Claire Stevens's Blog, page 12

No One Needs To Know by Amanda Grace

This was a sweet contemporary read with a lovely romance, but it was a rare instance of a book actually being too short.  I wanted it to be longer and I think it needed to be longer and if it had been I think I'd have been looking at something approaching a five star read.

Liam and Olivia are twins and had always been inseparable until Liam joined a different school.  They start to drift apart and Olivia has to compete for Liam's attention and by driving away his girlfriends.  This is until Zoey comes on the scene, and Olivia has to decide who deserves happiness more - her or her brother.

There was a good lead up to the romance and I liked that Olivia and Zoey were friends first and then realised their feelings for each other.  There were so many good aspects to this book - I liked the writing style, which was concise and non-waffley, I liked the characters, I liked the story arc.  I just needed more background and more actual plot.

Another odd thing (I thought) was that this was a novel about two bisexual girls (I'm assuming they were bi - both mention being with boys before they were with each other), only the B-Word never gets mentioned.  Like, not once.  It would have been great if this book had have explored the girls' sexual identity a bit more.

Likewise, I got that Olivia really missed hanging out with Liam like they used to, but only because she kept saying it.  I needed to have a bit more background into their relationship.  Twins have a really fascinating dynamic and this could have been explored a bit more.  Liam didn't get enough of a look-in and he was a character that would have been worth expanding.

All in all an okay read, if you want something quite light and flim-flam where you don't have to concentrate too much.

3.5 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme where we highlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr.  Here's the blurb:

Ella Black seems to live the life most other seventeen-year-olds would kill for . . . Until one day, telling her nothing, her parents whisk her off to Rio de Janeiro. Determined to find out why, Ella takes her chance and searches through their things. And realises her life has been a lie. Her mother and father aren't hers at all. Unable to comprehend the truth, Ella runs away, to the one place they'll never think to look - the favelas. But there she learns a terrible secret - the truth about her real parents and their past. And the truth about a mother, desperate for a daughter taken from her seventeen years ago . . .
​

This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki

This was a quiet, interesting book about two families who spend the summer together at Awago beach every year.  The two daughters of the families, Rose and Windy, are friends.  Rose's parents are fighting all the time, so Rose and Windy try to stay out of their hair as much as they can and in doing so get involved in a drama between some of the locals at the beach.

This is a really beautiful story about the tipping point between childhood and adolescence.  This transition is shown in the differences between Windy and Rose.  Windy is still full of childish exuberance, whereas Rose is more moody and quiet.  As I read, I couldn't help wondering how their summers would pan out in the coming years; whether Windy and Rose would stay close or if they would drift apart.

I know other reviewers haven't got on with this book because they felt it didn't have enough plot going on.  It's true - there's no huge story arc, no twists and turns, so if this is your thing then this book might not be the one for you.  The story is low-key, it just drifts quietly along with beautiful artwork telling the tale of the summer and giving background behind Rose's parents' fighting (which actually does get a bit of resolution).  The story ends at the end of the summer, and that's it.  

I think this will especially appeal to anyone who goes on holiday to the same place with their family every year.  this book reminded me a lot of The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han as the author and illustrator sum up perfectly that feeling of summer nostalgia and pleasant boredom of doing the same thing every year.  

4 stars

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

I don't read that many graphic novels, but I'm going to try and read more this year and I'm really glad I picked this one up.

It's the story of a girl, Anya, who falls into a deep well in the woods one day and meets a ghost.  Anya gets rescued, and unwittingly brings a ghost from the well back home with her.  Everything seems great - Emily seems to be the awesome best friend Anya has always wanted - until things start to go wrong.

I liked Anya, even though she had some deeply unlikeable qualities.  She was so awkward in her skin and so desperate to fit in and really didn't realise how good she had things until the ghost started to try and take over her life.  I liked Emily too, until I started to realise what a complete sociopath she was!

The drawings in this book were very plain and made the story really easy to follow.  A lot of the time I get put off graphic novels if the drawings are too fussy or complicated or interfere wit the text and this wasn't the case here.

The main theme is basically envy - of others' lives and how we always seem to perceive that other people have it better than we do.  You've got Emily who was envious of the guy who ditched her and then of Anya's life when she got out of the well and Anya is envious of the other kids in her school and tries desperately to hide her Russian heritage.  All she sees are her physical imperfections and her annoying mum and all the skinny blonde people around her and she tries so hard to be like them instead of embracing who she is.

The only thing I wasn't keen on was that the story felt a bit rushed and ended too soon.  Otherwise this was a really great read.

4 stars

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

This was a pretty good book about Alice, a girl who has spent her life travelling around with her mum, never stopping in one place for more than a few months in case the bad luck they seem to attract finds them.  The bad luck comes from Alice's grandmother, who wrote a book of dark fairy stories about a fairy realm called the Hinterland years ago.

I quite enjoyed this book and although it seems to have divided other readers I don't have a hugely strong opinion of it.  Worth a read.  Pretty imaginative.  Fairly standard portal-fantasy format.  Especially recommended for anyone who likes lyrical prose, heavy on the metaphor.

The plot was quite interesting enough as I quite enjoy a portal fantasy.  It was less nonsensical than I was expecting (I guess because the MC's name is Alice I was expecting it to be like Wonderland). 
 The pacing did seem a bit off.  Alice doesn't actually get near the Hinterland until over halfway through the book and when she did it wasn't actually as scary as I thought it would be.  Mediaeval setting, monsters (called Stories) that you just steer clear of as the only danger comes when you get involved in their narrative.  Then at the end her Story seemed to be wrapped up a bit too quickly.

My favourite bit was the snippets of Hinterland stories we were given - I would quite happily read a whole book of those.

I've seen other reviews that have said how much the reader liked Finch and how much they hated Alice.  For me it was actually the other way around.  Being an arsehole isn't actually a barrier to me liking an MC - I've rooted for plenty of serial killers and sociopaths over my reading career.  Alice was super unpleasant but not wholly unlikeable as at least she had a bit of backbone about her.  I never really got the feeling I got to know Finch.  He felt like a bit of a hipster hanger-on, which is a shame as I think he could have been developed a bit further and been made more interesting.  

All in all this was okay.  It would have got an extra star if Alice had spent a bit more time actually in the Hinterland.

​I received a copy of The Hazel Wood in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

3.5 stars

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

This was a good book with a really interesting, unique premise. A guy wakes up in the woods of an estate called Blackheath on the eve of a huge party one morning with a case of complete amnesia. As the day unfolds he receives various clues as to who he really is (which is not who everyone says he is). When he wakes up the next day in a completely different body, the plot thickens until he discovers he is at Blackheath to solve a murder.

The idea behind this is really unique and interesting - kind of a cross between Groundhog Day and an Agatha Christie novel. The plot kept twisting and turning and I never really knew who to trust. The first and last third of the book were really action-packed and the last pages had my head spinning. There were loads of characters and it took a little while to get my head around them all, although this was probably a me thing rather than a book thing.

The only thing I found a problem was that this book was probably 150 pages too long and in the middle section the pace slowed down a bit. It did pick up in the last third again.

All in all though I thought this was a really decent, unique book. Deffo recommended.

4 stars

Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan

Huh.  This was good.  I really liked it.  I didn't know anything about it going in, but it's by Brian Vaughan of Saga fame, so that was a good enough pedigree for me.

So the first thing I realised was that it's not Paper Girls, like girls made out of paper, but Paper Girls, like girls who deliver newspapers.  I thought the girls made out of paper thing might be a kind of social commentary on the vacuousness of society and the way women are viewed only in terms of their looks instead of with any depth or substance.  But no.  It's about a bunch of twelve year old girls who deliver newspapers.

Except they only deliver newspapers for a few pages, because after some of their stuff gets stolen and they dive into a disused house, they manage to find a spaceship / time machine thing, an interdimensional vortex explosion (maybe?) happens and they emerge from the house into a completely new world.

And that's when it gets really cool.

The artwork is really amazing.  Really liked it.  Good use of landscapes, sizing, characters and really added to the story instead of being just, like, some pictures in a book.

The story is bonkers and I really want to get the next two volumes to see what happens next.  I liked the characters and I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop.  One thing I would say is that there's some content warning I guess for homophobia.  Paper Girls is set in 1988 and there was a lot of ignorance about AIDS and homosexuality around then.  Not an excuse, more of an explanation.

Definitely going to look out for the next instalments.

4 stars

2017 Round Up!

How I celebrated my birthday this year. This has been another awesome year for reading.  I’m now working full time, but I managed to read a creditable 125 books this year, up on last year’s total of 111.  Some were incredible, a couple were not great (this year saw my first ever 0 star review!), but I don’t regret any of them.  Like my new bookish tattoo says, ‘I have lived a thousand lives’.  And it’s all because I read.
 
This end of year survey is hosted by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner.  Thanks Jamie!  I've taken out the bit in the middle about my blogging life as I've not been as active in the blogging community as I've wanted to be (see above re. lack of time) but hopefully people might find some inspiration from my list.

Happy new year everyone!  Here's to a bookish 2017. My favourite book of 2017! 2017 Reading Stats
 
Number Of Books You Read: 125
Number of Re-Reads:  9
Genre You Read The Most From:  YA contemporary
 
Best in Books
 
1. Best Book You Read In 2017?
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.  The writing is genius.  Genius, I tell you!  I listened to this on audiobook and it had me laughing out loud and mushing with emotion in equal measure.
 
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
My Lady Jane.  This was my ‘Book I wanted to read in 2016 and didn’t get round to’ pick for last year’s end-of-year quiz and I was so excited for it, but it just fell flat for me.  Totally gutted.
 
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  
The Royals series (Paper Princess, Broken Prince, Twisted Palace).  On the face of it, it’s a really trashy soap opera trilogy, but it was so, so good!  I really couldn’t put these books down.
 
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?
We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  It’s a personal, eloquent essay (but don’t let that put you off) about how feminism is good for everyone, a definition of feminism that is rooted in inclusion and awareness.  Everyone should read this book. ​5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best Series Ender of 2017?
Well, it’s got to be A Court of Wings and Ruin, hasn’t it??  It wasn’t quite as good as ACOMAF, which I’m coming to think is actually the best book I’ve ever read, but it would have been hard to top perfection.  Instead, we get a series ender that is merely excellent.
 
6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2017?
 Gail Honeyman - author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.  This book was excellent - five stars.  The characters were engaging, the plot kept me hooked and I can’t wait to read more by this author.
 
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
The Thing around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I don’t usually read short stories and I avoid anything that has won prestigious prizes like a rabid cow, but this book was surprisingly good.
 
 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
 Genuine Fruad by E Lockhart.  It wasn’t the best book I read all year - I rated it four stars - but it easily had the most action in it, exacerbated by the screwed-up timeline. ​9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
I think I might go back to The Power by Naomi Alderman.  Now I’ve had the chance to absorb it a bit more, I think it might make more sense the second time around.
 
10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2017?
Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall.  Just beautiful.  And the book’s pretty darn good too.
 
11. Most memorable character of 2017?
Henry ‘Monty’ Montague, from A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.  I will never forget him.
 
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017?
 Moonrise by Sarah Crossan.  Sarah Crossan has never put a foot wrong as far as I’m concerned, but this book was eye-wateringly beautiful and melancholy.
 
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2017?
 Turtles All The Way Down by John Green.  I used to think I was ‘a bit OCD’ just because I find quiet satisfaction in having my computer keyboard lined perfectly parallel to the edge of my desk.  I now realise that I am not OCD at all.
I love Rhysand so much. Sigh. ​14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read? 
 Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.  This book had been knocking around at home for at least two years and I finally picked it up a few months ago.  So, so glad I did.
 
15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2017?
“What we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength.” 
―  Sarah J. Maas ,  A Court of Wings and Ruin
 
16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?
 Shortest book - They’re Made Out Of Meat by Terry Bisson.  5 pages.
Longest book - A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas.  699 pages.
 
 17. Book That Shocked You The Most
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis.  It shocked me how good it was and also shocked me (in a good way) with the themes it covered - violence and rape culture.  This was one of the best books I read this year!
 
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (I will go down with this ship!)
Oh, come on.  It’s got to be Feyre and Rhysand.
 
19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
 Probably the two girls in The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis - Alex and Peekay. 
20. Favourite Book You Read in 2017 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
Tricky one.  I actually tried quite a few new authors this year, but I guess my favourite book from an author I’ve read previously is turtles All The Way Down by John Green.  ACOWAR was pretty amazing too, though!
 
21. Best Book You Read In 2017 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.  It was all over my Goodreads feed, and people seemed to love it so much that I was scared to pick it up at first - I don’t have a great track record with books that other people have raved about.  So glad I read it, though.  It was brilliant.
 
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?
Gotta say, I’m crushing hard on Monty from The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue.  I know he’s gay, and attached, and, you know, fictional, but I thought he was great.
 
23. Best 2017 debut you read?
Countless by Karen Gregory.  It’s the story of a girl who battles her eating disorder when she finds out she’s pregnant.  It was pretty poignant.
 
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
 Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake.  The creepy island the triplets live on was really brought to life.
 
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
 Paper Princess by Paper Princess by Erin Watt.  There’s a bit where the protagonist punches the school Mean Girl right in the face.  It was hilarious.
 
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2017?
 ACOWAR.  The bit at the end.  You know the bit I mean.
 
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
 Moonrise by Sarah Crossan.  She’s a favourite author of mine and this is an amazing book.  I don’t think it’s got a huge amount of exposure - only 800 Goodreads ratings - but I’d recommend to anyone.
 
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
Moonrise again.  It’s a heartbreaking story, beautifully written.
 
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2017?
Probably The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott Fitzgerald.  A really bizarre story, an unreliable narrator set about a hundred years ago.
 
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
The Power by Naomi Alderman.  The story centres around women gaining the ability to give an electric shock through their bodies and some women abuse their power, leaving men in fear of their safety and ultimately living as second class citizens.  The book is quite powerful and all of the atrocities committed by women to men are exactly the same as the things currently done by men to women, so it brought a lot into sharp focus.
Looking Ahead
 
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2018?
Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz.
 
2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2018 (non-debut)?
Queen of Air and Darkness - the third Dark Artifices book.  I hate waiting for the next instalment in series so I’ve been saving Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows up and i’m planning to binge read all three when this comes out.
 
3. 2018 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed - it looks great!
Ye-e-e-e-esssss! ​4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2018?
 Queen of Air and Darkness - see above!
 
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2018?
For ages, I’ve wanted to go to YALC and haven’t managed to get my butt into gear.  Maybe this will be the year J
 
6. A 2018 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):
I’ve just read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.  It was kind of complicated but really good and the ending knocked my socks off.

​Thanks for organising this round up Jamie and I hope everyone has a happy new year!

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

This graphic novel reminded me a lot of Catcher In The Rye.  And I hated Catcher In The Rye.

The schtick is that two friends are stuck in their hometown after high school, not really knowing what they want to do with the rest of their lives and having limited options available to them.  So to fill in the time before inspiration strikes, they sit around in a diner, being mean about people who can't stick up for themselves, making homophobic remarks and just generally hating anything.  Not a single positive thing was said throughout this book; it was all just boring negativity.

I couldn't find a single thing to like about the two characters.  They were boring and hated everything.

The artwork was weird.  People are drawn in a really creepy way, with peculiar lips and once I noticed the lip thing I couldn't un-notice it.  90% of the artwork is just a series of talking heads saying mean things about other people.  There's very little variation.

I haven't seen the film (with Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson), but I think this might be a rare example of the film being better than the book.  There were some aspects that I thought would work better on film and I could see those two actresses maybe making something of the characters.

The only thing that saved this book from being a 1-star is the fact that it captures the sense of post-school, pre-rest-of-life small-town ennui perfectly.  But unfortunately boredom isn't something I like to read about.

2 stars

When by Victoria Laurie

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

This was a lot better than I expected it to be.  That sounds a bit mean, but this book had the potential to be quite maudlin and a bit cliched, but actually what I got was a mildly snarky protagonist who made sometimes-good-sometimes-bad decisions and a fairly spooky murder mystery into the bargain.  So yeah, I was quite pleased in the end.

This isn't the first time I've read books where the protagonist can see people's death dates hovering over their heads, but it didn't feel tired.  I liked her awful relationship with her mum and the good relationship she had with her uncle.  The bullying storyline was dealt with well and the murder mystery had me guessing right up to the end.

I think Stubby's storyline was wrapped up a bit too neatly in the end and I got annoyed by some of her decisions, but on the whole this was pretty good.

4 stars