Concentr8 - William Sutcliffe

You want to know how I got famous? This is how. 

Weren’t proper famous. Didn’t last more than a few days. Weren’t popular famous neither. I mean most famous is we-love-you famous or you-done-something-good famous- this was the opposite. For a few days me and Blaze was the official scumbags of the universe. But what I’m saying is - we ain’t. We ain’t and we weren’t. 

Taking a guy off the street and tying him to a radiator and keeping him sounds psycho but if you know me - if you knew my whole life what happened up to that day - you’d get it. I mean you probably still wouldn’t like me - so what that don’t mean nothing anyway - but you’d know I ain’t a nutter or evil or any of that other stuff what they said about me. 



I stand by the fact that I am incredibly lucky to have this blog. This novel is the yet to be released novel from Carnagie nominated author William Sutcliffe, and I’ve had an opportunity to read it. And let me just start off by telling you that this book is stunningly beautiful; but it’s beautiful in a way that you don’t expect it to be. I mean, in what way can five teens kidnapping a man and chaining him to a radiator be beautiful, I hear you ask. Well… let me tell you. 

The story of Concentr8 follows a lot of points of view, over the course of five days. It all however stems from the ever more present disorder known as ADHD. In this version of London that Sutcliffe has developed for the reader, Concentr8 was used to subdue a majority of the populous. However when we join the novel we are mid rioting and hysteria after the government decision to stop supplying this medication. This is where I feel the beauty of this story begins. We have this really cinematic moment of the five teens stood in a shopping centre watching a crowd of people looting, and it’s that moment where you can imagine a camera panning across faces, all slightly different. It has one of those very rare qualities where I found myself wanting it to be a BBC mini series, just so I could watch what was happening. 

Before we delve any deeper into this story, it only feels right to talk about our characters. There feels to be a very distinct hierarchy between the teens in the novel, although they all maintain they’re not a gang. Blaze feels very much like the leader of the group. He’s the instigator for the abduction essentially. He decides that they need to do something big, get peoples attention. And this is what he thinks will work. He comes across as very indifferent to a lot of things, always appearing very blank faced with no real expression and no real care as to what he’s doing. This changes toward the end as he realises the effect of his actions, but in the early stages of the novel it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly why he does what he does. There are also only a couple of chapters from his point of view, perhaps highlighting that we’re not really meant to understand Blaze as a character, which makes him feel rather like a real teenaged boy. 

After Blaze we have Troy. Troy is the one who opens and closes the novel. He’s Blaze’s ‘best friend’/right hand man and the only character who sticks by Blaze through it all. He is very much more open about he feels and definitely is one who looks at both sides of the argument, even being the one who communicates the most with the hostage. He appears to be aware of how the others all feel in the novel but is able to see beyond that to the greater good of what they are doing, despite knowing where they will all end up. 

Karen comes next in my mind. She’s the only girl of the group and is Blaze’s girlfriend. I feel like she’s used as a bit of a relief for Blaze. He’s so stressed and what not that they head up to the office frequently. They seem very close at the beginning of the novel, to the point of her egging him on to ‘get him’ (the hostage), but as the story progresses we see that she drifts further and further from him. She becomes more than happy to simply let him take what’s coming for him and try and get herself out of any major trouble that might come her way. She’s very loyal, until she’s likely to lose something from it. She’s also an object of Troy’s desires, although nothing comes of it. I would have liked to have seen the two of them together perhaps, maybe if she had thought Blaze to be worse for her earlier, if only to see a different side of Troy. 

Then at the bottom of this group are Lee and Femi, my personal favourite character. Lee is very much the sheep. He follows the group because he can’t think of anything better that he could be doing, getting himself into trouble and is often referred to as the thick one of the lot. He definitely does do some very stupid things which nearly hurt a lot of people, but then it’s easy to think that it’s stupid. I don’t personally suffer from ADHD so I don’t know how his mind works with regard to needing to release energy etc. 
Femi however is the character I relate to the most, hence why he’s my favourite. Femi is the only one who really comes to terms with what taking a hostage really means for their prospects. He knows that he’s wrong for being involved in the group and spends quite a lot of the novel trying to get out of the warehouse where they end up. There’s something about Femi’s gritty realistic attitude and how he talks about how upset his parents would be that really struck a chord with me and made me really feel for him. 

There are more characters than these that have points of view as well. There’s the mayor who bears a very funny resemblance to Boris Johnson in description, and has a very warped sense of what’s happening. There is a journalist trying to get the scoop for the newspaper about what is happening from inside of the warehouse, as well as uncovering some juicy gossip about Concentr8. In addition to both of these there is also comic relief in the unlikeliest of places; the negotiator, who seems very unhappy when people come to tell him how to do his job. 

But despite having to search through all of these characters for clues and information that might be useful, whilst trying to think about feelings and how they’re going to resolve this situation, there is a steady running theme throughout. These children have all been labelled with ADHD. All of them have been put into the system with medication which has been pulled away from them and they have been let down by the governmental system. It’s very microcosmic of our society and how we treat children with ADHD currently. So much so that at the end of each chapter there are snippets from educational essays and other resources into the effects of medication for ADHD and how ADHD affects children. It feels very well researched which makes this novel feel so realistic and so worrying. It is scary to think that eventually this may be a think we may have to face. 

Overall I loved this novel. Greatly. I’ll definitely be buying myself a physical copy because the cover is beautiful and I think it’ll be one that I recommend to lots of people. You can pick up your copy of Concentr8 on the 27th August (THIS THURSDAY!) and I definitely recommend that you do. 

Total pages - 324
Total read time - 4 hours 15 
Rating /10 - 8.5

Recommend - Yes. Definitely. 

Book Buying Ban is going well...

When I first started by blog I bought 3 books from my list and thought they’ll keep me going. And slowly I’ve accumulated more and more to the point where I have a pretty nice looking TBR pile on my desk. But when one’s on holiday, one accumulates books. I thought I was pretty good on this holiday in particular as I actually only paid for two of these myself. I have a friend who I was staying with a the time and she was having a clear out of all her old books. Three of which I just happened to want to read. So those jumped into my suitcase but then we went shopping when she stayed with me and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity of buying new books. These are what I picked up on my holiday. 

1. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell 

Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one half of a pair anymore. She wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fan fiction she writes where there’s romance far more intense than anything she’s experienced in real life. 
Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realising that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible. 

I’ve loved the premise of this book since it was released. There was just a lot of hype around it and I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to the expectation that you bought into. So when my friend said she had this book I jumped at the chance to read it. I know that Rowell’s work is well loved and I hope that I can add her to my list of favoured authors and continue to buy more of her books. I also really like the fact that the twins names when stitched together make Catherine. Just a little thing that made me smile when I saw it. 

Good reads readers have given this book a 4.2 out of 5 stars.

2. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lived going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high school stage. 

Now I love a good John Green book. I loved both Looking for Alaska and The Fault in our Stars but I’ve heard mixed things about this book. Really, I think my nervousness to read this comes from the fact that it’s written by two authors. Now I’ve never read any of David Levithan’s work, although I want to, and it seems like a strange way to go about writing a book, with two different people. I suppose however that it must work as neither of the characters are alike, supposedly. However for now it joins the pile to be read at some point in the future. 

Good reads readers gave this book a 3.9 out of 5 stars.

3. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in a hurried untidy scrawl: 
     they’ll shoot me I don’t care they’ll shoot me in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother. 
He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down the pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at the door. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four is the first of two books that are on my reading list that I bought. It’s one of those that people read for English class in sixth form and do coursework on, or they study it for exams sometimes. I’ve just always been intrigued by it’s story and I’ve always been a huge lover of dystopian fiction. The fact that it is also written before 1984, about what would be in place by 1984 is something quite interesting to read. This is what Orwell deemed the world would be like, but in fact we are getting closer to that kind of world now. I just feel like although this is literature, and fantasy, that it must have some element of underlying truth. 

Good reads readers gave this book a 4.1 out of 5 stars.

4. One Night, Markovitch - Aylet Gundar-Goshen

Two men - Yaacov Markovitch, perennially unlucky in love, and Zeev Feinberg, virile owner of a lustrous moustache - are crossing the sea to marry women they have never met. They will rescue them from a Europe on the brink of catastrophe, bring them to the Jewish homeland and go their separate ways. 
But when Markovitch is paired with the beautiful Bella he vows to make her love him at any cost, setting in motion events that will change their lives in the most unexpected and heartbreaking of ways. 

I came across this book not so long ago on the Waterstone’s website. It seems to be pretty hands down my kind of book. It has all sorts of romance but also a sense of intrigue and danger. It also sounds like both of these lead characters will be funny and/or at the very least likeable. I can’t wait to get started reading this, because other than the blurb, I’ve not heard much more about this novel. 

Good reads readers gave this book a 3.9 out of 5 stars

5. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler

Rosemary doesn’t talk very much, and about certain things she’s silent. She had a sister, Fern, her whirlwind other half, who vanished from her life in circumstances she wishes she could forget. And it’s been ten years since she last saw her beloved older brother Lowell. 
Now at college, Rosemary starts to see that she can’t go forward without going back, back to the time when, aged five, she was sent away from home to her grandparents and returned to find Fern gone. 

This is the second book from my book list that I picked up on my holiday. I wasn’t looking to buy a book when I was in Trafalgar Square, meaning to just look around the gallery’s and enjoy the feeling of being back in busy and bustling London. However there was actually a festival on so we decided to try and find somewhere a little bit quieter until we got our bearings. Waterstones was a good plan for us. It was in here my friend pointed out a particular youtube personality who I watch frequently, and so then it was very obvious that I had to buy a book just so I could talk to them. Following this encounter I was very giddy for the rest of the day which made up for the appalling opera we attended. 

But yes, this contemporary novel won the Pen/Falkner award for fiction in 2014 and I’ve heard many a good thing about it. Apparently it’s got a good twist half way through and it’s not actually all that long; about 370 ish pages. So I’m planning to speed through this one. 

Good reads readers gave this book a 3.8 out of 5 stars


So it’s safe to say that on top of this I’ve got a lot of reading to get done before the 21st of September when I start my university degree. 

What Milo Saw - Virginia Macgregor

Milo didn’t know why he missed the sound of the saucepan drawer that day. He must’ve been sleepy or maybe Gran was extra quiet, but by the time he felt the flutter in his chest which told him that Gran needed him, and by the time Hamlet was squealing his head off in the garage because he’d swallowed too much smoke, it was too late, the kitchen was on fire. 
“It’s not your responsibility to check on your gran,” said Mum.
She leant in and kissed Milo’s hair. She was always doing that: telling him off and then kissing him. She smelt of burnt things and sticky perfume and sleep. 

And yes... Hamlet is a pig

In honour of the release of the paperback version of What Milo Saw being available on August 13th, I was able to get a copy from NetGalley for review. And I am so lucky I got this opportunity. This novel follows 4 points of view, but mostly that of Milo, a nine year old boy with retinis pigmentosa, an incurable medical condition, causing near or complete blindness. For Milo, he can see through a pinhole which means that he has to focus really hard on things, and often notices different things to others. This becomes important when his great gran is taken into Forget Me Not, a nursing home which seems too good to be true. 

Other than Milo, we read from the perspective of his mother Sandy who is running a failing beauticians from the shed in their back garden. They’re starting to struggle with money, and Sandy is also struggling with her own weight, using diet pills frequently. Most of Sandy’s story focuses on the family breakdown after Milo’s dad left them for a new life in Abu Dhabi with his “tart”. 

We also hear from his great grandmother Lou, a ninety-two year old woman struggling with dementia. She is the one to set fire to the kitchen and is taken to Forget Me Not. There’s a very sweet relationship between her and Milo as she’s mute. She writes a lot of things down on her pad of paper and Milo talks to her. It’s a very interesting view to read from as often it’s things that Lou sees that help us to understand what Milo’s seeing. 

Finally we read from someone other than a member of Milo’s family. Tripi is the cook at Forget Me Not, which is how he befriend’s Milo. He’s a Syrian refugee seeking asylum so that he can earn money and pay for someone to find his sister whom he lost in Syria. His story is so heartfelt, and Milo’s urge to help him throughout this novel really is beautiful and it showsa very childlike ignorance to what’s happening in Syria. However that’s what really makes me love when Milo and Tripi are featured together because for Milo there’s no reason that a person should suffer and he makes it his job to help. 

All of the characters in this novel are beautifully well rounded. At times it can be said that Milo and Lou both feel like unreliable narrators as their ability to see things clearly and remember them are impaired. But despite that this novel is still a beautiful depiction of family getting through things together. It deals with things like unusual pets and funny things like that, but also juxtaposed are things like loss of a loved one and being young and being old and how the two sometimes feel like one in the same. 

This novel is beautiful. I can’t say it enough. I sat on the train home and cried whilst I finished it, and it’s worth reading all the way through if only for the stunning craftsmanship of the last line which ties together the whole story beautifully. It’s very much like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon or The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion in the style of the writing and the impaired lead character. The innocence of Milo is very similar to the characters represented with Asperger’s Syndrome in these two novels, both of which I would highly recommend.

Total pages - 400
Total read time - 3 hours (roughly)
Rating /10 - 8.5
Recommend - Yes 100%


Pick up a paperback copy of What Milo Saw on August 13th 

Soppy - Philippa Rice

This is my first graphic novel I’ve ever picked up and it was a bit of an impulse buy, if I do say so myself. I came across this little number in Urban Outfitters when I was wandering through the sales and saw it was down from £8 to £3. It was so unbelievable that even the cashier had to double check the price. I just wish I could get the sales stickers off of it. Philippa Rice is an artist who illustrates comics and lends her art to animations and models, and her art style only adds to the allure of this particular novel. 

Also how cute is this cover?

Rice’s graphic novel follows her relationship with her boyfriend Luke, also an illustrator. It shows that the things that matter most in relationships aren’t the big romantic gestures, but the little ones. It goes through their lives together from meeting, their first dates, to moving in together and their relationship now. It also doesn’t romanticise relationships; showing silly arguments and misunderstandings which are present in all relationships. But then again, it shows all of the small moments that you tend to throw away; they’re the ones that seem so small that they really can’t be of any significance in the grand scheme of it, but in the long run they’ll be the things you look back and remember if things do go tits up. 

The colour palette of red, black and white makes all of the events seamlessly flow and the general connotation of red is love; so it kind of makes sense. It’s also got some of the cutest dialogue  that I’ve ever seen and I can only hope that it’s been said. This includes conversations about milkshakes, pillows and even phone lock screens. I stand by what I tweeted a little while ago about this book. It’s very much relationship goals. It shows that no matter what, if you’re in love you can make it work. Everything will work itself out and you shouldn’t be overlooking the small things that someone might do for you. Because in the end those are the things that will help you out of arguments, or even just remind you of good times. Even if vanilla is the weak version of chocolate. 

Total pages - 112
Total read time - 10 minutes
Rating /10 - 7
Recommend - Yes. Definitely. 

The Beautifull Cassandra - Jane Austen

This is number 33 of the Penguin Little Black Classic books, featuring 6 short stories by Jane Austen. All of these stories come from Austen’s juvenilia, written around the time when she was 17 or 18. They are all parodying the stories that are shown to women as the right way to live their lives and they feature things that would not be expected of Austen’s characters nowadays. 

Jack and Alice - 15 minutes

This is a love story following a young girl’s first love and how things don’t always seem to go to plan when you fall in love. Alice falls in love with Charles Adams, only to discover that he has a list of things which he wants his future wife to have; "Youth, Beauty, Wit, Merit & Money”. Alice’s brother is entitled to inherit their family fortune which would leave her with money, the only thing she considers to not possess, and on his passing asks her father to contact Charles Adams to see if he will marry her. She’s rejected and from there things seem to get better for some characters and some, driven by love or the lack of it, are driven to some really dire circumstances. 

Austen’s characters in this story are much more unreserved than those in her later works. Alice for example is described as “dead drunk” through most of it, even to the point where after her rejection, “she flew to her bottle & it was soon forgot”. In fact most of the characters react irrationally to the situations, which could be explained by it being some of Austen’s earlier, juvenile, work. It does still however read like an Austen novel, with a lot of characters put together which can be difficult to remember.

Henry and Eliza - 10 minutes

This story also follows an unreserved woman in comparison to Austen’s later protagonists. Eliza is bought up by a wonderful family but when she turns 18, she steals £50. When the family find out she is cast out and left to live her life alone. She comes across an old friend and, on her kindness, she is acquainted with another rich family. She is taken in as one of their own and treated like a sister to the daughter of the couple who take her in. Within days she runs off with this girls husband before she is reunited with her family once more. 

It feels as though it should be a Hardy novella, instead of Austen (despite the time difference in writing), purely for the content in the story. It’s very family orientated and focuses on doing that which makes you happy over that which is deemed right. Sometimes it doesn’t end happily but in this case it does. It’s also another display of a woman doing what she wants with her life and making her own way, happily. 

The Beautifull Cassandra - 5 minutes

Cassandra’s misadventures in London after being given a bonnet, claiming to make her fortune. Presented in 12 chapters on 2 or 3 lines each. All of her actions are particularly unfeminine and unexpected of Austen’s protagonists

She relies on the reader’s prior knowledge of the literature during her period of writing. The description of Cassandra being “lovely & amiable & chancing to fall in love” is deemed to be a real pre requisite in literature of the era, but Austen is parodying that literature by readjusting the motifs to give them a new perspective. Her actions are typical of the actions of literature’s heroines, yet she chooses not to pay for pastries and she heads out on a coach, only to get it to turn around and return back. 

Some of the moments bought about in this small story are things which you can pick up in later Austen novels, like the idea of friends turning against one another and the closeness of family. 

Letter the Third; From A young Lady in distress’d Circumstances to her friend - 5 minutes

A young woman writes to her friend to discuss the events of an evening at a dance under the scrutiny of Mrs Greville. 

There’s a lot of focus in this story on the differences in social classes, and the upper class trying to diminish those beneath them. It’s also showing us another strong willed protagonist in Austen’s early work as Maria refuses to be hurt by the actions of Mrs Greville, which is admirable and it works in her favour when she’s invited for dinner at her home. It feels very much like reading an early version of Pride and Prejudice in the similarities between Elizabeth Bennett being told by Catherine de Bourg that she should come to tea, before being told over and over that it is important she knows how to play piano. 

From a Young Lady very much in love to her Friend - 10 minutes 

This is Henrietta’s letter to a friend discussing a man’s love for her, and his wish to marry her when she is finally able to manage her own estates. It’s very lyrical and poetic, letters within letters and gorgeous proclamations of love, to the point of being willing to die for it. 

It’s the only really romantic work in this collection by Austen and it features dialogue between characters which is beautifully poetic. Sometimes the meanings are lost but this feels like it also links well with Pride and Prejudice; the word ardently showing up a lot within the declarations of passionate love. 

A Letter from a Young Lady, whose feelings being too Strong for her Judgement led her into the commission of Errors which her Heart disapproved. - 2 minutes

This is a fun little jump back to the unnatural portraits of women in Austen’s juvenilia. This woman is a murder, having killed both her parents and wishing to kill her sister. She is however going to avoid being prosecuted by marrying Colonel Martin. 

It feels very different from Austen’s other work. It’s not full of decorative language and comes across as a rather masculine point of view through very harsh, blunt language. It feels like there is no remorse, which is what we are used to seeing from male characters in literature. The juxtaposition in the last two lines of the letter also make it feel strangely other worldly.

Total pages - 64 
Total read time - 47 minutes
Rating /10 - 5
Recommend - Yes for a commute or if you’ve got some time to kill

A Pair of Silk Stockings - Kate Chopin

This is number 66 of the Penguin Little Black Classic books, featuring 5 short stories by Kate Chopin. She was an author during the 1890’s and although she only published two novels, one over looked and one highly condemned, she wrote hundreds of short stories. Most of her stories, as seen below, are set in Louisiana aided by her knowledge of plantations. Her and her husband managed several small plantations in a parish where she learnt a lot about Creole culture which she implemented into her writing, as well as treatment of those who worked the land. Alongside this, she also focussed a lot on strong women and their struggles. Some people say that she is a forerunner in feminist writing whereas Elizabeth Fox-Genovese claims “Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist, she said so. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted women’s ability to be strong.” This is something that can be seen in all of the stories below. 

Désirée’s Baby - 10 minutes 

An adopted woman is thought to be white and is bought up on a cotton plantation in Louisiana. She has a baby and all is well. However the baby has darker skin and the woman’s husband assumes that it is her with African heritage. She denies this but he becomes cold and when she’s given the opportunity to go and live with her mother he demands that she goes immediately. However on her husband’s burning of her belongings it appears that it might not have been her at all. 

It’s a plot driven by ideas of slavery and racism, with the white characters being able to lay around comfortably all day whilst the black characters and working as slaves in plantations. There is a moment where it is explained that since the arrival of his child, the slave owner, her husband has become much more relaxed with his treatment and she describes how he laughs off one of the slave’s intention to get off of work with a sunburn. 

It is a simile ridden story, moving at a very fast pace with moments of joy and sadness for so few pages, but it’s very lyrical and easy to read. 

Miss Enders - 10 minutes

This story follows a woman carrying out a visit to one of her worker’s homes to see what she is producing and is faced with a small child who is also living there. The second woman claims that she is not the mother when in fact she is. Miss Enders doesn’t take too kindly to being told falsities, even if it means that it was easier for the other woman to be employed, and therefore calls for her to be removed from work. In the second chapter this other woman arrives at Miss Enders home and she believes that she has come to demand her job back. This isn’t the case and she takes a rather scathing attack to not only her father’s earnings but to her fiancee. 

It is very interesting to see two such different female characters pitted against one another. Miss Enders is born into wealth and knows that this wealth wasn’t bought about justly. However she is not condemned for the actions of her father. Whereas the second woman in the story tells a meagre lie to make it easier for her to get work, and is condemned by her employer to the point where she is not able to work for her anymore. It’s a story about corruption and the difference in actions between the strong and the weak. 

In addition to all of this, the dialogue presented is amazing. All of the individual dialects are written, so as you read it you’re able to pick up either where people are from or just have a little giggle as you try to work out how to read it yourself. It’s a really good way to give characters dimension in such a short story. 

The Story of an Hour - 5 minutes

In this story Mrs Mallard is presented with the news of her husband’s death after an accident at the railway. She is instantly sad and consoled by her sister before locking herself away. It is in her room alone she begins to think about how a life without him would give her much more freedom and grow and be the woman she wants to be. She is all but ready to start her journey when her husband appears at the door. 

It is another story presented about a strong female lead character, deciding that it is right for her to move on and live her own life as she wishes, whilst everyone considers that she should be devastated with her husband’s passing. She simply thinks of herself as ‘free’ from oppression and this theme carries through the entire story. 

If anything it makes the story beautifully funny and ironic towards the end. All of the language is expressing the feeling of being your own person and living for yourself as no one can live your life for you. It definitely made me think about my own life and mortality and how you have to make the most of a bad situation. 

Nég Créol - 10 minutes

A black man with no real home or background works at a market for bits of food and scraps of material instead of money. He takes these back to an old Irish Catholic lady who’s very ill and he listens to her complain about all of her ailments. She passes away and he refuses to acknowledge that he knows her. He also refuses to attend her funeral, and choses to continue to work. 

It’s another really easy read dealing with issues such as different cultures and religious beliefs. It’s almost a story that just shouts about having compassion for all in all circumstances. The old lady is ill and he is her companion, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Yet when it comes to her death and attending the funeral he acts as if he never cared at all for her. It’s a bit of a look into the human psyche and how after death of someone we’re close to, we tend to shut down. 

A Pair of Silk Stockings - 10 mins

Mrs Sommers comes into $15 and has every good intention to spend it on her children and their need for repairs in their clothing and new shoes. She goes into town and becomes frustrated, heading to the counter, before she sees a basket of silk stockings. She finds a pair in size and immediately buys them. She continues to buy more things for herself and as she experiences living for herself, she begins to dread heading home. 

This story focusses on one woman caught between her conflicting roles of being a mother and a wife, and being a woman in the community. It describes the feeling of not wanting to lose your own identity because you become a mother and a wife. There should still be freedom to have what you want out of your own life. There’s an ambiguity in the ending as to whether she stays with her husband and her family or whether she pursues her own dreams and becomes a woman with all of these beautiful items of clothing and who goes to see theatre shows with other well dressed women.

It also suggests that perhaps this story is a metaphor for the lives of all women who have this choice to make, or is it perhaps a story highlighting the fact that it shouldn’t have to be a choice? Women should be free to do both; be a mother and have time for herself. 

Total pages - 56 
Total read time - 45 minutes
Rating /10 - 5.5

Recommend - Yes for a commute or if you’ve got some time to kill

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters



I’m counting this as my first real ‘classic’ novel. It’s one of those that, like Gatsby, more often than not people read through this book at school. I didn’t get a chance to read this so I decided that, as I’m a little older and wiser now, it was time to give it a shot. And just in case anyone is asking; yes I was scared. 

I was scared for a multitude of reasons. Pride and Prejudice is one of those great novels that everyone talks about being one of their favourite classical books, and there is so much discussion about Mr Darcy being the most romantic man in the literary world. I was scared that I wasn’t going to be able to appreciate the story. Or that I was going to dislike the characters. Or I wouldn’t be able to understand the writing style. Before I get into any of this in depth I feel I should just give a quick synopsis for those who haven’t read this novel yet. 

The Bennet family have 5 daughters. This means that once their father dies, they lose the house they are living in; so there is a bit of a mad rush to get their daughters married. Enter Mr Bingley, the new owner of Netherfield Park, and his closest friend Mr Darcy. There is a ball held at Netherfield and we see an immediate attraction between Mr Bingley and the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, and the whole family get incredibly excited about the prospect of Jane marrying Bingley. At the same time we find out that Mr Darcy is a little more reserved in his actions at social events which leads to Elizabeth, the second oldest Bennet daughter, to think him obnoxious and arrogant. From this point on Bingley and Jane seem to get closer before he leaves for the winter and there are rumours that he won’t return, and Mr Darcy appears to become more attracted to Elizabeth’s charm and intelligence. Insert an elopement, rejection and lots of talk about how to be accomplished and there you go...

So the first thing I want to cover really is the language. I found that I didn’t struggle half as much as I thought I would when reading it. There are a few parts where there are long letters or just really long discussions being had where I tended to lose track of who was talking, or what they were even talking about. But actually understanding the events, I didn’t have that much of an issue. At least until the very end when I had to reread a page or two just to make sure that I hadn’t missed one big romantic gesture. I also found that dialogue was a little tricky as it wasn’t always specifying who spoke to whom. I do know what people are saying when they refer to this as beautifully written. A lot of the prose is quite fast paced but the descriptions of Permberly and the dialogue towards the end of the novel especially, that’s where the beauty of the language can really be found. 

Now I want to cast an unpopular opinion… I don’t like Darcy. I thought I would. He’s kind of my literary and film type. But I just feel like people who claim that Darcy is a pure romantic and quote “you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” without having really read into his character. For a lot of the novel he is incredibly cold toward Elizabeth. He is rude and arrogant and would rather sit reading than engage in conversations which makes him seem a little egotistical. Yes by the end he has redeemed himself for his misdeeds to Elizabeth but even her family question if she will actually be happy with him as she hated him so much. And that quote. That quote I see pasted everywhere as the most amazing declaration of love. It comes pretty much out of no where with no real context to it. If I’d known throughout that chapter that he really did love her, then perhaps yes I could accept it. But by this point in the novel it only appears that he admires her intelligence. Oh… and no one told me it was followed by a rejection. Darcy grows on me as a character throughout, but I don’t think he’s this great romantic hero that everyone claims him to be. Plus there’s no walking out of the river scene in the book. 

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The other characters in this novel I think are really well written. Everyone seems to have their own goals which they strive for throughout. Elizabeth is very headstrong and she knows that it isn’t right to accept her first proposal because she doesn’t love the man, and I think as a protagonist she’s a very well rounded one. Yes, she makes snap judgements, but then again, so do most human beings. I wish there were fewer characters if I were to be really picky, only because I tended to lose who people were from time to time, but other than that I really quite enjoyed following all of the different stories which filtered their way through. However, I wouldn’t get me started on Lady Catherine; another character who I disliked greatly, if only for that fact that the novel could’ve been shorter without her invitations to tea. 

I feel like the plot can be followed two ways. It’s either a journey to find love and marriage, or it’s about family and doing what’s right by your family. There are love stories throughout; Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, Lydia and Wickham, Mr and Mrs Bennet etc. But the greatest relationships to me are the ones between family. For example the closeness of Elizabeth and Jane or Lydia and Kitty, and the story of what happened between Darcy and Wickham when Darcy’s father passed away, and how Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam look after his younger sister. It can be read both ways with a great story at the end of it and a happy ending for most characters. 

This is definitely a good book to get you started reading classics. The language is pretty easy to follow with well rounded characters. Plus there are several adaptations to watch, if you find yourself a bit confused about what’s happening in the book. 

Total pages - 279
Total read time - 11 hours
Rating /10 - 7

Recommend - Maybe if you want to give them a go
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