On Monday, we covered the books that, for various reasons, had some sort of influence on the first two decades of my life. In this post, I’m going to be looking at titles that have managed to stick a literary stake in me post-twenty through to the present day. (For those who’re curious I’m thirty-five, so this particular batch spans a fifteen-year period.)

Again, a really mixed bag, although my penchant for grit and darkness is, I think, far more evident in this group. Surprisingly, there are a number of YA books in the line-up; not sure whether that’s because I’m completely ambivalent when it comes to ‘recommended age group’ ratings or a sign that I’m desperately trying to have a second childhood. I’ll let you decide.

 

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Age read: 21
Charlotte is my favourite Brontë, although after hating her sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights (I thought Heathcliff was a total tool) I was a bit slow in getting to her. Picked this one up and didn’t put it down until I’d reached the end. Rochester is, in my opinion, one of the best Byronic heroes out there. Complex, troubled, but ultimately loveable; smouldering and redeemable in a way that that wanker Heathcliff just isn’t. I’d even pick him over Mr Darcy.

 

Rain – Kirsty Gunn
Age read: 24
Another Kiwi novel, which just goes to show how strong an affinity I have with authors from the country I grew up in (New Zealand); clearly, there is something about the language and style of Godzone writers that speaks to me. This book is dark, there is no happy ending, and it is spectacular. In 2001, a film of the book was released, directed by Christine Jeffs (Sylvia, Sunshine Cleaning), which made it into the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. It also appeared at the Sundance, Edinburgh, Toronto, and Montreal film festivals. Watch the trailer below and be seduced. (Although I should warn you that a friend of mine bought the DVD on my recommendation and his wife cried for a week after watching it :-/)

 

Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
Age read: 24
Did Grace do it? Is she an innocent young girl or a cold-blooded murderer? The colour symbolism in Margaret Atwood’s books never fails to win me over. Cat’s Eye, which is my other favourite of hers, plays with purple; Alias Grace, however, teases with the contrast of innocent white and guilty red. I adore clever authors and Atwood is as sharp as they come.

 

Venetia – Georgette Heyer
Age read: 27
What started as a casual dalliance rapidly exploded into a steaming hot love affair. I now have an entire shelf devoted to Georgette’s regency romances and, while I’ve named Venetia as my landmark book here, I could quite easily slot any one of her ton titles into its place. The libertine Lord Damerel? Well, we all need a bad boy to cheer for, don’t we?

 

Crank – Ellen Hopkins (YA)
Age read: 31
Two words: free verse. I found out about Crank because it was banned from a youth literary festival – or, rather, the author, Ellen Hopkins, was banned from said festival because her book was deemed to contain content ‘inappropriate’ for minors. Sex and drugs, basically. Wow. Young people don’t come across those sorts of things nowadays, do they? Tackling the very difficult topic of crystal meth addiction is one thing, but to do it in free verse? Ellen, I bow to you. Reading this was like being smacked in the face with breeze block – and I mean that as a compliment.

*You can read about the furore surrounding Crank here.

 

Story of O – Pauline Réage/Anne Desclos
Age read: 32
Why did it take me so long to get to this book? I really don’t know. Looking at my reading history, this should (in theory) have come much, much earlier. Pauline Réage (the pen name of French journalist Anne Desclos) supposedly penned O as something of an ‘in your face’ after being told by her lover, Jean Paulhan, that women weren’t capable of writing decent erotica. Originally produced as a series of love letters, Réage pulled out all the stops and turned out what I have come to think of as the BDSM erotica benchmark. Whipping, branding, piercing, sexual slavery … Reading it was a decidedly uncomfortable experience. You can absolutely tell that it was designed to appeal to Paulhan’s love of the Marquis de Sade. Disturbing and hot in equal measure.

 

Lean on Me – Cherise Sinclair
Age read: 32
BDSM erotic romance. No one does it like Ms Sinclair. This is actually the fourth entry in the Shadowlands series but it’s my favourite because the entire book is devoted to the development of the relationship between Cullen, an experienced Dom, and the fiercely independent Andrea, who’s desperate to submit. There’s no suspense plot. No mystery. Nothing except them working out how to be with one another. It’s rare that I pick an erotic romance up and read it more than once. Lean on Me, however, has been on and off my bookself multiple times.

 

Blood Promise – Richelle Mead (YA)
Age read: 32
Tears. Lots and lots of tears. In fact, at one point, my husband told me to put Blood Promise down because I got so upset over it. Rose is a teenage dhampir, a hunter of evil vampires known as Strigoi. The man who taught her to fight, the man she’s in love with, Dimitri, has been turned – and she must kill him. This book was emotionally relentless and ended with a cliffhanger of epic proportions – not something I normally like. Dimitri? *Sigh* Even when he’s totally soulless he’s delicious. (For some reason, my friend L has it in her head that he looks like Ashley Banjo – who I agree is very hot, but definitely not who I picture when I think of Russian vampire slayers!)

 

Forbidden – Tabitha Suzuma (YA)
Age: 34
Almost didn’t buy this because of the subject matter – incest – but was swayed by the stellar online reviews. I definitely made the right decision. This is a brilliant, brilliant book that, unfortunately, I think a lot of people run past because they’re worried about their ability to cope with the challenging content. Just to be clear, Forbidden IS NOT an erotica but a very (very) realistic portrayal of love between siblings. There’s no denying that this is a difficult read but Suzuma’s treatment of the topic is at once unashamed, delicate and masterful. She manages to create a grey area where I never, ever thought there could be one. Poignant and haunting (read: I cried, sobbed and snotted all over the place).

 

Captive in the Dark – C.J. Roberts
Age read: 34
Self-published. Independently marketed. Wickedly difficult subject matter. Actually, to the power of about a billion on that last one. As one reviewer friend on Goodreads said whilst reading it:

 

‘I might just have to scrub myself clean with a wire brush.’

 

He went on to give it a very high rating, as I did.

A classic example of an author going where angels fear to tread and turning out something amazing.

*You can find a full review of Captive in the Dark here.

 

So, that’s it. A very condensed summary of Jane through her reading habits. Enlightening? Interesting? Or have I now scared you all away with my penchant for dark tales involving death, murder, S/M, incest and human trafficking?! :-/

 

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