Screen Burn by Charlie Brooker

The Blurb On The Back:

'These days, watching television is like sitting in the back of Travis Bickle's taxicab, staring through the window at a world of relentless, churning shod . . .'

Cruel, acerbic, impassioned, gleeful, frequently outrageous and always hilarious, Charlie Brooker's SCREEN BURN collects the best of the much-loved Guardian Guide columns into one easy-to-read-on-the-toilet package.

Sit back and roar as Brooker rips mercilessly into Simon Cowell, 'Big Brother', Trinny and Susannah, 'Casualty', Davina McCall, Michael Parkinson . . . and almost everything else on television.

This book will make practically anyone laugh out loud.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

SCREEN BURN is the first collection of Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe columns for The Guardian and covers the period from April 2000 to September 2004. With forewords by Graham Linehan and Brooker himself, it’s as much an interesting look at English cultural history as it is a bleakly comic read. I’m not sure that this will convert non-Brooker fans to his warped genius but it is a satisfying book with plenty to say and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hunger by Melvin Burgess

The Blurb On The Back:

”Beth knew that things had moved on when she woke one morning to find dirt in her bed.

It wasn’t the fine soil that you might find in a bag of compose but dirt from the ground, damp and gritty against her skin.

She lay there for a while trying to remember how this had happened. Gradually, she became aware of a deep ache in her arms and legs and in her back, as if she had been doing heavy work.

She say up, rubbed her hands down her body and encountered a worm flattened under her bottom.

She picked it off and look curiously at it. She ran her tongue in her mouth.

Grit.”

When Beth wakes up one morning covered in dirt, she puts it down to an extreme case of sleep-walking.

But when reports of a desecrated grave start to circulate, her night-time wanderings take on a sinister air.

Soon the city is being plagued by strange sightings and sudden disappearances.

Beth knows that something is changing within her.

Something that’s filling her with an urgent, desperate hunger that demands to be satisfied – at any cost …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Melvin Burgess’s horror novel is an unsatisfying shlock-filled story that lacks the rich characterisation and sharp turns of phrase that characterise his other work. Although the action kept coming there were holes in the story that I couldn’t overlook and as such, it didn’t work for me as a horror novel and it left me very disappointed. I’m normally a big fan of Burgess’s work but this just didn’t work for me and as such, I wouldn’t read any planned sequel.

The Radleys by Matt Haig

The Blurb On The Back:

Life with the Radleys: Radio 4, dinner parties with the Bishopthorpe neighbours and self-denial. Loads of self-denial. But all hell is about to break loose. When teenage daughter Clara gets attacked on the way home from a party, she and her brother Rowan finally discover why they can’t sleep, can’t eat a Thai salad without fear of asphyxiation and can’t go outside unless they’re smothered in Factor 50. With a visit from their lethally louche uncle Will and an increasingly suspicious police force, life in Bishopthorpe is about to change. Drastically.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Matt Haig’s novel is essentially a cosy, middle class domestic drama with vampires. It’s a witty, frothy read that kept me turning the pages and I loved the extracts from The Abstainers Handbook, which keep the tone light. However the plot is predictable, it doesn’t add a great deal or do much that’s original with vampire mythology and the characters at times border on stereotype as Haig over-emphasises how normal the Radleys are. As such, it’s an enjoyable read but not a great one.