Me with almost all my Paul Magrs books
Excitingly, I’ve been reading this one alongside Bookish Beck (thank you for participating!) and you will find her review here. I last read this spooky chronicle in September 2011 after I’d been sent a proof copy by the publisher. Back then I liked what I liked now, and took issue with something that didn’t bother me so much this time around; at least I was into writing decently long reviews by then!
Paul Magrs – “666 Charing Cross Road”
(08 September 2011)
A slightly-too-scary-for-me vampire novel set excitingly mainly in New York, with naturally an excursion to the famous bookselling road in London (somewhere I went a lot myself when I lived in central London). Magrs’ inimitable style translates well, I think, to its new location, and Headline clearly supported him with good editing and proofreading. There’s a lovely underlying celebration of genre novels although with some authors who have a touch of horror themselves, and of course a love of bookshops similar to that in last month’s read of “Exchange”.
There’s lots of intertextuality, with Mr Danby making an appearance, many nods to Helene Hanff and more. I loved the strong older (one very old!) female characters who are there to try to save the day (even Consuela, who ends up in a bit of a bad way, is still a strong matriarch by the end) and the respect Liza has as a publisher’s reader, and one of them has a sister in another link to others of Magrs’ books (I’ve loved picking out this aspect of the books, reading so many of them in one year). I still think Jack should be introduced to Robert from the Brenda and Effie series – can this happen, please? (or has it already?)
Daniel the villain is truly nasty and scary and his cult of personality is all too believable, but Bessie is not as alarming as the first time I read it, as I knew (in about the only bit of the novel that I remembered from last time) that she wasn’t a force of evil. She reminded me of the Green Witch from Susan Cooper’s novel this time around. I did still have to read the book in daylight hours, however … A suitable read for Halloween Month, especially as it’s set from now through to Christmastime!
Bookish Beck’s review is up here, and she enjoyed it, too, hooray!
Next up is a guest review from a friend who read the Mars Trilogy, and then I need to decide whether it’s a re-read of “Stardust and Snow” or the new “Christmassy Tales” for December …
You can find Paul online at Life on Magrs and he also has a Patreon for exclusive new content.
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
R.I.P. Reads, Part I: Magrs Buddy Read; Hynes, Johnson, Oates | Bookish Beck
Oct 15, 2020 @ 10:35:25
Oct 15, 2020 @ 14:14:13
It’s nice when a book stands up to re-reading, and especially when scary bits are less scary! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oct 16, 2020 @ 08:11:58
Yes, indeed, and I’m so glad Bookish Beck enjoyed it, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oct 16, 2020 @ 14:43:54
It’s good that he includes strong older characters, but did he have to keep referring to them as “the old woman”?! 🙂 That plus Liza’s accent were the things that bothered me a bit, but this was still such fun to read. Thanks for the buddy read!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oct 16, 2020 @ 14:48:51
Of course Liza’s accent didn’t bother me as I wasn’t expert enough to notice any issues! I suppose this was a few years back and they seemed old to the pretty young characters, maybe? Bessie we can count as fairly elderly, at least … ! I’m glad you had fun with it, anyway, and thank you for reading along with me!
LikeLike