Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

Jade Rating: 4/5.

The plot revolves around a history teacher Barbara Covett's narrative of an illicit affair between her fellow colleague Sheba Hart and her teenage student Stephen Connolly. Despite having a seemingly happy and normal marriage, a good relationship with her children and a good job as a pottery teacher at the local high school, Hart risks it all to have an affair with Connolly despite being fully aware of the inappropriate nature of this relationship. Covett appears to be Hart's only comrade when this scandal becomes public, however things are not what they seem. Despite Hart's affair which goes against every social convention and is an obvious abuse of power, the audience feel empathy for her as Covett 'unintentionally' reveals to us that she is overbearing in their relationship as friends and explores Hart's family problems too.
Heller's narration through the voice of Covett is detailed and extremely believable and I often forgot that her irrational and sometimes outrageous ideas about friendship were fictional outbursts and that I was reading a book! Her overbearing nature and her intimate relationship with Hart makes her 'busybody' narrative exciting and a great joy to read. She also reveals aspects of her lonely spinster existence and social awkwardness which serves to explain her hostile behaviour.
Although the storyline was well structured and narrated, I wanted it to be longer and to explore the unconventional friendship between Hart and Covett. I think another chapter at the end of the book to wrap up the story would have made this a better read.

Halfhead by Stuart B MacBribe

Jade Rating: 3/5.

Set in the 'future' where criminals are labotomised, physically mutilated and made to carry out menial jobs as almost living zombies to provide a constant reminder of why crime doesn't pay, a series of murders brings together the team from 'the Network' as headed by assistant director William Hunter and Detective Sergent Josephine Cameron from the local law enforcers the 'Bluecoats'. From the offset, we descover that the protagonist of the murders is Hunter's arch nemesis Dr Fiona Westfield, a serial killer who was halfheaded after a successful conviction following her crimes, a case lead by Hunter himself.
The main weakness of the plot is that it takes MacBride half the book to set up and explain his fictional futuristic world and I was left confused despite this overindulgence, mainly as a result of the authors overuse of fictional vocabulary for weapons, transport, medical equipment & procedures as well as an arsenal of things he incorporates into the book. I still don't understand why parts of the city were dangerous to venture into to the extent that it was described, and often their equipment was just too much. An example of this is Hunter's use of his Cracker to download information from the hospital files... Now, what is a cracker? Is it the same as a USB flash drive or is it another implant like the virtual reality input port on the back of everybody's head?! I think the plot needed a nerdy character that reminds the reader of the technological inventions in this world... Like a Hermione Granger from Harry Potter who frequently reminds the other characters and the reader why some things are not possible. I just couldn't believe in the world MacBride created in this novel and coupled with the lack of any real character development, it was more or less just a horror-fest.

However, all is not lost with this story. The murder scenes are disturbing but highly original for which credit must be given. Overall, I'm disappointed. This book could have been so much better.