With the swinging sixties staggering, shamefaced and flustered, into the slightly staider seventies, life for Stella, isn’t going as smoothly as she’d like. As an ordinary person, who happens to have some extraordinary abilities, it's frustrating to find that something as simple as holding down a job, throws up unexpected hurdles.
She'd be a darn sight better off if she could ditch the conviction she knows best which, together with a chronic inability to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people's business, has led her more than once off the straight and narrow into the dodgy and dangerous. Plans for a safer future, include setting herself up in business, squashing her over-active conscience and steering clear of risky and unpleasant.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans can lead to the darkest places.
She'd be a darn sight better off if she could ditch the conviction she knows best which, together with a chronic inability to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people's business, has led her more than once off the straight and narrow into the dodgy and dangerous. Plans for a safer future, include setting herself up in business, squashing her over-active conscience and steering clear of risky and unpleasant.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans can lead to the darkest places.
What did I think?
Having read and enjoyed Relatively Strange, the first book in Marilyn Messik's Strange series, I couldn't wait to get stuck into book 2, Even Stranger. I didn't think it was possible but Even Stranger is Even Better than Relatively Strange. Reading about Stella as her life progresses through the 1970's is like catching up with an old friend; perhaps there's something strange about these books after all, as I didn't realise how firmly Stella had planted herself into my head.
I love Marilyn Messik's dry humour, which actually starts off as a very wet dunking in a lake for Stella. It's not laugh out loud funny but it's more of a laughing at the strange events and very quirky family members in Stella's life. The 70's has turned into a very eventful decade for Stella; not only has she started a new business but her gift is attracting attention from some unsavoury characters. Stella gets herself into some jaw-dropping scrapes in this instalment of the Strange series that kept my eyes firmly glued to the page.
Not only can Stella fly, but she has the ability to see inside people's heads, which some might see as a gift but to others it's a curse. As Stella grows older, her ability also grows with her and she can place, and even alter, thoughts in someone's head. I don't envy Stella at all as I really don't think I would like to be privy to people's thoughts; it's bad enough seeing their dubious actions without actually knowing what they were really thinking. Although Stella's gift can come in useful at times and when others like her get together, their power is extraordinary.
The Strange series is proving to be quite a unique, thrilling and riveting set of books and I can see myself reading them all over again in the future...or was that thought surreptitiously planted in my head by Stella? Marilyn Messik has really outdone herself with this outstanding sequel and I'm chomping at the bit to catch up with Stella in book 3.
My rating:
Buy it from Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment