Welcome back to Dust Jackets, where our booksellers review brilliant backlist books.
This month, Soffi immerses herself in some weird and wonderful worlds, Emma gets ready to swoon over Jacob Elordi by reading Wuthering Heights, Tom spends Christmas freaking himself out with a cult classic, and Clem tackles a modern vampire classic…
Clem is known around Mr B’s for a strong interest in graphic novels and horror (his fave book of last year being Mason Coile’s William). But he’d never got round to romantic horror classic Let The Right One In, by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. Released in 2004 – and made into a critically acclaimed movie five years later – it focuses on the relationship between a boy called Oskar and a centuries-old vampire in 1980s Stockholm.
Clem says: “Let The Right One In is a twist on the romantic vampire genre, with its focus on innocence and otherness, and its dark suburban Swedish setting.”
Another book soon set for a major film adaptation is Emily Bronte‘s Wuthering Heights (movie out Feb 13), directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Emma is already hotly anticipating the movie – and looking forward to swooning over Mr Elordi – so decided to read the classic first.
Emma says: “I don’t know how I’m 38 and only just reading this for the first time… It’s got everything I love in a book – it’s gothic, cruel, atmospheric, ghostly, passionate, obsessive. But it was also unexpected in so many ways. And that ending… sublime!”
Rohan has been dipping into some fascinating non-fiction of late, chiefly The Jakarta Method. Written by American journalist Vincent Bevins, it details US involvement in coups, murders and terror around the world in the 1960s.
Rohan says: “A history of CIA operations in Indonesia and how what happened there in the 60s created the playbook the US would later replicate in countries around the world. This proved a particularly relevant read in light of what has happened in recent weeks in Venezuela.”
Soffi can always be relied upon to have read something strange or unsettling, usually set in a far off world or a ruined future… this time she has not one but two classic dystopian recommendations for you! First up is Parable of the Sower, by the pioneering writer Octavia E. Butler, which was a re-read after almost two decades.
Soffi says: “In a future descending into chaos, one young girl goes out alone into an apocalyptic world in search of her missing father… It’s a bit like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road but with plans to move humanity to the stars!”
She also returned to the legendary Ursula K Le Guin, and her sci-fi classic The Word for World is Forest.
Soffi says: “Absolute perfection. The queen of sci-fi this time turns her hand to environmental collapse as a result of colonialism and capitalism, exploring with her deft touch the themes of pacifism and revenge, religion, Taoism, dreams and grief. A small book that remains as relevant now as it was at the time of writing during the Vietnam War.”
Buy The Word for World is Forest now!
Our Children’s Lead Becky took a break from her usual tipple of children’s books and historical fiction to devour Sonia Purnell‘s real-life spy thriller A Woman of No Importance. Following the astonishing exploits of Virginia Hall, one of the greatest spies of WWII, who infiltrated Vichy France, trained Guerrilla fighters and conducted daring prison camp escapes.
Becky says: “Virginia was the most incredible spy of WWII: she saved literally thousands of lives through her work. A disabled woman – she had a wooden leg – Virginia worked tirelessly and covertly – she is the most successful spy you’ve never heard of. This is a great book for Ben Macintyre fans!”
Buy A Woman of No Importance now!
Finally, I spent the week after Christmas in a state of utter terror, scared to pick up my book, yet even more terrified to look away…
After years of hearing people talk about Mark Z. Danielewski‘s notorious cult classic House of Leaves, I was gifted a handsome new hardback edition for Christmas. I opened it on Boxing Day and the rest of the holidays is a blur. I fell into the vortex and disappeared for a week, and have thought of little else since. This book is a labyrinth. Actually, scrap that: it’s a labyrinthine novel about a labyrinthine text about a labyrinthine movie about a labyrinth. A dark void opens up in the new Virginia home of a family and tears their very existence apart. Or does it? Who the hell knows.
Sometimes the text runs backwards, upside down, diagonally. Sometimes it’s red, sometimes blue. Nothing is reliable, least of all the author, the storyteller, or the movie-maker. There are endless footnotes, 200+ pages of appendices, a mammoth index. And it never ends, not conclusively at least.
Confusing, dense, funny, utterly gripping, and absolutely terrifying, it is one of the greatest novels I have ever read.
note: When we replastered the wall behind the bookcase in the above picture, we found a door that shouldn’t have been there… maybe I have my own labyrinth to explore…!
Thanks for reading,
Tom