Now don't fall off your chairs in amazement! But I have managed to post the book club cake only one (yes one!) day after our meeting. Hurrah, let's start the year as we mean to go on, efficient and organised,neat and tidy, a place for everything and everything in it's place, photo's loaded and edited as taken, slimmer and fitter! Alright enough self congratulations (lying) and on to the book.
We read 'The Silent Land' by Graham Joyce.
Zoe and Jake are skiing when they get swept away, and buried by an avalanche. They manage to dig themselves out, but when they get back to the slopes, they are empty. They ski down to their hotel which is also deserted. Assuming there has been an evacuation, because of the avalanche, they make themselves at home for the night. The next day, however, their escape is foiled, and they realise they are trapped, together, alone in the village.
There is a real eeriness and a genuine spooky atmosphere to the book, which was great, and the descriptive sections are lovely. However, this was not a winner with the group and only scored 5.5. The reason? The characters are really annoying (punchable annoying), and the dialogue is, frankly, appalling. The writing never soars. That said, we did enjoy the book, mainly because it is an easy read and a page turner. And over the holidays we got to read it in a couple of sittings. So, if you want a good holiday read take it with you...but not if you are going skiing!
I made some snowball cookies for the group, which were just my normal vanilla cookie recipe laced with Toblerone (very apt for skiing I thought).
xxx
