The Shock of the Fall | Nathan Filer

"I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that."

Nathan Filer's award-winning debut novel, 'The Shock of the Fall' is a wonderfully penned, and deeply compelling novel in which we witness Matt Holmes, a 19-year-old schizophrenic spiral into mental illness after the death of his older brother, Simon. Filer's charming writing style (channeled through Matt's old typewriter) coupled with typographical tricks and doodles makes for a thrilling, and gripping novel. 

13 pages in, and Simon is dead. You only have to lay eyes on this rapid opening, and you already know the next 294 pages are going to be good. Matt goes on to reveal the circumstances of the death as the novel progresses, and his guilt is evident throughout. The way Filer has penned his voice is pure beauty to read: blunt, frank, puzzled but most importantly, determined. He transforms the setting of the book with ease; from the caravan park, to Matt's flat, to the mental ward, and back again. It is as if you have been engulfed by the page and are travelling with our protagonist. 

The novel manages to overcome a rather grim prognosis with the constant use of humour and caustic remarks. Our main character is the main source of these mordant comments; when joking about his medical notes he writes,"Matthew … suffers from command hallucinations, which he attributes to a dead sibling. Crazy shit, eh?"

Filer also successfully intersperses quirky characters in the story to break up some of the possible melancholy. My personal favourites would have to be "Claire-or-maybe-Anna" and Matt's ever-trying grandmother "Nanny-Noo". 

Filer's incredible penmanship, techniques, characters and expressive views all add up to make a beautiful piece of literature -  a thoroughly gripping, and engaging novel. Go and get a copy for yourself!

Top Ten Tuesday #1 - Characters I Wouldn't Want With Me On A Deserted Island

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, where every Tuesday you list your top 10 in a certain topic. This week's topic was '10 Characters I Would Want With Me On A Deserted Island' but to avoid being too similar to everyone else, and rebel from society's norms, I decided to list the 10 characters I wouldn't want to live with. I know, it's bad of me but what can I say? I'm too hardcore to abide by the rules.

Oh the individuality

Jack from Lord Of The Flies

If you have read the book, you will realise that this young boy of around 10 has killed some three people on his stay at the deserted island. I wouldn't want to know what he would do to my desert island crew - yikes.

Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter

I realise that everyone will probably be aghast at the choice, but here are the reasons. I'm pretty sure he would start an argument with all of us 'muggles' and his hairspray fumes would probably kill everyone.

A mildly amusing meme

Gandalf from Lord Of The Rings

Bar Dumbledore (who seems like a bucket of fun) old wizards kind of bore me. If you are an elderly wizard why can't you just magic yourself younger again? It would sort the wrinkles out at the least.

Holden Caulfield from Catcher In The Rye

Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine. 

Gollum from Lord Of The Rings

He seems as if he would claim all of the resources as his own ... Plus he sort of creeps me out ...

Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

1. She's very annoying. 2. She's from like the Stone Age, so there would be a total culture clash there.

Snow White (and all 7 dwarves)

Snow White obviously thinks herself more highly than to listen to instructions - if we told here to not let Gollum steal anything, she would happily let him take all of our coconuts, oblivious to what we said. Plus, carrying 7 dwarves behind your back at all times is bound to get annoying.

Foxface from The Hunger Games

She says she's good with plants and knowing what to eat and all...and then she died because she ate poisonous berries. Sounds like someone who is telling the truth and has their life under control?

Macbeth from Macbeth

Err ... duhh he killed everyone. (well more or less...)

The Whole of the Twilight Cast

They can't even sort their relationship triangle out, plus one can't be in the sun, and one turns into a rather scary-looking werewolf - did they ever actually expect an invite from me?!

I would love to find out who your 10 people would be, that you would or wouldn't want with you! So comment your links in the description and I will check them all out!

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Review

An explosive addition to one of the most popular film franchises around, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes manages to blend together brutal war and moral depth with high success. 

Matt Reeves does a fantastic job, and I must admit surpasses my prior expectations, in the whole making and concept of the film; how they quite managed to pull of such an extraordinary and impressive feat of special effects still baffles me, with apes wielding guns and riding horses left, right and centre.I do think that this film has been pitched near-perfectly, with just the right amounts of drama, suspense, emotion and horror all encapsulated in the piece. 

What really surprised me about this film, is that there was a constant plot, and the pace didn't drop for too long. I'm not going to spoil it too much for you, as I thoroughly recommend you watch it for yourself, so here is just a basic plot line. A very basic plot line. 

I started the film off with a huge bucket of popcorn to the ready, and an open mind on what I was about to witness. A thorough ten minutes of animal grunted sign-language was to follow with a pretty spectacular 'monkey meets deer meets bear' type deal. The film, as I said, never really at a stand-still, moved straight into the major plot twist - the apes stumbled across a group of humans.

The apes and the humans had many different interactions throughout the film, with our protagonists Caesar and Malcolm (Jason Clarke) forming a strong alliance, or 'trust' in each other over a dam project for the survivors city. Meanwhile Koba, Caesar's former pal, is off shooting humans and hatching an evil plan.

A touching father-son scene, amidst a pretty fatal, yet spectacular all the same war scene later I ended the film with a couple of unanswered questions, a 'what used to be' huge bucket of popcorn and a very urgent need to pee. 

Firstly, shoutout to possibly the most kickass gentle giant ever, Maurice the ginger orang-utan. 

I left the cinema, having thoroughly enjoyed such a brilliant blockbuster, with the ending still replaying itself in my mind. The apes all accept Caesar as the leader, and there is a rather touching end scene of him standing with his family, and possibly the cutest baby monkey special effect I have ever seen in my life. And possibly the only baby monkey special effect I have ever seen in my life. 

But Caesar's ending line, 'war has only just begun' was hauntingly eerie, and surely has to open this major blockbuster up to making another sequel. 

The military are still on the way to fight the apes, which is an absolute disaster, as now Caesar is back in control, the apes are good once more (well until they fight the humans in the next film I suppose...).

Too much animal grunting, and no real need for 3D glasses put aside, I really did enjoy this film and thoroughly recommend it as it is worth the watch. The special effects are brilliant, as is the casting, the tension felt is immense and the apes are all pretty hardcore. 

Apes, fire, guns, a guy with glasses, and touching moments throughout, why wouldn't you want to watch this movie?

I give this film 4 1/2 Moustaches.

Oh the pun.

Do you have any film recommendations from recent releases/coming soons?