I don't think I've spent nearly enough time waxing poetic about one of my all-time favorite authors so that's what today's post is all about. Roald Dahl was introduced to me by my best friend roughly 15 years ago. You might know him best as the author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and James and the Giant Peach. I mention these because the film adaptations are fairly popular (as they should be because they're excellent). Today I'm going to discuss 5 more that you may or may not have heard of and which I binge read quite recently.

The Twits is the story of two horrible, nasty individuals by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Twit. Their favorite occupation (besides being absolutely horrendous in increasingly vile ways to one another) is to torment their 4 trained monkeys and the birds which roost in their tree. As with most of Dahl's writing, there is a most satisfying conclusion at the end of this book which I just can't in good conscience spoil. Just know that Mr. Dahl certainly doesn't shrink from ghastly topics. ;-)

The story of The Magic Finger begins with a little girl playing with her two friends, the Gregg brothers. These two little boys share a singular passion with their father: hunting. Despite the little girls repeated pleas for them to stop this beastly sport, they decide to go ahead with their plan to go duck hunting. The little girl is made so angry by this that she unleashes the power of her Magic Finger and the results are truly horrifying. Let's just say that they shouldn't have dismissed her advice as being for the birds.

Perhaps my favorite of the lot was The Minpins which is a large sized picture book with beautiful color illustrations. The artwork alone makes this a fantastic piece of children's literature. This was posthumously published and is very different from the other books which I've read by him (and illustrated by Patrick Benson instead of Quentin Blake). It is the story of Little Billy (a human child) who escapes from his family home into the woods where he has been expressly forbidden to enter. There he comes into contact with a ferocious beast...and tiny little people called the Minpins who live high up in the trees. A marvelous adventure unfolds among these disparate characters which is both beautifully told and fantastically illustrated. It's a must read.

Now The Great Mouse Plot is a true story from Dahl's childhood which had me equal parts chuckling and shocked. It is the story of a singular event which occurred when he was a little boy. He and a few of his friends from school decide to exact revenge against a nasty old lady that runs a sweets shop...and that's all you should know going into this one. Prepare yourself.

And finally The Vicar of Nibbleswicke which was written for the Dyslexia Institute in London. (Dahl and Blake donated their rights to the Institute and it was actually published after Dahl's death.) This is a quick little book about a vicar who just happens to be dyslexic. However, he has conquered the normal form of dyslexia and contracted a new (and fictional) type called Back-to-Front Dyslexia which causes much of what he says to come out backwards. Conversations with his new parishioners, sermons, etc all are said as almost complete gibberish. Much hilarity ensues.

And there's my rundown of 5 Roald Dahl books which you may or may have heard of but which you most definitely should read.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

This book was incredibly infuriating yet at the same time, it let me down. It could have been incredible yet it wasn’t . All that potential down the drain.

Doesn’t the idea of a girl who has no idea who she is but knows she cannot die intrigue you? Doesn’t it make you want to know more? Let me tell you, you do NOT want to know more about this girl and the drama that is her life.

For starters, I just want to rant about the amount of materialism in this book. I don’t know if materialism is the word I want to use but let’s just roll with it. Brooke is this vampire who doesn’t really like Cessie (so she likes to call herself) because she is after her man yet, she takes her shopping to buy her all these things she doesn’t fucking need. THEY LITERALLY BUY CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTINS because she’ll need them some day. WHEN? WHEN YOU’RE ON THE FUCKING RUN? She also buys all these pricey things including a Chanel winter coat. You might be wondering why this bothers me though? Why am I so anti this girl spending a lot of money? This is a girl that is used to living on minimal things, yet as soon as she gets her hands on money, she goes cray. Of course, it’s not that she wants these things as we are reminded, but then Brooke tags her along and it would be weird to refuse to waste money on such trivial things. I cannot even.

That’s just a little bit of an insight into her character. She isn’t all that strong. She is incredibly jealous and cannot make her fucking mind up about which boy she wants (more on that later though). She’s also very dependent on people and cannot seem to connect the dots. There are things that are so glaringly obvious but she has her head stuck in the sand so it’s impossible for her to acknowledge these things about her that she should have acknowledged ages ago.

Moving on to the love triangle or I should say love square. I want to start this off by saying that if you’re looking forward to reading this book and love triangles discourage you, you might just be able to justify this one and not let it affect your enjoyment of the book. In fact there is a way the love triangle can be viewed to make it so you don’t hate it as much as I did. I personally don't like them in any form which is why I wasn't convinced by the explanation but that depends on personal tastes. The most annoying thing about this love triangle is that on top of the fact that there are two guys interested in the girl, there are other girls interested in the guys too and it just makes this whole thing a dramatic mess. I just don’t understand why.

Plus on top of that, none of the love interests are particularly appealing. One is creepy stalker who stares at her while she changes (and she blushes instead of being creeped out) and is generally very pushy and rude. If I met someone like that in real life, I wouldn’t hesitate to place a restraining order on him. Gabriel on the other hand wasn’t nearly as unbearable… in the beginning. What changed things was his inability to just tell her to truth. He just let her jealousy fester until he had no choice but to tell her things. It’s really annoying when he refuses to tell her the truth because he doesn’t believe she is ready. Who is he to tell her if she is ready or not? Her father? Seriously.

The plot was actually interesting, or would have been if it weren’t overshadowed by the drama in Cessie’s life.  I mean, they were on the run, but they spend a ridiculous amount shopping so that kind of took from the plot.

There was definitely some interesting world building and I would go so far to say that it makes the book stand out from all those typical angels/demons books but alas this cannot make up for the other faults that had me shaking my head and yelling at my kindle.

The weird thing is, in spite of everything, I want to read the sequel. I have this crazy hope inside of me that things will get better. Considering the fun synopsis, I want things to get better; I want to love the book.

If you’re looking forward to reading the book, don’t get discouraged, there is a good chance you might still like it, but if what I am saying doesn’t make things sound fun, you might want to  give this book a pass.