Sleeping Patterns - J. R. Crook

This a short work of just over a hundred pages and it is an unusual narrative of layered stories. The opening surprised me and heightened my interest - the novel is 'dedicated to the memory of the author'. Then we have an introduction by Annelie Strandli, know to her friends as Grethe, who is also a character in the book, alerting us to the fact that the story we are about to read consists of fifteen elements of a tale by the writer. Berry Walker is a withdrawn and introverted insomniac and an aspiring writer who Annelie lives with (amongst others) in a student residence. She hopes to discover more about him through his writings. Within the elements of the story that describe Annelie's narrative, there is another layer recounting the story of a boy, Boy One, a dreamer, and the story explores the notion of dreaming, not just whilst asleep but whilst awake; 'he allowed his dreaming to overflow into the daylight hours.' 

I enjoyed this book, in fact I think I was a little unsure whether at first I would like it, and it pleasantly surprised me; it offered me something different and I felt the way it was written made me sit up and pay attention. I discovered that the fifteen chapters or pieces of the story are numbered non-sequentially; first I read 5, then 1, then 11. I was intrigued, and tempted to rearrange them and read them from 1 to 15 as per usual, but I resisted and read the book as it was presented to me. It made me think and re-evaluate what I expected from a work of fiction, after all, the author is named in the book, so is this entirely fiction? How does the relationship between the reader and the writer and the story work? I could imagine readers having varied reactions to this novel and therefore sharing an interesting discussion about it.

There are some lovely passages; one in particular I liked was this, describing Annelie's curiosity about the Berry as she anticipates uncovering his writing: 'She would be hoping that small fictions and understated truths were there for her to find. She would be fancying the image of the writer's hands, like those of an illusionist's, revealing to her all manner of things invisible before.'

For me this is the work of an inventive and talented writer who has taken a chance and is unafraid to challenge the reader's expectations with the unconventional style and structure of his storytelling here. As I've said, it was quite different from a lot of what I read and I liked the challenge and uniqueness of it. I think I'd like to read it again one day and see what else I discover, and the short length of the book encourages me to do this as does the attractiveness of the edition.

I would certainly try more fiction by this author and after reading this book I would be interested to see what approach he takes to his future works.

Published by Legend Press

Sleeping Patterns was the winner of the 2011 Luke Bitmead Bursary.

Here's a link to a great review of Sleeping Patterns on Vishy's Blog

Thank you to the author for kindly sending me a copy of this novel to read and review.

You can find the author on twitter @JRCrookkk and visit his website here.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs - guest review

Jacob grew up being enthralled by the tales his grandfather Abe told him, of how, at the age of 12, the only surviving member of his family to escape from Poland during the horrors of WW2, he came to live at Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an orphanage situated on a remote island off the coast of Wales.  Abe even had photos of the peculiar children, strange black and white snapshots, the girl who would float away if she wasn’t wearing her weighted shoes, the girl with two mouths, or the boy who had prophetic dreams.  Abe ended up there because he was special too, he could see monsters, and he had been running from them all his life.

As Jacob grows up, he comes to realise that they are just that, stories and ramblings of an old man in the grip of dementia.  But when tragedy strikes, and Jacob finds his badly injured grandfather dying in the woods, Abe tells Jacob to go to the island to uncover the truth for himself.  So Jacob sets off on a journey of discovery…

For the most part, I enjoyed this book, which is marketed at young adults.  It is beautifully designed and the inside is interspersed with haunting black and white pictures, which makes it all the more intriguing.  There are elements of magical realism, as well as a healthy dose of fantasy, there is also adventure and love, peril and villains, shape-shifting and time travel. 

The only niggles I have are, that although part of the book is set in Wales, (in both 2011 and 1940), sadly, you don’t get any sense of that.  There is no local dialect used, and the children of WW2 use words and expressions that I very much doubt were around back then.  Then there are the photographs themselves, all very haunting, but clearly not contemporary with the 1940s.

However, all that aside, the book was beautiful to look at, quirky and enjoyable to read, and there is scope for a sequel, which I will definitely buy.

Reviewed by Janice Lazell-Wood, guest reviewer.

Published by Quirk Books

Many thanks to Janice for kindly reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library.

Thanks to PGUK Books for sending a copy of this novel for review.