Lobster
Theodore:
Jim, his girlfriend the
chain smoking Tracy and her fat son Theodore; a tantrum prone child.
Jim disagrees with the
ADHD diagnosis recently bestowed upon Theodore, he prefers to think of him as
just an obnoxious child, but then Jim has very set feelings about child
rearing!
His day job is as a
lobster boat man and he is struggling with his “familys” wants and his lack of
buyers, thankfully he has Tracy’s benefit money to keep the business afloat.
Even the rest of his
street are demanding of him, poor Jim, but then he does something that makes
the lobsters happy!
GJ is a master at making
characters appear real and with huge histories within moments of you reading
about them, love or hate them you are involved in their lives.
Little
Prick:
Jasmine is wasting away
and watching her mother care for her 24/7 also waste away. She has all manner
of skin and internal ailments all brought on by one deadly disease, HIV, but
she has a plan.
Her story is heart-breaking
but the plan she and her doting mother have hatched to end all their suffering
is a poetic one.
I really enjoyed the
ending, but it had so much sadness in this story I had to “walk” away from the
book for a few weeks.
Man’s
Best Friend:
Lennie is revolting
individual that left the Army less of a human, if that’s possible, than when he
went in thanks to an IED.
Now living in Thailand he
is able to keep slave women, pigs and dogs with a side-line of child kidnapping
into the bargain. The pigs and dogs are sold for meat the women fair much
worse.
Whilst Lennie is living the life those around him are
not, but Karma is a Bitch, literally as it turns out for Lennie.
I was sad to learn of the
landmines that still pepper this beautiful country still causing death and
destruction so long after the war.
GJ does such a wonderful
job of describing the land and areas of beauty.
Towers
of Fear:
Kerrie has lost her best
friend and possibly her reason to live.
She continues to relive
the day that planes crashed into the Twin Towers destroying so many lives and
changing the way we all now live our lives.
Whilst most of us will
remember what we were doing, where we were, who we were with and some, many,
more who we lost, seeing this close up personal view was very harrowing. Not all
horror is gore, some if just pure fear.
Best
for the Job:
Jenny is an air hostess
with the mostess! Tall, beautiful and blonde she has fallen in love with
Luciano and followed him to his native Brazil, again such beautiful descriptions
of country and people by GJ.
But being a kept woman is
not her idea of fun and there are only so many museums you can visit. So she
sets off to find another job and lands a perfect role in a small new company
doing charter flights.
She is aware of the bad
safety record of flights in and around Brazil and takes care to ensure all her
passengers are aware of the onboard safety instructions, not that it really
matters in what is about to happen to them all. Eeeeeewwww!
The
Last Cake:
Grace is off to her final
days work as a midwife and tomorrow she plans to bake her final award winning
cake, she just needs to gather a few final secret ingredients.
Just revolting, but also
very funny.
Lockdown:
Don is a doomsday prepper
and not just any old scenario he is prepared for everything! From economic
collapse to volcanic eruptions he has it all planned for, or does he?
He has a daily routine of
wandering his complex with its multidue of hidey holes, animals, windmills and
plant growing sets ups. In his bunker at night he inventories his food and ammo
leaving nothing to chance.
When the earth starts to
shake he knows something has happened and goes into lockdown mode. His lack of
compassion for animals and even his 14 year old companion dog made what occurs
next make me smile. That lovely Karma again, plus can you really plan for
everything?
I did a little
giggle/snort when we find out what the rumbles and earth shakes were.
Nosey
Parker:
Tim has survived his two
days training at the new computer care job despite his over fussy mum and very
cold ex-army father.
His new company uses a
super computer that analyses chemicals to such a degree that no animal testing
is required – perfect.
Perfect is also what Tim’s
job is; go to work, pursue your hobbies, surf online, read books, eat free
food, sleep or whatever you want – just don’t ask questions and get paid lots
of money.
But Tim is a Nosey Parker
and soon discovers first-hand what the company are actually upto.
Personally I loved the
whole set and am filling in an application form!
Regrets:
Nicholas hates flying, he
is also missing his sons football games, hugging his daughter and after a nasty
fight with his much loved wife he is feeling guilty too.
A distraction at the
cockpit soon distracts him. Such a sad ending, another 9/11 little glimpse.
I found the whole book more sad than horror, and overall, whilst there were some humorous moments they were overshadowed by the sad bits, plus the odd missing letter/or misspelling and this is not GJ best work - a relook would do it some favours BUT he is still an amazing author with some serious skills!
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