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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I don't usually buy hardcovers unless I'm sure I'll like the book and want to keep and reread it. I wish I had just bought a copy of The Girl with All the Gifts and reread it instead of buying this. I just didn't connect to this like I did The Girl with All the Gifts, the story wasn't as original or surprising and it just lacked the magic his previous book did.
That's not to say Fellside is terrible. The writing is good and I read it rather quickly even though it was really kind of boring. The main issue was that I didn't really care about the main character, or any of the characters really. The other issue is that it felt almost like he had drafts for different stories and his agent/editor/publisher/someone rushed him to get another book out while the hype around The Girl with All the Gifts was still strong and he just smushed the two together in to one not very cohesive story. I do feel like he tried to do some interesting things here and maybe I'm just overloaded with stories about prison - this felt a bit similar to a YA novel I read last year whose name is escaping me, about ghosts in a girls' juvie center.
I feel like I'm being a bit harsher than I intend to be but a lot of that is because I had huge expectations for this book. I LOVED The Girl with All the Gifts. I've read some of what Carey wrote for Marvel and enjoyed that. I do plan to check out the mysteries he published under the name Mike Carey and will still check out his next book, I may just try it at the library first.
Also - it is weird that I accidentally read two ghost stories in a row in the middle of July.
That's not to say Fellside is terrible. The writing is good and I read it rather quickly even though it was really kind of boring. The main issue was that I didn't really care about the main character, or any of the characters really. The other issue is that it felt almost like he had drafts for different stories and his agent/editor/publisher/someone rushed him to get another book out while the hype around The Girl with All the Gifts was still strong and he just smushed the two together in to one not very cohesive story. I do feel like he tried to do some interesting things here and maybe I'm just overloaded with stories about prison - this felt a bit similar to a YA novel I read last year whose name is escaping me, about ghosts in a girls' juvie center.
I feel like I'm being a bit harsher than I intend to be but a lot of that is because I had huge expectations for this book. I LOVED The Girl with All the Gifts. I've read some of what Carey wrote for Marvel and enjoyed that. I do plan to check out the mysteries he published under the name Mike Carey and will still check out his next book, I may just try it at the library first.
Also - it is weird that I accidentally read two ghost stories in a row in the middle of July.
Centres on a prison procedural (if that’s a thing) after Jess, a junkie that was convicted of murdering a young boy after burning down her flat, is sent to the mysterious high security prison, Fellside in the Yorkshire Moors. The story covers lots of characters; they’re all pretty much unlikeable bunch, which makes the story really really hard to engage with. There’s no redeeming characteristic of hardly any of the characters (even the mysterious owner of the voice that appears to Jess). The book only started getting interesting towards the end of the boom when the mystery got more involved. Such a shame as I loved Girl With All The Gifts.
Jess Moulson has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of setting a fire that not only left her face destroyed and her boyfriend injured but unintentionally killed a young boy named Alex. The problem is, she doesn’t remember setting the fire, but she quickly begins to believe herself capable what with all the evidence stacked against her. Resigned to her fate she beings her life in Fellside, a prison deep in the moors of Yorkshire, knowing she won’t have to suffer for long after she begins refusing food. As her body and mind weaken more and more each day, she’s visited by the ghost of Alex, and he proposes that she work to discover who truly killed him so that they can both be at peace.
Honestly, I don’t remember even reading the synopsis of this before falling all over myself in excitement. I simply adored The Girl with All the Gifts and maybe that’s where I went wrong. My expectations were astronomical. Regardless, there’s nothing in the synopsis that would have normally turned me away from reading the book but ultimately this one fell flatter than a pancake for me.
Yep, I’m definitely part of the black sheep crowd with this one. I’m pretty broken-hearted about it though because this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The majority of my complaints are spoilers so I’ll do my best to explain without revealing too much.
There are not only a ton of characters and scenes told from various points-of-view but somehow they all managed to be completely lackluster. Jess Moulson is not a likable character having been convicted of killing a child, however, that’s never been an issue for me since I liked Lolita and even Tampa. There just wasn’t anything about these people that captivated me or even interested me in the least. The storyline started off slightly interesting with the mystery of the fire but that quickly dissolved into prison drama with a “bad” warden that’s helping bring drugs into the prison and all the threatening of inmates to be the drug mules. There was the prison doctor that had a sad personal story that wasn’t explored very much that did nothing in the pity part of my heart, the nurse with her questionable yet excessive anger towards Jess for the crime she was convicted for, and the various stories of other inmates and the lives they’ve led and the losses they’ve suffered. There was a really strange side story about Jess’ lawyer too that I felt was pretty ludicrous to say the least. AND THEN, enter the ghostie to really complicate shit further.
You’d think adding a flair of paranormal to a story would help it but it ended up just being strangely bizarre and by the end it left more questions than answers. This book was a whopping 496 pages but it still shouldn’t have taken me over a month to finish. It’s one of those really slow-going stories where you feel that pressure slowly building in the background and you’re waiting for that big reveal that’s going to take your breath away. That eagerness to find out the truth of it all was the only thing that kept me going. Sadly, by the time the “secrets” are all revealed I couldn’t help but feel equal parts
and
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Honestly, I don’t remember even reading the synopsis of this before falling all over myself in excitement. I simply adored The Girl with All the Gifts and maybe that’s where I went wrong. My expectations were astronomical. Regardless, there’s nothing in the synopsis that would have normally turned me away from reading the book but ultimately this one fell flatter than a pancake for me.
Yep, I’m definitely part of the black sheep crowd with this one. I’m pretty broken-hearted about it though because this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The majority of my complaints are spoilers so I’ll do my best to explain without revealing too much.
There are not only a ton of characters and scenes told from various points-of-view but somehow they all managed to be completely lackluster. Jess Moulson is not a likable character having been convicted of killing a child, however, that’s never been an issue for me since I liked Lolita and even Tampa. There just wasn’t anything about these people that captivated me or even interested me in the least. The storyline started off slightly interesting with the mystery of the fire but that quickly dissolved into prison drama with a “bad” warden that’s helping bring drugs into the prison and all the threatening of inmates to be the drug mules. There was the prison doctor that had a sad personal story that wasn’t explored very much that did nothing in the pity part of my heart, the nurse with her questionable yet excessive anger towards Jess for the crime she was convicted for, and the various stories of other inmates and the lives they’ve led and the losses they’ve suffered. There was a really strange side story about Jess’ lawyer too that I felt was pretty ludicrous to say the least. AND THEN, enter the ghostie to really complicate shit further.
You’d think adding a flair of paranormal to a story would help it but it ended up just being strangely bizarre and by the end it left more questions than answers. This book was a whopping 496 pages but it still shouldn’t have taken me over a month to finish. It’s one of those really slow-going stories where you feel that pressure slowly building in the background and you’re waiting for that big reveal that’s going to take your breath away. That eagerness to find out the truth of it all was the only thing that kept me going. Sadly, by the time the “secrets” are all revealed I couldn’t help but feel equal parts
and
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ever since this book was released I thought it was a sequel to "The Girl With All The Gifts" because it always has a picture of that cover on the front. So I read for quite a bit before I figured out that zombies weren't coming to Fellside.
This was a very unique and lovely book about a heroin addict who burns down her apartment while she's high and in the flames accidentally kills a young boy. She's sentenced to life in Fellside prison where she realizes she can speak to the ghost of the boy who died, and he doesn't think that Jess killed her, and wants her to help him find out who did. Very well told and exciting!
This was a very unique and lovely book about a heroin addict who burns down her apartment while she's high and in the flames accidentally kills a young boy. She's sentenced to life in Fellside prison where she realizes she can speak to the ghost of the boy who died, and he doesn't think that Jess killed her, and wants her to help him find out who did. Very well told and exciting!
What a downer (not that I don't like depressing books). It's certainly not the most well-written book out there, but it kept my interest, though I expected more from the plot itself. I'm still looking forward to his sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts.
I was so in love with "The Girl with All the Gifts", and I really wanted to love this one too. It was fine, and the ending was actually quite solid. The main character never really grabbed me.
This was a bit of a letdown after 'Girl With All the Gifts'. It began quite promising and I liked the premise well enough, but it just carried on too long. I found myself skimming parts of it.
I could not have hated this more. How incredibly frustrating. The Girl With all the Gifts was one of my favorite books of 2015. And thus far, the same author has produced my least favorite book of 2016. I imagine that there will be a good audience for this book. People who like Orange is the New Black and light fantasy, maybe? That person is not me.
I found the characters almost universally abhorrent. My favorite character in the entire book was a lawyer, of all people. Everyone else was just miserable and wholly unlikeable. The plot, though, was what I really couldn't get on board with. The crime committed to land Jess, the main character, into prison is bizarre and nonsensical. A melee of both people and plot that are simultaneously flat and uneven.
I knew 1/3 of the book in I wasn't enjoying it, but the association with the author who wrote another book I loved so much made me stubbornly push forward. The slow crawl towards making sense of story as a whole is infuriating. I hope very much the next book is back up to snuff, but this was awful.
I found the characters almost universally abhorrent. My favorite character in the entire book was a lawyer, of all people. Everyone else was just miserable and wholly unlikeable. The plot, though, was what I really couldn't get on board with. The crime committed to land Jess, the main character, into prison is bizarre and nonsensical. A melee of both people and plot that are simultaneously flat and uneven.
I knew 1/3 of the book in I wasn't enjoying it, but the association with the author who wrote another book I loved so much made me stubbornly push forward. The slow crawl towards making sense of story as a whole is infuriating. I hope very much the next book is back up to snuff, but this was awful.
2.5 stars.
I was admittedly late to the MR Carey bandwagon, devouring both The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge in 2017. I was excited by Carey’s fresh take on the zombie apocalypse genre, and when I was gifted Fellside this past Christmas, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into it.
The blurb on the back does a good job of summarising the story without giving anything away. I thought I was in for some major astral projection coolness and had confidence that the setting and supernatural spin would make for really compelling and creepy reading.
I was incorrect.
Carey’s writing is fine. The book is perfectly readable, and the short chapters and shifting POVs move the book along at a nice pace. We’re first introduced to Jess Moulson, our protagonist and child murderer when she wakes up in a hospital after allegedly setting her flat on fire and killing ten-year-old Alex Beech in the process. She’s sent to Fellside prison, where the rest of the book unfolds.
The atmosphere Carey creates is, for the most part, well developed and believable. I’ve seen a lot of reviews compare the book to Orange is the New Black, since it takes place in a women’s prison. I’ve never watched OITNB, so I can’t speak to that. What I can say is that as believable as the setting is, it’s seriously tropey and unimaginative. Fellside has all the expected characters: the child murderer everyone hates (thanks, protagonist), the Head Bitch In Charge who runs a drug smuggling business out of her cell, the two butch bodyguards for HBIC that stand guard inconspicuously outside her cell, the prison guards and various staff in HBIC’s pocket, and a bumbling governor-on-a-mission-for-peace to top it all off.
There were also some very specific things that bothered me about this book.
1. The bizarre “love story” between Moulson and her junior lawyer, which has no bearing on the plot or any of the characters involved in the story. It’s entirely one sided, feels forced, and does absolutely nothing to move things along.
2. Moulson is a wholly unlikable protagonist, regardless of the crime she’s committed. She has a ridiculous martyr complex; a constant need to throw herself onto the pyre for things she didn’t do, or did in self-defence.
3. The “Other World,” as it’s called in the book, which is some kind of cross between dreams and spirits. This is where I thought I’d get creepy astral projection stuff – Moulson leaves her body and walks around, in a seemingly haunted prison, with a ton of violent souls. WHY ARE NONE OF THEM TRYING TO ENTER HER BODY? WHY ISN’T THERE A SUPERNATURAL STRUGGLE FOR LIFE? WHYYYYY?
4. There some minor characters I really enjoyed and they weren’t given the attention or backstory they deserved.
5. Carey left every single plot twist until the last 50 pages, even though they needed MAJOR sussing out. These are twists that change the entire plot. All of it. And they’re given 10% of the book.
The single worst thing about this book though, is the end. Not only were the surprises not fleshed out properly, but the whole thing ends in 10 pages of harry-potter-epilogue-level-bullshit. I’m somehow supposed to believe that a prison system that’s been rocked to its core continues on and now exists in a state of perpetual euphoria; everyone gets along, everyone helps each other, everyone has finally been brought into the warm and glowing circle of love. Honestly, you can fuck right off with that.
I was admittedly late to the MR Carey bandwagon, devouring both The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge in 2017. I was excited by Carey’s fresh take on the zombie apocalypse genre, and when I was gifted Fellside this past Christmas, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into it.
The blurb on the back does a good job of summarising the story without giving anything away. I thought I was in for some major astral projection coolness and had confidence that the setting and supernatural spin would make for really compelling and creepy reading.
I was incorrect.
Carey’s writing is fine. The book is perfectly readable, and the short chapters and shifting POVs move the book along at a nice pace. We’re first introduced to Jess Moulson, our protagonist and child murderer when she wakes up in a hospital after allegedly setting her flat on fire and killing ten-year-old Alex Beech in the process. She’s sent to Fellside prison, where the rest of the book unfolds.
The atmosphere Carey creates is, for the most part, well developed and believable. I’ve seen a lot of reviews compare the book to Orange is the New Black, since it takes place in a women’s prison. I’ve never watched OITNB, so I can’t speak to that. What I can say is that as believable as the setting is, it’s seriously tropey and unimaginative. Fellside has all the expected characters: the child murderer everyone hates (thanks, protagonist), the Head Bitch In Charge who runs a drug smuggling business out of her cell, the two butch bodyguards for HBIC that stand guard inconspicuously outside her cell, the prison guards and various staff in HBIC’s pocket, and a bumbling governor-on-a-mission-for-peace to top it all off.
There were also some very specific things that bothered me about this book.
1. The bizarre “love story” between Moulson and her junior lawyer, which has no bearing on the plot or any of the characters involved in the story. It’s entirely one sided, feels forced, and does absolutely nothing to move things along.
2. Moulson is a wholly unlikable protagonist, regardless of the crime she’s committed. She has a ridiculous martyr complex; a constant need to throw herself onto the pyre for things she didn’t do, or did in self-defence.
3. The “Other World,” as it’s called in the book, which is some kind of cross between dreams and spirits. This is where I thought I’d get creepy astral projection stuff – Moulson leaves her body and walks around, in a seemingly haunted prison, with a ton of violent souls. WHY ARE NONE OF THEM TRYING TO ENTER HER BODY? WHY ISN’T THERE A SUPERNATURAL STRUGGLE FOR LIFE? WHYYYYY?
4. There some minor characters I really enjoyed and they weren’t given the attention or backstory they deserved.
5. Carey left every single plot twist until the last 50 pages, even though they needed MAJOR sussing out. These are twists that change the entire plot. All of it. And they’re given 10% of the book.
The single worst thing about this book though, is the end. Not only were the surprises not fleshed out properly, but the whole thing ends in 10 pages of harry-potter-epilogue-level-bullshit. I’m somehow supposed to believe that a prison system that’s been rocked to its core continues on and now exists in a state of perpetual euphoria; everyone gets along, everyone helps each other, everyone has finally been brought into the warm and glowing circle of love. Honestly, you can fuck right off with that.