March | In Books

I won this book via GoodReads, not realising that it’s actually an advanced readers copy! I have reviewed the book on Blogger’s Bookshelf already, so check it out here if you want my full thoughts. In short, I really enjoyed the book, the characters were both likable and hilarious, plus the plot itself moved well. Graeme Simsion even retweeted my review of the book! Catch it when it comes out in April if you want to have a read yourself!

Admittedly this was one of those books I said I had read in the past when I really hadn’t, so it’s about time I got up and read it – especially with the movie imminent.

This was a little harder to get into as I felt the first two chapters offered alot of exposition. You hit the ground running once you got to chapter 3, and are thrown into the rather dark and mysterious world of Jay Gatsby and his obsession with Daisy Buchanan. I expected this to be one of those books like ‘Catcher…’ that I just wouldn’t get, but the story and themes of jealousy, loss, excess, love and lust are timeless. The writing itself is fantastic, Fitzgerald being one America’s literary greats of course. The last line is one that will stick with you after you close the book though…“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I went into this expecting it to be difficult to read, and yes the language and writing style can seem so at times, but overall the book was great. The first couple of chapters in particular, detailing the process of ‘decanting’, ‘bottling’ and ‘conditioning’ newborns in this re-imagined society’s caste system is both fascinating and deeply disturbing. I really want to review this for Blogger’s Bookshelf so won’t delve any further into this now, but to summarise? If you loved Delirium. Matched. Divergent. Awaken. Or any dystopian/utopia novel for that matter. Then pick this book up!

I seem to have slacked in momentum, only three books this March, but they were all pretty good ones! I’m particularly proud of having ticked off Gatsby from my general book bucket list and Brave New World from my 2013 Reading Goals list. I have some spare time on my hands in April – hallelujah for bank holidays, Easter holidays and birthday weekends – so am hoping to really up my game next month!