aca's Bookshelf

Love this one - a story which has all the classic Murakami elements, a search, a mysterious girl and surrealism, most strikingly perhaps, in one hell of a strange sheep. My strongest impression looking back is actually (at first) thinking the ending wasn't as strong as I was expecting, yet I found myself thinking about it often in the days after. So it was exactly what it needed to be. Definitely worth a read and a really good place to start if new to Murakami.

Hard to know exactly what to say about The Hobbit - other than that I love it! I read it once a year and am always thrilled by the storytelling, there's so much packed into this small book and it has so much to offer, big themes, small heroes and the show-stealer himself: Gollum!

Good stuff - fun world-building throughout with the multiple Londons divided by magic and colour. I enjoyed Kell and Delilah's interplay and it was interesting to see that she seemed to have a bigger character arc ahead of her than the MC, Kell. (Which is in no way a bad thing either.) Smooth writing and some great minor characters in there too. If I'd wished for one thing from 'A Darker Shade...' it would have been a little more time spent with the villains. But I'll still be grabbing book 2, that's for sure.