The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

On a cold, dark night, we huddled in Lisa's front room to discuss this book. Is it just me or has someone flicked a switch and turned summer off? I was enjoying that. Anyways ...

This book is really short! We were divided on how much we enjoyed the weird fantasy style of this book and how it gets totally bizarre towards the end. It was just like dipping into a child's imagination, lots of action but no substance. We thought the characters, although interesting, were a bit one-dimensional.

The climatic magic part was a bit of a let down, the grandmother basically told the nasty things to go home because she says so.

Concept: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Ending: 5/10
Page Turner - 10/10
Who to slap? The lodger for killing the cat
Where's the cheese? Naked nanny
Would we recommend? 0/10
Better as a ... cartoon
Add a twist - Proper magic at the end

Total: 6/10

Our next book will be 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio which we'll be reading for our December meeting. Next meeting is at Gill's house and Kate will host in December.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey

ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT

If you have not read this book please don't read the review below, it contains massive spoilers. Be content with the knowledge that we rated this book as 7/10 (my personal opinion is that it's brilliant), so please read it and then come back to read this review.

Have they gone?

Phew.

I think we all enjoyed this book, some more than others. It starts off all benign and weird and then just erupts into a massive zombie battle. We loved the fast paced action, the characters were good and Melanie was the perfect character to help us discover the world as she discovers it.

We had a good old debate about the ethics of Dr Caldwell and her approach to scientific discovery. Was she being over-ambitious or truly working for the good of mankind?

There were a few niggling points:

• What was the point of the junkers? Were they only there to cause the base breach and then provide a threat? They seemed a bit random.
• The issue with Beacon was never answered, had it degenerated into a 'Lord of the Flies' environment?
• We thought the sex scenes were unrealistic and unnecessary unless they resulted in a pregnancy, but that would interfere with the ending.

We all liked the ending, the progression of the infection was very logical and was the only way forwards long-term. We had another good discussion about how mutation and evolution sometimes goes backwards to go forwards.

Concept: 6/10

Plot: 7/10

Ending: 8/10

Cover: 6/10

Page Turner: 9/10

Who to slap? Dr Caldwell

Where's the cheese? Sex scenes

Would we recommend? 2/4

Better as a ... film

Add a twist: Pregnant by Parks

Total: 7/10

Our next book will be 'The Ocean At The End Of The Lane' by Neil Gaiman which we'll be reading for the October meeting. Next meeting is at Kate's.