In Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup recounts the twelve years of his life in which he was forced into slavery in America. At times, it’s pretty horrible and difficult to read, but it’s important to read in order to get an idea of what life as a slave in America was actually like.

Through his book, he explains that he was living in the country as a free man, before being kidnapped and sold into slavery – a fate which befell countless numbers of innocent people. Not that it was any better to be born a slave. As a man who was married with children, it was obviously especially distressing for him to be separated from them with the thought that they wouldn’t know what had happened to him.

From then on, he describes his life as a slave. He explains the absolutely barbaric way in which he was treated (including horrible whippings) and how he was forbidden from ever mentioning the fact that he was a free man on pain of death. He also described the distressing things that happened to fellow slaves, like a mother being forcibly separated from her children. That was a particularly hard portion of the book to read.

What struck me as I read was that Northup writes in such a polite way. He never truly lashes out about the extremely inhumane things which were done to him. In some ways, this makes him come across as very endearing but I also imagine that he had to write it in this way in order to avoid discredited since this memoir was only published in 1853 and people who were pro-slavery would have been rampant. It’s sad that this may have been a necessity, but, either way, he has a very pleasant writing style.

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that I did occasionally find myself getting a little bored when reading about the day to day life of a slave, because it was a monotonous life. This didn’t happened too often and is certainly not a major issue. Overall, it’s a very powerful book which gives an insight into one of history’s biggest atrocities. Anybody in today’s world who believes that life wasn’t “that bad” for slaves should read this for a first hand perspective of what it was really like. For this reason, I recommend that everybody read as the important historical account that it is. It’s well written and covers a subject which must never be forgotten.

Rating: 8.7/10

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This is one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read and that’s certainly not a bad thing. It’s not easy to fit Her Fearful Symmetry into any pigeon holes, but to sum it up succinctly: twin sisters in America inherit the home of their estranged aunt who lives in London. The twins still live with their parents and move out to the UK in order to take their first steps into adulthood and independence. The twins make friends with their deceased aunt’s former lover and the man who lives in the flat above, whose life has been ruined by his severe OCD. On top of all that, their aunt haunts the flat as a ghost and becomes a sort of supernatural housemate to the pair. It might sound like a disjointed mess of contrasting ideas, but actually everything works together perfectly and creates a very believable world.

At the heart of the novel, you have the two twins, Julia and Valentina. As sisters and identical twins, they do everything together. They’ve shared their entire lives with one another and essentially see themselves as two halves of one whole. Their relationship was really fascinating to me and the way that it changed throughout the course of the novel was something that really kept me reading.

Elspeth, their deceased aunt, was another very interesting character. In some ways, Niffenegger’s approach to ghosts is one of the least frightening I’ve ever seen. It’s all written as if it’s something very ordinary. She’s a force within the flat she used to life in. She can move around, invisibly, within it and that’s it. At one point, she just watches an episode of Doctor Who with the twins. It’s all very light-hearted and almost seems at odds with the rest of the story, which is very grounded in reality. However, without wishing to spoil anything, I’ll say that this did change. By the end, I felt that this was probably the most disturbing ghost story I had ever read. A chill ran down my spine at one point, because what happened was just so indescribably creepy.

Ultimately, I felt that the book’s biggest strength was that it takes five very real characters, all of whom have detailed histories and are very well characterised, and then details the ways in which their lives intersect and the relationships which form between them. It’s very satisfying. Each person is the main character in their own narrative, the twins are adjusting to a new life in London. Elspeth is adapting to life as a ghost. Robert is coming to terms with Elspeth’s death. Martin (the man upstairs) is trying to cope with his OCD after his wife left him because it was too difficult for her. I was invested in all of them.

For a very grounded ghost story, filled with plenty of believable characters, this is definitely a book worth trying. Just be warned that it does get very distressing as it goes on.

Rating: 9.2/10

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At first glance, this is a fairly traditional fantasy novel, one with an evil overlord who needs to be overthrown for the good of the people. But if you scratch beneath the surface, you’ll find that there’s a lot of nuance to it which helps make the world of Mistborn feel much more three dimensional.

The novel has quite a large cast of characters, but I’d say that the two central characters were a teenage girl named Vin and a charismatic man named Kelsier, who leads a gang of thieves who are planning to overthrow the Tyrannical Lord Ruler. Vin has lead a horrible life and isn’t very trusting of anyone as a result. It’s through her that we are introduced to the world and all the things in it, so she’s a nice sort of gateway character, even though her life will be so different to most readers.

Conversely, Kelsier is a man who likes to put his trust in everyone and seems to be a happy-go-lucky sort of guy, although he certainly has a darker side. What was interesting was that he was so personable that, as a reader, I found myself liking him and being able to look past the bad things that he did. He was a morally grey character (they all were, really) but Kelsier wins you over. Almost like a cult leader, I suppose. It was great to see the evolving relationship between Kelsier and Vin and there were several particularly enjoyable and memorable interactions between the two.

An important aspect of the novel is that the ‘magic’ of this world (called Allomancy) is a very structured system which is almost closer to a science. In this book, when people consume different types of metals, they gain different powers. For example, iron lets a person pull nearby metals towards them, brass soothes peoples emotions and makes them more amiable, and pewter gives people a huge boost in endurance. People consume the metal in vials, then it lasts until their body has burned all of it. There are eight different metals which grant powers, but most people can only use one, or none of them. Only a few people can use all eight and those who can are called Mistborn. It’s a very nice system and the fact that you know exactly how it works helps make the setting feel more real. I appreciate the amount of thought which had been put into it.

Another character I was particularly fond of was Sazed, a eunuch who assists Vin throughout a lot of the novel. He was such a kind and gentle man who created such a contrast with the cold, hard world around him. He dedicates his life to trying to save the world’s many religions (vanquished under the Lord Ruler) using a power called Feruchemy, which allows him to store knowledge and information within metals, for him to access whenever he needs. Feruchemy is just as expertly laid out as Allomancy. Many things (e.g. energy, eye sight, strength etc.) can be stored within metals and accessed when needed, meaning someone could choose to have poor eye sight for a period of time and then later have particularly strong eyesight because they’d saved the ability for later.

Equally, I was quite pleased with the Lord Ruler himself. His an immortal man who has been leading the empire for thousands of years, hence why they call it ‘The Final Empire’ – nobody believes that he could be overthrown. You may think he sounds like a typical evil overlord, but you actually get a good look at his backstory and how he came to be who he is. There’s a very interesting twist with him too. He is still an absolute monster, but, again, there was that nuance which I appreciated.

Overall, it’s a wonderful fantasy novel with plenty of believable and charming characters, interesting twists and turns in the story and a lot of genuine emotion. I definitely recommend it for fans of fantasy novels and to people who just like reading generally!

Rating: 8.8/10

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I really enjoy novels which tell stories on a grand scale, things which span a character’s entire life and give you a chance to see them, the people in their life and the world around them change over time. Memoirs of a Geisha does exactly that, detailing the life of a fictional geisha, focusing especially on her life in Kyoto during the 1930s and the 1940s.

Life for a geisha is hard and far from the luxurious life that their clients may have believed them to lead. You see the things that they have to endure, from difficult clients to the toxic atmosphere created by geishas working competitively in the same area. At times, it was a difficult book to read because there are a lot of hardships contained within the story, but it’s also deeply compelling. The main character is sold at a young age, before she could even really comprehend that someone would sell a child, then she finds it very hard to adapt to life with the new family she lives with afterwards.

She’s not a geisha at first and instead simply works to keep their house clean as a servant. I felt very sorry for her most of the time – especially as she is continuously manipulated by Hatsumomo, a geisha and “sister” living in the same house. Hatsumomo was an especially unlikable character – devilishly intelligent and using that intelligence to bend everybody to her will. But, ultimately, she’s a tragic figure and someone created by the unpleasant environment in which geisha had to exist. Her ultimate fate, I thought, really highlighted that and I do always enjoy a story which makes me feel sorry for someone I initially disliked.

There were a lot of strong characters in this book. Another good one was Nobu, a business man who enjoys the company of geisha, but who can be quite a difficult and bitter man to deal with. There’s also Mameha, an older geisha who does a lot to help the protagonist in her career as a geisha. They both left a big impression on me, although, unfortunately, I did feel that Chiyo (a.k.a. Sayuri), the main character, seemed very much a kind of blank canvas. I’ve heard it said that this was done to reflect the way that geisha were expected to be almost living dolls, having no personality of their own and existing only for the pleasure of others… but I’d still have preferred her to feel a little more well rounded. Funnily enough, she, as the narrator of the story, feels more fleshed out than she as the main character, actually does, if that makes sense?

I felt the story picked up a lot at the advent of the Second World War – naturally, everybody’s lives are changed drastically and it’s very sad to see the toll that it takes on all of the characters (and the city they know). Something I particularly enjoyed was the fact that it showed the war through the eyes of regular people living in Japan, a perspective which I’ve not encountered very often in the fiction that I’ve consumed, so it was a refreshing change from the usual – and an educational one.

So, overall, it’s a book I recommend quite strongly. It gives a fascinating insight into Japan during the early twentieth century and of the life and culture surrounding geishas. The world is wonderfully fleshed out and filled with endearing characters whose fates you’ll be keen to discover. Just be sure to prepare yourself emotionally, it can be pretty intense – there was one scene in particular, containing sexual assault, which I found particularly upsetting. Not that that’s a bad thing – people need to aware of these things and it’s good that Arthur Golden didn’t hold back, but it is difficult to read sometimes. Still, the novel took me on quite a journey and one which I’m glad I got to go on.

Rating: 9/10

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