A Great and Terrible Beauty
Libba Bray
403 p.

Delacorte Press, 2003.

Back cover blurb:

Gemma Doyle isn’t like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoken to, who remember their station, and who will lie back and think of England when it’s required by them.

No, sixteen-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guiltridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds a chilly reception. But she’s not completely alone… she’s been followed by a mysterious young man, who warns her to close her mind against the visions.

For it’s at Spence that Gemma’s power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school’s most powerful girls and discovers her mother’s connection to a shadowy group called the Order. It’s there that her destiny waits… if only she can believe it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a curl-up-under-the-covers kind of book… a vast canvas of rustling skirts and dancing shadows and things that go bump in the night. It’s a vividly drawn portrait of the Victorian age, when girls were groomed for lives as rich men’s wives… and the story of a girl who saw another way.

During the first two pages, I was a bit sceptical if I would like this book or not. My sister loves it and, even if she often likes stuff that is really good, she other times love things that are completely unintelligable. However, after two pages I felt rather sure that it would, if not a brilliant read, at least a pleasant one. It’s an easily read book, and it’s amusing. The only real thing I can say against it is that it was written in the present form, which is a form which has always bugged me. A story never happens in the present! (especially when it’s set in the past.)

The second and third parts of this trilogy is another thing I shall read this autumn. When will I have time for school work?!

Die Verwandlung
Franz Kafka
59 p.

Fischer, 1986
(first published by Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915)

Back cover blurb:

none

I am officially mad. I studied German for five years, but I quit more than a year ago. Reading Kafka in this language is not sane. However, I did not have much of a choice, if I were to read it (not counting online). The Swedish copies were out on loan, as were the English. But, hey, we owned it in German! So I read it in German. And I didn’t understand anything. Or, sometimes I understood a word or two, and other times even complete sentences! However, I was never really sure what was going on. Except when people died. I understand “tot”.

So, I actually read it online after finishing it in German. Looking back, I maybe should have read it in English first, but how could I know I was so bad at German? Anyway, after reading it again I even knew what happened! And, oh, how it made me sad. After reading this, I honestly felt mad at humanity. How Gregor Samsa was treated broke my heart. It is not a merry story at all. It is a dreadful story, although well-written and well-thought. In all honesty, despite having a postcard of him on my door, Kafka scares me a bit. But he is so awesome. Even though he didn’t seem to have such an amazingly fun life. Which might reflect a bit on the stuff he writes. Is there ever a happy ending? I think not. That’s Kafka for you.

His Last Bow
Arthur Conan Doyle
247 p.

Penguin Classics, 2007.
(first published by John Murray, 1917.)

Back cover blurb:

Revealed at last! The final twenty cases of Sherlock Holmes…

From the rooms at 221B Baker Street, the mind that strikes fear into the heart of London’s criminal fraternity turns its attention to some of the strangest and most intriguing cases ever to be set before the great Sherlock Holmes.

Adventures involving an illustrious client and a Sussex vampire; the problems of Thor Bridge and of the Lion’s Mane; puzzles concerning a creeping man and the three-gabled house; disappearances of secret plans and a lady of noble standing; all test the courage of Dr Watson and the intellect of the greatest detective of them all, Mr Sherlock Holmes.

This final collection also features the story ‘His Last Bow’, the last outing of Holmes and Watson…

This is another book I bought for its cover. I would assume the cover is of the Sussex vampire, which, unfortunately, is not in His Last Bow, but in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (which is what I’m currently reading). And unfortunately, I didn’t have much fun reading this. The intrigues of these short stories are all solution and no suspense. They were boring, a lot of the time. I feel dreadful for saying that, because I very much respect the character of Sherlock Holmes. But I must say it, because it’s true. At places it is even mind-numbingly boring. I was so bored.

So, the only part of this short story collection which didn’t bore the living daylights out of me, was the last story, His Last Bow. That one was even exciting! It was set during the first World War, and it was built up in a completely different way, and there were disguises and Germans and all sorts of awesome things! (I guess you can hear my excitement…) Luckily for Doyle, this story was the last one in the collection, so my reading ended on a positive note. And I still like Sherlock Holmes. I mean, The Hound of the Baskervilles was a damned good read.

Dolken från Tunis
(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
Agatha Christie
234 p.

For Decades ‘08.

B. Wahlström, 2002.
(first published 1926.)

Back cover blurb:

Mannen satt som jag lämnat honom, i länstolen framför eldstaden. Hans huvud hade fallit åt sidan. På ryggen, strax under kavajkragen, syntes ett blankt föremål - en märklig dolk.

Dolken från Tunis av deckardrottningen Agatha Christie - en klassiker som trollbundit läsare över hela världen!

I’m not a big Agatha Christie fan, not because I dislike her writing, but because I haven’t read much of it. I have read The ABC Murders and now this one. The first I read because I had run out of books whilst on a boat, and this one I read because I was interested as to how Christie would handle the topic. I already knew who murdered Ackroyd, I just wondered how on Earth it could be written convincingly. Without spilling the beans, I was so amazed. It was so clever! Alright, I wish I didn’t know who was the killer. (That is why I am trying to convince someone who doesn’t know who the killer is to read it. I have been this far unsuccessful.)

To my great disappointment, I couldn’t find an English copy of this book. I lent it at the library, because I wasn’t so desperate that I would pay for it. (I usually am.) However, despite searching high and low, I couldn’t for anything find it in English. I went mad looking in the English section. Therefore, I had to settle with the Swedish translation. I dislike reading in translation, because I feel that it is very likely something’s been lost in the translation. Therefore I try not to. (which is why I read so much in English!) Though, I think, this translation was pretty decent. I mean, I never ever cringed. And that’s something.