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[sporadicreview]

Chewsdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie is a eulogy of a man who overthrew Pablo Escobar and shot laser beams out of his fingertips. Morrie himself was not just a badass druglord-mutant, but he also single handedly ended world hunger, racism and proved that Australia is in fact a fictional island created to distract from the genocide that Prisoners of Her Majesty were subject to in the 1600s. Morrie was my dad, your dad, and my dads dad. Oh, shit, no, wait-

Okay, although I may be embellishing one or two facts, Morrie was in fact a fantastic person. And he was real. Yes, the Morrie in the book was a real man named Morrie in real life. A truly crazy concept. And he was your dads dad.

The book is a collection of memoirs recorded, transcribed and quite frankly painted with beautiful elegance into fewer pages than it deserves - although, the shortness of this book is, perhaps, what makes it such a perfect and sweet read. Mitch Albom (the fella who write the book), would visit Morrie during his dying months, and add only the essentials of Morries characteristics to the pages, allowing the elderly man's action and words speak for themself on the page. It is genuinely difficult to believe how one man was packed so full of life, wisdom and love. His honest humanity is what draws us to him, and draw you like one of his french girls he does.

There are so many good things to say about this book, but my biggest argument is that if you consider a book that makes you cry a good read, then read this book. I even sent a slightly soppy message to Mitch Albom on one of his social media accounts. And I have literally never cried over a book, because I'm a testosterone fuelled, emotionless husk of a man.

Through the journey, Morrie slowly traverses from a recently diagnosed, defiantly still-wiping-his-own-arse lively old lad, to a man incapable of walking and breathing unassisted. He can barely speak without major effort by the final visit from Morrie. Even though you know it is coming, as it is the event that triggers Morrie to visit his old teacher, it is still ultimately heart breaking. Though, there is grace in his approach, and beauty in the pages following his death. Not to mention, the authors additional note in the 20th anniversary edition will give you another little prod to squeeze out some extra tears.

What makes it worse is that Mitch, early on, describes how he viewed life prior to reconnecting with Mr Schwartz. And it was, uh, unsettlingly close to how I - and I'm sure many of you - had begun to see the world, and live. Only Morrie was in full career-success mode. Something I have astutely failed to be. 1-0 to me. Through his narrative, he brings to earth the realities of life, and what is actually important.

If you want to laugh, cry, learn and love through the pages, then it is well worth giving Tuesdays with Morrie a read. It is a classic, and a truly heartwarming, heartbreaking and fantastic book. I'm not even a fan of memoirs - I actually thought that Memoirs of a Geisha was the first memoir I read until the last few chapters gave it some hefty plot armour - but this truly has shown me that they can be a fantastic genre to read.

I also got this book for free, which is a big plus for me personally. Someone sent it to me in the mail on the back of a chain mail book-share post on instagram, and god damn I am glad that I took part. Yet I do feel as if I may have let the person I sent a book to down, having sent the book "Zeus Grant's Stupid Wishes", because I dont think that will make someone cry for the same reasons as TWM.

Great book, go read it. Top ratings all round from me, but I havent yet decided on a rating system arbitrary enough to tack onto posts. So instead I'm just saying to just go read it. Do it, coward

[sporadicreview]

Skull boy and Valkyrie back at it again at Krispy Kreme

Skulduggery was one of those series I saw at school and thought, huh, bet that lameass school endorsed stuff sucks. So naturally, I decided to read the first book, to mock how poor the advert choices of my school were. What a fool I was.

Those books kicked my ass, and for years I was waiting for book after book, hungry for some more hot sorcerer action. It really drove my love for fantasy home, cemented with help from the Demonata by Darren Shan, and the big dumb world of Dragonball. Of course, I read them all as soon as humanly possible.

Then we got to the big finale, and suddenly, I was hit with a big old wave of completion. I had finished the series, and the whole series had been amazing. Absolutely great. Maybe one other person I knew had read it, and I quietly enjoyed reminiscing about it in my own little late-teen dreadlocked head. I was very fond of Derek Landy, he reminded me of myself. An older, irish, successful me. With a better sense of humour. And a better beard. And a better imagination. So not much like me. Crap comparison, really.

Anyway, so there I was, the other month, waddling down the high street with my poetry-and-gothic-literature infused girlfriend, when we decided to pop in waterstones and BAM! The display table stared at me, saying, "You dumb ass. You big idiot. Theres more of these books. Call yourself a fan?"

Screw it, let's cut to the review. I'm sure, like many, I was extremely Pleasantly (hawhaw) surprised to find out that Mr Landy had dumped some more Roarhaven on us all. But was it worth returning to?

Did the world of Valkyrie Cain still have more to offer? Could he continue after having such a rounded story arc closed?

You betcha!

Spoilers from here, but I'll try to keep them light:

Skulduggery Pleasant: Resurrection is a perfect drop back into the franchise.

A PTSD ridden and self-isolating Valkyrie is five years older, and Skulduggery manages to convince her to return to Roarhaven for 24 hours (ish), to help him on a case and to try to get her back into the detectives shoes.

While things heat up, some great insults are passed around, some snappy dialogue and some dumbass characters make their way into the fray. Omen Darkly and Beaky McBeakface provide some worthwhile comedy, while pushing the story in very interesting directions. While no one can replace the zombie duo of Scapegrace and Thrasher (who I HOPE will be visited in the following books), there certainly doesnt feel like there is a hole where familiar characters were.

Hell, Resurrection barely uses more than a handful of familiar characters, and opts to introduce to us a whole gang of unique and quirky naughties, and then another gang of other, slightly more douchey naughties in school uniform. We also see some cool names, which, as we all know is a good indication of Landy keeping his touch.

The story gives us a lot of espionage, more than before, and a few more key twists that add some spice to the sauce. The enemies are sneaky buggers, and the leader, Lethe, is a pretty awesome character with some awesome secrets, but I wont let you in on those. All I can tell you is that his magic is pretty damn awesome, and so is the concept of his suit and how it is used.

The humour is there, the action is there, the compelling characters and emotions are there. Skulduggery is on his usual top form, especially in the back end of the book when he talks shit with the naughty boys.

Valkyrie is... kind of there. While she isnt the entire badass balls deep sonofabitch that chats shit with the best of them from the first 9 books, there is a great reason for this. And it isnt done in a massively annoying and cliched way. I mean, she does still remember killing her own 1 year old sister, and there is a tiiiny bit of Darquesses insanity still playing with her brain. And shes had 5 years out of action. She comes across more mature, damaged, but still willing to return, and willing to have a laugh beneath the pain.

But we all know shes gonna be throwing bolts at some motherfuckers when this second story arc really gets going, lets be honest. There are a LOT of fun avenues we can go in this series, and Derek has not forgotten about the Shunters, and the universe where Mevolent still lives. Add that with the fact that the new villain is someone who had to be killed by Lord Vile in a SNEAK attack and we have some exciting shit about to go down.

You can definitely add this to your list of fantasy books to read, and I will be reviewing the rest of the books as I read them. Cant wait for her inevitable transformation into Thor x Charles Xavier with the amount of magic powers she now has (spoiler - its fuckin all of them), and for Derek Landy to continue giving the people that hit we all desperately crave.

It certainly feels like this will be a balls to the wall, strong continuation, taking the magic to new heights and exploring the world of magic in new ways, doing things even grander than before. Marvel has given Landy the greenlight to write their comics (The Black Order, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Secret Empire), which, if anything, makes me very excited for the future of his franchise.

Great return, with good restraint and everything we liked about the first 9 books.

Strong recommend for fans wondering if it's worth it. A good 8/10. Like a Lindsay McCartney vegan sausage