The Dust Lounge

Tag: lauren beukes

  • On reading: Afterland by Lauren Beukes

    On reading: Afterland by Lauren Beukes

    Title: Afterland

    Author: Lauren Beukes

    From the back: Three years after a pandemic wiped out 99% of the men on earth, a mother and son are on the run . . .

    All Cole has left in the world is her boy, Miles.

    With men now a prized commodity, keeping him safe means breaking hastily written new rules – and leaving her own sister for dead.

    All Miles has left in the world is his mother.

    But is one person enough to save him from the many who would kill to get their hands on a living boy?

    Together, Cole and Miles embark on a journey across a changed, hostile country, towards a freedom they may never reach. And when Cole’s sister tracks them down, they’ll need to decide who to trust – and what loyalty really means in this unimaginable new world.

    The gist: I love Lauren Beukes’ writing and really that’s all there is to it, you should all go and get all of her books and read them right now.

    Seriously.

    And it’s been a while since Beukes’ last novel, and my expectations were high and I’m always so excited to get my teeth into one of her novels, and well let’s just say that Afterland was absolutely no let down.

    Beukes’ writing is jagged, sharp, edgy, and somehow tender while she pulls you along on an escape across America, barely letting you catch your breath. Afterland has a sense of underlying terror, grief and unease that will not let you go, as the characters navigate a world that maybe isn’t so far removed from this one in some ways. Each character is alive on the pages, you feel the gut emotions churning as family ties and survival rub uneasily against each other. You feel the panic, the helplessness, the desperation and the fire.

    Afterland has everything you could ask for – from gangsters to sex clubs to cults (hell, I know what my tick-list looks like) – with dark wit running through it, while at the same time leaving room for quiet moments that pull on your heart. Honestly, I’ve gotta say I kinda wouldn’t mind a beer or two with Billie, and that’s even after, well, you’ll see.

    And in some ways this is one of the most beautiful things about how Beukes’ writes. Her characters are so real, so relatable, and so imperfect. Despite the darkness and the fear, there’s space for hope and redemption.

    Take a breath, wash your hands, and settle in for a white knuckle ride across a post-pandemic landscape.

    Favourite line: “tragedy can be small too, personal”

    Read if: You want a masterclass in pacing, in a taut race across America with characters you’re going to want to hang out with, go for beers with, cry with.

    Read with: No other plans because this is the sort of book that won’t let you take a break. Bring snacks.

    Get it: Afterland by Lauren Beukes

    ARC gratefully received from Netgalley and Penguin UK – Michael Joseph

  • On writing reviews and on writing words

    On writing reviews and on writing words

    So I’ve got myself a bit behind on my book reviews… or shall we say book recommendations?

    After all, unless I liked a book and want to talk about it and want you to read it it’s probably not going to get a slot on the blog.

    Which in part relates to a lot of chatter I’ve seen flying around on Twitter regarding negative reviews and reviewer integrity. I get it, some people would say that if you only post good reviews then how do you know they’re real reviews? If someone says everything is good then where’s their shades of grey?

    And here’s why I’m at on the situation. I’m not here to bash other authors. I’m just not. If I don’t like a book, I’m probably not gonna be writing about it – there are some exceptions but it’s a general rule that kind of sticks. And I’m not saying that negative reviews are automatically author-bashing – negative reviews are part of life and let’s be honest it’s pretty clear if someone’s being a dick about something or not. There’s a difference between a negative review and walking into someone’s living room and calling them a shithead and punching their babies. If you can’t tell the difference then maybe that’s something to think about, just saying.

    But I’m not interested in using my meagre platform (OMG, yes, I used the word platform, perhaps a more accurate description might be unstable ledge supporting a menagerie of accidental ideas) to talk about books I don’t like. I’m interested in bigging up the good stuff, in talking up the things that made me smile or cry or hide under the blankets. ‘Cos I write books too and I want to focus on the good shit.

    And it’s also so subjective – some books just aren’t gonna work for me. Some books aren’t gonna be my literary cup of tea. Some books won’t work one day and then I’ll try them another day and think they’re fantastic (books with strong comedy elements often need my mood to match, but when it does they’re spot on). Some books are perfect for certain moods, for certain readerly hankerings. I’m also more inclined to DNF (do not finish) a book if it’s not working for me than I used to be – there’s too many books and too little time to plough through a book for no reason. So I’m just going to go ahead and talk about stuff I think is great here. And if you like them too then that’s awesome because it’s great to have good books to read, to have good books to talk about, and to share the fun reading times.

    But my point, really, was that yes I’m behind on posting some reviews (for reference, Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers, Grady Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Lauren Beukes’ Afterland have been insanely awesome bookish company, watch this space for me spewing my love all over them), but this is because I have been trickling out BONA FIDE WORDS OF MY OWN. Words have been leaking from my fingertips and into word documents, and even [shifty look to camera left] been submitted to places where other people might see those words one day, perhaps, you never know.

    And that is a nice feeling, finding the words again, playing with them, chilling with them, getting pissed and shooting the shit with them. And while those words are flowing I’m gonna go with those words and let them dictate the passing of the spare time. So reviews may need to wait for a few days (not too long though because OMG THEY WERE SOME AWESOME READS).

    And word tinkering feels like such a good thing. Like hanging out with an old friend.

    And while I’ve been finding my words again, while they’ve been eeking their way out of my brain, I’ve found some writing wallpaper goodness. I was never one for writing in cafes much, but the buzz of a street, especially neon lit streets, absolutely captures my current writing vibes. Also, feels slightly weird, because, erm, crowds, erm, let’s not think about it too much. There are a tonne of these videos on Rambalac’s YouTube channel and I am in love with them all.

    So here’s just one of them. It’s almost hypnotic, it’s easy to lose hours to, it’s one of my new favourite things.

    I recommend putting it on repeat and letting the background buzz take your mind places.

  • Fear in February: Women in horror month, the writers – Part One

    Fear in February: Women in horror month, the writers – Part One

    With Valentine’s day looming on the horizon, do you need an antidote to the sickening cuteness and horrendously twee romance inferno? 

    Well, why not cuddle up with a good book? 

    Sounds like a good idea? 

    In fact, why not make it a book that’s gonna scare the goddamn bejesus out of you, you say? 

    OKAY THEN YOU GOT IT 

    And, it being Women in Horror month in February, let me suggest just a few female authors who are absolutely bringing it in the horror stakes [insert your own vampire joke here]. In this first instalment of this fierce, female horror authors list, I present to you some authors who are just outstanding in their creepiness, downright darkness and fiendish wordplay. If anything can cure your romantic overdose, these sure can. 

    Sarah Lotz: Making the list for The Three, Day Four and The White Road 

    I love Lotz’s books. She expertly weaves her horror through books that are bona fide page turners. She takes child survivors of plane crashes, cruise ship mediums and internet celebrity mountaineers and races you through stories that leave you holding your breathe and reaching for a blanket. 

    Check out my review of The White Road and also goddamn just read them all.

    Visit Sarah Lotz’s website

    Lauren Beukes: Making the list for Broken Monsters and The Shining Girls 

    Lauren Beukes is officially one of my favourite authors of all time. I fell in love with her early works, Moxyland in particular, but her novels Broken Monsters and The Shining Girls filled some horrific, crime-thriller shaped holes in my bookish life that I didn’t know needed filling. The rhythm that Beukes pulls words together with is fantastic to read, and her stories are vivid with their darkness. Beukes is one of my writing heroes, and I can’t wait for Afterland to drop in the summer.

    Visit Lauren Beukes’s website

    Shirley Jackson: Making the list for We have always lived in the castle, The haunting of hill house and The Lottery 

    Jackson is a master of gothic horror. Her books take you to frightful haunted houses, creepy village communities, and spooky family dynamics. Subtly disturbing, her stories are perfect for long, winter nights (as well as the rest of the year, for you horror gannets). If you want to know more about how good I think her horror words are, I reviewed We have always lived in the castle and *spoiler alert* I loved it. Also, at least the first half to Netflix’s adaptation of The haunting of hill house was some excellent creepy fare, so if you’re into the televisual variety of scares then that’s worth checking out. 

    Visit Penguin books website

    Deborah Sheldon: Making the list for Body Farm Z 

    Sheldon’s zombie horror, set on a body farm (quite simply a genius move), is fantastically fun and infested with a whole menagerie of zombie animals, all in various states of undress. Full of action and with plenty of undead to keep you busy, this is a full-on rampage through zombie land (farm).  

    Visit Deborah Sheldon’s website

    Need more to fill your horror fix? Check in later in February for part two of this fierce, female horror authors list. 

    Tamara writes mainly dark, surreal tales with a touch of science fiction. Her novel Grind Spark was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award 2014.

    “an exhilarating Ultra HD ride into a near, pre-apocalyptic future”

    Amazon reviewer

    Buy Grind Spark on Amazon

  • 2019 – a year of reading and the Dust Lounge Awards

    My round up of books I’ve read in 2019, another year of reading fiction and non-fiction wordage, this time with some hard-hitting book awards thrown in for good measure.

    This year’s reading was a splendid tapas of fiction and non-fiction dishes. I finished studying in September which freed up time for recreational reading (so much of the year before then had been taken up with text books and journal articles). Here’s a quick round up of some of my favourites, but if you can’t take the suspense then head to the end of the post for my Dust Lounge Book Awards of 2019.

    Just some of this year’s reads

    Stand out fiction books for me came from the likes of Paul Tremblay, Gareth Powell, William Gibson, Sarah Lotz and Max Barry. Top marks have to go to Tremblay’s “The Little Sleep”, possibly the weirdest detective book I have ever read.

    Gibson’s “The Peripheral” was probably the smartest book I read this year – the sort of book that you wish you could have written – although Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” had the smartest spiders.

    “Body Farm Z” by Deborah Sheldon gave me my fix of zombie action, filling the disappointing hole that The Walking Dead keeps digging with kangaroo shaped undead.

    In the interests of returning to my own writing this year, I started reading more short fiction, with inspiration coming from King’s “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams”, Ellis’s “Asylum of Shadows” and Beukes’s “Ungirls“.

    When it came to non -fiction, true crime and cyberpsychology were the dominant themes. Britton’s “Picking up the Pieces” was a riveting read – I had the pleasure of seeing him doing a lecture a few years back and could listen to that man talk for hours. Aiken’s “The Cyber Effect” was equally interesting – and incidentally was my first full audio-book experience – although as with any book about ‘popular’ science I’d encourage reading with a critical eye. These aren’t research projects or journal articles. These are books designed to present a particular viewpoint and to make the author some money. They are not, necessarily, giving you the full picture. If the topic interests you, read around.

    The Dust Lounge book awards of 2019

    But what is a 2019 round-up if it doesn’t have an awards list, right? So without further ado, I present to you the Dust Lounge’s Book Awards of 2019 – sure to be a fixture at all red carpet events in the near future.

    I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating all books that were written or read in 2019, and here’s to a 2020 filled with more damn fine wordage.

    AND CHEESE.

  • On cover design. Because it matters.

    I love covers.

    I really love covers.

    I’m not talking about musical covers. (As an aside, if we were talking about musical covers then I’d point you in the direction of Tori Amos’s Strange Little Girls album. Just covers. Just bloody awesome.)

    I’m talking about book covers.

    And if you turn around and tell me you don’t judge a book by its cover, then that’s damn great. But a little badger in the back of my mind doesn’t believe you. The cover is what makes a book stand out on the shelf, or on the screen. It’s the glint that catches your eye and won’t let go.

    Of course, some covers are bad. They might be misleading. They might be hard to read. They might be photoshoppery disasters. If you want to lose a few hours enjoying the wide variety of bad covers out there, then head on over to Lousy Book Covers. Much fun and entertainment to be had.

    And making a cover is hard.

    But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not important. These days, we’re not just talking about browsing through shelves at the local bookshop. No, now we’re talking about miniature thumbnail covers that have to stand out in the vast sea of books competing for your attention. Which means it’s time to get all LOOK-AT-ME-LOOK-AT-ME, but in the right way. Because if you ain’t getting looked at in ten seconds then you ain’t getting clicked on and you ain’t getting browsed through and the words you put so much effort into are sitting all on their lonesome and crying into a bottle of whisky. *Possibly*

    Double-Vision-SMALLNow, I ain’t no expert at the designing of the perfect cover. I’m honoured enough to have had some nice comments about covers I’ve done for FlashDogs, and my small collection of stories Double Vision (of which thebookdesigner.com kindly said “Energetic artwork makes this cover for a collection of dystopian stories.”) But over the years of working on posters and covers, making mistakes, and generally pissing around in Photoshop, I’ve picked up a few (breakable) nuggets on the way.

    Do

    • Stay simple. Clutter the cover too much, especially on the online thumbnail, and you ain’t gonna have a clue what it’s supposed to be.
    • Use an easy to read font. That font that looks so pretty when you’re zoomed in on screen could be illegible when shrunken down. Don’t make people work too hard to know what your book’s called.
    • Stay on trend. Written a horror book? What do the bestsellers look like? Are they pink and fluffy with pictures of high heels? Are they pastel images of someone running through fields of dandelions? Know what your market likes, and play to it.
    • Get striking. Go vibrant, go bright, go graphical. Make it pop.
    • Get help. Designing covers takes time. That time eats into your writing hours. That time eats into your story making. That time eats into your soul. Also, learning graphics programmes can be a long, hard road, so give yourself a break – if it’s not your bag, find someone to help you out.
    • Break all the damn rules because why the hell not. That pink, fluffy horror cover? Does that make sense for your novel? Then just do it. Because sometimes you’ve got to break the mould. Just make sure you break it in style.

    Don’t

    • Finish without sleeping on it. This rule applies to everything. But then, I do really like sleeping. Also, there’s a lot to be said for letting fresh eyes have a peek.
    • Settle for something you hate. You’re going to have to market this book. This is your word-baby, so make sure you like the packaging.
    • Damn well listen to me. It’s your vision goddamnit, so own it and tell me to munch on my own hat. Hats don’t suit me anyway.

    Favourite cover?

    For me this changes depending on what time of day it is, what mood I’m in, and whether I’ve had enough cheese. Today, right now, I’m going with Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland. Bold, quirky, it punches through and begs me to grab it, to dig into the words inside. Just bloody cool (which can also be said of the book itself).

    Your turn

    So what’s your favourite cover? Have you self published before? Are you a cover designer? Any tips, tricks or mistakes you’ve stumbled across? Share on Twitter, or in the comments.

    Until next time, fiends.

     

  • If you were a book pusher what book would you push?

    Did I mention that Double Vision is out on Saturday? Did I mention that it’s only bloody well available for pre-order now? Yes? Maybe once or twice?

    Well, in an unscheduled interlude to the Double Vision public service announcements, and a possible break (but no guarantees) from cat pictures, let’s talk about books.

    Ah, them damn fine lovely booky smelling books.

    Mmmm.

    MMMM.

    Ah, riffle the pages, smell them fine booky smells.

    *Ahhhh*

    Hang on – you want more book talk? More serious book talk?

    Sheesh, if you insist.

    So, it was World Book Night in the weekend, and hey, World Book Night works – it gets people into reading that maybe weren’t so into reading before. It takes great books, gives them to people, and infects them with reading fever.

    Forget buying classics and pretending to like them so you can look ‘cool’ and ‘intelligent’ in front of your ‘friends.’ I’m not entirely sure who actually would do that, but apparently some people do.

    It’s about enjoying the wordage, getting sucked into the story, laughing or crying or hiding under the duvet.

    So, in the spirit of sharing the fun – what one book would you give to someone to get them into reading? It might not be your all-time favourite book. It might not be a recent read. What’s that book you always have in the back of your mind when someone says they’re not that into reading and your brain is screaming READ THIS, READ THIS GODDAMN YOU, HOW COULD YOU NOT JUST LOVE THIS BOOK?

    *ahem*

    It’s taken me a while to land on just one, and it surely changes day to day, but I’m gonna throw The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes down. Spanning the crime, thriller and supernatural genres with a few things in between, there’s a bit of something for everyone. I love Beukes’s writing, fast paced and hard hitting. My favourite book (although hard to pick) by Beukes would probably be Moxyland, but The Shining Girls would be the one I’d champion for the new-to-reading-reader.

    So what’s your pick? What book would you give that’s gonna give people the reading bug? Share in the comments or over in Twitter-land.

    And did I say I wouldn’t mention anything about cats? I might have lied about that…

    Pixel100

  • It’s 2016 and let’s not play Monopoly

    First up – it’s 2016 (and a great, shining ball of Happy New Year-ness to you fine folks). I hope it’s treating you well and you’re holding the January blues at bay.

    Second up – it’s 2016 and hover boards are a thing, but they don’t actually hover and apparently occasionally blow up (so I’ve heard).

    Third up – it’s 2016 and there’s a new Star Wars film out (which, by the way, is a whole lot of fun if you’ve not had the chance to see it yet – new faces, old faces, and some excellent one-liners). And not only is there a new film out, but the lead character is a girl. Excellent! Not only is she a girl, but she’s a girl who doesn’t need to be rescued, who stands up for herself, and is pretty damn sharp with a stick. Brilliant!

    Shall we have an argument about how there really isn’t a decent reason why she shouldn’t be included in a property-based boardgame? No. Because the internet has already done that. And I don’t like Monopoly. And for the record, it makes me angry that she wasn’t originally included as a character in the game (she is apparently joining the game, but only after internet outrage commenced). The glaring omission to include the main female lead (Rey) made me wonder why she’d been forgotten. It made me wonder if it’s because EVEN IN 2016 we’re still supposed to think that Star Wars is just for boys and that boys wouldn’t want to play with toys that feature female characters. And it made me sad, because the film is fun and Rey is great and girls like science fiction as much as boys and CAN’T WE ALL JUST START PLAYING TOGETHER AND HAVING FUN?

    And it reminded me of those times when male friends of mine have suggested that they wouldn’t read books by female authors because, well, they’re for chicks, right? And it reminded me of times when male friends of mine suggested that I couldn’t possibly like real science fiction because, well, I’m a girl and should probably be weeping into a box of tissues whilst watching rom-coms and eating chocolate.

    So here’s to 2016, let’s make it a good one. And let’s forget what we’ve been told about how we’re supposed to be, and what we’re supposed to do. And here’s to 2016, and just five of our fictional female characters that kick ass. I’ll start:

    • Ripley, Alien
    • Kirby Mazrachi, The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes
    • Miriam Black, Blackbirds – Chuck Wendig
    • Melanie, The Girl with all the Gifts – M R Carey
    • Carol, The Walking Dead

    And I but scratch the surface, fiends. Who are your favourite female characters? Who are your favourite female authors? Fire away in the comments below or take to the task on twitter.

    I await your diverse suggestions.