Blood Toll | Book Review

 Review of the book Blood Toll by Snorri Kristjansson 

• Book - Blood Toll [Quick Read Dyslexia Friendly Book ]
• Author - Snorri Kristjansson 
•  Genre: Crime Fiction
• Pages:74
• Format:ebook

Dyslexic friendly fiction for adults by BOTH Press

 

Following their successful "Open Dyslexia" Kickstarter in 2021, which led to publishing eight dyslexic friendly fiction titles, BOTH Press is launching on June 7th 2022, their second Kickstarter "Open Dyslexia: the sequel" with more high-profile authors than ever before, lasting 30 days and finishing on the July 4th 2022

 

The Kickstarter aims to publish eight more titles of high-quality fiction from bestselling authors: including household names such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James. 

 

The line-up is full of many front-list authors such as Gareth Powell, J.M Alvey(aka Juliet Mckenna), Scott Oden, Snorri Krisjanason, and James Bennett.

Peter James will also be doing an introduction for the 2022 collection.  

 

There are very few initiatives for reading for pleasure for adults. The eight titles BOTH Press has already published are the only readily available dyslexic friendly fiction for adults in the UK and can be found in libraries and any bookshop. The scale of accessibility is not nearly enough, as around 10% of the UK population deal with some form of dyslexia.

 

Despite Jay Blades's (the Presenter of ‘Repair Shop’) unique telling of his own learning to read on the documentary ‘Learning To Read At 51’, which the BBC recently aired. There are still few or no resources for adult dyslexia. A glance at Adult dyslexics charity websites and reading charity websites indicates there are few resources on reading fiction for pleasure for adults with dyslexia.

 

The dyslexic blogger Suzy Taylor who writes for Dyslexia Scotland, said: 

 

"It is frustrating that we now have children's books in dyslexic friendly formats. As adults we apparently do not require books in the same form."

 

There needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, where there are books designed to be friendly to them and are not dumbed down, are high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat and socialise about with friends and family.

 

Darren Clarke, the director of Succeed with Dyslexia, said:

 

 "This books shop is doing incredible things and helping people to fall in love with reading again" [and] "I love the fact and the thought that has gone through on these [titles] with the spacing, the font, with the colour of the paper and the way that the book just flows."

 

BOTH Press has had many heart-warming responses of how the books have impacted their lives. 

 

Dr Alistair Sims said: 

 

"Many individuals who have told us their stories do not want to be mentioned due to fear of stigma about their struggle to read. For example a man in his 50s is Scotland had not read a book since he was a child. His partner found us and bought him one of our titles. He read it. Then called us up to order another. He was so happy to actually read. In fact the partner wrote us a letter explaining how much of difference it is making and then ordered the four more for a Christmas present." 

 

BOTH aim to raise £16,000 to publish eight titles. Though looking to the future, they will need more than £20,000 a year to keep publishing eight titles regularly. All funds go toward the book production/ life cycle to make them readily available. The bookshop Books on the Hill and their manager Alistair Sims, who created BOTH Press, receives no profits from the project.  

 

  

Further information is available at:

 https://www.booksonthehill.co.uk/dyslexic-friendly-books-for-adults-/  

Blurb 

On Black Wyrm, the longship of Ormar Karlsson there is now a murderer onboard. Trygve, the nephew of Skarde and Inge, has been stabbed in the chest five times. 

Helga Finnsdottir, who’d been scooped and rescued from a skiff, finds herself amongst the band of Vikings quarrelling amongst themselves. There is palatable tension between Skarde and Inge, and Helga has a mystery to solve before more blood is spilled.  

My thoughts:

Until I came across this book, I had never heard of a ‘Dyslexia friendly book’. I looked it up and learned that the format is meant to be suitable for people with dyslexia, thereby making it easy on the eyes and facilitating stress-free reading.

This is a Quick Read Dyslexia Friendly Book for adults and the genre is crime fiction. This read was slightly outside my comfort zone yet I loved it. Well, it’s the Viking, and what’s not to love about them! I was surprised at how skilfully the author has portrayed the crime and brutality that I didn’t feel the need to wince/flinch. The storyline was interesting and the language was easy to follow. Loved the cover as well!

My rating is 5 stars for this quick read and I would explore more works by this author.

Author Bio 

Snorri Kristjansson is an Icelandic teacher and writer, currently residing in Edinburgh with his wife and son. His works include The Valhalla Saga and The Helga Finnsdottir Mysteries. He is an avid chess player and a chocolate fiend.