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Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab - Book Review

'Trouble is haunting Cassidy Blake . . . even more than usual. She (plus her ghost best friend, Jacob, of course) are in Paris, where Cass's parents are filming their TV show about the world's most haunted cities. Sure, it's fun eating croissants and seeing the Eiffel Tower, but there's true ghostly danger lurking beneath Paris, in the creepy underground Catacombs.

'When Cass accidentally awakens a frighteningly strong spirit, she must rely on her still-growing skills as a ghosthunter -- and turn to friends both old and new to help her unravel a mystery. But time is running out, and the spirit is only growing stronger.'

Tunnel of Bones sees a return to the wonderful Cassidy Blake series, as author Victoria Schwab takes the young ghost hunter to the streets of Paris, a city teeming with a history of haunting, and beneath to the terrifying catacombs.

Tunnel of Bones tells the story of Cassidy Blake, a girl that almost drowned to death, but was saved by Jacob, a ghost of a boy not much older than her. Since almost dying Jacob has become Casidy's best friend, and she has discovered that she has the ability to sense other ghosts, and to cross over into The Veil, a place between life and death where the spirits remain trapped.

Cassidy's parents are filming a television series about the most haunted places on earth, and Cassidy has been brought along on the trip. In the first book of the series, City of Ghosts, Cassidy and her family travelled to Edinburgh in Scotland, where she met another girl with similar abilities. She learnt that she not only senses ghosts, but has the ability to free them from The Veil, sending them on to the afterlife.

When Cassidy and her family travel to Paris she discovers that not only is the city more haunted than she first thought, but that there are vast tunnels beneath the city that house the remains of more than six million dead; the Paris Catacombs, the largest mass grave in the world. When she travels beneath the streets into the catacombs Cassidy accidentally awakens a powerful spirit and sets it loose upon the city. Now it's down to her and Jacob to set things right.

Much like the first book, I found Tunnel of Bones to be incredibly difficult to put down. It's the kind of book that's so easy to read, and has a story that's so engaging that you'll want to read the whole thing in one sitting. Whilst I did with the first book, I ended up being too ill and tired to manage it with this one. The spirit was willing, but my flesh was way too weak to do it. Thankfully, I carried on soon after and read the end within a day of starting. This is one of the things I love about the Cassidy Blake books. Of all the Victoria Schwab books I've read they're easily my favourite.

The book is aimed at younger readers, and as such it's very easy to read. It's not bogged down with complexity and overly wordy (and I don't mean that Victoria Schwab writes really simply or anything like that), it's a book that's very accessible, that gets on with the story and moves with a brisk pace that means you don't get a chance to get bored or for your mind to wander.

The characters don't suffer for this either, and even though there's not a whole amount of time given over to characters outside of Cassidy and Jacob, you still get a great sense for who people are. Her parents have distinct personalities that compliment each other well, and it's easy to see how good a relationship they have with their daughter, and how they helped to shape her personality. Even characters that only show up for this one book, such as Pauline, their local guide, gets background information teased out, and a character arc.

The people who really shine, however, are the dead ones. Whilst the book is about Cassidy, we learn so much more about Jacob here than we did in the first book. He gets really pushed during Tunnel of Bones, and we get to see a whole side of his personality that we never had before. There's a scene at the end of the book where he even opens up to Cassidy about his old life and how he died, something that was never spoken about before, that's one of the most touching moments in the whole series, and easily one of my favourite scenes.

The main villain of the book, a poltergeist by the name of Thomas is also incredibly well crafted. He's not a one dimensional 'evil' ghost. He isn't a villain in the sense that the Red Raven was in the first book. Over the course of the story we learn a lot about him, and even come to care a great deal about him.

Schwab has created a story that not only acts as a good sequel, but helps to build up the world started by the first book. Whilst there's no indication here where in the world Cassidy and her parents will be heading next in their journey to haunted locations, it's clear that there is more planned. There is a moment in the final pages of the book that indicate that there is more to come, and that Schwab is setting up something interesting and rather sinister. Whatever happens next for Cassidy and Jacob, I'm sure that I'm going to love it as much as this book, and that I will read it as quickly as possible.

Tunnel of Bones is not only one of my favourite books from Schwab, but one of the best books for young adult readers that I can think of. The series has mystery and spectacle, horror and hope, and tells a story of an amazing friendship. An absolute must read.

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Monday, 9 September 2019

New Resident Evil Game Teased

The latest game in the Resident Evil franchise has been teased ahead of a bigger reveal at the Tokyo Game Show this coming Thursday 12th September.

Project Resistance, possibly the game's title, possibly a working name, appears to be an online multiplayer game. The teaser trailer, whilst impressive, doesn't give too much more away. It's unclear if this will be in a similar vein to Left 4 Dead, where a team of four will face off against AI controlled monsters, or if it will follow other recent horror games like Friday the 13th: The Game and Dead by Daylight, and one player will control some of the scarier Resident Evil monsters, such as the Mr X tyrant featured in the trailer.

Hopefully more will be revealed later this week.

This will not be the first time that a multi-player game has been a part of the Resident Evil franchise. Resident Evil Outbreak and it's sequel were the first games in the franchise to focus on multi-player, and were fairly well received by fans. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Corps were the most recent multi-player entries, but were less popular with fans (for the record, I really enjoy Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City).

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The Girl The Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

When I was offered The Girl The Sea Gave Back to review I immediately grabbed it up as I’d already read Adrienne Young’s previous novel, Sky In The Deep, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I received the new book and was intrigued by the blurb on the back, and found it to be enjoyable once I started reading it. The one thing I wasn’t expecting, however, was that this was a direct sequel to her last book. Not once was this mentioned in the description, and once I realised several characters were making a return I was overjoyed.

The Girl The Sea Gave Back isn’t the kind of sequel where it’s absolutely necessary to have read the previous book, however, as much of what happened in the last book is given in background detail here, during events more than a decade later. It takes the world that Young created in Sky In The Deep and expands upon it in new and interesting ways, yet tells a story that also stands on its own as a great book. Because of this I felt a little torn over how to review this book. Is it its own separate entity, or should I talk about it as a sequel? Well, I’m going to try and do both.

The Girl The Sea Gave Back tells two stories that interweave with each other: one that follows the titular girl the sea gave back, Tova. Tova, a member of the Kyrr tribe was thought dead by her people, and cast adrift into the sea in a burning boat. However, when the boat fails to burn fully, and the alive Tova is found by a villager from the Svell tribe, she’s taken in to act as a Truthtongue, a woman who is able to read the future through rune casting. The Svell use her abilities when they choose to attack a neighbouring tribe, the Nadhir.

This is where the second narrative kicks in, and where the book is a sequel to Sky In The Deep. The Nadhir are the remnants of the Riki and Aska tribes that came together to fight a common enemy in the previous book, and have now been a unified tribe for ten years. We follow one of their leaders, or soon to be leaders, Halvard. Halvard has been chosen to take over as the chief of the tribe, and finds that he is having to take on these responsibilities sooner than expected when the Svell declare war. Halvard is also a returning character, one who was much younger in the last book, and more of a secondary character.

The narrative jumps between Tova and Halvard every chapter, not only following their journey through these events, but also key moments from their past that helped to shape them into the people they are. This is a big change to the narrative style of the previous book, where we centred on just one character. This change, however, is great, and we get to see two sides of certain events, and Young uses these jumps in narrative to create peaks in tension and mini cliffhangers.

The two narrative viewpoints also work in helping to show that these two characters aren’t just tangled up in the same series of events, but that their destinies are tied together. Each of them helps to shape where the other ends up, and they ultimately rely on each other in order to survive what happens.

One of the other big changes to this book over Sky In The Deep is the pace. The last book was set over a number of months, and followed a much longer, and more personal journey. This book happens across a few days, a week at most. The action starts much earlier here, and there’s a sense of tension and pace that doesn’t let up throughout. Because of this the book grabbed me a lot quicker, and I found myself desperate to find out what was going to happen next. If Sky In The Deep was a character study, The Girl The Sea Gave Back is a roller-coaster action tale.

I was hugely surprised and impressed with The Girl The Sea Gave Back. It stands on its own as an exciting action story in a beautiful and well crafted world, but it also builds upon the world created by Sky In The Deep to tell an even bigger story. Whether this is your first introduction to Adrienne Young’s work, or if this is a return, it’s sure to keep you hooked throughout.

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