John Wyndham: Chocky

Hi

Chocky is my third John Wyndham. You can find all my JohnWyndham reviews here.
My copy has 153 pages and a 3-page introduction by Brian Aldiss.
I got it from The Book Depository.

“Matthew's parents are worried. At eleven, he's much too old to have an imaginary friend, yet they find him talking to and arguing with a presence that even he admits is not physically there. This presence - Chocky - causes Matthew to ask difficult questions and say startling things: he speaks of complex mathematics and mocks human progress. Then, when Matthew does something incredible, it seems there is more than the imaginary about Chocky. Which is when others become interested and ask questions of their own: who is Chocky? And what could it want with an eleven-year-old boy?”

From the very beginning I expected ‘what’ Chocky exactly is. It might have been different at the time it was written but as a reader in 2016 the mystery wasn’t really a mystery. Actually, I had hoped for a very different, rather more violent ending.
But Chocky is a very interesting character. Her questions as an outsider about our planet and the way we run things had me thinking too.

The plot went nowhere. No suspense or climax. And the exposition dump at the end didn’t work for me either.

The ending of the book took me by surprise because it’s a happy one.
As I said before, this is my third John Wyndham and I didn’t think a happy end was part of his repertoire. It fits the story very well; it just surprised me. It’s a rather optimistic story too.

Matthew really got to me. He is such a sweet tempered, smart boy and I really cared for him.
The father is a complete disaster though. He is a good father for Matthew. Not so for his daughter. And he isn’t a very nice husband either. His views on women are wrong, coldhearted, idiotic and shortsighted. The mother (and all other women in this story) is rather stupid, dull and insipid. Men, according to Wyndham are smart, reasonable and even-tempered. Or so he wants us to believe.
Both father and mother have strange reactions to what happens to their family. Who in their right mind would send their child to school a day after he has been kidnapped for over a week?

Chocky isn’t a bad book. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would because it is rather boring and the characters are a bit flat too.
But it is also short, insightful, optimistic and sweet.

3 STARS

Happy reading.
Helena

John Wyndham: The Chrysalids

Hi everyone

This review is about the second John Wyndham book I read. The Day of the Triffids was one of my favorite books last month so I wanted to read this one shortly after.
I got my beautiful copy from Book Depository and it has 7 pages introduction by M. John Harrison and 187 pages story.

“David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realize that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends, have their own secret aberration which would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands...”

I enjoyed this book very much.
The characters are vividly written, there is a sense of danger throughout the novel and the world building is subtle but thorough. It’s very readable and short but it’s still deeply moving and thoughtful.

The setting and the concept were very intriguing. I could actually see the community of Waknuk as a real place and I could understand the people’s fear for mutations and the reasons for their way of life.
I loved finding out about Zealand because I always like to know what happened to the rest of the world in these kinds of novels. Most of the time the world outside the specific country or city the book is set in, is ignored.

Even though the message the book puts out is quite moral it is also philosophical and it’s never lecturing, dramatic, sentimental or judging. That’s why some people might not even see it. Or see something else than I did.
I liked how David’s father is too much of a religious fundamentalist even for his neighbors. The scene with David’s aunt will stay with me for a long time.

                *  SPOILERS  *

However, I did feel like there was too much foreshadowing. Most chapters ended talking about how it would all change for the worse and I never like that.
Worst of all though was the ending. The Zealanders kill the Waknuk search team and the people from The Fringe just because they could and because they’re different. The Zealanders think they are better than them so they don’t matter and can be killed. They actually react exactly like the Waknuk people to others who differ from them by killing them and thinking ‘it’s us or them’. Those people were no threat to the Zealanders because they live too far and because they’re not as technologically advanced. 
This ending is completely at odds with Wyndham’s message for tolerance and empathy throughout the book. In the end, our main characters go from one community to another with exactly the same kind of thinking but now they are the ones belonging to the approved group.
And the explanation for this massacre offered by the Zealand woman is futile, ridiculous and clumsy.

4 STARS

Happy reading.
Helena

Kraken Rum while enjoying this one.

John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids

Hi

This is my review of John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.
The book is only 233 pages long and it has a 11 page introduction by Barry Langford.
I got my copy from The Book Depository.

“When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital, there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realises that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids – huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh – can have their day.”

It reminds me of José Saramago’s Blindness (which I loved) but The Day of the Triffids was actually the first book.

I absolutely loved this story.
It’s so interesting, so different and really haunting.

The characters are very stereotypical English men and woman. This added humor and sensibility to the story. It might make it hard to connect to the characters for some readers, but I liked this actually because the characters are stereotypes but they’re not caricatures.

Wyndham’s writing is suspenseful and vivid and it made me feel like I was actually there with Bill, going through everything with him. I really felt connected with them.
It’s easy to read and I flew through this.

I have one problem with the book and that’s the case of insta-love. That’s something that always annoys me.

5 STARS

Happy reading.
Helena

Homemade fudge, a cup of tea and an amazing novel. I'm having a great evening.