Blueeyedboy: the second in a trilogy of dark, chilling and witty psychological thrillers from bestselling author Joanne Harris

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Just one dislike - the books is made up of the web posts of two people, but they write in such a similar way, it is hard to tell them apart. They use the same words even, echo the same thoughts. Perhaps it is deliberate - the book is the more menacing to be completed in the same tone - perhaps Joanne wants us to be on edge not quite knowing who is hiding behind which identity. Loved Runemarks…a core fantasy much like the stories of David Eddings or Terry Brooks, with a cool twist on Norse mythology. (Stephenie Meyer) Folklore/fairytale Moreover, there were too many twist and revelations in the plot and too many deaths (are they real or fantasies?) that don’t raise suspicions (you’d think that by the third or fourth death in a small community authorities would start to pay attention, no?).

I enjoyed Gentlemen and Players which takes place in the same village, and to some extent has a similar thriller narrative with unreliable first person narrators but Blueeyedboy was too confusing, and had none of the humor of the previous book. Here, her characters were cynical, dark and manipulative, this makes them off-putting and highly unlikable. The synaesthesia aspect was fascinating, it's not something I'd really heard of before, so was very interested in that, and hope to read more of it again!The author deliberately subverts some of the norms of structure and narration in this book. Why do you think she chose to do this? What do you think the effect is on your reading experience? some of the best stories haunt you for ages, resurfacing at odd moments and make you question your life as you know it, this is one such book and for me emulates the feelings I had as a child after reading the real Grimm’s fairy stories – fear, excitement, wariness and yet greed for more of the same. Albertine, like B.B., is an ambiguous and somewhat damaged character. Marked by her troubled past, she hides behind an intricate façade, only revealing her true feelings in her private blog. Her love-hate relationship with B.B. is based on shared experience and a kind of dreadful fascination; she knows him better than anyone else, and the link that binds them together has made it impossible for her to find a meaningful, honest relationship with anyone else. Like B.B., she dreams of escaping her life, but instead finds herself drawn into an ever more tortuous game of deceit and emotional manipulation.

Another attribute that Monarch calls out is the fact that it is “Private & Exclusive. Monarch is only available to members and not to the general public. Like-minded members will be able to work towards their fitness and health goals without distraction.” It is a close community, rife with conflicting factions. Outsiders are not welcome, and those who do not fit in are the subject of gossip and speculation. There is a great deal of snobbery, and there is bitter rivalry between the state school and St Oswald's, the grammar school. Identity – both real and fake – tends to be a recurrent theme of yours. How does this book explore the idea? If you’re studying this book as part of a readers’ group, here are a few resources to help you get started. Note: questions do contain spoilers, so read the book first if you want to avoid them...

One character in the book is blind. How does the author modify her language to convey this when using this character’s voice? I was being threatened with arrest in America unless I went to court. To have that kind of thing hanging over you, I don’t think you tend to write too well.” She shrugs. “It happens.”

We publish a Literature Newsletter when we have news and features on UK and international literature, plus opportunities for the industry to share. Her American publishers were so disturbed by the change in style that they turned the book down. Harris is unrepentant. Essentially, the gist of this book is that there's a 40-something guy named B.B. He lives with his mother, and spends big chunks of his life online, writing fiction about committing murder on Totally-Not-LiveJournal. He's part of a fiction writing group that focuses on villains, and the entire book is told in the fics and journal entries that he writes, with occasional additions from one of the other characters who's in his fic writing group, but who he knows in real life.This is a very clever book; arguably the cleverest of all Harris’s books and almost certainly too clever for the likes of me. Because I struggled with it, if I’m honest. The tightly plotted drama of “Different Class” plays out in a way which is exciting and surprising, but the novel also says something meaningful about our shifting sense of values. I read this novel at a much faster pace than I read most books for the sheer pleasure of the idiosyncratic characters and the desire to know how their intriguing story would play out. It’s a highly enjoyable read. (The Lonesome Reader) It is with a sigh and a heavy heart that I write this review, as (as I said) I am a huge Joanne Harris fan but this book felt like such a departure from her other books that I love so much – even Gentlemen and Players which is also classed as a thriller but which I loved (it was very plot driven and had humour as well as some great charaters and twists). blueeyedboy is dark, and not feel-good at all. The theme of food is there, but twisted, where before it's always seemed like a kind of good magic, in Harris' work -- although again, I can see a theme continuing, like the smell of oranges from Five Quarters of the Orange. In what way is this a novel about identity, and how our identity is shaped by our senses and how we perceive the world?