The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzie Lee (Book 2)

I am not a fan of big books and at 513 pages I was dreading starting this book. I was however surprised by how quickly I flew through this wonderful story. I picked it up in a book shop after hearing a lot of people on BookTube recommending it. The premise interested both my husband and I and we picked it up thinking it was a book we both could read and discuss. Normally our taste in books are very different so it was nice to find some common ground. I did not expect a YA historical fiction to be where our tastes met however I am glad it did.

This book follows Henry “Monty” Montague a rich gentlemen on his grand tour of Europe during the 1700. Monty, along with his best friend and love of his life Percy embark on what they expect to be the lads trip of the century. Monty’s Dad however puts a stop to this by putting rules in place that limit what the young rake can get up to. He also sends Monty’s sister Felicity along for the ride. What starts out as an cultural tour takes an unexpected turn and we end up going on an adventure with Monty, Percy and Felicity that takes us across 1700 Europe and explores the themes of sexuality, race, gender and abuse.

Monty is not the best protagonist. He is arrogant, entitled and selfish. Although Monty got on my nerves at times it is impossible not to fall in love with this character who learns from his many, many mistakes throughout the story. He is the quintessential lovable rake.  We end up with a very different Monty at the end of the book than the one we start with. Monty’s character has complex PTSD surrounding abuse he endured as a young adult. The more we learn about this the more we realize that the Monty’s bad behavior is rooted in more serious issues. Monty is also bisexual and this is refreshing to read in a novel set in the 1700. The reality is that Monty would have been most likely killed for his sexuality during that time however it is nice to fantasize about what life could have been like had circumstances been different. The story is told from Monty’s point of view and so the reader is really able to explore his attraction to different genders and it is great to see this being explored in detail in a young adult novel.

Although our main character is a privileged white dude the supporting characters do not fall into this category. Percy is a black man and the book explores various instances of racism that he endures. Percy also challenges Monty’s white privilege throughout the story. I don’t want to say to much about Percy as I don’t want to spoil the book however he is an interesting character who is going through a lot throughout this book. The second character who challenges Monty is his sister Felicity. She is incredibly smart and brave and I cant wait to read the squeal all about her adventures. Although there are not many female characters in this book the ones that are there are strong and well written. I would as every have enjoyed the book a little more had there been more female characters.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was a fast paced book that kept me want more. The characters are fleshed out and it is nice to see a YA book exploring some heavy themes. This book is funny and endearing and is the perfect read for if you fancy something relatively lighthearted and exciting. It also contains pirates which is never a bad thing. I give this book a solid 4 out 5 stars.

Autumn by Ali Smith (Book 1)

I have never read anything by Ali Smith which is surprising given how popular her books are. I went into this book completely blind not knowing what to expect other than the fact it had been given a mixture of 3-5 stars by many of my friends on Goodreads. A good sign. This book was a fast read and I enjoyed it although I don’t think it will be one of my favorites of the year.

This book opens with the line “It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times” which is a great opening and a nod to Dickens. This is just one of the many literary references within this book. This book is a book for book lovers. It has obvious reference to books such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Shakespeare’s The Tempest as well as more subtle nods to things like J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan and Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. All of these references are woven into the text in the most beautiful way. It is not crucial to the narrative that you are aware of these references. They are more just little Easter Eggs for book lovers. A lot of these references were lost on me and it wasn’t until I watched Jen Campbell’s review of the book on YouTube that I realized how genius this book really was. Upon a second reading of some of the sections they became a lot more obvious to me.

This book makes you think. It is not a passive read. The structure isn’t particular cohesive and can be hard to follow. It took me until around half way through the book to really settle into the flow of all of the different time lines that make up this story. The story is a mixture of poetry and dream like sequences mixed in with more realistic scenes. This mixture of linguistic styles actually makes the book a real page turner as you never know what is going to come next however can make the book hard to follow. The language is beautiful and this just about lets Ali Smith away with the chop and changing nature of the books style.

This books is hailed as the first Brexit novel being released back in 2016. Reading this in 2020, it still feels very current. I particularly enjoyed the poem that explores how people felt the morning after the referendum. It really resonated with me.

I loved the relationship between the two main protagonists of the book. The story follows Elizabeth, a women in her early 30s visiting her old neighbour Daniel who is dying in a care home. The books moves between their past and present taking us through the various seasons of their relationship. I found this part of the story touching and became really invested in both of the characters. For me this was the glue that held an otherwise incohesive book together. I particularly loved how Daniel would often ask a young Elizabeth “What are you reading” and I have taken to asking people this question. It is such a lovely way to get to know what people are into and to expand your knowledge of books.

All in all I enjoyed this book. Although there was some aspects that grated on me such as the incohesive nature if the narrative and I didn’t particularly enjoy the dreamlike sequences, this book proved to be a fast and enjoy able read. It is a great example of a small book containing a lot of bang for its buck. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that will get them thinking and it will defiantly be enjoyed if you are a book lover. I would give this book a solid 3 out of 5 stars.

 

 

2020 Reading challenge

It has been a long time since I last wrote a review of a book. I still love reading but I fell away from the act of writing reviews and instead just took to writing short reviews on Instagram. I have however recently rediscovered this blog and greatly enjoyed reading what I had thought of books I read back in 2016/2017. This year I have set myself the modest target of reading 25 books. This should be easily achievable and I expect I will exceed this over the course of the year. I have however set myself the challenge of only reading books written by women/ non binary folk this year. I have been doing this challenge since November 2019 and have read some fantastic books such as Girl, Women, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. I unfortunately will not be writing reviews of these books as at the moment I simply do not have the time to review every book I have read as part of my challenge. Maybe I will review them in a few months. I have defiantly not been short of quality reading material that’s for sure. Anyway I just wanted to make a post to say I am back and cant wait to share with you what I am reading in 2020!