Rome and empire is so much more than these Important Things.

In this alternative history, Emma Southon traces the story of the Roman Empire through women: Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, martyrs and saints. Each gives a different perspective on women’s lives and how they changed, across time and across class lines.

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Weekly Brief

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend so far. I have had a lovely afternoon reading. I sat and read my book for an hour and a half with a big mug of tea and it was bliss!

Blog Posts

Currently Reading

World of Wonders is turning out to be a stunningly beautiful book! I have fallen a little bit behind with my reading challenge with The Shadow Rising but after today I have managed to catch up slightly.

Happy Reading!

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

February 2024 TBR

Hello!

I have decided that every month I will choose four books to try and read in the month. Out of the four books I had planned in January I actually managed to read two of them and I started another one yesterday. The one book I finished yesterday. I’m not great at sticking to a TBR list so I was quite pleased that I had actually managed to read two.

Three of these books have been sat on my TBR pile for way too long and one is a brand new book. I am still reading another book off my January TBR so once I have finished it I will hopefully move on to one of these books.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: W. H. Auden

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have managed some lovely reading today and finished a book!

My chosen poem this week is by the British-American poet Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973).

O Tell me the Truth About Love

Some say love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go round,
And some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth as the edges?
O tell me the truth about love. 

Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic on 
The Transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides. 

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.

I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't ever there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead, 
And Brighton's bracing air,
I don't know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
Or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love. 

When it comes, will it come without warning,
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love. 

W. H. Auden

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

January 2024 Wrap Up

Hello!

So my January wrap up will be somewhat short as I barely did any reading. I only managed to finish 2 books which is very strange for me and has made me somewhat annoyed!

This year I am trying to read more of my books that I have bought before this year so I will be listing new books bought this year and old books bought or received before 2024.

Statistics

Books

Pages: 400

Format Read: Hardback

Review

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Old Book

Pages: 448

Format Read: Paperback

Review

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲

Old Book

Challenge Updates

Goodreads Challenge: 2/50

24 Books in 2024 Read: 0

Old Books Read: 2

New Books Read: 0

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Mid Week Quote: Alice Hoffman

Hello

I hope everyone is having a good week so far.

My chosen quote this week is by the American novelist and young-adult and children’s writer Alice Hoffman (1952).

“Books may well be the only true magic.”
Alice Hoffman

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Network Effect by Martha Wells (Review)

Network Effect by Martha Wells

Blurb

It calls itself Murderbot, but only when no one can hear.

It worries about the fragile human crew who’ve grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they’re only a professional obligation, but when they’re captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

Review

Network Effect is the first full length novel in the Murderbot series and I am so happy! The novellas were good but way too short!

Murderbot finds itself with a crew again and finds itself caring and worrying about this crew. However, during an expedition Murderbot and Amena get kidnapped and end up on an enemy ship. This ship turns out to be an old friend of Murderbot’s, the first friend that Murderbot made a connection with. Murderbot decides action is required and all hell breaks loose when Murderbot takes drastic action.

There is a lot of action in this book and Murderbot is on fine form. What I also love is Murderbot coming to terms with some of the feelings it now has and trying to handle these feelings. In fact Murderbot makes quite a breakthrough in its self-understanding and what it wants from life. There are quite a few human characters in this story and one of my favourites has to be Amena. Amena has a special skill and that skill is getting through Murderbot’s protective shell.

I love this book because Murderbot often moans about the humans but it also realises that it loves to protect them and keep them safe. Murderbot might be a cyborg but I think it might be one of the most human characters I have ever read about. There was a lot of tech talk in this book that I didn’t really understand but that didn’t detract from the story for me. I loved this book and give it 5 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Foyles | Waterstones

About the author

Martha Wells has been a science fiction and fantasy author since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993. Her New York Times Bestselling series The Murderbot Diaries has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and an American Library Association/YALSA Alex Award. Her work also includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, and several other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023), as well as short fiction, non-fiction, and media tie-ins for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: The Gathering. Her work has also appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the British Science Fiction Association Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, and has been translated into twenty-four languages.

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 29/1/2024

Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

Hello and Happy Monday!

I must admit I am not very happy with my lack of reading in January, I can’t remember such a bad month reading wise and I’m not even in a reading slump. I just can’t find the time like I usually do.

I am really hoping my reading increases in February. One of the books I think I would like to read in February is this one.

From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction–a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted–no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape–she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.

“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.

Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy.

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Weekly Brief

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend so far. I yet again haven’t done much reading but I have caught up with quite a few jobs that needed doing. I have also kept up to date with book reviews so so far so good with one of my goals for this year.

Blog Posts

Currently Reading