Review of Charm School

I cannot believe that I, a fine, upstanding male moose of great intelligence, read this. What can I say, it was a slow day, it was on the desk, and hey, someone's gotta review it.....

Having said that, it wasn't bad. When Bonny moves to a new house her mum has to take an accounting course before she can start work, and charm school is the only full day course Bonny is qualified for. Thrown into a world where biscuits are the enemy and insults are a new form of greeting she claims to have been sent to help with the sound and lighting for the 'purls and curls' talent show. But things don't turn out quite as expected when she decides to shake things up a little.

It's a girly book, there's no denying it. But its lighthearted and an easy read (it is aimed at kids after all), and it gives a remarkably accurate insight into what people are really like.

I sort of enjoyed it. But don't tell anyone I said that.

Review of The Snowman

*A nose peeks out from a pile of blankets in a corner*

*Marlon looks nervously around*

Oh phew. Sorry, but that book was SCARY! Really scary. Really really scary....*Marlon's antlers start quivering*.

It's originally by a Scandanavian author and is set in Oslo, which is somewhere in Norway (which incidently has a large number of moose). It follows a detective called Harry as he tries to find out who keeps killing women on the day of the first snow fall, and why they build a snowman every time. Along the way he has to find out what a genetic testing centre has to do with it, and why the killer sent him a note a month or so before the most recent killings.

It's a bit slow to start, and it jumps between the past and the present and different characters a fair amount, so you have to be alert, but when it picks up, it really picks up.

This is a fabulous if terrifying book. If I'd been reading it in winter I wouldn't have dared go outside. As it was I didn't dare read after dark, especially near the end. Despite that it was a really good read, with a lot of twists and turns to keep the plot moving. It is very definitely an adult novel, there's violence and people get tortured a bit, and there are dead bodies, and sex (not at the same time!).

It's technically part of a series of books about the detective guy, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the blurby thing. The only downside is that because the place names are Norweigan it was hard to know how to pronounce them because they have extra letters to play around with. Like o's with lines through them and little dots over letters.

Overall, go and read it. Turn all the lights on first though.

And most of all, beware the snowman!