Book Review: Republic of Trees by Sam Taylor

If any of you read my blog, you might be wondering what's been taking me so long to do this. After all, the cover is exciting enough, now you want to know whether the book itself is worth it or not.

To start off, the idea sounds innocent enough that I'll admit that I was fooled into buying it. This time I wasn't really fooled by the cover- I actually thought that I shouldn't judge it by its cover- the fact that the girl is topless there doesn't mean that the story is that dirty. Well I was wrong there. If I had judged the book by its cover, I would have known where I was headed.

But then I may never have read this book if that were the case, and that in itself is a loss as well.

It's true that this story is anything but innocent, but in a moment I'll get to why you should read this book.

Now, the innocent concept is about four young teenagers in the French countryside who run away to live in the forest and start their own noble community which they call the 'Republic of Trees'. Using Jean Jacque Rosseau's 'Social Contract' (don't pretend to be smart, please. Just click on that link and read it a bit, it'll do you a whole world of good) as a backbone, they start making up their rules, their way of living, and hey, everyone's happy. The main character Michael gets to climb trees. His brother and his best friend get to go hunting with a rifle. Isobel gets to go sunbathing. You get the idea.

But ah, the story isn't a whole load of roses. As I have said earlier, this book is anything but an innocent, fun read for those below twelve. Words like 'erection' do make their appearance in this book, and hey, big deal, right? The main characters are teens. They'd have to be castrated to not have any urges. But no, that's not really where the bulk of the story is. The bulk of the story really falls into place when a fifth character- Joy is introduced. While Joy seems to bring no harm to the way things work at first, seduction, love, jealousy...well things do fall apart. And in a bloody way. You'll have to read it to believe it.

There is a sort of dream-like quality to the way this story is told. Michael, the narrator won't remember all the details of everything that's happened, instead he picks out what he does and tells it to you, leaving you to assume to fill in the blanks. It adds a sense of realism to this story- in that seriously, if a story were narrated through a first-person POV, how the heck to those people remember every last detail? There is also a childish innocence to the way he narrates that you will feel ebb as the story progresses. And as things get ugly, well the dream turns into a nightmare.

The climax is a heartstopper, and the dark closing we're given ends this story in a way that tells you straight to your face: "IF YOU WERE LOOKING FOR ENID BLYTON, YOU GOT THE WRONG BOOK SUCKER!"

And that in itself is art, I'd say. The darkness of it all. This book is like William Golding's Lord of the Flies in a sense. The darkness of the human heart, portrayed in all its realism is what makes it all the more beautiful. If you don't mind being disturbed and having long periods of going, "Holy shit...they were kids. How could they..." then by all means, this book is the book for you.

I wouldn't say I loved every last moment of it. It's not that kind of book. But if you're looking for something that will leave a mark, then look no further. This will leave bloody footprints all over your mind. And again, the dream-like, self-righteous style of delivery makes this book all the more a frightening read.

A powerful debut from author Sam Taylor. I hope he keeps on writing, because really, there comes a time in life when you realize that you have way too much happy endings.

9 out of 10 because of its masterful delivery.

Book Review: Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein

Another Egyptian book. No wait, I haven't put much reviews up for the tons of others I've been getting into, so you guys won't really know what I'm talking about. Let's just say that I have a newfound obession with Egyptian mythology, and leave it at that. So looking at the cover, it should be pretty obvious why I picked it off the bookshelf. And the fact that it was only 6.00 bucks at PLB made the deal all the more sweeter.

Now, I highly doubt that Lisa Goldstein would be familiar to any one of you. Despite the fact that she's got quite a number of awards under her belt (I've been doing my research), she doesn't seem to surface much in mainstream fiction. Her genre is...how shall I put it? Different. As different as Khairul's music taste. Like 'The Streets' "Pyeow pyeow" to Britney's mainstream caterwauling. I know it's a subject of much debate right now on my blog, to which I shall admit defeat for now. But enough about that- now to the review.

Despite having Anubis on the front cover, the story isn't that heavily Egyptian. It greatly focuses on the central character Ruthie, a journalist who's trying to write a book on a boy, whose mother is a famous children's author. Word was that his mother got her insipration to write her fantasy books from stories that the boy told her as a child. (The boy is now in his 50s) It mostly revolves around this 'other world' to which the boy found the gate to underground, through a door he found in a great big tree.

Whoa. Stop. Alice in Wonderland-ish? Getting turned off by how childish this is starting to sound? Don't. There's more.

The idea for this book is really simple. Peter Pan (not the Indonesian band), Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, even. What if, all these authors got their inspiration from a particular place, if not directly themselves, then from people they knew who ended up there at one time or another? This place, this underground world that the boy mentioned above stumbled into, that goldmine for inspiration, is what this book revolves around.

Of course, there's much more to that underground world that talking mermaids, fairies and such. In fact, you'll find no such thing there. So how does it work, exactly? That's where I would be giving away too much. Because there are...say, other people interested in this place apart from the journalist author, who's just trying to write her book, and the boy, who's now trying to reconnect the events of his past. And not everyone has good intentions.

No romanticism in this novel. Unless you're looking for ickiness, considering the main male character is 50 and the woman is well, 40. Definitely not an outing for people looking for a good love story. But in a sense, sometimes books like these are fun to pick up if only to get away from the moaning and whimpering of lovebirds who you know are going to be kissing before the story ends.

The story develops itself at a suitably fast pace. By the end of the first chapter, you already know that great things are going to happen in this book, thus making it hard to put down, just because you want to understand what the heck is going on. It probably doesn't help that every once in a while, you're treated to a slight glimpse as to what the 'other parties' are doing.

So pick it up if the concept intrigues you. Either wait for me to come home or buy it from Borders, I'm quite sure I saw it there.

Of course, it won't cost 6 bucks if you buy it there. ^^

8 out of 10.