Ingrid has a Geordie to English dictionary at the beginning of the book Now I just need an Ingrid British to American English translation Here is an example of that The American additions are mine Loo Bog Netty Toilet Lavatory American Rest Room Hump something around Carry transport it I would have thought this one was sex Cottons on Realises Becomes aware American Realizes Kiss your backside goodbye Die Bog off Go away Stop bothering someone Chippy Fast food takeaway American Fast food to go A jump Sex American Oh yeah The story is than intriguing at every turn It brought me into the after life world that Granny Irene s was experiencing.

Told in her own distinctive Northern voice exactly as she speaks Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife is not for those who like their books to be written in Queen s English Nor is it for those who are easily offended or are reluctant to have their opinions and beliefs challenged However if you are looking for a character driven unique fast paced quirky novel which will challenge your perspective of the afterlife then read on Raised Catholic Irene Wilde is shocked and annoyed to discover that not only is she dead but that she has been sent to Viking Heaven and that her granddaughter Chloe is somehow responsible for her demise Realising that the Gods are facing apocalyptic choices of their own she quickly makes her escape and heading back to earth in search of the truth and justice Irene quickly becomes entangled in a web of her own making and after an emotionally charged encounter with her former lover Harry she discovers that her beloved Britannia has been taken over by the forces of evil and embarks upon a one woman crusade against the futuristic government of Totty Tax Tim and the Panty Pincher A traumatic encounter with a whole host of sinister creatures including a trio of fire dragons which have swept in from the Icelandic Volcanos some blistering home truths from the Nordic World Serpent and a shocking and distressing encounter in the flagship government brothel all leave Irene drained and fighting for her emotional survival so it falls to the spirit of Anthony Mitchell a customs officer brutally slain by pirates on St Mary s Island in the year 1722 and with whom Irene unexpectedly finds solace to help her start putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which spans thousands of years Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife Revenge Part One is the beginning of Irene s many supernatural adventures Granny Irene s Guide To The Afterlife Revenge Part 1 Ingrid Hall s Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife Revenge Part 1A review by Dennis HigginsImagine dying and instead of ending up at the pearly gates with Saint Peter floating on a cloud seeing the face of God or however else you imagine life after death will be Envision finding yourself in the heaven of other gods This is what happened to Irene Elizabeth Wilde better known as Granny Irene who ended up or at least started out in Viking heaven with Odin Thor Loki and the Norse Goddess of Love Freya. Ingrid Hall wrote to me that the contents of this book will be nothing like I have ever read before and she was 100% correct Ingrid doesn t just write she crafts words together in a very unique and artistic way It is almost like reading Shakespeare I don t mean that it was written in poetic 16th century prose I mean that it was brilliantly written in an English that is far removed from my American ears and I loved it Let me explain Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife is written in the first person from Irene s point of view after she has died Instead of speaking the queen s or even BBC English her dialect is Granny Irene s own distinctive northern accent called Geordie Here is an example from the book I am not doing as I am told I am not putting on that stupid psychic life jacket I am not getting into line They can all bog off and leave me to wallow in my auld ash tree and if I happen to go down with the ship then who cares Not me Just look at them all the fools down there on that plain whispering and muttering and spinning round and round in little circles whilst them that are meant to be in charge the Gods and the Valkyries they bark out their orders But not to worry and while there it seemed oh so real to me I felt every emotion possible to mankind from delight to having the crap scared out of me from arousal to downright anger at times You see along with the warning at the beginning of the book about the Geordie dialect Ingrid warns about those easily offended or those reluctant to have their opinions and beliefs challenged I certainly found this to be true as my dear own Catholic Church and wonderful priests are not shown in the greatest of lights from the perspective of this afterlife But Ingrid also claims that the book is character driven unique fast paced and quirky It invites the reader to re consider their perspective of the afterlife This it delivers in a wonderful way. The story doesn t just take you to Viking heaven Among many other places including good old Earth and the land of the living Granny Irene is also taken by the serpent to Hades Imagine being a nice old lady dying and seeing Hell represented by a house of prostitution where every sight is an invasion to your senses It was scary and frightfully erotic at the same time Also at the beginning of the book is a bibliography of gods goddesses and odious creatures Here is a sample LOKI A shape shifter with an incredible amount of influence in the underworld Sworn enemy of Odin they are both similar than they care to admit. THE WORLD SERPENT Traditionally portrayed as an evil monster that surrounds the earth grasping it in his tail his arch enemy is Thor I have however had so much fun with the serpent and have turned him into an emotional character A thinker and Irene s spiritual guide and friend. THE WHITE KNIGHT HEIMDALLR Traditionally tasked with sounding his horn heralding the onset of Ragnarok the white knight is also often cited as the creator of the class system within human society and this will be woven into future books He is also a spiritual guide to Irene and has a role to play in the Frigg Skuld storyline. Ingrid Hall just may have written a masterpiece of which I have never read the likes of and will probably will never experience again that is until Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife Part 2 comes out As Granny Irene herself might say I ll have to just sit me auld bum down and wait 9781482514506 A Review of Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife Revengelike the BBC history it would seem has a horrible habit of repeating itself. Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife begins with the story of a woman at the end of her most recent earthly incarnation Irene Wilde is a Geordie woman from Whitley Bay on the Northumbrian coast of England Against her expectations she finds herself in Viking heaven at the outset of Ragnarok or the end of all things and is propelled into a spiritual journey that bridges space and time Fate it would seem has called on the unlikliest of heroes As the nature and import of her odessy are gradually revealed we come to see that Granny Irene may be a formidable force than initial appearances might indicate While gripping and fraught with adventure the story is liberally sprinkled throughout with humor Wry references to the protagonist s death abound with lines such as And I will keep on saying this until I am blue in the face Which I suppose technically I am but never mind These tongue in cheek observations when they pop up are delightful to read Another such referenceand my personal favorite is this and them little butterflies or blowflies or whatever they are now well they start fluttering and buzzing around in my belly Irene s death and her liberation from the constraints of time and space also liberates the author s imagination and she gives it free rein From the moral decay and economic decline of a pre apocalyptic England to the voyeuristic glimpses into the intrigues of the gods the reader is whisked through the ether at a breakneck pace The lack of restrictions and convention facilitates the setting of one of my favorite images in the book Granny Irene and the goddess Gunner fussing and straining to contain two bright red demon boys in their car seats in preparation for a supernatural journey The author clearly delights in these images and the delight is shared by the reader This scene however also illustrates a core theme of the story Narrated with a feminine sensibility and perhaps a feminist bent the female characters often work together to aid empower and encourage each other through the trials and burdens the universe places squarely on their shoulders These scenes are an affirmation of what women of all times and cultures have always done unite in the face of a world that is usually mysogynistic and hostile to those that are in essence the foundations of their respective societies Having said that my favorite sub plot was the story of the ghost of Anthony on St Mary s island Based on the true story of a customs man who was murdered in 1722 it s an engrossing tale in it s own right Although he plays a key role in the novel I find Anthony s tale of his existence in a cave on the island to be poignant and compelling enough to stand as a novella in itself It s been said that the author s use of a northern English dialect as it s spoken is off putting I personally had no difficulty with the prose style and slipped easily into the cadence and vocabulary of the Geordie dialect If I was to take issue with anything in the book it would be with the simutaneous introduction of the pantheons of three mythologies I sometimes found the number of gods and their interactions to be confusing and during the race to Ragnarok had to backtrack occasionally to reorient myself That minor issue aside I will say that Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife is an ambitious story fuelled by the author s deft creativity and is crafted with her affection for the history of and her hopes for the future of England So sit back dive in and allow them damned Valkyries to storm on in and rifle through all the boxes in your mind They ll pull out a bit of this and a bit of that so that in the end fact and fiction it gets all mixed up Recommended you ll enjoy the ride Reviewed by Stephen Boka 9781482514506 Ingrid Hall has recently rebooted her Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife novel The original came in at a heft 800 pages so a hard copy from was on the pricy side to say the least That behemoth has now been slimmed down and tightened up and will be serialised as 3 books which makes the hard copies so much affordable I have just finished volume 1 of this revamp and loved every minute of it. The book is a unique read part murder mystery part supernatural thriller part mind bending acid trip Granny Irene is dead and in Viking heaven much to her chagrin She soon finds herself embroiled in trying to avert Ragnar k save her homicidal grand daughter whilst also whilst coming to terms with the fact that she has lived beforemany times. The book is set in the past present and future in this world and the next It provides a grimly dystopian vision of a future where the northern working classes are ruthlessly exploited by powers that be Granny Irene is the narrator and speaks in a strong northern voice She speaks as she finds and this adds a lot of comedy to what could otherwise be a very dark storyline. The new version is leaner and fitter than the original it is fast paced and action packed at times utterly surreal It also poses many philosophical questions to the reader about the nature of life and belief whether free will or pre destination govern our lives and how the consequences of our actions can reverberate down the centuries A compulsive read it left me hungry for the next installment. If you want a wild roller coaster of a ride with a strongly meta physical flavour then look no further than Granny Irene s Guide to the Afterlife 9781482514506

Granny Irene's Guide To The Afterlife (Revenge Part 1) By Ingrid Hall

10:1482514

9781482514506

English

264

Paperback

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. FENRIR THE WOLF Son of Loki brother of the serpent and Hel His loyalty to his family will as the series develops be called into question He is central to the Chloe plot