Our June Book of The Month is The Binding, By Bridget Collins. Published in 2019, it’s strikingly original tale will leave you spellbound until the very end.
Release date: 10 January 2019
Publisher: The Borough Press
Pages: 448
Imagine you could erase your grief.
Imagine you could forget your pain.
Imagine you could hide a secret.
Forever.
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives
summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a
vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor
his parents can afford to refuse.
He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within
each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s
something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to
erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will
never remember your secret, however terrible.
In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of
books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded.
Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of
them has his name on it.
Thanks to everyone who turned up to the first Book Club meeting! Despite having to change rooms when we arrived, everyone was so engaged and had some great thoughts to discuss about Vox.
So what’s the next book of the month? Stay tuned and wait and see what new adventure lies ahead!
In the spirit of our book club’s May Book Of The Month VOX, by Christina Dalcher, this month’s reading challenge will be based around this thrilling novel. So find your comfiest reading spot and stock up on delicious treats.
A new adventure awaits behind every cover.
How Similar Is It? Read The Handmaid’s Tale
3 Letters – read a novel with only 3 letters in the title
Dystopia – Read a dystopian novel
Zapp! – Read a novel with electricity/lightning on the cover
I’m Awesome – Read a novel about empowerment
Hey Girl – Read a novel from the point of view of a girl/woman
The World is Ending – Read a novel about a collapsing civilisation
Red Red Wine – Read a novel with a red cover
Putting Off The Inevitable – Read a book you bought ages ago but have yet to read
Almost Possible – read a book set in the near future
Our first book of the month is VOX, by Christina Dalcher. Published in August 2018, it has become a national bestseller. If you loved Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Naomi Alderman’s The Power, this is the book for you.
Release date: August 21, 2018
Publisher: HQ – Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
Pages: 386
WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED
Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence,
limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of
electricity will course through her veins.
Now the government is in power, everything has changed. But only
if you’re a woman.
Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are
taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly,
young girls are no longer taught to read or write.
For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced,
Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning…
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives
summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a
vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor
his parents can afford to refuse.
He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within
each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s
something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to
erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will
never remember your secret, however terrible.
In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of
books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded.
Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of
them has his name on it.
WARNING: No major spoilers revealed, just small details
I was immediately drawn to this book by Bridget Collins as soon as I saw it, and I hadn’t even made it five steps into the bookstore, at that point. This novel is a beautiful, spellbinding story, and so unique to what I have ever come across before. Set in the 1800’s – although this is never specifically stated – books are not viewed as we see them now; they are seen as awful and shameful objects that should never be read and should be kept hidden, for they are memories people wish to forget. Emmett, a young farmer boy is recovering from a mysterious illness that has left him weak. His family treat him like a disgrace which he doesn’t fully understand, and he is left in a constant state of disassociation – feeling responsible for a wrong he doesn’t remember making and he wont be forgiven for. One day he is summoned to begin an apprenticeship with the local Bookbinder.
In the beginning I felt that the story was a little slow
paced, however I think the fact that I was extremely intrigued by Emmett’s illness,
and Collins’s fascinating idea of memory binding, kept me from putting the book
down. Looking back at the rest of the novel, I now see it as an important section
of the book to comprehend what exactly a Bookbinder was and what they do,
introduce some very important characters with strange behaviours, and show the
readers the kind of people that seek a Bookbinder out and the kind of memories
they wish to forget. ‘We take memories
and bind them. Whatever people can’t bear to remember. Whatever they can’t live
with. We take those memories and put them where they can’t do anymore harm. That’s
all books are.’
I won’t reveal any plot points, and I hope no one else has
ruined them for you either, however I will tell you that it is definitely for
the romantics of the world. In no way does it appear like a romance from
reading the blurb, but this theme covers at least half of the book. I didn’t
really want to tell you this, because I think that is part of the reason I
enjoyed this book so much; for the surprise storyline and hidden romance that I
definitely didn’t see coming. But, if
I didn’t mention it then I wouldn’t have much to say to convince you to read
this book! I’ve noticed a lot of people dislike the fact that a ‘major plot
point’ was revealed in the blurb, which doesn’t actually occur until page 161, ‘Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing
discovery: one of them has his name on it.’ This didn’t bother me at all.
In fact, it was that specific sentence which made me commit to buying the book
in the first place. It is the only piece of information revealed that grabs
your attention on the burb. Yes, the idea of the world is unique and not
something I have ever come across before, but I wasn’t exactly prepared to pay £12.99
on a novel that lacked excitement and might just bore me into an early grave. The
novel had to have something in the blurb that made people want to read it, so the
publishing house made the decision to sacrifice this information in order to
hide a much bigger plot twist (you’ll have to read it if you want to find out).
I think that if I had known about this ‘secret plot twist’ beforehand, I wouldn’t
have had such an emotional reaction and it would have lacked the suspense and
intensity, so
Make no mistake, this is a fantasy novel. It’s just not the
typical fantasy we are used to, with mystical creatures and fantastical lands.
Collins’s idea is so different and set in a world very similar to ours that you
can actually imagine bookbinding to be plausible. The main focus is the
characters rather than world building. It is only the idea of bookbinding which
needs to be explored, but we as readers can fill in the rest; for me I got a
Pride and Prejudice vibe, so just rolled with that when imagining the setting.
I loved that the protagonist, Emmett, wasn’t 100% good, could do no wrong, with
morals as high as the Eiffel tower, like most heroes in novels tend to be. He
made mistakes and bad choices, acting and thinking more like a human in the
real world than any other character I have met. ‘I hope you have nightmares about drowning.’ You connect so much
more with the character because he is more relatable, with other wants and
interests other than taking the moral high ground all the time.
There are some themes of abuse and violence, as there are
people who use bookbinding as a way to get away with their crimes and truly
terrible actions. It makes you wonder what humans would actually be like if we
could choose to forget the bad things that happen to us? And what ways would we
end up using this ability against someone?
I recommend this book for lovers of fantasy and romance, and
if you are looking for an out-of-the-box fictional world to escape into.
Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence,
limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of
electricity will course through her veins.
Now the government is in power, everything has changed. But only
if you’re a woman.
Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are
taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly,
young girls are no longer taught to read or write.
For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced,
Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning…
[100 word limit reached]
WARNING: No plotline spoilers – just little details about the world revealed
I’d never really read books of this sub-genre of science fiction before. Not that I had anything against dystopian science fiction, but I view reading as a means to leave my world for a few hours and travel to a new one; better and more exciting. Dystopian novels just seemed to be depressing stories about what could happen if we continue the way we, as humans, are behaving. It wasn’t until last year I decided to branch out of my comfort zone and read books that normally wouldn’t advance the blurb reading stage of my book excursions. So I picked up The Power by Naomi Alderman, and I’ve never looked back.
So I had no reservations about picking up Christina
Dalcher’s new book. Set in the near future, VOX follows the life of Dr. Jean
McClellan, a neuro-linguist who has been reduced to only 100 words a day, along
with the rest of the female population of America. With deadly wristbands on at
all times to monitor how many words are spoken, and to administer volts of
electricity when you go over the limit, a woman’s new role in life is to cook,
clean, garden and mother their children, ‘Maybe
you should go out and get another carton [of milk] then. It’s your job right?’
Extremely ‘traditional’ Christianity has taken the reigns in this new
government, meaning women can no longer live alone and must move in with a male
relative. Gay men and women are sent to a ‘special camp’ where they are
partnered up with the opposite sex and made to be intimate until they are
‘cured’, and their children forced to live with the closest male relative until
‘the biological parent marries in the
proper way.’ Jean tries to navigate this new world and what it means for
her five year old daughter, Sonia, until a very enticing offer gives her the
opportunity to fight back…
Don’t worry! That is all I will say about the plot, so as
not to give any major spoilers away.
The world Dalcher has created is incredibly thought out and scarily
plausible, especially with the resemblance to ‘the real world’, specifically,
President Trump’s plans for America ‘…the
wall separating Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and Mexico itself
had already been built…’ Like in real life, suggesting something as insane
as muting all women would cause an uproar. It began small; gradually reducing
the amount of women holding seats in congress to 0. Then teaching their
ideology of a man and a woman’s role in the world in schools. Women’s passports
were taken away ‘my passport had been
invalidated’ so they couldn’t leave the country. They were made out to be
something fashionable to wear by calling them bracelets, which came in a
variety of colours, as if that would lessen the blow of being denied your
voice. ‘…pick your own colour, add some
sparkle or stripes’. The slow build up to eventually creating this world
where women have no rights chilled me to the bone. You wouldn’t see it coming
if it were to happen in real life. The thought of losing my freedom to go out
on my own, to learn, to be able to tell my family I loved them without risk of
one thousand volts of electricity coursing through me is enough to make me want
to move underground.
Every chapter is like a mini story, always leaving you with
a cliff-hanger or surprising statement, making it hard to stop reading. The
plot line starts off slow and is mainly world building, but you need this to be
able to digest this horrific new world. You start to understand the world and
the way this radical religious government thinks just as Jean is offered the
‘opportunity to fight back’ as I mentioned before.
Dalcher really makes you think hard about this novel, and
what you would do if this actually happened. All baby girls have a word counter
placed on them when they are merely a few months old. Would you teach her to
speak? As a mother, would you waste your own words teaching your daughter? And
would you teach her words and risk her repeating it over and over like children
do, and end up being electrocuted? Or would you leave her to figure it out as
she grows, condemning her to only being able to use basic speech? And you can
forget them being able to read, too.
The main message of this novel is to speak up, and make
yourself heard. Jean didn’t speak up against this new government when it was
just in its initial days, and she didn’t march along with others who didn’t
agree with the new ideologies, as she didn’t believe it would ever happen. Now,
she regrets not at least trying to take a stand for herself and her gender. The
book serves to remind people to take a stand for themselves an what they
believe in. To be the one to try and change something instead of standing idly
back.
This book is definitely worth the read, and I would highly recommend it.
Here is a list of some of the nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fantasy and Best Science Fiction novels of 2018.
Winner of the Best Fantasy Novel 2018
Circe, By Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child – not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts. Yet a woman who stands alone will never be left in peace for long – and among her island’s guests is an unexpected visitor: the mortal Odysseus, for whom Circe will risk everything.
So Circe sets forth her tale, a vivid, mesmerizing epic of family rivalry, love and loss – the defiant, inextinguishable song of woman burning hot and bright through the darkness of a man’s world.
It is 1962, and
Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her
humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam
Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and
Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.
Then, one fateful
night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most
sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied
for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent,
capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away.
Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into
love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live.
But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming.
Miryem
is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s too kind-hearted
to collect his debts. They face poverty, until Miryem hardens her own heart and
takes up his work in their village. Her success creates rumours she can turn
silver into gold, which attract the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her
an impossible challenge – and if she fails, she’ll die. Yet if she triumphs, it
may mean a fate worse than death. And in her desperate efforts to succeed,
Miryem unwittingly spins a web which draws in the unhappy daughter of a lord.
Irina’s father schemes to wed her to the tsar – he will pay any price to achieve this goal. However, the dashing tsar is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of mortals and winter alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and Irina embark on a quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power and love.
From number one New
York Times bestseller Nora Roberts – an epic, apocalyptic tale of good and
evil, love and loss.
With one drop of
blood, the old world is gone for ever. And in its place, something
extraordinary begins…
They call it The
Doom – a deadly pandemic that starts on a cold New Year’s Eve in the Scottish
countryside. There’s something mysterious about the virus and the way it
spreads. As billions fall sick and die, some survivors find themselves invested
with strange, unexpected abilities.
Lana, a New York chef, has the power to move things and people with her will. Fred can summon light in the darkness. Jonah, a paramedic, sees snatches of the future in those he touches. Katie gives birth to twins, and suspects that she has brought fresh magic into the world, along with new life. But The Doom affects people differently. Along with the light, a dark and terrifying magic will also rise. As the remaining authorities round up the immune and the ‘Uncannies’ for testing, Lana, Katie and others flee New York in search of a safe haven. The old world is over, and Year One has begun.
Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming.
Fast.
Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.
Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?
As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”
A brilliantly
imaginative epic fantasy debut, inspired by the bloody history of China’s
twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.
When Rin aced the
Keju – the test to find the most talented students in the Empire – it was a
shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan
from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who had
hoped to get rich by marrying her off; and to Rin herself, who realized she was
finally free from a life of servitude. That she got into Sinegard – the most
elite military school in Nikan – was even more surprising.
But surprises
aren’t always good.
Because being a
dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard.
Fighting the prejudice of rival classmates, Rin discovers that she possesses a
lethal, unearthly power – an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism.
Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of psychoactive substances and a
seemingly insane teacher, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much
alive – and that mastering these powers could mean more than just surviving
school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most people calmly go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away…
Sydney Clarke once had Serena―beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she’s alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol. And then there’s Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn’t know about his most recent act of vengeance. Victor himself is under the radar these days―being buried and re-animated can strike concern even if one has superhuman powers. And Eli Ever still has yet to pay for the evil he has done.
He ended centuries
of Gold rule, broke the chains of an empire, and now he’s the hero of a brave
new republic. But at terrible cost.
At the edge of the
solar system, the grandson of the emperor he murdered dreams of revenge.
In his hidden
fortress in the oceans of Venus, the Ash Lord lies in wait, plotting to crush
the newborn democracy.
And, at home, a
young Red girl who’s lost everything to the Rising questions whether freedom
was just another Gold lie.
In a fearsome new world where Obsidian pirates roam the Belt, famine and genocide ravage Mars, and crime lords terrorise Luna, it’s time for Darrow and a cast of new characters from across the solar system to face down the chaos that revolution has unleashed.
Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence,
limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of
electricity will course through her veins.
Now the government is in power, everything has changed. But only
if you’re a woman.
Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are
taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly,
young girls are no longer taught to read or write.
For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced,
Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning…
In this ferociously
imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro
fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life,
liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five
very different women navigate these new barriers.
Ro, a single
high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a
biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is
a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted
daughter of doting parents and one of Ro’s best students, who finds herself
pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling
homeopath, or “mender,” who brings all their fates together when
she’s arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.
RED CLOCKS is at once a riveting drama whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy, and a shattering novel of ideas. With the verve of Naomi Alderman’s THE POWER and the prescient brilliance of THE HANDMAID’S TALE, Leni Zumas’ incredible new novel is fierce, fearless and frighteningly plausible.
Binti has returned
to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left
behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same
cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with
the Meduse.
Far from her
village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment
has already claimed the lives of many close to her.
Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene–though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives–and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all.
In the thousand-sun
network of humanity’s expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their
way. Every new planet lives on a knife-edge between collapse and wonder, and
the crew of the ageing gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full
keeping the fragile peace.
In the vast space
between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and the Belt have formed a
tentative and uncertain alliance, still haunted by a history of wars and
prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new
vision for all of humanity – and the power to enforce it.
New technologies clash with old, as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient pattern of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity – and of the Rocinante – unexpectedly and for ever . . .
The Adventurer 