C. J. Dunford - FAKE NEWS - Book Review - Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

C. J. Dunford is a visiting Alien and former playwright. She placed the magical true story inside a plastic bag on Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh hoping that, one day, a wonderful publisher would find the account of real-life events that took place sometime last year. After all, the media and government would not want us to know that we may have been fooled by a group of highly-trained school children.  However, Fledgling Press is publishing the whole eye-witness account which has been obtained through an Alien's persuasive powers. The book will be published on the 31st of May 2021 with real banana skins woven into the cover. It's the first time this has ever been done in the publishing world and is courtesy of the inventor and illustrator, Graeme Clarke.  

Fake News is full of the truth. Do you believe in everything you read on the internet? Did you ever question what you might think to be true? This is a fantastic story that will have you scratching your head as we follow the lives of four children (and one dog) who cross paths in the most bizarre way.  The book's plot is a narrative triumph and one of my favourite reads for some time. The story really goes deep into bringing the characters to life in such a dramatic and thrilling way. The journey, as a reader, is both gripping and emotional. However, it is also very amusing at times whilst remaining true to life, in my humble opinion. 

I really think teenagers will love this book as much as adults, as there is so much in this story to inspire our own lives. The book covers a lot of sensitive subjects in a fantastic but public way. It's about being true to yourself. This is shown through the characters as they launch their own news site detailing amazingly shocking stories. The reader is required to make up their own mind as to whether they are TRUE or NOT. The characters intend to come clean, but the publicity goes to their heads. Other life events then come crashing into one mass adventure which makes for a viral calamity. This is dealt with in a very brilliant way bringing the story to a great climatic end.

The book delivers a fantasy Sci-fi element that works really well. It is full of Aliens and spies, secret services, slimy journalist investigators, and a hacker or two. There are also eco-crazy parents and some rather witty but challenging school teachers which all add to the mayhem. Not to mention the school bully! The characters plan to show people they should never believe what they read on the internet. However, this backfires in a comical way that made me laugh so much.

This is a really great book. It's slightly different from the usual books that I tend to read and love. I think it is an absolute work of genius. It's thrilling, emotional, thought-provoking, and very topical. Yet it's told in a clever, comical, and imaginatively contemporary way. It's a book that I would recommend to you all. I would love to hear your thoughts if you do read a copy.  

As this book is published by a small publisher, I have put a link (if you are interested) to buy a signed copy while stocks last. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did. https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/fake-news

P.S Don't slip on the banana skin whilst leaving this website. We take your safety as our top priority. This review has been brought to you by Radio Ripley City Central - the book review website you can trust or can you?!

Guest Post: Claire McFall - Bombmaker - Published by Templar Publishing

I don’t get much in the way of post.  A few bills, some junk mail.  Dentist appointments.  But the other day I came home from work to something very exciting: that little red postcard from the Royal Mail telling me there was something for me that was so awesome, it wouldn’t fit in my mailbox.  

Instead, it was in the bin.

Don’t panic.  I don’t have a renegade postie intent on destroying my only cool piece of mail in, oh, about six months.  This is the standing arrangement we have: my dog won’t kill him; he leaves my packages in the blue bin in the garden so I don’t have to trudge to the Post Office.  He keeps his fingers; I don’t have to walk through the rain.  And let’s face it, lately there’s been a LOT of rain.

I love the feel of new books.  The smell.  It almost feels like sacrilege to break the spines.  What was even more like sacrilege was having to turn right around and give some of them away.  I mean, family can buy their own, right?  

I’m so excited that Bombmaker is finally being released.  It just might be my favourite thing that I’ve ever written.  And, though I didn’t intend it, what with all the referendum hoohah (technical term) going on at the moment, it’s – accidentally – topical.  

So what’s the book about?  Well, Bombmaker is set in a near-future Britain where the recession has gotten worse, not better, and we’re all, for want of a better word, broke.  The powers that be in Westminster decide that it would be much better to keep the little money left where it matters, and cut off Northern Ireland, Wales and – yup, you’ve guessed it – Scotland.  

They build big barriers that would put the Berlin Wall to shame and declare a new law: anyone caught in England from the Celtic nations without a visa will be tattooed.  A Celtic knot on the cheek, where it’s impossible to hide.  Come back with a tattoo… and you’re shot.  No trial, no mercy.  

Independent Scotland in Bombmaker is a mess: no jobs, no money, no government.  No nothing.  The main character, Lizzie, is a Scot.  And she’s been tattooed already – caught squatting in an alleyway in London by the Government Enforcers – a special branch of the police armed to the teeth and faced with the task of getting us pesky Celts back to our rainy nations where we belong.  

Only there’s no future for Lizzie in Scotland, and she knows it.  Hitching her way to London, she struggles to survive in the new ‘Big Brother’ England.  On the night that should be her last, she avoids death by aligning herself with Alexander, a gangster, a Welshman, and a very, very scary man.  From that point on, he owns her – body and soul.  She becomes his “bombmaker”, with a talent for sneaking into places and an affinity for the circuitry of things that go BOOM.  

Bombmaker hit the shops on February 1^st.  It’s my second novel (I have books, how cool is that?), 

but it’s nothing like Ferryman.  Ferryman is about the afterlife.  It’s about coming of age, dealing with death, falling in love.  Bombmaker is very, very different.  And I hope fans of the first book are okay with that. It’s much darker, more action-y.  It’s about terrorism, survival, knowing who to trust… There are gangsters and drugs and life-or-death chases.  I love it.  What I’m really hoping – and what I’m anxiously waiting to find out – is whether readers love it to.  

So let me know!  Come find me:

Contact:

Web:www.clairemcfall.co.uk

Twitter: @mcfall_claire

Blog:http://clairemcfall.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Claire-McFall/115270711870509?ref=hl