The Enchanted - Rene Denfeld

Title: The Enchanted
Author: Rene Denfeld
Pages: 256
Published: 2014
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Blogger Summer Reading
Genre: Fiction, Magic Realism
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries magical visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs, with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest, and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honor and corruption-ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own. (from Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: I had heard really good things about the book and I thought I would give the book a try.  Much like when I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I had to suspend my disbelief when I read the book and just let myself experience the book.  While it took me a bit to get into the book, I did manage to enjoy the book.

I can't recall what made me enjoy reading the book, as it's been awhile since I finished the book, but it was probably the way the author used language that made it enjoyable and how she was able for me as the reader to draw me into the world she created.  It was also great that it was such a short book after reading a book with over 1000 pages.

Bottom line: If you enjoyed books such as The Ocean at the End of the Lane or you are fan of books with magic realism in it, you'll probably enjoy this read.  Even if you are a fan of literary fiction, you probably will enjoy this one as well.  Recommended.

Rating: 3.75/5

Pages for 2014: 12,165

If you have read this book, what did you think of it?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 181
Published: 2013
Challenges: I Love Libraries
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Magic Realism
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. (from Goodreads)

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this read.  I don't know why I particularly liked the book, but I suppose it had something to do with the fact that I was really tired when I read the book (read this during the latter portion of Dewey's Readathon in April) or the language was in such a way that honestly I didn't care about what where the book was going or maybe it was both.  But I liked the pacing of the book and how one could easily be drawn into the story and not really care to find deeper meaning.  I was so entranced with the book that very shortly into the book.  I had to basically suspend reality and not try to define what was real and what wasn't, especially since one really can't tell the difference and therefore reality became muddled.

Bottom line: I would recommend this book to most readers, but mostly to those who are fans of Gaiman, of magic realism and those that enjoy just a really good story.  Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.75/5

Pages for 2014: 7893