Can a BAD BOOK ever be GOOD? "The Silent Land" by Graham Joyce [REVIEW]

I uploaded this video yesterday and would have also written this blog post if I hadn't been dashing out to go on a photography bender with my friend Jennifer. Don't know about the rest of the world but Edinburgh is fuh-reezing at the moment. Turns out, I'm also not a very good photographer!

Down by Western Harbour

Jennifer with her new toy

But I digress. What I wanted to quickly talk about is the weird and wonderful phenomenon of something being "so bad, it's good". 

This certainly isn't something new; in my video I mention the fascinating tale of Trolls 2, a film so bad that it has become a cult classic! You apparently don't even have to have seen the original Trolls film to appreciate the sequel as it has absolutely nothing to do with it. For more information, I recommend you watch Best Worst Movie, a documentary made by one of the original cast members.

I also mention that classic 2004 blockbuster, Sleepover. I have no idea how my sister and I ended up watching this piece of rubbish but watch it we did, over and over and over again. We even shared our experience with our friend Sofi and would have our own Sleepover sleepovers; sleepovers arranged with the sole purpose of watching Sleepover... good times. 

Just look at those ratings!

As far as books go, I've only experienced the "it's so bad it was good" phenomenon twice (that I can think of). The first was back in 2011 when I read Witch and Wizard by James Patterson (yeah, right). It was given to me by my grandmother after getting a free copy with some newspaper. I read it on a whim as there really was nothing about the synopsis that excited me. 

Most of the time, if I don't like a book, the rest of the reading experience becomes a chore and puts a serious damper on reading in general. That's why, when The Silent Land was picked for book club, I had my doubts. A quick read of the back of the book had potential, but there was a lingering fear that this book would be predictable. I mean, I challenge you to read the back and not guess correctly the "twist". 

The book is about a married couple celebrating ten happy years of marriage by taking a skiing holiday in France. Joyce doesn't mess about and has them swept up in an avalanche pretty near the beginning. After struggling free from the snow, the couple make their way back to their resort only to find that it is deserted, they have the whole place to themselves. Only issue, every time they try to leave, they somehow end up back in the resort...

You know what happened, right? Sure, let's make it sound all supernatural and eerie but... come on! 

Anyways, predictability aside, I managed to read this pretty quickly. Going by my usual measure of a bad book (it becoming a chore and sitting untouched for weeks on end) this wasn't ticking any of the boxes! I practically sped-read the whole thing, sometimes chuckling, sometimes laughing out loud in a hearty fashion. It was definitely what I would class as an easy-read. But it was also enjoyable because, despite the terrible writing, the at best weak plot and the truly ridiculous characters with their outrageous dialogue, I enjoyed this book. Doesn't make much sense until I remember films such as Sleepover and the cult classic Trolls 2. 

The meeting at book club was also a blast. We all agreed to different degrees on how awful the book was and then sat around reading out random passages. Maybe this has aided in creating this weird fondness I have for this book but for anyone outwith a book club in which to share the giggles, my recommendation for this book would come with a giant warning sticker. 

Overall, I would give this book a generous 2 out of 5 for style and execution but for sheer entertainment, this gets brought up to a 3!

If you would like your own copy of The Silent Land, simply CLICK HERE to be taken to its page on Book Depository. This is an affiliate link which means I get a small commission if you do end up buying it ^!^

January TBR

In case you were wondering, in the land of Booktubia, "TBR" stands for "To Be Read". It is, in essence, a reading "to do list", usually for whatever month we happen to be in (you will notice that this video is called "January TBR" because, after all, it is January). 

I've never done a traditional "TBR" video because, what with my general backlog of review videos, I just know that I will end up saying "I'll read this, this and this" and either read "that, that and something else" OR simply not finish any of them... and then the following month's TBR will end up being an embarrassing repeat of the previous month.

Ramble, ramble - point is, as much as I would love to be able to say with confidence "These are the books that I will read this month!", I just have to accept that I am not that type of reader... especially when I go ahead and take a bazillion months off and let the backlog of reviews pile up!

All four of these books were read in 2013. I know. Ridiculous. For some of them, I can hardly remember what actually happened in which case, I may possibly wind up winging the "review" or maybe have a sneak peak at Wiki before I start jotting down my thoughts. Regardless, it dawned on me that "TBR" could also stand for "To Be Reviewed". This is quite a happy coincidence as now there is no pressure to complete the book before the end of the month! Woohoo! 

Anyways, here is a handy list of the books I shall be REVIEWING in the month of January:

• The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
• The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil
• The Demon by Hubert Selby Jr.
• Little Children by Tom Perrotta

All bar Little Children were picked for the book club I was a part of back in 2013 and, not to give any spoilers, but Little Children was the only one that I actually enjoyed reading (I enjoyed reading The Silent Land but I'll get into that in more detail in my next post.).

As always, you can CLICK HERE to purchase any of these books and kindly give me a penny or two worth of commission :) 

Speak soon.  

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey [BOOK REVIEW]

If you would like to purchase your own copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, CLICK HERE to be taken to my affiliate's page on bookdepository.com!

This was yet another Book Club choice, only difference here was that I had (thankfully) already heard of this book and was relieved that someone had selected something that actually had some merit. No offence, but I was getting a little irritated having to plough my way through mediocre books.

Obviously, the Jack Nicholson film of the same name is based on this book and what with that being such a classic (being one of only three films ever to have been awarded the "Big Five" Academy Awards!), I've not only seen it but own a copy. If you haven't seen it yet, then go do so now! If you have, then it's basically the same in the book. 

That being said, I'd be lying if I said I was over-joyed at the choice. Sure, I was happy that we were getting to read a "modern classic" but I wasn't predicting that it would really add anything that the film hadn't already mastered on its own. In some ways, I was right but in others I was wrong.

Like I said, the story is almost identical - psychiatric hospital run under the tight control of Nurse Ratched (an apt name for such a bitch of a character) turned upside down after a new patient arrives, McMurphy. But I've always found the film to be slightly without depth if that makes any sense whatsoever. I suppose that is supposed to be the point with Jack Nicholson as the happy-go-lucky McMurphy bringing some form of emotion in this warped environment. The book, however, was a lot more entertaining and, despite the overall plot structure to be the same, Kesey's writing was a joy to read. 

I'm not going to get into all the fascinating questions of insanity and the perception of power in such a tiny blog post (mainly because I read this book a while ago and I can't remember most of what I thought!) but maybe one day, if I ever get a chance to look at this book under a microscope, I will return with super insightful observations and we can get a discussion going.

But here are the answers so some other very important questions: 

Would I recommend it? YES

Would I read it again? MAYBE 

Stars out of five? Solid FOUR 

But here, if you don't want to take my word for it, check out these interesting visual rating statistics:

Goodreads: overall 4.17 out of 5

Amazon:

Until next time, happy reading! ^!^

Here we go again...

I'm getting some serious déjà vu here. Didn't I once before come on here professing to never abandon this blog and my YouTube channel again? Well, looks as though my last blog post was to accompany my review of Life of Pi by Yann Martel... and it appears I completely ignored to write about my review of The Road to Jericho by Steven J. Carroll! 

And what about that time I took that beautiful copy of The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan and literally destroyed it? 

Whichever way you look at it, I've been a poor YouTuber, let alone Blogger! So why on earth should anyone believe me when I say that this time it will be different? 

Well... you'll just have to trust me ^!^