Musical Mondays - The Killing Machine (2016) by Cousin Buzz

Well hello again. Told you I’d be Rein-bach! And I’m coming at you with more musical favourites, mostly major artists thus far, but today, owing to the fact that I need to be up at half 5 for my morning jog, I am trying something more obscure and thus shorter. It comes with an interesting memory of my first ‘festival’, this being the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall, England, around this time 4 years ago. I was there to help put together a magazine for the festivalgoers during a rather wet and, in typical festival fashion, muddy 3 days. Only by the fourth day did the rain stop, the sun come out, and my duties to the magazine cease for one glorious day of self-indulgence. And it was on this final day, after wandering the venue grounds, drinking gin and tonic from a reusable plastic cup, and checking out all I could fit in, that I heard the metallic resonances of an electric guitar emanating from a far corner of the field. What I found was the Cornish three-piece alt-rock band Cousin Buzz, jamming to an almost empty tent. I observed for several minutes, simply enjoying their gritty tunes before going over to say hi, give praise and, as everybody should, pick up a copy of their music – which I shall briefly review for you now.

This album, created in November 2016, is a 6-track EP entitled The Killing Machine, and makes up 1 of only 2 albums this band ever produced (their follow-up 2 years later being Greasy Fingers and a Bad Attitude which I may give a listen to some time soon). What I think drew me to this band in the first place is that they don’t sound quite like any other band that I’ve ever heard of. Their songs are often bass-heavy yet highly melodic, full of varied applications of guitar and percussion, and strung together with sweet and sour vocals (by which I mean, there is a softness and a harshness to singer Arthur Harrison-Ward’s vocals which seem to complement each other).

Opening track ‘Oh My (So High)’ displays this vocal harmony rather well alongside some tight metallic strings and a subtle drumbeat. The backing vocals do tend to clash with the lead in the verses but harmonise much better for the chorus. There are also some stellar, though slightly discordant, guitar solos mixed in too, a feature which persists into ‘Crank It’ (though the second breakdown proves much more successful). This track gives off a lazy Sunday vibe with its classic guitar intro, while Arthur’s vocals are dealt in more of a laid-back drawl, but the bass comes across strong and smooth, before everything amps up for the chorus, Arthur’s vocals now straining to new heights.

Track 3, ‘Go to Sleep’ is among my favourites: the guitar intro is softer with some fantastic metallic melodies and breakdowns, the bass is clearer, the drums slower and laced with shimmering cymbals, and those vocals, while still rough and nasal, are delivered carefully, gently even – at least until the end. The final line is dealt with something reminiscent of Gerard Way’s strangled notes from ‘I Never Told You What I Do for a Living’. In fact, almost as if sensing that, there is a slip into something more melancholic for ‘Always the End’, consisting of a simple guitar and drum tune, a strong bass backing, and hauntingly perfect vocal duets, but with the added embellishment of a smashing guitar solo, a cutesy little xylophone tune, and a vaguely psychotic closing refrain. But I think, of the whole album, this song has the most depth and indeed stylistic scope, especially when contrasted with the next song, ‘Quicksand’.

Uniquely, this song opens with a bass intro which kicks into gear pretty fast, delivering a rapid, bass-heavy, but more upbeat tune, populated by percussive drumbeats and smooth guitar breakdowns which help to carry the beat. And that leaves us with the titular track ‘Killing Machine’ which again breaks the mould, being pumped full of more attitude and swagger than any other song. The drumbeats are strong and defined, the guitars harsher, but the bass nowhere near as heavy as usual. Arthur’s vocals are back to their standard drawling melody which melds well with the backing vocals until the end, where they seem to crash into each other in a haphazard and messy overlaying. A bit of a let-down for the final track but by no means a reflection of the album as a whole, but there you have it; my not-so-brief review of a Cornish flash in the pan. It is always a pity to hear that these obscure little bands never really take off, but at least they had a fan in me!

Check out their Twitter page, and their Bandcamp below.

FULL ALBUM: https://cousinbuzz.bandcamp.com/album/the-killing-machine-ep

Storybook Saturdays - Sprout (2009) by Dale Peck

It seemed like I didn’t stop running till I found him the next day in school

It’s Sunday, yes, but it’s also Pride Month which is why this weekend’s book of choice is Sprout by Dale Peck, an insanely witty and descriptive little essay (as it seems to be) on the highs and lows of one Daniel Bradford: 16 years old, green-haired, gay, and new to Kansas.

The events of his life, on a surface level, are fairly relatable teenage things: adjusting to life without a mother, in a new city, while trying to come to terms with his own sexuality, but Sprout, as he is nicknamed, isn’t just an ordinary teenager – which in some ways still makes him relatable to me. He finds enjoyment in words – touting a dictionary the way anyone else would their mobile phone or purse – and this pairs expertly with his personality to make for a mature yet colloquial and intimate read. Much like my last entry on Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series (which you can read here), there are often dense sections of description for each character. This, in addition to Sprout’s sporadic asides and digressions – which, at times can give you whiplash and make the story seem more like conversation than composition – almost make you believe you’re standing right beside him like an imaginary friend. Due to his love of synonyms, everyone is uniquely depicted from his writing coach, Mrs Miller’s ‘[w]ispy bangs […] tortured with repeated applications of curling iron and hairspray in clear violation of the Geneva Convention’ to his friend Ruthie whose body is ‘tall and thin as a periscope poking from the waves’. Understandably, his father doesn’t get so much a physical description as a character exposé, from his perpetual drunkenness to his collection of tree stumps and vines. And sometimes just a few lines of dialogue are sufficient to display a character such as the gym teacher Mr Balzer, singling Sprout out for not wearing the proper gym gear while obnoxiously shouting ‘Yo, Abernathy, wassup my man!’ to another student. But the real description begins when he meets Ty, the boy he falls in love with; suddenly everything they see and do together seems like pure poetry.

When they first meet, it is during a game of touch football, and by the end, having been pelted with every ball in the sports hall, Ty is left looking like a ‘human-shaped flame’ surrounded by balls ‘like a field of psychedelic mushrooms’. During their first out of school meeting, Sprout is so tense with uncertainty that ‘[t]he silence was so loud the leaves bumping against each other sounded like a thirty-car pileup on the highway’. And the way he describes their first kiss – ‘the naked breath of the forest air felt ice cold on my lips, and all I wanted to do was pull him back on me. So I did’ – it made my heart melt. In fact, Ty’s very character is the most colourful of them all – and that’s not forgetting that Sprout has green hair! – he’s creative, innovative, childish, scarred, and strong. He stands up for Sprout, endures his father’s beatings just to see him, and even then you’re still not 100% sure if he’s gay too. But it’s ok because Sprout seems to love him all the same. One scene in particular seems to solidify this when, after having sex, he must lick all the green hair dye smudges from Ty’s skin – lest Ty’s father find out – and yet he proclaims ‘I’d’ve painted his whole body green if I could have, just to let the world know he was mine.’ You get so caught up in their romance, along with Sprout’s convoluted streams of consciousness, that you seem to be caught short by any moments of tension and seriousness which belie the potential for a less-than-happy ending (which, by the way, is very open-ended, though I won’t say why).

I don’t remember the specifics of how this book came into my possession, but I have re-read it so many times now because it is just so unique, funny and, dare I say, even a little adorable. It’s kind of like a kaleidoscope really – if I wanted to employ some Sprout-like literary devices: from the outside it seems fairly unassuming (aside from the green hair poking in from the edge of the cover); you read the blurb and think you know what to expect (I mean, hey, it’s just a kaleidoscope, right?) but when you look inside, it’s a whole other world that keeps shifting, defying expectations, and sometimes taking you by surprise – especially with the direct asides which seem to know what you’re thinking. (‘Get you mind out of the gutter!’) I would readily take the advice which is given and read this book over and over again, if it weren’t for the fact that I have other reviews to do, because it’s so different from the usual fantasy/sci-fi stories I invest myself in, and it’s so goddamn honest, bizarre, and wholesome. If you need a good coming-out story, please don’t miss this one.

Feathered Fridays - Striated Caracara

Phalcoboenus australis

It may have been over a month since my last Feathered Friday entry but this one is a beauty which should make up for the absence. It is the Striated Caracara, otherwise known as the ‘Johnny Rook’ or the Falkland Island Caracara. Not a native UK bird by any stretch – they can only be seen in captivity in local wildlife parks across the country – their natural home is on the extreme southern tip of Latin America, specifically south Chile, Tierra del Fuego, and the remote islands in this area including the Falklands (where they are most common). They typically frequent rocky coastal habitats and open grasslands, particularly farmland where they have been persecuted for predation of young lambs and their numbers subsequently threatened. On the coast, however, they appear to be doing better, their diet consisting of seabirds and young penguins which they mostly scavenge rather than kill (however they have been observed taking eggs and chicks and will even predate smaller seabirds at night). They can also subsist on tidal invertebrates and will move stones to search for food (they aren’t considered one of the smartest birds of prey for nothing).

These birds are striking in their appearance – and I should know; I was privileged to see one up close at a wildlife park in Devon (that's where I took the above picture) – their plumage is composed of black to brownish-black feathers with a mantle of silvery/buff-brown streaks or striations around the upper part of their bodies. There is a broad white stripe across the tip of their tails and white panels on the underwings, visible in flight, and their faces and legs are strikingly yellow with a classic grey hooked bill. The juveniles can be distinguished by their lack of distinct striations, a darker bill, and pinkish legs. Unique among caracaras, they also have ‘rufous’ or red-brown feathering on their thighs and, measuring on average nearly 60cm/2ft long with a 1.2m/4ft wingspan, they are the largest of their genus Phalcoboenus.

When it comes to the breeding season (late Autumn to early Winter), the striations which give them their name are put on show, couples throwing their heads back and baring their patterned chests to each other, uttering loud and raucous squawking calls. With their chosen partner, a female will lay 1-4 eggs in a nest of grass and twigs, high on a rocky ledge (if coastal) or hidden in deep grass cover (if rural), within the loose bounds of a colonial nest-site. The eggs’ hatching is timed to coincide with that of the nesting seabirds (in the same way blue tits’ hatching coincides with that of local caterpillars) meaning the young have plenty to eat. As such, over the course of 2-3 months, the young – initially small brown balls of fluff – will grow rapidly and be ready to fledge by the end of February. And, by ‘be ready’ I mean, they are unceremoniously evicted by their parents, often flocking and learning to survive together.

This majestic bird is, sadly, one of the rarest raptors in the world, currently considered to be Near Threatened with roughly between 1.5 and 4 thousand individuals within their restricted habitat. However, conservation efforts and legal protection is helping to increase the breeding population – which is a real relief because, having come face-to-beak with one of these birds, it would be a real shame to see them go.

Facts taken from: Falklands Conservation, Lake District Wildlife Park, ebird.org, Oiseaux-Birds

https://falklandsconservation.com/caracara/

https://www.lakedistrictwildlifepark.co.uk/animals/striated-caracara/

https://ebird.org/species/strcar1

http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-striated-caracara.html

Wellness Wednesdays - Exercise

Welcome to Wednesday’s Wellness Clinic. I can promise you I am not a doctor, a psychotherapist or a preacher, just someone with a lot going on inside her head looking for a way to calm the storm and impart that wisdom to you.

This isn’t the post you were expecting but it’s the one you are getting because, yet again, I didn’t come prepared with any new/interesting recipes for my Tasty Tuesday. So, instead, you are getting the regularly scheduled Wellness Wednesday which today is brought to you courtesy of my growing desire to exercise. Because, as we have all been told, exercise – in any reasonable quantity – is good for us: good for our bodies and good for our minds. This is due to several factors:

• Physical activity burns energy, which means we are more likely to sleep better
• When we exercise, our body releases hormones which make us feel happier and more energised
• Exercising can also reduce stress and anxiety by giving our brain something else to focus on
• As you improve physically and meet your goals, your self-esteem gets a boost as well
• And as a result of all of this, you are [possibly] less likely to get depressive episodes

I have taken up practising a different exercise technique every month since the start of the year and admittedly, I haven’t found much to be excited about yet. Also, as I haven’t kept any one activity up for more than a month, I haven’t experienced much in the way of physical improvement either. But I do consider this an education in what exercises I can do. Thus far I have managed 10 lateral raises (lifting and lowering weights with arms outstretched) with a 20sec drop, 30 lunges (with 2kg weights), 35 sit-ups, and 40 squats (those are the max for each activity per month – and I have just noticed how each number goes up – cool!) I think it’s fair to say that the squats are the easiest one for me so far, but this month I am doing roughly a 10min off-n-on early morning jog every other day – while trying to build up to proper press-ups in the days between – and I must say I am loving it! (not too sure what to do about when it rains just yet) At first, the back of my calves ached, and I got out of breath very quickly, but with the ache now gone, I can feel my stamina slowly improving. I get to be out in the quiet and coolness of a summer morning, listening to the birds and the sound of my own breath. It’s very freeing and thus it does help to focus my mind, clear most of my intrusive thoughts, and boost my confidence.

Of course, if you are a fan of the gym then you’re already doing better than me; if you haven’t been before but would like to, I suggest going with a friend. It can be easy to fall out of the habit, so you need someone for motivation and, to be honest, it’s just a whole lot more enjoyable when there’s two [or more] of you. But do make sure you stretch out before and after any form of strenuous activity (like those I have listed) and remember not to push yourself too hard or overwork any muscles which start to ache – take a day or two off before carrying on. The last thing you want to do is hurt yourself as physical injury often contributes to low mood (I know that all too well). If, however, you know you aren’t capable of this sort of exercise, try something more low-intensity:

• Gardening: if you have a garden, just tending to it will get you bending, lifting, and pushing – and you’re out in nature which is also the perfect environment for stress relief
• Cleaning: from vacuuming and dusting, to scrubbing, polishing, and tidying, doing a bit of housework should get you sweating a little – and a clean house does make for a contented mind
• Dancing: join a local dance class or put on some music while cooking; your dancing may not always be perfect, but you’ll enjoy yourself all the same
• Swimming: whether it’s your local swimming baths, a back garden pool or even a public swimming lake, if you’re proficient in the water, you’ll be sure to get a full body work-out
• Walking: walk to work, amble through nature, stroll in the park with a friend, or pop down to the shops – the less time you spend on four wheels and the more you spent on two legs, the more you’ll engage with the world and improve your mental wellbeing

Even just getting up from your desk at work every 30mins-1hr and doing a few stretches or going for a quick walk (tips I mentioned in previous posts on stretching and taking time for yourself) can help keep your body healthy and prevent your mind from stagnating.

Now, if the weather permits it, I should be getting up for another jog in the morning so I shall leave you with this and hopefully be back with more content tomorrow.

Some facts taken from:

Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/physical-activity-and-your-mental-health/about-physical-activity/

Musical Mondays - The Lost Children (2011) by Disturbed

(right) Sven Mandel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (and yes, I know, this photo is more recent than the album but I like it)

I may have mentioned the trio of bands which make up the core of what I love listening to – My Chemical Romance, Korn, and H.I.M. – and in due course I have reviewed albums by all three of them. But there are other bands which orbit this central cluster like moons, and one of those ‘moons’ is the Chicago metal band Disturbed. Much like Oomph!, they haven’t changed their line-up for the majority of their 27-year career, which admittedly shows in the fairly consistent style of their music from their debut in 2000 to their hiatus in 2011. However, this only seems to have helped them retain fans – something which bold moves like Korn’s adoption of dubstep for 2011’s Path of Totality or MCR’s laser-pop Danger Days era meant many fans lost interest. Whether the album I have chosen for today’s review could be considered a fan favourite, however, is up for debate.

I chose 2011’s B-side album The Lost Children for no other reason than that the first song ‘Hell’ got stuck in my head when I woke up this morning. It’s a strong opener for what would be their last album for 4 years, packed with classic rough, metallic guitar riffs, powerful drumbeats, and vocals almost as unique and recognisable as those of Korn’s Jonathan Davis. There are tonal shifts, subtle background melodies (could be violin, could be unplugged electric guitar – or just the bass doing something funky) and that sinister electronic intro chased by Draiman’s signature animalistic growl – such heavy poetry!

Most other songs share this same strange mix of electronics, driving beat, and a sinister edge, but a few stand out as unique to this album. ‘A Welcome Burden’ – which follows hot on ‘Hell’s heels (try saying that several times fast) – is a heavy track from the get-go with guitars which switch from tightly controlled to pounding force in an instant. Draiman similarly switches the grit in his voice off and on at will. When the grit is off though, as in the verses of ‘Monster’ and ‘Leave It Alone’, there’s something almost silky to his voice, thinly veiling the power behind it (because Davey has some serious pipes!) If you need more of those beautiful vocals, tracks 10-14 all do a great job courtesy of Draiman’s ability to hold a note, almost longingly in ‘Sickened’ and ‘Dehumanized’. And if you’re after some of Dan Donegan’s excellent strings, these two songs also fit the bill, the former maintaining a strong melody throughout while the latter plays with a variety of tones from a tight tinny intro to a full chorus riff. ‘Mine’ is a real go-to for electronic tones and audio samples of a war-time nature – in keeping with Disturbed’s penchant for violent themes – but it too switches the tone several times, even slowing for a hand-drum laden breakdown.

This album also features two cover songs: Faith No More’s ‘Midlife Crisis’, a song which, even if you didn’t know it was a cover, sits very much apart from their usual sound being smoother, bolder and more atmospheric – but gives Draiman a chance to show off that sexy gruff voice – and Judas Priest’s ‘Living After Midnight’, again very different from their usual material both tonally and lyrically, but they carry the tune really well all the same. I would dedicate more time to laying out the bones of this album for a closer inspection – because trust me, I haven’t mentioned all the songs and each has its own merits – but time is getting on and I’m out for an early morning jog. So let this brief exposé sell itself as best it can and until next time – which hopefully is tomorrow!

FULL ALBUM: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaKGqsgrt0cI4mAV-GDTK0BOQMPpbJZeD

Storybook Saturdays - Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy + Night of Cake & Puppets (2011-2014) by Laini Taylor

Her ignorance was like standing in pure dark that could either be a closet or a vast starless night.

Well I guess I’m finally back, almost a month after my last post about the benefits of tea (which you can check out here) but this post is still long overdue. I set myself the task of trying to re-read Laini Taylor’s magnificent Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy (with companion novel, Night of Cake & Puppets) last month, which, to my surprise, I managed. The only downside was I hadn’t reckoned on how long it would take me to condense my copious notes into something I could work with. To put it into context, I finished those notes last night. Yeh. Granted, I allowed myself to become preoccupied most evenings/weekends, slowing that process down considerably, but it’s done now and so, without further ado, let’s begin.

Now, my reasoning behind buying the first book was the stereotypical ‘I judged the book by its cover’ but when the cover looks like this, how I could not? And I was richly rewarded with the story therein. A mystery girl with the most brilliant sense of humour living in a beautiful city; a dual existence in a world filled with fantastical creatures and angels, and an age-old war between the two. There’s magic, romance, action, danger and so much emotion! To be honest that seems to cover the entire trilogy pretty well. But let’s dig a little deeper, shall we? (Note: my discussion from this point will encompass quotes and references to all three books)

Firstly, Taylor’s language – so beautiful and unique, I don’t know how she does it! I mean who else uses words like ‘be-with-able-ness’ and ‘un-was’ (to imply a thing simply ceasing to be)? Who else could describe a mirthless laugh as ‘like a soul pulled inside out’ or compare the devouring of multiple universes to someone eating biscotti (of all things) ‘but from the biscotti’s point of view’? Who else could take the concept of synaesthesia and turn it into a whole other language or use it to describe the feel of someone’s soul? (Have I gushed enough yet?) She uses repetition to great effect as well, to emphasise tension and panic and despair, or inserts witty internal dialogue to break it up and build character – and some of these thoughts are hilarious! Spoken dialogue also seems to come very naturally to Taylor, especially between her main protagonist Karou and pretty much every other character she interacts with. But my favourite is the early scenes with her and the angel Akiva – theirs is the pivotal romance, by the way. You can feel the threads of her past slowly trying to reconnect with his and its magical. As is the scenery in all the worlds.

The first book is set in Prague in the Czech Republic and because of this book alone, I want to visit this city. Taylor describes it as ‘a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century’, full of ‘spiking Gothic towers’, ‘medieval cobbles’ that ‘meandered like creeks’, marionettes, colourful buildings, hidden cafes, ‘snow and stone and ghostlight’ (there’s another one of those awesome invented words). But the real fantasy is in the beauty of ‘Elsewhere’ or Eretz, the other world where Chimaera and Seraphim come from. From the ‘clitter-clack of teeth strings’ in Brimstone’s shop to the ‘massive black walls and bars of the fortress’ of Loramendi to the ‘fluid upthrusts of crystal’ of the towers of Astrae, and the varied landscapes and chimaera of the ‘southern continent’ which includes the Kirin caves full of ‘an eerie, ever present ambient sound that was part dark and stormy might and part whalesong.’ It is always a tapestry of sight and sound whenever she describes a place and its history, one which she adds to gradually so as not to overwhelm you. And she devotes the same amount of attention to her characters.

When first meeting certain characters, Taylor will almost always give an in-depth and honest description of them, starting with the most important detail. Karou’s most prominent feature – her hair – is mentioned first: ‘loose, long, and peacock blue’, the rest being delivered piecemeal throughout. Her best friend, Zuzana is introduced by way of her being ‘a master of the eyebrow arch’ before remarking on her shortness, but similarly her description is built up through personality (of which there is so much, it’s no wonder Taylor gave her her own story, Night of Cake & Puppets – which I highly recommend: it is a funny, gorgeously illustrated quick-read). She also functions as the reader’s touchstone, if you like, to ‘reality’ throughout most of the story. By contrast, Akiva gets an entire page dedicated to his ‘truly, breath-stealingly beautiful’ looks and his unique amber eyes which seem to contain ‘live fire’ (the many ways Taylor manages to mention flames, fire, scorching, fuses or sparks when talking about Akiva is insane). Thiago – a human-wolf chimaera who is just as pivotal to the story but for all the wrong reasons – is also given a lot of description because secretly I think Taylor is in love with him. At first, all you get is this vision of majesty, lascivious arrogance, and whiteness, but by the second book he is somehow ‘more beautiful for the scars that made him seem more real’ and you begin to see how dedicated a soldier he is, and even question how justified you are in despising him – given the events which transpired in the previous book. But I will say, thankfully, you are allowed to hate him and leave it at that.

As I don’t want to ruin anything, I shan’t elaborate too much on the rest of the characters, but each of them is so uniquely themselves you could almost imagine they were real. You can hear Brimstone’s voice ‘deep as a catacomb’ or the genuine bright laughter of Hazael, Akiva’s brother; imagine the way Madrigal would look in the mist of the battlefield, head cocked in her ‘quizzical, bird-like gesture’; and see the hideousness of Razgut and Jael, the defaced and vile angels. And for several of these major or minor characters, you soon find yourself emotionally invested in their wellbeing, especially the women I found. At first, it’s merely the perils Karou faces on her errands for Brimstone, but as she progresses, you feel her fears become your own particularly regarding Thiago and his cunning tricks. Even the rabid fairy Zuze, finding herself in way over her head, is left with ‘scorch marks on her soul’ from facing death, the realisation of which seems to scorch your own soul with pity. By the final book, you are overwhelmed with emotion for pretty much everyone given the scale of the battle they now face. But you also start to feel for Liraz, Akiva’s tomboy sister, too. She’s so much more vulnerable than you think when you realise that, for all her previous coldness, ‘she wanted to be rescued’, and that love is an emotion she wants to feel too. It’s just such a pity that you don’t get more of her love story when it finally arrives; instead, it’s a continuation of the regularly scheduled Akiva/Karou romance.

Now I love a good romance: the flirting, the body language, the satisfaction when they finally kiss (and the physicality of what comes afterwards) but, if one thing lets this series down, it’s the romance. I am not lying when I say this particular one starts to wear thin for how cliché it is: Akiva’s seemingly psychic connection drawing him to Karou, his despair at losing her, his infuriating fears when he gets her back. I want to just shake the pair of them! Which is probably why I am so thankful for Zuze pushing them into a tiny hotel bathroom together to cure them of their blindness. And fortunately, this is a series built on war and trickery, so there’s plenty of action to spice things up a bit, particularly in Days of Blood & Starlight which perfects the art of building tension and only releasing it in the final third of the book.

And, as with pretty much every book I have reviewed, I feel I could go on and on – and probably give away too much of the plot in the process – but it’s only because I want to let people know just how great Taylor’s writing is. She is a genius for inventing a world and characters I wish were real, for dealing the bad guys (and girls) their come-uppance as they rightly deserve – I’m looking at you Esther and Morgan – and for occasionally tripping me up with false pretences! And that is why I had to buy the exquisite Illumicrate editions of this series as well.

(Also, as it is June and currently 28°C in my room, my laptop is causing me to overheat so I am having to bring this review to a somewhat reluctant end – but I will return with my next music review – as yet undecided – tomorrow night!)