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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
date
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date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0545424925
| 9780545424929
| 4.07
| 16,574
| Sep 12, 2012
| Sep 18, 2012
|
When I’m feeling pretty shoddy I have this thing I do where, basically, I get in bed and watch comedy panel shows. Sometimes it’s QI (XL if I’m feelin...more
When I’m feeling pretty shoddy I have this thing I do where, basically, I get in bed and watch comedy panel shows. Sometimes it’s QI (XL if I’m feeling proper sad) , sometimes it’s Have I Got News For You…. Occasionally Mock the Week, depending on who’s on it. A few weeks ago I was watching 8 Out of 10 Cats. I’m not sure which episode it was because I think it’s one of the older ones but, long story short, one of the questions was something along the lines of “73% of women would rather go out with a bad guy than a good one- True or false?” Jon Richardson said that the reason why women love bad guys so much, apart from the whole “Oh, I can change him” thing, is because they can get away with a lot. They can be twats for days on end and all they have to do is buy flowers or chocolates or YA books one day and you’ll say “Oh, isn’t he wonderful?” But if a nice guy, bearing in mind he’s nice all the time, is a bit cranky one day or forgets to bring you flowers or chocolates or YA books then you’ll be like “I cannot believe he did this!” as you fashion some garters made from his guts. Now, of course, I know that Real Life women aren’t that ridiculous and, of course, the fact turned out to be false. Women in Britain would rather date a good guy who brings her YA books. Or… um… something like that. But, and this might just be me, this doesn’t seem to apply to YA paranormal heroines and their bad boys. Because they certainly love them, don’t they? One of the things that makes me angry about YA books (sorry, I promise I will talk about The Raven Boys some point soon) is that the bad guy seems to always win. And this is because the “nice” guy has, for some reason, become synonymous with boring. Why is that? Why?! Why does “not a twat” have to mean he’s dull as dishwater? Why are they mutually exclusive? Enter Maggie S. Oh how I could kiss your mind. Finally, finally, finally… a book where the love interest (you have no idea how tempted I was to put ‘s’ on the end of that then… but shhh) is a decent guy who isn’t boring. They’ve got their issues, they’ve got their flaws but what I loved the most was that this was never used an excuse for him to be a horrible guy to the heroine. Because, guess what? He wasn’t a horrible guy! Bliss. Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest. You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting to read a book where I actually get why the two characters like each other and don’t fall in love inexplicably with zinging things flying between them every time they look at each other. Needless to say, I adored this book. I was a bit nervous when I read the synopsis because… “if you kiss your true love, he will die”… ehhh. Then I remembered that Practical Magic (Midnight Margaritas!) is my go to film and I was fine. And when I actually got into the story, my doubts were obliterated. I wasn’t really prepared for how much I was caught up with these boys and how invested I became in their thoughts, feelings and fear. I know this book alludes to them, but I wasn’t expecting the raven boys to really be the main part of this story. I thought it was going to be Blue and her reaction to them that was going to be the driving force of the novel but I have to admit, when Gansey, Ronan, Noah and Adam were on the page I completely forgot she even existed. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t like her or that she was badly written, quite the opposite actually, but the connection and the relationships between these four boys was perfectly executed that Blue existed in my periphery (I’m hoping the second book will delve a bit more into Blue’s family life). I loved how Maggie S really dug her nails into the boys’ bond, prying them apart so nothing was hidden. And I liked how they didn’t fit into the clichés. Sure Gansey was the hero but he’s not always heroic and he certainly isn’t perfect. And yep, I guess you could say that Ronan was the “bad boy” but you’ll probably be waiting for a long time if you think you could change him. And Adam is probably the sensitive one but… you get the gist. I have absolutely no idea how Maggie S managed to write them in such a vibrant way, a way that was so realistic that I wouldn’t be surprised if I got on the train tomorrow morning and a group of boys, one with his mobile in his hand with high-tops on (I don’t even know what they are, I had to Google them), I wouldn’t be surprised. I think I’ve got a lot to learn from her when it comes to writing not only boys but friendships. Also, I loved the actual story. I think psychics are my favourite of the paranormal genre… sure, I didn’t know this before I picked up this book, but Maggie S has definitely convinced me. I’m a possibly-not-so secret fan of ghosts and to read all about scrying and candles and energy and ley lines and all that sort of thing was absolutely fantastic and such a change from what I’d normally read. There’s questions unanswered and secrets still shimmering under the surface but I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens next. I have a feeling this is a series I will be following like a ley line… or a boy with a faded Coca-Cola t-shirt. I wonder if Gansey and the Gang know that King Arthur and his knights supposedly sleep under Alderley Edge? I think I could forget about my slight fear of flying to navigate a helicopter around the skies above Cheshire... well, as long as Adam’s there to hold my hand. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| Jan 05, 2013
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Jan 05, 2013
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1599904799
| 9781599904795
| 3.72
| 1,939
| Aug 22, 2007
| Aug 03, 2010
|
Oh this book was wonderful. I’d never actually heard of this book before I read Rey’s gorgeous review of it. I’ve always been curious about YA books fr...more Oh this book was wonderful. I’d never actually heard of this book before I read Rey’s gorgeous review of it. I’ve always been curious about YA books from other countries (meaning not The Big Three: USA, Australia and the UK) because they must be out there. I know they’re out there but it’s difficult to find out about them because they never get the time of day which is such a shame because I know we’re missing out on all these beautiful YA books that are being lost in translation. I’m thinking The Readventurer ladies need to Anyway… this book. Lou is such a wonderful narrator and has a fantastic way of seeing the world for a girl so young. There was a lovely naiveté about Lou and how she saw both the world in which she was growing up and No’s situation. Normally in books, I get frustrated with narrators when they’re naïve because I just want to get them to open their eyes. But with Lou it provided the perfect vessel to allow Ms de Vigan to explore what it’s like to balance on that cusp of “young adulthood” in this modern world. I think thirteen is such an interesting age in your life because you’re not really anything. There’s no way you’re a child anymore but you’re only just a teenager, and everything is changing. This is the time where your expectations and reality don’t always match up and it’s strange and it’s upsetting, but there’s nothing you can do about it. And Ms de Vigan perfectly portrays this disillusionment that you get when you’re stumbling through this age. When you’re expected to go to parties at the weekend instead of timing how long it takes for wet footprints to disappear of the kitchen floor. When you realise it’s not “cool” to do well at school. When you realise that not everyone in the world has a roof over their head and a warm meal every day like you do. I really enjoyed watching the world change through Lou’s eyes. It was subtle, stripped back and often incredibly moving. I’ve always said that, on the whole, YA books aimed at a younger audience are the ones that deal with darker subjects so much better than some aimed at older readers. (The 10pm Question and A Monster Calls come immediately to mind). I don’t know what it is, but I love it so much which is why I will never not read a book just because it’s on the younger side of the YA spectrum. Not only does Ms de Vigan portray homelessness in a way that’s heart breaking but realistic, but also the subject of loss and family problems. I don’t really want to go too much into this aspect because I think it would be better to experience it first hand from reading it, but the passages describing Lou’s mother, father and their past combined with No’s history were so well-written. Even poor Lucas’ situation made me sad. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it was so different to anything I’ve read this year. It’s powerful in its subtlety and shows that you don’t need to clobber your readers over the head with emotion and angst to create a thought-provoking and moving book. The characters are fantastic (I had a little soft spot for Lucas. I can’t help but think a lot of authors need to take note of him because that’s how you write a lovely “bad” boy) and the tumultuous friendship between No and Lou was perfectly crafted. Also? The ending was perfect for this story. I actually finished this book on Sunday morning and I mean morning. I woke up at half five and there was no way I was going back to sleep so I finished it and those last couple of chapters made my heart ache so much that even in my absolute knackerdness (Yes, I know that's not a word), sleep was the last thing on my mind. Sometimes I wish for happy endings, even though I know that I would be annoyed if I got it. I think this is one of those books. I’m glad, so glad that Ms de Vigan didn’t grant me that wish with No and Me. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| Dec 19, 2012
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Dec 19, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0192732560
| 9780192732569
| 4.07
| 196
| Dec 22, 2011
| Jan 05, 2012
|
Some books need to be read while you’re eating pickled onion Monster Munch and I think this is just one of those books. Let me explain. I find pickled o...more Some books need to be read while you’re eating pickled onion Monster Munch and I think this is just one of those books. Let me explain. I find pickled onion Monster Munch e a very underrated crisp. They aren’t the coolest crisps on the shelf. Not everyone thinks of them instantly when they think of a delicious savoury snack. I mean, they don’t have Gary Lineker and Lionel Richie advertising them. They can’t be dipped in…um…dip. Or at least easily. I guess you would really have to want some dip to dip Monster Munch in dip.* But they are the kind of crisp that you would buy because you’d not had a packet in yonks and then two seconds later, you’ve eaten the entire bag (well probably half, because the other half would be all down your jumper and in your hair. Is that just me and my ability to eat Monster Munch?). They’re underrated in the savoury snacks stakes but they’re there if you look for them. If you squint dead carefully at the above paragraph, you will see an eversoslightly passive aggressive commentary of the YA publishing industry. I’m going to stop talking about crisps now just in case you get confused thinking you’ve stumbled onto my secret spin-off blog called ‘Eat the Delicious Crisp” where I eat crisps and blog. However, I have to say quickly- that there is mention of Monster Munch in this book. I’m not just hungry, I swear. This book was brilliant. I actually had never heard about it until Keren David recommended it to me in her interview. As you know, I’m a huge Keren David fan and I know her style of writing so I’m pretty confident if she said a book is good. I didn’t actually realise how good though. First up, I get a bit nervous when I find out a book (especially by an author I’ve never read) is about mental illness. I’m very critical about it and I’ve given up on books that have dealt with it in a pithy, flippant or sometimes downright offensive way. This was good though, great actually. It was the perfect mix of sadness and humour without belittling the seriousness of the illness but also, just as importantly, not making it gratuitous. I know gratuitous is my favourite word for serious books but I really dislike it when an author writes a subject in a certain way because they want you to feel a certain way. Gah. It’s not always an easy book to read because when I was laughing (and I laughed a lot) there was always a sad under tone niggling in the back of my mind. Like if you were drawing a picture and did a bit wrong but thought “Ahh, I’ll just colour over it in bright colours and no one will know” but you can still see the mistake under your colouring in. I really loved how the issues were always present, even when they didn’t seem like they were because the story was going through a more light-hearted patch, and weren’t conveniently forgotten about when the story moved on. There are some bits that were extremely infuriating but not because of Mr Cousins’ writing ability, but because of his great ability to write teenagers. When Laurence is wearing a wig and pretending to be his mum so he and his brother Jay don’t get separated by the social services, I admit I did roll my eyes a little bit. Because, let’s face it, it sounds stupid, right? But let’s remember that I’m an adult…. ish. And as an adult, I’m screaming at him to go and get help, to stop hiding the fact that they’re living with cockroaches and living off Mars Bars. But that’s when I forgot he was fifteen, he was scared, he was alone and he had to look after his brother. Of course he’s going to make silly mistakes, he’s fifteen! What do you expect? I liked how Mr Cousins seemed to find the balance between the silly and the sad. I think that’s important in books like this not because we need to water down the silly with sad or vice versa, but because it’s real. That’s what life’s like, it’s not all doom and gloom, but then again it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. Before I go, I should probably mention Mina because she was brilliant. What? What? No I am not biased because she’s Northern and has a funny accent. I mean, Northern accents are definitely the worst… yes? But she was great and had the right amount of love for our hero and “What on earth are you doing?” And yes, she was a sassy Northerner. I probably am a little biased. Anyway…. this is a remarkable book and Mr Cousins is definitely an author you should be reading. While eating pickled onion Monster Munch. *dipdipdipdip. Did I mention dip? You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Dec 16, 2012
| Dec 21, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1407121723
| 9781407121727
| 3.80
| 96
| Mar 01, 2012
| Mar 01, 2012
|
To me, historical books are like wagon wheels*. No not like an actual wheel for a wagon… um… no, I mean the biscuit. The delicious, delicious biscuit....more To me, historical books are like wagon wheels*. No not like an actual wheel for a wagon… um… no, I mean the biscuit. The delicious, delicious biscuit. Let me explain. I don’t have wagon wheels very often but when I do I savour them, love them, vow to eat more of them and get marshmallow in my hair. Similarly with historical YA. I don’t read many of them but when I do I savour them, love them, vow to read more of them and get marshmallow in my hair. Um… I’ve spent the last few hours searching my house for a project I did in primary school about the Black Death. It was actually on the plague when it was around in 1665 which, I’m a bit reluctant to admit, I thought was the only plague. Is that a common misconception or am I just ridiculous? You see, I had it all planned out that I would end this review with a clever “Oh… I hope Sally Nicholls writes a sequel to this book, she could call it ‘Fetch the Water’ or something.” But I guess seeing as the Great Fire of London was over 300 years later… it wouldn’t really be a sequel would it? Is there a time limit for sequels? Either way, with the risk of sounding morbid, I was obsessed and I honestly couldn’t tell you the amount of times I dragged my dad to Eyam, a village in Derbyshire where the inhabitants chose to isolate themselves to stop the plague spreading. I think I actually uttered the phrase “I wish we lived in a Plague Cottage” once before I snaffled an entire bag of Derbyshire fudge. I don’t actually know why I told you that because like I said, All Fall Down is actually set 300 years before this time but I guess that’s the reason I picked this book up. Sometimes it’s wonderful being a bit thick because if it weren’t for my lack of historical knowledge (and my creepy morbid love of all things plaguey) then I would never have picked up this book and that would have been a terrible shame. I even learnt things, guys! I know. I know. Like Ms Anderson Coats before her, Ms Nicholls writes such an original and fascinating story about a period that, let’s face it, doesn’t get much air time in YA fiction. But you can tell that she wrote this book not because it’s a bit different and will definitely get her a publishing deal (which she actually already had) but because she was genuinely enthralled about the era and the history. This research that must have gone into this book is absolutely remarkable. You can really tell that Ms Nicholls loved writing this book and it makes a whole world of difference when you read a book written by an author who is passionate about their subject. If you can’t imagine what Northern England would look like in the 14th Century pick up this book. If you can’t imagine what Northern England would feel like in the 14th Century, again pick up this book. Be warned though, no details are spared. I probably don’t need to tell you that this book is extremely grim and incredibly moving. I guess the thing that puts me off from picking up a historical book is that I sometimes find it difficult to relate to the story. The only thing I know about that period (after a cheeky look online) is facts and figures and geography. The glorious thing about this book is that Ms Nicholls breathed life into these facts and by adding a personal feel to it. It not only makes it more accessible. The characters, both main and peripheral, were so believable and, perhaps more importantly within a historical book, accurate. I completely believed in Isabel and there was never once a moment where I thought she was just a modern girl with modern problems shoved into a petticoat. I really loved Isabel. She isn’t perfect and she’s not always likeable, but she’s fourteen and the world is falling apart around her and she has to grow up, even if she doesn’t want to and she doesn’t feel ready for the responsibilities that she now faces. Isabel is frightened, alone and extremely lost… yet she continues on, regardless of everything. I guess having your loved ones dying and being buried unceremoniously in a field does that to a girl. If reading a book about the plague is off-putting, and it is a bit grim in places, I would still wholeheartedly recommend reading this one. The characters, their relationships, the setting, the era would really take your mind off things if you’re feeling a bit squeamish. If reading a book about the plague is getting you all giddy because you love dystopian books … well, this actually happened. Can you get better than that? Nope. This book was wonderful and a complete surprise. Now how about that 300 years later sequel…? *Yes, I am comparing books to wagon wheels. Have I lost my reviewer’s edge? Did I ever even have an edge? You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Aug 19, 2012
| Aug 24, 2012
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Aug 19, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0670018449
| 9780670018444
| 3.49
| 1,853
| Aug 30, 2007
| Jan 24, 2008
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Well, I didn't see that coming. Gosh. | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jun 27, 2012
| Jun 30, 2012
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Jun 27, 2012
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0141326115
| 9780141326115
| 4.15
| 132
| Jan 01, 2011
| 2011
|
Some of the best books I read are the ones I stumble on accidentally. I can’t even remember why I decided that I might like this book. I’m not a huge...more
Some of the best books I read are the ones I stumble on accidentally. I can’t even remember why I decided that I might like this book. I’m not a huge fan of the 70s. I have an aversion against bands in YA fiction. I’d never even heard of Kevin Brooks. So why would I read this YA book about a fictional band in the 70s… written by Kevin Brooks? Maybe I was feeling particularly crazy that day. I don’t know, but I did and it was brilliant. Seriously, it was brilliant. If I could sum up what this book was about in one word it would be ‘passionate’. Every single character in this book is passionate about something. Well, OK, not Stan but I’m passionate about Stan so that’s OK; we’ll kind of balance each other out. Whether it’s music, drugs, punk, sex, - it seeps from the page and it’s practically impossible not to be drawn into it whether you care about it or not. This book is everything that YA should be- breathless, messy, funny, heart breaking, intriguing. OK, I was going sum up this book with one word wasn’t I? Whoops. I loved everything about Mr Brooks’ writing. I found myself underlining so many paragraphs it got a bit daft, especially when I found that my favourite quote ended up coming pretty early on in the book. And when I say early I mean the first paragraph. “My heart was born in the long hot summer of 1976; my life was made, my love was sealed, my soul was lost and broken. It was the summer of so many things – heat and violence, love and hate, dreams and nightmares, heaven and hell- and when I look back on it now, it’s hard to tell the good from the bad. Isn’t that one of the best openings ever? I could wax lyrical about how brilliant his writing is and how it really transported you to exactly where he wanted you but well, we don’t have all day, do we? I have quite an eclectic taste in music but I’m not the hugest fan of punk music, which is basically what this book is about. The closest thing I am to being a punk is having a nose piercing and that one time I ripped my skirt and had to use a safety pin to save myself from an awkward situation. Punk rocker, thy name is not Jo. But it honestly didn’t matter to me because I was too busy loving this story and the characters to care. I think that’s one of Mr Brooks’ main talents. Not many YA readers could honestly say that they are true, true, true fans of punk music (and no, wearing a Ramones t-shirt from Topshop doesn’t count) but he makes sure that you’re never out of your depth. Mr Brooks has this great way of telling a story that heavily relies on the setting and the culture of the 70s without coming across as one of those pretentious music fans. You know the ones… the ones who corner you at a party and they know everything and they heard of that obscure band before you did and omg they’re so retro and how have you never heard of them? You know the ones…. The ones you want to thump? Mr Brooks is as far from that as you can get. Which, um, is good because I like to think that I’m not the kind of girl who would attack bestselling authors and also I can’t throw a punch to save my life. Let’s talk about Naked. Normally I find fictional bands, YA or not, completely horrendous. They seem to be so cringey and fake and terribly unrealistic. But Naked? “The sound was electrifying, stunning, the crash of chords ripping through the air like a thunderous shot of adrenalin, and when I started playing […] and the stage erupted in a blaze of lights, it all felt so good that I thought for a moment my heart was going to explode. The sound was almost too good to believe. We were so loud, so fast, so tight…. We were so there.. .it was incredible.” I’d definitely go and see them and stand at the front and be doused in the blood/spit/bodily fluids of the nearest tattooed punk rock-….. Hahahaha, I’m totally kidding. I’d be at the back because I’m a delicate girl who values her limbs and face. Also, I find only a certain kind of person can truly look good in a leather bra and swastika tattoos. If, however, you aren’t too fussed about punk music please stop backing away from this book slowly. It’s not all punk and swastikas and Johnny Rotten. Do you like David Bowie? Of course you do, because who doesn’t? The Buzzcocks? Velvet Underground? Pink Floyd? THE WURZELS? Yep. This book comes with one of the best readymade soundtracks I know. See? I’m not a complete dunce in 70s music. But if I had been alive in the 70s, I like to think that I would be cool enough to be looking upwards… a bit more…. Northern. Things were happening up there. I dunno, you may have heard of them? And while I’m talking about awesome things from the 70s that came from my neck of the woods… “The shop was called Sex, and over the years it came to be known as the birthplace of the sex pistols. When Curtis first took me there, in August 1975, it already had a growing reputation as the place to be. It was owned and run by Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood.” Dame Vivienne Westwood. Need I say more? Northern England sure produces the most excellent of artists… *cough* I think this book would be perfect for anyone who is interested in reading something that is a bit different from the norm. This isn’t a book set in a high school and it’s not set in a dystopian world. It is truly sex, drugs and Anyway, enough with the setting. I think we’ve established that Mr Brooks knows his stuff. My favourite thing about this book were the characters. I absolutely loved Lili, our narrator. She was such a gorgeous, vibrant and clever heroine. I loved how she held her own in a very masculine world. She was such a caring character who, even though I didn’t always agree with the things she did, always tried to do the right thing and stand by the people she cared about no matter how close they were to crashing and burning. She was also hilarious. “I bought most of my clothes from jumble sales and charity shops, and – as far as I remember- my hair at the time was a failed attempt at a Suzi Quatro-style layered cut, which might not have looked all that bad if I hadn’t recently attacked it myself with a pair of blunt scissors… an exercise that resulted in me resembling a slightly deranged medieval waif.” :D Also she plays the guitar like an absolute beast! While I’m talking about Lili, I have to talk about something else…. Slight spoiler I also loved the relationship between William and Lili so much. As much as I loved Curtis Ray in all his tragedy and beauty and I appreciated how magnificent he is as a character, William Bonney takes the biscuit. I just loved how he treated Lili. “It made me feel how I was supposed to feel at my age. *girly sigh* I’m not going to talk about these two too much because I think it’s best to meet them on your own terms but I will say one thing, something that I think will sum up their relationship. On one of their ‘dates’ they walk around London discussing the genius of David Bowie and whether it was Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane who had the orange stripe across their face. If you can give me an example of a more perfect date, consider my reviewer’s bonnet eaten. End of slight spoiler. The only problem I had was this book was the ending. Not the ‘just before the ending’ ending which I really loved, but the proper ending. I was OK up until then. Then things got a little too neat and tied up and lovely. BUT…. After the angst Mr Brooks had put us through, a nice ending was a bit of a reprieve. Hey, I’m a Brit- I like my endings messy… don’t judge me. Perhaps a little unrelated, I read this book on my Kindle which is such a shame because I would have LOVED to have seen the faces of my fellow commuters as they saw what I was reading. Live fast. Play dirty. GET NAKED. LOL. Anyway, this book is spectacular and you should be reading it. You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| May 13, 2012
| May 17, 2012
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May 13, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 9780702238925
| 3.58
| 36
| Feb 22, 2012
| Feb 22, 2012
|
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Young Adult book set in Tonga. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never rea...more I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Young Adult book set in Tonga. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Young Adult book that discusses the production of silk. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Young Adult book where I’ve rooted for a girl to get with a boy in… this situation. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Young Adult book which is so open to discussing (and discussing well) controversial and hard-hitting subjects as this one. I think this is the thing I love most about Ms Jeffrey’s writing. Everything is absolutely unique. I’ve read a lot of YA fiction and sometimes, just sometimes, they begin to sound the same. But there wasn’t one part of this story where I thought ‘Urgh, I’ve read this book before’. It’s difficult not to compare this book to Brown Skin Blue [my review] , which is the prequel to this book. I say prequel but I’m not sure whether you would have to have read it before reading this one. You’ll have to ask Mandee, who did just that. As you know, I love Brown Skin Blue so much. It left me numb, speechless and absolutely smitten that I had found another author that I could add to my ‘Aussie Friends- Send Me Books by This Author Because the UK is Missing Tricks All Over The Place’ list that I sneakily have and use every now and again. Whereas One Long Thread didn’t have quite the same impact as BSB did, I still absolutely adored it and it was the perfect addition to the story that Ms Jeffrey began. Ruby Moon was such a delightful character and a wonderful narrator. She’s such a quiet character but very observant and I loved seeing the world through her eyes because even though it was incredibly sad, it was always beautiful. She had such a glorious way of seeing things and she was so normal. I mean, if things were going a bit skew-whiff in your life and you had the option to run away to Tonga, you’d do it, right? Of course you would. And also, I loved that Ruby had a hobby. Seriously, why don’t more heroines have honest-to-goodness hobbies anymore? I loved hearing all about Ruby’s artistic designs, her passion for…. Sorry, I have to say it… fashion and, mate, I can sympathise with her desire to be surrounded by materials, ribbons, lace, strings of beads and spools of thread. I could quite happily spend the whole afternoon in a haberdashery just wandering in between the valleys of material. Actually, I could quite happily live in a haberdashery. But what I thought was really special was the mixed feelings Ruby had about her art. I think a lot of people would be able to relate to Ruby’s emotions and how she is reluctant to accept that she’s good, brilliant actually, at something. I mean, haven’t we all, at one point in our life, been self-conscious about our passions? Maybe that’s just me. “I had a moment of looking at it, like Amona might have, seeing it for the first time and thinking how lovely it was, too. But then I retreated back into myself and could see only its faults.” Going back to her passion for clothes making- yes, it was linked to a metaphor that ran through this book but it never felt false or convoluted. I know I keep rabbitting on about subtlety but tough, I’m going to go on about it again. The two books that I’ve read by Ms Jeffrey have both dealt with some of the most harrowing subject matters I have ever read about, but she knows exactly how to portray them with tact and restraint. Sure it’s horrendously sad and I had to back away a few times because of all the emotions, but it wasn’t overdone or sensationalised. It just shows that in the right hands, subjects that would put off a lot of readers can be absolutely stellar. Have you noticed that I am staying as far away from the plot as I can? I really don’t want to spoil this book for you if you think you’d like it because, and I know I say this all the time, but you should read this book not knowing anything. And of course, it would be impossible to write a review about a book Ms Jeffrey has written without mentioning her writing. “I knew I’d never have another moment like this. Just a single place in time where everything had come together to breathe in harmony. Time slowed and I had gathered all her restless strands in my hands; where I had come from, where I was and where I was going was one long thread as I emerged to make my way into the world.” J’adore. It’s the connections between the characters that really make this book what it is though. My favourite relationship is the one between Ruby and her dad. Seriously, I loved this guy so much. They watch Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire films and they eat popcorn and drink cold lemonade and then they get dressed up and go to bad Chinese restaurants and tell each other the crappest jokes they can think of. Ahhh. Bliss. Also, while I’m here I feel I have to talk about Barry again. Because I’m hopelessly in love with him, so what? “The only living example of a Romeo in the modern world.” He only had a cameo role (albeit a very important one!) in this book but he really stole the show. I cannot go on enough about how much I love this guy. He is definitely one of my favourite YA characters ever. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that I would read anything that Ms Jeffrey writes. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| May 31, 2012
| Jun 04, 2012
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Mar 31, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1416912045
| 9781416912040
| 4.23
| 52,723
| Nov 06, 2007
| Nov 06, 2007
|
I don’t normally get scared by dystopian books. Yeah, sometimes they’re a bit..eeeehhh… but, usually, the ideas are so far-fetched and impossible that...more
I don’t normally get scared by dystopian books. Yeah, sometimes they’re a bit..eeeehhh… but, usually, the ideas are so far-fetched and impossible that I’m quite happy to shrug and think ‘Hey! Good fiction, author!”. I don’t know what it is about this book, where children can be ‘unwound’ and retroactively aborted when they reach a certain age, but it really haunted me. Just the idea of it was so unsettling and absolutely horrid. The way the story is told (third person, present tense) has this almost clinical style to it. Normally in dystopians, it’s all about the characters. It’s about their feeling and that’s where the drama comes into it. But in Unwind, there are no dramatic scenes where the characters throw themselves against a wall and cry and how in just it is… everyone kind of just accepts things. It is how it is. And that was the most unsettling part of this book*. I sometimes find that dystopian authors get so tangled up in a ridiculous plot and forget about the world building or get so giddy over the world building there is no plot. Of course, there are some authors that can juggle the two of them and find the right balance. But this idea got me thinking. What do you think is more important; the story or the world? I guess the world in Unwind isn’t overly different than ours, I mean there are hints that things are a bit futuristic but there certainly aren’t Districts or Factions or hover-boards. Maybe this was because Mr Shusterman didn’t think that the world was too important in the grand scale of things or maybe it was because Mr Shusterman wanted to create a world that was eerily similar to ours, to make it all the more frightening. Either way, I think Unwind is proof that if you’ve got a stellar, unique idea… you don’t need a convoluted world with complicated politics that show how clever you are to have a good story on your hands. The world he creates may be “basic”, but with the idea of unwinding embedded in my mind, I never once doubted Mr Shusterman’s imagination. Though, I think hover boards would have made this book just a little bit better. I’m not going to go into the higher ideas and morals of this book because I don’t think this review is the place to go into my views and opinions. But I do have my views and opinions on this matter and I’m sure you do too. I think no matter which side you’re on and what you believe in, this book will still be hard-hitting and fascinating. I think it’s the evidence of a real writer when you finish a book and you have absolutely no idea where the author stands on a matter. This book feels very removed, possibly by the style it’s been written it, and it doesn’t feel preachy or has some kind of sly agenda to make you change your mind. I like that it challenges you but, ultimately, it lets you make up your own mind. Anyway, let’s talk about the characters. I liked Connor, I loved Risa (Hurrah for a heroine is both feminine and strong!) but I absolutely adored Lev. And that’s who I’m going to talk about. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Connor and I really liked Risa. I think dystopian books need characters like them. They’re strong, they’re leaders and they take charge. But they’re not completely original, are they? Sure these two stand out among all the other faceless Children of the Dystopian Revolution (CDR), but they’re still a CDR. Again, don’t get me wrong, this book wouldn’t have been the same without these two and I think dystopian books need characters like them. But Lev? He was the heart and the brains and the soul of this book. He really is a one of a kind character and I just loved what he brought to this story. He added so much more depth to it than any other character and the issues that he faced were the ones that affected me the most. I love characters that develop within the pages and seeing Lev’s journey was absolutely fantastic. For the first third of this book I thought I had him pegged. I didn’t like him because he annoyed me. I just wanted to get back to Connor and Risa. Next, OK, you have my attention Lev. I’m intrigued. And then at the end? BOOM. Consider my gob smacked. Also, I feel like I have to give a shout out to my new best-friend Cyfi. What an absolute treasure. But that’s all I’m saying. And before I read this book, I didn’t think anyone could make a character named Roland be sinister. HA. HA. HA. *nervous twitch* And that’s just what I think about the kids. Don’t get me started on the adults! Although I will say this- I enjoyed the nice, twisty surprise re: The Admiral. I didn’t expect that one coming at all. This book isn’t for the faint-hearted. Towards the end of the book there is one of the most horrifying scenes I’ve ever read in a YA book and just thinking about it gives me the chivvers. I know without a doubt that that will stay with me for a long time. But if you love dystopian books with brilliant characters with a unique and completely terrifying plot and one that makes you think… and, of course, if you think you’re up for the challenge… go on. *I know there are some characters who want to change things, but this ain't no Mockingjay**. The majority of the people in this book are quite happy with the way things are. So I’m sticking with that thought. **Mockingjaaaaaaay. *shakes fist* You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jun 10, 2012
| Jun 15, 2012
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Mar 31, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1447205189
| 9781447205180
| 4.10
| 58
| 2012
| Mar 01, 2012
|
4.5 stars. But so close to 5 you could almost taste it. :-D The number of British YA books I read last year was shocking and this made me sad because w...more 4.5 stars. But so close to 5 you could almost taste it. :-D The number of British YA books I read last year was shocking and this made me sad because when I grow up [I’ll get there…eventually] I want to be an author. And I’m, well, I’m British. So why wasn’t I making more of an effort to read and review books by British authors? I should be proudly waving the Union Jack and thrusting British books at unsuspecting people while I making them cups of tea and whinging about the weather. While in a queue… in a Kate mask… munching on Yorkshire Pudding. …. So I made it one of my New YA Resolutions. Sometime last year there was a sale on e-books on Amazon and my favourite thing about their sales are that the majority of the books that feature are British authors and I find so many books that I would never even think about reading! Like Sita Brahmachari’s Artichoke Hearts. I read the synopsis and thought “Aw, that really sounds cute. A bit different and HEY Ms Brahmachari is British. Hurrah! Hurrah!” So I bought it. I don’t mind admitting that I didn’t really expect much from it. It wasn’t that it looked bad but it just didn’t look like the kind of book that would grip me. Ha ha haaa. Oh how wrong I was because I looooooved it so much. Mira, our twelve year old narrator, had such a fresh and realistic outlook on life and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her. Add in a handful of fantastic characters and a wonderfully British setting, Artichoke Hearts was one of my favourite reads of 2011. Jasmine Skies was even better. The story picks up two years after the events of Artichoke Hearts and sees Mira travelling to Kolkata to visit her cousin Priya after the death of her Grandad Bimal. I’m going to try and stay away from talking about the plot of this story because I don’t want to spoil either of these books and it would be impossible to talk go into it without doing so. Apologies if this reviews ends up being a bit vague as I know you're used to the most in-depth and intellectual reviews on my bit of t'internet. I just love how Ms Brahmachari writes. I’m trying to think of a way to articulate the way I feel about it but I’m failing miserably. If I could describe it using only one word, I would use ‘vibrant’. Seriously, I underlined so many passages on my Kindle it became silly. The setting of this book is immaculately imagined. I’ve never been to India but I could really relate to the experience of being overwhelmed that Mira feels when she first steps off the plane. The descriptions of the market places are absolutely magnificent. You’ve got the colours of the materials, the feel of the sweltering heat and… yes, fine, you can almost smell the… *scowls*…jasmine. It’s obvious that Ms B has a story to tell and a message to convey but it never felt clunky or heavy-handed. Mira’s journey, both physical and emotional, is told with brilliant subtlety and restraint and it was so glorious to read. Anyone who says that YA books can’t be deep are going to get a hardcover of this book slammed across the back of their head by moi. Luckily, Mira hasn’t changed one jot since Artichoke Hearts. She’s still compassionate, funny and as inquisitive as ever. One of my favourite things about AH was how Mira struggled with her identity as a mixed-race girl growing up in Britain, so I was ecstatic when I got about two chapters into Jasmine Skies and realised that there was going to be more of that. “Not being able to speak Bengali makes me feel like I’m trying to cross a bridge but can only get so far, because to reach the other side it’s not just the words you need to understand, but also the tones and colours; the way of thinking and seeing the world that are all locked inside the languages.” This is why contemporary is my favourite genre and why I get so giddy when I discover one that I haven’t read yet. I’m not a mixed race girl living in Britain but I found Mira so easy to relate to because her problems were real. There wasn’t a werewolf trying to get into her pants or anything, but Ms B’s writing shows that if you can work your way around a teenage girl’s emotions and thoughts then you don’t need all that stuff to write a compelling and beautiful book. I just adore Mira; she’s such a fantastic character with such a pure heart. I just want to be her best friend or, like, her cool* older sister or something. I’d probably even let her personalise all of my shoes. Possibly, I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced by bedazzled footwear. Mira's search for her identity and where she fit in actually really reminded me of Josie from Looking for Alibrandi. I know, I know. I just invoked the power of Double M, but I’m sticking with it. There is just something so wonderful to me about books where characters delve into their heritage and their culture, asking questions and digging up secrets that people thought were buried for good. Maybe it’s because I love sitting with my grandparents and listening to their stories… I don’t know why, but I just love it. “I think these stories about where you come from and the history of your own family help you to see where you stand in the world.” Stunning, no? Right. OK. I have to get something off my chest. OK. Now then. *sigh* Now I don’t want to go into it too much into this next bit because of spoilery badtimes but, gosh, way to throw a spanner into the works, Ms B! That bit… with the jasmine… and homespun …and the pony tail. Yeah, you know which bit I mean. My poor, poor heart. I understand but it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. *scowls* “Deer…apple…green…sea…” WHYYYY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!? I know where my loyalty lies, Mira. That's all I'm saying. Guh. This will make no sense to anyone who hasn’t read this book and even less sense to people who haven’t read Artichoke Hearts, but some things just need to be said. I have a lot of emotions regarding that bit that I will keep bottled up until you’ve all read both of these books (which you will be doing, right?!) and then I will unleash the feelings. And that ending?!?! Are you kidding me? Looking at the glorious cover and reading the wonderful synopsis you wouldn’t expect it to have a cliff-hanger, would you? Well you would be wrong. WHEN IS THE NEXT BOOK OUT?! I am emotionally invested in these characters now and I will fight tooth and nail to get the next book. Tooth and nail, guys, TOOTH AND NAIL. I know in our YA circles, it’s pretty much a given that the Aussies are at the forefront of the contemporary race, but I believe that with both Artichoke Hearts and now Jasmine Skies, Ms Brahmachari has shown that us Brits shouldn’t be disregarded just yet. Additional Fun Things. So in Jasmine Skies, Mira’s cousin Priya is the coolest kid in Kolkata and she’s an underground DJ who wears skinny jeans and is the best dancer in the whole of India. Cool, yes? Anyway, in this interview Sita Brahmachari talks to Nihal Arthanayake [Listeners of Radio 1 or BBC Asian Network may know who he is!] as part of her research into what kind of music Priya would be listening to. It’s really fascinating. *May or may not be cool. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Mar 31, 2012
| Apr 2012
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Feb 23, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0547688377
| 9780547688374
| 3.71
| 859
| Apr 17, 2012
| Apr 17, 2012
|
“I see it in your face, Gwenhwyfar. And believe me, I’m sorely tempted to let you, but by God, we are not animals, no matter how many times they say...more
“I see it in your face, Gwenhwyfar. And believe me, I’m sorely tempted to let you, but by God, we are not animals, no matter how many times they say as much.”
Wow, this book was not what I expecting. For a start, I seemed to have got it into my head that this was set in the Victorian times (don’t ask why, I have no idea!) and secondly, I thought it was a murder mystery (again, I have no idea). I’ve told you before that I have a strange habit of reading synopses for books, ignoring them and just completely making up a new one, and then I’m surprised when the book isn’t what I was expecting. But if I had known that this book was set in the Middle Ages and was about burgesses, markets, servants, the difficult relations between the Welsh and the English, I would have left it where it was and never looked back, because it would not be my thing at all. But I read it and I’m so glad. If you’ve ever read any of my reviews or know anything about me, you may be aware that I have a few connections in North Wales. I spent three years at Bangor University, about 50% of my friends are from Gwynedd and a great chunk of my family are from t'area too. So when I saw that this book was set in Caernarfon, wait… Caernar v on, I was so excited. This book is told via dual narratives. Cecily is the daughter of a Lord who decides to uproot them to Wales to “live among savages”. Needless to say, Cecily is not best pleased. She’s dramatic, she’s impossible, she’s entitled and she’s, well, spirited to say the least. Gwenhwyfar (pronounced Gwen-who-euw-var… ish. My Welsh friend tried to text it to me phonetically and that’s the best I can do) , or Gwinny, works as a maid in Cecily’s house but she lives outside the city walls with her sick mother and her brother, Gruffydd (This one I could handle on my own: Griffith). And, as you’ve probably guessed, they don’t get on. Cecily resents Gwinny for daring to meet Cecily’s eyes and Gwinny hates Cecily for being entitled, a “brat” and another reason, but… spoilery. I loved these two narrators and the girl’s characters, feelings and actions complimented each other perfectly. Both Cecily and Gwinny had such fiery, distinct personalities that it was difficult not to love them, even if they did things that I didn’t always agree with. These girls were wicked and they were….wait for it...wait for it... just. It’s a really apt title. I liked how Ms Coats didn’t make one girl be the “bad one” and the other the “good one”. She didn’t manipulate the reader into taking sides and I think that’s incredibly important in a book like this. Both sides were given a voice and it was left up to the reader to make the decision. As much as it was a historical novel, I feel that this book was also an exploration of the relationship between two people living on different sides of conflict. What happens with the delicate power balance is shifted and the tables are turned? Are wicked deeds justified if they’ve been done to you first? It was also fantastic to read a book about an era which I knew nothing about. It’s relatable to people who, like me, may not be familiar with the era but I felt that it wouldn’t be dumbed down for people who are. It is obvious that Ms Coats knows the Middle Ages inside and out and absolutely no detail was spared. Which wasn’t always a good thing when it came to the descriptions of the stench hovering around the market crowds as the sweat and grime of the English and Welsh mingleD together... Yum. This book was filled with excellent characters, tons of actions, heaps of emotion and kept me up until way past my bed time. I’m really looking forward to see what Ms Coats writes next. Exciting Extras. Seeing as I love any excuse to attach pictures of Welsh castles to my reviews, here is a picture of Caernarfon Castle on bizarrely warm day a few summers ago. I assure you, the sky in Wales looks like that approximately one day.... a decade.  I received an advanced copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 08, 2012
| Feb 11, 2012
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Feb 08, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0525422943
| 9780525422945
| 4.19
| 34,494
| Nov 04, 2010
| Apr 05, 2011
|
“How does it feel that the only worthy thing you ever created came from the worst kind of loss?”
Initial Final Page Thoughts. This book is the love chi...more “How does it feel that the only worthy thing you ever created came from the worst kind of loss?” Initial Final Page Thoughts. This book is the love child of The Piper’s Son and Before Sunset. High Points. Adam. Rock stars. Guitars. Song lyrics. Bowling. Camping. Groupies.[ “I’ve come all the way from England to f-...” You took the words right out of my mouth, nameless hussy!]. Brooklyn Bridge. Lady Liberty. Dinosaur eggs. Awkward conversations. Voids. Photographs. Borrowed iPods. Low Points. This is going to be a massive spoiler so if you haven’t read the book: I hated the ending. (view spoiler)[ Why oh why did this book have to have a happy ending? I love a happy ending as much as the next person but Adam and Mia didn’t need to have one at all. These two characters have been dragged through the ringer, both as individuals and as a couple, and they’ve been drenched in all these intense, realistic, not-always pretty emotions only to just go back to being together as the perfect couple? As if those whole three years, all the pain and the guilt and the anger, had never happened? I loved Mia’s reasons for leaving. It was heart wrenching and there are no easy answers. She would hate Adam for asking her to stay and she would hate that he made her stay and wake up every day to a world where her family didn't exist. It was so realistic. But with that ending her reasons and both of their struggles just felt cheapened and pointless. This was Adam’s story and he should’ve got his ending: an explanation from Mia, a chance to move on, to find his way, to sort out his problems even if it takes a while and, most importantly, find out who he was without Mia. I just feel that Ms Forman felt like she couldn’t have Mia walk away for good on the bridge because that would make her out to be the bad guy. But I think, if anything, that would have made me love her even more than I did. Sure, it would have been a bit callous but it would have made sense. She cares for Adam and she’d want the best for him and, in the long run, I don’t think she was. To have Adam finally reach a point where he was happy in himself without her, one with his music and ready to start making some choices solely about him and then just to have her be like “JUST JOSHING WITH YOU. I’m back! Let’s go and have sexy musical sex.” I just…. No, I’m sorry. It’s all just too easy. This book was a book that needed to have a bittersweet ending. People who wanted to see Adam and Mia together again could have filled in that blank but I wanted Adam to be at peace with himself and his music. (hide spoiler)] Hero. Oh Adam. Adam, Adam, Adam. Tortured and twisty and extremely effed up and completely Mackee-avellian, and I think I love you. What can I say? Maybe I have a soft spot for musicians. I just wished you’d got your ending because you really, truly deserved it. Love Interest. I’m skipping this part because I’ve said it all above. I still love Mia but I think her character was cheated in this book. Theme Tune. This book seems to have brought all the music fans out of the woodwork with anonymous e-mails and messages in my inbox about potential theme tunes for Adam’s story. Well, ok, they weren’t really anonymous because their names were on the top of the e-mail/messages. They were Catie and Noelle (with special guest Maggie) but I would like to get music recommendations anonymously so I…. um… Anyway. I was moaning a few months back that I was looking for a book that I could use Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs as the theme tune and Catie suggested this one. And, even though I wanted to read them anyway, I’ll admit that it got me interested. And I agree, but I’m making this an unofficial choice because I’m still looking for the Ultimate Maps song. It’s out there, I know it. And then the glorious Noelle sent me an e-mail telling me that her and the equally lovely Maggie listened to Kill by Jimmy Eat World “fifty bajillion times” while reading this book. And again, I agree. ‘Tis perfect. But don’t worry, I’ve come up with my own song so you don’t think I’m losing my touch. Just in Time by Nina Simone. Yes, partly because of the scene in Before Sunset (“Baby, you are going to miss that plane”) but the lyrics are incredibly apt too. Just in time Before you came my time was running low, oh baby I was the lost the losing dice were tossed My bridges all crossed nowhere to go Now you hear now, I know just where I’m going. So now you have three songs for the actual book, but here is the song that I chosen for the book I wish this book had ended up being. Ghosts by Laura Marling. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all. Sadness Scale. I’m struggling with this one because this one could have been completely off the chart in sadness and it would have been the good kind of sadness. The kind that grabs you by the heartstrings and makes it difficult to breathe because it’s so intense but so, so honest in its brutality. But, like I said in the spoilery section above, I feel I was robbed. I wanted to find it difficult to breathe and I wanted it to be realistic, where things are left wide open so when I finally stopped crying at that epic scene (and it really was epic), I could see the wonderful hope and the closure that Adam was going to have. The ending was cute and it was sweet but, for me anyway, it lacked the emotional impact I was expecting. So, I’m passing and having a: ADAM IS A PUNK ROCKER FITTIE SCALE. 10/10. :) Recommended For. People who like happy endings. People who like the messed-up boys. People who would have voted for the “werewolf-vampire” kiss at the MTV Movie Awards. People who look good in bowling shoes. People who would only go camping if they got to share a sleeping bag with a fittie rock star. People who would quite happily miss the plane. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 06, 2012
| Feb 08, 2012
|
Jan 31, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 014241543X
| 9780142415436
| 4.00
| 67,721
| Apr 02, 2009
| Apr 06, 2010
|
“The cello didn’t sound half bad with all those guitars.”
Initial Final Page Thoughts. Gosh. High Points. Mia. The family. Groovy and the Geek. Music. K...more “The cello didn’t sound half bad with all those guitars.” Initial Final Page Thoughts. Gosh. High Points. Mia. The family. Groovy and the Geek. Music. Kim. Chocolate chip pancakes. Fancy dress parties. Brilliant characters. Two weeks of pizza-delivery tips. Feisty nurses. Making collages. Magic kisses. Musical sexy times. Dusty collections of punk-rock albums. Yo Mama. “I’ll let you go. If you stay.” Low Points. Even though I love Mia’s family and I liked that they were different without being cringey, no family is that perfect, right? Also, I don’t think I could take a boy seriously if he was in a band called Shooting Star. I mean, doesn’t Adam know that you can only be cool nowadays if your band name includes the phrase “and the”? Liz and the Shooting Star. There you go. Much better. Heroine. Oh Mia, what a narrator! I like to think we’d be friends but I think I’d be completely intimidated by you if we went to the same school. I don’t even know who Yo-Yo Ma is. I wouldn’t even know what to do with a cello if I were presented with one. I can’t even comprehend what it would like to be in Mia’s situation and I don’t want to, but Ms Forman really made me relate to her. I felt her desperation, her frustration, her love and her loss. If I can speak honestly, I don’t think that this book would have worked half as well if it wasn’t for the characters. The plot has “emotional manipulation” stamped all over it. This plot in the hands of a whiny, insipid heroine? It sounds like my worst nightmare. But with Mia, Ms Forman completely took hold of the plot and harnessed it. Sure there were some parts that I was a bit unsure of and I wasn’t a huge fan of (The Grand Gesture bit, would that actually happen?!) but I could quite easily ignore those parts. I’m much more forgiving of a few bumps in the plot when the main character is good. And Mia was simply stellar. Also, I’ve just been ogling at her hair on my copy of Where She Went and I have some serious hair envy right now. So if we were to be friends, she’d have to get it lopped off. Love Interest.
Yes. So true. I’ve recently been looking for young adult books that feature the main character in a relationship. And when I say “in a relationship”, I don’t mean they’re in a relationship but the boyfriend is a douche/the girl is a bitch and wait, what’s that? A best friend who has loved them for all their life and they’re finally stepping up?! I mean a true relationship. I loved Adam. I loved that he wasn’t centre stage and he didn’t save Mia, well not completely anyway. I loved that they were different and they had their problems and their insecurities as a couple. Obviously, I read this book knowing about the sequel so I’m not sure whether, if I’d read this book when it first came out, I would feel different. But I liked that this story wasn’t a love story, it was more about Mia and her decision and her thoughts as opposed to their thoughts. Saying that, I’m really looking forward to Where She Wentand getting to know Adam a bit better, even if he does have a lopsided grin. Also, he cries at Jimmy Stewart films which means there’s a 100% chance he’s my soulmate. Sorry, Mia. Theme Tune. MIA by Emmy the Great. This song is too perfect and too sad. *weeps* Sadness Scale. 9/10. I was a bit nervous to read this book because I had heard how people had spent hours sobbing into their pillows because of it and alarm bells sounded. It’s a very quiet book, low on the drama and the angst, and I loved that. Ms Forman could have so easily gone down the road where everything is amplified and shoved down your throat which always seems to happen when love and death get involved in a YA novel. But the emotions and the issues were subtle and they were interspersed with beautiful, bittersweet memories that often had me laughing out loud. (“Fuck Enya!” :D) I didn’t cry or even get choked up, but this book definitely made me think. Recommended For. People who are looking for a book about life, death and love with brilliant characters, beautiful sentiments and not a single eye-roll in sight. Um… ok, maybe one eye roll . People who often wonder where all the great YA families are. People who would rather go and see a band named Adam and the Shooting Star than Shooting Star. People who get a bit panicky when a boy picks up a guitar near them just in case he feels the need to serenade you. People who want to go to a fancy dress party dressed as Blondie. People who think every day should start the day with chocolate chips pancakes. People who think that sobbing into your pillow for hours is character building. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 05, 2012
| Feb 06, 2012
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Jan 31, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 9781742372624
| 4.00
| 4,489
| Mar 31, 2009
| 2010
|
I guess when you finish a book that you absolutely loved and you sit down, notebook fill of coherent notes, to start writing a review it’s easy to sta...more
I guess when you finish a book that you absolutely loved and you sit down, notebook fill of coherent notes, to start writing a review it’s easy to start using clichés. I find this is especially true when it comes to those Australian authors. You’ve heard it before, haven’t you? Is there something in the water Down Under? Well, I don’t think there is. Nope, not at all. You don’t see me reverting to those tired and ridiculous clichés, do you? My suggestion as to why these Aussie authors are so ridiculously good? There’s something in the shrimps that they put on all those barbies. In all seriousness though, this book is good. Great. Cracking. Brilliant. All the superlatives you can think of. I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot because this book is a mystery, both in plot and character. But right from the beginning, so full of suspense and unease, to the breathless "thisiswhathappened" ending, I was completely captivated. The characters are brilliant, especially Jasper Jones although I so desperately wanted more of him. Although saying that, I’m a bit torn in this aspect because I adored him when he was on the page and I loved the interactions between him and Charlie... but I loved the mystery and intrigue around the character even more. Misunderstood and with a heart of pure gold; Jasper Jones is the kind of boy who you’d want to go on adventures with. Sure you’d come back from those adventures slightly sunburnt and dishevelled with random insects in your hair, scraped knees and faced with the inevitable grounding from your parents but it would always be with it. Simply put, I loved him and my heart ached for him. Also, I had lots and lots of time for Eliza. Such a little sweetheart. I also loved how multi-faceted this book was. If I told you just what the basic plot of this story was (which I’m not going to) I would probably be missing about 75% of what this book actually covered. History, racism, Australian culture, prejudice, the subtle interactions between families, the damage of secrets and rumours and cricket (yeah, I could have probably have done without the cricket aspect of things. Cricket, to me, is a game we were forced to play in PE at high school when it was too sunny for bench ball.) Mr Silvey perfectly balances all of these issues without being overly clunky and preachy. A little bit unrelated and possibly a little thematic spoilery, I often wonder how the context in which you read a book effects how you feel about it. It was a complete coincidence that I read this book the weekend when this had been in the news once more. I had no idea what this book was about before I picked it up so it was quite daunting to read a book that, although set in the 60s, felt so current. It’s difficult to put into words how that whole story affected and still continues to affect the British public so it was strange to read this book with that very much in my mind (they also have a brief mention in this book). I know I would have found Jasper Jones moving if I had read it a few months ago but would it have affected as much as it did? I don’t know but it certainly left an impression on me and proved to be a great deal more topical than I thought it was going to be. One of my favourite things about Australian YA books is the sense of place that the authors create and Jasper Jones is no exception. It takes a lot to be transported from a clammy, rainy town in Greater Manchester to the bone dry, dusty, desolate Western Australian town but for the few hours it took me to read this book, I honestly was. The scene, the story, the writing and the characters combined with the wonderfully cinematic and satisfactory ending (where all those story threads that you so desperately want to have been tied up into a lovely bow are still dancing in the Australian breeze and you wouldn’t want it any other way) this book was glorious and definitely not a book that has been puffed up by the hype. At the end of the day, this book was what would happen if you took a copy of Jellicoe Road and Brown Skin Blue and smushed them together making loud kissing noises. I’m not sure if you’re going to get a higher recommendation than that from me. You can read this review and lots of other fun things on my blog,Wear the Old Coat. Pre-review. STORY TIME [Don't worry, it includes pictures] When I saw all the cool kids were reading this I, being a marginally less cool kid, wanted to get involved. But disaster struck when I went to buy a copy and I was shocked and appalled (well... not really) that you couldn't buy the copy with the bloke having a brew on the cover. I wanted that cover. Sure the other covers are fine but it was too late, I had already fallen in love. So I threw a huge wobbly and whinged and moaned and glared at inanimate objects. Step in the ever so lovely Rey, who offered to send me a copy of Double J with the awesome Aussie cover. And the parcel came today. I almost didn't want to open it because look at the beauty!  And it got better! Remember when you were a kid and you played pass-the-parcel and there was always that one stupid kid who the music always seemed to stop on and they got all the sweets and the packet of stencils or a colouring book or whatever? TODAY I WAS THAT KID!  And as it's a law to take a picture of your copy of Jasper Jones and seeing as I don't live  Rey, I love you. And I must read this book soon. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| Aug 19, 2012
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Jan 25, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0312610041
| 9780312610043
| 3.73
| 421
| Mar 27, 2012
| Mar 27, 2012
|
“I know how to stand still even when the Earth spins faster and faster than it ever did before. The rest of them try to keep up with the rhythm unti...more
“I know how to stand still even when the Earth spins faster and faster than it ever did before. The rest of them try to keep up with the rhythm until it makes them dizzy. And with dizzy eyes, they stare at me and say I’m crazy.”
I absolutely adored this book. I wasn’t so sure at first because mental illness will always be an incredibly sensitive subject for me. It seems that mental illness is a subject that can either be done really, really badly, or really, really well. Thankfully, this book falls into the latter category. I have to admit I’m not an expert in schizophrenia, unless a B in a psychology A-Level module makes me one nowadays. But I doubt it. So please keep that in mind when I say that this book felt like an honest and accurate portrayal of what it would be like to suffer from schizophrenia. I’d be interested to know how this portrayal holds up with someone who does have experience with it. From the first few pages, I realised that this book wasn’t going to be for everyone. It’s full of surreal imagery, bizarre concepts portrayed as if they were every day and lots of beautiful writing. Now I normally hate beautiful writing. I know that sounds stupid because, surely, everyone should love beautiful writing, I mean… it’s beautiful, right? But I’m not a fan of flowery prose and obscure metaphors that don’t make sense. I like my writing to be to the point and gimmick-free. When I read a book, I’m much more interested in knowing whether the author knows how to tell a story than whether they can write a pretty sentence. I fell in love with Sabrina’s narration after I read the following paragraph:
That’s the second paragraph, by the way. It didn’t take me long. I feel I need to amend my thoughts of beautiful writing: I hate it when it feels fake and forced and “Hey, look what I can do!” But through Sabrina’s eyes, I believed that she saw the sky above her changing colours with every breath. I hate it when authors try to make mental illness a glamorous disease. When they make it out to be a beautiful yet tragic illness I always wonder whether they’ve done any research at all. What I loved about Mr James’ portrayal of schizophrenia is that even though the world that Sabrina saw was absolutely stunning and it would be tempting to stay within the safety of her dreams, with all their colours and lights, there was always that sense of danger and of unease.
Sabrina was an absolutely glorious character. As I glimpsed the world through her eyes, I could really sense the level of frustration she felt as she tried to articulate what she was going through. It was incredibly sad but really affective.
My only real criticism is that I’m not entirely sure I understood what led to Sabrina being committed in the first place. I have an idea and I get the basic gist but there were a few questions I have about it. I don’t really want to go into it too much, and it’s probably just me being a bit dim, but I just thought it was a bit too vague and confused for such an important aspect of the story. < Mini spoilers > I feel like I need to talk about Alec, the love interest. Eeeh, this kid had me having kittens all over the place. He was so destructive, and so adamant that he was right all the time. It would be easy to label him as the baddie but I didn’t really see him as that. I think he was just a teenager who didn’t really understand how dangerous his words would be to someone like Sabrina. I don’t think there was any malice behind his words. He was such an interesting character and, I’m glad to say, he really redeemed himself in the end. < End of mini spoilers > And, on a completely girly point, the scenes between him and Sabrina were so, so sweet that, if I ignored all the implications and ramifications and focus purely on their relationship, it could well be one of the most beautiful and innocent YA relationships I’ve read. But I’m not completely sure I can ignore them all, even if he did learn his lesson the hard way. The jury’s still out on Alec. *narrows eyes* Also, if I read one more prologue that I absolutely love, I’m going to seriously damage my reputation as Jo, The Prologue Hater. But Sabrina got her perfect ending and that last line… yesyesyes. Theme Tune. I always think of Patrick Wolf when I read a beautiful and poetic book that has one foot set firmly in the surreal. There is actually a better song for this book and I was this close to choosing it but it’s the theme song I’m using for my own WIP and… well… I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I don’t like to share my Wolf. But this one is just as suitable. The Days by Patrick Wolf. I had your love once Seized my body whole And in our first dance I thought by chance God had matched my soul But time bought its travelling Its distance and solitude My self-damaging I took my love Far, far from you. I promise, I will meet you I will meet you At the end of the days. This book could be seen as a love story in the same way this song could be seen as a love song, but it can also be seen as the beginning of a journey that is difficult and there are no guarantees that everything will work out, but the heroine is hopeful and determined to give it a try. I’m calling it both. I received an advanced copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 12, 2012
| Feb 14, 2012
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Jan 24, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1405258217
| 9781405258210
| 4.23
| 9,487
| Feb 06, 2012
| Feb 06, 2012
|
A note: This review is going to be a bit vague because I really, really, reallyreally don’t want to spoil this book for anyone. Because oh my gosh…. A...more A note: This review is going to be a bit vague because I really, really, reallyreally don’t want to spoil this book for anyone. Because oh my gosh…. A note on the note: This review really is going to be vague unlike all my other ‘vague’ reviews which go on for about a year. The first thing I did after I finished reading this book was to pick up my phone and text my best friend, who I have known since I was eleven and has been there through every single one of my problems and ill-advised fringes, and tell her that I loved her. The second thing I did after I finished reading this book was flip back to the beginning and start reading it again. I don’t mind admitting that it took me and this book a while to really get going.. The way this book was written with all the capital letters bothered me and the changing in perspectives and everything really confused me. It took me a good 100 pages to get into but seeing as this book is over 400 pages long; that was absolutely fine. And after those first 100 pages, I learnt the truth and that is: This book is fantastic. I knew I’d love it when I was noseying at the wonderful Chachic’s status updates and then I read the synopsis. Spies? Pilots? Codes? Secrets? History? Best friends? Mancunians?! These are a few of my favourite things… I loved the setting. I loved the plot. I loved the era. And the twists absolutely threw me (although, I did have the smallest of small inklings of one thing but that’s only because I have a clever dad who eats history books for breakfast and I accidentally asked a question that got made me put a few things together…) The twist and the ending…. I just can’t even think about them without jibbering. Code Name Verity is The Usual Suspects of YA literature. Like I said above, the second thing I did after I finished reading this book was to go back to the beginning and read over certain parts again. I know that this book will be one of those books that will get better and better every time I read it. I loved Verity. I loved Maddie. They were real girls. They laugh, they cry, they flirt with boys, they gossip, they’re loyal, they fly planes, they can land planes, they can speak different languages, they can crack codes, they can do the unthinkable, they do the right thing. I loved that, with Maddie and Verity, Ms Wein showed that you can be strong, you can be brave, you can be good at what you do, you can be the best at what you do and you can do all this without sacrificing your femininity and/or becoming a passive-aggressive “message”. There was never a sense that these ladies did what they did in a “Look! Look! We can do it too. We’re just as good as boys!” and because they had something to prove. They were such rich and beautiful characters and I loved, loved, loved them both so dearly. And, anyway, boys didn’t even get a look in. They wouldn’t be able to keep up with any of the girls in this book. Pffft. ;-) The phrase “Careless talk costs lives” is mentioned frequently in this book and I couldn’t help but be reminded of this poster:  [Here!] Also, the fact that that I own that very poster [bought from the Imperial War Museum North, I’ve still not been to the London one, or the Churchill War Rooms, yet… one day :) ] and it is hanging up on my bedroom wall….that helped too. So that’s it. That’s my review. It doesn’t do this book justice in the slightest but it’s the best that I can do. Arm yourself with tissues, read this book, prepare to be amazed and always fly high. Read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Feb 14, 2012
| Feb 19, 2012
|
Jan 23, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1599908441
| 9781599908441
| 3.89
| 6,744
| Jun 19, 2012
| Jun 19, 2012
|
I feel like saying anything negative about this book is the equivalent of kicking a puppy. Well, I guess I’m going to be the puppy-kicker of the blogg...more
I feel like saying anything negative about this book is the equivalent of kicking a puppy. Well, I guess I’m going to be the puppy-kicker of the blogging world*. Wait, let me clarify. It’s not as if I didn’t like this book, because I did but I just wanted to like it a lot more. Do you want to good news or the bad news? I don’t see why anyone would ever say good news first because you’re all happy and joyful and then BAM, bad news. And then you’re sad. And no one wants to be sad. So the bad news- I don’t get why this book had to be a love story. I like a kissing book as much as the next person, but I didn’t want this book to be a kissing book. And the more I think about it, the more I think that it actually was. But one of the better ones, you know? I liked the relationship between Harper and Travis and if this was any other YA book I would have been smitten because both characters were realistic and I could actually see why they were attracted to each other. Unfortunately, I felt it was a bit rushed and, in context with the rest of the story, it did seem to be kind of forced. Like I said, in any other book, I would have praised the love interest because, as a regular YA reader, I have often been acquainted with the most ridiculous love stories… but I wanted more from this. Everything else was spot on and, I’ll talk about this more later when I’m praising and gushing and high-fiving but I honestly I think that Travis was such a rich character that he could have held this book on his own. I think my main problem was that I didn’t really connect with Harper. I mean she was OK but I felt like I hardly knew her. In comparison to Travis, his mum and his Marines she very much faded into the back ground. I just can’t help but think that this book would have been infinitely better if it had dealt solely with Travis’ relationship with his fellow Marines, his parents and his brother, the latter being something that I desperately wanted. I mean, talk about conflicting and angsty and difficult emotions! I just felt a lot of the relationships, ones that would really have allowed Ms Doller to write some really intense and difficult emotions (and it’s obvious this is one of her major talents) were over looked for a pretty girl in a band t-shirt. Alright, anyway… now the good news. I absolutely adored the relationship between Travis and his fellow Marines. I loved their banter and how vile they were with each other. They’re not always brave. They fight over who gets the lad’s mags first but they are so completely connected mentally, it was wonderful. I think if you’re going to write a book about a subject that’s so current and close to a lot of people’s hearts across the whole world, you really need to know what you’re talking about. I loved how it wasn’t glamorised and things were portrayed how they are. This book is impeccably researched and I wasn’t surprised at all to see that about 80% of the acknowledgments are to Marines. However, my favourite part of this book (and the part that made me have to put it down because I didn’t want to weep in public) was the relationship between Travis and his mum. I loved the way Travis looked after his mum but also wanted to be looked after to. He was big tough guy Marine with issues but his mum was his first port of call. Isn’t that glorious? I just loved it. It felt honest and refreshing to have a mother-son relationship that…well, actually existed, you know? It wasn’t the neatest relationship in the world, lots of messy emotions, but I think (with maybe the exception of one that I’m not going to talk about because of spoilers and my sadness) it was my favourite. I always seem to chat on about how much I want parents to get a look in in YA books and I got two for the price of one in this one. Charlie’s mums were just as brilliant- full of humour, life and heaps of sadness. I had to put my Kindle down a few times to stop me embarrassing myself on the train. I have to admit that this book was a little disappointing, but even so it’s a really great debut and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see what else Ms Doller writes. Even though it didn't affect me as much as I wanted it to, I'd still wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone looking for an intelligent and compelling contemporary. *No puppies were kicked in the writing of this review. I promise. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| May 21, 2012
| May 26, 2012
|
Jan 22, 2012
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0763656844
| 9780763656843
| 3.96
| 597
| Feb 14, 2012
| Feb 14, 2012
|
Pre-Review Thoughts: I have such a love/hate relationship with Netgalley. I love it because it’s an invaluable way for me, as a British blogger, to ge...more
Pre-Review Thoughts: I have such a love/hate relationship with Netgalley. I love it because it’s an invaluable way for me, as a British blogger, to get access to books that aren’t published over here for months or, in some instances, at all. I hate it because it always seems that when a new book comes out it’s a fight to the death to get accepted for the popular, well publicised titles. But what I love most about Netgalley is finding books such as this one that I would probably never have found otherwise and absolutely adoring them. “Let’s say right now that we can tell each other our secrets and we won’t make fun of each other. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you sound weird, too. I am glad of it, because I can be my own true self with you.” “Sometimes you write things in your letters that I thought nobody had ever thought before, except for me. But then there it is in your letter.” Stuffed full of pictures, poems and drawings (which unfortunately weren’t shown in the ARC but will be in the hardback copy I’ll undoubtedly buy), this book tells a simple story. It’s not a particularly original one but it’s a beautiful one all the same. With Meena and River, Ms Vaswani and Mr House have created two of the most authentic children’s voices I have read. Their letters are full of their worries, their pain, their dreams but they are also full of rich humour that had made laughing and shattering my early nights. I know I always rabbit on about how much better most middle grade books are at dealing with serious issues honestly than most YA books but I’m just going to rabbit on a little bit more. Because Same Sun Here was no exception. The environment, tolerance, different cultures, family and politics (this book is set in 2008 around Obama’s inauguration) are but a few topics that are covered in great deal within the letters between Meena and River. There is such a sweet and true message hidden within these pages but there’s a difference between talking about an issue and clobbering you over the head with it. Fortunately, both Vaswani and House are well aware of this. This book is, in effect, a love letter to communication. I don’t know whether I connected with this book because, like Meena and River, my friendship circle is spread across not only the UK, but also across the world. Because of things like e-mail and Skype and Facebook, I can connect with someone on the opposite side of the world and send out separate e-mails to someone in Australia, someone in America and someone in Kent in the time it takes me to find a biro that works. Sure, e-mails make it possible to have a friendship that isn’t reliant on the Royal Mail, but there truly is nothing like getting a real letter is there?
So true. I love the act of writing a handwritten letter because you can’t delete bits or change your mind before you send it. Well, I mean, you can use Tippex and stuff (do people still use Tippex for anything as opposed to writing their crushes names on their pencil cases?!) but once it’s on the paper it’s out in the world. Maybe it’s just me but I feel like there is something much more honest in hand-writing a letter. This isn’t that much of a spoiler but if you don’t want to know anything about the plot just skip the next paragraph. Towards the end of the book Meena and River decide to meet in New York and I genuinely felt sad because I thought that now they’ve met, they’d never send letters to each other again. But I, ever the optimist, would like to believe that they did and they sent each other long, scrawled letters to each other with about how much fun they had when they met up. I know I went a bit off topic up there, but this book has inspired to make the effort to write more letters to all my kindred spirits scattered across the globe. On real writing paper. And maybe written in fountain pen. [Ha…. This was supposed to be a “quick” review. Whoops] Recommended For. People who want to read a book about contemporary issues. People who wished they had a pen pal when they were in school. People who wish they could look out of their window and see mountains. People who will never get tired of their grandma’s stories. People who like to scream at the top of their lungs at passing trains. People who believe that kindred spirits are telepathic. People who can believe that S.E Hinton is a girl and that she wrote a book because girls can do anything. People who wish Kentucky was a shape better suited to cutting it out of toast. People who will join me in my pledge to write more letters. Some more quotes because I couldn’t narrow them down:
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 19, 2012
| Jan 20, 2012
|
Jan 11, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 031238369X
| 9780312383695
| 3.77
| 7,061
| Dec 23, 2008
| Dec 23, 2008
|
4.5 stars. Slight spoilers follow… “I’d rather be certifiable than perpetually boring.” Initial Final Page Thoughts. ME TOO! High Points. I loved everythin...more 4.5 stars. Slight spoilers follow… “I’d rather be certifiable than perpetually boring.” Initial Final Page Thoughts. ME TOO! High Points. I loved everything: the writing, the characters, the emotions, the subject. Done. *bats off hands* Low Points. This book was so small it could get lost in my back teeth. I’m just being selfish because I wanted to spend more time with this book but hey, if book reviewers can’t be selfish then who can? That is the real question, I think. Heroine. You know how I really like my heroines to be decent human beings? Well, I really really like my heroines to be bitches. And I don’t mean the uh-oh-she-has-blonde-hair-and-she’s-a-cheerleader (or the British equivalent which is… um, something)-and-her-boyfriend-is-smokin’-and-has-hidden-depths-and-probably-will-end-up-with-the-heroine kinda bitch. I mean, like, real bitches. Parker is no cookie cutter bitch. She is brilliant and I’m saying no more because I don’t want to spoil things. Except that I have a total girlcrush on her and I have a feeling it’s all going to end in tears. Love Interest(s). Eh, who am I kidding? This is Parker’s story… these boys didn’t even had a look in. Theme Tune. Girls Like You by The Naked and Famous. Sadness Scale 7/10. I’ve never understood the belief that a book can only be classed as having a happy ending if the MC gets with the boy/girl. Surely the reader, if they really connected with a character, would want to see them battle fearlessly against what is plaguing them and destroying them from the inside? With that in mind,and only a slight implied spoiler, this is one of the happiest and hopeful endings I’ve read in a long time. The subject matter of Cracked Up to Be (secrets) has been done before; but never quite like this. It’s remarkable that a book of only 200 pages can be so rich and dense with realistic emotions. So, bravo Ms Summers. Bravo. Oh and also, it took me about three hours to read this book. Coincidentally that was half the amount of time it took me to get over one scene, towards the end. Jeez louise. Was that necessary?! WAS IT?! Recommended For. People who don’t believe that the purpose of boys in literature is to solve every problem that faces the heroine. People who like their heroines with a bit of spark…and sadistic, manipulative and incredibly clever. People who get frustrated when authors can’t handle a flashback (MS Summers can, by the by). People who look for deeper-meanings in art projects. People whose idea of “romantic” is no underwear. People who don’t get overly attached to fictional critters. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jan 07, 2012
| Jan 07, 2012
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Jan 07, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1407129333
| 9781407129334
| 3.58
| 713
| Sep 01, 2011
| May 01, 2012
|
3.5 Stars. “Do ghosts drink tea?” “They don’t,” said Tansey. “But this ghost would love to see a cup of tea in front of her. It’d be lovely.” This book...more 3.5 Stars. “Do ghosts drink tea?” “They don’t,” said Tansey. “But this ghost would love to see a cup of tea in front of her. It’d be lovely.” This book was so sweet. I know that sounds like an “Oh God, what can I call this book? Quick gimme a word, gimme! Ahh, sweet will do” but it really isn’t. It truly was sweet. As the synopsis says, this is a story about mums (sorry mams) and daughters and the connection between them. I wish this story had been told solely from Tansey and Emer’s perspective because I felt those were the strongest sections. The story thread that was set in the present, although it did have some very sweet parts and proved incredibly useful to me re: How to smuggle a ghost into a hospital, began to grate after a while. I just felt that Tansey and Emer had a bit more spunk to them than Mary and Scarlett. Maybe this was because their stories were a lot more fleshed out. I just adored the feel of these chapters. What I did love about this book was the portrayal of mums and matriarchal love. I often think that in both YA and MG books, mums tend to get a really rough deal. They’re either screaming harpies with unreasonably strict rules or completely absent. But all these mums, both past and present, were so strong and so feisty. So yeah, I’m sticking with my original conclusion: This book was incredibly sweet. And it has encouraged me to start saying “grand” in every day conversations. I received this book from the publishers. (less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Jan 19, 2012
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Jan 04, 2012
| Hardcover
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| 141698450X
| 9781416984504
| 4.19
| 1,733
| Oct 12, 2010
| Oct 12, 2010
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Things I Have Learnt From YA Books #678019 : When the Monstrumologist gets scared… you should too. Honestly, I didn’t think that Mr Yancey could top Th...more Things I Have Learnt From YA Books #678019 : When the Monstrumologist gets scared… you should too. Honestly, I didn’t think that Mr Yancey could top The Monstrumologist but he did… and then some. The plotting is immaculate. The characters are absolutely superb. The setting is one of my favourites. It is both terrifying and heart breaking. Stomach churning and butterfly-inducing. Thought-provoking and all the superlatives I can think of. “Let us go then, you and I, like Alice down the rabbit hole, to a time when there still were dark places in the world, and there were men who dared to delve into them.” The thing that struck me most about this book was Mr Yancey’s vivid attention to detail to the dichotomy between the natural world and what dwells in its darkest shadows. And that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write in one of my reviews. I sound like I’m writing a uni essay on it! But that’s it, I could write an essay on this book. I don’t know whether it’s just because I’ve spent too much time with Dr Warthrop and his thirst for knowledge has rubbed off on me but I almost, kinda, definitely want to write an essay on this book. There are so many layers that I want to strip back and make notes about in margins and highlight with gel pens and write a few paragraphs and then watch a bit of Come Dine With Me and then go back to it and think “What? When did Will Henry make a soufflé and how does that relate to the idea that sometimes it’s us that make the monsters that haunt our dreams?” and then spend all my washing machine change on the photocopier that always eats your change because my library books are due back and that hill to the library is just too.damn.high to crawl up in Welsh weather. ……. I mean, I already have my last few sentences written. I always liked to end my essays on an epic line that required a pause after you had read it. A pause of reflection. And learning. And italics. And it would be: “In Yancey’s writing, he explores the relationship between the natural world and the one that lives within its shadows. Both are treated with the utmost respect because unlike us, the stars in the sky, oblivious to fleeting human activity, and the monsters who stalk us are eternal.” Yeah, I never said I was the best student, did I? Eh? God knows what Dr Warthrop would think of me seeing as he dislikes poets and writers and dreamers (“The poet’s voices will be drowned out by the gears of progress.”). He is one of the most fascinating characters in any book I have ever read. This would be the bit where I tell you that he’s not always likeable but he has a good heart but I’m just going to make two minor adjustments to that sentence: He’s never likeable but he has a brilliant heart. And I love him fiercely. And of course we can’t forget Will Henry who is one of my favourite heroes. He’s had to go through so much, he’s seen so much and he’s lost so much. And he’s only twelve. He doesn’t have any friends his own age. The only regular conversation he has is with a cantankerous doctor who cares more about teeth and raspberry scones (although, who can blame him? I always get cravings for raspberry scones after I have finished one of these books) And he gets nibbled on by monsters an awful lot. I adore him. And of course, the relationship between these two characters was just as fascinating, sad and beautiful as it was in the first book. Perhaps even more so as we got to see a bit more of an insight into each character, especially Dr W. And I lovedlovedloved the slight shift in the relationship between Will and Dr Warthrop and I don’t mind admitting that I read that final paragraph with slightly misted eyes. I can’t wait to see where their story goes in The Isle of Blood. Just as in The Monstrumologist, this book is vile. And graphic. Oh so beautifully graphic. But what I loved about these descriptions (in addition to being a sick sick sicko) was that you could tell it wasn’t just a way of Mr Yancey channelling his inner Mel Brooks but that it was vital to the story. It set the blood-soaked scene, it created the terrifying atmosphere and, more importantly, it established the characters and the themes that are explored as the story goes on. It also provided some of my favourite passages of the book: “Ice crystals glittered like jewels festooning his ribs, lining the walls of his ripped-open stomach; his lungs looked like two enormous multi-faceted diamonds; his frozen viscera shone as brightly as wet marble. It was terrible. And it was beautiful.” Just one example… there are many writers nowadays that relish in their ability of turning something beautiful into something horrid. There aren’t many who do the opposite so convincingly. (I can’t tell you how many quotes I wrote down from this book. There were so many I could probably start a Tumblr entitled “Rick Yancey Talks About Life and Stars and, In Doing So, Speaks Directly to My Soul” and I would never run out of material.) Mr Yancey doesn’t seem to be a fan of happy endings or, actually, even hopeful endings. But they’re realistic… in a way a book about monsters can ever be realistic. These characters survive, they live to tell their tale, whether that’s a happy ending or whether that’s a curse is left to you to decide. I think the way Mr Yancey has constructed this story (with the added narrative of him finding Will Henry’s diaries) makes everything all the more poignant because we know the beginning and, unfortunately, we know the end. So what about the middle? Well… I guess Will Henry’s not finished just yet. Seeing as I’ve already used my fantastic line that would have got me an instant first in my essay and I can’t end my review on an epic and solemn and thought-provoking way, I’m just going to say: If you ever see this book lying around in the shop or the library or wherever, please get yourself a copy. Come on, snap to! Unless you’re squeamish at the thought of “curdled arterial spray” and “empty oracular cavities”. If so.. um… you should probably give this one a miss. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog, Wear the Old Coat.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Sep 15, 2012
| Sep 21, 2012
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Jan 03, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 140881997X
| 9781408819975
| 3.70
| 638
| Jan 05, 2012
| Jan 05, 2012
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Teetering between 4 and 4.5. “Death will continue… There will be a steady and endless stream of the dead, filling the land under the sea that can never...more Teetering between 4 and 4.5. “Death will continue… There will be a steady and endless stream of the dead, filling the land under the sea that can never be filled. But this is not sad This is beautiful. The beauty of this is that when you die there will always be someone waiting, there will always be those you have lost, standing there, the curve of their back and the stance of their feet so familiar. There will always be someone there, saying: -We have waited so long. It is so good to see you. Come here. Come here. Initial Final Page Thoughts. Woah… I can safely say I’ve never read a book like that before both in subject matter and emotions. High Points. Shorty. Marguerite.Toussaint L'Ouverture.Site Sole. One of the most original settings in any YA book I’ve read. Stories. Dirt. Vodou. Zombis. Notorious B.I.G. Voices in the darkness. Death. Hope. Friendship. Unflinching. Curses. Impeccably researched. Prophecies. Boys of cartilage and muscle and veins. History. The future. Then. Now. Always. Low Points. Even though I enjoyed (“enjoyed” isn’t really the word I’m looking for) the ‘Then’ parts and they were impeccably researched by Mr Lake, I couldn’t help my mind wandering a little. I found them interesting and beautifully written (One of my favourite quotes of the whole book was taken from one of these chapters [See top quote]) but I just wanted to get back to Shorty and his story. So really… it’s Mr Lake’s fault for creating such a brilliant character in Shorty. That’s right… his fault. *cough* Hero. Oh Shorty. I don’t want to really go into this too much because I think Shorty is the kind of character you really need to meet and get to know on your own. But my heart bled for this kid, it really did. His story isn’t an easy one to read but beneath the darkness (*groan* I’m sorry!) there is humour, faith and hope. Supporting Cast. Again, I’m not going to say much about this because of spoilers but one of the things I loved most about this book was the way that Mr Lake never asks us to forgive his characters. It may just be me, but I never got the feeling that this was a tale of redemption for any of the characters, even Shorty. It is how it is with this book; it’s real and it’s uncomfortable and problems aren’t solved. The villains have moments of greatness and the heroes have moments of darkness (*groan*… I’m sorry, it’s too easy!) Nothing is black and white with these characters and that’s why I love them. Theme Tune. Ready to Die- Notorious B.I.G. (I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that this song features about a million swear words… so, y’know. Those with sensitive ears…) I know this is probably a bit of a copout because this song features quite prominently in this book, but I don’t care, because the scenes where it features are extremely harrowing and unforgettable. Sadness Scale. 10/10. This book gutted me and there were a few points where it was difficult to actually get through it because of the situations portrayed. But like I always say in my reviews, I’m not a sensitive reader and I don’t mind when things get a bit dark, as long as they aren’t gratuitous or sensationalised for shock value. I’m so happy to say that Mr Lake’s portrayals were never like this. Taken from Mr Lake’s Author’s Note: “This is a work of fiction. That said, much in it is true. If you were hoping that some of the more unpleasant things you have just read were made up, then I apologise.” Apology accepted. :( Recommended For. People who are looking for a brilliantly research historical YA novel…..and people who aren’t claustrophobic. I received this book as a part of a tour set up by the wonderful wonderful UK Book Tours. You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Dec 17, 2011
| Dec 19, 2011
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Dec 16, 2011
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 184767304X
| 9781847673046
| 3.68
| 977
| Nov 01, 2007
| Mar 05, 2009
|
“Whales, porpoises, mermaids and mermen, dead sailors, fishes, crabs, tiny shrimps; the sea is forever full of eyes that watch me. I never fly far b...more
“Whales, porpoises, mermaids and mermen, dead sailors, fishes, crabs, tiny shrimps; the sea is forever full of eyes that watch me. I never fly far beyond the shore. If my town were a map the bay would have Here be Monsters written on it in golden ink.”
It always feels a cop out when I write a review about a book such as ‘The Earth Hums in B- Flat’ because I’m going to go on and on about how much I enjoyed it and you’ll read with wide-eyes shining, practically quivering with excitement because you want to know more and more… [I may or may not picture everyone who reads my reviews reading them like that. *cough*] And then I’ll be like: “SORRY! No can do, my friend, because if I say anything else the book will be spoilt and the only thing as bad as a book being spoilt is when someone pokes you in the side in the middle of a stretch.” So I’m going to try and be clever and get you to want to read this book without me actually telling you anything about what happens. Right from the start you are transported into post-war (I never actually got a hold of the exact date but I’m guessing late 50s because there is mention of the Munich Air Disaster) North Wales. It feels close and comforting and there are friendly Welsh people chatting with each other, making buttermilk and washing their front step. It is a wonderful setting; extremely quaint and rural and it almost made me feel nostalgic for not only a place I’d never been to, but also an era. Everyone in this village knows everyone and everyone knows everything about everyone. There is a lot of curtain-twitching in this book. There’s just something about nosey neighbours that I love so much, don’t ask me why. But all the secrets and the gossiping and the hearsay and the whispered rumours can only lead to two things: 1) Bad things happening. 2) A book that I couldn’t put down. Twelve year old Gwenny was such a delightful and unique character. I simply adored her. But I guess that doesn’t really say much because give a girl an imagination and she’s already a million times better than a lot of literary ladies. She’s inquisitive, she is clever and the people of her village and her family think she’s odd because she’s different. Isn’t that just the best way to be? I just loved her. She went through so much and she still had time to be cute as a little button all the way through. But it was the sense of family that really got to me in this book. Ms Strachan wrote these scenes impeccably. It’s all about family secrets, ancestry and it’s about finding out where you fit in amongst all that. My favourite parts of this book were the parts where Gwenny is creating her family tree. She goes around to her Nain’s to listen to stories about her family, goes and visits the gravestones of her relatives looking for their tales now forgotten and buried and then fills in the details with her bright pencil crayons. But these families have skeletons in their closet. Ms Strachan was able to really delve deep into the family dynamics and didn’t let you dare look away when things got a bit rough. And boy, did they get rough. Some scenes in this book were so tense I had to stop reading because I felt so claustrophobic. All of these characters had secrets and a lot of them were broken and Ms Strachan plants you firmly in the midst of it. I really connected with all of these characters and I couldn’t make up my mind whether I wanted to cuddle them, scowl at them, ignore them or throttle them. All of the above, maybe. The only reason why I’m not giving this book all the praise is because I worked out both of the major plot twist pretty early on. I think if anyone knows their historical figures will be able to guess at some things. Ooooh, cryptic. Also, some of the story-lines/character’s situations were left unopened and I almost got the impression that the reader is just left to assume a lot of things. But given the clues/evidence/what-have-you we’d be given along the way and even the ‘big reveal’ at the end, there were still a lot of things that I was unsatisfied with. And one more thing (real spoiler guys.. skip if you have any intention of reading this book): (view spoiler)[I couldn’t commend Ms Strachan highly enough on how she dealt with mental illness, especially the town’s reactions to it. I felt considering the era and the small-town mentality, it was really realistic and never once sensationalised. However, I couldn’t help but feel that it was sometimes used as a fall-back excuse for a lot of the major things that happened in this book. Why does her mam hate Gwenni so much? Depression. Why did Gwenny’s mam cheat on her husband? Depression. Why did Ifan beat his wife? Depression. Why doesn’t Richard’s dad believe in God? Depression. To me anyway, it sometimes felt a bit… easy and I guess I wanted more of an explanation as to why these things happened. I understand that mental illness could and probably was a factor in all of those things, but that was the only explanation we seemed to be given. And I guess I just needed a bit more of a concrete one. (hide spoiler)] [Wow, OK… maybe I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I did. Maybe I was in a post-reading glow.] But apart from those bits, this book was glorious and I would wholly recommend it to young adults and real-life adults alike. Gratuitous Castle Picture. I never actually got a hold on which town Gwenni lived in but I know it has a castle and it’s across the water from Cricieth. Which also has a catle but it’s nothing in comparison to hers. “In my sleep I have to fly up and up and up to avoid the gatehouse and the Red Dragon on our castle before diving again to the sands and the sea.”  But it’s still pretty impressive, no? This review is part of Wythnos Cymraeg || Welsh Week. Find out more!(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 27, 2012
| Feb 29, 2012
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Dec 02, 2011
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0375849718
| 9780375849718
| 3.49
| 616
| Oct 13, 2009
| Oct 13, 2009
|
"Your name's made out of cloud, Holly."
Initial Final Page Thoughts. Ms Dowd’s books sure do play havoc on my body clock. 3am. 3AM! High Points. Holly. S...more "Your name's made out of cloud, Holly." Initial Final Page Thoughts. Ms Dowd’s books sure do play havoc on my body clock. 3am. 3AM! High Points. Holly. S♥lace. Blonde wigs. Thule. Fiona. Vegan truckers. Grace. Trim. Rosabel. Slim-slam glamour girls. Mogits. The Titanic. “Walking out into a night sky, thumb out and fag in hand”. Ferries. Wales. Curry and chips. Araf. The kind of days that pull you out to play. Nameless boys on motorbikes. Miracles. Scenic routes. Baby Guiness. Strawberry birthday cake. Girls who are strictly sunshine. Low Points. I read A Swift Pure Cry before this one and it broke my heart a smidgeon more. Heroine. It just shows how much I loved this girl that I could overlook her constant Jane Eyre-bashing. The usual rule is that if you bash Jane Eyre, I bash you. Or at least, you know, glare at you and bitch about you behind your back. I fight like a girl, you see. But there is always an exception to the rule and Holly Hogan is it. (If you would like a much more coherent and insightful description of Holly, let me please direct you to the wonderful Katya’s review because she does a much much better job than I could.) Vulnerable, fearless, strong, broken, resourceful, “left-over”; Holly is one of the most realistic and memorable YA heroines I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Theme Tune. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics. I like it when books already have their own theme tune packaged and ready for me. Especially when they are as fantastic as this one. I travelled the world and the seven seas, Everybody’s looking for something. I never thought this song was particularly emotional before I read this book, but now I’m pretty sure I’ll never listen to it in the same way again. Sadness Scale. 9/10. Ms Dowd was the queen of bittersweet endings. She really was. After I finished this book I found myself just reading the last page over and over again, letting it sink in. I love how all the questions weren’t answered and I love how all the problems weren’t fixed. On the final page the characters are still struggling and they will probably continue to struggle long after the reader has moved onto their next book. But in amongst all the bleakness and sadness that occurs in this story, there is always hope in the background. Who knew a girl with an ash-blonde wig and bag made out of fake lizard skin could affect me so much? Also… I got genuinely distraught over the fate of a stuffed dog. Seriously, who am I?! Recommended For. People who are looking for a perfectly constructed and incredibly realistic contemporary YA novel. People who have ever wanted to become someone else, just for a day. People who don’t like it when someone spoils the ending of Titanic for them. Slim-slam girls. People who don’t trust vegans. People who want to travel the world and the seven seas- including the Irish one. People who would rather be a troll than a doll. Anyone who isn’t a mogit. People who will always take the scenic route. You can find this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 05, 2012
| Jan 07, 2012
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Nov 30, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0763646024
| 9780763646028
| 3.30
| 188
| Mar 13, 2012
| Mar 13, 2012
|
“…they confessed they had always had a soft spot for old mountain stories like his, for tales of humble people and the courage it took to live their...more
“…they confessed they had always had a soft spot for old mountain stories like his, for tales of humble people and the courage it took to live their days. For true stories of magic and love.”
Initial Final Page Thoughts. I have a soft spot for old mountain stories like this. High Points. Sonia. Pancho. Rafael. Oscar. Trains. Valleys. Milagos. Abuela. Spirits. Superstitions. Hibiscus. Poetry. History. Traditions. Community. Humble mountain folk. Family. Wishes. Tres Montes. Longing to be ordinary. The shades of a reading tree. Low Points. I think I had come to the conclusion that this book was going to be a magical realism book when it actually wasn’t. When I read the synopsis I got so excited because it sounded so completely different to anything I had read. I’ve always loved magical realism and superstitions and old traditions and “old mountain stories” and although this book has some of these elements; I was expecting more. I don’t really want to go into detail but there were certain situations that, although were incredibly well-written and harrowing, seemed to eclipse Sonia’s story. The more I think about it, actually, the more I realise how misleading the title of this book is. It’s not really about The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind because a great chunk of the book isn’t even told from her perspective. I think this book is about community, friendship and family above everything, which is great and makes a refreshing change from “It’s my destiny to save the world blah blah blaaah”. I’ve just read through those above paragraphs and realised I’ve said a lot without actually saying anything. I guess my only low point is that I assumed that this book was going to be a different book than it actually was. I just wished we had been allowed to spend more time in the shade of a reading tree telling stories of superstitions, ghosts, traditions, community, magic and anonymous hibiscus flowers on your window ledge. Heroine. Like I mentioned before, I really wish we had spent more time with Sonia because she was not only an incredibly likeable heroine (a novelty in YA, I know) but a well-thought out and original character. One of the main things I loved about Sonia was that, even though she was described as ‘special’ because of the belief that she had the power to heal people (cue alarm bells), there was so much more to her than that. I often wonder with some of the ladies in YA fiction, you know the ones “I’m special because it’s my destiny to save the world and get stuck in a love triangle”, what would happen if you took away their “special-ness”. Yeah, Sonia had something that those girls lack: personality. She was clever, hardworking, funny, loyal and I loved her. Also, I believe that shawls are an incredibly underrated garment. Yeaaah Pancho was a hero. He was the hero of this story. I think my heart now belongs to a green eyed Chilean taxi-driver with dreams of being a poet. *glares at Sonia* Rafael. HA. I have such a weakness for cheeky boys with a healthy appetite for I loved Rafael and I loved the banter he had with Sonia. More fun big brothers in YA please! Theme Tune. Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart. For Pancho. Sigh. Yeah, I love him. GET OVER IT. Sadness Scale. 8/10. Oh no. I thought this book was going to be a happy ending. And it was, riiiiiight the end. It had a happy last page. But before that?! Gosh. I’m going to completely go against everything I wrote in my low points and contradict myself thoroughly by saying the next thing, but whatever it’s my review. I loved that Ms Medina pulled the rug out from under me when I read this book and added the-situation-I’m-not-mentioning-because-of-spoilers that I wasn’t expecting. I appreciate why Ms Medina added this storyline because it was fascinating to read about something which I wasn’t familiar with before I read this book. Extremely harrowing and beautifully written. Sorry to be vague but most of the sadness stems from this situation and, as much as I don’t want to spoil it for you, I also want you to be as sad as I was. Recommended For. People who are looking for an original story with great characters, beautiful settings and an ever so slight vein of magic running through it. People who believe in superstitions. People who have a soft spot for tales of humble mountain folk. People who could happily spend hours listening to stories in the shade of a tree. People who like boys who are “too given to daydreams”. People who were wondering where Sonia was when the wind was battering the British Isles this past week… try silencing that, Miss Ocampo! I received a copy of this book from the publishers. You can read this review and lots of other exciting stuff on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 03, 2012
| Jan 05, 2012
|
Nov 24, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385524943
| 9780385524940
| 3.94
| 22,064
| 2008
| Aug 05, 2008
|
None
| Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| not set
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Nov 16, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1602826501
| 9781602826502
| 4.00
| 13
| Mar 13, 2012
| Mar 13, 2012
|
“There had to be something to take the taste off life.”
Initial Final Page Thoughts. Sounds good to me too, Tyson. High Points. Boys, boys, boys! Seriou...more “There had to be something to take the taste off life.” Initial Final Page Thoughts. Sounds good to me too, Tyson. High Points. Boys, boys, boys! Seriously, there are two females in this book and it’s brilliant. I always forget how annoying YA girls are. But yeah… Tyson, Marc, Rawiri, Ihaia…. All of them . As a city girl myself, the urban setting was greatly appreciated. Auckland slang (Although I had to admit that I still don’t understand how the word ‘bro’ can be pronounced as ‘bru’… thanks to the lovely Trinity who tried to explain it to me in vain). Graffiti. Break dancing. Rap battles. Sexuality. Hot chocolate. Help lines. Train tracks. Best friends. Abs (no, seriously. Boom.) Dreams. Black books. Basketball jerseys. Basically I could have saved myself a lot of typing and gushing by saying that all of my high points could be summed up in one sentence: This book is completely refreshing, well-crafted and unique in its exploration of race, sexuality and friendship. Low Points. Eh… I could have really done without one bit towards the end. It seemed extremely rushed and completely random, especially because we weren’t really told much about the character in question and, eh. It wasn’t as if it was bad but I just think that with everything else going on, we didn’t really need it. Also, completely randomly, every single character in this book was at one point described as “staunch”. I actually got to the point where I started to believe that I had been thinking it meant something completely different my entire life! I know it’s not really a low point, but you know when you’re reading something and you keep noticing a certain thing and then you notice you’re noticing it and then it just gets ridiculous because all you can see is that word?! No? Just me then. Hero. Why aren’t all heroes like Tyson? Seriously. I don’t think I’d be cool enough to hang out with Tyson and his friends but I like to think Or, you know. I haven’t really thought about it too much. Mr Wise did an absolutely stellar job in creating a character that was not only vulnerable and conflicted (read: Not whingey. Take note, certain authors. Characters can have problems without being insufferable and over dramatic), but realistic and normal. This book may have a setting which many readers will not really relate to but the emotions and insecurities that Tyson feels are truly universal. What I loved most about Tyson, and what made him really refreshing, was the fact that he made himself do the things that he knew was going to scare him. Whether it was talking to the guy he’d seen on the train or coming to terms with his sexuality and actually telling those closest to him that he was gay. It was like he closed his eyes and just jumped, and if it backfired (which it sometimes did), he picked himself up, put his headphones on and carried on. I kind of wish that this story had been told in first person because I would have loved to have gotten a more in depth view of what Tyson was thinking, but Wise did a fine job regardless. Best friend. Rawiri…. Gah. I don’t even know what K1 is but I’d watch it with you. Love Interest. I have to say, because I am awesome and a hopeless romantic, I did have my suspicions as to how this was going to end up. But boy, oh boy, am I glad it did! What I loved about the love interest(s) was that they were really subtle and they never took away from the fact that this was Tyson’s story and it was his battle with his own emotions and he survived because of his own strength. Sorry for the vagueness but it’s best not to know. I sometimes feel that in books where the lovers are the same sex they always place so much unnecessary emphasis on the fact that omgomg they’re the same gender therefore the relationship must be rife with ANGST and DRAMA and OBSTACLES. But here, we get two people who want to be together because they truly like each other and they just happen to be both boys. What I will say is this…. Tyson is fearless when he knows what he wants! Whoosh. He’d make an excellent wing man. Theme Tune. I know this is probably going to come as a shock to you guys but hip hop will never be the topic I choose when I go on Mastermind. Especially not Auckland hip-hop. And as much as I’d love to be all like “Yeah, yeah, here’s my theme tune… what was that? You’ve never heard of them? Wow. Where have you been? Oh… they’re amazing. I’ve liked them for aaaaages because I’m so cool and original”…. I won’t. So, here's my theme tune. I Need by Maverick Sabre. But don’t fret because I absolutely love finding out new bands and my taste in music is so eclectic, so I’ve been making a note of all the bands that Mr Wise mentioned that Tyson was listening to (and no, not just so if I ever meet Marc or Ihaia I could have more to say to them than “Ghuggguhhhh”) you never know, you might be getting more urban theme tunes in the future. Angst Level. 8/10. I don’t really want to go into this too much but Mr Wise certainly knows how to handle the harrowing situation with tact and without relying on melodrama. Recommended For. People who are looking for a brilliant contemporary YA that isn’t set in either England, America or Australia. People who love the city. People who love music. People who love graffiti. People who measure journeys on public transport by how many songs they’ve listened to. People who don’t see what’s in front of them until it’s kissing them. People who like hot chocolate. People who resist the urge to tsk and/or yell “FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, GET A BELT!” when they see a boy with pants practically around their ankles so you get a full view of their under crackers. Staunch people. I received an advanced copy of this book from the publishers. You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Nov 14, 2011
| Nov 15, 2011
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Nov 14, 2011
| Paperback
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| 0304352411
| 9780304352418
| 4.07
| 186
| 1956
| unknown
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“We’re all the same here, he told himself; a handful of life trying to preserve itself like the candle light in the bunkers, a bundle of duties in un...more
“We’re all the same here, he told himself; a handful of life trying to preserve itself like the candle light in the bunkers, a bundle of duties in uniform, feeling and thinking like human beings, but trained to act like automatons.”
Well, I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. To say reading it was a bit of a slog would be doing it a great disservice and one that would be unfair. So, because I’m a crazy kid and whatnot, I’m going to split this book into two. Not the review. No no. The actual book. And the first book I will be reviewing will be known as Cross of Iron: The Book Jo Disliked. (TBJD) The second book I will be reviewing will be known as Cross of Iron: The Book Jo Liked. (TBJL) Because this book made me feel conflicted something rotten. I’m going to start with TBJD. I remember this conversation I had with my friend about protagonists and how I didn’t mind if they were a bit… unsavoury. Some of my favourite protagonists are, in fact, mental psychopaths. And I stand by my decision. I like my main characters with a bit of edge, I like them to have flaws and I like them to be a bit prickly. But this book really took that to a whole new level though. I think out of all the men in this book I liked about three of them. And they were hardly in it (view spoiler)[or at least not for long! (hide spoiler)] Steiner was a really interesting and complex character but I found him often to be too callous, too calculating and unnecessarily cruel. Saying that though, I did like the parts where this book was told from his perspective the best. Also, and this isn’t really fair because it has nothing to do with the story itself, but my gosh whoever translated this book needs to pull up their socks. Unless it’s just the fact that Mr Heinrich really wanted stilted dialogue and I’m just not with it. Then I apologise. And the word “grinned” often used where I have the feeling Mr Heinrich probably meant “grimanced”. Or at least I hope so. It makes an alarming difference when men are grinning when they are being insulted and/or seeing their comrades being killed next to them. And while I’m having a bit of a rant... when another person starts talking in a conversation you start a new paragraph. For the love of all things literary! There were huge chunks of this book where I didn’t have the foggiest as to who was saying what because all of the dialogue was shoved into one paragraph and they were all grinning and gah. Moving on to my next review for TBJL. The beginning of this book was infinitely better than the second half. As Steiner and his men journey through the depths of the Russian forests the setting is so impeccably realised that you can almost hear every single pine cone being trodden on. I really loved the conversations and banter between the men. It felt silly, yet frighteningly honest. I’m still laughing about Funder and his cologne. And even though I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, I loved them as a whole. Their relationships, petty arguments and their intelligent, almost philosophical, conversations about their life all felt extremely authentic. Also, I can completely see how Mr Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was influenced by this story (or the film at least) because Stranksy and Landa are definitely cut from the same evil-man cloth. I have to admit that my notes (and my attention span) dwindled at around page 300 and I ended up skimming the last 100 pages or so. Until, that is, the end chapter which blew my mind, broke my heart, and other metaphors that haven’t even been invented yet. Wow, just wow. Extremely haunting. So, my rating for TBJD would have been a 2 and my rating for TBJL would have been a 4. I’m settling on 3. This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature. You can find out more here.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 08, 2011
| Nov 10, 2011
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Nov 08, 2011
| Paperback
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| 140633149X
| 9781406331493
| 3.60
| 467
| Nov 01, 2010
| Nov 01, 2010
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“No bird in a cage ever speaks. What is there to say? The sky is everywhere, churning above its head, blue and endless, calling out to it. But the cag...more
“No bird in a cage ever speaks. What is there to say? The sky is everywhere, churning above its head, blue and endless, calling out to it. But the caged bird can’t answer anything except I cannot” I think I read this book all wrong. I think I was reading too much into it or, as the case probably is, not into it enough. I’ll start with the things I didn’t like because I’m the kind of girl who likes to get the bad news first so it’s out of the way and I can be consoled and wrap myself in the fuzzy warmth of the good news. Firstly, I was expecting this to be a more… definite. Don’t get me wrong: It is about the war and it was really interesting the read about the persecution of Romani gypsies at the hands of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. I can’t think of any other books that I’ve read, and certainly not young adult ones, that focus on this subject. But it was about the war in extremely abstract terms. Soldiers, tanks, bombs and weapons are all mentioned but almost in passing and in conversation between the animals. Yes. The talking animals. So, I’m not sure whether that was just me and my expectations but yeah… so that was my main problem. I wonder how I would have felt about reading this if I hadn’t read so many books about WW2 in succession? Oh well, we’ll never know. It was also extremely short and I would have loved to have spent more time on Andrej and Tomas’ journey as opposed to the head-scratching conversations with the animals. Anyway, now to the good parts. Wow, Ms Hartnett can write. Holy guacamole! There was a point, as my hand started to get cramp, whether I seriously considered just forgetting writing down my favourite passages and just photocopying it to stick in my notebook. It read like a fairy tale… like a true fairy tale. Dark, frightening, thought-provoking and with wisps of magic snaking through the prose. This is how writing should be all the time. THERE IS NO EXCUSE, AUTHORS. Here are a few of my favourite parts:
I also loved the relationship between Andrej and Tomas. I love stories that focus on siblings (I have two and they’re both a huge part of my life!) rather than a romantic element because I always think that romance is easy (or at least it’s easier) to write. Relationships between siblings are much more complex, there’s always love but there isn’t always like. Ms Hartnett created such a pure and wonderful relationship between these boys (and let’s not forget Wilma!). And the illustrations? Yes. They were so gorgeous. My favourite was the one where the boys first see the wolf standing in his enclosure in the moonlight. They were extremely striking, simple but effective. So even though this book was a little disappointing, I still liked it and I have on good authority (From the lovely Nomes at Inkcrush!) that her other books are fantastic and I hope to get around to reading them soon. This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature. You can find out more here.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 07, 2011
| Nov 07, 2011
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Nov 07, 2011
| Hardcover
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| 0435232908
| 9780435232900
| unknown
| 3.82
| 525
| Dec 1929
| unknown
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“You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it as – as romantic. It helps.”
This review is going to be a quick one because it’s imposs...more “You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it as – as romantic. It helps.” This review is going to be a quick one because it’s impossible to really go into depth without spoiling the story. I don’t normally read plays because they seem to unleash a wave of high school-related memories and trying to think of quotes and line numbers and acts and basically getting myself into a tizzy. But I love the theatre and I’ve wanted to read Journey’s End for a while now because I’ve heard it was beautiful and tragic. And they are my favourite adjectives when it comes to literature. Journey’s End is an extremely claustrophobic play, set in the trenches in March 1918 as the war is drawing to a close. It tells the story of a group of officers and their commander over a course of three days. Apparently R.C Sherriff intended the play to be called ‘Suspense’ or ‘Waiting’ and, I have to say, they both would have been perfect titles for this. This play was so tense. And a lot of people may dismiss the scenes and the conversations as slow but I think that is the whole point and what makes the. In the films set around WW1 there is always something happening, shells exploding, machine guns hammering but in reality there was a lot of time where the men were just waiting. Instead of writing a play that is about the combat, Sherriff chose to focus on the men and their feelings. The most striking part was that he could have chosen any group of soldiers on either side of No Man’s Land and still had the same play, the same feelings and the same message. I loved the characters, each and every one of them feeling real to me. Complex Stanhope with his inner conflicts and extremely human fears, the dark humorous banter between Osborne and Mason, Hibbert and his terror, the ever changing relationship between Stanhope and the young Raleigh, the enthusiastic, optimistic officer who becomes more and more disillusioned when he begins the truth and sees what happens to men who are fighting. I loved them all. This play reminded me of the preface that Wilfred Owen wrote: “This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.” And it’s so true. The scenes between the men were extremely subtle and really drove home the complete and utter futility of it all. And I think it’s this subtlety that made the final scene all the more haunting. Maybe I shouldn’t go and see this on stage… the public tears could be embarrassing. This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature. You can find out more here. (less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 02, 2011
| Nov 03, 2011
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Nov 02, 2011
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| 1603090967
| 9781603090964
| 4.07
| 32,368
| 2003
| Aug 23, 2011
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“How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement…no matter how temporary.”
and because I couldn’t decide between...more “How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement…no matter how temporary.” and because I couldn’t decide between the two…. “At night, lying on your back and staring at the falling snow, it’s easy to imagine oneself soaring through the stars.” Initial Final Page Thoughts. Those last 3 pages, wow. High Points. Craig.Snow. Brothers. Church camp. Patchwork. Under the pool table. Cubby holes. Identity. Faith. The future. First loves. Doubt (“It’s reassuring”). And, of course, the illustrations. How can people say they don’t like graphic novels when they look like these ones? On the back of my book, Entertainment Weekly described Blankets as “visual poetry” and I can’t help but agree. It truly is wonderful. Low Points. This book won’t be for everyone and, I don’t mind admitting this, it wasn’t for me for a good 100 pages in the middle. But don’t worry because the other 400 pages I loved. I’m not sure what it was but there was something about the feel of the story that I just wasn't getting. I also didn’t know that this book was going to be so focussed on religion and Craig’s struggle with his faith. I’m not religious but I find religion fascinating and a lot of my close friends are religious so I know how (hopefully) how to treat it with respect, even if I don't agree. I loved how Mr Thompson portrayed the conflict and his own personal struggles after having such an intense Christian upbringing respectfully and intelligently. I also loved that he didn't go down the whole “Uhh, yeah, religion is crap”... “But why is it ‘crap’?”… “Uh well, because it is” road. He actually had a reasoning for his feelings and he portrayed them honestly and without an agenda. The only problem with this is that, because I’m not completely familiar with Christianity, a lot of it went over my head. I can’t help but think I would have enjoyed those 100 or so pages more if I’d known about the subject. Hero. I feel a bit strange talking about this because obviously Blankets is a memoir and Craig is… uh, well real, but never mind. It’s safe to say that Craig broke my heart on every single page. His narration, or more appropriate, his feelings which were poured on each page, had such unflinching honesty were both parts incredibly brutal and beautiful. I don’t want to say much more because I kind of want you to meet him on your own. Reaaaad it. Love Interest. Oh Raina, you little dreamer. I can’t help but feel you would be best friends with all of John Green’s heroines. I’m finding it quite difficult to talk about Raina and her role in her book because when you look at it from a distance it’s easy to describe it as “Oh yeah, it’s all about first love and flirting and snowball fights and snow frolicking”. And yeah, Craig’s relationship with Raina and the accompanying emotions takes up about 300 pages of this book but the story really isn’t anything about that. To me, it’s more about Craig’s isolation, his struggle with his faith and his need to find his place in the world. Also, there are no snowball fights but there is snow frolicking. I loved how Mr Thompson used Raina illustrate how easily people can move on from things that were so amplified at a certain point in their life, almost to the extent that they gave them definition. But when you move past it and look back, you realise that it wasn’t as shiny and important as you first thought.
But I wouldn’t say that this was really a love story. (The pictures in this section were my favourite though, so gorgeous and striking) Also, Raina can make patchwork blankets. Infinite Brownie points for her. Illustrations. I feel saying whether I loved these illustrations will be redundant because it’s safe to say I love all illustrations. I can think of three reasons why this could be: 1) The illustrations truly are beautiful. 2) I can’t draw for toffee so I respect people who can. 3) I love everything, I’m boring and I’m predictable. Combination of all three? But I really did love these illustrations and they’ve brought me to come to the decision that I prefer graphic novels in black and white. I adored how you could tell that each page was thought about carefully, where each panel would be placed on the page, where the dialogue bubble would go. Everything, even down to the swirls in the dream pages. Theme Tune. Keep Your Head Up by Ben Howard. Sadness Scale. 8/10. I really want to give certain authors this book to show them the meaning behind the phrase “show not tell”. You know in films where the best harrowing/emotional scenes are told with no dialogue, minimal background music and subtlety? That is what Blankets is like. I can’t describe it properly, and hopefully people who are familiar with graphic novels will understand what I’m trying to say, but emotional scenes in graphic novels seem to somehow create a sense of distance (minimal words telling you how you should feel) and intimacy (almost like you’re looking through their living room window as their world falls apart) that other books can’t seem to recreate. I love books, whether they’re written or graphic, that present all the pieces but leave the reader to put them together. Recommended For. People who have ever struggled to figure out where they fit in with it all. People who love stunning illustrations. People who have ever believed their bedroom was the sea and their bed was a boat (I actually used to pretend my floor was lava, I was a very strange kiddywink). People who enjoy making quilts. People who refuse to stand up for mediocrity. People who refuse to believe in static… it’s always magic. People who would get ignored at Church Camp. You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog here.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 13, 2011
| Nov 18, 2011
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Nov 01, 2011
| Hardcover
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